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.
News
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.
Memorial Day Observance
Lakeport will be closed Monday, May 25, 2009 for Memorial Day. Normal operating hours will resume on Tuesday, May 26, 2009.
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.
Ribbon Cutting a Success!
A crowd of supporters came to Lakport last night to honor Lakeport’s membership in the Lake Village Chamber of Commerce. The chamber and its executive director, Lisa Raby, works hard to support business and tourism in Lake Village–“One of the Delta’s best kept secrets.” We know Lakeport benefits from their support.
The event was a great success: O’dourves were served on the front porch and beverages were served on the north side porch; a crowd of well-wishers gathered to support Lakeport (and eat); and, most importantly, the scissors cut the ribbon with the greatest of ease.
Even though the evening was a success, a swarm of bees in the early afternoon plotted to sabotage the event. Lucky for us, registered beekeeper, John C. Hatfield, was able to come from Star City to remove swarm. The bees were gone by 4:45–just in time to finish setting up.
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
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.”
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.
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
Lakeport on Twitter and Facebook
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I’ve added a Lakeport Plantation Fan Page to Facebook and started a Twitter account for Lakeport.
If you aren’t familiar with these 21st century social networking tools, you probably aren’t alone–but your demographic is getting smaller every second (my Mom is now my Facebook friend). As social networking exploreds, it is becoming an important part of the marketing landscape. I believe it’s important to bring our antebellum plantation home, beautifully restored by Arkansas State University, into the 21 century.
So please become Lakeport Plantation’s fan on Facebook
or follow Lakeport Plantation on Twitter
Large Cistern Repaired
The large hole in the large cistern has been patched!
The large cistern, which sits along the ell porch, had a large hole in its side for many years; a photo from ca. 1956 shows the cistern intact.
The hole was likely created by trucks that backed
up to deliver goods to the commissary, which was in use as late as 1984.
The large cistern is one of two cisterns at Lakeport Plantation. They were part of the original water collection system that directed water away from
the house and collected water for domestic use.
Rain water was captured by the built-in/box gutters on the second story of the house and half-round gutters found along the ell porch. The water was then directed by downspouts into brick collection boxes in the brick walkway. The water was strained and then flowed into underground troughs that originally fed into the cisterns. Today, rainwater is directed into several collection boxes in the yard and the cisterns have been filled with sand for safety. Uses for the water in the cisterns would have included washing, cooking, cleaning, and drinking.
To repair the cistern, a form had to be fashioned to hold the bricks in place
as the mortar set.
A local carpenter, Keith Carpenter (his real name), decided to use sheet metal as the form–though not what would have been used in the 19th century, it does the job using the same principle.
Once the form was in place, Lester Davidson, a mason who has worked at Lakeport before, was able to patch the hole using bricks left over from the restoration and a mortar created from lime putty and local river sand.
Click on the slideshow below to see more pictures of the work on the cistern and shots of the guttering system as well.
