The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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THE OLD ALLIN TRIMBLE FARM AND HOW
ALLIN TRIMBLE AND OTHERS KILLED DEER
By S. C. Turnbo
On the right bank of White River in Franklin township in Marion County,
Ark., and just above the mouth of Trimble’s Creek is the old Allin
Trimble farm where he settled in 1842. William Trimble, father of Allin
Trimble, had marked a sycamore tree which stood at the spring 25 years before
his son, Allin Trimble, settled here. Mr. Trimble first built a small hut
on the point of the hill above the spring and he employed a man by the name
of Campbell Stacy to clear the cane off of 6 acres of land in the bottom.
The cane stood very thick on the ground and was so tough that Campbell had
to use a heavy homemade hoe to cut the cane with. Mr. Trimble had 10 acres
of land in cultivation when the big overflow in the river come down in May,
1844, and swept over the field and washed away his fencing and young corn.
Allin Trimble was a great hunter and hunted part of the time from the day he was old enough to carry a rifle until he was feeble with age. Many fat deer yielded up their lives to his unerring aim with his favorite rifle but we can mention only two incidents of his deer killing here. "One morning before breakfast," said he, "soon after I had settled in the river bottom in 1842, I met a herd of deer in a swag on a ridge just west of Trimble’s Creek. They were mostly bucks and while they were frisking and playing I stood behind a tree and shot 5 times with my old muzzle loading gun and 5 big fat bucks lay dead in a few feet of each other. The deer was so busy at play that they paid but little attention to the reports of the gun. I could have killed more of them but I had as many as I could take care of for one breakfast spell. One night in August, 1845, I and another hunter run a race with two other hunters to see how many deer we could kill and see which party killed the greatest number of deer while fire hunting from the mouth of Big Beach Hollow down to the Buck Shoals ford. Great numbers of deer would visit the river of nights in July and August to drink water and eat moss. We had two canoes and each craft carried a big torchlight which revealed the objects of deer on the shore as well as in the water. The race was exciting and merry, and many shots from the guns sounded out as the two canoes drifted down the river. When either party killed a deer it was marked to distinguish them apart and sunk in the water with stones. When we all had reached the Buck Shoals my companion and myself had killed ten deer and the other two men had killed nine. It was an interesting fire hunt and we all enjoyed it. We stayed at the shoals until the following morning when we pushed the two canoes back up stream and took the dead deer out of the water and removed the hides and left the carcasses of the deer along the shore to be consumed by the wild animals and buzzards." On the side of the hill west of Trimble’s Creek is the Trimble graveyard that we have given a history of in another place. The mortal remains of Mr. Trimble lies buried in this graveyard. The following is engraved on a small monumental tombstone at the head of his grave. "Allin Trimble Born June 15, 1815. Died April 13, 1889" Just to the left of his grave lie the remains of his first wife, Mrs. Elizabeth (Nave) Trimble, who died In August, 1857.
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