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From: Dortha Gamel <>
Subject: Re: [ARIZARD] ARIZARD Digest, Vol 5, Issue 403
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 11:24:39 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <ACF2D1F96C2044F4AA866352730228A8@rlcooperPC>
Hello Bob, How are you doing? I have not been working on the George line latley but Elvita and I have been in touch with each other for years. I got an email the other day from a man in OK {Do not have his name at the moment) and he also had some new things on Bill Dark that I had not seen before. Did you know there was a song for him?? I will look up his name and email if you would like to make contact.
Again, I am very interested,.Rachel Adeline George is my great grandmother
,Sarah George Cooper's sister.James Sever George is my gg grandfather.
Thanks Bob Cooper
----- Original Message -----
From: "Elveta" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2010 8:19 AM
Subject: Re: [ARIZARD] ARIZARD Digest, Vol 5, Issue 403
> This Information may be of no interest to anyone but me.
> It is interesting:
>
> JOHN WILLIAM DARK
> AKA BILL DARK
> In 1850 Pulaski Census, age 15, born Arkansas, with mother[?] Dilly
> Dark, age 35, born "Unknown", living in Hotel in Little Rock, dwelling
> 563, John Brown, age 35, born Ireland, landlord. Wm. Dark Jr may be
> the son of William Dark, Pvt., Co. A, Arkansas Battalion Infantry and
> Mounted Rifles, age 29 who enrolled 10 June 1846 in Clarksville,
> Arkansas, for the Mexican War.
> Bill Dark Sr married Rachel Adeline George, daughter of James S.
> & Margaret George, and had a son, William Dark. Rachel and William, Jr.
> are in the 1880 Stone County, Arkansas census, living with her parents.
> In 1860 he is again in the Pulaski County Census, in the State
> Penitentiary, as J. W. Dark, age 23, male, born Arkansas. [I do not
> know what he was in for.] On June 14, 1861, at Fort Smith, Arkansas, he
> enrolled as a private in Captain Galloway's Company, Churchill's
> Regiment, Arkansas Mounted Riflemen. [This company subsequently became
> Company F, 1st Regiment Arkansas Mounted Rifles.] His service record
> states that he traveled 177 miles to the place of rendezvous, and that
> his horse was valued at $125 and his horse equipment at $25. He
> enlisted for 12 months. He subsequently appears as "present" on muster
> rolls for July & August, 1861; January 31 to April 20, 1862; and May &
> June, 1862. There is another piece of paper which states that he
> appears on an undated Receipt Roll for receiving $54.80 for use of
> horse, arms, etc., at 40 a day, beginning June 14, 1861 and expiring
> October 31, 1861.
> Further mention of his name during the Civil War is:
> "A dispatch came from Russellville that De Rosey Carroll had
> been murdered in Franklin county by the jayhawkers, under the command of
> Bill Dark, a former inmate of our penitentiary."
> True Democrat , [Little Rock, Arkansas], January 21, 1863, page 1,
> column 1.
>
> "It was reported that Parks, the renegade Texan, who, at the head of
> a band of jayhawkers had murdered De Rosey Carroll, had been caught and
> was to be sent here [Little Rock]; also, that Bill Dark had been
> wounded and taken prisoner."
> True Democrat , January 28, 1863, page 1, column 1.
> "Dark, who was said to be taken in Izard county, was badly
> wounded, and it is not probable he will live to reach here. It was said
> here, and is vouched for by respectable men, that Jerome B. Lewis, of
> Van Buren county, is associated with the jayhawkers in the northern
> portion of the State."
> Democrat , February 4, 1863, page 21, column 2.
> Camp near Clipper's [Clapper's], Mill, }
> Carroll Co.,
> Ark., April 27th, 1863.}
> Editor True
> Democrat--We, the undersigned officers in the Confederate service in
> Northern Arkansas, learning that reports have been circulated and matter
> published prejudicial to the loyalty and bearing of John W. Dark, a
> citizen of this State, and a brave and daring soldier, as an act of
> justice to the said Dark, we would state, that he has been in Col.
> Schnable's cavalry recruits for several months, on the borders of this
> State, and has been in nearly every border fray that has recently
> occurred. No one has acquitted himself more gallantly and displayed
> more deeds of daring than John W. Dark. Under the most discouraging
> circumstances, when others were desponding, he has been ever active,
> bold and determined in arresting the progress of vandals, who have been
> desolating this portion of the State. We have never entertained a
> suspicion of his loyalty, but on the contrary, have recognized in him, a
> bold, driving and determined soldier, and one who has risked his life
> under the most severe trials for his country.
> S. C. SCHNABEL, Col. Com'dg.
> E. G. MITCHELL, Capt.
> J. J. EOFF, Lieut.
> S. W. STIGLEMAN, Lt. & Adgt.
> JOHN P. NORVELL, A. Com'sy.
> G. J. OVERRALL, O. S.
> W. W. HUDSON, Lieut.
> D. A. WINTER, Lieut.
> True Democrat , May 6, 1863, page 2,
> column 1.
>
> At the commencement of the war William Dark, of Searcy county,
> Arkansas, was a felon undergoing servitude in the penitentiary of the
> state, and was released on condition that he join the Confederate army,
> which he did; but after a short service in that army he deserted, went
> back to his home and congregated a gang of thieves and outlaws to prey
> on the non-combatant, defenseless people. This gang claimed and
> exercised absolute jurisdiction over every species of property they
> desired--horses, cows, sheep, mules, fowls, provisions--and in a great
> number of instances appropriated the last article of clothing belonging
> to helpless women and children. Many wagons were loaded with plunder.
> The gang, headed and ruled by Dark, became the synonym of all that is
> degraded and abandoned in mankind, and abject submission to his demands
> was the only security to life. His very name struck terror to the
> hearts of women and children and old defenseless men who were unable to
> pass beyond the sphere of his operations.
> At that period the feelings of neighboring Unionists and
> Confederates were crystallized in intensity against each other--all the
> harder to soothe and remove for want of that liberal foundation in deep
> and broad education enjoyed by more favored communities. But there was
> a community of interest; both sides to the war were equal sufferers. A
> few old conservative men representing both elements got together, and
> each side agreed to raise a company to exterminate the marauders, if
> possible, in the joint interest of both elements. And they did; each
> keeping their covenant by raising a company of home guards, or regulators.
> At that time the three leaders of separate bands were operating
> in Searcy, Baxter, Marion and adjacent counties. For some weeks after
> the regulators organized, Dark foiled their efforts to capture and
> dispose of him, and continued his depredations in defiance of the
> organization. He discredited their ability and courage. Whilst matters
> thus stood, two Confederate soldiers, on furlough from the regular
> Confederate army, visited their families in Searcy county, and on the
> day of the tragedy following were together with their wives and children
> at one of their residences. On this day little Master Berry, whose full
> name has escaped memory, who was ten or eleven years old, came to see
> his friends from the army and to learn of other Confederate soldiers
> from the vacinity, some of whom were related to him.
> But first let it be remembered that the world now and then
> presents mankind with a hero boy from the lap of obscurity worthy of
> royal lineage and a niche in the pantheon of fame. Whilst the two
> Confederate soldiers were conversing with their wives and Master Berry,
> one of the matrons stepped to the door to watch like a vidette or picket
> on duty guarding an army. In terror and dismay she discovered Dark with
> five of his gang on horseback approaching the house, with Dark fifty
> yards in advance of his associates in crime. Terror stricken, she
> turned pale as death as she announced their rapid approach on evil
> bent. The two Confederate soldiers made their exit at the back door and
> ran like quarter horses through a cornfield to the timber. One of them
> in his paralysis of fear forgot his army pistol. The .little boy Berry
> seized the pistol and said, "Ladies, I will defend you," and quicker
> than this sentence can be read rushed out in the yard and took position
> at the corner of the smokehouse, next the road, and rested the pistol on
> one of the projecting logs.
> By this time Dark was within twenty feet of the lad, staring him
> in the face, with the ejaculation, "What are you doing there, you little
> puppy?" The boy was drawing a bead on him as coolly as if aiming at a
> mark; scarcely was the sentence out before he fired. The ball struck
> its object in the center between the eyes and made exit at the rear of
> the cranium. He fell forward dead. The boy said, "A center shot,
> ladies; bless the Lord," and in an instant was emptying the remaining
> five shots at the other thieving marauders, who put spurs to their
> horses and disappeared rapidly.
> After a while the flying husbands came back and found young
> Berry master of the situation. What shame must have mantled their
> cheeks! With the heart of a lion and the courage of Ajax, that boy
> "Would not bow to Jove for his thunder, nor kneel to Neptune for
> his trident."
> His deed of cool and unsurpassed heroism ought to be preserved
> fresh and green in the memory of a grateful people as long as our
> literature adorns our civilization.
> The citizens of the vicinity raised $500 and presented it to the
> noble boy. He grew to honored manhood and became a noble citizen.
> The old Confederate veterans, Hoffman and Robinson, were
> citizens, the one of Baxter, the other of Searcy county at the time, and
> this story is based on their verification of the facts related by them.
> There is yet another exciting scene to relate before the curtain
> closes over this tragedy, presenting woman of exalted courage and iron
> nerve, successfully riding the storm of misfortune like an eagle
> cleaving the clouds.
> It is the misfortune of many noble women to become the wives of
> degraded men. It was supposed that Dark had confided the custody of the
> money he had taken from the citizens to his wife, and that by searching
> his house it might be found and recovered, but they did not immediately
> after his death carry their intentions into execution.
> Dark's wife got wind of their intentions before they came. She
> immediately saddled and mounted a swift mule, took her child in her lap
> and rode night and day as fast as the animal could travel, more than one
> hundred miles, striking the Arkansas river at a point near Van Buren,
> where there was no ferry. Undaunted, the heroine plunged into the
> flood, and the faithful mule with her and child stemmed the roaring tide
> and landed them safely on the opposite shore, where she experienced the
> first feeling of relief and safety.
> John Hallum, cgrid Reminiscences of the Civil War . Little
> Rock: Tunnard & Pittard, 1903, 96-99.
>
> "That he [Lemuel Holsted] was a Confederate soldier. Belonging to
> (William Dark's) Company, [T. H.] McCray's [D. McRea's?] Regiment of
> Cavalry. That as such soldier he served from 1863 to 1865."
> From E. DePriest's statement, dated 8 June 1901, in Miranda
> Holsted's Confederate widow's pension papers, Arkansas History
> Commission, One Capitol Mall, Little Rock, Arkansas 72201.
>
> When Dark's men were raiding a house, Wesley Branscomb was outside
> receiving things passed through the window. When he would get
> something, he would give it to the little girl of the house, and she
> would go hide it, thus keeping it from being stolen.
> From Iola Fendley Halsted Beavers Interview.
>
> DARK DAYS
> Dee Strickland Johnson
> Over north of Timbo and running north-east toward Big Springs there
> is a valley known as Dark Holler. A lady who spent some time around
> that area as a child said she always supposed it was so called because
> of the deep shadows which seem to linger there, but most residents agree
> that it was named for a man who once lived in this and many are the
> dark tales told of the man himself.
> Sometimes called King of the Jayhawkers , Bill Dark is credited
> with every sort of the atrocity from robbery to murder in the days of
> the Civil War, and many stories persist of his terrorization of widows
> and children in this area. Of course we must realize that after a
> hundred years some crimes attributed to Dark gang of jayhawker , or
> bushwhacker as they were sometimes called, may have been committed by
> other renegades, but it is to be remembered that Bill Dark lived in this
> area and was doubtless recognized along with some of his men whose
> family names still ring familiar, and that there were also many
> unwitnessed murders with which Dark might well have been connected, so
> perhaps the score is fairly even after all.
> The name Bill Dark is almost certain to bring a tale of
> violence from nearly any long-time Stone County resident over the age of
> 50 and from many much younger, for such stories have a way of being
> passed from generation to generation, particularly within the family of
> the victim. What many people do not know is that Bill Dark led an
> interesting if macabre double life. He had a wife named Angeline and a
> son called Little Will. He was good looking, red-headed and, during the
> time of the Civil War at least, wore his hair long, perhaps in imitation
> of Confederate officer Marmaduke who, along with Joseph O., Shelby
> commanded troops in this area, and whose long blond hair was much
> heralded. Most surprising of all, Bill Dark was an officer in the
> Confederate army, a Captain serving under Colonel J. T. Coffee and
> commander of Company A of cgrid Acgrid the Coffee Recruits . A letter
> written in pencil by Capt. Dark evidences fine penmanship and an unusual
> command of the written word. Were the first sentence complete, we might
> be able to determine whether or not the letter was directed to Col.
> Coffee himself. The name on the reverse side of the paper in the same
> handwriting is E. M. Flinn, Batesville Arkansas and no title precedes
> the name. The existence of such a letter causes one to speculate on
> what kind of individual could wear the gray officer s coat, yet prey
> upon the families of Confederate soldiers away at war. When were Dark
> s raids carried out? Were the members of his gang soldiers in his
> command? Could it be that the Business of importance which called him
> away from his company was in fact a Jayhawk foray? Here, then is what
> remains of the letter reproduced without editing just as it appears today:
> furloughed all my men (paper torn) first of July, By order as I
> supposed of Col. J. T. Coffee.
> After you left here I organized an other company I. W. Cypert Capt.
> I got my men together at the earliest opportunity to preceed to
> our camp got as far as the mouth of Syllamore when I was called away
> on Business of importance: left Capt. Cypert in command with orders to
> march to Mt. Olive & thence in the direction of Salem in Fulton County.
> After I had attended to the Business Referred to and was returning to
> the command I met all the men of Both companies returning home with
> furloughs Stating that Capt. Cypert had received orders from you to
> furlough them: Capt. Cypert was not to be found was gone in the
> vicinity of Calico Rock: He should have got orders through Judge
> Edwards of Mt. Olive.
> Col. I knew if you had ordered furloughs in you absence without
> some one to approve them that it was an illegal procedence. But what
> could I do the men all scattered hell west & crooked Cypert gone to hell
> or some where else I couldnt tell for I never was at Calico Rock in my
> life I did not know what to do neither do I till yet let me know by the
> earliest convenience what I shall do & By God I will do it.
> Your Col
> Most Respectfully
> I W. Dark
> Capt Comdg Co A
> Coffee Recruits
> ..................
> NEXT WEEK: DARK DAYS END
> (anyone having information on Bill Dark or his family in invited to call
> 269-3023)
> The Mountain View , [Mountain View, Arkansas], The Holler Sept 4, 1973.
>
> DARK DAYS END
> Bill Dark was the leader of a ruthless Jayhawk gang which ranged these
> hills in the days of the Civil Wars.
>
>
>
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