Hazel.Noah.Johnson.BIO Nancy, This may be too long, but it was what I was given in 1991 to start me on my HAZEL family. My great uncle gave it to me, his copy came from Norma Jean Trainer of Sturgis, and where she got it from is a mystery to me. Maria Troutman Noah Johnson Hazel Mr. N.J. Hazel DeQueen, Ark. 4-26-1935 Marked Tree, Ark. Dear Brother, I was very glad to get a letter from you. Sorry Hattie isn't well. We had a big rain last night and some wind. Our folks up here are as well as usual. I have no complaint to make. I keep roomers mostly transients, they seem more satisfactory. I have my home in Little Rock rented out. Now to the point. I remember very little about our Grandfather Hazel. I can't trace him any further back than KY. He owned one thousand acres of land and had it well dotted with Negro Cabins some where near where Bill Conn built his brick home. His name was Peter. He gave Pa a Negro woman valued at $1000. Her name was Fan. Pa then bought a man from someone for $1500, his name was Fed. He ran away during the war. I don't know when they died. I don't remember ever seeing them, grandparents, I mean. Old Essic was one of the Negroes, he used to trot me on his knee. He was a typical Negro. Well you and Marion come to see me just any time, I'll find room for you with pleasure. When you come we will talk it all over. With lots of love I am as ever your sis Lee Bishop [Taken from the Journal of Noah J. Hazel, Market Tree, Arkansas] This is March 22nd, 1935; For several years it has been my intention to write a brief sketch of my life, I have made no particular effort to trace my ancestors, so what is written in this will be what I remember from hearing my father and mother talk and my older brother and sister. My great grandfather , on my mothers side, was of Welsh descent and came to this country from Holland about the time William Penn arrived in Philadelphia. His name was Miller, he was married but I do not know to whom. Some children were born to him and his wife but his did not live long. At that time the Masons were strong in Pennsylvania. My great grandfather Miller was a staunch member of the Masons. I heard my mother say that some member of the order revealed to non members all the secret work of the order and was later found dead. My grandfather was accused of the crime and left. He was never heard from again. In was generally believed that he went back to Europe. He owned 90 acres of land in Philadelphia and before he left, this land was leased to someone for one hundred years. The lease was put on record. His children moved from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, PA and after living there several years my grandfather Miller moved with his family to Bells Mines, KY, this was about the year 1825. He was a coal mine operator. He died about the year 1840. His widow, my grandmother, married a man by the name of John Mangin, he did not live many years after the marriage and my grandmother lived a widow the remainder of her life. She died 1885. My mother Mary Emiline Miller was born in Bells Mines, KY, in the year of 1833 and married my father Cornelius Jasper Hazel when she was fifteen years of age. She was a low heavy set woman of good health and habits. The only sickness I ever remember her having was a severe spell of phtisic(throat or lung infection, as asthma), she had that when she was about fifty years old, but after several weeks in bed she completely recovered and lived until she was sixty eight. She had one brother, his name was William Miller. She had two sisters, one by the name of Rachel who married a man by the name of Richard Sarles, her other sister Bettie married a man by the name of William Tudor. They have long since been dead, my mother being the last to die. All were buried in Bells Mines graveyard. The last time I saw her grave was 1910. Little is known about where the Hazels came from and when they came to this country. My father said his ancestors came over to Virginia from England at a very early date and settled as he remembered from what was handed down to him, somewhere in Virginia on the Roanoke River and that his father came over the Cumberland Mountains and joined a colony near the present site of Lexington in the Blue Grass region of Kentucky. My grandfather Hazel moved from there and bought one thousand acres of land near what is known now as Mount Pleasant Church. The land was about four miles up Cypress Creek from its mouth on the Providence Road. There is where my father was born in 1824 a few years later. My grandparents frequently saw roving bands of Indians about his early home in Kentucky but was never molested by them. My grandmother's maiden name was Rickmire, she was of German descent, that is all I know of her. My grandfather and grandmother Hazel both died and were buried at what was known as the Hazel Graveyard. This graveyard was on their own tract of land and close to the present highway leading from Sturgis to Providence. The last time I was there, the graveyard was converted into a tobacco field and my grandparents graves were being cultivated over. It is a beautiful location on top of a high ridge once covered by large walnut trees. At this place you can look in all directions without any obstruction, I do not believe, had this plot of ground been properly cared for, there would be a more beautiful spot in the state of Kentucky today. {Joe, he is talking about the graveyard from which they MOVED the graves from to the present one today, right? Now I wonder how far away this old site was to the other cemetery of today?} I can remember seeing the old home where my grandparents lived, a large two story house made of hewn logs; it may still be there for all I now. It has been forty years since I saw it. It stood on a high fertile walnut ridge, well adapted to the growth of corn, wheat, and tobacco. I can imagine that when my grandparents came to that part of Kentucky it was the garden spot of the whole state. I can remember now, when I was a little boy of seeing Walnut stumps three feet in diameter and large poplar trees in abundance. The finest tobacco in the world yet grows on and about the old homestead. When my grandparents came there, bear, turkey, deer and small game were in abundance. I seldom if ever read the poem "Old Oaken Bucket" but what I think of that old home; a well about forty feet deep, walled with rough rocks, an old iron pulley and a grass rope, and old moss covered bucket; you drew the bucket up by pulling the rope. I must say that I have been many places but I have yet to drink water that is cooler, more sparkling or any nearer pure that the water that came from that old well. This well was surrounded by large Walnut and cedar tree, the foliage about it was so dense the sun seldom reached the ground beneath. No matter how hot the day, you always found it cool near the old well. Some of the most beautiful peaches and apples, cherries, pears, and various other fruits grew on this old homestead. I have been told that my grandfather Hazel was a tall, rawboned, dark haired, strong good nature Englishman. He must have been a fairly good business man for he willed each of his eight children one hundred and fifty acres of land all clear of debt. I am told that the bought this old homestead and came to it in covered wagon expecting to locate at a certain spot previously selected but when he arrived he found the place occupied by a band of Indians and thought best to go to another place and build, which he did. My grandfather and my own father very much resembled the Indians, each had coal black hair and high cheek bones and their complexion was very much like an Indians. My father was mistaken for an Indian many times. The eight children born to my grandparents that reached maturity were named Field, Tilda, Anna, Caleb, Richard, Cornelius, Hiram and George. Cornelius Jasper Hazel was my father, and next to the youngest of the family. He grew up on the farm with little opportunity of getting an education. He was a fairly good reader and was good in mathematics. At the age of 24 he met and married Mary Emeline Miller at Bell's Mines, KY. Soon after his marriage gold was discovered in California. My father and several toehrs organized what they called a company composed of about 25 men, bought an outfit and several yoke of oxen and started west for the goldfields. They crossed the Mississippi River at St. Louis, MO. While in St. Louis, which was practically at that time a small town, they bought their supplies for the long trip across the great American Desert and the Rocky Mountains. My knowledge of his trip is retained only be memory as he left no written account and wrote but few letters back home. He delighted in talking about his trip to California and many times I have sat, when a little boy, and listened to him tell of the many hardships and adventures; not once thinking that some day I would wish I had written and kept what he said. There were no roads or bridges. They swam their oxen across the rivers and built floats to carry their provisions over. >From lack of vegetables and fresh meat nearly everyone had a disease called scurvy. My father being a good shot with a rifle and a good hunter would scout about as the wagons rolled along slowly and kill buffalo, elk and other game thereby furnishing the necessary fresh meat that kept his company from being bothered by the scurvy. It took my father and his company nine months to get to California. He remained there four years. When he left Kentucky his health was bad, he was thin and pale but when he returned he was in the very best of health. While there made money but living was high, I have heard him say he had paid as much as $5.00 in gold dust for one large California onion, a pair of shoes cost $25.00 and not of extra quality. I will related one or two incidents of his life while on that trip as I recall to memory his telling them in 49 and 50. The US had not established itself well in the new territory, they had only a skeleton of military rules. Congress had adjourned in the summer of 49 without taking action regarding California's status and the mining communities had no accepted basis of law and order, as a result miner's organized their own courts, and in many instances administered justice. He related that it was the miner's law that anyone caught stealing would be hanged, and that he served with the committee in executing the law. The miner's at noon would leave in the Long Toms what gold they had washed that forenoon unguarded and go to the camps for their meals. It happened that upon returning a part or sometimes all their cold would be gone. One day two of the miners hid near and watched during the noon hour. A young man was seen to creep quickly up and take the gold, they rushed down upon him, took him prisoner. The miners met and brought him to trial. He admitted his guilt. A rope was brought out and tied around his neck, one end of which was thrown over a limb, the foreman of the committee asked if he had anything to say; It tears he told them that he and his widowed mother had come a long distance and was inexperienced, poor, and found it hard to make a living. They started pulling him off the ground, my father said he thought of his own old mother, his heart failed him and he stopped and pleaded with the others that they spare the young man that he might care for his mother. They let him go free. He kneeled at my fathers feet and promised with tears running down his cheeks to never steal again. Father said he never saws or heard from him afterwards. I recall another incident, of little importance, however it remains indelible on my mind. While on the way to California they stopped at a place called Anvil Rock, many named had been carved on the face of the rock which stood several hundred feed high. My father climbed up the dangerous face and carved his name above all at that time. I sure would like to see that name now 88 years have passed it was put there. I have heard him say he killed every kind of wild fowl, or animal that lived on the western plains or in the Rocky Mountains except a Grizzly Bear and that he severely wounded one and followed it where it, bleeding, had crawled into a think underbrush called Chaparral. Grizzly Bears are very dangerous but he and a friend crawled in after the bear, my father in front, tangle brush was so dense to see but a few feet ahead. They got within about 20 feet of the bear, and it tore out through the brush again. They gave up the chase because it was late and they were fare from the train of wagons. Father left California in 1853 by water, came down the west coast in a sailing vessel to the Isthmus of Panama, boarded another sailing vessel, crossed the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi River to New Orleans. I do not remember how he got home from there. My mother told me he had saved about $800.00 when he arrived home. After coming back home my father worked about one year on flat boats which at that time was taking coal from Pittsburgh, PA., down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. Life on the flat boats was hard but the pay was good. After his flatboat experience practically his whole life was devoted to farming. He loved stock and took quite an interest in breeding race horses. Father died 1899 and was buried in the Bell's Mines graveyard among some cedar trees near where he had a son named John, one named Peter, and a daughter named Mariah. Peter and John each died quite young, Mariah died at the age of 18. I never saw Peter but have a slim recollection of John and Mariah. John was a well built, healthy looking, jovial young lad and took pleasure in mending my broken toys. He died from loss of blood. He had dropsy and the doctors bled him as a remedy for it. They bled him from the arm and one night the band came loose on his arm and when it was discovered he was pale and weak from loss of blood and soon after died. Sister Mariah was a beautiful dark eyed, dark haired, young woman. There were no other deaths in our family until father died in 1899. Mother died in 1901 and was laid beside my fahter in the Bell's Mines graveyard. I remember when my father was buried, I rode in a buggy with my mother to the graveyard and as we passed a certain place in Bell's Mines, my mother with tears in her eyes and with a trembling voice pointed to a small growth of bushed and a little pile of stones by the side of the road and said, "My son, in a house that stood there I first met the man that later became your father." The following is the order of the births of father's family; Cornelius Jasper, Mariah, Sally, Crocket, Peter, Clara Lee, John, Marion, and N. J. Hazel {end of notes taken from his journal} Contributed by Maria & Tim Troutman Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1997