USA > Arkansas > Johnson County > Johnson County, Arkansas, the first hundred years > Part 3
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and sometimes eggs were too. These large fireplaces were usually built vaulted at the top, with high mantles above. Bed- time for this folk was soon after dark. The light from the fire was often the only light for the room. When another light was needed, tallow, previously rendered, in which was inserted platted strips of cloth, was quite satisfactory. However, almost every woman had candle molds and made the real candles from tallow and beeswax. These pioneers of Johnson county and Arkansas at large, were living very much like the rest of the country. Candles were the only lights known in the United States until 1826, when for the first time kerosene was used for lighting pur- poses. For a long time that was looked upon as unsafe, and many years passed before it was universally used.
Matches were not a necessity, in fact the old oxymuriate and lucifer matches were not very satisfactory any way. Therefore since the phosphorus combinations were not discovered until 1834, these far inland settlers did not feel the need of them. But
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THE PIONEERS
snug away somewhere in the deep ashes of the fire-place were hidden some live coals. But if by chance the fire all went out, it was necessary sometimes to start a spark again by the use of flint, but more often some one hastened to a neighbor's house and "borrowed fire", and neighbors were not next door either in those days, they were often a mile or two apart.
Almost every piece of furniture in those houses was made at home. Tables, buckets, churns, churn-dashers, bedsteads, chairs, and brooms. The chairs were the old split bot- tom kind, which means that the seat of the chair was interwoven with splits rived from clear white oak. The brooms were made from broom corn grown at home. The dishes were almost always brought along from their former homes and were many times of beautiful design and English makes. Pewter dishes were given to children, for service.
The most comfortable possession of the house-wife was her wonderful feather bed, feathers taken off the geese of her own flock. They did not have bed springs, but often strands of rope were interwoven underneath the straw mattresses, which was sup- plemented by the feather bed. Her quilts or comfortables, were varicolored and beautifully hand pieced and neatly quilted. Her blankets were all wool and hand made. And the old counter- panes of that period were often of artistic designs, showing deftness and efficiency in thought and workmanship.
In the evenings by the light of the fire, while the husband smoked his pipe and resled from the day's work, or a hunt in the forest, the wife carded wool or cotton to make it ready to spin into thread. Or sometimes she knitted stockings or socks, for the woman must needs clothe her household. Before the wool or cotton was carded it had been thoroughly washed in soap and water. The soap was also a home product. It was made by filling a barrel with wood ashes, slightly tilting the barrel and pouring water onto the ashes. The lye which drained from the barrel was put into the wash pot with many meat skins and cracklings and boiled. When strained this made an excellent soap.
After the lint was carded the woman spun it into thread on a home-made spinning wheel. After the thread was hanked she dyed it if she wished colors. Into the woods she went and
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
gathered bark or roots or blossoms, and boiled each to itself or mixed them according to the shade desired. Some of the colors were quite satisfactory. For black she usually dyed with a strong walnut hull or walnut bark liquid. This also in a weaker solution made a beautiful brown. The chinquapin and the oaks made shades of brown; pine bark, purple; dandelion, yellow; indigo, blue; and certain varieties of grass, green. When the coloring was finished she wove the cloth on her loom, which was also made by hand and was probably the most complicated me- chanism of their possession. After the cloth had been woven and much wear had worn the garments beyond repair, again they were torn into strips and rolled into balls. These strips were then used as the warp crossed by a woof of home- woven thread and thus a "rag-carpet" was made. Every wom- an did not possess a carpet loom, but there was always one near enough for every woman to have a carpet woven if she cared to do so.
The farmers' cattle and hogs, branded with his private mark, were turned loose on the range. Every family also kept sheep, .for wool. Much of the wearing apparel was made of wool. He grew his own tobacco and sugar cane. All the varieties of fruit and vegetables were possible. One of the necessities that always follow a pioneering settlement were the tanneries, for the preparation of hides.
J. C. Harris operated a tannery on Little Spadra Creek two miles west of Clarksville, for a long number of years. The old shed with some paraphernalia connected with the manipulation of the tannery, stood by the side of the "Wire road" even into the eighties of the past century.
Thus these progenitors were the most independent people in the world. Not only were they the producers and consumers bu! manufacturers as well. There were very few articles they had to secure from the outside. Salt was probably of the most vital essential. Nails were a necessity. Peruvian bark was also much needed for the cure of inter-mittent fever. Coffee and rice were outside products. Sugar, oranges, lemons and spices were luxuries in which they sometimes indulged. To purchase these articles the settler took his cotton, corn, hides, beeswax or furs, or whatever wares he might have, to the trading points on the
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THE PIONEERS
river and sold them. Often however he sold his cotton to the ginner, who not only operated the cotton gin but was a cotton merchant as well. Two or three carding factories too, were soon operated in the county, thus eliminating the former hand process of batting the wool and cotton.
The foregoing kaleidoscopic review of the first settlers of this county is identically a counterpart of the early settlers of all other states. Many of these incomers had left homes of refine- ment and plenty, but the inconvenience of travel made it impos- sible to attempt the bringing along of only the necessities . But after the steam boats were past the experimental stage and the channel of the river was known more accurately, more steamers made trips periodically, and also in the years 1836-37 a highway was through the country between Little Rock and Ft. Smith. Stage lines were being operated in 1837, and Arkansas was now quite up to date for the whole of the United States was webbed by only stage lines and steam boats. The first locomotive was . operated over one short line of railroad in 1829. The first horse railroad in 1826-27. The years following this, especially the beginning of the forties, progress was more rapid. Not only did immigrants come daily, but many of them brought their negro slaves.
Abraham Clark was now doing a rushing business at his saw mill on Piney, for frame houses were often built. Many of them commodious, some of them two stories high. The old "Lee Place" at the Lee Spring, built by Cater Lee, and which is standing today, still the property of the Lee family, must have been, some eighty years ago, a pretentious home. The hand carved and beaded mantles, hand made moldings et cetera, attest the ambition and achievement of one of taste and culture. The old home of Samuel Adams on Piney, still standing, was a well finished house for its day. Many others have been torn away. They did not stand the test of time as well as the ones of logs, and besides there were many more log ones.
With the beginning of this period large fields were cleared, lands were drained and plantation life began in many quarters. The "Master and Missus in the big house" and the negroes in the cabins. Young Misses singing in the parlor, old auntie hum- ming in the kitchen, for the strains of Annie Laurie or Nellie Gray
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
were sounding from the mahogany melodeon, brought from back in Kentucky or Virginia. Or perchance it was a piano with four big legs and a flat top, made somewhere in France. There was also a Brussels carpet with large red roses, and tufted chairs covered with beautiful slick black hair-cloth. Brass andirons and candle sticks, even if the candles were made at home. The dining room and kitchen were sometimes in the yard back of the main house. In the dining room there was a side-board with some china and silverware about. And hid away in some compartment, was a demi-John or perchance it was no demi- John, but a real big jug of whisky of some sort.
These jugs were a part of almost every home, however humble. Practically every man took his "dram" each morn- ing. Why shouldn't he, his father did, and in fact it was prac- tically a universal habit. A Temperance Society had been or- ganized in Saratoga, New York as early as 1808, but the emi- grants to Johnson county probably had not heard about it. And . if they had it was given no credence, for such an organization was merely a fanaticism and they had never a fear that it would suc- ceed. They were not wrong either, so far as that generation was concerned, for a century passed before that infant society grew to proportions which overspread the whole Nation. Nor would those sturdy progenitors ever have dreamed, nor would they have understood the vernacular if they had, that at a future day some of their alien successors would grow so proficient as to bottle "moon-shine" and "boot-leg" it around to the "topers".
As early as 1836 little stores had been opened and a few nec ssities and fewer luxuries were kept in stock. Some gro- ceries, chinaware and farm implements were carried. Jeans, a goods for men's clothing, which clothing was made by hand, as were all garments in that age and the ages before, as for that matter, for Elias Howe, Jr., did not patent his first complete sewing machine until 1846. Linsey was an all wool, mill made dress goods. Cotton checks was a cheap cloth, but the calicos were varigated and beautiful. Every woman was delighted to possess a calico frock. There were some cashmeres. Silks and velvets were brought on in small quantities and used generally for trimmings. However there were some silk dresses especial- ly at weddings and other state occasions. There were no toilet
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THE PIONEERS
articles on sale in those stores, or elsewhere, for that matter. The belles of that age possessed a small jar or tin of home-ren- dered tallow for chapped hands and lips, and a store-bought box of "whitening" or "chalk" for their complexion. No respectable woman would have dared "paint" her cheeks. When she went out of the house, her face was protected snugly under a bonnet or a veil, and thick gloves covered her hands.
Johnson County, as all other new countries, was more or less a world of itself, so slight was the communication with the out- side. Few papers were received and letters were difficult to get. There were no envelopes and letters were often delivered by hand, weeks or months after they were written. Those people who were in direct touch with the stage line were slightly more for- tunate. Envelopes were not used in the United States until 1839. The mucilage on stamps did not always contain adhesive quality enough to hold them on. They were often lost off. It took twenty-five cents to bring a letter from Tennessee to Arkansas. But, Oh! how welcome was the occasion.
For a number of years after the statehood of Arkansas and the location of the county seat, Spadra was still the leading town. Many houses and huts constituted the river landing village, with a hotel standing two stories high, a commodious Inn, for that day. But all are gone now-no trace of a town east of the creek. Coal was discovered near the corner of Elijah Bettice Allston's house in the early forties. In 1844 a Frenchman whose name was Procta opened a mine and sent the coal on barges down the river. The coal was taken from a cropping on the east bank of the creek, thus forming a slope as it dipped back into the earth. It was known as the Spadra Creek Mines. The place where the original opening was made may still be found.
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CLARKSVILLE
Following the statehood of Arkansas in 1836, an election was held to select commissioners, whose duty it would be to de- cide upon a location for a county seat. The three men chosen were Abraham Laster, Elijah Bettice Alston and Lorenza N. Clark. The meetings to determine a location were held in the store of Mr. Alston at Spadra. Hon. James Cravens, whose farmı was four miles up Spadra Creek, where there were num- erous pure water springs and excellent well water possible, was ready and desirous to deed a plot some one-fourth mile square to the new town, in order to locate it on his property. Mr. Laster was the only one of the commissioners who was favor- able to the proposition of Mr. Cravens, for Mr. Alston knew that Spadra, the territoral county seat, and the largest town in the county, was the only place to consider, even though the water was paluted more or less by the underlying coal, while Mr. Clark would vote only for his home town, Morrison's Bluff.
After repeated efforts, and each man wisely saw that no decission would be reached, with their triangled opinions, Mr. Laster sought a solution by proposing to Mr. Clark, stating that should he, Mr. Clark, agree to vote for the Cravens' location, that he, Mr. Laster, would vote to name the town Clarksville. And thus it was settled.
Three other gentlemen were commissioned to plot and lay out the lots and also to sell them. £ Handed down by verbal record is a story of diverse opinions as to the exact spot. . We hear that Maj. John Ward was an ardent advocate for an East Hill location. Someone else thought the old Dunning place, west of Clarksville's cemetery should be favored, but Mr. Cravens wished to live in the town and did not wish to move to it. He gave the acreage and his location was finally accepted.
The surveyors were soon at work and a square of some one- fourth mile was blocked out with streets and alleys, etc-much out of proportion for present day needs. But no wonder, for the town was then but a field and a forest.
SAMUEL ADAMS HOME ON CABIN CREEK-1835-AS IT IS TODAY Once a sub-station for the old stage line.
Johnson Co. Court House before the War The small room At the right was the Sheriff's office. The one At the left was the clerk's office.
FROM A MEMORY DRAWING BY W. D. ALLNUTT
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CLARKSVILLE
The location was not entirely satisfactory to the majority of the people, for the general opinion was that one of the river towns should have been chosen.
Spadra, Morrison's Bluff and Pittsburg conceded nothing. They were growing and thriving, and several years passed before Clarksville was much more than a wide place in the road and a court house.
The new steam boats that began to ply the Arkansas in the late thirties gave much prestige to the river towns, and each hamlet gained confidence and was rapidly growing.
It was sometime immediately prior to the forties that Seth J. Howell built a Card Batting Factory at Pittsburg, and until today one chimney of that old factory is standing. Suffice it to say, that Mr. Howell at least had confidence in this town location.
No one feared the rivalry of Clarksville. But who could tell,-or who did tell-what the coming years would bring. Nor did Clarksville supersede her rival, Spadra, for a long time. And only when the Iron Mountain railroad came through Clarksville did it have more than a few hundred souls.
Following the location of the town, a year had passed and not one tree had been felled. Apprehension began to be felt even among the most sanguine, and it was decided that at once the Court House should be erected. Ere long, some mill in the county was busy sawing up the native timbers for a commodious building, for the time. Back a hundred yards south from the east and west highway, this lumber was hauled. The field was cleared off, some trees were cut down, and soon, in its embryo, a town was begun. With this nucleus in the center of a square, the custom of the day, little houses began to be built from the abundance of timber all about, north, east, south and west. "Dad" Smith was one of the first citizens. He built a little log store, back about fifty feet from the street on the identical location of the Palace Drug Store. Mr. Smith called this his grocery store, but soon its true colors were flaunted and it was given the appellation of "Dad" Smith's Saloon. But why not, everybody kept whiskey and almost every man sometimes went on a "spree". It was the fashion. Moreau Rose moved in from his place one mile west and built the first frame business house ever put up in the town. His residence was then built back of the store facing Main street. The
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
store was on the south corner of Main and Hullum (Fulton) streets.
The county officers then moved near the central building and thus, of slow growth, the little county seat struggled forward.
But the big two-story log hotel, which stood on the highest point overlooking the river at Spadra Bluff, was far more popular and lucrative than the new one Gabriel Payne had built on the north side of Main Street, a hundred yards or more west from the crossing of the creek. This was a two-story house tou, after the fashion of logs and mud. It was here that a station for the Little Rock-Springfield stage line was made. Coming up from Little Rock, which at that time was merely a village also, the next station east of Clarksville was Dover, and on the west there was one at Swaggerty's store on Horsehead Creek.
The blast of the horn announced the approach of the stage, and at its sound everybody was brought to attention. Much anticipation was speculated upon, as to the new arrivals and the news they might bring. Almost, but not quite the same as the old town criers of long ago.
In the year 1837, in an humble little home on the south side of Main Street, up from the creek two hundred yards, Hon. R. A. Rogers was born. Mr. Rogers is today a resident of Clarks- ville and is very feeble. His father, John Rogers, had a black- smith and repair shop across the street next to the Payne hotel, and on a lot that has been occupied by a shop of that nature to the present time.
Dr. Jesse Lothers and his son, Dr. John Lothers, had an office for their drugs, et cetera, on the east side of the square. Anthony Lewis built a saw mill on the south side where the Methodist church now stands, and Labon C. Howell put up a tannery down by the creek. Thomas Powers built a log resi- dence of some proportions on Main Street back one hundred feet on the two lots next west from the Dunlap block. This old house stood until five years ago.
Augustus M. Ward's first home in Clarksville was located next to the railroad, immediately east of J. H. Jamison's residence, and which would be designated today, should the street run out that far, as on Central Ave.
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CLARKSVILLE 1164686
The humble hut, built more than cighty years ago by An- thony Lewis, is perhaps the only one of the many of that date standing today. Now Mr. Lewis did not wish to be too close to the busy streets, so he chose a lot beyond the town limits. This old house, with an outside coat of lumber and an inside coat of paper, stands today, on Taylor street, otherwise unchanged.
In September of the present year when the old residence known as the Mears property, on West Sevier street, was torn away, a quaint little hut was uncovered. The old hand-hewn logs and the mud chinked walls and the little front door, caused one standing today in the midst of modern homes, to sense the feeling that a curtain had been lifted, therchy revealing some secret of the past. And the mental vision went farther still, for with that picture one could almost see the sturdy woodsman stoop to come out from the door, or perchance an Indian emerge with war-paint, feathers and a blanket.
Across the street from this place was another log house, a larger one, with a big fireplace between, and an upstairs too. But many, many more could be mentioned that still linger in the memory of some older persons, but they served their purpose and are gone-gone beyond the irresistible march of civilization, which destroys but to build again.
To hasten on, when the early fortics came, Dr. William Gray had moved to the town and occupied a residence which stood immediately south of the present Methodist church. Dr. McConnell also had moved from Pittsburg and built a two-story double log house on the southeast corner of Main and Cravens. These logs were cut from the forest of his back-door yard. The McConnell Drug Store was a lower room immediately on the cor- ner. One little office stood south of that on Cravens street and that was all. On the south of the square and the east corner of the block was Bradford's law office, then next west was the Bat- son property, and across Central avenue back from the corner west a few feet, was the little frame Methodist church built in 1844, while on the other corner Anthony Lewis was operating his saw mill. To the south on the west side of the square was George Scott's residence, and there were no other buildings between that and the Rose store on the other corner.
Down Main street, beginning west, Jarrett's Drug Store stood on the northwest corner of Main and Hullum (Fulton),
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
and across the street east to the west corner of the block north of the square, was the Jake Rogers Store (where Laser's store now stands). Next, a few feet away, was John F. Hill's tailor shop, then came "Dad" Smith's saloon, and across Central Ave. was the store of R. H. Brown, and next was "The Good Idea Saloon", then Powers Bros., and on the east corner, (the same as Hill's Drug Store) was Swigart's. Across Cravens, on the other corner, was Hershey's and farther down was Payne's Hotel and the Rogers shop. That was all, except just back of the Brown store was a little room. where the first printing press was installed, and a little jail was also standing with a high picket fence around it on the east side of the block on the south of the square. A bridge had also, by this time, been built across Spadra, by Olinver Basham and others. The old covered-over kind-long and dark. The piers built at that time are the ones used today.
James Woodson Bates was said to have been a Land Reg- ister in Clarksville in the early days.
The friendship which was said to have existed through life between Gen Thomas J. Churchill and Judge James Wilson, was begun also back in the thirties.
The Mexican War came on and the country was all astir. Two companies were organized in Johnson County and Col. William Gray was in command of them, and also one company from Pope county. Mrs. Polly Collins Swaggerty Ward, who is ninety-seven years old, is doubtless the only living person who saw those soldiers go on their way. She was Mrs. Swaggerty then, and a bride. The celebration prior to the march west- ward was held at the Swaggerty place on Horsehead Creek.
With the decade covering the life of the fifties came an un- equaled prosperity. Almost every family had slaves-faithful, affable servants. And they too had a life which is a story of itself. The optimism of their African blood, with the assurance that food was plentiful and a shelter was sure, made them happy too. Each negro "gal" was sure her "Missus" was the finest in the land. And the male members enjoyed a social bent all their own. And, as a whole, they were content. But the war came on-perhaps inevitable, sooner or later, and perhaps it is better so.
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CLARKSVILLE
But the life of the fifties can never be duplicated. There were carriages of state, and servants for every call. Parties grand were given and the youth did not know much of toil. Brick kilns were now stationed about Clarksville and a number of store buildings of this type were replacing the logs and lumber. Moreau Rose was again one of the first to initiate the new. But his store building of that day, on the corner of West Main and Hullum, was torn away in the eighties and the present one, occupied by the Mercantile Company, was built. Another was the John W. May store, now owned by Sam Laser. The old building of Col. John F. Hill is today occupied by Lewis & Williams. A. M. Ward erected a handsome home on the brow of the hill, now replaced by the College of the Ozarks, and Jacob Rogers another, the one remodeled and now occupied by R. S. Davis and family. The Presbyterian church on the south- east corner of Cherry and Cravens, is, in part, the one that was built in the fifties. The Methodist congregation had almost com- pleted one, which was burned during the war, that stood on the south side of the square next to Fulton Street. The same lot is covered today by a church of that denomination.
The Methodists and Presbyterians were represented in goodly numbers in the town, and over the county at large. They held regular meetings on regular days and Sunday School always on Sunday. There were no accessory organizations-no auxil- iaries. The minister had full sway, with the counsel of his lay- men . Women served in silence. But they were content, they asked no more. As late as 1873 a woman lecturer, a Presby- terian, gave an address in Clarksville and the county paper of the time criticized her severely.
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