Fourth Generation

Thanks to J Fred O'Kelly there is a great deal known about James Stamps O'Kelley and Lucy Woodruff England.  J Fred tells us that soon after they married they moved to Gwinnett Co Georgia where two of their children were born, Sarah Jane the Eldest and my great grandfather, Charles William.  By the 1850s the US Census indicates they were living in Gordon Co Ga but what J Fred doesn't tell us is they are living next door to Lucy's sister and brother-in-law, James Shellnut Esq who became a Justice, Road Commissioner and a State Senator.  My grandfather James was a farmer but J Fred O'Kelly tells his readers that during the Civil War he worked in a wagon factory for the Confederacy.  It was likely when Sherman made his march through Gordon Co Georgia in May 1864 that the invading Union Army ended his occupation of wagon building and my grandfather was reportedly given a permit to return to his home and shoe horses, some days for the Union other days for the CSA.  Those traits appeared in my father and uncles as most my uncles were carpenters and my father was an auto body repair or body and fender as most people referred to them.  At one time my father worked at Armbrusters in Ft Smith building stretch Limos so in a way he too followed the path of his great grandfather.  Unlike his father and grandfather, James never owned slaves but J Fred O'Kelly says life was so difficult in Georgia after the war that in December 1870 my grandfather hitched two oxen named Logan and Darb to a covered wagon and brought his family to Crawford County Arkansas arriving Feb 3, 1871.  I wonder if the death of two of James and Lucy's children may have been their motivation to move but why Arkansas?  Well James's father and grandfather moved from Virginia and around Georgia following free land, James move from Walton Co to Gordon Co following free land.   J Fred O'Kelly tells us that Lucy's kin had moved to Crawford Co and they helped them secure a farm.  Lucy's brother was a wealth mayor of Van Buren at the time.  The US Census causes me to believe they settled next to the Fine Springs Baptist Church and some have claimed James was also a minister, I have found noting to confirm that was true, but given many ministers in those days just took up the profession, claiming they were "called" to preach, it seems possible that James could have become a minister because his first two sons became ministers.  It seems certain he was not a minister when living in Gordon Co as he never appears on any of the many marriage records for that county.  The data suggest that James Stamps and family were not the only ones from Gordon Co GA who migrated, a John Love and family are buried in the Wesley Methodist Cemetery very near Red Bud where James and Lucy lived and a J. O. Love and Uriah Love said to be the father of John C Love the founder of Love Cemetery in Crawford Co Arkansas also appears on the 82nd Regt Ga Militia rolls with James Stamps O'Kelley so it seems likely that several families may have migrated from Gordon Co GA to the Fine Springs area in Crawford County near or at the same time.  John Love buried is likely a relations of John C Love the founder of the Love Cemetery in Crawford County Arkansas.  J. O Love who appears on the 82nd Regt Ga Militia and his wife and children are still living in Gordon Co Ga in the 1880 US Censes but since his wife and some of their children are buried in Love Cemetery Crawford Co Arkansas it seems certain he is the Rev John O Love who was the first minister for the Fines Springs Missonary Baptist Church founded July 14, 1883 as described on page 595 in the "History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas" a free book found on Google books.   James and Lucy's daughter Mary A O'Kelley is listed as one of the founding members of the church.  Records indicate that Rev John O Love served in the Confederacy, discharged as a Sgt and drew a pension in Crawford Co in the last years of his life. 

I have wondered about the route James and family would have taken.  Except for ferry crossings, it is possible they traveled the entire route walking beside the oxen drawn wagon.  Wagons were a rough ride over unimproved roads so it is very unlikely they would have rode in the wagon preferring walking over the hard bumpy ride of the wagon.  The Tennessee River was the super highway of the area so they may have taken a river barge from Chattanooga TN completely skipping travel by land over Alabama, gotten off at Pickwick Landing and traveled over land until they came to the Mississippi River but it is more likely they may not have been able to afford such a trip and they followed the common 1870 road by going west out of Georgia through Huntsville and Decater Alabama following the route that today's modern US 72 takes to Memphis.  There were not bridges over the Mississippi at that time so they would have had to taken the ferry.  J Fred O'Kelly provides no insight so the route they traveled may be lost to history.  J Fred O'Kelly tells us they left Georgia in early December and arrived February 3 so if they traveled the entire route by land they would have had to average about 10 miles each day but a river barge over the Tennessee River would have reduced that burden considerable.  I have walked a ten mile well traveled trial, one can do it easily in day and our ancestors were much hardier than I, they being accustom to hard labor so I suppose it would have not have been anymore difficult for them than any other aspect of their daily life but still it was worthy of our appreciation.

 J Fred O'Kelly reported that the log cabin that James and his family lived in was still standing in 1962 and while I don't know exactly where this log home was located the 1880 US Census makes it certain he was next door to Walter Fine and his Fine Springs property.  This seems confirm as in 1878 James Stamps buried his wife, my grandmother at Love Cemetery.    Walter Fine was my mother's 1st Great Grandfather and she told me that Walter Fine lived behind what is today the "Northside Church of Christ" that sets on US 71 Hwy north of Alma and 1/4 of a mile south of Fine's Springs and this location is confirmed by land records.  I grew up about 1/2 mile NW of Walter Fine's home site and I was a young teen when J Fred O'Kelly wrote his book and I don't recall any log cabin in the area but I wasn't looking for one then so there could have been one and today it no longer exists.  In those days the US 71 Hwy route didn't exists, the main road that came from Van Buren near Bond Special, forded the creek and followed what is Pecan Dirve which ran into Peach Drive going due east across what is I-49 today and turning north on the west side of Walter Fines home and followed past Fine's Springs on what is the 282 loop today and on to Fayetteville. 

This is an amazing story about how events shape our lives.  My maternal great, great, great grandparents, Johnathan and Rachael Fine moved from Washington Co to Crawford Co Arkansas sometime between 1850 and 1860 and purchased what was to become Fine's Springs.  In more modern times it has become Fine Springs.  Many of their adult children also came with them and one was my grandfather Walter Fine. Walter homesteaded 40 acres in 1869 in Crawford Co.  A log home still exists next to the springs today and it is likely Walter built the home that engulfed it until very recent times.  The 1880 US Census records my great, great grandfather, James Stamps O'Kelley and family next to Walter so he must have been living near and maybe next to my great, great, grandfather Walter Fine and family.  At the time they could not have imagined that their great, grandchildren Conley and Azana would marry and produce myself and my three brothers.  In 1887 my wife's great great grandfather, James A Plum moved his family to Crawford County and they lived not far from the springs.  Walter and Nancy died in 1902 and 1903 and the property appears to have passed to John and Mary Fine because in 1912 a deed was recorded making James and Susan Plum the owners and that included the log home and springs.  My wife's great, great grandfather did not remain in Arkansas but a few years after than as he sold some of the land and moved back to Iowa where he is buried but her great grandfather, Ulysses Grant Plum continued to live in a house on the 79 acres that once belonged to Walter Fine.  Usyssis Grant Plum's son, Roy Lee Plum, who was my wife's grandfather lived on the land until he died and his wife was Ethel Philbrick, she was a celebrated columnist for the Press Argus for maybe a half century writing about the happenings on what she called Locus Knoll which was actually Fine Springs.   My great grandfather Charles William was a Baptist minister and he was pastor of the Fine Springs Baptist Church which set about midway along the horizon of the below photo.  To the right along the horizon one can see the two story building which housed the Fine Springs Public School and the Masonic lodge was on the upper floor.  If you look closely in the below photograph of Fine's Springs, you will see the back of the building barely visible through the trees in the top right had corner of the photo. The school was consolidated with Alma so when the church burned, the church moved into the bottom floor until that building burned and the church dissolved.  Two of my grandfathers and grandmothers and two sets of my wife's grandparents are buried in the Love Cemetery not far from where they all lived out their lives.  My two sons have a blood link to the Fine's Springs Community by three different family lines, their great, great, great O'Kelleys, their great, great, great Plums, and their great, great, great grandparents the Fines. 

To the left is an article authored by Ethel Plum about 1960 and while it is mostly accurate, she does not listed Walter as once owning the springs but that is to be expected because she was reporting on an event that happen almost 100 years before and based upon what she had been told about her husband's family history.  I had the privilege knowing Ethel she was my grandmother-in-law and if she reported something that might have been in error, it was because that it how the information was given to her.

Images of Fine Springs about 1920 Fine Springs Park Swimming Pool Another View Looking from the West Vista looking towards the west In the top right you can see the Fine Springs Baptist Church.

The Fine's Springs Log House was built by Rome James in 1844.  A much larger log house was built on the southside of Arkansas 282 Hwy where Arkansas 282 Loop joins. Johnathan and Rachael Fine and family moved into the larger 2 story log home that operated as a stage stop.  At some point the smaller log home was passed to William James and Millie Fine son-in-law and daughter and they sold it and 79 acres which included the springs April 8 1875 to Walter Fine, Millie's older brother and my 2nd maternal great grandfather. The log house is not open to the public and it is behind a very high locked fence.  I was permitted the rare opportunity to take photos of it.  In the picture is my wife Renee' and her father Roy Plum Jr and if you look closely at the rock foundation you will see Renee's little red dog, Annie.