Early History of Phillips County

The Land, the Legends and the Lore

by Patty Smith

Published 2020

Her Name Was Phoebe

If you scan the annals of Phillips County’s early history, you will find the names of those courageous first settlers. Names like Sylvanus Phillips, William Patterson, Daniel Mooney, Joseph Stillwell, John LeFevre, and Pat Cassidy stand out as some of the earliest settlers who cleared the land, fought off diseases like typhoid, malaria and yellow fever, and somehow survived in what was shown on early maps as ‘The Great Swamp’. Seldom, if ever, do you see the names of any women who braved the same hardships of these days in the late 1790’s and early 1800’s. And yet, they were here, working side by side with the men who brought them to what must have seemed like a Godforsaken land. But there is one name that stands out among all these names, and that name is Phoebe Clarke Dunn.

Very little is written about Phoebe Dunn. She was purportedly the daughter of General Clark of Revolutionary fame, and married a William Dunn in Georgia, with whom she had six children before his death. We know that her name is affixed to both an early Spanish Land Grant, and the ‘sunken land grants” of New Madrid. We also know that she was in Phillips County during the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquake, so she most likely inherited the Spanish Land Grant upon the death of her husband, William Dunn, during the American Revolution, and probably still owned land in the Tennessee/Missouri area during the earthquake and was able to apply for a “sunken land” grant due to loss of land. As Fay Hempstead states in “The Historical Review of Arkansas, Volume 2”, “She was a shrewd business woman”, and obviously so, as she owned a vast quantity of land at the mouth of the St. Francis River, and later, further north at Walnut Bend.

Phoebe Dunn came to this area around 1798 as a widow with six children. The assumption is that she brought at least one servant with her, and possibly her brother or other male relative. Certainly no woman would jump aboard a flatboat with six very young children and travel the Mississippi River to an unknown wilderness without assistance.

Land grant plats show that she made her home exactly at the mouth of the St. Francis River. Within a short time, she was called to the Arkansas Post, along with the other settlers, due to the fear of an Indian uprising. While at the Post, she married William Patterson, and soon returned to her home at the confluence of the St. Francis and Mississippi Rivers. To this union were born six children: John Patterson, born 1800 and the first white child born in this locale, William Patterson, Jr., Francis “Frank” Patterson, Thomas Patterson, and Phillips Patterson. Phoebe now has eleven sons and one daughter, and is trying to raise a family in a swampland where disease is rampant and where bear, cougar and snakes roam freely and frequently. One evening in early 1808, William Patterson is shot while resting before his fireplace. “Courts and Lawyers on the Arkansas Frontier” tell us that Moses Burnett is arrested for the murder, with no reason given. William’s death leaves Phoebe alone, once again, this time with a dozen children. As Hempstead says, Phoebe is shrewd, and in September of 1808, she marries Sylvanus Phillips. Phillips by this time has made a name for himself as a leader in the village. As a land speculator, he has also gained wealth that other settlers only dreamed of.

In his book, “Sketches Of A Tour To The Western Country”, Mr. Cuming, in visiting the Phillips’ home, states “that he landed at a fine, well opened farm, a mile below the mouth of the St. Francis, with a nice, comfortable looking two story log cabin with a piazza.” “Mr. Cuming, hoping for refreshments, could find none, especially milk, as the family had just made cheese that morning.”

Sylvanus and Phoebe lived in this home until 1815, when they moved into the village we know as Helena. Sylvanus built a two story log cabin on the hill where First Baptist Church now stands, the same site where Fort Curtis stood during the Civil War. He also built a small Catholic Church next to his home, which was torn down to make room for Fort Curtis.

Two years after Mr. Cumming’s visit of 1808, Phoebe gave birth to a daughter, named Harriet. In 1825, Harriet married Eli J. Lewis. Harriet and Eli had one son, Eli Lewis, Jr. Harriet died in 1832, and her son, Eli died before 1841. Six years after Harriet’s birth, Phoebe again presented Sylvanus with another daughter, this one named Helena. Helena Phillips did not live to adulthood. She died at age 15 on August 28, 1831, one year after the death of her father. As most know, the city of Helena was named after this child.

Phoebe Clark Dunn Patterson Phillips died circa 1816, not long after the birth of her youngest daughter. No one is certain where she was buried, but it is suspected that she was buried next to her home in Helena. We do know that Sylvanus and daughter, Helena, were both buried ‘on the slope of the hill at the home site’, so we assume Phoebe was also buried with her family. The building of Fort Curtis destroyed any evidence of the cemetery that once graced this hilltop between Perry and Porter Streets.

It is difficult for us to visualize the life that Phoebe lived. Imagine, if you will, the day to day routine without the luxuries that we take for granted. Her day probably began each morning around 4:00 a.m., and even after the sun set, she would be found in front of the fireplace mending the clothes of her rambunctious sons. She made her own butter, cheese, bread, and lye soap, clothes for herself and her family, and washed each and every piece of clothing by hand, including diapers. Willow Bark for fever, ginseng for stomach ailments, and other herbs were gathered by her each Spring to treat malaria, yellow fever, typhoid, and other maladies. She raised a garden, and gathered, dried, and stored the various nuts, acorns, berries, and vegetables. The chances are good that she helped deliver neighbor’s children, even though she might have to walk or ride a horse five to ten miles to the ‘neighbor’s’ home.

She was both a saint and Trojan, with grit, fortitude, and courage beyond measure. While her male counterparts were becoming renowned as legislators, sheriffs, and county clerks, and would be written in the annals of county history as heroes, Phoebe Clark Dunn Patterson Phillips was busy raising the future generation of Phillips Countians, becoming, in her own right, the heroine of our early settlers.

---

Primary sources for these articles include the Phillips County Historical Quarterlies, Shinn's Pioneers and Makers of Arkansas; Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas; Down the Great River by Glazier; Arkansas Historical Documents and Land Grants; The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture; Courts and Lawyers on the Arkansas Frontier; Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi; USGenWeb; Ancestry.com; FamilySearch.org; Phillips DNA Project.