Letona, AR

The White County Historical Society has a collection of pictures on its website and they've said we can share them. Here's a great one of the train depot in Letona, Arkansas.

Letona is about 15 miles from Searcy and has 215 residents at this time.

We're exploring how the trains went to every little town and below is a picture of the Letona depot. But first we we found this picture of a young woman named Corrine Harrison Hart at about 1924 sitting at the depot. Corrine is Anita's mother. Anita is a contributor to this blog. Anita, do you think the man in the background is ogling your mother?

I love the depot picture because of the houses in the background. Letona, if you visit, still has a lot of houses with large lots. I'd have to go back to see if any of these are still standing.

One very interesting thing I discovered about Letona this year is that if you live in city limits you have to go to the post office to get your mail. I sold a house in Letona and the people were surprised, as was I, that the mail didn't run to the houses in the city. That would be good exercise if you walked to the post office each day.

We sell houses. We sell neat little houses with sodded yards, privacy fences in the back yard. But think back to the time when the fence went all the way around. You walked through a front gate! There was a porch and vines grew up to shade the porch. The chimneys were tall and worked. And there were out-buildings. And no grass grew in the yards, just dirt. If chickens roamed, you'd better watch out while going barefoot!! And families gathered on the front porch for photos. I borrowed this photograph from the White County Historical Society photo collection. Under the photograph is this explanation.

"Ma Horn's Place" is the notation on the back of this old photograph, provided by Diann Poe and her mother Betty J. Bennett, both members of the White County Historical Society. The writer had added: "house used to be on old road north of Zada and Kilburn Hughes on 310 past Letona." Diann identified the people in the photo as (left to right) Bertie Horn Whistnant, Pearce Horn, Mary Magalene Horn, Finnie Clay (baby), Lillie Clay, and the two young girls in front, Willie Mae Whistnant and Earleen Whistnant. She said the house was located just north of Letona on what is now Hwy. 310.