Scott County Arkansas Biographies

THE ADVANCE REPORTER
Thursday, May 11, 1967
Spotlight On...
M.J. "TUG" WALKER

M.J. (Tug) Walker, son of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Walker, was born October 7, 1891, in Cauthron Township in Logan County, where he grew up. He attended a country school and at the age of 15 began working in his father's blacksmith shop where he learned the trade. On July 9, 1911, he and Miss Louise Holland were united in marriage by a Justice of [the] Peace, Mr. Clat Wooten of Ione. Mr. and Mrs. Walker have 6 children, 3 daughters, Mrs. Julia Chilton and Mrs. Grace Organ, both of Tulsa, Oklahoma and Mrs. Ruth Wilson of Wichita Falls, Texas, 3 sons, Coleman and Gilbert both of Fort Smith and Tillman of North Little Rock. They have 7 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren. Mr. Walker has spent only 3 nights away from his home in his life and Tulsa, Oklahoma is the fartherest away he has ever been from his beloved Arkansas. Before we had funeral homes, Mr. Walker and his parents worked making caskets and after he married, his wife helped her mother-in-law trim the caskets. They carded bats out of cotton to line the caskets and make the pillows. They used black trim for older folks and white for children. Mr. and Mrs. Walker have lived in their present home located 2 1/2 miles north of Waldron on Highway 71 for 27 years. Mr. Walker, who is loved and admired by all who know him, has over the years shod horses and repaired plows for practically everyone in Scott and Logan Counties. At one time he had a grist mill at his blacksmith shop and ground meal for farmers far and near. He had 85 customers at Ione and back when highway 71 was being built using horses people would come at night and he would work shoeing their horses by the lights of a truck at a price of $1.25 to $2.50 a head with him doing the work and furnishing the shoes. Many a time he would cut and weld 16 wagon wheels and put them on the wagons in a day, sometimes being assisted by his wife, who has always been at her husbands side when needed.