The following was partially copied from an article in the Hempstead County Historical Society Journal for 1997, p 91. The address for the Journal is: Post Office Box 1257 Hope, AR 71801-1257 Isaac Anderson Leads a Wagon Train from Indiana to Hempstead County in 1869 Arthur Anderson was grandson of Isaac Anderson who persuaded his father and friends and relatives to sell out and move to Hempstead County, Arkansas in 1869. "My grandfather Anderson led the wagon train from Andersonville, Indiana [should be Crothersville] when my dad was four years old - that was 109 years ago," Arthur said in an interview at his home near Spring Hill in 1980. "My grandfather and his first wife was having family trouble, and he come out here by hisself and went back and persuaded my great-grandfather to sell out and come to Arkansas," Arthur said in an interview at his home near Spring Hill in 1980. "Grandpa and his first wife was having family trouble, and he come out here by hisself and went back and persuaded my great-grandfather to sell out and come to Arkansas." The grandfather bought a section of land and gave each of his children forty acres each. "There were 20-odd wagons and some of them were driving ox and they made them stay behind because they were slower. "It took the movers three months, but it was in the mild part of the year and they made about thirty miles a day. "They lived off the fat of the land coming -- killed squirrels and deer," he explained. Then, thinking about his grandfather, he said, "He could shoot a squirrel out of a tree and he was a gunsmith, too. He would take a piece of a barrel and make you a gun, make triggers and all.....Also, give Grandpa a quart of whiskey and he could build you a chimney in a day. Take the whiskey away and it would take two days. Why, he'd work so fast his hands would bleed." All those who traveled together settled around Patmos..."My folks lived where Tom Hollis lives before you get to Patmos. Grandpa had 160 acres and great-grandpa bought the section of land." James Anderson, father of Isaac Anderson of Crothersville, Indiana was an early settler in that state, migrating in the 1820's. He owned many acres of land in Jackson County where is buried in Steep Hollow Cemetery. His tombstone gives his death date as 1850 in his 77th year. Most of the children and their families made the long journey to Arkansas as well as some of their neighbors, including House, Sturdivant, Barnes, Smithy, Lee, Rider, Black and Light. Another article on p 92 describes the route. That portion is copied; When Isaac Anderson led the wagon train from Crothersville, Indiana, the Rider family was with them. He said that they crossed the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois, traveled through Missouri and came through the Ozarks by way of Caddo Gap, Center Point, Washington, {the last 3 in Arkansas} and then to the Spring Hill area.