Columnists

Travel in Jackson County

I spend a good deal of time reading local history magazines from various Arkansas counties, and it can be quite entertaining and rewarding. Recently, while going through old issues of The Stream of History, the journal of the Jackson County Historical Society, I came across some interesting early letters written by pre-Civil War visitors to that area. A peek into those letters provides some interesting glimpses of life among the settlers on the raw frontier.

During the summer of 1915, an elderly Sharp County resident named C.W. Shaver wrote two letters describing his travels through Jackson County in the late 1840s and early 1850. The letter writer recalled that he was a boy when his family decided to move from Poinsett County to what is today Sharp County, though at that time it was still part of Lawrence County.

I was intrigued by the division of labor among the Shaver family members as they moved west. It seems that Mrs. Shaver was in charge of the family's herd of about 80 cattle. When Thomas Todd Tunstall, an early settler and prosperous merchant at Jacksonport, wanted to buy a milk cow, he had to deal with Mrs. Shaver.

Tunstall chose "a nice large cow and calf" and offered a $5 gold piece in exchange. Mrs. Shaver was not impressed and demanded $7.50, whereupon Tunstall noted that "gold was very scarce and hard to get." Young Shaver recalled that his mother "told him $5 would not buy them, that she had some gold herself, so there was no trade."

The wild animals seen during the journey left an indelible impression on the young traveler. The family came across a huge panther lying dead beside the road, having been shot by other migrants. Other predators were numerous and "at night we could hear the wolves close to our camp howling hideously."

On one occasion, the family was surprised by "a large bunch of fat hogs" fleeing "a large black wolf." Mounted members of the family gave chase to the wolf, but it escaped: "Mr. Wolf missed his dinner and the hogs got a rest."

Traveling through antebellum Arkansas meant fording a large number of rivers. Most rivers in Arkansas were not bridged until the 20th Century, which meant travelers had to make frequent use of ferries.

Shaver recalled that ferrying across the Black River during stormy weather was a dangerous event: ". . . the wind was still blowing very strong and the boat twice came very near sinking, father being on the boat with the wagon."

Though only a boy, Shaver recalled how wet and swampy the land was in those days long before levees and drainage districts. In one instance, the letter writer recalled the green scum covering many of the swamps, and he concluded "it looked like it might have at least forty agues to the square foot." This was a humorous reference to the likelihood that whatever caused malaria, called the ague, would find a breeding ground in the still and fetid water.

Later, researchers would discover that malaria was caused by the swarms of mosquitoes that called the swamps home. Modern Arkansans would have trouble enduring the scourge of insects that bedeviled our ancestors. Bear grease was sometimes used as an insect repellent. Smoke could also be used to ward off insects around the camp fire, and a netting, called a "mosquito bar," made sleep possible at night. Shaver recalled: "We had hoods on our horses' heads and necks to keep the flies and gnats from troubling them. These hoods were made of large bright colored calico, with red bands around the horses' nose and eyes, with red tassels on their ears."

Another interesting letter from Jackson County was penned in 1849 by a man planning to move from Kentucky to Arkansas. Henry Jackson Dowell was completely smitten by the area, and he described it for family back home "as handsome a country as any." The beautiful countryside was "as green as can well be," and Dowell found the rivers quite adequate for steamboat use.

It is not surprising that Dowell found the climate pleasant since he visited in the spring. "It is never so cold enough to freeze the river. Yet it is cold enough to save and make good bacon."

Among the few negative aspects of the new area was the lack of natural springs, "but there is no difficulty in getting wells of very good water." Dowell was forced to admit that there was an intruder in this Eden--mosquitoes: "The musketoes are plenty enough to keep a lazy man employed when he has nothing else to do."

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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com.

Editorial on 08/30/2015

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