WPA Interview

Early Settlers Personal History

1. Wharton Carnall

2. 13 North 7th Street, Fort Smith, Arkansas

3. Real Estate Business

4. Spent a few years in helping my father in the newspaper business, a home paper known as "The Fort Smith Elevator." When I was about thirty years old, father sold the paper business out to other parties, and we have given our entire time to this, our real estate business.

5. I was born on April the 10th, 1862.

6. My place of birth was in a country home about six miles from Fort Smith on a little prairie, which we all know as, "Massard Prairie", in Sebastian County, Arkansas.

7. I have never been married, and it is too late now.

9. My entire life has been spent in and about Fort Smith Arkansas; I have never had a home outside of this Fort Smith District.

12. Most homes were built of pine lumber, the boards were cut one inch thick by twelve inches wide for the walls of the house and nailed to the crude frame work which consisted of a two by eight and sixteen or eighteen feet in length which the boards are nailed to at the bottom end and another piece of lumber two inches thick by four inches in width of the same length of this bottom reach or tie, to which the top end of these boards are nailed to, thus forming the walls of the house. Most houses were covered or roofed with boards which were riven or split out of timber, the men would go to the woods, with saw, ax, frow, and mallet, after finding a tree that would split straight and was of a tough fiber, they proceeded to make the boards for the roof of the house. They fell the tree, then cut the log into the desired lengths, which was usually about eighteen inches long. Then they split these cuts, removed the bark from the timber to be used and then it is split into pieces about 3 or 4 inches thick and 4 to 6 inches wide called bolts. Then they are ready to rive. The board maker takes his frow and mallet and proceeds to make the boards. A good board maker, made about fifteen hundred boards per day. Some were built of logs, some of stone, some of brick. The stone and brick were obtained in our own community. Most chimneys were built of stone, quite a few were made of brick and a few of strips and clay.

13. Most people used coal oil, (kerosene), for lights; though some used tallow candles.

14. Electric lighting was first used about 1892.

15. In my early days wood was used for fuel by every family. Coal came into use after some 20 years by just a few, in the early nineties natural gas was brought to Fort Smith and most people are now using it for fuel.

16. Corn and wheat for bread, meats were pork, beef, and mutton. Of the wild meats we had the deer, turkey, rabbit, quail, coon, and squirrel, fish were very plentiful, and no one depended on wild meats for food, though they served the wild meats often.

17. Most of our early clothes were manufactured at home; cotton and wool were both used in the making of clothes for the entire families. The fiber was first carded into rolls, took to the spinning wheel, where these rolls were spun into thread, then it was put into the loom which was a home made construction, and there it was woven into cloth, of which the family garments were made. Some of this thread that was turned out of the spinning wheel was used for knitting the stockings and sox for the family. This knitting was done with the use of four slender steel needles. Most of this cloth manufacturing was performed by the mothers with the help of the girls in the home as soon as they became old enough to do the work.

18. The courtship in my early days was about the same as they are today. When young folks get married, and some times they were not so young,

the people of the community came together with old tin pans, tin buckets, cow bells, shot guns, or anything we could make a big noise with, and we went to the place where the newly weds were staying. There we kept up a great noise till late hours and sometime all night; we had a real old time Arkansas shivaree, and quite often we demanded the treats from the bridegroom.

19. For some years after the Civil War any articles of food we had to buy, was very expensive. The people in our community did not buy them. We substituted those things when we could and otherwise we did without.

20. It was the general custom for those who were more fortunate to share their eatables with those who were in need. Some man in the community would take his team and wagon and go to those who had something they could give in the way of food or clothing, and it was delivered to the needy one, or ones, as the case may be.

21. Cotton, corn, wheat, oats, sorghum, Irish and sweet potatoes were some of the plants grown by the early settlers of this part of Arkansas. During the Civil War, a regiment of soldiers who were stationed at Fort Smith taught the people here in this part of Arkansas to eat tomatoes. Soon after this, tomatoes were grown and used as a food. The horse, mule, cow, hog, sheep, cat and dog were some of the domestic animals raised by the early settlers.

22. The farming tools or implements were very few, being homemade, were also very crude. The plow, which was made of wood and the farmer, cut his own pattern with an ax, that too was homemade, and fastened a strip of steel, which was made by the community blacksmith, or sometime the farmer was handy enough to shape the piece of steel himself, to the wooden plow stock to cut, turn, and cultivate his land. The hoe also was homemade, and the harrow it was made at home by the owner or sometime by his neighbor who was more skilled than he was. After my father came home from the war between the states, and learning that several army guns had been plugged and thrown into an old well, and as iron of any kind was so very scarce here, at that time, and no money to buy anything with, as every one knows, our money was of little value, and most of us had no hard money (gold or silver), he went to work and drew those old guns from this well, took the steel and made a set of harrow teeth, for the frame he had hewn from some pieces of oak timber and that was his farming implements. Others got scrap iron anywhere could to make their crude tools.

23. In 1875 Limberg Bro. started the business of making wagons here in Fort Smith giving employment to 4 or 5 men. The making of hard wood furniture was first made here by Sparks and McCloud on First and "I" street in the year 1888, employing 6 or 7 men, and E. B. Bright and Co. built and for some time, operated a mill for grinding corn and wheat, in the year 1868 on 10th and Garrison Avenue, giving work to about seven men.

24. Some of the wild plants used as food or for flowers were, the blackberry, strawberry and the dewberry, the onion, poke for greens, we chewed the sweet gum resin as that was all the chewing gum we had, and sassafras roots and the chips from the spice wood tree, were used to make a tea; which we substituted for coffee. We used sorghum molasses for sugar.

26. When a fire alarm was proclaimed, and that was not by phone as to day, but by the screams of a woman, by firing of guns, ringing of bells or tooting the horn; and everyone who was large enough to help grabbed a bucket and joined the crowd some went to the well of wells, nearest the fire and drew up the water, the rest formed a line from the well to the fire and the water was thus conveyed to the fire. Every home in the town was equipped with a ladder to be used in case of fire.

27. There is a hill about six miles south of Fort Smith called Bald Knob because of its almost barren top. There is a hill called Spring Hill; which is about nine miles east of Fort Smith, so called because of its springs of water on and around it. We too have the Wild Cat Mountain, so called because the mountain was the home of many wild cats. My mother in 1857 came into possession of a large track of land on this Wild Cat Mountain and it was kept as a family possession until 1898. My mother was Miss Franses H. Carr, before her marriage to my father. The sanatorium, for the tubercular patients, a branch of the State Sanatorium, at Booneville, Arkansas, is built on this Wild Cat Mountain. This mountain is four and one half miles North East of Fort Smith.

28. The first hotel in Fort Smith was built on First Street and Garrison Avenue. The stagecoach station was built before my time at North Third and "A" Streets, and covered three lots, with a 150 ft. front by 140 ft. back to an alley, and was later transferred into a wagon yard about 1878. There was a boat landing at the foot of Garrison Avenue; I do not know when boats first landed hers.

29. My early schooling was about the same as the rest of the country boys and girls. The school house was a one room house built of logs cut out here and there to let in the light, and no way to close these openings; therefore we only had short terms of school about 2 or 3 months in the year while weather was warm, the house being to open to have school when the weather was cold, and too, the children had to help make and gather the crops; hence our schools were taught in July, August and sometimes the first-half of September. The seats were logs split in halves and two large holes bored near each and of this half log and sticks of timber are trimmed and driven into these holes to form the legs for the seats, and that was the kind of seats we used in those days.

30. My first school was three miles south from my home in this (Sebastian) county.

31. My teacher, that is my first teacher, was Mr. Bugg. In my early life, I was not a healthy child and did not get to go to school as other children in those early days of my life. I only attended three or four days, of this my first school to this Mr. Bugg. My father was a well educated man, having been raised in the state of Virginia and had finished in some of the best schools in Virginia: Therefore he taught me. I came to town, Fort Smith, to school when I was yet a young lad, about thirteen years old, and received about twelve months schooling. The school I attended was the Belle Grove School. It is still used as a school building and is made of brick, and located on the 600 block between North Sixth and North Seventh Streets here in Fort Smith. My teacher here was a Miss Wheatly. I had six miles to go each morning and night while attending this Belle Grove School. In the years 1881 and 1882 I attended school at Salem, Arkansas, and the name of the school was Buckner College built on what is now known as 71, a State Highway, and 24 miles south of Fort Smith; though the little settlement is no longer called Salem but Wicherville (Witcherville).

32. Funds were provided partly by taxation, and sometimes it was run on a tuition plan. The tuition being one dollar per twenty days.

33. The school books used in the early days were Readers, McGuffey's Speller, Webster's (Blue-back); Arithmetic, Ray's. Writing was also taught in the schools. Webster's dictionary was the general reference book.

34. The reading matter of my early days consisted of very few books, magazines, and newspapers. When I was a young fellow I read very few books or papers of any kind, but I do remember the names, or titles of a few of the magazines i.e., Goddy's (Godey's) Magazine, Youth's Companion, Ladies Book and Liltrall's (Littell's) Living Age. My father at one time had many of the early books, but they some how got away from the family during the Civil War period. I have one book of my father's, the title of which is, Works of Alexander Pope, written by Mr. Pope in 1766. Containing both prose and poetry. Authors and dates were always hard for me to remember.

35. At the stagecoach station on what is now North Third and 'A' Street.

36. Early Horse Cars were first used in our town in 1888. Trolley cars were substituted ten years later in 1898. In the year of 1933 the buses took the place of the trolley car.

38. I saw my first train at Altus, Arkansas, in 1877. The railroad had only been built as far up as Altus at that time. I went with some people, who were going down to the end of the line to take the train, purposely to see a train.

41. The first public building for our theatrical performances was built of brick by subscriptions or donations from the public, on the corner of North Eighth and 'A' Street in 1883. The building is occupied by the Fort Smith Gas Company and the Eagle Lodge at the present time and is in fairly good repair.

42. Christmas, in memory of the birth of Christ on December the twenty fifth of December. It was a great day for every one young and old. Many people went to church on that day as they do now; every family had their best dinner of the year on that day. It to was a day when gifts were exchanged between friends and loved ones. The 4th of July was always celebrated each year in memory of our nation's birthday, or our freedom from under English rule. This was celebrated with bands playing, flags flying, public speaking, dancing, eating and drinking, and doing any and everything that every body might have a good nice time.

Questions 8,10 and 11 were passed up because Mr. Carnall is a native of this state and 25, 37, 39, 40, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, and 59 because he could not answer those questions.