The Shirley Cemetery
The rows run front to back with only three visible cement markers.
The headstone to the right has been moved due to an uprooted tree.
The James Wright Shirley headstone is towards the back.
The Shirley Cemetery
The rows run front to back with only three visible cement markers.
The headstone to the right has been moved due to an uprooted tree.
The James Wright Shirley headstone is towards the back.
Location: The Shirley Cemetery is an abandoned cemetery well hidden in the woods on top of a small knob on Ouachita National Forest land. There were twelve graves marked with field stones and only four marked with old headstones in three rows. Looks like someone is maintaining the cemetery. There is now a track to the cemetery and the small trees have been cut down and moved to the side. The cemetery book lists one additional name Mary Jane Fryar Shirley 1848-1904, the wife of James Wright Shirley.
Directions: From Oden, head south crossing the Ouachita River bridge. Take the first right, Southside Road, and go west five miles. (The Goodner Cemetery will be barely visible on the left behind Laird's barn at the 3 mile mark.) Turn left down a forestry road 0.3 miles past the end of the pavement. Go left at Y. Go 1.3 miles crossing Shirley Creek two times. Soon after crossing Shirley Creek the second time there is another Y, just a grass track. Take it about a 100 feet and look for a bulldozed track heading up the small hill to the right. Suitable for driving up in a pickup truck, the cemetery will soon be visible. Photos pending.
1. Ratliff America May 17 1834 - Oct 15 1895 In loving memory God in his wisdom recalled the boon his love. Tho the body slumber here The soul is safe in heaven
2. Ratliff Walter H Aug 14 1894-Oct 20 1895 s/o M.E. Ratliff. Asleep on Jesus. Blessed sleep from .. waked to weep
3. Shirley Lewis Sep 30 1874 Died aged 60 yrs, 1 month, 25 days. Mason
There is a new flat gray granite headstone 4. James Wright Shirley PVT Co.D 4th ARK Cav Civil War Jun 10 1840-Dec. 2 1911
James Wright Shirley
The footstone is the same shape as the headstone but smaller.
Transcribed March 2004 by Olwyn during visit to cemetery.
Montgomery County
ArkansasGenWeb Project
1870 Census Polk Township Page 7 Dw 163 Family 181 Shirley Joseph 28 AL Farm laborer Shirley Martha J 26 AL Keeping house Shirley William Lewis 8 AR Shirley John Milton 6 AR Shirley Joseph A 4 AR Shirley Andrew J 10m AR b. Aug
Dw 164 Family 182 Shirley J Wright 29 AL Farmer Shirley Polly Jane 29 Miss Keeping House cannot read or write
Dw 165 Family 183 Shirley Lewis 56 NC Farmer cannot read or write Shirley Polly Anne 46 AL Keeping house cannot read or write Shirley Louisa? 25 AL cannot read or write Shirley Mary Ann 23 AL Shirley Susan 21 AL attended school Shirley David 18 TX Farm laborer attended school Shirley Ernest E 16 AR
Copied off the Shirley Association website that no
longer exits with additions by me.
In 1853 eight members of the Shirley family moved to Montgomery Co. Arkansas. The entire family left Alabama in a wagon
train and they settled briefly in east Texas where where David Lewis Shirley was born in 1853. They then
moved by wagon train north into Montgomery Co. Arkansas, helping to blaze the trail through the wilderness to a site just south and west of Oden. Upon
coming to a nice spring of water, they decided to settle permanently in the area. They built a log house in the place which became known as Shirley
Spring at the head of Shirley Creek, a few miles south of the Ouachita River, southeast of the later community of Huddleston. Shirley Creek flows
into the river from the south through land now (1988), owned by Edna Gortemiller,
and the Shirley Spring area is now part of the Ouachita Forest Service land. The growing Shirley family cleared the land and farmed. They grew cotton,
corn, and wheat. There was a mill in Big Fork where the wheat was ground into flour. Trapping and hunting provided fresh meat. Fishing was plentiful.
The cow provided milk and cheese. Fruits and vegetables were dried and hung to be used later. Soaking made them soft again.
Did the Shirley family travel with James T. Mullenix
b. 1846 AL? Lewis Shirley was a J.P. and conducted the wedding for Jim and his
future wife Nancy Ann Fryar at the residence of William Fryar at Hog Jaw, in on
2 Sep 1869.
Lewis Shirley about 1814, died Dec 30, 1874 and was buried in Shirley Cemetery not far from Shirley Spring in Montgomery Co. Arkansas. He married 1st Sarah Ann
Mullinax Sept 5, 1839 Tuscaloosa Co. AL, m.3rd Mary Ann Patterson Aug 21, 1842 Tuscaloosa Co. AL.
Children:
1. James Wright Shirley b.1840 AL, died 1912, m. 1st Elizabeth J. Crowson 10 May
1863, m. 2nd Mary Jane Fryar in 1870. James Wright Shirley moved just across the county line into Board camp, Polk
Co. where at the age of sixty-seven he married 3rd Ella Phelps in 1907. They had
two children. He was a talented musician and violin maker. He made fiddles and played through out the area. He was a Union soldier in the Civil
War and his youngest children received pensions as Civil War orphans at a much later date than most because they
were born when he was near seventy years old. Children:
(1). Lewis Franklin Shirley b. 1874 Arkansas, m. Ella Willhite in 1899. They had 13 children: Willie, Charmy, Florine, John Daney "Dan", Omer, Raymond, Dona, Lona, Irene, Etna, Nellie, Grace, Henry Lewis "Pete."
(2). Hezekiah "Hezzie" b. 1888 AR, m. Bessie Metcalf 29 Dec. 1910. They lived in Leflore County Oklahoma near Poteau. They had 4 children.
Children by 3rd wife, Ella
(3). Helen b. 1909 Arkansas
(4). William Howard b. 1911 Arkansas
Children of Lewis Shirley by 2nd marriage to Mary
2. Martha Jane m. Joe Shirley, a cousin
3. Anne never married (b. c. 1846). In 1920 census living with her sister
Cordella Reynold in Smith Twp.
4. Mary Ann m. Benjamin F. Brewer in 1867. They had 7 children
5. Susan m. 1st William H. Ellison in 1870, 2nd Bill Goodner
6. David Lewis Shirley b.1853 Texas m. 1st Sarah Eliz. Gaston in 1873 (they had 10 children), m. 2nd Viola Durrough (they had 3 children). He was a school teacher and a Baptist preacher, preaching at Little Hope Church, south of Waters, (now Pine Ridge), and at Sulphur Springs Arkansas. He lived just over the line in Polk Co. AR near Board Camp.
7. Tenna S.E. Elizabeth Georgeann Josephine b. 1854, m. Dr. Stephen C. Bates in
1881. They had 3 children.
8. Amanda b. 1859 Arkansas m. James B. Brewer in 1883
9. Cordelia 1861 Arkansas, m. Riley (William R.) Reynolds in 1883. They had three children.