Arnold Ancestors - Generation 3 - Bertha Ann Arnold

Bertha Ann 'Annie' Arnold was born 25 February 1893 in Winona, Shannon County, Missouri

Annie was my great-grandmother. I was very fortunate that she was still living and was an active part of my life during my childhood. I have so many pictures of her that it is difficult to decide which ones to post here -- I'd like to post them all! 

Annie was the daughter of Henry and Adaline Carter Arnold

PHOTOS: Annie and "Ma" Arnold

PHOTOS: Annie

Annie Arnold married Ulysses Fillmore Hicks 22 February 1910 in Banner, Cleburne County, Arkansas.

Ulys and Annie had 10 children. The first baby, a boy, died at birth.

The rest of their children grew to adulthood and old age.

All of these great-aunts and uncles lived near us when I was growing up, except for Elvin and Irene. Elvin lived in California and Irene lived in Missouri. Elvin is the only one I don't remember meeting in person. Cleffie was my grandmother.

Here are some pictures of Ulys and Annie as their family grew...

This picture has all 9 of Ulys and Annie's children, plus Ruby's husband Arvil ('Jack') and their daughter Oma Dell.

Here are the nine with their spouses: Ruby and Jack Barnett, Irene and Doc Barnett (Jack's brother), Cleffie and Lester Burford, Elvin and Mildred, Evalee and Charles Jones, Vernell and Ray Leatherwood, Olan and Barbara, Bernice and Jay Bridges, Lowell and Elaine.

PHOTO: Annie and Ulys' 50th wedding anniversary with all their children. 1960.

This is how I remember them.

Annie Arnold Hicks died 06 August 1972.

Arnold Ancestors - Pine Grove Cemetery

At last count, there are 85 of our Carter/Arnold relatives buried in Pine Grove cemetery. There are probably more that I don't currently have recorded on my master family roster.

Pine Grove church and cemetery are located between Banner and Floral, Arkansas.

 

This is an old picture of George and Jessie Arnold's grave. Their stone is the bright one, in the center of the photo. In the background is an old house. It is not there any more, but I believe that may be the church building in the background on the left. As far as I know, the church is still there.

This is a picture I took in 1984 at the annual Carter/Arnold family reunion. The church in this picture is probably the same one that's in the background of the old photo above. They still have the reunion every year, but they stopped having it at the cemetery. I think they have it at a public park in Heber Springs, Arkansas, nowadays. 

In the center of this photo is my grandmother Cleffie Hicks. The others are (L-R): Irene Hicks, Elvin Hicks, Ruby Hicks, Adaline Arnold (my great-great-grandmother) holding Mildred Arnold, Annie Arnold Hicks (my great-grandmother), Obie Arnold, Opie Arnold, Jessie Tamsett Arnold holding Verlie, Wilma Arnold, Arbie Arnold. This would have been taken about 1921. [Interesting side note - the youngest child in this picture - Verlie - just passed away in 2023, at age 102.]

It seems that decorating the graves with rocks (or shells?) was a common practice back in the day.

This is a double grave that is covered with sand and decorated with rocks or shells. The funeral home marker is on the right side of the photo, no headstone (yet). I took this picture in 1984.

Grave of Amos Arnold, Uncle George's firstborn son, who died at age 7 of typhoid fever.

Pot luck at the reunion in 1983. Leaning across the table is Bernice Hicks, then (L-R) Verlie Arnold, Irene Hicks, Sylvia Arnold, and Arbie Arnold. (This is the photo on the cover of my book of family recipes - Y'all Come.)

John Henry and Adaline Arnold's graves

Outhouse at Pine Grove cemetery. When I was there, in the 1980s, it was still usable.

I don't know anything about the church at Pine Grove. I don't know whether or not it was still in use in the 1980s, nor what kind of church it is. I don't know if any of our relatives ever went to that church or not, but it seems like some of them probably would have.

Arnold Ancestors - Generation 3 - George Arnold's second family

PHOTO: George Arnold and his second wife Eula Mae Burnett

George and Eula were married in 1928, five years after George's first wife Jessie died. 

George and Eula Mae had five children - Clora Mae, Raymond ('Bud'), Ruby, Delena, and Bertha Lee.

PHOTO: Some of George's children and some of his sister Annie's children.

So, George had 13 children in all, 11 of them were girls -- collectively known as "Uncle George's girls".

The following pictures were taken at the annual Arnold/Carter family reunion.

1986 Obie, Opie, Bertha Lee, Verlie, Joan

1990 Verlie, Bertha Lee, Obie, Opie, Joan, Ruby, Arbie

1994 Ruby, Bertha Lee, Joan, Opie, Verlie, Obie

I do have one picture of George's surviving son 'Bud', although it's not a very good one:

L-R: Bertha Lee, Arbie, Obie, Verlie, Ruby, Joan, Bud, Opie

(Poor Bud -- imagine growing up in a household with 11 sisters!)

Here is what Annie's daughter Cleffie (my grandmother) told about her uncle George (transcribed from an audiotape):

 My Uncle George Arnold -- he was a good man, and a likeable person.  But you know, he had a lot of bad luck in his life.  He married Jessie Tamsett and that was good.  They raised a family.  They had, I believe it was eight kids.  The last one though, left Aunt Jessie with, I don’t know if it was childbed fever or something else -- I just don’t know what it was, kind of an infection or poison of some kind in her body, and caused her to be sick and just, well she was in bad shape and lingered along for a few weeks -- maybe a month or more -- and then died, and that was awful.  And then he made out though for -- well, Ma went to live with him and help him raise them kids, so he made out just fine that way, but he didn’t have any wife.  I know that was bad for him.  But anyway, finally, after about five years why, he married another woman.  He married Eula Burnett, and then they set in and raised another family.  Just about the same size family as his first one was.  So he had pretty good luck with that.  Everything went alright.  But then in a few years, he got something wrong with him.  He didn’t know what it was. So he worried with that for a long time, just having trouble like if he had kidney trouble or something, and he didn’t know what to do about it.  Course, there wasn’t no doctors hardly up here in these hills then, and if there was they didn’t know much.  So he decided, well I think my dad talked to him some about it, and told him if he’d come down to Judsonia, he’d go with him over to Searcy and help him get a doctor.  I guess he made an appointment first, I don’t know.  Anyway, he did that.  He came down there and Papa took him over to a doctor in Searcy and after he examined him good why, he told him he had Bright’s disease and couldn’t do anything about it. I don’t know if there’s anything to do for it, might be now, I don’t know, but at that time they didn’t seem to think there was.  So he just came home and just suffered with that for I don’t know how long -- long time.  Finally, it got him -- it just killed him -- he died with it.  He’d lay in that room by himself, just he’d be the only one in there, in that back bedroom and on Sundays a lot of different people would come and see him and just come talk to him a little bit, sit there with him and then go.  That’s the way the last part of his life was for quite a while.  And he finally died.  That was the hardest part -- was just being in that shape, he was bedfast and just wasn’t nothing to be done.

Annie (George's sister) wrote:

  George died at the age of 50 years with Bright’s disease.  The doctors made x-rays and said he had at some time in his life hurt his back, which caused his trouble.  The hurt could have been in his early childhood or could have been later.  The only thing he could remember about hurting his back was that he was thrown by a mule after he was grown and slightly hurt his back right low in the backbone.

George Ned Arnold died 11 August 1939 in Banner, Cleburne County, Arkansas. He is buried with his first wife Jessie in Pine Grove Cemetery, Floral, Arkansas.

I also have this picture, which seems to indicate George and Jessie got new gravestones at some point.

Arnold Ancestors - Generation 3 - George Ned Arnold

George Ned Arnold was born 29 May 1889 in Missouri

George was the son of John Henry and Adaline Carter Arnold.

 George married Jessie Tamsett July 3, 1910 in Banner, Cleburne County, Arkansas

PHOTO: Ulysses and Annie Arnold Hicks, George and Jessie Tamsett Arnold.

This picture was taken in 1910. Ulys and Annie married in February of that year. George and Jessie married in July.

George and Jessie had 8 children - Amos, Arbie, Wilma, twins Opie and Obie, Mildred, Verlie, and Joan.

PHOTO: George and Amos

PHOTO: Arbie, Wilma, Amos

PHOTO: Amos, George holding Opie, Jessie holding Obie, Wilma, Arbie

PHOTO: Jessie holding Opie and Obie

Amos died at age 7 from typhoid fever.

 Jessie died in 1923 when Joan was only 3 months old.

PHOTO: George and Jessie's girls L-R: Mildred, Arbie, Verlie (front), Opie, Wilma, Joan (front), Obie.

 After Jessie died, George's mother (Adaline) lived with George and took care of the children. In 1928 George married Eula Mae Burnett. George and Eula Mae had five children a boy and four girls. That will be tomorrow's post.

Arnold Ancestors - Generation 2 - John Henry Arnold

 John Henry Arnold was born 08 July 1869 in McCrory, Woodruff County, Arkansas

 

Henry's parents were Jack? Arnold and Emma Bullard. When Henry was a young child he was taken in and raised by Emma's brother and sister, George and Peggy Bullard.

Henry married Adaline Carter 15 April 1888

Henry and Adaline had five children: George, Annie (my great-grandmother), John, Marlie, and Etta

PHOTO L-R: Aunt Peggy Bullard, George, Adaline holding Etta, Annie (back), John, Henry holding Marlie

PHOTO L-R: George, Annie, John, Marlie, Etta

PHOTO: Back - John and Annie. Front - Marlie, Henry, Adaline, Etta

PHOTO L-R: Marlie, John, Henry, Adaline, Annie, Etta

This picture includes Annie's husband Ulysses Hicks and George's wife Jessie Tamsett 

("Ettie" is what they called Etta.)

Here is some of what Annie wrote about her family:

  My Father married at the age of 19 or 18 years, to Adaline Carter (my mother). She was seven months older than him. I am not sure how old they were - they probably were not more than 18 years old. I know they were young when they married in Missouri around Thayer. Dad was born around McCrory, Arkansas, but the family moved to Missouri while he was a baby. My Dad was raised in Illinois. My parents had five children, three boys and 2 girls. George was the oldest child. I was next, John was the third, then we moved from Missouri to Arkansas. Then Marlie was born, then Ettie was the last one - born in 1900. 

  When my parents came to Arkansas they homesteaded a piece of land and built a log house on it and lived on it for five or six years, and sold it and bought another farm. Then our house burned. We lost everything we had almost. Then we had to get another place so we bought 40 acres for $100. A fair price for land in those days. My Father was a sorghum maker so he paid for the farm with sorghum molasses. A fifty-gallon barrel or two of them every year at about 20 cents a gallon, a fair price for sorghum in those days. That was in about 1906. We lived on that place a few years and then we traded that place and a wagon and team of mules for 160 acres of land with a good house on it. That was about the best place anywhere around there. After living there three or four years, my Father died at the age of 39 years. The doctor said he had pleurisy. That is water around the lungs. In a few years, Ma divided the place among the children, forty acres apiece for all the children except me. She gave me a cow. I preferred the cow instead of splitting four forties into five blocks. We kids were already married.

John Henry Arnold died 11 November 1909, age 40

He is buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, Floral, Independence County, Arkansas