Greetings,

I am hoping someone in or around Desha County, Arkansas can help me with a little research.

I'm trying to locate as much information as possible on a Matilda Johnson that was one of the largest slave owners on the 1860 slave schedules. She had about 119 slaves if I recall correctly. I'd like to obtain any type of will, deeds, gift deeds, probate records, etc on her, but am having trouble finding anyone in county who can help. As I understand from the Desha County GenWeb site the records were moved in 1863 over to Clarksville, TX. It would be about that time frame that I'd like to retrieve records for Ms. Matilda Johnson.

However, the chancery clerk tells me some records made it back to the county over time and they do have some records from the 1800's. The question is which ones and whether there is anyone who can have eyes for me there?

I already located a nice gentleman in Texas to see whether there are any records from Desha, Arkansas in the holdings there, but would like help within Desha itself.

HELP!

Thank you in advance for your time and attention to my query.

Sincerely,

Adrienne
Sarasota, FL
lilmoccasin21[at]aol.com