Self by Betty Calvert, 1940 Edith Ayers Allen George Obinger Vol. 13, No. 1, April, 1989 EDITOR: Amelia Martin ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Sarah Fitzjarrald McCullough CONSULTING EDITOR: Carolyn Pollan GUEST WRITERS: Phillip Wayne Russell Suzy Hestand Laird Contents Mrs. William H. Wood Thelma Wray VOL. 13, NO. 1 APRIL, 1989 INDEXING: Letter from the Editor 2 Sarah Fitzjarrald McCullough Fort Smith City Government and the 3 PROOFREADERS: Progressive Era in Urban Reform Milton and Pat Birkett H.R. "Happy" Hestand 17 Ken and Christina Johnson Mayors of Fort Smith, Arkansas 18 BOARD AND OFFICERS: Mary Lou Jacobsen, President A Street By Any Other Name 19 Del Conger, Vice President Virginia Bruce, Recording Secretary Fortnightly Study Club 23 Jo Tillery, Membership Secretary Fort Smith Public Library 25 Leonna Belle Cotner, Correspondence Secretary Buchanan Hatchett, M.D 30 Donald Peer, Treasurer Stewart M. Condren Opal Elizabeth "Betty" Calvert 31 Wallace Floyd In Loving Memory 33 Wm. R. "Bud" Harper Ruth Boone Ken Johnson Clara Reed Barber Gene Johnston Thelma E. Brown Mabel C. Mclaughlin Larry Larson Lois Dorcas Francis B. Burns Don Marquette Lena Stewart Ted "Boob" Schoeppey Bob McCann Elizabeth Dean Lucia "Mitty" Hawkins Dr. Donald J. McMinimy Doris Collins Eula Mae Gregg Guy Nichols Sister Regina Marie William T. "Bill" Avlos Franklin Wilder John Holleman Gilbert Forsgren Membership in the Fort Smith Historical Louise McGrew Bill Kennedy Society includes subscription to The Journal Linda Faye Long Patricia Shad of the Fort Smith Historical Society, which Mary Frances Oliver is published semi-annually. Year begins News and Opportunities 36 January 1 and ends December 31. Letters & Genealogy 41 For membership, send dues with your name and mailing address to: 1888-1889 Newspapers 43 The Fort Smith Historical Society, Inc. Index 47 c/o Fort Smith Public Library 61 South 8th Street Annual Business Sponsors 49 Fort Smith, Arkansas 72901 COVER: Silhouettes by Opal Elizabeth "Betty" Calvert. Types of memberships: Annual $ 10.00 ©Copyright 1988 ISSN 0736 4261 Annual Contributing 20.00 By the Fort Smith Historical Society, Inc. Annual Sustaining 50.00 c/o Fort Smith Public Library Annual Business Sponsor .... 50.00 61 South 8th Street Life (Individual) 100.00 Fort Smith, Arkansas 72901 Journal Back Issues ... Eachcopy 5.00 (For mail orders, add $1.00 mailing charge per copy.) CHANGE OF ADDRESS: We welcome the loan of Fort Smith historical Change of Address Cards are free at your post office. If you move, material and will return promptly. please fill one out and send it to: Fort Smith Historical Society, 61 South 8th Street, Fort Smith, Arkansas 72901. The Fort Smith Historical Society, Inc. is a non-profit organization under Sec. 501 (c) No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any form, except (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. for brief excerpts for review purposes, without the consent of the Gifts and legacies are deductible. Editors of The Journal. 1 Dear Readers: THERE ARE TWO FORT SMITH HISTORICAL SOCIETY SPECIAL EVENTS IN APRIL AND MAY. BRING ALL OF YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS — EVERYONE IS INVITED. The first event is the ANNUAL MEETING on Thursday, April 27, 1989, 7:00 P.M. in the Fort Smith Public Library Community Room. The second event is an OPEN HOUSE AND RECEPTION FOR NEW MEMBERS on May 25, 1989, 6:30 P.M. in the Cafeteria at Westark Community College. The public is invited to both events. Invite a friend and come — we will look for you there. The city of Fort Smith was the leader in urban reform in Arkansas and the history of this reform is shared with you in this issue of The Journal through the research and writing of Phillip Wayne Russell, a native of Fort Smith and a member of the faculty of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Compilation of biographies and photographs of mayors of Fort Smith for the city archives continues. Beginning with this issue, a mayor will be featured in each issue, but because material is not yet available on all mayors, they will not be presented in the order of their tenure. We are again printing the list of mayors which was in the September, 1988 issue of The Journal and ask your help with this project. If you do not have a photograph or biographical information on a mayor, can you give us the name and address of someone else who may be able to help? Other features in this issue deal with the origin and changes of names of Fort Smith city streets and the Fort Smith Public Library. Related to the library story is the history of the Fortnightly Study Club which was responsible for the establishment of the library, and a biography of Dr. Buchanan Hatchett who in 1931 bequeathed to the library about $45,000, almost twice the amount of the much publicized gift from Andrew Carnegie to the library. Also featured is the biography, silhouettes and poetry of Betty Calvert, a talented Fort Smith artist and poet who died in October, 1988. It is with feelings of deep sorrow and loss that we record the deaths of many educators who taught in Fort Smith schools and others who have contributed so much to Fort Smith. Your Editor, Amelia Martin 61 SOUTH 8TH STREET • FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS 72901 2 Phillip Wayne Russell (Editor's Note: Phillip Wayne Russell, son of Clayton R. and Jewell Floyd Russell, is a native of Fort Smith. He graduated from Southside High School, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history at Arkansas Tech in Russellville, Master of Arts degree in history at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and is now working toward his doctorate in secondary education at the University of Arkansas where he is also a member of the faculty, teaching a class in secondary education. He is a member of Phi Delta Kappa and National Council for Social Studies. We are pleased to bring to you, with Mr. Russell's permission, the second part of his Master's thesis dealing with early government in the city of Fort Smith which was the leader in urban reform in the state of Arkansas. We regret space limitation prevents our printing here the first part of this thesis in which Russell sets forth the necessity, nationwide, for urban reform, documenting the fact that between 1880 and 1910 the population of cities grew from 15 to 45 million. Copiesof thecompletethesisareon fileatthe University of Arkansas Library, the Westark Community College Library, the Fort Smith Public Library and the Fort Smith Historic Site.) II. COPING WITH URBAN PROBLEMS: THE FORT SMITH EXPERIENCE Fort Smith stood in the vanguard of Arkansas Arkansas stimulated further growth. The Kansas towns and cities in the implementation of structural City, Fort Smith, and Southern Railroad placed Fort reforms in its municipal government during the Smith within ten hours travel of Kansas City and its Progressive Era. Unlike other areas of the country, market for fruits, berries, and early vegetables there was little agitation for such reforms in grown in the area around the Arkansas city.5 The Arkansas in this period, in part because the state was discovery of natural gas on Massard Prairie east of overwhelmingly rural. One exception was Mayor town in 1904 attracted industry to Fort Smith by Charles E. Taylor's administration in Little Rock providing cheap fuel for operating plants.6 By 1905, between 1911 and 1919. This progressive mayor was 126 wells had been drilled in the Massard field. In a proponent of the application of business principles addition, the opening of mammoth semianthracite to the operation of city government as well as an coal fields of which Fort Smith was the center advocate of the commission form of government. provided a great impetus for settlement and trade. Although he did not succeed in obtaining adoption Besides bringing resources to Fort Smith from a of the commission form for Little Rock, his adminis- wider area, the railroads transported this coal to tration did improve streets, fire protection, sewers, where it was needed. These added resources, as well and street lighting.1 There was also in Arkansas as increased population, helped bring on industrial some desire for greater "home rule," that is to allow growth. In the first part of the twentieth century, Fort local governments more control over their own Smith became a manufacturing center with the affairs. An act passed by the General Assembly in population increasing from 11,587 in 1900 to 28,975 1891 gave county courts the power to order drainage in 1910.7 By 1901, manufacturing enterprises in the and reclamation of swamp and overflowed lands.2 city included five machine shops, one feed mill, one Despite these exceptions, Fort Smith was the first roller flour mill, two cottonseed oil mills, two ice city in Arkansas to adopt any of the major municipal factories, six lumber companies, two box factories, reform ideas of the time. Only after Fort Smith had three brick and tile factories, one book bindery, one acted did other cities begin to adopt municipal soap factory, two cotton gins, three bakeries, two reform. foundries, one spring and bedding factory, and one Like many other cities by the turn of the century, structural iron works.8 Fort Smith was experiencing growth and change. The development of coal mining in Sebastian Improved transportation facilities such as the Little county, while assisting in the growth of the Fort Rock and Fort Smith Railroad, completed in 1876, Smith area, brought problems and instability as well. accounted for much of this growth. The St. Louis The growth of a large population of discontented and San Francisco Railway soon followed, giving miners organized under the United Mine Workers further stimulus to Fort Smith trade.