Margaret Martin
Submitted by: donmthomas(at)hotmail.com

One story of "Margaret" Martin has sifted through family tradition and that is the story that Civil war soldiers had demanded blankets and were going to take or confiscate them from her.  Upon hearing the soldiers request she, Margaret, told them that she had little ones who needed the blankets, and then reached for a kitchen chair and held it up, saying, "If you can get them, you can have them."  The soldiers turned away, leaving, and did not get her blankets.  In the above family tradition it is not known if the Civil war soldiers were "Union" or "Confederate" soldiers?  We assume that during the Civil war, Margaret Martin, her son, daughters and grandchildren, must have lived together to protect themselves from bushwhackers.  Margaret said, "little ones," in the above family tradition so we must assume that Margaret was referring to her grandchildren.  

As for Margaret Martin herself we do not know if she favored the "Confederacy" or "Union" during the civil war.  The fact that her youngest daughter, Amanda "Mandy" Martin married a "Union" Soldier, Sergeant Major Samuel Dial, during, or right after the
Civil war, gives us the impression Margaret Martin might have favored the "North."  Most of Margaret's family started out having to fight for the "Confederacy" and later crossed lines, favoring and fighting for the "Union" towards the end of the Civil war.  

Sons-in-law, Francis Marion Sanders and Thomas M. Smith joined the "Confederate" Arkansas 16th Regiment, while the rest of the family seemed to be inducted into the "Confederate" 10th Militia {Provisional Army}.  Later in the war most of her sons-in-law crossed lines and joined the Arkansas "Union" 2nd Regiment.  Both Francis Marion Sanders and Thomas M. Smith were sergeants in the Arkansas "Union" 2nd Regiment.
Solomon P. Martin was an ex-brother-in-law to Margaret Martin and Solomon P. Martin
 was a private in the "Union" 2nd Regiment.  Solomon P. Martin's father-in-law, John Bean, was an out spoken "Union sympathizer" which probably contributed to the killing of Solomon P. Martin by rebel bushwhackers on August 21, 1864.  Margaret Martin's son-in-law, Sergeant Francis Marion Sanders was killed in front of his own family, in his own "door-yard" by rebel bushwhackers on December 31, 1863. 

Margarette "Margaret" (Schrum) Jones Martin lived in Johnson County, Arkansas and was the mother to Sarah Ann "Sallie" (Jones) Stewart; Mary Elizabeth (Jones) Smith; Melinda Jane (Jones) Sanders Southers Rains; Rebecca C. (Jones) Ragsdale; Amanda "Mandy" (Martin) Dial; Ellen Martin and Willilam Thomas Martin.  All her children except Sarah Ann "Sallie" (Jones) Stewart were born in Johnson County, Arkansas.

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