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The Margaret Shook Story
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Margaret Shook was born 04 June 1793 in Haywood Co., NC, the daughter of Jacob Shook and Isabella Weitzel. On 20 November 1817 she married Joseph Hicks, the son of a neighbor and fellow farmer, Jonathan Hicks. The new couple lived and reared their children on their own hundred and forty-acre farm in Haywood County. They had seven children, four daughters and three sons. When Jacob Shook's personal property was sold after his death in 1839, Joseph Hicks purchased household furniture from the Shook estate. Joseph Hicks died sometime prior to 1850. We find in the Haywood County, NC. Courthouse Archives in Record of Deeds Book F, on pages 417 and 418 a record of Divestiture of Land by Coroner. The sale of Joseph Hicks' one hundred and forty acres of abandoned land was to pay debts and to clear the title of said land. By 1850 Margaret was living with her unmarried children in Cherokee County, Alabama. Her nephew W.T. Shook, son of Peter Shook, had been appointed her guardian. We have 1850 census for Cherokee County, District 27, taken 7 Jan 1851, page 117 family # 777 showing Margaret, widowed head of household. Included in her household are Jacob, Elizabeth, Calloway, and Margaret. Also in District 27, page 68 family # 434 is listed the family of William T. Shook, a cabinet maker from North Carolina. According to the History of Craighead County Arkansas by Harry Lee Williams, 1930, page
410, in 1852, 13 families left Cherokee County Alabama in a wagon train headed for the Crowley Ridge area of North East Arkansas, to a settlement called Greensboro. These pioneer families settled here, carved homesteads, intermarried, and became steadfast citizens of the area. Their descendants are there to this day. At least five of these families included Margaret and her children; the remaining families were related to the spouses of those children. The government had opened this land for Military Bounty Location Warrants. Margaret Hicks, as mother and heir at law of Jonathan Hicks, deceased, fifer in Captain Thomason's Company Regiment, Alabama Vol., had been given Warrant # 72417. This is recorded in Craighead County's Deed Book 33 page 97 and in the US General Land Office Volume 139, page 204. This 162.5 acres became a portion of what came to be known as the Hicks Homestead. At this time, this property was in Greene County. When Craighead County was formed the county line divided the Hicks property and a portion of this land was located in Craighead County. Margaret's younger son, Calloway, made his home on the Craighead County property while Margaret and the elder son, Jacob, eventually lived on the remainder of the estate in Greene County. Apparently not all the men who came to Greensboro from Alabama in 1852 to purchase land immediately moved their families to the new frontier; Jacob and his mother, Margaret, being one of these families. Margaret's daughter, Mahalia, had married Jarrel J. Dacus and Margaret deeded four acres of her land to them. Jarrel J. Dacus's family had been on the wagon train from Alabama. Margaret Davis, who became Calloway's wife, was also on this wagon train with her sister and brother-in-law Frances Armanda Davis Kitchens and James H. Kitchens. That Jacob Shook's involvement with the Methodist Church exerted a strong influence in Margaret's and her descendants' lives there can be no doubt. Although only two sons can be directly proven to be the children of Jonathan Hicks, father of Joseph, he reared a large family. Census records show several younger Hicks men living near him on the Buncombe/Haywood County line during the early part of the nineteenth century. Some of these men and their descendants became Methodist ministers as did descendants of Jacob. It seems significant that Margaret Shook and Joseph Hicks married in the month of November. Perhaps the two of them met and courted on the grounds behind Louisa Chapel during the Methodist Camp Meeting that year. There was no Methodist Church nearby when the Hicks family relocated to the Arkansas frontier but still the children were reared as devout Methodists. Margaret's grandson, James Ransom Hicks was a Steward in the first Methodist Church organized close to him in Burnt Hill.
Calloway Hicks, James Ransom Hicks and George David Hicks: Margaret Shook Hicks died between 1870 and 1880; probably around 1877. We believe that she is buried in the Rutherford Cemetery in Craighead County in an unmarked grave. This cemetery is located about two miles from the Hicks' land. It is one of the two oldest cemeteries in the county and contains the graves of many of the early pioneers. The Dacus' of the wagon train are here. Calloway's wife, Margaret Davis Hicks, is buried there and her grave is marked. There are several unmarked and marked graves of allied families in this area. After Margaret's death, Jacob moved to Logan County AR where he died in 1893. He is buried in Antioch Cemetery in a grave marked only with a heap of stones. The 1870 census is the last where Calloway is found. In 1880, Margaret Davis Hicks is shown as widowed, head of household. Land Records show that Calloway's land was divided among his son and five daughters by late 1882. We believe he may also be buried in an unmarked grave, along with his mother and near his wife, in the Rutherford Cemetery.
The lay of the land where Margaret Shook Hicks came to live in Arkansas is hilly country. It is one beautiful rolling knoll after another. It must have looked much like her beloved countryside in Haywood County, NC. We wonder how she missed her old home, the place of her birth, the home of her father, mother and siblings. By now most of her siblings had migrated south and west, as she did. One never forgets the place of their birth. Was she homesick often? Were there occasional letters from her siblings? There is so much we long to know about her. What we do know now is only a drop in a pond of what we do not yet know, what we can never know.
Descendants of Margaret S. Shook Nancy Isabell Hicks (2) Jacob Hicks (2) Jonathan Hicks (2) Mahalia Hicks (2) Elizabeth Elveria Hicks (2) Joseph Callaway Hicks (2) Margaret Mercilla Hicks (2) |
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