In 1939 dad moved the family from Princeton Arkansas to a farm north of Malvern Arkansas. It was on the Butterfield Road just west of it's intersection with the Old Military Road. In about two years he sold it and bought a 40 acre farm centered on a rocky hill across the Old Military Road.
The house he built was about 200' off the East side of the Old Military Road just up the hill from it's intersection with the Butterfield Road. It was in the Cooper Community.
Dad built the house during WWII and sold it when Interstate 30 came thru in the 1960s. It split his forty acre farm down the middle, he then built a nice white frame house east of the interstate. We had very little money, dad worked at the local International Shoe Company's textile mill and also truck farmed.
Dad was a good carpenter, where he learned it I do not know. I was too young to do much nailing but I was a good gofer--- go for this, go for that! I remember Mom actually did some carpenter work on the house when she had time. With four children I really do not see how she ever had time!
Dad cut pine trees on the acreage and a local sawmill sawed the logs into lumber. He paid loggers and the sawmill owner with a portion of the lumber. All of the lumber was undried when used in the house construction.
The large foundation sills for the house were positioned on stacks of large rocks at the corners of the house and many positions underneath as dad deemed necessary. There was no shortage of that material here! The sills were treated with used motor oil to keep termites at bay. The North side of the house was nearly on the ground, the South side was several feet above the ground.
The saw mill lumber was not standard size and the fact that the lumber was green caused more problems. A 2" X 4" stud was always larger than it should be, especially on the butt end. Therefore all of the framing lumber had to be matched by thickness, cut to the correct length, and the ends had to be squared. All with a hand saw!
The rough sawn outside wall planks were nailed in a vertical position. The planks' cracks were covered by nailing wooden strips over them. The cracks grew larger as the planks, which were wide, dried. There were no inside walls, snow blew in during that first winter.
Large loose boards were put in position, un-nailed, for floors until they dried. I could see the chickens scratching around under the house. Later the boards were removed, carried to the planer mill and made into standard four inch wide tongue and groove lumber, carried back home and nailed down. Tongue and groove lumber was later used for all of the inside walls, ceilings and front porch.
All of the exterior doors also had home made screen doors to keep out the flies. The windows, solid doors, and hardware were store bought but all of the framing was made by dad.
There was no insulation anywhere in the house. Not too long after it was built he bought heavy kraft paper and, using large headed tacks, installed it as wallpaper. This cut down on the amount of wind that could blow thru the cracks.
Dad built the roof of real wood shingles and in later years put roll roofing over it. Then in even later years he installed a regular shingle roof over that. He also added a brick chimney for the living room wood burning heater. The chimney was heavy, he had to add braces in the attic to help support the load. The roof still sagged due to it's weight and the weight of the chimney.
There was a swing and some old chairs on the front porch. I had all of my haircuts on that front porch as long as I lived there. Dad cut my hair with hand powered clippers while I sat in a straight chair with a towel around my neck, draped over my shoulders. There were two front doors exiting onto the front porch. The porch was centered and was about two-thirds the width of house.
Dad added a porch to the South side of the house. The South porch was almost three rooms long. On the South porch we kept a bucket of drinking water with a dipper in it that everyone used. A wash pan for washing the face and hands was next to it. It was cold there in the winter, we would break ice in the bucket then pour water in the wash pan to use. Dad kept his heavy winter work clothes, boots etc on back porch. The back porch was screened in to keep the bugs out. About the only flowers grown on that rocky hill were at the back porch steps where Mom would pour her dish washing water and we would pour the wash pan water. They were beautiful lilies!
In the living room, along side the Bible, dad had a battery powered radio on a table. It used one of those big AB battery packs. He would only listen to the news, preaching and to the Stamps-Baxter Quartets. (Maybe this is where my love of gospel quartet singing comes from!) We were not allowed to touch that radio! Also there was a wind-up pendulum clock on a shelf in the living room all of those years. He would listen to the radio to get the correct time for the clock. It was the only time piece in the house. I now have that clock and will pass it to my son. In the center of the living room was a wood burning stove. There were fancy chrome plated foot rests on that heater. The living room was mostly used on the week ends.
Mom used a wood burning cook stove, I was the one who kept her in stove wood! It was worth the work when I sat down to one of her great meals! Good food and many wonderful odors came from mom's kitchen. In the winter the kitchen was the place to be each morning as no fire was put in the living room heater. There was heat in that kitchen all of the year. My room was at the back of the house next to the kitchen. That was nice! I suppose it was a typical farm boy's room.
Mom used a home made ice box that dad had built from some of that tongue and groove lumber, using sawdust as the insulation. It worked good, there was a Mr. "Pop" Taylor who would come by, read the cardboard ice sign in the window, and bring in the amount of ice the sign indicated.
In the dining room was a home made table with an oil cloth on it, a home made bench at the back side of the table, and straight chairs at the other table positions. Also there was a safe for storing food, dishes, etc.
We utilized space under the back porch to store Irish and sweet potatoes. Old tow sacks were put on top of them to help protect them from the cold weather. Also we put lime on the Irish potatoes so they would not spoil.
In later years dad bought a propane tank, an above ground type due to the rocks in the ground. It was a huge help to Mom, she was able to get rid of the wood burning cook stove!
Dad dug a well and also had a well drilled on the South side of the hill. All to no avail, we still had to get water from a spring across the road and down the hill! It was hand carried except the clothes wash water was carried in a fifty-five gallon drum sitting on the front bumper of the family Model A Ford! Yep, I drove it!
The yards surrounding the house were so rocky that a lawn mower could not be used. Actually there was only a small amount of grass in the yard. Under the oak tree in the front yard was our place of making car repairs! The hill was nice for helping the cars that would not self-start. We could start rolling down the hill, pop the clutch, and be on our way.
There was no electricity available on that hill until 1946. I then wired the house with a single light bulb socket hanging from the center of the ceiling in each room. The same wiring, with some added, was there until the end.
Consider this thought; Everything the house was made of came from God's earth. All of the foundation rocks were picked up on that hill. All of the lumber was grown on the land. The wood roof shingles were from trees grown on the earth. All of the metal objects such as nails, screen wire, and hinges were made from iron ore from the earth. The window glass was made of sand. Even the used motor oil that was put on the sills was from the earth. God loaned that house to the Taylor family for a season of time! Heb:3:4: For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
That house stood straight, upright and strong until it was torn down. It was sold to a neighbor. I visited that lonely, rocky hill a few years ago and it was hard to hold back the emotions I felt. The hill now looks, I am sure, about as it did when dad first saw it.
I remember kneeling in prayer with the family in the living room of that great old house. Our family passed that way and by the help of God we survived. I thank God for being raised in that Christian home. That house was home to me until I moved out in 1949. We never locked any doors in the house. We had family, good neighbors, plenty to eat, reasonably good health, a local church that dad helped start (Cooper Assembly of God), ground for a garden and God's protection. Dad and Mom are now buried on another hill about a half mile to the East in the Cooper Cemetery.
The family that lived in that pine board house on the rocky hill consisted of dad; George Evans Taylor; Mom Gladys Alene (Ennis) Taylor; son George Evans Taylor Jr.; three daughters: Dorothy Alene (Taylor) (Clift) Hobbs; Martha Wilma (Taylor) Huckelby; Pauline Candys (Taylor) Guyse.
Written on 5-29-2001 by:
George Evans Taylor, Jr.
209 Lakeshore Drive
Muscle Shoals, Al 35661-1029
Return to Contents Page