Hard to Turn is a history of the Camp, Gabbert, Griffin, Huskey, and Webb families of Drew County, Arkansas, and eight associated families: Alexander, Dodson, George, Harris, Hawkins, Marshall, McCall and Stovall. The author, Judy Webb Hubbell, a descendent of these families, tells the story of the branches of her family in a historical setting. She begins each family's history in Europe, and traces their settlement routes to America, and their settlements along the Southern route of the American frontier, ultimately ending in Drew County, Arkansas. She utilizes many primary source documents such as census data, military service records, military bounty land records, marriage data, tax data, ships' passenger lists, personal correspondence, church histories and membership data, penitentiary records, the findings of other family historians, and the oral tradition of story-telling handed down through the generations. There is a detailed summary of the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia in which several of these families played a role. The American Revolutionary War and the Civil War also receive substantial discussion, and the roles family members played in these defining conflicts that created and shaped America. The author provides a "parent-to-child" chart, a useful tool, at the beginning of each chapter to enable readers to track each generation with greater ease. These thirteen families were English and Scots-Irish in origin, with the exception of the Gabbert family who were German. This book is a very readable and useful narrative, not only for the descendants of thirteen families discussed, but for descendants of other families as well. Unrelated pioneer families often pulled up stakes and traveled together. One family's history often provides information and clues for other genealogists. This is a "must have" book for anyone interested in genealogy, the founding of our nation, and the history of the southern United States. The author supplies a reference list at the end of the narrative.
About the Author: Judy Webb Hubbell is a native of the Green Hill community of Drew County, Arkansas. She received her education in the Monticello public schools, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello with a degree in English and a minor in history. She received a master's degree in English and a doctoral degree in educational leadership from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and worked for many years as a public school teacher and administrator, and served as an assistant professor of educational administration at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. At one time, Judy and her husband, Billy, owned and published a weekly newspaper. She is now retired and devotes her time to writing about history. She was the 2012 recipient of the Walter L. Brown Award for the Best Church History awarded by the Arkansas Historical Association for her history of the Old Florence Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Drew County, Arkansas. She recently had a journal article published entitled Drew County's Galvanized Yankees. She is currently working on a book, Confederate Veterans of Drew County, Arkansas, in which she catalogs the veterans, and provides a biographical sketch for each. A summary of CSA companies comprised mostly of men from Drew County, Arkansas is also provided. She now lives in Crossett, Arkansas with her husband, Billy J. Hubbell, a lawyer and an Arkansas District Court Judge. They have two children, Jennifer Hubbell Plunkett of Lindale, Texas, who is a registered nurse, and William "Griffin" Hubbell, serving in the United States Army, and stationed in Germany. Griffin Hubbell recently completed a one-year tour of duty in Afghanistan. Judy enjoys her four dogs and six cats. Billy and Judy own a forty-acre "hobby" farm on Long Prairie of Drew County, Arkansas. Judy's family were early pioneer settlers in Drew County.