MISC INFORMATION FOR LEWIS SHIRLEY BRANCH #43

Lewis is brother of Aaron Shirley branch #42

In 1853 eight members of the Shirley family moved to Montgomery County Arkansas. The entire family left Alabama in a wagon train. They settled briefly in east Texas where where David Lewis was born in 1853. They then moved by wagon train north into Montgomery Co. Arkansas, helping to blaze the trail through the wilderness to a site just south and west of Oden. Upon coming to a nice spring of water, they decided to settle permanently in the area. They built a log house in the place which became known as Shirley spring at the head of Shirley Creek, a few miles south of the Quachita River, southeast of the later community of Huddleston. Shirley Creek flows into the river from the south through land now (1988), owned by Edna Gortemiller,and the Shirley Spring area is now part of the Forest Service land.

The growing Shirley family cleared the land and farmed. They grew cotton, corn, and wheat. There was a mill in Big Fork where the wheat was ground into flour. Trapping and hunting provided fresh meat. Fishing was plentiful. the cow provided milk and cheese. Fruits and vegetables were dried and hung to be used later. Soaking made them soft again.

The oldest son, James Wright, was a Union soldier in the Civil War. He was a member of Company D, 4th Arkansas Calvary and his youngest children received pensions as Civil War orphans at a much later date than most because they were born when he was near seventy years old.

Lewis Shirley, the head of the pioneer family, died in 1874 and is buried in Shirley Cemetery not far from Shirley Spring.

James Wright Shirley moved just across the county line into Board camp, Polk Co. where at the age of sixty-seven he married Ella Phelps in 1907. They had two children. He died in 1912 and was buried near his father in Shirley Cemetery.

By the third generation the number of Shirley family residents was over fifty, and the family name had been given to many local landmarks in the area that they settled.