April Acquisitions and Accessions

Acquisitions

AHC:

Books

“The Lion,” Agricultural Mechanical and Normal College (AM&N), Yearbook, 1967-1968

“The Lion,” Agricultural Mechanical and Normal College (AM&N), Yearbook, 1969

“The Lion,” UAPB, Yearbook, 1974

Bryant High School, Yearbook, 2000

A Family History:  Virgil Aubrey and Elsie Skinner Howard, by Ina L. Howard Wilingham

SARA:

Books

On the Prowl:  2004 Bobcat.  Hope High School, Hope, Arkansas.  Vol. 55.

What Goes Around Comes Around:  1997 Bobcat.  Hope, High School, Hope, Arkansas. Vol. 48.

Periodicals

Arkansas Archeological Survey:  Annual Report for fiscal year 2013-2014.

The Gems of Pike County, Arkansas.  Pike County Archives & History Society. Winter 2015. Vol. 26, No. 1.

Polk County Pioneers.  Polk County Genealogical Society.  Vol. XXXXII, Nos. 1 and 2.  Spring/Summer 2015.

Blade.   April 2015, Vol. XLII, No. 5.

Blade.  May 2015, Vol.  XLII, No. 6.

Blade.  June 2015, Vol.  XLII, No. 7.

Blade.  July 2015, Vol. XLII, No. 8.

American Bladesmith:  Journal of the American Bladesmith Society, Inc.  Winter-2014-2015, Issue 42.

NEARA:

Books

Cite Your Sources: A Manual for Documenting Family Histories and Genealogical Records by Richard S. Lackey

The ASU Story: A History of Arkansas State University 1909-1967 by Lee A. Dew

The Ottenheimers of Arkansas by Carolyn Gray LeMaster

Community Diaries: Arkansas Newspapering, 1819-2002 by Michael B. Dougan

Uncle, We are Ready! Registering America’s Men 1917-1918 by John J. Newman

Pioneers of Power: The Story of Ozark Border Electric Cooperative, 1938-2013 by Jim McCarty

The Man in the Green Shirt: Miles Davis by Richard Williams

ASU Indian 1979

ASU Indian 1981

 ASU Indian 1987

 ASU Indian 2005

Arkansas State University 2012

Arkansas Legal Directory 2009-2010

Jonesboro City Directory 1978

Jonesboro City Directory 1979

Jonesboro City Directory 1980

Jonesboro City Directory 1981

 Jonesboro City Directory 1985

 Jonesboro City Directory 1987-1988

 Jonesboro City Directory 1989

 Jonesboro City Directory 1990

 Jonesboro City Directory 1991-1992

Jonesboro City Directory 1993

Jonesboro City Directory 1994-1995

Jonesboro City Directory 1995

 Jonesboro, Paragould Arkansas Polk City Directory 1997

Jonesboro, Paragould Arkansas Polk City Directory 1998

Jonesboro, Paragould Arkansas Polk City Directory 2000

Periodicals

 Historic Maury: Annual Publication of the Maury County, Tennessee Historical Society Vol. XX 1984

 Historic Maury: Annual Publication of the Maury County, Tennessee Historical Society Vol. XXI 1985

 Historic Maury: Quarterly Journal of the Maury County, Tennessee Historical Society Vol. XXX, No. 2 1994

Historic Maury: Quarterly Journal of the Maury County, Tennessee Historical Society Vol. XXX, No. 3 1994 (2 copies)

Historic Maury: Quarterly Journal of the Maury County, Tennessee Historical Society Vol. XXX, No. 4 1994

Independence County "Bits of Bark From the Family Tree" XXXX 1 January 2015

Greene County Marriages 2.5 cu. ft. donated by Greene County Genealogical and Historical Society

Accessions

AHC:

National Guard Records, 56 cu. ft.

SARA:

Original Hempstead County Marriage Licenses from 1875 to 1900 and into the 20^th century.  3 cu. ft.

Jeff's Corner - Ralph Stanley at Ozark Folk Center

If you were lucky enough to be in Mountain View, Arkansas, on November 7, 1987, you would have had the opportunity to hear one of the greatest guest appearances at the Ozark Folk Center. Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys swept into the auditorium and played their music until it bounced outside and covered the hills and valleys of the Ozarks. If, like me, you were not one of the lucky few who witnessed these concerts, you can listen to the unreleased live recordings at the Arkansas History Commission where they are part of the Ozark Cultural Resource Center Collection of live performances from the Ozark Folk Center. 

Ralph Stanley was born on February 25, 1927, at McClure, Virginia. He formed the Clinch Mountain Boys with his older brother Carter Stanley in 1946. They were later signed by Columbia Records as The Stanley Brothers.  

In 2000, Stanley was famously featured in the film, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? in which he performed the song, “Oh Death.”   Stanley won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal for that performance on the movie soundtrack

The November 1987 performances began with Art Flatt introducing Ralph Stanley at the Ozark Folk Center: “All the way from down in Southwest Virginia in the Clinch Mountain area. A band, I think this is their fortieth year together. . . .They were there when bluegrass started. Please welcome Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys!”

During the concert, Dr. Stanley, who received his honorary doctorate from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee, in 1976, as well as all the other members of the band, complimented the Folk Center on their facilities and how pretty the country was there in the heart of the Ozarks. Several of them made sure to brag on the bass fishing in Stone County, and how happy they all would be for all the people in the audience to “talk to the right people” to have them all come back and play as soon as possible. Ralph Stanley commented at one point, “You know, playing in Arkansas reminded me of playing at Petit Jean Park. You know where that is? We played a festival way up on top of the hill.”

"I did spend a week with Wayne Rainey down in Concord,” Ralph Stanley continued. “That’s pretty close, I think. It was about 25 years ago. . . Concord . . . I always wondered where that was. . . .They tell me you turn at the third cemetery on the left as you go out of town.”

Concord, Arkansas, is in Cleburne County, south of Mountain View. Wayne Rainey was a harmonica player out of the Wolf Bayou area of Cleburne County, Arkansas. He performed with the Delmore Brothers after WW II before starting his solo career in 1948. He died in 1993. 

At one point in the set, Ralph lets each of the band members introduce themselves. The 1987 line-up of the Clinch Mountain Boys included Curley Ray Cline on fiddle, Junior Blankenship on guitar, Sammy Atkins on lead vocals and guitar, and Jack Cooke on bass. In addition, Ralph Stanley II performed “Let’s Go to the Fair.” “He’s my little boy, nine years old,” Ralph Stanley, Sr. explained. “He went on stage with me when he was 2 ½ years old. “Dr. Stanley goes on to praise his boy for this being the only day of school he missed so far this year even though he tries to play with his father as much as he can. Currently, all the members of the Clinch Mountain Boys, including Ralph Stanley II, perform with their own bands  throughout the world.

Some of the other songs featured in the performance at the Ozark Folk Center included “White Dove,” “Rank Stranger,” “Clinch Mountain Backstep,” and “Old Richmond.”

In his book entitled, In the Country of Country, Nicholas Dawidoff  maintains that Ralph Stanley has a very different sound than Bill Monroe, even though both are associated with the origins of bluegrass music. “Ralph Stanley has taken care to emphasize . . . that what he sings is actually old-time mountain music – not bluegrass.” Ricky Skaggs, who played with both men, was quoted saying:  

 “When you hear Bill Monroe you hear the fire of the music. When

   you hear Ralph Stanley you hear the high lonesome sound of the

   mountains. . . . Ralph Stanley brings the lonesomeness, the hardness,

   the poverty, the faith of Appalachia to his singing . . . .He sounds exactly

   like where he comes from.”

Dawidoff also writes, “Stanley conspicuously cultivates the aura of a gentle country pastor . . . over the years, Ralph Stanley has self-consciously sought to sound more and more traditional.”

Ralph Stanley, Sr., performed with his grandson, Nathan Stanley, at “Juanita’s” in Little Rock, Arkansas,  on April 18, 2015. The other members of the 2015 Clinch Mountain Boys include Dewey Brown on fiddle, Mitchell Van Dyke on banjo, and Randall Hibbitts on bass. At the age of 88, Dr. Stanley still tours the world with his music, and Arkansans are lucky to be able to see him in person as well as hear the historic recordings housed at our State Archives in the Arkansas History Commission.

Sources available at the Arkansas History Commission: 

Dawidoff, Nicholas.  In the Country of Country, New York:  Pantheon Books, 1997. (ML 3524  .D39 1997)

Wright, John. Traveling the High Way Home: Ralph Stanley and the World of Traditional Bluegrass Music.  Urbana and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. (ML 420 .S8115 W74 1993)

Wednesday's Wonderful Collection - NEARA Collections Guide

Lawrence County Court Records

The Lawrence County Court records cover the judicial and administrative history of Northeast Arkansas from 1815 to the 1970s. The collections listed below are merely a sample of NEARA’s holdings! In order to search the records that have been indexed so far, please contact the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives at 870.878.6521, or by emailing northeast.archives@arkansas.gov. The indexes to these records are not available online.

MSNE.0032 Probate records: These records can relate to adoptions, guardianships, insanity, or estates. Most commonly, it is the administration of the estate of a deceased person. Information that can be found in the documents includes family members, detailed inventories, debts to or of the estate, who handled the estate, what happened to the assets, and who assumed the care for children.

MSNE.0070 & MSNE.0071 Court Cases: Civil, criminal, and chancery court cases are all present in this collection. Cases are from both the Powhatan courthouse and Walnut Ridge courthouse.

Civil cases covers lawsuits like debt, damages, personal injury, removal of minor disabilities, breach of contract, and more.

Criminal cases include any indictments for law breaking such as gaming, assault, murder, manufacturing liquor without a license, Sabbath breaking, and more.

Chancery court typically deals with property so it handles divorce, property dispute, debts or liens, foreclosure, breach of contract, partition of property, and more.

MSNE.0018 Bonds: In order to serve in many county positions, it was necessary to post a bond. These bonds cover a variety of county level jobs from 1815-1866 including coroners, constables, sheriffs, and tax collectors. There are also bonds for free blacks in the antebellum period.

MSNE.0038 County records: These 900+ ledger books contain the administrative record of Lawrence County including listings of county officials, payments made by the county, road development, school administration, taxes, and more. Available on microfilm.

MSNE.0081 Pistol Permits: In 1923 there was a new gun law that required registering firearms. County clerks were responsible for overseeing the application process.

MSNE.0082 Tavern Permits: The sale of alcohol has always been a contested issue in Arkansas. These records show the change in laws overtime as well as indicating the major merchants in Lawrence County.

MSNE.0007 Confederate Pensions: Counties were responsible for the distribution of pensions to Confederate veterans and their widows. These records track payments given and the eligibility of applicants.