Marion Co TOC

    Now we get into the Buffalo area and looking at the tax map names, I found many that were familiar. The Tom Tilley family were large landowners. Out of that family came teachers and county officers. I copied these names for many descendants of them still live and will love to see and hear about them I'm certain.
    Around the Line (Lion) Hill mine area on the Warrior Creek, called by some Warner Creek, I found: P.S. Frick; Gus Young; H Gallup; H.T. Brice; E.E. Pond; J.F. Carson; J. J. white: H. T. Griswold and R. W. Russell. These names cropped up in several other places along the rivers. One of the Ponds was an early merchant in that area for a while just as my Uncle G. A. Plant ran a store on Cedar Creek during the one boom.
    On the White river, just above where it junctions the Buffalo River, was platted the old town of Buffalo City, intended to be a railroad town, but the track rerouted on the opposite side of the river and it became only a mining and railroad boom town because of it's ferry location. Long before the railroad was built though, the Buffalo crossed the shoals there, hence its name. The oldest steamboat landing and dike on the White River was established there and one of the oldest roads, called the Old Carrot Road, led out over the hills and valleys from that landing to Bruno, toward a small settlement known as Carrollton.
    Early settlers in the Buffalo Shoals area were as follows: J.S. Hutchson; E. Petty; William Hudson (son of Berry W. Hudson); J.E. Martin; H. Gallup (first store owner); R. W. Russell; T.N. Tilley (Mr. Smith's grandfather); Henry Trip; Larkin Aspin; E. Dowens; William Wood; Mr. Sheppard; H.T. Brice; Dr. Anderson, I.E. Lack; H.G. Vander; B.R. Hudson, son of pioneer Wilbur Berry Hudson (my great grandparents).
    In mining boom days, this Buffalo City was a populous and thriving place. There were two hotels, Mrs. Tollie Wooten tells me, one owned and run by William Henry Tripp, who married Nettie Lack. He was closely related to Ott and Jack and May Trip and had nine hacks that hauled passengers on the Rush route and nine ore wagons on this haul. Two of his drivers were John Wood and Ray Flippin. Tollie (Wood) Wooten began working there at the age of 14 and later owned her own hotel in Cotter. She had a cousin, Daisy Wood, daughter of Harve Wood, who visited her, after she became orphaned and stayed on to help her. Another uncle of hers, William (Bill) Wood, owned the other hotel there, and ran his own business in the side room of the Gallup store. I think this was when Stookey's had the Gallup store and the post office. Anyway, a big flood came while Tollie worked at the old Buffalo City hotel and the water reached the ceilings before it began to drop. They had to move into the Bob Renald house farther up on the hill. Mr. Stookey married Margaret Ward, sister to Jessie, Floyd, Earl and Ben Ward.
    Will and Sadie Bryant later bought up most of this land and farmed it. They had one son, Robert and one daughter, Edith. They were there when my grandfather, B. R. Hudson, owned the Gallup store and the post office, and were our good friends and neighbors. We young people did a lot of horseback riding and swimming. Those were the days; days of no responsibility except school, picnics, barbecues, at the "cut-off" where the two rivers ran together and all the families for miles around attended; decoration and dinner on the grounds.
    Easter Chitauehitas, Christmas programs and long trip by wagon or hack to the "county seat", for court week or old settlers picnics. Musicals, when the gifted played for the rest of us, dances for the more bold when fiddles whined and banjos thumped and guitars seconded to the rest, while the Jew's harp hummed and someone beat the strings for them, and all kept time with their feet and couples whirled.
    Other family name sin and around this river town were Ed and Ike Lack; "Aunt Ida" and "Aunt Ada" Miller, twins who were raised around Big Flat but married and moved near the rivers. Ada married (?)Trimble and Ida married John Winn, a Civil War veteran with grown children. Tom Winn, one of his older sons, a half-brother to Claude Winn, died recently at the age of 93 years, 6 months, and 25 days.
    Other Winn relatives were Bob Winn and children, Hobby, Daws, and Ralph, besides his daughters, whose names I cannot recall. Other citizens on the Buffalo River up to Big Creek crossing, and there were other crossings from the mouth to that one, (the Goodman Ford; Byrd Ford; Trimble Ford; Cow Rock Ford; Spring Creek Ford; Wood Cock Ford; Leatherwood Creek Ford, etc.); were W. L. Isom; C. H. Boyd; L.N. Smith (Mr. H. Smith's great great grandfather); William Cooley; L. I. Rose (Who had the first water mill on Cedar Creek); Charles Jackson; William McNabb; W. N. McCabe; H. F. Palenski; J. M. Dixon; O. B. Peters; H. M. Richardson; J. W. Sims; Or. Little; S. W. Wood; L. J. McMahan; E. E. Adams; F. B. Saunders; John Gaven; R. H. Willett and G. F. Smith.
    Cedar Creek boasted quite a number of stores, hotels, a water mill, livery barn, blacksmith shop, school, cemetery and many mines. The people I will write about somewhat more than I have already, at a future date, and tell of the changes that came around 1926, when the boom ended and Buffalo City in Marion County came to an end, as did the other towns in that area.

Another article:
    It is almost dark this Monday evening and the sinking sun has spread an orange curtain over the western sky, against which the black outlines of the naked tree limbs make grotesque pictures, some with real artistic value.
    This is the first day of the first deer season, but the hunters have not returned from the hill, not all of them that is. My daughter-in-law, Sue, came in at four, tired but happy after seeing one deer and two turkeys from her stand. I fed her pot roast and apple pie. Then my son came in, and then three more hunters. Two are still out, visiting no doubt, as my uncle, E. R. Hudson form Seattle, Wash., that we have not seen since 1941 sent out today with my husband to see old friends. Yesterday we went to Buffalo to see the river and the old Stair Mountain. We visited the Blie Evans, the Harvey Stevens, the Ernest Casteels, Will Casteels and Mrs. Stella Beavers. Then after eating lunch at the drive-in east of Cotter, and visiting the Arnold Hudsons, and Robert Fokes of Buford, we drove him around by Lakeview and Bull Shoals to see how the lake had helped the area to grow. He flew into Little Rock via St Louis the 5th, was met by his sister and brother in law, the E. E. Talberts from Batesville, who along with his other sister, Mrs. Leo Miksell of Batesville, brought him to Flippin, Friday evening. Other relatives here to visit him were Mr. and Mrs. Tom Hudson of Flippin, Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Crandall of Gassville, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Smith and Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Smith of Flippin. After a visit in this area he will return to Batesville for Thanksgiving, then home again. He is the only uncle my sister and I have left. It's wonderful to have him with us.