Flashforward Published by The Washington County Historical Society 118 East Dickson Street * Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 April 2015 Whole Number 82

PRESERVING OUR PAST FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Presents The Civil War Battle of Fayetteville History Day - April 18, 2014 1:00 pm until 3:30 pm

1:00 Lecture --- Tim Nutt “Laying the Foundation for War: Washington County, Arkansas Before the Battle of Fayetteville on April 18, 1863” 1:30 Heritage School Program Honoring Arkansas’s Ratification of the 13th Amendment 2:00 until 3:00 Tours of Headquarters House

Remembering E. B. Harrison By Jerry Hogan

Michigan born E. B. (Elizur Butler) Harrison first came to Fayetteville in 1862 as part of the occupying Union Army com- manded by his older brother M. Larue Harrison. The following spring, on April 18, 1863, E. B. Harrison sounded the early morning alarm that alerted his brother’s Union forces that Rebel troops were streaming into town ready to take it back for the Confederacy. Around 9 a.m. that fateful morning, Lt. E. B. Harrison was an eyewitness, and combatant, when Colonel James Monroe led his First Arkansas Confederate Cavalry on its daring charge up what is now Dickson Street. The Rebels were met with withering Union rifle and pistol fire in the action that gave the corner of Dickson and College Avenue its name “Bloody Corner.” Taking considerable casualties, the Confederates turned back south and raced to safety across the grounds of burned down Arkansas College (where the First Christian Church stands today). E. B. Harrison At the time of the battle, Lt. Harrison had been staying in the former home of the Reverend William Baxter (last president of Arkansas College) directly across the street from Headquarters House, which still stands today and is the home of the Washington County Historical Society. During the fighting several local women were in the Baxter house when a rebel cannonball crashed through the walls and would have exploded had it not landed in a bucket of lye which put out the fuse on the projectile. One of the women saved by that stroke of good fortune was Sara (aka Sallie) Yeater, daughter of a Confederate family residing in Fayetteville. Late the following year, on December 8, 1864, E. B. Harrison and Miss Yeater were married. By war’s end, the now Capt. Harrison and his brother both stayed on in Fayetteville. For older brother M. Larue, however, the stay did not last long. Fayetteville’s first mayor after the Civil War, M. Larue was such an unpopular figure that town officials requested that the state legislature vacate the city’s charter as a way to remove Col. Harrison from office. Col. Harrison went on to lead a survey team in what would become Boone County, whose county seat is named after him. Capt. Harrison, however, had no such trouble in Fayetteville; in fact he became a popular and key figure in the rebuilding and growth of the town after the war. Perhaps his marriage to a local girl helped him fit in, but whatever the reasons his list of accomplishments (only a partial list is given below) is impressive. In 1867 he was appointed Assistant Commissioner of U. S. claims and held the office for 25 years. For seven years he was a collector for internal revenue and for 29 years he was U. S. Commissioner for the Eastern District of the Cherokee Nation, serving under famed Judge Isaac Parker of Ft. Smith. From 1871 to 1873, Capt. Harrison was an Associate Justice for Washington County and from 1884 to 1886 was Fayetteville Postmaster. In 1885 he served on the school board that led the effort to get the North (Washington) School built. He worked to bring the Frisco Railway to town and along with Col. James H. Van Hoose was instrumental in creating the city’s first electric facilities. Capt. Harrison was also a successful businessman, investing in the hardware firm of Jernigan and Botefuhr before buying the store himself and operating it for years on the East side of the Square (approximately where the Palace Theatre stood during the 20th Century). In 1887, he was a founding organizer of the McIlroy Bank and was a charter member of the group that would become the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.

Continued on page 3

2 Remembering E. B. Harrison - Continued During the great fire of September 25, 1894 that burned down the Baum Brothers store next to Harrison’s building on the East side of the Square, Capt. Harrison was knocked unconscious and nearly killed when the third floor of his own store gave way and came crashing down upon him. Capt. Harrison survived that incident and lived to the ripe old age of 92, having been a fixture on the local scene for close to 70 years. As part of Fayetteville’s Centennial celebration in 1928, just four years before his death, Capt. Harrison gave the keynote speech for the unveiling of the Battle of Fayetteville plaque at the corner of Dickson Street and College Avenue. Sallie Yeater, the captain’s bride of more than six decades, passed away July 29, 1927. Although his grave marker lists his death as 1930, Capt. Harrison died on December 31, 1932. He and his wife are buried side by side in Evergreen cemetery in Fayetteville.

Sources: W. S. Campbell, 100 Hundred Years of Fayetteville ; The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture ; Russell L. Mahan, The Battle of Fayetteville, Arkansas ; Fayetteville Daily Democrat , December 31, 1932 Photo Courtesy of the City of Fayetteville Hall of History

WCHS Donates to University of Arkansas Special Collections

A small but enthusiastic crowd met in the parlor of Headquarters House on Wednesday afternoon, March 25, for a donation event. Tim Nutt, WCHS Board Member and Director of Special Collections at the University of Arkansas, received historical materials the WCHS had been given by local donors.

WCHS President Jerry Hogan presented UA Special Collections with a book of photos and biographies of Arkansans who served in World War II titled Fighting Men of Arkansas . The book was donated by Les Haynie, owner of the Blue Moon music store in Fayetteville, whose father William B. Haynie, Jr. is included in the publication. Several scrapbooks donated by Charles Agee from local baseball leg- end Jake Drake, who played professionally and semi-professionally in our area from the 1930s through the 1950s, were also given to UA Special Collections.

Jami Roskamp, representing the Rogers Historical Museum, donated a set of offset plates used to print the WCHS journal Flashback from back in the early 1960s.

Jerry Hogan gave a box of writing materials to add to his collection at the U of A and Martha Hogan Estes presented a box of architectural drawings and other materials of her late husband, local architect and Fayetteville’s first poet laureate, Kirby L. Estes.

Left: Tim Nutt, Jerry Hogan, & Jami Roskamp

Right: Tim Nutt, Martha Estes, & Jerry Hogan

3 LET FREEDOM RING To Honor the Ratification of the 13th Amendment in Arkansas Tuesday - April 14 - Headquarters House 118 East Dickson Street - Fayetteville, AR Mayor Jordan will begin our celebration at 12:45 p. m

On April 14, 2015, the Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission is asking churches, public buildings, educational institutions, and individuals around the state to ring bells 13 times at 1300 hours (1 p.m.) to celebrate passage of the 13th Amendment in Arkansas. WCHS invites you to join us in our celebration.

The 13th Amendment reads as follows: “Neither slavery nor involuntary ser- vitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

The Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission is part of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, an agency of the Depart- ment of Arkansas Heritage. The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program is responsible for identifying, evaluating, registering and preserving the state’s cultural resources.

April 14, 1865

4 Cincinnati Arkansas Heritage Researchers Meeting

On Saturday, March 29, 2015 the Cincinnati Arkansas Heritage Researchers (CAHR) held their monthly meeting at the rebuilt Cincinnati Fire Station. The Fire Station was destroyed by the killer tornado that devastated the small, western Washington County community on New Year’s Eve of 2010.

About twenty people gathered on this past sunny and warm Saturday to share photo- graphs, stories and memories of people, places and events from the local area.

The members of CAHR are dedicated to enthusiastically saving and recording the history of the Cincinnati, Summers and other nearby communities in the western section of Washington County.

Shown below from left to right are: Shirley Martin Spears, vice president of CAHR, presi- dent Samantha Barnes Paul and (with back to camera) Glenita Randolph Guthrie, camera- shy CAHR historian. Glenita, Samantha and possibly other members of CAHR are working on history articles that we may hopefully use in future issues of our Flashback quarterly journal or our Flashforward newsletter.

Tours of Miller-Robb and Rieff’s Chapel Cemeteries by Jerry Hogan

Sunday, March 29, 2015, Farmington local historian Dee Steele Ness and her husband Kenny gave WCHS president Jerry Hogan tours of the historic, yet all but abandoned Miller- Robb Cemetery and the Rieff’s Chapel Cemetery, both of which are west of Interstate-49, southeast of Fayetteville.

The Miller-Robb cemetery, sitting on top of a rise and marked off by a low stone wall, has many fieldstones and two impressive above ground mausoleum-like crypts, but only one marked gravestone.

Barely legible The photograph above shows the above ground site at gravestone of Wm Miller-Robb Cemetery that is reportedly the last resting (William) Rob(b) place of Miller family ancestors of Dee Steele Ness.

5 Tours of Miller-Robb and Rieff’s Chapel Cemeteries continued

Rieff’s Chapel, in contrast to Miller-Robb, is a beautifully cared for cemetery sitting atop a quiet hill. It does, though, have a low rock wall around it similar to Miller-Robb but show- ing signs of recent care.

One of the more interesting gravestones in Rieff’s Chapel Cemetery is that of Oscar L. Rogers who was a member of the Woodmen of the World, a fraternal benefit society founded in the late 1800s.

Rieff’s Chapel Cemetery

Gravestone of

Oscar L. Rogers I would like to thank Dee Steele and Kenny Ness for the tour of these historic cemeteries .

CHICKASAWS ATTED ARKASAS COLLEGE

It is generally known that the children of wealthy Cherokee families attended the early Washington County schools, especially Cane Hill College, the Fayetteville Female Semi- nary, and Ozark Institute at Mt. Comfort. But it was something of a surprise to find the Chickasaws enrolled in Fayetteville's Arkansas College. The following article appeared in the Fayetteville Southwest Independent , Sept. 30 , 1854: Chickasaw Nation A large delegation of young gentlemen from the Chickasaw Nation arrived in town on Monday last for the purpose of entering Arkansas College. We notice among them several who were students at the last term.

There are but few of our readers abroad who are aware of the amount of intelligence, refinement and wealth contained in this nation. It is true they have good Schools among them, but many are sending their children abroad to the best Schools and Colleges in the States, that nothing may be omitted to render their daught ers accomplished and elegant ladies, and their sons well educated gentlemen.

We welcome with pride to our town such delegations as these. And it must be gratifying to any philanthropist to see our neighbor 's of the West entering with so much ardor and zeal into that spirit of progress and improvement which marks the age we live in. .

The students in Arkansas College, from the Chickasaw Nation, at the last session were noted for their orderly and gentlemanly deportment. Reprinted from Flashback Vol. XI, No. 3, August 1961

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Arkansas Statehood Day Sunday, June 14, 2015

Please join us at Headquarters House from 3 until 4:30 pm to celebrate the 179th birthday of the state of Arkansas Mark your calendars now!

Give someone a GIFT MEMBERSHIP in WCHS Or Renew Your Membership New Vision for Celebrating History Gift Form I wish to contribute to the WCHS New Vision Endowment _$15 Senior, Student, Libraries __$25 Family/General Fund in the following amount: __$50 Trail Blazer __$100 Explorer __$100,000 History Heroes __$75,000 Platinum Visionary __$250 Wagon Master __$500 Pioneer __$50,000 Gold Visionary __$25,000 Silver Visionary __$5,000 Visionary __$2,500 Jonas Tebbetts Name ______$1,000 Matilda Tebbetts __$500 Hale Tebbetts __ $250 Marian Tebbetts __$100 Lillian Tebbetts Phone ______Other Amount ______Address______Make checks payable to: WCHS New Vision Endowment Mail to: 118 East Dickson Street; Fayetteville, AR 72701 City, State, Zip______Please acknowledge and credit this gift as follows:

Your Name______Name(s) (please print the way you want the donation shown) Your Address______Your City, State & Zip ______Street

Special Occasion ______City State Zip Code WCHS is a 501c3 nonprofit corporation. The portion of your membership above $25 is tax deductible. I/we wish to remain anonymous ____

7 The Washington County Historical Society Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage 118 East Dickson Street PAID Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 Fayetteville, Arkansas Permit 1 479-521-2970 [email protected] www.headquartershouse.org

Museum Hours Tuesday—Thursday , 1:00 p.m.—4:00 p.m.

April 14 - Let Freedom Ring April 18 - Battle of Fayetteville History Day June 14 - Statehood Day

Officers Jerry Hogan, President, Flashforward Steve Litzinger, First Vice President Published by the Kim Smith, Second Vice President Washington County Historical Society Scott Van Laningham, Recording Secretary Judy Brittenum, Corresponding Secretary 118 East Dickson Street Jane Davis, Treasurer Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701 Charles Alison, Flashback Editor-In-Chief Judy Costello, Director of Historic Programs Phone: 479-521-2970 Hoyt Purvis, Past President

Board of Directors Email: [email protected] Nancy Allen, Sheree Alt, Brenda Blagg, Margaret Clark, Website: www.headquartershouse.org Ellen Compton, Dave Demorotski, Don Deweese, Greg Herman, , Bill Kincaid, Carolyn Leonard, Allyn Lord, David Charles Alison, Flashback Editor Martinson, Timothy Nutt, Conrad Odom, Pierce Osborne, Janet Ousterhout, Susan Parks-Spencer, Dustin Seaton, Tess Kidd, Flashforward Editor Jackie Stites

Tess Kidd, Museum Manager 8