Facebook creates friends.
I found a new one with Vac Veterans who posts often on facebook. He has a lot of old picture of Pangburn.
He posted this photo and said it only has Searcy 1911 written on it. In fact, we can see that in the upper left corner.
So I'm curious too. Do any of these buildings look familiar to any of you sleuths?
Here's the picture.
It is a nice, clear picture so study it and see if we have any answers.
There's a good clue in this pic as to the location. I'm waiting for other folks to take a crack at it before I say any more. I would believe it is Searcy. Look at those outhouses.
Remember camera lens in those days make things in the background look farther away when they are not.
Ok, Don. Do you really think we can pinpoint it. How about those two twin houses? With flat roofs?
Searcy circa the time of this photo, would have been full of trees. Searcy has been a tree city, except for an occasional storm that comes by and blows a few down from time to time. Where are those big Oaks that searcy is famous for? They sure aren't in this photo. Hard for me to find one tree. The photo looks like an old town in the midwest. Searcy, Arkansas? I don't think so.
Jim, you read that Don seems to have clues from the picture that it may be Searcy. It does look strange for the Searcy that you knew. Stay tuned and maybe we will find out.
Jim's point about the trees is well taken but there was an area we have talked about before that had no or few trees. Also, I posted a pic recently that showed an expanse with no trees. I suspect the pic was taken from a water tower. Note the pile of logs lower center.
Looks like your up early like me, Barbara. I posted about 5 minutes after you.
O.k. I'm going to give ya'll a clue. Go to this blog from 2008.
Yes, Anita, it is the thing sticking up. I believe the thing is the smokestack of the Searcy Cotton and Oil Co. featured in the referenced blog.
The view is in the direction of the arrow to the East. Here is a blow up of the same building in the pic. You can see the smokestack and water tower.
I'll give you a map detail showing the area later.
Don, good job. That picture that you posted is good. I tried and you tried to get the discussed picture to show up more clearly but they are still blurred. I think that if it was near a sawmill or an area of industrial buildings there would be a lack of trees. I believe I see TWO little houses in that picture which would be on the other side of the street.
Anita, have faith. Don will figure this out.
Anita, show this to Bob and he'll see why we call you Anita Tart Fuller. LOL
Well, I have tried to recall where this picture could be my area of Searcy, but I just can't put it all together. I lived about a block from the old cotton compress ( as the crow flies). And right across Cotton St. from the compress was the old stave mill. The compress, when I was a kid, only held bales of cotton, where the elder Mr. Davis was the watchman. The cotton gin, when I was young, was back behind where Don lived for awhile. There was another cotton gin up on East Pleasure about a block from Main St. I THINK that the stave mill had a smoke stack, but I am not sure of that. During WWll, the stave mill blew the whistle at a certain time of the day for the people, who wanted to, would stop and pray for our troops fighting in the war. I can't imagine that there is a lack of trees, either. Maybe something will convince me later. Gotta side with you, Anita, at this time.
I printed out a large size picture of the area and put together sections of the 1919 Searcy map and I believe the picture was taken from a high point like a roof top or water tower looking East toward the Searcy Cotton and Oil Company building. The area between the 2 buildings on the right would become Cotton Lane and and later Cotton St. The road or street on the left behind the buildings would be South Line. Ludean, jump in here and give us your thoughts. Here's the map with the direction the picture was taken shown by the arrow. Bear in mind, the area could have changed between 1911 and 1919 which is the map date.
I believe the building in the foreground on right is a stave mill. Note the stave storage area on the map at bottom left. Remember the camera lens would exaggerate the the distance between structures.
All this could be wishfull thinking on my part but it's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Don, I haven't any doubt your photo is of the old Searcy Cotton Oil Mill . One will note on your photos, tree limbs at the top and right and what appears tree limbs to the center left. The original photo shows not a tree one.
The viewer has his doubts that your photo and the orginial "Searcy?" photo are anyway related.
First the topography of the original "Searcy?" photo is very spread out and flat like a prairie, devoid of any trees. Look at the background of the "Searcy"? photo, as you say facing east" Facing east would be the woods and trees toward Kensett. Again, not a tree one. In the orginial photo, facing east, as you say, would show RR tracks of the Doniphan, Kensett & Searcy RR. In the original photo, I see zero railroad tracks. Some stacked on the ground utility poles and that's it.
What I do see on the orginial photo, is flat lands and no trees. I see a large area in the background (facing east) with out-buildings of the two-story variety. Show me in any photo, (old or new of Searcy) multiple two story outbuildings facing east from what would have been "Searcy Oil Cotton Mill.
With due respect and profound apologies, I feel its a strech to say, the orginial photo is of Searcy, Arkansas.
Again, my vote, the orginial photo isn't Searcy, Arkansas.
Don and Jim, I love it! An intellectual dispute between the two of you with so many good examples for both sides makes me think of the two of you in a court of law! You'd be awesome at presenting your evidence. Duke it out! I'm too ignorant to take a side.
Good to hear from you Jim. I'm glad someone has something to say about the picture. I want to believe the Searcy 1911 notation on the picture since Barbara found it locally. It certainly couldn't be any other place within a 20 or 30 mile radius of Searcy.The Cotton and Oil Co. pic is not dated so we don't know when it was taken. Trees could have grown in the area.
Since I lived on Cotton street for a couple of years in 1949, I'm somewhat familiar with the general area. Ludean who lived on South Line can confirm my memory of few trees in the area of the railroad tracks near Cotton St. Of course, trees could have grown in 30 or 40 years. I suspect the area was denuded of trees for building houses during the early years of Searcy. There was a sawmill nearby.
There was a big field between the house I lived in and the Harding laundry and there were no trees there.
The area top left in the pic would be in the direction of Galloway Female college and later Harding College if it is indeed of Searcy.
The D,K,& S RR did open in 1907 so if the tracks are there, they aren't visable. I doubt the tracks could be seen in the pic anyway.
Well anyway, I had fun analyzing the picture which I find a little surreal because there are no people, animals, wagons, etc. There are also no shadows that I can detect. Maybe it's in the Twlight Zone.
Thanks Barbara for the interesting puzzle.
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