The Headless Horseman of Booger Holler and Other Dover Tales

By Mindy Campbell Hudson

Collected through firsthand interviews, author Mindy Campbell Hudson brings local lore to life in The Headless Horseman of Booger Holler and Other Dover Tales with stories of Dover, Arkansas's own legends, history, and supernatural tales. Complete with photographs of historical Dover, this collection of tales captures the legacy and traditio

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tea Tree Publishing
• Release date: Aug 22, 2016
• ISBN: 9781945003011

Mindy Campbell Hudson

Mindy Hudson teaches freshman English at Arkansas Tech University. She lives with her husband, Walter, in an old family home where she works on quilting, growing flowers and tomatoes, and collecting old stories.

Book preview

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The Headless Horseman

of Booger Holler

and Other Dover Tales

The Headless Horseman of Booger Holler and Other Dover Tales

© 2016 by Mindy Campbell Hudson

Tea Tree Publishing.

P.O. Box 327, Russeellville, Ar 72811

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Photo credits

Figures 3-6 © by Walter Hudson

Figure 7 by permisson of Nina Sanchez

Figure 8 by permission of John Rollow

Figures 9-10 by permission of David Vance

Edited by Dr. Donna R. White

Designed by Amanda Johnson

Cover designed by Caitlin Smith Designs, LLC

ISBN 978-1-945003-00-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-945003-01-1 (e-book)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016948354

in memory of Mom and Dad

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Works Cited

Other Works Consulted

List of Figures

Fig. 1 - Mrs. Fields Cookie Recipe.

Fig. 2 - Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe.

Fig. 3 - Shop Bluff.

Fig. 4 - Map of Treat.

Fig. 5 - Map of Dover.

Fig. 6 - Wagon road to Treat.

Fig. 7.1 - Harry Poynter of Dover.

Fig. 7.2 - Harry Poynter home in Dover.

Fig. 8.1 - The Dover home of Will Simpson on West Water Street.

Fig. 8.2 - A picture from 1920 of Highway 7 looking to the north.

Fig. 9.1 - Locals in front of the Beehive in Dover.

Fig. 9.2 - The office of Dr. David Ruff in Dover.

Fig. 10.1 - A drugstore on Water Street in Dover that burned in the 1930 fire.

Fig. 10.2 - The Old Jail at Dover.

Fig. 10.3 - Pope County Courthouse in Dover on the town square.

Acknowledgements

Please note that the stories here in Dover Tales are presented verbatim. The storytellers were products of their time and upbringing—nothing included is meant to be offensive. The gracious and enthusiastic storytellers I met made the collection process a smooth and joyful task, and I am thankful to each of the contributors.

I want to thank Dr. Earl Schrock, Jr., who through his class at Arkansas Tech University helped promote my interest in the area of folklore. I also am thankful for Donna and Amanda, my friends at Tea Tree Publishing, in thinking this project worthwhile to freshen up and reprint. Donna has now officially transformed into a fairy godmother. May she and Amanda with Tea Tree bloom and prosper.

I am also thankful to my late Mom and Dad for moving our family in 1970 to this area I love and for sharing their stories with me; to my children, the young Ginny, who had to put up with my distraction while I was first collecting these stories in 1992; the young Cole, who had to go with me on some of the interviews and stay very quiet while I was recording; and to my husband Walter, who always takes up the slack for me when needed, then and now. Each has my thanks and love, always.

For those readers familiar with the original project in thesis form, I have made some changes to slightly update and correct this version as well as adding material not originally used. My hope is that those who enjoy local stories will pick this up and find pleasure in these Dover Tales.

Chapter I

Dover Tales

It was just like driving into the night when you drove into Booger Holler. Scariest place I ever seen in my life. Daddy was coming through there on a mule one night when a headless man jumped on behind them. Daddy said, ‘If you are going to ride I’ll get off and walk.’ It was that way to the graveyard where the headless man disappeared.

The late Piney Page, a folklore collector from the Arkansas River Valley, collected this tale from Mr. Cecil Jones, and it appeared in the May 1, 1983, edition of the Russellville Courier-Democrat. This is just one story about the local legend surrounding Booger Hollow, also called Booger Holler, which is located off Highway 7 on Highway 164, north of Dover, Arkansas. These Booger Holler stories are among the large number of different tales that are told in the area. In most regions, the folklore student need only do a little digging to be rewarded with an abundance of local lore. The small town of Dover in northern Pope County, Arkansas, is no exception. The stories contained in this work are a collection from interviews with various residents or onetime residents of Dover and the surrounding areas. Tales about the different historical highlights are very popular, along with stories concerning local landmarks and characters. When I was comparing these stories with those collected by past researchers in this area, I found that many versions of the same story appeared over and over again.

These local stories are important for individuals and for the area. The passing of stories between family members and friends gives people a way to keep memories alive. Sometimes this sharing of tales can be a teaching tool by wrapping a message within the story, but regardless of any lesson, storytelling can always provide entertainment. Stories pass on traditions, and they help to keep history alive. Oral folklore involves much more than just storytelling. It is a passing on of bits of people’s lives. Telling stories is a basic form of communication and a very human process.

For many years now, popular media have kept the majority of the public mesmerized by a seemingly endless barrage of news shows, radio shows, television shows, special events, video games, and block-buster movies. Americans, for the most part, are attached to electronics for a good portion of each day. Who has time for oral storytelling? This is often viewed as something of the past—a lost art. Stories are certainly still being told in all of these different mediums, but the personal touch is missing. The connection between the oral storyteller and the audience is lost without the live performance. Without this connection, the feeling for and reactions to the story are different, for both teller and listener.

The concerns some of the people I talked with had about how other people would perceive them explained why not all individuals wish to share their stories.  The word storytelling indicates a non-truth for many people. We sometimes hear someone say, He’s telling a story, meaning He’s lying. Many people are reluctant about having their stories recorded for fear they might be caught in embroidering the story or for fear that it might label them as ignorant or superstitious. Even experienced storytellers sometimes do not recognize that the ability to tell a good story is an art.

Americans have always loved to tell stories, whether it is the traditional tall tale of the Old West or the latest blonde joke making the rounds. Although the mass media of the modern world have slowed oral storytelling somewhat, there are places where it is very much alive. In 1989, John Burrison, a professor of English at Georgia State University, assembled a collection of previously published works, bringing together over 8,000 folktales from the South. The number of stories he accumulated is a strong indication that storytelling has been and still is plentiful.

In 1888 the American Folklore Society was created to collect and study folklore, which was generally thought to be quickly disappearing. More than one hundred and twenty-five years later, we can see that this idea has proved to be false, as folklore continues to be created and spread. Folklore seems to be a more popular area of study in the United States than it once was, although according to those in the field, it has been recognized for many centuries in Europe (Brunvand, Study 1).

There are many different forms of folklore. According to Jan Harold Brunvand, a leading folklorist, Folklore comprises the unrecorded traditions of a people; it includes both the form and content of these traditions and their style and technique of communication from person to person (Study 1). The word folklore, then, can refer to a variety of things from chair-making to family Christmas traditions. For many years, the most popular form to collect was oral folklore. These collections include songs as well as favorite sayings, jokes, family stories, stories about certain areas, and stories about the rich and famous. My focus here is oral history surrounding Dover, the stories passed down from person to person about a local family or an interesting character, the local area, and different time periods.

Certain regions of the United States have the most abundant sources for story collectors. Brunvand notes that the five main folklore regions studied in America include New England, the southern Appalachians, the Midwest, the Ozarks, and the Southwest (Study 45). These regions get more attention from folklore collectors partly because as the United States grew and people pushed westward, communities were established in new areas, some of which were extremely isolated. The rural cultures developed by small pockets of settlers, especially in the hard to reach places such as the mountains or the deep woods, created caches of folklore because the folks there had limited outside influences. Language changes elsewhere did not touch these groups; entertainment was self-made, so old songs, old stories, and old memories were passed along verbally from one generation to the next. What happened in the rest of the country did not always touch these people. Because of this isolation, some cultural practices did not change or keep up with the rest of America. In his work American Folklore, Richard M. Dorson gives this explanation of regional folk cultures:

During the drama of the settlement and the saga of western expansion between 1607 and 1850, sharply defined regional zones planted themselves on the American landscape. A variety of causes explain the formation and tenacity of these minor cultures, sometimes speaking different languages, practicing strange religions, following peculiar customs, in defiance of the main stream of American civilization. (74)

Some of these regions, according to Dorson, became established during the colonial period, and others were formed during the westward push which, left pockets of hillfolk stranded in the Pine Mountains of eastern Kentucky, the southern Appalachians in Virginia and North Carolina, and the Ozarks in northern Arkansas (74). The folklore collected in these regions often contains similar elements found in folklore from other parts of the country and from other countries. However, these regions are important because of the extensive oral tradition that can be found. Dorson says, The scientific folklorist seeks out, observes, collects, and describes the inherited traditions of the community, whatsoever forms they take (2).

Geographic features tend to separate certain areas, creating a rich environment for folklore. Being somewhat isolated from surrounding areas fosters a close-knit community rich in tradition (Brunvand, Study 45). The wave of interest in traditions as a form of identity for a group or an individual has been important for the Ozarks and the small towns within these mountains, such as Dover. This interest has helped to promote the collecting and saving of these traditions during a time when many could have easily disappeared like smoke from a wood stove.

Many people do not feel that there is time enough in their lives to tell or listen to stories. I want to note again, however, that to preserve the stories around us is an important part of education. Buried within the tales are indications of life in various regions during different time periods. Storytelling can pass on information about and can help keep a connection to these areas and the people who lived in them. If everyone stops paying attention to storytellers and