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.
