Chapter Fourteen
Agriculture and Industry
By: Glenn Johnson
Page 289
Photos in this Section:
Pg 290 - Harvest time, cradling wheat; Pg 291 - (Top Photo) Bales of cotton in front of gin at Flippin in early 1920's. Standing in front row left to right are: Tom Black, W.J. Pierce, and R.L. Hayes, man in back row unidentified. (Bottom Photo) Bales of cotton on loading platform at Flippin ready to be shipped by train in the 1920's; Pg 292 - (Top photo) Loads of cotton waiting at the gin. (Bottom photo) "King Cotton" Harvest time; Pg 293 - Early Canning Plant. One of the first to can food by steam, called pressure cooking. Left to right: John Reed and grandson Dolia Burleson, Frank Reed, girl on right unidentified [man, woman and baby on the right side of the photo are not mentioned in the caption]; Pg 294 - Tomato Factory work force at plant in Flippin west of town. Top Left George Smothers, George Sanders, Lester Sanders, Thomas Wooton, Hattie Billings, Mr. Suttle, May Hackler, Adeline Matthews, Eula Matlock. 2nd Row: Frank Hurst, Bob Hurst, I.P. Rose, Roscoe Arney, Willie Pangle, Mamie Pangle, Nellie Pangle, Wheeler Sublett, Lonnie Davis, Myrtle Cornell, Lillie Wise, John Wise. 3rd Row: 1st 2 people unknown, Vineta Hurst, Clemma Johnson, Dolly Lee, Eula Hurst, Mattie Mason, Margaret Talbert, Dorothy McGowne, Avanell Hurst, Francis Black, unknown, Hazel King, Mrs. George Smothers, Biffle Smothers, unknown, Laura Wise, Minnie Johnson, Albert Beavers, Mrs. Albert Beavers and her two children. Front Row: Josie Black, Nellie Matthews, Mary Arney, unknown, unknown, Garvin Huddleston, unknown, Ester Mears, Zena Huddleston, in front of Zena, Mary Catherine Henry, in front the manager, Mr. Harmon, known as Tomato Pete; Pg 295 - Threshing crew of Marion County; Pg 296 (Top Photo) Cattle on farm near Flippin belonging to Tobe Daffron; (Bottom photo) Hog-killing time in the early 1930's. Standing by the tree is John Linck, his helpful neighbor was Billy Gibson; Pg 297 (Top Photo) Uncle EB Wood, grandfather of Lyle Wood looking at cattle (Bottom photo) Registered Herefords bred and grown on Lyle Wood farm. Lyle in pasture viewing his prized Herefords; Pg 298 - Wally Burleson of Yellville the last of the pioneer blacksmiths of the county; Pg 299 - Berry Pickers about 1915. Front Row left to right: Norvel Pyle, Thelbert Adams, Clifton Pyle, Walter Adams, Hoyte Pyle, unknown, Ewell Adams, John Q Adams. Back Row L-R; Gasslie Nanny, Elva Pyle, Ora Adams, Delia Adams, Effie Adams, Nell Adams, Rettie Adams, Kirk Keeter, Olaf Pyle; Pg 300 - Wood cutting in the 1930's. L-R - Clem Hogsed, George Hogsed, Rue Estes and Francis Gibson; Pg 301 - Pasco Mill was located at the head of Mill Creek south of Yellville [photo is of many people none are named in the caption]; Pg 302 - Virgin Pine logs on way to sawmill - John Evans and Charlie Thompson; Pg 303 - Old type well-drill owned and operated by John Linck in the dry-times of the 1930's.
The first white settlers in Marion County were primarily men who were part of the "Westward Ho" movement who came to explore and to find new hunting and fishing grounds. Most of them did not stake out homesteads and begin to clear the forests for farm land and to build permanent homes. Rather they cleared small patches of land for gardens for corn and tobacco and built crude one-room log cabins with little furniture. As game became scarce, they moved on west.
Some of these who came liked what they found: prime forests, smooth, fertile land along the streams, an abundance of pure water from the many springs, wild game, and an ideal climate. These chose to stay and these became the pioneers and developers of Marion County.
Progress was slow for few of these had wealth; there were no roads, schools, churches, towns, nor industries. What these pioneers had was: industry, honesty, self-reliance and a spirit of cooperation and the desire to build a new home in this wilderness.
Their first undertaking was to build a house for their family and a barn for what livestock they had brought along. They usually selected a home site near a spring on high ground because of their fear of chills and fever from, as they thought, the dampness and humidity in the valley. An Ozark folk legend has it that the house site was selected by the husband and wife going to the spring. The wife was given two large buckets of water and told to carry the water as far up the hill as she could without resting. The place where she had to rest was selected as the building site.
The first homes were log houses often with double chimneys and built by the family and neighbors in "house raisings." Land was cleared for farming and many times the choice trees were cut, sawed into logs to be used for additional buildings and stored to be made into lumber when sawmills would be available.
Farming at its best was crude - A Georgia Stock pulled by oxen or a team of horses or mules in new ground was a trial of a man's ability to overcome the temptation to use profanity when the plow hit a root and broke and struck his shins, and often the ground itself was not well-prepared for planting. An Ozark saying was: "The Lord didn't go with one to plow the new ground."
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