Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-09-19

ders quartered al Mrs. TarIeton :
boarding housa on the second street
north of the courthouse. and then
within one hundred feet of the river
bank. and | proceeded at once n or
ganize nay party tor the survey by
making my brother the compass man
with John Marshall as front chainman
and Marion Boyd as rear chainman
Fill Wills as stake maker, while Mr.
Dellman was the levelman. Enders
was his rodman. and John BOYD was
tha rear flagman. and to this party
added five negro axmen.
I also employed two wagons and
teams to haul the necessary outfit,
including provisions for the journey,
rot forgetting a five gallon demijohn
os most excellent Chill tonic" also
to be used in case of snakebtes
On the goth dav of September. es-
tablishing a bench mark on Pullen
street in front of Mrs. Hardwick's
residence, | started the survey east
along the said street about one-half
mile to the middle of Drew Whites
field and there set my sails in
scutheasterly direction for Napoleon,
being accompanied on this first dav
by my schoolmate, Pitt Fontaine Yell.
.J,,., in p1,,ff l-nn
and loved and We made our first
camp at Camp Ground lake.
In taking my direction for the sup
posed line, my aim was to run far
enough south to the river to avoid
all plantations. as this would avoid
the necessity of running the survey
lines through the cotton folds whcn
were then heavy with bolls
BY running this line south of the
plantations we were thrown into the
thick of the forests of heavy timber
and much underground, which extend
eG all the way from Pine Bluff to Ma
poleon and at the east end of the
line it ran through a dense canebrake
extending through the Red Fork bayou
t. the Mississippi river. There were
no roads at all along this route and
We had great difficulty in fixing our
camping ground. which had to be on
the bank Of some of the bayous or
sloughs so as to furnish water for our
teams and ourselves, and as none o!
us were acquainted with the
country. We had to wander about
a good deal to find our camp at nigh
and to find our line again in the morn
ing
On one occasion. after qitting our
work in the afternoon about o'clock,
started off with compass on my
arm and Marshall. tho chairman, and
Willis. the stakeman, to find our wav
to where We thoueht the camp should
be, while the other members of tho
party took another route in the di-
r@ction they thought the best. At
nishtfall I, with my two companions,
found that we We're lost entirely and
had to go into camp by the side of
big cottonwood tree which hal
blown down. whore We lindled a fire
aud spent the night listening to tho
wolves and owls, In the morning at
daybreak Marshall and Willis could
hear the lowing of a COW and the
barking of dog, which satisfied us
that there was a plantation near at
hend, ard starting in that direction
We were brought upon the banks of
2 lake about one hundred yards wide
and were forced to make a raft of
broken sticks to put our clothes and
the compass on and then to swim
Getting across this lake and putting
on our clothes we found ourselves
a. the back of a plantation belonging
to Mr.. John Simpson, brother-n-aw
OF DR., Brewster, and making ourselves
known, he was kind enough to give
w 1 Soot, ifOl lcdhldSt, anu tHcI
carried us to our camp ground, To
prevent accidents of this kind again,
DR.. Lee sent ont to us guide, Mr..
Tom Douglas, his brother-in-law, who
is still living at Warner, and he was
a most expert woodsman, and saved Us
much trouble, but in the neighborhood
Of Gen. Mitchell's plantation on Swan
lake. he turned lis over to Mr. Eu-
gene Gardelas (pronounces Jurdlo).
who was never al loss in the woods,
and furnished us with an abundant
supply of game and knew just exactly
where to put the camp ahead of us
SO that it would be almost directly
on the line
The weather was propitious and we