In the year 1844 father sold out and in May started to move to the
state of Texas; crossed the Mississippi river at Green's old ferry,
came by the way of Jackson, Missouri, and traveled the old military
road made by the government troops in removing the Cherokee Indians
from the state of Alabama to their present location--only road leading
west--and in July of the same year (learning that it was very dangerous
for a man to take his family into the state of Texas on account of the
Indians), he concluded to locate in Fulton county, Arkansas, purchased
an improvement and located on what is known as Bennett's river, about
25 miles from where West Plains is now located. The family at that
time consisted of six persons, to-wit: father, mother and four sons,
the author then being in his fifteenth year; father, being a farmer
by occupation, went to work on the farm. The country at that time was
very sparsely settled. The settlements were confined to the creeks
and rivers, where were found plenty of water and springs. No place at
that time was thought worth settling unless it had a spring upon it.
The vegetation was luxuriant, the broom sedge and blue stem growing as
high as a man's head--and he upon an ordinary horse. The table lands,
which were thought at that time to be worthless, had very little timber
growing on them, but were not prairie. There were what were known as
post oak runners and other brush growing on the table lands, but the
grass turf was very heavy and in the spring of the year the grass would
soon cover the sprouts and the stranger would have taken all of the
table lands, except where it was interspersed with groves, to have
been prairie. The country settled up--some of the settlements being
15 miles apart--yet the early settlers thought nothing of neighboring
and assisting each other as neighbors for the distance of 15 miles. At
that time Fulton county contained all of the present territory that now
includes Baxter, Fulton and a part of Sharp counties; and but a short
time previous to the organization of Fulton, all of the territory that
now embraces Fulton, Baxter and Sharp; Izard belonged to Independence
county and Batesville was the county seat. My father located about five
miles from the state line.
Ozark county, in Missouri, joined Fulton county on the state line and
all of the territory that now comprises Ozark, Douglas and the west
half of Howell, belonged to Ozark county and Rockbridge, its county
seat, being located on Bryan's Fork of the North Fork, about 50 miles
from the state line. Oregon county contained all the territory that now
comprises Oregon, Shannon, and the east end of Howell; and a short time
previous all of the territory that now comprises Ripley, Oregon, Carter
and Shannon belonged to Ripley county; and all of the territory that
now comprises Texas, Dent, Wright and Crawford counties belonged to
Crawford county. The country at that time abounded in millions of deer,
turkeys, bears, wolves and small animals. I remember as my father was
moving west and after he had crossed White Water near what was known
as Bullinger's old mill, that we could see the deer feeding on the
hills in great herds like cattle, and wild turkeys were in abundance.
Wild meat was so plentiful that the settlers chiefly subsisted upon
the flesh of wild animals until they could grow some tame stock, such
as hogs and cattle. This country then was almost a "land of honey."
Bees abounded in great number and men hunted them for the profit they
derived from the beeswax. There was no such thing known as a bee moth.
Honeydew fell in such quantities as to completely kill the tops of
the grass where it was open. I have known young turkeys, after they
were large enough for use, to have their wings so gummed with honeydew
that they could not fly out of the way of a dog--have known lots of
them to be caught with dogs when they wanted to use them. There was no
question in regard to there being honey when you cut a bee tree, if
the hollow and space in the tree were sufficient and the bees had had
time to fill it. I have known bee trees being cut that had 8 and 10
feet of solid comb that was candied and grained. When my father first
located, beeswax, peltry and fur skins almost constituted the currency
of the country. I remember that a short time after my father located,
a gentleman came to my father's house and wanted to buy a horse and
offered to pay him in beeswax and peltry, and as I had been accustomed
to paper currency in the state of Illinois, I asked my father what
kind of money peltry was. He laughed and remarked, "Well son, it is
not money at all; it is deer skins." A man thought nothing of buying
a horse or a yoke of oxen, or to make any other common debt on the
promise of discharging the same in beeswax and peltry in one month's
time.
The immigration consisted mostly of farmers and mechanics. Among the
mechanics were coopers who would make large hogsheads for the purpose
of holding the honey after it was separated from the beeswax, and a
man then had his choice to use either candied honey or fresh honey. I
knew whole hogsheads that were full of candied honey. When men would
make a contract to deliver any amount or number of pounds of beeswax,
and within a given time, especially in the fall of the year, they would
either take a yoke of cattle or two horses and a wagon and with their
guns and camp equipage go out from the settlements into what was then
termed the "wilderness," and burn bee comb. In a short time the bees
would be working so strong to the bait that they could scarcely course
them. In the morning they would hunt deer, take off pelts until the
deer would lie down, then they would hunt bees and mark the trees until
the deer would get up to feed in the afternoon, when they would again
resume their hunt for deer. After they had found a sufficient number of
bee trees and marked them, the morning following they would go out and
kill nothing but large deer; case-skin them until they had a sufficient
number of hides to contain the honey that they expected to take from
the trees, take the hides to the camp, tie a knot in the fore legs of
the hide, take dressed buckskin and a big awl, roll the hide of the
neck in about three folds, run two rows of stitches, draw it tight,
then go to their wagons with ridgepole and hooks already prepared, knot
the hind legs of the skins, hang them over the hooks, take their tub,
a knife and spoon, proceed to the trees, stop their team a sufficient
distance from the tree to prevent the bees from stinging the animals,
cut the tree, take out the honey, place it in the tub, and when the
tub was filled carry it to the wagon where the hides were prepared,
empty their tubs into the deer skins, return again to another tree
and continue cutting until the hides were all filled with honey; then
they would return home, take the hides from the hooks on the ridge
pole on the wagon, hang them on hooks prepared for the purpose in the
smokehouse and then the men's work was done.
The labor of the women then commenced. They would proceed to separate
the honey from the beeswax, pouring the honey into hogsheads, kegs or
barrels prepared for it, and running the beeswax into cakes ready for
the market, while the men were stretching and drying the deerskins.
As soon as the deerskins were dried and the honey was separated from
the beeswax, they were ready for the market and took their place as
currency, while the flesh of the deer, sometimes, when bread was
scarce, took the place of both bread and meat, with a change, whenever
the appetite called for it, to turkey and other wild game.
At night they would hunt for fur animals, such as raccoon, fox and
mink, and stretch their hides; a first-class raccoon hide would sell
for 40 to 50 cents; fox, 25 and 30 cents; mink, from 65 to 75c. I have
often known the people to pay their taxes, when the collector came
around, with fur skins, such as raccoon and fox. The collector would
take the hides right at the house and give them a clear receipt for
their taxes, both state and county. I have seen collectors leading a
horse for the purpose of carrying his fur skins. I have seen the horse
completely covered with fur skins, so you could see no part of him but
his head and his hoofs and tail--one could not have told there was a
horse beneath the load unless he had known it.
The people then had many advantages that they are deprived of now, in
the way of wild meat, abundance of honey and fine range. A man could
raise all the stock in the way of horses and cattle that he could
possibly look after; the only expense was salting and caring for
them--didn't have to feed, winter nor summer, except the horses in use
and the cows used for milking purposes. While, on the other-hand, they
labored under a great many disadvantages, in the way of schools and
churches. During the residence of my father in the state of Illinois,
we had a very good common school system, and we had three months of
school every fall. My father being a farmer, sent me only the three
months' term in the fall. I had acquired a limited education before his
removal to Arkansas, yet he was interested in giving his children an
education. At that time there were no free schools, only subscription
schools; teachers generally were incompetent and employed through
favoritism, and not upon their qualifications to teach. In a year or
two after my father located, the settlement got together and located
a school-house site, took their teams, hauled round logs, built them
into walls, made a dirt floor, cut out a large window in the side,
split a tree and made a writing desk, split small trees, hewed them and
made benches for seats, cut a hole in one end of the house, erected
a wooden chimney, what was then known as a stick and clay chimney,
chinked and daubed the cracks, made a clapboard roof, hung the door
with wooden hinges, then the house was considered ready for the school
and had the name of teaching a three-months' subscription school; and
very often half of the pupils were better scholars than the teachers.
All they gained in their education was by attention to study. As the
country improved in population, the people improved in the erection of
school-houses and church-houses and constructed, in place of the round
log school-house and dirt floor, hewed log school-houses with puncheon
floors, stick and clay chimneys.
Those pioneer settlers took a great interest in each other's welfare,
and the different settlements met together from a distance of 15 to
40 miles and adopted rules and customs binding each other to aid and
assist in helping any person who met with any misfortune in the way
of sickness, death or other causes that might occur, and I must say
that there was more charity and real religion practiced among those
pioneer settlers, although many of them were looked upon as being
crude and unlettered. There was a great deal of sickness along the
streams, especially chills and fever. Immigrants came in, generally
in sufficient numbers to form a settlement; and I have known them,
very often, after they had located and opened out 10 to 15 acres and
put it in cultivation and broke the ground and planted their corn, for
the whole family to be taken down at one time with chills and fever,
not able even to help each other or administer to their wants. As soon
as the information reached the other settlements for a distance of 15
miles or more, the different settlements would set a day to meet at the
place with their horses, plows, hoes, wagons, etc.; also provisions,
such as bread-stuff and salt. On meeting, they would ascertain the
condition of the family or families and learn what they needed in the
way of provision, medicine, nursing, etc.; they would then and there
agree that the different settlements should divide up the time, set
the day for each one to furnish waiters to wait upon them in their
sickness, such medicine as they needed, provisions and everything that
was necessary to render comfort, and in the morning before breakfast
they would go out and kill a deer and as many turkeys as they needed,
dress them, prepare them for the cook, who had been brought with them,
go into the field after breakfast, plow and hoe the corn, clean out
the garden, leave the families in charge of nurses and return again
to their respective settlements. Those families, as soon as they were
well, not being acquainted with the customs and rules, would meet them
and inquire as to what amount they owed them for what they had done for
them during their sickness. They would be readily informed, "_Nothing._
You are not acquainted with our rules and customs. Now, we have
obligated and pledged ourselves together not to let any sick or other
disabled person suffer for the want of necessary attention, and the
only thing we require of you is, if any other person should move into
the country and locate, and should be taken down and confined through
sickness or any other cause, that you help in furnishing such aid and
necessaries as they may need until they are able to again take care of
themselves." Now, I have just remarked that there was more real charity
and religion practiced among pioneers than there is in the present
day. The people then all appeared to be interested in bettering the
condition of society.
As soon as it was possible, the different settlements erected
church-houses built of hewed timber, floored with puncheons, hewed
seats, size of house generally from 18 by 20 to 22 by 25 feet, chinked
and daubed. The churches or denominations then were Baptists and
Methodists. There didn't appear to be any antagonism or hatred existing
between the denominations; the doors were thrown wide open for any
minister that might travel through and they all turned out, and you
heard nothing said then in regard to "my church" or "your church."
They appeared to recognize the fact that it was the Lord's church and
that they were the Lord's people. In going to church, sometimes from
1 to 10 miles, they would see flocks of turkeys and herds of wild
deer, both going and coming. As soon as the crops were laid by, they
would agree among the different settlements as to where a camp-meeting
should be held; they would then erect camps or huts, make boards to
cover them, erect an arbor, fill the center of it with straw, and to
the distance of 25 to 35 miles they would all turn out, irrespective
of denomination, and all appeared to enjoy themselves, and the love of
Christ appeared to dwell in each heart, and they appeared to be proud
of the privilege of meeting each other and worshiping together. If
any member belonging to either of the denominations defrauded, or in
any way wronged his brother, he was at once waited upon and requested
to make reparation to his brother and acknowledge to his brother and
to the church, or he was withdrawn from or turned out of the church.
The immigration was chiefly from the Middle States, some from the
Southern States and very few from the Northeastern States. They were
frugal, energetic, honest, intelligent and industrious. As the country
increased in population, the facilities of both schools and churches
improved.
The customs and habits were entirely different from those existing now;
the wearing apparel was entirely home-made; they would raise their
cotton, pick it out with their fingers or a hand gin, women would
spin their warp, spin their filling, get their different colors from
different barks for men's wear; the women used indigo and copperas for
the main colors in manufacturing the cloth for dresses, wound their
stripes on a stick and then wove it into cloth; you could scarcely
visit a house but what you would see a loom, big spinning-wheel and
little wheel; sometimes you would see three or four wheels at one
house. They made both their every day and Sunday wear; the women
appeared to take great pride in seeing who could weave the nicest piece
of cloth, make it into a dress, make cloth and make it into what was
known as Virginia bonnets, and the men tanned their own leather, made
shoes for the whole family. When the women were dressed completely in
their homespun they appeared to enjoy themselves, in church, in company
or any other gathering, and felt just as independent and proud as the
king upon his throne; they appeared to meet each other and greet each
other and all appeared to realize the fact that they were human and
they had but one superior and that was God. The women spun the warp,
spun the wool, wove it into cloth, procured the different barks from
the woods and dyed it, the general color being brown, made it with
their own hands into coats, pants, undershirts; made overshirts out
of homespun cotton and the whole suit was home-made, and very often a
cap, made either of the raccoon or a fox, was worn on the head. When
men met each other at any public gathering they appeared to be proud
of meeting each other; appeared to realize the fact that they were all
American citizens and human, bound together by the ties of love and
affection, and the highest ambition appeared to be to make each other
happy and help one another in time of need.
I don't believe there was as much dissipation by partaking of
intoxicants, or other wickedness, as exists to-day among the same
number of persons. It is true that then any man who was able to
purchase a little still and had a spring could erect his own still
house and make his own whiskey without paying any tax or duty upon the
same, and anyone of his neighbors who wanted a gallon of whiskey could
carry a bushel of corn to the still-house and get a gallon of whiskey
in exchange for it. And if men became drunk on the whiskey it did not
appear to make them wild and crazy as the whiskey of to-day does.
Men then, as well as now, would have disagreements and fall out
and fight, but the custom that prevailed among that class would
not tolerate nor allow a man to use weapons, and if two men had a
disagreement, one of them being a large, stout man physically, the
other being a small man, not equal in strength--if they were together
in a public place and the large one would challenge the weaker to
fight him, before he could hardly open his mouth, some man present who
considered himself to be his equal in physical strength, would just say
to him "now then, if you want to fight, that man is not your equal,
but I am; get your second and walk out and I will do the fighting for
this other man." I have, on different occasions, seen the large man who
was challenging the weaker for a fight reply to the challenge and say,
"My friend, I have nothing against you; this other man hasn't treated
me right," or set out some other reason that he ought to whip him; the
man in reply would say, "I don't want to hear another word from you
in regard to wanting to fight this other man, and if I do you have got
me to fight." Very often I have seen the man shut his mouth and turn
away and say nothing more. On the other hand, I have heard a man say to
another, "If you want to fight, I am your man; the other man is unable
to fight you," and in an instant the other would reply. "Well, sir,
I am your man; just as leave fight you as anybody else." They would
select their seconds, take a drink of whiskey together, enter into
an agreement that whenever the seconds said either one was whipped,
that they were to abide by it, unless they found out before their
seconds did that they were whipped, and if so, they would manifest it
by holloing "enough," when the other person was to stop at once and
inflict no more injury. I have often seen them fight until they were
both as bloody as butchers and in the end the seconds would have to
hollo for one or the other. As soon as they were separated they would
go to the same pool or place where there was water and wash themselves,
and walk arm-in-arm, laughing and talking and drinking together and
remark, "We are now fast friends and we have settled the matter as to
which was the best man." And if a man would produce a weapon on either
side his own friends would turn against him and he would be forced to
put it up at once. Men then appeared to be governed by that higher
inspiration, that a man should not use anything that would permanently
disable or take the life of his fellow-man; but if one man became
pregnant with fight or desire to maim his fellow-man, in order that
he should not be disappointed, some man would readily volunteer, who
believed that he was his equal physically, and deliver him of all his
fighting propensities.