Oba Criner May writes: You asked how folks traveled from Lurton to Mt. Judea and I have written down some of the families who lived along the wagon road in the time frame of 1913 to 1926, when I went away to school at Parthenon Acadamy.

There were so many wagons on the road. In the fall many wagon loads would go to Russellville to market, to load on railroad cars. Some wagons were loaded with apples, some cotton, even with eggs. It took at least a week to make the round trip from our home to Russellville. My dad often took a load of cotton and I went along. He bought our shoes and staple groceries in Russellville and stayed the night on the way to Russellville at Freeman Springs with Mose Freeman.

Folks from Harrison stayed all night at our house on their way to Russellville. The wagons had a feed box on the very back so they could untie the horses, put some hay back there and feed off the back of the wagon. The drivers of the wagon always had their own grub box back there, so one day me and my brother Reese looked in a grub box and saw something we had never seen before...peanut butter and cinnamon rolls! We ate every bit of it and threw away the glass so the man would think his wife forgot to put it in the box. That was the first and best peanut butter I ever ate...I still like peanut butter.

So you will know who lived from Lurton to Big Creek, I am listing the family names as I remember them from the time period of 1916 through 1926 when I went away to school. Beginning at the town of Lurton and going across the mountain through Tarlton and down the mountain to Big Creek.

A list of the families as I remember them from that time, who lived along the Wagon Road:

1 Lurton Post Office and Sutton Home
2 Tarlton Cemetery
3 Woodard Home
4 John Brimmage Place
5 J. D. Walker Place
6 Jim and Ede Benton Home
7 Dad and Ma Wiser Place
8 John Humphrey Place
9 Crock Hefley Corn Field
10 Crock Hefley Place
11 John Criner Place (Dad)
12 Joe Criner (Grandad)
13 Joey Criner Place
14 Tandy Cheatham Place
15 Jim Hefley Place
16 Bill Hefley Place
17 Margaret Riddle Place
18 Jim Cook Place
19 Old Sam Davis Farm
20 White School House
21 Martha Shuler Hefley Place, widow of John Bailey Hefley
22 William Toad Heffley Place
23 Allison Heffley Place
24 Alice Criner Place, widow of Billy Criner
25 Frank Criner Place
26 Allen Sexton Place
27 Sexton Cemetery
28 Joe Heffley Place
29 Sally Nichols Place
30 Hubert Nichols Place
31 John Nichols Place
32 Dave Nichols Place
33 Dave Jones Place
34 Lushe Shuler Place
35 John Johnson Place
36 Dr. Walter Sexton, in Mt. Judea
37 Mt. Judea General Store
38 Mt. Judea Post Office
39 Mt. Judea Dr Sexton’s Office
40 Mt. Judea School House
41 Mt. Judea Cotton Gin

There was a walking trail from Tarlton, down the mountain to Rev. Dan Hefley place at the head of Big Creek.

1 Dan Hefley Place
2 Lonnie Bryant Place
3 John Bryant Place
4 Johnny Bryant, Jr. Place
5 Jeffery Shuler Place
6 Joe Holt Place
7 Will Holt Place
8 Holt School House
9 Frank McCutcheon Place
10 Wes Berry Place
11 Dave Owen Place
12 Tubby Criner Place

Colleen Haynes Rongey recalls... As a child, I lived at the Woodard Homeplace a lot, where we picked blackberries and fruit from the old fields and orchards of the:

Walker Place
Wiser Place
Hefley Place
Old Beare Place
Old Stimson Place
Benton Place
Markey Place
Shuler Point

Thanks go to Oba Criner May of Richmond, California for recalling those places and families along the wagon road...and Colleen Haynes Rongey Thank You for naming the old homeplaces with the berry patches and abandoned orchards.