I am reblogging this for Don Thompson, one of my localism contributors who knows all about our Searcy and surrounding area. He tells a little about Steprock.
*************************************************************************************
Recently there was a postcard in the local paper showing a scene from the little farming community, Steprock, which is about 18 miles North of Searcy.
Steprock, circa 1910 A minister in a white shirt baptizes a young man as a woman watches
from the riverbank near the small White County community. The number of Arkansans who practice
religion has always been high, with most identifying themselves as Christian and Protestant.
The state's largest denomination is Baptist, including its Southern, Missionary, Free Will, Primitive
and other branches. Arkansas has been called "the buckle on the Bible belt."
My mother and stepfather, Boyce Bryant, had a farm in Steprock. I visited the farm when I was 9 by riding a bus which probably took over an hour to travel the 18 miles. Up the hill from the farm was a chicken farm owned by K.K. King who also ran our movie theater, the Rialto.
In the 40s, the farm had outhouses and a well for water. I remember hauling up one of those narrow shaft well buckets--also sometimes called "bullet buckets" or "torpedo buckets" and emptying the water into a communal water container. We used a dipper to get a drink. I remember the water had lots of strange particles but we just ignored them and gulped down the water without further thought.
Comments(12)