ARIZARD-L Archives

Archiver > ARIZARD > 1999-12 > 0945838301


From: Jeri Helms Fultz <>
Subject: Re: [ARIZARD-L] Early Gillihan Pioneers
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 1999 22:51:41 -0600


Think I could put this on a page or no? Jeri

John & Rosemary wrote:
>
> Good morning everyone,
>
> Jean's pioneer info was so interesting and it reminded me of the below
> narrative. I typed it from another typewritten paper that was among my
> Mother's papers. It was sent to Mama by Win Gillihan, a son of Thomas
> Gillihan.
>
> And though these GILLIHANs aren't Izard Countians - and I'm not even sure of
> the family connection to mine, though I'm sure there is one, I still found
> the article interesting and, hopefully, all of you will, too.
> The only thing I found wrong with it is that it just wasn't long enough....
>
> Rosemary
>
> GILLIHAN PIONEERS
>
> As told by Thomas M. Gillihan, son of Jack and Catherine Gillihan
>
> For a number of years prior to the war of the rebellion, the state of
> Kentucky was in a rather turbulent state as there was many slave owners who
> had begun to vision, if not the end of slavery, at least everything would
> not be smooth sailing as there was another class who owned no slaves and
> whether from jealousy or principle according to one's personal view had
> begun to take a stand against human slavery. Although the slave owners was
> considered the aristocrats and the other "poah white trash" yet the
> opponents of slavery kept on increasing and made a very formidable
> opposition to the slave owners, and yet it became apparent to any thinking
> person that the state of Kentucky would not be a bed of roses. As to the
> slave owners there was but one thing to do - stay there for there was no
> place to go, but to the other class who wanted to live a peaceful life and
> rear a family away from under the influence of the stench of human slavery
> it was a matter of getting out but just where to go. Born and bred in the
> south for many generations, it meant the breaking up of ties and kindred
> long held dear but above and beyond all that, there was a desire for a
> peaceful home. Some were migrating to one place, some to another and it
> became largely a matter of where your friends and relatives were going.
> About the year 1850 a few from Washington County Kentucky made a trip to
> northern Missouri and southern Iowa. The rich soils, the running streams
> with timber along the banks appealed to them so strongly that when they went
> back to Kentucky, they gave such glowing descriptions of this land of plenty
> which was to be had for the taking that their friends became interested.
> Those Kentuckians were great aiming the rifle, and when told of game, the
> wild turkeys and deer and occasional bobcat and panther throwed in for good
> count that soon there was a few families starting out for this land of
> promise.
>
> My father and mother was of the class that wanted to get away, but for
> various reasons could not get away. Incidentally, my father has crossed the
> Mississippi River from Illinois, and had set foot on what is now Iowa, but
> at that time it was (I think it says) Wisconsin Territory with Hudson as its
> capital. However, along in the fall of 1854 my father and mother prepared
> to leave Kentucky. They owned one nigger and I am sorry to say that they
> sold her, as that was the only way they could raise the money to get away
> from Kentucky. This nigger was my mother's property as her folks, the
> Montgomerys, were slave owners. So they gathered their few belongings in a
> covered wagon and started overland from Springfield, Kentucky to
> Louisville - a distance of about 65 miles and this is not like a 65-mile
> journey in a car today. There was a few surfaced roads but mostly there was
> just a single trail. Those old yellow hills plentifully supplied with stumps
> and stones was not what you would call pleasant highways. My sister was, at
> that time, a little over two years old and my oldest brother only about six
> weeks, but they finally arrived in Louisville completing the first leg of
> the journey. At Louisville they were to take the steamboat. Up until this
> time my mother had never been 15 miles from home and had never saw a
> steamboat. My father, however, had made several trips back and forth from
> Kentucky to Illinois, so he has saw a little more of the world than my
> mother, who was at the time about 23 years old. Her greatest anxiety,
> however, was her children, especially the young baby. They took the
> steamboat at Louisville following its devious routes to St. Joe, Missouri.
> One incident worth mentioning during their trip on the boat was when the
> boat struck a hidden stump in the Ohio River that nearly upset the boat and
> in the pandemonium that ensued by folks, lost track of their six weeks old
> baby, and it was some time before things quieted down enough so they could
> search for him. When they found him he was in the arms of a girl about 18
> years old. Had he been 20 years older he might have got quite a kick out of
> it, but as it was, it was the girl who got the kicks, in fact several of
> them from his tiny feet.
>
> Arriving in St. Joe, Missouri, they disembarked and again took their prairie
> schooner, this along the last of November 1854, about 75 miles from where
> they settled in Iowa. This was perhaps the most lonesome and desolate part
> of the whole journey, practically no road, just a dim trail across the
> prairies partly covered with snow but their spirits were buoyed up by the
> fact that they would soon be at their journey's end. My Mother had one
> brother and one sister who had preceded them by a year and there other
> relatives and friends and more followed. They arrived at my Mother's
> sister's home about Thanksgiving day and I guess it goes without saying that
> there was one Thanksgiving that they were truly thankful even though they
> had no roof over their heads. This was just on the northern boundary of
> Missouri. My Mother's brother lived just a few miles over the line in Iowa.
> They stayed at her sister's home that winter but the next spring took up
> land in Iowa joining her brother's land. My father, being a carpenter by
> trade, he worked at his trade to get started upon his land. By the next
> winter they had a cabin of their own. Money was almost an unknown quantity
> but they stuck and raised a family of eleven children. They acquired a large
> holding of land, 440 acres of Iowa's best. They lived to celebrate their
> golden wedding on the same farm they took up when they came from Kentucky,
> although had added to it from time to time. That, most of us remember, was
> built of native timber and sided with black walnut and the last I knew, is
> still standing.
>
> -end-
>
> ==== ARIZARD Mailing List ====
> For an index to most user mailing lists hosted by RootsWeb, visit
> http://www.rootsweb.com/~maillist/us/index.html

--
"but I remain your affectinate cosin untill death."
Thank you again ggrandpa Davis for those words.
Never dreamed I'd get to use em!
----------------------------------------------------
personal webpage: http://idt.net/~jfultz19/
Fax Number (413) 541-613
AR Civil War Pg: http://www.insolwwb.net/~egerdes/
Memorial Pg: http://members.tripod.com/~egerdes/index.html
Lawrence Co. AR: http://www.couchgenweb.com/lawrence/
Izard Co. AR: http://idt.net/~jfultz19/izardco1.htm
Original AR Gen PG: http://www.CouchGenWeb.com/arkansas/
Helms Research PG: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~helmsn

This thread: