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

Interview done by: Sophia A. Baxter, 1-3-1940, Van Buren, Arkansas    

more information on this settler ...

 

Early Settlers Personal History

1. Miss Addie Garner
2. 1003 East Main St., Van Buren, Arkansas
3. --
4. Nurse
5. June 28, 1864
6. Italla [sic] (Attala) County, Mississippi
7. Not married
8. --
9. Lived in Arkansas since 1869. She came to Arkansas when six years of age.
10. Came from Italla [sic] (Attala) County to Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee, on a train, took a boat there and came to Ft. Smith by boat. As she came on her way she saw wild goats and game of all kinds. There were plenty of wild plenty of wild animals such as panthers, wildcats, bear and other wild animals. There were plenty of wild deer, turkey turkey [sic]. Miss Garner said as they traveled up the Arkansas river to Ft. Smith they saw in the bank of the river the legs of a Union soldier sticking out of the bank of the river. They knew it was a Union soldier because it was wrapped in a blue blanket. There had been a big battle fought near this place during the “War.”
11. Miss Garner came to Arkansas with her father who came to find a better county to live. Where he could get a better start.
12. The early homes in Arkansas, mostly were built of logs with chimneys built of clay and split wood and had puncheon floors.
13. They used waxed candles all together when Miss Garner came to Arkansas. Also cooked on fireplaces. Stoves were scarce in those days.
14. Electric lights were first used in 1899 or 1900, in Van Buren
15. Wood was the only fuel used in this part of the country at that time, later coal was very extensively used.
16. Wild game was plentiful in those days and quite a bit of it was used for food, such as wild deer, wild turkey and quail and other fowls. At one time when her father lived near where Dora Arkansas now is her brother killed a deer near their home.
17. At the time Miss Garner came to Arkansas they were buying most of the cloth while they lived in Mississippi her mother and sisters made all the cloth which their clothes were made of. They did some spinning and weaving after coming to Arkansas but not as much as cloth could be bought more easily than before.
18. Charivaries [sic] (charivaris more commonly referred to as shivarees) were frequent in Arkansas at that time.
19. About 71 they had to pay 50 cents a yard for calico but in later years it could be bought for 5 cents a yard. Other items were about the same in comparison.
20-21. --
22. Father made most all farm implements himself. Made all his plows and stocks. It was said he made the finest scraper used in that day. He (Jessie Garner) invented a cotton press which he had a patented right to.
23. Farming and mercantile business.
24. --
25. Miss Garner relates that she remembers a church back in Mississippi which her farther had planed the lumber by hand and built. All this was done by hand, even the windows' glass was put in by hand.
26-27. --
28. Boat landing at Van Buren, Fort Smith, Ozark, Little Rock, Helena. (on the Mississippi River) deer was seen hanging up waiting for a freight boat. All kinds of wild game and animals could be seen during the day. One time Miss Garner stayed all night at her sister Mrs. Willis Kelley and the family heard a panther scream like a women. Mr. Kelley decided that he would go and see who it was. He did not go far until he learned it was a panther and made his way back to the house. She and her niece and nephew went out walking around and came to a mountain and the niece wanted to go up on this mountain but Miss Garner would not go. Afterward her brother came to the Kelley home and told about how a panther had followed him across this mountain.
    When Miss. Garner's father first came to Arkansas some Indians came down from Oklahoma and picked cotton for them when they lived on the Lynch place. These Indians were Cherokee Indians. They lived in a tent until weather got so bad that one room of the home was given them to live in. Some of them were Aunt Betsy Miller who had a son named Martin Miller, this young man was about 18 years of age. He bought Miss Garner a nice pin.
     Stage coaches, boat and wagon were the only ways to travel in those days. Her father landed in Ft. Smith and in three weeks came to Van Buren, by boat. Settled on a farm near Dora, Arkansas. This land run right down near the river. One day her father was plowing and the mule would not go out to the end of the cotton row and when he plowed back to the other end of the field and then back to this place where the mule would not go, about an acre of land had gone into the river.
      The Wharf used to come up to where the rail road tracks are now laid at the foot of main street. The Brodie Hotel was on the right hand of the street near where the boat landing was.
      Miss Garner's brother, Will Garner went to school in the Broadway school the second year after they came to Arkansas which was in 1870. The school was a one story building consisting of two or three rooms. It was built of brick.
30-32. --
33. Miss Garner has a grammar (book) her brother used while in school at Broadway in 1870. “Pineose” [sic] (Pinneo's Grammar)
34. “The Van Buren Press” was the only newspaper published then in Van Buren. This paper and the Bible was about the only reading material in this home at that time. Mr. Dunham was the editor and printer of the Van Buren Press.
35. --
36. Horse cars were used in Memphis and in Fort Smith when Miss Garner came to Arkansas. She remembers riding on these cars when they landed in Fort Smith in 1869.
37. She saw her first automobile in Van Buren, owned by Mr. Lamey. It was built like a buggie [sic]. Early in 1900.
38. She saw her first train in 1869 when she came to Arkansas. She rode on a train from her home to Memphis Tennessee. Her home town was “West Station Mississippi.”
39 .She saw her first Aeroplane [sic] during the World War in 1918.
40-41. --
42. The year she was 13 years of age (1887) celebrated the completion of the Missouri Pacific Railroad to Fort Smith from Little Rock.
43. She remembers the James Boys noted Desperadoes, also Henry Star a noted bank robber.
44-46. --
47. Miss Garner has lived here when executions have taken place in Van Buren. She has been to religious services at the jail where there where some kept who was later executed.
48-51. --
52. A charter member of the First Baptist Church of Van Buren. Also a charter member of Eastern Star Lodge.
53-59. --
60. In 1875 the Missouri Pacific Rail Road was completed. They had a picnic down on Little Mulberry Creek near Alma and run an excursion that day from Fort Smith to Alma. She relates this was the first train that had been in this part of the country. 
 
Transcribed by Alyssa Metcalf, GHS Class of 2007