History of Greene County, AR

by B. H. Crowley in 1906

2nd Edition

After his first daughter , Sarah was married to Samuel Crowley, who settled on Eight Mile creek as before stated, the old man Hutchins and wife having no other children at home sold out on Big Creek, and settled where William Branon now resides in the city of Paragould about two blocks north of the West Side public school building. Here he lived and died at a ripe old age surrounded by a large number of children and grandchildren and loved and lamented by all.

Andy Johnson who settled up near the Ed Bratton farm was of an ingenious turn of mind devised a plan to run his mill by water power, obtained from a large spring near his settlement. His mill was of the bowl and pestle type , and he invented a machine to lift and drop the beater by employing water to propell the machinery. His mill would completely pulverize the grain and was a wonder for that time. Another surprise he sprung on the natives was to set his mill running in the evening and go home to let the machine do the work while he slept. He knew how much corn to put on the bowl shaped stump under the pestle. to last until next morning. when he would go out and get his meal. Johnson was a great hunter and kept quite a raft of coon and bear dogs and one morning he thought his meal was short of the amount it should have been. Again and again this occurred and the old man concluded some one was stealing his meal. Going out to the mill early one morning he found his favorite hunting dog mashed into a pulp under the ponderous pestel, having been caught by the beater while he had his head in the mill eating his master's meal. Patronage at this mill suddenly declined especially by those having delicate stomach's and the loss of a favorite coon-dog was not the only cause of grief at the Johnson settlement for sometime thereafter.

Hunting was a very profitable occupation in those early days there being an abundance of game of all kinds . Deer, bear and wolves were thick in the woods and there was even then a good market for all sorts of skins and pelts . Good things were a legal tender for all debts including state and county lakes , and ever man owned his hunting dogs and flintlock rifle. As a general thing the product of a winter's hunt was marked early in the spring at either Memphis or Cape Giradeau and the sales of hides and furs brought a good price at a time of year when money was scarce and clothing and supplies needed . Several of the neighbors would join together , rig up a wagon or ox-cart and all go to market , with their stock of furs and skins. The trip usually took two or three weeks when the party would return with the year's supplies for the entire neighborhood. The oilof the bear as well as the skin was very vaulable and always brought a good piece on the market. Also venison hams especially when dried were in great demand on the markets and never failed to command as ready sale as cotton and corn now do.

It may not be very flattering to the pride of some of our aristocratic young folks of today to be told so , but it is a fact never the less that many of our fore-parents were hitched up for better or for worse with license paid for in coon skins.

Tues., November 20, 1906

Some Glimpse of Pioneer Preachers

The first Baptist church established in the county was the Mt. Zion church in the year 1838 , by Elder William Nutt , father of Granville ,Robert , John and George Nutt. The church was organized in the year 1840 by Wm. Nutt , Elder Winningham Sharp and Elder Calvin Gage , who was an Uncle of Wm. L. Gage. Calvin Gage moved to Texas and was killed by being thrown from a horse. He was the county judge of Jack county Texas at the time of his death, and was buried at Jacksboro, Texas.

The members of the first church were Wiley Hutchins and family , Nimrod Capps and Family , Archibald Jones and family , A. Roberts and family and Sterling Newsom were likely the charter members of the church. The first church house was built out of logs on top of the hill about where it now stands Mt. Zion cemetery . It was built by the men coming together from all distances and directions and working until it was finished . Said and Ajax Ryer came from where Vandale is now situated to assist in the building of the church , and they with others often came back to attend church services at Mt. Zion a distance of sixty miles . The present church building at Mt. Zion is the third one to be built at that place and is a very creditable country church. There are now good Baptist churches at Walcott, Finch, Lorado, Cache Valley m Browns Chapel , Rock Hill, Spring Grove , Center Hill, Fair View, Union Grove, Jones Ridge, Espaby, Gainesville, Unity , Providence, Friendship, New Hope , Marmaduke, Hopewell ,Eight Mile, New Shore, Bark Camp, Bard and First and Second churches in Paragould.

So that now there are twenty-four established churches of the Baptist faith , alone in the country with a membership of over two thousand and five hundred as the legitimate offspring of the old Mt. Zion church with her ten original charter members to say nothing of the churches and the Membership in other parts of the state which received support from the old Mt. Zion church, Old man Nutt administered baptism to the first person the writer better say immersed the rite being administered in Poplar Creek near where Samuel L. Clements now resides just below the Mt. Zion church Joseph Fowler , the father and law of Calvin Gage above referred to and Zachariah Hutchins brother of Wiley Hutchins then lived where Clements now resides.

The first circuit -rider ever sent into this part of the country and perhaps this part of the state. The first circuit rider ever sent into this part of the state preached at the different homes of his membership and in good weather they would hold their meetings out of doors or under brush arbors . The men would carry their guns with them and hunt on the way to and from church. After the services were over they would put on their shot pouches , shoulder their guns and very often returned home from meetings bringing with them bread , coffee , and salt and the men would furnish the meat from the woods such as deer ,turkeys, squirrels, opossums, rabbits , quails and coons and this they prepared before the log fires by baking or roasting and the dinner was always a good one , such as would appease the appetite of even the most fastidious epicurean . When the stewards were preparing to send their circuit-rider off to conference they were often nonplussed , as now , as to how they were going to raise money to get the preacher and his family back to the annual conference . They sometimes had to call upon non-church members for assistance in this predicament and a story is told about the church officials once going to Charley Robinson on this business.

Now charley Robinson was a wealthy man but a very wicked one also. He owned fine lands and valuable negros by the score, but he could swear all gaits ever approached by man, His cattle horses and hogs were the finest in the country and he was conceded to be the most able bodied profane swearer west of the river. Anyway the board of stewards decided to approach Charley Robinson for help to send their preacher to conference, but not until several members had registered their objections and fears that he would as like as not curse the whole thing out and insult the ones who approached him. One member said he knew Robinson well that he was a neighbor of his and that while he was gun-powdery and sulphuric when out of humor that they would approach him cautiously and if he should explode a mine of expletives that smelt of brimstone, they would not lose their Christian graces , and return railing for railing but beat a masterly retreat . So after praying over the matter for sometime the good Methodist approached Robinson pretty much as a man would feel his way up to slumbering mind of an internal machine and after telling him that his church was poor and struggling hard to get a foot hold in this benighted land and that they were short of money to send the circuit rider to the first annual conference and that they were in danger of not getting any preacher next year because they lacked a little of having money enough to pay the preacher. Robinson looked the deacon over carefully and then said "And your church and you good people have come to me for help? "The brother said that was true that he had been commissioned by his struggling church to appeal to him for a little help in their trouble .Robinson said "I will help you people in your good work , for I realize that you are doing a great good in this country. Come to the house and I will give you fifty dollars in gold. The deacon was taken completely by surprise for he had not expected more than five dollars even from a man of Robinson's great wealth , so he said "Why you must not understand me ,we did not expect so much of one man who is not a member of the church , and you would give as much as all us together. "Robinson repeated he intended to do just as he said ,to give them fifty dollars in gold. The member remonstrated that they did not need so much, that the preacher could go to conference on horse-back and that the people along the way would not charge anything for entertaining over nights. Robinson replied that made no difference and that it would keep up the meetings he would give them fifty dollars next year. The steward was dumbfounded and thinking that Robinson was under conviction and maybe ripe for joining the church , said to Robinson . "If you will insist on giving this amount to the support of the gospel in our midst, will you do us a favor to tell us your reason for being so liberal? To which Robinson replied "Well since that fellow has been coming up here and preaching to these people they have quit stealing my cattle , and I can afford to give that amount or more and do it partly through self defense. The country has never been without a preacher since and even in those days of the church and of church history the pioneers of Christianity were the best and truest people that ever blessed any country. They often had to go miles to church some on horse-back ,some in ox-carts and frequently the young people would walk carrying their shoes , such as had any and when they reached the place of meeting they would sit down and put their shoes on. These were simple and honest times with a simple and honest people and no age of the world has produced a time or a people who got more joy out of life than the early settlers of this country . The preacher was the most important personage in the country , commanding even more respect than the governor of the territory, The children especially were always delighted to see the preacher come , as that meant a holiday and a feast of good things rarely seen except when the preacher came to those far removed houses. Even in those early days the Methodist ministers fondness of yellow leg chicken was understood and nearly always gratified . Louis Gage says the love of fried chicken is not confined to Methodist people or preachers in general but he has never been able to convince the world of this delusion and he fears he will go to his final reward without ever getting his share of that delicious country dish fried chicken.

The writer remembers when he was a small boy of attending a Methodist revival at which a an elderly gentleman by the name of Rhea who had been helping in the meeting and as the protracted services were drawing to a close got up in the meeting and said "I am a Baptist and always have been since I have belonged to any church and I am yet of that faith but I have had such a delightful time and we have had such a harvest of souls here for the lord that I have learned to love you Methodist and there being no church near of my belief. I feel that I want to join you people if you will grant me that privilege of withdrawing again if my people ever organize a church near me." He was unanimously received into the church and assured that his request to retire should his people establish a church organization near was granted amid hearty "amens" he worshiped with the Methodist congregation as long as he lived and died and honored and respected citizen and an exemplaroy Christian gentleman.

The first minister the writer ever heard preach was Rev. Thomas Stanford , the Methodist circuit rider, here then and he preached and held all religious services at the home of Robert H. Halley stepfather of B.H. Crowley and a strong member and steward in the Methodist church. This same Thomas Stanford married a Miss Harris a daughter of Nicholas Harris and a sister of James Preston Harris and Mrs. Wm. O. Lane. The Harris 's were a very prominent family in the early days of the county and have ever maintained that distinction wherever they have gone. When Rev. Thomas Stanford would come to my stepfathers house on his rounds as circuit rider he would have his spelling book, English Grammar, and a dictionary and at every spare moment he was engaged in studying . His life affords another example of what constant application of work will do for a man . He lived to be an old man and was one of the leading men in his conference for many years. He was licensed to preach in 1841 , and 1842 he was recommended to the Annual Conference by the quarterly conference to be received on trial as a traveling preacher . In the year 1844 he was sent to the Greene Mission circuit as a preacher in charge. In the year 1860 N.J. Tranthain of Hurricane and C.A. Ford of Oak Grove were licensed to preach the gospel by their church. There were two Campgrounds in the county at that time one in Salem township at big spring near where Lorado now is and the other three miles south of Gainesville where the large spring is and where the Camp Ground church stands at the present time on Jack's street.

Late in the summer or early fall the people of the several congregations of the Methodist churches in the county would meet at one or the other of these places and hold a camp meeting which would last from one to three weeks.

The Christian or Camellite church has at the present time eight organized congregations in the county with about nine hundred members. The first church of denomination established in the county was at Pine Knot and the founders were Elders Benjamin Tennison with James Hyde and L.C. Thompson and others as charter members. This James Hyde was one of the nature's true nobleman . He was among the most honest upright and useful men the world ever knew. A stock dealer was in the country from Illinois and meeting James Hyde at some distance from his home hesitated to sell him a pair of mules without the cash in hand. Meeting the writer soon afterward the trader asked him what about James Hyde was he good and would the writer stand good for his honesty.

The stock man was told that the men in this country would stand for Jim Hyde when they would not stand by themselves , and that whatever Hyde told him he could rely upon it as being true . The trader hastened back and sold Mr. Hyde a fine pair of mules and volunteered to wait until after the cattle were marketed in the fall , Mr. Hyde always dressed plainly and was a modest fellow, but his word was as good as his bond. This incident happened over thirty years ago but the writer has never had cause to change his opinion of James Hyde and his sterling intergrity. His three sons Rev. Frances , Jack and Tom Hyde are living in the county now and are worthy sons of their noble sire.

Among the ministers of this denomination who have labored in Greene county in the past were Elders J.H. Johns , President of Croft Bible College, E.H. Bratton , who was born in the county and who by the terms of the will of Dr. George B. Croft , received the large Bible of testor. Dr Croft provided in his will that his family bible be given to the first minister of that church to be produced by Greene County. George Autury , who lives on Sugar Creek , John Higgins , Francis Hyde , Elders Lemmons , Webster , and Woods Monley , R.H. Gardner and son, Neely Robert O. Rogers , and other bright and active lights in the church and substantial support to the same .

The Presbyterian church has only two organizations in the county at the present . They have a church at Gainesville and one at this place with an average membership of from two to three hundred . The venerable A. J. Knox and his family are the leading members of the denomination here in the city, and the present pastor of this church is D. W. Check , late of Illinois.

The Catholic people have a large and strong organization in Paragould and some fine property. They have a school in connection with the church and are present engaged in building a stately structure of concrete and metal to be used for school purposes an when this building is completed the Catholics will own some of the costliest church and other affairs of the denomination at this place and his church and people appear to be in prosperous condition.

There are many persons in the county of other religious beliefs but they have not yet became strong to form organizations and their number cannot be correctly estimated . There are several Hebrew or Jew families in the county and their number and strength as people is rapidly increasing at this time.

As an instance of the change that has taken place in public sentiment on the subject of drinking or dealing in whiskey let the write but relate one fact: Old man Nimrod Capps. One of the charter members of the Mt. Zion Baptist church owned and run a still where he manufactured his big peach brandy crop into brandy. Capps had a large peach orchard and as there was no market accessible the only way to manufacture then into brandy and then find a market for the product of his peach orchard. Wyatt M. Peoples for along time Sheriff of the county, had a distillery, and so did Joseph Rowe , on Sugar Creek, and John Boone Wilkerson had one at a big spring on the place where Mrs. Casey now lives on the Walcott road. Whenever the young people had a party at the home of some neighbor one of the preliminaries to getting ready for it was to go or send to one of te stills and they'd get a supply of whiskey or brandy or often both for all drank in those days. The stock of liquor refreshments was set upon a table or mantle and whenever the spirit of the crowd began to run too low the members could resort to this never failing fountain enthusiasm if a fellow so far forgot himself as to become intoxicated, his jug was up in that circle and he was afterwards ostracized .The standard of morals in those days was different from what it is now , but there was a standard and woe to the man or woman who violated it. All of the modern appliances and conveniences were then unknown and the general intelligence of the people was not so high as at the present time , there were few schools and still fewer churches but the people of the present day. There was certainly less crime especially of an immoral character , then now and there were larger families and the people lived longer then than they do now.

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