Phillips County Historical Quarterly

PHILLIPS COUNTY
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Published by
The Phillips County Historical Society

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MANAGING EDITOR
Mrs. Dick Cunningham

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Mrs. C. M. T. Kirkman
Miss Dorothy James
Mrs. Fred Faust, Sr.
Mrs. Gene Bradford
J. M. Massey

OFFICERS
Mrs. Katherine S. Hill, President
Mrs. Thomas E. Faust, Vice President
Mrs. F. O. Griffin, Sr., Secretary
Mrs. C. M. T. Kirkman, Treasurer
Thomas E. Tappan, Director
Mrs. Floyd Curtis, Director
William H. Woodin, Director

Meetings are held in September, January, and May, on the fourth Sunday in the month, at 3:00 P. M. at the Phillips County Museum.

The Phillips County Historical Society supplies the QUARTERLY to its members. Membership is open to anyone interested in Phillips County history. Annual membership dues are $5.00 for a regular membership and $10.00 for a sustaining membership. Single copies of the QUARTERLY are $1.25. QUARTERLIES are mailed to members. Dues are payable to Mrs. C. M. T. Kirkman, Treasurer, 806 McDonough St., Helena, Arkansas 72342.

Neither the Editors nor the Phillips County Historical Society assumes any responsibility for statements made by contributors.

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PHILLIPS COUNTY
HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PHILLIPS BAYOU, ITS EARLY TIMES AND SETTLERS

By

Mary Lue Hannon

Time has taken its toll on many of our early, thriving settlements. Where several businesses once prospered and people went busily about their daily routine, often now one small store remains and only two or three families. Those who are left must go elsewhere for school and church, as well as for other needs. They would live in virtual isolation except for the automobile, television, and the telephone. The world has nearly passed them by, albeit of their own choosing. Now many of the communities that once teemed with activity and became even busier at the sound of the whistle of a steamboat coming 'round the bend, lie as quiet little hamlets. Such a place is Phillips Bayou, one of the earliest settlements in this area. It is located on the river road approximately 10 miles north of Helena.

In 1873, when Lee County was formed from portions of four counties--Phillips, Monroe, St. Francis, and Crittenden--this little settlement found itself lying about 3/4 of a mile over the north boundary line of Phillips County, in Lee County. In 1880, when the 15 political divisions of Lee County known as townships were named, Phillips Bayou was in Hardy Township, as it still is.

About the year 1870, there were three stores at Phillips Bayou. One was owned by Albertis Wilkins, one by Henry F. Kimper, first postmaster there, and one by Efe Gwartney. On the east side of the St. Francis River John Rhoady had a trading boat. While in business there, he was robbed and killed. On the west side of the river Edward Benton also had a trading boat. There was a warehouse on the west side where boats landed and put off

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freight. The people of LaGrange and surrounding areas had their freight sent there. There were many difficulties in taking the freight up the St. Francis. Sometimes due to fog or other weather problems, boats missed the landing and went on up the river. Often boats sank and the cargo was lost.

In 1882, when the warehouse was destroyed, Joe Gray built one. He was the son of Patton R. Gray, a prominent and wealthy planter of Bear Creek Township, located north of Phillips Bayou. In 1863, Patton Gray was drafted for Confederate service. His son, Joe, went as his substitute and served in Dobbins' regiment of Confederate cavalry until January, 1865. In 1872, Joe Gray entered into the mercantile business at Phillips Bayou, and in 1875, he married Miss Mary C. Wilkins, daughter of Major Albertis Wilkins. Mr. Gray carried a stock of about $5,000 and his annual sales amounted to over $40,000. He was also occupied in farming, owning a half interest in 320 acres of fine land, and he operated two steam gins and a horse-power cotton gin. He served as postmaster of Phillips Bayou from 1873 to 1884. He was a member of the A. F. & A. M., and his wife was a member of the Baptist Church.

John Lee, who was of Irish descent, was born in Indiana in 1832 and came to Arkansas in 1870. He moved to Phillips Bayou in 1872. He was a blacksmith and a farmer, owning a half section of land. He was a Democrat and took a vital interest in the political affairs of the time. He and his wife were members of the Christian Church.

The Reverend Mayfield was the first to start a Missionary Baptist Church. The Reverend L. K. Obenchain followed. The Reverend Obenchain, born in Botetourt County, Virginia in 1841 of German descent, was reared on a farm and received a good education in the common school. He attended college in Virginia and was first located after entering the ministry in the mountains of Rock Bridge County,

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having been ordained at Mill Creek Church, where he served for three years. He came to Arkansas in 1869. He was occupied in preaching at Phillips Bayou and also taught school there for three years. In 1872, he went to Forrest Chapel as pastor, where he served for three years. He next had charge of the Salem Church in Phillips County, and for seven years was pastor of churches at Marvell, Barton, and Trenton.

In 1882, Mr. Obenchain moved to LaGrange and had the church there and at Phillips Bayou, where he had been located during his first years in Arkansas. The church there was named for Mr. Obenchain. Mrs. Obenchain was the former Miss Sara A. Baker of Botetourt County, Virginia. They were the parents of five children. He was a Democrat, member of the Masonic Order and of the Knights of Honor. He was greatly loved by his pupils at school. No man in the area was more highly respected or honored, and by the purity of his life and the example he set, he was a man well worthy of the respect and confidence placed in him.

Phillips Bayou had several doctors over the years. Among them was Dr. Thomas M. Jacks, Sr., who came to Arkansas in 1849 and settled at the mouth of the St. Francis River where he engaged in the practice of his profession. He also practiced at Phillips Bayou.

The Myrick family were among the earliest arrivals, coming here in the 1820s. James Ramsey was the first man to run a licensed ferry. His license was taken out before the Civil War and he continued to run the ferry until 1874. In 1975, one must ferry one's self across the St. Francis River. The first carpenter in the neighborhood was Mr. Gollf. In 1840, the first person was buried in the cemetery. The door of the boiler of a sawmill was put at the head of this grave. The iron door stood there for 103 years. In 1943, someone took it to sell for scrap iron.

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A very interesting landmark is an elevation which was thrown up by John A. Murrell and his gang. The elevation is called Murrell's Hill. It was named for the infamous gang leader. There is still a large mound on this hill, on one side of which is a large cave. On its top is a deep hole and all around it are large holes. These holes were supposedly dug by people hunting for treasure, but if any has ever been found it is not generally known; however, the skeleton of a human body was dug up in 1903 by Tom Patton, and buttons have been found with "U. S." on them indicating that soldiers camped there. In 1908, a Negro woman who had lived there all her life asked the diggers to stop digging in a certain area as it was an old cemetery. It was thought that Confederate soldiers were buried there during the Civil War.

The mound was thrown up by Murrell and his gang for a watch-out position for the produce boats. They were experts at robbing the boats. They not only robbed the boats, but killed the men on them. He and his gang of unworthy followers held council and planned numerous forays from the Phillips Bayou area and here they divided their illgotten spoils. Many who set out to break up the scurrilous gang ended up by joining it.

Men from many states belonged to the outfit. One year a man by the name of Stewart set out to break it up. Many thought he would join them as others had done, but he did not. He found out when they were to hold council (their big council was only held once a year) and then he notified the sheriff. Council was held in a large, roughly built house in the woods. Nearby were several pure and never failing springs. This location is now known as Council Bend, and it is said that it got its name from that bunch of scoundrels who terrified the countryside with their violence. At times the gang consisted of as many as 400 men. The sheriff and his men captured the gang, and while in

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prison, Murrell was made to piece a quilt. The quilt was exhibited at a fair here at one time, but its whereabouts are unknown now.

At the foot of Murrell's Hill was a Baptist Church in which public school was also held for a number of years. Emma Buel was the first to teach in it. She was followed by the Reverend Obenchain, Frank Roberson, U. S. Highlander, General Martin and others. This building which had played such an important role in community life was destroyed by a cyclone in 1882. One of the chairs from that old building is still in existence.

There were two sawmills at Phillips Bayou.

One was owned by Mr. Dumon and one by Mr. Brownfield. From 1865, for the next few years there were three saloons. These were owned by Major White, Albertis Wilkins, and Phil and Marshall Ford. Later, in the 1880s, Walter Clinton had a saloon. His clerk, Culumn, was robbed and killed. The last saloon was in existence in 1889 and was owned by Mr. Owen. It was located on the site of the present Hannon store. The store is now under the management of George Raymond Howe, grandson of the original owner.

In the 1800s, Mr. Fitzpatrick, a wholesale druggist of Helena, owned a great deal of land lying east of Phillips Bayou and east of the St. Francis River. This land was identified as woodland. In 1896, Mr. Fitzpatrick wrote my father, James Edward Hannon, at Phillips Bayou asking him to sell or lease his land for him, and also to try to sell his timber for him. He asked Father's opinion about what he should get for the land and timber, but also sent a list of his own ideas about it. His list reads oak, $1.50 per thousand; ash, $1.50 per thousand; cypress, $1.50 per thousand; gum, $0.50 per thousand; maple, $.50 per thousand; elm, $0.50 per thousand. Mr. Fitzpatrick indicated in his letter that he wanted to see the land developed.

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A Mr. Thornton and his partner and wife had a picture show on a houseboat at the landing. It has been said that a picture show was at Phillips Bayou before either Helena or Marianna had one. Naturally the people in Phillips Bayou had plenty of company over the weekends, as horse and buggy was the only transportation and one could not return home after the show due to the late hour. When the owner of the boat left Phillips Bayou, he went to St. Louis where he made his boat into a two story building and continued to show movies until his death in 1957.

In 1797, Sylvanus Phillips came to this area. Although he later purchased other lands, his choice for his first homesite was Phillips Bayou. He had a large sawmill there, and nearby was a little stream of water that emptied into the St. Francis River. This stream, still in existence, has been called since that time Phillips Bayou, and its name spread to include the entire community. Our best known settler, it was this same Phillips who gave his name to our county, and it was from his young daughter, Helena, that our county seat received its name.

When Phillips Bayou was laid off as a town, it was laid off in lots. There was a plat made at the time, but it cannot be located.

Now in 1975, Phillips Bayou is a very small place with only one store. As in many of our early, thriving areas, time took its toll.

I am the youngest of ten children born to James Edward Hannon, of Irish and Scotch descent, and Virginia Bell Ramsey Hannon, of English and German descent. My father was born in 1861, in Grayville, Illinois. He came down the river on a boat trip with John Johnson in the middle 1880s. They landed at Phillips Bayou and liked it so well they stayed for several weeks. Naturally they made friends in the neighborhood, and Father met Virginia,

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our mother, daughter of James and Laura Urnce Ramsey. The Ramseys lived just across the St. Francis River from Phillips Bayou. Mother was born in 1869. Her father came here in the late 1880s from Zenith, Illinois. His wife, Laura Urnce, was a native of this area.

My father, son of John and Susie Jacob Hannon, returned to his home in Illinois, but after a period of correspondence with Mother, he appeared on the scene again. He clerked for Joe Gray in his store, and in 1889 he married his Arkansas sweetheart. He bought 80 acres of land. He was always a man who believed it better for a man to own his own land and be his own boss, than to be a hired man. He engaged in farming, the mercantile business, commercial fishing, and raising livestock. Mother was postmistress while the post office was housed in their store building. Only myself and one sister remain of our family. My sister, Mrs. George Howe, and I still live at Phillips Bayou on the land settled by our forebears. Its heritage is very meaningful to us.

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OLD BLACKFOOT NEIGHBORHOOD OPENS SCHOOL

By

Louisa Titus Edmondson Alexander

This is from a collection of reminiscences written by Mrs. Alexander, who was born at Holly Grove plantation, Phillips County, Arkansas, June 24, 1860. She was the grandmother of Everett Tucker, Jr. of Little Rock, who allowed this article to be printed in the Quarterly. She was the child "Lou" in the recent diary series, "Diary of Mrs. Mary Sale Edmondson," which has appeared in the Quarterly.

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As far back as I can remember, we used to attend Sunday School and church service---sometimes, in a plain wooden building fronting the road that later led to Barton, while its right hand windows looked out on the Spring Creek road. It was built on land belonging to Mr. Blount's Deer Park place and not far from his home. It must have been meant for school use originally. While yet there were no sad changes at Forest Wild (Joe Green home), and Patty Ford yet lived in the sweet Melwood home, we youngsters were all agog to hear that we were going to have a school in that building.

Sure enough one Monday morning Phillips Academy opened its doors. Our group and many others walked in and chose our seats on the benches, that served us and grownups on Sundays. There was scarcely a piece of real school furniture in the room. But I'm sure the School Directors were present and giving purpose and dignity to the meeting. They were men of education and business ability and they knew what they wanted.

In the beginning it was a subscription school. I suppose the Free School system was soon introduced into the state----perhaps by the carpetbaggers

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and scalawags. Our teacher was Prof. Edward D. Boyd, a Virginian, a graduate of the University of Virginia and had been a soldier in the War Between The States. Now he was reading law when not teaching. He lived at Melwood, out in the two roomed office, in the big yard among the big magnolias.

(Cis, in this story that I'm telling of the opening of our school, I use the pronoun we as tho I was there present. This is misleading. I was perhaps not much past seven; for I think it must have opened in the autumn of 1867. But in the little tales I tell that pronoun is usually correct.)

There was a group of older boys and girls in our community who must now be prepared for college and "finishing school." I fancy Mr. Boyd was selected because of his pre-eminent ability to teach this group. If he could teach beginners as a sort of side line, so much to the good. There were all sorts and conditions---some illiterates.

Mr. Boyd was thoroughly a gentleman and I remember him as a pleasant attractive person socially, because I used to see him at Melwood. His temper was not trained to meet the requirements of his job and sometimes there were scenes. There was a line of cultural training that must have been a rare asset in country schools.

The Friday afternoon exercises were really worthwhile. Then the older boys gave debates, or recited poems and orations of standard value. The older girls wrote essays and read them---some in French. I can see Joanna Green and Patty Ford as they ascended the modest platform, placed their feet correctly, bowed gracefully and looking over the audience---their fellow pupils---gave the subjects of their essays.

We youngsters learned poems---I can recite April Rain; Lines To a Water Fowl; The Death of the Flowers; and oh, so many others, garnered from

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the old McGuffey's Fifth Reader. We had to write compositions and read them; but we merely stood up in front of the other pupils. And so a few sessions passed. It was a period as I remember it of happy, wholesome life; clean and normal, with social distinctions giving no trouble (and that was not a bad thing).

Of course we staid all day. In good weather ate our dinner from baskets or tin buckets as we sat in the pleasant shady yard in groups, boys with boys and girls with girls. In bad weather we were crowded in the house; and how Mr. Boyd must have exercised self control! Then Mr. Boyd was absent one session, perhaps attending a law course.

Dates mean nothing to my memory but no doubt his older students, those prepared for college work--Dick Blount, Morris Johnson, maybe Henry Grider and others---had entered the University of Virginia. The year of his absence his place was filled by Mr. R. J. Williams. He also was a law student and many years later was a circuit or district judge, and made his home in Forrest City. He was satisfactory as a country school teacher I suppose; and his pupils liked him. The most interesting event during Mr. Williams' year as superintendent was the building of a real academy.

It was not far from our first school home and fronted on the Spring Creek road. We watched it rise in the dignity of a two story frame building. It was well along when an accidental fire destroyed it. But in spite of increased expense and delay, it was ready for the next fall opening with Mr. Boyd as superintendent again. The main first floor was the school hall, and there were recitation rooms with a narrow hall between, in front. Over the school room proper was Myrtle Hall. I can't remember ever going up those stairs.

(The "real academy" that she referred to here was the result of the organization of the Phillips

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Academy Educational Association in 1869. The incorporators of this Association were John T. Jones, Richard A. Blount, Amos G. Jarman, Peter K. Ford, and Nathaniel A. Longley. The capital stock of the Association was set at $5,000, with 200 shares of $25 each to be sold. About $3,300 of the proposed $5,000 was finally subscribed. This was to be a college, and would be built close to the existing building of Phillips Academy, its purpose to give a "most complete and thorough course of instruction in the Learned Arts, Sciences and Belles Letters..." Deed Record Book W, Page 536.

The school property consisted of 14 acres near the intersection of the Helena to Spring Creek and (Barton) Roads, a part of the Blount place which the owner had sold for this purpose. DRB W, Page 653. The building was almost completed and was already in use when it was destroyed by fire on February 17, 1871, the same day that Helena suffered a disastrous fire and tornado. The Phillips Academy Educational Association never recovered from the damage done to its financial condition by the loss of the building, and the added burden of building a new school on the old foundations was too great a strain. After defaulting on two mortgages, the property was sold at public auction in early 1874. DRB Y, Page 243; DRB YY, Page 10; Chancery Court Book H, Pages 303, 405.)

But our Blackfoot neighborhood was civic minded and patriotic---with its ladies bearing their full share. The Myrtle Hall Association preceded the United Daughters of the Confederacy by many, many years; and its work in part, opened the way for the U. D. C. Myrtle Hall itself served many needs in our neighborhood's public life.

And it was in our school hall on its smooth good floor that Miss Annie Jones used to coach us in dancing; and here all the grownup dancing parties were held. Some of the little boys and girls used to go when the mothers, aunts and others went to

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take charge of refreshments and act as chaperones. These times were high lights in our lives.

For some forgotten reason my attendance was very irregular that last year of Mr. Boyd's teaching; it may have been attacks of chills and fever or other malarial ailments. But I remember a class of beginners in French. I was one member and while I made poor progress, it was a lot of fun.

Paul and Kennedy Jones, Clarence and Thurston Gist were at Sewanee (or went the next year more probably). Lucy Smizer had returned to her relatives in Columbia, Tennessee. Patty Ford and Joanna Green were grown, or at least out of school, so not many remained. Albert had gone to Aberdeen and was in school with Archie and Sue Turner Sale. I was younger than some of those remaining and we were all 'teen agers more or less.

An Episcopal clergyman, Rev. John Gordon, taught one more term in Phillips Academy. He and his wife and little adopted daughter lived in the front rooms and he held church services in the big, nice school room on Sunday. He was all right as a teacher so far as I remember, and they were both pleasant socially; but he only staid a year.

Then Phillips Academy as a seat of learning so to speak, ceased to exist. Not long after, it was bought by Mr. Richardson who with his wife and two sons, Bryant, a successful farmer, and Dr. W. M., a young country doctor, established a comfortable home in the erstwhile Academy. The work of Myrtle Hall Association ceased, but in after years it was renewed by the U. D. C. in at least one phase.

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(The Phillips County Memorial Association which was responsbile for starting and developing the Confederate Cemetery, was organized at Phillips Academy in 1869. Since the new cemetery at Helena

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--Evergreen, later Maple Hill-- was being graded and made into a place of beauty in this same year, it was decided to have the Confederate Cemetery at the same place.)

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MEMBERS SINCE DECEMBER, 1974

*Sustaining

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THE ROAD NORTH FROM HELENA

By

Dale P. Kirkman

The road to the St. Francis River, Phillips Bayou, and beyond is a route of much historic interest, passing through land which was settled at an early date. Included here is a modern map with some of the old points of interest marked on it. This is not an attempt to show comprehensive land ownership of any era on the route north from Helena. In fact, it is entirely possible that the route itself was not exactly as it is today.

Eighteen Spanish Grants were confirmed that lie in present day Phillips County. Another Grant, known as Private Survey #2411, is now in Lee County. This Grant was originally a 640 acre tract, on a part of which the community of Phillips Bayou is located. P. S. 2411 was confirmed to Sylvanus Phillips as assignee of Silas Bailey under Acts of Congress of 1813 and 1814, on the basis of possessing, inhabiting, and cultivating the property in 1803 in his own person and by himself or others until 1613.

Phillips had a mill house which was probably at the place at Phillips Bayou, according to early road descriptions. However, P. S. 2384, shown on the map as lying next to the Mississippi River, has been called the Phillips homeplace. This was the place at which the English traveler, Fortesque Cuming, reported having stopped in 1808 and talked with “one Phillips of North Carolina."

The Spanish Grants in our area extend in a southwardly line from Phillips Bayou, running east of the ridge through Helena to the base of the ridge, and then turn in a westwardly direction out the route of what we know as the Little Rock Road.

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At various times in his life, Phillips owned in part or in whole about eleven or twelve of them.

It is not possible to say with certainty how the old roads of the county lay in respect to present day roads. County work that in later years fell to the part of the County Court, in early days was proposed at the Court of Common Pleas of Phillips County, held at Helena. The first road proposed in these parts was from Helena to the settlements at Sugar Creek, dated Court of Common Pleas, January 17, 1821. (See upper left part of map.) The next road proposed, recorded on the same page, was from Helena by way of the St. Francis River to the residence of Benjamin Fooy at Hopefield, opposite Memphis. At the May Term of Court, 1821, the descriptions of the roads to Sugar Creek and to Fooy's seemed to be one and the same.

By September, 1822 Term of Court, most of the road from Helena to Sugar Creek had been established. One would be inclined to think that this road, at least in part, was what we variously call the Big Springs Road, Holly Street, the Sterling Road, and the road to Phillips Bayou. The map of Old Helena, dated December, 1820, copies of which went out with one of our earlier Quarterlies, seemed to make provision, even in that year, for the Big Springs Road to enter town; that is to say, that the blocks are drawn in a different manner at that point as if to accommodate the route of the road.

The town of Sterling was on the St. Francis River as is Phillips Bayou. Sterling occupied part of the Mary Edwards Spanish Confirmation, #2389, at the mouth of the St. Francis River, and it is thought that the east part of the settlement went into the Mississippi River.

It is hard to determine the exact lifespan of Sterling. According to postal records, it was a

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post office as early as 1848 and was discontinued as such in 1866. It appeared on Colton's 1854 Map of Arkansas, on an 1860 Augustus Mitchell map, and on a Civil War map of Admiral D. D. Porter. By 1878, a Department of the Interior map of Arkansas showed Mouth of St. Francis as a settlement but not Sterling.

The first mention of Sterling in County Court records was in 1842. Existing tax rolls of Phillips County use the name as early as 1840. Judging from clues provided by the tax rolls, Sterling may have been developed by the Martin family. From 1840 through 1850, parcels of land that made up the acreage of the Mary Edwards Confirmation where Sterling was located, were taxed under the following names: Edmund H. Martin; Beer, Steever, and Martin (nonresident); Moore & Martin; William Martin and Mary C. Dillingham; William Martin, administrator of James D. White Estate; William M. Bostwick (husband of Elizabeth Martin), administrator of Martha A. White Estate. Two other Martins owned Sterling town lots.

Sterling was platted as a townsite with lots to be sold. The tax rolls of 1847, 1849, and 1850 are instructive. Though the lot numbers listed go as high as #585 (1849), the most complete ownership list (1850) only named twelve lots by number: 34, 38, 146, 152, 159, 220, 221, 222, 229, 323, 324, and 325. Owning lots with improvements in Sterling in 1847 were: T. M. Jacks, E. W. Leverett, Miller & Boyd, Littleton Martin, and Albertis Wilkins. Listed for 1849 were: David Boyd, T. M. Jacks, Phillip Miller, Sam Royal, Mrs. S. Martin, Littleton Martin, and Lindsey Wright. Lots were owned in Sterling in 1850 by the first four mentioned in 1849 plus Jno. G. Nealy, W. W. Odle, Nicholas Rightor, and John Preston, Jr.

Taking 1840 as the founding date of Sterling, some of the acreage in the Mary Edwards Confirmation

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was valued at $10 an acre and some at $50 an acre. By 1850, the $10 acreage had dropped in value to $3 an acre, and the $50 acreage was worth about $8 an acre. Unimproved lots in Sterling in 1850 varied from a value of $10 to $67, and improved lots in 1849 and 1850 ranged from $100 to $600 in value.

Whether Sterling was started as a place to benefit from the steamboat trade on the St. Francis and Mississippi Rivers, or to benefit from the lumber trade in various ways, or for some other reason, is a good question. There were many woodyards which serviced boats up and down the river, one of which was located on the Dunn family property at Walnut Bend above the mouth of the St. Francis River. There were stave making groups in the area as late as the beginning of the Civil War, as it was found to be more profitable to cut and form them in this country and ship them to France for wine barrels, than to produce them in France.

County Court records have several references to the start of trade at Sterling. Joseph Wallen petitioned the Court in 1845 for a license to keep a public ferry across the Mississippi River from Sterling for twelve months and was granted this. The license was passed to Martin Powers several months later. In 1848, this ferry license was granted to Jefferson O'Neal. Several licenses were granted in 1844 and 1845 for individuals to keep grocery stores and retail ardent and vinous spirits. The recipients of these were Boyd Bell, John E. Royal, Edward W. Leverett, and Vachel Dillingham. Some licenses were granted to retail ardent spirits in less quantities than a quart.

The 1840s were the years in which Sterling seemed to prosper. Overseers were appointed to work on and keep up the road from Helena there, and to oversee the road that led from Sterling to intersect the road from Phillips Bayou to J. S. McKiel's. A new road was planned from Sterling to Walnut Bend.

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As the years passed, many of the people who had places near Sterling moved into Helena--the Hornors, Sebastians, Wilkins, and others. Some of the farmland near Sterling was considered undesirable as compared to other areas. Baker Sparkman, who lived at the mouth of the St. Francis River until a few years ago, remarked once that the site of his house was at the center of the old town of Sterling and that his grandmother had planted the cedar trees which still stood there.

Captain Benjamin A. Porter lived at and owned a mill near the Stamp Creek Bridge at least as early as 1840 and probably much earlier than this. His son, George Porter, had a place in the Stillwell Grant in the 1840s and owned property at Sterling. Porter's Lake received its name from Captain Porter.

John S. Hornor had settled at Helena in the 1830s, a late arrival compared to his uncle, William B. R. Hornor, who came to this area in 1811. The John S. Hornor place is not shown fully on this map, but what is shown includes the area where the house stood. A date for the Hornor place would start in the 1840s and extend into this century.

The Hornor family and the Sebastian family were both related to the Dunn family. Senator Sebastian, his wife, and at least one of his children--and perhaps three of them--were buried in unmarked graves in the Dunn Cemetery, which is on a connecting road between the Big Springs-Sterling Road and the present Storm Creek Road. Senator Sebastian was a Union man, but lost his seat in the United States Senate at the beginning of the Civil War because it was thought then that he was a Confederate sympathizer.

For years after Senator Sebastian's death in 1865, his children tried to collect for depredations of Federal troops against the Sebastian place. This case against the government was finally resolved in the Court of Claims in the early years of this

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century. There were many depositions in the Congressional Jurisdiction Case File testifying to what had happened in the raids on the Sebastian place, the first of which had occurred on the day that Federal troops first occupied Helena--July 12, 1862. Major John J. Hornor stated in a deposition that his and his father's home, six miles above Helena, was in sight of the Sebastian home.

Mrs. Sebastian had buried silverware, china, and money in the garden at the Sebastian place. These things had been placed in tin boxes inside of wooden boxes. No doubt, someone engaged in this labor for her, or an observer, told the troops about this, and when they took mules, cattle, oxen, cotton, and everything else handy, they dug up the treasure in the garden. The Sebastian family was not living on the place at the time that this happened, having moved to a house in town a year or two before. The last house was on the site of the old Rembert house on Columbia Street, where a Texaco station now stands.

The Sebastian place had been acquired in the 1840s and 1850s. Following Senator Sebastian's death, the place was put up for sale at public auction to pay his debts, and was bought in 1870 by Dr. A. A. Hornor.

The Pillow Mound place was owned by General Gideon J. Pillow who lived variously in Phillips County, in Maury County, Tennessee, and in Memphis. The place had that name because the house there was built on an Indian mound. Modern Corps of Engineers maps still have symbols of "BM Pillow" and "Mound Place Ldg." General Pillow died at the Mound Place in 1878 (in Lee County by then), and was buried at Memphis.

The names mentioned here are only a few of those who lived in and developed the area north of Helena. That land was put to use at an early date.

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Sources of materials

Corps of Engineers Quadrangle Map, "Latour."

American State Papers Class VIII Public Lands.

Circuit Court Record Book A,

County Court Record Books A and B.

Tax Rolls of Phillips County, 1839-1860.

Congressional Jurisdiction Case File #10082.

Postal records for Phillips County.

Miss Dorothy James; James A. Tappan.

Conversations with Tully Hornor III, Jerdie Lambert, Jr., C. L. Moore, T. E. Tappan, Mrs. Carolyn Turman, and Baker Sparkman.

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THE 28th WISCONSIN INFANTRY REGIMENT AT HELENA: IV

Letters of Captain Edward S. Redington, Company D

Helena, Ark., May 14, 1863.

Dear Mary:

When I last wrote you, we were on the eve of starting back in the country. The detachment was composed of our regt. and the 33rd Iowa Infantry, with a hundred and fifteen men from the 3rd Iowa Cavalry, and two pieces of the Dubuque Battery. Another detachment acting in concert with us, was made up of the 5th Kansas, the 5th Illinois, and the 1st Indiana, all Cavalry, making in all about 1200 men with three small steel rifled Howitzers. Our detachment numbered near one thousand men.

We took what is called the Little Rock turnpike and the others the St. Francis road. We went on without anything to break the monotony of the march for the first day (hearing occasionally of Guerillas but never seeing one) and having marched eighteen miles, camped for the night about as tired a lot of men as one could wish to see. The country we passed was desolation itself. The road ran through one continued series of plantations of the best land in the world, all deserted, not an acre under cultivation. The houses were almost all empty, and when anyone was to be seen, it was the wife and children of some poor white trash (as they call them here) who wither voluntarily or involuntarily were in the Rebel army, and were obliged to stay from sheer necessity. The poor things looked frightened to death, and well they might be, for many of the troops, especially the Kansas regit. was composed of men who had their homes spoiled by the raids of the Rebels and have about as much feeling for a Secesh as a wolf has for a lamb.

We camped in a lot near a small brook, and

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proceeded to help ourselves to beef out of a drove of cattle near by (shooting some eight or ten for that purpose). By request of Maj. Gray I mounted a horse and started off with him, in company with fifteen or twenty cavalry through the woods to see about a bridge, said to want repairing some two miles off. We started off at a good gallop, through the woods, over logs and through the mud. After riding about a mile, my horse made a blunder and brought up against my leg, and the leg against a tree, standing just in the wrong place. The tree got the worst of it, for my knee knocked the bark off clean, and stood it first rate. It was not badly hurt and we went on until we brought up at a house, where there were four women but no men. We found we were on the wrong track and put back to camp, which we reached just at dark and were soon all fast asleep.

Some of the men did not rest well, for I found in the morning, that a hive of honey and several chickens and ducks had found their way into camp from the same plantation we visited in the woods. They somehow were drawn irresistably toward our camp. We were all up before light and got our breakfast, and were ready to start at sunrise. A good many of the boys made up awful looking faces when they tried to walk but soon got over it. I was all right except my knee which felt rather stiff, but before night that was all gone and I felt it no more after.

We had several alarms the second day; the first just after noon. My company was rear guard of the Infantry, but we had another of Cavalry about twenty rods farther back of some twenty men. We heard three or four shots in quick succession, when the Cavalry came rushing up and said we were attacked in the rear. I immediately formed my company for an attack, and waited for some minutes, and as no one came in sight, went on after the train; my place being to guard the wagons.

By this time the alarm had got to the front and

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and the column all formed for battle. Some men were sent back to the rear, and we soon found that the cause of the alarm was from some half dozen Rebels in our rear, shooting a man that had followed us out from Helena for the purpose of plunder. Some Rebels happened to see him and popped him over. We had some half dozen alarms all ending in smoke, when having traveled twenty miles we camped near a house. Just before getting there we came across a flock of sheep, the real long legged kind, which made it very troublesome to catch them, but we managed to get two for our company--that made us very comfortable for meat.

We met a woman from Fayette County Wisconsin, that had started for Arkansas to get the body of her son, who was killed there. When we went up White River, she very foolishly thought they would let her pass through, but she was mistaken. The Rebels took her horses the first night, and everything she had, except the metallic coffin. She was here today, and we have raised enough money to send her home. She will probably go back with less confidence in the Rebels than she had when she came down here. We passed a few fields of wheat today, perhaps altogether a hundred acres, and maybe as many acres planted with corn and one little patch of cotton, all else was a dreary waste.

The third day out we struck the open country, beautifully varied by groves of timber and prairie, with no inhabitants, or very scattering. They say the prairies are not good lands, but I do not believe it. They look as good as any North. There were large droves of fine cattle, so we had plenty of beef. We caught some three or four more Guerillas today, among them the quartermaster and a Captain of Col. Dobbins' regt. who is ahead of us somewhere, and we have hopes of bringing him at bay tomorrow.

We had a big alarm today and formed a line of

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battle in approved military style, and waited with beating hearts for the appearance of an enemy. It soon turned out to be a part of the rear guard who had got a little behind and were coming on at a gallop, kicking up quite a dust. I had begun to think, that the Cavalry were a set of cowardly scamps, and opinion now fully confirmed after seeing them perform. I tell you a man hates to stand and fight with four good legs under him, that he knows will carry him out of dangers and they won't do it sure.

We camped the third night in a grove on a beautiful prairie and nothing disturbed us, except a big rattlesnake six feet long, which was soon dispatched. Once in the night some sneaking _?_ fired at one of our pickets but did no damage. In the morning we started on, and about noon a Cavalry man came rushing back, saying that a column of the enemy were approaching. We got ready for another fight but it proved to be another scare, being part of the other detachment, driving some cattle into the camp. The two roads meeting at this place. They had been scouring the country to our left without finding any enemy and happened to meet us at this point.

We all started on in the morning and after a three miles march brought up at a deep stream, called Bayou Devon (De View?) and could not cross. The point we were aiming at was Cotton Plant, some five miles from here, and said to be the rendevous of all the Guerillas in the country. But we could not get across without losing too much time, as which we could not well afford to do, seeing we had but six days rations on the start, four of which were gone.

We turned around now, being about seventy miles from Helena. Col. Clayton with the Cavalry took a road by a place called Madison. We came back by the same road for two days when we turned to the North and camped. We got news in the night, that Col. Clayton had come across Marmaduke on his retreat from Missouri, and had a brush with him. Finding them too

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many for him, had crossed the river in the night and left. He had two men killed and some wounded. If we had all been together, we could have cleaned them out easily.

Today we destroyed as much as ten thousand bushels of corn; as orders were to destroy all we did not want. We have also taken all of the mules and horses, so there is not one left in the country. We marched to within twelve miles of Helena and sent in for rations and instructions. We got orders at two P. M. to come into town, which we executed by marching in at seven o'clock. The last part of the march was the hardest of the whole; as we came toward town everything was flooded and the mud was plenty. We were glad enough to get into our tents, but were not half as tired as on the first days march; and in the morning everyone was ready for duty, in fact much better than when we started.

You cannot conceive of the desolation of the country through which we passed in the march of 140 miles. I do not think there is 1000 acres that is under crop. They have no teams to put in any with, and what the poor creatures are to exist on is more than I can tell. It is hard to see old men and women that were worth three or four years ago from $100,000 to $500,000 reduced to beggars, living on corn meal ground in a coffee mill with scarcely anything besides, only meat. No tea or coffee or anything in shape of the necessities of life. They have nothing left to get away with, if they wanted to but where would they go to and be any better off is the question. Truly the way of the transgressor is hard. We had lots of fun on the trip once in a while some of the women would give us a free lecture on matters in general, and Abolition in particular, but most of them were friendly and all terribly scared.

I have got to go and lay out a new camp, and will try and get time this afternoon to finish this

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letter. When we got back we got lots of news, among which was the taking of Richmond, Port Hudson and in fact nearly all of the Confederacy, all of which we received with much caution, not placing much reliance on anything we heard. It has turned out about as I supposed it would, but as Gen. Fiske remarked todays: "If we have not got them, we can take them any time we want them."

One of the boys from the 29th Regt. was here today and says the 29th was in the fight at Grand Gulf, and lost 75 men and that the Regt. was on the march to Jackson when he left. We got news today that this is the day fixed on to make another attempt on Vicksburg on both sides. We shall wait with much anxiety for news, until we hear the result. We seem to have struck a lucky streak and if followed up, may close the thing up soon. We seem to be a fixture in this place and I think we shall stay here all summer. We move our camp in a day or two on the bank of the river, it being considered much the healthiest place. The only water fit to use, is the river water, and there is always a breeze or nearly so on the river bank.

I found a letter from you when I returned, and from it I infer, you have written some, I have not received. You spoke about writing about (your) mother's sickness, and you said nothing about receiving any money, so I think you must have written some I have not received. A mail boat was burned between Cairo and Memphis and perhaps your letter was burnt with it. You want to know if I want anything sent, you have anticipated every want.

We can buy most of the things we need, but have to pay high. Butter is 50 cts. a pound, eggs have been 50 cts. per dozen, but can be had for 25 now. I bought three bushels of potatoes yesterday for $1.25 a bushel but no one but officers can buy them, and we have to certify that they are for our own use. Private dealers ask $3.50 a bushel for

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them. I believe that in my last I mentioned about the money Gill paid you. If you get a chance to send, you had better spend it for quinine, that is if you do not give it back to the donors. You must use your own judgment about that.

Capt. White is sick and has applied for a furlough. He will most likely start for home by the next boat. I do not see as there is any chance for me to get sick. I walked every mile of the road we went over, and grew better every day. I suppose if I were to get sick I should want to get home terribly, but it seems now as if I would not give a straw to be at home unless I could be well, so that I could enjoy it.

It is late and I must lay myself down, I will not call it going to bed. Somehow my tent never seemed so lonesome as it does tonight. Writing to you makes me so want to see you all that it seems as though I must go home anyway. I shall be very anxious on mother's account until I hear from you again and more on your account, for fear you will make yourself sick in trying to do too much in taking care of her. It does seem as though she had been sick enough, so that she ought to live the remainder of her days in peace. Now my dear one Good Night and may you sleep as sweet as I shall.

May 16 -

We are having very nice weather, not uncomfortably warm, and the nights delightfully cool. We never have any like it North but I suppose we shall have to pay for it before long.

We have rumors this morning, that Price and Marmaduke have joined their forces and are marching on this place, but I guess it is all bosh. But let them come if they want to, I think they will be glad to get away again.

Have you your garden made? How did your

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strawberries and grapes winter? And is your shrubbery all broken down? I want to know about everything. You spoke of buying the cow. I hardly know how to advise in the matter. The cost of keeping is full what a quart of milk would be besides the trouble. If you have a good girl that you can rely on staying, perhaps the best plan would be to buy one. It is much better for the children to have plenty of milk and often a great help to you to give them bread and milk for a meal, when you do not feel like cooking. You will have to judge for yourself in the matter.

I want all the children to write, every one of them and as soon as I get the new camp made and we get moved, I will write to each of them, the dear little creatures. Kiss all the children for me and take lots of love to yourself.

Yours

Edward.

***

Helena, Ark., May 22, 1863.

Dear Mary:

Two of my men are coming home this morning and I improve the opportunity of sending a few lines although I do not think I ought to write another word to you for two months to pay you off for not being more prompt in answering. I have not heard from you in over two weeks. I had started writing early this morning but finally waited until the mail came in hopes to get a letter but waited in vain and was mad as a hornet. I feel more anxious to hear on mother's account, and knowing how sick she was and that you were taking care of her. I have been very uneasy for fear you would overwork yourself and be sick yourself, and not hearing from you makes it almost amount to a certainty. Let me hear from you if you cannot write but a line.

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Col. Lewis got back three days since looking first rate and he says Capt. Williams means to come in a few days but thinks he cannot stand it and that he had advised him to resign. Capt. Townsend is also at home as I received a letter from him yesterday saying he would get to Whitewater in a day or two and would call on you. Col. Whittaker will go home in a day or two; he has tendered his resignation but has not yet heard anything from it and is now trying to get leave of absence, but he says he will go anyway, if he does he will be dismissed from the service, so the place will be vacant.

There is and has been lots of figuring for the position and I think the thing is bound to kick up a mess in the regiment the best way you fix it, and I am afraid will seriously affect the regt. It seems that Capt. White has been figuring for a promotion from the Governor ever since the organization of our regt. and in all probability will be commissioned Major. If he is five of the Captains will resign and if their resignations are not accepted will do as Col. Whittaker says he will do, go home anyway. I should hate very much to quit the service in such a way but had rather than stay here and not have our rights respected.

I was offered yesterday a Colonel's commission in one of the black regts. that are raising; at least was offered the influence of every General in Helena and that amounts to about the same thing as the appointment. If Capt. White is made Major I shall wish I had taken it. What would you think of my taking such a place, providing I had another chance, and tell me just how it looks to you.

The drums are beating Assembly for Battalion drill and I shall have to close, but if I can get time before night to write more will do so.

In one of your letters you wanted to know how much I had to pay on the boxes and barrels. The

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last box cost nothing and I shall be out on the others not far from $20. There were several of the men away at Memphis and other places so I sent their things to them, and of course was out the cost on them. If any of them ever get back I shall get it again, but several of them are discharged and the rest will be I think, so I consider it gone up. I received a letter from George yesterday and he has bought me a watch, paying $35. for it. Good Bye. Yours in haste,

Edward.

***

Helena, Ark., May 22, 1863.

My dear son Willie:

I was going to write more to your mama, but have concluded to write to you. I have come in from Battalion drill and feel pretty tired, but still I think I will take the time while George is getting dinner to write you, but I have lots to do this afternoon. First I have to go down town for transportation papers for Mr. Calkins and Rodgers so they can start home today; then we have to go on drill at two o'clock and drill until five, then I have all my company business to attend to; so you see my time is employed every minute.

I wish that I knew what you were doing today. I rather think you are in school learning to be a man one of these days. You must always be at the head of your class and get the name of being the best boy in the town, then I would feel proud of you. I know you can be and know you will.

You must see that the things are taken care of well in the garden and yard. I expect you will have a first rate garden so that if I should happen home this Summer you will have lots of good vegetables for me to eat.

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I have just heard while I have been writing this that Haines bluff at Vicksburg is taken with 9,000 prisoners, but hardly believe it is so. If it is they will have Vicksburg in a few days. Write to me as soon as you get this.

Your father.

***

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HISTORIC HELENA HOME

By

Stelle C. Young

This article first appeared in the Sunday Magazine Section of the Arkansas Gazette on June 22, 1941.

Belle Howard McKenzie is Helena's oldest woman citizen, having celebrated her ninetieth birthday on Christmas Day, 1940. She lives in Helena's oldest residence. There may be other houses which were built in part before this one, but this house was built complete as it now stands in the same year that Mrs. McKenzie was born, making it also more than 90 years old. Belle McKenzie came to this house as a bride when she married Mr. McKenzie in September, 1874, and she has lived there nearly 67 years.

The house is most interesting, but not as interesting as its owner. Belle Howard McKenzie is the daughter of Angelina Hartin and William Irving Howard. Her parents came to Phillips County in 1831, bringing all their possessions on a flatboat, and settled on a farm near the St. Francis River, nine miles north of the village of Helena. This part of the state was then a wilderness, but some families had settled near the river, since the people of that time usually moved their entire possessions, either by buying a boat of their own, or building a flatboat and loading their families, slaves, furniture and livestock on it and floating it down behind a boat.

It was on this farm that Belle Howard was born on Christmas Day, 1850. She remembers that during the War Between the States nearly all the families living in this area went to Texas, but her family remained, and immediately after the war, in

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1865, Belle was sent to Helena to a convent, which was run by the Sisters of Mercy; she also attended a school on North Ohio Street which was conducted by two maiden ladies named Black, but even with these schools, Mrs. McKenzie says she did not get much education. She has never missed an opportunity to improve herself and she thinks that children of this day and age should be very intellectual, since they have so many opportunities to learn. Despite this lack of early schooling, she writes a perfect hand which looks like printing or fine script. She also studied the French and Norwegian languages when she was visiting in these countries.

She is a woman of medium build, with keen blue eyes which she says are growing weak now because she uses them so much reading, both day and night. Her mind is still keen, and she laughs and jokes a good deal and can always see the funny side of things. She has a fine intelligent face that is remarkably free from wrinkles for one of her age, and when she smiles her face lights up and she looks much younger than she is.

Someone asked her how she passes the time, and she said it just flies by; she reads several daily papers, some magazines and an occasional book. She keeps up with what is going on and her favorite columnist is Ernie Pyle, because he is visiting many towns which she has visited, and she likes to read what he has to say about them. She says she knows she is getting old, as she frequently can't recall a name she wants to, but listening to her one can hardly believe that she is in her ninety-first year. She is stone deaf now, and one must write the questions he wishes to ask her, but she likes to talk of her travels, both in this country and abroad.

In September, 1874, Belle Howard married James H. McKenzie, whose ancestors came over from Scotland and settled in North Carolina, his parents coming to Phillips County in 1817. They were

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married in Helena and went to St. Louis on a wedding trip, and one of Mrs. McKenzie's few regrets is that a beautiful diamond ring that Mr. McKenzie bought for her on this trip later was stolen. There being no jewelry store in Helena, he could not get her a ring sooner.

Mr. McKenzie took his bride to the home she now occupies, Mrs. McKenzie says that when she married her dream and constant prayer was that she would have children, but she was not granted this privilege and it has always been a great sorrow to her that she has no one of her own. After the World War she took a French boy and kept him for two years and kept up a correspondence with him for a number of years later. Her only living relatives now are second and third cousins, with whom she corresponds in other parts of the country.

In 1887, Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie made their first trip to England and Scotland, and they spent six months, much of the time hunting up the history of the McKenzie clan. One man told them their name would take them all over Scotland, but Mrs. McKenzie said she would rather trust her pocketbook, however, she was pleased to read only the past week that Ernie Pyle says the Scots are not stingy but most generous.

In 1890, Mr. McKenzie died, leaving his widow a small inheritance. She proved herself an able business woman and made investments which have increased until she is considered one of the wealthiest people in Helena.

In 1898, Mrs. McKenzie went back to Europe, where she stayed six months on the continent and studied the French language. She was not satisfied with a mere glance at things, but spent these months absorbing knowledge and culture to be found there. In 1902, she went to Scandinavia and spent eight months, here she studied the Norwegian language and later visited Sweden and Denmark and spent some

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time on a farm in Norway.

Mrs. McKenzie is a modest woman, despite the fact that she lived in a fine old house filled with valuable antique furniture and silver, much of which is over 100 years old; she always dressed simply and frugally; she worked hard, and saved every dime she could and invested it. After her husband died she decided to save her money until she had enough to do something worthwhile for orphans and old people.

Early in 1938 she sent one day for Dr. W. C. Russwurm, who had been her doctor and friend for many years. She told him that she had read in the paper that they needed an annex to the Helena Hospital, and if they could build it for $25,000, she would give the money. Dr. Russwurm told her that they needed and planned to build an entirely new hospital. She said that that amount would not build a hospital. The doctor was more than surprised at this offer, for although he knew she had money he also knew how she saved and refused to buy things even for herself. A few weeks later he visited her again and asked her if she really meant what she said about giving $25,000, and her reply was, "I never say things I don't mean." Dr. Russwurm laid before her his plan to use this gift to inspire others to give, and thereby raise a fund of $50,000 which with a government loan, would make the hospital possible. She approved of this, but insisted that some of the rooms be made cheap enough for poorer people to use them. The beautiful new Helena Hospital which now stands on Crowley Ridge between Helena and West Helena, is a credit to the community and to this generous woman.

Mrs. McKenzie is very proud of her old home, although she is unable to keep it up as it once was, since she is an invalid and never leaves her room. From a historical standpoint, she has a right to be proud of it, as it is believed that it is the only house in this vicinity to be built as

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it stands today.

A few months before Mrs. McKenzie was born, a Mr. Hicks, a man of means who had a large plantation outside of Helena, built for a wedding present for his daughter a beautiful home on Ohio Street. The entire work of building as well as making all of the material was done by the slaves from the Hicks plantation. The bricks are handmade and the lumber cut from the plantation. The main walls are of brick and huge timbers form the foundation, the floor planks are two and a half inches thick and handmade shutters still hang at the windows. The yard was landscaped and planted with magnolia and cedar trees, but these were later killed by flood waters standing in the yard too long. The house has 10 rooms with a center hall and fireplaces in every room. It originally was beautifully furnished; some of these pieces were purchased from the original owner, and both Mr. and Mrs. McKenzie added heirloom pieces from their own collection. In 1902, while Mrs. McKenzie was in Norway, thieves broke in the house and stole silver, china and some of the furniture. Later a robber came in, beat Mrs. McKenzie and stole most of her jewelry, including the diamond ring bought on her wedding trip. It was after this robbery that she decided to move upstairs and rent out the lower part of the house.

When she decided to rent, she had to dispose of some of her furniture, as most tenants either had their own or wanted more modern furniture. She sold a four-poster bed that took 10 men to move it. The house still contains some fine old pieces, although her room is almost bare, with only the things she needs each day. For four years she has been confined to her bed and she does not want her room crowded, so she moved most of the furniture out. Her room is a contrast to the room across the hall, which is beautifully furnished with a bedroom suite of fine old walnut, two handsome wardrobes, several fine tables and chairs and a floral

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patterned Brussels carpet. In the halls she has a fine old sideboard, a secretary bookcase and a square piano. Practically all of this furniture was brought here many years ago by boat. She has stored some fine china, but most of this was stolen.

Mrs. McKenzie's memory is a storehouse of information of things that happened in the early days of Helena and surrounding country. She remembers not only what she saw, but many things her mother told her of earlier days and has some articles to show of these times. One of these is a gravy boat of very fine china, it is white with a band of delicate green around it and has instead of a handle the head and neck of a small animal. This gravy boat came off of a boat, the General Brown, that landed at Helena in 1838. A group of men were standing on what was then the main street of Helena when they looked down and saw a boat landing; this group went down, as it was a fine new boat, making its first trip up the river. They went on board to inspect it and a few minutes later the boiler exploded, killing many of the passengers as well as several of the Helena men. The wounded were carried to the homes of Helena and the dead buried on Reservoir Hill. The injured people were nursed back to health and continued their trip on a later boat. This gravy boat was one of the souvenirs picked up from the debris.

Belle Howard McKenzie is a descendant of the Howards of Virginia, and she regrets that she cannot see the motion picture of that family. She loves to have visitors, but when she first became bedridden she did not want people to see her; she has got over that, and says people have to take her as she is. She has a servant who lives with her and takes care of her, but she still lives frugally and refuses to be taken to the hospital which she has made possible for others. She says she still has some ideas about what she wants to do for the town, but will not give out any information about them until she has worked them out.

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THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Mrs. J. W. Johnston of Berkeley, California recently sent a number of original watercolors to be sold at the Almer Store to benefit the Historical Society. Mrs. Johnston is the former Virginia Burke of Helena. We appreciate her generosity.

Bill Tappan of Corrales, New Mexico gave a gift to the Historical Society in memory of Mrs. J. C. Barlow.

Mrs. Fred Crum of West Memphis gave an issue of the Ulster County (N. Y.) Gazette, dated January 4, 1800, to the Historical Society and Museum, where it is now displayed. The newspaper is filled with eulogies to the late General Washington, and it is in a case with a letter from General Lafayette to the Honorable Andrew R. Govan, M. C.

We had a very interesting program in February, and an excellent attendance. Ben Davison, of Marvell, spoke of the early history of Marvell and some of the surrounding communities. He has been collecting information for many years, knows his subject well, and enjoys sharing it with others. He plans publication of a history of Marvell as a Bi-Centennial project.

350 copies of the 1904 Special Edition of the Helena World were printed in December, as our December Quarterly. The extra ones were sold in less than two weeks. 100 additional copies were printed, and these have been sold.

Dues for 1975-1976 are payable as of May 1, 1975. Dues are $5.00 for a regular membership and $10.00 for a sustaining membership. Please mail checks to the Treasurer, Mrs. C. M. T. Kirkman, 806 McDonough St., Helena, Arkansas 72342.

The Historical Society has a total of 244 members at this time.

***

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