By Melissa Nesbitt, archival manager for the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives
“Who would want these old papers?” While cleaning out someone’s house after his
or her death, many people ask this question - only to throw away items that are
seemingly useless. There is no telling how
many pieces of historical puzzles are lost due to this line of thinking without
an attempt to find an appropriate repository for them. Fortunately, that was not the case with a
small collection recently donated to the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives (SARA). Thanks to Jane Shoppell and her husband John
Kelly seeing their possible value, documents that once belonged to a former Hempstead
County family are now available for research.
Shoppell’s father, Eugene Shoppell, served as accountant and
estate executor to Elizabeth G. Chaney, who died in Colorado in 1994. She never married and had no immediate family
so, although Eugene Shoppell was of no familial relation to Chaney, papers from
her estate remained in his possession.
In turn, they passed to his daughter upon his death. Interestingly, many of the documents
pertained to Hempstead County (although some originated in Illinois and
Pennsylvania).
Kelly offered to donate the papers to SARA since most
originated in Hempstead County. The out-of-state
items seemed oddly out of place until Archival Manager Melissa Nesbitt
researched the family history. With the
help of a pedigree chart included in the donation, she built a family tree
starting with Elizabeth Chaney and began to piece together the journey the
documents took from Arkansas to Colorado, then to Texas, and finally back to
Arkansas.
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| Image courtesy of the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives. |
The items donated include an appointment of Chaney’s
great-grandfather, Joseph D. Gibson, as Sergeant of Company A, 1st
Arkansas Infantry, U.S.A., in 1863, as well as a typed copy of a narrative
written by his son David Edward Gibson, Chaney’s great-uncle. The account details
how David and his father made the perilous journey across Confederate lines
from Hempstead County to Fayetteville to join the Union Army.
Though Joseph Gibson became a sergeant in the Union Army,
there are included among the documents two bills of sale for slaves dated 1849. One is for a man named Jack, and the other is
for a woman named Charlotte. Joseph
Gibson is listed as the purchaser. The
1850 U.S. Federal Census Slave Schedule lists Joseph D. Gibson as the owner of
a 29-year-old black female, 25-year-old black male and a 9-month-old black
male. The ages given for Jack and
Charlotte on the bills of sale correspond approximately with the ages of the enslaved
people listed on the slave schedule. The
infant was possibly a child of Jack and Charlotte. By 1860, Gibson is not found on the slave
schedule. Further research would need to
be done to ascertain what became of Jack, Charlotte and their possible child and
whether Gibson freed them.
According to Joseph’s military service record and his son
David’s account, Joseph Gibson died of sickness June 14, 1865, in Fort Smith. He is interred in the National Cemetery
there. David Gibson left Arkansas after
the war ended and moved to Illinois.
For more information about this collection or other
historical records at the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives, call
870-983-2633 or email melissa.nesbitt@arkansas.gov.
More information about Arkansas history and genealogical research is available
at the Arkansas State Archives at archives.arkansas.gov
or by calling 501-682-6900.
