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- Two occasions that my father would always take the family was the circus when in town and the Christmas Eve program at the Lutheran Church. Afterwards, we would open our gifts at home. There were not many presents - mostly clothes. Afterwards my mother would serve a little glass of wine and fruit cake.
- When I was fourteen, I was confirmed in the Lutheran Church which meant finishing the Lutheran school and joining the church. I finished my formal education in the public school.
- When I was sixteen, I started working at John Schaaf Wholesale Drug Co. I worked in various jobs over a thirteen year space ultimately being in charge of the laboratory. However, it was not all work and no play. I had Saturdays and Sunday afternoons for relaxation. For example, on Saturday afternoons I frequently went to a matinee at the old Grand Opera House located on South 5th and Garrison Avenue. The price was ten cents. Also I went on picnics and to ice cream socials on North Greenwood Avenue under a grove of oak trees about two blocks from the present Economy Drug Store.
- In my later teens, I took ballroom dancing from Miss Beckman's Dance Studio located upstairs near where Tillis's dress shop is now. After learning to dance, I enjoyed it so much that I went dancing two or three times a week. In 1917 I was drafted into the Army for World War I serving in France for about nine months in the medical corp. I was discharged from the service on June 7, 1919.
- On October 2, 1919, I married Colene V. Willls in Enid, Oklahoma. We have one son, Henry Jr., who married Gwendolyn Day Martin on February 3, 1950 in Little Rock. They now live in St. Louis, Missouri, where Henry Jr. works for Monsanto Co. They have one daughter, Carol Ann, who is now eighteen.
- Places I Lived
- I have lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas all of my life. I was born on November 9, 1888 at 2101 North J. My father planted maple trees all around the house. One of them still survives along with the house. We moved to 203 South 8th Street when I was about fifteen years old. Both of my parents died there. The house was sold and later torn down to make a public parking lot.
- After we married, we rented for six years living at 2 North 15th Street, 409 North 20th Street, and 1213 North C. On New Year's Eve of 1924, we moved into a house we had built at 709 South 23rd Street where we still reside.
- History of Garrison Avenue
- As far as I can remember, Garrison Avenue was originally paved with brick, later replaced with wooden blocks. This was a failure because the blocks warped and buckled when it rained. Because of this, the avenue was then paved with brick again. Finally it was blacktopped as it is today. If you stood at the foot of the avenue looking west across the bridge over the river, to the left was Coke Hills a poor and dangerous settlement. To the right, on Front Street there was a row of houses. One of them belonged to Pearl Starr, who ran a house of prostitution. The house was a pink frame building with a large colored window in the front containing a big star. I remember Henry Starr and Cherokee Bill, two desperados. Cherokee Bill was hung by order of Judge Parker, who was called the "hanging judge". Mr. Maledor was the hangman.
- I remember the old fort which was surrounded by a rock and cement wall. Casper Reutzel had a grocer y store between North 2nd and 3rd Street on Garrison Avenue. He also handled the Lutheran school books and other school supplies. There was a framehouse with a white picket fence around it owned by a Jew on the corner of South 6th Street and the avenue, where the First National Bank now stands.
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