Polk County’s Revolutionary War Connection: The reveal

By Kathy Hagler, Second Vice Regent, James K. Polk Chapter, NSDAR

Over the past several months, you’ve read about the Battles of Saltketcher Bridge, Kings Mountain, Blackstock’s Defeat and a few more, and probably wondered what the American Revolutionary War has to do with Polk County, Arkansas. These battles have one man in common — Samuel Quinton, Polk County’s only known Revolutionary War veteran.

As discussed in the article about the Battle of Arkansas Post, it was the only battle fought in what is now Arkansas. Polk County is at least 200 miles from Arkansas Post, on the opposite side of the state. That battle brought the war “closer to home,” but a verified Revolutionary War soldier who spent his last years here, completes the journey.

Samuel Quinton was born in South Carolina about 1762. During the Revolutionary War he resided in Nine- ty-Six District, South Carolina, where he was a private in the South Carolina militia. Records show he served 276 days of militia duty between 1780 and 1782. 180 of those days he served as a private horseman at 20 shillings per day; 24 days in a tour to and at Cooper Church at 20 shillings per day; 48 days of service as a private in the foot service at Four Holes Swamp Bridge at 10 shillings per day; and 24 days in the foot service at Saltketcher (also known as Salkehatchie Bridge) at 10 shillings per day.

He was also engaged with his company in the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina on Oct. 7, 1780; and Blackstock’s Defeat on Nov. 20, 1780. He was on his way to the Battle of Guilford Court House in North Carolina, which took place on March 15, 1781, but he contracted smallpox and did not participate in that battle.

In his Revolutionary War pension application, Samuel stated he returned to Union District in South Carolina after the war. He appeared there in the 1790 and 1800 censuses. His son, Samuel Jr., was born there.

The family moved to Rutherford County, North Carolina, for two years, then to Cobb and Cass Counties in Georgia.

In about 1837, they moved to Arkansas. Tax records show Samuel in Benton County in northwest Arkansas in 1837, 1838 and 1839. He then moved south and appeared in White Township near Cove in the 1840 census.

White Township was in Sevier County at the time but became a part of Polk County when it was formed in 1844. By the 1850 census, Samuel was living in Freedom Township in the Mountain Fork area of Polk County — at the foot of Quinton [aka Quentin] Mountain, which still bears his family’s name.

Quinton began applying for his Revolutionary War pension in 1847. By this time, he was in his early 80s, poor and nearly blind. Friends and local elected officials helped facilitate approval of his application, one of them writing to South Carolina for needed documentation. Samuel received his pension and was paid the full amount he was due for 1849 through 1854 [Ed. $39.63 per annum, approximately $1,583 in 2023]. A partial payment in 1855 indicates he died in the early months of 1855 [Ed. Possibly Aug. 13, 1855 – Find A Grave].

Samuel’s son, Samuel Jr., moved across the country with his father. He married Lydia Crittendon, who was a Cherokee. Gene Norris, senior genealogist with the Cherokee National Research Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, said, “Samuel Quinton was of that faction of the Cherokee who are referred to as the Old Settlers. They removed themselves after the Treaties of 1817 and 1819, and after the Treaty of 1828 with Arkansas, their related families remained in Polk County, Arkansas, some until after the Civil War.”

So, the Quintons were associated with a community of Cherokees that existed on the western border of Polk County from the 1840s until the 1860s. The 1860 census showed Samuel Jr. and Lydia farming in Freedom Township. By the 1880s, their extended family had moved to Oklahoma’s Going Snake District.

Dale Epperson, a direct descendant of Samuel Quinton, will be the guest speaker at the James K. Polk Chapter, NSDAR, meeting at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 21, at the Ninth Street Ministries Building, in Mena, Arkansas. The public is invited to attend.