Ashdown, Arkansas 1964 Newspaper Article

 

from:

The Times

Shreveport, Louisiana

9/20/1964

Birthday Party Held For Ashdown's First Citizen

 September 10, 1930  ~~Little River News

The 84th birthday of Mrs. M.A. Dupree was observed with a dinner Sunday, September 7, at the home of Mr. & Mrs. A.B. Hambleton of this city.  Mrs. Dupree was the first woman settler of Ashdown, her husband, the late W.D Dupree, building the first home after the town was located by the railroad in 1882.  She has resided here continuously ever since, and has a large number of descendants, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, nearly all of whom were present on this occasion....(attending) Mr. & Mrs. JH Coggins, Mr. & Mrs. JH Welch and children, Mrs. Lucy Thomas, Mrs. Charles Waddell and baby, Mr. & Mrs. A Hambleton of Ashdown, Mrs. WH Crouch, Mr. and Mrs. Eber McDowell and children, Mrs. Bryant Duncan of  Ogden.  Hyman Dupree of Texarkana, Mrs. William Lambert, Miss Allie Dale Lambert of Winthrop, Mrs. Robert Wright And grandchildren of Foreman.  Jean G Lambert of Alabama and Frazier Wright of Wilton. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{Martha Ann Pounds Dupree} 

Little River News- Feb 1 1932 

Link to her memorial on 

findagrave

Ashdown's Early Days

ASHDOWN’S EARLY DAYS RECALLED BY SETTLERS

published:

Little River News

January 31, 1934

When S.A. Maddox, Henry Westbrook, John Coggins and a few others who are still citizens of Ashdown came to make their home, they found two log houses surrounded by fields of cotton and corn, owned by William and Maloy Waddell, uncles of George and Charley Waddell of Ashdown..  The Waddells owned eighty acres of what is now Ashdown.

William Waddell’s log house stood on the site now occupied by the R.A. Phillip’s home.  A field of corn waved its yellow tassels from about where the news office stands to the other side of the KCS railroad and from there to beyond the site of the courthouse, the land was planted in cotton.

Mr. Maddox came here from Saratoga in 1889 to take charge of the commissary, which was built at the time of the survey of the Texarkana and Ft. Smith Railroad His store was a small frame building which stood almost in the middle of what is now the street in front of Phillip’s Drug Store.  A Mr. Fricks ran the store for a short time until Mr. Maddox’s brother came to take charge.

Henry Westbrook enlarged the building and clerked in the store.

Capt. W.D. Dupree built the first frame dwelling here.  It stood on the site next door to the Albert Hamilton home.  The Baptist Church, which was the first to be organized here, held its first services in the Dupree home.

The first preacher, a man named Rogers, preached there.

The first industry was a large sawmill, which stood near the old Frisco Pond.  Mr. and Mrs. Dupree furnished rooms and board to a large number of the men who worked there.

John Coggins, who later married into the Dupree family, tells of a joke he played on Capt. Dupree.  He made a sign which he tacked up in front of the boarding house which read: “Maddox town, Westbrook Street, Dupree Hotel, and nothing to eat.” Needless to say, he had to take it down.

The railroad built at that time was owned by Bill Whitaker and was called the Texarkana and Ft. Smith railroad.  While Whitaker owned it, it only extended between Texarkana and Wilton and after five years, the Kansas City Southern bought it and extended it on to Ft. Smith.

After a short time, Mrs. Girlie, mother of Mrs. H.M. Westbrook, also from Saratoga, came and built a two-story frame hotel.  The remains of this hotel still stand next to M.S. Johnson store.

The first schoolhouse was a small one-story room built about where the Ashdown Hardware warehouse now stands.  The first teacher of this school was a man named Payne.

When the town was laid off into lots, about 1891, Judge Burns gave the lots where the grade school building now stands and a one room frame house was built.  Later another room was added.  This served until the two-story frame building that is now used as an apartment house was built in about 1900.