Through the Cabin Window – February, 2019

100 YEARS AGO, 1919

♦ Dr. E.O. Brannan sold to Sam King the grocery business formerly conducted by him on Main Street near the Hines Hotel. Mr. King would continue the business.

♦ Through an interchange of officers at the post office department, Luther P. Lewellyn, money order clerk at the Conway post office, became postmaster of the Greenbrier post office and George R. Alewine, the holder of that office, replaced Mr. Lewellyn in the Conway office.

♦ Enrollment at Conway Public Schools reached 587, over 100 more than the previous year’s enrollment figure. Superintendent R.E. Womack said shifts were being made in the teaching force in order to accommodate the pupils. Miss Jewel Jones, teacher of home economics, would take some of the classes in the first three grades.

♦ Edward Markham purchased the local Arkansas Democrat agency from Peel Allison and Sam Davidson.

75 YEARS AGO, 1944

♦ W.D. Cole announced that he had given the Ben Franklin stores a long-time lease on buildings at 1110 and 1112 Oak Street and that remodeling was being done. The Ligon Hardware Company, at 1110 Oak, would move to 1106 Oak Street, formerly occupied by Massey Hardware. Cole Appliance Store, 1112 Oak, would move to another building that Cole owned on Chestnut Street, immediately north of the Fair Store.

♦ Wiley Moseley’s general mercantile business at Mayflower was 50 years old. Mr. Mosely opened the store in February 1894. On the anniversary, he put his eldest son, Ellis G. Moseley, in charge of the store. The Moseley family moved to the Rocky Gap area from Lewisburg (old Morrilton) in 1880 where he was a farmer before buying the store.

♦ Construction work was started on a new $10,000 50 x 176-foot brick and steel building adding 9,000 square feet to the Ward Body Works and expanding the plant’s total to 35,000 square feet. The additional space would be mainly used for a repair and rebuilding shop, but a large steel press would also be installed in it. The body plant was established in April 1939 when Dave Ward erected his first 70 x 139-foot building. By the spring of 1941, a second building 70 x 165-feet was constructed. Buses were sold to buyers in 20 or more states besides Arkansas.

50 YEARS AGO, 1969

♦ The Department of Interior made a grant of $50,000 to the city of Conway to apply toward the purchase of Laurel Park at Prince Street and Western Avenue. The city made a partial payment for the 19-acre former J.O. Moore property for park purposes in 1968. Bob Swartz, chairman of the Conway Parks and Recreation Commission, said that plans would go forward for developing Laurel Park. He also said the first two phases of projects at the new Fifth Avenue Park in the eastern section of the city were nearing completion.

♦ Sterling’s Store closed for business at 822-824 Front Street at 5:30 p.m. Saturday and opened at 8:30 a.m. Monday at 818-820 Front Street. The Frauenthal and Schwarz building was being remodeled for exclusive use of Sterling’s Store, so the store moved into the C.R. Anthony Store which closed January 1. The enlarged building would provide Sterling’s with twice as much floor space when the wall between Sterling’s and Anthony’s was removed.

♦ Dr. Maude C. Carmichael, a former SCA economics professor and department chairman, and three of her former students were reunited at a luncheon meeting of the Carmichael Foundation at the college. The three former students were Dr. Silas D. Snow, SCA president; C.W. Harper, First National Bank of Conway president; and Dr. Bessie Moore, supervisor of economic education for the Arkansas State Department of Education. All had gathered for a statewide meeting of economics teachers and students.

25 YEARS AGO, 1994

♦ The Conway City Council met with the Conway Human Development Center to obtain unused CHDC land to expand Don Owen Memorial Park. Alderman Mark Ferrell, parks and recreation committee chairman, was leading an effort to build a five-diamond softball complex and a fieldhouse for indoor athletic programs.

♦ Ground was broken for the new Faulkner County Library to be built on Tyler Street. About 300 children and 100 adults attended the ceremony to kick off construction of the new facility.

♦ Theodore Jones, Justice of the Peace for District 11 of the Faulkner County Quorum Court, announced that he would not seek re-election. Jones, 69, had served for five terms. A retired teacher in the Conway district, Jones taught agriculture at Pine Street School before serving there as principal until the school closed in 1967. He then taught career orientation at CJHS.

10 YEARS AGO, 2009

♦ San Antonio Shoes (SAS) announced that it was permanently closing its Conway plant. Layoffs of the 144 workers would begin the week of April 27. The shoe factory had operated at the plant on Hairston Avenue for about 26 years, but International Shoe Company originally opened the plant in 1947. The plant was purchased by R.C. Berry after 35 years. Berry operated the plant for a few years and then SAS purchased it.

♦ University of Central Arkansas student Kris Allen, 23, was one of the top 36 semi-finalists for American Idol. A Little Rock native, he was a business major and part of the worship ministry at New Life Church in Conway.

♦ A celebration and rededication of the restored old Conway High School would be held March 15. The building, which was originally dedicated March 12, 1937, had been completely refurbished. Classes from 1937 to 1968 graduated in the building that was now part of Conway High School East.