From Boone County to Newton County, Arkansas...

On Dec. 1st 1932, we moved to Newton County about 3 miles north of Lurton, on Hwy. 123. My father bought 95 acres of land from Jim Brimmage. We had to live in a little log house on another farm that was called the Wakler place, until my father and brothers could build our own log house on our land. This was where I met Coop Beare’s children that were soon to be good friends to me. I remember showing Edna and Viola Beare my doll that I has just received for Christmas. Mama had ordered metal doll heads from the Sears, Roebuck Catalog. Mama had made the body, arms amd legs, and sewed the head to the body, which had holes in the chest to sew to the body. She made one for sister Oma, too. She also made all the clothes for the dolls.

I don’t remember exactly how we moved up here, but I suppose a friend or relative moved us in a truck. Vern and my Uncle Hob drove a wagon pulled by our two mules, Old Kate and Blue. They hauled the farm equipment, tools, etc. on the wagon, driving the cow and hogs behind. They had to camp out two or three nights on the way since driving a wagon and livestock was a very slow ordeal coming over the 50 miles of mountainous dirt Hwy. 7 and in the mid of winter, too.

We moved into our new log house in the summer of 1933. The living room was a large square room which also served for a bedroom for my parents. The kitchen was a slanted roofed lean-to, with no ceiling. The floors were made with wide rough boards from green sawed planks, and soon there were wide cracks between each board. Small objects dropped on the floor would always find a crack to drop through. My Dad mixed red clay with water, which was called ‘chinking’ to fill in the cracks between the logs to keep out the cold. He also banked dirt up along the outside walls to keep the cold from getting under the house. The walls were papered with newspaper or any type of paper we could find. The paper was glued on with a flour paste, made by Mama. There was a loft over the livingroom ‘called front room’, which served as a bedroom for us children. We reached the loft by climbing up a ladder to the opening from the kitchen wall.

The front room furniture consisted of an organ, wind up phonograph, bureau, standtable which held the lamp and Bible, and an iron bedstead. We had a wood burning box heater in the front room for heat. We had no electricity so we used coaloil (kerosene) lamps and lanterns for lights. In the kitchen we had a wood cookstove, a piesafe to store dishes and leftover food, a home made table and chairs and a home made low table to hold the water bucket and wash pan. Pots and pans were hung on nails driven in the kitchen wall. The wash stand and kitchen table were covered with oil cloth. Our bedding consisted of straw filled ticks placed on coil springs. A feather filled mattress was placed on the straw tick for comfort and the pillows were also feather filled. Sheets and pillow cases were made from bleached flour and feed sacks that Mama had sewn together on her treadle sewing machine. Her sewing machine was also in the front room. Feed sacks were also used for towels and wash cloths, which we called washrags. We had no blankets, so Mama made quilts from worn out clothes and scraps saved from new home made dresses. Heavier quilts were made from worn out heavy clothing. They were tacked together with twine saved from feed and flour sacks, instead of being hand quilted as the lighter quilts were. My Dad made Mama a quilt frame that could be lowered from the front room ceiling when needed, then lifted back up when not in use.

The roof of the house was made of wood shingles that Dad made himself. As the kitchen roof was slanted, we had a large wooden barrel behind the kitchen to catch rain water in. This water was used for washing clothes and baths if it rained enough. Baths were taken in a large galvanized wash tub, behind the kitchen stove. Several attempts were made to hand dig a well, but solid rock was always found before hitting water. We had no means of blasting through the rock so we never had a well. We got our water by walking through a large field and down a steep hill to a spring. Carrying water back up the hill was quite a chore. The spring was also used to keep milk and butter cool. The cool clear spring water sure tasted good on a hot summer day. Sometimes I had to go to the spring by my self, carrying water in an eight pound lard bucket by each hand. Going across the open field was alright, but going into the woods, down a steep dark path was scary. Guess I imagined panthers or bears might be around and get me. So I thought of an idea of how to get out of going after water. We always went barefoot in the summer time, and I waded through a big patch of poison ivy, making sure I rubbed it all over my feet and legs. However, on my way back to the house, I remembered that Mama had ordered me a pair of shoes. If I had poison ivy on my feet, I couldn’t wear my new shoes. When I got back to the house I washed my feet and legs real good in the rain barrel, but I still broke out with the poison. I never told anyone what I did but I never tried that stunt again.

Thelma Awbrey Gregoire sent the above...Thank You Thelma!