The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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By S. C. Turnbo
During the war a women of the name of "Chris" Madewell lived on Georges Creek north of Yellville, Ark. She lived 1 ½ miles below where Will Woods mill stood. The settlement in which she lived was known as string town, because the settlers cabins were strung along the creek close together. John Perry and I. Hampton live in this same settlement at the present writing. Capt. A. S. wood related to me the following brief story of this woman. "One day a few weeks after the close of the war" said he "I and my brother John Wood rode to Georges Creek in search of some stolen horses that some thieves had taken, the owners of which lived some distance off and they had employed my brother and myself to hunt and capture the rascals and the stolen property if we could. Expecting to be out a few days we carried plenty of cooked beef and corn bread with us. It was near night when we reached Georges Creek where the string town settlement was where Mrs. Chris Madewell lived her and a little daughter was living alone and they both were in a starving condition. They had nothing to eat except slippery elm bark and herbs cooked without salt or lard, both of them was so weak from hunger that they could not walk without tottering. Seeing the desperate strait they were in we dismounted and gave them our beef and bread but we would not permit them to eat but a small quantity at a time. They were the worst starved people I ever met." This woman died on Georges Creek several years after the war and was buried in the grave yard at the mouth of Georges Creek. Her daughter after she was grown married Bill Paxton who was a preacher.
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