THE OLD LOG HOUSE

 

It was the Doss home in the 1800’s.  The log house was a hospital during the civil war.

  The house was located at Marks Mill, North of New Edinburg.  When the war was over, a man named William Thomas Doss came to Arkansas, stopped at Crossett and married a lady named Maratha Jeffers.  They lived in the old log house and raised their family there.

  William and Martha had nine children who were George Doss, Laura Doss, Mollie Doss, Ander Doss, Sam Doss, Will Doss, Julie Doss, Mattie and J    Jimmy Doss (who were twins).  All were born in the Log House.

  The oldest son, George, married Ira Ernest in 1895.  They lived across the road from his parents in a little three-room house.  They had three children born there who were, Ola Doss, Ore Doss and Lonnie Doss.  They moved back to the township at Macedonia Free Will Baptist Church until 1919, then back to the old log house for four years.

  Lonnie Doss Married Clara Bell Herring.  They lived in the log house.  Their oldest child, Marcelle, was born there.

  The log house had a hall twenty feet wide.  The staircase was in the hall and led to a large room above the hall.  There was a hole in the ceiling of the hall.  It was said that a Yankee was hiding up there during the war, and when the rebels were looking for the Yankees they heard a noise, shot up there and killed the Yankee.  The battle was fought all around the house.

  There were holes in the yard waist deep where shells had landed.

  When Martha Doss died, she was buried out behind the old log house in the Marks Cemetery and William Thomas Doss was buried in Unity Cemetery at Crossett.

  There are a lot of great stories about this old house because it was a hospital for wounded men.  The battle was all around the Marks Mill.  Everyone knew the old house in 1922 and all were sorry it was gone after it was torn down.

  There were three pear trees south of the house and Clara Bell Doss made pear preserves in the 1920s.

  New Edinburg was a small town so if that old log house could talk, it could tell some tremendous tales.

  It was told when people would dig for money; they would see a light in the shell holes.  How true?  No one knows.  They said a child six or seven years old could stand up under the floors.  Could the Yanks have hidden there too?

  You would have had to live there to know the value of this old log house.  When it was torn down it was a great loss to Cleveland County for it was truly a landmark.

  On those days of long ago, the air was as clear blue as the water wells they used.  But all is gone now except the memories.

                                                            Written by Clara Bell Doss

 

Submitted by Billie Herring  bherring@Exchange.FULLERTON.EDU

Note from Billie Herring:

Clara Bell Doss was my aunt, the sister of my dad, Troy Herring.  She was born in 1906 and in 1994 (think that was the year).  She knew a lot of history of Cleveland County and Drew County.  She sent me this article she had written a few years before she died.  .  She is buried in Prosperity Cemetery in Herbine.

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