Roxanna E. Cole
According to The Cabin.net:

    Roxanna McGee Cole was a colorful personality whose handmade dolls were once submitted to the Smithsonian
    Institution. Her life in Ripley during the Civil War is reflected in a letter now cherished as a family treasure and what a
    historian would call a "primary source." In a Nov. 2, 1862, letter she expresses her agony for her town. "First," she begins,
    "you must know that on the 28th of September, Van Dorn's and Price's armies met here, forming a junction to march on
    Corinth with the intention of driving the enemy from their stronghold. Their armies of some twenty-five or thirty-thousand lay
    encamped in and around Ripley for two days, sweeping everything that there was to eat that could be bought for love or
    money, cornfields and cribs, potato patches and gardens, meathouses and pantries."

    "They left many of their sick here in the hospital (Mrs. Sanford's house). On Sunday, nearly all day long the heavy boom of
    countless cannon reached our ears and aching hearts, keeping us in the most painful suspense and fearful certainty of our
    defeat. We were awakened at one o'clock with the heavy tread of cavalry and baggage wagons on their retreat. By
    morning, the town was full of soldiers, some wounded, all famished and begging for something to eat. Van Dorn made our
    house their headquarters and advised Papa to move us as there would probably be a stand made here."

    After several pages of poignant descriptions of the devastating wounds of soldiers and the destruction of private property
    suffered by many, she finalized her plight by saying, "Perhaps they mean to make an example of us by attempting to stamp
    out with booted heel and bayonet the fires of patriotism that burn so sturdily in this rebellious little town. But they will have
    to take Herod's plan and strangle the very children in the cradle first. That they are fast coming to."

W. D. Cole Sr. was a Civil War veteran of the Confederacy and was later the owner of Cole and Sons General Store in Conway
Arkansas.  In 1878, William D. Jr. and his parents, as well as his grandfather, William R., and his grandmother, Roxanna, moved
from Ripley, Miss., to the gold rush fields of Colorado. They all moved to Conway in 1880. William R. (Roxanna's husband) died
in 1891. In 1895, William D. Sr. (Roxanna's son) purchased the Simmons/Brewer home, and the remaining family resided there
until 1906, when their new home at 1703 Prince was built.

Roxanna died in 1907.

Robin H. Bailey, Roxanna's great-great-granddaughter,donated the dolls pictured above to the Little Rock museum.

References

Edwards, Linda. Cloth Dolls from Ancient to Modern. Schiffer Pub. Atglen:Pa. 1997.

Hogue, Vivian Lawson. Time Passages Cole/Allen house has a 'princely' history. The Cabin.net Log Cabin Democrat. August
20, 2000.

Rolf, Carol. Preserving the past Conway doll maker’s creations returned to Arkansas. Arkansas Online. May 17, 2007
'Baby' Cloth doll
Roxanna Cole (1825-1927)
c. 1890
H: 20"
Gift of Robin H. Bailey
From the Permanent Collection of
The Historic Arkansas Museum
Cloth doll
Roxanna Cole (1825-1907)
c. 1895
H: 21.5"
Gift of Robin H. Bailey
From the Permanent Collection of
The Historic Arkansas Museum