For Todd Family Genealogy with documentation, see ...
Todds of Carson's Fork
Rutherford & Cannon Co, TN
http://www.toddfamilygenealogy.com/home
James Calvin Todd
(1842 - 1923)
Biography compiled by N Todd
James was born on August 28, 1842, in Tennessee, the first child of William Todd and Sarah Ewell.
As a youth of eight years of age, in 1850, James, along with his parents and siblings, Mary J, William A, Ransom and Robert A, lived in Bradys Rock, Cannon County, Tennessee.
Between 1850 and 1854, three more siblings were welcomed into James' world, Flora A, Joseph T and Cynthia C. It was about this same time that the Todd family began their courageous and adventurous migration from their home in Tennessee, through Missouri where yet another child, Elizabeth, was born, then by 1860, on to Richland, Madison County, Arkansas, James now eighteen years of age. The tenth of the total sibling group, Sarah E, would be born later in 1865. James continued to help his father work the earth of the family farm until the summer of 1862, the summer that would change young James' life forever.
James described the evolving events of that summer in own words from an 1872 testimony:
"The Home Guards made me go into the Rebel Army in the summer of 1862, and I was sworn into service. I did it to save my life; I had no intention of keeping the oath when I took it. I could not get to the Union lines then, and it was go in or be killed.
"In the summer of 1862, while the 'Conscript Act' was being enforced by the Home Guards, seven or eight Home Guard soldiers (some of them my neighbors) came one day and said they wanted me to go into the Rebel Army. I did not want to go, but they said I had to. My eyes were very sore at the time, and they agreed to let me wait a few days but made me promise to go to camp at Huntsville and said if I did not go on the day set, they would come and take me, then take all the property my father had. I knew they would do what they said, and I went to Huntsville (the county seat of Madison County) and was mustered and sworn into Capt Tom Berry's Company (I don't remember the name of the regiment). I was with the company only five days when I deserted and went home … [hiding] until some of the Federal soldiers came into my neighborhood when I got in with them and went to Fayetteville and enlisted as before stated.
"They got two horses from me after I went into the service (one from my mother-in-law's farm and the other farm my uncle's place) and also a gun."
The date was December 1862.
"At the beginning of the Rebellion, I was for the Union cause. I was only a chink of a boy and had nothing to say and could not vote. My father was a strong Union man. And I believed strongly in the Union cause and enlisted in the Union Army the first chance I had and before I was of age."
So, during the U.S. Civil War (1861 - 1865), in December 1862, at age twenty, James traveled to Fayetteville, Washington County, and enlisted in the Union military, 1st Arkansas Cavalry, Company C, to serve as Private, joining for duty and enrolling December 23, for three years. Muster-in date was August 31, 1863, at Springfield, Missouri. Along with combat duties, James served on detached duty to forage for supplies, as mail rider, as regiment teamster and on duty at the government slaughter pen. Muster-out date and honorably discharged August 23, 1865, at Fayetteville, his papers described young James as five feet seven inches tall, fair complexion, grey eyes and light hair. Additionally, government documents show that James' younger brother, William A, age 18, joined the war effort just sixteen months after James' enlistment, and served in the same company. Documents further tell that the father of James and William A served the Union forces as post butcher for the troops, employed by the beef contractor with that same regiment.
James lost his personal horse and gun to the war. In December 1872, James filed an application to have testimony taken by a Special Commission. In October 1873, he filed a claim with the Southern Claims Commission from the State of Arkansas, for the loss of his horse killed in action in United States service during the battle at Fayetteville on November 3, 1864, in 1st Arkansas Cavalry commanded by Col M Lee Reid Harrison, Company C commander.
"The horse charged for is one that I bought and rode five or six months in service. I belonged to a regular detail to gather up and drive in beef cattle, and I rode this horse principally on that duty. At the time I went on the beef detail, I could not draw a horse to ride, and I was compelled to buy a horse … I don't remember who I got the horse from or what I paid - I just know I bought it. On the 4th of Nov 1864, when the garrison at Fayetteville was attacked by a part of Price's Army, my horse was tied at the butcher shop in range of the enemy's guns and was killed in the activities. The horse was a dark bay, 4 years old, fast, a good big horse (over medium), sound in every way and in good fix. I was offered $120 in green back only a day or two before he was killed. I never got any pay for the horse and never tried to until I put in for this claim."
In August 1873, in Fayetteville, James, age 29, gave testimony to the Southern Claims Commission and additional testimony was heard from his brother William A and his father William. In December 1874, a "Summary Report" was issued and the claim denied.
After the war, James married his young neighbor, Martha Angeline Ledbetter Johnson, who brought into the marriage union her young daughter, Violet Angeline Johnson. The date of marriage for James and Martha Angeline is unknown, and it is unknown if Martha Angeline's second daughter, Sarah E, born 1865, is the daughter of James, since James was not discharged until August of 1865, and Sarah E is not mentioned in James' probate. In 1867, James and Martha Angeline welcomed their first son, William Thomas, and by 1870, James, age 27, Martha Angeline and their growing family were living in Richland, Washington County, where James and Martha Angeline had welcomed their second son, Benjamin (Ben) F, and where James was providing for his family with his long before perfected farming skills.
By 1880, James at 36 years of age and Martha Angeline were living in Prairie, Madison County, where the family had grown to six children, including two new additions welcomed into the family, son Charles M and daughter Flora May.
Between 1880 and 1887, the Todd family, like a number of other Arkansas families, took that giant leap of faith and with much courage made the migration to Texas, settling in northeastern Bell County near the small town of Old Troy, a community that later sadly and completely disappeared by 1927.
As coincidental as life can sometimes seem, another Arkansas family made much the same journey, also settling in Bell County, near Old Troy. The reunion of the Todds and their former Arkansas friends, the Glaze family that included daughter Mary, was recounted many years later by Mary's son:
"When Mary was twelve, her father got the 'go to Texas fever' that seemed to be sweeping the country. He sold the farm and loaded everything portable into a covered wagon and off they started. About the time they reached the Red River, they met some wagons of people leaving Texas. They told a tale of drought and of everything being burned up. So the Glaze family decided to go back to Arkansas, back to the same community but this time to a rented farm. For two years they stayed, with the dream of going to Texas still in Wilson Glaze's mind and heart. When Mary was 14, they started again, but this time the trip was made by train to Denton County. Bell County was the spot that Wilson dreamed of, so after a year of living in Denton County, they moved south to Bell County and settled just outside Troy, Texas. There, to their surprise, they found the Todd family, friends who had lived in Huntsville, Arkansas. This was September of '87. There was also sadness in finding these friends, for in June of this year, one Saturday the men folk had all gone to Troy for supplies when a storm came up. The men rushed home trying to reach there before it hit. Just as they drove into the yard, the worst of it did hit, tearing the doors from the house and blowing all the chairs and tables through the open doorway. Mrs. Todd [Martha Angeline] was so frightened that she fell unconscious on the bed and never did regain consciousness but died and was buried the following Monday. The Todd family had moved to Texas thinking it would be better for Mrs. Todd, for her health was rather delicate, and the weather here was so much milder than in Arkansas."
After the tragic loss of his beloved wife Martha Angeline, James put distance between himself and his grief, leaving Texas behind and returning to Arkansas with his three younger children. His oldest son, William Thomas, stayed on in Texas.
When James was 44, he married Julia Henderson on February 14, 1888, in Washington County, Arkansas.
By 1900, at age 57, James was living in Lamar, Madison County, Arkansas, with Julia, step-daughters Mary Henderson and Lucinda Henderson, and their newly added children, Anna (Annie), Nolan V, Clyde Earl and William Homer Ollney.
By 1910, James and his family, with adult stepdaughter, Mary Henderson, were living in Prairie, Washington County, Arkansas, and four years later, 1914, James' first Great Grandchild, a baby boy named Randall Woodrow Todd was born in Waco, McLennan County, Texas.
Late 1919, James purchased property in Fayetteville, a forfeited town lot for the sum of $2.40 and two additional lots, all in the Rose Hill Addition, and by 1920, James, age 76, was living on his Rose Hill town lot in Prairie, Washington County, with Julie and their adult son Homer, daughter-in-law Effie and grandson, and with sons Nolan V and Earl C living on James's remaining two town lots. James had retired from his farming skills, turning his attention and skills to the craft of basket making.
James died at age 81, on December 5, 1923, in Harris, Washington County.
Interment on December 6, 1923, was in Evergreen Cemetery, in Fayetteville, Washington County.
The estate was probated on December 20, 1923, in Washington County.
Todds of Carson's Fork
Rutherford & Cannon Co, TN
http://www.toddfamilygenealogy.com/home
James Calvin Todd
(1842 - 1923)
Biography compiled by N Todd
James was born on August 28, 1842, in Tennessee, the first child of William Todd and Sarah Ewell.
As a youth of eight years of age, in 1850, James, along with his parents and siblings, Mary J, William A, Ransom and Robert A, lived in Bradys Rock, Cannon County, Tennessee.
Between 1850 and 1854, three more siblings were welcomed into James' world, Flora A, Joseph T and Cynthia C. It was about this same time that the Todd family began their courageous and adventurous migration from their home in Tennessee, through Missouri where yet another child, Elizabeth, was born, then by 1860, on to Richland, Madison County, Arkansas, James now eighteen years of age. The tenth of the total sibling group, Sarah E, would be born later in 1865. James continued to help his father work the earth of the family farm until the summer of 1862, the summer that would change young James' life forever.
James described the evolving events of that summer in own words from an 1872 testimony:
"The Home Guards made me go into the Rebel Army in the summer of 1862, and I was sworn into service. I did it to save my life; I had no intention of keeping the oath when I took it. I could not get to the Union lines then, and it was go in or be killed.
"In the summer of 1862, while the 'Conscript Act' was being enforced by the Home Guards, seven or eight Home Guard soldiers (some of them my neighbors) came one day and said they wanted me to go into the Rebel Army. I did not want to go, but they said I had to. My eyes were very sore at the time, and they agreed to let me wait a few days but made me promise to go to camp at Huntsville and said if I did not go on the day set, they would come and take me, then take all the property my father had. I knew they would do what they said, and I went to Huntsville (the county seat of Madison County) and was mustered and sworn into Capt Tom Berry's Company (I don't remember the name of the regiment). I was with the company only five days when I deserted and went home … [hiding] until some of the Federal soldiers came into my neighborhood when I got in with them and went to Fayetteville and enlisted as before stated.
"They got two horses from me after I went into the service (one from my mother-in-law's farm and the other farm my uncle's place) and also a gun."
The date was December 1862.
"At the beginning of the Rebellion, I was for the Union cause. I was only a chink of a boy and had nothing to say and could not vote. My father was a strong Union man. And I believed strongly in the Union cause and enlisted in the Union Army the first chance I had and before I was of age."
So, during the U.S. Civil War (1861 - 1865), in December 1862, at age twenty, James traveled to Fayetteville, Washington County, and enlisted in the Union military, 1st Arkansas Cavalry, Company C, to serve as Private, joining for duty and enrolling December 23, for three years. Muster-in date was August 31, 1863, at Springfield, Missouri. Along with combat duties, James served on detached duty to forage for supplies, as mail rider, as regiment teamster and on duty at the government slaughter pen. Muster-out date and honorably discharged August 23, 1865, at Fayetteville, his papers described young James as five feet seven inches tall, fair complexion, grey eyes and light hair. Additionally, government documents show that James' younger brother, William A, age 18, joined the war effort just sixteen months after James' enlistment, and served in the same company. Documents further tell that the father of James and William A served the Union forces as post butcher for the troops, employed by the beef contractor with that same regiment.
James lost his personal horse and gun to the war. In December 1872, James filed an application to have testimony taken by a Special Commission. In October 1873, he filed a claim with the Southern Claims Commission from the State of Arkansas, for the loss of his horse killed in action in United States service during the battle at Fayetteville on November 3, 1864, in 1st Arkansas Cavalry commanded by Col M Lee Reid Harrison, Company C commander.
"The horse charged for is one that I bought and rode five or six months in service. I belonged to a regular detail to gather up and drive in beef cattle, and I rode this horse principally on that duty. At the time I went on the beef detail, I could not draw a horse to ride, and I was compelled to buy a horse … I don't remember who I got the horse from or what I paid - I just know I bought it. On the 4th of Nov 1864, when the garrison at Fayetteville was attacked by a part of Price's Army, my horse was tied at the butcher shop in range of the enemy's guns and was killed in the activities. The horse was a dark bay, 4 years old, fast, a good big horse (over medium), sound in every way and in good fix. I was offered $120 in green back only a day or two before he was killed. I never got any pay for the horse and never tried to until I put in for this claim."
In August 1873, in Fayetteville, James, age 29, gave testimony to the Southern Claims Commission and additional testimony was heard from his brother William A and his father William. In December 1874, a "Summary Report" was issued and the claim denied.
After the war, James married his young neighbor, Martha Angeline Ledbetter Johnson, who brought into the marriage union her young daughter, Violet Angeline Johnson. The date of marriage for James and Martha Angeline is unknown, and it is unknown if Martha Angeline's second daughter, Sarah E, born 1865, is the daughter of James, since James was not discharged until August of 1865, and Sarah E is not mentioned in James' probate. In 1867, James and Martha Angeline welcomed their first son, William Thomas, and by 1870, James, age 27, Martha Angeline and their growing family were living in Richland, Washington County, where James and Martha Angeline had welcomed their second son, Benjamin (Ben) F, and where James was providing for his family with his long before perfected farming skills.
By 1880, James at 36 years of age and Martha Angeline were living in Prairie, Madison County, where the family had grown to six children, including two new additions welcomed into the family, son Charles M and daughter Flora May.
Between 1880 and 1887, the Todd family, like a number of other Arkansas families, took that giant leap of faith and with much courage made the migration to Texas, settling in northeastern Bell County near the small town of Old Troy, a community that later sadly and completely disappeared by 1927.
As coincidental as life can sometimes seem, another Arkansas family made much the same journey, also settling in Bell County, near Old Troy. The reunion of the Todds and their former Arkansas friends, the Glaze family that included daughter Mary, was recounted many years later by Mary's son:
"When Mary was twelve, her father got the 'go to Texas fever' that seemed to be sweeping the country. He sold the farm and loaded everything portable into a covered wagon and off they started. About the time they reached the Red River, they met some wagons of people leaving Texas. They told a tale of drought and of everything being burned up. So the Glaze family decided to go back to Arkansas, back to the same community but this time to a rented farm. For two years they stayed, with the dream of going to Texas still in Wilson Glaze's mind and heart. When Mary was 14, they started again, but this time the trip was made by train to Denton County. Bell County was the spot that Wilson dreamed of, so after a year of living in Denton County, they moved south to Bell County and settled just outside Troy, Texas. There, to their surprise, they found the Todd family, friends who had lived in Huntsville, Arkansas. This was September of '87. There was also sadness in finding these friends, for in June of this year, one Saturday the men folk had all gone to Troy for supplies when a storm came up. The men rushed home trying to reach there before it hit. Just as they drove into the yard, the worst of it did hit, tearing the doors from the house and blowing all the chairs and tables through the open doorway. Mrs. Todd [Martha Angeline] was so frightened that she fell unconscious on the bed and never did regain consciousness but died and was buried the following Monday. The Todd family had moved to Texas thinking it would be better for Mrs. Todd, for her health was rather delicate, and the weather here was so much milder than in Arkansas."
After the tragic loss of his beloved wife Martha Angeline, James put distance between himself and his grief, leaving Texas behind and returning to Arkansas with his three younger children. His oldest son, William Thomas, stayed on in Texas.
When James was 44, he married Julia Henderson on February 14, 1888, in Washington County, Arkansas.
By 1900, at age 57, James was living in Lamar, Madison County, Arkansas, with Julia, step-daughters Mary Henderson and Lucinda Henderson, and their newly added children, Anna (Annie), Nolan V, Clyde Earl and William Homer Ollney.
By 1910, James and his family, with adult stepdaughter, Mary Henderson, were living in Prairie, Washington County, Arkansas, and four years later, 1914, James' first Great Grandchild, a baby boy named Randall Woodrow Todd was born in Waco, McLennan County, Texas.
Late 1919, James purchased property in Fayetteville, a forfeited town lot for the sum of $2.40 and two additional lots, all in the Rose Hill Addition, and by 1920, James, age 76, was living on his Rose Hill town lot in Prairie, Washington County, with Julie and their adult son Homer, daughter-in-law Effie and grandson, and with sons Nolan V and Earl C living on James's remaining two town lots. James had retired from his farming skills, turning his attention and skills to the craft of basket making.
James died at age 81, on December 5, 1923, in Harris, Washington County.
Interment on December 6, 1923, was in Evergreen Cemetery, in Fayetteville, Washington County.
The estate was probated on December 20, 1923, in Washington County.
For Todd Family Genealogy with documentation, see ...
Todds of Carson's Fork
Rutherford & Cannon Co, TN
http://www.toddfamilygenealogy.com/home
James Calvin Todd
(1842 - 1923)
Biography compiled by N Todd
James was born on August 28, 1842, in Tennessee, the first child of William Todd and Sarah Ewell.
As a youth of eight years of age, in 1850, James, along with his parents and siblings, Mary J, William A, Ransom and Robert A, lived in Bradys Rock, Cannon County, Tennessee.
Between 1850 and 1854, three more siblings were welcomed into James' world, Flora A, Joseph T and Cynthia C. It was about this same time that the Todd family began their courageous and adventurous migration from their home in Tennessee, through Missouri where yet another child, Elizabeth, was born, then by 1860, on to Richland, Madison County, Arkansas, James now eighteen years of age. The tenth of the total sibling group, Sarah E, would be born later in 1865. James continued to help his father work the earth of the family farm until the summer of 1862, the summer that would change young James' life forever.
James described the evolving events of that summer in own words from an 1872 testimony:
"The Home Guards made me go into the Rebel Army in the summer of 1862, and I was sworn into service. I did it to save my life; I had no intention of keeping the oath when I took it. I could not get to the Union lines then, and it was go in or be killed.
"In the summer of 1862, while the 'Conscript Act' was being enforced by the Home Guards, seven or eight Home Guard soldiers (some of them my neighbors) came one day and said they wanted me to go into the Rebel Army. I did not want to go, but they said I had to. My eyes were very sore at the time, and they agreed to let me wait a few days but made me promise to go to camp at Huntsville and said if I did not go on the day set, they would come and take me, then take all the property my father had. I knew they would do what they said, and I went to Huntsville (the county seat of Madison County) and was mustered and sworn into Capt Tom Berry's Company (I don't remember the name of the regiment). I was with the company only five days when I deserted and went home … [hiding] until some of the Federal soldiers came into my neighborhood when I got in with them and went to Fayetteville and enlisted as before stated.
"They got two horses from me after I went into the service (one from my mother-in-law's farm and the other farm my uncle's place) and also a gun."
The date was December 1862.
"At the beginning of the Rebellion, I was for the Union cause. I was only a chink of a boy and had nothing to say and could not vote. My father was a strong Union man. And I believed strongly in the Union cause and enlisted in the Union Army the first chance I had and before I was of age."
So, during the U.S. Civil War (1861 - 1865), in December 1862, at age twenty, James traveled to Fayetteville, Washington County, and enlisted in the Union military, 1st Arkansas Cavalry, Company C, to serve as Private, joining for duty and enrolling December 23, for three years. Muster-in date was August 31, 1863, at Springfield, Missouri. Along with combat duties, James served on detached duty to forage for supplies, as mail rider, as regiment teamster and on duty at the government slaughter pen. Muster-out date and honorably discharged August 23, 1865, at Fayetteville, his papers described young James as five feet seven inches tall, fair complexion, grey eyes and light hair. Additionally, government documents show that James' younger brother, William A, age 18, joined the war effort just sixteen months after James' enlistment, and served in the same company. Documents further tell that the father of James and William A served the Union forces as post butcher for the troops, employed by the beef contractor with that same regiment.
James lost his personal horse and gun to the war. In December 1872, James filed an application to have testimony taken by a Special Commission. In October 1873, he filed a claim with the Southern Claims Commission from the State of Arkansas, for the loss of his horse killed in action in United States service during the battle at Fayetteville on November 3, 1864, in 1st Arkansas Cavalry commanded by Col M Lee Reid Harrison, Company C commander.
"The horse charged for is one that I bought and rode five or six months in service. I belonged to a regular detail to gather up and drive in beef cattle, and I rode this horse principally on that duty. At the time I went on the beef detail, I could not draw a horse to ride, and I was compelled to buy a horse … I don't remember who I got the horse from or what I paid - I just know I bought it. On the 4th of Nov 1864, when the garrison at Fayetteville was attacked by a part of Price's Army, my horse was tied at the butcher shop in range of the enemy's guns and was killed in the activities. The horse was a dark bay, 4 years old, fast, a good big horse (over medium), sound in every way and in good fix. I was offered $120 in green back only a day or two before he was killed. I never got any pay for the horse and never tried to until I put in for this claim."
In August 1873, in Fayetteville, James, age 29, gave testimony to the Southern Claims Commission and additional testimony was heard from his brother William A and his father William. In December 1874, a "Summary Report" was issued and the claim denied.
After the war, James married his young neighbor, Martha Angeline Ledbetter Johnson, who brought into the marriage union her young daughter, Violet Angeline Johnson. The date of marriage for James and Martha Angeline is unknown, and it is unknown if Martha Angeline's second daughter, Sarah E, born 1865, is the daughter of James, since James was not discharged until August of 1865, and Sarah E is not mentioned in James' probate. In 1867, James and Martha Angeline welcomed their first son, William Thomas, and by 1870, James, age 27, Martha Angeline and their growing family were living in Richland, Washington County, where James and Martha Angeline had welcomed their second son, Benjamin (Ben) F, and where James was providing for his family with his long before perfected farming skills.
By 1880, James at 36 years of age and Martha Angeline were living in Prairie, Madison County, where the family had grown to six children, including two new additions welcomed into the family, son Charles M and daughter Flora May.
Between 1880 and 1887, the Todd family, like a number of other Arkansas families, took that giant leap of faith and with much courage made the migration to Texas, settling in northeastern Bell County near the small town of Old Troy, a community that later sadly and completely disappeared by 1927.
As coincidental as life can sometimes seem, another Arkansas family made much the same journey, also settling in Bell County, near Old Troy. The reunion of the Todds and their former Arkansas friends, the Glaze family that included daughter Mary, was recounted many years later by Mary's son:
"When Mary was twelve, her father got the 'go to Texas fever' that seemed to be sweeping the country. He sold the farm and loaded everything portable into a covered wagon and off they started. About the time they reached the Red River, they met some wagons of people leaving Texas. They told a tale of drought and of everything being burned up. So the Glaze family decided to go back to Arkansas, back to the same community but this time to a rented farm. For two years they stayed, with the dream of going to Texas still in Wilson Glaze's mind and heart. When Mary was 14, they started again, but this time the trip was made by train to Denton County. Bell County was the spot that Wilson dreamed of, so after a year of living in Denton County, they moved south to Bell County and settled just outside Troy, Texas. There, to their surprise, they found the Todd family, friends who had lived in Huntsville, Arkansas. This was September of '87. There was also sadness in finding these friends, for in June of this year, one Saturday the men folk had all gone to Troy for supplies when a storm came up. The men rushed home trying to reach there before it hit. Just as they drove into the yard, the worst of it did hit, tearing the doors from the house and blowing all the chairs and tables through the open doorway. Mrs. Todd [Martha Angeline] was so frightened that she fell unconscious on the bed and never did regain consciousness but died and was buried the following Monday. The Todd family had moved to Texas thinking it would be better for Mrs. Todd, for her health was rather delicate, and the weather here was so much milder than in Arkansas."
After the tragic loss of his beloved wife Martha Angeline, James put distance between himself and his grief, leaving Texas behind and returning to Arkansas with his three younger children. His oldest son, William Thomas, stayed on in Texas.
When James was 44, he married Julia Henderson on February 14, 1888, in Washington County, Arkansas.
By 1900, at age 57, James was living in Lamar, Madison County, Arkansas, with Julia, step-daughters Mary Henderson and Lucinda Henderson, and their newly added children, Anna (Annie), Nolan V, Clyde Earl and William Homer Ollney.
By 1910, James and his family, with adult stepdaughter, Mary Henderson, were living in Prairie, Washington County, Arkansas, and four years later, 1914, James' first Great Grandchild, a baby boy named Randall Woodrow Todd was born in Waco, McLennan County, Texas.
Late 1919, James purchased property in Fayetteville, a forfeited town lot for the sum of $2.40 and two additional lots, all in the Rose Hill Addition, and by 1920, James, age 76, was living on his Rose Hill town lot in Prairie, Washington County, with Julie and their adult son Homer, daughter-in-law Effie and grandson, and with sons Nolan V and Earl C living on James's remaining two town lots. James had retired from his farming skills, turning his attention and skills to the craft of basket making.
James died at age 81, on December 5, 1923, in Harris, Washington County.
Interment on December 6, 1923, was in Evergreen Cemetery, in Fayetteville, Washington County.
The estate was probated on December 20, 1923, in Washington County.
Todds of Carson's Fork
Rutherford & Cannon Co, TN
http://www.toddfamilygenealogy.com/home
James Calvin Todd
(1842 - 1923)
Biography compiled by N Todd
James was born on August 28, 1842, in Tennessee, the first child of William Todd and Sarah Ewell.
As a youth of eight years of age, in 1850, James, along with his parents and siblings, Mary J, William A, Ransom and Robert A, lived in Bradys Rock, Cannon County, Tennessee.
Between 1850 and 1854, three more siblings were welcomed into James' world, Flora A, Joseph T and Cynthia C. It was about this same time that the Todd family began their courageous and adventurous migration from their home in Tennessee, through Missouri where yet another child, Elizabeth, was born, then by 1860, on to Richland, Madison County, Arkansas, James now eighteen years of age. The tenth of the total sibling group, Sarah E, would be born later in 1865. James continued to help his father work the earth of the family farm until the summer of 1862, the summer that would change young James' life forever.
James described the evolving events of that summer in own words from an 1872 testimony:
"The Home Guards made me go into the Rebel Army in the summer of 1862, and I was sworn into service. I did it to save my life; I had no intention of keeping the oath when I took it. I could not get to the Union lines then, and it was go in or be killed.
"In the summer of 1862, while the 'Conscript Act' was being enforced by the Home Guards, seven or eight Home Guard soldiers (some of them my neighbors) came one day and said they wanted me to go into the Rebel Army. I did not want to go, but they said I had to. My eyes were very sore at the time, and they agreed to let me wait a few days but made me promise to go to camp at Huntsville and said if I did not go on the day set, they would come and take me, then take all the property my father had. I knew they would do what they said, and I went to Huntsville (the county seat of Madison County) and was mustered and sworn into Capt Tom Berry's Company (I don't remember the name of the regiment). I was with the company only five days when I deserted and went home … [hiding] until some of the Federal soldiers came into my neighborhood when I got in with them and went to Fayetteville and enlisted as before stated.
"They got two horses from me after I went into the service (one from my mother-in-law's farm and the other farm my uncle's place) and also a gun."
The date was December 1862.
"At the beginning of the Rebellion, I was for the Union cause. I was only a chink of a boy and had nothing to say and could not vote. My father was a strong Union man. And I believed strongly in the Union cause and enlisted in the Union Army the first chance I had and before I was of age."
So, during the U.S. Civil War (1861 - 1865), in December 1862, at age twenty, James traveled to Fayetteville, Washington County, and enlisted in the Union military, 1st Arkansas Cavalry, Company C, to serve as Private, joining for duty and enrolling December 23, for three years. Muster-in date was August 31, 1863, at Springfield, Missouri. Along with combat duties, James served on detached duty to forage for supplies, as mail rider, as regiment teamster and on duty at the government slaughter pen. Muster-out date and honorably discharged August 23, 1865, at Fayetteville, his papers described young James as five feet seven inches tall, fair complexion, grey eyes and light hair. Additionally, government documents show that James' younger brother, William A, age 18, joined the war effort just sixteen months after James' enlistment, and served in the same company. Documents further tell that the father of James and William A served the Union forces as post butcher for the troops, employed by the beef contractor with that same regiment.
James lost his personal horse and gun to the war. In December 1872, James filed an application to have testimony taken by a Special Commission. In October 1873, he filed a claim with the Southern Claims Commission from the State of Arkansas, for the loss of his horse killed in action in United States service during the battle at Fayetteville on November 3, 1864, in 1st Arkansas Cavalry commanded by Col M Lee Reid Harrison, Company C commander.
"The horse charged for is one that I bought and rode five or six months in service. I belonged to a regular detail to gather up and drive in beef cattle, and I rode this horse principally on that duty. At the time I went on the beef detail, I could not draw a horse to ride, and I was compelled to buy a horse … I don't remember who I got the horse from or what I paid - I just know I bought it. On the 4th of Nov 1864, when the garrison at Fayetteville was attacked by a part of Price's Army, my horse was tied at the butcher shop in range of the enemy's guns and was killed in the activities. The horse was a dark bay, 4 years old, fast, a good big horse (over medium), sound in every way and in good fix. I was offered $120 in green back only a day or two before he was killed. I never got any pay for the horse and never tried to until I put in for this claim."
In August 1873, in Fayetteville, James, age 29, gave testimony to the Southern Claims Commission and additional testimony was heard from his brother William A and his father William. In December 1874, a "Summary Report" was issued and the claim denied.
After the war, James married his young neighbor, Martha Angeline Ledbetter Johnson, who brought into the marriage union her young daughter, Violet Angeline Johnson. The date of marriage for James and Martha Angeline is unknown, and it is unknown if Martha Angeline's second daughter, Sarah E, born 1865, is the daughter of James, since James was not discharged until August of 1865, and Sarah E is not mentioned in James' probate. In 1867, James and Martha Angeline welcomed their first son, William Thomas, and by 1870, James, age 27, Martha Angeline and their growing family were living in Richland, Washington County, where James and Martha Angeline had welcomed their second son, Benjamin (Ben) F, and where James was providing for his family with his long before perfected farming skills.
By 1880, James at 36 years of age and Martha Angeline were living in Prairie, Madison County, where the family had grown to six children, including two new additions welcomed into the family, son Charles M and daughter Flora May.
Between 1880 and 1887, the Todd family, like a number of other Arkansas families, took that giant leap of faith and with much courage made the migration to Texas, settling in northeastern Bell County near the small town of Old Troy, a community that later sadly and completely disappeared by 1927.
As coincidental as life can sometimes seem, another Arkansas family made much the same journey, also settling in Bell County, near Old Troy. The reunion of the Todds and their former Arkansas friends, the Glaze family that included daughter Mary, was recounted many years later by Mary's son:
"When Mary was twelve, her father got the 'go to Texas fever' that seemed to be sweeping the country. He sold the farm and loaded everything portable into a covered wagon and off they started. About the time they reached the Red River, they met some wagons of people leaving Texas. They told a tale of drought and of everything being burned up. So the Glaze family decided to go back to Arkansas, back to the same community but this time to a rented farm. For two years they stayed, with the dream of going to Texas still in Wilson Glaze's mind and heart. When Mary was 14, they started again, but this time the trip was made by train to Denton County. Bell County was the spot that Wilson dreamed of, so after a year of living in Denton County, they moved south to Bell County and settled just outside Troy, Texas. There, to their surprise, they found the Todd family, friends who had lived in Huntsville, Arkansas. This was September of '87. There was also sadness in finding these friends, for in June of this year, one Saturday the men folk had all gone to Troy for supplies when a storm came up. The men rushed home trying to reach there before it hit. Just as they drove into the yard, the worst of it did hit, tearing the doors from the house and blowing all the chairs and tables through the open doorway. Mrs. Todd [Martha Angeline] was so frightened that she fell unconscious on the bed and never did regain consciousness but died and was buried the following Monday. The Todd family had moved to Texas thinking it would be better for Mrs. Todd, for her health was rather delicate, and the weather here was so much milder than in Arkansas."
After the tragic loss of his beloved wife Martha Angeline, James put distance between himself and his grief, leaving Texas behind and returning to Arkansas with his three younger children. His oldest son, William Thomas, stayed on in Texas.
When James was 44, he married Julia Henderson on February 14, 1888, in Washington County, Arkansas.
By 1900, at age 57, James was living in Lamar, Madison County, Arkansas, with Julia, step-daughters Mary Henderson and Lucinda Henderson, and their newly added children, Anna (Annie), Nolan V, Clyde Earl and William Homer Ollney.
By 1910, James and his family, with adult stepdaughter, Mary Henderson, were living in Prairie, Washington County, Arkansas, and four years later, 1914, James' first Great Grandchild, a baby boy named Randall Woodrow Todd was born in Waco, McLennan County, Texas.
Late 1919, James purchased property in Fayetteville, a forfeited town lot for the sum of $2.40 and two additional lots, all in the Rose Hill Addition, and by 1920, James, age 76, was living on his Rose Hill town lot in Prairie, Washington County, with Julie and their adult son Homer, daughter-in-law Effie and grandson, and with sons Nolan V and Earl C living on James's remaining two town lots. James had retired from his farming skills, turning his attention and skills to the craft of basket making.
James died at age 81, on December 5, 1923, in Harris, Washington County.
Interment on December 6, 1923, was in Evergreen Cemetery, in Fayetteville, Washington County.
The estate was probated on December 20, 1923, in Washington County.
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