Fred Brown was in "Ripley's Believe it or not" as the man who slept in a tree.  In the tree he built a platform between two branches that was shaped like a box or a coffin.  Fred was rumored to have arrived in Horatio, Arkansas from some location in Canada.  Rumor has it that he may have killed a person and fled to the United States.  It was said that he had the strength to use a pitchfork to hoist a 50lb bale of hay onto a wagon.  He was a very tall, well built man with a long beard that lived down around a railroad truss at Neal Springs, Arkansas.  Fred would not communicate with anyone at Horatio except for Otis T. Brinkley who may have received a retirement check or Fred deposited money with him upon his arrival at Horatio.  Mr. Brinkley furnished Mr. Brown with groceries from the Brinkley Store.  As a young man, I James L. Kirk, and all of my childhood friends were generally scared of Fred Brown.  "Buck" Jackson was so afraid of Fred that if Fred came to town, Buck would make sure that he stayed on the other end of town away from Fred.  One day about closing time, Wallace White and Glen Dorsey were closing their grocery store and Buck was in the store by the cash register.  Fred Brown came up to the window and cupped his hands around his head to look inside.  Buck turned around and saw Fred, then bee-lined it to the back of the store.  After counting their money, Wallace and Glen went to the back of the store to find buck and tell him they were closing the store.  Looked at the feed room and couldn't find Buck.  The Back Door had a two by four on the inside to keep people from opening the door from the outside.  The 2 by 4 was still in place, but Buck was no where to be found.  To this day, they don't know how he got out of the store.