Stone Gardens: A pioneer of the Paw Paw Bottoms harvested crops and souls over his 105 years of life

Rev. Stephen Jefferson Shackelford

Rev. Stephen Jefferson Shackelford was born on May 3, 1843, in Missouri and died on March 15, 1918, at the age of 74. He was a Methodist minister, farmer, and pioneer whose family moved from Missouri through Arkansas and eventually into the Indian Territory, which later became Sequoyah County.

His life and the presence of the broader Shackelford clan in the Paw Paw community illustrate the typical 19th-century frontier pattern of migration driven by the search for land, farming opportunities, and opportunities for ministry in border regions near the Arkansas River.

Paw Paw was never formally part of Arkansas. It was located in the Choctaw and Cherokee Nation within Indian Territory until Oklahoma achieved statehood in 1907. Nevertheless, its close proximity to Sebastian and Crawford Counties in Arkansas, just across the river with a ferry connection to Fort Smith, fostered strong economic, social, and family ties to the Arkansas side.

Many families, including the Shackelfords, lived, farmed, and married on both sides of that border.

Stephen was born to Eli Shackelford, who was born around 1818 in South Carolina, and Ruth Jane Norton, who was born around 1823, likely in Tennessee. Eli and Ruth married somewhere in the South or Midwest and had at least eight children. The family moved westward over time.

Stephen and some of his siblings were born in Missouri, but by the time of the 1850 U.S. Census the family had settled in Sugarloaf Township in Crawford County, which later became part of Sebastian County after boundary adjustments. The 1860 census places them in Sugar Loaf, Sebastian County, Arkansas, where Eli was recorded as a farmer born in South Carolina. Stephen's siblings included Henry, born around 1845 in Missouri, Anna, born around 1849 in Arkansas, Mary, born around 1853 in Arkansas, Francis or Frances, born around 1856 in Arkansas, and John, born around 1858 in Arkansas, along with possibly others.

This relocation from Missouri to Arkansas during the late 1840s was a common pattern among Southern families seeking more affordable land in the Ozarks and Arkansas River valley. Eli died around 1885, though the exact location is uncertain and may have still been in Arkansas. Ruth died around 1886. Detailed records of their own parents are not readily available, but the Shackelford surname traces back to colonial lines in Virginia and South Carolina that gradually spread westward.

No records show Stephen receiving formal schooling beyond the basic literacy common on the frontier. As the son of a farmer in rural Arkansas during the Civil War period, he likely had only rudimentary education, perhaps through local subscription schools or home instruction. His later role as a Methodist minister suggests he pursued self-study or followed the informal ordination process typical of frontier preachers.

Stephen married three times and fathered at least sixteen children, including some who died in infancy. His first wife was Anna Venicia Barnard, born in 1844 and died in 1867. They married around 1865 in Sebastian County, Arkansas, and had one son, Charles Franklin Shackelford, who lived from 1867 to 1929.

His second wife was Pernecia, also known as Pernice or Pernecia N. Claborn or Clayne, born in 1847 and died in 1887. They married around 1869 in Arkansas. Their children included Alfred Lafayette, who lived from 1872 to 1943, Fannie, who lived from 1873 to 1960 and later married into the Dickey family, Benjamin F., who lived from 1874 to 1894, William Henry, who lived from 1876 to 1950, Luther G., who lived from 1879 to 1903, Pernecia Jane known as Lula, born in 1880 with an unknown death date, Stephen Harris, who lived from 1883 to 1933, John Washington, who lived from 1885 to 1952, and Thomas Burton known as Bert, who lived from 1887 to 1963. Alfred's birth is sometimes recorded as 1872 or 1873 in Chocoville, Arkansas.

His third wife was Mattie Jane Jones. They married on October 28, 1888, in Scott County, Arkansas. Their children included Lizzie, Arlie who is buried in Paw Paw Cemetery, Vozzie, and the infants Elza A., who lived only in 1890, and Earl C., who lived from 1901 to 1902.

Some records mention additional daughters or minor variations in the family.Census records show the family farming in Sugar Loaf, Sebastian County, Arkansas, during the 1880 enumeration, which lists Stephen, Pernecia, and their early children. By the 1900 census Stephen, then age 57, along with Mattie and the younger children, had relocated to Township 9 North, Range 24 East in the Bonoshe town area of the Choctaw Nation in Indian Territory, precisely the Paw Paw bottoms region. \\

Throughout the records he is consistently described as a farmer. His role as a Methodist minister, often noted as Reverend in later sources, obituaries, and family histories, appears alongside his farming life. No specific church assignments are documented, as frontier ministers frequently rode circuits or preached in schoolhouses that also served as churches, but this position fit his role as a community leader in Paw Paw.

The family's move to Paw Paw around the 1890s or early 1900s likely resulted from the availability of land for homesteading or sharecropping in the fertile Arkansas River bottoms, especially after the Dawes Act opened more territory to non-Native settlers. Stephen is named in local history as one of Paw Paw's early pioneer families, alongside others such as the Claborns, who were related through his second wife, as well as the Watts, Patton, and Cherry families.

The area supported cotton farming and included a general store, blacksmith shop, grist mill, cotton gin, and ferry access to Fort Smith, which explains the persistent connection to Arkansas despite the political boundary.

Stephen died on March 15, 1918, in Mansfield, Sebastian County,, with family records citing a heart attack as the cause. He was buried in Paw Paw Cemetery in Paw Paw

The decision to bury him in Oklahoma rather than Arkansas reflects the family's deep roots in Paw Paw by that time, as several of his children and grandchildren were already living and farming there.Paw Paw Cemetery remains active today and holds Decoration Day on the second Sunday in May. It served the close-knit rural community that once included a school, whose ruins still stand, a church that has since been torn down, and a store.

Much of the original bottoms settlement was lost to repeated Arkansas River floods, especially major ones in 1927 and 1943 that devastated the area. The cemetery stands as the lasting landmark of the Shackelford clan's ties to the place

.The Shackelfords buried in Paw Paw Cemetery form a clear family cluster. Rev. Stephen himself rests there from1918 as the patriarch. His son Benjamin F. from the second marriage is buried there from 1894.

IInfants Earl C. from 1901 to 1902 and Elza from 1890, both from the third marriage, are also there. Luther G., another son from the second marriage, rests there from 1879 to 1903. Stephen Harris, known as S.H., from 1883 to 1933, is buried there as well.

Additional relatives and descendants include John W., who lived from 1865 to 1912 and may be a nephew or collateral relative since the dates differ from John Washington who lived from 1885 to 1952 and is also connected to the area, Maud from 1885 to 1911 who was likely a daughter-in-law or spouse, and several infants such as those from 1896 and 1931, Susan in 1900, Emma Jean from 1924 to 1925, Lon Ed from 1906 to 1907, and Wm. S. in 1922.

Later generations include Bill, born in Paw Paw in 1933 and died in Muldrow in 2008, who was the son of Ivan and Reba Shackelford and married Ruth LaFern Shackelford, representing a great-grandson line.

Many more descendants lived in Paw Paw Township. Census records from 1920 to 1940 show Henry, John Washington, Stephen Harris, and their families farming in the area. Local oral history mentions Uncle Henry and Aunt Myrtle Shackelford, Aunt Jessie Shackelford, Uncle John Shackelford, and Shackelford cousins who attended the local school. These references point to a multi-generational presence, frequent intermarriages with other pioneer families such as the Claborns, Seabolts, Blaylocks, and Kidds, and active roles in community life.

The cemetery functioned as the family plot and a gathering place for Decoration Day observances that honored elders and the deceased.

The Shackelfords formed a core part of Paw Paw's identity as a settlement with Southern sympathies, named in part after the Paw Paw Society from the Civil War era or possibly the local pawpaw trees that grew in the river bottoms. Floods eventually dispersed much of the living community, but the graves and oral traditions have preserved the connections. Stephen's descendants continued to farm, attend school, and marry locally, though some later moved to places like California.

The cemetery has remained a central focal point for the family.

This pattern of migration from South Carolina and Missouri roots, through Arkansas farming communities, into pioneer life in Indian Territory, combined with ministry and multi-generational burial in one small Oklahoma cemetery, shows how frontier families created lasting legacies along the Arkansas-Oklahoma border.