Saturday, January 13, 2007

Lafferty, The Birthplace of the County


 Lafferty was once called Anderson but was renamed to honor John Lafferty and his wife, Sarah Lindsey Lafferty.  John had originally come to Izard County (Izard County at the time included Stone County) around 1802 by way of his flatboat trade . He made a homestead claim but gave it up to travel back to Tennessee for his family. When he returned with his family in 1810, they built a cabin on the bank of White River across from the mouth of Lafferty Creek and set up a trading post. A number of families came with the Laffertys to the area as a "Family Alliance".  Lafferty was wounded while fighting the British during the War of 1812 and returned to his place on White River only to die there from wounds he had sustained at the Battle of New Orleans the following year. The log Cabin he built remained across the White River from the mouth of Lafferty Creek for decades. Somewhere near the site of the cabin (unknown to history) he lies buried still. Once the Treaty of 1817 between the United States and the Cherokee had been signed, Sarah Lafferty was served notice and eventually moved across the river  some ways upstream on Lafferty Creek.

Anderson began growing into a town around 1882. In 1883, Captain Ransom Luther, also a veteran of the War of 1812, moved to the area and along with his brother-in-law, set up a gristmill upstream
from the site shown in the top photo above. He later sold his interest in that mill and moved downstream to build a mill of his own in 1889. The mill dam above was eventually built. Pictured to the right is an image of the mill as it looked in 1921.

5 comments:

Michael said...

Daddio:
This is a great blog. You really love your home, and it shows; that makes for good reading.

You're highlighting all the reasons why, when I drove cross country, I always tried to avoid the big interstates highways, and took the smaller routes instead.

Thanks for posting about an otherwise obscure corner of America.

Al-Ozarka said...

Thanks, Michael!

I DO love my home...I'm blessed for being able to live here.

I appreciate your popping in for a visit and hope you will return.

Cheers!

Unknown said...

I just found this! My 5X great grandparents were John Lafferty and Sara Lindsey. Where is this located, what city? Im coming home this summer to explore with my folks and 94 year old grandmother. This is her family. She is a Creswell. (Criswell) Are there markers for the graves of John? What about Sara, where is she buried? Any info you have I would sppreciate...

Al-Ozarka said...

You should join our e-mail list!

April 25th, we will be taking folks on a tour of the Lafferty area and another descendant of John and Sarah, Mary Lafferty Wilson, will be talking to us about what she has learned through decades of research about her family! The county's Historical Society will be joining us!

Sorry to say, but the whereabouts of neither John nor Sarah 's graves are known as far as I know. We know John was buried near their original cabin across White River from the mouth of Lafferty Creek but its location is not known. And...as I wrote...as far as I know, Sarah's gravesite is unknown as well.

Nichol Lafferty said...

Hello was just reading your comment and John and Sarah are also my 5x grandparents Lorenzo Dow Lafferty is my 4x Grandpa then Burwell is his son then then Ambrose Lafferty is my great-great-grandpa Ambrose had my grandpa Roy Lafferty and Jerold Lafferty is my Father. Hope that all makes sense to you I have been doing research myself on my family and I came across this. My Name is Nichol we are from Missouri