DAR Celebrates `Centennial Jubilee'
With Gravemarking At Cemetery
The Times Dispatch, November 28,1990

The National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, organized on October 1, 1890, and celebrated its l00th birthday this year. As a "Centennial Jubilee" project, the Jonesboro Chapter decided to locate the grave of Nathaniel McCarroll and place a marker on it.

McCarroll died in 1835 and lived near the Old Bethel Cemetery, which is located off Highway 63 North, left on Highway 117 South, between Black Rock and Smithville in Lawrence County. He and his children and other descendants are buried there. To place a revolutionary gravemarker, the Jonesboro Chapter obtained permission of the NSDAR's Historian General and Registrar General. Members sent official documentation of McCarroll's background, later life, pension application and obituary in the Arkansas Gazette to the Washington, D.C., offices of the NSDAR. The documentation was verified, approval granted and then the information was sent to the U.S. Veteran's Administration offices in Washington.

The U.S. Govemment sent the marker to be engraved and a bronze DAR insignia was placed on it. The ceremony to unveil the marker was held November 12, at 11:00 a.m. at the Old Bethel Cemetery. Those on the program included the Arkansas State University R.O.T. C. color guard, Mrs. Frank F. Sloan, Rev. Cecil Guthrie, Mrs. Paul Couch, Mrs. Marvine Matthews Buerkle, John R. McCarroll, Geneva Brooks Gilmore, Mrs. Wayne Reynolds, Mrs. Tom Moore and Mrs. Ralph Crain, Sr. Lawrence County members of the Jonesboro Chapter are Lucy (Mrs. C.W.) Nickels and Shelby (Mrs. Doug) Wayland. The Jonesboro Chapter plans to mark graves of other Revolutionary War veterans who are known to be buried in Lawrence and Randolph Counties. Marvine Matthews Buerkle, standing left, is a descendant of Nathaniel McCarroll and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution Organization at Jonesboro.

Nathaniel McCarroll Served
As Revolutionary Soldier
The Times Dispatch, November 28,1990

Nathaniel McCarroll was born September 27, 1765, in North Carolina. He was the son of John McCarroll and the grandson of Nathaniel McCarroll. At the age of 16, McCarroll entered the service of the new American Nation in its cause against Great Britain, volunteering to serve in a horse company in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In 1781, he served in a military company and after that remained in active engagements, scouting upon the frontiers and in the Cherokee Nation until peace was established. He served his entire time under General Andrew Pickens.

While in service, he marched through Rutherford and Mecklenburg counties in North Carolina, remaining a few weeks at Mecklenburg, where General Sumpter was encamped. Later, he marched back to Spartanburg and then to Union County in Georgia. Next, he went to the upper end of South Carolina and then back into Georgia. He continued to scout on the frontiers of these three states until the Revolutionary War drew to a close. His company, all volunteers, were considered "Minute Men."

Following the war, he retumed to Spartanburg County in South Carolina and lived there until 1807. By that time, both his father and grandfather had died, so he moved his family to Caldwell County, Kentucky. His family lived in Caldwell County until 1815 when he moved to the Territory of Missouri, later known as Lawrence County, Temtory of Arkansas. He located near the Strawberry River with other early settlers, among whom were the Fortenberry's, the McKnights, the Taylors and the Hillhouses. "The History of Lawrence County", written by Wa1ter E. McLeod in 1936, states: The McCarroll name in Lawrence County is as old as the county itself."

In June of 1832, Congress passed an act which entitled Revolutionary War veterans to receive a pension. In 1833, at 67-years-old, McCarroll appeared before the Justices of the County Court of Independence County, Territory of Arkansas. He described his service to his country and made an oath to the court that his statement was true. He was told he would be able to draw a pension of approximately $10 a month. Before he began to draw his pension, he died. His wife also died in 1835, which was the same year the Old Bethel Cemetery near Lynn was established and one year before Arkansas became a state.

The McCarroll's son James, and his wife Mary, were the parents of 11 children. They are also buried at the Old Bethel Cemetery. Many of the present-day McCarroll's are descended from James and Mary. Mrs. Marvine Matthews Buerkle of Jonesboro, a former Portia resident, is one of many descendants in this area of Nathaniel McCarroll. She was the first person in the United States to prove ancestry to Nathaniel McCarroll for entry in Daughters of the American Revolution. Her mother's grandmother was Melissa McCarroll Oldham¹, youngest daughter of James and Mary McCarroll. She ,joined the Jonesboro Chapter in 1978.

Note 1: Melissa McCarroll married Jackson Henderson Oldham after his second wife died. Jackson's second wife was Sarah Ann McCarroll, sister to Melissa.

More information on this family can be found in "The Descendants of Nathaniel and John McCarroll" which was written be the late John Richard McCarroll of Waco, Texas.
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