Miscellaneous Bits & Pieces
Originally published in History & Traditions of Clay County
by Robert T. Webb
written & published in 1933
Transribed from the original work by Juli, misspellings and all.
One of the old passenger coaches held up by Jesse James is being used today for an informal club house by railroad officials of the Missouir Pacific railroad. It sits along the track one mile west of Corning.
The first still-and-grist-mill in Clay County was operated by William Whitaker on the St. Francis River. It was started ten years before either Sietz or Dalton had a ferry at Chalk Bluff.
One method of making flour, practiced in the early days, was that of beating the headed what over the edge of a barrel to separate the grain from the straw. Then the wheat was ground in a coffee grinder to make the flour. The first biscuits, usuelly served on on Sunday morning, were called "terrapins." Later when grist mills came in, one sixth of the grain was charged for milling.
Mrs. Alice Wright, mother of Victor Wright, Piggott, showed some of the neighbors how to can the first fruit they ever put up in 1881. Dick Copeland bought the frist glass fruit jars ever sold in Scatterville. They were half gallon jars and cost $4.50 a dozen.
Before cotton was ginned in Clay County women spun and wove the cloth for making clothes and in the sixties and seventies ten yeards was barely enough for one new dress.
In 1880 the population of Clay County was 7,191 whites and 22 negroes. By 1890 the population had reached 16,000 with a decrease of about half in negroes.
W. T. Gaskins, Piggott, has been a railroad employee for 44 years and has never, in that time, lost a day's work from ill health.
Jack Pollard, who died only recently, had a blacksmith shop near the present Pollard and often shod the horses of Jesse and Frank James when they were going south to hide out after one of their raids or train robberies.
John Gleghorn, father of J. M., Corning, on his way to the present district of Clay County in 1859, rode the first steamboat to sail up White River. J. M. later induced many people to come and settle near Knobel by giving them free land and seed.
Mrs. Nancy Payne, (wife of B. B.) was the only mid-wife between Chalk Bluff and Gainsville in the fifties when doctors were scarce, and charged only $2.00 for her services.
Ed Caldwell, living near Nimmons, still gets mail at Greenway because, as he says, all of his people have always had their letters addressed to "Greenway" or "Clayville." His father, his mother and his mother's people were pioneers.
Matt Harris, Piggott, organized the first Boy Scout troop in Arkansas, (1914.) The only one to disput the honor is Judge Friarson of Jonesboro, but Harris says Friarson has never been able to prove to him wrong.
Mrs. Zula Ward Thompson, Greenway, was the first Arkansas girl to fly an airplane.
Early furniture, bread boards, mixing bowls, looms and such things, were made by a man named Treadway in and around Greenway. T. A. Moore owns one of the looms today.
Old time shellrakers on Black River remember when a river tramp and his wife were drifting down the river in a dilapidated house boat, and while raking for muscles for bait the man found a huge black ball pearl. Not realizing its value the man left it in the cabin of the boat. His wife hailed a passing pearl buyer, expecting to get perhaps $5.00 for it. The pearl buyer offered her $6,000. All the woman could say was "$600" in a stunned way. Six hundred dollars was as far as her comprehension of money went.