George Franklin Fuester

George was born in Canada July 8, 1858. I know nothing about his first 16 years. In the fall of 1873 he left Canada bound for Prattsville, Arkansas. He walked several hundred miles in the fall and winter and in the Spring he would hire out to a farmer along the way and help make that years crop the first year he got 12 dollars a month plus room board and laundry. The second year he got 14 a month earning a total of $208 on the trip. I read a journal he kept and it listed his expenses down to the penny. He arrived in Prattsville January 17, 1877 at age 18 years. I know nothing about the next fours years but on October 30, 1881 he married Mattie Carroll. This was Mattie's 25th birthday; she was 2 years older than George. A relative of Mattie's had settled on the Dyer Street land in Malvern several years before and built a cabin there. Between 1882 and 1895 they had 3 boys and 3 girls. The Cold Springs Dairy must have done right well cause they built a large house and many barns. The milk and butter were kept cool in a house built over a spring coming out the side of a hill. I can remember seeing this springhouse, smoke house, and an orchard. George Fuester was also a lay preacher. I have a bible he paid 17 dollars for in the 1880s. George died 27 years after coming to Malvern, on October 10, 1904, age 46. He was one of Malvern's leading citizens for a quarter of a century. He brought the Apostolic Faith to the Social Hill, Bismarck, Harp, and Central areas of Hot Spring County. George's best friend Johnny Clem and founder and owner of Clems Mill and Gin would leave Malvern on Saturday afternoon in a buggy and travel to the nearest Church on their circuit. One would stay at that church and the other would take the buggy to the next stop. They held services, performed weddings, preached funerals and held all day singing with dinner on the ground. The fried chicken, sweet taters and tater salad was all the pay they took. They would return to Malvern in the wee hours of Sunday night. He sold jillions of gallons of milk tons of butter and supplied the grocer stores with eggs and fryers, He sired 3 sons and 3 daughters and died without seeing any of his 28 grandchildren or his dream of starting an Apostolic Church in Malvern. His friend Johnny Clem helped start what is now the Assembly of God Church on Main Street. In 1930s it was a small shotgun style structure but once a year they would build a huge temporary structure we called a brush arbor and hold a summer time revival. We kids called them postolic. Now the forth generation after his death there is no trace of his life except the stuff that was passed down to me by my aunt. My aunt wanted to keep the journal till she died and in the confusion of cleaning out the house my cousin threw it away with boxes of old Christmas cards, postal card, etc. that her mama had saved. I live 7 miles as the crow flies from the gulf of Mexico and after the once a year creations of the sand castle contest have been obliterated by the next high tide there isn't no more of them left than there is of George Fuester's life, he left no tracks. His Great Grandson W. L. "Red" Gray Born on Cold Springs Dairy July 7, 1927