The El Dorado Meeting of the Arkansas Historical Association, 1992

The El Dorado Meeting of the Arkansas Historical Association, 1992Author(s): Ben JohnsonSource: The Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Autumn, 1992), pp. 264-270Published by: Arkansas Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40023100 .

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The El Dorado Meeting of the

Arkansas Historical Association, 1992

By BEN JOHNSON

IN early 120 people registered for the fifty-first annual meeting of the Arkansas Historical Association that convened April 9, 10, and 11 at the Best Western Kings Inn Conference Center and Racquet Club in El Dorado. According to those who attended, the meeting was marked by lively and informative sessions as well as by the gracious hospitality of the Kings Inn staff and the El Dorado community. The presentations revealed a diversity of topics associated with the overall theme, "Arkansas' South: Work and Community." Ben Johnson, of South Arkansas Community College, was the program chair; and Sherrel Johnson, of Sherrel Johnson Communications, oversaw the local arrangements.

The meeting began Thursday, April 9, with a late afternoon reception on the campus of Southern Arkansas University, El Dorado (now South Arkansas Community College) for an exhibit of the Historic Photographs of South Arkansas from the Robert Walz Collection. Dr. Walz, a past president and permanent member of the Association, was a professor of history at Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia, before his death in 1988. For many years, Dr. Walz collected and restored photographs portraying the everyday lives of South Arkansans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Currently, several thousand prints and nega-

Ben Johnson teaches history at South Arkansas Community College in El Dorado and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Arkansas Historical Association. He was the program chair for the 1992 annual meeting.

The Arkansas Historical Quarterly Vol. LI, No. 3, Autumn 1992



THE EL DORADO MEETING 265

tives of Dr. Walz's work are housed at the Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives (SARA) in Old Washington. Curtistine Walz, who worked closely with her late husband, and Larry Morrison, a student of Dr. Walz's and now a history instructor at Southern Arkansas University-Tech, organized the photograph display around the themes of work, leisure, transportation, school, and family. SARA and SAU-Magnolia provided the prints for the exhibit. Sponsored by the Department of History, Political Sci- ence, and Geography of SAU-Magnolia, the informal and well- provisioned reception was popular with the fifty people who attended.

One of the most publicized events of the meeting was the Thursday evening panel discussion on the Future of Arkansas Jour- nalism at the South Arkansas Art Center auditorium. Following a welcome by Martha Williamson Rimmer, AHA president, Mike Dumas, El Dorado's mayor, gave a wry introduction of Walter E. Hussman, Jr., publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Alan Leveritt, president of the Arkansas Writers' Project, and John Brummett, columnist for the Democrat-Gazette and an editor of the Arkansas Times.

Hussman explained to the 150 people attending that declining revenues, resulting in part from the expansion of Walmart stores at the expense of smaller retailers, were endangering small-town newspapers. Although the Democrat-Gazette had also felt the pinch, Hussman promised to strengthen his newspaper's news coverage and editorial pieces. Leveritt believed that the true revolution in journalism was being fought out among broadcasters, as cable television and telephone companies undercut both the networks and daily newspapers. Leveritt touted the impending shift of the Arkansas Times to a weekly tabloid, observing that "weeklies are the cable channels of print." Brummett concluded that Arkansas newspapers were in a state of transition to the "post-Starr era," a reference to the controversial, outspoken Democrat-Gazette editor, John Robert Starr. According to Brummett, the Democrat-Gazette's hiring of Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Greenberg provided the newspaper its "first step toward an institutional voice." On the other hand, Brummett described the new Arkansas Times as em- barking on a new style of "advocacy journalism." A vigorous half- hour question and answer period followed the formal presenta-



266 ARKANSAS HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

tions. After Mayor Dumas adjourned the meeting, audience members met and talked with the panelists at an elegant reception hosted by the El Dorado News-Times.

The Friday morning opening session was Community and Nat- ural Environment, moderated by Marvin Jeter (Arkansas Ar- cheological Survey, University of Arkansas, Monticello), which explored issues surrounding the relationship between humans and the South Arkansas habitat. Frank Schambach (Arkansas Ar- cheological Survey, Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia) described his long-term research of the Caddo people. Schambach's slides of the archeological sites in southwest Arkansas illustrated his descriptions of the Caddo's tall, conical-shaped houses as well as the burial and platform mounds in their villages. Federal gov- ernment policy concerning environmental preservation can be easily comprehended, noted Bob Bridges (Felsenthal National Wildlife Refuge), by understanding the origins and development of the vast Felsenthal wildlife refuge. State management of the natural habitat was discussed in an energetic presentation by Stephen R. Wilson (Arkansas Game and Fish Commission). Wil- son explained how the formation of the Game and Fish Commis- sion and its removal from politics allowed it to manage rationally the wildlife population which in turn dramatically increased game numbers.

Friday morning's second session, Timber Communities, examined a critical industry and a small-town culture in south Arkansas. Armin T. Dressel (Camden) surveyed several aspects of the topic before introducing the speakers. Bob Besom (Shiloh Museum) traced the history of Huttig, a ninety-year-old sawmill town in Union County. In the early twentieth century, out-of-state capitalists constructed a sawmill to reap the advantages of the expansive short-leaf pine forests and built a model company town to attract workers. In the 1950s, Olin Corporation acquired the Huttig mill but discontinued company ownership of town proper- ties. Relying upon family papers, business journals, and local histories, George W. Balogh (Conway) related the saga of the For- dyce Lumber Company. Resulting from the partnership of three business investors, the Fordyce Company pioneered new methods later used by large-scale corporate operations throughout the South. Charles E. Thomas (Calion Lumber Company) returned




to familiar territory as he updated changes in the working class, African- American community described in his 1986 volume, Jelly Roll. He explained that the deculturation that he had observed earlier in the younger generation of Jelly Roll (Union County) families was accelerating, and that the exodus of ambitious, edu- cated men and women had left the community vulnerable to the social problems common in large urban environments.

At the Friday luncheon, Jo Ann Pugh (Portland) gave a grace- ful introduction of her friend, Margaret Jones Bolsterli (Univer- sity of Arkansas). Bolsterli described her girlhood in the Delta in relation to questions about the identity of southern women. She indicated that in some respects the cultural assumptions about women's traditional roles permitted a measure of autonomy and control. Bolsterli noted that her own mother was the absolute authority over the household and that her mother's advice later proved useful when she began directing male employees on her own ranch. The talk was well received by the audience of over eighty listeners.

Those attending the meeting had a pleasant array of options to fill their Friday afternoon. Wendy Richter (Ouachita Baptist University) presided at the meeting of county and local historical societies. Dorathy Boulden (Barton Library, El Dorado) spoke briefly on the natural cooperation that can develop between the local library and the community historical organization. At the conclusion of her remarks, session participants described the ac- tivities of their local societies. On the basis of requests by a number of members, the AHA organized a special workshop on publishing county and local historical society newsletters. De- smond Walls Allen (Conway), who has conducted workshops and published guides on the writing of church and family histories, expertly directed this session. The Teachers of Arkansas Studies Council organized a panel discussion entitled Effective Teaching of Arkansas History: Three Teachers Share Their Secrets. Vickie Ellison, TASC president, presided.

A number of people ventured from the Kings Inn that afternoon and visited the antebellum Rainey-Newton house that was opened by the South Arkansas Historical Foundation especially for the AHA convention. Late Friday afternoon, a large group toured the Arkansas Oil and Brine Museum in Smackover and




then settled back for a premiere performance of a scene from Boom Town by local playwright Melanie Lacy Allen. Featuring a large cast of players from Smackover and El Dorado, the drama was based on the oral histories of Chester Wood and others who lived through the chaotic days following the early 1920s oil dis- coveries. Mr. Wood and his wife attended the performance. Players and audience members later mingled in the museum gal- lery at the fine reception sponsored by the Smackover office of Arkansas Power and Light Company.

About 115 people gathered for the annual banquet held Fri- day evening at the Kings Inn Conference Center. Donald Montgomery, Jan Eddleman, and Waddy W. Moore presented the Association's county and local journals awards, the J. H. At- kinson Award to the outstanding teacher of Arkansas history, the Westbrook award for the finest local history essay, and the Gingles award for the best article on Arkansas History. Wendy Richter of the Arkansas Women's History Institute presented the Susie Pryor Award for the best unpublished essay on a topic in Arkan- sas Women's history to Peggy Harris of Little Rock. Following a warm introduction by Willard B. Gatewood, Jr. (University of Arkansas, Fayetteville), James C. Cobb (University of Tennessee) delivered the first William Parkin Address. Mixing humor and pointed insight, Cobb examined the common life of the South through the medium of country music. Demonstrating his points with taped selections of songs from the early twentieth century to the present day, Professor Cobb declared that "country music is a music of raw emotion." He noted that this music was not simply the commercial adulteration of folk music as some have concluded, but rather an ambivalent response by rural people to technology and modernization. Those attending thought the address exceptional and appropriate for the setting.

Moderated by George Lankford (Arkansas College), the initial Saturday morning session was Race, Class, and Labor in the Arkansas Community. Relating the history of a black family, Marzell Smith (El Dorado) traced the line of Alfred Beasley, who lived and farmed near Three Creeks, Union County, before the turn of the century. The slides accompanying the talk included photographs of family members, their homes and possessions, and significant events. These images cumulatively indicated a hard-won middle




class status. Billie Jean Jones (South Arkansas Community Col- lege) examined the life of her maternal grandmother. Born in 1875, Susie Terrell spent her childhood primarily with her father, a prominent Claiborne Parish white landholder, although she fre- quently visited her mother, who was a former slave. Upon reach- ing maturity, Susie Terrell consciously chose to become part of the black southern community rather than remain adrift between two worlds in the segregated South. David Sixbey (Southern Ar- kansas University, Magnolia) placed the 1919 Elaine race riots in the context of the African- American struggle for economic inde- pendence against land-holding southern planters and northern businessmen. In 1918 Robert Hill organized the Progressive Farmers and Household Union that promoted Booker T. Washington's ideas of self-sufficiency and racial uplift. The union organized tenant farmers in Phillips County to oversee the mar- keting of their crops, and the official suppression of this move- ment sparked the violence at Elaine.

The last paper session for the meeting, Communities in Transi- tion: Southern Industrialization, grappled with a seminal issue in the region's history. Moderator Rodney Slater (Arkansas Highway Commission) observed how industrial development continues to provoke debate, and he noted after each presentation how the topic corresponded to contemporary developments. John G. Ragsdale (El Dorado) explained that the successful exploration of the Shuler Field in western Union County revived the area's lag- ging oil production. The early 1920s boom had largely played out by the mid- 1930s, but when the Shuler Field came in during 1937, it sparked a new round of exploration that tapped deeper oil reservoirs. The Shuler Field alone eventually produced 108 million barrels of oil. Declining south Arkansas oil production also prodded Camden boosters by the mid- 1920s to recruit ac- tively new industries, explained David Gifford (University of Ar- kansas, Little Rock); the most significant prize for the new chamber of commerce was the luring of the International Paper Company. James L. Skinner (Presbyterian College, South Carolina) delivered a paper based upon his recently published edition of The Autobiography of Henry Merrell: Industrial Missionary to the South. A Utica, New York, native, Merrell migrated to Geor- gia in 1839 where he established three textile mills before losing




his fortune and deciding to begin again in Arkansas. In the 1850s he built Royston, a mill and manufacturing community on the banks of the Little Missouri River, but the turmoil of the Civil War forced him in 1863 to sell his operations. On orders of Con- federate authorities, he was in England attempting to purchase machinery for a manufacturing outpost in Texas when the war ended.

The meeting's Saturday luncheon has not attracted a large audience in recent years, but the sixty-five people who enjoyed the country-style repast set a new attendance mark. Presiding over the session at the Kings Inn Conference Center, Martha Rimmer delivered the annual president's report and Michael Dabrishus, chair of the nominating committee, then presented to the membership the nominees for 1992-1993 offices: President, John Graves; vice president, Frances Mitchell Ross; trustees for three-year terms, Morris S. Arnold (Fort Smith), Eldon Fairley (Osceola), Ronnie A. Nichols (Helena), Jo Ann Pugh (Portland) and Edwina Walls (Little Rock). President Rimmer recognized and the membership applauded trustees who were completing their terms: George Lankford, William L. Shea, and William B. Worthen. All were elected unanimously, and Martha Rimmer handed the gavel to President Graves.

After a humorous, tongue-in-cheek introduction by state repre- sentative Jodie Mahoney (El Dorado) and Sherrel Johnson, Bob Lancaster gave a revisionist view of the famous radio comedian and native Arkansan, Bob Burns. Lancaster, a noted journalist now living in Sheridan, outlined Burns' eventful youth that took him throughout the country before he was heard regularly on the Kraft Music Hall radio program. Although Burns has often been reviled as perpetuating an unfortunate stereotype of the rural Arkansan, Lancaster held that Burns was an urbane fellow who never lost his regard for or link to the Arkansas hill folk. To prove his point, Lancaster told a couple of Burns' anecdotes. The audience's strong laughter supported Lancaster's thesis. Follow- ing the speech, President Graves adjourned the fifty-first meeting.



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The El Dorado Meeting of the Arkansas Historical Association, 1992

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