Sherry Laymon, Author

 

Jay Githens’ comments

I was given a copy of Pfeiffer Country as a Christmas gift by my longtime office manager, Brenda Brown. Brenda, as you know, has a connection to a later generation of the Pfeiffer family.

I recently retired from the highway construction business after 44+ years. During that time we worked in Arkansas a lot. Much of our work was in Clay County and I know the area very well.

Places that you mentioned in your book had a special meaning for me because we’ve built roads and bridges there. To name a few there is Piggott, Pollard, McDougal, Boydsville (upper and lower), Rector, Leonard, Crockett, Knob, Hickoria, Corning, Trinnon, and Nimmons. In addition there was your special reference to Big Slough Ditch and Mr. Pfeiffer’s involvement. By my count we have built 6 new bridges on Big Slough all the way from Piggott to the Leonard Road.

Piggott is a little town I’ve always liked and I’ve been by the Pfeiffer House, but I’ve not toured it. Because of your wonderful book I have it on my list of things to do.

Best wishes,

Jay Githens

J. W. Githens Company

Poplar Bluff, MO

Leave a comment

PFEIFFER COUNTRY

Pfeiffer Country is a non-fiction examination of a southern Twentieth Century tenant farming operation in which the farmers actually prospered. Contrary to most tenant farm operators in the Mississippi Delta, Paul Pfeiffer--Ernest Hemingway's father-in-law, ran a profitable tenant system during the most trying years of the Depression. Laymon's research and interviews with former Pfeiffer tenants provide many rich and refreshing details about a successful counter-model farming operation that greatlycontrasted similar systems in the Mississippi Delta.

wordpress stat