On 16 September 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. The act established the first peacetime draft in United States history and required that men between the ages of 21 to 35 register with local draft boards. Registration in Search County, Arkansas took place one month…
Rambo School
Here is a collection of photographs of the old Rambo School, located on Searcy County Highway 8, about half a mile southwest of Rambo Cemetery in Arkansas. The school was established circa 1889, according to the faded sign above its door. Many Grahams and Watts attended class here, including my dad! I don't presently know…
Graham and the Wild Lands
An allusion has been made to the Homestead Law. I think it worthy of consideration, and that the wild lands of the country should be distributed so that every man should have the means and opportunity of benefitting his condition. Abraham Lincoln, 12 February 1861 This year will mark the 150th anniversary of the Homestead…
An Account of Searcy County, Arkansas
The following account of Searcy County, Arkansas is quoted from a book with the incredibly long title of The Province and the States – A History of the Province of Louisiana Under France and Spain, and of the Territories and States of the United States Formed Therefrom, Volume VII, published in 1904. Searcy county, formerly…
Signature Move
I recently exchanged a couple of e-mails with Donald Bohannan. He wrote, in part, that he had a copy of Mary Matilda Bohannon’s signature from her marriage document1 and suggested that I correct the spelling of her surname on my journal since it appeared she signed it “Bohannan”. I do not wish to enter into…
Civil War Service Record of William Alexander Watts, Jr.
The Second Regiment, Arkansas Cavalry Volunteers, United States Army, was organized at Helena, Arkansas, and Pilot Knob, Missouri in July of 1862. The unit was assigned to duty at Helena, Arkansas until April 1863, whereupon it relocated to Fayetteville, Arkansas until July 1863, when it again relocated to Cassville, Missouri. It was on 12 July…
Obituary: Daniel Paig Graham
This is the obituary for my grandpa, Daniel Graham, originally published in the Marshall Mountain Wave. DANIEL PAIG GRAHAM Daniel Paig1 Graham, 73, of Marshall, died March 15 in the Baptist Medical Center in Little Rock. He was born August 12, 1909 in Searcy County. He was a retired painter and a member of the…
William T. Graham Grave Marker Slideshow
A series of photographs by Ashli B. Graham of William Thomas Graham's grave marker at Shady Grove Cemetery, Searcy County, Arkansas on Saturday, 4 June 2011.
Obituary: John Henry Graham
I came across the following obituary and “card of thanks” in the genealogy section of the Searcy County Library. It was originally published in the Marshall Republican, 3 May 1946: John Henry Graham John Henry Graham, age 75, died at his home near Rambo, Searcy County, Wednesday, April 24. He was a well known farmer…
The Many Wives of Patrick, Part 3: Mary Frances Graham
It was late January 1903, and Patrick Bohannon had just buried his second wife Mary Frances Wilbanks, whom he called “Fannie” with affection. Patrick soon found solace with Mrs Mary Frances King, née Graham, a young widow who had lost her husband and two sons in the Indian Territory a couple of years earlier. The…
