Aug092018August 9, 2018February 27, 2019by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies · August 23 · Fixed and Fleeting: Some Arkansas State Symbols and Why they Matter · Dr. David Ware (Capitol Historian at Arkansas Secretary of State)

Posted in Arkansas History, event, history, Lakeport Legacies, News

Fixed and Fleeting: Some Arkansas State Symbols and Why they Matter

Dr. David Ware (Capitol Historian at Arkansas Secretary of State)

Thursday, August 23

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm
Program @ 6:00 pm

Dr. David War, Arkansas Capitol Historian, is the author of It’s Official!: The Real Stories behind Arkansas’s State Symbols, now in its 2nd edition.

Arkansas’s Capitol Historian, Dr. David Ware, will discuss the utility of symbols, the significance of Arkansas’s earliest adopted symbols and will conclude with some observations on the potential for using the state symbols in interpreting the state’s history, geography and even its economic profile. And tell a couple of sea stories along the way.

Copies of It’s Official!: The Real Stories behind Arkansas’s State Symbols will be available for purchase for $24 each.

Please Register for this FREE event.

(by phone, email or online)
870.265.6031 ·

601 Hwy 142 · Lake Village, AR 71653

Nov212016November 21, 2016August 27, 2018by itswebteam

Lake Village Postcard shows Lakeshore homes ca 1950

Posted in architecture, Arkansas History, Chicot County, history, Lake Village, News

We recently added this ca 1950 postcard to our collection at Lakeport. The mid-century scene clearly shows two homes along Lakeshore Drive.

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Roughly the same view of South Lakeshore Dr via Google Streetview (August 2016)

Looking closely, I believe I have identified both houses on South Lakeshore Dr., just south of downtown. The second home in the image is commonly called, the Reynolds House. “Lakeside,” as its owner officially christened it, was built for General D. H. Reynolds in the 1870s by Nelson Bunker. The home was significantly remodeled in the 1890s.

Close up of “Lakeside,” ca. 1950

“Lakeside” in 1990. Courtesy of Arkansas Historic Preservation Program

The first house (unnamed as far as I know) is also still standing, although modified a bit. The home is identifiable by the four sets of columns along the front porch. Today the house has a brick exterior and the lattice work along the roof is gone; the dormer, now a window rather than a vent, is still a distinguishing feature for the early twentieth-century home.

The home was likely built in the first decade of the twentieth-century and appears on the 1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance map for Lake Village. D. H. Reynolds’ death in 1902 and the subsequent growth in Lake Village initiated new construction around the Lakeside homeplace. Sanborn Maps label the area, “Mrs. Reynolds Second Addition”

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The home is still identifiable by the four sets of columns along the front porch.

Close up of “unnamed house,” ca. 1950

The two homes appear in the 1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance map.

Updated November 22, 2016

Feb172016February 17, 2016April 4, 2018by itswebteam

Southeast Arkansas’s African-American Legislators, 1868-1893

Posted in African American, Arkansas History, history, News, politics

Reconstruction gave black males (freed former slaves) the right to vote for the first time. This had enormous consequences for civil society. During Reconstruction and in the following years, eighty-six black men were elected to represent Arkansas in the General Assembly. Of the eighty-six, fourteen were elected from southeast Arkansas. Active participants in the legislative process, black legislators engaged in debate, introduced bills, and voted. They tended to support civil rights, education, public improvements, and immigration into the state. Black legislators from the southeast included the wealthy son of Chicot County’s largest planter; a noted abolitionist from Illinois; a former slave who became a college president and physician; educators; ministers; as well as men who eked out their living as farm laborers into the early 20th century. Laws designed to disenfranchise black voters (poll taxes, complicated election procedures and ballots), ultimately ended the election of African Americans in the late 19th century.

Senate

James W. Mason, 1868, 1871 (Ashley, Chicot, Drew, Desha)
Samuel H. Holland, 1873, 1874 (Ashley, Chicot, Drew, Desha)
W. H. Logan, 1887, 1889 (Chicot, Desha)
George W. Bell, 1891, 1893 (Chicot, Desha)

House

Edward A. Fulton, 1871 (Ashley, Chicot, Drew, Desha)
James A. Robinson, 1871, 1874-75 (Ashley, Chicot, Drew, Desha)
John W. Webb, 1871 (Ashley, Chicot, Drew, Desha)
John C. Rollins, 1873 (Ashley, Chicot, Drew, Desha)
Isaac G. Bailey, 1885 (Desha) [born in Chicot]
Green Hill Jones, 1885, 1889 (Chicot)
Hugh L. Newsome, 1887 (Chicot)
Henry A. Johnson, 1891 (Chicot)
R. C. Weddington, 1891 (Desha)
Nathan E. Edwards, 1893 (Chicot)

Legislator	Term	Party	Birth	Antebellum Status	Occupations
Bailey, Isaac G.	1885 (H)	R	b. Chicot Co. (1846) d. 1914	Slave	Baptist Minister, Educator, son attended Howard University
Bell, George W.	1891 (S), 1893 (S)	R	b. MS/TN (ca 1855) d. after 1927	Slave ?	Teacher, Doctor, Southland College President, Insurance Salesman
Edwards, Nathan E.	1893 (H)	R	b. AL (1855) d. 1900-1910	Slave ?	Farmer, Farm Laborer; Minister
Fulton, Edward A.	1871 (H)	R	b. KY (1833) d. St. Louis, MO (1906)	Slave (KY & MO)	Abolitionist, U.S. Intelligence Officer, Farmer, Census Taker (1870), Tax Assessor, Editor, Farmer, Postmaster, Laborer (1900 Census)
Holland, Samuel H.	1873 (S), 1874 (S)	R	b. OH (ca 1844)	Free ?	Sheriff, Jailer, Principal, Teacher
Johnson, Henry A.	1891 (H)	R	b. Jackson, MS (1856)	Slave ?	Farmer/Planter, Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, Graduate of Alcorn State University
Jones, Green Hill	1885 (H), 1889 (H)	R	b. TN (1842)	Slave (TN & AR)	Sharecropper, Farmer, Co. Treasurer, Co. Assessor, Slave on Kenneth Rayner’s Plantation on Grand Lake in Chicot County. Joined Comp F, 3 U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery in 1863. Educated at Hillsdale College, Michigan, 1870-1873.
Logan, W. H.	1887 (S), 1889 (S)	R	b. OH (1850/55	Free ?	Justice of the Peace, Preacher, Teacher, Farmer
Mason, James W.	1868 (S), 1871 (S)	R	b. Chicot Co. (1841) d. 1874 (Lake Village)	Slave, Free	Planter, Postmaster, Sheriff, Judge
Newsome, Hugh L.	1887 (H)	R	b. Nashville, TN (1848) d. 1900-1910 (Little Rock)	Slave ?	Teacher, Postal Clerk, City Marshal (Little Rock)
Robinson, James A.	1871 (H) 1874-75 (H)	R	b. AR (ca 1836)	Slave	Merchant
Rollins, John C.	1871 (H)	R	b. GA (1812/1835) d. before 1880	Slave ?	Farmer
Webb, John W.	1871 (H)	R	b. KY (1824)	Slave ?	Justice of the Peace, Farmer, Farm Laborer
Weddington, R. C.	1891 (H)	R	b. Rodney, MS (1866)	NA	Farmer, Teacher, Principal

Adapted from Wintory, Blake J. “African American Legislators in the Arkansas General Assembly, 1868-1893.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 65 (Winter 2006): 385-434.

Updated April 4, 2018

Mar232011March 23, 2011November 22, 2016by itswebteam

Summer Teacher Workshops at ASU Heritage Sites

Posted in Arkansas History, civil war, Teacher workshops

The Arkansas Heritage Sites at Arkansas State University will be hosting a series of teacher workshops this summer. Each workshop will provide six hours of inservice credit. All workshop themes and activities fit into the Arkansas Social Studies Curriculum Frameworks. These workshops are designed to feature the multi-topic and interdisciplinary educational opportunities available through three great and unique Arkansas Delta sites.

June 14, 2011: Southern Tenant Farmers Museum, “World War II in the Delta.”
This workshop will focus on the POW camps that were located in the Arkansas Delta, as well as the impact the war had on agricultural production in the state. http://stfm.astate.edu/

June 16, 2011: Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum & Education Center, “The Hemingway Connection.”
~~This workshop will focus on Ernest Hemingway’s connection to the Pfeiffer Family of Piggott and his contribution to Arkansas’s literary legacy. http://hemingway.astate.edu/~~ Canceled

June 22, 2011: Lakeport Plantation, “The Sesquicentennial of the Civil War in Arkansas.”
Lakeport is one of 23 official stamping sites for the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Passport Program. This workshop will focus on Lakeport’s and the surrounding area’s connection to the Civil War. https://lakeport.astate.edu/

June 28, 2011: Southern Tenant Farmers Museum, “‘Roll the Union On’: The Music That Inspired a Movement.”
This workshop will focus on the protest songs written by John Handcox and how music was used to mobilize a labor movement of the mid-twentieth century.

Please feel free to forward this announcement onto anyone who would be interested in attending these workshops. For those who are interested in registering for a workshop(s), registration is available through the Arkansas Heritage Sites on either the home page or the education page (the registration tool is located in the left hand side link menu): http://arkansasheritagesites.astate.edu/AHS/

Interested folks can contact Rachel Miller directly: rachel.miller@smail.astate.edu

Category: Arkansas History