1823-1884
Arkansas
The Jane Curl Walker letters collection comprises more than 100 Walker and Hawkins family letters that were written between 1823 and 1884, which were sent among family members in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and other parts of the old south.
The family matriarch, Jane Curl Walker Hawkins, saved these letters during her lifetime in an old shoebox that was preserved and passed down to successive generations.
In the mid-1980’s, Jane’s great-great-granddaughter, Joanne (O’Kelly) Ferguson painstakingly transcribed the handwritten letters and annotated the letters to place the writers and subjects in context. Her monumental transcription project has opened a window through which we can meet these 19th-century family members on a personal level.
The original handwritten letters were generously donated by Joanne to the University of Arkansas Library, where they now reside in the Special Collections section.
Insight Into America 18th Century History
The Jane Curl Walker letters offer many insights into life in frontier America in the 19th-century, including:
Purchase Of A Stove (1845)
In 19th-century frontier America, the stove was one of a family’s most important possessions. It provided heat in the winter, and allowed for baking bread, and cooking meat and eggs.
In letter #9, Judge David Walker wrote to his Aunt Jane Walker about a stove he had given to her and her family. This was at the time Jane had moved her young family to Fayetteville—into a home that Judge Walker provided to them after Jane’s husband, Martin L. Hawkins, died of pneumonia in 1840, which left Jane a frontier widow with 6 children under age 15 (including a newborn). Judge Walker saved this young family from destitution.
California Gold Rush (1849-1850)
11 letters (see #14, 16, 18, 22-24, 27-29, and 31-32) were written by or about Fayetteville citizens who traveled to California in 1849 and 1850 to prospect for gold during the California Gold Rush. Together, these letters offer many insights into how these prospectors lived and mined for gold, as well as shared about their hopes and dreams to achieve financial comfort for themselves and their families back home.
Our ancestor, Edward Freyschlag, was part of a group of 120 Fayetteville citizens who traveled to California in 1849 in search of gold. In letter #16, written from the Bidwell Bar Feather River in the Sierra Mountains of California, Edward wrote back to his wife Lucy after receiving a letter from her with a lock of his young son Hermann’s hair. He reports news of his brother, Christian, and “the girls” (his sisters Barbara and Metta), who left the Sierras and moved to Sacramento to open a boarding house. At the close of the letter, Edward states that he will probably leave California the following spring, depending on the success of his claims and how much he will be paid for any employment he finds over the winter.
In fact, Edward did fairly well during his 2 years in California and was able to afford the most expensive passage back to Fayetteville—by ocean around Cape Horn to New Orleans, then by riverboat up the Mississippi and White rivers to Fayetteville.
American Mercenary Soldiers (Filibusteros) In Mexico And Central America (1850-1860)
In 1855, Jane’s son, James William Hawkins, sailed from San Francisco with a small mercenary army on the ship Archibald Garcia with the intent of joining forces with General Juan Alvarez in Mexico in his fight against General Santa Anna.
James was captured by Santa Anna’s forces and held prisoner in Mexico City for 9 months. He was repatriated to the U.S. in 1856, but arrived in New Orleans mortally ill with yellow fever and died at Charity Hospital
13 letters (see #42, 55-56, 58-63, 67, 68, 71, and 89) are about James’ capture and death, as well as Jane’s participation in the long legal effort afterward to obtain reparations from the Mexican government for the mistreatment of the prisoners from the Archibald Gracia.
Civil War (1861-1865)
3 letters (see #48, and 50-51) relate directly to the Civil War. In letter #48, our great uncle, Martin Hawkins, Jr., wrote to his mother, Jane Curl Walker, from the Confederate Army camp at Wilson’s Creek, Missouri. The letter was written the day before he was killed at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek on August 10, 1861. Martin was just 21 years old and had joined the CSA only 1 month earlier. The poignant transcript speaks for itself (spelling is quoted exactly):
“On Road
Aug 9 1861
Dear Ma
We are camped 9 miles South of Spring Field [Missouri] we have been here for 3 days. There has been no fiting going on yet but there is no telling when we will fite. The Enemy is still in Spring Field. There is so many reports about them that it is hard to tell where they are. There is between 8 & 10 Thousand of them and about 30 Thousand of us. All the boys are well at this time. Give my love to all. I would right more but have not time—
Your Son
MLH”
The Battle of Wilson’s Creek was the first major battle of the Civil War west of the Mississippi. The Confederates routed the Union forces, establishing control of southwestern Missouri, Union casualties in the battle were 1,317, and Confederate were 1,230 (dead, wounded or captured).
Our ancestor, Edward Freyschlag, was also at the Battle of Wilson’s Creek and probably had the sad duty of returning to Fayetteville to let Martin’s mother know of his fate.
Pre-Civl War South And Emancipation
13 letters (see # 12-13, 20, 30-32, 33, 38, 40, 47, 49, 52, and 54) reference various aspects of southern life during the pre-Civil War era and after emancipation. Several discuss the considerable loss of economic status for some families following the war.
Additional Historical Events
President Andrew Jackson’s bank veto (1832) – letter #2
Construction of the turnpike in Kentucky (1839) – letter #4
First telegraph wires in Vicksburg, Missouri (1850) – letter #18
Bounty land for veterans of the War of 1812 – letters #20-21 and 65
Tennessee bank failures (1857) – letter #43
Relations with indigenous peoples – letters #22-24 and 98
© 2013 W. Mullins