ALFRED FEATHERSON JIMMY LEE FEATHERSTON
Cumberland Universtiy University of Arkansas
Class of 1917 Class of 1958
Home Phone ATlantic 5-2636 Home Phone ATlantic 5-2531
September 24, 1963
Mrs. Dora Lee
1842 Patterson Street
Eugene, Oregon
Dear Mrs. Lee:
At the request of my aging friend, Mr. Roscoe Brewer, I am replying to
your letter of September 16th addressed to him. Mr. Brewer is approaching
eighty years of age and is not in good health. He had an operation seven
years ago, which he survived.
It is evident from your letter that you have had access to some reliable
sources on your family history. I have always enjoyed the study of my own
family history. My family originated in England before the days of William
the Conqueorer. Several years ago I was getting up an exhibit for our
county fair here and I went through the Brewer papers and got several
original land patents, which were then in the possession of Mr. Roscoe
Brewer and, in going through those papers, I found letters * written to his
grandfather back here in Arkansas during the 1850's from his brother, who
had gone on to Oregon. There were at least two of those letters written
from the Brewers in Oregon. From my memoery, there were two Brewers, whose
names I do not recall, that went to Oregon. It appears that this family
first settled in Missouri and then moved here to Pike County, Arkansas, and
took up government land in the valley of The Little Missouri River about
two or three miles Northwest of Murfreesboro, the county seat. The family
is numerous.
We always called Mr. H.T. Brewer "Buck Brewer and I remember him as a very
small boy as he and I attended the same Methodist Church. He, Aunt Emily
and their daughter, Nell, all of whom are now gone on, attended the
Methodist Church with me during the years of 1909 and 1910.
Mr. Brewer thinks that you could make a trip out here and look at the
papers, most of which he still has, and it might be helpful. He says he
would be glad to have you and invites you to be a guest in his home while
you are here. He and his wife now live alone. They only have one daughter
and she is living in Little Rock. Mr. Roscoe Brewer is the only member of
his family now living here. You say you have written his only other
surviving brother, Mr. Ozero Brewer, retired attorney over at Helena,
Arkansas. You mention Mrs. Cora Roundtree. She has been dead several years
but I think the Bible you mentioned is now in the possession of her
daughter, who is Mrs. Wilson Gilleylen, the wife of our present postmaster
here. Mrs. Roundtree only had two children and the other one, Katherine
McDonald, died about five or six years ago.
Mr. Brewer cannot help you locate the parents of John Brewer of North
Carolina who married Elvira Alexander.
May I suggest this to you? You write the Bureau of Public Printing in
Washington D.C. and buy a copy, if it is still available, of the heads of
household of the first census. I have one that was made for Virginia and
they were available when I bought mine about thirty years ago for all of
the counties. Of course, there are no reprints available. Maybe you have
already done this. My ancestors on my father's side came through Virginia
and there is a record of four heads of famlies in my copy of this record of
the first census.
Our courthouse in Pike County burned in 1895 but I have a set of abstract
books that go back as far as 1855 from which you could get lots of
information relative to land transfers involving Brewers in this county.
Yours very truly,
Alfred Featherston
For: Mr. Roscoe Brewer
AF:pc
* Letters from Henry Brewer's deceased brother (John Brewer's) family
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David Kelley 2002