ARKANSAS HOMESTEADERS
Book 3 of Covered Wagon Family Books
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Vet
untied the load as he talked.
"Here, take these pillows.
I'll bring the kitchen chairs."
Maude
and Evalyn followed Vet into their little two room,
just boards house.
"Here's
our kitchen-living room. Later, I'll
build a separate room for the kitchen and this will be our living room. They build that way down here."
"This
is the table you made,” Maude touched it's smooth
top. "You must have planed
it."
"Yes,
I thought it should be smooth on top. I
sanded the legs some, too. Here's the
used stove I bought. It's a good one...
has a big oven. We built the chimney on
the outside. It's a good chimney...
draws good.
We'll build a fireplace chimney over there before winter. You need a little heat during the
winter. A fireplace should be enough. I'll put a loft over the bedroom when I
can. The children can sleep up there
when they are big enough. Come see the
bedroom."
"Oh!
what's this?"
Maude asked as she saw a small, wooden frame in the corner.
"It's a little bed I made for Evalyn. It's just a frame. We will need to get a mattress or a straw
tick for it. When she out-grows it, the
baby can use it."
"I'll
just fold up an old quilt for a mattress.
We can get a mattress later."
Maude said.
"The
first thing I want to do is get some more garden in
the ground. I cleared a place to plant a
few potatoes and a few peanuts. They
raise peanuts for horse feed down here.
Chapter 9
No Doors And Windows
Maude
and Evalyn helped carry in the light things, pots and pans, and the like. Pa and Cynthia came and soon all their
possessions were in the rough lumber, two room house.
An
old cast iron bed with wooden slats, a coil wire springs, with a thin cotton
mattress, their little chest of drawers and Evalyn’s homemade bed filled the
room. In the living room end of the
biggest room, they placed two used rocking chairs, a little table and an old
trunk.
Two
kitchen chairs to put beside the home made table and Evalyn’s high chair were
placed in the kitchen end of the room.
With the used, wood burning cook stove, Vet and his Pa had installed
earlier and four planed board shelves along one wall for a cupboard, this was
to be Maude’s kitchen. Her very own.
After
the older Smiths had left, Maude said, "Evalyn, this is our home. We have a home of our own, now."
Vet
just stood and watched. After a while,
he picked Evalyn up and took her to the bedroom. This is your little bed. You can have a bed all to yourself. See, it has side rails so you won’t fall
out. Do you think you will like
it?"
Evalyn
only looked at the bed.
"Here,
I’ll put this old quilt in it for a mattress and it will be soft and
comfy," Maude said.
Vet
placed his daughter in the bed, but she only looked back up at him. "It will take a while," Maude
guessed.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
In
February 1913, my parents, S.D. (Vet), and Maude Smith with two year old
daughter, Evalyn, took a train to DeQueen,
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
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
Vet
hoped to earn enough money moving the mill to get his family back to
About the Author
Allie L. Walker was born on a homestead in
Allie grew up on a rented farm in
After the children married, Allie studied writing and started recording her family’s unusual history, THE COVERED WAGON FAMILY BOOKS. This book, “ARKANSAS HOMESTEADERS”, is book 3 in the four book series. Book 1 is “BOUND BOY’S SON”, book 2 is “MAUDIE MAY” and 4 is “JUST LIKE GYPSIES”.