I Doggies, Folks!

"Hello, Jot 'Em Down Store. This is Lum and Abner." For nearly 25 years, that was the most welcome greeting on radio. Chester "Chet" Lauck (Lum Eddards) and Norris "Tuffy" Goff (Abner Peabody) were the creators, actors, writers, sound effects men, directors and the soul of the Lum and Abner program. They received more fan mail than any other program at the time - 1 1/2 million letters per week! You've been exposed to their influence on popular culture whether you know it or not. When you hear Jed Clampett say, "Eee doggies," you're hearing an echo of Abner Peabody. When you watch reruns of Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, the Andy Griffith Show or Hee Haw, you're seeing characters based on Lum and Abner characters.

Wax Lum 'N Abner figures in the Museum

Their careers began as young, amateur performers in Mena, AR where they grew up together and performed at school and civic functions. In early 1931, while doing a skit for radio station KTHS in Hot Springs, Arkansas, they tried out their old country storekeepers routine. The names "Lum Eddards" and "Abner Peabody" were just spur of the moment additions and the format was conversational, but the guys were so talented, they were invited back. After a short while, they were offered a 13 week contract with NBC and soon thereafter, their show obtained Quaker Oats as a sponsor and they headed to Chicago for "temporary" show business careers.

Inside the store - the Pine Ridge Post Office

Pine Ridge, Arkansas is about the same size now as it was in the early 1900's when it was called Waters. Located here was a post office, sawmill, general store, grist mill, blacksmith shop, and the other services needed by a farm community. The general store of any small town was its activity hub, especially on Saturdays when everyone from the surrounding farms came to town to trade goods, stories, and get caught up on the latest news. Chet and Tuffy based their program on this interaction they had experienced in Waters, modeling the dialect, phraseology and customs after the citizens of the remote community who "lived lives as their forefathers lived theirs, unaffected and unspoiled by modern progress; who are content to eke out an existence and live their lives undaunted by the depression's hardships."  Many of the fictional characters in the fictional town of Pine Ridge were based on actual residents of Waters and the surrounding area, but only the many voices of Chet and Tuffy were heard on the radio. Chet was Lum, Grandpappy Spears, and Cedric Wehunt. Tuffy was Abner, Squire Skimp, Mousey Grey, Dick Huddleston, and most of the other characters they developed over the years. They kept in touch with the folks in Waters, especially Mrs. Homer Graham (known as Ethel in the program)  who worked in one of the general stores and took notes while customers shopped for shoes, cheese, harness, and other necessities. She would then send these to Lauck and Goff and they used the news, sayings, and phrases in their act.

By the mid-1930's, the radio program was well known across the nation and the listeners kept demanding to know where the town of Pine Ridge was located. Finally, the town of Waters officially changed it's name to Pine Ridge in an elaborate ceremony on the steps of the state capital in Little Rock in 1936 on the 5th anniversary of the program. Pictures hanging in the Lum and Abner Museum show the governor greeting Lum, Abner, and the real-life counterparts of Grandpappy Spears, Cedric Wehunt, Dick Huddleston, and several others.

The original pot bellied stove in the
Jot 'Em Down Store.

The stores that were such an integral part of the program are still in business today and are on the National Register of Historic Places. The original Huddleston store, built in 1909, is now the Lum and Abner Museum and holds the souvenir and gift shop. The A.A. McKinzie Store, built across the street in 1904, has become the Jot 'Em Down Store which gained fame in the program. It has been moved next door to the museum and in addition to selling a few souvenirs, hand-made knick-knacks and snacks, contains the old post office, many pieces of the Lum and Abner program and the original pot bellied stove where the residents would gather around during those cold winter Saturdays so long ago, swapping tales, getting caught up on the news, and laughing at the stories Chet and Tuffy were telling about them.

Many of the original items sold in the store are
in the museum.

In the early 1950's, after almost 25 years of 13 week contracts, 7 movies and thousands of radio shows, Lum and Abner retired. Norris Goff, surrounded by his loving family, died in California in June, 1978.  Chester Lauck and his family moved back to Arkansas after he retired and later aided in the development of the Lum and Abner Museum. He passed away in February, 1980.

Located at the corner of Old Waters Highway and Hole In Ground Road (Highway 88 in Montgemery County, Arkansas - a county that is so rural it doesn't have any traffic lights), Pine Ridge is still a very small, very rural town little changed from the days of the show. 911 service was finally introduced in 2000 and it was just a couple of years ago that anything other than party telephone lines became available. As you pass the community along the 2-lane blacktop highway, the 2 old general stores, an outhouse, and a couple of homes are visible, but the community stretches beyond what you can see. The gravel roads link many farm houses where log buildings can still be found. Two church buildings and a cemetery are out of sight a quarter mile down the "old highway" road, the road to the right of the outhouse.

William Quantrill - Still Hiding In Arkansas?

Within Augusta Memorial Park Cemetery, en enigma lies under a large marker bearing the name L.J. Crocker. Many believe the moniker is an alias and that the grave is actually the final resting place of William Clarke Quantrill, the infamous Confederate renegade.

Quantrill burned his name into American Civil War history during the border clashes between the states of Missouri and Kansas. On August 21, 1861, he led a group of 450 men into Lawrence, Kansas, where they executed 183 men and boys and then burned the town. Most historians think Quantrill was wounded and captured in 1865 and that he died in prison in Louisville, Kentucky.

A band of Yankee cavalry caught up with Quantrill on a farm, located 5 miles south of Taylorsville, Kentucky on May 10, 1865. Quantrill and about 21 of his men were camped inside the barn when the Yanks launched a surprise attack. He and his men fought desperately from the windows and doorways of the farm house until their ammunition was exhausted. Quantrill was shot while trying to escape. One bullet struck him in the hand and another hit his left shoulder blade, angled down and lodged against his spine. He was instantly paralyzed from the waist down. When questioned, Quantrill gave his name as Captain Clarke of the 4^th MO Confederate Calvary and asked to be allowed to stay on the farm and die. His wish was granted and the northern  men rode off in pursuit of Quantrill. Mr. Wakefield, the owner of the farm, sent for a doctor who announced that Quantrill’s wound was fatal.

After learning the supposedly true identity of the man who was injured at the Wakefield farm, the Yankees returned with a wagon on Friday, May 12. They loaded Quantrill and took him to Louisville, arriving there on the 13^th of May and a few days later, there he died.

According to one legend though, what really happened was that Quantrill, who was so badly injured that he lay quietly in his bed, pleaded with the authorities to let his wife visit him. Finally they agreed. Then one of the most bizarre escapes in all of America history took place.

When Mrs. Quantrill arrived in the hospital room, Quantrill's companion in the next bed had just died. They stripped the dead man and dressed the body in Quantrill's uniform and placed it in Quantrill's bed. Then Quantrill himself put on his wife's clothes. She in turn put on the dead man's clothes, was gagged and tied, and lay down in the dead man's bed. Quantrill, whose bruised spine had healed enough that he could move again, dressed as a woman and walked away a free man. Mrs. Quantrill was discovered bound and gagged, gasping she had found her husband dead in his bed and had been attacked by the other man n the room who made her exchange clothes with him and then tied her up.

The authorities believed her story and as a result of this dramatic escape plot no further search was ever conducted for Quantrill. Instead the Louisville hospital records reflect William Clarke Quantrill died of his wounds and that an unknown member of his gang managed to escape. Quantrill and his wife stayed in Kentucky for the next two years while Quantrill was fully recovering his health.

In 1867, a wealthy stranger calling himself Captain L.J. Crocker arrived in Gregory, a small town near Augusta, Arkansas. He bought a large farm with cash pulled from his saddlebags. It is said he had a military bearing and it was obvious he was an expert horseman. For several years, he and his wife worked their farm and kept mostly to themselves, but eventually Crocker made many friends, helped establish the local bank, and joined the local Freemason lodge. When the Crockers arrived, they had a young daughter named Laura Lee with them, but unfortunately, Laura died shortly before her 4th birthday. She was buried in Augusta Memorial Park cemetery.

Rumors circulated about Crocker’s true identity. Men familiar with Quantrill noted the stranger’s striking resemblance to the guerilla leader. Quantrill was known to have lost a finger in the fight on the farm when he was captured and Crocker always wore a glove in public. Crocker’s wife, Gabriella, was a relative of Cole Younger. Younger and Frank and Jessie James were former members of Quantrill’s Raiders and visited the Crocker home on several occasions.

Then one day when Captain Crocker was chatting with friends in the livery stable at Augusta, a newcomer by the name of Hutchison approached him and said, "You, Captain Crocker, are the man I knew as Quantrill. I was in the Federal Army and was captured by your men. It was you who finally let me escape." Captain Crocker looked at the man and smiled slowly. "You are mistaken, Sir. My name is L. J. Crocker, and furthermore I think that Quantrill would have shot any Yankee soldier that he captured."  Over the years, a number of former soldiers identified Captain Crocker as Quantrill, but he always denied it.

Could Captain Crocker really be the infamous William Clarke Quantrill, the feared guerrilla fighter, the leader of a large group of desperadoes who tried to aid the Confederacy by burning, pillaging, and murdering during raids in Missouri, Kansas, and even Kentucky? Could this stately gentlemen who had made so many friends in Gregory and Augusta, and who was adored by children when he visited in their homes, could he possibly be that same Quantrill who had been described in the newspapers as "The bloodiest man in the annals of American history, the father of American outlaws, a killer who had butchered women and children"?

Eventually, in 1910, after obtaining a secrecy oath from his fellow Masons, Crocker confirmed suspicions. He was, he said, William Clarke Quantrill and he asked that his true identity be kept secret until after his death.

Captain Crocker, or Quantrill, take your pick, lived on his farm near Gregory for 50 years, from 1867 until his death in 1917. He is buried in Augusta Memorial Park next to his daughter Laura Lee. No one seems to know for sure what happened to Mrs. Crocker after her husband's death, but it is assumed she rejoined her relatives in Missouri.

Augusta is a small, peaceful town 75 miles northeast of Little Rock. To visit the cemetery, turn south off US64 East onto Fifth Street at the armory and go about 1 block. The cemetery will be on your left.