THESE
ARE MY PEOPLE
Pauline
Collins Rice
In
Goodspeed’s Biographical Sketches of Arkansas, 1890,
it is stated that the great grandfather of Walter
Henry Collins
was from Scotland and came to the New World to seek
his
fortune.
There is
no further data on him, and I have not found his
name mentioned, as to his ancestors. I think his name must
have been Isaac Abram or some other Biblical name as
I have
found so many of the surname, with given names from
the Bible.
Abram
Collins was the son of Isaac, who was born in South-
ern Georgia in 1785, and Jeminea, who was born in
1790 in
South Carolina, according to Conecuk County, Alabama
census
record of 1830.
They moved to Mississippi about 1845;
traveled with Natchez Trace Movement and settled
close to
Tupelo after first stopping in Lee or Itawamba
Counties,
Mississippi.
The war record shows that Isaac Collins served
in the War of 1812 from Southern Georgia, as does
his appli-
cation for pension, filed in 1853, from
Mississippi. The
instrument is signed by Isaac Collins as petitioner,
and by
Abram Collins as Justice of the Peace or
Notary. He served
from Morgan County, Georgia, as a private soldier
under
Captain William Patrick’s company, 2nd
Regiment, Georgia
militia.
Isaac and Jeminea Collins both died in Mississippi
before the War Between the States. Abram Collins was born in
Conecuh County, Alabama on August 18, 1824.
He served
in the Mexican War. He enrolled
November 7,
1847, at Pontotoc, Mississippi, and was mustered in
as a
private in Captain Wray’s Company, which became
Company “D”
Batallion Mississippi Rifles (Andersons.) He was honorably
discharged as a private and mustered out June 28,
1848, at
Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was granted land bounty #43183.
He served as Sergeant, Co. “D”, First Regiment
Monroe’s Cavalry,
Confederate States of America. At age of enlistment he was 38
years old.
He served from 1862 to 1865.
Union War
records show that Abram Collins was captured
October 22, 1864, at Independence, Missouri, and was
imprisoned
at Camp Leavenworth, Kansas, and at Camp Morton,
Indianapolis,
Indiana.
After signing the oath of allegiance to the Union,
he was sent by boat to Pine Bluff where he was put
ashore,
and left helpless on the river bank; he was ill,
crippled and
helpless.
The year was 1865. He appealed
to the Masonic
Order, which he had joined in Mississippi in
1858. They gave
him a horse and funds to help him get back to
Brownstown. He
belonged to Harrisburg Lodge #156 in Pontotoc
County, Miss-
issippi. He was commissioned Justice of the Peace,
Beat 9, in
Pontotoc County in 1851.
Early in 1861 a company of
militia was formed in Sevier
County under the leadership of Captains John G.
McDean and
William Brown, at the town of Paraclifta, they
entered the
Confederate Army at Fort Smith and were known as the
“Star
Group” of militia.
Abram
Collins was a member of the Baptist Church, his
wife, a Presbyterian. He served as County and Chancery Judge
during the 1870’s and was chairman of the delegates
from
Sevier County to frame a new State Constitution,
which was
passed on in 1874. The log book is in the Archives
of
Arkansas History Commission in the name of Walter
Henry
Collins.
Abram
Collins had not originally planned to settle in
Arkansas, but after a trip to Texas to visit his
brothers living
there, he had planned to return to Mississippi,
dispose of his
property there, and return to Texas. He returned home and
proceeded with his plans. He started with his family in a
covered wagon caravan on the return trip to Texas;
however,
illness and bad weather forced them to camp near the
Pine
Woods section in Sevier County for an extended stay,
during
which time he grew to like the area and decided to
settle
there.
He first
built a large home on 160 acres of land, after-
wards acquired more, and at his death left about 500
acres,
with his homeplace.
The home was a large Colonial house with
a gallery around it, bolstered by big columns. My mother rem-
embered going there after she and Papa were married,
and of
her impression of the home and the huge willow trees
around
it. The
house was deeded to Frand and Adelia Collins Johnson
in 1892, afterwards changing hands several times
between
1892 and 1961 when it was sold for taxes and bought
by the
Dierks Lumber & Coal Company. Some people from out-of-state
had owned it, during the interim, and had restored
the
home to its original state, but it had fallen into
disuse and
dilapidation.
Other
members of Abram Collins’ immediate family had
moved West at about the same time, but if any of
them settled
here in this State, I have not found the link. Three Brothers
and two sisters moved on to Texas, and settled near
Galveston.
No record of brother Joel, but Isaac Mc. and Clint
moved on
to Arizona and stayed there.
A sister, Martha, married James McCall
P_____
“ Ballard
Kate
“ Morphew
Isaac McClendon Collins, youngest brother of Abram Collins,
married Mrs. Elize Wright
Beloat; she had two sons by her
first marriage. After the Civil War they moved to Arizona
after
first moving to
California, and returning planning to locate
in Texas. The trip was through undeveloped country,
and they
were in danger of Indian
attacks as Geronimo was on the war-
path at the time. When they arrived at Phoenix, they decided
to settle there, and Isaac
Collins bought mining property
and worked on developing
it until shortly before his death,
after 1916.
Abram Collins and Pamelia Adeline Horan were married in
Tupelo, Mississippi on the
30th of December, 1852. They
were married by a
Presbyterian minister named John W. G.
Maxey who had been a close
friend to the Horan family in old
Ninety-Six District in
South Carolina. He possibly had a
connection with the Little
River Presbyterian Church, of which
the Horan family were
members. Adeline Horan was the daughter
of Naomi Nickels and
William Horan, Jr., who were married in
Mississippi in April 23,
1829. Naomi Nickels was the daughter of
Carters Nickels and his
second wife, Annie (mentioned in Will
1826). William Horan, Jr. was son of William, Sr.,
and his
wife, Anna Simpson
Wallace, who had been widowed in Ireland with
two Daughters, Barbara and
Mary Wallace, who came to America
with her. Aboard ship she met William Horan and a
hasty
courtship ensued; they
were married soon after she arrived
here, early in
1800’s. They lived in South Carolina,
close to
the place where her father
had settled.
Anna’s mother, Barbara Bowlin Simpson, had died in Ireland,
Prior to John Simpson’s emigrating
to America. Anna was an
only child; she was born
in Ireland, County Antrim, August 24,
1779. She married first John Wallace; they had two
daughters,
Mary Wallace and Barbara
Wallace. Mary Wallace married Ansel
B. Godfrey in South
Carolina January 30, 1827, died November 4,
1855. No data on Barbara Wallace. After Anna Simpson
Wallace married William
Horan, they had three children born
in South Carolina, namely,
William Horan, Jr., born March 2,
1808; Ann Horan died
unmarried; Pamelia Horan married James
Craddock in Texas. Mary Godfrey and Pamelia Craddock are
Mentioned in Ann Simpson’s
Will dated 1852.
William Horan, Sr. was a cotton broker with office in
Liverpool, and he returned
there on business when the children
were small, and died while
there. Ann Horan was left with
her family to rear under
hardship and privation. She had a
strong determination, and
lived to see them responsible
Christian citizens and
respected.