DeWitt Square 1898

An 1898 scene in the DeWitt town square forwarded to me by James Prange via Bob Moody.  A close and careful examination will reveal just how charged with history is this image.  There appears, near the left-center of the group, to be a man standing on a platform of some sort that suggests perhaps a political -- or perhaps religious -- gathering, but little else is known about it.

However, it tells us a great deal about the community at that time.

Ancient Images of Crockett's Bluff

Obviously among the oldest images on this site, these are also courtesy of James Prange, having been passed along to him by Bob Moody. 

 This image pictures members of the Prange family, a loaded hay wagon, a buggy, and a most impressive windmill whose blades  are blurred and operating.  James notes that on the back of this print is inscribed "Lorenz Farm, Crocketts Bluff.  Wm H. Prange, CF and sons."  Though identification is difficult, he notes that the man standing by the buggy at the right is Chris Prange, and the man in the middle is William Henry Prange.  The small boy sitting on the bales, he speculates is his grandfather Adolph.  The two older boys are, he speculates, Herman and William John Prange.  The very small boy standing to the right of William Henry, he thinks is Walter Prange and the woman holding the baby may be Anna Prange, wife of William Henry.  There are also two young girls, one feeding the chickens and another standing near the white horse whose face is blurred, unable apparently to remain relative still for the photographer.  Unfortunately, the Lorenz family is a bit of a mystery to us all.

Chris Prange and his buggy, horses, and woodpile.

"Prange hay bailing operation, Crockett's Bluff, Arkansas
(Inscription on the back)

This image, and a number of others, have been passed along to James Prange by Bob Moody whose relatives lived in Crockett's Bluff, along with the Pranges and Woodiels.  James has provided the following identifications: R-L: The boy sitting on the hay bales on the far right, I believe, is my grandfather Adolph Prange.  Second from the right is Chris Prange.  The man in the center, I believe, is William Henry Prange.  The man fourth from the right is either Herman Prange or William John Prange. I am certain that it is one of them.  They have a very similar facial structure and zooming in on the photo doesn't help much; it just get fuzzier.  I have no idea who the person is fifth from the right.  My grandfather was born in 1891, so if I am correct that the boy is him, this picture would have been taken in the very early 1900s.

A YouTube video of this baler in operation.

Fourth Annual Northeast Animal-Power Field Days at Tunbridge,Vermont, Oct. 18 2010

"The best of the remaining photos of the Prange Sawmill"

Helen Spence: A Legend of the White River

Where Legends Begin

L-R: Cicero Spence, Helen Spence, Joe Black, followed by two unknown boys, a black dog and the rifle of an unknown figure.
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In her article in The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, Denise Parkinson provides the following information re this picture.  Her source is L.C. (Lamuel Cressie) Brown a childhood friend of Spence.  It was passed on to him by John Black the young man in the dark cap seated to Helen's left by the deer head.  According to Brown, his late wife's family had a photography studio in DeWitt.  Hugh Bowers was the photographer.  According to L.C., it was staged in the 1920s at a barn in St. Charles where trappers and buyers came to deal in hides and furs.

This picture is in many ways a  typical example of the emerging popularity of the still relatively new photographic technology.  Such images were carefully staged to reflect the subjects occupation, possessions, and accomplishments.  In New England about this time,the Howes Brothers developed a major industry touring the countrysides  recording workers and families -- always in the midst of their work or in front of their homes, and their recorded images reflected the individuals in their finery among their possessions.  So it is here.  

Here we have Cicero Spence with his young daughter Helen, three young boys, a black dog, and the knee and rifle of another figure. On the wall behind them hang hides - mostly raccoon but one apparently that of a deer whose head with antlers rests at Helen's left.  At Cicero's right rests a rifle between two (perhaps mink) hides.  He wears a cap to which a carbide hunting lamp could be attached and a ammunition vest partially filled with shotgun shells, casually holding a pistol in his right hand.  Helen holds what appears to be a rag doll with a roughly sewn image of a face.  It must be winter or late fall, since Helen appears to be wearing "long johns" under her dress.  John Black is wearing dark gloves; the second boy has his hands in his pockets.  

On the wall among the stretched hides hang two hunting horns.  Whether these are for decoration in this "hunting" scene is unclear.  Hunters would not in these days use such horns for holding gun powder, but they might well have carried them "corked" at the open end for keeping precious items such as dry matches.  The interesting wooden box resting at the lower right with the image of a horse or donkey on its side is a box that originally contained Brown's Mule Chewing Tobacco.  (It puzzled me for a while until I was able to verify it, thanks to Google images, with several fin images of similar ones.

A Second Image

James Prange's Snapseed Enhancement of the image.

Diving For Shells: Watching for Steamboats

Among the most engaging scenes of the newly released film Mud are several brief episodes in which the character Galen (Michael Shannon) dons an elaborate diving helmet to gather shells or mollusk from the bottom of the White River.  His assistant, a young boy in his early teens named Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) remains alert on the small barge  watching over the air pump and remaining ready to respond to any emergencies or to Galen's signals via a rope to which he is attached.

Because Michael Shannon is known for his portrayal of various crazed characters, any viewer familiar with his roles immediately assumes in him more than a touch of evil.  However, like a number of other false leads in Mud, this is not Galen's role.  In fact, he turns out to be more of a friendly adviser and coach for both the young boys featured in the film, Ellis (Tye Sheridan) and Neckbone.  

Instead, the diving scenes are not the source of terrible danger and potential tragedy, as one naturally expects, but rather in the darkness of the depths could well serve as a metaphor or otherwise enhance the tone of the emerging journey of the boys through their encounters with Mud (Matthew McConaughey)  from the darkness or innocence of childhood into the clear though often harsh realities of the adult world.

DPW Eighth Grade

These scenes, however, were especially engaging for me because on this same White River -- perhaps not far from where much of this film was shot -- during the summer of 1948 or '49 when I was about his age I played Neckbone's role for real while employed by a courageous young Navy veteran newly returned from World War II named O.V. Gosnell. 

 I was that boy who sat on the anchored barge and waited, watching for steamboats and trying to stay alert for any emergency.  If the engine stalled that pumped air down the garden hose to O.V.'s cleverly jerry-rigged helmet, I was prepared to turn the fly wheel of our jerry-rigged engine until he had time to surface so I could hook the top of his helmet to a ring on the back of the barge.  If the occasional steamboat did appear, its whistle could be heard far down beyond the next bend of the river, my signal to pass along to O.V. via a prescribed number of tugs on the rope, the under end of which was around his waist on the bottom of the river.

O.V. Gosnell Eighth Grade

The barge and engine and diving gear of the film, in contrast to ours, are, of course, "hollywood" in every detail, the helmet complete with glass viewing area and even lights, the engine air pump painted and efficient, unlike ours.  Those pictured below in a National Geographic stock image of a diver on the Mississippi River are closer to ours in most details -- the weighted helmet made from a galvanized can and the the net used to collect the shells gathered; only here a hand operated air pump.

Summer jobs around the Bluff that were to be had in the late 1940s and '50s were almost exclusively associated with the farms that extended in vast flat prairies to the south and west of the wooded hamlet that extended along the bend of the River that was home to the post office located in the home of Bealah and George Kline, the Baptist Church that lay at the entrance to the cemetery, and Schwab's Store, the clear center of all important activity, save perhaps on Sunday morning.  So, a job of any kind on the river was unique.

My only previous paying job, before O.V. lured me away with a  promise of the hefty salary of fifty-cents per hour, had been one plowing cotton middles behind a hefty buck skinned horse from sun-up to sun down for $2.50 per day for Mr. George Kline in his lone cotton field some two miles westward out the Hill Road.  We road his horses Lightning and Buck back and forth from our work.

Because O.V. was only able to work beneath the surface of the White River for only a few hours each morning and afternoon, my salary was probably about the same as the one ridding the cotton field middles of their grass and weeds, but it allowed me more time to wander about during the rest of the summer and to hang out at Schwab's Store, where the action was, listening to the stories of travelling salesmen and a random collection of bored and non-working farmers.  The human interaction was what I relished.  For shear isolation, following a horse behind a plow all day, or for that matter riding a tractor all day in two mile laps is to be rated right up there with the legendary lonesome cowboy and his horse riding the range endlessly. 

 The sweltering heat on a barge on a river in summer ( for some reason, an umbrella or even a make-shift were never considered) is hardly an ideal working environment, but it was a welcomed change from work in the fields.

I spent most of my earnings that summer on the purchase of a used bicycle from the Western Auto Store in DeWitt.  It had been newly painted red.  I rode the gravel roads for miles around, and I recall one spill on loose gravel at the bottom of the hill toward the river landing near the Herman Marrs house.  Both knees skinned for a week. 

I remember O.V. as being very supportive of me as a boy, perhaps because he didn't treat me as a boy.   I admired him and was amazed by his abilities and ambitions.  He realized if he could condition himself to descend to the depths of the river he could gather more shells in an hour that those using the conventional "crows feet" method of dragging the bottom from the surface of the water could gather in a long day, or longer.  So, that summer remains a great memory for me.

For some time, as I recall, I begged him to let me give diving a try until one day he consented. At the end of the day, we ventured up around the bend above the Bluff to a sand bar and I gave it a try. I donned the helmet and waded outward.  I doubt I got down more than about ten or twelve feet or so before I sensed my head was about to blow off, and I had to abandoned the venture.  Characteristically, there was not the least hint at teasing me as I rose and removed the helmet. He just said: "Well, you just have go down far enough for your ears to pop; it's easy from that point on.

Footnotes

During the depression years, the button industry thrived on the Arkansas Rivers including the Mississippi.  More on this topic later.

"Lower White River more than Mud Country

From today's Arkansas Democrat Gazette: a reporter's visit to the sites and sets of "Mud," a film set in part on the White River and the Crockett's Bluff, DeWitt, and St. Charles areas.

http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2013/may/16/lower-white-river-more-mud-country-20130516/

Crockett's Bluff: Image From the Past

Yet another marvelous image from Crockett's Bluff from the Prange Family archives.

Standing L-R: Dorothy Poole, Gus McDonald (behind her), Edison Keithley, Hallie Gosnell, unknown woman behind her,       Richard Prange (with ball glove), Edith Bowermaster, Addie Poole, Thelma Keithley, Russell Marrs, Grace Roberts.  Seated L-R: unknown boy with headlamp cap, Edward Bowermaster (in front of Hallie), unknown boy in dark coat, unknown boy with light shoes, Eugene Bowermaster, unknown boy in helmet, O.V. Gosnell in helmet, and Joe Prange.

What an amazing life-filled image from perhaps the early 1930's -- or earlier?

From the bats on display and Richard's mitt, one can assume there had been a ball game, followed by a the assembly for a picture of all the participants.

Thanks to the efforts of James Prange and Hallie Keithley (Hallie Gosnell above) we've identified most of these folks.  With luck, we will identify the "unknowns," here as well as the background of this scene and its approximate date.  I find particularly interesting the mysterious female figure in the back, part of whose face can be seen between Hallie and Richard, appearing to be making a "finger-thumb lens" with her right hand.

Those who view this picture and are able to identify (or are willing to hazard a guess) the individuals assembled, simply post your information as a "Comment" at the end of this post.  I'll then be please to list the identities of those pictured.

Friends of My Childhood

This image was forwarded to me by my St. Charles classmate Eunice Ward Brown (front row second from left -- embraced on her right by May Krablin and on her left by Bob Knowlton).  I cannot recall haven't seen it.  Yet there I am (fourth from the left middle row) next to Liz Dupslaff, one of my earliest childhood friends  and apparently my guide.  We're in fifth grade [1945 or 46] and I've just returned from being away during the war years at Little Rock, and I suspect, though don't remember, she was assigned to watch over me because she knew who I was.

I was astonished by this picture. I was, I think, the only person from Crockett's Bluff.  So many of these (those of us in fifth grade) friends and classmates reflect histories that startle me still.  And here we are in fifth grade, not yet in those days, even in the midst of puberty.  Unlike perhaps some of the sixth graders pictured with us.  I say this because the lovely figure just behind me is Irene Hudson, one of the most beautiful females I could envision in those days is still, even in the most distant of memories, the subject of one of the most erotic encounters of my recollected youth.

1st Row: Mae Krablin, Eunice Ward, Bobby Jerrel Knowlton, Richard McKinley, Arthur Krablin, Jr., Jo Ann Browning, Mary Dawson, Mora Faye Duty, Robert Almond, Frank Caple, Charles Donald Crabtree, Millard Carver, Weson Adams, George Dobson.

2nd Row: Frieda Shumate, Louise Thornsbury, Helen Smith, Dale Woodiel, Elizabeth Ann Dupslaff, Kay Terry, Mae Dale Dillon, Gladys Bowermaster, Nellie Ann Crabtree, Bobby J. Bullock, Joyce Jones, Cora Mae Dewease, Joe Currie, Garland Long, Billy Dawson, Issac Prater, Mrs. Cora May Burrell, Teacher.

3rd Row: Deliah LeHue, Norma Jean Smith, Mary Helen Eason, Irene Hudson, Georgia Lee Simpson, Audrey B. Dunn, Sarah Dawson, Bette Lou Maddox, Edna Mae Shadwich, Henry Lee, Edward Early Jones, Troy Wages, Mack Smith.

Here we are a few years later in eighth grade in 1949.  We've lost some classmates, their having moved away, but we've acquired one noteworthy member, Peter Van Huesen, who would become a good friend and who brought to the class some other-world style and "folkways" somewhat strange to the community of St. Charles, not to mention Crockett's Bluff, Ethel, and all that prairie space in between.

I should note with the image below the greater part of our group in New Orleans all dressed up for dinner at The Court of Two Sisters, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Downs, our Principal, and Mrs. Malcolm Browning, whose daughter Jo Ann was a member of our class.  This was, to my knowledge, the first "class trip" in the history of St. Charles High School, thanks, in part, to the creative imagination of Maurice Dunn who taught us science, among many other things (whose car was one of those that transported us to NOLA that lovely spring week of 1953).

L/R: Top Row: Elizabeth Ann Dupslaff, Bob Knowlton, JoAnn Browning, Richard "Rocky" Mc Kinley, [unknown woman in hat] Mae Krablin, Roger Carver, Dale Woodiel, Kay Terry. L/R Lower Row: Mildred Downs, Charles Downs, Lottie Mae Vernor, Nellie Ann Crabtree, Darlene Smith [lady in hat] Mora Faye Duty, Eunice Ward, Joyce Jones, Maurice Dunn, Mrs. Amelia Browning, the unofficial "class mother who drove one of the cars for our trip.

These adults, and especially Charles Downs, played a noteworthy role in our "growing up."  Years later, after I was out of college and the Army and was married with children, I made during a trip to Arkansas a special trip to Conway where Mildred and Charles Downs were living at the time just to thank him for what he had done for me.  I tried to express it to him as best I could.  He was baffled; he had no idea what I was talking about.  He had, he said, done nothing particularly special.  So it goes.