Kim and I thoroughly documented the trip with notes, audio recordings, photos and an occasional journal entry.On Sunday, the 6th of January we were in Arkansas.
"Today was a great day. We stayed in Magnolia Arkansas last night. This morning we woke up to the sun and milder temperatures. After two or three days of freezing and below temperatures, it was a welcome relief.
We lazed around for most of the morning and finally got rolling at around noon. We were hoping to locate the farmhouse of Grammie's Uncle 'Poe (Napolean) Drake. He was married to Grandpa Guttry's older sister Cecil Emeria who died in child birth in 1909. After her death, Uncle 'Poe lived with his "housekeeper" Verna Lawson and raised her kids with his own. They never married, and it was a bit of a scandal according to my Mom. One of Grammie's favorite stories was how when she was a young girl at her Uncle's house, whenever a car was spotted approaching along the dirt road leading to it, Aunt Verna would shout: "Cah comin' 'Poe!"
Our first stop of the day was "JD's Quick Stop" in McNeil. It was a slightly run down gas station/mini-mart and the old man behind the counter was friendly and very helpful. He was a real character. Shaped like a pear with friendly blue eyes, he had a a very large nose and red veined ears. He wore a blue denim ball cap with a large red, white, and blue outline of the U.S. perched above the cap's bill in front. He and Grammie took to each other right away and he very patiently helped her find a phone number for a Mr. James Drake in the nearby town of Waldo, just 5 miles up the road. Mr. Drake turned out to be a cousin of sorts. His grandfather was Uncle 'Poe's brother. After a brief conversation, he gave Grammie directions to get to Uncle 'Poe's farm. Grammie was thrilled as we headed out in search of the old farmhouse.
The directions soon led us off the paved roads, and into the backwoods. The road was an orange clay, and the rain of the past few days had softened it. As we mushed sloppily along in our big RV's, I was concerned that we might have to turn back or get stuck. However, the sunshine had hardened the road up enough that we were able to continue.
As we drove down this narrow dirt road lined on both sides by young pine forests I couldn't help thinking about what it had been like 60 years previously when my mother lived there as a teenager. We noticed a clearing off to the left with a fence and large sign. It was a cemetery, Tick Hill Cemetery, established in 1800 to be exact. We stopped to investigate, stretch our legs, and look for headstones belonging to relatives.
It was a small cemetery, rectangular and set between unharvested pine plantations. It was well manicured, the grass was cut, and many graves had flowers placed on them. Maggie and Lucy were happy to get out of the RV and do some running. They happily busied themselves reading the gravestones and tidying up the flowers and some of the markers. The rest of us walked around reading headstones.
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| That's Maggie and Lu on the left arranging flowers. |
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| WT Guttry turns out to be one of Great Grandpa Guttry's (John Wilson Guttry) brothers, and so Grammie's great uncle. |
At one point Kim snapped a picture of me with Grammie standing among the headstones. I have included the picture here. Gram is standing slightly closer to the marker on the left. I think that we had been wondering if it was a relative.
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| As you can see, we are much closer to the gravestone on the left. |
While writing this post, I got curious as to who's name might be on this monument. I enlarged the picture and got a shock to read "Joseph Sanders". This is Grammie's great granddad, The stone on the right is Jane Sanders (Black) his wife. Their youngest daughter was born in 1859 and her name was Murtilla Jane Sanders who married John Wilson Guttry. At the time I think we all wondered if these two Sanders were related to us, but we didn't know the names, birth and death dates. Great Granddad Sanders also fought with the confederacy. OK, back to the story!
We turned left and followed this road through the trees until it became a narrow "two track". We could just see an old farm house up ahead in a clearing. I stopped and we got out and approached the house on foot as we were unsure of a place to turn around, or what our welcome would be like.
We were greeted by several dogs of all shapes and sizes. They were more curious than hostile. Kim, Viola, Maggie, Lucy, and I broke out of the trees and could then get a good look at the old farmhouse. It was bleached gray-brown from decades of sun and weather. Not even a fleck of paint was visible on the old weathered siding, and some of it was even missing, exposing the inside wall to our view. It sat in a two to three acre opening in the pines on a small rising knoll.
The house had rusted tin roofing that was missing in a few places, and at first I thought that it was uninhabited. I looked around for some other structure that would suffice for a residence, but could find none. Then I saw the car and pickup truck parked next to the old place. Seeing nothing else other than what appeared to be an abandoned single wide trailer, we decided to knock. Kim mounted the porch while I hung back with the girls.
After a moment, a short round woman opened the door. She had dark hair, and a kindly face. We introduced ourselves, and told her what we were up to. She seemed glad to see us, and we exchanged a few words. Then she smiled and started across the clearing towards the old trailer. "Jimmy!, Jimmy, we got company!". Her husband Jimmy Drake was in the old trailer "fixing it up" to move into. Well, Jimmy turned out to be Uncle Poe's grandson, and after a few minutes of introduction and conversation he exclaimed: "Why, y'all must be Uncle Johnny's kin!" Uncle Johnny was of course Grandpa Guttry (John Graydon).
They invited us into the old house. It was very small with just three rooms: a small living room (about 10'X10'), a little kitchen and a bedroom. It was neatly decorated inside, and we sat in the living room and had a nice conversation. Cousin Jimmy told us how to get to Uncle Poe's old place and warned us of the horde of cats at Gwendolyn Lawson's place right next door. Gwendolyn was Grammie's "first cousin" (Verna Lawson's daughter). Her house is just a short bit away from Uncle 'Poleon's original farmhouse, and she lived there with her son Ricky.
As we walked out of the house and back out into the yard, Jimmy suddenly looked at Dad and exclaimed: "Hey, you're the movie star aren't ya?" A huge smile spread across Whoa-Whoa's face. Apparently, Uncle Johnny's "Hollywood" son-in-law was quite famous with the Arkansas relatives!
After a few more pictures and exchanging addresses, we left the Drakes and drove to Gwendolyn's house. There we met the cats, Ricky, and Gwendolyn. She was very old and very frail. Her memory was failing but she seemed very happy to see us. At one point Ricky stood up and said: "I think I have something you will want to see." He left and came back with an old sepia tone picture. It was in an old crumbling cardboard frame, and you could see where the mice had chewed up the old frame.
"Maybe you can tell me who this is" he said as he handed the picture to Grammie. "That's me!" she exclaimed. It was a family portrait of Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle John, Gram, Auntie Lucille, and Uncle Curly. I believe it was taken right after Grandpa enlisted in the Navy and the family was together in San Diego. It was a very exciting moment, reconnecting and filling in memories.
While the folks were visiting, and Maggie and Lucy were playing with the cats, Viola, Kim and I ran (literally since the sky was darkening and threatening to rain) down to Uncle Poe's old farmstead. It too was devoid of paint and from a distance looked much like cousin Jimmy and Janna's house that we had just come from.This was Napoleon Drake's house and barn. Trees and vines grew up through the rotting boards and collapsing roof of the abandoned porch. An old chair, and sofa still sat there facing the driveway. We gingerly mounted the decaying steps to the porch and entered the house. The old screen door, hanging on rusted hinges, still worked perfectly.
Inside there was a lot of old furniture. Mattresses dismantled by time and generations of rodents, an old electric iron, radio, television, and a lot of chairs. Numerous newspapers were also strewn about. One was dated 1982. Possibly this was the year the house had been abandoned. We found a tin of antiseptic powder for live stock still on one of the kitchen shelves. "Dr LaGear's Antiseptic Powder". We couldn't resist taking it as a souvenir. Later we found out that this stuff was manufactured up to 100 years ago, however, we suspect that this can was vintage 1950's.
After breaking through the rotted wooden floor once, we decided to exit and explore more from the outside. The house was large and shaped like a "T" with a generous back porch. What appeared to be a cistern for catching rain water was just off the back side of the house. Behind it were two old out buildings, possibly barns or storage sheds. One was completely collapsed, but the other was relatively intact. The house was set on the highest piece of land in the area, and overlooked a meadow to the front and a pasture in the rear. A small valley and narrow creek could be seen in the distance where some other old houses were clustered.
It wasn't too difficult to imagine the time when this abandoned, ramshackle, and dilapidated old place had been a thriving home. One filled with the sounds of farm animals, children, adults, and the clatter of dishes. And, on special occasions, the sound of a far off approaching vehicle, and the shout of "Cah comin' 'Poe!
Finally the storm arrived with the wind shaking the trees and rain beginning to fall. We all buttoned up and headed back to join the others. It was a great day!
That's All!
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| Joseph Sanders was Tillie Jane's great grandfather |
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| Jane Sanders was Gram's great grandfather |
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| Uncle Po's Grave stone. He and Cecil Emeria are both buried here. She died giving birth to their son Cecil. |
"We continued down the muddy country lane, passing harvested pine plantations, and thick overgrown "dog hair" looking for a Drake mailbox. Eventually, we decided we had gone too far and managed to find a place to turn around. We had just about given up when we spotted the mailbox: "Drake". The name was on the back side of the box and we hadn't been able to see it until we reversed course and came back. I called Grammie on our little handheld radio and asked if we should turn. She said: "Let's go for it!"
We turned left and followed this road through the trees until it became a narrow "two track". We could just see an old farm house up ahead in a clearing. I stopped and we got out and approached the house on foot as we were unsure of a place to turn around, or what our welcome would be like.
We were greeted by several dogs of all shapes and sizes. They were more curious than hostile. Kim, Viola, Maggie, Lucy, and I broke out of the trees and could then get a good look at the old farmhouse. It was bleached gray-brown from decades of sun and weather. Not even a fleck of paint was visible on the old weathered siding, and some of it was even missing, exposing the inside wall to our view. It sat in a two to three acre opening in the pines on a small rising knoll.
The house had rusted tin roofing that was missing in a few places, and at first I thought that it was uninhabited. I looked around for some other structure that would suffice for a residence, but could find none. Then I saw the car and pickup truck parked next to the old place. Seeing nothing else other than what appeared to be an abandoned single wide trailer, we decided to knock. Kim mounted the porch while I hung back with the girls.
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| The old house looked abandoned until we saw the vehicles. |
After a moment, a short round woman opened the door. She had dark hair, and a kindly face. We introduced ourselves, and told her what we were up to. She seemed glad to see us, and we exchanged a few words. Then she smiled and started across the clearing towards the old trailer. "Jimmy!, Jimmy, we got company!". Her husband Jimmy Drake was in the old trailer "fixing it up" to move into. Well, Jimmy turned out to be Uncle Poe's grandson, and after a few minutes of introduction and conversation he exclaimed: "Why, y'all must be Uncle Johnny's kin!" Uncle Johnny was of course Grandpa Guttry (John Graydon).
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| Verna Lawson was Uncle 'Poe's second wife by common law. His first, Cecil Emeria died in child birth. |
As we walked out of the house and back out into the yard, Jimmy suddenly looked at Dad and exclaimed: "Hey, you're the movie star aren't ya?" A huge smile spread across Whoa-Whoa's face. Apparently, Uncle Johnny's "Hollywood" son-in-law was quite famous with the Arkansas relatives!
After a few more pictures and exchanging addresses, we left the Drakes and drove to Gwendolyn's house. There we met the cats, Ricky, and Gwendolyn. She was very old and very frail. Her memory was failing but she seemed very happy to see us. At one point Ricky stood up and said: "I think I have something you will want to see." He left and came back with an old sepia tone picture. It was in an old crumbling cardboard frame, and you could see where the mice had chewed up the old frame.
"Maybe you can tell me who this is" he said as he handed the picture to Grammie. "That's me!" she exclaimed. It was a family portrait of Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle John, Gram, Auntie Lucille, and Uncle Curly. I believe it was taken right after Grandpa enlisted in the Navy and the family was together in San Diego. It was a very exciting moment, reconnecting and filling in memories.
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| John Graydon Sr, Uncle John, Grammie, Aunti Lucille, Uncle Curly, and Grandma Pearl |
While the folks were visiting, and Maggie and Lucy were playing with the cats, Viola, Kim and I ran (literally since the sky was darkening and threatening to rain) down to Uncle Poe's old farmstead. It too was devoid of paint and from a distance looked much like cousin Jimmy and Janna's house that we had just come from.This was Napoleon Drake's house and barn. Trees and vines grew up through the rotting boards and collapsing roof of the abandoned porch. An old chair, and sofa still sat there facing the driveway. We gingerly mounted the decaying steps to the porch and entered the house. The old screen door, hanging on rusted hinges, still worked perfectly.
Inside there was a lot of old furniture. Mattresses dismantled by time and generations of rodents, an old electric iron, radio, television, and a lot of chairs. Numerous newspapers were also strewn about. One was dated 1982. Possibly this was the year the house had been abandoned. We found a tin of antiseptic powder for live stock still on one of the kitchen shelves. "Dr LaGear's Antiseptic Powder". We couldn't resist taking it as a souvenir. Later we found out that this stuff was manufactured up to 100 years ago, however, we suspect that this can was vintage 1950's.
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| The good doctor is holding his medicine and pointing to a wounded bleeding horse. |
After breaking through the rotted wooden floor once, we decided to exit and explore more from the outside. The house was large and shaped like a "T" with a generous back porch. What appeared to be a cistern for catching rain water was just off the back side of the house. Behind it were two old out buildings, possibly barns or storage sheds. One was completely collapsed, but the other was relatively intact. The house was set on the highest piece of land in the area, and overlooked a meadow to the front and a pasture in the rear. A small valley and narrow creek could be seen in the distance where some other old houses were clustered.
It wasn't too difficult to imagine the time when this abandoned, ramshackle, and dilapidated old place had been a thriving home. One filled with the sounds of farm animals, children, adults, and the clatter of dishes. And, on special occasions, the sound of a far off approaching vehicle, and the shout of "Cah comin' 'Poe!
Finally the storm arrived with the wind shaking the trees and rain beginning to fall. We all buttoned up and headed back to join the others. It was a great day!
That's All!
