- 1. Chirly Hudron Nicholas, Jr. (Chesley Hudson Nichols, Jr.)
2. Greenwood, Arkansas Route 4
3. Mr. Nichols is still an active farmer.
4. He has farmed since he was large enough. He homesteaded the
farm he now lives on and has lived on since 1886. He had to go to
Dardanelle, Arkansas, to file claim for homestead.
- 5. He was born on June 4, 1866.
6. He was born in Harden County, Tennessee.
7. He was married to Martha Grey on September 20, 1885, in Greenwood,
Arkansas Sebastian County.
8.-9. He came to Arkansas in 1873. He lived at Mt. Zion, which is
now known as Milltown, until his marriage in 1885.
10. Came from Tennessee to Arkansas in a wagon walking three horses
and had to cross the river on a steamboat. It was the first
steamboat he had ever seen.
11. He came to Arkansas with his father, mother, brothers, and
sisters. They had been informed that anyone could get rich quick in
Arkansas on account of natural resources and plenty of land being
offered to homesteaders, and they could hardly wait to arrive in
Arkansas, afraid that all of the land would be taken.
- 12. The house was built out of logs, with dirt floor, split
boards for doors, the roof was constructed of polls, sod, grass, and
clay, and chimneys were made out of sticks and dirt, very little
furniture was used, and what they did have was homemade. The beds
were constructed out of split logs and fastened to the walls in
1890. He built a box house out of rough lumber. In 1924, he built a
frame house.
13.-14. Tallow dips and candles were used for lighting. They were
made at home. In 1895, he bought a kerosene lamp. In 1924, he bought
a gasoline lamp, and it was used until 1938, he purchased an Aladdin
lamp.
15. Wood was the only source of heat until 1938. He started burning
coal. In the early day they used flint, cotton, and powder to start
fires.
16. They bought very few groceries. Their principal food was milk,
butter, and biscuits on Sunday morning. Wild hogs were plentiful.
They did not fatten hogs on grain as they do now. When pork was
wanted, they would take a gun and go to the woods and hunt those
wild hogs.
17. All of their clothes were homemade. Clothes made by spinning wheel
and loom. Homespun cloth was sold for $.50 per yard, and the cloth
that was shipped in from other places sold for $.75 per yard.
18. A bunch of the boys and girls would run away to the Choctaw
Nation to get married and it was very frequent.
19.-20. There was very little food or clothing bought in the early
days. It was home grown or homemade, and if there was a surplus of
one commodity it was traded to a neighbor for a greater necessity.
21. The crops in the early days consisted of corn, cotton, oats,
wheat, and potatoes. The first tomatoes Mr. Nichols remembered
eating was 1885. They were used principally for making soup. They
had sheep, cows, goats, and mules.
22. Their early farm implements were practically all homemade, and
very seldom used more than on horse for plowing. They used single
stock, hoe, and used paw paw woods to make handles for the hoes. He
bought a one-horse turning plow at Ft. Smith in 1885, for $5.00.
23. There was a cotton gin in Mr. Nichols community. It was a horse
powered gin with buckets on a belt to carry the cotton in and
instead of an upward press on it, it now was a downward press and
very often had to be tromped with the but.
24. The wild plants that were very common for the food then were
lambs quarter, poke salad, tongue, grass, and sassafras.
26. In the early days small bushes or sprouts were used to fight
fires either to wipe the fires out or to clear a path in front of
the fire, to serve as a fire guard. If a building should catch on
fire, water was used, and if water was not handy, then the building
burnt down and later it was learned that a wet quilt or blanket was
a good thing to use.
27.-28. Unanswered.
- 29. The schoolhouses were built of logs with dirt floors and
heated with a chimney usually large enough to cover almost one side
of the building. Had four seats in the schoolhouse arranged so to
make a square and the teacher stood in the middle. Had about twenty pupils
enrolled.
- 30. The school was Mt. Zion, now known as Milltown in 1873.
- 31.-32. The teacher's name was Jennie Erwin. She was paid $25
per month, and there was a small school tax assessed, but was not to
exceed two mills.
- 33.-34. There were only four textbooks at that time - reader by
McGuffey, and arithmetic by Rays, and grammar. The Bible was all the
reading material they had in their home.
- 35.-36. Unanswered.
- 37. The first automobile was seen at Burnsville (Burnville),
Arkansas in 1892, had wheels similar to a buggy and had a
motor on top.
- 38. The first train was seen at Greenwood, Arkansas in 1889. All
the people were in town for miles around to see the "Iron Horse" as
a lot of people called a train at that time.
- 39.-40. Unanswered.
- 41. At the close of each school term in the spring, there was an
entertainment sponsored by the local boys and girls, and some of the
older people would take part.
- 42. And sometimes a traveling stock show would come through the
county and put on performances for a week at a time. Rodeos were a
very common entertainment for community meetings. About all of the
celebrations were thanks givings. All the people would meet at a
some point, usually at the schoolhouse, and dinner would be served
picnic style.
- 43.-46. Unanswered.
- 47. In 1880, there was a man that stole a horse, and the people
had met to lynch him, but there was one or two men kept pleading
with them not to do it on account that the man was insane.
- 48.-55. Unanswered.
- 56. There were three boys and four girls born to this union.
- 57. Six of whom are living: Ella David, Mansfield, Arkansas;
Lennox Nicholas, Greenwood, Arkansas, Route 4; Hudson Nicholas,
Greenwood, Arkansas, Route 4; Fred Nicholas, Detroit, Michigan; Lela
Smith, Greenwood, Arkansas, Route 4; Clarice Smith, Greenwood,
Arkansas.
- 58. There are twenty-four grandchildren living and three dead
and one great grandchild. Roulene Gordon, Greenwood, Arkansas,
Route1; Aylune Craig Barber, Arkansas, Route 1, Leon Smith, Tulsa,
Oklahoma.
