WANDERING THE OZARKS : McDonald’s from Kentucky settled around Dripping Springs
Posted on Thursday, October 2, 2008
Dripping Springs was once known by settlers as Onda, usually pronounced Ondee. The first family from Kentucky to settle there was the J. J. McDonalds. He married Rebecka Harris and they moved into the area in the early 1880 s. This area is not far from Parks Station about two miles south of Hog Eye. This station was once an on again / off again stage stop for the Butterfield Mail Run prior to the Civil War.
A few others came into Arkansas with the McDonalds. Dora Burris, Susan Sparks, Rachel Marsh Frederick and Catharine McDonald Messamore. Another member of the family by the name of Gillis McDonald followed soon, and he too settled in the Dripping Springs community. In the next few years, J. J. 's sons Rich, Jim, Abner, Mose and Bill joined the family.
Jim actually lived in the Center Point community south of Prairie Grove and Mose lived near Manilla with his wife, who was a midwife.
Abner's wife Mary Angeline Mitchell was also a mid-wife. She gained some popularity in the area after she and Abner settled on land between Hog Eye and Strickler near Dripping Springs. It wasn't long before she became well known as Aunt Angie. She traveled side-saddle on her pony Topsy, delivering babies wherever she was needed. She once rode to Viney Grove north of Prairie Grove in a rainstorm to attend an expectant mother. It is said that she went where she was needed, regardless of the weather.
A Prairie Grove doctor once recommended Aunt Angie to tend to a pending birth, and he was forever sorry he hadn't gone himself. Aunt Angie arrived to help deliver a woman in premature labor. To her surprise, she delivered not one but three babies, two girls and a boy. The doctor never again had the opportunity to deliver triplets.
Ab and Angie married in Barbourville, Knox County, Kentucky on March 22, 1883, and their two oldest sons were born there. Ben Franklin on August 21, 1884, and James Gillis on April 15, 1887. Abner left Kentucky for Arkansas by himself, then later sent for his wife and two sons.
Aunt Angie said she sat on a wooden crate at the West Fork depot waiting for Abner to pick her up. "At the time I wouldn't have given a penny for my life in Arkansas," she added.
But Abner went to work on the 280 acre claim he'd bought from a Mr. Arnel. He hauled and chiseled rocks to build a foundation and fireplace, and cut the timber and hewed logs off the mountain to build them a home. Lumber he hauled from Caudle's mill on Lee's Creek for flooring. This hard-working man was determined to make a decent home for his wife and family.
He dug a well and cleared land to raise their food. They had a cow and chickens and a horse. For extra money, he found work away from home, but the wages were low. Meanwhile, the couple had six more children and raised them all in this modest log home. Extra rooms were added to the home in the ensuing years, and it remained in use until it was destroyed by fire in 1954.
Some time after coming to Arkansas Ab came down with typhoid fever and he never regained his strength. He passed away in 1919. His wife was said to have been a good cook. Aunt Angie picked gallons of huckleberries on that mountain for the delicious pies she baked. Anyone stopping by or hiring the services of her son Ben, who ran a blacksmith shop on the place, was expected to share dinner and very often a big bowl of huckleberry pie.
As most pioneer women, she was as strong as she had to be. She wove, spin and sewed, made soap, grew a garden, butchered and continued to tend to young women in childbirth. She lived to be 98 years old and remained spry and alert, though she spent her last three years in a wheelchair.
J. J. McDonald was buried about two miles south of his home in an abandoned cemetery. Other members of the family are buried in the McDonald Cemetery near the old homestead. Though always known by this name, the first grave there is thought to be that of Nova Jones. Some of the older headstones bear the names of Pegram, Messamore, Davis, Russell, Buris, Reinolds and Frederick.
A few years ago I was invited to a reunion at Dripping Springs and had the privilege of visiting the cemetery with family members. It remains well kept despite its age and is located in a serene spot.
There are several cemeteries in the immediate area, including the small and neat Baker Cemetery. Another is located near what was once one of the largest churches in the Dripping Springs area. That was the Big Springs Presbyterian Church near Parks Station. Many of the people who were once members of this church are buried nearby in Parks Cemetery, named for John P. A. Parks who was buried there in 1892. Many members of the Parks family are buried there. Dates on the tombstones in this small cemetery date back prior to the Civil War.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online