100 YEARS AGO, 1918
♦ Arkansas State Normal advertised TUITION FREE for the fall term to students wishing to prepare as teachers. “Necessary expenses for board, books and supplies will be $160 to $200 for nine months. Students will board at a splendid modern dormitory for $15 a month. All who are 16 years of age and have completed the common school course are eligible. Continue reading
In 1861, a small group of pioneers began to settle in the area that is now called Vilonia. According to tradition, this original settlement was called Vilsonia which mean “land of two valleys.”
The name was altered when the first group of Masons established a lodge there in 1873. When they sent their request into the national headquarters in Washington, D.C., the national organization misspelled the name; instead the name was recorded as “Vilonia.” Continue reading
Cantrell’s Store, a general store located on the southwest corner at the intersection of what is now Highway 65 and Highway 225, operated in Greenbrier from 1917 until the 1970s.
In 1917, during World War I, James Oscar (Jimmy) Cantrell moved from his farm east of Greenbrier. His father, Frank, owned a blacksmith shop and gristmill Continue reading
At the age of seven, Glenn Cunningham suffered severe burns to his legs in a schoolhouse explosion in Kansas. His older brother, Floyd, was killed in the explosion that was caused by someone putting gasoline instead of kerosene in the can of fuel used to light the stove.
The doctors wanted to amputate his legs, but he was so upset, his parents told the doctors no. They predicted that he would never walk Continue reading
When franchise eating establishments finally came to Conway in the early 1970s, residents began to have quite a selection of places to go “out to eat” instead of the usual “drive-up.” Many of those first restaurants were located on Oak Street.
One of the first that I remember was McDonald’s. The first location in Conway was on Oak Street in front of the new Faulkner Plaza Shopping Center. It was soon joined by a Continue reading