SHORT REPORT on Arkansas Branch Reunion  2003 . There was balmy weather and 80 degrees temperature in the Calhoun County, AR. woodland country. The fresh air is invigorating and the night skies have so many more stars than in the larger cities.    We had excellent attendance by about forty people, and the families came from several places in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee, and one of  Dollie Bethea Benson grandchildren came all the way from Baltimore, Maryland. We met at noon for a lunch on   the  homestead farm, where the Betheas settled around 1870. The original settlers had reached the Woodberry, AR community, which even had a college in those days,  by way of Warren, Ark., (where brother Dixon Pierce Bethea settled) to the Northeast .  The two Bethea Brothers families remained close and exchanged visits on holidays in those days of the late 1800s - early 1900s. They traveled by wagon and on horseback before the days of automobiles and modern roads. Sawmills were the big industry of that time, and private railroads were built into the forests. Charlie Bethea, the eldest of the T.P. Bethea children, was a conductor of one of these logging railroads at Buckner, AR. and his Sisters and Brothers went to visit Aunt Georgia and Uncle Charley, at at least one Sister (Ginnie Bethea Smith) met her future husband on such an outing to Buckner. Lee Bethea, another of the children of T.P. and Rebecca worked as a logger moving the big timber downriver to landings where the logs were put on railroad logcars and transported to the sawmills.

Due to the cooperation and efforts of the group of Grandchildren (Generation 9) of T. P. and Rebecca Bethea (Generation 7 in America), the old 38 acre  homestead has been preserved as a parkland, where a stone monument is inscribed with the names of the thirteen children raised on this homestead.  A modern building was built and dedicated to the memory of the original Bethea settlers, whose parents had left South Carolina after the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Tristram Bethea (Generation 6 was born in 1802) and after his second marriage the young family left Dillon County, South Carolina in search of their own land and opportunity. The Tristram Bethea family had reached just South of Atlanta, Ga. (Meriwether, Georgia)  by the time Trust Bethea  was born in 1836. Traveling together with their parents, they made it to Clarke County, Mississippi when their father died of a stroke. The Civil War broke out and they became Soldiers of the South. Dixon Pierce Bethea and Tristram (Trust) P. Bethea were mustered out of the Army at the close of the War Between the States and traveled across the Mississippi River in search of their own land and opportunity. It was at the time of the yellow fever epidemic, when Memphis to the North was devastated and many travelers perished along the way.  Finally, after about 50 years of travel, these Betheas settled four miles to the West of  Hampton, Arkansas, (the local county seat of government) , on the late  1860's newly homesteaded  land  at Woodberry, Calhoun County, Arkansas.

From the original  13 children of T.P. and Rebecca Bethea, there were descendants  present  of  six families of the original Bethea children including  Charlie Bethea, William (Bill) Bethea,  Monroe Bethea,  Sam Bethea, Dollie Bethea Benson and  Virginia (Ginnie)  Bethea Smith. Food and fun were bountiful and the gathering lasted from noon till about two thirty PM when everyone headed back home.  A good  time was had by all!

The next annual gathering of the Arkansas Bethea descendants will be the first Saturday in May 03, 2008, so please plan to attend and bring any old photographs and stories. The contact person is Myrle (Benson) Blann in El Dorado, Arkansas  (870)  863-7576.

Also remember that the National Bethea Reunion will be held in  June, 2008 at Old Dothan Bethea Church, close to Dillon and Latta, South Carolina, an event to attend - if at all possible - for any Bethea descendant! The dinner on the grounds is catered and there is a modest charge for the lunch, back in the country of the Pee Dee Rivers, where our families participated in Colonial America, settling near the James River, Virginia Colony; then becoming landowners in North Carolina, then on to South Carolina and on to everywhere else!