Dayton Young
May 1, 1913 - February 7, 2002
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Edited by: Charles Young |
Dad lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas most of his life. He has traveled some. In his youth he hitchhiked and rode buses. He lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma for a while, served a short time in the Army Air Corp (now the Air Force), and in the 1990's he and Mom made a few trips to South Carolina to visit my sister. In his younger years, Dad did lots of sketches and paintings. Later he took up photography. He rode many miles on a bicycle during his lifetime. Most of his working years were as a printer at Weldon, Williams, and Lick.
Although Dad was not much of a conversationalist, he would often talk to people about getting right with God. He often prayed for family members, relatives, and acquaintances to get saved and make it to heaven. Dad didn't write much -- he mostly left the writing to Mom. Dad was a good teacher -- the best kind -- the kind that teaches by example. He knew a lot, just didn't say much. Always kept up with current events and people by reading the newspaper and watching some TV news. Whenever he found a newspaper article about a relative or someone he had worked with, he would cut the article out to save.
Dad didn't talk much about his childhood or relatives. I guess he always thought that wasn't an interesting topic. However, I have asked some questions and gotten some answers which appear here. Since he rarely talked about his youth, he has forgotten some things. I have tried to record much of what he remembered. Here is Dad's story.
I was born in a house at North C and 22nd in 1913 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I had blonde hair and blue eyes. I was my father's 7th child and my mother's first child. My youngest half sister was about 20 years old when I was born, so I was raised pretty much as an only child.
We moved to 1409 North C. when I was maybe 2 years old, and lived there until I was maybe 8 years old. That was a 2 story house. I started school at Peabody Elementary on 20th near Rogers (now an adult education center).
My Dad had made good money in the real estate business, but when he got older, we weren't taking in enough money to pay the rent. Mom took in boarders and did what she could to support us. She served dinner and supper to the boarders. She had maybe 3 roomers and 6 boarders. Roomers didn't eat there, but boarders did. We still could not pay the rent, so we moved to a house Dad owned at 616 North 5th Street. We lived there until I was about 10 years old. For the 3rd grade I attended Belle Grove Elementary on 6th St.
We attended the First Methodist church at 13th and B. They were building a church 2 blocks away on 15th and B. I remember the laying of the corner stone in 1919. Mother had encouraged me to get out of the house, so I spent some time watching the construction. I watched them put the organ in there. We moved to 406 North 18th street when I was about 9 or 10 years old. We lived there until I got married.
I attended 4th through 8th grade at Peabody. At that time Peabody was 1st through 8th. Then I attended Fort Smith High at 14th and Grand. When I was in the 9th grade, they were building a new school. It was completed in time for me to go there beginning with the 10th grade. That school is now known as Fort Smith Northside.
The old high school became a junior high for grades 7 - 9. It is now known as Darby Junior High. I had attended summer school in the 4th grade and graduated a half year early.
Dad (Willard Young) died when I was 13 years old. In 1937 we tore down the old 2 story house on 18th Street and built the rock house that stands there now. The old house was getting so bad it had to be replaced. We lived at 9th and B for less than a year while the new house was being built. I drew up the plans for the house and hired a contractor. We used some materials from the old house. Mother borrowed about $2,000 for the house from a man named Armbruster, I think it was O.K. Armbruster. He had a body shop on 8th or 9th. He was the first in Fort Smith at least to take Cadillacs and extend them to make limousines. That was Ed Armbruster's brother. Ed was my foreman at Weldon Williams and Lick.
While I was in high school a couple of summers I worked on an ice wagon. One was a horse drawn wagon, and the other was a model T Ford wagon. The first summer I made about $5 a week. The next summer I made $6 or $7 a week. That was when many people still used ice boxes. I saved most of that money. Just about the only thing I spent money on was haircuts.
I studied printing in high school. It was a government program called Smith Hughes. It seems like I studied English and science, but much of the time was in print shop training. I had algebra and geometry, but it wasn't as full a course as a regular high school course.
My hearing was normal when I was young, but gradually deteriorated until about the 11th grade I noticed that I was having trouble understanding people. Both ears were affected.