ARPOLK-L Archives

From: "Tracey Converse" <>
Subject: [ARPOLK] Avance
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1999 13:21:40 -0500

By Eric Francis
Staff Writer
North Little Rock Times
Since 1903, Robert Harris Avance has lain in an unmarked grave next to his son in McVay Cemetery, outside the town of Paris in Logan County.


He wasn't alone in his situation - family members suspect as many as five other Avances lie in graves marked only by unadorned rocks in that cemetery, along with two whose graves are marked.


But thanks to some old, hand-written notes and the efforts of a North Little Rock man and two of his relatives, Pvt. Robert H. Avance of the Confederate States of America now has a white marble headstone from the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs.


Ivan Avance, a retired railroad engineer and a North Little Rock resident for almost 75 years, is the great-grandson of Robert Avance. He said the process of verifying his great-grandfather's military service and obtaining the headstone took about six months and the assistance of two cousins: Tim Calicott, a Little Rock physician, and Thelma Avance Sanders of Poplar Bluff, Mo., who is a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy.


"He's going to have a marker after 96 years," Avance said.


Key to establishing his great-grandfather's service in the Confederate army were the notes passed down from on of Avance's uncles. James Drew Avance had interviewed his father, William Pinkerton Avance, about his own father, Pvt. Avance, and his experiences in the war, and jotted down the information in a small notebook.


It was those notes, Ivan Avance said, that helped him and his cousins verify sketchy information in public records and historical documents of the Logan County Historical Society and state History Commission, and ultimately led to the proof that the federal government needed before they would deliver the headstone - free of charge.


And for the great-grandson, it feels good to finally see a Civil War veteran get his due.


"Somebody asked me if he was a hero," said Avance. "I don't know about that. Anybody who was in the service in wartime was a hero."


Pvt. Avance had been born in Tennessee in 1836 and his family moved to Arkansas while he was young. He eventually settled near Mena in Polk County and signed up for the Confederate Army in the nearby town of Dallas around the start of the war.


That's where some of the current generation's problems identifying his great-grandfather in the records began. In the register where recruits were recorded he was listed as "R. Avance." In many records, the name was misspelled "Avants." And when he was discharged at the end of the war, Avance said, he was "just told to go home" like all the other Confederate soldiers in the area, whereas Union soldiers received an official discharge certificate that was filed away for posterity.


During his four-year stint as a soldier, Pvt. Avance served in the 124th Arkansas Infantry, first under E.E. Potlocks Jr. and then with William R. Hardy's regiment. While Avance said he didn't know when and where his great-grandfather actually fought, his unit was present at the first Battle of Elkhorn Tavern in Pea Ridge, Ark., and at the Battle of Shiloh outside of Memphis, as well as several other Southern cities.


After the war ended, Pvt. Avance settled down near Paris. In one of the ironic twists that was the legacy of the War Between the States, his son eventually married the daughter of a Union soldier, George Washington Pillow. Robert Harris Avance lived out his life farming in Logan County, his great-grandson said, and at one time may have lived in the tiny Arkansas River town of Roseville.


The date of his death was one of the final mysteries that Ivan Avance and his cousins had to unravel. While a will was in the county courthouse files, it didn't say when he died. The proof finally came from a sales receipt tucked in with the Logan County Clerk's records - a ticket from Smith Hardware Company of Paris for a "casket and box for Robert Avance." The price: $14.


Another receipt showed that his sons, Edward H. and James Peter Avance, also spent $10.35 on the other accouterments for his funeral - a suit, a shirt, some ribbon and the like.


This Saturday, the surviving family members of CSA Pvt. Robert H. Avance will gather at McVay Cemetery for a memorial service to dedicate the marker. While Ivan had hoped to have Civil War reenactors there, that fell through, so the ceremony the three cousins arranged will be simple: He'll make the introductions, Tim Calicott will tell of his war record, and Thelma Avance Sanders will lead the pledge and flag ceremony.


And then the work will begin to identify who else was laid to rest in the cemetery.


"It's still a mystery," said Avance. "We just don't know who all is buried there."

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• [ARPOLK] Avance by "Tracey Converse" <>