William Geter & Rhoda Wilson Streetman

So this brings us to William Geter Streetman, my Grandfather's Grandfather and the story begins...

Our branch of the Streetmans can be found in various counties in Georgia including, but not limited to, Madison, Jackson, and Forsyth County. Just  prior to the Civil War, they were residing in Forsyth County. However my GGGrandfather enlisted in the CSA in Milton County, Georgia. The ever present changing of the boundaries and forming new counties contributed a great deal to the difficulty in tracing them. Also the spelling of names of residents was left entirely to the census taker, and many mistakes were made adding more to the difficulty. I believe the following is the last record of them residing in Georgia.

Rhoda Wilson Streetman
wife of W.G. Streetman

1860 Forsyth County, Georgia census
STREETMAN, Wm. G.       46      m       farm.   Ga.
        Roda                           57       f        wife      Ga.
(Rhoda Wilson Streetman)
        Wm. W.                       19     m                    Ga.
        Thos. J.                      17      m                    Ga.
        Jas. H.                       14      m                    Ga.*
        Louich(sic)                19       m                    Ga
(Lovic Streetman).
        Alza (sic)                   13      m                    Ga.
(Alsey Streetman)
        Margaret T.               12      f                      Ga.
        Transana (sic)            8       f                      Ga.
(FranceAnna Streetman)
        Tolbot S.                     5       m                     Ga.
(Pg. 58-426 #397-397)
*b. Jackson Co.

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The Move To Chicot County Arkansas

Grand Lake, Arkansas
~A brief history of what it was like in the area where our Great Great Grandfather settled in 1869.
In 1869 or 1870 I. Drewfus and A. Meyer opened a partnership store at Grand Lake. It was the
first store to open there since prior to the Civil War.  There were only four white families in
Grand Lake.  The Mississippi River boat landing at Grand Lake was named Cariola, which was
a combination of A. Meyer's wife and sister's names, (Carrie and Eola.)
( This is the family who owned the land where our Great Grandparents homesteaded.   Records
indicate that Joseph Streetman bought the land they had homesteaded from Carrie Meyer, owner
, in 1885.)
About 1872 the Mississippi River formed a “land bar” in front of Grand Lake, making it impossible
for the boats to bank at the usual landing. A new town was started about a mile north of Grand Lake,
and it was known as Barnard.  The merchants moved their stores to Barnard.
A few years later the River played the same havoc at Barnard.  The caving and sluffing finally forced
the business houses to seek new locations. So, in 1885,  a store owned by H. Weis was moved west
of Rush Bayou on the Eudora road.  Eudora is where our Grandma and Grandpa later settled and all
their children were born and raised there.

From the 1973 edition of The Sesquicentennial:
Many families and some individual names definitely connected with the development of Eudora lived in outlying areas. This is especially true of the period from about 1885 on up to the present time. The people who lived in the outlying communities such as Readland, originally known as Peakeville, Sterling, Grand Lake, Barnard, Scaife, Harwood, Eula, Chicot and others families such as the Hilliards, Warfields, Scaifes, Halls, Moons, Meyers, Cracrafts, Peakes, Stephensons, Easterlings, Salters, Graves, Fords, Mathis, Sawyers, Ralphs, Harrimans, Worthingtons, Lees, Johnsons, Wilkersons, Allens, Streetmans, Griffins, Maulls, Crabtrees, Sigmonds, Haleys, Phillips, Byrds, Routtes, and many others must be given credit for their share of contribution to the growth of the town.

From the close of the Civil War up to the beginning of the 1900's Grand Lake  and Helena were the
largest shipping points in Arkansas, south of Memphis.  All supplies came by boat and "back country" farmers, such as our ancestors purchased their personal supplies and hauled them to their homes.
Numerous steamboats plied up and down the River carrying passengers and freight.  Mail, including newspapers, also came to Grand Lake by boat.
There were also two star mail routes leading out of Grand Lake after the Civil War, and continued until about 1873. One led through “Boueff Swamp Buckshop” to Hamburg, and the other to Delhi, La.  It took
the mail riders three days to make these trips.

In a letter dated June 19, 1872, William Geter Streetman writes to his son Thomas Jefferson Streetman
who was living in Tennessee:
"...you express a desire to know where we have settled  and how far from the Red River.  We live over two hundred miles above the mouth of the Red River.  We live nine miles back of  Grand Lake in Chicot County, Arkansas.
 Barnard is our shipping point  just one mile above Grand Lake on the Mississippi River...."
It was a beautifully written, warm letter and included valuable information  such as the birthdates of
all his children, as well as a description of where they had settled.  (I'll scan this letter later to include)  There was also a letter from Margarett, Thomas's sister who mentions Grandpa's daddy, Lovic:
"...we haven't heard from Lovic in quite a while.  We received a letter recently from Uncle Walter.  They are
well and are in Alabama.  He spoke of coming out here to live and I hope he will..."

Records indicate Lovic, our GGrandfather later came to Chicot County and was living there in 1887
but I do not know what year he came. I think both letters reflect a love and concern for family which
was deeply embedded in the Streetmans all through the years.

In 1873 *Michael and Joseph raised a cotton and corn crop.  In 1885 Joseph bought the land from
owner, Carrie Meyer. No date at this time of the death of William G. and Rhoda Streetman. Both
are buried in the family cemetery on the land known as Streetman Plantation near Grand Lake
in Chicot County, Arkansas.

Next  William G. and Rhoda Streetman's children

The Second Generation