Meredith Martin is a senior history student at Arkansas State College in Conway, AR and she wrote me about the history of Lurton to present as a Senior Project...calling it the Rise and Fall of Lurton, Arkansas and I have referred her to the Sutton Family and Lloyd Sutton who is related to both the Suttons and Smiths...

This is some correspondence in February 2000...

Letter to Meredith by Harry Sutton 2/17/00

Meredith L. Martin

Dear Miss Martin,

I am Harry W. Sutton, the only living direct descendent of I. C. Sutton and Cornelia A. White Sutton. I was the fourth child born September 15 1919 to the union, and was born in the big two story white house there in Lurton.

First a little history about my family. My father, Irving Clarence (IC) Sutton was born July 14 1890 in Salem Oregon. His parents moved to Zion, IL when he was quite young. The move was primarily for the health of his mother and the healing qualities of the church in Zion. My father's schooling was all in Zion. He only completedthe tenth grade and never went to college.

He went to work for a company that built ditch digging machines and continued his education by reading and applying it to his job and became an engineer for the company at an early age. He then became a representive for the company and and was sent to all parts of the U S to train and or repair the equipment that was shipped to the various cities. In his travels he met my mother, Cornelia White, in Oklahoma and they were married March 23, 1910. My older brother Irving was born on December 30, 1910 in Oklahoma City. Charles, Lloyd's father, was born in Zion, IL April 5 1913. My sister Mary Minerva born before Lurton, May 6, 1916. I was next, as stated above, then my brother Alburtus (Burt) was born in Russellville, AR November 9, 1921.

Now the reason for moving to the Ozarks. When my two older brothers were just babies, my father's work took him (and his family) to many large cities, primarily in the eastern part of the U S. My father built a portable house that could be put together and taken apart using bolts and nuts and could be loaded on a flatcar on the train and shipped to where his job was, and their household goods was put in a boxcar and shipped along with the house. I am told that the second brother was extra healthy and weighed 30+ pounds when three months old. Mom got so fed up moving and lugging the baby that she told my dad she wouldn't care if she was 50 miles from a railroad.

Well, to make a long story short my dad took her up on it and made a trip to the Harrison Land Office in Harrison, AR. While there a fellow came in and they were talking he said he had came in to list 60 Acres that had a log house, a barn, a good spring and several acres cleared land and good pasture. Dad told the man if he could get to a railroad within a reasonable time and if it wouldn't cost more than $5.00 to get there he might be interested. Of course he was assured that was no problem and the property was approximately 50 miles from a railroad so a deal was made. The man's name may have been Brace because everybody called it the Brace Place.

Dad returned back to his job and spent about another year working, then made the move to the mountains. At this time, about the year of 1915, there was not any known roads or maintained highways to that part of Newton County, AR There were trails used by wagons and horseback riders and the closest and most direct route by rail to their destination was from St. Joe, AR. Upon their arrival in St. Joe arrangements were made for three wagons to truck their belongings to the "Brace Place". The party consisted of mom, dad, Grandma White and the two young boys, along with trunks, luggage, baby buggies, a pump organ, mother's violin and numerous household goods, and the drivers of the wagons.

From St. Joe they crossed the Buffalo River at Wollem, crossed Horn Mountain, then Cave Creek and up Shuler Point to the Tarlton Flats on top of the mountain and on West of the Hamm place, which later became Lurton, about two miles to their new home. On the journey across the mountains they had to double up the teams to get the heavy loaded wagons up the steep grades. At this time I understand that Mom wasn't too sure she had made the very best of decisions about being 50 miles from a railroad. They did survive and dad tried farming for a year and said he nearly starved out.

The closest Post Office at that time was located at Moore, AR, which was approximately 10 miles east as the crow flies and the mail was distributed by horseback to the homes. I have a letter in my archives at home, addressed to my dad at Moore, AR from his company, asking him to return to work. This he did but only for a short time.

In the meantime, as World War I was in full swing, the Bass and Cave Creek area had working lead and zinc mines, good creek bottom farming land and appealed greatly to the Hamm Family, and they made arrangements to make a move there and my dad went in debt to purchase their mountain property which later became Lurton.

The move from the Brace Place, along with my new sister Mary transpired and a new home was established. At that time the only buildings there was the two story home place, a barn, the general store building which was just outside the south front yard gate and the original Rosamond Sawmill building located between what later became the hotel and garage. It was in the old sawmill building that the first industry was established. The very first (the sawmill was no longer there) was a grist mill. Saturdays was "mill" day and people from far and near brought their grain in on horses wagons and later strip down motor cars. Primarily Model T's. The year was now the early 20's, and I can recall my brother Irving running the grist mill, grinding the grains to the various customers requirements. Wheat into flour, corn in meal for cornbread or cracked for chickens, and most all other animals. Back to the sawmill. I have been told that it was used to cut a major portion of the rough lumber that was used in construction of the Sutton home place.

Let me back up just a might here. I was about to leave out one of the most important episodes. My mother decided we needed mail service in the area and made application to the postal department for a post office. She was required to submit five names for the department to make a selection from. One of the names was the married name of her half sister Lurton and it was selected. So now we have a Lurton, Arkansas on the map.

Next still in the mid '20's, my dad begun making chairs in part of the sawmill building. They were mostly of the "Ladder Back" variety and began to hire his first full time employees. The Nichols family from the Big Creek area were the first. The "chair factory" consisted of a wood turning lathe and Henry Nichols was an expert at turning out the various chair parts. It was a great pleasure to see the chips fly from the raw stock and it looked almost like magic the way Henry could duplicate the parts. Dad assembled numerous special machines for boring. sawing, mortising and even designed a special crude tool for making the white oak "splits" used in weaving the chair bottoms. Hickory bark was also used for that purpose. In fact I have a school chair at home that was a product of those days and it has a hickory bark bottom in it and the chair is as solid as when it was first made. The Nichols family occupied several tents on the bench that was above the chair factory and were the first permanent settlers in Lurton proper.

Work had began on Highway 7 and even though it was a very crude road it could be traveled from Russellville to Harrison. Lurton being half way between the two towns became a place for people to spend the night.Today you can travel between the two towns in a little more two hours but back then by the time you were pulled out of numerous mud holes and fixed several flat tires made Lurton an admirable place to spend the night. Highway 7 was completed before Highway 65 and people traveling from Harrison to Little Rock by car had to use # 7. Jasper Mountain was a bugger and also the mountain to "Bugger Hollow" to the south was about the same. As a result our home became more or less a hotel and we kept lots of travelers. Also around this time Freeman Springs had built a resort hotel and became a very popular place.

Even though Lurton itself didn't have a lot of people living right in the area at this time, the "woods" were full of people in all directions in a very small radius and business was good. One of the first homes to be built was by my mother's cousin, Lloyd Spencer. It was a summer home and was located directly across the road and up on the hill above our well. (Yvonne and I lived there when we were first married). My dad then built two rent houses in the same area and things began to happen. My dad's brother Jayson Sutton "Jay" moved in the area and built the garage, service station and cafe just to the north of the chair factory, this was in the mid '20's and the community got together and constructed the new school and community building and more new homes were built on the hillside above the road and more tents were also lined near the houses.

Also the Lurton general store was moved across Highway 123 and reconstructed into a large general store and carried just about anything people needed. The post office was also going great. The store bought all kinds of roots, like gin sang, may apple and many others kinds that I cannot remember and shipped them to their destination by parcel post. The store also bought cream and had testers for determining the amount of butterfat which also determined the grade or quality. Also eggs and about anything that was of value was purchased from the farmers and either shipped by parcel post or delivered to town and exchanged for other products or sold outright.

I would like to put specific dates on all this but the best I can do is to generalize the time. However, we are now approaching the year 1929. That is the year of big changes. The early part of '29 was very prosperous for my father and he was looking forward to making Lurton a well known village. He hired the county surveyor and layed the town of Lurton into lots and blocks and streets and had maps and blueprints published and put on county records.

Also, 1929 was the year my dad made arrangements to purchase a rough turned handle mill that was located at Bass, AR from the W.E. Bruner and Sons Handle Company that had their main plant located at Heber Springs, AR at the time. A building was constructed just west of the home place and the equipment was moved from Bass to Lurton.

Miss Martin, I am going to send this much of my narration now. I am just getting to the most important part of my Lurton experiences and I want to compose the rest in a word processing program instead of the draft for e- mail I am using with this writing. I can then copy and paste for future e- mail and I think it will be easier to preserve what I have wrote for future references. Also, I must send a copy of this to at least Lloyd and Colleen or I would be in "BIG TROUBLE".

Harry Sutton

Colleen Letter to Harry/ 2/2000

fwd Lloyd & Meredith

Harry...Thank you, thank you, thank you...

You have put some pieces of the Lurton puzzle together for me... and created others...

By the way, I have a copy of a letter written by Elsa McElroy Gilmore from Lurton dated 1927 and she tells of Walter being the first teacher at the new Lurton School, about the singing at the schoolhouse and the quartet of singers of her and Walter and the Suttons and the Freeman girls. I need to write to Erma about this and see if she remembers this time.

Mrs Elta McElroy Gilmore was writing to her sister and told about the time their father Mr. McElroy came through Lurton with his team and wagon and stayed the night on his way to Russellville and back, and on his way back home, he stopped and took his grandson, Robert Gilmore home with him to McElr oy Gap for a few days. Robert wrote of the songs he played on his grandpa McElroys, victrola... Elta said they had a Christmas program at the school house that year.

It was while they lived there in the white house later used by Irving and Ruby (I think, it may have been the rent house next door to them) she said it was across from the store, so could have been any of them at the time...

Harry, exactly where was the first general store located in relation to your white house? Out the gate by 123? Or out the gate by #7? Lloyd thinks it was out in the middle of the forks of NO 7 and 123 because of the gas pump being still out in the center of the road in the photos...I have a picture of my mother and our twins in 1940 with the gas pumps in the middle of the two roads and I think that was put there for convenience in filling up ICs trucks...but don't know for sure...Just curious.

Also, have had inquiries from the Nichols family about (Ina Rosamond and Nichols's grandchildren) about the Nichols family in Lurton. Did they stay there or move back to the creek? Also, she said her ggggrandmother married OLD man John Bristow and lived with him on the old Bristow place until he died and she moved back to the creek...(The Bristows called the woman Old Lady Nichols and the Nichols family called him Old Man Bristow) I know Mr. John Bristow worked for IC there in the general store until he was quite old...

After Mr John Bristow died at the Bristows old house and Charlie and Nora Bristow family moved in the house, one Easter Sunday in the early 1940s, after Sunday School at the Lurton Schoolhouse, a bunch of Lurton families went over to Nora and Charlie Bristows for a big dinner..the adults cooked and served food and visited and the children (about twenty of us) ran and played and went about a half mile back on their place to the Old Beare Place.. .the boys started talking "Nasty" and saying what they were going to do to me (and the other girls) if we hid in the corner playing Hide and seek...so I ran away (with my white Easter shoes on and white dress, and ran through the woods to the Bristow's house where the adults were...(I remember thinking of how I could get out of this situation... and I was embarrassed and hoped to die but I didn't)

Back at the house, the boys were laughing and telling everybody, " We don't know what happened, Colleen just ran off through the woods and we couldn't find her...and told me, "We were just joking, we didn't mean to scare you" (but I KNEW better...) My heart was beating a mile a minute...and I literally ran across a branch and didn't get my feet wet...these boys were Stanley Smith and Arvil Bristow...(I was about 10)...But I do know where the Old Beare Place was. (grin)

The Suttons affected my life in a lot of ways...In fact, you know that I went to Houston to live with my Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Coleman Haynes and join the Cadet Nurse Corps when I graduated in 1945 from Deer...the war got over and they discontinued the cadet program, so I came back to Lurton with my footlocker and nurses watch and stayed home that summer and worked in IC Sutton's office with Lola Dollar...I was ICs secretary and wrote his letters and kept his land map up to date and did errands and even helped put up the mail, Mrs Sutton was not working in the PO that much by then...and that summer, I got to know your dad, Mr. I. C. Sutton...He was a very intelligent and caring person. He and I always had a good repor and he always had a come back with anything I said... He tried to find a job for the people and he worked on that Lurton Community until the day he left...

One day that spring, your sister Mary Thompson came by the office and told me she and her husband John and the baby Jeanette were leaving for California and they had room for me to ride with them and help with Jeanette, If I wanted to do this, for free...

So I went to the mill and asked my mother, she said,"Ask your daddy," (He worked there, too...Dad said, "Ask your mother...) so I ran to our old house and packed a suitcase and left with John and Mary that afternoon heading down the mountain for Anaheim, California. I had a girlfriend Aline Harrington Pritchett from Deer High School who lived there and she had asked me to come out for a visit, so I did that and stayed there all summer...Got homesick for the mountain and my friends...

Rode the bus home and worked a couple more months for IC, then, when school started and the boys all went away to school (Ark Tech), I left for Ft. Smith where I lived with Aunt Minnie Woodard Freeman and later met Paul Rongey, married and left Arkansas for good...But never really got over leaving Lurton Mountain behind.

This year, with the event of the email, have heard from many early families through their great and gg grandchildren, with many questions left unanswered by their deceased family members about when they all lived there one Lurton Mountain..

So now am trying to put together some of the story of the Rosamond 's for one of their gggrandaughters...(where they lived, early, the murder of Mr. Rosamond)

A Question for you, Harry:

Did the Rosamonds move their sawmill stuff over to my Grandpa Woodard's Pond a nd set it up or who did that? Someone cut the raw wood for his house there and I thought it was the Rosamond boys...But maybe someone else was doing the work by then.

When my parents moved in to the Cabin by the Pond there beside the pond in 1932, Phyllis was one year old and I was three and they there was a giant sawdust pile beside our house. Thelma Awbrey Gregoire tells me she remembers a time when she and I and my cousin Lloyd Haynes made tunnels in this sawdust pile and Grandma Woodard made us quit playing in them...when we were around 8 or 10...

Again, thanks for the Sutton letter...and I look forward to the next one. I am sure Lloyd does too...Hope you and Yvonne are having a wonderful Scottsdale season...Take care. Colleen

Colleen H. Rongey
529 Stewart Avenue 
New Orleans, LA 70123
504-737-8459

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