JOHN ANDREW PERSON ____________________________________________________________ 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. ____________________________________________________________ B8 JOHN ANDREW PERSON was born September 30, 1857 in Carden Bottom, Yell County, Arkansas, near Lakeview, the fourth child of Edward Randolph and Jennie Bell Smith Person. His family moved to White Oak mountain when he was a baby. The home and farm were in Van Buren County, Arkansas. Their post offices were Sang and Appleton. He attended school in the mountain community and helped his father with the farm work mostly gathering apples and selling them in different towns around nearby. He worked with his father, Edward, and Uncle Wash Phillips on trips to Little Rock and Hot Springs. They traveled by wagon and team. He is said to have taken his first streetcar ride in Little Rock. He rode to the end of the line and then had to walk back to the wagon yard. At the age of sixteen, he moved to Carden Bottom and worked for Jim and Callie Tisdale at Fowler. John often told the story of how Mr. Tisdale put his farm hands to work in the field and then he himself would sneak away to play poker with the neighbor fellows. When Callie, his wife, came out of the house looking for her husband she always put John on the spot by asking of her husband's whereabouts. He, of course, claimed that he did not know. It was at that time that John learned to play baseball. He was a lefthand pitcher and once he and Albert Rorex made two outs on an error. He quoted this play so many times to his children that they knew it in rote. Some of the Carden Bottom neighbors were Harrells, Lundys, Milligans, Rorexes, Ralphs, Rambows (Wade and Myrtle), Tedfords, Blackwells (Will), Odie and Fronie Aston, Millers, Stewarts, Tisdales and others. During the cotton ginning season John worked at Fowler gin. It was during this time that he met and courted Bertha Mae Armour who lived just below Fowler near where the high school now stands in 1968. On September 1, 1907 they married at the home of Squire Dover Tate at the end of Black Lane near Stubbs. This took place on Sunday around 10 o'clock a. m. The attendants were Fannie Harrell and Edd and Susie Ralph. John was 19 and Bertha was 16 years of age. They first lived at Fowler in a house near the curve in the road leading to Lakeview. For the wedding John oiled his shoes as there was no shoe polish. John and Bertha moved to the Bell farm just east of the Potts farm where James Edward Person was born on July 26, 1908. It is said that he was spoiled at first to burning a kerosene lamp at night. From the Bell farm they moved to a little house below Fowler which stood at the edge of the Carden Bottom school grounds. Adelaide Person, who had been teaching school at Stubbs stayed with her brother, John, and family in the spring as they were expecting another child. C6- Lola Virginia Person was born on Sunday at noon on April 30, 1911. She was named for Lola Aston and Grandmother Hulsey. James was 3 years old and said to have been quite meddlesome. He put mud in the tub of water that had been pumped for the baby's bath. His Aunt Adelaide, just recovering from measles, did not feel like chasing him. During the time Bertha was in bed after the baby was born some of the men from the neighborhood caught James "Pete" at the barn on the farm and ran the clippers over his head cutting all his hair off. Bertha was a bit disturbed by the 'head peeling.' John and Bertha moved to Lakeview and worked on the G. L. Potts farm. Their neighbors there were Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Reasoner. He called Lola "Sweetin." Another nickname was that of "Pottsie" given to John Gobel by Lola. The Frank Smith family consisting of Frank, Martha, Hallie and the boys moved into the house with John and Bertha to pick cotton. Frank got sick and they moved into a tent under a nearby tree. In 1914 John moved his family to White Oak mountain to be near his parents. He homesteaded 160 acres of land. They moved with wagons and teams. Mr. Reasoner, a neighbor drove one team. He rescued Lola when she fell over the bank of the creek and lodged under a log. This took place when they were camping out on the night of their journey. The family moved in with Edd and Jennie Person for some months until the new house was built. James and Lola had whooping cough and stayed on with their grandparents so the new baby would not be exposed. C7- Orra Adelaide Person was born on July 12, 1914. Pete and Lola were allowed to look at the baby through the window of their new home. When James "Pete" was old enough to go to school the older boys teased him so much and to escape them he sneaked back home in the morning. His father took him to school and he would sneak back home and sit under the house all day eating his lunch there. Some days he hid in the woods and others he hid in his grandfather's buggy. He wore his book out getting it wet while going through the woods. It was not until Lola started to school that he would go and stay all day. C8- Clarence Herbert Person was born January 15, 1916. He had the same day of his Grandfather Person who was 61 years old when Clarence was born. When Clarence "Pad" was about two years old he had a serious arm infection then called 'white swelling' and pieces of bone worked to the surface of the skin above his elbow. During the two years he was ill his skin and eyes were jaundiced and the doctors held no hope for his recovery. He probably had what is known as osteomyelitis. His mother was put to the test of carrying him on her arm most of the time while doing her house work for a family of six. She dressed his arm three times a day with sterilized white bandages made of bed sheets. The bandages were so scarce that none were thrown away but sterilized again and used over and over. Lola, the oldest daughter, was not old enough to help with the housework. C9- John Raymond Person was born on December 27, 1917 three weeks earlier than expected. His mother, Bertha, did a big laundry two days before Christmas with a washboard and tub. A wonderful little lady, Mrs. Skinner who lived several miles away in the "Snow Lick" community, stayed at the Person home and helped the family for a week. C10- Esmond Lucille Person was born March 10,1922. Raymond resented the idea that she had come to take his place as the baby. He felt differently in later life. Lucille was a pretty baby with long black hair. The Person children attended school at New Hope and Austin schools. The terms were only three months long. Some of their schoolmates were the Furrs, Campbells, Clarks, Boyds, Napiers, Horns, Millsaps, Skidmores, Willcuts, Suttons, Skinners, Armsteads, Russells, McCrackens, Henrys, Simpson Linzys, Curtisses and Edwards. In January, 1925 Morris Hignight bought a 'pull up' consisting of team and plow tools and rented 40 acres at New Hall in Carden Bottom for John Person and his family. The children attended school at New Hall. They soon rented more land to farm. In April of 1927 an overflow or flood of the Arkansas river destroyed the furniture and washed the new house off of its' foundation. The family bedding and clothing were boated and stored in the nearby Masonic Hall lodge which was located in a second story building at New Hall. The family lived at Lakeview during the flood. After the water went down, the family cleaned and restored their household belongings the best they could. C11- Johnie Mae Person was born October 20, 1927. Her uncle, Dr. Rueben Person, delivered her at the home in the presence of Adelaide Hignight. John Person and a neighbor, Ruby Stewart. In 1929, the Carden Bottom High School was built. The children attended and four finished there. The family moved to Lakeview near "Brook's Corner" before 1933. In 1944 John, Bertha and the youngest daughter still at home, Johnie Mae, moved to Riverside to farm the P. G. Blevins farm. In September 1951 they moved to their newly built home at Elberta, about 3 miles out of Dardanelle on Highway 7. Johnie Mae moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma to work and later married there. The other six brothers and sisters married while living near Lakeview. John and Bertha lived in their new home eight years before her death on May 18, 1959. John lived three years later and died with a heart attack on February 2, 1962. Their son, Clarence, was living with them at the time of their deaths. He continues to live in the family home in 1968. THE MASONIC RECORD OF JOHN ANDREW PERSON CARDEN BOTTOM LODGE #542 Received petition of John Andrew Person on April 19, 1913 Recommended by Frank Miller and J. N. Gilley Investigation comnittee: George Rorex, Rufe E. Reed and Edd Reeves Received E. A. Degree May 17, 1913 Received F. C. Degree June 14, 1913 Received M. M.Degree July 12, 1913 Fees $25 Dues per year $1.50 He was affiliated with the Bright Star Lodge #213 in Dardanelle, Arkansas on August 15, 1952. He was tyler of the lodge on the date of his death February 2, 1962.