Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 04/04/18
Summary
The burials in Lines Cemetery are important evidence of the early families that settled this area and the names and relationships recorded within the cemetery are also the last surviving physical remains of the early communities along Gold Creek and the area to the east of Round Mountain south of the city of Conway, Arkansas.Lines Cemetery is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, with local significance, for its association with, and as evidence of, the exploration and settlement of the area now known as southern Faulkner County, Arkansas.It is also being nominated under Criteria Consideration D as a cemetery.
Elaboration
Faulkner County, Arkansas, was formed by the post-Civil War state legislature in 1873, carving an area from the earlier Pulaski and Conway counties. [1] To the northwest of the future site of Lines Cemetery were the first few settlements in the area, known as Cadron and the ferry crossing at Toad Suck.[2]After the Civil War, the construction of railroad lines through the surrounding area led to the creation of a new county and the community of Conway.Faulkner County was named for the popular Colonel Sandford “Sandy” Faulkner; a local politician, banker, and the originator of the famous “Arkansas Traveler” tale.[3]
Cadron’s Early Settlement
The earliest inhabitants in the Faulkner County area were Native Americans and later Frenchmen, traders, and trappers who settled along the Arkansas River and its tributaries. The first permanent settlement of white immigrants in what would become Faulkner County, Arkansas, was comprised of almost forty families at the confluence of the Arkansas River and Cadron Creek about five miles west of Conway today.[4]In 1818, John McElmurray built a block house at this location for the trading of pelts as well as a tavern and home.Cadron was the county seat of Pulaski County briefly from 1820 until October of 1821 when the seat was moved by the Legislature to Little Rock.Cadron’s main promoter, McElmurray, died in 1827 and the removal of Native Americans from the area in 1828 cut deeply into the fur trade.Cadron briefly served as the seat of government for the newly created Conway County until the Legislature removed it to Lewisburg in 1829.The community suffered after a local epidemic of cholera in groups of Native Americans who were stopped in the area during their removal to Oklahoma in the mid-1830s.The Cadron community eventually dwindled to only occasional ferry operators by the 1840s.Today there is no community in the original location of Cadron just the Cadron Settlement Park which was constructed in 1979.[5]
Preston and Gold Creek Communities
Although Lines Cemetery is located near to the historic locations of the Preston and Gold Greek Communities, the history of the cemetery seems to be independent of these two settlements.Gold Creek was the earliest settlement in the area and was identified in the Centennial History of Faulkner County as a “scattered… tiny but populous Negro settlement” initially named Gold Lake.[6]A post office was initially established in the area with the name Toran in 1878.[7]The post office was renamed Gold Creek in 1879 and continued operation until 1880.Also according to the Centennial History of Faulkner County, a second small “Negro community” was also located along the northern bank of Gold Creek.This community was known as Preston, and was possibly named after an early white settler of the area.[8]A post office was established in the Preston community in 1881 and continued service until 1906, encompassing the time period when many of the families associated with the Lines Cemetery moved into the area.[9]Unfortunately, there are no known local remnants of either of these two early African-American communities along the shores of Big Lake (Lake Conway).
Creation of the Lines Cemetery
The area around Line Cemetery was first settled by white immigrants in the first decades of the 19th century.Several families, including the Standlee family and the Benedict family settled in the area of Round Mountain in present day south Faulkner County to the west of Lake Conway.[10]By 1812, several others including Reuben Euston, John Lemon and Charles Adams had immigrated to the area.Although family groups moved into the area in the early 20th century, the area continued to be sparsely populated in the Round Mountain area and along the shores of Lake Conway, known at the time as Big Lake, until after the Civil War.
In the 1870s and 1880s, several families moved to the area surrounding the community of Preston, including the Lind, Barley and Line families.[11]The Line family moved to the area south of present day Conway, along Gold Creek and Big Lake (Lake Conway) in the 1870s.This family included Levi and Charity Line, who were following their daughter Mahattibel Line Barley and her husband George W. Barley who has settled in the area a few years prior.Levi and Charity Line’s son, Joseph Warren Line, also immigrated to the area.[12]Soon after their arrival, the Line family donated a small section of their land for a community cemetery with the first burial possibly being Nancy A. Shira, who passed away in August of 1878.According to original land grant records it appears that most of the early settlers represented in the Lines Cemetery arrived in the area in the 1870s and 1880s, with most of the land ownership records recorded during these two decades.[13]This included the Barleys, the Linds, The Shiras, the Lines, and the Higgs family.Many of these families were either already related by marriage before their arrival in the area or soon intermarried.Mahettibel Line married George W. Barley, Florence Delcenia Barley married Addison Shannon Lind and then Taylor Zachriah Higgs, and Bessie Viola Lines married Millard Filmore Higgs.[14]
Lines Cemetery has been referred to by several different names throughout its history.Its oldest name was Line Cemetery, named after the Line family that donated the land for the local burial spot.This eventually became Line’s Cemetery and then today Lines Cemetery.It has also been known as Lions Cemetery, most likely due to a typographical mistake.Due to its location near to other early settlements and the families buried within, the cemetery has also been referred to as Barley Cemetery, Gold Creek Cemetery, and Preston Cemetery.In 1977 a title to the cemetery was entrusted to the trustees of the “Lions Cemetery”.The last living trustee from the 1977 agreement, Mr. Richard Bell, created a new association, the Lines Cemetery Association, in 2015 to help care for the cemetery.
Biographies
The following biographical summaries are for early area settlers buried in the Lines Cemetery.There are other burials throughout the cemetery as indicated by field stones and open spaces, but the identification of these burials are unknown at this time.[15]
Charles Adams (1821-1884) and Malinda Jane Adams (1843-1883)[16]:Charles Adams, Jr., was born in 1821.His parents were Charles Adams, Sr., and Sarah who immigrated to Arkansas from Kentucky.Charles Adams, Sr., purchased 80 acres of land from James and Sarah Lemons on the Lollie Road in April of 1826.James Lemons has also owned a tavern at Cadron settlement north of the Preston area and was a son-in-law of Major John McElmurry, founder of the Cadron settlement.On March 30, 1839, Charles Adams received 40 additional acres of land by land grant from the US Land Office in Little Rock.Charles Adams, Sr., is thought to have died in early 1844 with a warranty deed to 120 acres of land passing to his son Charles Adams, Jr.The will of Charles Adams left the land first to his wife, then to Charles Adams, Jr.Charles Adams, Jr., was also a Mason, as evidenced by the Masonic symbols on his gravestone, and had connections to Green Grove (Masonic) Lodge founded in the 1850s in the area.[17]He sold that land in 1861.Charles Adams, Jr., and his second wife, Malinda Jane Adams, are buried in Lines cemetery.Charles and his first wife had one child, William Harvey Adams who was born in in 1859, and died 1932.Charles and Malinda had three children: Marion James (Jim), Della Adams Bullion, and Charles Walter.Charles Walter was born April 6, 1879, and died January 31, 1955, and was married to Minnie Firestone Adams who died in 1979.Their four children were:Ralph who died in 1933; Charles F.; Marion Harvey; and William Henry who lived in Conway as of 1986.Charles Walter was a brick mason who built many Conway buildings including some at Hendrix College and Arkansas State Teacher’s College (UCA).[18]
George W Barley (1828-1886) and Mahettibel “Hettie” Line Barley (1835-1916)[19]:George W. Barley was born on March 20, 1828, in Bedford, Pennsylvania, to Valentine and Rebecca Barley.In the 1860 Census, George W. Barley is living in Arcana in Grant County, Indiana, with his wife Mahettibel and four children.George had married Mahettibel Line sometime in the early 1850s.He and Mahettibel Line would have at least seven children together.Interestingly, George W. Barley is noted in the Army Register of Enlistments 1798-1914 as having enlisted in the Union Army in 1862 but then deserting in January of 1863.[20]George and Mahettibel Barley moved from Indiana to Arkansas in 1883, when they purchased land from W. H. Moritz.[21]George’s brother, Martin Barley, also moved to the area and would eventually own several tracts of land and donate portions of his land to Hendrix College.George W. Barley died on November 13, 1886, in Faulkner County, Arkansas, at the age of 58.Mahettibel Line Barley was born on January 14, 1832, in Ohio.Her father was Levi Line, born in c. 1800 in Pennsylvania, and her mother was Charity Hendershott Line, born in 1807 in Ohio.Mahettibel Barley’s sibling, Joseph Warren Line (1837-1885) was also buried in Lines Cemetery.Mahettibel Line Barley died in Faulkner County, Arkansas, in 1916 at the age of 81.She was buried in Lines Cemetery next to her husband.One of their sons, James Clifton Barley (1872-1931), would also be buried in Lines Cemetery.
Addison Shannon Lind (1845-1904) and Florence Delcenia Barley Lind (1863-1953)[22]:Addison Shannon Lind was born in Miamitown, Ohio, in 1845.His early descendants had immigrated to the United States from Germany and by 1800 his Grandfather and father moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio.Addison Lind was one of eleven children born to A. R. Lind in Cincinnati, Ohio.In the Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas of 1889, A. S. Lind is described as follows:
A. S. Lind was reared on his father’s farm, but at the age of seventeen, his peaceful career ended for the time beingIn 1862 he enlisted in Company C, Fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, Col. Taylor commanding, and served in many of the hard fought battles of the war, among them being that of Altoona Pass and Corinth.He was with Sherman on his memorable march to the sea, and later with him through the Carolinas, being honorably discharged at the close of the war, with the rank of sergeant.At the conclusion of the war he learned the stone-mason’s and cutter’s trade, and was engaged in that occupation in Cincinnati for three years.He then took Greeley’s advice and went west, and was for a time occupied at his trade on the State house at Topeka, Kas.The succeeding two years were spent in working at his trade in Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota.While in the latter State he learned telegraphy, but only worked at that six months, when he moved to Arkansas, this being late in 1870.He entered a sawmill on Gold Creek for a time, but in 1874 sold his mill and commenced farming on his present tract of land.This he has improved, until it is now one of the most valuable farms of the county.December 31, 1878, Mr. Lind was united in marriage with Florence, daughter of George Barley, and to their union three sons and four daughters have been born:Hetty (born in December, 1879), George (born in May, 1881), Edna (born in January, 1883), Addison (born in November, 1886), Pearle (born in September, 1887) and Benjamin H. (born in June, 1889)Addison died March 17, 1888.For the past eight years Mr. Lind has served as justice of the peace, and during this time has married ten couples.He is a Republican in politics, a Mason, and a member of the G. A. R.He makes it a rule to take an advanced part in all matters pertaining to the welfare of his community, and is one of the stanch men of the county.[23]
Addison Lind also donated land to establish a local school for the community in 1879.[24]Addison Lind died on February 8, 1904, in Conway County, Arkansas, at the age of 58, and was buried in Faulkner County, Arkansas.[25]
Florence Delcenia Barley was born on January 27, 1863, in Indiana to George W. and Mahettibel Line Barley.After her marriage to Addison Lind in 1878, the couple had five sons and six daughters 1879 and 1894.Three of their children were also buried in Lines Cemetery;George Andrew Lind (1881-1957), Bessie Viola Lind Higgs (1892-1972), and Pearl A. Lind (1887-1905).After the death of Addison Lind, Florence then married Taylor Zachriah Higgs on November 5, 1910, in Faulkner County, Arkansas. Florence died on July 8, 1953, in North Little Rock, Arkansas, at the age of 90, and was buried in Faulkner County, Arkansas.
Millard Filmore Higgs(1884-1944) and Bessie Viola Lind Higgs (1892-1972)[26]:Millard Filmore Higgs was born on January 31, 1884, in Pocahontas, Tennessee, to Taylor Zachriah and Alice Higgs.His father would eventually be the second husband of Florence Delcenia Barley Lind in 1910.Millard F. Higgs married Bessie Viola Lind, daughter of Addison Shannon and Florence Delcinia Barley Lind, on October 28, 1908, in Faulkner County, Arkansas.Bessie Viola Lind was born in 1892 as the youngest child of Addison and Florence Lind.Bessie Lind Higgs was the grandmother of current care-takers of the cemetery, Richard Bell and Nell Sterling.Millard and Bessie Viola Higgs had nine children during their marriage; Hellen, Florence, Margaret, Thomas, Millard Lee, Edna, Joe, Billie, and Sue.Both Millard Lee and Joe were buried in Lines Cemetery.Millard Lee Higgs died from typhus at age 17 and Joe Higgs died after falling in the chimney hearth at age 1.Millard Filmore Higgs died on October 16, 1944, in Faulkner County, Arkansas, at the age of 60, and was buried in Lines Cemetery.
Charity Hendershott Line (1804-1885)[27]:Charity Hendershott was born in 1804 in Harrison County, Kentucky, to John and Elizabeth Hendershott.She married Levi Line on February 4, 1826, in Miami County, Ohio. The couple had six children during their marriage. Charity Hendershott Line died on February 18, 1885, in Arkansas, having lived a long life of 81 years.Charity and Levi were parents of Joseph Warren Line, who donated the land for the Lines Cemetery to the local community.
Joseph Warren Line (1837-1885)[28]:Joseph W. Line was born in 1838 in Ohio.His father, Levi Line was a bricklayer who was born in Ohio in 1800.His mother, Charity Hendershott Line is discussed above.His sister Mahettibel Line married George W. Barley, both of whom are buried in Lines Cemetery.Joseph W. Warren and his mother Charity Hendershott Line are credited with donating a small portion of their land to from Lines Cemetery as a local community cemetery.
Walter Lyman Shira (1838-1883)[29]:Walter Lyman Shira, who is referred to as Lyman Shira in most of the historic record, married Christiana Barley in Grant County, Indiana, in 1862.Christiana Barley was related to the other Barley’s represented in the Lines Cemetery; however, the exact relationship is unknown at this time.Walter and Christiana Shira’s daughter, Nancy Shira, died in 1878 and appears to be the earliest burial in the Lines Cemetery.Nancy’s death was followed by the death of her brother, Marton Shira, in 1881.He is buried near his sister in Lines Cemetery.Tragedy struck the family again in 1883 when Walter Lyman Shira passed away and was buried near his daughter and son in Lines Cemetery.Christiana Barley would soon move away from the area with her surviving children.She would eventually make her way to California, where she passed the last few years of her life.
Statement of Significance
The burials in Lines Cemetery are important evidence of the early families that settled this area and the names and relationships recorded within the cemetery are also the last surviving physical remains of the early communities along Gold Creek and the area to the east of Round Mountain south of the city of Conway, Arkansas.Lines Cemetery is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, with local significance, for its association with and as evidence of the exploration and settlement of the area now known as southern Faulkner County, Arkansas.It is also being nominated under Criteria Consideration D as a cemetery.
Bibliography |
Baker, Russell Pierce.From Memdag to Norsk:A Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Office 1832-1971.Hot Springs, AR:Arkansas Genealogical Society.1988.
Bureau of Land Management.General Land Office Records:Land Patents.https://glorecords.blm.gov/default.aspx.
Burnett, Abby.Gone to the Grave:Burial Customs of the Arkansas Ozarks, 1850-1950.Jackson, MS:University Press of Mississippi.2014.
Centennial:Faulkner County & Conway, 1873-1973.Conway, Arkansas:The Log Cabin Democrat, 21 April 1973.
Dolan, Doris B., Hattie Ann Kelso, and Corinne H. Robinson, eds.Faulkner County:Its Land and People.Conway, Arkansas:River Road Press.1986.
The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas:Jefferson, Saline, Hot Spring, Pulaski, Garland, Lonoke, Perry, Faulkner, and Grant Counties.Chicago:The Goodspeed Publishing Company.1889.Reprinted by Southern Historical Press: Easley, South Carolina. 1978.
Keister, Douglas.Stories in Stone:A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography. Layton, UT:Gibbs M Smith, Inc.2004.
The National Archives.NARA M233.Register of Enlistments in the United States Army, 1798-1914.Roll number 76 MIUSA1798_102935.
Peterson, Davis and Bill Norman.“Cadron Settlement.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Central Arkansas Library System, 12 June 2017. www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net.Accessed 5 January 2018.
Ruple, Jack, Sr.“Line Historic Pioneer Cemetery.”Research compiled for submission to the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, 2015.Lines Cemetery File, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Teske, Steven, “Faulkner County.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Central Arkansas Library System, 24 July 2017. www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net.Accessed 5 January 2018.
Teske, Steven, “Sandford C. “Sandy” Faulkner.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Central Arkansas Library System, 25 January 2017. www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net.Accessed 5 January 2018.
United States Census Rolls.1840 through 1920.
[1] Steven Teske, “Faulkner County,” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, Central Arkansas Library System, 24 July 2017, www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net, Accessed 5 January 2018.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Davis Peterson and Bill Norman, “Cadron Settlement,” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, Central Arkansas Library System, 12 June 2017, www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net, Accessed 5 January 2018.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Centennial:Faulkner County & Conway, 1873-1973 (Conway, Arkansas:The Log Cabin Democrat), 21 April 1973.Chapter 27.
[7] Russell Pierce Baker,From Memdag to Norsk:A Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Office 1832-1971 (Hot Springs, AR:Arkansas Genealogical Society), 1988.pp. 92, 220.
[8] Centennial:Faulkner County & Conway, 1873-1973.Chapter 27.
[9]Baker,From Memdag to Norsk:A Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Office 1832-1971, p. 182.
[10] Dolan, Faulkner County:Its Land and People, pp. 321-323.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Joseph W. Line first acquired land by patent on May 10, 1882 in the Northwest part of Section 31, Township 5 North, Range 13 West.Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, Land Patents, https://glorecords.blm.gov/default.aspx.
[13] Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, Land Patents, https://glorecords.blm.gov/default.aspx.
[14] United States Census Records, 1850-1920.
[15] The Pence Funeral Home Records covering the pioneer burial period contain references to different cemeteries in the area but no proof of specific burials in Line cemetery.
[16] The following biographical data was compiled from United States Census records from 1850-1920, Bureau of Land Management historic land records, and family histories included in Falkner County: Its Land and People edited by Doris Dolan, Hattie Kelso, and Corinne Robinson.
[17] Dolan, Faulkner County:Its Land and People, pp. 322, 333.
[18] Dolan, “The Charles Adams Family,” Faulkner County: Its Land and People, p. 333.
[19] The following biographical data was compiled from United States Census records from 1850-1920, Bureau of Land Management historic land records, and family histories included in Falkner County: Its Land and People edited by Doris Dolan, Hattie Kelso, and Corinne Robinson.
[20] National Archives, Register of United States Army Enlistments, 1798-1914, roll number 76 MIUSA1798_102935, p. 244.
[21] W.H. Moritz and wife Alicia deeded land to George W. Barley on Mar 7, 1883, in the E ½, SW, Sec. 1, T 4 N, R.__ W.Deed Book G, p 235, Faulkner County Real Estate Records.
[22] The following biographical data was compiled from United States Census records from 1850-1920, Bureau of Land Management historic land records, and family histories included in Falkner County: Its Land and People edited by Doris Dolan, Hattie Kelso, and Corinne Robinson.
[23] The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas:Jefferson, Saline, Hot Spring, Pulaski, Garland, Lonoke, Perry, Faulkner, and Grant Counties, (Chicago:The Goodspeed Publishing Company), 1889.pp. 731-732.
[24] A.S. Lind and wife Florence deeded two acres of land to School District #70 on December 15, 1879:part of NE, Sec 1, T 4N, R 14 W.Land ownership research conducted by Jack Ruple, Sr., Files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Little Rock, AR.
[25] Addison Shannon Lind acquired a US land grant in the Little Rock Land Office on June 30, 1882, Doc #1735, Misc. Doc. #5195, Homestead Grant, Part #1: the land being NE, Sec 31, Twp. 4 N. R 14 W., including 157.450 acres.Bureau of Land Management, General Land Office Records, Land Patents, https://glorecords.blm.gov/default.aspx.
[26] The following biographical data was compiled from United States Census records from 1850-1920, Bureau of Land Management historic land records, and family histories included in Falkner County: Its Land and People edited by Doris Dolan, Hattie Kelso, and Corinne Robinson.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Ibid.