Modena Francis “Frank” Woodcock, son of Henry
and Catherine (Simmons), was born November 2, 1830 in Sumner Co.
Tennessee. In 1848 the Woodcock family
moved west to Arkansas settling in Marion County. Henry purchased a farm on the Buffalo River
in Marion County in 1850 where he built a one-room log cabin. On September 29, 1858, Frank married Mary
“Polly” L. Dorcas Langston at Calico Rock, Arkansas. Frank and Polly’s first child, Atlas
Franklin, was born about 1860. He did
not live to adulthood. In late August
1860, Frank bought eighty acres of land on Piney Bayou in Izard Co.
Arkansas. They were living on the farm
along Piney Bayou when Frank joined the Confederate Army. On June 14, 1862, Frank swore an oath to the
Confederacy and enlisted in Captain Thos. Morton’s Company, Major Chas. H.
Clifford’s Battalion, Arkansas Mounted Infantry. His brothers William, Marcus, Andy, and Joel
also served with the unit, which later became Colonel Jas. R. Shaler’s Regiment
under command of General Jas. H. McBride of the Missouri State Guard. On July 30, 1862 the regiment was ordered to
be dismounted at Camp Bragg, Arkansas and became the 1st Regiment,
McBride’s Brigade, Arkansas Infantry.
While encamped near Pocahontas, Arkansas in October the regiment, by
then known as the 27th Arkansas Infantry, joined the 22nd
Arkansas and a Missouri unit in forming a brigade. Colonel Robert G. Shaver was put in command
of the brigade. The regiment marched
through northwest Arkansas recruiting along the way, and was later stationed
near Ft. Smith during the Battle of Prairie Grove. The regiment was not engaged in the battle
due to their lack of proper arms, but was in an artillery barrage at Dripping
Springs around Van Buren, Arkansas. In
January 1863 the regiment marched into Little Rock suffering “untold misery of
cold and wet as well as from hunger”.
Frank was in a hospital in Little Rock when on January 20th
he was released. He knew Polly was going
to have a second child, Martin Luther, and with dissatisfied feelings of the 27th
Arkansas, Frank went home to Izard County with his brothers, Andy and
Joel. Frank’s clothes had worn out
during his service and Polly made new ones from homespun while he was
home. Frank knew yankee men were looking
for him in the area and hid-out nearby.
After they found where he had been hiding they took him across the White
River where they were camped. That night
the yankee men began passing a bottle around, even to Frank. Frank did not believe in drinking alcohol,
and during the middle of the night, when the yankees were drunk, he departed
for home. Frank was crippled with
rheumatism and other ailments received from the long marches in the army. William, Andy, and Joel rejoined the
Confederate Army serving with Colonel John T. Coffee’s regiment of Missouri
cavalry in General Shelby’s “Iron Brigade”.
After the War Frank’s brothers, Smith, Nathan, and William had gone to
California and persuaded him to join them.
In 1874, Frank, Polly and the children rode Capt. Matthews’ freight
wagons to Independence, Missouri where they boarded a train to California. They lived near Visalia and Mussel Slough
Township for six years. On May 29, 1880,
Frank died of war injuries complicated by pneumonia. He was five feet, eight inches in height and
had dark hair. By now Polly was a widow
with seven children, Luther, Joel, Adeline, Callie, Monroe, Samantha and
Dena. Polly stayed one year after
Frank’s death, and then brought the family back to the farm at Pineville,
Arkansas. They rode an immigrant train
that went so slow over the Rocky Mountains That the children could jump off and
play in the snow. Modena F. Woodcock is
buried near Selma, California.
1.) Turnbo, Silas C. History
of the Twenty-Seventh Arkansas Confederate Infantry, edited by Desmond
Walls Allen, 1988-1993, pg. 67
2.) Arkansas Confederate Service
Record, Co.
H, 27th Arkansas Infantry (Confederate), Woodcock, Modena F.
3.) Berry, Earl, Pioneer Life and Pioneer Families of the Ozarks, pp. 138-144
4.) The Izard County Historian, Vol. 19, July, 1988, No.
3, Helen C. Lindley, Editor
5.) Woody, Travis, (Mrs. Howard Woody) Cimarron, Kansas, granddaughter of Martin Luther Woodcock
6.) Allen, Barbara J., of Batesville, Arkansas, descendant of Margaret Adeline Woodcock