Map of Colonial Roads
WAGON TRAIN FROM
BIBB COUNTY HAULED PIONEERS TO ARKANSAS
"(Ed. note - This article was submitted by Robert Crowson from The Bibb
Eagle February, 1978. Bibb County, Alabama)
"Drive west from Centreville, Alabama on U.S. Highway 82 for a couple of
days and you will be in El Dorado, county seat of Union County, Arkansas.
Look in the phone book there and you might think you had never left Bibb
County as you run down the list of familiar names.
The reason is very simple; many of Union County's first settlers came
there more than a hundred years ago from Bibb County, Alabama. But when
they set out by wagon train for Arkansas Territory in 1841, no one could
say how long they would be traveling. They only knew it was a long and
uncertain journey and hopes for a better life rode with them and kept them
moving.
In those days, if things got very bad economically, folks were likely to
hitch up and move on and things were extraordinarily bad in 1841. Many of
the first settlers of Bibb County had been soldiers under Gen. Andrew
Jackson and some of them first saw their future homesites while serving in
the Indian Territory which was to become the state of Alabama.
But by 1837, Gen. Jackson had become President Jackson and (a) quarrel with
the National Bank kicked off a panic which eventually dislodged many people
from the very land which his wartime victories had opened up for them.
Collapse of the commodities markets followed on the heels of financial
panic and many farmers found themselves strapped.
So wagon trains began to form and move westward leaving the land in many
cases for creditors, tax collectors and others to fight over. Stretched to
the west was new land for a fresh start in those days.
In the fall of 1841, such a wagon train left Bibb County bound for Arkansas
Territory ant that new chance. One of its organizers was Elder Joab PRATT,
one of the most energetic early Baptist preachers ever to ride horseback
over the ridges of Bibb County. A son of Richard and Rebecca
(BEAVERS)PRATT, early settlers of the River Bend Community, he was ordained
at Enon Baptist Church in the early 1820's and could serve as the very
model of the indefatigable preacher on horseback. His pastoral circuit by
1840 included Mt. Moriah and Haysop Churches in Bibb County and extended as
far as Gilgal Church in Tuscaloosa County.
When economic disaster struck in 1841, Elder PRATT gathered stricken
families from his several congregations and set out. Only sketchy facts
are known about the trek to Arkansas but the wagons headed southwest
instead of northwest toward Arkansas as U.S. 82 does today. Possibly they
followed the old salt trail early settlers used to use when going to Louisiana
for salt.
In any case, they did go to mid-Louisiana and then headed north. Pushing up
through Louisiana, they came to the end of any sort of road at a point just
below the Arkansas border. This point in Union Parish, Louisiana is still
known locally as Alabama Landing. From there, the emigrants and the slaves
they had brought along with them had to hack their way through what is now
Union County, Arkansas. As they went, they noted that the soil was
extraordinarily rich. But their destination was Saline Territory many
miles to the north and they continued their slow progress until they
reached there- by which time it was probably early spring and time to clear
for their first crop.
In Saline Territory they founded the Philadelphia Baptist Church. This old
church is still in existence and some of the stones in its cemetery are
marked with the names MAYFIELD, PUMPHERY, MCDANIEL, PRATT and COBB - all
traceable to early Bibb County.
The community which grew up near Philadelphia Church is known as
Prattsville, now in Grant County. John PRATT, younger brother of Elder
Joab PRATT, and his wife, the former Louisa PUMPHREY, were leading citizens
of the Prattsville community. In the cemetery of Old Philadelphia
Church
stand the markers of Berryman MCDANIEL (1788-1858) and his wife, Sarah
(1797-1845) - former members of Mt. Moriah Church in Bibb County. Nearby
are buried a number of their children: daughter Louisa and her husband
Nathan PUMPHREY, brother of Louisa PUMPHREY PRATT; son Jordan MCDANIEL and his
wife, the former Mary SHUTTLESWORTH; son David MCDANIEL and his wife,
the former Tabitha Ann MAYFIELD - all from Bibb County originally.
Bibb County records show that Nathan PUMPHREY and Louisa MCDANIEL were
married there by Elder Joab PRATT on 28 August 1834 - long before the group
thought of going to Arkansas. David MCDANIEL and Tabby MAYFIELD were
married in 1844 in Arkansas. The names of their first their first three
sons in order of their births reveals perhaps the relative rank of certain
household heroes. First there was Joab Pratt MCDANIEL, born 1846; second,
Andrew Jackson MCDANIEL, born 1851 and third, William Archibald MCDANIEL,
born 1854 and named for his grandfather, Archibald MAYFIELD who died in
Alabama before 1835.
Elder Joab PRATT and some of the other families liked the land they had
passed through on the way up from the Louisiana border and by 1845, a
number of them had moved southward and settled in Union County. Elder
PRATT never forsook his calling and it is a family tradition among the
Union County PRATTS that he preached the first sermon ever preached in the
frontier town of El Dorado. The early Baptist congregation there met in
the courthouse in bad weather and in the open when the weather was good.
Today their descendants meet in the magnificent building which houses the
First Baptist Church of El Dorado.
Always the circuit rider, Elder PRATT traveled all over Union County
starting new congregations of Baptists. Records of at least half a dozen
Union County churches, some of them now extinct, show Elder PRATT as a
presbyter or first pastor or sometimes both. Old Springhill Baptist
Church, later known as Caledonia for the community in which it was located,
appears to have been a center for former Bibb County folks. Elder PRATT
was its first pastor and continued in service there for a number of years.
The old part of Caledonia Baptist Cemetery contains the markers of Andrew
Jackson MAYFIELD (1815-1859)and his wife, Rachel COBB (1815-1885) who were
married in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama on 9 September 1841, just before the
wagon train left. A. J. MAYFIELD'S brother, Elisha MAYFIELD, who stayed in
Alabama, is buried at Old Union Baptist Church near Keeton's Corner in the
Talladega National Forest. RAchel's sister Rebecca, who married Rev.
Daniel WARD of Bibb County is buried in the WARD family plot at Antioch
Baptist Church in Bibb County. A. J., Elisha and Tabby MAYFIELD(of the
Philadelphia Cemetery group) were children of Archibald and Tabitha
MAYFIELD of the Sardis Baptist Church just over the line in Tuscaloosa
County. Their sister, Adaline MAYFIELD married John H. WARD, ancestor of
the WARDS of Bethel Baptist Chruch and Brent in Bibb County.
A number of others who made the move to Arkansas left relatives in Bibb
County but contact between the families appears to have failed to survive
the passing years. Elder PRATT himself was one of several children and his
brothers, Absolom and Hopkins PRATT have many descendants in Bibb County.
The Elder's wife, Frances VERNON, was a daughter of Obadiah VERNON, many of
whose descendants live in Bibb County, especially around Vernontown.
All of the children of Elder PRATT and his wife went to Arkansas excet
daughters Adeline and Maria who were married to Jesse MILLER and John C.
GOODSON, respectively. Adeline MILLER died immediately after the birth of
her only child, Joab Pratt MILLER, in 1837. By the time the wagon train
left, Jesse MILLER was remarried to Edith KORNEGAY and they remained in
Alabama but Ezekial and Mary MILLER, Jesse's parents, went to Arkansas.
John C. and Maria (PRATT) GOODSON raised a large family in Alabama but by
1870, they, too, had moved with their children to Union County, Arkansas
where GOODSON descendants are numerous today.
The Union County PRATTS of Arkansas and the Bibb County PRATTS of Alabama
have held family reunions at their respective locations each summer for
many years without either group being aware of each other. This year some
of the Union County PRATTS were invited to the reunion in Bibb County.
They didn't make it this year but contact has been renewed and Union
County, Arkansas is "just a little piece" down U.S. 82 from Bibb
County,
Alabama in these times."
C.E.B.
PRATT, BEAVERS, MAYFIELD, PUMPHREY, MCDANIEL, COBB,SHUTTLESWORTH, WARD, VERNON,
GOODSON, MILLER, KORNEGAY.
Trains played an important
part in migrations. Click on the picture to go to some wonderful sites
about the History of Trains and expansion!
