From the WPA Federal Writers Project - answers to Questionnaire - Arkansas HRS Form J

Interview done by: Worker Pierce Bristow, Danville, Ark.; Yell Co., Ark. 3-31-41

more information on this settler ...  Spelling of name confirmed by 1920 Arkansas, Yell County, Bluffton Census

Early Settlers Personal History
1.   Joe Lofland
2.   Gravelly, Arkansas
3.   Retired Farmer     4.   Farming
5.   February 6, 1854  6.   Bluffton Arkansas
7.   Yes, Miss Tiffany Jane Crawley
8.   -- 9. Native 10. 87 Years 11. --
12.  --  13.   Houses built of logs, cracks "chinked and daubed" with mud mixed with grass. Chimneys built of "mud cats and sticks." "Mud cats" were blocks of mud and grass.
14. Grease pan with twisted rag, later tallow candles
15. 1939 16. Wood 17. Wild game, vegetables, wheat, corn, fish, wild fruits and berries.
      Game was plentiful, deer, turkey, squirrel, opossum, raccoon, wild hog.
18.  Home spun clothes made by hand in the home
19.  -- 20. -- 21. Went to Morrilton to buy corn for bread. Dug dirt from floor of "smoke house" and put in water, then strained the water and boiled it down to get salt.
22. Wheat, corn, vegetables, cattle, horses, dogs, goats, sheep
23. -- 24. Farming, trading, hauling
25. Poke, Sassafras, wild fruits or berries
26. Remembers being at meeting held under an arbor near the bank of Gafford's Creek, when the preacher (Rev. Lingo) fell backward into the creek.
27.  -- 28.  Bluffton, so named for the bluff nearby, Gravelly Hill so named for a hill of gravel near by.
29. -- 30. -- 31.   First school - a little log hut near the Bluff (now known as Bluffton) used split log benches
32. An early teacher was Mr. McCall
33. -- 34. Webster’s Blue Back speller and Webster’s dictionary
35. -- 36. None 37. -- 38. -- 39. -- 40. -- 41. --
42. -- 43. -- 44. No 45. -- 46. -- 47. -- 48. --
49. His father was killed in the yard of their home in 1865. His mother with five children went to Texas in an ox wagon, and on this trip they had only dried beef without bread. Federal soldiers pushed the boys off their horses and took them. The mother and children returned later in the year to Arkansas.
50. -- 51. -- 52. -- 53. -- 54. -- 55. -- 56. -- 57. Forty eight
8 children
29 grandchildren
11 Great grandchildren
58. One daughter
 Mrs.  Allie Swains, Gravelly Arkansas, others in Texas. Addresses not attained
59.  -- 60. --