My great uncle Oscar T Richey (son of Jefff and Josey [Brown] Richey -- Josephine was Sarah's sister -- said they lived near Fort Smith in "Indian/Pioneer Papers". Paraphrasing he said after they got married in 1872 they moved to either Sequoyah or Leflore County, saying he didn't know which side of the Arkansas River they lived on -- so apparently they lived near the river. Also there is a document mentioning an "Alfred Brown" wanted for some crime in Fort Smith and there is a record of my Jeffrey and Josephine [Brown] Richey being married in the home of "Alph Brown". There was an Alfred Brown with a daughter Nancy A., 6 years old in 1870. On 1880 Denton County, Tx census there is a Nancy A. Brown in the home on Jeff and Josephine Brown, 16 years old, b. Arkansas and it says by her name "cousin". That would make Alfred her uncle to my Josephine. This Alfred was on the census as a boy in 1850 census in Lawrence County, Alabama very near a place called "Brown's Ferry" on the lawrence/Limestone County line in Northcentral ALabama across the Tennessee river. I wrote Limestone County historical society asking them how it got its name and they said the didn't know. But A book "Footsteps of the Cherokee" by Vicky Rozema says this ferry across the Arkansas River started out by the Cherokee Brown's, but she gives no references as to how she knows this fact, although she has a very large record of sources at the end of the book, so I'd have to look through each one -- and there are a hundred or more, to find it. I have written Fort Worth (NARA) many times as they have the information on Alfred Brown (as well as for Brown Reservation roll information)-- but for some reason they say since I live in Oklahoma I can just go down there and get it. They refuse to make a copy of it for me and I said I'd pay for it -- so I may never see it. It was Oklahoma Historical Society (across from the state capital) who told me to write Fort Worth for this information, yte the people in Fort Worth ignore my requests which I make periodically every year or two.

My own ancestor, David B brown, father of both Sarah and Josey -- early in the war was listed in Arkansas with the 8th Ark, Confederate -- he was at Battle of Corinth, Ms in 1862 was taken POW for 8 days and parolled. Then we loose any record of him and we have a record saying he died May 1865 -- and that's all we know. Ironically, his wife's brother (James Gist) fought for the 29th Missouri, Union -- and was wounded at the firts battle of Vicksburg, also 1862. He went home (Missouri) and died 3 years later -- also 1865 -- and it says he died as a result of his earlier wound that never healed. Both were married in the same County so they probably attended each others marriages.

well I recall saying I thought they lived in Leflore County since my great aunt wrote my grandma a letter and she used the phrase "here in the Choctaw Nation". I was thinnking at the time i.] great uncle said leflore Co and ii.] great anut, his sister mentioned "Choctaw Nation" well it meant they'd lived in Leflore County. However when she wrote that letter to grandma they both were elderly and that may have had nothing to do with the 1870s when her family was there -- as it was written long after that time. So they could have lived in either Leflore or Sequoyah County -- I was wrong to assume it was Leflore County -- could have been either, and they were just there at most 7 or so years. Sarah (the girl who would become Tarlton's wife) would have been in her mid to late teens at the time they were in either Leflore or Sequoyah Co. So she definitely would have recalled that period in her life. My grandpa Hawkins (b. 1877 Robertson Co., Tx, d, 1957 Pinal Co., Az) has under "place of birth" on his death certificate b. Oklahoma - he married grandma at Loco, Chickasaw Nation 1904. We stayed near Denton until the late 1880s when we lived in the Chickasaw Nation -- as did many others at that time.

It might be that when Oscar wrote they were near Fort Smith, he was actually referring to his great grandpa Joseph Richey who was stationed at both Fort Smith and Fort Gibson 1846-1847. Also two of Jeff's mother's first cousins (Jarrett and James Wayland) were members of Beans Rangers and were stationed at Fort Gibson in the early 1830s (found both there in 1832, and James name appears on Fort Gibson roster in 1836 -- don't know anything about intervening years of either of them), but I believe they went through Fort Smith to get there. Records say they were living near where the White and Black Rivers run into one another, and the Waylands were first mentioned as living there in 1815, just a dozen years after the Louisiana Purchase. An autosomal DNA does say we have a little American Indian DNA -- altho we have evidence as to its source, we have no proof.

Vance