Arnold Ancestors - Generation 4 - Wilma Vernice Arnold

Wilma Vernice Arnold was born 03 June 1915, Banner, Cleburne County, Arkansas

Wilma was the third child of George Arnold and Jessie Tamsett

PHOTO: George and Jessie with Amos, twins Opie and Obie, Wilma, and Arbie

This picture was taken before the last girl, Joan, was born in 1923.

PHOTO: Wilma with her sisters. These are all the girls that were born to George and his first wife Jessie. Their brother Amos had died (from typhoid fever) before this picture was taken. George had four more daughters and a son with his second wife Eula Mae.

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Wilma Arnold married Elvin Reed 08 February 1930 in Cleburne County, Arkansas.

Wilma was 14 years old when she married Elvin Reed. He was 16.

Wilma and Elvin had one child - Stella Marqueta Reed.

She was born 24 February 1932.

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Wilma and Elvin Reed divorced in 1944. 

This is kind of a funny looking picture to me. It almost looks like a mugshot. Why the gloves?

PHOTO: Back - Arbie and Wilma. Front: Opie and Obie

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Wilma Arnold Reed died 13 May 1894, in Georgia. Cause of death: cancer. Burial: Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery, Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia

Elvin died 07 March 1985. Cause of death: sawmill accident. Burial: Rest Haven Memorial Gardens, Arkadelphia, Clark County, Arkansas

Elvin is buried with his 2nd wife, Imogene Qualls

Arnold Ancestors - Generation 4 - Arbie Delcie Arnold

Arbie Delcie Arnold was born 22 November 1913 in Banner, Cleburne County, Arkansas 

Arbie was the oldest of "Uncle George's Girls" (Uncle George Arnold, as you'll recall, had two sons and eleven daughters.) George was a brother of my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks.

PHOTO L-R: Arbie, Wilma, Amos

(the first 3 of Uncle George's 13 children)

Arbie Arnold married Homer Baily 'Bill' Hayes 04 July 1930

Arbie and Bill had seven children - Gerald, Lowell, George, Ruby, Joyce, Gail, and Glen

This picture was taken at the Carter/Arnold annual family reunion in 1983.

PHOTO: Arbie's first child, Gerald Baily Hayes

Here are some pictures of Arbie, and some group photos of Uncle George's girls, from the annual Carter/Arnold family reunions:

1984

1984 - Verlie, Arbie, Bertha Lee, Obie, Ruby, Opie, Bud, Joan

(Uncle George had two sons. Amos was the firstborn who died of typhoid fever at age 7. Bud was the 10th child. All the rest were girls.)

1986

PHOTO: Arbie and Cleffie (my grandmother, daughter of Annie Arnold Hicks) 1990

PHOTO: Irene Barnett (Cleffie's sister) and Arbie

PHOTO: Uncle George's girls 1990 (L-R) Verlie, Bertha Lee, Obie, Opie, Joan, Ruby, Arbie

Arbie Arnold Hayes died 16 August 1999, in Wilburn, Cleburne County, Arkansas.

Bill Hayes died in 1996.

Arnold Ancestors - Generation 3 - Etta Lee Arnold

 "Aint Ettie"

(throughout my childhood I never heard her referred to in any other way)

Was born 04 August 1900 in Banner, Cleburne County, Arkansas. She was the fifth and youngest child of my great-great-grandparents Henry and Adaline Arnold.

Etta Lee Arnold was the sister of my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks.

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

PHOTO L-R: Annie, Adaline ("Ma"), Etta

PHOTO L-R: Jessie Tamsett, Maude Cartee, Etta Arnold, Annie Arnold, Birdie Hayes

Etta Arnold married Ben Jackson 31 March 1915 in Banner, Cleburne County, Arkansas. 

They had six children - Alvis, Wincel, Calvin, Dulcie Mae, Coy, and Carol

PHOTO: Ben and Etta Jackson with their first child Alvis.

PHOTO: Etta and Ben with Alvis and Wincel

PHOTO: Etta holding one of the children (don't know which one)

PHOTO: Calvin and Wincel

PHOTO: Alvis and Calvin Jackson with Elvin Hicks (right)

PHOTO: Carol Jackson with Ben's second wife Cora. 

(Etta died when Carol was five years old.)

PHOTO: Carol Jackson with her husband Norman Allender

I don't have any pictures of Dulcie Mae or Coy

Etta Lee Arnold Jackson died 24 April 1945, Cleburne County, Arkansas. 

Cause of death: tuberculosis.

Arnold Ancestors - Generation 3 - Marlie Alvin Arnold

Marlie Alvin Arnold was born 12 August 1898 in Caldren, Cleburne County, Arkansas

Marlie was the son of Henry and Adaline Arnold, brother of my great-grandmother Annie Arnold Hicks.

PHOTO: Ma Arnold with Marlie, John, and Etta

An old picture in an old frame - Ulysses Hicks (Annie's husband) and Marlie Arnold

Marlie Arnold married Birdie Leona Hayes

25 December 1915 in Concord, Cleburne County, Arkansas

Marlie and Birdie had nine children - A baby boy who died at birth, Sylvia, Eldred, Arbon, Doyle, Lois, Noel, Dorothy Mae, and Hope.

PHOTO: Aunt Birdie holding Dorothy Mae

PHOTO: Eldred Arnold

(Eldred had epilepsy and died at age 23.)

PHOTO: Doyle Arnold

(Doyle died at age 9 from gangrene secondary to a broken arm.)

PHOTO: Some of Annie's kids and some of Marlie's.

PHOTO: Noel, Hope, Sylvia 1983

PHOTO: Noel and Arbon 1986

Marlie Arnold died 06 July 1970.

Birdie died 22 March 1978.

Arnold Ancestors - Generation 3 - John Davidson Arnold

 John Davidson Arnold was born 25 February 1895 in Alton, Oregon County, Missouri

(John and his sister Annie had the same birthday, two years apart)

John was the second son of Henry and Adaline Arnold

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

John Arnold married Gracie Belle Webb 15 September 1917 in McHue, Arkansas, daughter of Reuben Webb and Carnelia Davis. She was born 02 January 1897 in Jamestown, Independence County, Arkansas, and died 26 October 1992.

I don't have any pictures of Aunt Gracie when she was young. The following pictures were taken at the annual Arnold/Carter family reunion

1983

1986

Aunt Gracie Arnold, Ruby Hicks Barnett

1990

John and Gracie Arnold had eight children - Burton, Burnis, Alene, Maxine, Lloyd, John, Christene, and Bertha Lee.

I don't have pictures of all of them.

PHOTO: Irene Hicks holding Burton David Arnold. 

This may be the only picture of Burton in existence. He died at age 20 months of diphtheria.

PHOTOS: Christene and Maxine

I have one more picture of John Davidson Arnold, and a little story to go with it.

PHOTO: John is on the left, playing the fiddle. I don't know who is the man on the right playing the mandolin.

Wathada wrote:

A trip to the hills and bluegrass music

  About once a year, Grandma and Grandpa Hicks would drive up into the hills of Arkansas to Cleburne County, to see relatives up there.  Sometimes Mama took me and we went with them.  That was a big adventure for me and I loved that trip.  I would see aunts, uncles and cousins that I never saw any other time.  And I heard the most beautiful music there that I had ever heard.  I was spellbound by that music the first time I ever remember hearing it.  All the men up there – Grandma’s brothers and whoever else happened to be around, played and sang the best bluegrass music I have ever heard in my life even up to now.

  For years I told myself it was something I had only dreamed. But then I found out just about three or four years ago, that it wasn’t a dream, when Mama just happened to talk about that very thing. That’s when I knew it had really happened. I always felt like it was an actual memory and that it had happened up in the hills of Arkansas, but I couldn’t quite place it or think of any of the folks who played exactly that same kind of music. So I decided long ago, that it must only have been a dream.

  The part that I thought was a dream, was the part where there were some men on the front porch, and they played banjos and fiddles, and I guess anything else that had strings on it, and some of them, maybe all of them, sang some too. That was music like I had never heard before in all my short life, and I thought it was the most beautiful music there ever could be. I was entranced just listening to that music. I got lost in it and didn’t want it to ever stop. Mama says that was her Uncle George Arnold, Uncle John Arnold, and Uncle Marlie Arnold. She said there might have been a neighbor or two in on the music making too, but that just her three uncles all by themselves, could make the best music you will ever hear. Well, I couldn’t have been more than four or five years old, maybe just three -- and it has stayed with me all these years. It has hovered in my memory, haunting me like music does when it gets into your heart and soul. Something inside me knew all the time that it wasn’t a dream. 

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John Davidson Arnold died 29 December 1954 in Wilburn, Cleburne County, Arkansas.