Shakin' the Family Tree

Mrs. C. P. Bethea

News of the death of Mrs. C. P. Bethea, which occurred in this city Friday night about 11 o'clock, brought sadness to the hearts of her many friends. She had been in bad health for some time, but had only been confined to her bed for the past few weeks.

The deceased was born September 11, 1855, in Saline county, near Benton. She was the daughter of Alfred and Eliza Nelson Wright, who moved to Clark county in 1859, settling in the Palestine community, 11 miles west of Arkadelphia.

At the age of 15 years, she joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and lived a consistent Christian.

On January 16, 1875, she was married to Clarence J. Bethea, to which union ten children were born. About 10 years ago the family moved to Arkadelphia.

Mrs. Bethea is survived by one daughter, Mrs. W. E. Robey of Little Rock, and two sons, Jim of Graysonia, and Rob of this city, and 17 grandchildren, three brothers, John Wright of Little Rock, Charlie Wright of Hot Springs and Jeff Wright of Palestine, and one sister, Mrs. Nick McSwain of this city.

The funeral services were conducted Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clcock by Dr. J. I. Cannon, pastor of the First Methodist Church, and the body was laid to rest in Rose Hill cemetery. (Source: The Southern Standard, 11 Apr 1929.)

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I am not related to Emily Bethea. She is part of the extended Bethea family, members of which married into my Callaways and McBrayers.

Emily was the mother-in-law of my grand-aunt, Maude McBrayer.

Frankly, I was disappointed with the offerings at Ouachita Baptist University's Special Collections Section.

I did, however, make a few interesting discoveries.

A glance through the 1932 Southern Standard on microfilm did not yield an obituary I was looking for, but it did give up some interesting tidbits of local flavor about my Herrington relatives who lived in the tiny Clark County Arkansas community of DeGray.

I had never really considered it before, but what did you do for fun when you were dirt poor and the Great Depression sucked the life out of just about everything?

You went visiting...and it made the newspaper.

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Searching through the conference minutes of the DeGray Baptist Church provided no information at all about where or how my g-g-grandfather, Mace Callaway died, or where he might be buried.

I asked for copies of all 17 pages of membership notes in the New Hope Methodist Church file for the years 1860-1869. There appear to be skips due to missing records, but they will be useful to my Williams cousin, Jason, and to a lesser degree, to me.

And while I was waiting for copies to be made, I scanned through the Clark County Historical Association's Journal index, and stumbled across a CSA Cavalry unit that seems to be unreported in the usual places, with alphabetized lists of troops who served.

Even more interesting is that it appears possible that Mace Callaway and David Andrew Williams may have served in that cavalry unit together, as shown on a muster roll covering the time from 31 Oct 1864 through 28 Feb 1865. (I'll transcribe that as a separate entry later.)

Another of the CCHA's journals provides more information about years in which Bob Dunn was mentioned in the minutes of the Red River Baptist Association.

So the CCHA made $45 off me today. I bought the 1991, 1993, and 1998 Journals.

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Cousin Joe and I made an appalling discovery at the Clark County Courthouse.

We were looking for the letters of administration in the estate of one of our many greats grandpappies, John Callaway, who died intestate in 1834 in Clark County. Joe knew that John Callaway's estate was enumerated in an attachment to the letters of administration.

The probate clerk was able to provide us with a copy of the 6 Jan 1835 probate court order appointing John's widow, Amy, and his son, John S T, as co-administrators of the estate (they were, by the way, fined by the court in 1842 for failure to file an annual accounting of the estate - oops), but the clerk said we'd have to go to the books to look for the letters of administration.

So all three of us tromped over to the closet where the books are kept. 1840 was as far back as we could find.

So the clerk asked us if we wanted to take a look through the other books in storage.

In the attic.

IN THE ATTIC.

Books with documents over 175 years old are IN THE ATTIC. With no climate control.

And not just in the attic...they were just dumped in the attic in hodge-podge, helter skelter fashion...many looking as if they were thrown in there by whomever was assigned the chore of moving them because before they had been IN THE BASEMENT - where they kept getting damp.

Joe and I kept grimacing at each other over the clerk's head as we looked, each of us righting a book here and there.

We did not find the letters of administration of the estate.

I'm hoping that book was rescued by the Arkansas History Commission and filmed.

So I'll be squinting at microfilm there tomorrow.

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The journey is good.

And it continues...