John Newton Sarber, a native of Pittsburg, Pa. was in Kansas when the war between the states began. He enlisted in a Kansas Cavalry unit and for a time was stationed in occupied Clarksville, serving as a scout for Colonel Cloud. He took a liking to the town and remained when the war was over. In 1867 he married Susan Rose, a daughter of one of the original settlers of Clarksville, Morau Rose.
Sarber served in the 16th, 17th and 18th sessions of the Arkansas Legislature as a senator from Johnson County. In 1872 he presented a bill creating a new county, which would be the part of Johnson County south of the Arkansas and named Sarber County. The new county was later changed to Logan County to honor a pioneer settler, James Logan. Fate seemed determined to thwart John Sarber's bid for fame. A new post office on upper Little Piney Creek, north of Clarksville was named in his honor. However, when the approval for the new post office came, it was for Garber, Arkansas.
A post office was applied for by Merrill King Griffith in 1907. He applied for the office to be named Mt. Pleasant, the name of the local school. However, when the papers arrived the name Mt. Pleasant had been marked out and the name 'Sarber' had been read as Garber by the US Post Office Service. The little post office was opened in 190 and closed in October 1951.
Before the Garber post office was established, mail was picked up at Ozone by the people living along upper Little Piney Creek. Mail was delivered on horseback from Ozone and later from Mt. Levi, except for the time of year when mail bags of roots were hauled out by wagon for shipment to the drug houses in Chicago and points east. Cherry Bark, slipperly elm bark, bloodroot, ginseng and may apples were among the more widely used and brought a cash crop to the people who lived along the creek. For some during the depression it was the only cash crop as the crops were poor and what was harvested was needed for family and farm use.
Until 1927, homes of the postmasters were used for the post office. When Susie Beasley became postmaster it was moved into a new building on the side of Little Piney Creek and facing the home of A.C. "Bum" and Susie Beasley. The building also served as a store. Flour, sugar, salt, nails, kerosene and other items were brought in by wagon for sale and Garber became a little 'town'.
A trip to Clarksville for supplies took three or four days. Going to Clarksville was a one day ride by way of Ozone. The return to Garber was two days as the pull up Ozone Mountain was too hard on the horses with a heavy loaded wagon. The route home took the Garber folks to a spring and camp ground near the community of Hagerville where many times they would find acquaintances from Limestone Valley, Rosetta and Mt. Levi camped to enroute to or from Clarksville.
The trip home took them up Woods Mountain, down Murrys Creek to Little Piney Creek and then up Little Piney, fording it several times and passing old Indian camp and burial grounds. For the children lucky enough to make the trip, it was indeed an exciting time. Used to 'coal-oil' lamps, candle and fireplace light (electricity didn't come to the area until the 1950's.) the lights strung around the wagon yard where they camped in Clarksville was a sight to behold. Round tin reflectors fastened behind the lights created a circus type atmosphere that was remembered for years and the awe of it related to the children and adults who remained at home.
The post office, store and blacksmith shop along with a grist mill comprised the village of Garber for many years. Money was scarce so to pay for having their corn ground, a small wooden box, called the toll box was filled with cornmeal. Susie Beasley took in boarders and the only other house that was occupied was that of her in-laws, Quinton Dillard and Elizabeth Skaggs Beasley. They lived in a hand hewed log cabin built before the Civil War. Another house which may of been the home of Alexander and Angleline Skaggs Beasley before the Civil War was occupied by Bum and Susie until they built them a bigger home. It was used to store hay until it burnt.
The first mail was carried by horseback three days a week from Garber to Ozone and back. Later daily mail was delivered to Mt. Levi from Clarksville and a route was run from Garber to Mr. Levi. Progress caused Garber to be bypassed when a daily mail route from Clarksville to Hagerville, Mt. Levi, Ft. Douglas, Dillon, Treat, Rosetta, Salus, Ozone and back to Clarksville was established. Garber again took it's mail to Ozone.
Susie Beasley retired in 1949, the farm was sold and the family moved to Clarksville. Howard Troyer became the postmaster and moved the office to his home down the creek to what was known as the Willis Warren place. In 1951 Lulu Brand, who with her husband had purchased the Beasley farm, became postmaster and the post office returned to it's old home. Mrs. Brand was the last postmaster as the little post office that had served many thru the years now only had a handful of patrons.
Garber was unique as it was one of the few communities that had a general store and post office that did not have a gas pump when the automobile began to replace the horse as the mode of transportation. During the depression many families moved away looking for work, then with WWII others left. The grist mill no longer in use, was hauled to Clarksville, and sold to help the war effort. Later when the Brands died the log cabin was sold and the logs used for a weekend cabin. All that is left of the Beasley era of Garber is the log barn, the A.C. Beasley home and the little building that housed the store and post office.
One mail box stands silently on the road up Rosetta Mountain when you turn up Little Piney, holding its place in the history of this beautiful land that settlers came to in the early 1840's to make their home. Where the troops of the great war between the states could be heard coming for a long time as they came before they passed, by the clanging of their swords and the rattle of the supply wagons. Where the countryside once rang with the voices of the workers in the fields, children at play and cattle in the meadows, it is now silent except for weekend campers, hunters and those who have come to rape the forest of the large hardwood and pine trees. Where once the Indian lived and hunted, the bear and panther roamed, man came but now is almost gone.
Again the bear and panther make upper Little Piney their home. The Garber that was, remains only in the memories of the children and grandchildren of those who made it so.....
DeMona Beasley Reeves 1982
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