OPINION

REX NELSON: Lunchtime in Prattsville

I'm having a late lunch of fried catfish on this winter Thursday at The Whippet in Prattsville, a restaurant that not only serves good food but makes me feel as if I've stepped back in time. Maybe it's because of the framed senior class photos from Prattsville High School, which ceased to exist in 1994 when the schools here became part of the Sheridan School District. Where better to display the photos than the walls of The Whippet, which serves as a community gathering spot in addition to attracting those driving by on U.S. 270?

The mascot for Prattsville athletic teams was the Whippets.

The business opened as Lovoie's Drive-In in 1966. In 1971, Lester and Rema Gene Holiman purchased the restaurant from Carthel and Lovoie Shoptaw and changed the name to The Whippet. J.W. and Pauline Harrington purchased it in 1976 and added a spacious dining room in the summer of 1985. In February 1994, Derek and Debbie Henderson bought The Whippet.

When I was growing up at Arkadelphia, the route to Pine Bluff (the Pine Bluff Convention Center was new in those days and hosted top concerts and sports events) took us through Prattsville. The Whippet was a regular stop. When my mother was with us, she would always comment: "There's Witt Stephens' house. Look at all those gaslights."

Stephens, who would become one of the most famous business leaders in Arkansas history, was born at Prattsville on Sept. 14, 1907, to A.J. "Jack" Stephens and Ethel Pumphrey Stephens. Younger brother Jack, also in the pantheon of successful Arkansans, was born on Aug. 9, 1923. Jack was the youngest of the six children.

Longtime Arkansas journalist Ernie Dumas writes of Witt Stephens: "His father was a farmer and politician who served two terms in the state House of Representatives from Grant County, as would Witt 30 years later. The elder Stephens directly influenced his son's early moves. As a boy, Witt picked cotton, shined shoes, worked in a sawmill and peddled peanuts. When Witt graduated from high school, the end of his formal education, his father told him he needed to set his sights higher than a life of hand labor and farming."

In 1927, Witt's father showed him a magazine advertisement about how one could make money selling jewelry. The son was soon selling belt buckles and other products for National Crafts Co. of Providence, R.I. He sold Bibles on the side.

"He was an extraordinary salesman, once managing $2,000 in profits while he was in summer camp with the Citizen Military Training Corps at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas," Dumas writes. "He persuaded the commander to let him set up at a table next to the paymaster so trainees would assume that they were supposed to spend part of their pay on Stephens' big brass buckles. National Crafts soon made him regional manager working out of Colorado. On the advice of his father, he returned to Arkansas in 1932 and set up a partnership with W.H. Thurmond in Little Rock trading municipal bonds. Thurmond was a Prattsville neighbor and friend of his father. In 1934, Stephens founded the W.R. Stephens Investment Co."

Jack, meanwhile, graduated from high school at Columbia Military Academy in Tennessee. He began college at the University of Arkansas and later received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was part of the class of 1947. One of his classmates at the Naval Academy was future President Jimmy Carter. Poor eyesight kept Jack from active duty in the Navy. His brother offered him a job at what would become Stephens Inc., and Jack moved back to Arkansas.

The two brothers were different in personality. Witt was outgoing and the consummate salesman. Jack was quiet and studious. Jack took on his job with zeal and was made an equal partner in the company in 1956. He became president and chief executive officer in 1957 after Witt had taken over Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co.

When Jack joined the company, it was primarily a municipal bond house. He built it into a diversified financial conglomerate, partnering with his brother to buy what would become Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Co. and the oil and gas exploration firm that became Stephens Production Co. Companies that Stephens Inc. invested in, advised and/or took public through the years included Walmart, Tyson Foods, Dillard's and Alltel. Through it all, the brothers never forgot their roots. In fact, Witt would spend most weekends at his Prattsville home.

A post office had opened here by 1857. It was named Prattsville for postmaster John Pratt, who also operated a nearby ferry on the Saline River.

"A small school was established with two teachers by 1890," Steven Teske writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. "By 1901, the community had a two-story schoolhouse, which was replaced in 1910 with a two-story frame schoolhouse with eight rooms. During the Great Depression, the National Youth Administration built another structure for the Prattsville School District. Also during the Depression, Prattsville was chosen by Arkansas Power & Light Co. to be the first model community in a program of rural electric service."

Witt Stephens saw to it that Prattsville had natural gas service by 1947. In June 1963, the Arkansas Gazette reported that 10 houses were being built in an effort to attract more residents. The story was headlined "Short on People, Prattsville Builds Homes to Entice Them." Success was limited. In the 1970 census, the population was 299. By the 2010 census, Prattsville had grown by six residents to 305.

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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.

Editorial on 03/02/2019

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