| For your machine, go to Green's. That could have been the
slogan when the Green brothers were in the machine shop
business, starting out in 1909 on second Avenue before moving to
this building at 310 S. Pruett St., the present location of
Stimson Auto Parts. Above, from left, are Don Green, Mr. Frickie, Bob Green and Jim Richardson. Below, Bob Green, Don Green, Claud Martin, Joe Shelby, Morgan Green, two unidentified men and W. W. Nesmith. |
=============================================
| Bulldog fans going 'wild' Some of the most thrilling experiences of our lives oc-curred while our sons and daughter attended school in Paragould and at Crowley's Ridge Academy. I remember as though it were yesterday the year our Para-gould Little League All-Stars won the Arkansas state champ-ionship (in 1959). I remember with great pride the excitement and joy of hearing "Barb" Greenway, their manager, sitting on the edge of the dugout, leaning forward as far as he could with arms extended, yelling, "One more, Big Red, one more," as my son, Manuel, was about to pitch a no-hit game |
to clinch the state championship. I will always remember the great year that Paragould High School won the Arkansas state high school championship (in 1963). I have a tape recording of the game and I still get excited when we play it back. I remember the huge crowd of Greene Countians at Barton Coliseum, all decked out in red, yelling for the Bulldogs I was privileged to serve the people of Greene County for two terms as County and Probate Clerk and to have set up the first voter registration in the county. I remember many happy and trying times -- mostly happy -- but to write them all would take a book. Doyle Washington West Fork, Ark. |
In February, 1872, W. C. Coates and
family arrived in Greene County.
My dad, John N. Coates, was 5 years old at the time they arrived on a flat boat - team, wagon and all. At Mitchell Point, after five days of boating, he said they had to get another team to help pull the wagon up the bank at the landing. This place is now raising soybeans.
Records and deeds show that my grand-
father paid a family named Pruett $125 in gold and a dog for 120 acres of ground -- including four acres of cleared land, a two-room log house, a log barn and two dug-out cisterns.
What is now Mueller Street runs from the Jonesboro highway east, through the approximate center of the Coates property. At that time, the road was known as Ridge Road. The Coates' property line on the east
adjoined the Hitchcock property.
The nearest railroad station was in Delaplaine, and the nearest store, Gainesville.
My father was married in 1895 and lived in town until 1902 when he and his family moved to the old home place on the Jones-boro highway where the Fred Wulfekuhler's now live. They told me that the old house at
Seventh and Kingshighway was the last
house coming out that way -- all the rest were cow pastures.
Joe F. Coates
======================================
| Tales of valuables and money buried at Peach Orchard during the Civil War This is Civil War stuff that comes from one who lived through it as a child. He told it to me when he was an old, old man. Now I'm almost 86. Back in the days of Indian trading, there was a trading post just back of where my house now stands at Peach Orchard. There was a small clearing and some fruit trees set out by the trader. Raiders harassed the country, so the women and children were sent deep into the woods on the bank of Cache River. An old ex-slave who had belonged to a family named Lindley went with them to do menial chores. He was known as "L." Several took valuables and even money and buried them at the camp. Some of it was dug up later. The trading post was raided and the men all killed as the families scattered. A short time later, the Missouri Pacific put its tracks through and had a camp in the clearing left from the trading post. There was a peach tree still standing so the camp was known as Peach Tree Camp. As settlers came here, "Peach Orchard" was the natural name. The ground used to show evidence of digging for the buried treasure. Abby B. Williams Peach Orchard, Ark. |
One of the earliest settlers on Bark Camp Island was my great-grand-father, Humphrey C. Reddick, Sr. He came to this area in 1870 and settled on the site that is now Reddick Cemetery.
My great-grandmother was Emaline Francis Bolen. She and her husband were the parents of 11 children, one of which was my grand-father, Humphrey C. Reddick, Jr.
Goodspeed's history does not mention my great-grandfather but he was known as "the old country doctor." He carried a black bag and delivered babies, but the family does not know if he had any formal training.
I included this part of the history of the area because I am so very proud of it.
Milltown was named for the lumber mill which stood there between 1900 and 1901. No one is sure exactly when the mill began or closed down. The Big Slough Ditch went through in 1913, and the mill was gone then.
Ford Holligan operated the mill but it was owned by the National Box Company. Holligan's wife ran a boardinghouse nearby.
Around 1918, a store sat just south of the bridge that went across Big Slough at the point where the mill had stood. The bridge extended for about a quarter mile from the point where the mill was located -- now my home -- to Luther Bishop's house, which is now across the ditch.
The store was owned and operated by Ike Wilkinson, and later, Jim Wilcox and Jasper Bateman.
Around 1908 or 1909, Lawrence Dennington operated another store about one mile northeast of the Reddick school house. It was situated by another bridge.
Also around 1908, a canal was cut from Milltown to Brighton to float logs to the Southern Pole and Piling Company at Brighton. Four holes were drilled into a
two-by-four and large pegs, known as "toggles," were driven into four logs to hold them together to float them down the river.
Donna G. Reddick