Claude Brown of Noel, Mo “remembers stories”
[undated, unsigned transcript]
Old Joe Hendry who was a brother of great grandma Sarah Hendry
Brown [actually a nephew, son of William and Nancy Carter Hendry],
was shot in Henry hollow (4) by his son-in-law then some
say the son-in-law then shot himself in the yard. the family waited
untill daylight and found him. Others say he was shot by the family
after he shot Joe Hendry. Joe Hendry had a son named Jim and he
and Joe fell out. Jim went to hunt his dad down to kill him and
when he fired the gun blew up and Jim Hendry lost his arm because
of it. Joe Hendry and Uncle Henry Brown ran around together during
the civil war and made moon shine whiskey untill Uncle Henry came
to Arkansas. I talked to one of Uncle Henrys nieces and she said her
dad Uncle Will Brown told her that he and Uncle Henry were scouting
during the civil war and heard some southern soldiers comming so
they hid in the brush and waited then Uncle Henry shot both of the
soldiers and cut their heads off and hung them on a sapling. Uncle
will was just a small boy and was almost scared to death. A year or
two later he past the place and the limbs had sprouted and grew
around the heads still hanging there. I visited Hendry hollow and
saw the Hendry place. Uncle henry later lived on Brown’s mountain
(6) untill he came to Arkansas.
Uncle Henry’s boy Will got in to some slight misunderstanding with
the law and hit out for Kentucky wher he lived for some time. While
there he had a disagreement with a fellow and when Will was talking
to a neighbor one day this fellow come along and being drunk he
had a notion he would just cut Will’s head off or his liver out
and feed it to the dogs. Will run around the house while the man
he was talking to keep telling him that the man would kill him.
Finally the man threw Wll a gun and he killed the fellow. The man
talking to Will was afraid to testifie and will went to the penin
[blank] for life and died there. Either some one went and got him or
he was shiped back and burried on Brown’s mountain. I talked to his
son in Greenville about July 4, 1974 and he had just put a tumbstone
up for his dad. The Grave is at the point of Brown’s mountain the
back toward Baileyton at the head of a hollow. This is where uncle
Henry lived along with Ramsey Harris when he came to Arkansas.
The old timers still tell how mean old Joe and Jim Hendry were.
One of the old timers told me he found one of the old pistols
where Joe and some of his folks were having a battle years after
but after he washed it and oiled it years later someone stold it.
I would like to have had it. It was the old musle loading type.
Grandma Mathilda Brown’s old home place has been bulldosed down
for the new interstate 81 which has been finished to Bullsgap.
We saw it before it was taken down but the old house was long
since gone with a few of the chimney bricks left. It was reported to
us by a niece, Uncle Matt Pierce’s granddaughter that Great grandpa
Jimmy Pierce was a law-in-forcement officer at that time. We were
unable to find his burial place but all the rest of the emediate
family were buried at Mt.Carmel where grandma Brown went to church.
The following is a list of Pierces buried at Mt. Carmel:
W.E (Willie) Pierce-1884-1965 -Nephew Grandma’s
Ova Jeffer Pierce-1893-1918-Willie’s wife- I had meet both of these.
Joel N. Pierce -1882-1918
H.M (Matt) Pierce -1854-1924-Grandma’s brother
Louise Hendry Pierce -1862-1913
[handwritten]
Guy Pierce 1902-1966 - Teddy Pierce 1941-1965
Willie Pierce 1907-1957 Chas Pierce 1883-1959 wife Ida -1884-1952
Chas B Pierce 1887-1942
