Early Settlers Personal History

1.       Malinda A. Cubage

2.       Caddo Gap, Arkansas

3.       Genealogist  (Hobby)

4.       Postmistress, Teacher, Housewife

5.       October 19, 1854

6.       Clark County  --  Near Amity, Arkansas

7.       James Dodd Cubage, Caddo Gap, Arkansas, May 9, 1878

8.       Native

9.       All of my life

10.   None

11.   Native born

12.   My first home was located in Mount Ida, Arkansas.  The building was constructed in 1850, of lumber purchased at the local saw-mill and was planed by hand.  The chimney was built of brick and stone and is still standing on the old home site.

13.   Our first lights were wicks placed in a vessel of grease.  Then later came the tallow candles, which were poured at home in our own molds.  Many of my Saturday afternoons were spent molding candles.  I still have the old family molds.  Then came the oil lamps – One of the stores in Mt. Ida had received a few lamps.  My father, being eager to be among the first to try out new inventions purchased one of the lamps and brought it home.  He filled the bowl of the lamp with oil, set it in the hall and before lighting the wick had the entire family move into the yard for rear of explosion.

14.   Electric lights were first introduced into our community in 1921.  A little Delco was purchased by several individuals in the community.  I turned out my first electric bulb at a hotel in McAlester, Oklahoma

15.   Wood was used for fuel as no other fuel was available and wood was plentiful.

16.   Most of our meat supply came from squirrel and quail.  However, we did try to fatten a few hogs each year for meat and lard.  As our acreage was small and we only raised enough corn for our bread supply, we depended entirely upon the acorns to fatten the hogs.  When I was seven years old there happen to be a shortage of acorns in our community that year.  My father decided to take a herd of hogs to Point Cedar where acorns were plentiful.  A distance of 35 miles.  Several days and nights and nights were required to make the trip as we traveled on horseback.  Our first night was spent at Dale Springs as the guest of Judge Strawn.  While there I saw my first Sewing Machine.  It was the first one ever brought to Montgomery County.  Later at the death of Judge Strawn my father purchased the machine.  The next morning we journeyed on and reached Point Cedar on the third day of our journey.  We left our hogs there and returned home in about three months we returned to Point Cedar and drove the fattened hogs home.

Our first cook stove was bought just before the Civil War.  It was a queer looking stove the fire box being six inches below the upper part of the stove.

17.   Our clothing was all home spun.  The cotton was picked from the seed by hand.  Then carded, then to the spinning wheel, then to the loom all in our home.  There was usually a shoe-maker in the community who made the shoes for the family after the leather was prepared at our home.

18.   The Infare which consisted of supper at the Brides home.  Then several days feasting at the home of the Groom.  I served as “waiter” at four prominent weddings.

19.   Whiskey was sold at 25 cents a quart.  My grandfathers old account book dated 1835 registered accounts from Hollywood in Clark County to Oden in Montgomery County.

20.   People were more willing to share during the Civil War days.  I remember there was once a shortage of salt in our community.  My father hitched up his team and drove down into Saline County and brought back a supply of salt for the entire neighborhood.  On one occasion he made a trip to Star of the West and brought back woolen rolls for the community.

21.   Corn, cotton, wheat, and potatoes and garden vegetables.

22.   Mostly homemade plows and plow stocks.

23.   Chair making, loom making, reels and wheels.  My grandfather Jones was a cooper and lived seven miles east of Amity.  He manufactured everything that could be made of wood from wagons to bread spoons.  As early as 1859 he had his own workshop equipped with a turning lathe and all kind of wood working tools.  He made cedar buckets and pails.  Pails and water buckets were the same size, the water buckets having a bail and the pails having a handle made by the curving of one of the staves.  Some had brass hoops and some had iron.  They were much better buckets than can be bought today as he was a master at his trade.  He had a storage house over a small creek large enough to store a wagon load of his wares at one time.  The moisture from the creek kept the wares from drying out.  He also made churns and churn-dashes and rolling pins.  When he had made a wagon load of these wares he put them on his wagon and started out to trade them for meat, lard, corn or any farm produce as he was not a farmer.

24.   Dandelion, woolen britches, lambs quarter, for greens wild lettuce and thistle.  As my father was very progressive we had spinach many years before it was introduced as greens.

25.   No one ever hired a hog killed.  A fellow would tell his neighbor just what day he intended to kill hogs and they would all come in and help.  The same applied to house-raising and log-rollings etc.

26.   Sweeping trails, water pail fire brigade

27.   Smith and Colliers Creek named from old settlers who liv on same.  Caddo River from the Caddo Indians.  Caddo Gap from the Caddo Indians and the position of the mountains.

28.   The first Boarding House was operated at Mt. Ida, Arkansas by a Mrs. Garrett and her husband Sheriff J. B. Garrett who always kept the court.  Later a hotel was built by Captain Oliver Overstreet.

29.   The first school I attended was taught by a northern lady by the name of Lathrope.  She owned and played a melodeon.  She often made us wear a dunce cap.

30.   The school building was located one mile down the creek from Mount Ida.  Was constructed of logs.

31.   Lathrope

32.   Private school

33.   McGuffey's Reader and Blue Backed Speller

34.   Godey's Ladies Book, Gazette

35.   1907  Amity and Caddo Gap, Arkansas

36.   None

37.   1905 – Amity, Arkansas.  This car was purchased by my son-in-law, J. F. White at St. Louis World Fair and driven to Amity via:  Oden, Mt. Ida, and Caddo Gap.  This car only travel five or six miles an hour and it took several weeks to make the trip.

38.   Crossing of Cove Creek between Hot Springs and Magnet Cove in 1887.

39.   1920.

40.   None

41.   None

42.   None

43.   Nicholas Cabler was a delegate to the Arkansas Constitutional Convention.

44.   None

45.   None

46.   Grandfather Clingham Born ?886, Died 1881.  This cemetery was located on the old Arkadelphia Road.  This plot of ground is now in cultivation and the tomb stone dragged out and placed beside a tree.  Uncle Billie Browing a prominent citizen in Arkadelphia in his time was buried in the same cemetery.

47.   Bank robbery at Amity, Arkansas.  One morning a dead man was found sitting against a tree on Colliers Creek.  The only clue that could be found was a paper in the pocket of the corpse with Paris, Texas written on the back of it.  My father immediately wrote to the Postmaster and was informed that a man by the name of Andrew Jacks had left Paris with a company of three men.  His companions had murdered him taking his money and horse.  They were caught  in Missouri and hanged.

I witnessed the hangin of John Cox who had murdered his sister-in-law.  A very brutal murder.  Pieces of her hair and scalp were found over the yard where they had been dug out with a grubbing hoe.  This occurred about 1863.  Cox was tried by Civil Authorities and hanged where Norman is now located.  The same day Hugh P. Williams was caught and hanged by a mob.

48.   A complete story of Mrs. Cubage Civil War Days is attached

49.   See Attached sheet

50.   See Attached sheet

51.   Two young men who came from Georgia organized the Ku Klux Klan for the purpose of bringing us from under such drastic reconstruction Program which was really worse than the war.

52.   As far back as 1874 I have belonged to a Temperance Organization.  I have fought for temperance down through the years.  I was the head of a  branch of a Temperance Organization at Amity, Arkansas.  We united forces for prohibition until it was accomplished.

53.   None

54.   None

55.   None

56.   Eight (8) children, Nine (9) Grandchildren, Five (5) Five great grand children (4) living

57. John Granville Cubage, Oklahoma City, Okla.

  Mrs. Jessie White, Caddo Gap, Arkansas

  Mrs. Winnie Martocello, Dennison, Texas

  Mrs. Lois Kein, Four Oakes, N. C.

58. James Fred White, Grandson, Marshall, Ill

     James Fred White, Jr., Great grandson, Marshall, Ill.

 Russell Jobe, Donaldson, Arkansas

 Nesbit Jobe, Great grandson, Donaldson, Arkansas

 Paul White, Washington D. C.

 Francis White, Great granddaughter, Washington, D. C.

 Barbara Gene Skiller, Great Granddaughter, Hot Springs, Arkansas

59.   Newspaper articles published, “Memories of Montgomery County”, and “Civil War Days”