The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History University of Arkansas 365 N. McIlroy Ave. Fayetteville, AR 72701 (479) 575-6829 Arkansas Memories Project John Paul Hammerschmidt Interviewed by Scott Lunsford March 30, 2009 Harrison, Arkansas Copyright 2011 Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas. All rights reserved. Objective Oral history is a collection of an individual's memories and opinions. As such, it is subject to the innate fallibility of memory and is susceptible to inaccuracy. All researchers using these interviews should be aware of this reality and are encouraged to seek corroborating documentation when using any oral history interview. The Pryor Center's objective is to collect audio and video recordings of interviews along with scanned images of family photographs and documents. These donated materials are carefully preserved, catalogued, and deposited in the Special Collections Department, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville. 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The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas ii Arkansas Memories Project, John Paul Hammerschmidt Interview, March 30, 2009 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu • Brackets enclose • italicized annotations of nonverbal sounds, such as laughter, and audible sounds, such as a doorbell ringing; • annotations for clarification and identification, and • standard English spelling of informal words. • Commas are used in a conventional manner where possible to aid in readability. • All geographic locations mentioned in the transcript are in the state of Arkansas unless otherwise indicated. Citation Information See the Citation Guide at http://pryorcenter.uark.edu/about.asp#citations. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas iii Arkansas Memories Project, John Paul Hammerschmidt Interview, March 30, 2009 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu Scott Lunsford interviewed John Paul Hammerschmidt on March 30, 2009, in Harrison, Arkansas. [00:00:00] Scott Lunsford: Congressman Hammerschmidt, I've got to take care of some business first. Uh—today is—is this March 30? Trey Marley: Thirtieth. Uh-huh. SL: I can't believe the month is gone. This is March 30 [2009]. We are in the John Paul Hammerschmidt office on the south campus of Northark—uh—[North Arkansas] College here in Harrison, Arkansas. And—um—we are making this recording for the [David and Barbara] Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. Uh—these recordings—uh—Congressman, will be archived in the Special Collections unit at the University of Arkansas, Mullins Library, Fayetteville campus. And I need to ask you if it's all right with you that—uh—we're making these videotape recordings and that we have them at Special Collections and use them for educational purposes. John Paul Hammerschmidt: Yeah. Pertly—certainly acceptable to me. SL: All right. Well, great. Now Hammerschmidt—I have to do this— uh—uh—it—it's spelled with two M's. Is that right? JH: Well, yes. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 1 Arkansas Memories Project, John Paul Hammerschmidt Interview, March 30, 2009 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu SL: Okay. And—uh—your name is John Paul Hammerschmidt. JH: John Paul Hammerschmidt. [00:01:06] SL: Okay. Um—when and where were you born, John Paul? JH: I was born—uh—here in Harrison, Arkansas, on May 4, 1922. Born in my folks' home, which was in a little house across Crooked Creek from Harrison, Arkansas. Uh—it was not in the city limits, but we were adjacent to the city limits. And we had a wonderful ten-acre spot there, so we had sort of a microcosm of a farm, and—uh—it was a great place to be born [laughs] and great place to grow up. I was there till I was about eleven years old. SL: And—um—what were your mother and father's names? JH: My father was Arthur Paul Hammerschmidt. Everybody called him Art. My mother was Junie Mildred—J-U-N-I-E, actually. June Mildred Hammerschmidt. And she was a Taylor—Junie Taylor Hammerschmidt. SL: And did they meet in Harrison or . . . JH: Well, I assume they did because—uh—my father's father was here in business, and my mother's folks lived here. And so I'm s—I'm sure they did meet here in Harrison. [00:02:23] SL: And—uh—do you remember your grandparents? The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 2 Arkansas Memories Project, John Paul Hammerschmidt Interview, March 30, 2009 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu JH: Oh, I remember them very well—especially on the Taylor side. And I remember my grandfather [JH Edit: Hammerschmidt]. He died when I was about four or five years old. But I remember my Grandmother Hammerschmidt better. [00:02:39] SL: Um—well, let's talk a little bit about the—the Taylor side of the family. What do you remember about your—uh— Taylor grandparents? JH: Well, they were—uh—typical farm-type people. They came here from—uh—the eastern part of the United States in the late 1800s by wagon train with stops in Tennessee, and then they came on to the Ozark Mountains, like many of those westward settlers did. So that's the way they came to this community, and—uh—but I—I remember, of course, my Grandfather Taylor and my grandmother—very kind lady and—uh—certainly was kinda [kind of] like a second mother to me when I was back in ju—in high school and—or especially junior high school. SL: Um—so they were farmers. Is that—the Taylors were farmers? JH: Originally they were, yes. SL: Um—and did they—was the farm in what is now within the city limits of Harrison? JH: Well, when I was growing up, actually, they had quit farming, and—and my grandfather worked somewhere in Harrison. I The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 3 Arkansas Memories Project, John Paul Hammerschmidt Interview, March 30, 2009 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu don't remember where. And my—and so they just lived in Harrison. [00:03:52] SL: Mh-hmm. And then what about the—the Hammerschmidt-side grandparents? What . . . JH: Well, the Hammerschmidt side—uh—they came—the early Hammerschmidts came through—uh—the port of New York through Erlis—Ellis Island, I'm sure. Uh—in fact, my son's researched that and saw—and has gotten the ship's manifest of the ship that they were on. Uh—but they came around through Illinois and then down through Missouri and eventually into Arkansas. But my Grandfather Hammerschmidt was originally over in Quincy, Illinois, and then Moberly, Missouri, and then into Harrison, Arkansas. SL: And—um—were they farmers as well when they first . . . JH: No, they weren't. They—they were more on the crafts— craftsman side. My grandfather, the best I can remember, was always involved in building materials or mill work and that sorta [sort of] thing. SL: Uh-huh. JH: In fact, I think the Quincy Cabinet Works is part of his heritage in Quincy, Illinois. And—but then he established—uh—retail lumberyards, and then he bought timber, and then later they The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 4 Arkansas Memories Project, John Paul Hammerschmidt Interview, March 30, 2009 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu established saw mills to cut that timber. And so that's where Hammerschmidt Lumber Company in Arkansas developed that way. SL: Well, now did I get your—your grandparents' names—their first names and . . . [00:05:14] JH: Well, grand—my grandpar—my grandparents on the Taylor side was Will Taylor and Laurie Taylor. SL: Okay. JH: And my—and on the Hammerschmidt side, my grandmother was Ann—Anna Hammerschmidt, and—and George Hammerschmidt was my grandfather. And she was originally a Siegel. But my son, in researching their heritage, found out that when she was in Germany—she was born in Stuttgart, Germany—and—and her name then was Sieglin. And some way it got changed to Siegel when they came over here. SL: That was not unusual though for . . . JH: Probably not—as they went through the customs and all that, names got changed either by design or by accident. SL: Right. So both sets of grandparents, you think, came through the Ellis Island portal. JH: No. No. I don't know about—I'd have to go back and . . . SL: Oh. The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 5 Arkansas Memories Project, John Paul Hammerschmidt Interview, March 30, 2009 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu JH: . . . and research the Taylor side to see . . . SL: Yeah. JH: . . . when they came over. I just don't recall offhand, but I have it—we have it somewhere—uh—in genealogical research that my son's done. But I don't remember where it is. [Laughs] [00:06:25] SL: Now your—um—so you—your father—did he just kind of take up the family lumber milling business or . . . JH: He grew up in the lumber and building material business but— however, in his younger years, he went to business school, and then later he was in the [United States] Army. And he was in the army in the days of the Pancho Villa era and went down to the Mexican border and spent time down there with the United States Army. And then when he came back, that's when he married my mother although they had correspondence—I've seen correspondence from my father to my mother before they got married, that they . . . SL: Uh-huh. Was it kinda mushy? [Laughs] JH: Well, they were—they were—people wrote good letters in those days, you know. SL: Yeah, they—they were. That was . . . JH: They communicated far better than they do now. SL: Well, we didn't have as many telephones or . . . The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 6 Arkansas Memories Project, John Paul Hammerschmidt Interview, March 30, 2009 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu JH: Or e-mails. [Laughs] SL: . . . or e-mails or twitters or . . . SL: No, and people had to learn to write well. [00:07:30] SL: Um—so—and your—what—did your mother have any schooling past elementary school? Did she . . . JH: She was a high school graduate. SL: Uh-huh. JH: Mh-hmm. And my father was a high school graduate and then business school. [00:07:49] SL: And the business school was here in Harrison or . . . JH: No, it was in Missouri. I—I wanna [want to] say, somewhere. I'm not quite sure. SL: Uh-huh. JH: I don't remember where. But . . . SL: Um—so—um—did your grand—or did your father ever say anything about the—the war that he was in or . . . JH: Oh, he had some interesting stories. He'd picked up a little— uh—Mexican language while he was down there, and he would use it occasionally just to amuse us children—his—his children. But, no, he—he—just as an aside, my aunt [Bess Armstrong]— wo—his sister—one of his sisters lived in Mexico—in Torreón, Mexico. Her husband was a civil engineer down there and built The David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History, University of Arkansas 7 Arkansas Memories Project, John Paul Hammerschmidt Interview, March 30, 2009 http://pryorcenter.uark.edu