Semi=weekly graphic., 1897-03-06
l839 VS 1897 Pine Bluff As It Ap- peared Then and
 Now. THE STORY OF A BEAR AND
 AN INDIAN. Col J. II. vanHoose Tells About His First Visit To Pine
 Bluff and His Last Also Writes To Thank Our Citizens For the Gourtesies Extended the Legislative Com
 mittee-An Inter
 esting Letter

LITTLE Rock, ARK, March |, 1897.
 Hon. J. W. Adams, Editor of Daily Graphic,
 Pine BluH, Ark,
 DEAR slR:-Permit me through
 the columns of your excellent paper
 Co return my thanks to yourself and our friends, Hon, Wm. u. Langford,
 Mayor Atkinson, General King
 White. Judge Jones, Sheriff Triplett, and Father Lucy and other genial citizens of Pine Bluff, for the many courtesies and polite ttentions shown to onr committees during our very pleasant visit 10 your city, and assure. you one and all
 that we were 10th to leave you, and
 that we will carry with Us to our several homes up among the Ozark and Boston mountains the most pleasant memories of you all, and
 will gladly tell our friends of your beautiful city, with the many evi-
 deuccs of prosperity and wealth; Of your elegant churches and other public buildings, and above all those
 wonderful machine shops, belonging
 to che Cotton Belt Railroad, witch
 we found SO extensive and complete that we were amazed
 having no idea that Ark
 ansas had within her territory such
 wonderful works, and of which we
 would yet be ignorant of but for the
 kindness ef Mayor Atkinson. Gen.
 White and other genial citizens,
 who SC kindly conveyed us to these shops.
 Pine Bluff or any other city may
 we'll feel proud of such enterprises.
 We were also pleased with the schools we visited and glad to see the improvements made by them.
 Pine Rlun looks very different now from what it was when first saw it, which was June ?, 1889,
 when tho steamer Trident, com mandcd by Capt. Houston, landed at your landing and discharged q lot of freight which she had brought from Cincinnati, Ohio, at which city my father and family took passage on her for Fort Smith. While the boat lay at your landing a party of Indians mounted on ponies rode down the bank out of the pine thicket, and one of them lead a pet bear on the boat and sold it to the mate. who carried it on the bow of the loat and said that he would take it back to Ohio with him. l was then nine years old and can yet remember how disliked the idea of coming to a country where the forest was full of Indians and bears. would very much liked just then to have been back in my ''old Kentucky home far away I imagine there are no houses yet standing that were built SD long ago as 1S39 My recollection of the place then is that there were only few houses near the river, and they were mostly built oflogs. remember seeing a forest of pine trees near the river bank; remember also that on each side of the river below and above Pine 1 Bluff, there were dense forests and l thick cane brakes, and at several | places between the mouth Of the liver and Van Buren, we saw large l locks of wild turkeys anu herds of lcer on the banks of the river, and l .leared fields and farm houses were l ike angels visits. Arkansas then l was very snarsely settled and | the pioneers lahored under many | disadvantages unknown to the present. generation, but with all it's if l knew where to ind another country just like ii, ohl IS am, l would be tempted to go 10 it. At the time I first saw Pine Bluff we were on our way from .astern Kentucky to Washington aounty, Arkansas. where my father settled in the wilderness and went 5 work to clear up the flores and ence and cultivate the fertile soil oi he White River bottoms. There l grew up to manhood. working on he farm until twenty-one years ,ld. without any education, as there were no schools then in that | lew country; and when twenty ,ne years of age l had never atten- Tod school. even the most primi- tive, as much as six months all put l together. The only free school sver attended was in the summer of IS46. and then for only eleven days. The only instructions I ever received n the school room that was worthy she name of q school was at Ozark Institute, near Fayetteville. which attended fifteen months after vas 9 grown man. I rejoice Co see he great Improvements in Arkansas n the way of schools for the youths ,f our land, and especially in our