Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person Interviewed: George Benson Age: 80 Location: Ezell Quarters, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Occupation: Cotton Farmer “I was here in slavery days—yes ma’m, I was here. When I come here, colored people didn’t have their ages. The boss man had it. After surrender, boss man told me I ought to keep up …
Walter J. Arnold. The county engineer of Shawnee County, Walter J. Arnold has led an active and diversified career, and although not yet forty-one years of age has crowded into his life more experiences than the ordinary man sees in an entire lifetime. From gold mining in Colorado to chasing the insurgents in the Philippines …
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor Person Interviewed: Joseph Samuel Badgett Location: 1221 Wright Avenue, Little Rock, Arkansas Age: 72 [HW: Mother was a Fighter] “My mother had Indian in her. She would fight. She was the pet of the people. When she was out, the pateroles would whip her because she didn’t have a pass. She …
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person Interviewed: Bob Benford Age: 79 Location: 209 N. Maple Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas “Slavery-time folks? Here’s one of em. Near as I can get at it, I’se seventy-nine. I was born in Alabama. My white folks said I come from Perry County, Alabama, but I come here to this Arkansas …
Person Interviewed: Liza Smith Location: Muskogee, Oklahoma Age: 91 Both my mammy and pappy was brought from Africa on a slave boat and sold on de Richmond (Va.) slave market. What year dey come over I don’t know. My mammy was Jane Mason, belonging to Frank Mason; pappy was Frank Smith, belonging to a master …
Person Interviewed: Hula Williams Place of Birth: Arkansas Date of Birth: July 18, 1857 My mammy use to belong to the Burns plantation back in old Mississippi; that was before I was born, but the white overseer, a man named Kelly, was my father, so my mammy always said. She stayed with the Burns’ until …
Interviewer: Archie Koritz Person Interviewed: Rev. Wamble Location: Gary, Indiana Place of Birth: Monroe County, Mississippi, Date of Birth: 1859 Place of Residence: 1827 Madison Street, Gary, Indiana Occupation: Wagon-maker Archie Koritz, Field Worker Federal Writers’ Project Porter County-District #1 Valparaiso, Indiana EX-SLAVES REV. WAMBLE 1827 Madison Street Gary, Indiana [TR: above ‘Wamble’ in handwriting …
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person Interviewed: Kato Benton Age: 78 Location: Creed Taylor Place, Tamo Pike, Pine Bluff, Arkansas “I was born in South Carolina before the War. I ain’t no baby. I wasn’t raised here. No ma’am. “My daddy’s name was Chance Ayers and my mammy’s name was Mary Ayers. So I guess the …
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person Interviewed: Sarah Anderson Location: 3815 W. Second Avenue, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Age: 78? “I don’t know when I was born. When the Civil War ended, I was bout four or five years old. “I jes’ remember when the people come back—the soldiers—when the War ended. We chillun run under the …
Interviewer: Bernice Bowden Person Interviewed: J. H. Beckwith Age: 68 Location: 619 North Spruce Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas “No ma’m I was not born in the time of slavery. I was sixty-eight last Friday. I was born November 18, 1870 in Johnson County, North Carolina. “My mother was born in Georgia and her name was …
W. E. Chitty, Formerly of Pine Bluff, Lost Life in River—Helena, May 17–(Special)– The body of W. E. Chitty, age 60, who disappeared between the hours of 7 and 8 p.m. Tuesday, off the Chicago Mill and Lumber Corporation’s derrick boat, was found early this morning, near the bank of the river about a mile …
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person Interviewed: Matilda Bass Location: 1100 Palm Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Age: 80 Occupation: Farmed “Yes ma’am, I was eight years old when the Old War ceasted. “Honey, I’ve lived here twenty years and I don’t know what this street is. “I was born in Greenville, Mississippi. They took my parents …
Person Interviewed: Stephen McCray Location: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Place of Birth: Huntsville County, Alabama Date of Birth: 1850 Age: 88 Occupation: Fisherman I was born in Huntsville County, Alabama, right where the Scottsboro boys was in jail, in 1850. My parents was Wash and Winnie McCray. They was the mother and father of 22 chillun. …
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person Interviewed: Mandy Billings Age: 84 Location: 3101 W. 14th Highland Add., Pine Bluff, Arkansas “Now I was born in 1854. That was in slavery times. That wasn’t yistiday was it? Born in Louisiana, in Sparta—that was the county seat. “Bill Otts was my last owner. You see, how come me …
Interviewer: Beaulah Sherwood Hagg Person Interviewed: Boston Blackwell Age: 98 Location: 320 Plum, North Little Rock, Arkansas Make yourself comfoble, miss. I can’t see you much ’cause my eyes, they is dim. My voice, it kinder dim too. I knows my age, good. Old Miss, she told me when I got sold—”Boss, you is 13—borned …
Andrew Guy Boyd, 85, died Feb. 5 at Wallowa Memorial Hospital. He was born May 14, 1919 in Pine Bluff, Ark. Mr. Boyd attended University of Arkansas, Texas A & M and Washington State University. He served with the 159th Infantry in Europe and was discharged in 1945 with the rank of lieutenant. In 1944, …
Interviewer: Samuel S. Taylor Person Interviewed: Jeff Bailey Location: 713 W. Ninth Street, Little Rock, Arkansas Age: 76 or 77 Occupation: Hostler [HW: A Hostler’s Story] “I was born in Monticello. I was raised there. Then I came up to Pine Bluff and stayed there thirty-two years. Then I came up here and been here …
This page links to known Arkansas Funeral Records whether they be available online or offline. Funeral records are an invaluable source of genealogical information that can provide insight into the lives and deaths of our ancestors. They offer a wealth of details on the deceased and their family, including their names, ages, dates of death, causes of death, and other key information.
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person Interviewed: Katie Arbery Location: 815 W. Thirteenth, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Age: 80 “I am eighty years old. My name ‘fore I was a Arbery was Baxter. My mother was a Baxter. Born in Union County. “My mother’s first people was Baxter and my grandmother was a Baxter and they just …
Interviewer: Mrs. Bernice Bowden Person Interviewed: Rose Adway Location: 405 W. Pullen, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Age: 76 Occupation: Farmed “I was born three years ‘fore surrender. That’s what my people told me. Born in Mississippi. Let me see what county I come out of. Smith County—that’s where I was bred and born. “I know I …
