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 1868 - 1902 (~ 34 years)
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| Name |
Charles Henry Ruffner |
| Birth |
0___ 1868 |
Alicia, Lawrence County, Arkansas  [1, 2, 3, 4] |
| Gender |
Male |
| Death |
0___ 1902 |
Lawrence County, Arkansas [4, 5] |
| Person ID |
I26217 |
The Hennessee Family |
| Last Modified |
14 Oct 2014 |
| Family |
Sarah Caldonia "Donnie" Pinnell, b. 22 Aug 1872, Walnut Ridge, Lawrence County, Arkansas d. 6 Dec 1956, Blytheville, Mississippi County, Arkansas (Age 84 years) |
| Marriage |
2 Sep 1890 |
Walnut Ridge, Lawrence County, Arkansas [3, 4, 5] |
| Residence (Family) |
0___ 1900 |
Walnut Ridge, Lawrence County, Arkansas [2] |
| Children |
| | 1. Katherine "Kate" Ruffner, b. 8 Oct 1891, Walnut Ridge, Lawrence County, Arkansas d. 3 Jun 1965, Springfield, Greene County, Missouri (Age 73 years) |
| | 2. Jessie Exodus Ruffner, b. 24 Nov 1893, Walnut Ridge, Lawrence County, Arkansas d. 13 Apr 1965, Blytheville, Mississippi County, Arkansas (Age 71 years) |
| | 3. John Silas Ruffner, b. 2 Mar 1895, Lawrence County, Arkansas d. 24 Nov 1981, Springfield, Greene County, Missouri (Age 86 years) |
| | 4. Ora Fanelle Ruffner, b. 30 Mar 1903, Walnut Ridge, Lawrence County, Arkansas d. 17 Mar 1982, San Bernardino County, California (Age 78 years) |
| | 5. Charles Ruffner, b. Lawrence County, Arkansas |
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| Family ID |
F9357 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
30 Apr 2023 |
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| Notes |
- Notes for Charles Henry Ruffner:
CHARLES HENRY RUFFNER
Charles Henry Ruffner was the son of Silas Ruffner and unknown mother. Charles Henry Ruffner was married to Sarah Caldonia "Donnie" Pinnell they had the following children, John, Jesse, Charles, Ora, Katherine (Kate). Charles Henry Ruffner died at a early age of 38 years old, in 1902. He hunted pearls in the White River, Arkansas. It is unknown where Charles Henry died or where he is buried.
NOTE: Information sent by Susan Hughes Brown - This information was sent by Susan Hughes Brown and John Henry Ruffner - letters in possession of Kay Butcher - 1999.
THE ARKANSAS PEARL MARKET
Taken from the Lawrence County Historical Society
Spring, 1998
The Arkansas pearl "boom" started in 1897. It peaked a few years later, and the industry had almost vanished by the late 1970's. It all started in the spring of 1897, when Dr. J. H. Myers found a pinkish 14-grain pearl in a Black River clam near Black Rock. While his was not the first pearl discovered, Dr. Myers is credited with starting the industry. By year's end, hundreds of people were searching the vast mussel beads that lined both the Black River and the White River for 100 miles above Newport.
The "pearl rush" was on. Farmers left their crops unharvested; bankers, lawyers and merchants closed their doors; and hundreds of families relocated to shanties and tents along the the White and Black Rivers to participate in the boom that could net a year's salary in a single day. ''
During the early years, pearl hunters could wade out to the mussell beds and pick up shells by the thousands. When the shallow beads were gone, other devices were brought in to bring the mollusks up. Long-handled tongs, that could grasp shells up to 14 feet deep, were popular; along with crowsfoot drags, a series of wire hooks to which mussels attached themselves when the boat-mounted rig passed over a mussel bed.
At first the mussel shells were discarded by pearlers. But by 1899, the shells were being shipped by rail to northern factories where they were fashioned into buttons (See John Silas Ruffner information) During the first three years of industry, sales pumped almost $1.5 billion into Lawrence, Jackson, Independence, Randolph and Woodriff counties. Soon pearl and shell hunting extended down-stream to Augusta, Des Arc, Clarendon and beyond.
In 1900 the first shell button company in the south opened at Black Rock. Actually the little factory cut button "blanks" from shells and shipped them via rail to finishing plants in other states. Eventually, button factories were opened at Newport, Batesville, Newark and other towns along the river. Plastic buttons destroyed the industry during the 1940's but the demand for mussel shells continued for foreign markets.
Dr. Myers was not the first to discover pearls in Arkansas. Native American Indians used them for personal decoration long before Europeans carried on the scene; and pioneers sometimes carried them as good-luck charms or gave them to children as playthings.
Colorful "rags-to-riches" stories were reported often in publications of the period. New homes, farms and other major purchases finalized in cash by lucky pearl prospectors during the early years of this county. Sometimes pearls were found in the strangest places. A Lonoke County man reportedly uncovered a cache of hems while digging postholes in an old channel of the Cypress Bayou.
Perhaps the most intriguing of all the pearling stories happened in 1902 when a super-quality gem was found inside a large, rough mucket shell upstream from Black Rock. After a round of bidding by dealers, a local jeweler purchased the gem and hand-carried it to St. Louis, New York and on to Paris, where it was sold for a princely sum and reportedly became part of the British Royal collection. [4]
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| Sources |
- [S35547] Chada,Bob & Tammie;Family Group Records;23 Mar 98;E-Mail:tchada@flash.net;.
- [S3506] "United States Census, 1900," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M3F8-DBC : accessed.
- [S6439] "Claiborne Pinnell Family", by Bill Couch, bcouch@couchgenweb.com, http://www.couchgenweb.com/family/pinnell.htm, abstra.
- [S6442] Katherine Sloan "Kate" Butcher, Pedigree,17 Feb 2000, kayc@cox.net, 1663 Tierra Montanosa, Alpine CA 91901, 619.445.980.
- [S1121] Bob & Tammie Chada | Family Group Records | 23 Mar 1998 | tchada@flash.net.
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