Age: "That's a mighty personal question"
Occupation: Owns Vinton County Bank
Hometown: McArthur
Interviewer: Emily Simmons, Judy Orlowski, Jake Harper
|
Robert
Will Age: "That's a mighty personal question" Occupation: Owns Vinton County Bank Hometown: McArthur Interviewer: Emily Simmons, Judy Orlowski, Jake Harper |
What kind of chores did you do? 
Interview
Q: "Do you think our county is growing or about the same?"
A: "From when?"
Q: "From whenever."
A: "Understand that at the time Vinton County was formed, they did so by taking away from other counties. The population was close to 9,000 or something and by the 1880’s or 90’s, it was up to 17,000. It stuck there a while and then began to gradually decline. In the 1960 census, it was back under 10,000, back at where it started. But for whatever reasons, Vinton County in the next ten years began to grow. As of the 1990 census, it was back up to 12,000. In my opinion, when they count noses the next time, the population will rise again, but it will not be dramatic, and you do not realize the growth here in McArthur. You drive the country roads and that is when you begin to see new homes and faces. I don’t know where they all come from. I get the impression that many of them no longer think that it is safe to live in Columbus, and even though they have to commute to their jobs, they move here.
Q: What about the old jail? We have heard much about it.
A: McArthur still has its original town hall, if you know where that is down the street here. It is a very old building. The generation before me referred to the second floor of this building as the opera house, they must have had plays and such up there. This is also where they played basketball.
Q: Where is this now?
A: Oh, down here on the corner, a big brick building. But if you go down the side street, you see that it has like a basement, sort of, or more like a cellar, with stones, and that is where they had one or two cells when I was growing up. In the summer time, when I would finally get away from my chores, we would go down there and look in at the prisoners, and tease them! We could literally go down there and talk directly to them. They would say "You got any cigarettes?"And we would say, "NOT FOR YOU DAMN IT!"