Early Settlers Personal History

     1.  J. L. Auslam

2.  Huntsville, Arkansas

3.  Retired

4.  Farmer – Merchant – Trader

5.  February 8^th, 1866

6.  Huntsville, Arkansas

7.  I was married to Laura Belle Stevens, February 7^th, 1891 at Rock House, Arkansas

9.  I am a native of the state.

10. I have lived in the state 73 years

11. Native

12. Native

13. The early house that I lived in was a square log house with a stick chimney.  I was born in that kind of a house, and have helped build several like it, there was plenty of stone in the section where I was born, but it was mostly round boulders and not suitable for building chimneys, so the settlers built stick chimneys.

14. The lights we used were grease lamps and tallow candles, if we went hunting or explored a cave, we used pine knot torches

15. The first electric lights I remember in this community was around 1912, it was a very small plant and the cost was so high and the service so poor that they did not last long.

16. We used wood for fuel in the early days, and it is still used in this section of the country, we have never found coal in any quantity, and gas has never reached this section.

17. The what was called the “every day victuals” consisted of corn bread, three times a day, with fat meat, sorghum molasses, and some kind of “salet” of course we had vegetables in season, but very few we depended on the woods to give us most of that kind of food, there was plenty of wild onions, wild garlic, wild artichokes, “poke salet”, Lambs Quarter, square weed, ladies slipper and such “greens” as this, we ate all of these boiled with a piece of fat meat, corn bread baked in a “skillet and lid” (Dutch Oven), and we made our own molasses.  There was plenty of fish and game, if we wanted fresh meat, we would go out and kill a Deer, Turkey, or a wild hog.  There was plenty of wild hogs in the woods where I was raised, so we never raised any hogs, in the fall of the year or along in the winter the neighbors would meet at a certain place with dogs and guns, and we would go out and get our meat supply, (that is our bacon and hams) for the winter and the following summer, in the summer the hogs got very poor, and very mean, they would fight anything that would try to bother them, and they usually won, I have seen them cut a dogs throat at one swipe just like it was cut with a knife, I have also seen them that were three years old that would not weight over 125 pound.  Occasionally someone would kill a bear, there was quite a number of black bear, in the country when I was a boy, they lived in the many caves in the Rock House country (10 miles north of Huntsville) and I have seen in those caves long after the bear were all gone their “wallows” in the mud on the floor of the cave.”

18. We wore homespun clothing that was handmade, we raised our own cotton and sheep for the wool and some mutton, but they were very scarce, and only the more well to do people had mutton, some of the settlers raised flax, but it was very hard to grow, so cotton took the place of it, our shoes were handmade most of them at home on wooden lasts, the wooden lasts were handmade each person having his own set of lasts, where whittled out by hand so as to be the shape of the foot as near as possible, the leather was home tanned from deer, cow, or hog hide, sometimes squirrel hide was used for the small children, but the children were not considered to need any shoes in most cases until they got large enough to start “Courting”, they went barefoot summer and winter.

19. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the early courtships in our community, of course “Shivarees” were practiced, and sometimes they were carried to the extent of riding a man on a rail or throwing him in the river if he did not “treat”, I remember one time when were “shivareeing” a fellow and he would not treat we started to duck him in the creek, he did not like the idea, and got out his gun and took several shots at us, of course we did not duck him in the creek.  Bundling was never practiced in our community unless in was on the quiet.

20. The food prices of the early days were much lower than now, also the clothing.  I remember that corn sold for 25 cents per bushel wheat at 50 cents oats at 10 cents, hogs were 3 to 5 cents per pound, cattle $1.50 per hundred.  Later on when we could buy shoes the price for a pretty good pair of shoes was $1.25, a good suit of clothes run from 6 to 8 dollars, calico for making women’s clothes was 3 and 4 cents per yard, of course we bought nothing fancy, in fact there was nothing fancy to be had in this section.

21. We did not have any cases of common need, but as to the sharing of food and other things with your neighbor, well if a man only  had one bushel of corn, and you needed it, he would give it to you, your word was your bond, and when a man borrowed money from you, you never thought of asking him for a note, if he did not have the money to pay you on the day set, he would be there before daylight to tell you why, and to set another date for payment, and you could bet that the next time he would pay.

22. The early cultivated crops were, Corn, Oats, Millett, and some wheat,  the animals were Horses, Mules, Cattle all of them of a very poor grade, very few hogs were raised, as there was plenty wild hogs, when tomatoes were called “Love Apples” I don’t remember however I know they grew wild all over our country, they were very small and of a poor quality, nothing would eat them.

23. The early farm implements were all homemade, the wood part or beam, was split out of a tree and hewn into shape with an ax, the iron parts were made by the local blacksmith, later on we could buy our iron parts, the “Bull Tongues” cost 40 cents, the points 25 to 35 cents, I saw one plow that was all wood it was called a “sweep” the point part looked like a half of barrel head.

24.  The only early industries we had in our community were saw mills, the section where I lived was covered with large pine forest, and at an early date the eastern companies discovered this and moved in mills, of course the first ones were very crude affairs, and had to be moved in by oxen and large homemade wagons.

25. We used all the wild plants the we knew for food, there was Wild Onions, Wild Garlic, Wild Artichokes, and all kinds of “Greens” that the early settlers knew by name and sight, then there was a Mullein we used for colds and coughs, Sassafras for a spring tea, it was supposed to thin the blood, Sumac berries was used for dye, Paw-Paws for food by those that liked them, then we had Spicewood that we used for tea, it made a very good tea substitute, in fact I like it yet, and it still grows in the Rock House country, of course we used parched corn and Wheat for a coffee substitute, until “Green Coffee” came on this we bought and roasted it ourselves, but it was only used on Sunday, this also applied to biscuits, when we got to where we could get a little wheat ground for flour, at the water mills, I don’t remember much about the days following the war, only that I heard my mother tell about the hardships and scarcity of food.

26. There was nothing out of the ordinary that happened in my life in the early days, my early impressions of the country I lived in was, that it was a beautiful land, almost like the land of Canaan as the Bible speaks of it flowing with milk and honey, for we did have plenty of both, the country was simply alive with wild bees, and any time we wanted honey we went out and cut a “bee tree” and they were always full of honey we never did “hive” the bees as they do to-day but simply let them find another tree.  There was all kinds of wild flowers the grew all over the hills, in fact the country was simply beautiful, of course we had our House Raisings, Log Rollings Quilting bees, Not much corn husking, our brush arbor meetings were called “Camp Meetings” people would come for miles around and “Camp Out” for a week at a time, there was “Preaching” from morning until night, and it seems to me that the people at that day and time really “got religion” that stayed with them for I know some that still have it and live it after 60 years.  We did not have the game drives, but we did have night hunts, for “Possums” and Coons also Timber wolves, I remember one time being followed about two miles by two wolves, and if I had not reached and old field in time I believe they would have got me, they always quit you when you reached an open space.

27. In our country we did not fight forest fires, in fact we burned the woods off every spring, it was understood by all the settlers that every spring the should go out and “Fire Around their Fields”, of course this started fires that burned the entire forest off, the forest was composed in most part of hardwood trees so they were not damaged, the idea was to keep the underbrush burned out so the wild grass could grow, as a result we did not have to start feeding our livestock until around the last of November they lived on the wild cured hay in the woods, we had very few house fires and when we did they burned so slow that we always put them out, sometimes the stick chimneys would catch fire when there was not enough mud between the sticks, we always just took a bucket of water and a gourd and dashed water on it until it was out.

28. I don’t remember much about how the rivers and hills and such got their names, except Rock House Creek, it is called that for the reason that at the head of this stream, there is a natural rock formation that looks like and could be used for a house, War Eagle River was named for an Osage Indian Chief of that name, that is what I have always heard, from the oldest settlers.

29. I don’t remember much about the early Hotels as I always lived in the country, I do remember the stage line from Ozark to Eureka Springs Ark.  One of the stations was at Withrow Springs, 5 miles north of Huntsville it was run by Samuel Withrow, I later lived at the place and operated a General Merchandise Store there.

30.-31.-32.-33.-34. The first school I attended was at a place called “Smyrna” close to Huntsville, it was a log house with split logs for seats this was in 1873, a fellow by the name of Coleman was the teacher, it was a subscription school, and if you did not have the money, you could pay the teacher in anything you might have, from “Possum hides” to “Pumpkins”, we used Webster’s Blue Back Speller, Rays Arithmetic, and McGuffey’s Reader, the writing was a copy set by the teacher.

35. The Almanac and the Bible was all the reading matter we had when I was a boy, later we got hold of a newspaper once in a while, we had to go 7 miles to the post office at a place called Winona Springs in Carroll County, The Madison County Democrat is the first Newspaper I remember.

36. We have never to my knowledge had a Telegraph Station in this community.

37. There has never been any street railway in this section.

38. I saw my first Automobile at Huntsville, Ark., in 1906.

39. I saw my first Train at a McAlester, Okla., in 1873.

40. I saw the first Airplane at Huntsville, Ark., in 1926.

41. Bus lines begin their operation in this section in 1912, the first ones were not at all successful, and soon played out, we had no good roads at the time, Albert Ingalls tried the first line from Huntsville to Fayetteville and later from Huntsville to Eureka Springs, both efforts were failures.

42. The early shows, were mostly minstrels, they came through the country in wagons, and showed at the school houses, if they could get permission if not at some private house, of course we had what was known as “Literarys” that was put on by local people.

43. The only really big celebration that I remember was when Grover Cleveland was elected President, everyone in this whole section of the country turned out for this the paraded, and “Shot Anvils”, (This was accomplished by pouring powder on one anvil and turning another upside down on the powder) and made a great to do over that.

44. I did not know any of those people personally.

45. No duels were ever fought in this country to my knowledge.

46. If there were any feuds I knew nothing of them.

47. I know of no peculiar tombstone inscriptions.

48. The only bank robbery that I recall was the First National Bank here, this happened in 1912.  We had a notorious horse thief that lived in this country by the name of John Denney, he was chased into a cave on Kings River 9 miles Northeast of Huntsville, back in this cave about 200 yards there is a river that runs through the cave, he had a boat in the cave and crossed on the other side of the river, and no one could go to him, he defied the officers for some time, but was finally prevailed upon to come out and surrender, this is one of the unexplored caves of the county, it is said to contain many tons of guano the most expensive of fertilizers, it is known as the “Denney Cave”.

49. I don’t remember much about the Civil War.

50. I don’t remember anything except what I heard.

51. I don’t remember

52. I know nothing about the old Ku Klux Klan as they did not operate in this section of the country.

53. I was a charter member of the I. O. O. F. Lodge when it was organized in Huntsville, Ark.

54. I was not old enough to be a soldier in the Civil War, but my people were with the South.

55. I know nothing about the Indians except they used to come back from the “Territory” to hunt, and the only caves I know about are the “Bear Caves” of the Rock House Country, and the Denney Cave.

56. I know of no historic sites in the country

57. The total number of my descendants are, 4 children, 15 grandchildren, and 4 great grandchildren.

58. The addresses of my children are, Stella Miller, Huntsville, Ark.; D. B. Auslam, Huntsville, Ark.; Samuel M. Auslam, Huntsville, Ark.; Eula Ledbetter deceased.

59. My Grandchildren are, James Leo Auslam, Huntsville, Ark.; Millicent Fritts, Huntsville, Ark.; Clifford Ledbetter, St. Louis Mo.; Cathelean Auslam, Huntsville, Ark.; Sammie Auslam, Huntsville, Ark.; David Auslam, Huntsville, Ark.; great grandchildren are, James Presley Auslam, Huntsville, Ark.; and Thomas Vernon Fritts, Huntsville, Ark.”

60. I have never written books or newspaper articles.

 

End of Essay

 

Transcribed by Dustin Roten, Class of 2012