Three Generations of the Beasley family

Civil War Families Certificate Program

The Johnson County Arkansas Historical Society has launched a project in commemoration of the Civil War of The War Between the States Sesquicentennial. Membership is open to anyone who can document their descent from an ancestor who resided in Johnson County, Arkansas prior to the opening of hostilities between the Southern States and the Union. On Feb.8, 1861, Arkansas State Troops seized the Federal Arsenal in Little Rock. Although this is before the official date of seession and before shots were fired at Fort Sumter, SC., this was the first official at of rebellion in Arkansas. (from Johnson County Historical Society Quarterly Vol. 37 No. 1.)

I have been doing genealogy since I was in highschool and thought, no sweat, I have all this info.
There is a catch, family stories don't count...it has to be documented. So I start going thru folders in my Beasley box, Ancestory.com and Arkansas Archives on the computer. I knew that the Beasley family came to Johnson Co. following Anderson Beasley and Eveline Nicks' marriage in 1835 in Ill. They had three children, two sons and a daughter before he died in 1853. The two sons married and settled on Little Piney Creek. One, Alexander, died in service (USA) at Dardanelle and the other Quinton Dillard Beasley, my great grandfather, also served in the Union Army. Quinton's youngest son was my grandfather, Arthur "Bum" Beasley and my father
was his son , also named Quinton Dillard Beasley. So I gathered up my proof, made copies, filled out the needed forms and mailed it. Now I anxiously await the results, do I get a certificate or do I have to have more or different docmentation.

Want to get you a certificate, contact the Johnson County Historial Society, 131 West Main Street, Clarksville, Ar. 72830

When grandma and grandpa Bill went to Colorado one of her brothers and his family went too and settled in the Springfield area south of the Two Buttes area were Grandpa and Grandma lived in the dugout. As times got harder, the brother decided he would take his family and go to Kansas where another brother was. They packed up the car, said their goodbyes but there was a problem. No money meant no gas. The horse was hooked up to the car and it pulled the car to Kansas while the family walked. Funny today but then it was very serious circumstances which was happening all over the country.

Another story of the 1920's

With the weather preventing crops to grow I find myself remembering stories of the great depression in the 1920's. My mother, her sister, and parents Lile and Bill went to the SE corner of Colorado which was known as the badlands where they lived in a dugout. They dug out a big room in the ground, covered the top the best they could as there were no trees to cut down, and attempted to farm. During the winter Bill went to Lamar for supplies. He was caught in a blizzard on the way home and happened onto a dugout. He found a lady and two children with no heat and very little food. They had cow paddies for fuel but they were froze solid and the lady couldn't break them apart. Her husband was somewhere out in the storm. Bill broke the paddies loose and build a fire. He stayed the night, leaving her a pile of fuel in the house and sharing his supplies with her before he left. The drought made it impossible to raise a crop or have a garden and winds blew away the topsoil so the little family moved into Lamar where he worked in a garage. Bill lived to be 91 and each winter when the snow fell he thought of the little family and wondered if they made it thru the winter.

Hester, one of my favorite relations

Skull Valley, Arizona. 2005


In 1876 a family of five, William and Hester Ann Skaggs Rudy and their children,
Georgia, Kate and six month old Albert arrived in Ferguson Valley Arizona from  Franklin County,
Arkansas.  Hester, to me, has always been a favorite part of the family history.  Hester was born on Valentines Day, 1839 in Kty.  By the time she was fifteen the Skaggs family had 'wagoned' to Johnson
County, Ar., to  Williamson Co., Tx. where at the age of fifteen she was married.  She
was divorced and back in Arkansas by 1870 when she and William Rudy were married.
They came with a wagon train.  Their wagons were pulled by oxen and Rudy  worked as a freighter and ran a freight route from Prescott to Yuma.  In 1879 he traded 10 to 12 work oxen (value about $1000) for land in Skull Valley using the brand "22" and added cattle and horses to the number they had brought from Arkansas. Rudy's were industrious, adding more land which included some they purchased from Virgil
Earp.   They built the original store in Kirkland which thru the years also served as a
hotel, cafe and bar.  They also ran a stage station with horse stable and feed as well as
room and board for travelers before the trains arrived. 

When statehood came to Arizona in 1912  on her 73rd birthday,the Rudy's had lived in Arizona Territory for thirty years.  In those years Hester had served as nurse, doctor, midwife,  Indian fighter,, in addition
to the daily work of being a ranchers wife, mother and neighbor. I would love to of heard
the stories she had to relate.
.
Visiting Skull Valley and Kirkland is one of the highlights of my quest as I look for the history
of my family.

Garber postmaster 1907-1951

Postmaster Appointment dates through October 9, 1951

Merrel K. Griffith March 2, 1907
Alex Broughton May 12, 1912
Ethel M. Broughton September 13, 1913
Edward Grffith November 27, 1917
Mrs. Susie Beasley October 27, 1927
Howard Troyer December 18, 1947 (assumed charge)
March 5, 1948 (confirmed)
Mrs. Lulu G. Brand March 20, 1951
April 3, 1951 (acting)
April 5, 1951 (confirmed)

(above names/dates from General Services Administration)

Mail Carriers (mail delivered by horseback, list not complete)

Fred Swartz
A.C. Beasley
Sid Beasley
Oliver Boen
Ben Moore
Bill Phillips

The last mail carrier was Hazel Baxter Tavener who continued to carry mail down the creek from Ozone after the Garber post office was closed.
DeMona Beasley Reeves 1982

Garber, Johnson County, Arkansas March 2, 1907

John Newton Sarber, a native of Pittsburg, Pa. was in Kansas when the war between the states began. He enlisted in a Kansas Cavalry unit and for a time was stationed in occupied Clarksville, serving as a scout for Colonel Cloud. He took a liking to the town and remained when the war was over. In 1867 he married Susan Rose, a daughter of one of the original settlers of Clarksville, Morau Rose.

Sarber served in the 16th, 17th and 18th sessions of the Arkansas Legislature as a senator from Johnson County. In 1872 he presented a bill creating a new county, which would be the part of Johnson County south of the Arkansas and named Sarber County. The new county was later changed to Logan County to honor a pioneer settler, James Logan. Fate seemed determined to thwart John Sarber's bid for fame. A new post office on upper Little Piney Creek, north of Clarksville was named in his honor. However, when the approval for the new post office came, it was for Garber, Arkansas.

A post office was applied for by Merrill King Griffith in 1907. He applied for the office to be named Mt. Pleasant, the name of the local school. However, when the papers arrived the name Mt. Pleasant had been marked out and the name 'Sarber' had been read as Garber by the US Post Office Service. The little post office was opened in 190 and closed in October 1951.

Before the Garber post office was established, mail was picked up at Ozone by the people living along upper Little Piney Creek. Mail was delivered on horseback from Ozone and later from Mt. Levi, except for the time of year when mail bags of roots were hauled out by wagon for shipment to the drug houses in Chicago and points east. Cherry Bark, slipperly elm bark, bloodroot, ginseng and may apples were among the more widely used and brought a cash crop to the people who lived along the creek. For some during the depression it was the only cash crop as the crops were poor and what was harvested was needed for family and farm use.

Until 1927, homes of the postmasters were used for the post office. When Susie Beasley became postmaster it was moved into a new building on the side of Little Piney Creek and facing the home of A.C. "Bum" and Susie Beasley. The building also served as a store. Flour, sugar, salt, nails, kerosene and other items were brought in by wagon for sale and Garber became a little 'town'.

A trip to Clarksville for supplies took three or four days. Going to Clarksville was a one day ride by way of Ozone. The return to Garber was two days as the pull up Ozone Mountain was too hard on the horses with a heavy loaded wagon. The route home took the Garber folks to a spring and camp ground near the community of Hagerville where many times they would find acquaintances from Limestone Valley, Rosetta and Mt. Levi camped to enroute to or from Clarksville.

The trip home took them up Woods Mountain, down Murrys Creek to Little Piney Creek and then up Little Piney, fording it several times and passing old Indian camp and burial grounds. For the children lucky enough to make the trip, it was indeed an exciting time. Used to 'coal-oil' lamps, candle and fireplace light (electricity didn't come to the area until the 1950's.) the lights strung around the wagon yard where they camped in Clarksville was a sight to behold. Round tin reflectors fastened behind the lights created a circus type atmosphere that was remembered for years and the awe of it related to the children and adults who remained at home.

The post office, store and blacksmith shop along with a grist mill comprised the village of Garber for many years. Money was scarce so to pay for having their corn ground, a small wooden box, called the toll box was filled with cornmeal. Susie Beasley took in boarders and the only other house that was occupied was that of her in-laws, Quinton Dillard and Elizabeth Skaggs Beasley. They lived in a hand hewed log cabin built before the Civil War. Another house which may of been the home of Alexander and Angleline Skaggs Beasley before the Civil War was occupied by Bum and Susie until they built them a bigger home. It was used to store hay until it burnt.

The first mail was carried by horseback three days a week from Garber to Ozone and back. Later daily mail was delivered to Mt. Levi from Clarksville and a route was run from Garber to Mr. Levi. Progress caused Garber to be bypassed when a daily mail route from Clarksville to Hagerville, Mt. Levi, Ft. Douglas, Dillon, Treat, Rosetta, Salus, Ozone and back to Clarksville was established. Garber again took it's mail to Ozone.

Susie Beasley retired in 1949, the farm was sold and the family moved to Clarksville. Howard Troyer became the postmaster and moved the office to his home down the creek to what was known as the Willis Warren place. In 1951 Lulu Brand, who with her husband had purchased the Beasley farm, became postmaster and the post office returned to it's old home. Mrs. Brand was the last postmaster as the little post office that had served many thru the years now only had a handful of patrons.

Garber was unique as it was one of the few communities that had a general store and post office that did not have a gas pump when the automobile began to replace the horse as the mode of transportation. During the depression many families moved away looking for work, then with WWII others left. The grist mill no longer in use, was hauled to Clarksville, and sold to help the war effort. Later when the Brands died the log cabin was sold and the logs used for a weekend cabin. All that is left of the Beasley era of Garber is the log barn, the A.C. Beasley home and the little building that housed the store and post office.

One mail box stands silently on the road up Rosetta Mountain when you turn up Little Piney, holding its place in the history of this beautiful land that settlers came to in the early 1840's to make their home. Where the troops of the great war between the states could be heard coming for a long time as they came before they passed, by the clanging of their swords and the rattle of the supply wagons. Where the countryside once rang with the voices of the workers in the fields, children at play and cattle in the meadows, it is now silent except for weekend campers, hunters and those who have come to rape the forest of the large hardwood and pine trees. Where once the Indian lived and hunted, the bear and panther roamed, man came but now is almost gone.
Again the bear and panther make upper Little Piney their home. The Garber that was, remains only in the memories of the children and grandchildren of those who made it so.....

DeMona Beasley Reeves 1982

As more and more peopled settled along Little Piney Creek, a school was established . In 1907 a post office was applied for by Merrill King Griffith. He applied for the post office to be named Mt. Pleasant, as that was the name of the school. However when the papers arrived establishing the post office, the name Mt. Pleasant had been crossed out and 'Garber' has been written in.

Until that time people living in the Mt Pleasant school area had to go to Ozone to pick up their mail. Mt. Pleasant school building is gone and all that is left is the well and a handmade sign on the side of the road.

In June 1011 a tornado destroyed much of the forest at Garber and damaged the roof of the post office building. Today the little building sits on the side of the creek and the road no longer passes by it's front door. It sits in the solitude of the forest with voices of the past bringing it memories of a time when it was a part of a busy little community.

Garber should of been Mt. Pleasant