June Easley of Pea Ridge, granddaughter of Wilson Brown, recently donated a collection of family postcards to the Bella Vista Historical Museum. Her grandfather moved from Kansas to northwest Arkansas in the late 1890s and built Rago, a building that included family living quarters, a store and a post office. It stood between today's Euston and Ettington streets in the Metfield area.
He had a total of 1,300 acres in the area, with orchards of pear, peach and apple trees, grape vineyards, and fields of vegetables such as green beans and tomatoes. He canned and sold his tomatoes in tin cans. He also found time to work as a county surveyor, during which time he helped survey the Bella Vista Summer Resort property owned by the Linebarger Brothers.
Among other merchandise in his store, Wilson sold Buster Brown shoes. He and his wife, Ava Brown, had eight children, and the youngest they named Buster. He was born in 1908 and died in 1983, at age 75. He is buried, along with his parents, at Dug Hill Cemetery in Bella Vista. He was a brother to June Easley's mother.
Included in the recently donated postcard collection is one written by Buster Brown on August 20, 1924, when he was 16 years old, and mailed to his mother. He comments on working for the Linebargers and looking for a winter job when the summer resort closes for the season. He says, "B.V. will close about the first of Sept. Think I have found a good job for practically all winter. ... I don't think I will get to work on, after it closes, for I heard C.A. say that he was just going to keep a few hands."
To see an exhibit about Rago and other exhibits on Bella Vista history, visit the Bella Vista Historical Museum near the corner of Highway 71 and Kingsland. Visitors are welcome from 1 to 5 p.m., Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free.
