| Notes |
- Daniel Moved to Parke County, Indiana about 1822. He moved to Marion County Arizona about 1842. He rode to Marion county on horseback, and bought a mill on Mill Creek south of Yellville. He returned to Indiana and brought back son Jesse and another hand. in 1848 he brought the rest of the family. His mill was on the site of an old Indian village. He died on Feb 19 1863 in Yellville. Murdered by bushwackers who tried to extort money from him. They hanged him from a tree in his nightshirt to make him tell where his money was hidden. He refused to tell, and the robbers shot him in the bowels. He crawled through snow to the house of Col. Eli Dotson, a mile away, where he died. He was a Miller, Blacksmith, Wagon Maker, and still operator.
Daniel was considerd a good man because he would trade one bushel of shelled corn for one gallon of pure corn whiskey.
Samuels second wife Elizabeth Ross (Betsy) Doshier was not well recieved by Daniels older children who were her own age, and one of his children from his first marriage may actually have been a niece of his wife, who they adopred when appointed legal guardian for Rhonda and Peter Martin, orhans of Peter Martin brother to Susannah.
Letter received from Jerri Garofalo.
Daniel was indeed named after the famous frontiersman Daniel Boone. His father Sampson personally knew both Daniel and Squire Boone, from his years in the Revolutionary War and work they did together. Among such work was that Sampson learned the art of being a wheelwright working alongside Squire building mills in Kentucky and other areas. Daniel also became a millwright and eventually left Kentucky, moved to Terra Haute, Indiana, and built and established a mill business there. In time Daniel and two of his sons pioneered into the newly opened country of Arkansas. There they found and helped to establish the town of Yellville from it's infancy. Yellville had previously been an old Shawnee town. Daniel had one or two other sons that stayed in Terra Haute to run the business there, while the rest of his large family by his first wife all went to settle in Yellville. There, Daniel had a mill on Crooked Creek that was very prosperous. He also made what we today call Moonshine or Corn Whiskey. After the death of his first wife, Daniel married a much younger woman named Elizabeth Doshier, much to the dismay of his older children. They had 4 son's together, one which was my grt grandfather, George Washington Wickersham.
During the Civil War things were very harsh in that region. First of all Yellville had a saltpeter mine which was constantly being fought over and captured. Secondly, there were Jay Hawkers and Bushwhackers that roamed the land creating gruesome acts of torture and killings upon the civilians while seeking personal gain. The majority of the male population in that region died, if not due to fighting in the war then they were killed by these evil men in the most horrible manner. When Daniel learned that he might be the focus of robbery or much worse, he took his fortune of gold and silver coins and buried them in the woods. These have never been found to anyone's knowledge. Soon after, one night a band of Bushwhackers came to Daniel Boone Wickersham's home. who was then an old man in his 70s. The bushwhackers dragged both he and his wife Betsy out into the cold and dark threatening them for their money. He would not give in. So they proceeded to take old Daniel and they lynched him from his own tree. They were obvious not good at making nooses as they hung him but failed to kill him, not once but three times. When this still did not work or produce the money they sought, they went after his wife. They hung her by a rope tied around her chest and under her armpits while dangling her feet over an open pit of hot coals. As her feet began to burn, Daniel tried to free himself to save his wife. He was shot in the bowel by one of the bushwhackers. From this point he crawled a mile (it is recorded ) for help. He died soon after. Supposedly sewn into the wide flap of her petticoat hem were bills of money that were getting singed but that she would not tell her captors about. My great aunt Dollie Wickersham - Blankenship, before her death in the 1970s, told me this story several times. She further highlighted that she had seen the scared and burned feet of her great grandmother when she helped to dress her for burial in 1913. The younger members of the Wickersham family believed this was just a tale and not fact. However, very similar to Dollie's story is recorded the events by a man who was not a family member that had lived during that era. his works were not published until after my great Aunt's death. I am referring to the writings of Silas Turnbone who lived and recorded stories from the time both before, during, and after the Civil war in the area in and around the Yellville, Marion Co., Arkansas region. Turnbone was a self made reporter / journalist of that era. His writings can found in his old house purchased by a Mr Wood or Woods in Yellville area in the 1970s who told me the house was full of boxes and boxes of old manuscripts. He hauled them out and had someone transcribe as many of them as were still readable. These can now be found on line at the Marion Co. Arkansas rootsweb, website.
Best wishes,
Jerri Wickersham - Garofalo
12/07/2010
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1790 - 1863 (72 years)
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