Chapter 1
Arkansas
compiled by Larry REA
(Ralph R. REA) In the spring of 1858 George Washington REA and his wife, Rebecca Luina ROSS, whom he had married in 1854, and their two small sons, came by wagon to the Flatwoods Community (Capps-Batavia area) which was on the Military Road between Crooked Creek and Carrollton in Carroll County, and there entered a tract of land. The wagon train was led by Rebecca’s father, William Ashburn ROSS, who throughout his lifetime felt compelled to move westward. This restless spirit, shortly after the Civil War, took William Ashburn ROSS and most of his family across the western plains, deserts and mountains to Washington State where he lived until his death in 1898.
(material given to Tommie REA, son of Jessie and Mollie REA, by Hugh Dinsmore REA, son of George Washington REA, 8 May 1968)
George W. REA left a black horse and several white ones with James for the negros to use in the fields when he went to AR.
An orphan boy 14 years old was adopted by George and Becky before they could go to Arkansas. (note corroboration by Ralph R. REA who mentions that George took this boy to war, however, nothing shows on the census.)
1860 census Carroll Co., AR page 174
(1151)
Milton D. RHEA (REA) 24 KY
Sarah E. 21 KY
Martha T. 3 KY
Eudonia A. 1 KY (???)
Nealy A. DYE 14 KY
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
(This material taken from a letter written to Jessie and Mollie REA by Francis BOYER, 8 Mar 1980 )
Milton D. REA and his wife were foster parents of my grandmother, Permelia (Nealy) Ann Dye. She was born in Dalton, Hopkins Co., KY in 1846. My records say she’s a cousin, but it is not clear whether she was a cousin of Milton or Milton’s wife. I
believe (now) my grandmother was kin to Milton’s wife, Sarah E.E. UTLEY.
In 1863 Nealy ran away from home and married my grandfather, Abraham Benjamin BOYER. They immediately moved to Missouri. The REAs opposed the marriage and had nothing further to do with Permelia.
I talked to Ralph R. REA; he was unable to connect my grandmother with the family. Ralph knew of a foster boy living with (Milton’s brother) George (Washington REA). When George went to war he took the boy with him. Could he have been a brother to Permelia ?
BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB
(1152) next door !
George W. REA 28 KY
Rebecca 22 TN
Francis M. 4 KY
Theodore C. 2 KY
Martha M. 4/2 KY
(Civil War 1861-1865)
(Ralph R. REA) George W. REA, Confederate soldier, was mustered into the Army at Clarksville, Arkansas in Mar 1862 as a private in Captain Joe BISHOP’s Carroll County Company. This company was assigned to Harrell’s Battalion, Adam’s Regiment, Caball’s Brigade, Price’s Division. George served in most of the Arkansas engagements, including Prairie Grove, Prairie d’Ann, Mark’s Mill, and Poison Springs. He was with General Price on the Missouri Raid, and during his last months in the army he served as an orderly to General Price.
(material given to Tommie REA, son of Jessie and Mollie REA, by Hugh Dinsmore REA, son of George Washington REA, 8 May 1968)
Milton D. REA (brother) fought with George W. REA at the battle of Pea Ridge (AR) in Mar 1862.
Sometime later in the Civil War George and Milton had to cross the Arkansas River on horseback but Milton didn’t want to go (across), so George told him he’d kick him across if he didn’t get going. Milton said he’d go anywhere with George after that.
(material from “Boone County and Its People”)
by Ralph R. Rea
In the summer of 1862 a party of ten or twelve bushwhackers came through the Carrollton neighborhood burning, looting and seeking out the few remaining cows and horses in the country. They came to the home of my grandparents, (George W. Rea), where my grandmother (Rebecca L.), her three small children and her sister were living. The men were away in the Confederate army. Finding the brindle cow that was hidden in a hillside cave, these marauders proceeded to drive her into their herd of stolen stock. The two women begged them not to take this last source of food for the babies, but the bushwhackers answered them with curses and threats.
These brave women were not willing to take this defeat, so my grandmother left the children with her sister and followed the bushwhackers afoot. All day she followed them until they camped near Shinn Tanyard (Yardell) for the night. There she walked into the herd and taking her cow by the horn led her out. With her head held high and her ears closed to the threats and insults, she started toward home. After a long harrowing trip she reached her house, and there she found that a troop of Confederate soldiers headed by Sam Peel had arrived at Carrollton. She went to them and gave them detailed directions to the place where the marauders were camped. When asked if she had any suggestions as to what punishment should be given the bushwhackers, she pronounced a judgment of death for them. With bitterness she remembered that they had tried to starve her babies, and with her eyes flashing she said, “Cut their throats from ear to ear!”
The following day the Confederates came by her house and told her, “Becky, we cut their throats from ear to ear just like you told us, and ricked ’em up like cordwood.”
(material from “Boone County and its People”) by Ralph R. Rea
Another story comes to mind when the Civil War is discussed. There is nothing of bravery or gallantry in this tale, but since it is an occurrance in the military career of my grandfather, I like to tell it. As a matter of fact I found it to be the best of his many stories of the war.
He had come home to spend some time with his family, but all during the daylight hours a lookout had to be maintained for Union troops or Bushwackers. He made it through the day without incident, but as they sat at the supper table, he glanced up the road, and in the twilight he saw a squad of blue coats approaching.
Grabbing his hat and coat he ran out the back door and toward the woods beyond the garden. Jumping the rail fence back of the garden he sped into the woods until he came to a tree that had been blown down by the wind. The roots of this fallen tree held the trunk a few inches from the ground, so with the instinct of a hunted animal he slid under the tree and pulled leaves in about him. He lay there with his heart pounding. He heard the soldiers search the house, then his heart was in his throat as they came toward his hiding place. There was a great deal of scuffing about and cursing, then one of the Union soldiers squatted beside the log and
did within six inches of grandpa’s nose what no “damn yankee” should be permitted to do to a son of the south and live.
Hugh Rea: In 1866 or 67 George was on a cattle drive to southern Illinois where he crossed over into Kentucky to visit his mother Martha BARTON at Paducah, KY then he went on to Dalton, KY to visit the rest of the family.
After the Civil War George W. REA visited the family in KY (1866 or 1867) and when he arrived home one of the negroes hugged and kissed him, saying, “Our boy was home !”
Bill REA, a cousin to the family and a nephew to George by one of his brothers, shot and killed seven Ku Klux Klan’s men in Kentucky shortly after the Civil War and fled to Arkansas to escape being hung. Even though he spelled his name WRAY he also didn’t claim to be kin. It was his sister who was a year older who loaded the guns for him.
George wrote a letter to the family in Kentucky saying he would be safe.
(Ralph R. REA) After the War, George returned to his home on the Flat Woods, rebuilt his farm and in the following years added a cotton gin and a general store. A post office named Mountain Spring was established at his store and George was appointed postmaster.
(material from “Boone County and its People”) by Ralph R. Rea
In 1874 a mail route had been created from Yellville to Fayetteville. This first route was carried on horse back with rest stations about every twenty miles. At each station a fresh animal waited, curried and saddled. The writer’s grandfather was postmaster at Mountain Spring while the route was in operation, and one of the rest stops was at that office. My father had the job of caring for the mounts. He has told me that mules were used on the route, and they were ridden so hard in order to maintain schedules that they were always in very bad condition.
Ralph R. Rea: While still in his teens George’s son, George F. “Bud”, began driving freight wagons from his father’s store to Springfield, Missouri. These were the years when the Arkansas Hill Country was a favorite hiding place for the JAMES Brothers and
their cousins the YOUNGERs. These outlaws were well known to George W. REA, who had served with them in the Confederate Forces.
Actually the JAMES boys had been his neighbors back in Kentucky before the War and were distant relatives. On a few occasions some of these outlaws spent the night with George W. and Uncle Bud often told the story of the night Jim YOUNGER came to visit.
(material from “Boone County and its People”) by Ralph R. Rea
The general lawless condition in the hill country made this section particularly inviting as a hideout for fugitives. At one time, shortly after the war, Jim Younger spent the night with my grandparents. My father remembered it quite well, and he described Younger to me as being a well dressed and well mannered man. Not till years later did grandpa tell of his guest’s identity, probably because he had served with Younger during Price’s Raid into Missouri, and wanted to protect him. When on this raid grandpa and Younger had been in the advance guard under Colonel Sam Hildebrand.
This regiment was one of the roughest outfits in the Trans-Mississippi Command. Somehow grandpa always seemed to me to be out
of place with these men, for he was a kind old fellow who was friendly toward everyone. He showed a deep kindness for all the
animals on his farm, and I never knew of him killing anything domestic or wild that he didn’t actually need. So, I just couldn’t
picture him as fitting into Hildebrand’s regiment, which was a spawning place for so many post-war outlaws and renegades.
Hildebrand, himself, was a ruthless killer, having killed more than eighty men. Some of these murders were alleged to have been done after the war, because of wrongs done against members of Hildebrand’s family. As a result the State of Missouri put a price
on his head, so he came to Arkansas where he lived for some time under an assumed name. While in Arkansas, as a fugitive, he spent a day and night with my grandfather, and in his case, as in the case of Younger, the identity of the guest was not divulged until
years later. My father was able to recall part of the conversation that took place between Hildebrand and grandpa. Much of the talk
was about mutual acquaintances and the war, but the one thing that made the strongest impression on papa’s mind was one sentence by Hildebrand. “George,” he remarked in a low voice, “They’re purty hot after me. It looks like I’m goin’ to have to take to the Sni Hills agin.” (This statement no doubt had reference to the Sni-a-bar, which was at that time a favorite hiding place for renegades.
The location is in Central Missouri, east of Kansas City.)
(material given to Tommie REA, son of Jessie and Mollie REA, by Hugh Dinsmore REA, son of George Washington REA, 8
May 1968)
In 1890 (ca) George W. REA’s general store and cotton gin burned down almost taking George’s life savings with it. A neighbor cattleman loaned George $ 10,000 ( May have been $ 1,000 ) to get back on his feet, without a promissory note ! The man died before the debt was completely paid, George had $300 to pay off. George then spoke to the son about the debt and offered to write a promissory note for the $300, but the son refused to accept it (too)!
George paid off the rest of the debt.
(Ralph R. REA) During these years he (George W. REA) sired eleven more children — in all, fifteen, by two wives; his first wife, Rebecca Luina ROSS, died in 1878 and he married (Margaret) Lurama EVANS, who bore his six youngest children.
George moved from the Flat Woods during the 1880’s, first to a farm up Crooked Creek, near Walnut Grove, then to a farm on Bear
Creek, three miles below Bear Springs. After a few years residence on Bear Creek he sold this place and moved to the Lick Branch
Community east of Alpena. He lived there till his death in 1926.
1900 Federal Census for Boone county Arkansas 1900 Jackson townshop Dwelling 161
William M. Awlston (ALSTON)
born Jun 1840 age 59 married 40 TN ? ?
Mahaley T.
born Apr 1838 age 61 married 40 TN NC NC
Roena
born Mar 1878 age 22 single AR TN TN
*****Charles H. **********************************
born May 1880 age 20 single MO TN TN
William HOPPER boarder
born Feb 1882 age 18 single MO MO MO
Dwelling 162
John Mysinger
born Feb 1861 age 39 married 13 TN ? ?
Frances C. (Frances Cordelia ALSTON)
born May 1865 age 35 married 13 TN TN TN
*****Lydia B.**(Lydia Belle REA)************************
born Mar 1890 age 10 single AR TN TN
Josiah
born Mar 1892 age 8 single AR TN TN
Dwelling 163
Robert J. Mitchell
born Sep 1824 age 75 married x NC VA NC
Martha E. ( Martha EVANS) (PILLOW)
born Apr 1854 age 46 married x MI NC VA
*****Essie E. PILLOW step daughter********************
born Jun 1885 age 14 single AR TN MI
(Abija Lee REA married Essie Edna Pillow and when she died he married Lydia Belle Mysinger)
1900 Federal Census for Boone county Arkansas 1900
Jackson township
Dwelling 166
George W. Ray (REA)
born Aug 1832 age 67 married 21 KY TN NC
Margaret A. (EVANS)
born Sep 1850 age 49 married 21 MI NC TN
Robert M.
born Aug 1879 age 20 AR KY MI
Ivy A.
born Feb 1884 age 16 AR KY MI
Mary R.
born Feb 1890 age 10 AR KY MI
Hugh D.
born Mar 1892 age 8 AR KY MI
Dwelling 167
William (Henry) REA (son of George W. REA)
born Sep 1870 age 29 married 11 AR KY TN
Ina B. (Ina Belle Henry)
born age 27 married 11 MI
Garland
born Nov 1893 age 6 AR AR MI
Atha
born Jun 1895 age 4 AR AR MI
Gordon
born Oct 1897 age 2 AR AR MI
James
born Nov 1899 age 1/2 AR AR MI
1900 Federal Census for Boone county Arkansas 1900
Long Creek township
Dwelling 276
Theodore C. REA
born Oct 1857 age 42 married 22 KY KY TN
Martha A. (Martha Alice INMAN)
born Aug 1863 age 36 married 22 MO KY KY
Mattie
born Apr 1881 age 19 single AR KY MO
*****Abija L. (Lee)************************************
born Aug 1883 age 16 single MO KY MO
Susie J.
born Jul 1889 age 10 single ID KY MO
Lydia R.
born Feb 1893 age 7 single AR KY MO
Martin E. (Edmund)
born Aug 1898 age 1 single AR KY MO
(material given to Tommie REA, son of Jessie and Mollie REA, by Hugh Dinsmore REA, son of George Washington REA, 8 May 1968)
The family photo of 10 Aug 1904 was taken at Bear Creek (AR) six miles from Fred INMAN’s. The REA family moved to the property now owned by Fred INMAN on Thanksgiving Day in 1908.
(This material is taken from a letter written by Jessie and Mollie REA 24 Sep 1967)
After this lady’s death George W. REA married Miss R. EVANS (Margaret Rhuamah EVANS) in 1878 and completed his family with the birth of Hugh, our beloved windbag who lives now at Meridian, ID.
(Ed) When Great Grandpa George Washington REA was getting up in years Hugh Dinsmore REA was a little fellow. Hugh would get in trouble with his mother and he would take off on a run. Great Grandpa would say ” Run you little devil, run. If you don’t get
out from underneath the petticoat government you will never amount to anything ! ”
(material given to Tommie REA, son of Jessie and Mollie REA, by Hugh Dinsmore REA, son of George Washington REA, 8 May 1968)
In 1906 or 07 George came back to KY with Bud (son) to visit again.
(letter dated 30 Jan 1986 from Jessie and Mollie REA to Orville and Marijane REA)
In the George Washington REA family picture, Uncle Hugh was age 12, it was G.W.’s 72nd birthday. Jessie said, “Every year on
Grandpa’s birthday the children would come by and they would have a ‘dinner on the ground.'” Jessie says he knew all the folks in the
picture.
(Ralph R. REA) He (George W. REA) was the oldest citizen in the Lick Branch Community during the last years of his life and was
honored with a community celebration on his birthday each August 10th.
These events were attended by many descendents, neighbors, and friends. There was always a sumptous picnic with singing and
usually a sermon or two by neighborhood preachers.
(Ed) Great Grandpa George Washington REA smoked home rolled cigars. He had oak fence posts around the yard. The gate posts were oak. He went to the house to do something and laid his cigar on the top of the gate post. When he came back the gate post was burned down. A few days later he was sitting in his chair smoking a cigar and he went to sleep. The cigar fell in his lap and burned a hole in his suit. He said, “By Thunder, that’s enough!” and he quit smoking. They called him “By Thunder” Rea. He lived to be 94 years old.
(Ralph R. REA) When George W. REA died in 1926, his funeral was as he had wished it to be. He was prepared for burial by the
women of the family. His coffin was made by one of his sons from a large walnut tree that had stood in his front yard, and which a few
years earlier he had cut and cured for the purpose. His grave was dug by his grandsons. He was interred with a graveside Masonic
Funeral.
From a letter written to Orville and Marijane REA by Ruth Rea BAKER, Fayetteville, AR Nov 3, 1986
… I’d better bring this to a halt and add a sort of profile of Uncle Francis. He has no member of his family left living that I know about. His oldest daughter married and had one son, but didn’t show up to claim Ross’ estate when Ross died. One daughter died young and neither son had any children.
Best regards
Ruth
Francis Marion REA was born in Kentucky. He had a little coat and a quilt that Mammy Mary made for him. He had those buried with him. He was about eight years old when the Civil War started. He had a little gun and powder and shot so he hunted and furnished the meat they had to eat. His young life was rather of a burden on one so young so he was always rather solemn.
He was better off than most of his brothers and sisters and was the one who let them have money when they were in a tight spot.
He always turned his back when he opened his purse. He was also the preacher in the family and nearly always preached at Grandpa’s (George Washington REA) birthday gathering. He had a captive audience, and I’ll add that he wasn’t a very good preacher.
He turned to religion and preaching because of an incident of his youth that he got to brooding about in his later years.
He went to Texas to work on a railroad to earn a little cash. There, a Mexican, a much older man, teased or demeaned him and made his life miserable. Also I think the Mexican stole from him. In a quarrel Uncle Francis killed the Mexican with a pick-ax. He brooded about that so much that he decided that, he might get forgiveness if he served the Lord as he saw it.
I must say that he lived strictly by his belief. I visited there a time or two on Sunday. Not one bite of food was cooked on
Sunday. What one had was cooked the day before. The stock was cared for but people didn’t work on Sunday. Cold fried eggs and cold fried potatoes and cold biscuits for breakfast isn’t a very tasty meal.
He was a good man and always very kind to me. He always said of me, “She’s the pick of the litter.” What greater compliment
could one have ?
The reason older people liked me was that I was quiet and generally sitting somewhere reading, or reading the walls. Most of
the houses were papered with newspaper. I must say it was a bit frustrating to start an interesting article on the wall and have it
continued on the ceiling or on the side next the wall.
You spoke about not being able to trace the REA’s back of James REA. Did I tell you that when Ralph (R. REA) visited George
Washington’s ancestral home in England and found a book that listed the REAs among the first 400 colonists, and about the same time as the Washington’s ?
Washington was not the family name in England. He was of Norman-French ancestry and the estate’s name was WESSINGTON. His ancestor was “somename” of WESSINGTON. So the family called themselves Washington when they came here, and I think that the REAs settled in Virginia.
George Washington (REA) said that his great grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War. He was in the battle at Brandywine Ford according to George W. That may not help your quest any.
There’s a Reaville ( I believe that’s the name ) just across the channel from Belfast.
There’s a Lord REA in the house of Lords that Ralph talked with. He said that his branch of the family was the only one raised
to the peerage. I think Queen Anne raised that branch to the peerage. John REA was Prime Minister during her reign. And REA is
the spelling of our family.
Ralph went to the cemetery in England and read some of the old tombstones.
Jack, my brother Rex’s son, said that there were 60 REAs in Belfast with telephones. Private telephones in Ireland were not so
common then. So the REAs seem to have been around a long time.
Perhaps none of this will be of any help but it may be of interest.
Edith (Ralph’s wife) said that just inside the cemetery gate in Concord, I think it was, was a Revolutionary War soldier’s stone, Captain Richard REA ! I can find out if that’s the right place if it will be of any help. That far back we must be of the same family.
I’d better stop now so I’ll have enough paper to answer another letter or two that I owe.
Ruth
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from an article in the Idaho Statesman by Dianne Whitacre
On the go in Meridian, Hugh REA makes his rounds … at 84, he says he’ll rust up if he slows down.
MERIDIAN ‘S FAMILIAR 84-YEAR-OLD
‘OL’ HUGH’ GETS AROUND
Meridian- They call him “ol’ Hugh,” and the 84-year-old ex-cowpoke is as familiar a sight in downtown Meridian as the
creamery smokestack. He patrols the two main streets, East First and Idaho, watching over things and stopping for talks with other strollers.
Hugh REA came to Meridian from Boone County, Ark., during the Depression. The first time he visited a sister. The second time he stayed for good, giving up his job at the Ozark Canning Co. where he was a big man in tomatoes. He was handy with a hammer and, after cowpoking about 12 to 15 years around McCall, became an Idaho carpenter.
He says he’s been retired only about a year and a half. But he’s not retired from walking: up from his one-room house on Idaho,
down East First, watching traffic, watching the town, always ready for a talk, a joke or a story about his dam-building days with
Morrison-Knudsen, breaking broncs in Texas or his family back home.
” I talk to a lot of people,” he said. ” Maybe too much. I eat my meals at Pat’s and go to the pool hall on Sundays to watch. I
don’t play and I don’t like to stay long and breathe the smoke, so I go outside. ”
Sundays, when Meridian is quiet, few people are on the streets to talk with. But weekdays are better, and Hugh REA sandwiches his walks between his three meals at Pat’s, a cafe on East First.
” I’ve known Pat and his wife since the ’30s,” said the old-timer. ” I don’t impose on them but they think nothing’s too good for me.”
Hugh has become part of Meridian’s character and if he isn’t seen making his regular rounds, somebody goes to check on him.
It happened more than once. When Hugh misses a meal at his favorite restaurant a waitress is sent to look for him, to make sure he hasn’t had an accident.
One winter day , he slipped a block from his home, stumbled over a curb and bent a bank parking lot sign that he says is still crooked. His hip was broken and he was ” laid up in the hospital for a coon’s age.”
It left him with a limp and he carries a cane but Hugh says that fall keeps him going.
” If I had sat down, I’d be crippled by now,” he said. ” These walks do me more good than medicine.”
(Ed) Hugh used to stay with my folks. (Rainier) I think we were in Portland then. ( 1943-46 ) He died in Meridian.
(See newspaper story ) I met him over in Meridian when I was still single (prior 1936).
from an article in the Idaho Statesman by Glenn Cruickshank
COMMITTMENT HEARING HELD
WHAT HAPPENED TO HUGH ?
One of Meridian’s most well-known residents has left the town he has known for the last fifty years. He may never be back.
Nearly everyone who lived in town more than two weeks had probably seen him, if not talked to him. He walked up and down E.
1st St. every day of the year, rain or shine, or he could be found sitting in Pat’s Cafe, drinking coffee.
But on Sept. 1, Hugh REA, 87, was admitted, under a court order, to the Nampa Convalescent Center. The wiry white-haired man
with the cane, shuffling down Merdian sidewalks, had grown old.
Age, and its companion effects, had overtaken his youth. Hugh probably didn’t want to go to the center, but it was beyond his control.
Local residents had noticed that for the last several months, Hugh was becoming more and more forgetful and confused about his
surroundings.
In late July, several of REA’s cousins, state Health and Welfare caseworkers, Meridian police chief Gary Green, Ada County
prosecuter David Leroy and several Meridian businessmen informally met to try and figure out how he would be cared for if his
condition deteriorated further. His relatives, who are elderly themselves, did not want to be appointed his guardian, according to
Green.
On August 26, Hugh showed up for coffee at Pat’s Cafe. He ordered, then his voice became loud and abusive. The Meridian
Police were called, and he was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge. The plan created at the July meeting was put into action.
He was booked into Ada County Jail, held there briefly, then taken to the mental health unit at St. Alphonsus’ Hospital.
Hugh was given a number of Psychiatric tests by a court-appointed psychiatrist, and then a mental committment hearing
was held. It was ruled that he was not capable of taking care of himself and longer, said Green. Six days after the incident at Pat’s Hugh was admitted to the Nampa Convalescent Center.
His mind and body are showing the effects of 87 years of living according to center administrator Gary Kelso, and he may
spend the rest of his days in the nursing home. ” He’s adapted pretty well here,” said Kelso, ” but he’s somewhat confused.”
Hugh has been a fixture in Meridian for many, many years, and he was one of Pat’s most regular customer’s. “For the last twenty
years, he had three meals a day in here,” said Ruth Fowler, who with her husband, Pat, own the cafe. “He wanted bacon and eggs for
breakfast, and had hamburgers or fishwiches with french fries for lunch and dinner. He also loved cole slaw.” She said Hugh would
also come in at least a dozen times a day for coffee.
As for the meal checks, Hugh would pay them if he had the money, sometimes his friends would, and sometimes Pat’s would pick
up the tab. Numerous times the regular’s at the cafe would chip into a fund to buy Hugh a coat, a hat or a shirt.
And if he was ever late showing up for his meals, or if the waitresses there hadn’t seen him for a day or so, someone would
walk over to his little one-room house tucked behind a building at the corner of E. 1st St. and E. Idaho and check to see if he was
alright.
He had been in fairly good physical health, said his friends, although he had a heart condition. Several years ago he fell and
broke his hip.
Most of his friends don’t know too much about his background. Pat Fowler says Hugh came to town in 1932 from Arkansas. Gary Green said he thinks Hugh was a carpenter and rancher in his earlier years and later got by by doing odd jobs.
“He was a nice old guy, a good old boy,” said Ruth Fowler, with a trace of sadness in her voice, ” We miss him.”
(Ed) Aunt Sarepta had a salve she made up that was supposed to cure external cancer. She used it on a lot of people. They told me the doctors up around Boise would send some of their cancer patients out to see her. She had part of a guy’s skull she had taken out, as a cancer treatment.
Pearl YOUNG, Uncle Vester’s (KINDALL) daughter had a cancer taken off her finger by Aunt Sarepta.
(Myrtle) Pearl said it hurt, they put the medicine on her finger and it hurt, she walked the fence line and walked the fence line her finger hurt so bad. After the cancer came off you could see how the cancer had left her finger deformed.
(Ed) Sarepta took a cancer off Uncle Vester’s nose. He said the thing stuck out an inch to an inch and a half before it finally
turned loose and came off.
I think she got the recipe from the Indians down in the Okalahoma Territory. No doubt someone in the family still has the
recipe. I don’t think she died with it.
(Myrtle) Someone should have it analyzed. It may have an ingredient that has been overlooked. Occasionally they do find
remedies that the Indians used that are quite acceptable.
(Ed) If I remember right they said the salve smelled like cherry pits, the smell you get when you break open a cherry pit.
When Pearl had that cancer taken off her finger she said it hurt so bad she walked day and night. They had a 40 acre place and
she walked every bit of it.
(*) Theodore Columbus REA 1857
(M) 28 Feb 1878 Martha Alice INMAN
dau Minnie E REA 17 Mar 1879 Harrison AR
died 1 Feb 1884 (5) unwed
dau Mattie Luina REA 6 Apr 1881 Harrison AR
died 14 Aug 1914 (33) unwed
(*) son Abija Lee REA 11 Aug 1883 Greenfield MO
dau Susie Jane REA 19 Jul 1889 Troy ID
dau Lydia Rhuamah REA 19 Feb 1893 Harrison AR
son Edmund Martin REA 12 Aug 1898 Harrison AR
(Lex) Granddad (Theodore Columbus REA) was born in Kentucky. He moved to Missouri, Arkansas, Idaho, Arkansas, then to Idaho again. It seems like there was gypsy blood in the REA family. Every time they found an empty house they moved in.
(Ed) It was cheaper than paying rent.
(Lex) Granddad (Theodore Columbus) REA moved the family from Arkansas to Troy, Idaho. In fact Aunt Susie was born there (19 July 1889). Dad was just a little guy (age six in 1889).
(Lex) Granddad was working in the harvest and a big guy got to giving him a bad time. He took it for quite a while but one day he told the big guy, ” I know I can’t whip you but maybe if I cut you down to my size I can.” He pulled out a knife and put a stop to the bad time. The fellow left him alone after that.
(Lex) From Troy they went back to Arkansas. The next time they came out to Idaho Dad and Mom were married. That was considerably later. They settled in the Boise valley.
(Lex) I remember Aunt Mettie. She died in 1914. In a case like that, the skills they have now, they could have corrected her trouble. She had heart trouble all her life.
Moved to Idaho
End Chapter 1
