A Diary of My Younger Years - The Autobiography of Ivan Hall

The End, Almost

April 22, 1896

The winter of 1895-96 has passed, and I have omitted writing in my diary. My brother Sam has been gone a long time, somewhere in the South, and I am going south to hunt for him.

April 28, 1896

I have returned from Fort Smith, Arkansas, where I have been hunting for Sam. During the time I was in Fort Smith, I was greatly impressed with the business and industries of the South. While in that city, I visited two chair factories and watched the wheels of industry buzz away. Scores of hands were employed, and many dozen chairs are made there every day. Then I visited the broom factories, and it seemed as if they would make enough brooms to supply the world. Next I visited the ice factory in Fort Smith -- this factory made ice to supply the city during the long, hot summer. I crossed the Arkansas River twice at Van Buren and saw the great strawberry farms. I must say it looked like more than half the crops around Van Buren and Fort Smith were strawberries and potatoes. I was glad to see these southern towns filled with industry and enterprise, for this is what I found instead of an indolent people, as I had heard.

In May of 1896 my father and I and brothers Sam, Edd, and Mack made a brick kiln at Saratoga in McDonald County, Missouri. We built a brick schoolhouse too. The little village of Saratoga is situated four miles north of the Missouri and Arkansas state line. Saratoga contains a beautiful spring with sparkling waters rippling out from a a ledge of rock. It glides away among the Ozark hills of Missouri and empties into a stream called Elk River or, commonly called, Cowskin River. I fished in this river many a time and enjoyed many a hunting expedition in its forest. While we were at work at Saratoga I became acquainted with a society known as the I.A.H. Circle, which I joined, and became a member of the J.A.H. Circle, whose president is David C. Cook at Chicago, Illinois. My membership number was 89471. Since then the circle has grown considerably, and now there are over 300,000 members. About the middle of July we were finished with our work at Saratoga and returned home. Then I went to Avopa, Arkansas and worked on a fruit farm for two or three months.

We spent the winter of 1896 and 1897 on the claim. In the spring of 1897 my folks sold the claim, went to Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, and made a kiln. In Rogers, Arkansas, in Benton County, I worked for a man who ran a brickyard. I stayed in that city and went to public school all fall. I returned home Christmas Eve, then stayed home all winter and went to the Sulphur Springs free school.

In the spring of 1897 we moved back to Nebo, into the city, where we made two kilns of brick and built a brick store. But now the name of that little store is changed from Nebo to Gravette. This enterprising little town contains about one thousand inhabitants. Then we moved into the country about a mile west of Gravette, while we made brick all summer in Gravette. We lived in the country in the winter of 1897-1898. In February of 1898 we left Gravette and moved into the country and farmed -- near Sulphur Springs, Arkansas. Then we moved into Sulphur Springs in 1898. During the spring, summer, and fall we made brick in Noel, or close to Noel, Missouri. Then we moved from Sulphur Springs to Noel about the first of April. We then moved from Noel back to Arkansas, about 3-1/2 miles southwest of Gravette; and during the summer of 1899, my brother Edd and I farmed. We remained at the same place during 1900. In the spring of 1900 I purchased a little farm about a mile and a half south of Gravette, which we all moved to in the fall of 1900, and my brother Edd bought half an interest in my farm. Then we sold our little homestead and moved to Saratoga, Missouri. This is my home at present, the little village of Saratoga.

This is also the conclusion of my present diary, and now I regret that I cannot continue my diary. These writings are most satisfactory and pleasurable to me, and if the time should come that I have something to write, and if I have time and opportunity to write, I will gladly do so. All that I have written is simply a short sketch of the happenings during that time. Now I shall close my writings, saying that I reserve the best wishes to all. I am respectfully yours,

Ivan Hall

Saratoga, Missouri

The End