Cecil Cove, is the most remote fastness of the North Arkansas Ozarks, baffled the United States government where the Wilhelmstrasse failed at the job. Bernstorff, Von Popen, Dernburg and their like couldn’t fool Uncle Sam’s agents, but old Lige Harp and their boys could and did.

News dispatches the other day told of the surrender of the Cecil Cove Slackers Gang. It was not, by any means, an unconditional surrender. There were a lot of terms attached or implied and the government conceded them all. Cecil Cove, well armed and with unimpaired morale, was prepared to hold out indefinitely.

The cove, some twelve long and eight miles wide, lies high up in Northwestern Newton County, a county without a foot of railroad track. The railroad point nearest the Cove is Harrison, county seat of Boone County, and it is separated from the Cove by eighteen miles or so of nearly impenetrable mountains, ravines and tangles of timber and underbrush. The Ozarks rise steep and rugged on all sides of the Cove, an occasional 'horse trail' runs through it. The surefooted mountain horses and mules and their usually surefooted owners can thread some of these trails but they fill a strangers souls with trepidation.

Time swings far backward when one enters the Cove. The little log cabins that house families of eight and ten seem to belong to another era. Hogs, dogs, cats, chickens, geese, turkeys and children run riot in, around and through these houses. Rifles of several stages, from the long-barreled muzzel-loader to the most modern repeater, hung above the open fireplaces. Corn pone, corn fed hogs and sorgham molasses are the culinary standbys. 'Pa and Ma' and the majority of the kids smoke corncob pipes, sometimes use snuff and always are unerring spitters. The youngest of the family is considered deserving of a reprimand if he cannot hit the fireplace at ten paces. These mountain folk are suspicious of strangers and are exceedingly reticent in their presence, but are peculiarly hospitable. It is something akin to an insult if the wayfarer does not stop and partake of their hospitality, but he will find difficulty in getting his questions answered. When the United States entered the World War, Cecil Cove did not. It seceded. News that the government intended to draft eligible young men reached the Cove in time. Inhabitants of the Cove thereupon began to prepare for possible hostilities, but not with Germany. The country roundabout was scoured for high powered rifles. Stocks of the Harrison and Jasper stores were pretty well depleted. Repeating rifles of 30-30 caliber and great range and precision began to reach the Cove from mail order houses. Quantities of ammunition were bought, report has it that 'Uncle Lige' Harp bought nearly $60 worth at one time in Harrison.

Arthur Keeton, son of Bill Keeton former justice of the peace in that neighborhood, was the first called up by the Newton County Draft Board. He did not report. Moreover, he and his family and neighbors let it be known that he did not intend to report. Time went on and John Faddis, Joe Arnole, Jim Slape, Wesley Harp, Charlie Jones, Walt Reavis, Sam Sims, and Oscar Klutts were summoned by the board. They all 'laid out.'

Sheriff W. J. Pruitt of Newton County sent word to the boys that he was coming after them. Their answer was: 'Come on, but look out for yourself.' Sheriff Pruitt did not go after them. Word was sent to the government authorities that a slacker gang was organized in the Cove and was prepared to resist arrest. In turn four United States marshals or deputies, several special investigators and an army colonel all visited Newton County, did some searching and questioning and returned empty handed. So far as is known, none of them ever caught sight of the slackers.

Most of the families in the Cove are related through intermarriage. The majority of them were in sympathy with the slackers; in fact it is said the boys merely acted upon the advice of their elders. An organization, by no means secret, was formed and a covenant made. This covenant was to the affect that the people in the Cove should stick together, no matter what might occur. Those in position to know say the covenant had thirty-six signers, some of whom had to sign by mark, because the ability to read and write is somewhat limited in the cove.

It is a region of multifarious hiding places, studded with boulders and pocketed with caves. A searcher might pass within six feet of a dozen hidden men and see none of them. A stranger would have the utmost difficulty even in finding his own way about, not to speak of tracking down a resident of this wild locality. Moreover, so perfect were means of observation and communication, a stranger could not enter the Cove at any point without that fact being known to all its inhavitants before the intruder had got along half a mile.

Nearly all the families in the Cove have telephones. It is a remarkable fact that these mountaineers will do without the meanest comforts of life but they insist upon having telephones. These and other varied methods of intercourse peculiar to the mountains gave the Cecil Cove Slackers an almost unbeatable combination. They always knew where the searchers were and what they were doing, but the searchers never were able to find anything except a blind trail. The telephone lines might have been cut. That would have served little purpose. News travels by strange and devious processes in the mountains. The smoke of a brush fire high up on a peak may have little significance to the uninitiated, but it may mean considerable to an Ozark Mountaineer. The weird, long drawn out yell 'Hid-a-ahoo-o-o' may sound the same always to a man from the city, but there are variations of it that contain hidden significances. And the mountaineer afoot travels with amazing speed, even along those broken trails. Bent forward, walking with characteristic shuffle, he can scurry over boulder and fallen log like an Indian.

Deputy Marshal Jim Holt, a veteran officer with a reputation as a killer, was one of those engaged on the case. Holt spent nearly a month in Newton County. He collected much evidence, but made no arrests. Holt is accounted a fearless man; his record in Western Arkansas and the old Indian Territory bears out this reputation. It would be 'nothing short of suicide' for an officer to try to capture the slacker gang. United States Marshal J. M. Parker of Fort Smith and Deputy United States Marshal Baker of Harrison, who also worked on the case, corroborate Holt’s view of the dangers. The hiding slackers said after their surrender that they saw Holt several times, but that he never saw them.

The story of the Cecil Cove slacker gang spread far. Rumors arose that fugitive slackers from Joplin and Fort Smith had joined the Cove boys and were thus safe from apprehension. But that was not true. The Cove was too suspicious of strangers for anything like that to happen. The slackers were exclusive. Buddy Morgan, another Newton County youth who decided to 'go slacker,' got himself a rifle and set out to join them. He got within the distance of one ridge of them --- that’s a pretty long way in the Ozarks --- and when he yelled to them that he intended to form an alliance with them they shouted back that he would have to go off and slack by himself. He was captured later.

Col. Mark Wheeler, a former K. U. football star and the second in command at Camp Pike, Little Rock, finally took a hand in the affair. He went to Jasper and angrily informed the authorities there that he expected some action and expected it quick.

We’ve got a lot of boys down at Camp Pike who are pretty sore at being unable to go across to France. They want some fighting, Colonel Wheeler told the Newton County officers. 'If you fellows don’t round these men up soon I think we’ll let our boys come up and clear out these slackers. They would like the job.'

About the same time the War Department, through the officials at Camp Pike, offered a degree of amnesty to the Cove gang. A promise was made that the charge of desertion would not be pressed. Moreover, according to the elder folk in the Cove, it was promised also that the boys would be 'gone only from sixty to ninety days, that they would all get a suit of clothes and a dollar a day.' Now this may or may not be true, but Lige Harp, France Sturdgil, Bill Keeton, Jim Arnold, Lige Lamb, and Jim Blackwell, the acknowledged deans of the Cove, all assert that this understanding was given them and the boys before the surrender was made.

The word was passed through friends that the government was willing to make concessions. Sheriff Pruitt, in the meantime, had gone out of office, Frank Carlton having been elected his successor. Carlton had been reared within five miles of the slacker neighborhood. He had taught school several terms; he knew all the folks there.

Carlton made it his business to happen into the little hamlet of Compton, near the Cove, one day. Word got to the slackers, as it always did, of his proximity. In a little while Isom Faddis, brother of one of the gang, approached Carlton. Faddis is the husband of Jennie Faddis who is generally conceded to have been the guardian angel of the slackers. She is said to have been an untiring watcher over them and to have carried them food when it was necessary for them to take to a cave. She is the sister of Charlie Jones, another of the gang.

'A couple of the boys would like to see you,' Faddis told the sheriff. Carlton was made to promise that he would not attempt to arrest the slackers. Also he exacted the promise that no attempt would be made to harm him. He followed Isom Faddis into the Cove and met young Jones and John Faddis. They asked him if the government was willing to 'come across.' He gave them such information as he had.

An agreement was then made that the gang would give up, providing Carlton met them at a crossroads near the Boone-Newton County line. They compelled him to promise that he would be unaccompanied and unarmed and that he would carry no arms with him on their trip to Little Rock. The next day the gang met the sheriff at the lonely spot agreed upon. They caught a small coach and rode into Harrison and then were taken to Camp Pike. The morning after their arrival Joe Arnold asked the sheriff: 'Do they feed like this all the time?' The sheriff replied that they had received the ordinary soldier fare. 'We’ve been a passel of fools,' Arnold replied.

The slackers are still held in custody at Camp Pike. The Judge advocate of the army post will make no statement as to the procedure contemplated in the case.

What caused the rebellion in Cecil Cove? A combination of plain ignorance, Jeff Davis politics, the Appeal of Reason, and mountain religion.

'Uncle Lige' Harp is one of the leaders of the community. He is an old man now, but in his heyday he was accounted a dead shot--- one who could put out a turkey’s left eye at one hundred yards every shot. Let 'Uncle Lige' speak the views of the Cove: 'We all don’t take no truck with strangers and we don’t want our boys takin’ no truck with furiners. We didn’t have no right to send folks over to Europe to fight; tain’t a free country when that’s done. Wait till them Germans come over here and then fight ’em is what I said when I heard ‘bout the war. If anybody was to try to invade this country ever man in these hills would get his rifle and pick ’em off.'

'Aunt Sary' Harp, between puffs at her clay pipe, nodded approval of 'Uncle Lige’s' position. 'Uncle Lige,' whether he deserved it or not, had the reputation of being a bad man in his younger days. When Dan Johnson was killed in the Cove, a dozen years or so ago, 'Uncle Lige' was charged with the killing. It was Dan Johnson who killed 'Uncle Lige’s' father back in Civil War times. Harp proved an alibi however. He laughs still as he tells of one man who said he would 'just as soon meet a grizzly bear on the trail as meet Lige Harp.'

France Sturgil and Jim Blackwell, who are reputed to have been the circulators of the covenant, say they are Socialists. They have read scattering copies of the Appeal of Reason, they admit. 'It’s war for the benefit of them silk hatted fellers up in New York,' said Sturgil. 'We don’t want our boys fightin’ them rich fellers’ battles and gettin’ killed just to make a lot of money for a bunch of millionaires. Why they own most of the country now.'

Same stuff that Jeff Davis created about all those years the 'hill billies' were electing him to the United States Senate. He was their idol then. He is dead now, but his teachings live in the activities of these mountain people.

George Slape, known to the local people of the neighborhood as 'Kaiser Bill' is the Coves religious leader. He is what is termed there 'a prayin’ man.' 'The good book says: 'Thou shalt not kill.' We didn’t want our boys takin’ nobody’s life. It ain’t right ‘cause it’s contrary to the Bible and the good Lord’s teachin’s,' declared Slape. Asked to explain the difference between fighting Germans and preparing to resist the draft authorities, both likely to result in death, Slape said: 'The boys wasn’t goin’ to kill nobody unless they had to. It’s different killin’ a man who tries to make you do wrong and killin’ somebody in war.'

There are rumors abroad in the Cove that some of the older folks are to be arrested on a charge of complicity in evading the draft. That has caused a decided amelioration of their statements lately. Most of them now profess the belief that the 'boys wouldn’t have shot nobody.' Even 'Uncle Lige' Harp says that they would have 'run like a pack of scared foxes,' if officers had tried to arrest them. Bill Keeton, who, according to the loyal citizens, was one of the foremost preachers of the resistence, now says that he 'thinks the boys ought to have gone in and give up at the start.'

However that may be, the fact remains that loyal citizens---and there were several in that neighborhood, nearly all living on the fringe of the Cove,---were threatened and even shot at.

Joe McFerrin, who lives on the edge of the Cove, had several cattle running loose in it. He was loyal throughout. Word was sent to him to stay out of the Cove. 'Your yearlin’s is all right. Don’t come down to look after ‘em,' he was told.

Levi Smith, who runs a small store at Compton, owned a drove of hogs that were feeding in the Cove. His hogs were got together and taken to his place one night. 'You don’t need to come down into the Cove,' was the word left to him.

Alex Biggs, an intinerant preacher and farmer, who made his home in the Cove had to leave it shortly after war began. Biggs was loyal and said so. If he was not actually run out, and he is reticent on that point, he at least was given to understand that he was unwelcome in the Cove. 'I couldn’t stay there and think the way I do,' he said.

'Uncle Jimmy' Richardson, a Confederate Veteran and preacher at the Chapel Church on the western out skirts of the Cove, was uncompromisingly loyal. He went direct to some of the parents of the slackers and told them what he thought. The old soldier did not mince words. 'You’re a gang of yellow bellies,' he said, 'If you got any manhood in you them boys will be made to go serve their country.' 'Uncle Jimmy' got his answer one day when he ventured a little way into the Cove. A shot rang out and a bullet whistled past his ear. 'The cowardly hounds wouldn’t fight fair,' he said. 'In the old days of the Civil War them kind was swung up to the nearest tree. I’m 73 now, but I’d have got down my rifle and gone in with anybody that would have went after them. I don’t like to live near folks who ain’t Americans.' 'Uncle Jimmy' does not speak to the slacker folks in the Cove now. He says he never will again. If he did, he says, he would feel ashamed of the more than a dozen wounds that he received in the Civil War.

Perhaps the record of Cecil Cove in the Civil War, however, may have something to do with the present situation. It was a notorious hiding place for men who were neither Federal nor Confederates. They found refuge in the caves and fastnesses of the Cove exactly as did the slacker gang of 1917 -18. Several of the gangs folks mentioned this fact. 'There wasn’t nothing done to fellers who hid out back in Civil War times. Why should there be all this holler and fuss ‘bout it now?' asked Jim Arnold, father of one of the slackers. It was this same Jim Arnold who, in giving his views of the war, said it was wrong 'to send our boys ‘way to the ‘tother side of the world' to fight. Germany, according to his geogeographical ideas, was an Island 'somewhere near England.'

From no body in the Cove can one obtain an idea of how or where the boys went into hiding. Questioned on this poing 'Uncle Lige' Harp answered: 'I ain’t got no idea where they was. Never saw ‘em at all ‘till they come in to give up.' Isom Faddis said that he 'just happened to run into a couple of the boys by accident. Never knowed where they was ‘afore that.'

None of the parents would admit that the boys had been at home, yet it is common report among the loyal families that the slackers lived at home except on those occasions when an officer was discovered to be prowling about. It is the Ozark way. Nobody ever has seen a hunted man, though a rustling of the leaves, and the crackling of a dead twig may betray the fact that the fugitive was there only a moment before.

Standing out as a rare instance of loyalty and courage is the case of Arlis Jones. His father, Tom Jones, was one of the thirty-six signers of the covenant. So was his older brother. His mother, too, was opposed to the war. Arlis Jones was placed in class 1 and called on to report for duty. All the night before he was to leave his family with George Slape and several other Cove leaders prayed that he would not go and if he did he would not take any man’s life. Their prayers did not influence the youth, and when morning came he announced his intention of reporting. While he was getting his horse saddled word was sent to him that he never would be allowed to reach Jasper; that he would be pulled off his horse somewhere along the mountain road. He rode to the homes of John Richardson, son of 'Uncle Jimmy,' and of Joe McFerrin, and told them of the threats, asking that they accompany him. They armed themselves and rode into Jasper with him. After two months training at Camp Pike he was sent to France and his record as a soldier has been an excellent one.

The loyal folk there, whatever might have been their views, were forced by fear into a state of neutrality. 'We couldn’t risk having our homes burned down or our stock killed, let alone anything worse,' was the views of Joe McFerrin, Levi Smith and Dan Greer, three of the foremost loyal ones. 'I’m not afraid of any man face to face,' Levi Smith asserted, 'but it is a different proposition when you’re one against thirty-six, and them with all the advantage and willin’ to do anything.'

There seems no doubt in the minds of people living around the Cove that the slacker gang would have gone to any lengths in resisting capture. And if they had, the job to be a success, you undoubtedly would have required something like a regiment of infantry. The one entrance to the Cove available to any armed body of men would have led down a narrow balley, flanked off on every side by towering walls of rock. Thirty-six armed men there could have stood off many times their number and then have taken refuge in one of the hiding places near by.

Despite the possibilities for bloodshed offered by Cecil Cove’s private war with Uncle Sam, there was only one casualty. The 12-year-old brother of Jim Arnold, one of the slacker gang, was shot in the left leg. The boy was wandering about in the deep woods of the cove one day when a shot rang out from a ridge several hundred yards away. It is supposed the slackers, unable to see the lad clearly in the tangled brush and trees, suspected that he was an officer. The marksmanship displayed on that occasion indicates clearly what the mountaineers could do if the occasion arose for resistance. Nobody in the Cove ever has admitted firing the shot or seeing it fired.

Only eight of the slackers were in the band when they finally capitulated. Sam Simms had made peace with the government earlier. Simms is a cross-eyed youth, but when he was summoned to appear before the draft board he did not report and ask for exemption on that ground. Instead, he 'went slacker' as the saying is in the Cove. After a time word reached him that another cross-eyed man had been rejected from military service and that he would be too. So he came forth and put in an appearance at Jasper, in due time being declared unfit for military duty.

These mountaineer folk are unusual material for soldiers. They are wonderful shots, having been taught to shoot a rifle since childhood. But they have little idea of the responsibilities and alligations of a soldier. The case of Gil Earp is an example. Earp belonged to Company M which was made up of Newton and Boone County men. It was entailed on the border during the morning affair. It was a dull life down there. Earp deserted. He was gone two months. In the meantime the company moved to Arkansas and was mobilized in the war with Germany. One day shortly before Company M was to leave Earp appeared before the Captain. 'Cap, I hear we’re into a war with Germany,; he said. 'Is there any chance for some real fightin’ now?' The Captain replied that the chances were excellent for a man to get all the fighting he craved. 'Well, Cap, can I have my gun back?' inquired Earp. The Captain pondered. He needed men badly and Earp was a sharpshooter if ever there was one. So he assented. Earp went to France with Company M. That company has made a notable record for having the best snipers in the division.

The boys who went into service are the biggest hope for bettering conditions in this farthest backwoods, according to the more progressive people of that region. 'Every boy who went into the army from this country and has come back is changed for the better.' said W. P. Murray, editor of the Newton County Times.

They all have gained weight and look brighter. The stoop and hump has been straightened out of their back and shoulders. Moreover, they have returned with an idea of how people live in the more forward communities and they know now what personal sanitation means. They are not going to be satisfied with slovenliness and ignorance again, and all of them will be missionaries for a higher standard of living. After they have come back and spread the knowledge they have obtained, anything like this Cecil Cove affair will not be possible again.

The following people acknowledged publicly their association with the Cecil Cove Slacker Gang:

     Uncle Lige Harp        Charlie Jones       Joe McFerrin
     Aunt Sary Harp         Walt Revis          Alex Biggs
     Arthur Keeton          Sam Simms           Uncle Jimmy Richardson
     Bill Keeton            Oscar Klutts        John Richardson
     John Faddis            Buddy Morgan        Dan Greer
     Joe Arnold             Frank Carlton       Gil Earp
     Jim Slape              Isom Faddis         Levi Smith
     Wesley Harp            Arliss Jones

Lawmen and Army Personel associated with the Cecil Cove Slacker Gang:

    W. J. Pruitt...Sheriff of Newton County
    Jim Holt...Deputy Marshal, Killer lawman in Western Arkansas and
               the old Indian Territory.
    J. H. Parker...United States Marshal, Fort Smith.
    ____ Baker...Deputy United States Marshal, Harrison.
    Mark Wheeler...Colonel and 3rd in Command at Camp Pike, Little Rock.

If you would like to add additional information on the Cecil Cove Gang and their families, or if you have pictures of persons mentioned in the article that you would like to share, please do so by sending an email to: Submit Cecil Cove Data with Cecil Cove in the subject line. Provide Cecil Cove data in body of message or attach file to the email. Include your first and last name.

Note 1: Note from Randy Sooter Thanks Randy! Apparently the Cove folks were upset at Joe McFerrin for speaking out about going to WWI. They rounded up his livestock took them home, and warned him to keep out of the Cove. My Great Great Great Grandmother was Rosie McFerrin. She was married to George Blackston. Guess when you have relatives on both sides of an argument it makes you neutral. I'm related to: Villines, Blackston, McFerrin, Bryant, Langely, Newberry, and Plumlee.

Note 2: Note from Joan Hobbs Thanks Joan! My relatives: Arthur Keeton (Middle name Ross) b. 11 Mar 1894 d. 20 Sept 1964 married 09 Nov 1923 Bertha Revis b. 30 Sept 1900 d. 04 Jan 1987 both buried in Plumlee Cemetery, Newton County, AR. His father William Tinsley 'Bill Keeton' son of John Wesley Keeton b. 24 July 1865 d. 04 Oct 1942 married 16 June 1887 to Martha Jane Brisco b. 01 Feb 1865 d. 07 Oct 1947 both in Tom Thumb Cemetery, Newton County, AR. John Wesley Keeton b. 19 May 1842 d. 05 Nov 1917 married 21 June 1864 to Martha Malinda Chaffin b. 09 Mar 1843 d. 04 Mar 1887. He married #2 Matilda Jane Keith Scroggins. John Wesley Keeton served in Company D, 2nd Ark. Cav. Identification Certificate #691.428. There was another 'Bill' Keeton, William M. son of James Alfred 'Alf' Keeton. This 'Bill' was a brother to my grandmother Lue Keeton VanCuren.

Note 3: Note from Randy Sooter Thanks Randy! Ok folks. Don't laugh, but this is as good as it gets in my little map making factory. Not drawn to scale, but would actually get you to the Jones Cemetery the first try. If you find a mistake in spelling, it was done on purpose to give it a down home feel. Enter Cecil Cove at the Compton Bench Trailhead, it is a mile before you get to Erby on CR 19 from Compton. It's on the left side and has a sign with Jones Cemetery 2.5 miles marked on it. You'll know you're getting close when you look over the bluff and see the top of a power pole and in a minute you're looking up the bluff at the base of it. The trailhead is just after that. In addition to Jones Cemetery, the Jones, Keeton-Faddis, and Jackson homes are noted on the drawing. Note: See Map, Item #2 in Cecil Cove Hike Album.

Note 4: Note from Ford Carlton Thanks Ford! Frank Carlton: John Frank 'Frank' Carlton was born 16 Feb 1868 at Parthenon, died 28 June 1950 at Seminole OK, buried Little Cemetery at Seminole. Son of Anderson Carlton and Sarah Jane Murphy Carlton. Frank Carlton first married Ora V. Villines, daughter of Joseph P. Villines and Laura Belle McCracken Villines. Ora V. was born 20 Sept at Low Gap, died 5 Apr 1900, buried Walnut Grove Cemetery. Their children: Mabel Carlton born Dec 1898, Ora M. Carlton born April 1898 (No additional info on them) Frank Carlton's second marriage was to Ethel Shaw, born 8 April 1884, died 12 May 1970 at Seminole, OK, buried Seminole Cemetery. She was daughter of Marion Fletcher Shaw and Allie Louisa Plumer Shaw. Their children: Margarete Shaw Carlton, born 30 Dec 1903 Newton Co., died 17 Sept 1998 Hawthorne, Las Angeles, CA. She married Benjamin Frederick Fugate 30 Aug 1940 Las Vegas, Clark Co., Nevada. William Howard Carlton, born 2 Sept 1909 Newton Co., died May 1975 Seminole, OK. He married Blondel Bynum. Frank Carlton graduated from University of AR, Little Rock. Taught school a number of years; County Assessor 1894-1896; County Clerk 1902-1906; Operated a General Store in Jasper for a number of years; Was admitted to the Bar in 1903; Practiced Law in Jasper 14 years; State Rep two Terms 1907-1909; Elected to Congress two Terms 1912-1922; Sheriff 1918-1920; Worked for Internal Revenue; Was chief of Legal Division in New Orleans. Moved to Maud, Oklahoma in 1939, later to Seminole where he owned the Carlton Super Market. John Frank Carlton, Frank as he was called, and several men were setting around the Court House in Jasper and they were trying to see who could tell the biggest lie. They couldn't decide on a winner, so they decided they would think up a good one over night and meet there the next morning. Frank came into town caring a shovel, met one of the men and he ask him where he was going, Frank said that one of their friends was killed last night over at the mill. Said that the saw cut him half into, Frank told him that if he would go over and start the grave he would get some more men and tools and help him dig the grave, so the man started over and got to the lower end of town. Met someone that ask him where he was going. He said that So And So got killed at the mill last night and he as going over to start digging the grave. The man said who told you that, I just saw him a little while ago, he said that Damned Lying Frank Carlton. After that he was known as Lying Frank. When Anderson Carlton died in 1913, John Frank bought the farm near Parthenon. I have a copy of the abstract, since my Great Granddad had died his children got his share. In 1938 my father in law bought the farm. My wife was born there. He sold it to Dave (Alex) Madewell in 1948, Dave later sold it to Norman Vinson.

Note 5: Note from Ford Carlton Thanks Ford! W. J. Pruitt: He was William Jonah 'Jonah' Pruitt that owned the Diamond Cave. He was born 1872 at Pruitt, Newton County, died 1959 Jasper, Buried Maplewood Cemetery, Harrison, AR. His wife was Susan Cora 'Cora' Anthony, born 1879 Newton County, died 1967 Jasper. W. J. was the son of William Wilshire Pruitt and Martha Wynne, they are buried in Shaddox Cemetery. Some of W. J. and Cora's children: Ruth Pruitt married Ted Bradley, buried Maplewood Cemetery; William Boyd 'Boyd' Pruitt married Nettie Moore. Boyd died in Muskogee, OK, I went to his funeral; Helen Pruitt married Lawrence Nance. W. J. had a brother Thomas Jefferson Pruitt that married Viola Reynolds, daughter of Thomas Clancey Reynolds and Frances Belew.

Note 6: Note from Ford Carlton Thanks Ford! Uncle Jimmy Richardson, Cecil Cove Gang: James M. 'Jimmy' Richardson was born 8 May 1840, died 18 September 1923 Plumlee, buried Plumlee Cemetery. His wife was Harriet R. Unknown, born 30 April 1847, died 18 September 1923 Plumlee. They had a son John D Richardson, born 28 November 1877 Arkansas, died 8 July 1960 Newton County. He married Cinthia A. 'Della' Villines, only have a birth date of 1876 on her. She was the daughter of Hosea Villines and Harriett Burnetta Patty.

Note 7: Note from Joyce Lindsey Thanks Joyce! Uncle Lige Harp, Cecil Cove Gang: Uncle Lige in the newspaper article is undoubtedly, Elijah Bohannon Harp, Jr. (b. 12-30-1860 d. 1934) was the son of Elijah Bohannon Harp, Sr. and Martha Jane Tate Harp and Grandson of Solomon and Sarah Bohannon Harp. Elijah, Jr. married Frances Marah Owens (b. 1862 d. 1956) on May 16th, 1879; they had 16 children including James Wesley b. Dec. 1891 who married Lovie Florence Sims and Sarah Jane b. 1884 who married James Y. Jones. Uncle Lige and Frances Marah are buried in Tom Thumb Springs Cemetery; also buried there is Sarah Jane Harp Jones and James Jones. Elijah Bohannon Harp, Sr. is my 2nd GGrandfather through their son Joseph Anderson, Abraham Lincoln and my Mother Virgie Elizabeth Harp Hankins My Great Uncle, Benjamin Franklin Harp, once took me to visit one of Lige's sons, Silas Harp who married Rose Ella Minton. I remember Rose telling me to be sure that I got a good education. I must have gone back years later, as I had a piece of wood from their old barn, that I moved around with me for years. I would never be able to find this old homestead now, but I do remember that it was quite remote and would be in the Tom Thumb Cemetery area.

Note 8: Note from Joyce Lindsey Thanks Joyce! James Wesley Harp: James Wesley Harp is more than likely the Wesley Harp mentioned in the Slacker Gang Story and Sarah Jane Harp Jones is a candidate for Aunt Sary Harp, even though she was probably married to James Jones by 1919. While many of the others mentioned as associated with the Slacker Gang are very familiar, these are the only ones that I have in My Family Tree Maker.

Note 9: Note from Joyce Lindsey Thanks Joyce! Dan Johnson: Dan Johnson did murder Elijah Harp, Sr. along with Jasper Young, his son-in-law and Nelson Wright, a step brother, on Feb. 23, 1864; all three are buried in a common grave in Shaddox Cemetery in Newton Co. Ar. It is believed that Dan had also killed William Augusta Harp, Sr. (a brother of Elijah,Sr.) and his 3 sons, Samuel, Elijah and Marion, in what became known as the Peach Tree Massacre. This occurred Sept. 15, 1864. Dan Johnson was killed in 1902 or 1904 (can't remember for sure) as he built a cabin on property adjoining the Harp land. Dan is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Boone Co. Ar.

Note 10: Note from Joyce Lindsey Thanks Joyce! In Joan Hobbs notes on Wm. Tinsley Keeton who married Martha Jane Brisco; Martha Jane is a daughter of Isham and Rebecca Jane Parker Brisco who are my 2nd GGrandparents; I descend through their son, John Marion Brisco, so I think that will make Joan and I cousins of some degree.

See: Cecil Cove Hike

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