Stone Gardens: From Ancient Scotland to modern day Polk County...The story of Abernathy Springs
- Dennis McCaslin
- Nov 21, 2023
- 3 min read
Approximately one-and -three-fourths miles from the unincorporated community of Big Fork in Polk County, a 29 1/2 inch galvanized, steel reinforced pipe is the relief point for an underground spring that spills out 70 to 130 gallons of water per hour that flows into Big Fork Creek.
The mineral waters from Abernathy Springs, named for the man who once owned the land from which they erupt, follow the tributary route until they reach the Ouachita River. From there, the water flows into the Red River which goes into Louisiana before joining up with the Mississippi River northeast of the town of Simmesport.
The flow of the water from it's origin point in Arkansas to where it meets the mighty Mississippi is approximately 350 miles. It's about 150 miles further south before the blended waters from numerous points north find their way into the Atlantic Ocean at New Orleans.
While that 500 mile trek from Abernathy Springs to the Gulf of Mexico is impressive, it's nothing when compared to the trek of the family that gave the springs its name and the route they followed to become part of Arkansas lore.
From the Battle of Worcester in Scotland in the middle of the 1600s, to the New World of the Virginia colonies, the Abernathy clan made stops in North Carolina and Georgia before finally finding their way into pre- Civil War Arkansas around 1852.
The Polk County resident for which the spring is named was Rufus Jefferson Abernathy who was born June 16, 1856 at Black Springs in Montgomery County just four years after his family immigrated to Arkansas.
Rufus was the son of James Alexander Abernathy and Mary Persina Vandiver Abernathy and was the fourth of nine children born to that union. James and his wife had relocated to Arkansas from Georgia sometime before 1852 and genealogical records are available for the family stretching all the way back to the Scottish homeland from times of ancient kings and battles.
The root of the tree that started the Abernathy line that wound up in Arkansas was Captain Robert Abernathy the first who was born around 1632 in Scotland.
At the age of twenty, Captain Robert Abernathy was a soldier in the Scottish clans directed by General David Leslie (1st Lord Newark) in the War of the Three Kingdoms. As a member of the Scottish royalist army under King Charles II of England, Captain Abernathy was one of approximately 10,000 soldiers taken prisoner by Oliver Cromwell.
Many of those captured soldiers were later banished to the colonies of the New World. Captain Robert Abernathy was thought to be the second recorded Abernathy to set foot in the Virginia colonies where he became an indentured to a Roger Tilghman for five years after his arrival on August 2, 1652.
He married Sarah Cubisha and by March 1665 was wealthy enough to buy 100 acres in Charles City County virginia.
And what in might be considered an ironic twist of fate, the first-born child of Captain Robert and Sarah was also named Robert. In 1685 that son married Christine Tilghman...the daughter of the man his father had been indentured to.
The next three Abernathy's in the direct line that eventually reached Rufus and Polk County were all named Robert. The branch of the tree from which Rufus sprung came through Miles Abernathy, who was born around 1750 in the Virginia Colony.
At the age of 40, Miles, who was born 14 years after the US Declaration of Independence was pinned, begat a son by the name of Nathan. Miles Abernathy had been a pioneer in North Carolina and Nathan, who was the grandfather of our Arkansas Abernathy connection, was born in the Tar Heel state.
Nathan migrated to Georgia before finally landing in Montgomery County Arkansas in late 1851 or early 1852. His son James was just over 30 years old when the family came from Georgia to Arkansas.
The first three children born to James and Mary P. Abernathy were born in the state of Georgia. A sister to Rufus, Margaret, was the first Abernathy of the clan to be born in the state of Arkansas followed by Rufus and five brothers and sisters.
It is now estimated that direct descendants of Captain Robert Abernathy inhabit 42 of the 50 United states.
So while the waters from Abernathy Springs run cold and deep before settling in the Atlantic Ocean, the tributaries of a family that prevailed and survived from the bloody war theater of 1600,'s England and through both the Revolutionary and Civil Wars eventually planted roots in Arkansas.
Rufus, along with numerous other members of his family, now lie in repose in the Pleasant Grove cemetery at Big Fork in Polk County just a scant mile from the springs that still bear his name.
