Notes for Malen H. Spyres
His parents were Malen & Rachel Spyres
Malen Spyres' name is spelled various ways - Malan, Malen, Malon, Mahlon - they all appear to be the same person. And, it appears some of the family changed the spelling of the last name to Spires. Several researchers state his middle name as Hubbard but I haven't found a document to support this--Mary Bittick Gallano.
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[see Marriage Record]
Indexed as Hannah T. Bittick & Malen H. Spyers 20 Aug 1869
[Lincoln Co, Missouri]
[page 206]
Married by the undersigned on the 20th day of august
1869 Malen H. Spyers to Hannah J. Bittick
Both of Lincoln County Missouri. D.[?] H. Cannon J. P.
filed Oct the 11th 1869 Wm Colbert Recorder
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Lincoln Co, Missouri Will Book 1825-1855
Will of Malen [Malon/Mahlon] Spyres, undated
Malen Spyres of Prairie Township, Lincoln Co, Missiouri
Wife - Rachel Spyres all lands that I hold at this time.
$5.00 each to the following children, to wit: Sally Parson, William Spyres, Isaac, Mathias, Martin, Eleazer, Aaron, Sanson, Zerilda Spyres, Henry and Malen Spyres.
Executor: William and Isaac Sypres, sons
Witness: Joesph Stark, Samuel Mutton
Recorded: 14 Feb 1854 [see father for complete will]
******
Civil War:
Missouri Archives
#721
37 Reg't E.M.M. Capt. Colbert
Spyres, M. H.
Rank: Private, Co. B, Age: 15 [c1847]
Enrolled: August 9, 1862, Prairie Township
Co Mustered into service: July 28, 1862, Hawk Point, Mo, By Col. Parker
Relieved from duty: Sept 10, 1863
Number of days in actual service: 68
Remarks: Only the muster-in roll above company on file in this office.
Ordered into active service 7/1/64 at Troy. Relieved 11/21/1864.
#799
49 Reg. Inf. Vols.
Spyres Malin H. [no age]
Rank: Pvt Co: A
Captain: Colbert
Enlisted Aug 8, 1864, Truxton, Mo
Mustered in: Aug 31, 1864, Warrenton, Mo
Mustered out: Aug 2, 1865
#854
37 Reg't E.M.M. Co. B
Spyers, Mayhen H.
Rank: Pvt Age: [blank]
Comd'g: Capt W. Colbert
Enrolled: July 28, 1862, Warrenton
Ordered into active service Aug 28, 1862, Troy
Relieved from duty: Sep 10, 1863 10 [days?]
No. days actual service: 10
******
1879: Photo of Guy Tanner farm. House built in 1879 by Conan Doyle's grandfather, Malen Spyres, who was also pastor of Old Bethlehem. Guy Tanner married Tennie Spyres and eventually Malen turned the farm over to them.
[http://www.totacc.com/user/bettyfranklin/Doyle/image/tanner2.htm]
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1870 Prairie Township, Truxton PO, Lincoln Co, Missouri 4 August 1870, p170a:
#178/168 Spires Malan 22 m w farmer $-/100 Mo - md in Aug - citizen
Hannah 16 f w keeping house Mo - md in Aug
Biddick Perry 50 m w farmer & miller $200/350 Mo - citizen
Malinda 41 f w keeping house Mo
Maranda 14 f w at home Mo
Willis 10 m w at home Mo
Laura 4 f w Mo
1880 - unable to locate family but they should be in Washington Co, Arkansas or Lincoln Co, Missouri
1890 Personal Property Tax List
Lee Creek Township, Washington County, Arkansas
There were seven men over 21 years of age by [the] name of Spyres owning land in both Lee Creek Township, Cove Creek Township, and paid tax to the #97 Bethlehem School District. [born c1879 or earlier]
NameTax PaidSchool Tax [Comments]
Spyres, Jas.2.30.38s/Mathias?
Spyres, Mahlon2.28.93s/Mathias
Spyres, J.S.2.57.25who?
Spyres, Henry0.23.88b c1844
Spyres, Malen H.2.28.80Malen H. ‘Grab’
Spyres, Mathis0.00.23b c1830, too old to pay tax?
Spyres, J.M.2.70.33Jacob Martin; s/Mathias
Taxed [1890?]
Spyres, Malen H.: 1 Horse $25; 10 Cattle $75; 1 Carriage $20; 1 Gold Watch $5; 11 Hogs $10; School District 97
Spyres, Henry: 2 Horses $60; 7 Cattle $40; 12 Hogs $10; 1 Mule $40; 8 Sheep $10; 1 Carriage $5
Spyres, Mahlon: 3 Horses $7; 10 Cattle $65; 17 Hogs $20
1900 Lee's Creek, Washington Co, Arkansas, 1 June 1900, ed101, p59b & 60a:
#20/20 Spires Malen H. head w m Aug 1848 50 md 31 yrs farmer Mo Tn Tn
Hannah J. wife w f Mar 1854 56? md 31 yrs 10 born/10 living Mo Mo Mo
Mary A. dau w f Nov 1870 29 divorced 3 born/1 living Mo Mo Mo [md W.D. Wells]
Daisy M. dau w f Jun 1876 24 widow 0 born/0 living, school teacher Mo Mo Mo
Ailor/Alice? A. dau w f Aug 1879 20 single, school teacher Mo Mo Mo
Oliver L. son w m Jun 1882/3 18 single farmer Ar Mo Mo
Mittie M. dau w f Aug 1884 15 single Ar Mo Mo
Littie M. dau w f May 1887 13 single Ar Mo Mo
Myrtle? dau w f Apr 1888/9 11 single Ar Mo Mo
p60a: Alvert son w m Sep 1891 8 single Ar Mo Mo
Tennie/Tommie? dau w f Apr 1894 6 single Ar Mo Mo
Wells Sylvester gson w m Nov 1890/3 7 single Ar Ar Mo [s/W.D. Wells and Mary A. Spyres]
1910 Lee's Creek, Washington Co, Arkansas 30 April 1910, ed131, p63b:
#166/177 Spyers Malen H. head m w 60 m1 42 yrs Mo Tn Tn
Hannah J. wife f w 53/55 md1 42 yrs 10 born/10 living Mo Mo Mo
Albert M. son m w 18 single Ar Mo Mo
Tammie E. dau f w 16 single Ar Mo Mo
Holcomb Nettie dau f w 25 widow Ar Mo Mo
Braswell Lettie M. gdau f w 9 single Ar Tn Mo
William L. gson m w 7 single Ar Tn Mo
1920 West Benton Township, Neosho, Newton Co, Missouri 24 January 1920, ed156, p261b:
Public Road
#197/197 Smith Mary A. head owns, no mortgage f w 49 widow Mo Mo Mo
Clifford L. son m w 16 single, laborer, railroad section Ar La Mo
Audys A. dau f w 15 single Ar La Mo
Spires Maynard H. father m w 71 widow Mo Mo US [Malen]
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Arkansas Land Records:
Malen H. Spyres - Harrison Land Office, 137.95 acres, issued 2 Feb 1901
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History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas
The Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1889
History of Washington County
Religion, p313:
Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church, of the Fayetteville Association, became a separate society on May 11, 1879, by the agreement of the following members: Elder Joab and Sarah Caviness, Elder Mathias and M. A. Spyres, Joesph and Polly York, Peleg Rigsbee and daughter, Winifred, and Mahlon and Rhoda A.E. Spyres. The society previous to 1881 held their worship under a brush arbor in summer, and in private houses in winter. During the latter year, however, they erected a hewn log house, 20x24 feet, located on Lee's Creek, four and one-half miles southwest of Woosley [Woolsey]. they have plans afoot at present for the erection of a frame church, 26x35 feet. Under the administration of the following pastors the membership has reached sixty persons: Rev. Elder Joab Caviness, Elder M. Spyres, Elder Keggel, Elder J.D. Woolsey and Elder M.H. Spyres. Their present officers are Deacons, A.T. Hopkins and Mahlon Spyres, and clerk, Henry Spyres.
Fairmount Missionary Baptist Church, another young society of twenty-nine members, was formed in March, 1886, by Elder [p314] M. Spyres and Deacon A.S. Hopkins. Besides G. Spyres, John Jackson and Richard Daniels were the first members. The society was formed at a school-house two miles northwest of Winslow, and have so far been unable to provide a separate building for church purposes. Rev. M.H. Spyres is the pastor in charge, and B.F. Johnston the church clerk. [Is Deacon Mahlon Spyres the husband of Hannah J. Bittick? Who is G. Spyres?]
History of Salt River [Baptist] Association
Wiley Jones Patrick
E. W. Stephens Publishing, 1909
p187:
Mahlon Spyres, the first to be ordained by Bethlehem Church, had only a short career as a gospel. He, howerver, filled his mission with fidelity. When he joined in the oganization of the church, he was then an elderly, with a large family. When and from where he emigrated to Missouri, we know not. He seemed built for a frontiersman - robust and strong. Well suited for a vanguard to those who must come after him. Probably he never went to school a day in his life, and he little of books, but he studied men, and could preach to them. Which he did for a few of the later years of his life. Brother Spyres was a miller and a farmer. By the mill and the farm he lived and supported his family. I was with him at the Salt River Association in 1842, the last time I ever met him. He died between that date and 1854. [This is the father of Malen H. Spyres who married Hannah J. Bittick]
History of Montgomery Co, Missouri
Zion Baptist Church lists Malen Spires as one of the ministers.
Lincoln Co, Missouri
Special Church Addition
Malen Spyres was an original member and meetings were held in the house of Mahlon Spyres. In August 1846, Mahlon [Sr.] was licesened to preach and in May 1848 he was ordained and called to minister the church in September 1848. [Malen Jrs' father]
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At the time of his death, Malen was living with his daughter, Mary Smith, in Missouri in 1920 and died in Newton County.
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Missouri State Archives Death Certificate Database
http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/
M. H. Spyres
Certificate #22047
Place of Death: W. Benton Twp, Newton Co, Mo
male white widowed
Wife: Hannah Spyres
Date of Birth: Aug 27, 1847
Age: 75 years 10 months 24 days
Occupation: Farmer
Birthplace: Lincoln Co, Missouri
Father: Malen Spyres, born Missouri
Mother: Rachel[?] Capps[?], born Missouri
Date of Death: July 21, 1923
Cause: chronic empysema & possibly pulmonary tuberculosis; contributory: myocarditis
Burial: Woolsry[?], Arkansas, July 21, 1923
Informant: Wm Spyres[?], Neosho, Mo
Filed: Aug 10, 1923
******
Buried: Old Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery, Washington Co, Arkansas:
Mahlen H. Spyres
b. Aug 27, 1848 [1847 per death certificate]
d. Jul 21, 1923
Rest In Peace
[www.findagrave.com]
Old Bethlehem Baptist Church Cemetery, Washington Co, Arkansas
This cemetery is only accessible by walking or horse back; steep terrain, rock cliffs, over grown brush and trees will keep most all folks from trying to find this cemetery. The land now is privately owned. Its located in Section 1, Township 14, Rage 31 of Lee’s Creek. This was the original spot of the Old Bethlehem Baptist Church (which was moved over 50 years ago) to a new location on top of the mountain along side of the county road known now as County Road 237, approximately one and half miles north of the original location down near Lee’s Creek. The rocks of the old foundation are in dis-array but very clearly outline the location of the original building, which was used for both church and school. A few feet west of the building were five graves that could be identified and about 25 that were marked with field stones. The Spyres family plot identified the graves of the two Spyres brothers and their wives, and there were two infants whose graves were marked by field stones. About 20 feet west of the Spyres graves is the grave of Charlie Gordon, there appears to be about 23 other graves that are marked by field stones.
Added by: Char’lee
Map and GPS data: GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 35.848187, Longitude: -94.225273
www.findagrave.com
Old Bethlehem Cemetery (by Robert Winn): "A closer look revealed the remains of the wire fence that had surrounded the cemetery - a place so overgrown with brambles and underbrush that most of the fieldstone markers are difficult to see. A few clumps of shrubs testify to the loving care of relatives and friends who in the past set these flowers beside graves."
Hannah J. Spyres, 5 Mar. 1854 - 28 Mar. 1917. Photo. Michael Doyle is straightening his great-grandmother's memorial stone.
Malen and Hannah turned the homestead farm over to Guy Tanner and their daughter Tennie Spyres after she and Guy married. Malen "Grab" Spyres was the first and most permanent pastor of Old Bethlehem. They are also Conan Doyle's grandparents.
Malen H. Spyres, 27 Aug. 1848 - 21 July 1923. Photo. Conan Doyle working with his grandfather's stone.
I call your attention to the incredible transparent tomb stone. The dappled sunlight, on the face of the stone, closely completes the obscured parts of Conan's figure. His right shoulder, waist and right knee are right where they should be. Also the color is the same as Conan's white shirt and khaki trousers.
[Photo's by Charles Doyle. Robert Winn story from Flashback, Vol. 34, No. 3, Washington Co. Historical Society. http://www.totacc.com/user/bettyfranklin/Doyle/image/grave.htm]
Old Bethlehem History
OLD BETHLEHEM (by Robert Winn): “A short distance up the hill and we were on a bench of level ground. A stranger could easily pass by without becoming aware that the moss covered stones lying in a rectangle were the remains of the foundation of Old Bethlehem Church.”
Old Bethlehem with congregation in 1906. [photo]
OLD BETHLEHEM (by Robert G. Winn)
Nobody now living knows when the original logs were raised for the building of Old Bethlehem. It could have been before the Civil War because during the time of that conflict the surrounding hills and valleys were dotted with small farms and inhabited by many more people than now live in the area. One hollow almost directly across Lee Creek on the west side from Old Bethlehem is known as U.S. Hollow because a troop of Union soldiers spent a winter beneath a bluff there in the 1860s.
Nobody else could describe any more vividly nor paint a more graphic picture of Old Bethlehem than did Mrs. Fronia Mannon Poore in an article written by her in 1976. She wrote :
“I have fond memories of the little white church in the wildwood in the valley of Lee Creek about two miles north-west of Blackburn. It probably was built about 1890 because I recall my mother’s saying that she took me there as an infant and placed me on a pallet in a corner during services before the building was finished.” [This was the building, shown above, that replaced the earlier log house. Mrs. Poore was born 1 July 1890.]
“The first and most permanent pastor was the Rev. Malen H. Spyres (Uncle Grab). The church was Missionary Baptist, and one of the few religious organizations around at that time. Most of the neighbors attended there from the hillside homes on each side and from up and down the creek. The place is four or five miles up Lee Creek from present Devil’s Den Park. The music in the church was outstanding. The Spyres family was a choir itself.”
Mrs. Poore recalled the fine voices of the Spyres family and how honored she herself felt when she sat at the five octave pump organ accompanying this fine group of singers who were joined by the congregation that packed the house, and how the rafters rang with the harmonious voices raised in praise of the God who was very real and near to the people of the hills in those long ago times. [Mrs. Poore played the pump organ at Old Bethlehem when she was a girl of fifteen. Just before her death in 1979, she still played the piano at the Blackburn Community Church near her home.]
Religious fervor was high and the God they worshiped was almost audibly present, especially at times of revival or “protracted meetings” when many people came forward to the mourner’s bench where they “prayed through” to salvation, and many were baptized in nearby Lee Creek at a place held almost as sacred as the sanctuary of the little church itself. Here beside the rock strewn stream the congregation assembled on the sloping boulders above the creek to observe the ceremony in the stream below. The rock formation gives the impression of tiered benches. Recently as I sat alone on these stones, it seemed that the rustling of the autumn leaves in the branches above my head became the beautiful hymns that were sung at those gatherings, and I could hear the voices that echoed across the valley in that long ago - voices that are now a part of that Heavenly Choir because most of those who were baptized here and those who sang beside the stream have now crossed over that River of which they sang:
Yes, we'll gather at the river,
The beautiful, beautiful river,
Gather with the saints at the river,
That flows by the throne of God.
Now the roads and trails that were so worn by the feet of devout worshipers and wheels of wagons and hooves of horses carrying sturdy pioneers to the meeting place are overgrown with brush and tangled briars. No longer do the voices of children on their way to school or church in the house near the creek resound.
In more recent years [c1920] after farms along the narrow valley floor had been abandoned, the building, inaccessible over the washed out roads, was dismantled, each board numbered and hauled to a new location beside the Union Star Road [Bethlehem Road] on top of the mountain. Consolidation absorbed the few remaining students into the schools either of West Fork or Winslow. Church services were held at the new location for a short time, but the spirit of Old Bethlehem was never recaptured. Now the house stands vacant and left to the elements.
Bethlehem Church 2003. [photo] This is Bethlehem Church as it stands today on Bethlehem Road.
1906 photo loaned by Robert Winn; 2003 photo by Charles Doyle. Robert Winn story from Flashback, Vol.34, No.3, Washington Co. Historical Society
Civil War
Malen H. Spyres
Branch: A. 49 Mo Inf
Invalid: 1882? Jan 16
Application No. 457564
Certificate No. 303655
State Filed: Arkansas
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville:
Bethlehem Church Records
Minutes and other records, 1887-1922
Manuscript Collection 1351
INFORMATION ABOUT THE BETHLEHEM CHURCH
The Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church of Christ was built ca 1890 in the valley of Lee Creek in the vicinity of Blackburn and Devil’s Den Park, Washington County, Arkansas. The church’s first pastor was the Rev. Malen H. Spyres (1848-1923). As far as the available records reveal, the church ceased to exist in the 1920s.
INFORMATION ABOUT THE COLLECTION
The Bethlehem Church Records were donated to the Special Collections Division by Lloyd O. Warren, Fayetteville, Arkansas, on October 20, 1995.
The collection consists of photocopies of minutes and other records of Bethlehem Church, Washington County, Arkansas, with copies of published information about the church.
Processed by Vera Ekechukwu, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas, in December 1998.
CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION (1 box)
Folder 1 Minutes and other records, 1887-1922.
Every Name Index of Arkansas Baptist Association Records, Baptists in Arkansas 1820-1900:
Riley-Hickingbottom Library at Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia, Arkansas
SPYERS, G. Fayetteville, 1880, 1887
SPYERS, H. Fayetteville, 1887, 1888
SPYERS, J.S. Fayetteville, 1886
SPYERS, M. Fayetteville, 1878, 1880, 1883, 1886, 1887
SPYERS, M.H. Fayetteville, 1880, 1885
SPYRES, H.M. Fayetteville, 1893
SPYRES, I.L. Fayetteville, 1898
SPYRES, J.A. Fayetteville, 1895
SPYRES, J.S. Fayetteville, 1888-92, 1897
SPYRES, M. Fayetteville, 1885, 1888
SPYRES, M.A. Fayetteville, 1893
SPYRES, M.H. Fayetteville, 1889-91, 1895, 1897, 1899
SPYRES, M.N. Fayetteville, 1894
SPYRES, N. Fayetteville, 1889
SPYRES, P.L. Fayetteville, 1899
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