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| Early Boone County known for fruit |
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| Question: In one of your history columns, you mentioned large fruit farms that were once prominent in Boone County. Can you tell more about some of these farms? |
| Answer: There were many fruit farms covering a great number of acres in this county in the early 1900s. Batavia Fruit Company and Pilot Knob Fruit Farm are two this column will discuss this week. |
| George W. O'Neal, born about 1875 in Carroll County, was the owner of the Pilot Knob Fruit Farm, one mile from Batavia. He devoted this entire farm to commercial fruit, and by 1905 had set out more than 10,000 apple and peach trees. A few years later, he planted several thousand more, making Pilot Knob Farm an even larger operation. |
| O'Neal received his early education at the Carrollton Academy and later attended the Northern Indiana Normal Institute, graduating from the teacher's and commercial department in 1896. He was an astute businessman, dealing extensively in United States public land scrip, where he acquired a thorough knowledge of laws governing homesteads, mining and other timber claims. |
| He was the original owner of the Ozark Post and Timber Company, having organized the company for the purpose of handling red cedar post and pencil timber. Each year this company shipped as much as 150 car loads of timber from their facility. O'Neal also had options on fine farm land in the Crooked Creek Valley and on pine and hardwood timberland in Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama. |
| O'Neal was recognized as a leading young Republican, working for the best interests of his county and state. Well known as a fruit farmer, timber man and party organizer, O'Neal had offices located in the Bunch block of Harrison. |
| Iowa native Frank Warning was another big fruit grower in Boone County. He was vice president of the Ozark Fruit and Produce Company and a stockholder in the Batavia Fruit Company. |
| The Batavia Fruit Company owned 1,431 acres on which were set 130,000 peach trees. The Ozark Fruit Company had set out 35,000 peach trees, and in 1905 had plans to set out 15,000 more trees that spring. Warning, along with his father, owned 240 acres of fine land located about a mile from Harrison, and that, too, became another fruit farm. |
| Warning came to Boone County in 1883 to check out mining possibilities, but did not make his home in the county until 1901. He first did general real estate and mining business, traveling all over the entire mining district. While holding options on 1,800 acres of valuable mining land, Frank Warning was principal owner of mines in the Boxley district, with his leading mine being the "Bill Dugan" near Boxley. |
| These are just two of the many early residents that were involved, not only in fruit farming but also in mining and timber. Boone County's history is full of similar stories of lives such as that of Frank Warning and George W. O'Neal. The Boone County Heritage Museum strives to preserve this history, and invites you to share your stories, pictures and artifacts with the museum for future generations to enjoy. |
| The Heritage Museum is located on the corner of South Cherry Street and Central Avenue in the historical 1912 Harrison High School building. Now observing winter hours, the museum is open only on Thursdays from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. |
| This column appears Fridays in the Harrison Daily Times. Mail questions to Boone County Heritage Museum, P. O. Box 1094, Harrison, AR 72601. Marilyn Smith can be contacted at bchm@windstream.net |
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