BIRTH-DEATH:History of Washington County, Arkansas;Springdale, Ark.;Shiloh
Museum;1989;Call# US/CAN 976.714 D3n.
MARRIAGE:Dodd, Jordan R.;North Carolina marriages;early to 1800, a research
tool;Bountiful, UT;Precision Indexing;1990;Call# US/CAN 975.6 V2nc.He is named as one of John Pyeatt's orphans in the William Gowdy's sale of 433
acres on the Haw River (Guilford Co, NC) in 1785.James PYEATT was born 28 February 1768, probably in Rowan Co, NC, to John and Martha or Jane BLAIR PYEATT. It seems unlikely that he would have married a woman 13 years older than himself. Nevertheless, they did marry. James witnessed deeds and deeded land in Guilford with other members of the PYEATT family between 1788 and 1794. He was a bondsman for the marriages of his brother Jacob to Margaret FINLEY (Catherine's sister) and of his brother-in-law Michael FINLEY to Sinai TAYLOR in Guilford. - Finley Family Findings
About 1796, James, Catherine, Jacob, Margaret, Michael and Sinai moved to Logan Co, Kentucky, part of which became Warren Co in 1797. James, Jacob and Michael are on the Warren Co tax lists for 1799, 1801-1803, 1805 and 1806. - Finley Family Findings
"In 1807 Maj. James Pyeatt and his brother Jacob, a Mr. Trammel, Thompson and Baldwin, with their families, composing a little colony, Mae from North Carolina in wagons, driving their stock, and crossing the Mississippi at Chickasaw Bluff (Memphis), and settle on the north side of the Arkansas River, in what is now Pyeatt Township. The Pyeatts settled on the river, about two and a half miles above Crystal Hill. Thompson settled just below the mouth of the Palarm, and Baldwin settled two or three miles farther down the river." -- Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Garland and Hot Spring Counties, Arkansas. Published by The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1889.
"Township 2 north, Range 13 west: In 1822, Governor. James Miller, James Pyeatt and James Walker. That part of this township lying north of the river was first offered for sale November 4, 1822, and that portion south of the river, January 10, 1825." --Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Garland and Hot Spring Counties, Arkansas. Published by The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1889.
From the Arkansas Gazette -
05/14/1822
Vol. II1 - No. 21- Whole No. 125 1822
Religion - Presbyterian Meeting, Little RockA PRESBYTERIAN CAMP MEETING
Will be held in this county, in Pyeatt's settlement, near the residence of Mr. James Pyeatt, on Friday, the 24th of May to continue for four days."The settlements here began in 1828. As mentioned by Mr. Buchanan, the Pyeatts were among the first to arrive. James and Jacob Pyeatt, as early as 1811, set out from Northern Alabama, in company with James and Samuel Carnahan, sons of Rev. John Carnahan. They embarked in flat-boats, and floated down the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the mouth of the Arkansas, then worked their way up the Arkansas to Crystal Hill, fifteen miles above Little Rock, where they were subsequently joined by several relatives and friends. All were natives of Kentucky, but had removed to Alabama to locate upon certain Indian lands, which, upon their arrival there, they found were not yet open for settlement." -- History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Frankling and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.
From Early Western Travels, Volume 13, page 152-
"23d.] Mr D. remained nearly the whole day at J Piat's,130 where a second family also reside, as well as a third on the opposite side of the river, and several more in the vicinity."
"130 Major James Pyeatt and his brother Jacob came from North Carolina in wagons in 1807, and the settlement which grew up about the was called Pyeattstown. It was twele miles above LIttle Rock, but has disappeared. Here reside for a time James Miller, first governor of Arkansas Territory. See post, note 214.--Ed."-----------------------------------------
Grand Jury Writ of Venire for December 1811 Term
AbstractOn December 2, 1811, the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace convened. Presiding were Chief Judge Francois Vaugine and Associate Judges Samuel Moseley and Henry Cassidy. Patrick Cassidy served as Clerk of the Court, Daniel Mooney as Sheriff, and Perly Wallis as Attorney General. Twenty four "good and lawful men" had been summoned to be grand jurors by the writ of venire, but only eighteen appeared: Christian Pringle, Jacob and James Pyeatt, Curtis Welborn, John W. Hunt, Hewes Scull, William English, William Winter, George Roebuck, Joseph and Charles Bougy, John B. Dereausseau, John Strong, John C. Newal, Christopher Kauffman, Anthony Wolf, Peter Lefevre and Louis Dumont.
William Goodwin, Peter Edwards, Sherod Hatley, William Horner, Zacheus Phillips and Noah Rushing defaulted (did not appear) and were each fined four dollars unless they appeared before the court and showed cause for their default. Hewes Scull was appointed foreman.
Two trials occurred during this term of court. Leonard McAtee was found not guilty of threatening the life of Christian Pringle, but guilty of assault and battery on Catharine McAtee. John Miller represented him at trial. William Morrison was found guilty of threatening the life of Perly Wallis and was fined ten dollars (see Morrison v. Wallis).
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United States v. Daniel McCraney
AbstractOn June 10, 1822, four soldiers at Fort Smith, Elias Staples, Samuel Goldsbury, Benjamin Clark and Daniel McCraney, left the fort to cut wood. They were working about a mile from the fort. On the way to the worksite, Staples testified that McCraney asked Clark for a "due bill" and a dollar which Clark was holding for him in safe keeping. Clark responded that the items were locked up safe at the fort, and he could return them in the evening. Two witnesses testified that when they reached the workplace, McCraney struck Clark on the neck with a broad axe, killing him, and then ran away. Goldsbury testified that he returned to the fort and reported to Captain Young. The two of them returned to the site where Clark lay dead.
On October 12, Goldsbury and Staples gave this testimony before J. Morris, a justice of the peace in Upper Township, Crawford County. Morris then issued a commitment order to Sheriff James Wilson, ordering him to jail Daniel McCraney, who apparently had been brought before the justice of the peace. Also on that day, Staples and Goldsbury made bond that they would appear at the Superior Court in Little Rock at the next term to testify at the trial of McCraney. At that time only the Superior Court had jurisdiction to try murder cases.
At the December Term of the Superior Court, the grand jury returned an indictment against Daniel McCraney. The record book indicates that the grand jurors were Creed Taylor (the foreman), John Douglass, James Pyeatt, William Flanakin, T. Rudolph, N. Rowland, William Hanley, Archibald McHenry, James Lockhart, Samuel Collins, Smith Kelham, Gabriel Greathouse, George Cook, Jesse Blair, Frederick Fletcher, Dempsey Kuykendale, Basil Newton & Robert Patterson.
At the April Term, Clerk David McKinney issued a subpoena to the marshall comanding him to summon four soldiers whose surnames were Young, Spencer, Dickson and Rhodes, to testify in McCraney's defense at the April Term. Sheriff Henry Armstrong was apparently given the subpoena, because he acknowledged receiving it on April 7. At the same time, James Wilson, the sheriff of Crawford County, was ordered to summon a jury of Crawford County residents to travel to Little Rock for the trial. The jurors summoned were William Bradford, William Stagner, John Riley, Isaac Shannon, Samuel Billingsley, John McClaine, John Cureton, John Moore, James Graham, William Maxwell and William Gibson. The writ noted that the jurors would be traveling 160 miles from Crawford County to the territorial capital. Apparently there was a delay, for trial was not held at the April Term. Instead, a new subpoena was issued to George Scott, the marshall, in May, commanding him to summon another dozen jurors. Reuben Blount, Deputy Marshall, served the summons on the jurors, who this time were James Billingsley (the foreman), Andrew Buel Shannon, William G. Shannon, John Titsworth, Samuel Washburn, Basil Newton, George C. Pickett, Lorenzo Clark, Joseph Batey, Henry Cureton, John Jay and James Gibson. (This time the writ noted that the jurors would be traveling 200 miles one way from Crawford County to Little Rock.) A scrap of paper found in the case file indicates that an additional witness may have been someone named Hastings.
On August 21, Judges Joseph Selden and Andrew Scott presided. Samuel Roane, U.S. Attorney, and Chester Ashley represented the United States; Robert Oden and Ambrose Sevier represented the defendant. McCraney was arraigned and pleaded not guilty. The jurors actually sworn in did not include Joseph Batey and Basil Newton, but instead included James Peel and William Thompson. The jury found the defendant not guilty. The August 26, 1823 issue of the Arkansas Gazette contains an article about the trial and states that the defense argued insanity. Some witnesses, according to the Gazette, testified that McCraney had been insane for awhile; others, only on the day; and others testified that he was drunk, not insane. An entry by Sam Roane on a list of Territorial lawsuit published in vol. 19, p. 543 of Terr. Papers states that McCraney was "acquitted on the ground of Insanity in the Defendant." If this is true it is interesting that McCraney was simply released--there were no institutions for mentally ill people in Arkansas at the time--and perhaps even returned to the Army.
Another Gazette article in the same issue relates that Elias Staples, who had testified at the trial, died from intoxication several days later.
Flashback, May 1973, states that James and Kate (Finley) Pyeatt were natives of NC and moved from Kentucky to Arkansas in 1812.
MARRIAGE:Pulaksi Co., ARK Deed Book B conveyed a preemption right to "James &
Martha PYEATT, late Martha WHITE...";The papers dealing with the estate of
Wright Daniel identify Elisha WHITE's widow as "Mrs. Martha White, now Pyeatt."BIRTH-DEATH:25 Mar 1834 issue of Arkansas Gazette.
9/3/95 Film 0514658 Misc. Genealogical Records, SI 1649 - 1925, lists the Merrell family early generations. Compiled by W.D. Merrell, 21 Arnold Park, Rochester, N.Y., in 1942.
7/23/00 See notes for William Blake husband of Mary Woglom. Email dated 7/21/00 from Holly Tooker.
9/3/95 Film 0514658 Misc. Genealogical Records, SI 1649 - 1925, lists the Merrell family early generations. Compiled by W.D. Merrell, 21 Arnold Park, Rochester, N.Y., in 1942.
7/23/00 See notes for William Blake husband of Mary Woglom. Email dated 7/21/00 from Holly Tooker.