To request a copy of this photo for your own personal use, please contact our state coordinator. If you are not a family member or the original photographer — please refrain from copying or distributing this photo to other websites.
Thank you for visiting the Arkansas Gravestone Photo Project. On this site you can upload gravestone photos, locate ancestors and perform genealogy research. If you have a relative buried in Arkansas, we encourage you to upload a digital image using our Submit a Photo page. Contributing to this genealogy archive helps family historians and genealogy researchers locate their relatives and complete their family tree.
Submitted: 11/13/10 • Approved: 11/15/10 • Last Updated: 7/31/12 • R409130-G0-S3
Archibald Yell
August 1797-February 22, 1847
Attorney Judge Congressman Governor Soldier
Archibald Yell was born in either North Carolina, Kentucky, or Jefferson County, Tennessee, to Moses and Jane Curry Yell. His exact birthplace remains a controversy in history. He was raised in the Duck region of Tennessee. He received a very limited education. Yell served in the War of 1812, as a Sergeant in the Battle of New Orleans and as a First Lieutenant in the first Seminole War. Later, he studied law and opened an office in Shelbyville, Tennessee. He was very active in the Masonic Lodge and became Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee. Due to his friendship with Tennessee Congressman, James K Polk, Andrew Jackson appointed him as Receiver of Public Monies at Little Rock (Pulaski County) in 1831. In 1835 he was appointed a territorial circuit judge. In 1835 Yell built his 4 room Greek Revival home "Waxhaws" in Fayetteville, Washington County, Arkansas and settled there. He helped form the first Masonic lodge in Arkansas, Washington Lodge 82, the western most lodge in the nation at that time. Yell sought election as a Congressman and served from 1836 to 1838. He then mounted a successful campaign for Governor and served from 1840-1844. He returned to Congress in 1846 but was forced to resign to enter the service to fight in the Mexican War and was voted regimental Colonel. He died a heroic death when he lead a charge with sword in hand with about a thousand Mexicans in front of him, apparently killing several Mexicans before dying from multiple lance wounds. He was buried near the battlefield at Saltillo in a tin coffin encasing the wood. In 5 months he was reentered in the family plot at his home "Waxhaws" in Fayetteville. Again his body was removed and reentered in the Evergreen Cemetery in Fayetteville in 1881 by the Masonic Lodge. His gravestone contains several factual errors. Archibald married 3 time, first to a 16 year old Mary Scott, a Planters daughter, 21 November 1821 in Tennessee. She died in child birth along with one of the twin girls. The remaining twin, Mary Scott Yell was raised by her material grandparents. He married the second time in Tennessee in 1827 to another Planter’s daughter, Ann Jordan Moore, with whom he had three daughters—Artemesia, Jane, and Elizabeth—and a son, DeWitt. Nine months after the death of his second wife, in July of 1836, Yell took a third wife, the widow Mary Ficklin from Lawrence County, whose deceased husband, Judge Thomas Ficklin, had been an early political leader from Lawrence County. There were no children from this marriage. Mary died in 1838.
Archibald Yell was larger than life and colorful figure in Arkansas history. He was a consummate, magnetic politician. A brave and heroic Soldier. Yell County and Yellville (Marion County) were named for him.
Sources: Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture (online)
Wilson, Charles Morrow. A Man’s Reach. New York: H. Holt & Co., 1944.
*Photograph provided by Dr. Greg Vogel
http://www.projectpast.org/gvogel/Evergreen/Evergreen.
Contributed on 11/13/10 by nlhall
Email This Contributor
Suggest a Correction
Record #: 409130