The Coker Clan
by Lynn Morrow and used with his permission!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------
Lynn Morrow is Supervisor of the Local Records Program for the Missouri State Archives, and Editor of the White River Valley Historical Quarterly. Part of this article, in somewhat longer form, appeared in the Spring, 1990, Quarterly.
The Coker clan was not immune to violent passions. In 1854 Joe Coker's son George rode his horse into the house of his brother-in-law Jake Nave (whose wife Sally Coker had recently died), intending to kill him, but Nave was quicker and shot George Coker dead. For a time, Nave lived in the bluff at the mouth of Shoal Creek and in a bluff on Little North Fork where brothers John and Abe Nave, and others, protected him.
On another occasion, two of Joe Coker's other sons resorted to lethal violence. John Coker killed his brother-in-law Jim Churchman and when Marion County sheriff Billy Brown intervened, Randolph Coker killed Brown. The two Coker boys were chained together in the Yellville jail, but someone entered the cell, cut the chain, and the Cokers made their escape.
The Cokers also participated in a kind of informal community justice. In 1858 Ben Jacobs, a wealthy South Carolinian, his wife, small infant, and slaves, moved to Shoal Creek. One of the slaves, however, revealed that Jacobs had run away and left several small children in South Carolina. River Bill Coker made a written inquiry and received word of the truth of the story. A neighborhood committee confronted Jacobs and read the written response from South Carolina. Jacobs admitted his part and River Bill Coker and the committee suggested that the Jacobs people leave Marion County, which they did.
River Bill Coker, James C. Turnbo (Silas' father), and others hired men to teach subscription schools. Students included Silas Turnbo and George W. Coker, River Bill's son. George W. Coker founded a mercantile in Harrison and later became a leading merchant in Lead Hill. George hired teamsters that followed the historic north-south wagon trade between Springfield and White River traders.
Buck Coker's eldest son Joe (1787-1862), remembered for his two Cherokee wives and cohabitation with other women, is a famous character in White River lore, and something of an entrepreneur in Turnbo's reminiscences. He was the "first citizen" of what became Lead Hill as he owned a large block of the Sugar Loaf Prairie. He built a small corn mill there and operated a corn whiskey still, and like all the early Cokers, owned herds of stock that fed on cane in the White River bottoms. Joe donated ground for a combined school and church and adjacent cemetery; in 1849 he had logs hauled from the prairies for the building. At his death in 1862 only a lone slave woman attended his bedside. He was buried in an unmarked grave at Lead Hill.
Some of the Cokers and their neighbors Turnbo referred to as "rustlers in the occupation of hunting and [they] killed all the game they wanted." Their kill was for local consumption, but also for the trade in pelts and skins. Besides marketing stock downriver and northward, the easiest money lies in market hunting. Bryant's Lick, a famous hunting ground several miles south of Carrollton, Arkansas, attracted Coker men. In the Territorial years of Arkansas buffalo and elk made a trail there to taste the saline dirt. Buck Coker's grandson Len and Great-grandson Joe frequented the lick and Turnbo reported a deer kill of 40 each in one fortuitous day. These skins would have paid for taxes, land, stock, or manufactured goods at regional mercantiles.
Joe Coker was the "Mr. Coker" whom Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864) mentioned several times in his Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansas in 1818 and 1819.
In July, 1861, volunteers for the Confederate army were called to Yellville. A company of men raised in Marion and southern Taney County responded. Captain William C. Mitchell, long-time successful politician in Carroll County, commanded the group which later formed part of the 14th regiment of Arkansas Infantry. The soldiers marched through the streets of Yellville accompanied by the violin music of Dan and "Yellville Bill" Coker. But by war's end the grim toll in lives and property had stunned all. Ned and River Bill Cokers' houses were burned, Ned was tortured with fire and hanging. Both father and son died in Missouri. In spring, 1865, Bushwhackers shot and killed "Dud" Coker while he planted his spring corn. Fortunately, patriarch Buck Coker, who died in 1855 nearing 90 years of age, did not see the years of Civil War. Like numerous slaveholding southerners, the War destroyed their property and they lost lives and futures in the Great Conflict
From Ancestry.com Family Tree informaitonCynthia Rogers wife of Bill Coker (aunt to Will Rogers)
Cynthia Rogers third wife of Joe Coker
Cynthia Rogers married Joseph Coker, John Crump and John Lowe - she was the daughter of Capt Jack - John Hellfire Rogers and Elizabeth Coody; Capt Jack was the SON of Chief John Hellfire Rogers Sr. and Elizabeth Emory. He was a BROTHER to Tiana Rogers who married Sam Houston. They were siblings of my 5th great grandmother Aky Rogers, wife of Chief George Hicks who lead the Trail of Tears through Ft. Smith. WILL ROGERS was the son of Clement Rogers and Mary Schrimscher; Clement was the son of Roger Rogers and Sallie Vann, Roger was the son of Roger Choastee Rogers and Lucy Soonicooie.
BEFORE LEAD HILL WAS A TOWN
By S. C. Turnbo
Yellville Bill Coker built the first dwelling house and the first store house and sold the first goods where Lead Hill Boone County, Ark. now is. When the town first started up it was called Center Point. This was in 1868. Yellville Bill Coker married Miss Mary Trimble daughter of Allin Trimble in 1862. After the death of Mr. Coker his widow married James King son of old Uncle Boby King. Mrs. King died at Harrison Arkansas October 9th 1906 and is buried In the cemetery there. She was born on her fathers old home place on the right bank of White River In Franklin township Marion County Ark. May 15, 1846. Bill Coker her first husband received interment in the Lead Hill Cemetery. A number of years before the town of Lead Hill had a beginning, Mrs. Ainey Coker Indian wife of Joe Coker lived in a log cabin on the Marion Wilmoth land. Cherokee Joe Coker lived in a small cabin near the Big Spring below where Lead Hill is but after this Joe built a better house of hewed pine logs that he hauled from the Pineries. Mr. R. S. Halet who was born in Cannon County Tennessee March 25 1832 and has lived on White River and near it since 1839 gives me the following account of going to school one term where Lead Hill now is several years before the breaking out of the civil war. The school was taught by a man of the name of Rumsey in a small log hut which stood on the north side of the hollow where the Kelly Spring is and we used water out of this spring. The teacher was from Saint Louis Missouri. I remember that the teacher got drunk before he received his pay for teaching the school and when he was able to travel he went back to Saint Louis and never come back any more, being ashamed to return back to face his students after getting dog drunk, he sent word for those oweing him to send him his pay which they did. Mr. Halet said that among the other students who attended this school were Betty and Jane McCord sisters of Dave McCord. Tom Stalbings and his sister Sarah Stallings and Bill Flirppo. Also Jim and Mich Coker sons of "Prairie" Bill Coker and little Jim Coker son of Cherokee Joe Coker, and Mary Ann Coker daughter of Joe Coker and his Indian wife Mrs. Ainey Coker, two other sons of Joe Coker also went to this school whose given names were Dan and Henderson. Dan Coker was afterward a famed violinist.
A PART OF AN ACCOUNT OF THE COKER FAMILY BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
By S. C. Turnbo
The Coker family belongs to the oldest Pioneer race of people in Northwest Arkansas. We have mentioned elsewhere that Buck Coker settled at the lower end of the Jake Nave Bend of White River in what is now Boone County Ark. in January 1815. Joe Coker was Buck Cokers eldest child. He married a white woman in Alabama and two daughters, Betsey and Sallie were born of this marriage. Soon after the death of this woman he married an Indian woman of the name of Ainey and the issue of this marriage were "Prairie" Bill, Herrod, "Little" Joe, Daniel the fiddler, Laferty Coon who was a confederate soldier and was killed at Port Husdon. The daughters were Rebecca, Jane and Mary Ann. Joe Coker brought this Indian wife with him to White River in 1814 and as we have mentioned elsewhere he lived in the Sugar Loaf Country in Boone County, Ark. After Mr. Coker come to Northwest Arkansas he taken unto himself another Indian woman by the name of Cynthia. By this illegal marriage there were born John, George and Randolph. George was killed by Jake Nave in the Jake Nave Bend of White River and Randolph killed sheriff Billy Brown near the village of Dubugue. Herrod married Miss Polly Orr. Sallie married John Carter. Betsey married "Squirrel" Bill Wood. Rebecca married Bill Daniels. Jane married George Hogan. Mary Ann married Bob Trimble. Ned Coker another son of Buck Coker married Winnie Yocum daughter of Solomon Yocum. Their offsprings were "River" Bill whose first wife was Peggie daughter of Wm. Holt and Sallie who married Jake Nave. Among "River" Bills Cokers children by his first wife for he was married the second time are George who was born in 1850 and is one of the leading merchants of Lead Hill Ark. and Winnie who married Bill Magness son of Sam Magness and Nina who married Eph Kelly who was postmaster at Lead Hill many years. William Coker another son of Buck Coker was also married and had several children but his wife name is forgotten. His children were "Yellville" Bill a noted fiddler and a confederate soldier and the first merchant of Lead Hill Ark. and Ned who was a volunteer in the American Army and fought through the war with Mexico and returned back home. There was also another son named Charles. The daughters were Sallie who married Tom Brown and he died at the foot of bluff on the east side of the mouth of Trimbles Creek in Marion County, Ark. Some years after the death of Brown she married Allin Trimble and Malinda who married South foot (Will) Bill Woods who built a mill on Georges Creek 6 ½ miles north of Yellville and Nancy who married Lize Wood who settled the Arch Anderson farm near Dodd City Ark. and Jane who married "Rosin" Bill Wood and Abbie who married Jim Churchman and John Coker killed him and while Sheriff Billy Brown made an attempt to arrest him for this crime Randolph Coker shot and killed Brown. Charles Coker another son of Buck Coker married a daughter of Shawnee Berry Jim Trimble. Her name is forgotten. Their children were "Wagoner" Bill and Lenard who was another fiddler and Ned who went to Texas in an early day and Joe who was the youngest and also was a confederate soldier. After the death of Charles Cokers first wife he married Betsey Friend daughter of Jake Friend and a sister of Peter Friend. The issue of this marriage was Lucinda who married Henry Nipps and after his death she married Tom Boatright and Mahala who married "Dock" Boatright and Polly who married Henry Wiggins, and Betsey who married Bill Manley, Tom Boatright and his wife went from Marion County Ark. to Missouri in time of the Civil War and I was told that they both froze to death one bitter cold night. Henry Wiggins died in the cane bottom on White River a short distance above the mouth of Little North Fork during the war and was buried by women at the foot of the bluff and lies buried there in a lone grave. Three of Wiggin’s children Joe Robert and Billier buried in the Asa Yocum graveyard opposite the Bull Bottom. Katie daughter of Buck Coker married Girard Leiper Brown who was killed on the Arkansas River. Their off springs were Tom, Alex, Robert, Becca, and Catherine. The latter married Tom Magness son of Joe Magness after the death of Magness she married Pew C. Anderson and she died leaving little Tommy Anderson who was reared by his aunt Beeca who lived at the mouth of Becca’s Branch on White River just below the mouth of Trimbles Creek. Little Tommy was a school mate of the writer in 1854. He died in 1867 and is buried in the graveyard opposite the Panther Bottom. Katie the widow of Girard Leiper Brown died in the same house that stood at the foot of the bluff as mentioned where her son Tom Brown died.
Sallie another daughter of Buck Cokers married William Trimble in Alabama and they moved to White River in what is now Marion County Ark. as early as 1814. The issue of this marriage were Dicy the oldest who married Jim Wood and after his death she married John Nave. I am reliably informed that one day during a continued spell of sickness she sank so low that the family supposed that life was extinct and they laid her out for dead but to their great joy she revived, and Mary Jane who married Aba Nave, she lies buried in the graveyard at the mouth of Brattons Spring Creek, and Allin who we have mentioned so often in these sketches elsewhere will not be repeated here. Soon after William Trimble was killed on White River Mrs. Sallie Trimble married Mike Yocum and the fruit of this marriage were Asa, Jake, Harve, William, Mike and Sallie. Asa was the oldest and was born in 1819 and was killed during the Civil War and was buried in the cemetery on his old farm on White River opposite the Bull Bottom and 3 miles from Peel Ark. The place is known now as the Bill Treadway land. The graveyard is on a beautiful low ridge like formation of land between White River and a little shallow valley of a hollow, and is just across from where the lane was from the old Asa Yocum dwelling, the house and lane of which has been done away with many years ago. Asa Yocum married Miss Elize Denison, the fruit of this marriage were Mike, Sallie, John, Harve, Nancy and William. I remember that Sallie married John Piland in 1860 and lived on Little Creek In Ozark County, Mo. and both died there during the war. Nancy married H. H. Perkins who served two terms as sheriff of Marion County, Ark. A few years after the death of Asa Yocum his widow married Pew C. Anderson. She is dead now: on the 7 of November 1907 I visited the graveyard at Peel Ark. where she lies buried, to read the inscription on her tombstone which reads "Eliza Anderson Born September 9, 1822 died March 2, 1906. She died in her 85th year. Mrs. Anderson is the oldest person that lies in that cemetery up to the present writing. The next oldest is Andrew J. Langford who was born September 22, 1814 and died July 17, 1894. Refering to some more of Mike Yocums children again Sallie married Calvin Hogan, and William who was born January 12, 1829 and married Miss Nancy Keesee who was born November 11, 1834. They lived on White River In Marion County Ark. William died one day in May 1861 and lies buried in the Asa Yocum graveyard. His grave is boxed up and roofed with slabs of native stone. Jane., the oldest daughter of Buck Coker married Charley Sneed in 1824 which we have mentioned elsewhere.
PIONEER INCIDENTS ON SUGAR LOAF PRAIRIE AND VICINITY
From Manuscripts of S.C. Turnbo
Sugar Loaf Knob in Boone County, Arkansas is a picturesque spot and a noted place. This bald hill is comparatively a low eminence; however it is so situated that an observer commands a fine view from its summit. On the east is Sugar Loaf Creek, fertile farms and a large amount of stone fencing. Most of the farms all along this stream produce fair crops when the temperature and moisture is favorable. Across the valley are hills and hollows interspersed with glades and broken belts of scrub timber. To the right is seen Short Mountain which towers above the surroundings hills. Looking to the north, we get a glimpse of the wooded hills and prairie knobs of Taney County, Missouri. To the west is West Sugar Loaf Creek with its small farms and diligent owners. Just south of the Knob on the bank of East Sugar Loaf Creek, is situated the town of Lead Hill, a prominent trading point.
This town is visited by farmers and others from many miles around to purchase supplies from its busy merchants or transact business with other enterprises of the town. Lead hill has been a noted trading point since 1868, when “Yellville” Bill Coker kept a stock of merchandise here. This was the first start made for a town. Although the Post Office was established in the early 50s at the place known now as the Derry Berry land on Sugar Loaf Creek about two and one half miles above it’s present location, with Elijah Tabor as Post-master. Near one mile below Lead Hill is the Alex Morrow Mill place, which is just below the old Joe Coker Mill site and residence. The Morrow dwelling stood on the east bank of Sugar Loaf just above where the Big Spring flows into the creek. The Morrow Mill has been done away with years ago, but another mill was constructed by another party on the spring branch
by Lynn Morrow and used with his permission!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------
Lynn Morrow is Supervisor of the Local Records Program for the Missouri State Archives, and Editor of the White River Valley Historical Quarterly. Part of this article, in somewhat longer form, appeared in the Spring, 1990, Quarterly.
The Coker clan was not immune to violent passions. In 1854 Joe Coker's son George rode his horse into the house of his brother-in-law Jake Nave (whose wife Sally Coker had recently died), intending to kill him, but Nave was quicker and shot George Coker dead. For a time, Nave lived in the bluff at the mouth of Shoal Creek and in a bluff on Little North Fork where brothers John and Abe Nave, and others, protected him.
On another occasion, two of Joe Coker's other sons resorted to lethal violence. John Coker killed his brother-in-law Jim Churchman and when Marion County sheriff Billy Brown intervened, Randolph Coker killed Brown. The two Coker boys were chained together in the Yellville jail, but someone entered the cell, cut the chain, and the Cokers made their escape.
The Cokers also participated in a kind of informal community justice. In 1858 Ben Jacobs, a wealthy South Carolinian, his wife, small infant, and slaves, moved to Shoal Creek. One of the slaves, however, revealed that Jacobs had run away and left several small children in South Carolina. River Bill Coker made a written inquiry and received word of the truth of the story. A neighborhood committee confronted Jacobs and read the written response from South Carolina. Jacobs admitted his part and River Bill Coker and the committee suggested that the Jacobs people leave Marion County, which they did.
River Bill Coker, James C. Turnbo (Silas' father), and others hired men to teach subscription schools. Students included Silas Turnbo and George W. Coker, River Bill's son. George W. Coker founded a mercantile in Harrison and later became a leading merchant in Lead Hill. George hired teamsters that followed the historic north-south wagon trade between Springfield and White River traders.
Buck Coker's eldest son Joe (1787-1862), remembered for his two Cherokee wives and cohabitation with other women, is a famous character in White River lore, and something of an entrepreneur in Turnbo's reminiscences. He was the "first citizen" of what became Lead Hill as he owned a large block of the Sugar Loaf Prairie. He built a small corn mill there and operated a corn whiskey still, and like all the early Cokers, owned herds of stock that fed on cane in the White River bottoms. Joe donated ground for a combined school and church and adjacent cemetery; in 1849 he had logs hauled from the prairies for the building. At his death in 1862 only a lone slave woman attended his bedside. He was buried in an unmarked grave at Lead Hill.
Some of the Cokers and their neighbors Turnbo referred to as "rustlers in the occupation of hunting and [they] killed all the game they wanted." Their kill was for local consumption, but also for the trade in pelts and skins. Besides marketing stock downriver and northward, the easiest money lies in market hunting. Bryant's Lick, a famous hunting ground several miles south of Carrollton, Arkansas, attracted Coker men. In the Territorial years of Arkansas buffalo and elk made a trail there to taste the saline dirt. Buck Coker's grandson Len and Great-grandson Joe frequented the lick and Turnbo reported a deer kill of 40 each in one fortuitous day. These skins would have paid for taxes, land, stock, or manufactured goods at regional mercantiles.
Joe Coker was the "Mr. Coker" whom Henry Rowe Schoolcraft (1793-1864) mentioned several times in his Journal of a Tour into the Interior of Missouri and Arkansas in 1818 and 1819.
In July, 1861, volunteers for the Confederate army were called to Yellville. A company of men raised in Marion and southern Taney County responded. Captain William C. Mitchell, long-time successful politician in Carroll County, commanded the group which later formed part of the 14th regiment of Arkansas Infantry. The soldiers marched through the streets of Yellville accompanied by the violin music of Dan and "Yellville Bill" Coker. But by war's end the grim toll in lives and property had stunned all. Ned and River Bill Cokers' houses were burned, Ned was tortured with fire and hanging. Both father and son died in Missouri. In spring, 1865, Bushwhackers shot and killed "Dud" Coker while he planted his spring corn. Fortunately, patriarch Buck Coker, who died in 1855 nearing 90 years of age, did not see the years of Civil War. Like numerous slaveholding southerners, the War destroyed their property and they lost lives and futures in the Great Conflict
From Ancestry.com Family Tree informaitonCynthia Rogers wife of Bill Coker (aunt to Will Rogers)
Cynthia Rogers third wife of Joe Coker
Cynthia Rogers married Joseph Coker, John Crump and John Lowe - she was the daughter of Capt Jack - John Hellfire Rogers and Elizabeth Coody; Capt Jack was the SON of Chief John Hellfire Rogers Sr. and Elizabeth Emory. He was a BROTHER to Tiana Rogers who married Sam Houston. They were siblings of my 5th great grandmother Aky Rogers, wife of Chief George Hicks who lead the Trail of Tears through Ft. Smith. WILL ROGERS was the son of Clement Rogers and Mary Schrimscher; Clement was the son of Roger Rogers and Sallie Vann, Roger was the son of Roger Choastee Rogers and Lucy Soonicooie.
BEFORE LEAD HILL WAS A TOWN
By S. C. Turnbo
Yellville Bill Coker built the first dwelling house and the first store house and sold the first goods where Lead Hill Boone County, Ark. now is. When the town first started up it was called Center Point. This was in 1868. Yellville Bill Coker married Miss Mary Trimble daughter of Allin Trimble in 1862. After the death of Mr. Coker his widow married James King son of old Uncle Boby King. Mrs. King died at Harrison Arkansas October 9th 1906 and is buried In the cemetery there. She was born on her fathers old home place on the right bank of White River In Franklin township Marion County Ark. May 15, 1846. Bill Coker her first husband received interment in the Lead Hill Cemetery. A number of years before the town of Lead Hill had a beginning, Mrs. Ainey Coker Indian wife of Joe Coker lived in a log cabin on the Marion Wilmoth land. Cherokee Joe Coker lived in a small cabin near the Big Spring below where Lead Hill is but after this Joe built a better house of hewed pine logs that he hauled from the Pineries. Mr. R. S. Halet who was born in Cannon County Tennessee March 25 1832 and has lived on White River and near it since 1839 gives me the following account of going to school one term where Lead Hill now is several years before the breaking out of the civil war. The school was taught by a man of the name of Rumsey in a small log hut which stood on the north side of the hollow where the Kelly Spring is and we used water out of this spring. The teacher was from Saint Louis Missouri. I remember that the teacher got drunk before he received his pay for teaching the school and when he was able to travel he went back to Saint Louis and never come back any more, being ashamed to return back to face his students after getting dog drunk, he sent word for those oweing him to send him his pay which they did. Mr. Halet said that among the other students who attended this school were Betty and Jane McCord sisters of Dave McCord. Tom Stalbings and his sister Sarah Stallings and Bill Flirppo. Also Jim and Mich Coker sons of "Prairie" Bill Coker and little Jim Coker son of Cherokee Joe Coker, and Mary Ann Coker daughter of Joe Coker and his Indian wife Mrs. Ainey Coker, two other sons of Joe Coker also went to this school whose given names were Dan and Henderson. Dan Coker was afterward a famed violinist.
A PART OF AN ACCOUNT OF THE COKER FAMILY BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL
By S. C. Turnbo
The Coker family belongs to the oldest Pioneer race of people in Northwest Arkansas. We have mentioned elsewhere that Buck Coker settled at the lower end of the Jake Nave Bend of White River in what is now Boone County Ark. in January 1815. Joe Coker was Buck Cokers eldest child. He married a white woman in Alabama and two daughters, Betsey and Sallie were born of this marriage. Soon after the death of this woman he married an Indian woman of the name of Ainey and the issue of this marriage were "Prairie" Bill, Herrod, "Little" Joe, Daniel the fiddler, Laferty Coon who was a confederate soldier and was killed at Port Husdon. The daughters were Rebecca, Jane and Mary Ann. Joe Coker brought this Indian wife with him to White River in 1814 and as we have mentioned elsewhere he lived in the Sugar Loaf Country in Boone County, Ark. After Mr. Coker come to Northwest Arkansas he taken unto himself another Indian woman by the name of Cynthia. By this illegal marriage there were born John, George and Randolph. George was killed by Jake Nave in the Jake Nave Bend of White River and Randolph killed sheriff Billy Brown near the village of Dubugue. Herrod married Miss Polly Orr. Sallie married John Carter. Betsey married "Squirrel" Bill Wood. Rebecca married Bill Daniels. Jane married George Hogan. Mary Ann married Bob Trimble. Ned Coker another son of Buck Coker married Winnie Yocum daughter of Solomon Yocum. Their offsprings were "River" Bill whose first wife was Peggie daughter of Wm. Holt and Sallie who married Jake Nave. Among "River" Bills Cokers children by his first wife for he was married the second time are George who was born in 1850 and is one of the leading merchants of Lead Hill Ark. and Winnie who married Bill Magness son of Sam Magness and Nina who married Eph Kelly who was postmaster at Lead Hill many years. William Coker another son of Buck Coker was also married and had several children but his wife name is forgotten. His children were "Yellville" Bill a noted fiddler and a confederate soldier and the first merchant of Lead Hill Ark. and Ned who was a volunteer in the American Army and fought through the war with Mexico and returned back home. There was also another son named Charles. The daughters were Sallie who married Tom Brown and he died at the foot of bluff on the east side of the mouth of Trimbles Creek in Marion County, Ark. Some years after the death of Brown she married Allin Trimble and Malinda who married South foot (Will) Bill Woods who built a mill on Georges Creek 6 ½ miles north of Yellville and Nancy who married Lize Wood who settled the Arch Anderson farm near Dodd City Ark. and Jane who married "Rosin" Bill Wood and Abbie who married Jim Churchman and John Coker killed him and while Sheriff Billy Brown made an attempt to arrest him for this crime Randolph Coker shot and killed Brown. Charles Coker another son of Buck Coker married a daughter of Shawnee Berry Jim Trimble. Her name is forgotten. Their children were "Wagoner" Bill and Lenard who was another fiddler and Ned who went to Texas in an early day and Joe who was the youngest and also was a confederate soldier. After the death of Charles Cokers first wife he married Betsey Friend daughter of Jake Friend and a sister of Peter Friend. The issue of this marriage was Lucinda who married Henry Nipps and after his death she married Tom Boatright and Mahala who married "Dock" Boatright and Polly who married Henry Wiggins, and Betsey who married Bill Manley, Tom Boatright and his wife went from Marion County Ark. to Missouri in time of the Civil War and I was told that they both froze to death one bitter cold night. Henry Wiggins died in the cane bottom on White River a short distance above the mouth of Little North Fork during the war and was buried by women at the foot of the bluff and lies buried there in a lone grave. Three of Wiggin’s children Joe Robert and Billier buried in the Asa Yocum graveyard opposite the Bull Bottom. Katie daughter of Buck Coker married Girard Leiper Brown who was killed on the Arkansas River. Their off springs were Tom, Alex, Robert, Becca, and Catherine. The latter married Tom Magness son of Joe Magness after the death of Magness she married Pew C. Anderson and she died leaving little Tommy Anderson who was reared by his aunt Beeca who lived at the mouth of Becca’s Branch on White River just below the mouth of Trimbles Creek. Little Tommy was a school mate of the writer in 1854. He died in 1867 and is buried in the graveyard opposite the Panther Bottom. Katie the widow of Girard Leiper Brown died in the same house that stood at the foot of the bluff as mentioned where her son Tom Brown died.
Sallie another daughter of Buck Cokers married William Trimble in Alabama and they moved to White River in what is now Marion County Ark. as early as 1814. The issue of this marriage were Dicy the oldest who married Jim Wood and after his death she married John Nave. I am reliably informed that one day during a continued spell of sickness she sank so low that the family supposed that life was extinct and they laid her out for dead but to their great joy she revived, and Mary Jane who married Aba Nave, she lies buried in the graveyard at the mouth of Brattons Spring Creek, and Allin who we have mentioned so often in these sketches elsewhere will not be repeated here. Soon after William Trimble was killed on White River Mrs. Sallie Trimble married Mike Yocum and the fruit of this marriage were Asa, Jake, Harve, William, Mike and Sallie. Asa was the oldest and was born in 1819 and was killed during the Civil War and was buried in the cemetery on his old farm on White River opposite the Bull Bottom and 3 miles from Peel Ark. The place is known now as the Bill Treadway land. The graveyard is on a beautiful low ridge like formation of land between White River and a little shallow valley of a hollow, and is just across from where the lane was from the old Asa Yocum dwelling, the house and lane of which has been done away with many years ago. Asa Yocum married Miss Elize Denison, the fruit of this marriage were Mike, Sallie, John, Harve, Nancy and William. I remember that Sallie married John Piland in 1860 and lived on Little Creek In Ozark County, Mo. and both died there during the war. Nancy married H. H. Perkins who served two terms as sheriff of Marion County, Ark. A few years after the death of Asa Yocum his widow married Pew C. Anderson. She is dead now: on the 7 of November 1907 I visited the graveyard at Peel Ark. where she lies buried, to read the inscription on her tombstone which reads "Eliza Anderson Born September 9, 1822 died March 2, 1906. She died in her 85th year. Mrs. Anderson is the oldest person that lies in that cemetery up to the present writing. The next oldest is Andrew J. Langford who was born September 22, 1814 and died July 17, 1894. Refering to some more of Mike Yocums children again Sallie married Calvin Hogan, and William who was born January 12, 1829 and married Miss Nancy Keesee who was born November 11, 1834. They lived on White River In Marion County Ark. William died one day in May 1861 and lies buried in the Asa Yocum graveyard. His grave is boxed up and roofed with slabs of native stone. Jane., the oldest daughter of Buck Coker married Charley Sneed in 1824 which we have mentioned elsewhere.
PIONEER INCIDENTS ON SUGAR LOAF PRAIRIE AND VICINITY
From Manuscripts of S.C. Turnbo
Sugar Loaf Knob in Boone County, Arkansas is a picturesque spot and a noted place. This bald hill is comparatively a low eminence; however it is so situated that an observer commands a fine view from its summit. On the east is Sugar Loaf Creek, fertile farms and a large amount of stone fencing. Most of the farms all along this stream produce fair crops when the temperature and moisture is favorable. Across the valley are hills and hollows interspersed with glades and broken belts of scrub timber. To the right is seen Short Mountain which towers above the surroundings hills. Looking to the north, we get a glimpse of the wooded hills and prairie knobs of Taney County, Missouri. To the west is West Sugar Loaf Creek with its small farms and diligent owners. Just south of the Knob on the bank of East Sugar Loaf Creek, is situated the town of Lead Hill, a prominent trading point.
This town is visited by farmers and others from many miles around to purchase supplies from its busy merchants or transact business with other enterprises of the town. Lead hill has been a noted trading point since 1868, when “Yellville” Bill Coker kept a stock of merchandise here. This was the first start made for a town. Although the Post Office was established in the early 50s at the place known now as the Derry Berry land on Sugar Loaf Creek about two and one half miles above it’s present location, with Elijah Tabor as Post-master. Near one mile below Lead Hill is the Alex Morrow Mill place, which is just below the old Joe Coker Mill site and residence. The Morrow dwelling stood on the east bank of Sugar Loaf just above where the Big Spring flows into the creek. The Morrow Mill has been done away with years ago, but another mill was constructed by another party on the spring branch