Category: News

Jul232010July 23, 2010November 19, 2014by itswebteam

New Signs At Lakeport

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The Arkansas Highway Department installed two news tourist oriented directional signs yesterday: one at the entrance to Lakeport and the other for eastbound traffic on Hwy 82. The Highway Department will install a westbound traffic sign when the contractor has completed the removal of the povement for the old alignment of Hwy 82

New sign at Lakeport’s entrance

New eastbound sign on Hwy 82 (at foot of new bridge) for Hwy 142 turnoff
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Jul152010July 15, 2010November 22, 20161Commentby itswebteam

Bridge Opening Dedication set for July 26

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Bridge Dedication — July 26 — 10 am


Greenville US Highway 82 bridge dedication planned for July 26

By Associated Press

4:23 AM CDT, July 13, 2010

GREENVILLE, Miss. (AP) — The new U.S. Highway 82-Greenville Bridge is scheduled to open for traffic on July 28.
The dedication ceremony is July 26. The first contract was awarded in 2001 and construction began in 2002.
Washington County Board of Supervisors president Paul Watson says transportation officials in Mississippi and Arkansas are working on the details.
The four-lane, cable-stayed bridge has been many years in the making. It was authorized when the existing bridge, built in 1940, was determined to be a navigational hazard and obsolete.
The old two-lane bridge crosses the Mississippi River just south of a sharp bend. Tow boats have difficulty completing that turn and straightening up in time to clear the bridge. Numerous barge/bridge collisions have happened over the years.


Dec172009December 17, 2009November 22, 2016by itswebteam

Lakeport Adds Plantation Bell to its Collection

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On Monday, December 14, 2009, Dr. Hal Rucks Sessions III and his wife Marilyn presented the 1856 Luna Plantation Bell to the Lakeport Plantation Museum. The bell will be on permanent display on the grounds of the antebellum Lakeport home.

The 1200 lb Luna Plantation Bell is ornately decorated with lyres, cherubs and roses. It was cast at the Buckeye Foundry in Cincinnati, Ohio by George W. Coffin. It has not been back in Chicot County since the around 1880, when it left Luna Plantation for the Glen Aubin Plantation in Coahoma County, Mississippi.

Daniel and Richard Sessions, brothers, came to Chicot County in the 1840s from Natchez, Mississippi. The brothers owned Luna Plantation, north of Lake Chicot, from about 1844 until 1878. The Johnsons of Lakeport knew Luna and the Sessions very well. Lydia Johnson’s sister, Theodosia Taylor Sessions, was married to Daniel Sessions. In addition, the only known surviving letter from Lycurgus to Lydia was written to her while she was visiting the Sessions at Luna and he was on a steamer headed for Lexington, Kentucky.



Jul202009July 20, 2009November 22, 2016by itswebteam

Need a Bridge?

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Proposals for the Old Greenville Bridge are now being accepted.

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2009/jul/15/old-greenville-bridge-offered-relocation/


Jul042009July 4, 2009November 19, 2014by itswebteam

Closed Monday, July 6, 2009

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Lakeport will be closed Monday, July 6, 2009. We will resume regular business hours Tuesday, July 7, 2009.


Jun232009June 23, 2009November 19, 2014by itswebteam

Lakeport Plantation to host African American heritage reunion celebration July 3-5

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For Release to the News Media:
June 22, 2009

Media Note: View this release online at http://asunews.astate.edu/AfAmHeritageCelLakeport09.htm.

ASU – Jonesboro: Lakeport Plantation to host African American heritage reunion celebration July 3-5

Lakeport Plantation will host an African American heritage reunion celebration Friday-Sunday, July 3-5, at Lakeport Plantation, Lake Village, Ark. The event is sponsored by the Lakeport Cemetery Preservation Project, Inc. and ASU-Jonesboro. Activities will begin with a registration and meet-and-greet at the Mt. Pleasant Church cafeteria from 5-7 p.m. on Friday, June 3. The reunion celebration encompasses Lakeport, Ford, Redleaf, and other surrounding communities.

Saturday, July 4, begins with registration, an old-time breakfast and a presentation, “African American Food Folkways” at 6-8 a.m.; a welcome panel including a history of Lakeport Plantation and talks on restoration, research, and African American research projects from 8-9 a.m.; a presentation on the importance of African American history and heritage from 9-9:30 a.m., and a presentation on African American quilting ending at 10 a.m. A presentation on old-time health remedies runs from 10-10:30 a.m., and from 11:30 a.m.-12 noon, “Story Telling from the Elders” will be featured. The Craig Lacy 4th of July picnic will be held from 12 noon-1:30 p.m. and will include an awards ceremony and a cemetery committee update. Tours of three local cemeteries (Old Lakeport, Lakeport, and Morning Star/Ford), churches (Mt. Pleasant and Morning

Star), and “the Big House” will take place from 1:30-4 p.m. At 5:30-7:30 p.m., African American music and celebrations will be featured, including God’s Network, a Jump the Broom wedding ceremony, and a combination fireworks show, reception, and party.

Sunday, July 5, will feature a sunrise church service and closing ceremonies from 7:30-8:30 a.m., and a continental breakfast at 8:30-9:30 a.m.

Alice Rogers-Johnson, president of the Lakeport Cemetery Committee, notes, “The past is all around us. We live our lives against a rich backdrop formed by historic buildings such as the Lycurgus Johnson Lakeport Plantation house, the landscapes and other physical survivals of our past, such as the cotton fields, fishing holes, juke joints, churches, cemeteries, and other significant landmarks. Historic landscapes or iconic buildings can become a focus of community identity and pride. Building materials and artifacts can define a region’s localities and communities. However, our African American history and heritage and lifestyle on Lakeport is more than just a matter of material remains. It is central to how we see ourselves as individuals, communities, and as citizens…on a more personal level, it is a testament to the people who lived, worked, and died here.”

Aketa Guillory, a Heritage Studies PhD student at ASU-Jonesboro, agrees. Guillory says, “I have been working on the African American experience in the sharecropping and tenant farming systems on Lakeport Planation, which included interviewing those who migrated to the north. Also, I have also been working with African American community members near Lakeport to preserve their three historic cemeteries, which eventually led to the development of the Lakeport Cemetery Preservation Project, Inc., and the Lakeport Cemetery Committee. The Lakeport African American heritage celebration is a sort of community catalyst to promote preservation of African American history and heritage. With this in mind, my dissertation focuses on the African American experience on Lakeport Plantation from 1927-1972.”

For more information, contact Aketa Guillory, (870) 273-6589, visit the website Memories of Lakeport, see or print a copy of the Lakeport heritage celebration brochure, or view a map of Lakeport and its environs. In Lake Village, contact Alice Rogers-Johnson, (870) 918-0139. Lakeport Plantation is an Arkansas State University Heritage SITE. Visit the Lakeport Plantation blogspot (http://lakeportplantation.blogspot.com/2009/05/lakeport-cemetery-preservation.html) for information and photographs.


May112009May 11, 2009November 22, 20162Commentsby itswebteam

The Lakeport Cemetery Preservation Committee Hosts Website

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The Lakeport Cemetery Preservation Committee has created a website–Memories of Lakeport African American Memorial. The site was established “to share and carry on our families’ legacy in Lakeport, Arkansas…[from the] perspectives of the descendants of the former enslaved, sharecroppers, tenant farmers, and wageworkers who lived and labored on Lakeport Plantation, Ford Plantation, and Red Leaf Plantation.”

There are three African American cemeteries near the Lakeport Plantation home: Old Lakeport Cemtery, Lakeport Cemetery (Middle of the Field Cemetery or Blackwater Rd Cemetery), and Ford Cemetery (Morning Star Missionary Baptist Cemetery). Old Lakeport and Ford cemeteries date to before Emancipation and Lakeport Cemetery dates to ca 1898. The two pre-Emancipation cemeteries are beleived to have been used by other nearby plantations–Red Leaf and Ford.

Lakeport Cemetery started as a family plot of the Lacy family and soon became a new burial ground for sharecroppers and tenant farmers around Lakeport. The Lakeport Cemetery Preservation Committee spent several days in September 2008 clearing and cleaning the plot. Their efforts resulted with the 2009 Boot Strap Award from the Delta Byways Association.


Apr072009April 7, 2009November 19, 2014by itswebteam

After Hours at Lakeport

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Event Alert!

April 16, 2009 After Hours at Lakeport Plantation Please join us for a Business After Hours and honorary ribbon cutting at the beautiful Lakeport Plantation on Thursday, April 16th. From 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Mingle under the magnolia trees with fellow business owners, friends and family, enjoy a wine and cheese bar and take a leisurely tour of this magnificent and historic home. Tickets are $8 per person. For more info contact: L. Raby at the Lake Village Chamber of Commerce 870-265-5997


Apr062009April 6, 2009November 19, 2014by itswebteam

Visitor to Lakeport blogs about visit

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A recent visitor to Lakeport, Lonnie Strange,  blogged about her second visit to Lakeport

http://lonniestrange.blogspot.com/2009/03/lakeport-plantation-lake-village.html

Lonnie is also a Fan of Lakport Plantation on Facebook.  Click here to view the Lakeport Fan Page, then click on “Become a Fan.”

Mar262009March 26, 2009January 2, 2017by itswebteam

Lake Village, February 1860

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Public historian Shirley Schuette shared an interesting link today on pre-Civil War Lake Village and Chicot County. Vicki Betts, a professional librarian at the University of Texas at Tyler, compiles and transcribes newspaper articles from the Civil War era.  One of her transcriptions from the Old-Line Democrat (Little Rock) contains an excellent article on Lake Village:   
 
[LITTLE ROCK] OLD-LINE DEMOCRAT, February 2, 1860, p. 1, c. 6
                                                                Lake Village, Jan. 9th, 1860.
Dear Old-Line.—Thinking that perhaps amid the din of political strife, a letter from the quiet and secluded little town of Lake Village, would operate as a balm to your weary soul, by again calling to remembrance those scenes of quietude remote from the bustle and confusion of this babbling world, and so seldom experienced in the life of an Editor.  I take my pen to jot down a few items of news from this beautiful place to solace you.  Know then that Lake Village is a pretty little town, situate on the banks of one of the most beautiful little lakes of the South.  It is the county seat of Chicot county, and is seven miles from the Mississippi river.  The surrounding country is one of the most fertile spots in the Mississippi valley, and rivals in richness the far famed Delta of the Nile.  The shores of Old River Lake are covered with magnificent plantations which are cultivated with great care, and the yield of cotton is almost fabulous.  The health of this country is reasonably good.
The town is small but improving very fast.  This appears to be one of the places where Lawyers “most do congregate” as there are a great many of them here, but as for the other learned professions, they are thinly represented.  The public buildings are all excellent, and especially the Jail, which is undoubtedly the best in the State—these public buildings are sure evidences of enterprise and public spirit.  The towns and surrounding country are very much in need of mechanics, and a good saddler, shoemaker, or tailor, could do better here than almost any where else, provided however, that he be a sober and industrious man.  Mechanics of other trades also can find plenty of work at high wages and ready pay.  I know of no place where mechanics can do better than here.  There will be a newspaper published here in a few weeks, which I take to be another proof of the prosperity and enterprise of the country.
Dr. Lyon has been here “feeling the public pulse,” for his prospects for Congress from this district.  He made a speech at the Court House the other night and defined his position to his audience.  He says that he is not an Old-Line Democrat—is in favor of re-opening the African slave trade, &c., &c.
The political atmosphere is quiescent at present, in fact the people are too busily engaged in their own private affairs to attend much to politics.  Your valuable paper has various subscribers here, and is very well liked.  Your moderate, yet firm course is entitled to the respect of all thinking men.  A project is on foot here to establish a Female College at Lake Village, with an endowment of $50,000, a considerable of which is now subscribed, and the day is not far distant, I trust, when Lake Village will be the site of one of the most magnificent and interesting female colleges in the South.  This place is one of the most beautiful and healthy in the world, and is of easy access, no school of like character is near, and it is due the enterprise of old Chicot that she should have one first class school within her limits.  The Chicot levy board are pushing on their works with great rapidity, and seem determined that the Mississippi shall never again visit the plantations of Chicot county.  The levys are built far back from the river, and are very large and substantial.
There has been some very cold weather for this country here this winter and no little know, but the weather is now warm and rainy.  The Post Office at Luna will soon be changed back to Columbia again, from whence it was removed to Luna last fall.
The planters have got their cotton crop nearly gathered, and a fine one it was too.  The planters of this county appear to have fine success in growing cotton, and their plantations are models of neatness and good farming.
                                                            Peregrine. 
 
Visit Vicki Betts’ page here and see the other transcribed articles from Old-Line Democrat here