Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 12/02/15
Summary
Located in the Lowell vicinity of Benton County, the Goad Springs Cemetery is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion A for its associations with early settlement in the Lowell vicinity. Some of the families buried in the cemetery such as the Nail family, the Goad family, and the Cowan, Hubbard, and Colville families were early settlers in the area who are buried in the Goad Springs Cemetery. Due to the fact that the cemetery is still being used and does not have an historic section, it is precluded from being nominated to the National Register. However, it does possess enough significance for listing in the Arkansas Register. Also, because it is a cemetery, the property is also being nominated under Criteria Consideration D.
History
Benton County has always been a desirable place to live. Arkansas was opened to hunters, trappers and pioneers with its inclusion in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and officially became its own territory in 1819, which included all of the present state of Arkansas and most of present day Oklahoma.[1] When settlement of the Indian lands in Arkansas was allowed in 1828, Adam Batie came according to many the first settler of Benton County, although this is disputed by some.[2] The county was named after Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton, whose hard work allowed Arkansas to be ratified as a State in 1836. Benton County was also organized on that same day. The first town in Arkansas was named Bentonville as well.[3]
Lowell has always been a hub of transportation in the State. Before the city was Lowell, it was Mudtown, a stage stop on the State Road, the main commerce being the sale of whiskey at local taverns.[4] In the time before the railroads, the State Road was the main avenue between Forth Smith and the state of Missouri. Cattlemen from Texas primarily used the Main Road on their drives to the north, and mules likewise south. Mudtown was one of the stops along the road, providing water to the livestock and drink to the cowboys.[5] It also ran along the Old Wire Road, then called the Wire Road because of the telegraph line that ran along it. It was the main road for freight wagons going north or south as well as traveling salesmen; as can be imagined, the taverns got a lot of business from all of this traffic.[6] Alex Nail’s tavern was the setting of a story which gave Lowell its nickname of “Mudtown” after a stage coach driver found his coach sunk up to the bed in mud after stopping there with his customers; many members of the Nail family are buried in Goad Springs Cemetery.[7] Across from the Nail Tavern was the Bloomington Hotel where Jesse James hid from Missouri sheriffs for one winter. Between them was a road used by heavy lumber wagons bound for the sawmill, which residents blamed for the deep muddy ruts.[8] Another notable family was the Beard family, who owned J.M. Beard and Son General Store.[9] During the Civil War, a Confederate army camp known as Camp Benjamin, was established nearby at Cross Hollow, housing 10,000 soldiers; the town would be destroyed during the war and rebuilt.[10] The town was frequented by both sides multiple times. Some Union soldiers were poisoned by food and drink left by Rebels, and the Union supply line along the Wire Road were ambushed at least once by guerillas in this area.[11]
However, the days of stagecoaches were not to last. The town was moved to a railroad stop in 1881, and changed its name from Bloomington to Lowell, and received shipments and exported produce.[12] The main part of the Lowell economy was fruit, in particular apples and peaches, although strawberries, grapes and rhubarb were also grown. In 1887, Benton County sold a staggering $900,000 of orchard fruit, from the mere $4,265 from 1880 before the railroad.[13] Its current location was homesteaded by Mr. Winthrow and later J.H. McClure, who gave some of his lots to the Frisco Railroad for the founding of a town.[14] Its first house and business were built by the same man, one J.W. Main, who built a grocery.[15] A schoolhouse was built in 1884, with a secondary role as meetinghouse for the Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.[16] Buildings were quickly established at this new site, with the first school going up in 1884 and the first church in 1888.[17] Interestingly, few of the founders of Lowell are buried in the Goad Springs Cemetery, as many are from the pre-move town or are from the twentieth century. In 1902 a rail line was made between Lowell and Monte Ne, a famous Ozark resort at the time by financial wizard Coin Harvey.[18]
Goad Springs, a spring running to the West of Mudtown, would have been a fine location for settling for people coming in from the East, due to its access to drinking water and location near the well-traveled town of Mudtown. The Cowan, Hubbard and Colville families were the original settlers of the Goad Springs area, having migrated out of Tennessee in a covered wagon train in 1829-1830, bringing livestock feed and seeds for farming. The Hubbard and Cowan homesteads were located southwest of the current Lowell site, around the area known as Goad Springs. The Nail family also owned land in the area. The Robert Cowan family homestead was south of Goad Springs near the Callahan Mountain. Eventually the Hubbards sold out, donating the cemetery and school located there to the community.[19] The cemetery was actually originally called Hubbards Spring. This school was still in use near the cemetery until October 18, 1930, when it was abolished. [20]
A Selection of Notable People Buried in the Cemetery:
Hilkiah W. Banks, 6/29/1885 - 3/17/1857 & Martha C. Banks, 9/8/1846 - 12/24/1851
Hilkiah and Martha Banks were the children of Jabez B. Banks and his wife Sarah. Goodspeed describes Jabez in the 1889 History of Benton County: “Mr. Banks is a democrat in politics, and is the owner of 200 acres of valuable land, seventy-five acres being under cultivation. He is a Mason, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.” Hilkiah and Martha were two of ten children.[21]
J.L. Beard, 5/2/1828 - 1/17/1909
Josiah L. Beard moved with his wife Emeline E. Beard moved to Colville from Tennessee.[22]
Ann Colville, 7/18/1807 - 11/19/1874
Joseph Colville and his wife Ann Gamble arrived in Benton County around 1835. They had eleven children. It is said that Ann was one of the first white women in the county, and Colville Township is named after Joseph. The Colvilles, Cowans, and Hubbards migrated via wagon train to Benton County in 1839. Joseph Colville joined the gold rush in California around 1850 and died in Sacramento when the two were surprised by Indians, leaving Ann in Lowell. The couple left descendants that still live in the Northwest Arkansas area.[23]
Sarah Dogget, 3/30/1796 - 9/11/1856
Sarah Harris Nail came to Benton County in the early 1830s as the wife of Andrew Nail from Kingston, Tennessee. The couple settled in Lowell. Andrew was killed on the way back to Tennessee to help his mother sell her slaves around 1836. After the death of Andrew, Sarah married Richard Dogget. Sarah is the mother of Andrew Nail, who served in the Civil War, and is also buried in Goad Springs Cemetery. Sarah and her descendants are an important part of the establishment and history of Lowell.[24]
W.J. Langley, 3/28/1848 - 8/2/1928
William Jackson Langley was born in Georgia in 1848 and married Sarah Elizabeth Caple in 1868. In about 1850, several Langleys and Cobbs left Georgia in ox-drawn wagons and went to Mississippi and in 1860 moved to Faulkner County, Arkansas. William and Sarah moved to Benton County in 1877 and settled on the Osage. In 1887 they moved to Lowell. Sarah died in 1907. William continued farming until his death. Grandchildren of the Langleys still lived in Northwest Arkansas as of 1991.[25]
Elizabeth Hubbard, died 9/30/1858
Elizabeth Hubbard acquired cemetery deed after the Hubbard family purchased the Goad land.[26]
Henrietta Nail, born 8/22/1840
Henrietta Nail married Andrew Jackson Nail in 1864. Together, the two had eight children. She came to Benton County from Tennessee when she was a child, and lived in the same house ever since coming to the county. Several sources say that when Henrietta stood out her front door at the Nail homestead, she could see the lights of her six sons’ houses.[27]
Edward F. Slayback, 10/14/1871 - 9/12/1914
Edward Slayback served in the Panama Canal as an engineer from 1905 to 1914. He died while an engineer on the project six days prior to the dedication of the Canal as a result of stepping on a nail in the railroad yard. He was awarded the Roosevelt Medal with three bars.[28] His tombstone is the most elaborate stone in the Goad Springs Cemetery.
John Thomas Nail, 2/28/1867 - 5/17/1932
John Nail was born in Lowell and married Flora Pardue in 1891. He spent nearly his entire life in Lowell. His son, Andrew Nail, was killed in action in France during WWI. Nail died in Springdale in 1932.[29]
John G. Cowan, 8/29/1827 - 1/6/1915
John Gillespie Cowan was born in 1827 in Tennessee, son of Robert Cowan. Around 1850 he married Elvira Hubbard. As of 1860 Federal census, the family was living in Colville, Arkansas, with their children Isabella, Emily, Thomas and Robert Cowan. The Cowan, Hubbard, and Colville families came to Arkansas around 1839 from Tennessee. The Hubbards and Cowans homesteaded near Goad Springs. After the death of Catherine Dodson Goad, the Hubbards bought the Goad Land. The Goad Springs Cemetery and school were donated to the community.[30]
War Veterans
Civil War
John Bilbrey, 4/4/1842 - 6/25/1878
On July 8, 1901 Mrs. Sarah Bilbrey of Lowell was awarded a $50 a year pension based on Bilbrey’s service in Company F, 34th Arkansas Infantry from 1862 to 1865.[31]
W.H. Hamby, 3/1/1819 - 1/10/1906
William Harrison Hamby (Uncle Billy) died at the age of 86 and was among the first settlers in the Lowell area. He was born in North Carolina in 1819 and married to Piercy J. Tucker. When she died, he married Mary Dixon in 1845 and had nine children. He moved to Benton County in 1856. William Hamby’s daughter, Mary Hamby, married John Harvey Beard, who has descendants in the Northwest Arkansas area today. Hamby served in the Confederacy as a private in the 15th Arkansas Infantry.[32]
Robert M. Henderson, 10/15/1830 - 11/1/1862
Henderson was a private in the 34th Arkansas Infantry when he died in 1862.[33]
James Johnson, 8/6/1831-6/19/1920
James (Jimmy) Johnson lived for 89 years, and was one of the oldest men in Benton County. He is described as being a “man among men” and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. He was a private in the 2nd Arkansas Calvary during the Civil War.[34]
J.F. Looney, 10/31/1840 - 4/25/1908
J.F. Looney was born in Alabama and moved to Benton County in 1852. He enlisted in the Civil War in 1861 in Company F, 15th Arkansas Regiment, called McRey’s battalion. He was wounded in the Battle of Elkhorn, but returned to battle. He was taken prisoner at Corinth, Mississippi, and transferred to several different POW camps before spending the rest of his time in parole camps in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. He was at Marshall, Texas, when the Confederacy surrendered. When he returned to Benton County in 1866, he married Rena Hayes and had nine children. When his wife died in 1900, he married again to E.E. Turner in 1901 in Texas and moved to Benton County where he lived the rest of his days.[35]
A. Nail, 12/24/1824 - 1/24/1920
Alex Nail’s tavern was a fixture in early Lowell. The town gained its nickname, “Mudtown,” after a stagecoach driver came out of Alex Nail’s Tavern and Dram Shop and found his stage sunk into the mud. During the Civil War, Nail volunteered twelve months of Confederate service in the Co. D, 2nd Arkansas Mounted Rifles and received a pension in 1915 for his service. Some say that Alex Nail was the oldest person in Benton County when he died. Nail and his descendants were of such importance to the Lowell community that the town was sometimes referred to as “Nail Town.” His funeral was largely attended.[36]
Andrew Jackson Nail, died 3/1/1892
Andrew Nail came to Lowell in the early 1830s as a small boy. He served in the Civil War in Co. N Gordon’s Red’t AR Calvary from August 15, 1862 to April 30, 1863. With his brother, Alex Nail, he went to California to dig for gold. With this money, he bought land in Lowell. He was killed along what is now known as Highway 71 (which was referred to as the State Road in Goodspeed’s book) during a skirmish, where he was knocked off of his horse by a bullet and left to die. When he died, he left his widow Henrietta Nail, who he married in 1864, and their six sons.[37]
WWI
Thomas Andrew Nail, 5/3/1892-8/12/1918
Thomas Andrew Nail was the son of John Nail. He was born near Lowell in 1892 and stayed there until he joined the Army. Nail sailed from Hoboken, New Jersey, to France on June 4, 1918. In France, he was assigned to Co. B, 38th Inf., Third Division and went to the front lines. On July 14th, he was seriously wounded and died of his injuries in Paris on August 12th. His body was placed in the American Cemetery at Sursenes, a suburb of Paris.[38]
WWII
S -Sgt. Charles E. Kendrick, 5/26/1919-9/22/1944
Charles E. Kendrick (Ed Kendrick) was a staff sergeant in the 415th Bombardment Squad based in San Antonio, Texas. Kendrick married Hila Mae Walker on October 10, 1939. He enlisted on January 11, 1943. He was the son of William L and Floyd Kendrick. He died over Ferrara, Italy, in 1944, possibly in the Battle of Anzio.[39]
Significance of the Property
Located in the Lowell vicinity of Benton County, the Goad Springs Cemetery is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion A for its associations with early settlement in the Lowell vicinity. Some of the families buried in the cemetery such as the Nail family, the Goad family, and the Cowan, Hubbard, and Colville families were early settlers in the area who are buried in the Goad Springs Cemetery. Due to the fact that the cemetery is still being used and does not have an historic section, it is precluded from being nominated to the National Register. However, it does possess enough significance for listing in the Arkansas Register. Also, because it is a cemetery, the property is also being nominated under Criteria Consideration D.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Benton County Heritage Committee. Benton County History. Curtis Media Corporation: Dallas, 1991.
Black, J. Dickson. History of Benton County. International Graphics Industries, Little Rock, Arkansas. 1975.
Fenno, Chery Barnwell. The Place Names of Benton County, Arkansas. University of Arkansas Press. 1978.
Goodpseed Publishing Company. The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northern Arkansas. Hendrix College, Conway, Arkansas. 1889.
Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
Kent , Carolyn Yancey. Skirmishes at Mud Town and Gerald Mountain. Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/.
Lancaster, Guy. Lowell(Benton County). Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/.
Northwest Arkansas Genealogical Society. Cemeteries of Benton County, Arkansas. 1974.
The Northwest Arkansas Genealogical Society. Cemeteries of Benton County, Arkansas, Volume 2. 1977.
Year:1880; Census Place:Colville, Benton, Arkansas; Roll:38; Family History Film:1254038; Page:378C; Enumeration District:011; Image:0761.
[2] Black, J. Dickson. History of Benton County. 18.
[3] Black, J. Dickson. History of Benton County. 7.
[4] Black, J. Dickson. History of Benton County. 11.
[5] The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northern Arkansas. 52-53.
[6] Benton County Heritage Committee. Benton County History. 78.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Benton County Heritage Committee. Benton County History. 79.
[10] Lancaster, Guy. Lowell(Benton County). Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/
[11] Kent , Carolyn Yancey. Skirmishes at Mud Town and Gerald Mountain. Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/
[12] Benton County Heritage Committee. Benton County History. 79.
[13] Black, J. Dickson. History of Benton County. 13-14.
[14] Black, J. Dickson. History of Benton County. 301.
[15] The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northern Arkansas. 110-111.
[16] Lancaster, Guy. Lowell(Benton County).
[17] Black, J. Dickson. History of Benton County. 301-302.
[18] Black, J. Dickson. History of Benton Count. 142.
[19] The Northwest Arkansas Genealogical Society. Cemeteries of Benton County, Arkansas, Volume 2. 1977. Pg. 32-33.
[20] Fenno, Chery Barnwell. The Place Names of Benton County, Arkansas. University of Arkansas Press. 1978. Pg. 152.
[21] Goodspeed History of Benton County, 129.
[22] Year: 1880; Census Place: Colville, Benton, Arkansas; Roll: 38; Family History Film: 1254038; Page: 378C; Enumeration District: 011; Image: 0761
[23] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[24] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[25] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[26] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[27] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[28] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[29] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[30]Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[31] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[32] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[33] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[34] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[35] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[36]Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[37] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[38] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
[39] Information on the Goad Springs Cemetery in the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.