Choctaw Brick and Gas Company
Source: The History of the Mansfield School District Area. October 1994.
Story by Mrs. Carol Barnes
Submitted by Jack James
Picture from The 1903 Sebastian County Atlas. Photo from The Key Side note from the submitter: The buildings are now gone and the clay that was dug to make the bricks and tile have now become a beautiful multi-acre lake. The Johnson family of Mansfield purchased the property after the glass plant closed. In the early 1970s, Jim Johnson and his late wife Donna James Johnson (my sister) took the lumber from a demolished one-hundred year old Victorian home on 6th Street in Fort Smith and built a wonderful three bedroom home overlooking the lake. Horses, mules, chickens, turkey, quineas and deer run the property unharmed. Mr. Johnson has relics from the history of his property including original minnow traps and the wooden mold that was used to make them, and cases of lamp shades that were never shipped. Perhaps the greatest find is a clear glass globe, which measures about 2 1/2 foot square, that was meant to be used on the old gasoline pumps. I have never seen another one of its kind. |