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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 (brother of Jemima
Elizabeth N. (Bettie) Collins Sims-mother's
grandmother) 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 Southern 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 application 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”
Battalion
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, Mississippi. 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 (McLean?) 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, afterwards acquired
more, and at his death left about 500 acres, with his
home place. The home was a large Colonial house
with a gallery around
it, bolstered by big columns. My mother remembered 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.
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