Stories and Shared Memories...
Newton County, Arkansas
 Hello From Stewart
Joe and Stewart Nance 4-Wheeling on Piney
I'm Stewart Nance, son of Joe and Katherine Nance.
My paternal grandparents are Lawrence and Helen Pruitt Nance. LW was son of Sam Nance who was one of first employees of newly formed Newton County Bank in 1905ish … a bank that never closed during depression. Helen was daughter of WJ Pruitt who was sheriff of Newton County shortly after 1900 and owner of Diamond Cave. WJ was son of William Wilshire Pruitt who homesteaded the Pruitt Homestead near the now Pruitt Ranger Station on Buffalo River.
Maternal grandparents, Floyd and Myrtle Walton, built the Pruitt Ranger station as a post office, general store and home to 9 kids, including my mom, Katherine Walton. Floyd was the Pruitt Postmaster for most of the 50s, 60s and 70s. I spent most of my summers in 60s with them and collected many a pop bottle along Hwy 7 and sold em to him for 2 cents apiece.
I named my first son Pruett Nance (old spelling pre 1905 sheriff election when WJP’s name misspelled on ballot). Many Pruitts/Pruetts buried at Shadox Cemetary at Pruitt.
WW Pruitt was a confederate soldier who got shot escaping an island prison in Mississippi River. Lost arm …war over two weeks later. He went home to Tennessee and carpet baggers ran him and his family out so he and his brother headed west and found the Pruitt land which, with their families, they homesteaded sometime in late 1860s. The Pruitt homestead, never owned by anyone except Pruitt descendents, is now owned by my parents Joe and Katherine Nance.
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Take Care, Judy Tate
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