Glade Community Historical Society
The work of the society is to preserve the history of the communities by researching and gathering stories, documents and artifacts.
Historical facts & stories from Glade, Pine Log and Garfield, Ark.
Open range was prevalent in the United States after the Civil War. Livestock were not fenced. Cattle roamed freely around Glade, Pine Log and Garfield as they foraged for food around 1858. In the early days, roads were crude and wagon, horse and pedestrian travel was slow. The main road at that time was from Eureka Springs to Rogers. The White River was forded by horses and wagons when the river was shallow and someone wanted to cross the river to rural Larue or Mundell. When the river was high, or the load was large, the ferry transported people and goods across the White River. As more people settled in the area, the road from Glade to Garfield expanded from trails to wagon travel. In those early days, there were few fences or enclosures around farmers' land except for rail fences around the barn, house or garden for protection from livestock and wild animals.
Feeding one's family and making crops for the livestock was laborious. Work began before daylight each day and ended late at night, and the work was repeated the following day. Some southern immigrants arrived in northwest Arkansas with knowledge to raise cotton and tobacco in the early days, but predominately, livestock and dairy cattle provided food and a small income for the families and cotton and tobacco were grown further south. The families had to have enough money to pay their taxes. Many families had their personal orchard, and as they learned that northwest Arkansas mountains were suitable for apple production, commercial orchards spread. By 1870, crops of apples were transported to market by wagon, but many crops were ruined before they could get to market because wagon transportation was so slow.
Railroads were mentioned as early as 1835, but building them got off to a slow start. Garfield and Rogers got rails when 188 miles of track was laid from Monett, Mo., to Brentwood, Ark., in 1881, and additional tracks to Fort Smith were added in 1882. The town of Rogers was named after the general manager of the Frisco route. The Garfield depot was built in 1884 and Garfield School was built in 1887. In those days, there was an orchard on Whitney Mountain and the arrival of railroads provided easier shipment to markets. With the rails, distant markets could be reached and commercial orchard plantings increased from 1880 to 1920.
Benton and Washington County, Ark., had thousands of acres of apple orchards and were the two largest apple producing counties in the United States. Garfield employed people at its evaporator just east of the Garfield school in the early 1900s. Rogers had two vinegar plants and were near the current Harp's grocery, located on Second Street. But by 1920, drying was almost an extinct business and the evaporators closed. The decline of the apple orchards was attributed to diseases, insects and a failure to adapt to changing market demands, aging orchards, and the Great Depression and Dust Bowl years of the 1930s.
In those days, cattle grazed all the way from Glade to Pine Log, and sometimes up Whitney Mountain and then back-tracked to find water in creeks or at White River. Arkansas' open range laws allowed cattle to roam freely regardless of land ownership so the livestock could find enough food for survival.
The farmers in the area rode horse-back to check their cattle as far from home as Whitney Mountain or down by the river to leave salt licks and assure their cattle were safe. In the 1800s, cattle were driven to Garfield or on to bigger markets. After the inception of railroads, cattle were sent by rail to larger livestock markets in St. Louis or Kansas City, Mo.
Barbed wire was invented in 1870 and farmers began fencing their land. Barbed wire allowed fencing of designated areas to prevent overgrazing by neighbor's livestock. As railroads, mining and farming continued west, open range laws were challenged. Public lands were available for grazing cattle in the vast western states. Cattle roamed freely in Mexico and may have contributed to open range in the United States.
According to the Associated Press, 13 Western states still have some kind of open-range laws. Yet, as the Western population increases, more people are bothered by livestock straying onto their property, and increased traffic means more accidents involving livestock straying onto roads. In 1997, approximately a thousand motorists hit livestock that strayed onto roads. Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah are western states where these accidents occurred. Much of the grazing land in the west is federally owned and rancher leased, but livestock enclosures of vast amounts of land could involve U.S. taxpayers building fences.
Until recently, roadways within an open range area were favorable to the rancher, but law changes beginning in the 1980s have gradually increased rancher liability. In Idaho, an open range state, livestock still have the right of way except in herd districts which require the livestock owners to be liable. Herd districts require building and maintaining fences to keep animals off roads and neighbors property. And, as the population increases in the West, the open range laws will continue to change.
But in Arkansas, open range was criticized as inefficient as early as the 1870s and then, in 1899, a law authorized courts in each county to create fencing districts when two-thirds of landowners petitioned for them, thus paving the way for the end of open range. Today, fences are established in Arkansas.
Thanks to the support of our members and others through their payment of dues and additional donations, plus grants we have received, we are able to continue to research the histories of Glade, Pine Log and Garfield, plus continue to refurbish the Glade Post Office/Store. Please send your 2016 family dues of $25 to Sam Reynolds, 20196 Slate Gap Rd., Garfield, AR 72732. Thanks! We sincerely appreciate your support.
Community on 02/03/2016