Ephraim Moore Woodard, Born February 19, 1856 North Carolina. Died April 24, 1945 in Broken Arrow, OK., buried Tarlton Cemetery, Lurton, Newton County, Arkansas.

Martha Catherine (Ketcherside) Woodard, Born September 19, 1870, Iceledo, Arkansas Died April 16, 1943 at Lurton, buried at Tarleton Cemetery, Lurton, Arkansas.

This Eph and Martha Woodard family photo was made in front of their log house near Tarlton, Arkansas in the fall of the year 1906. Martha's holding the baby, Iva Woodard (my mother) who was one of their eight daughters. Baby daughter Iva's red calico dress survives today, faded somewhat, but with tiny little arms and collar, and the skirt thirty-six inches long, bound at the neck with faded red ribbon. Of the Woodard girls Minnie is oldest, then Fannie, Dullie and Nellie, holding a little doll. At this time, Nora was married and living away from home and a few months from now another little girl, Ethel, would be born and the year after the baby, Dorothy.

Another favorite photo is of the Woodard children Iva and Ethel in 1911...Martha always complained about this picture because she said the little girls dresses were unironed. When the Browns came to take the picture, she had gone to the Markey place to get some little apple tree sprouts to set out at their new place at Tarlton. Eph took the girls dresses off the fence where they were drying and dressed them up with their hair bows.

The school age Woodard girls walked two miles to school at Tarlton "Board Shanty" school, (boards nailed across cracks in the logs to keep out the wind) held three months at a time, to eighth grade.

These photographs were made by Charlie and Lizzie Brown, a traveling photographer couple of the Ozarks .. All Mountain and Big Creek people knew that with no advance notice, the Browns would arrive to make photographs, as they did each year. With his big black box camera and a black cloth over his head, he made the photos on glass plates, developed and printed them inside his covered wagon visited with each family a few days, then moved on to another home. This couple made calls on the Tarlton Mountain from the year 1895 until the early thirties. Our few Woodard family photos they made are among our most prized possessions. A favorite is this one of the Woodard family in made in 1906. This is one of the Woodard Girls in 1925 with their parents in 1925 made their porch across from the Woodard Pond at Tarlton. The Tarlton schoolhouse blew away in the tornado of 1922. Most of the Woodard girls had finished eighth grade by this time, and some were married. Iva went to Jasper to work for the Murray Hotel, and Ethel was ready to go to high school at The Baptist Acadamy in Parthenon when Andrew Sutton came to visit from Zion, Illinois and eloped with her, never returning to the mountain to live. Ethel told me her new dress in this photo was to be for school at the Baptist Acadamy; turned out to be her wedding dress when she eloped to Chicago with Andrew Sutton. Nellie married George Daniel the same week.

The Woodard Girls and Eph and Martha, October, 1925 on the Woodard's front porch.
Rt to left: Dorothy, Iva, Fannie Woodard Taylor, Nellie, Martha, Ephraim & Ethel Woodard
Back Row: Minnie Woodard Freeman and Dullie Woodard Rosamond.

Earliest Woodard ancestor of record is William Woodard, born 1774 and his wife, Elizabeth, born 1775 in North Carolina, William's son John married Elizabeth Blackwell, born in Tennessee, their son Isham Davis Woodard, born 1811, married Rebecca Webb in North Carolina. Son William M Woodard in 1828 married Celia Moore. and they had Ephraim Woodard on February 19, 1856 in North Carolina. Young Eph came to Arkansas working with with a wagon train heading west to Texas. He returned to Arkansas at age 19, settling at Calf Creek in Searcy County, soon moving on to Newton County,Arkansas where he homesteaded land on the banks of Cave Creek.

Ephraim Moore Woodard was born near Asheville, North Carolina on Feb 19, 1856, died April 24, 1945. Eph Woodard married Rosie Dickey in 1878, they had one daughter, Nora and two sons, Grant and Johnnie. The sons died as infants and are buried at McCutcheon Cemetery at Bass, near their mother Rosie who died in 1887.

Ephraim married Martha Catherine Ketcherside on May 30, 1889. Martha Ketcherside was born near Iceledo, September 19, 1870 and died April 16, 1943. They lived on Cave Creek until 1904 when the creek flooded out their home and they moved their family of five girls (at that time) up to the Markey place near top of the Lurton Mountain at Tarlton Flats. Their only son, Charlie, died as an infant and is buried at the McCutcheon Cemetery at Bass near his two half brothers. The Woodard graves are marked and are located near the center of the cemetery. Eight daughters, Nora, Minnie, Fannie, Dullie, Nellie, Iva, Ethel and Dorothy, were all raised on the family farm near Lurton. Tarlton Cemetery is on their family farm.

Nora Woodard first married Arlie McGlasson, their children Flora and John. Nora then married George Hopkins, their children Bob, Willard, Earl, Oral, Clarence, Wilburn, and Ethel and lived most of their lives around Fort Smith, Arkansas. All are now deceased. (Nora Woodard McGlasson Hopkins- 1883-1973. Died in Guthrie, Oklahoma and buried there.

Minnie married William Jackson Freeman, their children: Truman, Lloyd, Grace, Erta, Norma and J. H., and lived their lives around Fort Smith, Arkansas. Grace, Erta, Norma and JH are surviving children. (Minnie Woodard Freeman(1892-1968) died and buried Ft Smith, AR.

Fannie married Chester T. Taylor, their children: Doyle, Doyne and Iva Louise, all deceased. They lived at Gutherie, Oklahoma. (Francis (Fannie) Woodard Taylor- 1895-1958) died and buried Guthrie, Okla. Grandchildren Julie Ann, Lisa, Glenn, Tim, Sandra Lee and Buddy.

Dullie married Edward Madison Rosamond, son of Rosa and Nonimus Rosamond. their children: Vernon, Floye, Edna, Wynonia, Shirley and Edward, Jr..,, Edna, Floye and Wynonia are now deceased. Floye is buried in Rose, Oklahoma, Edna is buried in California and Wynonia died August 8, 1997 and is buried at Tarlton Cemetery located on the Eph Woodard farm. Rose, Shirley and Ed, Junior live in Oklahoma and Vernon and his wife, Velma Awbrey Rosamond make their home near Lurton. He has served as an Ecotour guidefor visitors to Sam's Throne and Pedestal Rocks in Newton County.- Myrtle Dulcinia Woodard Rosamond (Dullie-1897-1985) Dullie and Ed Rosamond died in Broken Arrow, OK and are buried at Tarlton Cemetery, Lurton Arkansas.

Nellie married George Boone Daniels, their son: Ernest lived his early life on the Woodard farm with his grandparents Ephram and Martha Woodard. He later raised his family on this farm until his death in 1991 and his children Wayne, Richard and Betty Daniel own the farm today. We surviving Woodards continue to call this "home" each year for Woodard reunions the day before Decoration Day at Lurton, Fourth Sunday in May. (Nellie Luvada Woodard Daniels - (1899-1993) Nellie and George died at Lurton Arkansas and are buried in Tarlton Cemetery.

Iva Loufloy Woodard married Errol Whitley Haynes: their children, Colleen Haynes Rongey, born in an old log house near the Woodard Pond in 1928. Phyllis, Patsy, Carrol and Errol, twins, all born at Lurton. We attended school in the a one room schoolhouse at Lurton. then went to a consolidated school at Deer, Arkansas for High School. Iva died in 1951 Errol in 1960. Both died in Kansas City, MO and are buried at Tarlton Cemetery. (Iva LoufloyWoodard Haynes- 1906-1951)

Ethel Ora Woodard married Andrew Sutton, they had one son, James and lived in Zion, Illinois. James was killed in a car accident. Ethel and Andrew divorced and She later married Otto Anderson. They lived at Gravette, Arkansas. (Ora Ethel Woodard Sutton Anderson - 1908-1992) Died in Gravette, Arkansas and buried in city cemetery at Bentonville, Arkansas.

Dorothy married Coleman Haynes, a brother to Errol Haynes who married her sister Iva. Dorothy and Coleman's children were Lloyd and Jack. Lloyd is deceased, Jack lives with his family in Oklahoma City. Dorothy was the last of Ephraim and Martha Woodards to pass away...she died on October 21, 1995 in Gravette, AR and is buried with her husband Coleman in the National Cemetery at Fayetteville, AR... Dorothy lived in Gravette, Arkansas and was our special Woodard family treasure the last of Eph and Martha's eight daughters and mothered all of us up to the end as she cooked great fried chicken, made a garden, and drove her own car to church twice a week... At eighty-four, she died seven days before her 85th birthday. (DorothyLousindaWoodard Haynes-1910-1995)

Around the turn of the century, in the North Arkansas Ozarks, the route of the "Old Cheatham Trail", wound roughly along the path of later highways 123 and number 7, wide enough for a wagon with iron tires to travel, with most of the largest rocks moved out of the way. The road followed a path from Mt. Judea past Lurton, down the mountain through Dover to Russellville, Arkansas. Named for Barnett Cheatham great grandfather of my sister Carrol Haynes' husband EL Heffley and an early settler of Mt. Judea, Arkansas, who surveyed and built the trail in the year 1850.

The Wagon Yard in Russellville was near the Railroad Depot, and covered a large area of that section of streets. All the comforts of home with stalls for mules, parking for wagons, stoves to cook on and bunks to rent for the night. (Doyne Heffley told me about this in 1995)

Though the road had rough big rocks and hairpin curves, Eph Woodard traveled down the mountain to Russellville with his team and wagon every few months, a trip of two days each way, resting at night with a family along the way who fed him and his team of mules, and gave him a place to sleep as he hauled a load of corn, hay, apples, or whatever he raised that season, to sell in Russellville, Arkansas.

Eph sold his produce and bought supplies for another few months on the mountain. Staple foods to take home were at usually 100 pounds of sugar, 100 pounds of flour, twenty pounds of coffee beans, ten pounds of salt, baking soda, cocoa, and some stick candy for the little ones. Always bringing home thread and a bolt of cloth to make dresses for the eight Woodard girls of all ages, had a dress from the same bolt of cloth. Can you imagine Eph's pride in 1906 of this baby girl Iva's red calico dress in the above photograph.

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