Franklin Earl Cheatham

Thanks, Loyd Wayne for the information. Yes, you are correct. My grandfather, Frank Cheatham, was tough. Not only did the tractor accident leave him with a broken back, but some years earlier, I think late WW2, living in California, he was hit by a car. We later picked him up at the train station in Fayetteville at Christmas time. He was on crutches at that time.

I never knew, or at least don't remember, much about his early life. His father abandoned baby Frank and his mother. His mother later, don't know how much later, married a man by the name of Scott (surname). I believe she and her husband died somewhere in Kansas not far from Kansas City.

One story about his childhood claimed that he raced home on his horse being chased by a panther. Once inside the cabin, the panther tried to scratch his way in through the roof. I remember that to have occurred on the Poteau River to the south of Fort Smith. I think other family members thought that during those years he actually lived in the White River area east of Fayetteville. I never knew enough to reconcile the two versions. My Dad said that as a young man, maybe still in his teens, he worked in Fayetteville. My Dad, born in 1900, as a boy remembered his Dad as a jack of all trades, from builder to blacksmith, to undertaker (no funeral home at the time). He was a well-known stone mason. Many if not most of the stone buildings on the square in Lincoln he had a hand in. My Dad at age 18 in 1918, helped Grandpa build the old stone entrance at the Prairie Grove Battlefield. They were present for the formal opening and listened to soldiers, both Federal and Confederate, recall the battle. The Confederate speaker was a Morrow, from the Morrow community, quite aged at the time.

I remember that in the early 1950s, my mother, Joyce had surgery at the old City Hospital in Fayetteville. A patient at the same time was Lenora Cheatham Whitsitt. They talked. I remember that my mother commented that she believed that Lenora still loved Frank. I was in grad school and not able to be at my Grandpa's funeral in Lincoln in 1963, but I believe that Lenora's daughter, Frank's daughter, was present.

I am attaching the best information I have. Wade Cheatham's grandchildren are not included, nor Walter Cheatham's. We need to bring that up to date soon.

Thanks for sharing your information.

Carl Wade

INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM "Chad Whitsitt" ;

FRANKLIN EARL CHEATHAM (1870-1963)

FATHER - Lafayette Cheatham (Oct. 15, 1848 - Apr 29, 1917

MOTHER - Nancy Evaline Holt (

SPOUSE 1 - DIXIE DAISY HOLLAND GLENN CHEATHAM PARIS HUTTON MC ADAMS (1875-1962) Married Sep 6, 1891, Washington County, AR

CHILD - LENORA ALTA CHEATHAM WHITSITT (1892-1981)

SPOUSE 2 - DOLLY MAY MARTIN (1878-1930) Married 5, 1897

SPOUSE 3 - ELLA B CHEATHAM (1874-1962) Married 1946

1891 - Washington County Marriage License

F E Cheatham, age 21, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, married Dixie Holland, age 16, of Harris, Washington, Arkansas on Sept 6, 1891 in Washington County, AR

Lenora Alta Cheatham Whitsitt was born July 1, 1892 in Fayetteville, Washington County, AR

1897 - Washington County Marriage License - F. E. Cheatham and Dolly Martin