Herbert Howard Bridgman
My father, Herbert Howard Bridgman, was born September 26, 1916, near Timbo, in Stone County, Arkansas. He was the youngest child of Thomas Jefferson H. Bridgman and Frances Adaline Catherine Holden.
The Bridgman family moved to Conway County, Arkansas, in 1917, when Herbert was about a year old. They settled on rich farm land south of Morrilton. Herbert appears with the family on the 1920 Conway County census, living on Scroggins Farm Road.
Herbert began school at the Monastery Ridge school near Morrilton. He and his siblings attended school there one or two school terms. About 1924, the Bridgman family moved to Solgohachia, in Conway County. This was to become the Bridgman's permanent home. Herbert was about eight years old at the time.
Herbert's family moved into a house on Highway 9, located two or three houses north of the old school house, and on the same side of the road as the school. At that time Highway 9 was still a dirt road. The family lived there one year, then Thomas bought a house located at the foot of Watt Goode Mountain (referred to by some today as Dr. Well's Mountain) just up the road a short distance from the school, and on the opposite side of the highway to the school. The house was a large wood frame structure, with a garage and barn behind the house. The barn was set against the base of the mountain. The house has been gone for many years, but the rock retaining wall and the rock steps going up from the road, are still visible in 1999. The Hewen family home set across the road in front of the house. The Bill Ingram family had lived in the house prior to the Bridgman's living there. The Ingram family was related to the Bridgman family.
Herbert and some of his siblings attended school in the old two-story wood frame school building located on Highway 9 at Solgohachia. That building burned in the mid to late 1920's and was replaced by a two-room brick school building. School consolidation in 1954/55, forced the closing of the Solgohachia school. The building has since been torn down and no sign of it exists today. Some of the teachers during the 1920's and early 1930's were Gladys Nation, Lee Ruff, Gladys Yates, Bessie Braudway, Marion Williams, Reba Henley and Will Hutchison.
Herbert's father, Thomas, was a farmer. He raised his sons to be farmers. He and his sons raised cotton on farm land along Point Remove Creek on the Lanty Road near Solgohachia. About 1936, Thomas moved his family to the Spring Valley area, southeast of Solgohachia, where they lived for a short time, before moving to the foot of Tucker Mountain, north of Solgohachia and then later moving back into Solgohachia.
Herbert signed up with the Civilian Conservation Corps, commonly called the CCC, in the fall of 1938. He spent six months with them before returning home to make a crop. In the fall of 1939, he spent another six months with the CCC. Both times he was headquartered at Lost Corner, west of Alread, Arkansas, working with the forestry division. He was assigned to the Pelsor, Arkansas, area for a short time. He worked planting trees and building roads.
Herbert married Maggie May Horton on May 4, 1940, in the middle of Highway 9, about a mile north of Solgohachia. Rev. J. V. Rhoden, a Baptist minister, lived in a rock house on the south side of the highway, and Herbert woke him up that night and asked him to marry them. Preacher Rhoden performed the ceremony by the truck headlights, with Maggie's sister, Edna Horton, and Herbert's nephew, Lonnie Bridgman, serving as witnesses.
Maggie May Horton was born May 25, 1915, at Una, in Searcy County, Arkansas. She was the daughter of James William Monroe Horton and Effie Ann Harmon.
Herbert and Maggie settled at Solgohachia, where Herbert farmed. They grew cotton and corn, using mules and horse drawn turning plows, double shovels, cultivators and harrows. Every year they raised a big garden and Maggie canned and dried vegetables and fruit for the winter.
Herbert worked at the Morrilton Livestock Auction Sale Barn on Monday's for extra income. In 1943, Herbert bought a herd of milk cows and he and Maggie milked them and sold the milk to the Morrilton Cheese Factory. Herbert also raised hogs and laying hens. They sold eggs to Montgomery Hatchery at Morrilton.
World War II was going on and a lot of things, especially food items, were rationed. People were issued "food stamps" each month for certain food items such as sugar and coffee. When the food stamps were used up, people did without that food item until the next month, or they found a substitute to use in place of that item. Maggie often used honey as a substitute for sugar in making deserts.
In 1944, Herbert and his nephew, Sherman Bridgman, farmed land in Portland bottoms, south of Plumerville, in Conway County. Herbert and Maggie moved to Portland bottoms for about a year, until the "big flood" in the spring of 1945 forced them to move. Herbert and Maggie rented a house at Overcup, between Morrilton and Solgohachia, and Herbert continued to farm in the Portland bottoms. Maggie milked the dozen or so cows and did the other chores around the house, while Herbert farmed from daylight to dark.
In 1946, Herbert and Maggie rented and farmed the Frank Reid land at Solgohachia. Maggie worked in the field with Herbert and drove the old Farmall tractor. She would disc the ground after Herbert had broken it up. Herbert drove a team and planted the crop. They continued to milk a herd of cows and sold cream to Linhart's Creamery at Morrilton and milk to the Morrilton Cheese Factory.
In August 1947, Herbert and Maggie were baptized by Rev. John G. Gieck, a Methodist minister, in Point Remove Creek on the Lanty Road near Solgohachia. They became members of the Solgohachia Methodist Church, which they attended until they left Solgohachia a few years later.
In 1948, Herbert bought a house just west of Solgohachia, at the foot of Watt Goode Mountain. There was a year-around spring east of the house from which water was carried for drinking and laundry. A place was cleared on the hillside behind the house and a garden planted.
Herbert worked farm land in Portland bottoms again in 1949. They were still milking cows and selling milk and cream, and were also raising baby chicks which they sold to Montgomery Hatchery at Morrilton for layers. That year their first child, a brown-eyed baby girl, was born.
Herbert sold the house in 1950, and moved back to the Frank Reid farm, which at that time was owned by Henry Thines and his wife, Eulene. Mr. Thines bought Herbert's cows and several more head of cattle, and hired Herbert to care of them and the farm. Herbert raised sorghum cane and made silage from it. He dug a large, long pit for storage of the silage. This made good feed for the cattle.
In 1951, Herbert and Maggie's second child, a blue-eyed baby girl, was born. Herbert farmed at Solgohachia for Henry Thines until 1958, when Mr. Thines' wife Eulene died and he sold the farm. At that time Herbert took employment with Col. Roy R. Chaney and his wife Winnie Mae (Thomas) at Morrilton. They owned a shetland pony and cattle farm on Highway 64, just east Morrilton. Herbert was overseer of the farm until he retired for health reasons in 1989. At that time Herbert and Maggie moved to Plumerville next door to their oldest daughter and her family. Later the youngest daughter also moved to Plumerville.
Herbert died April 26, 1994, in Conway County and is buried in Friendship Cemetery near Solgohachia. Maggie lived with her oldest daughter Katherine and her husband for several years after Herbert's death. Maggie died September 28, 2008, in Conway County and is buried beside Herbert.
Children of Herbert Bridgman and Maggie Horton
1. Katherine Ann Bridgman, b. 1949, Solgohachia, Conway Co, AR; m. Roy Leonard McClure
2. Carol Susan Bridgman, b. 1951, Solgohachia, Conway Co, AR; m. Albert Leroy Wren