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Archiver > Southern-Trails > 1999-08 > 0934098002


From: Harold Miller <>
Subject: Re: TN-Hempstead County Arkansas
Date: Sun, 08 Aug 1999 07:40:02 +0000


At 03:37 PM 8/7/99 EDT, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I am new to the list and have a question about three things.
>
>First I was wondering why my one Brinley family as far as I can tell were in
>Orange County NC from 1780 to 1820? Then they moved to Carroll County
>Tennessee. Did a lot of people move from NC to Tennessee.?
>
>Later this family moved around 1860 in Carroll County Tennessee to Hempstead
>County Arkansas? In the 1900's they moved to McCurtain County OK. Did they
>move for jobs or what? and how did they move was it by wagon train?
>
>Thanks
>
>tawsha


Tawsha, what you mention is a very common movement from NC, to TN, AR, OK.
Carroll and Benton Co TN ca 1830 or so was the place people from NC went.
they seem to have mostly been small farmers, without slaves usually. 1820
they would have gone somewhere else in TN - and many did. I am not sure the
exact date Carroll was open but think it was more in the 1830s.

it also seems that many of them traveled from NC to TN in groups who had
family connections, but also church connections. Or it least that seems to
be so with my family. I think they moved because the land was very good for
farming.

also, many young single men in 1850s came into the area. Quite a few were
new immigrants from Ireland. They were there to build the railroads. You
can just follow them across TN. I think 1857 or so Carroll Co TN saw new
towns, new merchants, etc. springing up because of the railroad. But 1830
it was NC people coming because of the good farm land. Maybe something had
happened in NC to make them move, but not sure what it was. If you look at
these names you will usually find them in 1704 NC tax list so they were in
NC a long time, just always moving north/west from the coast.

many of these people, in the area where Benton and Carroll Co TN meet, also
ended up joining the Union army when the war began. As I said, they seem to
have been families long in NC, made move 1830s to TN, and had farms but no
slaves. They were not Quakers, but did form church groups.

I am interested about the move 1860, that would say that perhaps your group
was moving at that time because their neighbors were taking a different
side from them in the war. This area of TN was very divided, as was eastern
TN, NW Arkansas, KY, Maryland, parts of VA which would become West VA, MO,
Kansas, etc. It was a time when people seemed to try to move where they
felt safe with their neighbors chosing the same side in the war. Carroll
and Benton co TN had a lot of Union people, but it is also where Nathan
Bedford Forrest was located. So a very difficult area 1860-1865. Since he
captured many of the local Union men and sent them to Andersonville, after
1865 it was still unsettled. My family group moved in 1870s from there in a
wagon train of former Union people to NW Arkansas. 1865-1870 was time when
Union army was in control of area, reconstruction, but after that, it was
not a good place for former Union people to live. Also, with so many of
them being survivors of Andersonville, Fort Pillow, etc. I guess it was best
to move on.

NW Arkansas - as most of the south - was a mess. No church, school, store,
ferry, etc. left. (Bushwackers had run thru the area). Everything had to be
rebuilt. But.....the land was good if lots of bluffs, etc. Also, there
were sections where there had also been Union men, but others with CSA. For
some reason, sections of NW AR seemed to just try to forget which side a man
had fought on and get on with their lives. Heber Springs, Arkansas began
what was called Old Soldiers Reunion. It was where men from both sides came
together for speechs, food, and to share brotherhood. By the 1960s when I
was a child and attended, it was more of a carnival, but a home coming for
all the young families who had left the area after WWII to find work and
lives elsewhere. They would come back to visit in August, and attend the
Reunion as it was called then.

1900s move to OK....again, from 1880 to WWI every generation some of the
newly married young people with their elder relatives in tow would take off
for either Texas or Oklahoma to find land. There just was not enough
available land for everyone, so some would leave. That is why in the grave
yards in OK you will find so many who had been born in Arkansas. After
WWII, most of the young men who came home did not stay long. They married,
then left for Illinois, California, anywhere they could find employment.
Only the elderly and a few young ones were left. They also often traveled
in family groups. I love to hear the stories about my family's move to
Illinois and Michigan, with my parents, my father's brother, his sister and
their families. They traveled in a car caravan - so much like their
ancestors who had traveled across the south in wagons.

mary

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