From the WPA Federal Writers Project - answers to Questionnaire - Arkansas HRS Form J
Interview done by Samuel M. Auslam, Huntsville, Madison County, Arkansas
more information on this settler ...
Early Settlers Personal History
1.   J. F. (Major) Keck.
2.   Witter, Arkansas.
3.   Retired.
4.   Farmer and Carpenter.
5.   I was born February 22nd, 1864.
6.   I was born at Witter, Arkansas, and I have lived there all my life.
7.   I was married to Jane Reeves in September 1864, at Witter, Arkansas.
9.   I am a Native.
10. I have lived in Arkansas 75 years.
11. Native.
12. Native.
13. All the early houses were built of logs, with puncheon floors, clapboard doors and wooden hinges on the doors and window shutters, we had no nails, but we used wooden pegs to fasten our door and window shutters together, our chimneys were all of stone.
14. Our lights were either pine torches or Grease lamps, I never saw a “Coal Oil Lamp” until I was nearly grown.
15. Electric lights were never used in our community, but I understand they are bringing them in now.  (He refers to Rural Electrification)
16. We always have and still do burn wood.
17. We used corn meal for bread, and for meat we used wild Hogs, Deer, Turkey and every once in a while we killed a Bear, game was very plentiful, why many a time I have run deer out of our garden, there was lots of Panther and Wild Cats, that killed our live stock, the Wolves were also bad, we would pen our young calves up in the chimney corner, and lots of times we would have to get up during the night and beat the Wolves off of them.
18. All our clothes were homespun, we raised wool, cotton, and flax for that purpose, we had our own Flax “Hackle” and Flax “Brake” we also made all of our own rope and shoes, we tanned Deer hides for shoes, also for sending to Springfield, Missouri to trade for groceries and supplies.
19. There was nothing uncommon about the courtships and marriages in our community, “Bundling” as you explain it to me, was not practiced, of course we had “Shivarees” no wedding was complete without them.
20. We had no stores when I was a boy, we had to send to Springfield, Missouri  for our supplies of course we raised the most in fact all of our food, I remember if my mother wanted a spool of thread, she had to send to Missouri after it, we traded deer hides and hams for what we needed, in Springfield, you could not sell shoulders or sides of meat at all if we had more of those then we needed, we gave them away to our neighbors, I remember Jackson Bollinger did not freighting from Witter to Springfield, he drove a team of fourteen oxen and It took him quite a while to make the trip, he was always loaded both ways, I do remember that when I was little older my mother begin sending for cilice to make the girls dresses and the boys Sunday shirts, she paid 2 cents a yard for it. Jackson Bollinger the freighter first had a “Tar Pole” wagon; I remember the old bucket of tar hanging on the coupling pole, when a wheel began to squeal, he would dump some tar on the axel, the axel was wood, later he got a Government wagon which was an iron axel wagon.
21. There was no case of common need that I remember, everybody had about the same opportunities and the same things.
22. We raised corn, some wheat, potatoes, flax and cotton, beans, peas, and nearly all the hard food stuffs, when I was a boy we did not eat tomatoes, for they were considered poison, but I never heard them called love apples.
23. Our plows were homemade “bull tongues” we used them for everything in the way of tending our crops later we had homemade turning plows, with sheet iron wings.
24. We had no industries in our communities.”
25.”We us any number of wild plants for food, poke salted, wild lettuces, crows foot, square weed, lambs quarter, bear grass, wild onions and garlic, wild artichokes, sassafras for tea, mullein for coughs and colds, sumac berries for dye, I don’t remember much about the food substitutes following the war, only that we used parched wheat for coffee, dug up old smoke house places and boiled the dirt to get salt, burned corn cobs to get the ashes for a baking soda substitute.”
26.” My impressions of the early days were that they were much better than now in our section of the country, seems like nature provided the most of our needs, of course we had house warming, and raisings, quilting bees, corn husking, brush arbor meetings that lasted a month sometimes, people came and camped out, we had our dances, game drives, hog killings, mostly wild hogs that we hunted down with guns and dogs, or sometimes just dogs, then we had our cider making where people would haul their apples to the cider mill, and every one had a good time.”
27.” We did not combat Forest Fires, we just “fired against them.”
28.” I do not remember how any of these hills, rivers, or valleys got their names.”
29.” I don’t remember anything about taverns I was raised in the country.”
30-31-32-33-34-“I went to my first school, a subscription school at Witter, Arkansas, in 1872, my first teacher was Fred Bollinger, the price we paid was $1.00 per month, some people might of paid in produce, but we paid in cash, we used Webster’s Blue Book Speller, and Rays arithmetic, and some kind of reader but I don’t remember the name of it.”
35. We had no reading matter in the early days except the Bible.
36. We have never had a telegraph station in our country.
37. We have never had any horse cars.
38. I saw my first automobile in 1912 at Witter, Arkansas.
39. I saw my first Train in 1872, at Fayetteville, Arkansas.
40. I saw my first Airplane at Huntsville, Arkansas, in 1929.
41. I don’t remember.
42. We did not have any early shows, except sometimes a sleight of hand performer would come through the country.
43. I don’t remember any.
44. I don’t recall any.
45. We had no Duels.
46. We had no feuds.
47. I don’t remember any of importance.
48. I don’t remember any except the bank of Huntsville, Arkansas in 1912.
49. I don’t remember anything about the war.
50. I don’t remember any.
51. I don’t remember anything about the carpetbaggers.
52. I don’t know anything about the Ku Klux Klan.
53. I helped establish the first Missionary Baptist Church at Witter.
54. None
55. I don’t know of any Indian mounds or cliff dwellings.
56. I don’t know of any.
57. I have 5 children, 15 grandchildren, and 80 great grandchildren.
58. Sidney Keck, Huntsville, Ark.;  Mary Morgan, Fort Smith, Ark.; Ella Burgess, Marble, Ark.; Levina Keck, Fort Smith, Ark.
59. Mary, Vegil, Earl, Morgan, Fort Smith, Ark, and Ellis and Floyd Burgess of Marble, Ark., Great Grandchildren the only one I remember the name is Little Burgess, Marble, Ark.”
60. None  

Transcribed by Cole Crippin, Class of 2012