John Cooper
John Cooper came to Cedar Creek settlement, near Havana, Yell County, AR. between 1811 and 1813. This was during the time of the New Madrid, MO. Earthquake. He came down the Mississippi River on a barge from North Carolina. He was on the water when the water flowed upstream for a time during the earthquake.
This barge was of walnut logs and carried 22 slaves, cows, oxen, and horses. The route taken was via Key West, FL. and New Orleans, LA., up the Mississippi River into the Arkansas River. John Cooper's barge docked between Ozark, AR. and Poplar Bluff, AR., which was near Dardanelle, Yell County, AR. They crossed the mountains with their cows, horses and oxen and settled on the south side of Cedar Creek.
It was here John Cooper purchased a plantation that consisted of several hundred acres, which was later broken into several small farms and sold to Victor and Claude McBride, John Moudy and others. The Smith Cemetery is part of that original land grant.
The only inhabitants of this area at that time were Indians who were friendly. Supplies came once a year from New Orleans up the Mississippi River to the Arkansas River at Dardanelle and then by oxen wagons to Cedar Creek.
Martha Ann Cooper
During the Civil War grandma Martha was alerted quickly one day by someone keeping watch that the Union soldiers were coming into their house. She was pregnant and not too far from delivery, so she got into bed and pretended to be having labor pains. The Union Soldiers thought she was having the baby and left her alone. The baby was probably Theodocia Smith or William H. Smith.
Mathias Harrelson Smith
The Mathias Smith family buried all their valuable belongings of silver, hams of meat, etc. to keep the Union Army from getting them during the Civil War. The soldiers came to their smoke house one day to get the meat and it was gone. They dug up the dirt under where the meat cured and boiled it to get the salt.
John Dutton Smith
John D. Smith was a very inquisitive person; therefore his descendants were often called �John Dutton� when they would ask a lot of questions about anything.
Polly Dixon Smith
Aunt Polly loved to fish. She fished nearly everyday and would dip snuff quite frequently. She had a dog-named Penny that went fishing with her.
William Heffington
About a year after the Civil War, an old man and an old woman came by Havana in a covered wagon and asked for �Cal� Heffington, who was about 14 years old at that time. The man told Cal that he was with Cal�s father during the Civil War when Bill Heffington was bushwhacked. The man said he and Wild Bill were separated during a war skirmish. Later he went back to look for Wild bill and found him wounded. Wild Bill asked the man to tell his family what had happened to him. The man related the story of how he buried Wild Bill himself in the area where he was wounded.
Aristobulus Heffington
Uncle Aristobulus Heffington lived in the area of Chickalah, Yell County, AR. It was said by a Mrs. Pennington that she loved to hear him pray in church because he led beautiful prayers. Most all of the Heffington�s were members of the Church of Christ.
Elam Heffington
Mr. Elam Heffington of Nashville, Tennessee said he visited with Aristobulus and Frank Heffington in 1944 in San Francisco to get family information.
Mattie Elizabeth Heffington
Mattie lived with her grandmother, Mary Ann McBride Carroll, and an uncle after her mother Nancy Madora Carroll Heffington died in 1891. She lived with them until she attended boarding school, which was Magazine High School. They lived near the foot of Magazine Mountain. Grandma Mattie said she could hear the wolves and other wild animals that roamed the area not too far away. Her grandmother comforted her. The house they lived in was papered in newspaper. Mattie was engaged to Charlie Wiggins at one time. They were in school together at Ouichita Academy. Charlie at one time had Typhoid Fever and survived. He died in McAlister, OK. in a gas explosion. Mattie then met Dennis Sherman Farmer at a teacher�s convention and later married him, spending the rest of her days with him.
Mary Ann McBride
Grandma Carroll�s husband died of measles probably during the Civil War because she received a pension when Mattie Heffington lived with her.
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