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The Last of the Pioneers
by Arlene Chandler Rex Harral is the last of the pioneers in Cleburne County, Arkansas. A man with a chopping ax, a strong back, and a creative mind, Rex is the epitome of the "make it do and use it up" attitude of folks who settled in and around Searcy more than a century ago. Now in the middle of his eighth decade, he lives on 110 acres he bought back in 1941. Only two miles from where he was born, his roots run deep into the hillsides near Wilburn, Arkansas. From the woods, he cuts and dries wood from persimmon, oak, cedar, hickory, and sassafras trees for his handcrafted laminated bowls, vases, and wooden boxes. Every morning, the tall, gray-headed man, uniformed in overalls, heads for his weathered wood frame shop directly in front of the home he built with his own hands. "My shop is my priority and I put my hand to whatever needs to be finished," Rex says, describing his orders for forged carving knives, hickory bark berry baskets, cane bottom chairs, cedar chests, and pole beds. His own design of candlesticks from horseshoes won Best of the Show at the 2004 Cleburne County Fair. "I still have as much 'get-up' in the mornings as I had at age 50," he says. "About 4:00 in the afternoon, I begin to slow down, so I sit in my old rocker by the stove in my shop and whittle." Rex claims an uncanny ability to see something beautiful in scraps tossed aside. Once his wife asked him when he was going to haul away a pile of junk at the corner of his shop. He answered, "That scrap iron? You may see junk, but I see a pile of gold!" To prove his point, he filled an order for two tomahawks by cutting the heads from a round rusted saw blade. He shaped and sharpened the edges in his forge and fastened strong wooden handles onto the blades. He notes that many of his sharp edged carving knives are made from the tine of a rake or the cutter blades from mowing machines. "I'm the last of the old school blacksmiths in Arkansas," Rex says. "Every year, I take my portable forge to the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas. I exhibit my wares at an annual day of competition and demonstration by some of the best regional blacksmiths. "Primarily, I make square nails for the kids and heat steel cable in my forge and make it into different sized hole punches," he continues. "I also make a few knife blades and a horseshoe. My hand forged tools always sell out before the day's over." Rex also shows his work annually at the Historic Arkansas Museum, formerly the Arkansas Territorial Restoration. All the while, he spins tales of pioneer life in the Ozarks foothills that start to rise north of Searcy. Orphaned at age nine and raised by a beloved older sister, Rex admits that his blacksmithing and woodworking skills are self-taught. His formal education ended in the eighth grade and he worked in a local sawmill. At age 17, he joined the Civil Conservation Corps (CCC) and quickly became his company's blacksmith and carpenter. "The CCC was one of the greatest things I ever did," he says, recalling his experience with more sophisticated tools than he had in his dad's old workshop. After 22 months with the CCC, he became the youngest foreman in Arkansas on a Work Project Administration (WPA) project to build schoolhouses across the state. When he returned home his attempt at running a blacksmith shop failed, due to the area's poor economy, To earn a living, Rex turned to fruit harvests in Michigan and construction work at Air Bases in Arkansas and Texas. Following a stint in the United States Army, he returned to his roots and settled into farming, blacksmithing, and woodworking. A charter member of the Arkansas Craft Guild, formed in 1962, Rex's work was featured in the National Geographic Society's authoritative 1975 publication, The Craftsman in America. Additional stories of his fine craftsmanship in various publications bring tourists from at least half the United States to his doorstep to purchase his work. His natural storytelling skills spill onto the written page with remembrances of growing up poor in material possessions, but rich in a family's love and nature's abundance. Many of his articles featured in The Sun Times, the CCHS Journal, and Ozarks Mountaineer are compiled in Thanks for Listening: Tales of Life and Times in the Arkansas Ozarks. Known in Arkansas' Cleburne County as a walking history book, Rex Harral is a composite of the characteristics that made rural Arkansas a special place. His down-to-earth wisdom, pioneer spirit, and expert craftsmanship not only make a difference in his community and state, but elevate him to the status of a "national treasure." |
