Greene County, Arkansas - Good ole days in greene county

My great-grandfather, Jonathan Renfro Gossett, was the Justice of Peace in Marmaduke in the early 1900's. He and his second wife, Tabitha, lived next door to the local doctor whose daughter, Robeline, fondly recalled the following story.

"Faithfully once a week Uncle John Gossett walked to the railroad station to get the paper which came by train from Jonesboro. He would bring it back home and read it from cover to cover, sitting on his front porch in an old straight back chair, tipped back with the front legs off the porch.

One day he came home and told his wife that someone told him that President William McKinley had been assassinated (Sept. 06, 1901) and the news had come over the new-fangled invention the rad-e-o but he wouldn't believe it until he read it in the paper"

Glenda Womack
Ken-Womack@worldnet.att.net
Researching: Gossett, Phelan, and Brown from the Greene and Clay County areas.

This was told to me by mother -n- law Tressie May Easley. My mother-n-law and James her husband and children all lived at Black Oak in Craighead County during the "Flood of 1937" . She said it was the most rain they had ever seen raining day after day and the waters kept rising .The tempatures were unbearable and the water rising so fast. The levee's breaking and flooding the town .The town folk were really getting scared and worring trying to keep their families safe . She told me they built a flat bottom boat out of lumber from the barn and brought it " Right into the house and built it." The water got so high they had to leave there home and take what they could to find higher ground and shelter. She said as they floated to safety they could here families crying for help and praying they would be alright and hating to have to pass them up because there was no room aboard their small boat. Knowing they were leaving other family members and friends behind . They reached a Red Cross Station and were brought to the town of Marmaduke for safety way above the flood waters . Where they made there new home . They lost , Uncle Robert Marsh who they assumed was drowned in the high waters , but years later was broadcasted over the TV news had died and had lived in Jonesboro all those years. It was ashame they never had , found each other.

Submitted and typed by Tina Easley

Here is another story told to me by my dad , that was told to him by his dad Barney Morton . They lived at Schugtown and hunted and fished and raised vegatables that they would take to Bailey's Trading Post and cross the old slough's and the San Francis River and travel by boat to Childers , Ar. To trade or sell for goods and supplies. They would rise way before daybreak and travel in the dark and reach Childers and do there business with the tradesmen . Then leave and start home and would'nt make it till way after dark.He always said there were panthers over in the woods and I often wondered how a young boy could stand riding in the dark nite and listing to the screams of the panthers that could make a grown man's hair curl. These were hard times I can remember Grandpa telling me they use to kill swamp rabbits and take them to town and sell them to the local cafe's. It was hard work but Grandpa was always grinning when he would talk about the Good Ole Days.

Submitted and typed by Tina Easley.

I remember one winter in the mid 1950's it was so cold that the rain would freeze on the power lines and they just snapped. Well, needless to say the power company was so busy they couldn't get to the rural areas for months, we lived way out of town past the Pine Knot Church and we loaded up the truck with what we had to have and went to town to stay with mother's Papa, his name was John Everett Martin, he had little room & my Aunt also lived there. Her name is Zola Cole. Well, They just moved on over. Money was very scarce also and it was very hard. We would get bread at the bakery and toast it and sprinkle sugar on it and pour Pet Milk on it, I guess that is what you would call "Milk Toast" ? Mother hated that we had to eat like that. I don't know about the rest, but I absolutely love it. Bread was about 6 loaves for a dollar at the bakery and the pet milk was about 10 cans for a dollar. We ate a lot of biscuits and gravy too, along with what ever was on sale. We never starved, but we sure learned to appreciate what we had. I guess it was not to hard as I look back on those times as the "Good Ole Days"

Submitted by Charlene ( Futrell) Peel in California

In 1940-45, during the second World War Dad (Roosevelt Reddick) had to go to St. Louis , Mo. to get work. While he was gone the water got up
as it always did and Mom had to get the family out in a wagon and team of horse to Mounds, which was higher ground. Kids at home was Lonnie, Junior, Austin and Alice. I wasn't born until 45. The river , which was the old Ar. got out of it banks a lot back then. The seap ditch wasn't dug until later. The Goverment paid men to walk the old levee and check for leaks and fix them or sand bag them. Dad did that I am not sure of the year. Mother always said that that was when she learn to like coffee. She made herself drink it to stay awake while dad was out working on the levee. I guess the water must have been dangerously high and they might have had to move to high with all possible speed at times.

Submitted by Mattie (Reddick) Morton
Transcribed by Tina Easley

This story was told to me by my father-in-law, Roosevelt Reddick, the first year his daughter and I were married. This happened when he was a boy. He said that in the community where they lived a man had passed away. In those days when someone died the neighbors would take them to the graveyard and bury them. He said the man didn't have any family. It was late in the afternoon when the neighbors took a team and wagon and went and got the dead man and started to the Reddick Cemetary.It was winter time and very cold. It got dark before they got to the cemetary and there was an old one room log house at the side of the road that nobody lived in.They decided to spend the night and continue thier journey in the morning.The dead man was wrapped in an old blanket and they brought him in the house and laid him on an old
table that was in the log cabin. The old cabin didn't have any kind of stove for heat and the men started to get very cold. One of the men had brought a kerosene lantern and a big jug of moonshine. They started drinking the moonshine and trying to stay warm. After awhile they started feeling real good. One of the man had a deck of cards and they wanted to play some poker. The old cabin had a dirt floor so they couldn't play on the cold ground. It was so cold that the dead man frooze stiff. So they stood him up in the corner so they could have a table to play cards on. When the sun came up they loaded the dead man on the wagon and continued their journey....

Submitted by Otto Morton
Transcribed by Tina Easley

How To Bury, Animals Old Time Style...

When I was a boy we had a pet dog that was very old . The dog got
sick and died. My dad told me that it was my job to bury the dog and I
better not do what he and his twin brother done when they were young. I asked him what it was that had done. He begin telling this story. He said that they had an old mule that his dad had owned for years. The kids had learned to ride on this mule's back and the mule pulled the wagon that took them to church. When the kids grew up they used the mule and wagon to go to parties and dances in the neighborhood. The mule was like one of the family. When the mule died his dad told him and his twin brother to get the team of horses and pull the mule down in the woods and bury him. They done what they was told and took the mule to the woods and started to dig the grave. It was a warm day, and they got tired of digging. So they quit and hoped the grave was big enough. When they put the mule in the grave it rolled on it's back and had all four legs sticking out above ground. They tryed to get the mule out of his grave but couldn't. They talked about what they were going to do next. My dad's twin brother told him if he would go to the house and get a crosscut saw they could saw the mule's legs off. Then they could bury him. So my dad went to the house and got the saw trying to be careful not to get caught. But his mother seen him going to the woods carrying the saw. She went and told her husband that the boys were up to something. He had better go see what they were doing. When he found them they had already cut off three of the mule's legs. He told them they should be ashamed of what they had done to that mule. He made them finish the job and then switched them all the way back to the house. My dad was about 17 years old when this happened. When he finished the story I went and buried our dog and made sure I got the grave deep enough...

Submitted by Otto Morton
Transcribed by Tina Easley