by Donna Swagerty Shreve
Jen Caldwell decorating another grave of an ancestor in Arkansas.
In 2009 John and I traveled to the midwest to step on the actual land of my ancestors. I was able to do just that in Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas. To be fair I could not step on the actual land in Kansas as the land was now part of a military base but I knew where it was located and that is was still land that was not covered by a strip mall.
Arkansas was the last state we visited and we left a day early as I was tired and overcome by the southern culture that was so opposite of my California upbringing. I chose to not explore my mother’s mother’s family. Now 15 years later, I am lucky enough to have a niece living in Arkansas and she is interested in genealogy and is an excellent researcher. It was time to give her a visit and go on the genealogy adventure!
Flying into Arkansas is not a direct flight from California. After a transfer in Denver, I arrived in Little Rock where Jen picked me up and took me to her home in Greenbrier.
Wednesday morning we loaded up Jen’s car and headed to Fayetteville area because it is located near to many of the places we needed to explore. We stayed at a Sleep Inn in Springdale which is just beyond Fayetteville. We checked into our room and then went to Mt. Comfort cemetery to look for relatives and start our check list of places to explore. We found Axley Swagerty who was an older brother of our Isaac Swagerty. Both brothers left for Kansas but after the Civil War, Axley returned and made his living in the area. Jen continued our tradition of decorating any relative’s grave with rose petals. Back in Springdale, we found an Appleby’s and had dinner before heading back to our hotel room.
Thursday turned into a ten hour day of exploring. We drove to Berryville and went to Carroll County Historical Society. Jen had done her research and knew we were to talk to Becky who would guide us in our research. We found several interesting and important information about our relatives. One of the things that stood out was we were going to have to go to Harrison as several relatives had lived there. It had once been Carroll county and then became Boone county. Jen had previously driven through Harrison and was not enthusiastic about returning. It turns out Harrison is the heart of the newly emerged KKK which started up again in 1924. I actually went to my computer to verify and unfortunately it is a known fact. We drove in from another direction from when Jen first drove through. Even at this entrance, one of the first sights is a liquor store called Sundown Liquors. Harrison is a well known sundown town. Sigh! Onward.
We first stopped at the town’s Boone county Historical society that also has a museum. We were told to continue on the outside around the library and enter the building behind the library that housed genealogy information. There seemed to be so much promise. The building was run by a volunteer and there was no index and she was not sure what materials they had. There were boxes of items not yet unpacked. Shelves had various materials with no sense of order. We asked questions and the volunteer quickly went to Ancestry.com. Jen explained that we had already looked on Ancestry and had all of the information available on that site. That was all she could offer. We got a lot of information about the recent tornado, however.
We then headed to War Eagle Mill that still operates. We have a mill owner in our history and wanted to see what a mill operation was about. They had a fun store with various products. I purchased a white bean chili soup mix, corn bread mix and some local honey. I plan to use all to it for a yummy dinner straight from Arkansas. At War Eagle we were able to see the destruction of the tornado up close. They received the side winds from the tornado and there were many trees that were down. They were in the process of cleaning up the wide berth of destruction left. We drove back to Springdale to dinner at Appleby’s and then back to our hotel to rest up for our next day for more adventures.
Friday June 7th we checked out of our hotel and headed to Fayetteville to their library. This library had an extensive section of genealogy and a wonderful and knowledgeable reference librarian. While Jen went through family folders, I checked out land grants given to our various ancestors. I was very successful and found several plots of land owned by our family branches. I then checked into newspapers but the newspapers I needed would be in Bentonville. The library in Bentonville is closed for renovations and their courthouse is closed because the recent tornado took the roof off. There was no need at this time to travel up to Bentonville. I found the address of Isaac Swagerty’s acreage so Jen can explore at a later date. We were very pleased with the Fayetteville library and feel there must be more for us to discover there at a later date.
Onward we explored Cane Hill which is a restored small historical town. It gave us an idea of what it must have been like when several of our ancestors were situated near here. We have a Nancy Tiner who married David Stephens and they had Mary Jane Stephens who married Isaac Swagerty. The oldest resident of Cane Hill was a Bennett Tiner and we are trying to connect him to our Nancy. So far we can’t find a definite link but feel we are very close. We thought with a Bennett connection, it would give us so much more information. The volunteer in Cane Hill did not know about Bennett Tiner. Jen gave the fellow a lot to research later.
The next day Saturday was Clarkslville in Johnson county where Jen had called ahead and we knew that a Lance Spanky was waiting for us. This group had received a federal grant and had security cameras and a very organized wealth of materials. We went through the archives and Jen had mentioned various names we were researching. Lance left us in a back room and went to the front area. There, while we were busy, he went through many resources searching for us. When we came up front he shared with Jen what he had found. One of our Swagerty guys, Lorenzo, had run a store in town. At a later time Jen would like to find the location of that store and talk to a Deb who is a local historian who volunteers on Tuesdays. Jen has quite a few locations for a return trip.
Next on our list was the Oak Lawn cemetery where a Lorenzo Swagerty was buried. He was a Confederate soldier during the Civil War which was opposite of so many of his relatives. We were intrigued. The cemetery did not have a visible index and the office was closed. We could have called a number and made an appointment. The weather was heating up so wimpy California person, me, stayed in the car while Jen went stomping through a well kept cemetery. After 20 minutes, she gave up as the older section and a clump of Confederate soldiers did not reveal any Lorenzo. More research is needed. We then headed back to Jen’s home.
We discussed our various findings and we realized that the families of the Gillilands, Browns and Swagertys were all within a good horse ride away from each other. If only we had a time machine available, we could introduce them all to each other.
Sunday we went to the Soma district in Little Rock and found a place for lunch. Then we went to the Little Rock Historic Museum that opens at 1:00. They had some great displays of what it was like living during our ancestors’ time in the area. We know there is a strong likelihood of a connection to the Native Americans in the area but we do not have solid proof yet. Two branches of our family seem to have Cherokee links. We also checked out a few fun stores and I bought some teas I want to try.
Monday we gathered at Jen’s kitchen table and tried to organize all of our materials we had discovered and plan for future followup and research. Then as a treat, we went to nearby Conway where Jen gave me a wonderful tour of the delightful town. We topped it off with dinner at the Purple Cow.
The last day was my travel day and Jen drove me to the Little Rock airport and sent me on my way. I now have a new understanding of Arkansas and the areas where three different families lived. I feel it was a very successful trip. We did not answer all of our original questions but we found much new information and now know where to look for more.
1557 words
6/14/24
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