Number 9

People always raise their eyebrows when I explain from where I came. My response to the question is always: "Number 9, Arkansas." There is always a silence, followed by: "Where's that?" My response is, "Why it's about five miles east of Yarbro, two miles south of Number 8, a few miles west of Huffman, and just north of Armorel." That's when they raise their eyebrows.

"It's about ten miles northeast of Blytheville," is sufficient for those from that neck of the woods, but "Very Northeast Arkansas, in the Mississippi River delta cotton country" is more apt to be accepted by those from elsewhere, or, "Half way between St. Louis and Memphis, just inside the Arkansas state line." Number 9 is not on most maps, because it did not have a post office during my time there. The store there did have a mail drop and holding boxes in a mail pick up area; however, that was just customary courtesy provided by the company rather than an official post office. During the review of the original draft of this manuscript it was pointed out by Mrs. Vela Stovall that there was a post office at Number 9 when her husband, Bob, was a boy growing up there, and that the name of the place was Rafe at that time. Subsequent research indicates that there was a post office at Rafe, Arkansas, from 1901 through 1914, and its location was section 21, township 16 north, range 12 east, the same general location as today's Number 9 (Baker, 1988).

I was told that Number 9 got its name from "sawmill number 9" that was located there when they were cutting out the big cypress trees growing in that vicinity. As previously noted, Number 9 is located in section 21; however, it is located in the northern part of Drainage District Number 9 (Erdington, 1960). Number 9 is not one of the communities mentioned by Erdington (1960) in her History of Mississippi County, Arkansas. My research, which includes an inquiry to the Mississippi County Historical and Genealogical Society, has failed to uncover the real source for the name "Number 9." Be that as it may, once the timber was cut out, they built a levee along the Mississippi River to control the periodic flooding, drained the area, and developed some of the most productive cotton growing country in the world.

You would think that everyone would have supported the effort to drain the swampy area and make it productive agricultural land; however that was not the case. Erdington (1960), in her History of Mississippi County, Arkansas, indicates there was a significant controversy concerning the drainage of this area. The primary point of contention was who would pay for the drainage. Those who had land that did not require the drainage project were not interested in being taxed to drain the land that would be farmed by others. In spite of this opposition, the area was eventually drained.

Many of the farmers that moved into this new cotton land came from Mississippi, looking for better, cheap land and relief from the boll weevil. Two of these individuals were Christopher C. Langston and Robert B. Spencer.

C. C. Langston and his wife Cleo moved to Arkansas from Ruleville, Mississippi, in the winter of 1917. C. C. Langston first farmed with John Stevens on a rented farm for one year, before going off on his own on the Sudbury place, and then to Number 9 in 1918 in partnership with Clarence Machey. He bought out Machey in 1920, and Machey returned to Mississippi (Langston, 1990).

The headquarters for the C. C. Langston operation was always at Number 9, and that is where the cotton gin was located, although he also had a gin at Forty-and-Eight. The plantation operation was very successful, and my father worked there for eighteen years. At the time of this writing it is still operated by the Langston family.

The story of Robert Spencer comes from my cousin, Edna Ruth Freeman Reid, as it was told to her by her mother, Aunt Mae (Nora) Spencer Freeman. Robert Spencer moved his family from Belen (near Marks), Mississippi, to Number 9 in 1915. He was having a hard time making ends meet on the farm he had inherited from his father, and could not afford to maintain the black families who had lived on his place during slavery and remained there after emancipation. He made a deal with a farmer at Number 9 to take over the furnish of the black families to share crop, but the black families were reluctant to travel so far away on their own. So, he lead them there in a wagon caravan, moving people, furniture, stock and all. He had sold what he could and let the bank take back some of the land. He put the cash that he was able to clear in a bank, and headed for Arkansas to start over. The bank promptly failed, and instead of being able to buy a new place, he had to take on the job of being the overseer of the farm on which the black families he had led up from Mississippi had settled. This farm was a short distance east of the Number 9 crossroads, across the bayou. The Spencers had eight children with birth years ranging from 1889 to 1910, with Aunt Mae being the youngest.