Bryan County Archives - News Paper Clippings - Aug 1972 Submitted by: Susan S Lee 06 Apr 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLEVELAND SHARP RECALLS DURANT'S EARLY DAYS by Cleveland E. Sharp (Editor's Note: The following recollections of some of Durant's early days was written for the Democrat by Cleveland E. Sharp of Calera.) From the Durant Daily Democrat August 13, 1972 Dedication of the old College building brings back memories to one old- timer. I came from Winston County, Mississippi, with my parents to Durant, I.T., in 1901. Durant was a small town then. The Main Street was mud- dy, most of the buildings were frame. My dad bought Uncle Fred Robinson's place on West Arkansas street, about where the Hale Halsell grocery warehouse is now. Buys Horses: My dad bought two horses and we farmed down on the bayou south of town. I rode down to town to get the mail. I hitched my horse in front of the old Durant National Bank, which was torn down in 1969 and re- placed by the Swearengin insurance building. I went up on North Third to the Post Office. When I came back my horse was gone. I thought he had gotten loose and gone home. It turned out he had been stolen, new saddle and all. I never did hear from him any more. There was lots of horse steal- ing at that time, even though they hanged horse thieves that were caught. Teach School: That summer the Earthman boys taught a summer school where the George Washington school building now stands. It was a subscription school. My dad let them have bundles of oats for my tuition. That was the year the teachers had a load of watermelons sent out to where Northside Park is now. After we ate the melons we went down to a pool owned by Uncle Dixon Durant--the man for whom Durant was named. It was on the branch just northwest of the present Durant High School building. We got his boat and were using it when he came down. He was awful- ly mad, but the teachers all talked to him and got him in a good humor again. He told us to go ahead and use his boat. Went Swimming: We got to cutting up and one of the boys fell in (or was pushed). In a few minutes we were all in the water with our clothes on, just like we were dressed at school. That fall I went out on top of the hill where Southeastern College is now and picked up so many hickory nuts in a cotton sack I couldn't load them on my horse. I had to pour out part to get the rest home. We were living on W. Arkansas when the Frisco Railroad was built through town in 1902. My dad sold out to Uncle Bud Taylor, father of Ruel and Bud, Jr., both of whom were later sheriffs of Bryan County. Later we moved about halfway between Cale and Colbert on the old Carriage Point Road. There were lots of people traveling in covered wagons that summer. Is Married: I got married in 19004 to Miss Zora Jones. One of my grandsons asked me one day where I spent my honeymoon. I told him in the cotton patch. "Cotton patch? Where is that?" he asked. I didn't tell him any story because there was no place to go, and no money to go on. Everything was cheap--you could buy three pounds of steak for 25 cents. During the fall they had a carnival in Durant between 4th and 5th, at a place called Shuler Park. My wife and sister and myself went in a covered wagon and spent the night. We carried our food, like everybody else did, and the next day my food box was gone--also my coat. We ate breakfast with my uncle's folks. There were some people camped close to us. They were horse traders, so they kept watching us. My sister suspected them of being the ones who got our things so I got Mr. N.S. Bledsoe, the chief of police who also ran the Red Top Store on W. Arkansas. The men had taken their horses down to water them, so the chief and a fellow named Dobbs started to search their wagon. It had a sheet over it, and it turned out there was a woman inside. She Pulls Back: The chief started to pull the sheet up and she began pulling it down and said she was dressing. He waited a bit, then found my coat and our food box, along with a lot of other stolen stuff. Mr. Bledsoe told my uncle and me to watch her while they went down into town to arrest the men. After they left she took this stolen stuff up on the hill where the college is now. There was a little clearing with a rail fence around it. She put everything in a corner of the fence and covered it with leaves. When the officers came back they arrested her and picked up what she had hidden. They had the trial the same day in quarters over the old Democrat building. Judge Parker was the judge. One of the men pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one or two years. My wife and I, and my parents, moved back to Mississippi in the fall of 1905. We returned to Calera in 1912. We bought a farm 3 1/2 miles west of Calera, where I raised my family. I had seven children to finish up high school at Calera and all seven went to college at South- eastern. That was in the 1930's, when times were hard. Two of the boys batched in a little building where the new dormitory now stands. The girls worked at light housekeeping, mostly for Mr. and Mrs. M.L. Banks. I tried to get one of the youngest girls to wait another year to go to the college, but she was determined; she tried to get a job at the col- lege. Mrs. Zanies was president of the college. She kept promising my girl work, but school had started, so we went up to see Ceph Shoemake. He was state representative then. He asked her how badly she wanted to go to college. She said real bad. So he said, "Young lady, you come back tomorrow and I'll have a talk with the president. I'll see that you go to college." He did get her a job. She worked for Mr. Pool all the way through her four years--and our family never forgot Mr. Shoemake. She has married and has two children. When they were big enough to go to school she started teaching again--presently in Houston, Texas. Now, one of the girls is teaching in Tulsa. I guess I would have given up, but my wife and children were so determined to get their education. They carried most of their food from home and I hauled wood for the boys where they batched, and hauled corn to sell to pay for their college expense. It was hard, but I'm proud of them and I give my wife credit for their college educations. I sold my place in 1948 and bought the home in Calera where I now live. I lost my wife in May of 1969. We lived together 64 1/2 years. We loved each other, and I hope to meet her in Heaven some day. NOTE: This appeared in the paper on his 88th birthday.