| thought I had gone off my bean for
wasting everything, and cutting out a road that no one could travel. I
told them that I was under the orders of their County Judge and that
some day in the near future we would have a good highway from Walnut
Ridge to Paragould. They said this was foolish talk, that no man could
make a road through this swamp; that it was the home of frogs and
snakes. People with good sense should stay off it!
Well, I just kept cutting out my road! I cut a log of good timber in bridge length for bridge timber. I had promised the people that I would repair the old bridges and make new ones if needed. I went to see my County Judge when my right of way was finished. I told him that I had to have a lot of bridge timber. He told me that there was no money for me to buy bridge timber with. I ask him if I could have some nails if any money came in. Then I told him that I was going to Stedman Hardware and buy me three or four kegs of nails. I would get the bridge timber! I came home and went to the big saw mills and made a trade with them to saw my logs on shares. I had them cut my half into bridge lumber, and then I put some men to hauling them! Before long, I had all the bridge lumber I could use! When I got all the lumber I could possibly use, I had the rest of my half cut into wagon stack and hauled it to Walnut Ridge and sold it for $12.50 a thousand. When I started my bridge work, the late A.A. Sturkei was the overseer. Preceeding me, he had built sixty bridges in the township. Every one that he had built had to be torn out and rebuilt. He had built them so high above the road bed that no one could get on them. I tore some out that were three feet above the road bed. I asked him why he built the bridges so high and he told me he thought that they would level up to the bridge! Everyone said that they did not know you could take timber out of a right of way and do as you please 40 |