McDearmon Notes

We do not have much information on Willie McDearmon or his father Bryant McDearmon but based upon hear say and 1850 Tennessee Census, we think his wife's name was Catherine ?. Apparently he came from Virginia and his wife from North Carolina and they moved to or may have been married in Tennessee where John Thomas and the other children were born.
John Thomas McDearmon, son of Willie, lived in Heber Springs Arkansas, and served in the Civil War with the south. After the war he returned to Heber Springs Arkansas. In later years he and wife Armenta Matilda Gray moved to Quinlan Texas where John passed away. Based upon the story by John Wiley McDearmon, his father died from cancer. After John Thomas died, his widow moved back to Arkansas and lived with John Wiley & Rose McDearmon in Heber Springs Arkansas until her death, the year I was born, 1927.
April 22, 1899 John Wiley recieved a land grant of 160 acres of land located about half way between Heber Springs & Rose Bud Arkansas, land grant issued in Harrison County Ar. I believe he said it cost him about $2900.00 which included house, barn and most of the land cleared ready to farm. Shortly thereafter he built a house and barn on 80 acres and my father, Howard Crosby and mother, Emily Alberta (McDearmon) Crosby, moved into the new house. During the great depression John lost his 160 acres to foreclosure but continued to live there and rent the property on a share crop basis for three or four years. I remember us moving from the new house when I was seven years old.
John Wiley told me that he finished the second grade of school then had to go to work to help support the family. We do not know where he and Rose met but think they may have married in Heber Springs Arkansas. When I was only four or five years old my grandfather John Wiley and son Edward Ray would always go into town, Heber Springs, on Saturday and many times would take me with them. The only transportation was a wagon and pair of mules. We would park the wagon on or near main street around the county court house and tie the mules to the wagon while we shopped. These were the days when a nickel would buy a double dip ice cream cone or a big hamburger. One nickel was a lot of money for me to spend because times were very bad and this was during the great depression. There are many great stories to tell on Grandpa John but only room for one here. He had two mules named Mike and Jim and when you would hit one of them with the whip the mule would lunge forward and pass gas with a loud sound. Many times when I was with him in town, he would drive the team of mules up main street near a crowd of people and swat the mule with his whip so all could hear the loud sound of passing gas coming from the mule. Then he would laugh with great gusto saying his mules never had good manners and then we would head for home. True story and there were many more just as good.
It was always a big deal to me when I could go and spend the night with Grandpa John Wiley & Grandma Rose. At that time I was the only grandchild so they rolled out their best for me. He would tell me stories of long ago which were so very interesting. Sometimes my uncle Edward Rae would take me rabbit hunting which I always looked forward to. They always had plenty of food which was grown on the farm, especially the peanuts, roasted in an oven. We would sit around a pot belly wood stove in the cold winter months and eat those roasted peanuts.
Fall was a great time of the year when my parents and Grandpa John Wiley would kill hogs for our winter meat supply. I always wanted the bladder from the hogs to blowup and make them into balloons. My grandma and mother would make lie soap from the fat and cook the skin for pork rinds which they made into crackling bread. Crackling bread is corn bread with pork rinds crushed or ground and mixed in the bread, very good I might add. They cooked the fat, skin and other byproducts in a large wash kettle over a wood fire usually out in the front yard. Upon my parents death I received their wash kettle, the one they and my grandparents actually used for hog killing and heating water for washing their cloths. They always gave the neighbors some fresh pork. The meat for most part was packed in salt or cured in sugar with other ingredients for winter use. Bacon sides, hams and shoulders were usually smoked with Hickory wood which made them so tasty. This kettle is being passed on to my son Mark and then to his children, Emily, Joseph or Stephen. Joseph and Stephen are my only grandsons to carry on the Crosby name for my side of the family tree.
Most of the deceased McDearmon family is buried in Cross Roads Cemetery located about half way between Heber Springs and Rose Bud Arkansas, a short distance off Highway 5, now called Hopewell, AR.
These notes were compiled by a grandson of John Wiley McDearmon and son of Emily Alberta (McDearmon) and Howard L Crosby.
William C Crosby