FORT SMITH
HISTORICAL SOCIETY
News and
Opportunities
Fort Smith Historical Society’s
Griffin Theater Opening Soon at the Museum of History
The Griffin Charitable Organization
has awarded the Fort Smith Historical Society a $10,000 donation for use
in establishing a theater in the Darby Room at the Fort Smith Museum of
History. This theater will be used by both the Museum and the Fort Smith
Historical Society to present videos of interviews with World War II
veterans and other historically important subjects. The Griffin Theater,
the culmination of a dream for participants in the oral history project,
is expected to be completed before the end of the year. With over 200
interviews recorded in the last five years, there is a wealth of
material for the public to view. It is hoped this theater will be used
by museum visitors, students, researchers, and anyone interested in the
unwritten stories of World War II.
The 30th Annual Frontier Achievement Awards Ceremony
and
Fort Smith Historical Society Annual Membership Meeting
Thursday, April 14, 2011, 5:30 p.m.
West Room at the Riverfront Park on Clayton Expressway
The Fort Smith Historical Society joins with the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce in honoring citizens, businesses, and industries that have made an outstanding contribution to the historical development of our city and/or helped to preserve the heritage of Fort Smith at the 30th Annual Frontier Achievement Awards ceremony. Please join us for this important event.
All members and guests are encouraged to attend. Visitors are welcomed.
Fire Destroys Historic Home
Fort Smith lost another of its jewels in the early morning of July 7,
2010, when the historic Angus McLeod home was destroyed by fire. Early
in the 20th century, Angus McLeod, owner of the Fort Smith
Contracting Company, supplied railroad ties for the Fort Smith and
Western Railroad and the Midland Valley Company. He and his wife,
Elizabeth McLeod, purchased lots for construction of their new home in
1904. McCloud used many imported materials in the construction of the
Neo-Classical dwelling, which was completed in 1905 and was featured in
the 1982 movie "The Blue and the Gray,"
The cost of the home’s construction and imported materials is thought to
have exceeded the 1914 sale price of $102,500. Shortly after completion
the home was sold to Ben Wolf, and the Wolf-Pollack family owned the
home until 1958, when it was sold to Mrs. Virginia Rush. It has since
had several more owners, with the last being Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Hearne.
The Angus McLeod house was listed on the Register of Historic Places in
1978.
Photograph of John Childers Discovered
The first of eighty-six men to be executed by the U. S. District Court
for the Western District of Arkansas at Fort Smith
August 15, 1873
Mrs. Linda Seamans McGahan received this photo after her father’s death and has given permission for its use to the Fort Smith Historical Society in her father’s memory. Her father, Joe Seamans, worked for the Sebastian County Road Department in waste management, driving a truck throughout the county for the weekly trash pick-up. People often put items out that might be of use to others. Seamans would often pick these up and put them in the cab of his truck, as he always knew someone in need. McGahan feels sure the photograph of John Childers came to her father in a cigar box or was in a box set to the side of the road. He put the photograph with the family photos where it was forgotten for years.
When her father died,
McGahan’s mother gave her the family photographs which she then put
away until her retirement. While looking through the old photos
recently she saw the photograph of the man in chains sitting in a
chair. The chains caught her attention, then the date. She
researched the name of the man, learning who he was and the
lawlessness he stood for. When contacted by Joe Wasson of the Fort
Smith Historical Society, McGahan agreed to allow the use of the
Childers photograph for historical purposes. How proud this would
have made Joe Seamans.
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John Childers, born in the Cherokee Nation in 1848, fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Returning to the Nation in 1865, he took up with seven other men whose business it was to steal, mostly horses of the Osage, and occasionally to kill men.”
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Girls, Inc. Wins First Bloom Youth Garden Design Contest
Local Group Wins National Recognition and Trip to Washington, D.C.
In June, 2010,a garden created and maintained by members of Girls, Inc., was named a national winner in the 2010 First Bloom Youth Garden Design Contest. Located near the old commissary building at the Fort Smith National Historic Site, the period garden was the only entry from Arkansas and was one of twenty-six semifinalists. The top prize was an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. in July for six of the girls and the First Bloom coordinator, Park Ranger Keri Powers.
Above:
(L) Alice Schwin, and (R) Park Ranger Keri Powers at work.
Above: Girls, Inc., girls in Heritage Garden at Fort Smith National
Historic Site
In 2009, the Fort Smith National Historic
Site received a National Park Foundation grant of $13,000, which provided
funding for the establishment of the Officer’s Wife’s Garden or the Officer’s
Family Garden. The Fort Smith Historic Site’s Heritage Garden was one of
twenty-six National Park gardens to receive the grant the first year it was open
to proposals. Keri Powers, First Bloom coordinator, along with Tena Coker, of
Girls Inc., decided to make it a summer program starting in May 2009. The
Heritage Garden is a representation of an 1860s Officer's Wife's Garden during
the second Fort era. The garden is behind the officers quarters where many of
the officers’ wives would have had their gardens growing vegetables, flowers and
herbs. Everything in the garden served a purpose during the Victorian age; a
garden was an outdoor parlor, a place to educate and to gossip.
Girls
Inc. participants ranged from five to fourteen years of age, with an average of
twenty to thirty girls participating in the program. No power tools were used,
only period tools. Seeds planted were from the 1860s or earlier. The only modern
tool used was the water hose used by Powers when the girls were not present; the
girls used watering cans. They learned how to play with tops, make cats cradles
and buzz saws, and also to make church dolls. History lessons provided the girls
the story of Judge Parker and the history of Fort Smith. The girls were taught
gardening, sewing, quilting, and how to act like young ladies. Plans for the
future include cooking in Dutch ovens and canning, giving the girls skills which
will be useful to them throughout their lives.
While in
Washington, during the first week in July, the girls met with Senator Mark
Pryor, Senator Blanche Lincoln, Congressman John Boozman, and National Park
Service Deputy Director Mickey Fearn. They were invited to the White House
where they watched the President of the United States walk across the White
House Lawn and board Marine One. Pryor, Lincoln and Boozman promised to visit
the girls and their Heritage Garden.
First
Bloom promotes urban underserved youth by having native or heirloom gardens
planted in the National Parks. The guidelines are to teach urban, underserved
youth about our National Parks through gardening. This helps promote
stewardship, teaches youth about their heritage, and gives them an understanding
of where their food comes from. First Bloom is about building the future
stewards of our National Parks.
See www.FirstBloom.org
for more information on the program.
Confederate Rest Memorial Service
Held at Historic Oak
Cemetery
Sunday, May 16,
2010, members of the Varina Jefferson Davis Chapter #252, United Daughters of
the Confederacy (UDC) and members of the General R. M. Gano Camp #561, Sons of
Confederate Veterans (SCV) presented a memorial service in remembrance of those
Confederate veterans buried in Confederate Rest at Oak Cemetery in Fort Smith,
Arkansas. Guest speaker Judge Jim Spears gave a short memorial presentation.
Barbara
Coleman, registrar for the United Daughters of the Confederacy, became
interested in the Confederate Rest lot at Oak Cemetery when she found the
original deed for the property among old UDC records. The plot was in disarray
and only one of the graves of Southern veterans in the plot was marked. Coleman
researched the veterans’ records, and completed the applications for the
official markers, a two-year process. Mrs. Sue Clark, author of Oak Cemetery,
Fort Smith, Arkansas, Fort Smith’s City Cemetery, assisted with the
research. Coleman coordinated the work of members of the UDC and SCV, as well as
the Oak Cemetery staff, in setting the grave markers and getting Confederate
Rest ready for the ceremony. Richard Lewis, Sexton of Oak Cemetery was
instrumental in seeing that the markers were received, stored, and placed
correctly. Friends of Oak Cemetery donated funds to pay for restoring the
coping at the side of Confederate Rest and two non - military markers, those of
Mrs. Josephine Foster and Noah Belote. Members of the SCV and their families,
along with UDC members and families helped set the stones.
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Those buried in Confederate Rest receiving markers |
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George W. Cox Christopher Cook John Foster Mrs. Josephine
Foster Thomas Moore Wiley W. Early John Story Thomas B Hays William J.
Ming Isaac M. Davis James
McDaniel James B. Long Samuel E Walker |
Co H 4th AL Infantry Co G 2nd KY Cavalry, (had a marker) Co H Martin's TX Cavalry
Co G 20th AR Infantry Co C Dobbins 1st AR Cavalry Co H 43rd Batt VA Cavalry Co E 2nd MO Infantry Co B Harrell's AR Cavalry Co B 15th AL Infantry Co C Davenport's Batt 12th MS Cavalry Co A 8th Batt GA Infantry Co C 2nd MS Infantry Co F 5th GA Reserves Co C 37th TN Infantry Co D 14th VA Infantry |
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Those in Oak Cemetery, not in Confederate Rest, but graves received markers |
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Elias C. Boudinot Charles W. Williamson Agrippa S Hopkins Noah Belote* |
Co B 1st Cherokee Mounted
Volunteers, "Watie's Reg” Co C 18th Reg SC Infantry Co I 23rd MS Volunteers Willet's Provost Guards AR Infantry *(No marker, as no muster roll found.) |
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THE DIRECTORY FOR CEMETERIES OF
SEBASTIAN COUNTY, ARKANSAS
In 1998, historian Wanda M. Newberry Gray, Commissioner, Arkansas State History Commission and State Archives, made an extensive effort to locate all the burial sites within the boundaries of the city of Fort Smith and in Sebastian County. A limited number of directories of her findings were published. A copy of this publication, Directory for Cemeteries, Names, Locations, and References for Sebastian County, Arkansas, was placed in the genealogy department of the Fort Smith Public Library and in the state archives. This list is a research tool to assist individuals in finding the cemeteries in which their ancestors are buried. It is in alphabetical order by name with locations and the name of the literature referencing the burials of Sebastian County, Arkansas. It is published for the knowledge of future generations of researchers. Mrs. Gray has graciously given permission to the Fort Smith Historical Society to place this directory on the Society’s website.
Check it out at SebastionCountyCemeteries
Physicians and Medicine, Crawford and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas, 1817-1976
By Amelia Martin
Available with Donation to Fort Smith
Historical Society
This 688-page historical reference, Physicians and Medicine, Crawford and
Sebastian Counties, Arkansas 1817 – 1976, compiled by Amelia Martin and
published by the Sebastian County Medical Society in 1977, is a fully documented
and indexed text written against a background of the history of the area.
Content includes health conditions and diseases, medicines and legislation,
hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, public health, and biographies of 1,535
physicians who practiced in this area from the establishment of Fort Smith Post
in 1817 until 1976. It also includes a history of the Army Medical Corps at Fort
Chaffee from 1941 to 1976.
This valuable, historical reference book may be ordered from the Fort Smith
Historical Society. A donation of $25 is suggested. For information email:
Info@fortsmithhistory.org
Honor Roll of
Donors
Oral History Project Grants and Donations
The Griffin Charitable Organization
Fort Smith Area Community Foundation
River Valley Paranormal Research & Investigation (RVPRI Inc.)
Roy Henderson
Emery Lundquist
Lisa L. Hammersly
Honorarium
William “Bill” Cox
By Dr. and Mrs. Jim S. Wells
Annual Business Sponsors
Special School District of Fort Smith
Spiro State Bank
Arkansas Best Corporation
Hanna Oil & Gas
Coca Cola Bottling Company of Fort Smith