This may be the most interesting part of the book, especially with it's description of life in those times. ____________________________________________________________ This information graciously contributed by Joe George: jgeorge@northcoast.com You can return to the main table of contents for this Person family document by going to the books section of the Ark. USGW archives. You can also get a full copy of the document by contacting Joe. USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation. ____________________________________________________________ EDWARD RANDOLPH PERSON A6 EDWARD RANDOLPH PERSON was a native of Southampton County, Viginia, born January 15, 1855 near Capron. He was the son of James Henry and Ann Elizabeth Darden Person. He was reared on the family farm. They had both slaves and money but at the close of the Civil War the slaves were freed and the wealth was gone when the Yankee soldiers ransacked the south. James Henry and Ann Elizabeth died after the close of the war. The children were each appointed a guardian and were placed in various relatives' homes to live. They had to work very hard. Aristocracy was still practiced as the men were required to wear coats and ties while eating their meals even though they were working in the fields. Edward Randolph was known as 'Poor Sore Sam' as a child because obviously he had so many sores on his body. He was the second oldest son and was sent to Uncle Peter's house to live. He said that he decided that a laboring man did not need to dine in state or practice the customs of the rich. As a result, without telling his family of his plans, he left home to ramble over the United States. There is no data when he left Virginia but it is known that he was still a young man. He traveled through 21 states before settling in Arkansas. He traveled via boat up the Arkansas river from Mississippi. He stopped off at old Neely community in Yell County eight or ten miles on the river below Dardanelle. The year was about 1880. A muzzle-loading rifle, a bulldog and 55 cents in his pocket were his sole possessions. He left a mule in Mississippi and later went back to reclaim it. After he had lived in Yell County awhile his relatives in Virginia advertised in the Kansas City Star newspaper for information concerning his whereabouts. Dr. Norbern Jackson, Sr., of Petit Jean mountain, also a native of Virginia, answered the advertisement and told them where he lived. Edd (Sam) returned in 1907 to visit the relatives in Virginia. His wife, Jennie Bell, and the ten children did not ever meet any of his eastern relatives. Edward as a child was of Methodist faith but later in life had no connection with the church. He was ten years old when the Civil War was over and often mentioned the fact that he heard the guns in the battle at Petersburg, Virginia. Hope Drewry in 1963 recalls Edward having been called "Sam Know Nothing" because he refused to talk about the soldiers. Edward moved to Stubbs from Old Neely before his marriage. While living at Old Neely he met Jennie Bell Smith who had come from Indiana with her family, the John Speed Smiths, around 1880. Edward began courting Jennie Bell. Her father objected to the courtship because Edward was a total stranger who had just arrived by steamboat moving up the Arkansas river. No one realized that his ancestors were history making people in North Carolina and Virginia. (Gen. John Person had settled in Isle of Wight County, Virginia by 1639.) John Speed Smith tried to reason with his daughter Jennie Bell, it is said, and tried to convince her that Edward was a stranger and could have left a wife behind in every state he had traveled through. It is said that Rev. Samuel Thompson, a Negro preacher, helped promote the courtship by carrying their love letters back and forth. Jennie decided to marry Edd against her father's will. She planned to sneak away from her parents by previously placing her clothes at a cousin's home. On the night of her wedding, January 28, 1882, she pretended to carry a letter from another relative for her cousin to read. When she reached her cousin's home Edward was there waiting with two horses. The eloping couple rode toward Stubbs and as they neared Lakeview they became frightened as they thought they heard horses hooves behind them and visioned it to be her father coming after them. They rode out to one side of the road into the woods to allow him to pass but soon happily discovered that they were mistaken. There were no horses. When they reached New Hall community in Carden Bottom they stopped to be married at the home of the Justice of the Peace L. Boyd. Justice Boyd was so excited at the thought of marrying an eloping couple he became confused and read the name of Edward Person incorrectly. Jennie requested the name be read again to make sure that she was marrying the right man. After the wedding, they went on to their home in Stubbs which was located near the point where the Arkansas river and Petit Jean mountain come close together. The furnishings of Edward's home were very crude. The bedstead only had one leg or post, the other three corners were nailed to the wall. The mattress was probably filled with hay or corn shucks. Their first child B5- Anna Mae Person was born December 31, 1882 and they then moved to Texas where on April 10, 1883 she died and was buried there. They moved back to Arkansas where Rueben Edward (B6) was born on April 14, 1884. At the time of Rueben's birth they lived in a double log cabin at old Neely. He was named for a friend, Rueben Cole of Riverside community and Dardanelle. B7 Maude Bell was born December 29, 1885. She died May 28, 1887 and was buried at Bata Mill cemetery alongside of Jennie's parents, John and Julia Smith. Edd and Jennie had moved to Lakeview by the time B8- John Andrew Person was born September 30, 1887 in Yell County, Arkansas. By this time Edd and Jennie as well as other members of her family and friends decided to move to Van Buren and Pope Counties because malaria and sick children were so prevalent in the low country. Several died. While John was a baby the family moved to White Oak mountain. The other families also moving there were Wash Phillips, Berry Bagwell, Ballard Smith and Minnie Smith. The Nancy Cooper family lived there in 1898. Edward and Jennie homesteaded 160 acres near the Wash Phillips farm. They first bought a farm with a log house and the family lived in it before building the house that stood until about 1940. When the Phillips and Persons settled in the mountains they set out apple trees and had wonderful orchards. Edward and Wash sold apples over a good part of the state even going so far as Hot Springs and Little Rock. Their mode of travel was a wagon and a team of mules. Their wives, Jennie Person and Martha Smith, were sisters. Mrs. Martha Phillips was the postmistress at the Okay, Arkansas postoffice while she lived there. B9 Hattie Henrietta Person was born May 24, 1889 and at the age of nine she died from a condition they then called 'salavation by taking too much calamel medicine.' Her mother, Jennie, was much grieved and blamed herself for giving the medicine. It was said that a hole was eaten through the flesh in her jaw. She died October 31, 1898. Interment was in New Hope cemetery in Pope County. Uncle Hardy Lipps, an uncle of Jennie's, lived with the Persons. When he failed to show up for breakfast one morning the family investigated and found him dead in bed. He is said to have died of natural causes. He was buried in New Hope cemetery. His death occurred in 1892. B10 Adelaide Darden Person was born January 19, 1891 in Van Buren County, Arkansas. B11 - Eathel Virginia Person was born December 13, 1892 in Van Buren County also. B12- James J. Person was born September L18, l894 and died on April 5, 1897 when he was 3 years old. Interment was in New Hope cemetery. B13- Herbert Person was born October 24, 1896 and B14- Joseph Simmons Person was born May 8, 1898 in Van Buren County. Jennie Bell passed away on April 12, 1933 in the home. Edward lived for some time at his home alone in the mountains. He later sold his land to the U. S. Government and lived in a house nearby that belonged to his son Herbert. In his last years he moved to Yell County and lived alone on the Morris Hignight farm. He spent one winter in the home of his son John Person and daughter-in-law Bertha Person. The Hignight and Herbert Person families moved to Wing, Arkansas in Yell County about 1941 and Edd lived with his son Herbert there until his death on February 26, 1946 at the age of 91. His death was naturally attributed to old age. His funeral was held at New Hope cemetery on February 28, 1946 by Rev. George Finley of Bluffton. Interment was alongside his wife, Jennie Bell, and their three children Hattie, James and Eathel. The marriage of E. R. Person, age 27, and Jennie B. Smith, age 18, was performed January 28, 1882 by L Boyd, Justice of the Peace in Carden Bottom. County Clerk J. W. Pound issued the license. The marriage is recorded in Book D-Page 119 at Danville Court. House in Yell County. Edward Randolph Person went to live with his Uncle Peter Person after the death of his parents in Southampton County, Virginia. He remarked that his uncle and aunt were so sweet on each other calling each other 'honey' that he got disgusted and 'honeyed' away. Edward and Jennie Smith Person and sons, Rueben and John, settled on a hundred sixty (160) acre farm on top of White Oak mountain in Van Buren County around 1885. They acquired the farm by buying or trading for it and occupied for awhile the double log cabin already built there. The farm was located about two miles east of the main mountain road and on the road leading to Scotland and Clinton, Arkansas. Six of their children were born in the log cabin and two children died there. In 1906, a new house was built on sloping ground near the old cabin. The front part of the house and porch was built on level ground and the back of the house was high, resting on tall logs or pillars with a cellar underneath. The house had two large bedrooms and hallway with a lean-to kitchen and backporch and a fireplace at the west end of the house. The upstairs had two bedrooms and a hallway. The well of water was at the west end of the front porch. It was what was then known as a 'dug well' with rocked walls and a cover over the top. The water was drawn by a bucket and chain by a pulley above the well. A cellar was built by walling up under the main part of the house with rocks. The cellar was warm in winter and cool in summer. The family's main foods were raised on the farm, prepared for eating and then stored in the cellar. They consisted of sweet and Irish potatoes, onions and canned fruits and vegetables. Cucumbers were placed in salt brine and left until time to eat and then soaked in fresh water and placed in vinegar. The vinegar was made by grinding apples and allowing them to sour into cider. The hogs were raised and ran on the range until time to be put into a fattening pen to be fed corn before butchering. A smokehouse stood behind the main house and there they cured and stored the meat. The hog lard was rendered in a large kettle (wash pot). The leftover cracklings from the lard were used for soap grease. The chickens roosted in the hen house and the door was closed each night to keep out the vermin. A pie-shaped or V-shaped ash hopper was built with boarded sides that fitted down inside a trough. The hopper had a top to keep the ashes dry. The ashes were placed there all winter each time the fireplace was cleaned. In the spring when soap was to be made, water was poured on top of the ashes and allowed to drip through into the trough to make lye. The lye was then placed in the big kettle or wash pot along with meat scraps and cooked at a high temperature. This made soft soap. This soap was stored in a wooden barrel. Corn was grown to feed the mules and hogs. Some of it was shelled and taken to the neighborhood grist mill to be ground into cornmeal for bread. A toll was always taken for grinding. The cattle ran on the range but came home to be penned in the cow lot overnight. Herbert and Joe Person milked the cows. The mules ran in a fenced pasture and were fed in stables at the barn. Oats were grown for stock food. The oats were cut by hand with a cradle, then tied in bundles and shocked. Some cotton and peanuts were also grown. Their orchard consisted of apple and peach trees. Apples were the main crop. The apple shed was built in a large cone shape and boarded up all the way from the ground. Hay or sawdust was placed under and over the apples to preserve them until market time. For home use, apples and peaches were cut and laid on trays to dry in the hot sun. The fireplace room was the combined living room and bedroom of Edward and Jennie. It was furnished with a bed, bureau dresser, trunk, spool chest, sewing machine, stand table and several rocking chairs. There was a big clock on the mantel that struck on the hour. The medicine shelves contained very little medicine. The two medicines recalled in particular were the Raleigh's ointment (that sold door to door) and some black pills which were used as a 'cure all.' Some guns hung on racks high on the wall. One gun I recall was a double barrel used as a shotgun in one barrel and the other barrel shot bullets as a rifle. In order to allow light to come into a room, curtains on the windows never used. A trundle bed was used for the children when they were young but was discarded later. Edward's and Jennie's bed was placed out from the wall to allow plenty of room for Edward to hang his clothes on nails driven all around the wall. His glasses and pipe hung on nails over the mantel. There was a box containing smoking tobacco on the right side of the mantel. A few wood splinters always stood on the hearth to use in lighting his pipe. The mail was delivered to the Person mailbox on the main road of about two miles. His grandchildren ( James, Lola, Orra or Clarence Person) usually went for his daily paper (the Arkansas Democrat) and it was his reading material. The paper was always kept on the stand table and he sat in a straight backed rocker without a cushion when relaxing. He did not use bed springs on his bed, only long canes tied together to hold the mattress. His pillow was made of cotton although plenty of goose and duck down was available and he mended his own shoes by placing them on a shoe 'last' in order to drive the tacks. Jennie had her own special homemade rocking chair called 'Old Wylie.' She sat in a corner by a west window and could see people as they topped the hill traveling the road coming toward the house. She did not ever rush in doing her housework. Her navy beans were boiled in the black iron pot hung over the fire in the fireplace. At the side of the hearth was a skillet and lid which was set on coals of fire. Inside it she baked her sweet potatoes. A fire was always built in the wood stove in the kitchen to prepare the main meal. In the morning she ground her coffee beans in a coffee mill. She then boiled the fresh coffee grounds in water in a coffee pot. She used a wooden dash (by hand) in a stone churn to churn her own milk into butter. Her weekly laundry was done with a tub and washboard (rub board). Her water was heated outside in a wash pot in which the white clothes were also later boiled. The wash pot was placed under the kitchen floor which was off the ground and was fired with wood. To iron the clothes she heated her smoothing irons in the fires. Bath water was heated on the cook stove and baths were taken in a laundry tub. The toilet was an outhouse a distance from the main house. The guest bedroom downstairs was furnished with a bed, dressing table, Victrola, and a large grand piano which was rectangular in shape and had four legs. Their son, Rueben, bought the piano in Little Rock before 1920. The neighbors had musical gatherings around the piano and the Victrola was entertainment for the grandchildren. Edward made a trip to Atkins about twice a year to bring in the supplies that needed to be bought. He traveled in a wagon drawn by mules and the trip there and back took three days. He carried food for the mules and Jennie prepared food for him to carry in what he called his 'grub box.' The trips to Atkins were arranged timewise so he could camp on a creek bank in Griffin Flat for the two nights. Early on the second day he went into town and traded for the supplies and then returned to the campsite for the night, The wagon was equipped with bows and 'wagon sheet' (tarpaulin) and a bed was made on the hay inside the wagon. The cooking was done on campfire. The mules were unhitched at night and tied so they could eat corn from a feed trough nailed to the back of the wagon. For short trips around the neighborhood, a mule was saddled to ride. The saddle had a crupper that fastened under the mule's tail to hold the saddle in place. "Old Dash," the family dog, followed behind. The fire and cook wood was cut and split and then hauled and stacked under the under the kitchen floor during the summer time. The mules were shod at the home shop and the plow points were also sharpened there. When the wagon tires became loose, water was poured on them to swell the wooden part of the wheel. The home of Edward and Jennie Person was visited by many people. Most travelers through that section of the country stopped off to visit Uncle Edd and Aunt Jennie. Edward was a fractious man and always ready to express himself in his beliefs while Jennie's actions were very reserved. He entertained by picking his banjo and singing and sometimes danced the "jig." Jennie had lady friends in the neighhorhood and she met and visited with them. She always attended the annual Decoration Day at New Hope. Edward and Jennie had a long life together (1882-1933). After her death, he sold the farm to the U. S. Government and the buildings were then torn down, numerous pine trees were planted in a government land conservation program.