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Submitted: 9/11/13 • Approved: 9/11/13 • Last Updated: 9/14/13 • R925533-G925533-S3
1805
North Carolina, USA
Jul 17, 1885
Absalom Knight was a "dutchman" who fell in love with a Cherokee Indian. Her name was Permilla Dodd. Her father was Arion Dodd, born in Virginia. They had six children: Harriet, William, John A., Rosanna, Sophia, and Martin Van Buren.
In 1842 Absalom and another man were fishing on a river when their boat turned over in swift water and they both drowned. Permilla/Penelope was called Penny by the people of Ida. Penny was left with six children to raise alone. She was a woman of strength and courage. Penny and her children moved to Mississippi. They lived in Mississippi for several years and farmed the land. Because it was poor land, making it difficult to feed her family, Penny decided farming might be better in Arkansas. And the water in the hills was good. So Penny and her children came to Arkansas in the 1850s. They traveled in a covered wagon, pulled by two large oxen, until they reached Five Mile (Macedonia) community.
The land patent census shows that Penny homesteaded land March 4, 1859, township 12, range 9, section 17. A few years later, Penny and her son John moved on south and homesteaded land in Ida. Today, that land belongs to Lola May Deckard. She lived to be 80 years old and was laid to rest in the Pleasant Ridge Cemetery at Ida. William Knight came to Arkansas in 1860 and homesteaded land at Wolf Bayou (Sec. 19 E 1/2 NW and E 1/2 SW) on Dec. 18, 1860. He may have moved to Canada later in life. The other son probably stayed in Kansas.
Source: rootsweb
Children:
Harriet Knight Foust (1830 - 1911)
Martin Vanburen Knight (1836 - 1912)
Contributed on 9/11/13 by hawkinsdonna
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Record #: 925533