Return to Biographies
> Home
Written
By: May (Shull) Holloway and Joveda (Cullum) Blevins.
Copy provided to TMM by: Evelyn Maxwell.
[Augmented by: Tina (Maxwell) Mitchell/TMM].
There are few known facts about Abner William Maxwell, who was born in 1820 and
died August 13th 1868. It is known that the Maxwells came from Ireland
and settled in Henderson County, North Carolina.
The 1850
census lists Abner Bill Maxwell and his wife, Nancy (Treadaway) Maxwell, living
in Henderson County, North Carolina, along with three children ages three years
to seven months. Nancy told her granddaughter, Sallie Lea Maxwell, that they
did not like living in Henderson County, North Carolina so they, along with
other family members, joined a large wagon train that moved from North Carolina
to Arkansas around 1857.
The
Maxwells were living at Choctaw, Arkansas, [Van Buren County], when the 1860
census was taken. Abner is listed as a farmer and a carpenter, but Nancy
said he also operated a blacksmith shop in Choctaw. This shop was helpful
to Abner and his family during the early years of the Civil War. Since
horses played a major role during the Civil War, both Union and Confederate Armies
came to him for his services. He would shoe their horses without asking
questions. Both sides left him alone. However, this changed in 1862
when Abner was pressured to join the Confederate Army. All horses were
taken for Army use. Abner had a fine horse that was known to have only
one master. When the Confederate soldiers tried to take his horse, they
failed to capture him for only his master could catch him.
On March
01, 1862, Abner went to Clinton, Arkansas and was enlisted into the Army by
T.W. McCray for twelve months of service in the Confederate Army. He was
described as a farmer from North Carolina, forty-two years old, with dark
complexion, black hair and black eyes. He joined Company D - 31st Arkansas
Infantry.
Abner's
records only record three times that he received pay for his Army service;
October 31, 1862, December 31, 1862, and February 28, 1863. Cant Fugerson
issued him his last pay. It is also recorded that he never received any
bounty money or cummulation money. The company Muster Role for July 01,
to August 31, 1863 lists him as absent with a remark "sick on retreat from
Jackson, MS, supposed to be captured". Another report states he was
captured July 18, 1863, near Jackson, MS. Abner was soon answering the roll
call of Union Prisoners at Camp Morton in Indiana. There, he was held
until the war was over. On May 22, 1865 he was released on his loyalty
oath and returned to Choctaw, Arkansas where Nancy and his children were
waiting for him. He was a changed man. When he enlisted in 1862 his
hair and eyes were described as black. In 1865, the war record describes
his eyes as hazel and his hair gray.
Abner
Bill's health weakened from his war experience. On August 13, 1868 he
died and was buried in a small cemetery near the Ben Treadaway farm.
While Abner was a prisoner of war, Nancy had buried their three-year-old
daughter there. Only a concrete marker about six inches wide and
twenty-four inches tall, with no information on it, was placed by his
grave.
Nancy
Treadaway Maxwell had given birth to fourteen children before her husband left
for service in the Confederate Army. Seven of the children had blue eyes
and blonde hair and seven of the children had black eyes and black hair.
We do not know how she fed her family while Abner Bill was away at war, or
after his death.
In the
early 1890s, Nancy and eight of her children and their families moved to what
is now the Davis Special Community and homesteaded a 160-acre farm. Her
children helped her get established by building a Log Cabin, clearing the land
and putting out a large Orchard. She was affectionately known as
"Granny Maxwell", although she was only in her sixties when she moved
to her homestead. Her children took good care of her. If she was
ill, there were so many children and grandchildren living nearby that someone
would come to stay with her. If one of her grandchildren was out of a
home Granny Maxwell always welcomed them into her home.
On August
21, 1902 she was granted a widow's War Pension. In 1905 Nancy died at age
77. The next day her son, Abner Wilkerson Maxwell, and his 15-year-old
daughter, Sallie Myrtle Lea Maxwell, took her body from the Davis Special
Community to Eglantine and then traveled the Old Batesville/Dover Road to
Choctaw. It was a cold rainy November day. Abner and Sallie were
refreshed by eating a hot meal at Ben Treadaway's home. After dinner
they, and a few relatives and friends, went across a field to the small
cemetery for burial. There Nancy (Treadaway) Maxwell was buried between
her husband, Abner Bill, who had died in 1868 and their three year old
daughter, Nancy, that she had buried in 1864 while her husband was in the Union
War Prison.
Today the
Army Core of Engineers has the small cemetery, which is located in the Choctaw recreation
area, enclosed by a chain link fence. There are probably twenty graves in
the cemetery. You can still locate most of the graves by the rocks that
were placed at the graves. Tall pine trees grow through many of the
graves. The Old Batesville/Dover Road is still visible. If you look
close, you can still see ruts left by the many wagons that traveled the road.
In 1984
the concrete marker placed at Abner William's grave was still there, but had
fallen down. The monuments placed at Nancy's grave, and her daughter's,
had fallen off their base and broken into many pieces, but they were arranged
to where you could read the Epitaph. It read as follows:
Nancy
Wife of
Abner Maxwell
Born: Nov 8, 1828
As A Wife, Devoted
As A Mother, Affectionate
As A Friend, Kind and True
Soon
after seeing them in 1984, the broken monument from the three-year-old Nancy's
grave was gone. A family member wrote to W.M.C. Garner, Resident Engineer
of the Core, asking that the gate to cemetery be secured so vandals could not
take Nancy's monument. He replied, saying the gate had been secured and
eight signs had been put, warning against vandalism.
Within a
year the broken pieces of Nancy's monument were also taken. Later vandals
also took the concrete slab placed as Abner's marker. Now all that is
left to identify the graves are the two bases that the two Nancy's monuments
sat on.
Although
Abner William and Nancy (Treadaway) Maxwell were not known for fame or for
fortune, they did leave to Van Buren County, Arkansas, a family that has
continued to serve their country well. You may find one of their descendants
in many honorable positions throughout the nation.
-----------------------------------------------
ALWAYS LOVE ONE ANOTHER; IT'S THE ONLY THING THAT REALLY MATTERS.
Return to Biographies > Home