Heritage

This past weekend I went to visit my maternal grandmother. While I was there we talked gardens, chickens, snakes, wild hogs, and tall tales. She sent me home with loads of veggies from her garden and she also sent me home with her copy of the Evans Cemetery Book (On loan, of course!). She said it was a gift to her from her youngest brother, Dwight and his wife, Peggy. He told her he remembered my Grandma and Grandpa buying him and their brother Tooter a rod and reel one year when they were young boys and he just wanted to give her something too.

This book was compiled by Doris Evans and Jimmie Dewberry in March of 2002. To them, I am grateful they chose to share their research, and to Grandma I am thankful she trusted me enough to loan me this genealogical treasure. Just in skimming it, I have found new tidbits of information that I didn't know before. I hope to share a few of the entries pertaining to my direct line ancestors a little at a time.

The first entry I came to was my great grandmother Zula STEPP.

Roma Lynn Jakson Stepp, Zua's daughter-in-law, wrote the following: "Born Sept 6, 1903 to James & India Evans Acord at the headwaters of Acord Hollow near the [Little] Mulberry River. She married Newell McKinley Stepp,Sr. April 1, 1923. They had 7 children. 6 lived to be grown, 1 died about 2 weeks old. 

Zula was a midwife in her earlier years. She delivered 2 of her daughter-in-laws when they were born. She was the jolliest person around & a great story teller. She was the best, most wonderful wife, mother, grandmother & mother-in-law ever lived. She was an outdoors person. She liked gardening, canning her veggies & could make the best biscuits of anyone around.

One of her favorite sayings was, "The Bible don't say, woe beyond for the sinners, it says "Woe beyond for the hypocrites."   

She died at 91 years old." 

Another daughter-in-law of Zula, Peggy Harmon Stepp wrote the following: "Zula Jane Acord, the oldest of six children was born to James William Acord and Clara India Evans on 9-6-1903. At the time the family resided in the Acord Hollow area in Northern Johnson County, AR. When Zula was three or four years old the family moved in with her grandmother "Grannie Jane", on the Evans place just below the Evans Cemetery.

Zula and her brothers and sisters walked about two miles to the Spoke Plant school. 

Her father died when Zula was 12 years old leaving her to help her mother care for her brothers and sisters. Together they worked for neighbors in the fields to earn a living. 

On 4-1-1923 Zula married Newell McKinley STEPP. The ceremony was performed by Newell's brother, William "Bill" Stepp. 

Zula and Newell were the parents of 7 children, Merle Iris, twins Artist James and ARgie Jane, Rebecca India, Minnie Pearl, Newell McKinley Jr. and Dwight Douglas. Minnie Pearl died just a few days after birth. She is buried in the Evans Cemetery. In 1937 Zula's sister Minnie "Pud" Betnar died leaving two small sons, Clyde and Connie. Zula took the boys in keeping them several years. Newell and Zula raised all their children at Spoke Plant.

Zula was the perfect picture of a "fun grandma". She was "Grandma Stepp" to many, many children, many of them being no relation. If you ever needed a baby sitter you could always go to Grandma Stepp. She would meet you on the porch with a smile on her face, her apron on and lots of good food on the table. 

Zula was a hard worker, but always had time for fun. She would always laugh and say, "If you can drive, I can ride it." When she was in her 80's she would still jump behind the kids on their three wheelers and ride off with her dress tail blowing in the wind.

After Newell died Zula moved in with her youngest son, Dwight and his family. Later Zula resided at Countryside Manor Nursing Home. She won the hearts of many employees and new friends. There she became "Grandma Stepp" to even more people. She died July 6, 1993 at Countryside Manor in Lamar, AR."

Her obituary follows:

 THE GRAPHIC, Clarksville, Arkansas, Wednesday, 14 July 1993

Zula Jane Stepp, 89, of  Pettigrew, died Tuesday, July 6, 1993 at Countryside Manor in Clarksville.

Daughter of the late Jim and Inda Evans Acord, she was born Sept. 6, 1903, in Johnson County. Mrs. Stepp was a homemaker and a Pentecostal.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Newell McKinley Stepp Sr., and by a daughter, Minnie Pearl Stepp. 

Survivors include three daughters, Merle Denzer of Gentry, Argie Benson of Bakersfield, Calif., ad Reba Melson of Prairie Grove; three sons, Art and Tooter Stepp, both of Pettigrew, and Dwight Stepp of Batson; one niece Connie Betnar; one nephew, Clyde Betnar; 18 grandchildren and 24 great grandchildren. 

Graveside services were held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Evans Cemetery near Pettigrew, with Rev. Bill Gregory officiating. Burial was under the direction of Roller-Cox Funeral Home. 

Pallbearers were Greg, Danny and James Stepp, Tony Benson, Tim Denzer, and Paul Vickers. 

 Honorary pallbearers were Ronald Denzer, David and Keith Stepp, Clyde Benson, Corky Pool, Rickey Wages, Keith Stepp, Dr. Don Pennington and Clifton Hill."

Newell and Zula Stepp after duck hunting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life on Little Mulberry

My maternal great grandmother Zula ACORD STEPP had two brothers that lived to adulthood. John and Joe ACORD. Below are more stories from 'Remembering the Ozarks' told by Vernon EATON that mention the boys and life on the Little Mulberry, where my mom and aunts have cabins sitting on about 5 acres and where my grandmother grew up. She wasn't born yet in 1937 but down there things have a way of changing very little. I hope it remains unchanged for generations to come.

Remembering The Ozarks: John Acord

Remembering The Ozarks: The Summer of 1937

Remembering The Ozarks: Gee Haw

My mom and daughters can tell you a story of snakes and the Little Mulberry, themselves.....

Looking across the Little Mulberry to the Road leading to Whiskey Creek

Mom's Cabin at Whiskey Creek

Brad riding Judy while Grandma Bondell holds her. 

My cousin Brad getting to ride Judy. I can remember Grandpa Trig and Grandpa Leroy plowing their gardens. 

Remembering The Ozarks -- The Spoke Plant Rock Throwers

Sometimes when I come across really great finds, I completely get caught up in the excitement and just share it on Facebook with family and friends and it never occurs to me to share it here on my blog. I really need to start sharing it here, and then share my post on Facebook.

A few years ago the following picture was shared with me on Facebook. It has so many of my ancestors and connected family in it. I didn't know the story behind the gathering of family and friends, but yesterday, I stumbled across this very photo, attached to a wonderful story written by Vernon Eaton, in his series 'Remembering The Ozarks'

Zula Stepp (in the headscarf) is my maternal great grandmother. Argie, Art, and Merle are my maternal grandmother's older siblings.

Now for the story!

The Spoke Plant Rock Throwers

*Article taken from Newspapers.com

Until next time,
Becky

If You Got 'em Smoke 'em

 

 

This is week 13 and the prompt was 'favorite photo'. I am really enjoying this. How about you?

I had a really hard time deciding what photo to use. I really wanted to do one of my grandmother flashing a great big beautiful smile while holding a birthday cake, but I decided a lot of what I would write about might give out too much information... and the internet isn't always safe about things like that. I started going through all my genealogy pictures and nothing was standing out - or the ones that did, I had already written about those individuals. Then I went searching through my grandma's old photos and found one that I just had to write about.

Meet my Great-grandfather, Newell McKinnley Stepp, and his brothers-in-law, John Thomas and Joseph "Joe" Charley Acord. This picture was taken in the late 30's or early 40's. And you guessed it, they're stealing honey from a bee tree!

 

Newell McKinnley Stepp was born April 24, 1896, "out in the woods near Fallsville" as he said in an interview by my 2nd cousin Tarona , who kindly shared it with me. Fallsville is a small community in Madison County, AR. His parents were James Jonathan and Rebecca Matilda (Merrill) Stepp. When he was 21 years old he was drafted to fight over seas in WWI. He was a Private in the Trench Art., Co B 6th Regt., and was discharged Jan 29 1920 from oversea service. In the same interview mentioned above he said he served in France and never even had to shoot his gun! He said he must've just been there for numbers and that by the time the American boys got over there, it was pretty much over. He was in France for about 6-6 1/2 months.

Three years later on April 1, 1923 he married my great-grandmother Zula Jane Acord. The two boys in the picture above were two of her younger brothers. The one in the middle is John Thomas and the one holding the smoker is Joe.

Newell and Zula had seven children, one died as an infant. One of their daughters, my grandmother, Reba, had grown up watching her daddy raise bees and when she had a place to raise some of her own, she got some help from her family to capture some from a known bee tree out on 'Eldridge Holler' (not the one pictured). This story is one that much of my family still tells today.

My grandmother's youngest brother Dwight had cut down the tree but it had become lodged in another one. Everyone was trying to get Dwight to get out from under it - when Dwight's youngest brother Tooter (who had been drinking a little) showed up and also tried to get Dwight to get out from under the tree. Next thing they knew the brothers had gotten into a fight. A lot of the family was there, Grandma Zulie and a few grandkids as well. When the boys began fighting underneath that lodged tree, Grandma Zulie fainted and the little ones started crying because they had thought she died. Finally Tooter's wife, Roma Lynn and Dwight's wife, Peggy encouraged Tooter to come with them down to the creek and on the way there he began singing "poor little black sheep", feeling a sorry for himself.

As story telling goes... there's usually a few different versions. Here's a snippet from an interview Tarona did of my great-grandmother Zula in 1985 with her version of the bee tree story. Click here.

There seems to be a lot of hesitation in telling the famous bee tree story, but my second cousin Debra, Art's daughter, was one of the first to give her account (she was about 10 years old):

"We went way up in the holler that day. Everyone walked in. Tooter had been hitting the bottle and when we got to the business of robbing the bees, the tree (or some tree) had to be cut down. I don't remember who was doing the sawing with the chainsaw, but I remember Tooter & Dwight got into a fuss over something. As the tree was about to fall Grandma Zula came up to calm them down and the tree almost fell on her. Scared everyone to death!! Tooter was scared like everyone else and he started crying and singing "I'm the Black Sheep of the Family". He sang it all the way back to Grandma's house."

Dwight's wife Peggy remembered it like this:

" What I remember about cutting the bee tree

One afternoon we all, grandpa Stepp, Grandma Stepp, Art, Reba, Tooter, Dwight, their spouses and all the little kids walked up the hollow and up the hillside. We went to cut a bee tree for Reba. Grandpa Stepp told Dwight how to cut it. Cut it where it will lodge in another tree and come down slow so it won't bust the bee tree up. Dwight did just what Grandpa said. Tooter had already had way too much to drink. He grabbed the saw from Dwight. He said Dwight was the worst tree cutter and started over the hill to cut the tree it was lodged in. The bee tree was coming down and Tooter was under it. Dwight saw the bee tree was going to fall on Tooter. He ran over the steep hill and bulldoged Tooter and they went rolling over the hill. The bee tree hit the ground right by them. Grandma thought it was falling on them and she fainted. The little kids thought she had died and they were all running, screaming and crying. The bees had come out of the tree and had covered Dwight, stinging him all over. Tooter was wanting to fight Dwight. Roma Lynn and I got Tooter and started to the house with him. He was singing he was the black sheep of the family. We decided when we got to the creek where the foot log was across we would let Tooter fall in, hoping it would sober him up. That didn't work. We couldn't even push him off. He kept wanting to go back and fight Dwight, then he was say Dwight was the best brother anyone could have and then he should just go back up there and whip him. Wasn't much fun at the time but we have had a lot of laughs about it since. Dwight ended up with so many bee stings that he was very allergic to them the next time he got stung. Guess Tooter had so much alcohol in him that they didn't sting him. Grandma was ok and the kids finally settled."

Now for stories about Newell and his bee keeping skills - My great-aunt Merle remembers having to help her Dad rob all of their bees. She said her momma was afraid of the them. Merle recalls that before they got a smoker for keeping the bees off when they were getting the honey they used rags rolled up to the length of a flashlight or so and would light it with a match and it would smoke instead of flame up. She had to hold the rags and smoke the bees while her dad got the honey. She said she never got stung very much. She remembers one time when she was a young girl, there was a big tree in Chinquapin (near Friley) that had a bee hive in it. There were several people trying to get that honey and nobody was able to get it, the bees kept them away . Then her dad, Newell, and her Uncle Roy Bentnar decided to go and try to rob those bees. It was on a Sunday and a big crowd of people came to watch. They were successful in getting the honey. She said her daddy would just wipe the bees off him and he didn't ever swell up or anything. Aunt Merle dates the above picture around 1939 or 1940 because that was about when they got their first smoker. She said the way Newell would hunt for bees was by setting out some sort of sweet bait and when the bees would get full he would follow them home.

Newell's mother Rebecca (Merrill) Stepp would hear a swarm of bees coming and she would get under a tree and hold up a big wash pan and bang on it with a spoon and it would make the bees come and light on the tree. Then they would get them and put them into a bee gum.

This tradition of bee keeping hasn't died out with the younger generation. Newell's grandson James Stepp and Merle's grandson Sundance both keep bees.

James shared a memory of the last bees he caught:

"The last bees I caught was on the side of the road by where I work. A guy from work wanted them so I told him I would be back with them. I gathered up a cardboard box, some tape and some pruners to cut the limb off with. The hardest part was getting someone to hold the box while I cut the limb off. We got about 5-6 pounds of bees and the queen with no smoke or head net with neither one of us getting stung. I watched and helped my grandpa Harmon with his bees - the secret is to not be scared!"

With any luck, when my husband and I are able to move out to our 5 acres - we would love to try our hand at it. Both my mother and father-in-law as well as my brother and sister-in-law have been keeping bees for about 2 years now. I hope we can join in the "fun" soon!

Until next week,
Becky

And don't forget to check out my bee keeping sister-in-law's genealogy blog Days of Our Lives!