Don and Minnie Lee McCormick

Don McCormick

Susan Lasley

Quick Facts

Significance:

Arkansas Homesteaders

Place of Birth:

Don, in Robeson County, North Carolina. Minnie Lee, in Gibson County, Tennessee

Date of Birth:

Don: February 10, 1872. Minnie Lee: December 27, 1878

Place of Death:

Don: Little Rock, Arkansas. Minnie Lee: Little Rock, Arkansas

Date of Death:

Don: February 4, 1925. Minnie Lee: February 8, 1946

Place of Burial:

Don: Little Rock, Arkansas. Minnie Lee: Redfield, Arkansas

Cemetery Name:

Don: Fraternal Cemetery. Minnie Lee: Mount Pleasant Cemetery

Singleton Don McCormick was born on February 10, 1872 in Robeson County, North Carolina. His parents, who had been born enslaved, were Willie and Adeline “Cinderella” Page McCormick. Don was the middle child, the fourth of the McCormicks’ seven children listed on the 1880 U.S. Census for Thompson Township North Carolina.                 

Sometime during the 1880s, his parents moved the family from North Carolina to Arkansas. Don’s niece, Bessie McCormick Price, gave an oral history passed down to her by her father (and Don’s youngest brother), Chalmers McCormick. Chalmers told her that when he was a little boy his father Willie was given a team of mules and a wagon, and told to head west, following the river trails.  

This would have happened sometime between 1883 and 1891, when young Chalmers would have been aged four to twelve, and his big brother Don aged eleven to nineteen. Their parents were attracted by the work available in the area, and recruiters were actively seeking formerly enslaved individuals from southeastern slave states to move to Arkansas. In addition, The United States allowed blackpeople as well as white people to acquire land in former confederate states under the 1866 amendments to the Homestead Act of 1862. This was free land which was not available to them in eastern states like North Carolina. 

Minnie Lee (Wainwright) McCormick
Photo Credit: Susan Lasley

Minnie Lee Wainwright was born December 27, 1878, in Humboldt, Gibson County, Tennessee. Her father's name is unknown, but her mother was Amanda Cumbery. Minnie Lee's surname was changed after her mother married Sam Robinson in 1880.

Don McCormick and Minnie Lee Robinson married February 7, 1897. By the time Don filed their final homestead proof application, they had the three children mentioned in the final proof—Willie, Amanda, and Nellie.

Don and Minnie Lee almost lost their chance to own the land they had cultivated and worked for years in Dexter, Jefferson County, Arkansas. By March 1902, after eight years of effort, Don missed an important deadline for the final affidavit for an important reason: He was locked up in jail.               

In a separate affidavit he filed  August 8, 1903 with the County Clerk of Jefferson County, Don stated that he could not make the final proof in time because between March and May 1902 he was confined to the Jefferson County Jail, “charged with unlawfully cutting State Land Timber” and therefore could not make his final proof before the county clerk. He further stated that he was eventually acquitted of the charge and released from jail.                

Don went on to file the final proof in late May 1902. But about a week later, the Land Office at Little Rock, Arkansas, indicated that his proof was not received in time, with the reason given that Don “was in prison at the time." and under "Duress.” The Land Office approved his application anyway, subject to confirmation by the Board “under Rule 33.” That approval was confirmed October 5, 1903.  

According to his witnesses’ affidavits, Don settled his land in March 1894 and took residency a couple of months later, in May. He had filed his affidavit on March 7, 1894, then made his formal application, No. 19986, and paid a $13 application fee on March 10, 1894.  Four of his neighbors, Henry J. McEachern, Milton Hill, John Harris, and David Rose, had also traveled from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia, settling in Jefferson County Arkansas during the Westward migration. McEachern and Hill would later witness on Don’s final proof. Another of the neighbors, David Rose (born around 1840 in Virginia) had already received his land patent in 1890.              

The land staked for their claim was timber land. The witnesses said Don had cultivated three to seven acres over seven seasons. He built two “box houses” and a stable, with the total value of the improvements about $100-$150 in 1902 dollars. He filed his proof of publication as required, in the Pine Bluff Graphic, a weekly newspaper. The published ads appeared for six weeks, beginning April 9, 1902.   

Don McCormick had been taught to read and write. Documents contained in his application file from the National Archives show his original signatures. The file also included a letter he wrote in his own hand to J. E. Bush, who in 1902 was the receiver at the Little Rock Land Office:

“Dexter Ark. 5/29/1902
Mr JE Bush Sir
Inclosed Please find [-?-] fee & commission
and I also send proof of Publication from The Editor of the Graphic
Please accept it and please Let me hear from again if possible
Please oblige.
Don McCormick
Dexter”

The Land Office obliged. Through hard work, a suspicious arrest, incarceration, and a court trial, Don and Minnie Lee McCormick got their land, the land patent confirmed in certificate no. 10455. The patent was granted October 23, 1903, then issued October 26, 1903 for 120 acres of land in Jefferson County, Arkansas. 

Patent Details - BLM GLO Records

Contributor: Susan Lasley

Susan Lasley is the great-granddaughter of Don and Minnie Lee McCormick, and the granddaughter of Amanda McCormick Lasley, who was one of Don and Minnie Lee’s three young children living on the land at the time the land patent was granted. Lasley is a writer and historian who grew up in Arkansas and now lives in New York.