�1997
This is the story of a brave woman who cared more for her family's life than her own. A story her descendant's will never let die!
During the years of the Civil War there were many band of bushwhackers (guerrillas) who roamed the countryside looking for victims to rob and pillage. When they found a likely victim, they changed uniform to what they considered was friendly to the victim. Often they knew the victim, so more often than not, they left no survivors to identify them. Commonly blamed on the starving Confederates. History tells us however, that both sides of the war had these types of gangsters. Many were deserters.
This story of the death of Nancy Anderson Cypert, (Wife of John William Anderson Sr. b. 1779 NC) was told by John William to Dorthy Lear Evelyn (Tetrs) Cypert, Yarbrough, his daughter-in- law, as they sat in the yard under a hugh cottonwood tree at thier ranch home on B. Ave. in the Uma Valley of Arizona in the summer of 1925, before her first son was born. Charles Vernon David Cypert b. Dec. 26, 1925.
John William Cypert, (The story teller.) was born 19 July, 1858 and died 12 Jan., 1937. He was the son of Newton Anderson Cypert and Nancy (Cooper) Cypert. He was born , at Mountain Home, Baxter Co., Arkansas. His mother died March 4, 1860, when he was 2 years old. She is buried in Timbo, Stone Co., AR., in the Blue Mountain Cemetery.
At the time of his mother's death March 4, 1860 he went to live with his grandfather and grandmother, John and Nancy Anderson Cypert. They lived in Searcy Co., near Marshall, AR
It was two years later when he was barely four years old that he witnessed the death of his grandmother, Nancy Anderson, Cypert, while he lay hidden in a manger, in a barn or nearby shed.
Nancy Anderson, Cypert was killed in Searcy Co., Arkansas during the Civil War in 1862. She was killed by men wearing the uniform of the Union Soldiers. They may have been soldiers, but likely were not. There were, "bushwhackers", or so the people were called, who prayed on the helpless and innocent. They were neither the Union or the Confederate soldiers, but outlaws who took advantage of the situation of war. They plundered and killed and robbed for their own benefit.
Food was very scarce in this southern community at that time. These men usually put on grey uniform in the Confederate territory, and blue uniforms while in the Union territory, to fool their own people. It didn't matter to them. They were not serving any cause. It was anything for thier own purpose.
Anyway-- My children's grandfather was about four years old. He was being taken care of by his grandmother, Nancy Anderson, Cypert, after his mother's death.
When his grandmother saw the "bushwhackers" coming, she told him to run and hide in the manger, or shed. It might have been an empty barn and not too far away, but far enough. He said, "he run and hid".
John William saw them torture his grandmother by pulling out her fingernails with bullet molds. They did this to make her tell where her money was hidden, or perhaps to get information. Her son John William Cypert, (An uncle of this John William telling the story.) was a Captain in J. T. Coffee's Confederate Regiment.
So when they had tortured her, then killed her, They robbed the house of all the food and things that they could use. Then they burned the house down with Nancy Anderson, Cypert inside.
There was no men from the family home at the time this happened. Perhaps they were in search of food, or were working some where away from home, at least those that hadn't gone to war.
The good father above saved the barn, and the frightened child inside, watching from his hiding place.
John William Cypert may not have been alone when this happened, but he did not mention any other children, or adults, when he told me this story. Also, the barn must have been empty of stock, and food for stock, as they didn't burn the barn.
My father-in-law, John William Cypert, told me this story. I believe the story he told me to be true, knowing my father-in- law as I did. I will stand by this story!
His faded blue eyes grew misty with tears, as he related to me, the story, by memory, from out of long ago. How a small boy, of about four, watched in horror and trembling with fear, as they tortured and killed the only "mother" he had ever known. His voice then rose in anger as he mentioned the "Boys in Blue" and he had little respect for the "Northern Gentlemen". What he called them that day I cannot repeat, but could I blame him? Great hatreds are born and bred, and last a lifetime in such instances.
He was a true Southern Democrate, Baptist and Mason. He died as he lived, fearless to the last. He had great respect for his grandmother, Nancy Anderson, Cypert. In fact she must have truely been well loved and respected by all the family, for she had many namesakes throughout the family.
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