Family Stories page
7
This is a collection
of stories collected and written by Alice (Simpson) Lemons
The Story of how they
wound up in Arkansas:
Grandmother Simpson(
Mary Jane) was very sick and under doctor’s care, for quite some time. To all
appearances she was all but dead. She was laid out for dead for six hours. She
told me, she knew everything, and heard all they were saying, but she could not
move, to save her life. When they came to measure her length for a casket, she
said she kept trying to move even a finger, and finally she was able to move
the knuckle of her little finger, and someone saw it, and began working with
her, and brought her back to life.
In those days, when
the Doctor couldn’t get a patient well, he would advise travel. So they packed up what they could, of the
home in Alton, Mo., and started south to Arkansas.
Dad ( Noah ) was six
years old. Dad said that they traveled
over the most beautiful lands, you could imagine, and Granddad wanted to buy,
but Grandmother was never willing to stop.
They went through all the nice fields, and the big river bottom farms of
the Arkansas River, and other fine sites along the way. They kept traveling, until they came to the
southern part of the state, where they had to stop, for Uncle Bob’s birth. Soon afterward they started up state again,
until they came to the Cossatot River in Seivier County, Ark. Dad said it was a thinly settled county,
and practically no( on the original paper there’s a large blank space, big
enough for one word,??), it was exactly what Grandmother wanted, so they
settled there, and Noah grew up on the Cossatot River.
When they left
Missouri, they had sons and two daughters married. Somehow, Granddad had a way about him, that he was able to keep
all his children, and in-laws, with him, so they all traveled together. He also started with $2000. in gold in a
box. Enough to have bought many farms in Arkansas at the time, for land was cheap.
They had a small
home, and one night when Granddad went out to preach, and the whole family with
him. They returned to find their home burned to the ground, and now they were
penniless, for all their money was gone.
They went through the ashes, but not one piece of the money did they
find. So they were most sure it was
burned deliberately to hide who took the money.