By 1906 Ephraim and Martha Woodard had homesteaded a farm about two miles from the school, through the woods on the Falls Hollow Road off highway 123 about a half mile. The little Woodard girls crossed the Benton fields to walk to Tarlton School. Dorothy Woodard told me that her father EphraimWoodard blazed trees with his axe to see the trail when snow was on the ground, he built stile (steps) across the Benton's pasture fence and felled a tree across the branch for a foot log.

note: this branch is the beginning of Cave Creek on top of Lurton mountain and its beginning is the Woodard Pond at Tarlton.

The teacher pictured is believed to be either Silas Hamm, brother of GW Hamm, or Francis Jackson, a drum major in the Civil War who boarded with the Woodard family when he taught at Tarlton.

Later, around 1925, Russell Criner boarded with the Woodard's while he taught at Tarlton.

Three known students in the above picture:

Front row center with hair parted in the middle and a big grin, Fannie, age 11...
Fannie Woodard Taylor.

Front row left, Nellie, age 6...
Nellie Woodard Taylor.

3rd from right, Dullie, age 9...
Dullie Woodard Rosamond.

Other children in the photo are unknown. Family names of neighbors living in the Tarlton area in 1898, from an old Arkansas State Gazetteer, 1898...town of Spence, later named Lurton by Mrs. I. C. Sutton.

It goes like this: Spence, a settlement in Richland township, Newton County, 25 miles from Jasper, the county seat and 40 miles from Harrison, the nearest banking point. Russellville, 60 miles distant is the nearest shipping point. The Richland Township had only 14 families in the 1850 census. Most were Freemans and Standridges. However, in 1898 the business people were:

Casey, B. A. - Justice of Peace

Claxton, Z. T. - Blacksmith

Davis, Andrew - Constable

Dixon, C. - Carpenter

Jackson, F. M. - Justice of Peace

Leake, George - General Store, Saw and Grist Mill

Roberts, J. R. - Roduce

Wallace, Rev. B. F.

Wilson, W. H. - Blacksmith

If you can identify anyone, please let me know.

Thanks go to Colleen Haynes Rongey for sharing the above.