The Mena weekly star., 1922-01-12
R. G. BROWN, HERE BEFORE CIVIL WAR, TELLS OF EARLY
 DAY LIFE IN POLK COUNTY

R. G. Brown of Yocana, a few miles east of Mena, was in town Thursday and paid visit to the office Of The Star, the purpose being to renew his subscription to The Star. While fold ing up his receipt he remarked that he had read The Star regularly ever since there was a Star, and had read the papers published at Dallas that The Star succeeded
 These remarks led to more talk, a lot of which will interest many Polk county people.
 Mir. Brown was born in Mississippi in 1845, and with his father, James B. Brown, and family. came to Polk coun- ty when a mere boy, locating at Dal- las. At that time, he said, there was only wilderness where Mena now is, but that the spring in Janssen Park was a sort of camping place for hunt CTS, who made it headquarters while they hunted in the mountains north and west. The nearest house to Mena at the time, he said, was what was known as the Gale Cox place, north of
 Dallas. At Dallas there were two stores, the Cecil dry goods store and grocery run by John Pruitt. Later Q man by the name of Afford put in B store.
 The mail of this entire locality was at that time carried, on horseback, over the mountain trails by Tom Mills, who had a route from Dallas to Waldron, from Dallas to Mt Ida, and from Dallas west to the state line, and southeast into the Cossatot coun- try. The mail from the outside world reached Dallas weekly.
 An interesting incident of this mail service was the drowning of a young son of Mills, while carrying the mail to Mt Ida. While trying to cross Kates creek, usually a small stream, a few miles east of Opal, the young man and his pony were washed about ] lone-fourth mile down stream. Some lUme later the body of the boy and the lmau bags were found lodged in a ! out, was grazing around close to his l dead master, having made no effort to leave Cob Mills, q brother of this | boy, visited Polk county recently. He lives in Oklahoma.
 \ No Cotton Here Then. | ! In those early days, Mir. Brown { says groceries were brought by wag- l on from Fort Smith or Little Rock i sometimes Arkadelphia. The same l was true of all merchandise. At that | time no cotton was grown here, the ] crops being wheat, corn and hogs, a | good many chickens and ducks, anc | some cattle, not many families having \ milk cows. Hog and hominy" com, iprised the staple foods, but fruit those
 times was always dependable, chiei j varieties being apples, peaches ans f blackberries. And those days vii, grapes were everywhere in the hiii:
 and valleys, as were chinQuapins II Both these now are almost extinct Mir Brown believing the frequen
 fires are responsible,
 Only little sorghum was pr0duces
 and sugar was very expensive ant
 hard to get. but bee trees could b, found almost anywhere, and this vils
 honey supplied B great pant of thi sweetening.
 When Game Abounded. t Wild game was plentiful most ev
 anywhere. tho Mr. Brown ayers h : never was much of a hand to hunt ] He says that he knows 8 good man k men who broke themselves down
 hunting over the hills. Among thes { he names Jim Owens. father of Ar,
 George Petty; Billy Reed. father q
 Isaac keed, and Frank Ward. nos
 living in Faseg H1iioN. Nr. Brow z Aafk That he has never kii|ed n haal I- bat hnF skrn them eofne inl8 his fsi K and lie aosfn; he killed bad fpsn aee, y never sA~ a panther ln has Mfe. n
 has tf1eo to do 60. haa seer snnnane,