Long-time Ozark Countians share stories, memories of times long ago

Thursday’s “Conversation and Coffee” gathering at the Ozark County Historium brought together a quintet of storytellers and memory-sharers. Sophronia Tabor, H. K. Silvey, Arthur Russell Stehle, Estel Robirds and E.F. Miller regaled a roomful of enthusiastic listeners with their reminiscences of growing up around the Ozark-Taney county line.

There was mention of chivarees, one-room schools, unpaved roads and driving herds of cattle, hogs and turkeys to the nearest railhead at Chadwick. Other topics included moonshiners and the arrival of electricity and telephones and more. Some of the stories mentioned the Old Salt Road that ran from Sparta to Cotter, Arkansas, coming down the creek at Longrun and continuing on through Isabella. 

They talked about grandparents and great-grands who had “proved up” their homesteads in Ozark County and what is now eastern Taney County, persevering despite severe challenges. H.K. Silvey told about his great-grandmother, Cynthia Silvey, who was born in 1850 in the Ozark- Douglas county area and who raised four children on her own, never marrying but managing to homestead 160 acres – land that’s still in the family, Silvey said. 

Some of the stories were a little hard to hear – but fascinating nonetheless. For example, Silvey said his dad told him when they were driving hogs to the railhead, “If they had an old sow that didn’t want to follow, they would catch her and sew her eyes shut so she would follow.” 

The group told of riding horseback or in wagons over rugged Ozarks roads when the area’s small, remote communities were only a few miles apart but “a world away,” Silvey said. 

They talked about the structures and byways built by the Civilian Conservation Corps – places that still stand today, including the Thornfield School and other current-day landmarks. “Our fathers and grandfathers worked for the CCC,” said Robirds, adding that one of the CCC’s most well-known accomplishments was building “Skyline Road,” today’s Glade Top Trail. 

“The engineering is amazing,” Robirds said. “It don’t wash, unlike many Ozark County roads that just started as wagon roads.”

Sophronia Tabor remembered walking 2 miles from her Ocie home to catch the bus to Gainesville High School. “Ira Duggins was the driver,” she said. “We walked a foot log to cross the creek.”

Silvey remembered that when he was a boy his dad “would tie me in the saddle with a sack of corn and send me off to the mill in Longrun to have it ground into meal.”

The storytellers shared memories of old-time doctoring. Sue Robirds, Estel’s wife, remembered his mother saying she took the children to “Doc Small,” who usually recommended “a beet poultice” for whatever was bothering them. 

Sophronia said her mother believed “kerosene and sugar” would cure just about anything – but she also remembers how it burned. “You would do a dance when she put it on,” she said. 

She was told that when she was born in Dugginsville, the “granny woman” who usually tended women in the area was gone, and her brother brought a doctor from Harrison, Arkansas, to the house. For a bed, “they put me in a quart fruit jar box and put it on the shelf above the wood cookstove, where it was warm.” 

Miller talked about the “poll tax” residents had to pay to vote. “It was a road tax,” he said. “If you couldn’t pay, you worked. I remember, the old grader would go by and you would go out and pick the big rocks out of the road.”

They told of being “ridden on a rail” during chivarees soon after couples were married. “They set you on a rail and bounced it up and down and you held on for dear life,” Sue Robirds said. 

Then, after the foolishness was over, the newlyweds would be treated to gifts and kindness, the group agreed.

Some of the stories told of the moonshine businesses. “I remember some of those families personally,” Robirds said. “If it hadn’t been for the dad making whiskey, they would have starved to death.”

Silvey told of a moonshine maker who was caught and imprisoned. “But his wife still had plenty to sell while he was gone, so they  made it all right,” he said. 

Land prices were discussed. Sophronia said her dad had purchased 80 acres for $350, and Silvey said someone in his family had bought 40 acres for $4 an acre on the courthouse steps “on Pearl Harbor Day.” 

Miller remembered a story of 100 acres being sold for $100 to the government – and then another 20 acres selling for $20. The land would become part of Mark Twain National Forest, he said. 

Telephone party lines were the subject of several stories. “Everyone had their own ring, but whenever the phone rang, everyone heard it, so everyone picked up and listened,” she said, adding that her aunt Becky was once caught eavesdropping on a conversation because “the box of baby ducks started quacking behind the stove.”

Modern conveniences – or the lack of them – sparked several stories. At his one-room school, Silvey said, “there were no toilets. The girls went one way off over the hill, and the boys went the other.”

Stehle said his grandfather had come to America from Germany at age 15. He spent some time in New York before finally ending up in the Ozarks. 

Silvey said his family’s arrival in America occurred when “three Silvey brothers jumped ship during the Revolution.” One of the ship-jumper’s sons, Charles, came to Missouri from Tennessee in 1837 “and brought eight boys with him,” settling on a homestead that’s now part of the Ava Country Club, he said. 

Thursday morning at the Historium was full of stories of hardships and trials – and also gratitude for the lives they had lived. “Did you all know we were poor?” Robirds asked, prompting the others to smile and shake their heads no. 

“Everyone was just like us,” Silvey said.

“Our way of living was rough, but we are better off for the way we were raised,” Robirds said.