Cotton in Corning

Cotton wagon, Corning, AR.  “Bringing cotton to market, Corning, Ark.” “1911”.  From copy.  (Akers).

Cotton wagon, Corning, AR.  “1910, The old Corning Bank building, Chas. Daniels had office upstairs”.  From copy.  (Akers).

Cotton Was King, 1910

The proud owner of this stalk of cotton, Mr. Comton, was a tenant on the Ring farm of J. M. Oliver, and was all too happy to display a well-loaded stalk of cotton from his field.  The wagon was posed in the center of Main street between Oliver and Company and St. James Hotel No. 2 with the hotel that boast as "Good salt and toothpicks as any hotel" in the background.  Extending to the West Second street one can see the typical four room rent house of the era, bought by E. L. Holloway and moved to his lot at 202 Polk, nt [sic] to the old Miller house built by the father of Meta Keller from lumber sawed in Chicago.  The home was bought by the Bee family and featured a winding staircase and interior woodwork that was far better than the usual Corning variety.  It was moved to the rear of the lot when Brooks Sheeks established his lumber company on the site, and was later razed.

White Cotton Mountain

"The dry Fall of 1902 let cotton raisers pick cotton day after day and more cotton piled in on the Sheeks-Stephens Gin at the corner of Fourth and Market than they could handle.  Finally, with all the gin stalls filled and cotton wagons still bringing in more, there was only one thing to do -- so seed cotton was piled under open sky to be ginned later.  The background of this scene is interesting since the brick building at the left is the only picture existing of the first brick jail that was built on Chestnut Street.  The brick was dug and burned in a kiln on the property West of the town square and the jail was built in the early 80's [sic], after the county was divided into Eastern and Western Districts.  The jail was condemned in the early part of the 20th Century and replaced by the present jail on the corner of West Fourth and Chestnut Streets."

Phoenix Cotton Oil Co. where depot once was in Corning.  From copy.  (Akers).

Submitted by Daniel Moore