Volume 7, Number 9 - Fall 1981


President's Message

Last month my wife and I spent a most enjoyable afternoon talking with a very charming and interesting lady, a third generation native of the hill country. She lives in the sturdy old log house built by her grandfather and in which she was born shortly after the turn of the century.

We learned many things during the course of the conversation. Among them was a store operated by her grandfather, and later by her parents. No doubt, the store housed some troops during the several military engagements in and around the area. Although the building no longer exists, in her mind the memory of it is very much alive.

Among other things she recalled were the "drummers," the salesmen of the day that stopped over on their trips from Chadwick to Forsyth, knowing they were always welcome to spend the night in her home free of charge. There were some notable people stopped there, also. One of them who said he had told his sons, Wilbur and Orville, that if God intended for man to fly He would have given him wings. But I guess they didn’t stop trying for their inventiveness was the start of a complete new mode of transportation.

She told of a young engineer who spent some time there while surveying a possible route for the Frisco railroad from Chadwick to Lead Hill, Ark. The railroad never materialized but the young engineer, Herbert Hoover became the thirty-first president of the United States.

I could go on talking about the things we learned but my thought here is how fortunate we are to be able to talk with someone who has lived with history and does remember these events and times. For history is an ongoing thing and as we are able to gather these facts, it becomes more apparent that the past, present and future are interwoven in our lives. We must continue to search out our history so that the present and future will benefit and with the help of our Society members we will continue to gather and record this vital information.

Fred Hartman

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