Viney Grove Community, Washington County, Prairie Grove, Arkansas
THE EDMISTON’S OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS
BY ALLAN S. HUMPHREYS
(25) REBECCA MALINDA 4 EDMISTON, (John Thompson, 3 etc.), was born l Jan. 1837; died 25 Sept. 1916, at the home or Mrs., Beaty and is buried in Prairie Grove Cemetery; married 5 Sept. 1855, to Stanford Riley Crawford, (son of John and Frances (Buchanan) Crawford), born 13 April 1910 in Washington County, Ark. 1835, in Ark.; died 8 April 1910 in Washington Co., Ark. He was a Confederate soldier, and she was a member or the U.D.C.
======
CRAWFORD, Rebecca Malinda EDMISTON - Reminiscences of the War - Paper
read by Mrs. S.R. Crawford at the last meeting of the Daughters of the Confederacy:
When the Prairie Grove battle was fought I was in sight and hearing of it all day. I saw
General Blunt’s command when they marched into the fight. I could hear our soldiers
yelling when they charged on the enemy. The second day after the battle Julia Crawford
and myself went on the battle ground to see if we could hear from Brother Marion
Crawford, Julia’s husband, we were among the dead and wounded and heard that he
had gone back South all right. We then started for home and when we came to the
federal pickets they took us prisoners and started to headquarters with us, but when
they got us to the next picket they turned us loose, it was nearly night when we got
home. There were dead men lying on each side of the road. It made us feel so bad to
look at them I would sometimes shut my eyes to keep from seeing them.
Gen. Blunt had his headquarters in our house and his men robbed us of nearly
everything we had to eat, what chickens we saved we put in a barrel and hid them in the
bedroom. The federals robbed us so often that we got used to it and we didn’t expect
anything else but to be robbed when they came. They came one night and one fellow
got one of my quilts. I was trying to take it way from him. He jumped off the porch and
fell and when he fell I hit him with a black-snake whip. He didn’t take time to get up but
went on his hands and feet I was hitting him all the time with the whip and I sure got the
quilt. Another time they came we had some corn hid up in the garret and we got it by
means of a ladder. The federals found out where the corn was and one fellow started up
the ladder to get some. I waited till he got to the top of the ladder then I pulled the ladder
from under him. It was very funny to see him coming down catching, scrambling and
cursing saying he would burn the house. At another time of the federals got one of my
quilts and I tried to take it from him, he drew his gun on me. I told him I wasn’t afraid of
his gun then he caught me by the throat and choking me down but I held onto the quilt
until I gave out then he took the quilt and left. I carried the marks made by his finger
nails on my neck for several days. I never did hide out but once from the federals. One
night they came to our nearest neighbors and was taking their horses. We heard the
girls screaming and thought the Pin Indians were there killing them for we heard that the
federals were going to turn the Indians loose and let them kill the Southern people. We
all went to the creek bottom and hid in the brush. Some time that night after everything
got quiet my sister-in-law and I went to our neighbors to see what had been done. We
slipped up to the house expecting to find the family all killed. We called very low and
hunted for them but found them all right. The fall before peace was made Beaty’s
company that Mr. Crawford belonged to was going to Red river. I concluded one
choking was enough and that I would go out with the company to Texas. We got a
horse each packed our clothes and bed clothes on our horses and started for Dixie.
There were only three women and Mart, my 8 year old boy in the crowd. Julia Crawford
and her mother were to move into our house the day after we started, but before they
moved in the federals came and burned our house and all we had except what we took
with us to Texas. Before we got with Beaty’s company the federals got so close on us
that we had to fall back in the mountains. We then got with Ben Denton’s company and
went out with them, the federal army was then at Fort Smith. Our company had to travel
through the woods and over the mountains to the mouth of Mulberry where we crossed
the Arkansas river. We had to ford the river and my pony was small, but I raised my feet
out of the water and crossed all right. We were expecting the federals on us at any time
because we found two dead federals on this side of the river. That night we camped in
hearing of the federal army and it rained on us all night. We bent some poles and stuck
them in the ground then spread a cover over them and crawled under it and slept on our
blankets, we had our saddles for pillows. We had plenty of beef to eat but no bread. I
never was so hungry for bread in my life, but Mr. Jack Simpson had a few biscuits in his
haver sack and gave us women one apiece. I don’t know how old they were but they
certainly tasted good then but I wouldn’t eat such bread now.
When we got to Red river Mr. Crawford got a furlough from his Captain and took us on
to Bell County, Texas. After riding five hundred miles horseback we landed at my
sisters’ a few days before Xmas, where we went into winter quarters until peace was
made. - Mrs. S.R. Crawford [Prairie Grove Herald 12/13/1906]
Mrs. Malinda Crawford Died Monday Morning - At 4 o’clock Monday morning,
September 25th, Mrs. Rebecca Malinda Crawford, widow of the late Stanford R.
Crawford, died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lev Beaty, near Viney Grove, after a
lingering illness of several months of a complication of diseases.
The deceased was born in the neighborhood in which she lived, January 1st, 1837, and
was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Edmiston. On September 5th, 1855, she was
united in marriage to Mr. Stanford Crawford and to this union were born four children,
three of whom are living. The children are Mr. M.N. Crawford of Strang, Oklahoma, Mrs.
Alta Taylor, wife of Mr. John Taylor of Prairie Grove and Mrs. Lilie Beaty, wife of Mr. Lev
Beaty of Viney Grove. She is also survived by a number of grandchildren and several
great-grandchildren.
Mrs. Crawford professed faith in Christ at the age of 12 years, uniting with the
Methodist Episcopal church, South, at Viney Grove and for 45 years was a devoted
Christian. For over 40 years she was a Sunday School teacher and permitted nothing
but sickness to keep her at home on the Sabbath day. She endured many hardships
during the Civil war and after her home had been burned over her head and every thing
she had carried off by the enemy, she with a sister-in-law rode horseback to Texas, she
having on the horse with her a little ten year old son. The regiment to which her
husband belonged was making quick marches and sometimes made no halt when night
came on, she rested only when the soldiers did.
She was a loyal member of Prairie Grove Chapter United Daughters of the
Confederacy and loved to be engaged in the work of defending the cause of the
Confederate soldier. Her last illness began in July and until the last three days of her
life, she was cheerful, full of faith of something better beyond and spoke to her loved
ones often of the peace and joy that faith brought her, and three days before the end
came, sang with a clear voice several of the old sweet songs she loved so well. Her life
went out like the closing of a fragrant flower, leaving its perfume in the pathway of
others. She will be greatly missed in her home, in her community and in her church.
The funeral services were held from the C.P. Church Monday afternoon and she was
laid to rest by the side of her husband in the Prairie Grove Cemetery. Her pastor, Rev.
Ruble, assisted by Rev. F.R. Hamilton, conducted the service, which was attended by a
large concourse of friends. [Prairie Grove Herald 9/28/1916]