A History of Almyra, Arkansas
(Arkansas County)
As It Appeared In The Centennial Edition
of
The DeWitt Era-Enterprise
Volume 72, Number 26
Thursday, August, 1953
Almyra - Always Been Pretty Town Of Friendly People
Almyra was not built as an industrial center, but as a community where the farm folk could live together and have fellowship together and enjoy one another's company. And so it has been these many years. The town, which now has a population of 250, was founded in 1890. Located on the south half of Section 26, Township 3 south, Range 4 west, it was promoted by the Stuttgart Town Site and Development Company and was platted and surveyed into blocks and lots in 1890.
It was named Almyra for Mrs. Almyra D. Sayer, a sister of the late J. I. Porter, who with her husband and daughter Kate lived on a farm adjoining the present town on the south. (This land is now part of the Herold Vos farm). The present town was once part of a fenced stock pasture of 3040 acres, owned by Porter, Hume and Baker. Martin Baker owned Section 27 just west of town. He was elected sheriff in the early 1900's and served the county in this capacity three terms.
In the early days of 1891, C. M. Hillman, who had a store on his farm two miles southwest of Almyra, was also postmaster of the Longpoint post office. He erected a store in Almyra with living quarters on the second floor and a house, which is now part of the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. R. Kestner. Mr. and Mrs. George Place of Gillett moved in the house, becoming the first residents of Almyra. The store building was completed a little later, and at Mr. Hillman's request, as well as that of others, the Longpoint post office was discontinued, and a post office, with Hillman as first postmaster, was established in Almyra August 5, 1891.
Soon another home was built by Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Randall, and they became the third family to move to Almyra. In April, 1891 Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Alderson, Mr. and Mrs. T. K. Bennett and Mr. and Mrs. T. L. Wheeler started a Sunday School in a vacant two-room house on the location of the present home of Mr. and Mrs. I. M. Bennett. In November that year when the first Almyra school house was completed, Mrs. Almyra D. Sayer, Mrs. Kate Wilson and Mr. and Mrs. C. M. Hillman started a union Sunday School in the new school building. It progressed as new people moved into town and on farms near Almyra until in 1901, the Methodist Church was built. Those who were Baptists who had been attending the union Sunday School then organized a church and continued meeting in the school until they could build their own church home.
One of the interesting facts about Almyra is that probably not ten Sundays have passed since it came into being without organized worship. Very few, if any, families moving into the community failed to identify themselves with one of the town's every growing churches.
Later a high school building was erected in Almyra, and since consolidation with the DeWitt School District it has been operated as an elementary school.
In 1896, G.W.Chambers built a home and store and moved his business from Sassafras Prairie to Almyra. After several years, he was succeeded in business by Farley and Thompson, and later they were succeeded by Farley and Edwards. Mr. Farley was later succeeded by E. M. Gere, he by Rev. C. R. Cooper, and he by J. N. Cooper, his son, who is still operating the store.
After Mr. Hillman's retirement, others operated a grocery in his building for several years, E. B. Fitzhugh being the last. He continued the business until his death. Mr. Hillman was succeeded as postmaster by Smith Wilson in 1903, and after about 18 months he resigned and Mr. Hillman was again appointed, serving this time until his death in 1910. Mrs. Hillman succeeded her husband, and Mrs. Louella Boswell in 1913 became postmaster under the Civil Service Plan which came into effect under the late President Wilson. She continued as postmaster until 1947, and after her retirement, Mrs. Pearl Harris was acting postmaster until she resigned in 1949. Mrs. Erna Dean Busch was appointed acting postmaster and served until August, 1950, when Mrs. Bertie Vos was appointed postmaster under the Civil Service. There were two rural mail carriers until the consolidation a few years ago. Route 1 carrier was R. F. Thomason, who died in 1945, the other, Lee Deacon.
I. M. Bennett, M. G. Bennett, W. H. Bennett, A. M. Bennett, Mrs. Louella Boswell, Ambrose Wilson and C. B. Wheeler are the only original residents of the community who are still living. They have all been there for 64 years or longer.
In the winter of 1891, the track of the Stuttgart and Arkansas River Railroad was finished to Almyra, and trains from Stuttgart brought mail, freight and passengers. George Place was first station agent at Almyra.
Almyra was duly incorporated in 1905 with Dr. W. H. Boswell becoming its first mayor. He was succeeded by H. D. Sebree, and other mayors of the town have been W. H. Knoll, Theodore Rhein, E. C. Catts, Sam P. Boswell, who served 23 years continuously until his health failed him, and A. M. Bennett, who has been elected every year since. Present officers of Almyra are Mr. Bennett, mayor; R. L. Sebree, recorder; A. R. Kestner, treasurer; W. J. Schrock, G. L. Sebree, Roy Vice, L. G. Stephens and Earl McClain, councilmen. Almyra doesn't have a marshall. It doesn't need one. The town had a population of 800 in 1910.
Walter McClain established a general merchandise business in Almyra in 1921, and the business is still going strong. Mr. McClain is assisted in its operation by his wife and son, Earl McClain and his wife. Duke Wells started a store in Almyra in 1902 but later sold the building and stock to Sam Rhein, who continued in business until his death. Mr. and Mrs. T. L. C. Wheeler built a building in 1901 and operated a hotel in it until 1908 when they sold it and retired. W. E. Brener and H. D. Sebree established a handle factory in 1904 and operated it for several years. A rice elevator which was Almyra's pride and joy was constructed in 1908, and later rice milling machinery was installed and operated until the structure was destroyed by fire several years ago. W. H. Knoll and Roy Vice opened an oil station in Almyra with Mr. Vice later purchasing Mr. Knoll's interest, adding hardware and other items. He operated the business until the spring of this year, when he sold to Farmers Association, which is now operating it. A. B. Gildewell has operated a pool hall and domino parlor in Almyra for 27 years.
Almyra Revisited
The discovery in July 1997 of the "Centennial Edition" of the DeWitt Era-Enterprise, Volume 72, Number 26, published at DeWitt, Arkansas County, Arkansas, Thursday, August 27, 1953, (extra copies were for sale at that time for 25 cents-!) prompted Jim Bennett to publish this booklet to commemorate the occasion and to bring to the reader a bit of nostalgia and Almyra history.
Jim (James Nolan) Bennett was born August 15th, 1928, at the family home at 12th and Leslie Streets in Almyra, to William Henry (W. H., better known as "Harry") and Bertha Irene Bennett. He was delivered by the town doctor, Dr. O. V. Guthrie, and was the youngest of their five children, being the last child born to that generation of Bennett's.
He was raised in Almyra, educated in the public school there, and as a youth attended both the Baptist and the Methodist Churches, becoming a family member of the Methodist Church in his teens, the church that his grandparents, Thomas K. and Emma E. Bennett had helped organize in the early part of the century. For his senior year, James attended Stuttgart High School, graduating from there in the spring of 1946.
He attended College during 1946-47-48, returning to Almyra, and then going to work in Stuttgart, moving (for the fist time in his life!) there from Almyra, and being married there in the fall of 1949.
His great and life-long interest in railroads perhaps started very early in his life as he witnessed the"Judy Train" as it passed through Almyra on its daily run from Stuttgart to Gillett. One of the founders of the railroad (chartered in 1888 as The Stuttgart and Arkansas River Railroad Company -- later to become the Gillett Branch of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway, better known as the Cotton Belt Route) was a Thomas A. Leslie, after whom streets in Stuttgart, Almyra and Gillett were named. Jim likes to recall the fact that the family home where he was born and raised in Almyra was located on Leslie Street , and that now his home in Stuttgart is located at 10th and Leslie Streets there!
Having always kept close touch with the small town and the community where he spent his boyhood days, it is a pleasure for him to share in this way some of the history and memories of Almyra and of the good folk who made up the community. Largely, in his formative years, it was the"world", and the comings and goings and the happenings within the community was the stage upon which life's drama daily took place!
The Almyra as James knew and loved it is long gone. Indeed, there are only a few of its residents that were there when he was a boy. Almyra's mayor, M. C. Bennett, the grandson of former long-time Mayor A. M. Bennett, continues on in the family tradition. Many of the older homes are either gone or are in a state of disrepair. A number of new, modern homes have been constructed, attesting to the fact that Almyra, like many small towns across the country, has become largely a "bedroom" and "retirement" community, its residents driving back and forth to their workplace.
Almyra has steadily progressed over the years, receiving a modern telephone system in the early 1950's, a community water system, a fully accredited fire department, natural gas service, paved streets, a city park and swimming pool, and most recently, a modern sewer system. Acquisition of the World War II auxiliary airfield northwest of Almyra from the Government has provided a steady and dependable farm income for the city.
Both the Almyra Baptist Church and the Almyra United Methodist Church have active congregations and are well attended, both having full-time pastors. The Almyra Cemetery has always been extremely well kept.
School consolidation in the late 1940's with the DeWitt District soon eliminated any classes being held at Almyra School, students being bussed to DeWitt. A modern and functional "Community Center" stands on the site of the old school building. The Almyra Farmers Cooperative Association continues to meet the needs of area farmers, and over the years various grocery stores, one or sometimes two at the time, continued to meet the needs of Almyra housewives. A small modern post office building stands on the site of Earl and Bessie Gere's Almyra Mercantile Company. The long-established Almyra Rural Mail Route' continues, as it has for many years, to serve rural postal patrons to the east, north, south and west of Almyra. Mrs. Barbara Neukam's renowned mail-order Sears & Roebuck' two-story home, although now in disrepair, along with its ahead-of-its-time' electric generator outbuilding, is one of the few older homes in Almyra still standing.
Public transportation, once a vital part of our nation, disappeared from the Almyra scene in the early 1950's, the daily bus runs between Stuttgart, Almyra, DeWitt and Gillett being eliminated in favor of the private automobile and the greatly improved paved highways. The railroad through Almyra saw its last train in the spring of 1996, the rails now weed-grown and rusty, the highway crossings now paved over. It is expected and likely that the tracks will be taken up in the not too distant future.
With the inauguration of the county-wide "911" emergency system in the fall of 1996, Almyra joins the ranks of small-town America' in being provided with instant and up-to-date, 24-hour fire, police and law-enforcement protection and ambulance service.
As Almyra approaches the 21st Century, it can look back over its more than 100 years with great pride at the accomplishments it has made as a small community, and recall with thankfulness and gratitude the efforts and wise planning of the early settlers; for the foresight and dedication of its leadership down through the years, which has made it the little town and community that is loved by those who once called it "home".
Stuttgart, Arkansas
Summer 1997
Almyra Telephone Directory & Map
(Yahoo)