Return to James Stamps O'Kelley
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Georgia Ridge, Arkansas, is
the southernmost portion of the Ozark-Boston Mountain Range. Its
western end is at U. S. Highway 71, two miles north of Alma, the
junction of 71 with Interstate 40. The Ridge extends eight miles
east, terminating some two miles west of Mulberry. Dyer lies
between Alma and Mulberry. All of these towns are lower in
elevation and are within the Arkansas River basin which
parallels the Ridge on the south. Little Mulberry Creek runs
through a valley on the north. The community of Graphic is
across this creek, about two miles farther north. Belmont post
office was some two miles southwest of Graphic, in Section 10 of
Township 10 North, Range 30 West. It no longer exists. Pleasant
Hill is just northeast of Mulberry. Mention will be made of
these small communities. The road that extends along the crest
of the Ridge is much the same as when it was traveled by horse
or mule-drawn vehicles, as remembered by the author sixty years
ago, except that the western two miles or so now has blacktop
paving. At the Dyer exit of Interstate 40, the road leading
north makes a rough and rocky ascent for one and one-half miles
where it intersects the Ridge road. The Church of Christ is on
this corner, occupying the former one-room Chastain School that
served the community until busses began taking the children to
Mulberry in 1947. The original site of the Chastain School,
which burned in 1915 or 1916, was a short distance east of this
corner and just south of the Chastain Cemetery where many of the
kith and kin recorded in this book are buried. The land for both
the cemetery and school were provided by John Shelton Chastain,
oldest son of Edward Bruce Chastain. This writer attended the
old Chastain School through the sixth grade and remembered it
well the unpainted building, the long benches that served as
seats, while the students lap was his desk.
ARKANSAS AND CRAWFORD COUNTY - For a better
understanding and appreciation of the period when the
progenitors of our kith and kin came, in 1844, to what was to be
known as Georgia Ridge, certain facts need to be reviewed. The
Indians had free reign in Arkansas until after the United States
completed negotiations with the French for the Louisiana
Purchase in 1803. With the land under the ownership of the
United States, it was immediately thrown open for settlement at
attractive low prices. The new opportunities beckoned thousands
of settlers from the mideast and southeast. [Everett, What is
now Arkansas became part of the Missouri Territory in 1812. When
Missouri applied for statehood in 1819, Congress created the
Arkansas Territory, included in which was now Oklahoma. On 15
June 1836, Arkansas became the twenty-fifth state of the Union.
The County of Arkansas, covering the entire state, was created
in 1813. Other counties were formed from it in this order:
Lawrence in 1815; Clark, Hempstead and Pulaski in 1818; and
Independence and Crawford in 1820.
At this time Crawford embraced present Franklin, Sebastian and
part of Scott Counties. In 1833, Scott County was formed; in
1837, Franklin was carved out of eastern Crawford County; and in
1851, Sebastian was formed out of the southern portion of
Crawford County between the Arkansas River and Scott County.
[Shinn, 1900] SOME EARLY SETTLERS We have no way of knowing how
many families found their way various eastern points to this
region, arriving before our ancestors in 1844. Some of them
would have been squatters who stayed for a time and moved on. We
do know, however, from records obtained from the State Land
Office at Little Rock, that land grants were granted to some of
these by purchase or gratis. Just east of the Ridge and north of
Mulberry, grants were made in the year indicated to the
following: Thomas B. Moore, Sr., Thomas B. Moore, Jr., and Sally
Butler, in 1831; Isaac Rainey, 1834; John Lasater, 1835 and
1837; William Chambers Maxey, 1836 and 1837; John Witherspoon
Whitson, Alfred Henson and William Sanders, 1836; Joshua Fisher,
William Grafton Jenkins, Elizabeth Elliott and James W. Fall,
1837. Then, on the eastern end of the Ridge, we find Robert
Burton and Davis Williams, with Charles Hensley a mile farther
west, all receiving patents (titles) in 1837. On the western end
of the Ridge, William Edwards patented 160 acres in 1840, and,
in 1841, William Reeves patented 40 acres about the center of
the Ridge. Although there were surely others living in this area
whose patents were not granted until some years later, these
last five names represent the first established white settlers
on the Ridge itself. However, the people who came, saw, and
stayed to conquer this rugged terrain were the ones who gave it
the name "Georgia Ridge." They came, for the most part, from
northern Georgia, but their ancestry, and that of others of our
progenitors, represent a wide variety of peoples and places.
KITH and KIN, by Mary Farnsworth
Note: You can find Mary's book in the Fayetteville Public
Library, Fayetteville Arkansas. |
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