Early in 1919 I leased the farm to an old bachelor whose niece, an unmarried young woman, lived with him, and a hired hand. Be had been there only a short time when he sold same of his stock and household goods and without giving me any notice of such intention, he, his niece and hired hand loaded their unsold effects into their wagon and buggy and left the farm after night. I heard of them afterward over the state line in Oklahoma. He and his niece were, doubtless, bad characters and they probably became alarmed lest the officers of the county might apprehend them for their immoral way of living. Being satisfied they were not the kind of people I wanted on our farm, I was glad to get rid of them, although by deserting the premises as they did, when it was too late in the season to obtain another renter, they had damaged me considerably. However, I leased the orchard to a farmer nearby. Be gave the fruit trees good attention, and the fruit crop was a good one and sold for a good price.

After Fred Snyder, the bachelor to whom I had leased the farm as previously stated, and his niece and hired hand had been gone several weeks, I hired a man who lived in Gentry to assist me in doing same work on the farm and during the time he worked for me he stayed at the farm and slept in the house at night. I felt that it was much safer to have a tenant, even though only one person, than for the premises to be entirely vacant and the house unoccupied at night. It was on a public road and all kinds of people passing there every day and frequently at night and finding no one in the house might break in and do damage or possibiy burn the house.

Mr. Samuel Daugherty, my tenant, was a very industrious and trusty man and I was fortunate to obtain his services at a very reasonable price. I had been doing some work on the farm after the premises became vacant and was there a part of the time every day. After Mr. Daugherty’s service began I had him cut a lot of wood for our use at our home in Gentry and I hauled a load home every evening, and some days I would haul in three or four loads, while Mr. Daugherty was chopping wood, I did other work about the farm. I gathered the crop of cherries and dewberries of which there was many gallons and what we did not need for use in the home I sold to one of the merchants in town.

Soon after the Snyders abandoned the farm I put the garden, which he had broken before he left, in potatoes and other vegetables and raised a lot for our use during the fall and winter. There was a small orchard of apple, pear, and cherry trees near the house that I did not lease to Mr. Wayland who leased the big fifteen acre apple orchard and we got a lot of fruit off of the little orchard, and some from the large orchard, and we had an abundance of fruit that fall and winter. Mr. Daugherty stayed on the farm until fall and then in October I sold the farm for a good price, retaining my interest in the fruit crop. The farm had been unprofitable as I had not been physically able to till it and spray, prune and gather the fruit crop, and all of the renters, except Mr. Perkins, had made poor crops and neglected the orchard. We were therefore glad to dispose of it. Though the proceeds from it while we had owned it were comparatively small, still of considerable benefit was the good price for which I sold it after all made it a goad investment.

Having sold the farm and being unemployed I accepted a position as manager of the grocery store of Adolphus Brogden and Thomas Maxwell in Gentry. The store formerly belonged to Burcher and son, who sold it to Mr. Kidney, who later sold it to Mr. Hover. I managed the business for Mr. Hover, who had had no experience in business of that kind, for a short time and then Brogden and Maxwell had another store in Oklahoma of which Brogden had charge, and Mr. Maxwell was manager of Bever’s Wholesale Produce Company in Gentry, so that neither of them were in a position to assume charge of their newly acquired grocery store. While Burcher and son owned and ran the business, they had a good patronage, but after they sold it and went to Kansas, Mr. Kidney, who had run a meat market in Gentry for several years, and for some reasons, had become unpopular, had lost large part of the patronage of the store when he bought it, and when I began its management, it was almost like building up a new business enterprise. But by carefully and closely attending to the details of the business, courteous treatment of old patrons, and a strenuous effort to attract new customers I succeeded in largely increasing the patronage of the store during the first two or three months. Then Brogden and Maxwell moved their Oklahoma stock of general merchandise to Gentry and combined it with their grocery store. After the consolidation of the two stocks, I continued with the firm as salesman, but Mr. Brogden became manager of the business. I continued to work for the firm until near the spring of 1920.

During the latter part of October, 1919, our daughter Nelle, who had been with her sisters Bernice and Irene in Washington, D.C. since in November, 1918, came back to Missouri and stopped a few days with her aunt Mattie Coon and other relatives in Hermitage and then, accompanied by our little granddaughter Josephine Pitts, who since the death of her mother had been living with her grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William L. Pitts in Hermitage, came on home to Gentry, stopping on the way with her uncle Eugene Lindsey and family in Springfield, Missouri.

We were rejoiced to see Nelle and Josephine again. When we last saw the child she was only slightly over three months old, and now she was considerably over a year old, was a smart, pretty little girl; could walk and talk and we enjoyed having her wtth us very much. She stayed with us several weeks and then Nelle and I took her to Joplin, where I saw tnem depart on the train for Springfield and I returned to Gentry. They stayed all night with their uncle Eugene Lindsey and the next day went to Hermitage where Nelle left Josephine at her home and returned to Gentry.

Early in December of that year, Bernice, who was still working for the federal government in the Bureau of War Risk insurance, took her annual 30 days vacation and accompanied by Irene came back home, stopping en route at Cincinnati, Ohio, for a few days visit with their cousin Mrs. Charles E. (Nona) Kilgour and family and also with the Lindsey family in Springfield, Missouri. We were exceedingly glad to see them and to have all of our living daughters with us once more. Bernice stayed with us until after the Christmas holiday and then she returned to her work in the National Capital.

After we sold the farm near Gentry, we began to consider what we should do. We thought some of going west again to some dry land country with better climate for my wife but could not come to a decision as to where we would locate. But while Bernice was there we decided that as soon as we could sell our Gentry residence property which was all the real estate we owned in Arkansas, we would probably locate in Washington, D. C. as Bernice had a good and probably permanent position, and Nelle and Irene wished to return there, being confident that they could obtain good employment in a short time. Then in March, 1920, I effected a sale of our Gentry residence and all of our furniture at a good price and having decided to locate in Washington, D. C., we began to make preparations for our removal to the National Capital.

I omitted to say in its proper connection, that I sold our residence property in Hermitage before Joe went west. The property had been rented only part of the time since we left there at a low rental and, as is usually the case with rented property,had deteriorated in value and needed repairs and repainting. My old friend, Lafayette B. Davis, sent me an offer of $1200 for the property. I accepted the offer gladly, believing it was a very good price and probably as much as I would ever get for it.

We had been hearing from our son Joe and family frequently since they had been living in Caldwell, Idaho, where they located when they went west in April, 1918. They had all been having good health since they had been living in Idaho, Joe had constant employment in a well-established shoe store and Helen was in school and making good progress in her studies. She was also taking music lessons on the violin. They seemed to like their location and were doing very well. Then in January, 1920, we had a letter stating that we had a new granddaughter, and announcirg the birth of their second child, whom they named Rosemary. They stated that the baby was a blond with blue eyes, light colored hair and fair complexion. She was quite a contrast to their daughter Helen, who is a brunette and has black hair and brown eyes. We later received pictures of both of the girls. Helen is a very pretty and very intelligent looking girl, and Rosemary is a good looking little lady and favors her mother’s people. We were glad to know of the addition to the small number of our grandchildren, and although we may never have the pleasure of seeing our latest arrived little granddaughter we hope to hear from her parents and big sister often and thus keep informed as to how they are all getting along.

Not long after I sold our Gentry residence and furniture, etc., I disposed of our buggy, horse and small wagon on very good terms and then we were ready to depart on our journey to the National Capital.

During the years we had lived in Gentry, Arkansas and vicinity we made many good friends whose kindness to us was sincerely appreciated. Among our well-loved friends there were our near neighbors Mr. and Mrs. P. C. Sheldon and their daughter Mrs. Gary, Mr. and Mrs. Beardsley, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Highfill, Mr. and Mrs. Apperson and Mr. and Mrs. J. N. Knight, also Adolphus Brogden and Thomas Maxwell, owners of the store of which I was manager, and Mr. O. W. Feemster who did some real estate business for us while in Arkansas.

During the year previous to our departure from Gentry our neighbor Mr. Apperson , who lived just across the street from our home, was critically ill for a week or more and died. He and his wife were very good, friendly people. About a year before we left Gentry, our neighbor Mr. Sheldon, who lived on the adjoining lot to ours, died very suddenly, of heart failure. He and his aged wife were exceptionally good friends to us and often visited us. Mr. Sheldon was a fine old gentleman and we regretted his sudden death very much. Another neighbor, who lived near us and visited us sometimes, was Col. John S. Neet and his good wife. The Col. was a federal veteran of the Civil War, but his title of Col. was not on account of having been such an officer during the Civil War, but he had been an auctioneer, who are called Col. in Arkansas.

Copyright ©2005 Larry Slavens. All rights reserved.