If you've never visited Appleton, Arkansas, the hometown of your forefathers L.B. and F.D.E. Montgomery, you haven't missed much – a grocery store with post office, a general store, a gas station, a school, a couple of churches and widely separated homes and ranches (many of which now grow chickens for the big Tyson plant in Russellville, the world's largest producer of packaged frozen Chinese egg rolls). The little town comes to life one weekend each summer with a homecoming at the school and parade down the main street. It was a bigger community in Lattie's and Fernando's days.
Appleton got its name when its first Post Office was established in 1879 in the apple orchard of Reuben Rankin. It was incorporated in 1892 with 29 square blocks and streets named Stone, Pine, Main, Tate, Burris, Buckeye, Cherry, Mill and Kuhn. Only portions of some of the streets still exist. As the town grew after the Civil War, it had four business buildings, a drug store and the Brant Hotel. It was best known for its wheat mill, run by a large steam engine (from a steamboat) that had been hauled from the Arkansas River on a wagon pulled by two yoke of oxen. The same steam engine also powered a grist mill and a cotton gin. People from miles around brought their wheat to be ground at the mill, sometimes camping out several days while waiting for their turn at the mill.
At one time Appleton had two Rural and two Star mail routes being delivered from its Post Office. Two of our distant relatives, Tom Spears and Blaine Spears, were among the mail carriers.
Here are two pictures from Homecoming 2000. It was the last year that both Aunt Euna and Uncle Joe were able to attend.
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