Birth Story

 

1. Birth Story

Ancestors from Kentucky

 

            The names of my great, great, great Grandfather and grandmother were Mathew and Charity King Chadwick. They lived in North Carolina. He was a Baptist Preacher. I do not know if they moved to Kentucky or not but I know that his son did. His son, my great, great grandfather John Lauther Chadwick was also a Baptist preacher. J. L. wife name was Mary Melvina Daniel Chadwick. He lived in Crittenden County in Kentucky on one of the few military roads though the state. During the War Between the States there was much activity in that particular area so he moved his family down into Central Tennessee where they lived for two years. They then moved back to their old home place in Kentucky and four years later they moved all their stuff in six ox carts into Fulton County Arkansas near the town of Salem. This was in the early summer of 1869.  They lived there 16 years. Afterward they moved to Searcy County in a small community named Oxley. Their graves are in the Oxley Community Cemetery.

            The names of my great grandfather and grandmother were John Franklin and Sara Young Chadwick he was also a Baptist preacher. He died before I was born but I remember meeting great grandmother when I was about 5 years old. She was staying with one of her children on a farm in the Oxley community. It was winter time and very cold. We were living on our farm in Witts Springs Arkansas. I think it was a holiday either Thanksgiving or Christmas. My dad and his siblings went to spend the holiday with their grandma. We went in a truck with wood sideboards with a tarp covering it. Because of the cold they heated rocks and wrapped them in quilts and put lose hay in the bed of the truck in order to keep all the kids warm. At this time I was the baby in the Chadwick family and great grandma Sera who was blind told my mother to bring me to her so she could see me. She felt all over my face and upper body. I was mortified having someone that I had never seen before running her hands all over my head, eyes, ears and mouth. Not a good experience for a shy country lad.