Early Settlers Personal History

1.  Henry L. Thompson

2.  Huntsville, Arkansas

3.  Retired

4.  Farmer and Teacher

5.  I was born at Durham, Washington County, Ark., March 6th, 1863.

6.  ----

7.  I was married to Ida Ruth Thornton, at Huntsville, Ark., on July 15th, 1883.

9.   Native

10. I have resided in Arkansas 76 years, in Madison County 73 years

11. Native

12. Native

13. The majority of the houses were constructed of logs, with stone chimneys, I don't remember of seeing but one stick and mud chimney, I guess I was a little more fortunate than most of the boys of my time in so far as a house was concerned, my father hauled the lumber and brick from Fayetteville, Ark., and built a frame house with a brick chimney, and this house still stands.

14. When I was small we used tallow dips poured at home for lighting, later we got “Coal Oil” lamps, but oil was very high so we did not use them only on special occasions, that is when we had company or gave a party.

15. The first electric lights that I remember seeing in this country, was in 1911 or 1912, the plant was started by Hargis and Ledbetter, it was a very small plant and was always breaking down, but it was considered, and was, quite an improvement in this town (Huntsville, Ark.).

16. Wood was the only fuel we knew, and it was still used in this country.

17. Plain foods was the only kind we knew, such as corn bread pork, beef sometimes, sorghum molasses, potatoes and beans, hominy, and lots of honey, I cant remember ever going to the table when I was a boy, but what there was always honey at every meal, there was lots of wild bees, and if you did not keep bees, all you had to do was to go out and cut a “Bee Tree”, they were not hard to find, you would take a piece of honey comb, carry it out to the edge of the clearing, lay it on a stump then set it on fire, pretty soon hundreds of bees would swarm around the burning comb, then you blew out the blaze, and the bees would light and investigate, all you had do do was to watch which way the most of them went and returned, and you could locate the tree in no time. Game was very plentiful, but was not wholly depended upon for the meat supply, there was plenty of deer, turkey, possum, coon and squirrels, also lots of quail and pheasants.

18. We wore homemade clothes, made from homegrown material and hand woven, I was 21 years old before I owned a suit of “store clothes”, we also made or tanned our own leather, made our own straw and wool hats.

19. Where was nothing out of the ordinary in connection with the early courtships and marriages, bundling was not practiced in this locality, but “Shivarees” were always in order following a wedding, and are still practiced here. I have helped ride a many a man on a rail, and in some cases if he was stubborn we dumped him in the creek, when he refused to treat.

20. Food prices were much cheaper then than now, as to clothing it was higher, I bought corn for 10 cents per bushel, wheat for 40 and 50 cents per bushel, hogs was 3 cents per pound on foot, milk cows, good ones $20.00 each, ordinary ones 10 and 15 dollars each, beef cattle was 5 cents per pound, We did not have but very few manufactured articles, our buckets were made of cedar staves, our tubs of pine staves, our barrels and kegs of white oak staves and these were either home made or made by the local cooper.

21. We never had in my community any calamities that would cause a condition of “common need” but as to help for individual families who were misfortunate, that was always forthcoming.

22. Corn, wheat, oats, potatoes and beans were grown for home use, the domestic animals raised were, horses, cattle, sheep and hogs, goats were very rare, sometimes some settler moving in from some other state would bring a few. I don't remember that tomatoes were ever called “Love Apples”, but I have heard my father mention that they were once called that and considered very poison.

23. Plows, harrows, mowing blades or reapers, grub hoes were about all the implements we had, and the most of them were homemade that is we would buy the parts if we could (the metal parts) and have the local blacksmith put them together, he would made all the wooden parts to fit the metal, sometimes we would have him to make all of the implement, threshing machines were unknown, we threshed or wheat by “whipping” it over a rail, or if we had quite a bit we made a threshing floor by pouring water on a spot of ground then tramping it and beating it with a maul until it was real hard, then we spread our wheat on this spot and walked horses or cattle “round and round” on it until it was threshed, then we threw the straw off, raked up the wheat and run it through a “fan mill”, this fan mill was a large fan turned by hand, with a hopper and a screen  the fan blew all of the light dirt and grit out of the grain, while the screen caught the rocks and large objects at the wheat passed through. I remember the parts we bought for our farm implements were made by the, “Avery Plow Company and The Rock Island Plow Company”. The prices on the plows were; turning plow 10 to 12 dollars, double shovel plow $4.00, single shovel, or “bull tongue” plow, $6.00

24. Carding mills and water mills that ground grain and sawed lumber were about all the industries we had, they were a long way apart, and “going to mill was quite a family event and outing

25. We eat “poke salet” every spring, because it was considered a good medicine as well as a food, paw-paws and persimmons butter out of the persimmons and it was very good, and some of the neighbors it was said made a very grade of “persimmon beer”, but I don't know. We also used sweet gum resin for chewing gum, poke berries for making ink, slippery elm bark for poultices to put on boils, and sumac berries for dye, sunflower seed was used for medicine. We also used parched wheat as a coffee substitute, and many times we used sassafras tea and spicewood tea as a coffee or tea substitute

26. I have no out of the ordinary impressions or memories, we had house raisings followed by a house warming and a big dinner or supper as the case might be, quilting bees, corn husking and brush harbor meetings were quite common, I remember the brush arbor meetings started in June and ended in October each year, people living quite a distance would come and camp out sometimes stay a week or two, there was plenty of singing and preaching at all times. We had no game drives, any one that wanted to went out hunting, got what they wanted and let the rest alone, we also had socials and play parties, and we played “Blind Man’s Bluff” “Drop the Handkerchief”, “Pussy Wants a Corner and Post Office”. The early farm and town life was much more simpler than to-day, there was no luxuries or fancy things everything in the country and the towns, was what we of to-day would call “back woodsy”. I remember nothing at all about the Indians, except they used to come back here once in a while to hunt bear and gather honey, but the never bothered any one.

27. As soon as the smoke was seen or word was carried that a forest fire was burning, the people would all stop their work and rush to the scene of the fire and do all they could to put it out, if they could not they would “fire against it”, the same was practiced when a house or barn caught fire, they would form a “human chain” from the nearest water to the house and pass the buckets one to another, in many cases the houses were saved as log houses burned slow

28. I don't know how any of the hills, valleys, mountains or streams got their names, I understand they were named by the first settlers, and the Indians, legend has it that War Eagle River, was named for a famous Osage Indian Chief, but I would not say.

29. The first hotel I remember was built in Huntsville in 1875, it was operated by John Long, my father kept the stage station in St. Paul, in 1878 in served the stage line that operated from Clarksville to Fayetteville, Ark., this line was abandoned when the rail road was built from Fayetteville to St. Paul, and the line was changed to run from Ozark to Eureka Springs by the way of Huntsville, Joe McGalliard, kept the station at St. Paul on this line, and Samuel Withrow, kept the next one at Withrow Spring five miles north of Huntsville, Ark., while Allison Hill, kept the station at Aurora 7 miles south of Huntsville, Ark.

30. Subscription schools were the only kind we had from 1867 to 1875 they were only three months schools the tuition was $1.00 per month, in 1875 a very few free schools were started the term of these was from three to six months in some of the more wealthy districts, we did not have a very good free school system until 1880, at first they were under the control of a Township Trustee, who hired all the teachers into Township, this was later changed and the three director system instituted, later this was raised to five directors, but again reverted back to three directors in each school district

31. 32. 33. My first school was at St. Paul, Arkansas, in 1869 Miss Ellen Lear, was my teacher, it was a subscription school the tuition was $1.00 per month, it was not payable in kind, as we had to pay the cash, however if there was more than three children in one family attending the school, she only charged for the first three, the rest went free, this caused some grumbling among the smaller families, but she never changed the system.

34. I used Rays Arithmetic, Lauchenbos United States History, Green’s Grammar, Guyots Geography, Webster's Blue Back Speller, and Dictionary, McGuffey's Reader, later Rays Algebra was added, and our writing lesson was a copy “set” by the teacher

35. Newspapers constituted the main source of reading material, we had a few of Dicken's novels, the newspapers I first remember were; The Toledo Blade, St. Louis Republic, Globe Democrat, Arkansas Gazette, and the Fayetteville, Arkansas Sentinel, very few people subscribed for a paper so they were “passed around the neighborhood, sometimes a paper would be a month old before you got to read it but it was still news

36. There has never been a Telegraph Station in this community, it has always been handled by telephone from Springdale or Fayetteville

37. No horse cars or railways of any kind in this section

38. I saw my first automobile at Fort Smith, Ark., in 1906

39. I saw my first train at Ozark, Ark., in 1877, it was quite an occasion

40. I don't exactly remember when I saw the first airplane, but I believe it was here at Huntsville, in 1929.

41. I don't remember.

42. All the early shows were put on by traveling stock companies, usually put on at private homes, then we had what we called local talent plays once in a while, “Debates” always brought out quite a crowd, they were held in the school or church houses, except in the larger places the school and church houses was the same, then later on the “Magic Lantern Shows” began to come through the country, they really got a crowd, they showed in the school houses if the could get one, if not in some private home

43. I don't remember any important celebrations, except Independence Day, we always celebrated that on July 4^th

44. I don't remember any historical character except former Governor Isaac Murphy, I knew him well, often visited with him, and he with me, I remember him as being a very quite retiring man did not have much to say, but when he did speak he usually said something that was worth listening to. He is known as our war-time Governor

45. I do not remember that a duel was over fought in this county, and I don't think there ever was

46. I don't remember any feuds

47. I don't remember any tombstone inscriptions of any importance

48. The only Bank Robbery I remember happened in 1912, when Tom Moore, Jimmie Monroe, Neal Malkahay and Joe Myers, of Fairland, Okla., robbed the First National Bank of Huntsville, they were all caught, and the most of the money recovered. There was never any stage robberies that I recall, we had no lynchings in this county, that I remember but on one or two occasions horse thieves were followed into other counties and killed, horse thieving, in this county, was suppressed by an organization known as “The Knights of the Horse”

49. I was too young to remember much of the Civil War Days

50. Do not remember of any battles or skirmishes, except as related to me by my mother

51. Don't remember much about the Carpet Baggers, or Scalawags, except that they held all the public offices that amounted to anything, and were bitterly hated, by the people

52. The old Ku Klux Klan, did not operate in this country, to any extent, as we had very few Negro’s

53. I helped organize and establish the lodge known as the “Good Templars”, the purpose of this organization went into action in this county in 1872

54. I did not belong to any military organization

55. I do not know of any Indian mounds or relics

56. There is not to my knowledge any historic sites in the county

57. The total number of my descendants are; 4 children, 4 grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren

58. Mrs. Flora Harrison, daughter, Grove Okla.; Mrs. Cora Bohannon, daughter, Muskogee, Okla.; John Thompson, son, Huntsville, Arkansas

59. My grandchildren are, Mrs. Ruby Arnold, Berryville, Ark.; Mrs. Geraldine Villines, Berryville, Ark.; Helen Dickson, Jamesport, Mo. My great grandchildren are, Mary Francis Arnold, Berryville, Ark.; and Billie Dale Dickson and Peggy Dickson, Jamesport, Missouri.

60. None

Author’s Comments

Mr. Thompson has been active in public life, all his life, he taught school for 43 years, averaging 6 months per year; was deputy tax assessor, from 1886 to 1890; Census Enumerator in 1890; Deputy Tax Collector, in, 1911-12-18-19-23-24 and 1925; County Judge, in 1921 and 1922; Post Master at Huntsville, Arkansas, from 1925 to June 4^th, 1934, in politics he is a Republican, he is still active, and is one of the few pioneer teachers of the county