Saddle store gets a new life 

By Tammy Curtis, Managing Editor

As Oscar Wilde so famously said, “Memory is a diary that we all carry about with us.” But in reality, our recollections of yesteryear are often much clearer than the reality the rough edges of time have hewed away at in our memories

As a child, fond memories of small things like our visits with family, to stores, and vacations often stand out above all else. But for a Kansas City area woman, her love of summer childhood memories along the Southfork carried into her adult life. Through the passing of time, one local structure that stood vividly in her memory had become dilapidated. This led Ronnie and Diana Mellon to purchase the old Saddle Store and the home that sits just behind it at Saddle, Arkansas. 

Mellon’s parents, Junior and Naomi Hollis, were from Thayer, Mo. The lack of viable local jobs sent the family to the Kansas City area for work. The love of Fulton County remained in their hearts.  They also had local family members,  so they continually returned to visit the area. 

Mellon’s uncle, Luther Blackburn, who lives near the store on Heart Road, had become ill, and while on a visit, Diana recalled asking him to find out who owned the old store. She said, “I just might want to buy it.” Luther contacted the store owner for Diana and requested that she call her. Owner Mackie Thompkins, who had recently lost her husband, gave her a fair price. After returning home and discussing the prospect with her husband, they agreed to purchase the store and put it back in the proverbial “saddle” again so as it would not become a loss to the elements.

The Mellons returned and bought the store in 2023, but did not begin working on it until late summer of 2024. 

Diana said that after the purchase, they came to Saddle. “We wanted to open it up and see what it looked like because we hadn’t been inside. It was packed full.” She explained that the old meat slicer and meat grinder were there, and there were three or four refrigerators, freezers, and the old wood stove. Oh, and just oodles of these 70s clothes were in there, brand new, really vintage stuff that I would love to have worn… shoes, purses, and everything. Even upstairs was packed full. Oh, wow, we thought, oh my gosh, what are we going to do? So we didn’t want to, so we just shut it  all back up.”

It was while they were getting the first glimpses of the history they had purchased when the man who lived in the house just up the hill came down to visit. Diana told them they had bought the store and showed him the paperwork. She told him she might want to buy his house too if he ever decided to sell. So, the next time they came down, the man told her he had decided to sell it and gave her a great price. She said that buying the house would provide them a place to stay while working on the store and cut out the expense of staying in a hotel. 

The store has a new face, and the outside is complete with electricity.  A water meter set and the old staircase in the two-story structure have been replaced. 

When it came down to deciding what the store would be, Mellon tossed around several ideas from a large Air BNB to two small apartments, a restaurant or dance hall, among other things. But, she said their main goal in purchasing the old store was to restore it before it fell in ruin. They have not finished the interior for fear a buyer might want to customize it to their intended purpose, but it will be for sale. 

She has received an overwhelming response to the work on the store by locals. As she posted photos, many shared memories. Actress Tess Harper, who is from nearby Mammoth Spring asked Mellon if she could still get an RC Cola and a sandwich and kept talking to her, she said, “That just made my day.” Also, a group called the South Fork Saddle Prems stopped and asked to take photos and said their band would love to play at the store. Other stories include people telling of how babies were born there and where a couple had actually met for the first time.  Stories of moonshine being sold under the store were among the other fond recollections shared with Mellon. 

Through childhood memories of visiting her family in the area, she recalled visits to the store as do many locals. Among these memories for many were the distinct smells wafting through the air of molasses in the grain sold to area farmers.  The notable clink of ice cold bottles of soda pop dispensing as children waited in anticipation as their often blue colored Frosty or purple Nugrape made its way down the passage to their eager hands. 

Besides the staple grocery items many depended on from the store, it was also a social hub for the communities. Who could forget the endless and colorful display of various stick candies and goodies like pink peanut patties, neopolitan coconut bars, and taffy of every kind just beyond the glass candy showcase? This was back when there was still such a thing as penny candy and deli sandwiches made by the store owner, which were the best lunch around.  School buses even made stops on their long routes to allow children to spend some of their allowances on the sugary goodness before completing their ride down the gravel roads of Fulton and Sharp Counties to their homes. 

The store held many memories of children being weighed as babies through toddlers on the heavy feed scales, the social hub of the old warm pot-bellied stove where locals gathered daily to chew the fat over a fresh Wonder bread and Holly bologna sandwich, the kind that the bread is so fresh it sticks to the roof of your mouth. Gasoline dispensed out front from the glass bowl on the old pump sent daily visitors on their way to work in small towns around Saddle, carrying a smile from the camaraderie they could always depend on that came from within the walls of that little store. 

The store has been the topic of many historical newspaper articles. One included an interview in a 1999 Jonesboro Sun article with Zara Sutherland Jones, who lived in Saddle in the 1920s. She recalled how the store featured a creamery downstairs.  The nearby dam from which many remember the waterfall when passing through also was home to  grist and flour mills and cotton gin 

The Saddle Store was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Nov. 15, 2000.  While the store was believed to have been constructed in 1916,   Zara Sutherland Jones, who moved to the area in 1921, claims the Saddle Store was not built until 1927. The Arkansas Historic Preservation Project indicated that either Joe Hatman or  Jim Benton constructed the store. The elder Jones contends that Joe Hatman, a Saddle merchant, had the store built. In a historical newspaper article, Zara Jones explained that Hatman, who had moved to Saddle from Hardy first operated Molly Nickels’ General Store, which was nearby prior to the construction of the current existing Saddle Store. Zara Jones explained in the article that when Mrs. Nickels fell ill, she was forced to move closer to town. She then sold the store to Zara’s father, De Witt “D.W.” Sutherland.

Through the years, ownership changed, including the Hatmans, Verny and Mildred Howard, Victoria and Charles Belknap, and the Tompkins family, from whom Mellon purchased the store. The National Historic Registry states the store operated until  1988 when it could no longer compete with the larger grocery stores in the area.

(BELOW ARE INTERIOR PHOTOS AFTER THE MELLON FAMILY CLEANED. NOTICE THE OLD NEWSPAPER LINING THE WALLS UPSTAIRS)

During the next 35 years, the store that was once a staple to the area fell into a state of disrepair, yet each time Mellon made the trip down to visit family, she remembered the visits. It wasn’t until 2023 that she began to deliberate buying the store to restore and sell it so it could be appreciated by future generations. 

When the  Mellons began the restoration on the outside, and Diana said she was in awe at the things left inside. It was as if time had stopped within the old store’s confines. One thing is for sure: thanks to Mellon’s, the Saddle store is back in the saddle and can now serve future generations in some way. 

To follow the Mellon’s progress or to inquire about the sale of the store and the home located behind it, follow the “Thayer Mammoth Spring Everything” Page on Facebook and search Old Saddle Store. The Mellon family posts updates periodically of their progress.

Here is a link to a previous column published about fond memories of the store.

srchronicle11

See Full Bio