William Coleman “Cole” Erwin

Thomas Johnston Erwin and Nancy Caroline Mathis, with their two eldest children, arrived in Carroll County, Arkansas in 1848 and, as near as can determined, were the first of my line to do so. The majority of the inhabitants of the area at that time were of Scots-Irish descent. They were all much like the newcomers – a self-sufficient and hardy group engaged primarily in subsistence farming. There would have been a few professional men, and preachers, but all would have been poor and living under the same primitive conditions.

Thomas and Nancy lived first in Carrollton, but later homesteaded on Dry Creek near the small thriving community of Denver. They lived for a time in Eureka Springs, but in later years returned to their farm. They lived the rest of their lives in Carroll County, and had six more children.

William Coleman “Cole” Erwin was the seventh-born child of Thomas and Nancy Erwin.

Cole Erwin married Indiana (India) May Freeman in Berryville, Carroll County, Arkansas on December 16, 1886. They had eight children:

1. Noble Olin Erwin, b. July 13, 1888 in Green Forest, Carroll Co., AR; d. August 1963 in Renton, King Co., WA.
2. Thomas Ernest (Tom) Erwin, b. February 1890 in Carroll Co., AR; d. bef. 1960 in Walnut Creek, Contra Costa Co., CA. He married Belle Mason. They had no children.
3. Michael Earle Erwin, b. April 1892 in Green Forest, Carroll Co., AR; d. July 11, 1929 in Billings, Yellowstone Co., MT. He married Olga. They did not have children.
4. Gertrude Minnie Erwin, b. June 7, 1893 in Green Forest, Carroll Co., AR; d. July 31, 1981 in Alva, Woods Co., OK.
5. Joseph William Erwin, b. February 5, 1896 in Green Forest, Carroll Co., AR; d. August 10, 1974 in Renton, King Co., WA.
6. Sarah Caroline (Carrie) Erwin, b. July 14, 1898 in Carroll Co., AR; d. February 29, 1968 in Springfield, Greene Co., MO. She married Harvey Edwards July 11, 1929 and died after March 1943. There were no children.
7. Johnnie Thomas Erwin (dau.), b. July 1, 1900 in Carroll Co., AR; d. January 27, 1972 in Redwood City, San Mateo Co., CA.
8. Marshall Freeman Erwin, b. January 9, 1910 in Munice, Dewey Co., OK; d. August 25, 1963 in Juneau, Juneau Co., AK.

It is obvious from the above photograph that Cole and India were strikingly different in appearance. Cole was six feet two inches tall, which was tall for his generation, and she was only about five feet tall and weighed around one hundred pounds. His descendants report that he was forever looking for the gold at the end of the rainbow. He tried several things to “strike it rich” but never found the big one, although he always provided for his family. India is said to have been a loving and dutiful wife, always waiting patiently at home while Cole was away on one of his “quests.”

One can obviously assume that the permanent address of Cole and India May Erwin was in Carroll County, Arkansas until at least the latter part of 1900. Their seventh child was born there, and the 1900 census, recorded on June 20, 1900, has them in Long Creek Township. Marshall Freeman Erwin was born in Munice, Dewey County, Oklahoma, in January 1910, but the 1910 census shows the family in Blaine County, Oklahoma, and Marshall is listed as being three months old.

Dewey County, Oklahomawas created in 1892 from Original County, which consisted of Cheyenne and Arapaho tribal lands. It was originally designated as County “D” when the Cherokee-Arapaho Reservation was created in 1892, and the designation remained until the general election of 1899. It was then that the voters decided that the “D” was actually the first letter of Dewey. It is not clear which Dewey they were honoring.

A copy of a warranty deed dated November 14, 1892, provided by Glenna Combs, a great granddaughter of Joseph Johnson Erwin (1858-1936), indicates that when his father passed away in 1892 Cole Erwin bought the shares of his brothers and sisters and gained sole ownership of the family homestead. An attachment seems to indicate that the deed was not properly recorded, and that the problem was not corrected until October 25, 1917. It is assumed that it was at that time that his brother, Joe Erwin, assumed ownership of the farm. It is today a part of the 300-acre home farm of Glenna and Gene Combs.

Indiana May Freeman Erwin died December 3, 1918 in Eagle City, Blaine County, Oklahoma. It is reported that Cole took her death unusually hard. Marshall, his youngest child, was only eight when his mother died, and Cole left the boy with his older son Joe. Cole followed the oilfield booms in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas, working when he could, often staying with older children between jobs. According to the Longton Gleaner, a newspaper in Longton, Kansas, he visited his younger brother Michael and sister-in-law Minnie in Longton several times in the 1920s.

William Coleman Erwin died December 16, 1928 in McCamey, Upton County, Texas. He and India are both buried in the Munice Cemetery in Dewey County, Oklahoma.

Following is an excerpt from an article that ran in the December 2003 issue of The Bagpiper. It was written by Cherie Russell Olson, a great-great granddaughter of Cole Erwin:

An interesting footnote to the “Cole” Erwin and “India” Freeman story is that when they married on 16 December, 1866 a second couple was married as well. Michael Roy “Mike” Erwin, the next youngest brother of Cole, and Minnie Olive Freeman, the sixteen-year-old sister of India, were married at the same time. Mike and Minnie are the paternal grandparents of Don Erwin, our Bagpiper editor.

It is a recognized fact that there is a gene coursing through the veins of many Erwins, and it is commonly referred to as the “itchy foot” gene. The effect is most noticeable in the male of the species, and it seems to make them believe that the grass is always greener somewhere else, in fact, anywhere other than where they happen to be.

This “itchy foot” gene is more noticeable in some Erwin males than others. It was first evident in James N. Erwin (Irvine), our immigrant ancestor. He was the only one of Alexander Irvine’s nine children to leave Scotland. Although it can be argued that most emigrants to the Colonies, as well as the later pioneers, were afflicted with “itchy foot,” most settled down at some point. James himself settled in Pennsylvania for a time, but after about ten years moved his family to Rowan County, North Carolina. Several of his children married and remained in or near Salisbury in Rowan County, but his namesake, James N. Erwin, Jr., moved to Adams County, Mississippi. Isaac Erwin settled in Wesson County, Mississippi, while son John lived and died in Giles County, Tennessee.

My “itchy foot” connection was James’ grandson Joseph, the seventh child of Joseph, his first-born. This Joseph, sometimes referred to as Joseph Erwin II, but known by most descendants as Joseph Erwin, Sr., married Catherine Nancy Cowan in 1792 in Rowan County. It is believed that Joseph and Catherine moved to Giles County, Tennessee about 1812, since Hezikiah, their eleventh child, was born in in Salisbury in 1811, and Margaret Clementine, their twelfth  child, was born in Giles County, Tennessee in 1813.

Sometime around 1825, however, visions of greener pastures induced Joseph, Sr. (II), as well as Joseph, Jr. (newly married and with three small children, their first-born apparently having died in infancy), to move northeast to Henry County, Tennessee. The U.S. Censuses of 1830 and 1840 finds both families in Henry County, but the census of 1850 indicates that while Joseph Erwin, Jr. is there, Joseph, Sr. is not. Further research found that Catherine Nancy Erwin, the wife of Joseph, Sr., had passed on in 1839 and was buried in Henry County. Joseph Erwin, Sr. then removed to Mayhew, Lowndes, County, Mississippi, where he lived with a son until he died about 1846.

The “itchy foot syndrome” did not affect several of the offspring of Joseph, Sr. and Joseph, Jr., for a large contingent of Erwins live today in Calloway County, Kentucky, which  adjoins  Henry County, Tennessee, and is just a few miles north of where Catherine Nancy Erwin is buried.

The 1850 census for Henry County also found that one of the sons of Joseph Erwin, Jr. was not there. This offspring was Thomas Johnston Erwin. In 1848 Thomas, with wife Nancy Caroline and two children, had succumbed to the “itchy foot syndrome,” and moved southwest into Carroll County, Arkansas. Joseph Erwin, Jr., with wife Nancy Rebecca and several of their younger children, followed Thomas and Nancy Caroline to Carroll County about 1852.

There was a heavy affliction of “itchy foot syndrome” among the children of Thomas and Nancy Caroline. Of their eight children, only Elizabeth Erwin Epley and Joseph Johnson Erwin would live and die in Carroll County. This Joseph was the great-grandfather of Glenna Trigg Combs. She and husband Gene own the original property homesteaded by Thomas Johnston Erwin.     

My connection is William Coleman “Cole” Erwin, the seventh-born child of Thomas and Nancy Caroline. It seems apparent that Cole Erwin had a severe case of “itchy foot syndrome,” for family tradition has it that he was forever going off somewhere in search of the elusive greener pasture. In his early married life he left his family in Carroll County many times as he made brief sojourns into neighboring counties, and even into Kansas and the adjoining Oklahoma Indian Territory. Don Erwin believes that it was Cole Erwin who accompanied Mike and Minnie Erwin when they migrated to Elk County, Kansas, about 1898. Family tradition hints of other families accompanying the move, probably some Freeman families, but there is also the mention of an older Erwin who “left shortly after their arrival to investigate opportunities in the ‘Territory.’” This description would certainly fit Cole Erwin. He eventually moved his family to the Oklahoma Territory, and he and India are buried in Dewey County. Descendants of Cole and India are today spread far and wide, but they are mostly in Oklahoma, California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The “itchy foot syndrome” DNA is continually being passed on from generation to generation, although it seems to have skipped me personally. I rarely leave my state, but I am being sorely pressured by our editor to attend the next clan “gathering” in Las Vegas…and I think I will!