On This Day in Family History - April 30

 Minnie Pearl Cousins Cook died 30 April 2009, age 103

Minnie Pearl was the daughter of Sarah Elizabeth Carter and Daniel C Cousins.

Sarah Elizabeth Carter was the daughter of James Wesley Carter

James Wesley Carter was a brother of my great-great-grandmother Adaline Carter Arnold

PHOTO: Adaline Carter Arnold 

I don't have a picture of Wesley Carter. In fact, I don't have pictures of any of the folks mentioned in this post. But I wanted to post it anyway, because not many people live to be 103 years old.

Minnie Pearl Cousins married Clifford Levi Cook, and they had seven children: Edna, Clyde, Minnie, Raleigh, Atril, Fred, and Ralph.

Minnie Pearl and Clifford Cook are buried in Masonic Cemetery, Pocahontas, Randolph County, Arkansas

On This Day in Family History - April 29

 Cleffie Hicks Burford married Elmer Reed 29 April 1999

I've told the story before about how my grandmother met her husband at a family reunion, right?

***

My grandmother, Cleffie Hicks Burford, grew up in the same little community in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas as Elmer Reed and his brother Elvin. 

Photo: Elmer and Elvin Reed

Photo: Parents of Elmer and Elvin Reed

Elmer's brother, Elvin Reed, married Cleffie's cousin Wilma Arnold

Elmer Reed married Ruby Foust in 1937

Cleffie Hicks married Lester Burford in 1935

Both of these marriages lasted more than half a century.

Then, after both Cleffie and Elmer were widowed, they met up at one of the Carter/Arnold annual family reunions, and...

 

*   *   *

Cleffie Hicks Burford Reed died in 2004.

Elmer Reed died in 2011.

New Book

 The new book is out in Kindle format. It will take a few more days to get the paperback version ready to publish.

On This Day in Family History - April 27

 Verlie Arnold married John Edward Garrett 27 April 1939

Ed and Verlie had 4 children. (The first two were hers from her first marriage - to Ed's brother Everett, but Ed and Verlie raised all 4 of them.) They were 3 boys and a girl - West, Leon, Youl, and Arletta.

West was killed by a bull at age 15.

*

Photo: Ed and Verlie with Leon, Youl, and Verletta (I think), and some grandchildren. Taken at the Carter/Arnold annual family reunion in 1983.

 

Ed Garrett died in 2003.

Verlie died April 8, 2023.

They are buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, Floral, Arkansas

On This Day in Family History - April 26

Harriett B Walker Thomas was born 26 April 1826

Harriett B Walker married Washington Lafayette Thomas and they had seven children - Ella, Charles (my great-grandfather), Arthur, Garland, Erville, William, and Etta

Harriet died 12 December 1908, age 82

She is buried in Thomas Cemetery, Bangor, Michigan

Washington Lafayette Thomas died 12 Jun 1895, age 68

He is buried in Thomas Cemetery, Bangor, Michigan

*

Washington's parents, George and Adeline Baker Thomas, purchased the property that became the Thomas Family Farm in Bangor, Michigan, which was occupied by five generations of the Thomas family.

On This Day in Family History - April 25

 Audrey Estelle Burgess Searcy was born 25 April 1925

Audrey was the wife of Bill Searcy, son of Edith Burford Searcy

These two pictures were cropped from group photos that were taken in 1949. In both pictures, the baby is Mike Searcy, Bill and Estelle's son.

Bill Searcy was the son of Edith Burford. Edith was a half-sister to my grandfather Lester Burford.

Edith, Raymond, and Hazel were children of Alexander Burford with his first wife, before he married my great-grandmother Lora Gibson in 1899.

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Here are the group photos:

L to R: unknown, Edith Burford Searcy in back, Laura, unknown x 2, Estelle holding Mike, Eleanor, Ruby Burford, Nellie Jane, Willene, Children Sue Linda Wanda maybe Jessie in lap, other children unknown

L-R: George Burford?, Jake Haynes, Bill holding Mike, Eugene Spain, Everett Bostick, Will or Jerry (in hat), unknown in tie, Nellie Jane in back, Raymond, Richard and John Spain in back unknown children

These pictures were captioned by Myra Burford Luker. I've been trying to figure out who some of the unidentified people could be, but not entirely successful yet. 

On This Day in Family History - April 24

 Karen Lynn Burford was born 24 April 1972

Karen is the daughter of Lester Morris Burford, Jr. and Becky Stickels Burford

the sister of Leslie Renee Burford

the Granddaughter of Lester and Cleffie Hicks Burford

 

and the first cousin of ME!

Photo: Karen holding Casey, Christopher, Leslie (1983)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAREN !!!

On This Day in Family History - April 23

 Hope Arnold married Claud Brackett 23 April 1953

I don't have a picture of Claud Brackett

If Hope and Claud had any children, I'm not aware of them.

Hope was a daughter of Marlie Arnold, brother of my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks

*   *   *

John Henry Arnold married Adaline Carter and they had 5 children.

Photo: Children of John Henry and Adaline Carter Arnold. L-R: George, Annie, John, Marlie, Etta.

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GEORGE ARNOLD had 13 children - Amos, Arbie, Wilma, Obie, Opie, Mildred, Verlie, Joan, Clora Mae, Bud, Ruby, Delena, and Bertha Lee. 

ANNIE ARNOLD (Hicks) had 10 children - Infant Son, Ruby, Irene, Cleffie, Elvin, Evalee, Vernell, Olan, Bernice, and Lowell. 

JOHN ARNOLD had 6 children - Burton, Burnis, Alene, Maxine, Lloyd, John, Christene, and Bertha Lee. 

MARLIE ARNOLD had 9 children - Infant Son, Sylvia, Eldred, Arbon, Doyle, Lois, Noel, Dorothy Mae, and Hope. 

ETTA ARNOLD (Jackson) had 6 children - Alvis, Wincel, Calvin, Dulcie Mae, Coy, and Carol.

So there were 44 cousins.

Here are a couple of group pictures of the offspring of the five Arnold siblings: 

On This Day in Family History - April 22

 

Mildred Pauline Cooper Burford was born 1922 (wife of Neil Burford)

Marion Carroll Thomas was born 1906 (wife of Russell Thomas)

Norma Jean Carter Douglas was born 1936 (daughter of Raymond Othinal Carter)

Elaine Bernardette Roussos Hicks was born 1932 (wife of Lowell Hicks)

Hazel Opal Herdman Grooms was born 1898 (daughter of Alvero Milton Herdman)

Albert Newton Betts was born 1871 (husband of Sarah Caroline Carter)

On This Day in Family History - April 21

 Twins Ina and Mina Parker were born 21 April 1907

Ina and Mina were daughters of Pearl Elsworth Parker

Pearl was the brother of my great-grandmother Massie Parker Treat

Their parents were Moses and Celia Campbell Parker

Parents of Moses Parker were 

Moses (senior) and Sarah 'Sally' Davis Parker

*   *   *

Pearl Parker married Ola Leeth and they had four children - Ina and Mina (twins), Roy and Emerson.

I don't have any pictures of Ola or Roy or Emerson.

*   *   *

Ina Parker married Neil Walls and they had three children - Catherine, Richard, and Elmer.

Mina Parker married William Robinette and they had one child - Logan. They divorced and she later married Floyd Crabtree.

Roy Parker married Anna Herman and they had four children - Stanley, Timothy, Shirley, and Vicki.

Emerson Parker married Alpha Wilburn and they had five children - Norma Jean, Connie, Virginia, Joann, and Roger.

On This Day in Family History - April 20

 April 20, 1966 was a very bad day for Uncle George Arnold's family. (Fortunately for Uncle George, he didn't live to see it, having died in 1939.)

George Ned Arnold was the brother of my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks.

George married Jessie Tamsett and they had 8 children - a boy and 7 girls.

The oldest child, Amos, died of typhoid fever at age 7. 

After Aunt Jessie died, George married Eula Mae Burnett and they had 5 children - a boy and 4 girls.

On 20 April 1966 three people in the family died.

Bud's son Buddy Lynn Arnold, age 6, was hit by a car while waiting for the school bus. (I don't have a picture of him.)

On the same day, Mildred Arnold Garrett was shot and killed by her husband, Everett Garrett. Everett then shot and killed himself. 

Photo: Mildred Arnold Garrett

I don't have a picture of her husband Everett Garrett.

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In preparing this post, I ran across another interesting tidbit of information about the Garrett family. Everett Garrett was first married to Mildred's sister Verlie. Then Mildred and Everett had an affair, and Everett and Verlie divorced. Verlie then married Everett's brother Ed Garrett. Ed and Everett had another brother, William Garrett, who married Elizabeth Baker. Elizabeth Baker was a the daughter of John Martin Carter - an uncle of George Ned Arnold. (The Arnold and Carter families are so intwined that it's not easy to separate them. George Ned Arnold's mother was a Carter, and his father was an Arnold. So both of those branches of the family are "ours".) 

Well, that's all a matter of record. The new fun fact that I discovered today is this -- 

The parents of those Garrett boys were Grover Cleveland Garrett and Cecile Wackerly Garrett. According to the FindAGrave memorial for Cecile Garrett:

 "She married Grover Garrett. He was convicted of killing her father [Clem Wackerly] & sentenced to 5 years in the pen in 1912. They married after his sentence."