Here let us remember that it required six weeks then to get the message to General Jackson and back to the surveyors. Mr. Stiles replied, "We will house and take care of your party until you hear." After a while the surveying party called Mr. Stiles and his associates together and read Gen. Jackson's reply. This original paper was in the Stiles family for some time. One of the sons of "Old Man" John Stiles, whom I knew personally, John Stiles, Jr. [photo], reported the wording of Jackson's reply about as follows: "Run that line where those white men show you to run it. They are the kind of men I want in my own country." This reply, I think, was characteristic of "Old Hickory".

If you will take the trouble to look at the western border line of the State of Arkansas you will find at a point north of Mena there is a direct variation to the northwest. That is the line that was diverted from its course by "Old Man" John Stiles and his associates, all of whom subsequently became pioneer settlers of Red River County.

James Clark, my grandfather, was born in Tennessee, the son of Benjamin Clark. He was educated in the University of Virginia[*], graduated at the age of 16, came to the territory of Arkansas with his father, Benjamin Clark, about 1814 and settled in what was afterwards Hempstead County. James Clark manufactured salt at the Salt Licks on Little River until about 1824. He had formerly organized a trading party to trade among the wild tribes of Indians and came into
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[* "James Clark, the founder of Clarksville did not attend the University of Virginia", James Clark VI, Clarksville, Texas. Personal communication July 12, 2004.]