Kidd Dickey came to Arkansas to buy land in 1853, bought a farm, and returned home in early 1854.  His sister Margaret, wife of William Oates, Sr., no doubt began to look forward to the Dickey's arrival.  Dickey was a native of North Carolina, and his wife Jannice (Jenny) Sinclair was a native of Ireland, had moved to Tennessee in 1833, settling first in Wayne's County and then Hardin County, taking with them their unmarried children, while their married children remained at Fayetteville and Savannah, Tennessee. 

Jenny's brother, Gregory, who was almost inseparable also decided to move to Pope County, Arkansas.  Gregory Sinclair also had a family who moved with him.  Gregory and Jenny were the children of Samuel and Rebecca Barrett Sinclair,  married in Scotland and emigrated to Cookstown, Country Tyrone, Ireland, where they were members of the Associate Church of Sandholes.  Their children were Samuel, John, Margaret, William, Gregory and Jennie.  They were by occupation: a veterinary surgeon, a thatcher, a farmer, weavers of linen.  Samuel was a lover of music and sang as he worked at the loom all day. 

Life was difficult in Ireland.  John cultivated the eight acres of potatoes and flax and prepared flax for spinning, the women helped.  They worked 18 hours a day, therefore deciding to move to America. 

After Rebecca and young Samuel died, they made their move.  On September 19, 1817, William and Gregory Sinclair sailed from Belfast on the English ship Elizabeth and arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, on Nov 1, a Rm. Hamilton, an old friend of their father, kept them four days and then they went on to Crowder's Creek west of Gastonia, North Carolina, to the home of their cousin John Blackwood.  Two years later they owned a farm and had saved enough money to send for the rest of their family.  In 1819, Samuel and his children John, Margaret, and Jennie arrived in Baltimore.  John walked to Gastonia, got a one-horse wagon, and returned to Baltimore for the family.  They had walked more than 200 miles, showing the ruggedness of the Sinclairs!  As they traveled from the site the ship brought them to their new home, they traveled over 300 miles, some walked most of the way, others alternated walking with riding in the one horse wagon that held their belongings.  They again moved in 1833 to Wayne County, Tennessee, in search of more and better land.  They had been members of the Associate Church in Ireland, and were faithful to their church as they came to their new land.

As the Sinclair family prepared to make the move, Gregory sold his farm, household goods, and other property.  Among the latter was Nancy, a slave, who had been a nurse to his young daughter Mary Ann (Molly). " It was hard indeed," stated Molly, "for me to give up Nancy as she ranked next to my mother with me."

The covered wagons carrying the Sinclairs and MacIntoshes left Wayne County on January 16, 1855. There were 17 in their group.  They traveled by way of Florence Alabama, where they took a boat down the Tennessee River to the Ohio, down that stream to the Mississippi, down that to the Napoleon, at the mouth of the Arkansas, that part of the trip taking about two weeks.  The party was delayed there by low water until March 19. It was slow travel and the captain was cautious. 

When the Sinclair group separated from the others to head on to Alexander Dickey's house William MacIntosh wrote that night, I have on my person six hundred and twenty four dollars in gold, forty dollars in paper and twenty four dollars in silver. The date was April 5, 1855. Before they reached their destination they had another heartbreak. "Just before we were ready to leave Lewisburg, our old 'black mother Rhine' died.  This was another heartbreaking scene with us.  After we had buried her near that place, we departed in the wagons," writes Mary Ann Sinclair Falls. 

Alexander Dickey was nominated in 1854 to be an elder in their church as their church was growing now. Dickey had already been ordained and merely needed to be installed as elder along with Oates, while Falls was ordained and installed at that time.  Along with other duties they were allowed to administer the Lord's Supper, Communion.  This is a hallowed and special occasion of which you must be truly at peace with the Lord in order to partake.  He remained an elder in the church and was in the church records in 1856 and 1861 as an elder in the church.

On the Sabbath the church would do no work,  otherwise of 'if your ox is in a ditch, you can take it out'.  Otherwise the day was spent in rest and with family.  The women did work as usual to feed their families and take care of the young.  The members organized their lives around the Sabbath days, to make preparation for it and looked forward to it.  On the Sabbaths families gathered together to eat and visit, there may be as many as 10 guests at the table on a Sabbath meal. 

During the civil war the Pisgah farms, prosperous at the start of the war and located in one of the county's most fertile sections, became prime targets for villains who swept down on the defenseless women, children and older men who were left.  They came to the Sinclair farm demanding gold.  They refused to believe that there was no more gold hidden and threatened to take a fire shovel, red hot and burn the soles of old Gregory Sinclair's feet.  When Nancy McElwee Oates refused to tell where their gold was, they carried out the threat. 

Melissa McElwee Oates, whose husband, Thomas, was serving in the confederate army, was left with at least 5 children to feed.  She buried provisions to keep the bushwhackers from finding them, but she also faced the visits of Federal troops seeking supplies.  One day, when they visited their farm, and officer found a bolt of woolen cloth Melissa had made.  He took the bundle and tied it to his saddle.  As he was about to ride away, Melissa confronted him and told the office, "I made this for clothes for my children."  She untied it and took it back.  The officer allowed her to keep it.  The Gregory Sinclair farm sat on the strategic military road and suffered incursions by both the military and looters.  One day, a squad of Federal troops confiscated all their horses and mules, told their slaves that they were free, and ordered a young slave named Jim to mount one of the mules and go with them.  They were robbed by night visitors 7 times.  During the first few visits they always found a bit of money but this soon gave out.  At one time, sisters Margaret and Molly hid $500.00 worth of gold in a glass jar.  This was also a total loss to them as they presumed that someone saw them bury it and took it. 

After the war, the church suffered by members being disorderly and having to be disciplined.  Apparently drinking became popular among some of the church members, although it was not said of which.  With the years of the war making it impossible for people to attend regularly, it was partly the cause of the breaking down of the church in that era.