A series of postcards sprang from the popularity "Lum and Abner" program including:
Dick Huddleston "Dick and his little woman. Dick has just returned from the County Seat."
Widow Abernathy Dick's granddaughter Nancy
Cabin and Boats for Rent "Good fishing at Pine Ridge"
Postcards of Waters now Pine Ridge and local characters from the "Lum and Abner" era and booklets are for sale at the Jot em Down Store and museum which features displays on local history and "Lum and Abner" memorabilia. The contract Post Office inside the store is still active. Postcards and a "Lum and Abner" display are also found in Mena, 18 miles to the west, at the Information Center (The railway depot). A monument in Janssen Park, Mena is dedicated to "Lum 'n Abner" the two hillbilly characters from the Golden Age of radio.
Street scene Pine Ridge Arkansas 1930s.
Left to right. The McKinzie store with Mr. A.A. McKinzie on the porch. Huddleston Store. Post Office. Huddleston house is the white house in the background. Postmaster's house. Hwy 88 going through town east-west. The road was paved in 1958 and widening cause many of the old buildings to be moved.
The post office in Waters opened in 1886 but has moved to a different location but still within this unincorporated village on the western side of Montgomery County. The town's named was changed officially in 1936. No gas station but two churches are still active as well as the 'Jot em Down Store and Museum'. School children from the area travel to Oden.
"Jot 'em Down Store, located Pine Ridge Ark., Got name from fact everything on strikly credit basis so Abner couldn't make mistakes in change. Props. Lum Edwards; Abner Peabody. (That's us.)" Reference: 256 page humorous hardback book 'Jot 'em Down Store Catalogue, Calendar & Game And Party Book For 1939 By Lum and Abner "Being a compilation of things about Pine Ridge, Arkansas, and also the best darn catalogue ever put out by a store."
"Pine Ridge Vital Statistiks fer 1938: POP. 94
BIRTHS: Twins fer Ernie Bickford and wife. DEATHS: Old Mr. Seestrunk"
"Grandpappy Spears'" counterpart "Cling" Alexander Clements (Clingman) WILLHITE was born 17 Feb 1857 near Oden, Montgomery, Arkansas and married Marget Ziler SINGLETON in 1886. "Cling" died 06 Aug 1938 and is buried at Oden.
Cling and Margaret moved from Oden to a farm in the Pine Ridge area c.1927 where they had their own fruit orchard, sheep, milk cow, geese and ducks. They used the feathers to make feather mattress and pillows. The nearby river served many purposes. The children took their baths there, it was also their swimming hole and sometimes the "Big Wash" once a week was done in the river.
"Sister Simpson" one of the many colorful characters featured on the popular Lum 'n' Abner radio show. As the town's busybody "Lookin after other fokses business" "Sister Simpson" didn't have any time for her own. Marget Willhite posed for these photographs. In real life Margaret spun wool and cotton into yarn weaved this into cloth and made clothes, blankets and socks for their thirteen children and even made her own lye soap. Cling made an "ash hopper" and filled it with ashes. Then poured water through which made the lye. The first drippings were let off to drain. Information courtesy of Bettie Dowler. Posted 14 Feb. 2000
Grand Pappy Spears - "Chief of Police"
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Kalup Iveehunt "The Blacksmith"
Mr. Weehunt is standing in the doorway at right with a hammer in his right hand, and a pair of iron tongs in his left, resting on his anvil. He is dressed in a light shirt and overalls and cap. Another man in the door at left is working on 2 large tires. There is a Hi-Plane Tobacco sign on the front of the blacksmith shop.
Hwy 88 more or less runs parallel to the Ouachita River from Pine Ridge to Pencil Bluff passing Pine Ridge. Dick Huddleston's Fishing Lodge. The names on the homemade wooden flat bottom canoes on the are: GRANDPAPPY SPEARS, LUM and ABNER, SQUIRE SKIMP, CEDRIC (YES MOM).
Street scene Pine Ridge
"Sister Simpson's Boarding House"
Sister Simpson Going to Milk.
Lum & Abner Jot'M Down Store
Arkansas Postcard Past by Steven Hanley has been a regular feature in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for many years in the section with the word games. Montgomery County postcards have been featured e.g.
4/20/99 Mount Ida, circa 1950. The square in the Montgomery County seat had few vacant parking spaces in front of the Ouachita Theatre, Whittington's Drug, the Mount Ida Cafe and a grocery and feed store.
6/23/99 Pine Ridge, circa 1940. Three of these boats on the Ouachita River near the Montgomery County community bear the names of characters from the popular Lum and Abner radio show.
8/21/99 Lum and Abner were not only characters on a famous radio show but they also put Pine Ridge, Ark., on the map. The Jot-M-Down Store was recreated from their radio humor to give tourists a stop in Montgomery County.
10/15/99 Pine Ridge, circa 1940 Among the characters made famous on the Lum and Abner radio show was Grandpappy Spears. Shown here fishing with his cane pole.2/20/2001 Pine Ridge, circa 1940. Grade-school pupils posed as the student body of "Pine Ridge University" for this humorous photo. The stars of the Lum and Abner radio show were "president" and "secretary" of this fictive institution of higher learning.
4/28/2001 Pine Ridge, circa 1940. Among the characters made famous by the Lum & Abner radio show was Sister Simpson, seen here feeding her chickens and hogs.
5/4/2001 Womble, circa 1910. The message on this card featuring the Hotel Caddo in Montgomery County read, "Leslie stayed here when he worked in the area. Mr. Brewer had a store here and his son died here and is buried in the cemetery just out of the town.
5/29/2001 Black Springs, 1884 This card was printed in about 1905, showing what was likely a frontier boarding home. The rambling Montgomery County establishment, heated by wood, would have offered room and board to travelers.
Pine Ridge, 1947 and Pine Ridge, ca. 1940 Elizabeth, "Abner's little women" was one of the many colorful characters on the Lum and Abner radio program.June 2008 1942 ribbon cutting ceremony at the Pine Tree Memorial Bridge in Mt. Ida, now known as the South Fork Bridge with a commemorative pine tree.
Postcard photo of sign reads - PINE RIDGE, Drive Keerful - Don't hit Our Young'uns, You all hurry back; "Dick."
Fishing at Pine Ridge in 1937
Penny Postcards
Montgomery Co. ARGenWeb Project
