Lilly Bell Meredith - Judsonia, AR

Lilly Bell Meredith Taylor was born in Judsonia in the old house, listed on the map as 'Old Home'.  Dr. Eastland attended her birth.  She lived in the 'Old Home' until her father died, at her age six on April 9, 1880.  She did not go to school from the old home.

Dr. Eastland invited them to live with him, which they did for several weeks until her mothher bought the new house, listed on the map as 'New Home'.  This was next to the Harvel Drugstore, where the Baptist Church now stands.  The church was not built until after Lilly Meredith left Judsonia.

At the old home, Robert Campbell Meredith was a carpenter and wheelright.  He made complete wagons and also coffins.  There was one big room for carpentering.  There was probably a forge outside, but she does not remember.  Sacks of unroasted peanuts were stored in one room and Lilly used to get a few and eat them raw when her mother wasn't watching -- when she was about five or six years of age.

Sara Louisa had a cow and churned at times.  Once she sent Lilly to deliver a pound of fresh butter to Mrs. Dunn at the hotel.  By mistake she delivered it to Mrs. Harvel, next door and was duly reprimanded.

Judsonia University, so called, was a general school with two floors and a basement.  Lilly Meredith went to school in the basement and was afraid of a corner, where a skeleton was hanging.  She went to this school at about age six.  The grade school was located in the basement.  She went here for about three to four years until about the fourth grade.  Funerals and other meetings were held before the church was built.

Lilly Bell Meredith left Judsonia at age ten and went to Illinois.

Dr. K.R. Taylor, Ruth Taylor, W.O. Taylor and Lilly Bell Meredith Taylor visited Judsonia about 19??.

Dr. M.M. Taylor, Avis Taylor and M.M. Taylor Jr., visited Judsonia about 19??.  This was only a few years after a severe tornado.  The ruins of one building was still present in the region of Judsonia University.  A repair line was evident where the brick had been torn diagonally across the second story front of the building in the region of the one marked 'Store' on the map, near Nichols Drugstore.  We visited the Judsonia Cemetery where some stones that were blown away, had not yet been found.  We photographed the plot and gravestone of Robert Campbell Meredith.

We saw the Baptist Church and the Dunn Hotel with its front and side porch in the regions listed on the map.