Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Birth In Houston Is Told, Strong Ties Locally

Marjorie Myra Martingayle Evans Westmoreland was born January 13, 2000, in Houston, Texas, to Mr. and Mrs. David M. H. Westmoreland.

She is the granddaughter of Gayle and Marjory Martin Westmoreland and Dallas and Irma Hamby Evans of Houston. She is the great granddaughter of the late Samuel and Nora Westmoreland of Houston (formerly of Prescott), the late Wells and Myra Hamby of Prescott, the late Howard and Marjorie Evans of El Dorado and the late Vine and Ola Mae Martin of Houston.

Little Marjorie's ties to Nevada and Hempstead counties are strong.

Her paternal great great grandparents Jeremiah and Josephine Westmoreland settled near Prescott along Cale Road in the years immediately following the Civil War, where they raised a large family, many of whom left their mark on the city.

Bascom B. Westmoreland, a cousin to little Marjorie, built the Broadway Hotel, and her great great Uncles Arthur and Dwight Westmoreland owned and operated the Nevada County Hardware Store for many years.

Her maternal great great grandfather, Christopher C. Hamby, a onetime Arkansas state senator and lieutenant governor, lived and practiced law in Prescott from 1878 until 1921, and one of his sons, author and attorney Randolph P. Hamby, served the city as mayor from 1912-1948.

Marjorie is also the great great great great granddaughter of Hugh Armstrong Blevins, a Kentucky native who fought in the War of 1812 before coming to Hempstead County and settling the town of Blevins in about 1835. Her ancestors who fought with Arkansas regiments for the Confederacy during the Civil War include two great great great grandfathers, John H. Stephens and Elijah T. Wells, and great great great Uncles Armstead, John and Hugh A. Blevins Jr., all of Hempstead County.

Her great great grandfather, Jeremiah Westmoreland, and his father, Andrew Jackson Westmoreland, served the war effort by making guns for Confederate soldiers in Georgia.

Marjorie's great great grandmother, the late Irene Stephens Nesbitt, taught school in Blevins for 50 years, and her great grandmother, Myra R. Hamby, is remembered for her devotion to the preservation of local history and her many contributions to the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives at Washington.

Mrs. Hamby's interest in her own family history led to the salvage and eventual restoration of the John H. Stephens home now located at Old Washington Historic State Park.