02.14.2020 – Probate Judge Christy J. Anderson granted me permission to take a camera into the courthouse records room – when I asked for an explanation on the “no camera rule” by the guard at the metal detector at the door is that once you have been admitted to the courthouse you might be able to take pictures of folks connected with a trial and that is not allowed. I totally understand and agree with that potentially being a problem but am thankful they allowed me access to the records area which were located in the basement.

The important missing issue of February 5, 1903 photographed inside the Walker County Courthouse.

Was able to get a copy of one other missing date plus the critical 2/5/1903 Walker County Messenger and Shaw’s article featuring his account of arriving home to his mother after the war had ended. Hard to think of how you could end the story about a soldier who survived the Civil War without this account.

Arba F. Shaw’s marker is the third from the left, the marker just to its right is his wife Rebecca F. Johnson. The Leath family, which is his daughter’s family surrounds them.

Also visited Arba’s grave at Singleterry Cemetery for the first time and using 170+ year old maps from Walker County I am able to determine the approximate area of Arba’s acreage. The plat numbers tie-in with the original Cherokee Land Lottery’s of the 1830s and were still used to identify land parcel ownership in the 1880s.

Approximate location of Arba F. Shaw’s original Cooper Height’s homestead