Contributed by Carolyn Cooper

Excerpts from

BEYOND BARTHOLOMEW

By

Rebecca DeArmond-Huskey

Copyright 1996 by Rebecca DeArmond-Huskey

and the Friends of Portland History

After Jesse Cone's death in 1852, his widow, Sarah, sons James Bailey, George Washington and Joshua H., along with their daughter, Nancy, and her husband, Jeremiah Dean, moved from Alabama to Ashley County, Arkansas, where they and their descendants established themselves as farmers, merchants, craftsmen and physicians.

The title of this book refers to Bayou Bartholomew, which runs through southeastern Arkansas, passing through Ashley County before disappearing into Louisiana. It is a history of the places and the people in Ashley County, and its author has graciously given me permission to post the excerpts pertaining to the Cone and Dean families. Instead of using their initials as they often appear in the book, I have taken the liberty of using the full names, when known, of the Cones and Deans. Among the numerous related families mentioned are the Gays, Herrens, Kittrells, Norrises, Pughs, Wheats, Wheatons and Zatwarskys.

==========================

Portland

When the railroad came in 1890, the town of Portland was moved two miles east of Bayou Bartholomew and became a railroad town. By 1892 there were five stores in operation. The general merchants included Dean & Cone which was "the largest mercantile enterprise in this region of the State, the others being Dean & Cone, Hamburg, and Cone & Co., Wilmot".... Total annual transactions, including cotton handled for the three concerns, amounted from $175,000 to $200,000.

William E. Dean (grandson of Nancy Cone Dean) and Dr. Andrew E. Cone (son of Joshua Bailey Cone) were city aldermen during 1902 and 1903. Jesse D. Dean (son of Nancy Cone Dean) was president of the Portland Oil Mill and president of the Portland Bank, while William T. Cone (son of George W. Cone) was a director of The Peoples Bank. When the Portland Bank was robbed of $9,769 in 1907, Margaret "Maggie" Dean Schicker (daughter of Jesse D. Dean) remarked that she was "real ashamed there was no more money in the bank than there was." Maggie became the first woman in the county to pay a poll tax in 1917, after approval of the law which gave women the right to vote in primary elections. "Her daddy didn't like it, but she was independent," related her son, Edward. Georgia Evelyn Cone (daughter of Dr. A. E. Cone) was among the early teachers in the Portland schools.

On July 6, 1904, a fire swept the town and "consumed the large establishment of Dean Hardware Co." Total loss in the fire was estimated at $40,000, of which $30,000 was sustained by the hardware company and Dr. A. E. Cone claimed a loss of $1,500 for library, instruments and drugs. The store was rebuilt - this time using bricks - and remained in business until 1925.

One early resident recalled that in her youth the Portland Hotel was run by Mr. and Mrs. Berry, parents of Dr. A. E. Cone's wife, Susie, and that the only public phone in town was in a back room of the drugstore. "Beyond it was Dr. Cone's office. No one wanted to go back there to use the phone. We were afraid to get that close to Dr. Cone."

Another resident described Susie Berry Cone as "a brilliant, well-read woman and a brilliant Sunday School teacher." She was not so complimentary about Dr. Cone, however. "He dipped snuff and used the tobacco juice to sanitize cuts and wounds."

In 1908 Maggie Dean Schicker was a guest on a quail hunt and wrote to her husband:

Guess what I did yesterday afternoon? Went hunting with Mr. and Mrs. Alvey, and rode astride, and you wouldn't believe the way the family took it.... I had talked it over with Mama and she said she didn't care only that Papa cared.... Papa said that he thought it looked horrid, but he guessed he was an old fogy.... Honey, I had rather ride horseback than eat, and you don't care for my riding here if I don't parade through town, and now that the ice is broken and Mama and Papa accepted it so gracefully, do you?

Montrose

The town of Montrose was built as a railroad town to accommodate a new east-west line. The city of Portland was offered the first opportunity to have the line cross there, but Jesse Dean (son of Nancy Cone Dean) and others objected because "they didn't want the hoboes, tramps, riffraff and section gangs." William T. Cone then offered land four miles north of Portland for the town site, and "Cone City" had its beginnings in 1897. It is possible that the post office department had to refuse the suggested name of Cone City if one existed elsewhere, and Montrose was the second choice. The new little town began a rapid expansion at this time. W. T. Cone had built a steam operated cotton gin in 1897 and soon after established the Cone Hotel.

According to ledgers containing the ordinances and minutes of council meetings from 1904 to 1917, Montrose was incorporated July 6, 1904, on petition of W. T. Cone. He also served as an alderman on the city council. J. Hogan Cone and Andrew D. [I believe this is an error and the second initial should be B.] Cone (sons of R. Lafayette Cone) served on the first Board of Health. In May 1909, James M. Cone (son of John Randolph Cone) was elected city marshal and was succeeded in office by D. C. Cone (I don't know who he is). The town accepted a deed from W. T. Cone in March 1912 for "a white and colored cemetery." The Bank of Montrose was organized in 1910 with W. T. Cone a major stockholder. He and his wife, Leona, deeded land to at least three black churches between 1906 and 1912: Missionary Baptist, AME and First Baptist. The W. T. Cone plantation, house and gin were sold to Sam Wilson in 1926, although it continued to be known as the Cone Plantation and Gin. The house is currently occupied by one of Mr. Wilson's descendants.

"W. T. Cone was the first patriarch of the community. He was the builder of the first Baptist church, the Montrose Hotel, which he operated himself, [and] the cotton gin.... He also planted all of the large oak trees which still line the streets." William T. Cone's obituary in 1938 termed him "the founder of Montrose."

Snyder

By 1858 much of the land surrounding the village of Snyder had been claimed by land patents. George W. Cone had 80 acres in Section 24 and Jeremiah Dean had 40 acres in Section 9. In 1859 James B. Cone had a patent for land in Section 20 and by 1860 had claimed 80 more acres in Section 7. He had a homestead in Section 9 by 1876. George W. Cone had an 80 acre homestead in Section 29 by 1885.

George Washington Cone's son, John Jefferson, established a plantation with 1,500 to 2,000 acres in cultivation and also had timberland, cattle and a grist mill. He owned a steam powered cotton gin which was in operation until around 1950.

The center of the village was the J. J. Cone Commissary and the plantation store, a two story building that was torn down in the 1960s. After John Jefferson Cone's death in 1914 his widow, Ida Hamm Cone, managed the plantation and ran the store. Their plantation house was moved from its original site in the 1960s to its present location behind the Snyder Grocery.

On April 7, 1888, Joshua H. Cone executed a deed to George W. Cone and William Brown as deacons for land for the Fellowship Baptist Church. The church burned in the 1920s and was eventually rebuilt in its present location on land deeded in 1926 by Ida J. Hamm Cone and heirs.

The first school in Snyder was a one room building which went to the eighth grade. It burned in the 1920s and a new school, which went to the twelfth grade, was built on the north side of the road on land deeded in 1926 by Ida J. Cone and heirs. The high school consolidated with Portland in the 1930s and the grade school continued until about 1950.

In 1903, Jesse D. Dean (son of Nancy Cone Dean) was among those who petitioned for the first bridge to be built to replace the ferry across Bayou Bartholomew. It was completed in 1911. An increased interest in roads arose as more and more people left buggies and wagons for a new invention - the automobile: "I saw in a paper that the feet and legs of the women of this country are growing deformed because they ride so much instead of walking as they did before autos got to be used so much." - Letter from Mrs. Jesse D. Dean (nee Margaret Kittrell), 1917.

==========

Information about purchasing copies of Beyond Bartholomew may be obtained by sending e-mail to [email protected].

If you'd like to email us comments or even better, to add your sources to the site, please do by emailing them!