Milton Marion Pridgen was born on Mar 19, 1850 in Key, Cherokee, Alabama, the son of Josiah Ellis Pridgen and Mary Ann Norris.
At age 10 he appears in his father's household in the 1860 U.S. Census, 2nd Dist. of Cherokee County, AL along with his mother, Mary (30), and siblings: John (16), Joel (13), Joseph (8), James (2), and his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth (66).
He does not appear again in the 1870 U.S. Census, nor does John, Joel (who died in a Union Prison Camp in Indiana), or Joseph. His brother James is age 11 and there is now a step-mother, Amanda J. (age 29) and two half-siblings, Alice (8) and George W. (age 3).
I have a poem that Milton sent to his half brother, George Washington Pridgen (24 years his junior.) It is written on ruled notebook paper. One side bears this inscription:
Dear Brother when
This you see oh think
of me for I will often
Think of thee though
miles apart we be
M. M. Pridgen
The reverse is a very nice exercise in Spencerian script, featuring "G.W.Pridgen" with filligree all around them. In the midst are two doves, an outstretched hand and heart.
Ralph Pridgen told me that the family oral tradition had Milton and two brothers going West after the Civil War to find their fortunes. As the story goes, they headed North into Tennessee where they became separated. We know that Milton had been to Tennessee and then worked as a farm laborer in Arkansas. I don't think he had any brothers with him. Milton does not appear in the 1880 Saline County Soundex, nor in Tennessee records.
In 1892 Milton is listed in Garland Co., Arkansas as a voter in Lee Township, which was his primary place of residence.
Ralph Pridgen remembers his father telling him that sometime between 1893 and 1900 Milton wrote a letter to his brothers, James Mabry and Lawrence Ellis telling them he wanted to return to Alabama but did not have any money for the journey. Apparently, he and Nancy had fallen on very hard times. Mabry and Ellis loaned Milton the train fare for he and his family. Mabry and his wife Emma met the train when it arrived. Emma's impression was that Milton had married "one sorry woman." The family in Alabama were affluent and were shocked at what appeared to them to be common riff-raff--shabbily dressed and without shoes.
Milton and Nancy settled in small-town, Key, away from Cedar Bluff (where Mabry owned the bank, general store, and a plantation).
Milton fell ill and died around 1902 (less than 3 years after the move to Alabama.) He was buried in the Hebron Church Cemetary where his father was also buried. He may never have had a tombstone. When I visited the cemetery in 1984 and took photos, most of the memorials were long gone or so worn away that no inscriptions remained. The Hebron Church was gone as was the settlement.
It sounds as though they had a very hard existence in the years following the Civil War. One wonders why Milton left Alabama when he did and why he did not return sooner. His occupation was farmer, carpenter, contractor and Nazarene preacher. He told his son, Josiah David Pridgen, Sr. that the most miserable work he'd ever done was mixing cement by hand in the scorching sun.
After Milton's death, Nancy returned to Arkansas with her four sons, Willie (apx. 18), Josiah David (apx. 16), Charles (apx. 14), and Patrick (apx. 5), where she took in boarders and the boys went to work as itinerant farm laborers to help support the family. All four grew up and led successful lives.
At age 10 he appears in his father's household in the 1860 U.S. Census, 2nd Dist. of Cherokee County, AL along with his mother, Mary (30), and siblings: John (16), Joel (13), Joseph (8), James (2), and his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth (66).
He does not appear again in the 1870 U.S. Census, nor does John, Joel (who died in a Union Prison Camp in Indiana), or Joseph. His brother James is age 11 and there is now a step-mother, Amanda J. (age 29) and two half-siblings, Alice (8) and George W. (age 3).
I have a poem that Milton sent to his half brother, George Washington Pridgen (24 years his junior.) It is written on ruled notebook paper. One side bears this inscription:
Dear Brother when
This you see oh think
of me for I will often
Think of thee though
miles apart we be
M. M. Pridgen
The reverse is a very nice exercise in Spencerian script, featuring "G.W.Pridgen" with filligree all around them. In the midst are two doves, an outstretched hand and heart.
Ralph Pridgen told me that the family oral tradition had Milton and two brothers going West after the Civil War to find their fortunes. As the story goes, they headed North into Tennessee where they became separated. We know that Milton had been to Tennessee and then worked as a farm laborer in Arkansas. I don't think he had any brothers with him. Milton does not appear in the 1880 Saline County Soundex, nor in Tennessee records.
In 1892 Milton is listed in Garland Co., Arkansas as a voter in Lee Township, which was his primary place of residence.
Ralph Pridgen remembers his father telling him that sometime between 1893 and 1900 Milton wrote a letter to his brothers, James Mabry and Lawrence Ellis telling them he wanted to return to Alabama but did not have any money for the journey. Apparently, he and Nancy had fallen on very hard times. Mabry and Ellis loaned Milton the train fare for he and his family. Mabry and his wife Emma met the train when it arrived. Emma's impression was that Milton had married "one sorry woman." The family in Alabama were affluent and were shocked at what appeared to them to be common riff-raff--shabbily dressed and without shoes.
Milton and Nancy settled in small-town, Key, away from Cedar Bluff (where Mabry owned the bank, general store, and a plantation).
Milton fell ill and died around 1902 (less than 3 years after the move to Alabama.) He was buried in the Hebron Church Cemetary where his father was also buried. He may never have had a tombstone. When I visited the cemetery in 1984 and took photos, most of the memorials were long gone or so worn away that no inscriptions remained. The Hebron Church was gone as was the settlement.
It sounds as though they had a very hard existence in the years following the Civil War. One wonders why Milton left Alabama when he did and why he did not return sooner. His occupation was farmer, carpenter, contractor and Nazarene preacher. He told his son, Josiah David Pridgen, Sr. that the most miserable work he'd ever done was mixing cement by hand in the scorching sun.
After Milton's death, Nancy returned to Arkansas with her four sons, Willie (apx. 18), Josiah David (apx. 16), Charles (apx. 14), and Patrick (apx. 5), where she took in boarders and the boys went to work as itinerant farm laborers to help support the family. All four grew up and led successful lives.
Milton Marion Pridgen was born on Mar 19, 1850 in Key, Cherokee, Alabama, the son of Josiah Ellis Pridgen and Mary Ann Norris.
At age 10 he appears in his father's household in the 1860 U.S. Census, 2nd Dist. of Cherokee County, AL along with his mother, Mary (30), and siblings: John (16), Joel (13), Joseph (8), James (2), and his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth (66).
He does not appear again in the 1870 U.S. Census, nor does John, Joel (who died in a Union Prison Camp in Indiana), or Joseph. His brother James is age 11 and there is now a step-mother, Amanda J. (age 29) and two half-siblings, Alice (8) and George W. (age 3).
I have a poem that Milton sent to his half brother, George Washington Pridgen (24 years his junior.) It is written on ruled notebook paper. One side bears this inscription:
Dear Brother when
This you see oh think
of me for I will often
Think of thee though
miles apart we be
M. M. Pridgen
The reverse is a very nice exercise in Spencerian script, featuring "G.W.Pridgen" with filligree all around them. In the midst are two doves, an outstretched hand and heart.
Ralph Pridgen told me that the family oral tradition had Milton and two brothers going West after the Civil War to find their fortunes. As the story goes, they headed North into Tennessee where they became separated. We know that Milton had been to Tennessee and then worked as a farm laborer in Arkansas. I don't think he had any brothers with him. Milton does not appear in the 1880 Saline County Soundex, nor in Tennessee records.
In 1892 Milton is listed in Garland Co., Arkansas as a voter in Lee Township, which was his primary place of residence.
Ralph Pridgen remembers his father telling him that sometime between 1893 and 1900 Milton wrote a letter to his brothers, James Mabry and Lawrence Ellis telling them he wanted to return to Alabama but did not have any money for the journey. Apparently, he and Nancy had fallen on very hard times. Mabry and Ellis loaned Milton the train fare for he and his family. Mabry and his wife Emma met the train when it arrived. Emma's impression was that Milton had married "one sorry woman." The family in Alabama were affluent and were shocked at what appeared to them to be common riff-raff--shabbily dressed and without shoes.
Milton and Nancy settled in small-town, Key, away from Cedar Bluff (where Mabry owned the bank, general store, and a plantation).
Milton fell ill and died around 1902 (less than 3 years after the move to Alabama.) He was buried in the Hebron Church Cemetary where his father was also buried. He may never have had a tombstone. When I visited the cemetery in 1984 and took photos, most of the memorials were long gone or so worn away that no inscriptions remained. The Hebron Church was gone as was the settlement.
It sounds as though they had a very hard existence in the years following the Civil War. One wonders why Milton left Alabama when he did and why he did not return sooner. His occupation was farmer, carpenter, contractor and Nazarene preacher. He told his son, Josiah David Pridgen, Sr. that the most miserable work he'd ever done was mixing cement by hand in the scorching sun.
After Milton's death, Nancy returned to Arkansas with her four sons, Willie (apx. 18), Josiah David (apx. 16), Charles (apx. 14), and Patrick (apx. 5), where she took in boarders and the boys went to work as itinerant farm laborers to help support the family. All four grew up and led successful lives.
At age 10 he appears in his father's household in the 1860 U.S. Census, 2nd Dist. of Cherokee County, AL along with his mother, Mary (30), and siblings: John (16), Joel (13), Joseph (8), James (2), and his paternal grandmother, Elizabeth (66).
He does not appear again in the 1870 U.S. Census, nor does John, Joel (who died in a Union Prison Camp in Indiana), or Joseph. His brother James is age 11 and there is now a step-mother, Amanda J. (age 29) and two half-siblings, Alice (8) and George W. (age 3).
I have a poem that Milton sent to his half brother, George Washington Pridgen (24 years his junior.) It is written on ruled notebook paper. One side bears this inscription:
Dear Brother when
This you see oh think
of me for I will often
Think of thee though
miles apart we be
M. M. Pridgen
The reverse is a very nice exercise in Spencerian script, featuring "G.W.Pridgen" with filligree all around them. In the midst are two doves, an outstretched hand and heart.
Ralph Pridgen told me that the family oral tradition had Milton and two brothers going West after the Civil War to find their fortunes. As the story goes, they headed North into Tennessee where they became separated. We know that Milton had been to Tennessee and then worked as a farm laborer in Arkansas. I don't think he had any brothers with him. Milton does not appear in the 1880 Saline County Soundex, nor in Tennessee records.
In 1892 Milton is listed in Garland Co., Arkansas as a voter in Lee Township, which was his primary place of residence.
Ralph Pridgen remembers his father telling him that sometime between 1893 and 1900 Milton wrote a letter to his brothers, James Mabry and Lawrence Ellis telling them he wanted to return to Alabama but did not have any money for the journey. Apparently, he and Nancy had fallen on very hard times. Mabry and Ellis loaned Milton the train fare for he and his family. Mabry and his wife Emma met the train when it arrived. Emma's impression was that Milton had married "one sorry woman." The family in Alabama were affluent and were shocked at what appeared to them to be common riff-raff--shabbily dressed and without shoes.
Milton and Nancy settled in small-town, Key, away from Cedar Bluff (where Mabry owned the bank, general store, and a plantation).
Milton fell ill and died around 1902 (less than 3 years after the move to Alabama.) He was buried in the Hebron Church Cemetary where his father was also buried. He may never have had a tombstone. When I visited the cemetery in 1984 and took photos, most of the memorials were long gone or so worn away that no inscriptions remained. The Hebron Church was gone as was the settlement.
It sounds as though they had a very hard existence in the years following the Civil War. One wonders why Milton left Alabama when he did and why he did not return sooner. His occupation was farmer, carpenter, contractor and Nazarene preacher. He told his son, Josiah David Pridgen, Sr. that the most miserable work he'd ever done was mixing cement by hand in the scorching sun.
After Milton's death, Nancy returned to Arkansas with her four sons, Willie (apx. 18), Josiah David (apx. 16), Charles (apx. 14), and Patrick (apx. 5), where she took in boarders and the boys went to work as itinerant farm laborers to help support the family. All four grew up and led successful lives.
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Grave no longer marked or stone unreadable
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