Information Sheet

 

 

R         Arthur, George Clinton.

244                  Papers, ca. 1914-1944.

                                    Three folders.

 

 

 

These are reminiscences and miscellaneous papers assembled in connection with Arthur’s work on “Bushwhacker” Bill Wilson during the Civil War in Phelps County, Missouri.  There is also genealogical information concerning the Arthur and Turnure families, and correspondence re­garding Arthur’s books, Backwoodsmen and Bushwhacker.

 

A native of Phelps County, George Clinton Arthur was brought up in the Corn Creek area in the southern part of the county.  His family was one of the earliest in the area.  He was well-known locally as the author of two books on Phelps County’s history.  Bushwhacker, pub­lished in 1938, is the story of the legendary Civil War desperado, Bill Wilson, who was from the same Corn Creek neighborhood as Arthur.  Backwoodsmen, published in 1940, is the story of pioneer lumbermen of the northern Ozarks who logged the virgin pineries of Phelps and Texas counties for lumber and railroad ties, rafting the timber down the Piney, Gasconade, and Missouri rivers to St. Louis.

 

Arthur drew his material exclusively from oral traditions.  Much of it came from his own fam­ily, and some from individuals who were personally involved in the activities chron­icled.  Both the Bushwhacker and Backwoodsmen include copies of notarized affidavits from Arthur’s infor­mants.  The affidavits attested to the accuracy of the stories presented by Arthur, and author­ized him to use the accounts in his publications.

 

Folder 1 contains drafts of brief reminiscences by John W. Karnes and R. C. Jones collected during preparation of Bushwhacker.  The reminiscences concern the Civil War in Phelps County, particularly the activities of Bill Wilson and the murders of former Phelps County judge Lewis Wright and his sons by a band of roving Union militia in August 1865.  Folder 2 contains corre­spondence and miscellaneous genealogical information on the Arthur and Turnure families.  The data was apparently collected by Hattie M. Arthur, mother of George Clinton Arthur, in connec­tion with an alleged Turnure inheritance from France.  Two letters from U.S. Senator Roscoe M. Pat­terson, to whom Hattie Arthur had written for infor­mation, provide some background on the sup­posed Turnure estate.  Folder 3 contains miscellaneous correspondence.  Included is a postcard from folklorist Mabel E. Mueller of Rolla, a letter and clippings from the Christopher Publishing House in Boston regarding Arthur’s books Backwoodsmen and Bushwhacker, and a portion of a letter to Arthur from his wife while he was serving aboard an escort carrier during World War Two.

 

 

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