|
a.
|
Note: Nancy Elizabeth Holt (m. Magness, Terry, Clark) (1836 - 1907) by Hillary Brightwell and Lynn Morrow ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Holt families from the East were among the first settlers in the �White River Valley. This article centers upon a woman whose southern upland forbearers migrated in typical fashion from Virginia westward. Richard Holt (1740-?) a Virginian, had a son Fielding (1767-?) also born in Virginia. In 1806 Fielding�s family, including William H. Holt (1799-1860) moved into Cannon County, Tennessee, near Bradyville, where William and his wife Mary L. Stevens Holt reared most of their family. On July 27, 1836, William�s new daughter Nancy Elizabeth arrived. When Nancy was three years old the Holt family loaded a covered wagon, and traveled six weeks westward, stopping in Ozark County, Missouri. The William Holt family settled on Little North Fork River in southwest Ozark County about three miles above modern Theodosia. They remained there for ten years until 1849 when they resettled southward into Marion County, Arkansas, above the mouth of Shoal Creek on White River. Neighbors included the Joe and Patsy Magness family who arrived in 1827 and gave their name to the Magness Bottom on White River. As Nancy Holt became a woman during the early 1850s, Wilshire Magness courted her, they married, and the young couple began a family with the birth of their firstborn in 1854, another in 1857, and a daughter who died in infancy and was buried in the Joe Magness family graveyard. Wilshire and Nancy lived along Marion County�s Big Creek. A half century later when Ozarks Chronicler Silas Turnbo interviewed Nancy, she recalled an incident from her youth involving Wilshire. Nancy spun and wove all the wearing apparel for her family including a pair of nice jeans for Wiltshire. She striped the cloth of his new pants with red and blue colors. Wiltshire donned his new threads and paid a visit to the Johnson blacksmith shop in Panther Bottom. While there Jim Johnson fancied the pants and ultimately purchased them for three dollars and fifty cents in silver. Wiltshire promptly gave Jim the pants and rode home in his drawers. The sight of Wiltshire's unusual arrival home frightened young Nancy. When she found out the truth, Wiltshire had to endure a tongue lashing from his wife for startling her so. Unfortunately, not long after, Wiltshire died in early 1859. In 1860 Nancy married Tom Terry (whose first wife had been a sister to Wiltshire Mangoes). During a Sabbath day in the summer of 1861 Nancy proved she had more than just domestic skills. While her husband Tom and his two brothers searched for a bee tree, Nancy found her own colony of bees. When she called the men to her discovery they thought she was kidding them, but soon the men had to acknowledge one of the [3] Largest honey reservoirs ever found in the neighborhood. Nancy later bore a son to Tom in January 1862; that summer Tom Terry enlisted in the Union cause and paid dearly with his life in the conflict. During Tom�s absence Nancy supported six children�two from her marriage with Wiltshire, three from Tom�s first marriage, and one that she and Tom had together. The Terries had a sizable cattle herd of 100 or more at the beginning of the war, but by 1862 the land pirates had stolen most of them. Nancy was able to keep a few milk cows that provided for the children. The cows were on the open range while their calves were penned in a cow lot near the family�s dogtrot house. Nancy told Sills Turbo about her most anxious moments during the war when two armed men interrogated her in front of the house. They asked her for the whereabouts of rebels�she said she did not know; they asked about federalize�she still answered in the negative. The men slowly rode their horses away from the house, whispering to each other as they went. Nancy sensed foul play coming and directed the children to carry all domest
|