Rebecca Malinda Edmiston

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.

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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]