ARKANSAS HOMESTEADERS

In February 1913, my parents, S.D. (Vet), and Maude Smith with two year old daughter, Evalyn, took a train to DeQueen, Arkansas on the biggest adventure of their lives. Vet’s father had told them of a tract of land in Sevier County that was available for homesteading. He coaxed them with accounts of how mild the climate and long the growing season was. Since Vet was having trouble finding work where they were, they thought this might be the opportunity to earn the farm he had always wanted and to a good way of life.They didn’t know of the lack of welcome of their neighbors toward northerners and anyone taking their 'free range land'.Requirements of the homestead agreement were to clear five acres for farming and build a house in six months. Vet 'proved' their claim just before a son was born to them August 3, 1913. They lived in a windowless, door less two room shanty until the doors and windows they had ordered came.Though the growing season was longer, crops were poor because of the thin, rocky soil, spring wash-outs and summer long droughts. They managed to grow enough garden and corn to fed themselves and oats and peanut hay to feed the horses and the cows.Vet earned a little money by selling the good timber from his claim but most good timber was already gone. He cut cross-ties from the oak trees on his land for the railroad that was being built near them. When the railroad stopped ordering cross-ties, Vet went to work at a saw mill when the crops didn’t keep him busy. It was the only way.As the saw mill kept moving farther and farther away to better timber, it became a long walk or horseback ride to and from work. One night, he had a dangerous encounter with a moonshiner, but he escaped any serious harm. Finally, the mill owner wanted to move his mill to Oklahoma. Vet moved the mill, although, he would have to camp out one night between home and the new mill site.