Vintage Photo: Mount Olive, 1910

Update!    Click for current photo of Main Street Mount Olive!

Note - Railroad is not in same location as in 1910. It was moved after the floods of the late 1920s...some of the old sections still exist near the A.C. Jeffery Home.

Main Street, Mount Olive in  1910

  The signs on the store fronts in the foreground appear to read "Dixon Bros." on the left and "Jeffery & Co." on the right. The postmaster of that time, Patrick H. Jeffery, opened a store after the railroad was built through town. Perhaps he built the store just below the post-office as the building on the right just above the "Jeffery & Co." store appears to have a flagpole on its roof. Or perhaps the second building on the right is the Drug Store and Doctor's Office owned and operated by Dr. William Ransom Hayden. The map indicates that the post office and the drug store were side by side.Perhaps, like most post-offices of the day, Patrick Jeffery operated both his store and post-office out of the building on the end.

For reference, here's a map of Mount Olive around 1900 that was published in the April, 1975 edition of The Izard County Historian, Volume 6 Number 2. The map was adapted from the 1972 drawings of H. E. Jeffery and Ray Hanks from the Jeffery Historical Society in Richmond, VA..

Heartfelt thanks to Mrs. Glenda Wommack, Stone County Museum Director, who sent us the postcard photo. Mrs. Glenda writes:

"I found this old 1910 postcard w/picture of Mt. Olive in the files at the Stone County Museum in Mt. View. Thought I'd share just in case you didn't have one like it. Post card was sent from Grace Hopper Nesbitt w/Sylamore, AR stamp dated Feb 21, 1913 to Miss Jara Massey, Herpel, Ark. Written and underlined on date stamped side, it states 'Main Street, Mt. Olive, AR, March 1910.'"

Folks, if you have vintage photos of landmarks in Izard County, share them with others through us or through some other historical or genealogical site. Let's put the pieces of the puzzle that is Izard County history back together! With a united effort, we can literally make history!

Vintage Photo: Melbourne Around theTurn of the Century

Last night I was delighted to find an e-mail waiting for me from a friend of the site, Randy Williams, which included the amazing photo below. The photo is of Dixon Street looking north along the court square and appears to have been taken sometime around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Due to the presence of all the men in like dress, this could have been during the 1912 Ex-Confederate Reunion. If so, this is the same year that the old red brick courthouse was built. I offer this possibility based on an account of an Arkansas Supreme Court case concerning the building of the brick structure, "Izard County vs The Bank of Melbourne (No. 348)" recorded in the Southwestern Reporter Volume 185 where building contracts were challenged. One of the contractors named in the case was the merchant, M.F. Hill, whose store is in the photo.

Update

If the photo was taken earlier than 1890, just off frame to the right might have stood the old original wood frame structure that had previously burned to the ground along with all of Izard County's records. If it was taken between 1890 and 1912, it would be the wooden building that replaced the previous one. The second courthouse that was built in Melbourne was taken down in 1912 and replaced with the beautiful red brick courthouse that burned in 1937.

Perhaps the wagon in the photo is one that hauled the brick up from Wild Haws Landing and the men in the photo are part of the construction crew during a break?

Perhaps not. But...if so, don't you love it when history comes together?

Be sure to check out the comments below. There's more info about Melbourne around this time.

Vintage Photos: Ruby Jett Hightower Collection

In May of this year, we had the privilege of featuring some fantastic photographs from the collection of Ruby Jett Hightower on our site. We promised then that we'd be bringing you more from that collection in the future. Well...the future is now!

We don't know names to match the faces nor are we sure of the locations in these vintage shots but we think they will entertain you nonetheless!

Enjoy!

Old Photos: Ruby Jett Hightower Collection

The old photos below are a selection from the collection of the late Ruby Jett Hightower whose family was an integral part of the modern-day Brockwell area. The Jett family built a store in Brockwell, operating it for many years after the "Batesville-Mammoth Springs Highway" (Highway 9) was built. In fact, the original settlement near Brockwell was given the name "Jett" after C. E. "Clerk" Jett opened a post-office there sometime after 1904.

Mr. Jett had earlier operated a store on the court square in Melbourne after moving there from the family's farm northeast of Brockwell in order to allow his children to get a better education. He was unable to afford to board so many children away from home as they attended the school terms. It was after his girls all "made teachers" and began moving away from home that he moved back to the farm sometime after 1904, opened the store at Jett, and later managed to get a post-office opened.

The post-office of Jett was short-lived as the community became Brockwell and moved along the route of present-day Highway 9.

The photos below are from the closet of one of Clerk Jett's girls, Ruby, who became a Hightower and later moved to Violet Hill. Most of the photographs have no notations and it is possible some of them are not even taken in Izard County. This particular selection of Mrs. Ruby Jett Hightower's shoe-box collection, however, was the result of an attempt to choose the examples most likely made somewhere in Izard County.

The one location clearly notated on the back of one photograph is that of the old Band-Mill Schoolhouse (second photo from top). Note the similarity in construction to the Old Dockins Store at Band Mill! The Store Building at the top is the original building the Jett Family built at Brockwell.

Note- Thanks to Heather for the use of these photos. It's was a wonderful experience seeing the early twentieth century through the eyes of whatever photographers snapped the many photos we got to browse through while choosing these photos for the post. Heather is actually displaying several more of her Great Aunt's photos currently at the Paul Weaver Library at Ozarka College. She has promised to allow us to scan any of those we want once the exhibition is finished so readers can look forward to another selection of photos from the collection in the coming weeks.

Note #2 - A wonderful article about Brockwell appeared in the January 1984 issue of the Izard County Historian with a lengthy history of the Jett Family. The article included a copy of the photo of the original store at Brockwell (circa 1927) pictured at top.