I am sure everyone on the list is aware that things were very bad in Searcy County both during and after the Civil war. It was one of those areas where one brother fought for the north and another for the south. The same with neighbors. Remember the "chain gang". The history books about Searcy County have stories about people who were killed for no real reason except they were on the wrong side or someone wanted the supplies and animals. This included women and old men who were not involved in the war in anyway. Soldiers from both sides became lawless as the war came to an end and they were going back home. There was no law of any kind, at least not in the country and they had the guns and usually traveled in groups so they could do about anything they chose. Also the Federal troops especially felt they were entitled to supply themselves from the countryside and so when a troop came through they took most of the animals they could find, cattle and sheep for eating and horses and mules to supply the Calvary. There were also men who were simply outlaws who preyed on the communities because all the men were off at war. My great, great grandmother Jane (Jennie) Renfroe Harness was a widow living alone with two small sons during the war. At night she would pin their night clothes to her nightgown so they could not get up at night and go outside without her knowing it. There was no lock on the door, just a wood bar across it and the boys were old enough to open it. She was afraid someone would abduct them if they were out by themselves. It apparently happened more than once. 12-23-73 Toby Lonzo Holsted Lon-To start with, the Civil War. My dad-his dad got killed in the Civil War and that was the Spring the peace was made, was when his daddy got killed. Who's this you're talking about now? About my grandfather. And what was his name? His name was Lemmie. What was his daddy's name? I wouldn't know. You don't know. I don't know. OK And the Spring the peace was made they run, he called em Jayhawkers, they run in on him-he was working in a shop, a blacksmith's shop, and they run in on him and killed him, so his dad had sent him over across the mountain to get some dogs to catch some wild hogs with and he heard them shootin and he went back down there to the house and his mother told him "Don't stop, just go right on to the mountains." He just run through the house, said they'd kill him if they knowed he was there (Judy note: Lemuel was actually killed in Feb 1865 by Federal troops, but at that time the Federal troops were often pretty lawless and not much better than the deserters who were coming through and the family may have thought they were jayhawkers. Miranda's pension application and a Civil War history both confirm it was Federal Troops) How did they kill his dad? Well, when he saw em a comin he was workin in a blacksmith's shop and he seen em before they got there and they was a little field out, about 4-5 acres they'd cleared up there and he run out across that field. He knew they's after him? Yeah, and they shot at him several times as he went across that field but he didn't get hit goin across the field at all. But they's two men run around the field and on the other side, and when he come out on the other side of the field, why there's where they killed him. Why did they kill him? Well, they killed a lot of people and I don't know why they did. Was it part of the War? It was the Northern people that come through there. After peace was made. He said they gathered up ever Cow and horse, everything they could get hold of and drove it back north. Just took it away from em. And he'd buried some money and they never did find any of it? Yeah, his dad had an estate in Missouri and his father had this estate and he went up there and got that, got is money. We never knowed how much it was. When he got back for that money he told his boys, some of em, to get him a hoe and put it by the gate out in the front yard. And they'd built a log house and didn't have the cracks lined up and some of them that night saw him go around the back-he'd made a-he had a kittle (kettle), iron kittle, and he'd made a cedar lid to fit right over this kittle, and some of em saw him goin around by the garden with a hoe on his shoulder carryn that iron kittle. That's as far as they ever knowed about where that money went. They know'd he buried it, and he had told his wife, my grandmother, several times, that he had somethin' to tell her, he wanted to tell her, but he was afraid to tell her. Do you know what her name was? Melindy, er wait, let me see-Mirandy. Miranda was Lemuel's wife? Wait a minute- Miranda was your grandmother? Yes, my grandmaw. And so the women tore up an old wagon box which they had a layin' out there, and made a casket and buried him. Wadn't a man on the place. Were they all of to war? Yes, they's all off to war. Course, peace was made that year, it was made in the spring of the year. But it wasn't made at that time? No. And they wadn't no men there. Wadn't no men 'round a'tall. And they tore up this old wagon box and made a casket and they dug his grave and buried him. How old was Lemuel about this time-Lemmie? I think he was 'round about 40 year old. Sump'n like that. Maybe 45. How old was your dad when this happened? He's 16 year old. He wadn't old enough to go into the army, ya see, so he just stayed home. Miranda was Lemuel's wife then? Yeah. That's right. She's the one who didn't know where the money was? Her name was Mirandy-that was my grandmother. That's right, so- What did they do they after he was killed? How did they make a crop? They had a little field back up the holler and they went up there and planted corn. Now these boys did that-they's three of em. My dad and two brothers, but I don't remember which one's what, and they up there and was hoein corn and they come back down, they talked it over and decided they's goin to starve to death. They come back down through by an old man by the name of Adams. Dad always called him Uncle Joe, Joe Adams, and he hollered at the boys and asked em why they was quittin. Said well they knowed it wasn't no use to work, they knowed that corn, they couldn't wait till that was growed, they decided they'd just go on, and the old man hollered at em and told them to go down there and get a sheep he had, an old black sheep, and kill it, butcher it, and eat it. And that's what they done, went back to the field, and went to hoein their corn. Something about eating buds off the trees, or something? He said he eat sassafras buds down-lot of people don't know what a sassafras is-but it's a little sprout that grows there in Arkansas, you know, and they eat this slippery elm bark, peel the rough part off, and eat the slippery elm bark and eat buds off bushes. That's what they lived on. And he said the first meal he got after they liked to starved to death, his mother took him to one of the neighbors once and had bear meat for dinner, and she was afraid he'd eat enough to kill him. Wouldn't let him eat all of it he wanted. I've heard him tell it so many times-it was the best meal he thought he ever eat, was that bear meat. Because he hadn't had any meat in such a long time? That's right. And them days they didn't have no salt to put in their food, even when they had meat, didn't had no salt. And they'd go in these old smoke houses where they had salted meat years ago and dig up that dirt and put it in the water and boil the water off and strain it through somethin and use that for salt. No salt 'cause of the War, was that what it was? They just run out of salt. Nobody didn't have no salt. Because of the War. Yeah, and I don't know why they run out of salt, but they did. There's no natural salt down in that area where??? No, not that I know of. How many kids were there in your dad's family? I guess they's 12 of them. Twelve children. How many brothers and sisters did your dad have? Well, there's Uncle Ab, Uncle Jim, and let me see, I forgot the other uns names. ???? There's 4 of em. There's several girls, wasn't there? Oh, yeah. Several girls. (Nancy, I think they called her.) That was Uncle John Horton's wife. He's the brother-in-law to my dad. Now this Adams that gave them the sheep, wasn't he the granddad- He was some relation to em He must have been maybe Miranda's dad or grandad, or somethin like that? I wouldn't know about that, but anyway he was some kin to the Holsteads and they called him Uncle Joe, (Judy's Note: This was Joe Adams , brother of Maranda). Uncle Joe Adams. I've heard Dad speak of him no tellin how many times. Call him Uncle Joe. Made the horseshoe nails for the Indians(?). No, it was my granddad that made the horseshoe nails. He had a blacksmith's shop, you know, and he made horseshoe nails. Lemmie Halstead, the one that got killed. Made horseshoe nails for the Indians-they could shoe their horses. I thought the Indians didn't shoe their horses? Had to down there in that rough country. He made horseshoe nails, I've heard him tell him tell it many times. So the Indians could shoe their horses. ----- The Jayhawkers my Dad called em. They come through there and drove everything out of the country as they went back to Missouri. Northern people. And that was all South down there-they all fought for the South? Yeah, they's fightin for the South. Well did your grandpa, Lemuel, he didn't go off to the war, he stayed there? He stayed at home. He never did to the army a'tall, but he got killed durin that time the (Judy's Note: Lemuel did actually serve in the Confederate Army but as a guerrilla or scout so he was probably home more than a regular infantry man would have been. He scouted in the area) Civil War was goin on. And Dad wasn't old enough to go, you see. Them Jayhawkers, he called them, they came through there and drove the cattle and everything they could get ahold of back to the North. Took em home with em. And just left them folks down there without anything. How did the sheep make it? Were they maybe back in the brush when they came through? Old man Adams had some sheep, were they back in the brush? He had several. This was one that he called an old weathers-sheep that had been tended to, they called them weathers. This was a black sheep that he told them to go get and butcher. So he just had a pasture there that he run em on. He told me durin that time, long about that time, his Dad sent him out there to drive the sheep in one evenin, stars fell just in showers. He could hear em hittin the leaves, just like showers of rain! He could see em falling. What year was this, Grandpa? About 1864-65? Somewhere along in there. I ought to know, but I don't. Well, it would be the end of the Civil War, anyway? The Civil War. She's the North fightin the South. They's fightin to free the negros, what it was ever bit about. See the negros them days, they sold em just like I would sell a horse or a cow. They just put em up and sold em to the highest bidder. And worked em and kept em. And the north wanted to free the niggers and the South didn't want us to free em and that's what it was about. That's what it was all about. Oh, they had an awful time then. How did they get involved? They ended up on the mountain up there-where was that, Grandpa? That was out about 5 miles west of Marshall, county seat, there was a place back there that was on Bear Creek. It's in the Boston mountains, right? Yeah, in the Boston Mountains, and there's a place there they call the Holsted holler-still goes by that name. That's where my Dad was raised, in that holler there. And they call it that yet. That's where they lived at that time? Yeah, and that's where he hid his money. Dad kind of thought one of his brothers got the money. Thought he knew where it was buried and went and got it? Yeah, he thought that Uncle Jim got the money 'cause he moved over there in Leslie, Arkansas, and got a lot of that good land over and just made money hand over. And he said he didn't believe he could have done it if he hadn't had some way to back him. It was in gold? Yeah, gold and silver. And they never did know how much it was, still they thought it was quite a bit of money that he buried. Dad went down there and hunted for it. He took a mineral rod, but they put up an old stavemill right there where they thought it was. (Notes by Judy. The story of the buried money has come down in serveral branches of the Holsted family. It is very possibly true because his father Lemuel Sr. was quite well to do back in St Francois County MO) Copyright 1999 by Judy Holsted Oldziewski