WPA Interview
Interview done by: Harrell Martin, Greenwood, Sebastian 1/2/42.
Transcription Editor's Note: Census records variously list this person as Chester H. Nichols, Chesley H. Nichols and with the
middle name Hudson. This was confirmed by descendants still living in the area.
Early Settlers Personal History
1. Chirly Hudron Nicholas, Jr. (Chesley Hudson Nichols, Jr.)
2. Greenwood, Arkansas Route 4
3. Mr. Nichols is still an active farmer.
4. He has farmed since he was large enough. He homesteaded the farm he now lives on and has lived on since 1886.
He had to go to Dardanelle, Arkansas, to file claim for homestead.
5. He was born on June 4, 1866.
6. He was born in Harden County, Tennessee.
7. He was married to Martha Grey on September 20, 1885, in Greenwood, Arkansas Sebastian County.
8.-9. He came to Arkansas in 1873. He lived at Mt. Zion, which is now known as Milltown, until his marriage in 1885.
10. Came from Tennessee to Arkansas in a wagon walking three horses and had to cross the river on a steamboat. It was the first steamboat he
had ever seen.
11. He came to Arkansas with his father, mother, brothers, and sisters. They had been informed that anyone could get rich quick in Arkansas
on account of natural resources and plenty of land being offered to homesteaders, and they could hardly wait to arrive in Arkansas, afraid
that all of the land would be taken.
12. The house was built out of logs, with dirt floor, split boards for doors, the roof was constructed of polls, sod, grass, and clay, and
chimneys were made out of sticks and dirt, very little furniture was used, and what they did have was homemade. The beds were constructed
out of split logs and fastened to the walls in 1890. He built a box house out of rough lumber. In 1924, he built a frame house.
13.-14. Tallow dips and candles were used for lighting. They were made at home. In 1895, he bought a kerosene lamp. In 1924, he bought
a gasoline lamp, and it was used until 1938, he purchased an Aladdin lamp.
15. Wood was the only source of heat until 1938. He started burning coal. In the early day they used flint, cotton, and powder to start fires.
16. They bought very few groceries. Their principal food was milk, butter, and biscuits on Sunday morning. Wild hogs were plentiful.
They did not fatten hogs on grain as they do now. When pork was wanted, they would take a gun and go to the woods and hunt those wild hogs.
17. All of their clothes were homemade. Clothes made by spinning wheel and loom. Homespun cloth was sold for $.50 per yard, and the cloth
that was shipped in from other places sold for $.75 per yard.
18. A bunch of the boys and girls would run away to the Choctaw Nation to get married and it was very frequent.
19.-20. There was very little food or clothing bought in the early days. It was home grown or homemade, and if there was a surplus of
one commodity it was traded to a neighbor for a greater necessity.
21. The crops in the early days consisted of corn, cotton, oats, wheat, and potatoes. The first tomatoes Mr. Nichols remembered eating
was 1885. They were used principally for making soup. They had sheep, cows, goats, and mules.
22. Their early farm implements were practically all homemade, and very seldom used more than on horse for plowing. They used single stock,
hoe, and used paw paw woods to make handles for the hoes. He bought a one-horse turning plow at Ft. Smith in 1885, for $5.00.
23. There was a cotton gin in Mr. Nichols community. It was a horse powered gin with buckets on a belt to carry the cotton in and instead of
an upward press on it, it now was a downward press and very often had to be tromped with the but.
24. The wild plants that were very common for the food then were lambs quarter, poke salad, tongue, grass, and sassafras.
26. In the early days small bushes or sprouts were used to fight fires either to wipe the fires out or to clear a path in front of the fire,
to serve as a fire guard. If a building should catch on fire, water was used, and if water was not handy, then the building burnt down and
later it was learned that a wet quilt or blanket was a good thing to use.
27.-28. Unanswered.
29. The schoolhouses were built of logs with dirt floors and heated with a chimney usually large enough to cover almost one side of
the building. Had four seats in the schoolhouse arranged so to make a square and the teacher stood in the middle. Had about twenty
pupils enrolled.
30. The school was Mt. Zion, now known as Milltown in 1873.
31.-32. The teacher's name was Jennie Erwin. She was paid $25 per month, and there was a small school tax assessed, but was not to exceed
two mills.
33.-34. There were only four textbooks at that time - reader by McGuffey, and arithmetic by Rays, and grammar. The Bible was all the
reading material they had in their home.
35.-36. Unanswered.
37. The first automobile was seen at Burnsville (Burnville), Arkansas in 1892, had wheels similar to a buggy and had a motor on top.
38. The first train was seen at Greenwood, Arkansas in 1889. All the people were in town for miles around to see the "Iron Horse" as a
lot of people called a train at that time.
39.-40. Unanswered.
41. At the close of each school term in the spring, there was an entertainment sponsored by the local boys and girls, and some of the
older people would take part.
42. And sometimes a traveling stock show would come through the county and put on performances for a week at a time. Rodeos were a very
common entertainment for community meetings. About all of the celebrations were thanks givings. All the people would meet at a some point,
usually at the schoolhouse, and dinner would be served picnic style.
43.-46. Unanswered.
47. In 1880, there was a man that stole a horse, and the people had met to lynch him, but there was one or two men kept pleading with
them not to do it on account that the man was insane.
48.-55. Unanswered.
56. There were three boys and four girls born to this union.
57. Six of whom are living:
Ella David, Mansfield, Arkansas;
Lennox Nicholas, Greenwood, Arkansas, Route 4;
Hudson Nicholas, Greenwood, Arkansas, Route 4;
Fred Nicholas, Detroit, Michigan;
Lela Smith, Greenwood, Arkansas, Route 4;
Clarice Smith, Greenwood, Arkansas.
58. There are twenty-four grandchildren living and three dead and one great grandchild.
Roulene Gordon, Greenwood, Arkansas, Route1;
Aylune Craig Barber, Arkansas, Route 1,
Leon Smith, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
By Chris Mickle, Class of 2006
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