Picking Cotton

Granny Renfroe had two half sisters who were about 15 to 20 years older than she was.  Their names were Zelphia and Saphrona.  Zelphie and Phronie would go to the "Bottoms" in the fall to pick cotton.  Someone would take a wagon load of young people and the farmers would let them stay in their barns or sometimes they rented a place, but mostly they camped and picked cotton.  Zelphie and Phronie met two Alverson boys who lived south of the Arkansas River but came to pick cotton also. They married the two brothers and never moved back to the Mountains.  They lived out their lives along the ARkansas River between Morrilton and Little Rock.  The Alverson mostly share cropped on land along the River.  This photo shows blacks picking cotton but lots of poor white folks picked also.  Notice the man on the horse watching!  Not much has changed.