From
The River's Edge, Volume 8, Issue 2,
a publication of Black River Technical
College in Pocahontas.
2009
Fall Bus Tour
An energetic group of
30 people enjoyed the museum's fall bus tour of the
county October 24, enjoying the fall foliage, the
lectures on local history, and the camaraderie.
Many thanks to the Pocahontas schools for the loan of
their newest school bus. Our tour was planned and led by
Anna Cook and her husband Ralph. This year's tour was a
visit to "The Point", the area of Randolph county where
the Eleven Point River and the Spring River join, near
Old Davidsonville State Park.
The first tour stop on
Fairview Road, west of Pocahontas, was at
the Dunn "A" Cemetery (there's another Dunn
Family cemetery north of Pocahontas) on the
banks of the Eleven Point River. Near the
cemetery stands the state reserve champion
Bur Oak tree. See photo of this huge oak
below.
Other morning
highlights included passing the
locations of...
the old African
American School in the Birdell community
the site of the G
Spring where the community got its water
the New African
American School
Shockley Cemetery
Hardin Cemetery
Fairview Cemetery
Fairview School
the Lil and Ada
Oaks House
the William and
Nevada Jarrett House
the site of the
Old Swinging Bridge
the George and
Pearl McCarroll House site
the Solomon
Hewett house site (where the first
county court in Arkansas was held in
1815)
Fairview Church
a crossing of the
Trail of Tears, in the area of Miller
Ford and another swinging bridge
location of an
old slave mine (rock quarry)
the Rhea Cemetery
Stoney Point
School
The group enjoyed
lunch at the Junction 166 Cafe then toured
the home of Ralph and Anna Cook, which the
Cooks have turned into a museum of
memorabilia from days gone by, including
large collections of farm items and
equipment, old kitchen items, and Mrs.
Cook's collections of dolls and flour sacks.
View
some photos
here
from our 2009 Quilt Show
during the Pocahontas Founder's Day, May 2.
Video
Presentation of our 2008 Kitchen Show
of antique kitchen implements.
(To watch
the video in a larger viewer, watch it on
You Tube.)
Event
Coordinator: Virginia Stevens
Carroll
Family presents
“1910 Directory of Randolph County”
Available at Randolph County Heritage Museum
The “1910 Directory of
Randolph County, Arkansas” book by L. F. Blankenship
(1872-1930) is considered one of the most valuable
Randolph County resources for genealogists, researchers
and historians, and was last available as a publication
in 1978 when the Star Herald Printing Company made the
second printing.
Mrs. Ann B. Carroll,
granddaughter of Mr. Blankenship, has given the Randolph
County Heritage Museum the rights to make 500 copies of
the publication in PDF format on CDs which are available
for sale in the Heritage Museum’s gift shop. The cost is
$20 for each copy of the 200+ page “book” and all
proceeds will go toward support for the museum.
In addition to the
listings of families in all 1910 Randolph County
townships, including all names of family members,
marriage dates, occupation, land ownership, and church
memberships, the book includes many pages of
advertisements from businesses around the county in
1910, as well as numerous photographs of historic
buildings and homes from the era.
The 1910 Directory is
also available for purchase on the gift shop page of the
museum’s web site, randolphcomuseum.org.
Button Factory Finds
A New Home
Pocahontas
is still home to one surviving button factory from
the era of pearling and button making. Mr. Harold
Crosby, son of the original button factory owner,
Harold Crosby Sr., gave the button factory to our
museum a couple of years ago, however we’ve been
unsuccessful in finding a place to put it and were
really unsure of how to go about moving the building
at all.
In the last
couple of weeks a small group of business leaders
from downtown Pocahontas came together, and along
with the local boy scouts, and even a couple of PHS
football players, made a commitment to finally see
this project through.
The move was
incredible…complete with a two-car police escort. We
moved the building behind the museum. The button
machines themselves are to be restored by Mr. Mack
Hackworth. Our plan is to reconstruct the button
factory (a cross-section of the actual building and
machines) inside the museum. We are in the process
of saving a chapter of Randolph County’s history…a
chapter that in another generation would have been
forgotten and lost.
If you are
interested in helping to move this great project
into the next phase….designing an exhibit inside the
museum using the actual building….please come
forward. Spread the word to others who might be
interested in the project. We’ll be looking for
additions to the exhibit, such as photos, stories,
etc. from the River Days.
Click
photos below to enlarge...
Picking up the
building...
...and setting it
down.
Headed to the museum.
The moving crew.
2007 Harvest Festival Photos (click a thumbnail photo to enlarge, then use your
browser's Back button to return to this page)
Local Museums offers Historical Dance
Series
The Arkansas Historical Dance Series, a
book and video set, is a unique collection of 8 short
documentaries (5-11 minutes each) on traditional dance,
music, and culture stretching from territorial times to the
present. Their titles are: A “Frolic” in Territorial Times,
Jigging & Clogging, Old Time Square Dancing, Play Party
Games, The Victorian Ball, Riverboat Days, Modern Western
Square Dancing, and Black Dancing Traditions. Each segment
is supported by a text and rare, historical photographs.
The text (68 pages) includes a program summary, an
historical perspective of the period and activity, a
glossary of special dance and music terms, as well as dance
descriptions, and suggestions for follow-up activities.
Student work sheet packets are available for classroom use.
This project started in 1987 when the Arkansas Country Dance
Society (ACDS) received a grant from the Arkansas Endowment
for the Humanities to produce two audio tapes of string-band
dance music together with a text that could be used to
support the preservation and teaching of traditional dance
in the schools and communities of Arkansas. The tapes were
soon completed and are available from ACDS. Over the years
the text grew into a full length book which is the basis for
the enclosed text and the 8 documentaries which were
produced in cooperation with the Arkansas Educational
Television Network (AETN).
The videos were written and directed by Dr. David R.
Peterson and Dr. Charlie Sandage. Dr. Peterson wrote the
text, the student work sheets, and collected the historical
pictures.
Dr. Peterson, who visited Pocahontas during the Heritage
Festival and was the “caller” at the Harvest Ball, is a
mathematician by academic training but a dance caller,
musician, musical instrument builder, stone mason, log
house builder, etc. by avocation. He helped found the ACDS
in 1978 and has been president since. He is well known for
his dance leadership and calling. Dr. Peterson has a joint
appointment as Professor of Mathematics and Director of the
Ozark Heritage Institute at the University of Central
Arkansas in Conway.
Dr. Sandage is and has been many interesting things: college
teacher, academic administrator, performer/songwriter,
music director at the Ozark Folk Center, music show
producer, and television producer. He currently produces
educational programming for the AETN.
The series set is also available online at
www.randolphcomuseum.org and
www.herroncenter.org.
Caption:
Mrs. Judy Downs of Pocahontas, President of the Northeast
Arkansas Living Historians and Dr. David Peterson of
Greenbrier display the “Historical Dance Series” at the
Harvest Ball held during the recent Heritage Festival. The
Arkansas Historical Dance Series (book and video set) are
available at the Randolph County Heritage Museum and Eddie
Mae Herron Center for $12 plus tax,
Vintage
Apron Show Great Success—Held Over
After months of planning, the Vintage Apron Show
hosted by the Randolph County Heritage Museum opened Saturday, August 11
and wowed all visitors to the extensive exhibit.
With nearly 200 aprons on display—ranging from an
1850s Masonic apron and a World War I Era apron brought home from Europe
(both on loan from Virginia Stevens) to the scores of aprons dating
from the Great Depression though today, the show presented a wide
variety of color, purpose, taste and style.
Local historian Mrs. Anna Lue Cook displayed
an antique ironing board and iron, a washboard and antique,
hand-crank washing machine, as well as flour sacks designed
to become aprons. Additionally, Mrs. Cook demonstrated how
to churn butter with an authentic crockery churn which sat
on the floor and was worked by a long handle. Also several
pieces of Depression Era glass were displayed from the
collections of Virginia Stevens.
Anna Lue
Cook instructing museum visitors on how to churn
Virginia
Stevens, event coordinator.
“Originally,
the idea to put together such a show came from Joyce McFall Castleberry,
a native of Pocahontas who now lives in New York,” said Five Rivers
Historic Preservation, Inc. President Linda Bowlin. The planning
committee was led by Virginia Stevens and Anna Lue Cook and included
Linda Bowlin, Linda Eveland, Billie Ruth McFatridge, Rita Wadsworth,
David Bowlin and Ralph Cook.
Aprons and related artifacts were loaned to the
museum from across the county from a multitude of residents, including
Anna Cook’s extensive collection of aprons, Mary Freeman, Margaurite
Brown (sister of Rosemary Bowlin who contributed an apron belonging to
their mother Ellen Rhodes), Rita Jean Pearcy, Charlotte Sullivan,
Sharron White, Shirley Chester, Alta Crawford, Ann Carroll, Sharon
Thielemier, Cletis Neece, Elaine Ragan, Becky Luffman, Kathryn Dust,
Hannah Roberts, Cindy Robinett, Nancy Toney and others.
The
show was featured in the Jonesboro Sun and during Saturday’s show, a
television documentary journalist from Jonesboro visited the show to
interview the participants and video the show.
With approximately one hundred visitors signing the
guest book on Saturday, it was quickly decided to extend the show
through the end of August.
The museum is
open to the public during regular hours of operation Mondays,
Wednesdays, Fridays from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m.
– 1 p.m. There is no admission charge to visit the museum which is
located on the historic court square in Pocahontas, just off Hwy. 67.
For more information, call (870) 892-4056, visit online
www.randolphcomuseum.org, or e-mail
heritagemuseum@centurytel.net.
Scenes
from Harmon Seawel's Early June Book Reading: The Fourche River Valley
Our
nomination of Pitman's Ferry to the Arkansas Preservation Alliance
was accepted and was announced May 10 as one of the 9 historic sites in
the state included on the 2007 Endangered List.
This is a first step in getting recognition for the site so that it
might ultimately be preserved. Work may also begin on getting the site
designated as an Arkansas Historic Monument.
Catherine Candy of the Arkansas Archeological Survey (engaged in the dig
at Old Davidsonville) says Pitman's Ferry is one of two sites in
Arkansas that qualify for National Historic Monument status--the other
being already so designated Arkansas Post.
Campbell Cemetery, right, in southeast Randolph county was also one of
the nine sites named to this year's list.
Read the writeup at the Arkansas Preservation
Alliance website
HERE.
Pocahontas
is still home to one surviving button factory from
the era of pearling and button making. Mr. Harold
Crosby, son of the original button factory owner,
Harold Crosby Sr., gave the button factory to our
museum a couple of years ago, however we’ve been
unsuccessful in finding a place to put it and were
really unsure of how to go about moving the building
at all. 
Vintage
Apron Show Great Success—Held Over
“Originally,
the idea to put together such a show came from Joyce McFall Castleberry,
a native of Pocahontas who now lives in New York,” said Five Rivers
Historic Preservation, Inc. President Linda Bowlin. The planning
committee was led by Virginia Stevens and Anna Lue Cook and included
Linda Bowlin, Linda Eveland, Billie Ruth McFatridge, Rita Wadsworth,
David Bowlin and Ralph Cook. 
The
show was featured in the Jonesboro Sun and during Saturday’s show, a
television documentary journalist from Jonesboro visited the show to
interview the participants and video the show.
Scenes
from Harmon Seawel's Early June Book Reading: The Fourche River Valley
Our
nomination of Pitman's Ferry to the Arkansas Preservation Alliance
was accepted and was announced May 10 as one of the 9 historic sites in
the state included on the 2007 Endangered List.