It's possible there's some connection between the funeral home Ragsdales and my family. I tend to doubt it though because my Tom Ragsdale did not take that last name until relatively late in life. His last owner was Isaac Ragsdale, who did have a farm or something in Arkansas.

But then again Tom Ragsdale was very much in the orbit of Arkansas. He spent time in Fort Smith as a Civil War soldier and afterwards. His own farm was across the Arkansas River just a few miles from Fort Smith on Blackburn or Blackburn's Prairie. Has anyone ever heard of that prairie or know more precisely where it is? The description I have of his farm's location is from the court affidavit I mentioned, a neighbor's Dawes testimony and accounts of a Civil War skirmish on the prairie. But I can't find it on any map.