Back to Arkansas

Sharryn and I made a decision to go back to Arkansas to see if we could uncover any more information regarding David G. and Cynthia Henson Hughes. While the two-day search didn't yield much new information, we did have some great experiences. Once again, we found the workers in the County Clerk's office, both in Hot Spring County and Dallas County, willing to assist and give directions. We did ferret out some information on Cynthia's family, John C. and Catherine Murray Henson. Cynthia had several siblings living in the area and it seems they all named their children the same names: William, George, Mary, Catherine, Abner, etc., so keeping these families separated is a trick.

According to the 1850 Mortality Schedule (part of the US Census), John Henson died in April of that same year of ague and fever. He was 69 years old. Webster's first definition for ague is: a fever, usually malarial, marked by regularly recurring chills. Catherine died June 3, 1863.

This time, using a land description website, MapQuest and our GPS, we were able to drive to the sites of land once owned by David and Cynthia. Our first stop was in Hot Spring County, where I was able to talk with the present owner of a significant portion of what David owned and sold to Edwin C. Jones (Cynthia's brother-in-law) in 1855. The most interesting, however, was our stop at Section 24, Township 9 South, Range 17 West, located in Dallas County. According to the 1860 Census, this is where Cynthia was living. Driving up the driveway to a brick home, we were met by a Mr. Butler. He currently owns what has been in his family for around a hundred years and it is about half of what David owned in 1858, when he died. Mr. Butler told us there were a large number of Hugheses who had been or were living in the area. They are, however, black. If you read the earliest posts to this blog, you may remember that David and Cynthia owned several slaves, for which she petitioned the court after David's death that they not be sold. It is common knowledge that after their freedom was given, many slaves took on the surname of their master. I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Mr. Butler and his son were a joy to talk with and were very interested in the earlier history of their land. Mr. Butler told me that G. W. Hughes, a black gentleman, had lived near him for many years.