James Tyrell Coulter Jr.

James Coulter

James Coulter, Jr. was the son of James Coulter, Sr. who

arrived in Washington County, Arkansas. from east Tennessee in

1830. James, Jr. married Mary W. Moore, daughter of John

D. Moore and Amy Patrick. They had two children: John A.,

born about 1833, and Elizabeth Ann, also called Amy, born September

6, 1834.

The Coulters were members of the Cane Hill congregation of

the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Though James, Jr. had

been cited by the church for drunkenness and confessed his "immoral

conduct" to his father and brother-in-law James Bryant

Russell, he was suspended from church privileges until he

showed proper penitence.

James, Jr. had been involved in a dispute with William Butler

over a horse Butler claimed as his own. On October 2, 1834,

James and his brother Alexander were driving horses south when

they came upon William Butler and his brothers Benjamin and

Reese in Crawford County. William demanded the return of the

horse in question. During the ensuing argument, Benjamin

Butler, intending to shoot James, instead hit Alexander, who died

several hours later. Also in the company of the Coulter brothers

were Thomas H. Coulter, their cousin, and Benjamin Staunton.

The Butlers were eventually tried and acquitted.

The following summer, James, Jr. was again driving horses

south. While traveling on the steamboat Neosho down the

Arkansas River in Pulaski County, he became ill and died. He

was buried in Pulaski County. The date of his death, July 13,

1835, was recorded by the Cane Hill Church. His widow married

John Tate Reagan on June 16, 1849 in Washington County, and

they moved one and one-half mil.es east of Farmington. Mary

died July 20 one year in the early 1870s and was buried in the

Cane Hill Cemetery near her second husband.

James and Mary's son John died at age 24 in Washington

County and also buried in Cane Hill. Elizabeth married Robert

Lafayette Cox in this county in 1858 and moved to Bell County,

Texas.

By: Nancy Maxwell