How We got to Arkansas

How We Got To Arkansas

It all happened this way.  This is a true story. We started out in eastern Kentucky and Tennessee In that  part of the country; the land is divided into ridges and hollers. A ridge is a high area, and a holler is a valley that is narrow enough that your mother could holler, and you could hear her on the surrounding ridges.  The ridges are the boundaries between family properties.  The Hatfield properties bordered the McCoy’s property.  This is the cause of the whole problem.  A McCoy shot a bear on the ridge that separates their land.  The Hatfields claimed the bear because they felt it was on their side of the ridge.  On the other side of the McCoys lived the Johnson's. That is my great grandmother's family.  Since they share a ridge with the McCoys, they have the same problems with the McCoys, but since they do not share a ridge with the Hatfields, they are friendly with the Hatfields.  On the other side of the Hatfield’s property ridge is a family whose last name is Dutton.  Since the Duttons share a ridge with the Hatfields, they have the same problem as above with the Hatfields.  Therefore, we have the Hatfields and the Johnsons against the McCoys and Duttons.  Since the Duttons and the Johnsons do not share a ridge, they are able to socialize with one another.  That socialization now causes the next level of the problem in the area.  Harvey David Johnson is stricken with  Elli May Dutton.  Harvey, being a young man with many built-up hormones that need to be released; crosses over to Dutton Holler, and he gets to know Elli May in the biblical manner.  Soon thereafter Ellie May finds she is with child.  This is a big problem because the Duttons, and the Johnsons are on opposite sides in the ongoing war between the Hatfields and the McCoys.  Mommy Johnson and Mommy Dutton meet at the cemetery, which was considered neutral territory.  Now it is easy to see the problems these women are facing.  In the nature of the times, Harvey and Ellie May are married in the sight of God, or they could not conceive a child.  Now the Duttons and the Johnsons can no longer fight with one another, which would be a sin.  Since God sent this child to both families.  The Hatfields and the McCoys are not too happy about losing their allies.  Mommy Johnson had read in the paper that there was free land in Northwest Arkansas.  Therefore, the Johnsons and the Duttons moved out of Kentucky and homesteaded land near what was to become Cave Springs Arkansas.  Between the two families they claimed over 1200 acres. Not all was peaceful; however, the two clans fell out a few years after the great migration.  The Dutton moved to land that was north of Rogers.  This area was called Dutton Ridge. It was still there when I was growing up in Rogers.  With the price of land in Northwest Arkansas, I would assume that the Duttons are rather rich.  Dutton Ridge is a whole other story.  If you ever go to Cave Spring and talk to a longtime resident, they can verify this story.  When I say longtime, I mean longtime.  If they are under 80, they probably do not know anything.  This leads right into the pig hunt story.