Hey Earl,
Guess who? That is g/uncle Henry Overton Cagle and his common law wife,
Martha A. Lindsey Smith Cagle and Mary Elmina Smith the daughter of Martha
by her first husband, Zachary Taylor Smith who died ca 1878. Following is a
brief sketch of Uncle Henry.
David
HENRY OVERTON CAGLE
Henry Overton Cagle was born ca 1842 and died in September of 1898 and is
buried at Harmony Cemetery. He was the second child and oldest son of John
and Elizabeth Catherine Polk Cagle. The Cagle and Polk families came to
Hardin County from the Mecklenburg-Cabarrus County of North Carolina in the
1820's.
Henry O. Cagle had brothers and sisters as follows: Charles Talley Cagle,
born 12 May 1844, died 26 October 1930 and was married to Easter Caroline
Alexander in 1864; Catherine, born 9 April 1847, died 29 January 1873 of
smallpox; and Mary L.. born 29 November 1849, died 3 February 1873 also of
smallpox. When these sisters died, Henry's mother, Uncle Washington and
aunt Matilda Polk Wells and several other family members all died of
smallpox within a few weeks period - December 1872 thru January and February
of 1873.
Uncle Henry was a member of Phillips' Light Artillary during the Civil War.
After the war, Henry O., on 13 March 1866 married Mary Jane Polk, born 22
November 1846, died 20 April 1867 and buried at Harmony. She was the
daughter of George Hampton Polk and his first wife Camley Shelby Polk.
Roots of this Polk and Shelby can also be traced to Mecklenburg County,
North Carolina.
Henry and Mary Jane soon had a son, John Hampton Cagle, born 23 January
1867. Mary Jane died about 3 months after John Hampton's birth.
Before 1870, Henry O. married for the second time to Isabella Fanny Davis,
the daughter of Joe and Harriet Perry Davis. Henry and Fanny had one
child, Ader Bell Cagle, born 28 December 1877, died 28 September 1878 and
buried in the Joe Davis family cemetery on Hardin's Creek.
The 1870 census of Hardin County shows Henry, 28, Fanny, 24, and John, age
3,
living in the 2nd Civil District near the rest of the Cagle family.
In September of 1879, Henry Overton Cagle left his wife, Isabella Fanny
Davis Cagle, and moved to Logan County, Arkansas with Martha A. Smith,
the widow of Z. T. Smith. Mary Elmina Smith, a child of Z. T. and Martha,
made the trip
with them. Apparently John Hampton Cagle remained in Hardin County as the
1880 census shows him living with his grandfather, George Hampton Polk.
Martha A. Smith sold the property of her first husband to R. D. and J. S.
DeFord on the 12th
of September of 1879 which is probably within a few days of her departure to
Arkansas with
Henry O. Cagle. Z. T. Smith was a first cousin of Henry. Henry's Father,
John Cagle was a brother of
Edna Deby Cagle Smith, the Mother of Z. T. Smith.
Due to circumstances, Henry and Martha severed ties with the family in
Hardin County. Their whereabouts was unknown for
several years-perhaps until Martha's death in 1891 which was 11 years after
they left Hardin County for Arkansas where they passed as man and wife.
However, they were never married and as a result, their children kept the
Smith name until they came home to Hardin County to live with their uncle,
Charles T. Cagle. He
became their guardian in 1895.
Henry and Martha could have legally married after 20 April 1882. On that
date, Isabella Fannie Davis Cagle was given a divorce from Henry by the
Chancery Court, case No. 488, Book G., Page 211.
The same day, Isabella was married to George W. Fisher-see Marriage Book 3,
Page 191. Fanny also came into possession of the lands formerly owned by
Henry Cagle, with the exception of the 4 acre tract which Henry had bought
from his parents in 1871. Henry later transferred title of this 4 acre tract
to Isabella Parrot in 1895. Her second husband, G. W. Fisher had died 7
February 1888, and she had married for the third time to Ben W. Parrot on 22
October 1888. When Isabella sold Henry's land, part of it was
purchased by George H. Polk and John Hampton Cagle.
As stated earlier, it appears that Henry made contact with his family in
Hardin County in 1891 after a lapse of several years. I have copies of
three letters that Henry wrote to his brother Charles T. Cagle, one each
in 1894, 1895, and 1896. From the 1894 letter, it is obvious from Henry's
descriptions and questions that there had been little or no
contact with his brother in the last few years before this date.
The 1894 letter chiefly deals with a description of
Henry's 160 acre farm in Yell County, Arkansas and describes some of the day
to day activities of his family in the winter of 1893-1894.
As Henry could not write, apparently this letter was written
for him by his oldest daughter, Hester Smith (Cagle) who would have been
about 13 years old at this time.
The 1895 and 1896 letters were different from the first.
They appear to be centered around some kind of dispute with John Smith,
brother of Z. T. Smith, over title to some property. No matter the problem,
however, the
1895 letter is a genealogists dream.
I don't know if the Smiths and Cagles ever had their law suit as the letters
suggested. However, the 1895 letter did give
a wealth of information about the family of Henry O. Cagle and Martha A.
Smith. This letter appears to have been
written by a lawyer for Henry, perhaps in the Yell County, Arkansas
Courthouse, as it was written on a page numbered as
in a court record book, and was obviously torn from such a book.
In the letter, Henry states that he took Martha Smith and her child, Mary
Elmina Smith, child of Z. T. Smith, to Logan
County, Arkansas in 1879, and lived there for seven years before moving to
Aly, Yell County, Arkansas in 1886. Mary
Elmina smith died on 6th September 1881. A daughter, Hester was born to
Henry and Martha on 11 March 1881. A second daughter was born to them in
1885 named Mattie. Martha A. Smith died 10 June 1891 near Aly in Yell
County, Arkansas.
On the 8th of April 1894 Henry O. Cagle was married for the 4th time to
Lillian Lavinie Rainwater, born 6 March 1879 in
Birmingham, Alabama, and died after 1965 in Texas. Lavinie was the daughter
of Daniel Boon and Martha Qullin Rainwater.
Henry and Lavinie had two children, James Harlan Cagle, born 11 September
1895 in Yell County, Arkansas, and Willie Edna Cagle, born 22 June 1898 in
Hardin County, Tennessee. Edna had been born in Hardin County because Henry
had brought his family back to Tennessee to live. In 1898, he had a serious
injury which caused a rupture. Unable to work, he came back to Hardin
County to recuperate or perhaps die. He never recovered from his injury and
died of gangrene in 1898 and is buried at Harmony Cemetery.
In 1894 Hester and Mattie smith came to Hardin County to live with their
uncle, Charles T. Cagle. He became their legal
guardian through court action on 7 October 1895. In later years, Mattie
lived with her half brother, John Hampton Cagle. Mattie married Walter
Bryant ca 1900 and moved to Louisiana. I am unable to trace Hester at this
point. She
Married Ulises S. "Lis" Polk and had one daughter, Blanch. Blanch was
raised by Mr. Rube and Ms. Mollie White after the death of her parents.
John Hampton Cagle, the only child of Henry Overton Cagle and his first
wife, Mary Jane Polk Cagle, lived with his grandfather, George H. Polk,
after
Henry moved to Arkansas. The 1880 census shows John H. Cagle, 13, living in
the
house hold of George H. Polk, 63. In 1900 John is enumerated in that census
with wife Betty Kelly Cagle, 34, William Johnson, age 6, boarder, and Mattie
Smith, age 16, sister.
----- Original Message -----
From: Earl Cagle <earl1947(a)webtv.net>
To: <CAGLE-L(a)rootsweb.com>
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2002 2:59 PM
Subject: Henry C. & Martha Cagle
The 1880 Logan Co; Arkansas census is now online at USGenWeb. I
found
this one Cagle listing for : Henry C. Cagle 38, Martha 28, and Mary L.
4.
Someone on our list is related to them but I can't remember who.
Take Care,
Earl
http://community.webtv.net/earl1947/CagleGenealogical
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