WPA Interview
Interview done by: Harrell Martin, Greenwood, Arkansas 11/29/40
Early Settlers Personal History
1-7. Mr. Henry Estes of Greenwood, Arkansas, Route 4. Mr. Estes is retired now. Has farmed all of his life and lived on the
same place since August 1866, in Franklin County, Kansas, in or near Topeka. Mr. Estes married Miss Arelena - Arra (Arra Lena) at
Greenwood, Arkansas on January 14, 1897.
8-11. Mr. Estes' father settled here before the Civil War. When the war broke out, he went to Kansas, and worked in some kind of a shop
till after the war then came back to Arkansas in August after Henry Estes was born in June. Mr. Henry Estes has heard his father tell
of coming to Arkansas in a wagon driving a yoke of oxen.
12. The earliest home Mr. Estes can remember was a one room log cabin with a stone fireplace. All of the earlier homes in that community
were log houses, some had a stone fire place and chimney, while some had fireplaces and chimneys made with sticks and clay. These were
called stick chimneys. There were plenty of stones in this community. Started building boxed houses a few years later.
13. The first lights Mr. Estes can remember were candles. They poured these candles at home, of tallow. Some of the people used grease
lights. These lights were made by using a tin bucket lid or a saucer filled with grease and tallow with a rag used for a wick. The
rag is laid in the grease and one end over the side of the saucer or lid. This end is lit.
They next used oil lights called brass lamps. Theses lamps looked a lot like the oiled cans now used around machinery. They had a spout
sticking up in the center. They used a wick in the spout.
They then started using oil lights with a burner and a glass chimney in about 1845. Lights of this type are still used in places where
they don't have electricity.
14. There has never been any electric lights in the community where Mr. Estes Lives.
15. Mr. Estes has always used wood for fuel.
16. Mr. Estes remembers hearing his father talking about the year after the close of the Civil War in 1866. The same year Mr. Henry Estes was
born. All they had to eat was corn bread and water. After the first year when people had time to make their first crops, they had plenty of food.
They raised corn and wheat and had it ground for bread. Raised Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes, gardens and fruit such as peaches and apples.
Killed their beef and hogs for meat and lard. His mother dried peaches and apples till about 1866, when they bought their first fruit jars.
The first fruit jars were 1/2 gallon. Later they bought quart jars. Back in the early days, sugar and coffee was all they had to buy.
There was plenty of game when Mr. Estes was a young man - deer, turkey and small game. The people hunted this game and used it as food,
but did not depend on it for part of their living.
17. In the early days, women spun and wove the cloth to make their clothes. Mr. Estes wore home spun and home made clothes until he was grown.
About 1886 or 1887 he bought his first ready made clothes. Mr. Estes remembers one time he cut wood for a Mrs. Rowland when he was a young man.
Mrs. Rowland paid him for his work with jean cloth. He got one yard of cloth with each day's of work. Most of the jean was colored brown with
a green walnut stain.
18. If a family approved of the marriage, they would give a wedding dinner (called infair dinner). People have always practiced shivarees in
this community.
19. (unanswered)
20. The only time Mr. Estes remembers sharing food with any one was when he was a boy. There was a Widow Hanks who had three children lived
in this community. She was in bad health and in need. Mr. Estes' father would send Henry over on a horse with corn meal, meat, lard and any
other food they could spare.
21. The early crops were corn, wheat, oats, cotton, tobacco, potatoes, and vegetables.
22. In the early days they made their plow stocks. Made turning plows, Georgy (Georgia) stocks, side harrows, and in about 1890, they bought
their first cultivator. Mr. Estes does not remember the prices of the first plows he ever bought.
23. There are no industries in this community.
24. Some of the early wild plants and fruit that they used for food were poke salad, dock, blackberries, wild grapes and sassafras roots
25. In the early days they had house raisings, log rollings, hog killings, dances and play parties. When a man would get ready to build his
house, he would tell his neighbors. They would all go. A man would get on each corner of the building and notch the logs. 8 or 10 men would
hand the logs up. When the wall would get high enough that the men could not reach from the ground, they would use log poles with a fork and
lift them up that way. In the early days, they make the roof out of logs. Later they split board shingles to cover the houses.
The people cleared their land in the winter, used what wood they needed for fuel and what logs they wanted. The others they would leave lying
where they cut them. In the spring they would have a log rolling contest. The neighbors would come to help. They would pile the logs in large
piles and set them afire. The young people would want to dance. Some would dance and some would not. When they danced, they would always have
a square dance. The people were neighborly in the early days. They always visited with each other. Some times one family would go to visit
a neighbor, and they would take their whole family and stay for the weekend. The next weekend the family that was visited would go to visit
the family that came to visit them..
26. In the early days when they had a fire, all of the men would come to fight fire. They would set a fire and put it out behind them, then
let it burn to meet the other fire, let them burn together then they would go out.
27. Mt. Harmony was named after the school house. The first school house was named Estes school house. When they built the new house a man by
the name of W. R. Alexander was teaching there. He wanted to name the new school the people let him name it. He named it Mount Harmony.
28. Unanswered.
29. The earliest school that Mr. Estes attended was at Estes school house. The building was made of logs. The benches and desk were made out
of split logs with holes bored for the legs.
30. The Estes school house was in Sec 29 T6N R30West. Mr. Estes started to school in 1871. This school was moved about 100 yards N.E. and the
name changed to Mount Harmony in about 1890. Mt. Harmony is in Sec 20 T6N R30W.
31. The first teacher that Mr. Estes went to was H. C. M. Braley after that he went to Mr. Amos Braley, Jasper Seaman, Henry Carty, Mrs. Peris,
John H. Holland, Miss Della Davis, Charley Dunn, and the last teacher that Mr. Estes went to school was. H. H. Waters.
32. The people voted a tax to keep the school up. They voted the amount that they thought they would need. They paid the teachers from $25.00 to
$35.00 per month. Mr. Estes went to Burnsville (Burnville) one summer to a school. This cost $1.00 per pupil. Sometime during the time
Mr. Estes was going to school, the State appropriated a fund for the schools. The state paid a certain amount per pupil.
33. Mr. Estes used McGuffey Readers and histories, Ray Arithmetic, Blue Back Speller.
34. Mr. Estes had books and newspapers to read in the early days. He does not remember the title of the early newspapers, but he has two books
that he got when a boy: Well Springs of the Truth. W. W. Bruse, author. Published by Southwestern Publishing House, Nashville, Tenn. Bible
Companion, J. A. Allen, author. Published by Central Publishing House, Atlanta, Georgia.
35. There has never been a telegraph station at Mt. Harmony.
36. Unanswered.
37. The first automobile Mr. Estes saw was at Greenwood, Arkansas in 1910. The car was a two seated car with high wheels. Mr. Estes thinks is
was a Ford.
38. Mr. Estes saw a train in Greenwood, Arkansas, in about 1889.
39. Mr. Estes has never seen an airplane, only at a distance in the air.
40-47. Unanswered.
48. Mr. Estes saw George Green, a Negro, hung at Greenwood, Arkansas, in 1884. George Green was convicted of killing his wife. They built a
scaffold, put the rope around his neck, then the sheriff James Burton struck the trigger with a sledge hammer. The Negro dropped through the
trap door and hung just above the ground.
49-51. Unanswered
52. Mr. Estes taught singing schools for over 2 years. He taught his first school at Mount Harmony in 1891; the last school he taught
was in 1935 at Clarks Chaple. Mr. Estes joined the Methodist Episcopal Church at Mount Harmony in the year of 1883. He has been an
active member since that time.
53. Mr. Estes has served on several panels as petit juror and 4 panels in the U. S. Court at Fort Smith, Ark.
54-55. Unanswered
56-58. Mr. Estes has two daughter and three grandchildren.
Mrs. Delta James, Greenwood, Arkansas
Mrs. Ella May McKelvie
Billie Merl James
Doris Irene Johnes
Gerald Derine?? McKelvie
Interview transcribed by Chrystal Temple, GHS Class of 2006
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