Category: Lakeport Legacies

May042016May 4, 2016February 27, 2019by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies · The Adventures of the Bastianelli and Pianalto Sisters: History from the Tontitown Museum

Posted in event, events, history, Italians, Lakeport Legacies, News, Sunnyside, Tontitown

The Adventures of the Bastianelli and Pianalto Sisters: History from the Tontitown Museum

presented by

Dr. Rebecca Howard (University of Arkansas & Tontitown Museum)

Thursday, May 26

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

Mary Bastianelli (l) and Katie Pianalto (r).

Photograph of Mary Bastianelli (l) and Katherine Pianalto Ceola (r) taken around 1917, possibly at the Washington County (AR) Fair. Mary is wearing an engagement ring; her sweetheart, Jack Zulpo, was killed in France in 1918. Courtesy of Tontitown Historical Museum

The Bastianelli & Pianalto sisters were part of the first wave of Italian immigrants that came to the Sunnyside Plantation in Chicot County in the 1890s. Later they immigrated again to Tontitown in northwest Arkansas with Father Pietro Bandini. Many in the generation who immigrated as children followed Old World marriage habits, meaning young couples delayed marriage until they were financially established. Few walked down the aisle before their late twenties or thirties. So what did a young woman in the 1910s in rural Arkansas do with an extra decade or so as a single woman? Between the five Bastianelli and Pianalto sisters, they lived in at least four states, taught school, became nurses, and aided priests. One sister was a long-time schoolteacher in Lake Village. Another was among the first graduates of St. Edward Nursing School in Fort Smith. Two exercised their voting rights for the first time in California. An examination of their lives reveals fascinating information about an often “silent” generation.

Please click to RSVP to this FREE Event
870.265.6031

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.


Apr072016April 7, 2016February 27, 2019by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies · The Life and Wives of James Worthington Mason

Posted in African American, event, events, history, Lakeport Legacies, News, Sunnyside

The Life and Wives of James Worthington Mason

presented by

Dr. Blake Wintory (Lakeport Plantation)

Thursday, April 28

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

The Baths by Josephine Mason (1872-1952), daughter of James W. Mason. Courtesy of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.

The Baths by Josephine Mason (1872-1952), daughter of James W. Mason. Courtesy of Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford.

James Worthington Mason (1841-1874), a former slave turned Reconstruction politician, emerged as Chicot County’s “political boss” in the 1870s. Few, if any, Chicot County slaves had the advantages of Mason in the antebellum era: the son of the county’s wealthiest planter, Elisha Worthington, he and his sister were educated in the North and James continued his studies in France. While historians are aware of Mason’s important political career, little has been made of his personal life. The wives he chose and what became of his two daughters is a fascinating window into four African American women’s lives. Emerging from slavery and freedom, their lives extended to Lincoln’s White House, the American West, Liberia, Paris and London.

Please RSVP to this FREE Event
870.265.6031

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.


Mar072016March 7, 2016February 27, 2019by itswebteam

Meandering Rivers in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley

Posted in event, events, Lakeport Legacies, Mississippi River, News

Meandering Rivers in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley:

Influence on Human Civilization and Forest Resource Management

presented by

Dr. Brian Lockhart

Thursday, March 24

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

Section of Ancient Courses, Mississippi River Meander Belt, Plate 22, Sheet 9 (Fisk 1944)

Section of Ancient Courses, Mississippi River Meander Belt, Plate 22, Sheet 9 (Fisk 1944)

Brian R. Lockhart, Ph.D., a forest researcher, will discuss the meanderings of the Mississippi, Arkansas and Ohio rivers in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) over the past 6,000 years. These meanderings have affected human settlement and trade, as well as, the species composition of bottomland hardwood forests. Dr. Lockhart, who has degrees from the University of Arkansas at Monticello, Yale University, and Mississippi State University, will also discuss how humans have recently affected the flow of rivers in the MAV and how scientists study and manage bottomland hardwood forests.

Please RSVP to this FREE Event
870.265.6031

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.


Mar022016March 2, 2016January 9, 2018by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies Schedule for 2016

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News

March 24 · Meandering Rivers in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley: Influence on Human Civilization and Forest Resource Management  · Dr. Brian Lockhart

April 28 · The Life and Wives of James Worthington Mason · Dr. Blake Wintory (Lakeport Plantation)

May 26 · The Adventures of the Bastianelli and Pianalto Sisters: History from the Tontitown Museum  · Dr. Rebecca Howard (University of Arkansas)

June 23 · Clean Lines and Open Fields: A Look at Mid-Century Modern Architecture in the Arkansas Delta  · Mason Toms (Arkansas Historic Preservation Program/Main Street Arkansas)

July 28 · Revising the Mississippi Capitol · Jennifer Baughn and Brenda Davis (Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

August 25 · The Other Lycurgus Johnson: U.S. Colored Troops and Civil War Pension Files in Chicot County  · Dr. Blake Wintory (Lakeport Plantation)

Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held at the Lakeport Plantation focusing on history in the Delta.  Lakeport Legacies meets on one of the last Thursdays of the spring and summer months at 5:30 p.m. with the program starting at 6:00 p.m. All events are free and open to the public. Guests are asked to RSVP. The Lakeport Plantation is located at 601 Hwy 142, Lake Village, Arkansas. For more information call 870.265.6031 or visit https://lakeport.astate.edu.


Aug132015August 13, 2015February 27, 2019by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies · August 27 · Delta Modern · Jennifer Baughn

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News

Delta Modern

presented by

Jennifer Baughn, Mississippi Department of Archives & History

Thursday, August 27

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

The "modernistic" Sunflower Grocery, designed by Harold Kaplan, opened in 1959 in Greenville.

The “modernistic” Sunflower Grocery, designed by Harold Kaplan, opened in 1959 in Greenville.

IMG_9506

“White Pillars” is a Neoclassical Colonial home designed in 1948 for the Nash family by Harold Kaplan. The traditional architecture is in contrast to many of Kaplan’s Modernist public architecture.

Lakeport Plantation’s monthly history talk, Lakeport Legacies, will feature Jennifer Baughn, chief architectural historian at the Mississippi Department of Archives & History. Mrs. Baughn, in her talk titled, “Delta Modern,” will discuss Mid-Century architecture (1930s-1960s) in the Mississippi Delta. At Mid-Century, traditional and modern styles were competing architectural visions. In the Delta, the period is exemplified by two architects: Leland native Harold Kaplan and Jackson’s N. W. Overstrett. Kaplan’s Modern designs for public buildings, like T. L. Weston High School (1954), are a contrast to his designs for traditional Colonial private homes, like White Pillars (1948) in Greenville’s Gamyn Park neighborhood. Drawing from examples across the Delta, Baughn will discuss the region’s most interesting Modern architecture such as Greenville’s Coleman High School and Delta State’s Young-Mauldin Cafeteria. Exemplifying the optimism and booming economy of the decades after World War II, Mississippi’s Modernist architecture is gaining the appreciation of both historians and architecture buffs for its clean lines, functional planning, and futuristic detailing.

Please RSVP to this FREE Event
870.265.6031

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.


Jul222015July 22, 2015February 27, 2019by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies — Annie Read Reeves’ Chicot County Civil War Diary, 1861-1863

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News

Annie Read Reeves’ Chicot County Civil War Diary, 1861-1863

presented by

Dr. Blake Wintory, Lakeport Plantation

Thursday, July 30

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

Map_crop_owens_filter

The Rossmere Plantation, founded in 1847 by George Read IV, was located on the east side of Lake Chicot south of Stuart’s Island. In 1861, the plantation had over 1300 acres and 61 slaves. One of those slaves, Lucretia Alexander, was interviewed by the WPA in the 1930s.

Annie Read Reeves, a widow with four children, left New Castle, Delaware in October 1861 during the first year of the Civil War. They arrived at the Rossmere Plantation on Old River Lake in Chicot County on November 22. Annie and her brother George Read IV (1812-1859) were the great-grandchildren of George Read I, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Her late brother founded Rossmere in 1846 and her sister-in-law, Susan (Chapman) Read, still resided there in 1861. Reeves’ diary (1861-1863) details her trip to Chicot County and experiences during the Civil War. Wintory will discuss the diary and what we know about the Read family and plantation from other sources: deeds, tax records, Susan Read’s letters, a memoir by Annie’s daughter, and a slave narrative.

Please RSVP to this FREE Event
870.265.6031

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.


Jun162015June 16, 2015February 27, 2019by itswebteam

LAKEPORT LEGACIES — Absentee Masters of the Mississippi River

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News

Absentee Masters of the Mississippi River

presented by

Dr. Kelly Houston Jones, Austin Peay State University
Thursday, June 25

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

Kenneth Rayner, a resident of North Carolina, purchased a 538 acre Chicot County plantation in 1845. Writing to a friend, he objected to the land being “in the state of Arkansas” and complained “I will never leave my wife so long again.” Two years later, visiting the plantation during the December harvest, he praised his overseer, “I think my overseer a first rate manager…he has, picked, and packed about 220 bales of cotton” despite bad weather. (Image by Matthew Brady; courtesy of East Carolina Manuscript Collection.)

Many masters along the Mississippi River did not reside on their plantations. Instead they relied on overseers to run the day-to-day operations. The absence of a white family in the “big house” could make the plantation a much different place than one with an owner-resident. Dr. Kelly Houston Jones will discuss her work on R.C. Ballard and other area plantation owners who resided away from their holdings, and what those arrangements would have meant for enslaved people living on those plantations.

Please RSVP to this FREE Event
870.265.6031

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.


May192015May 19, 2015February 27, 2019by itswebteam

LAKEPORT LEGACIES — Ancestral Activity: Doing African American Genealogy in Arkansas & Chicot County

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News

Ancestral Activity: Doing African American Genealogy in Arkansas & Chicot County

presented by

Rhonda Stewart, Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Thursday, May 28

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Rhonda - 3rd grade

Ms. Stewart, pictured here in the 3rd grade, became interested in her own family’s history after hearing her grandmother’s stories about her great-grandmother.

 Rhonda Stewart, a genealogy and history specialist at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, will discuss how to research African American family history in Arkansas. Oral histories are excellent places to start building a family history and can be confirmed with local history resources and genealogy databases available on Ancestry.com and other websites. Part of Ms. Stewart’s presentation will focus on two examples of family history in Chicot County. The Butler Center is a department of the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock.

Please RSVP to this FREE Event
870.265.6031

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.


Apr202015April 20, 2015February 27, 2019by itswebteam

Lakeport Legacies — Images and History of Chicot County: Book Project Update

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News

Images and History of Chicot County: Book Project Update

presented by
Dr. Blake Wintory, Lakeport Plantation

Thursday, April 30, 2015

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm

 Program @ 6:00 pm

downtown_lake_village_ca 1920_session_coll_lakeport2

Lake Village’s downtown and lakefront around 1920, probably taken from second floor of the Tushek Building. Visible are Gaines Cafeteria along Lake Chicot and Watt Orton’s Livery Stable. (Bill and Jeanine Session Collection, Lakeport Plantation)

Lakeport Plantation is nearly finished with a pictorial history of Chicot County with Arcadia Publishing. During the past year of research, we have made some interesting discoveries, including the photograph above of downtown Lake Village. Come see, learn or share a memory about Chicot County’s history.

Please RSVP to this FREE Event
870.265.6031

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.


Apr172015April 17, 2015January 9, 2018by itswebteam

2015 Lakeport Legacies Schedule

Posted in event, Lakeport Legacies, News

March 19 · Doc Hollywood: The Archaeology of Health and Healing at Hollywood Plantation · Dr. Jodi Barnes (Arkansas Archeological Survey)

April 30 · Images and History of Chicot County: Book Project Update · Dr. Blake Wintory (Lakeport Plantation)

May 28 · Ancestral Activity: Doing African American Genealogy in Arkansas & Chicot County · Rhonda Stewart (Butler Center, Central Arkansas Library System)

June 25 · Absentee Masters of the Mississippi River · Dr. Kelly Jones (Austin Peay University)

July 30 · Annie Read Reeves’ Chicot County Civil War Diary, 1861-1863 · Dr. Blake Wintory (Lakeport Plantation)

August 27 · Delta Modern (Architecture) · Jennifer Baughn (Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

 

Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held at the Lakeport Plantation focusing on history in the Delta.  Lakeport Legacies meets on one of the last Thursdays of the spring and summer months at 5:30 p.m. with the program starting at 6:00 p.m. All events are free and open to the public. Guests are asked to RSVP. The Lakeport Plantation is located at 601 Hwy 142, Lake Village, Arkansas. For more information call 870.265.6031 or visit https://lakeport.astate.edu.