USA > Arkansas > Johnson County > Johnson County, Arkansas, the first hundred years > Part 5
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What is now the Iron Mountain, or Missouri Pacific Railway reached Lamar, building westward, in 1872, but even prior to this time Cabin Creek was a prosperous trading post. Cazort Brothers erected the first building and were the first merchants.
The railroad company created a depot at Cabin Creek, and Cazort Brothers being the largest lumbermen between Little Rock and Fort Smith, were the first agents in charge.
The town now has about seven hundred people. The town- site is much favored by nature, and the general street, business and residence arrangements are both sensible and admirable. The business section is located on the north side of the railroad, and the main business street extends a distance of more than three blocks.
Lamar is situated in the midst of one of the most fertile farming sections of the state. Depending on the season, it markets from 3,000 to 4,000 bales of cotton per annum, and farmers generally raise enough corn, oats, hay and all manner of home produce to support them in their crop-making. Lamar is also one of the best fruit and berry sections of Johnson county, and every season is the scene of considerable activity in shipping circles.
A beautiful new school building tops the hill south of this city, passed by the county highway. The structure stands re- splendent on the vantage, near, if not on, the place where, in the years before, Sterling May homesteaded. The old school build-
LAMAR HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING
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LAMAR
ing that burned a few years ago was immediately north of the town.
Among the citizens beginning back in the '70's were the Cazorts; Wm. Britton, with his store of general merchandise; Judge J. W. Robinson; G. E. Bennett, a newspaper man and story writer; Dr. Huddleston, who was for long years a prac- titioner in the science of medicine, and whose boyhood home was on Horsehead creek; Hons. J. S. Winningham and Pierce Winningham, two gentlemen who came to Lamar from Hardin County, Tennessee; the Blair family; the Mayes boys and their sister Ruth; the Klines, of whom Mrs. Eretta Butts of Pine Bluff is a daughter; the Simpsons have always lived there, and the Blakelys too; and the Wilson brothers, W. H. and W. L. who are of a representative citizenship. W. H. Wilson is a former school teacher and is a staunch Presbyterian, and was for a long time president of the Board of Trustees of The College of the Ozarks. W. L. Wilson established the Wilson Hardware Com- pany in 1911. These two gentlemen are native Kentuckians.
There were also, from the beginning of the town, the dis- tinguished Thompson families; John M. Jackson was a native born; Dr. T. E. Burgess a successful physician, and Mrs. M. Boback emigrated from Berlin in the nineties. She came to Lamar twenty-two years ago, and has since been connected with a fashion shop of millinery and accessories.
The Kitchen Hotel dates back three decades. Mrs. Kitchen was the mother of Walter, Minnie, Emma, Lorene and Mary. Emma, Mrs. Glover Weeks, is at this time the proprietress of that hotel, and her husband is a successful merchant.
Dr. John Bradley is a popular physician of the present cen- tury. The Garner family has for the past thirty years been prominent in the business and social circles of the town.
Lamar has electric lights, supplied by a connection with the Public Service Utility Company. A few of the homes have private waterworks. J. R. Cazort has a commodious and attrac- tive place in Lamar. W. A. and G. T. Cazort have beautiful country homes.
Some other names associated with the life of the city are Moore, Gray, Overbey, Paylor, Scroggin, Barger, Moreland, Cowan and Stewart.
KNOXVILLE
Situated eleven miles east of Clarksville on the Missouri Pacific railroad in the extreme southeastern part of the county is Knoxville station. While much of the most interesting part of the story of the county centers around the site of this little village, the trading post itself did not find existence until after the rail- road company built a depot in 1881. Prior to this, covering the period between the building of the road in '72 and '81, the place had been treated as a flag station. When a postoffice was es- tablished there it was known as Black Rock. There seemed no reason for such an unephonious name, and after a few years some of the more artistic and sentimental residents decided that it should be called Mayville. It will be remembered that else- where in this story is stated the fact that the old Thomas May homestead, grist mill, cotton gin, etc., were located there. Shortly following this change it developed that another postoffice in the slate was called Mayville. Again the leading men came to- gether to decide on a proper name for their home town and this time the appellation of Knoxville was chosen. Sentiment again was playing a part, for many of the citizens in that meeting were from the neighborhood of Knoxville, Tennessee.
Knoxville has a population of four hundred or more persons. The Baptists and Methodists have attractive church houses and the public school is of eight months duration each year. Knox- ville is situated in the foothills and is a good fruit section. It lies above the fertile and productive "Bend" along the river.
It was from Knoxville that the hack line used to connect the little village of Dublin across the river in Logan County with the railroad. And this line was not discontinued until some few years ago, when the railroad was extended from Paris to the new town of Scranton, within two miles of Dublin.
At its beginning Knoxville was principally made up, as other towns, of the people who lived in that immediate neighborhood. The first names associated with this place were Utleys, Jetts, Mahons, Hobbs, Higgs, Robinsons, Careys, and others. Knoxville is representative of perhaps a dozen business houscs. Dr. A. B. Carey was one of the first citizens. He prac-
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KNOXVILLE
ticed his profession there until his death in 1911, and after he died Mrs. Carey, who was formerly Miss Nannie B. King, con- tinued to carry on his drug business.
Dr. Joseph Stewart, whose home was formerly up Piney creek, was also for several years a practitioner there. W. M. Phillips became manager of the Knoxville mercantile business in 1910. Mr. Phillips had been a resident of Knoxville since 1888.
J. H. Brock was a magistrate of Knoxville. Dr. Riley Cowan established a drug store at this place in 1909, having previously practiced the profession in Fallsville.
W. S. Jett was also, before moving to Clarksville, a distin- guished citizen of Knoxville.
HARTMAN
Hartman, one of the most prosperous towns in the state, is located in the southwestern part of Johnson county, cleven miles west of Clarksville, the county seat, and fifty miles cast of Fort Smith, on the Iron Mountain railroad. It has a population of about 500 souls, and is surrounded and supported with a country tecming with agriculture, fruit, berry, stock and coal mining productions. One of the clements entering into the prosperity of the Hartman trade territory is the fact that among its popula- tion are many thrifty Germans, many of whom came directly from the Old Country to Hartman, and the fact that they have prospered the country is ample evidence that they are individual- ly prosperous. There is no more prosperous section of Johnson county, and certainly none more progressive, than that which in- cludes and radiates from Hartman.
There is marketed in Hartman from 3,000 to 4,000 bales of cotton annually, there being three gins in the town. There were shipped during this year's season more than 200 car loads of Elberta peaches, and several car loads of berries and other fruits -which were shipped North, East and West-200 car loads of cotton seed, 100 car loads of coal, 25 car loads of logs, and the merchandising tonnage is exceptionally large for a town the population of Hartman.
The coal mining industry is in its infancy, but as the quality is good and the quantity is known to be very extensive, we may hopefully expect much development along this line within the next few years in the Hartman trade territory. The nature of
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
the coal is that of anthracite-the Johnson county anthracite coal fields being the only one of its kind west of the state of Pennsyl- vania excepting those in Colorado.
Another industry that has of late been attracting a great deal of attention around Hartman is the fine quality and almost unlimited quantities of building stone. The United States government has shipped several hundred car loads of it to Pine Bluff for riff-raffing the Arkansas river, and the prospects along this line are very promising.
The Methodists, Baptists and Catholics all have homes for worship in Hartman, and there is a large two-story school build- ing, with an average attendance of 200 pupils. The school is well organized and is pronounced to be one of the best in John- son county.
Hartman has: One progressive bank, two drug stores, several large mercantile establishments, millinery and jewelry concerns, two livery stables, two hotels, a restaurant, tinshop, two blacksmith shops, one of which is equipped to do all kinds of machinery repairing, three modern cotton gins, grist mill, rural route and telephone facilities , three doctors and one regular cow-buyer.
As to the hospitality of the people I will quote from some of the most enlightened men and women in Western Arkansas, while recently attending a convention held here. They unani- mously voted "that Hartman was the best town they had ever held a convention in."
In the country around Hartman corn makes from 40 to 75 bushels per acre, and alfalfa does exceedingly well. Our people are all prosperous, and we cordially invite those seeking homes to come and share with us the results of a fertile soil and an cquable attractive mild climate.
Land can still be purchased cheap, but this condition will not hold good for many more years.
Very truly yours, J. A. CROOM.
J. A. Croom, the gentleman who penned the foregoing article in 1912, has passed away and by his death Hartman lost a genius. Mr. Croom was not one of those geniuses that the world hears about, nevertheless, his latent talents were of high order.
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HARTMAN
His originality in composition always brought a smile to the face of the reader. He was a correspondent from Hartman for one of the Clarksville papers for twenty-five years. He was always conservative in his opinions and unflinching in expression.
To mention Hartman to a citizen in this generation or the past one, one must needs think of Hon. Howard Holland who passed away recently at a ripe old age. He was one day an active, conscientious and able leader.
Another gentleman, and one whose name seems woven into the life of Hartman, is Esquire F. W. Oberste. He was born in Germany in '57 and came across the Atlantic in 1881, locat- ing at Hartman. He has acquired much land and has had great success. With his executive ability and his persua- sive and ready oratory, he became readily a leader. His energies are state wide. In 1907 he was elected president of the German- American Confederation of Catholic Societies in Arkansas, which is a state branch of the National organization, and which position he still held during the World War, thus giving him an oppor- tunity to, in reality, prove his allegence to his adopted country.
Louis J. Oberste was post master at Hartman during the year 1920 and was one of twenty postmasters awarded the distingu- ished Service Pin for the sales of Liberty Bonds, Savings Stamps and Government Securities, from the Sales Department of the Eighth Federal Reserve District. And in 1921 he stood first among several thousand including six states to sell a One- Thousand Dollar Certificate.
Joe M. Smreker is another German citizen of that town.
One of Hartman's first settlers was W. P. Wofford, having come there in 1886. Mr. Wofford was, in 1912, the manager of the Thompson & Collier Gin. This gin has come down through a channel of ownerships from, Cravens-Douthit, Johnston & Duothit, Johnston-Langford to Thompson & Collier. The landmark is now torn away and, the lumber from the frame work has been put into cottages.
Thompson and Collier, were for many years associated in a profitable mercantile business and also extensive farm lands.
Mr. Collier is one of Clarksville's well known Presbyterian and C. of O. supporters.
Mr. Thompson is his son-in-law and is an experienced and good business man.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
Langford-Rusk was the name of a former firm in Hart- man. James Collier is also a resident of the city.
Davis Douthit was on the scene when the railroad passed through Hartman, for he didn't move to the town, the town came to him. John Douthit is his son. The Allen family for many years have resided on the Allen homestead one mile east from the little city.
Dr. J. G. Love, is the gentleman who carries the "pill bags" around Hartman. He also has a drug store and is quite a popu-
lar gentleman. Ex-Sheriff Ewell Love was once his partner in the business but he later withdrew.
Mrs. Taylor for long years fed the transcient public good meals. Other familiar names in Hartman are Stevens, Jett, Spanke, Price, Plugge, Faucett, Bunch, Johnson, and Dr. Boyer.
COAL HILL
Coal Hill is the second largest town in the county. It is situated on the Missouri Pacific railroad not far from the south- western boundary. The first house in the town was built in December of 1876, by George Willford, who also owned the first store.
During the latter days of '76 or perhaps soon after the new year of '77, the Stewells began the operation of a coal mine. The railroad then put in a switch to accommodate the out-put from this slope. This accession to the road was called "Whalens Switch." A village sprang up at once-one that bid fair to be of great proportions.
Life and affairs in this bituminous coal mining section was not different from like villages in the mountains of California, Utah, Arizona or other western districts.
Facing the railroad on either side were store buildings, hotels and saloons. Gun-men and their colleagues are said to have soon made their appearance-the frontier type who wouldn't stay in a country where they couldn't wear a belt buckled around their waist line with cartridges for decoration. They were usually of the "hero" type, or as such, 'tis alleged, who often received a friendly compliment on their nerve and splendid physique. Many of these men were good at heart, but a few of them desperadoes. The latter however, could not continue for
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COAL HILL
long in a country inhabited with a peace loving and God-fearing people.
One of the first saloons at Whalen's Switch was owned by a man named Aaron Matthews.
After the coal mines had increased their output and a town had sprung up, the name of "Whalen's Switch" did not seem quite appropriate. And besides, Whalen had another switch elsewhere in the state and it caused more or less confusion, therefore those persons in control decided to change the name. Nothing suggested seemed more appropriate than Coal Hill.
The town now possessed a mushroom growth of some thousand people, and on January 8, 1880 it was incorporated.
Along the same street as in frontier days the stores are Jo- cated. Some of them are brick, some stone and there are still a number of the old frame buildings. The Citizens Bank of Coal Hill is in a modern building of brick on the street north of the. Railroad. There are a number of attractive residences in the town. The new brick school building with commodious rooms for all the grades and the high school has recently re- placed a frame building.
Many Coal operators have entered this field since the first slope was sunk. A detour in the railroad has reached out to Alix, another coal camp. The passenger train service has since been divided in accommodations between the two. While Coal Hill is still a mining town, it is not confined solely to that industry. It is a lucrative farming, fruit and berry section.
Names familiar with Coal Hill and the story of its life are, Coyle, Houston, J. K. Love, Frost, Bryant, Wm. Sams, Withers, Hills, Srygley, Oden, Kendorf, West, Rafter, Heidlebeck, Brown, Coats, Hunt, Porter, Flake, Eisem, Malone and King.
"Uncle Billy" Sams was proprietor of a hotel in Coal Hill for thirty years, beginning back in the 70's. Taylor Hill was also a hotel keeper in that city for twenty-five years following 1890. He was the father of Mrs. Will McCoy, Mrs. Will McCart and other children. He was a grandson of the pioneer Mark Hill, and a nephew of the distinguished Col. John F. Hill.
: F. G. Srygley came to Coal Hill from Alabama in 1885. Along with him came a colony of. a large number of families There were three Srygley brothers, F. G., F. W. and F. D. "The Srygley Bros." was the title of a firm in Coal Hill before F. G.
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
purchased the shares of his brothers and became associated with his brother-in-law. Then the firm was "Oden & Srygley." Mr. Srygley was for many years a leading business man of Coal Hill. His children were Leander, Edna, Dora, Della and Ethel.
SPADRA
Early in the present century a new Spadra sprang up. The Johnson County Coal Company, The Scranton Coal Company, the Eureka and the Clark-McWilliams mines were shafts that were sunk almost simultaneously during the first three or four years of this century. Naturally each or all of them drew from other coal fields a prorata of workers.
Three classes of persons wre soon on the ground: That class which is seeking a livlihood and is desirable; the typical dissatisfied type, and the transient miner.
The two earlier mines of the 70's shared with Coal Hill a brief period of frontier life, but neither of them entertained in such numbers the dissatisfied class. Whether it was because there were only two mines and therefore less attractive or whether that ele- ment was a later product, is not clear. But whatever the reason, the fact remains that when the major development of the Spadra field began, a new immigration appeared. True, many of them were desirable citizens, but also many were not. Drunken brawls and murders were not uncommon. Men mysteriously disappeared, criminals were difficult to find, and more difficult to convict. Some of the most desperate and notorious characters in the United States have been there. The sojourn of some of them was of brief duration while it pleased others to tarry awhile. And a few of them met their death while there. In a brawl one night five men shot each other and no one was left to tell the tale.
These mines have served their time with turmoil, strikes, tent colonies and law suits. But the inevitable swing of the pendulum will reach its point of limit and start back again. On the rebound, covering several years, comparitive quiet has reigned. But the Spadra of old and the Spadra of new are metiphors in comparison.
Spadra is but a series of coal camps almost without break from Spadra Creek six wiles west to Montana, a station created some fifteen years ago. Nor do the camps end there, for beyond
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SPADRA
Montana they extend into the corporate limits of the town of Hartman, and north to the Wire road along the foothills of the Ozarks.
On the east of Spadra Creek, in the Jamestown camp, there are two mines of considerable tonnage, and also, farther in the county, nearer Cabin Creek, are some smaller breakers.
OTHER VILLAGES AND POSTOFFICES
Harmony-is up Horsehead creek, in the settlement where Abraham Laster and twelve other families located in '33. It is on the bank of the creek on a rocky incline. There are several little stores, a cotton gin and a beautiful stone church. The descendants of those first settlers still dominate in numbers. Harmony is a progressive inland town.
Hagarville-is another of the old villages. It was formerly called Salem and is up Piney creek near the cliffs along the stream called "The Narrows." This little inland town is the home of one of the Baptist Mountain Academies.
Piney-located on the bank of Piney creek and the river, two miles from the east boundary where the Missouri Pacific railroad enters the county, is this little town, which serves as a trading post and outlet for the people who live up stream on the cast side of the creek.
Piney Creek is now crossed by ferry boat at Piney, the county bridge having been twice destroyed by cyclone, the latter time on the night of April 18, 1920, when a tornado swept Johnson, Franklin, Yell, Logan and Boone counties, destroying many homes, killing eighteen people and injuring many more. *
*This tornado entered the county from a southwesterly direction and continued this course for about a mile when it passed over Piney mountain. The first residence to suffer was that of Tom Whorton, whose house and barn were wrecked The family escaped injury but some of the live stock was crippled. After passing over Piney mountain the storm turned due north, sweep- ing down the public road striking next in its course the home of Charley Parker, completely destroying the home and all out buildings, injuring both Mr. Parker and his wife. Next in its course it swept the homes of John Moore, George Riley, Paul Riley and Jim Whorton, destroying their homes, barns and all out buildings, but the families in these homes escaped serious injury. At Bud Parker's the home was wrecked and the entire family more or less seriously injured. At this point the tornado again changed its course to a little east of north, sweeping everything in its path. The homes of Jim Buron and W. B. Drummond were destroyed completely. Mrs. Drummond and one child were injured.
The home of A. G. Blackard was the next toll taken by the storm where everything was completely wrecked, and Mr. Blackard, his wife and grown son
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY
POSTOFFICES
Places where post offices have been established, many of which not mentioned before, have two or three little stores, a blacksmith shop, etc.
Batson Dillon
Hartman Mount Levi
Catalpa
Fort Douglas
Knoxville Oark
Clarksville
Friley
Lamar Ozone
Coal Hill
Garber Linville
Piney
Dale
Hagarville
Lutherville Spadra
Devils Knob
Harmony
Montana
Yale
Zadock
Edna, Lone Pine and Hunt are three little villages without postoffice service at this time.
were injured, Mr. and Mrs. Blackard seriously so.
Tom Adams lost his home and his aged mother was seriously hurt. From this point the tornado passed over a bluff and across a twenty acre field where it, in its fury, seemed to gather and concentrate its entire force against the home of Charley Zachery, literally lifting the house in which were the father, mother and four children, from its foundation and hurling it against the trees in the yard and on the edge of the little hill, tearing it into thousands of pieces, finally landing the wreckage in a ravine about a hundred yards from its former foundation. The mother and two children were instantly killed, while the father and other two children were seriously injured, one of the children dying some eight or ten hours afterward.
The tornado was about a quarter of a mile in width, and in its main path swept everything before it, leaving nothing unmoved. After passing Mr. Zachery's place it continued about a mile when it struck another mountain. Here it seems to have lost its force, for no other damage was done.
Chapter II.
EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE FORMATION OF JOHNSON COUNTY
After the United States became an independent government Congress began to cast her eyes west ward over the great forest at her very door.
With Spain and France claiming stretches of this territory, the United States saw a vision of a future great nation and reasoned that she must negotiate for that acreage which, by value of location, should belong to her. And when the vast territory of Louisiana was purchased from France the little spot of which this story is written began to be an obscure possibility.
With this purchase in 1803 changes began, and followed in rapid succession. In March, 1804, Congress created two terri- tories of this domain. The portion which bordered on the gulf and extended to the present northern boundary of the state of Louisiana was called the Territory of Orleans, with New Or- leans as the capitol. The remainder of the purchase, which comprised the northern territory, was known as the District of Louisiana, the capitol of which was St. Louis.
In 1812, when the Territory of Orleans was admitted to the Union as a state, it was given the name of Louisiana, while the territory that had borne that name was changed to Missouri.
The following year, on December 31, 1813, the Legislature of the Missouri Territory formed two counties, Arkansas and Now Madrid, the former comprising our present state of Arkansas.
This county existed for five years when from the rapid growth of the country and the slow progress of travel it became necessary to centralize activities more, and Arkansas County was made a separate territory. The date of this change was March 2, 1819.
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