As the Arkansas Territory Grew, Quapaw Nation Shrank

Quapaw Treaty of 1824. Courtesy of the Arkansas
State Archives.

Over the first two decades of Arkansas’s territorial history, the Quapaw, known as “the Downstream People,” were reduced from a population of thousands to only a few hundred. Many tribal members succumbed to disease, maltreatment and starvation. Despite that, the tribe has about 2,000 members today.

During the first two decades of the 19th century, Cherokee groups, urged by the federal government, migrated west from Georgia and South Carolina and settled in Arkansas. The migration led to conflict between the Quapaw and Cherokee over hunting rights.

William Clark, governor of Missouri Territory, decided the best solution was to negotiate a land cession from the Quapaw to provide eastern Native Americans land on which to settle. In 1817, the Missouri Territorial assembly passed a resolution to investigate the Quapaw’s claims upon the land, in what today is the state of Arkansas. Lawmakers thought they needed to “obtain from them (Quapaw) by purchase or exchange such parts of it as interferes most with the settlement and improvement of that part of the Country.” 

On Aug. 24, 1818, Chief Heckaton traveled to St. Louis to negotiate a treaty with the government. In the treaty, the Quapaw ceded to the United States all lands north of the Arkansas River, leaving themselves a tract of land that extended from the Arkansas River on its north to the Ouachita River on its west and Arkansas Post on its east. The remaining land was about 2 million acres. The lost territory covered around 30 million acres. In exchange, the United States granted the Quapaw hunting rights in all ceded territories, $4,000 and a $1,000 annual annuity to be paid in supplies to the reservation.

As more Euro-American settlers began making their way into the territory, they coveted the fertile land occupied by the Quapaw. The territorial government pressed for more land from the Quapaw. Robert Crittenden, acting as governor during one of Territorial Gov. James Miller’s frequent absences, suggested the legislature appropriate $25,000 to buy the remaining land from the Quapaw.

In the meantime, the Federal government had been late in paying the annuity due to the Quapaw under the 1818 treaty. As a result, many of the Quapaw were in a state of financial hardship. In the summer of 1824, about 100 members of the Quapaw Nation traveled to Little Rock to demand their annuity payment. Acting Governor Crittenden received the Native Americans, and in the process of paying the annuity, he began negotiating a new treaty to buy the rest of the Quapaw lands, except a few acres near the Red River. At first, the Quapaw refused to cede the land but asked Crittenden to postpone negotiations.

In July 1824, Crittenden presented a new treaty to the Quapaw. In the treaty, the Quapaw would cede the remaining land in Arkansas Territory in exchange for a tract of land in Louisiana in the Caddo Nation reservation. Negotiations continued through the fall.

On Nov. 15, 1824, Chief Heckaton signed the Quapaw Treaty of 1824. After signing the treaty, Heckaton was dismayed and full of regret. He made a speech after signing the treaty saying, “The land we live on belonged to our forefathers. If we leave it, where shall we go?”

When the Quapaw arrived at their new home on the Red River, they found the land was unsuitable for crops. Antoine Barraque, Gov. George Izard’s sub-agent for the tribe, described the area as “very sandy and not worth much,” noting the only fertile land appeared to be in bayous and creeks.

Before long, the Quapaw began to starve. There was little help from their Caddo neighbors or the government. Both Barraque and the local agent for Indian Affairs, George Grey, seemed more interested in blaming each other than finding a solution. Both wrote to Izard to complain about the other.

At the same time, Quapaw members began to question Heckaton’s leadership. Another chief, Sarasin, split from the tribe after his wife starved to death. He led around 60 Quapaw back to Arkansas to settle near the Arkansas River. Sarasin wrote to President John Quincy Adams saying, “we cannot stay any longer with the tyrant whom we have found in the Red River country… We are forced to leave it or starve.”  Leaving the Red River settlement was likely the reason he and the Quapaw who followed him survived.

Eventually, the remaining Quapaw settled in the northeastern part of Indian Territory, which is now the state of Oklahoma. The Quapaw Nation remains there today, but the tribe owns about 5 acres in Arkansas near the Little Rock Port Authority. The land is a burial site for the Quapaw before their removal from Arkansas.

The exhibition, “We Walkin Two Worlds,” at the Historic Arkansas Museum pays homage to and spotlights the history of the Caddo, Osage and Quapaw in Arkansas.

For more information on Arkansas history, visit the Arkansas State Archives at 1 Capitol Mall, Suite 215, call 501-682-6900 or email state.archives@arkansas.gov.

Tracing Women’s Family History Poses Challenges

Two unidentified women pose for
a photo in the 1920s. Photo is courtesy
of the Arkansas State Archives. G6156.37

One of the most challenging aspects of genealogy is finding historical information about women. Throughout history, laws and society have limited women’s roles, which has made finding records about their contributions or lineage more difficult.

Women are often referred to as “hidden members of the family.” Early in American history, women had few rights. For example, men usually controlled all the property, including their wives’ property, and a woman often only received an inheritance if there were no males in the family.

So, how do researchers find information that restores women in history?

The first step is to fully document your male ancestors for clues to female family members. For example, you might find a woman’s full name on birth records or mentioned in obituaries for men.

After you have information about the men in your family, you can use the information to create a timeline of events linked to the woman’s life. This could include census, marriage, birth, death and church records.

Not all records will be helpful or available, however. For example, before 1850, women’s names were only listed in census records if they were heads of household. Women who were married or living with a male relative were only counted with a number and age range.

Women were listed with their first and last names, ages and places of birth from 1850 to 1940. By 1880, the U.S. Census included marital status. That means you can start to trace marriages, which will lead you to marriage licenses.

Information on marriage licenses include maiden names. The license may also include a note from the bride’s brother, who vouched for her age, or a note from her father, who gave permission for her to wed. In some states, such as Ohio and Louisiana, parents’ names are listed on the licenses. Marriage licenses are often recorded in county records that are available on microfilm at the ASA, and some may be searched through Ancestry.com, which is available for free at the ASA.

Other county records, such as deeds, probate and court records, can provide additional information. Deed records can include a wife’s name and some women owned property. Probate and will records also can help one understand connections between wives, husbands and children. Divorces records can provide a woman’s maiden name, and because women couldn’t legally file lawsuits in early Arkansas, these records may uncover male relatives who filed on their behalf.

Once you’ve combed those records, try searching newspapers and church records. Women often were involved in their communities and churches. Local newspapers filled pages with social columns listing visitors to homes and social events, wedding announcements, ladies club news, sewing hints, recipes, church news and divorces. It can be worth taking time to go through a weekly or daily newspaper for information. Sometimes the information you find in a newspaper can lead you back to a court record you missed. The Arkansas State Archives has newspapers from communities across the state available on microfilm. Select digitized newspapers made be searched by keyword online on Chronicling American or through Newspapers.com, which is available for free for Arkansas newspapers at the ASA.

Church records can be a wealth of information. The information in church records may vary depending on the denomination, but all contain vital information, such as godparent names and birth names. You may also find information about baptisms, bat mitzvahs or confirmations, marriages, birth dates and more. Church records on marriages and deaths sometimes recorded more details than civil records.

Military records can also sometimes provide information about women, either those that served or those related to men who served in the military. Widows of soldiers often applied for pensions, such as the Confederate Pensions Applications searchable at the ASA.

In the late 19^th century, many women’s organizations and clubs were founded. Some patriotic hereditary organizations, such as the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, offer a treasure trove of information about women and their ancestral lines. Other organizations focused on specific causes and education can provide details of the interests and activities of women in their communities. The papers of many of women’s organizations are housed at the Arkansas State Archives.

The Arkansas State Archives has many collections related to women and women’s organizations in Arkansas. A Guide to Women’s History Resources at the Arkansas State Archives is available online at http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16790coll13/id/288 with a selection of women’s history collections available at the ASA. This is not a comprehensive list, so please contact ASA staff for additional information.

Researching the women in your family is challenging, but patience is the key to success. Stop by our Arkansas State Archives or our branch archives and let us help get you started. 

For more information or to request help with your research project, contact the Arkansas State Archives at 501-682-6900 or visit our website. 

###

City Donates Historical Records

Photo of the commission of 

Samuel Ezra “S.E.” Tribble as Blevins mayor. 

Tribble was born in Hempstead County 

and held various jobs, including farm hand, 

transfer wagon driver and dairy laborer. 

He married Grace Stephens in 1916 

and was elected mayor in 1940. 

By 1947, the couple had moved to California, 

where Grace died in 1968. 

Tribble died in 1971 in Blevins. 

Husband and wife are both 

buried in Blevins 

beside their two children who 

preceded them in death. Photo 

is courtesy of SARA.

The Southwest Arkansas Regional Archives recently received records donated by the City of Blevins in Hempstead County.

“These records are a fascinating look into what life was like in rural, historical Blevins,” said Melissa Nesbitt, archival manager at SARA. “We are grateful to have the opportunity to preserve these records for future generations and to make them accessible to the public.”

The records date from 1914, when the city was incorporated, through the 1990s. Documents include city council meeting minutes, city ordinances, town incorporation and correspondence of account holders with the Bank of Blevins. Researchers may be most interested in the Mayor’s Docket from the 1910s. Those records list individuals’ offenses, including drunkenness, fighting, carrying a pistol, gambling and disturbing the peace.

Blevins is a second-class city that is often overlooked in historical studies. The settlement, which was named after a landowner in the area, was omitted from reports during the Civil War and was not incorporated until 1914. In the 1890s, the settlement was established as a stopping spot on the Prescott and Northwest Railroad. The settlement received its first post office in 1901.

The roads in northern Hempstead County, including through Blevins, were improved by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Vehicle traffic began to replace railroad traffic, and by 1945, passenger trains were discontinued. All train services stopped by 1980, and the track was removed in 1994.

Although the city’s population has fluctuated between around 200 to 370, Blevins had about 315 residents as of the 2010 U.S. Census.

For more information about Blevins or Hempstead County history, contact SARA at 870-983-2633 or visit the branch at 201 Highway 195 in Washington, Arkansas. Queries may also be emailed to southwest.archives@arkansas.gov.

Film Funds Confederate Monuments

David O. Dodd. Courtesy of the
Arkansas State Archives. G2410

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Southern artists, writers, politicians and leaders worked diligently to influence popular memory and understanding of the Civil War by creating monuments and art that immortalized Southern heroes.

In Arkansas, one of the most celebrated heroes was David O. Dodd, who was accused of spying and executed for espionage in 1864. He was largely forgotten after his death until his story was revived as the “Boy Martyr of the Confederacy” in the 1900s.

David O. Dodd was 17 years old when he was captured by Federal troops while visiting Little Rock. The soldiers discovered information about Federal troop strength in his possession. A court martial convicted Dodd of being a spy and sentenced him to death. In January 1864, he was hanged. To honor his memory, Arkansans wrote poetry books, had daylong celebrations and, in 1915, decided to memorialize him through a new medium – the motion picture.

The drive to erect memorials to Dodd began in 1914 as Arkansans marked the 50th anniversary of Dodd’s execution. Social clubs and schools held programs about the young man complete with songs and poems written in his honor.

But, large memorials were expensive, so a group of Arkansans organized the David O. Dodd Memorial Committee to plan and raise money to pay for monuments. The committee decided to explore motion pictures as a fundraising tool. Profits made from exhibiting the film could be used to fund new memorials for the young man.

Ad in the Daily
Graphic, Pine Bluff,
1915. Photo is
courtesy of the ASA.

This was not the first film shot in Arkansas, but it was likely one of the first narrative films made in the state. Most early films in Arkansas were documentaries focused on daily life in the state. For example, a film crew in Little Rock recorded the grand parade during a Confederate reunion in 1911. Over the years, however, filmmaking had taken a shift towards dramatic fictional films.

Directing the committee’s film was Charles M. Simon, who previously directed “The Call,” a film shot entirely in Arkansas the year before. Simon wanted the film to be historically accurate, down to the furniture and costumes. He called for Civil War veterans in Little Rock to lend the film their uniforms and asked local families to lend period furniture to give the film accuracy. Simon consulted local historians, including Dallas Herndon, who was the director of the Arkansas History Commission, to write the screenplay. The Arkansas History Commission is now the Arkansas State Archives.

For the cast, the committee chose local talent, most of whom had no acting experience. Gen. B.W. Green, a Little Rock businessman and commander of the State Guard, played Gen. James Fagan, commander of the Confederate forces in Little Rock in 1863. John Hinemon, superintendent of the Little Rock School for the Blind, played Gen. Frederick Steele, commander of the Union forces that captured Little Rock. Other local dignitaries made cameo appearances as members of the army. Local stage actor Roger Goodman starred as David O. Dodd.

Filming began in September 1915 with scenes of the Union capture of Little Rock. Simon invited Little Rock residents to take part in the film as extras. Most of the action took place near the Oakland Cemetery. Because most of the cast were amateurs, there was little coordination on stunt work for the big battle scene. In one case, a bomb went off under one of the “dead” soldiers on the battlefield setting his pants on fire. Once he discovered he was on fire, the “corpse” immediately jumped up and started putting out the fire. The scene was edited out of the final product.

The filmmakers also took liberties with the story for dramatic purposes. For instance, they invented the character “Betty South,” who plays Dodd’s love interest. She seduces “Capt. Pulaski,” another fictional character, and steals information about troop strength from his satchel. She passes it to Dodd who then makes his way back toward the Confederate lines. While on his journey through the city, Dodd is captured by Federal troops who find the stolen message. Dodd refuses to name South as the source of the information and is hanged.

In reality, historians don’t know where Dodd got his information or whether he acted alone.

Simon chose to film the execution scene in City Park, which is now MacArthur Park, near the actual site of Dodd’s execution. To shield viewers from seeing the gruesome execution, Simon chose to show the execution in shadow. Simon finished the film and traveled to Chicago to work with a team of editors to get the film ready for viewing.

In all, the film cost $1,200 to make with a cast of 400 appearing in the film for free. In November, Simon distributed copies of the film throughout the South with the proceeds going toward the David O. Dodd memorial fund. The money generated by the film was substantial.

Today, the David O. Dodd film, the title of which remains a mystery, is considered a lost film. Negatives and release prints alike have been destroyed by time and neglect. Despite that, Dodd’s fame has survived — there may be more Arkansas monuments to David O. Dodd than to any other Civil War era figure. Many of those memorials were built with proceeds from this long-forgotten film.

For more information on Arkansas history, visit the Arkansas State Archives at 1 Capitol Mall, Suite 215, call 501-682-6900 or email state.archives@arkansas.gov.

New Accessions for February

Portrait of Betty Bumpers,
by Betty Dortch Russell, whose portraits of
former Govs. Orval Faubus and Winthrop
Rockefeller hang in the Capitol. She later
became the wife of former Gov. Sid McMath.

Our new accessions include items from the late U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers and his wife Betty; election commission records from Arkansas counties; and a 1957 yearbook from the Arkansas State Teachers College, which is now the University of Central Arkansas. We have records and artifacts you won’t find anywhere else. Let us help you with your next Arkansas history research project!  

Archival Collections

·         Sen. Dale and Betty Bumpers collection: Items purchased at the estate sale of Dale and Betty Bumpers were recently accessioned at the Arkansas State Archives. Dale Bumpers served as Arkansas’s 38^th governor from 1971 to 1975 before serving in the U.S. Senate until January 1999. He died in 2016. His wife, Betty, was known for her efforts to promote childhood immunizations and world peace. She died in 2018. Donated items include undated photographs, a framed drawing of Betty Bumpers, tea towel, patch, fan and brochure.

·         Crow Barnes Resort brochure: An undated brochure for the Crow Barnes Resort on Bull Shoals Lake was recently donated by Michael Fagan of Clarkdale, Arizona.

·         Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism: The Arkansas State Archives recently received a transfer of records from the former Department of Parks and Tourism. Records include 2019-2020 travel guides, motorcycling and cycling guides and the magazines Love Where You Live and Living in Arkansas.

·         Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners records: The Arkansas State Archives received 48 boxes of records that included reimbursement files for the cost of elections by county; information on historical voting systems and voting equipment used for past elections; board meeting recordings on tape; and commissioners headshots from 1995 to 2014.

·         Arkansas State Board of Health records: The Arkansas State Archives received 15.21 cubic feet of Board of Health minutes from 1951 to 2008.

·         Arkansas Waterways Commission records: About 3 cubic feet of records from the 1990s through the 2000s were recently transferred to the State Archives.

Published Materials

·         Brickwall Gazette, V. 24, issue 2, February 2020. The magazine issue was donated by the Genealogy Society of Craighead County, Arkansas.

·         “1957 Golden Anniversary Yearbook,” Arkansas State Archives employee April Goff donated a yearbook from the Arkansas State Teachers College. The college, which was created in 1907 as The Arkansas State Normal School, became the Arkansas State Teachers College in 1925. In 1967, the college changed its name to the State College of Arkansas before changing its name to the University of Central Arkansas in 1975.

March is Arkansas Women’s History Month

ASA staff helped kick off Arkansas
Women's History Month recently
at the Old State House Museum.

The Arkansas State Archives recognizes March as Women’s History Month.

“Arkansas Women’s History Month is important because it recognizes and highlights women’s accomplishments in all aspects of life and society,” said Dr. David Ware, state historian and director of the Arkansas State Archives. “This is simple justice for those who have gone before us, and even better, it points the way ahead for the women who will lead us in decades to come.”

Historically, women’s rights were limited in the U.S., which makes historical research into their families and legacies more challenging. As recently as the 1970s, women’s history was largely omitted from school curriculums. Women’s History Week was established in 1978 in response to the lack of history about women in schools, and President Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation for National Women’s History Week in 1980. The weeklong celebration turned into all of March in 1987, when Congress declared National Women’s History Month.

In the early days of the 

telephone industry, telephone 

operators were predominantly 

women. This photo shows women 

at the Little Rock Telephone Co. 

on a typical day in 1915. 

Photo courtesy of the 

Arkansas State Archives. 

G2046

Patricia Peacock was born in 1938 and
grew up in Stuttgart. She won her first
duck calling contest at 12 years old.
 She was the Junior World Champion in
Duck Calling in 1950. From 1951 to 1955,
 she was the Women's World Champion.
She was the Arkansas State Champion
and the Open World Champion of duck calling
in 1955. This photo is circa 1955 in Stuttgart
and is courtesy of the Arkansas
State Archives. G5257

The Arkansas State Archives helped kick off Arkansas Women’s History Month this past Saturday at the Old State House Museum with a Women’s History Festival organized by the Arkansas Women’s History Institute and the Old State House Museum. The festival focused on Arkansas women in the 1980s.  The State Archives had activities for children and highlighted Arkansas women prominent in the 1980s including Dr. Jocelyn Elders (born 1933), a physician born in Schaall, Arkansas, who became the first woman, Arkansan and African American to be appointed as U.S. Surgeon General; Elsijane Trimble Roy (1916-2007), who became Arkansas’s first woman circuit judge in 1966, the first woman on the Arkansas Supreme Court from 1975 to 1977, and the first woman appointed to an Arkansas federal judgeship from 1977 to 2007; Carolyn Pollan (born 1937), who served 24 years in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1975 to 1999 and became the longest-serving Republican and longest-serving woman in the Arkansas House of Representatives’ history; and Jimmie Lou Fisher (born 1941), who is the longest-serving Arkansas State Treasurer, serving from 1981 to 2003.

The Arkansas Women’s Suffrage Commemoration Committee also participated in the event commemorating the 19^th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, which went into effect 100 years ago on Aug. 26, 1920.

Effiegene Locke Wingo 

(April 13, 1883 – Sept. 19, 1962) 

was a U.S. representative 

from Arkansas. She was 

elected as a 

Democrat on Nov. 4, 1930, 

after the seat was left vacant 

by her husband’s death. 

In 1934, Wingo cofounded the 

National Institute of Public Affairs 

in Washington, D.C. 

Photo, circa 1930, is 

courtesy of 

the Arkansas State Archives.

Throughout history, Arkansas women have made enormous contributions in religion, arts, education, politics, civil rights and sciences in Arkansas and nationally. These women leaders include Dale Evans, an actress and songwriter who moved to Osceola, Arkansas, at 7 years old before rising to fame as the cowgirl “Queen of the West” and Little Rock born watercolorist Catherine Tharp Altvater, whose work hangs in museums that include The Museum of Modern Art and who became the first woman to hold office in the American Watercolor Society.

Short biographies of significant women from Arkansas are available on the Arkansas Women’s History Institute’s website at ArkansasWomen.org.

Since 2015, the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame also has recognized the accomplishments and achievements of Arkansas women. The deadline to nominate a woman for 2020 is March 9. Inductees have included performer, poet and author Maya Angelou and Dr. Mary Lowe Good, a renowned chemist, innovator, professor and government leader.

“Without women’s stories, historical narratives are at once flat and lopsided — like long-playing records full of nothing but battles and politics,” Ware said. “Embracing and exploring women’s history shows us a more complex story — it helps us, as a society, sort out what we are and how we became this way.”

The Arkansas State Archives holds historically significant photos, documents and teacher plans on Arkansas women’s history online at Archives.Arkansas.gov. For more information, visit the Arkansas State Archives at 1 Capitol Mall, Suite 215, call 501-682-6900 or email state.archives@arkansas.gov.

An American Red Cross Nursing Class poses in Leslie, Arkansas. 

Women were instrumental in the war effort during World War I. 

Standing left to right: Dexter Thomas Morrow, Verlie Kimbrell 

Norman, unknown student, Miss Hart (teacher), 

Ivy Norman Stokes, Willie Leonard, Lillian Britton,

 Gertrude Shipley and Polly Mabrey-Rand-Thomas. 

Seated left to right: Miss Livingston (teacher), 

Florence Porch, Goldie Hilton and 

Hazel Leonard Mabrey. 

Photo, circa 1917-1918, is courtesy of 

the Arkansas State Archives. G3218.04

A Conversation with Hunter Foster

Hunter Foster, archival assistant for conservation

Hunter Foster, archival assistant for conservation, has long loved art and history. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Fiber and Material Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Foster is detail-oriented and spends hours repairing and preserving historical materials, including books and maps. He says he is interested in keeping and maintaining items that are part of our state’s collective memory and identity. Foster repairs material for public use, while maintaining the original appearance. He recently took time from his busy schedule to answer a few questions.

Q: What’s your job title, and how long have you worked at the Arkansas State Archives?

A: I started as the archival assistant for conservation at the Arkansas State Archives in May 2019.

Q: What do you do on a typical day at the Arkansas State Archives?

A: Although my tasks at the Arkansas State Archives vary somewhat daily, I am primarily responsible for the conservation treatments and housing of objects in our collections. I typically work with our Curator Julienne Crawford and Archivist Stephanie Carter to examine items in need for conservation and determine the most appropriate plan for treatment. Treatments include, but are not limited to, a combination of surface-cleaning documents, mending tears, remediating mold, flattening rolled or folded maps and documents and making custom boxes, mats and enclosures for items. I also am responsible for our environmental monitoring system, which records data about the indoor environmental conditions at the ASA so that we can ensure that our collections are kept in the ideal conditions for long-term storage and preservation.

Q: How did you become interested in Arkansas history or working at the Arkansas State Archives?

A: My training is in fine art and textiles, but as an Arkansan, I have long been deeply interested in the stories and traditions of the place where I am from. I love food history and collect community cookbooks from around the state. The Arkansas State Archives has many interesting historical cookbooks, as well as, information and photographs regarding regional foodways, which has been a treat to uncover.  So far, my some of my favorite food-related discoveries have been pamphlets produced in the early 20^th century that promote Arkansas agriculture, including statistics and figures about the varieties and quantities of crops grown in the state. The pamphlets were distributed to encourage people to move to Arkansas, buy land and farm.

Q: What’s the most important or interesting thing you’ve discovered while working at the Arkansas State Archives? Why?

A: I have enjoyed learning a lot about maps during my work at the Arkansas State Archives. Treating and rehousing a large variety of maps, including topographical maps, property ownership maps, highway department maps and travelers' maps, has sparked within me an unexpected curiosity about places and towns in Arkansas. Previously, I was unfamiliar with much of these places’ histories. I have found historical maps to be an interesting way to learn about the changes of a specific place over time. I notice changes while working on a large collection of maps as places evolve over time. Although I don’t usually study one place in depth, I have had places to spark my interest, just based on their names. For example, Patmos in Hempstead County is named after the Greek Island that the Book of Revelations was written on. The town was created during the construction of the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway during the early 20^th century. The last U.S. Census reported a population of only 64 for Patmos. I like finding all the names of towns and cemeteries, etc., with biblical references.

Q: Why do you think the Arkansas State Archives is important for Arkansans?

A: In addition to the mammoth role the Arkansas State Archives performs in preserving Arkansas’s cultural heritage, I think we provide more resources than people might realize. Before starting my work here, I certainly didn’t know how much historical research material was available to anyone who is interested. Beyond its deep well of information useful to genealogists and community historians, the Arkansas State Archives provides support to academic researchers, educators and legislators. We also preserve a myriad of newspapers and records through microfilm and digitization, produce lectures, workshops and events for the public, offer some research services and organize and create exhibitions that travel across the state.

Q: What is the most rewarding part of your job?

A: Some of the most rewarding moments of working at the archives have been the opportunities I’ve had to meet with patrons, answer questions and offer ideas about accessible solutions to preserving and protecting items in their own personal collections or family artifacts. I love hearing about personal relationships people have with objects that have been in their families for generations. I’m also constantly learning about new materials and historical production methods, which is very gratifying. 

Q: How do you see archiving evolving in the future?

A: I think a challenge in the future will be how to keep up with preservation methods for the continually evolving and changing ways in which information is digitally created and stored. I think the ways the public accesses and interacts with the Arkansas State Archives also will change in exciting ways as more and more information becomes digitized and made available online. 

Q: What do you wish people knew about Archives?

A: I wish people knew how accessible we are, and that we are here for them. The cultural heritage of the state belongs to the people of Arkansas. They can come here to see it and use it for free.