Chapter Fourteen

Agriculture and Industry

Page 290-297

As more people came to the area and communities began to spring up, the earlier trails became roads connecting neighbor with neighbor and communities with other communities.

In the early 1800's the treaty with the Osage Indians gave the settlers the right to apply for homestead rights. By 1819 when Arkansas became a territory, there were few white people in what is now Marion County, but by 1836 when Arkansas became a state and Marion County became a County, the population had grown considerably. Land was now offered for homesteads for those who applied and "proved up" their claim. Land was also given to those who would pay five years tax in advance.

Early farming was largely row cropping of corn, cane, tobacco, beans, peas, and other crops that could be used for food for man and beast. There was some wheat and oats grown, particularly in what was then called the Flippin Barrens, the King's Prairie, and along Crooked Creek.

After steamboats reached Buffalo City and McBee's Landing, farmers began growing cotton. It was in effect the first money crop for farmers and many of the farmers along the river and creek bottoms turned their farming interest to cotton. The first cotton gin in Marion County was operated by Will McBee at McBee's Landing just above Cotter on White River. Soon other gins were built at Bruno, Oakland, Yellville, near Peel, Pace's Ferry, Old Powell near Pyatt on Clear Creek, and Buffalo City. The gin at McBee's Landing was destroyed by a flood near the turn of the century. Durl Wood soon established a gin in Flippin and operated it for a number of years. He later sold it to a group of businessmen in Flippin and the gin was called The Farmer's Gin. It was managed by several different men during its years of operation including: Houston Poynter, H. F. (Square) Woods, George Billings, George Sanders, and J. B. (Bob) McCracken. During the time Farmer's Gin was in operation, cotton became a very profitable crop and many "hill farmers" began growing cotton. Practically all of eastern and northern Marion County farmers were growing cotton and it was being hauled by wagon and teams to Flippin to be ginned. This gin, during the busy season, operated 24 hours per day and even then it sometimes took twoor three days for a farmer to get his cotton ginned. This indicated the necessity for another gin and Seth Hurst, who had previous ginning experience, built a new and very modern gin on the site now occupied by the Seawright Motel and Automotive Supply Store. Both gins were busy and proved to be profitable business enterprises. The new gin was owned and operated by Seth Hurst.

Cotton farming was hard work and it required the work of all the family. Little machinery was available and most of the work of hoeing, spraying and picking was done by hand. For many years cotton was king (hence, the term King Cotton) and it remained so until the price of cotton dropped so low that farmers reduced their cotton acreage. About this time, the U. S. Government, Department of Agriculture, initiated the acreage allotment for cotton farmers and thereafter few farmers in the county grew cotton.

At the height of the cotton as 'King Cotton' in Marion County, there were two gins at Bruno -The Farmer's Gin Cooperative operated by W. C. Keeter, and another owned by the Angel family; there was a gin at Eros, four at Old Powell, one at Yellville, one at Oakland, one near Oakland on Spring Creek, one near Pace's Ferry owned and operated by the Frost Brothers, one near Buffalo City and, perhaps, there were others.

In the 1940's all the gins in the county ceased to operate and cotton as a money crop was only a memory. The last cotton grown in the county was in 1966 on acreage allotments belonging to J. B. McCracken and Jim McGowne. This cotton was ginned at Morrilton, the nearest gin at the time.

As the production of cotton declined, a new money crop was being developed-tomatoes. Many farmers, particularly upland farmers, began to clear land and plant tomatoes for sale to the canning plants that sprang up over the county. Seth Hunt, formerly engaged in cotton ginning, built a large, modem canning plant in Flippin and this plant furnished seasonal employment for many women and girls in the area. Mr. Hurst himself was a big producer of tomatoes on his farm on Lee's Mountain northwest of Flippin. He shipped many carloads of canned tomatoes over the Missouri Pacific Railroad to various markets. During WW II, the U. S. Government contracted for his total output of canned tomatoes paying him a bonus price because of the fine quality and certain mineral content that was needed for the food supply shipped to the armed forces in the Pacific Theater.

Other tomato canning plants were the Markle plants near Dodd City and one at Pyatt, the Young plant in Pyatt, all producing high quality tomatoes and employing a large number of women and girls and some men. There were probably other canning plants in the county but memory fails to recall where they were located. After the close of the war, for some reason, this industry died in Marion County. It would seem to have great possibilities but no one appears to be interested.

After cotton and tomato crops no longer seemed profitable, farming in Marion County had almost a complete change. Row cropping almost disappeared. Fields that formerly grew corn, cotton, cane and beans now became pasture land or hay meadows. Alfalfa, clover, and lespedeza became leading hay crops to be used as winter food for the now increasing herds of a better grade of cattle being grown. With this change, livestock production, particularly cattle, became the main agricultural product. Farmers who had formerly had a few cattle-grade cattle on open range-now, due to the passage of a Stock Law, put their cattle on pastures and began to upgrade their herds. In a short time many farmers throughout the county were growing registered Angus, Brahmas, Herefords, Red Polls and Shorthorns of the beef type and Jerseys, Holsteins and Brown Swiss for dairy products.

This upgrading of cattle had two natural results: first, a growing interest in and the production of more and better cattle, and as a result of the first, there followed the second, the organizing of a livestock auction and building of the livestock auction bans. The first livestock auction organized was in 1935 by a group of cattle growers and businessmen. Stockholders of the original company were: W. E. Rose, A. E. Hall, Gus McCracken, P. W. Huddleston, Garland Odgen, Willie Bell, Gordon Sanders, Ike Cornell and R. Daffron. The first livestock auction was held on September 11, 1935, at the newly constructed livestock pens located near the Flippin High School. It was what might be termed an "Instant Success" and in a short time a sales barn was built. Cattle from adjoining counties as well as from Missouri were brought to the sale held weekly on Wednesday as buyers from the Springfield and Kansas City market attended and paid top prices. Later an Auction Barn was built at Yellville.