Montgomery County (AR): Our Heritage: Quartz Crystal Capital of the World
Montomery County Historical Society; 1 Jan 1986, 670 pages. Vol 1, compiled and edited by the Sesquicentennial Committee, contains the county, school and church histories and numerous family histories. This book contains the information about John and Martha (Hines) Ewing. John was a younger brother to our James H Ewing. It substantiates their lineage. Pages 67-68 were devoted to their family.
"My great-great-great-grandfather John Ewing and his wife Martha Hines Ewing moved to Arkansas before the Civil War and eventually settled in the southeastern part of Montgomery County. They purchased eighty acres of land and established their farm home.
John Ewing, born February 22, 1840, was the son of William P. and Sarah Ewing. William P. Ewing, born in 1802, in Kentucky, and other relatives had settled in Arkansas, especially in Clark County. The known brothers and sisters of John Ewing were James H., Adeline, who later married Alexander Maynard, Henderson, Alfred, Reuben, William N., Joseph R., Emelizer S., who married Jeff Stafford, and Malinda, who married William F. Keith. John Ewing and his brother William N. Ewing fought in the civil War, serving in the Confederate Army. John brought home a cannon mini ball from one of the battles in which he participated. For many years, this Civil War souvenir was used as a door stop and then passed down to the next generation of relatives.
Children of John Ewing and his wife Martha (1844) were Laura, who married Richard Monroe Coker on 2 March 1877 in Montgomery County; Mary, married her cousin James Ewing, Albert, who died young, John Henry, my great-grandfather, Joseph A., Edward C., and Sarah.
A few weeks after the birth of her last child, Martha Hines Ewing died in 1880. She is buried in Mount Tabor Cemetery near her husband. On September 13, 1884, John Ewing wrote his last will and testament and by November, he, also, had died, leaving several small children. John Ewing was buried on his farm that he willed to his children for their support.
The Montgomery County courts appointed Laura Ewing’s husband, Richard Monroe Coker, guardian of the miner heirs of John Ewing. Laura was the eldest child of John and Martha Ewing. Mr. and Mrs. Coker were residents of Montgomery County and the parents of two children: James Allen, born 29 Jun 1880, and Susan Etta born 16 September 1882. They continued living on the John Ewing property and the births of all their children were recorded in Miles Langley’s book.
Besides the first two children, they had the following: Martha Ann, Florence, Viola, Uretha Bell, John Henry, Pittman Monroe, Rod Arthur, and Claude Nathaniel.
All of the heirs of John Ewing eventually left Montgomery County and settled in Texas, where they became farmers, ranchers, schoolteachers, and Baptist preachers. The R.M. Coker family later moved to Texas, also. These families left numerous descendants that became prominent citizens of Texas. In later years, some have moved back to Arkansas to make their homes."
