September 19, 1869.
Some days, or months, or years seem to end with a sour note. Sometimes, we can foresee circumstances countering in a direction we no longer want to endure.
Sound familiar?
In 1869, precocious times like these countered on a gentleman named Mason Simpson. Capt. Mason worked for the Freedmen's Bureau in the little hamlet of Union, Fulton County,
on the Upper White River region of Northern Arkansas. Union is located north of Oxford on Arkansas Highway 9.
 |
| Google Street View of Union Cemetery. |
Simpson thought he thought he might find better circumstances & greener pastures in 1866.
Nevertheless, circumstances turned awry and Simpson is murdered on September 19, 1869.
How did it happen?
A few years back, Dr. Brooks Blevins gave a lecture at the Baxter County Genealogical & Historical Society entitled, "Murder, Mayhem, and Northern Arkansas's Civil War that Refused to End." Dr. Blevins gives a great view of circumstances surrounding the murder of Mason Simpson in Northern Arkansas during the Reconstruction Era.
Dr. Blevins writes a great article in the Arkansas Historical Quarterly corresponding to this lecture entitled "Reconstruction in the Ozarks: Simpson Mason, William Monks, and the War that Refused to End."
Enjoy your Ozark' History.
References:
"Arkansas, Freedmen's Bureau Field Office Records, 1864-1872," images, FamilySearch Jacksonport (Upper White River District) > Roll 11, Letters received, May 1866-Mar 1867 > image 36 of 111; citing NARA microfilm publication M1901 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
Blevins, Brooks. "Reconstruction in the Ozarks: Simpson Mason, William Monks, and the War that Refused to End." The Arkansas Historical Quarterly 77.3 (2018): 175-207.
Blevins, Brooks. “Murder, Mayhem, and Northern Arkansas's Civil War That Refused to End.” Baxter County Genealogical & Historical Society. Lecture presented at the Baxter County Genealogical & Historical Society, July 29, 2017.
Google Street View. Union, Arkansas, Cemetery. Photograph. Union, Arkansas, September 18, 2020.
