Yesterdays

75 years ago  

(1934)  

A native of Faulkner County who had spent his entire life of nearly 73 years as a citizen of the same county and virtually all of it on the same homestead his father settled in 1855 came to the Log Cabin Democrat office this week. Joe K. Blair, who lived six miles northeast of Greenbrier, said his family arrived in a wagon on the night of Jan. 6, 1856. A heavy snow was falling and the family had to sleep on the wagon under a wagon sheet. The father cut logs and built their house during the following weeks. The nearest gristmill was at Des Arc, 60 miles away, and the nearest post office was at Lewisburg, 30 miles away. Mr. Blair remembered that Wooly Hollow, where the soil erosion service had recently established a 400-acre recreational area, was named for Riley Woolly, who settled near there about the same time as Mr. Blair’s father. Blair was still suffering from the effects of a kick in his back by a mule last summer and had not yet been able to go back to work.

50 years ago 

(1959)

Jimmie Price, 13, suffered a fractured right leg in an unusual accident at his home. The youth had ties one end of a rope to the horn of his saddle and the other end to a picnic table and his horse was pulling the table around the yard. The horse evidently became frightened when it ran into some fallen leaves and bolted. The table struck young Prince on the leg. The animal ran down the street a short distance after breaking loose from the table. The boy’s leg was placed in a cast, at Memorial Hospital.

Dr. Wanda Jean Stephens assumed her duties as the medical doctor at the Arkansas Children’s Colony. She was a graduate of the University of Arkansas Medical School and would supervise the general health of all children at the Colony. She completed her internship at St. Vincent’s’ Infirmary last summer. 

25 years ago

(1984)

Dr. Nelson Westmoreland of Starkville, Miss., received the Dean’s Pegasus Award fro Mississippi State University for his teaching and research work in the Universities College of Veterinary Medicine. Westmoreland graduated from Conway High School in the late 1950s and attended Hendrix College. He had earned degrees from Michigan State University, the University of Wisconsin and the Harvard University Medical School. 

A pancake breakfast and bazaar, part of the 10th anniversary observance of the Faulkner County Council of Aging, was held at the Conway Senior Citizens Center, 1620 Donaghey Ave. 

10 years ago 

(1999)

The western phase to Dave Ward Drive’s new design looked a lot like the design for the eastern portion- it created a four-lane divided highway with a 15-foot-wide raised median. The Conway City Council approved the Metroplan design for the portion of Dave Ward Drive (state Highway 60) between Tucker Creek Bridge and Toad Suck Park.

Thomas J. Rappold died at Conway Regional Medical Center. He was a mason, carpenter, a beekeeper and a farmer. Survivors were his wife, Gertrude Weisenfels Rappold; six sons, three daughters, 23 grandchildren and five great grandchildren.