July 18, 1810
In July 1810, James L. and Henry Fortenberry sat together as jurors in the Cape Girardeau Court of Common Pleas. James L. also heard a debt case against Ezekiel Able, the same man who had given him a title bond the year before.
1812
A typed index of Cape Girardeau County criminal files lists an 1812 territorial case against Henry Fortenberry for assault and battery on John Dunn. This Henry was possibly a son or relative of James Leath Fortenberry, but that is not yet confirmed.
August 29, 1825
On 29 August 1825 Jacob Fortenberry (Fortenbery) of Lawrence County, Arkansas Territory, bound himself to James L. Fortenberry for $1,000. The bond was void only if Jacob carried out “the last will and request” of James L.: that Jack and his wife Jenny, enslaved by James L., be given their freedom at the deaths of James L. and his wife Peggy, with Jacob standing as their security and never holding them in bondage. Henry Wayland and Samuel Crow witnessed. Wayland proved the bond in Lawrence County on 30 August 1837, and Circuit Clerk James S. Brown certified its recording (Book C [?], pages 18–19) on 29 March 1838. Although the family has long called it James Leath's will, the surviving document is this bond; no will has been found. This post combines the original post with the full transcription of the bond, the witness's proof, the clerk's certificate and the docket.
August 30, 1837
In August 1837, witness Henry Wayland swore that the 1825 bond for the freedom of Jack and Jenny was genuinely signed by Jacob Fortenberry. In March 1838 the Lawrence County clerk certified that it had been recorded. These certificates possibly followed the deaths of James L. and Peggy, but that is not yet confirmed.
December 18, 1851
In December 1851, Allen Jones accused Jacob Fortenberry of keeping eleven hogs that strayed after Jones bought them from Jacob's son Sevier. The court papers end with the grand jury's verdict, "not a True Bill," filed in April 1852, so Jacob was never charged.
December 26, 1862
In December 1862, O. R., Taylor and William M. Fortenberry of Lawrence County, Arkansas, swore to what Gen. Curtis's Federal army took from them: corn, horses, tools, whiskey, and enslaved people. Their claims totaled more than $5,800. One of the papers is a Confederate receipt showing Taylor sold corn and oats to the Southern army in 1863.
