The Ag Report

Giggity Leadership?

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:18:00 +0000

I found this sign on the SAU campus today...wow! You might be asking yourself, "What the...?!?" I know I did.

This sign points the way to the Leadership Academy associated with the SAU's Becoming a Mulerider program (BAM!).

The BAM! website explains that:

"Nothing even comes close to all of the fun, good times, new friends, learning, and excitement that you’ll find at the Southern Arkansas University Leadership Academy..."

and that the "Leadership Academy is a 48-hour leadership experience designed to enhance your career at SAU. Southern Arkansas University is committed to providing students with opportunities to become involved with the campus and the community...Leadership Academy offers you the opportunity to begin this involvement and to continue your high school success into college life and beyond...At Leadership Academy you will have the opportunity to meet and interact with campus leaders, to explore the inner workings of university organizations, to improve your time management and team building skills, and to tap into your leadership potential."

All this reminds me a lot of parts of My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, an ethnography I use in my Cultural Anthropology class at SAU. In My Freshman Year anthropologist Rebekah Nathan (or Cathy Smalls) explains that university programs all over the nation are falling over themselves to create a sense of "community" along with a air of fun, spontaneity and individuality...the thought is that a greater sense of community will increase student retention.

Of course the problem is that real communities are forged on shared experiences and the modern university (wanting also to cater to your sense of individuality) offers an ever expanding set of choices to students...requiring common experiences is vastly unpopular...hardly any students share a set of classes or experiences that link them together--even in small colleges like SAU...talking with my students, the REAL communities that last are ones based on shared experiences--sports, Greek and even sometimes experiences within your major (depending on the major)...The image of Quagmire above selling "fun" and "individuality" along with "leadership" and "community" strikes me as a bit odd and contradictory...and...well...stretching it a bit...it might be better to be truly spontaneous and fun (instead of evoking an image of fun)...that might forge some university community...but then again, real spontaneity and community can be a dangerous thing in the eyes of some...maybe we better stick to Quagmire...

Arkansas Cage Fight !?!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:16:00 +0000

A July 8th posting from The Smoking Gun has a bit of information that involves southwestern Arkansas...and Arkansas's national image.

Lured by $1 beer and the prospect of "hot chicks" and "hardcore fights," thousands of Arkansans were duped last month into appearing as extras in comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's latest staged mayhem. Cohen and his confederates organized cage fighting programs on consecutive days in Texarkana and Fort Smith. Both cards ended with two male grapplers (one was identified as "Straight Dave" and wore camouflage) tearing each other's clothes off and, while in underwear, kissing down their opponent's chest. This man-on-man action triggered Fort Smith fans to throw chairs and beer at the ring, according to one cop present at the city's Convention Center. [Click here and here to read bulletin board messages posted in early-June by miffed mixed martial arts fans who attended one of Cohen's Arkansas productions.] Cohen is currently filming a follow-up, of sorts, to his smash 2006 film featuring Borat, his fictional Kazakh journalist. The new film stars another of Cohen's creations, Bruno, a gay Austrian journalist who favors mesh t-shirts and interviews subjects about fashion and entertainment. The June 5 Texarkana promotion was adverstised as "Red, White, and Blood." The June 6 matches in Fort Smith were dubbed "Blue Collar Brawlin'" as seen in the below poster. Ads on craigslist--like this one--noted that attendees had to be over 21 and suggested that fans arrive early "for $1 BEERS!" Cohen & Co. underwrote the cost of beer, which usually sells for $4 at the Fort Smith facility. "Blue Collar Brawlin'" drew about 1500 fans, who were greeted by signs stating that the event was being filmed. Attendees were also not allowed in with cameras or cell phones and some were asked to sign releases...

While I was in Malvern for the Arkansas Archeological Society summer dig this year, Davis Markus (a UF student who was helping me out at the dig) noticed that there was going to be a cage fight in town during the weekend of Malvern's Brickfest...We did not go, however...now I wonder what it would have been like if we had gone...real cage fight or sureal cinema?

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0708081bruno1.html

Nature's Fury in the Natural State

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:30:00 +0000

Last night tornadoes hit central Arkansas--North Little Rock & Benton to be precise...

I'd just like to point out that over the past two months, parts of Arkansas have seen an EF4 tornado during a storm outbreak that killed 13, a foot of snow, upwards of a foot of rain and near-record flooding...

Who have we pissed off?

Wynn-Price: Hidden Gem in Garland City

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 00:32:00 +0000

Earlier this month I received a call from a Skip Bernard who was working with a museum organization out of Shreveport, but he lived in Doddridge, Arkansas...to make a long story short, the organization was interested in a historic building in Garland City (in Miller County just east of Texarkana)...this historic home was already on the National Register of Historic Places (since 1992), but it was not in the Arkansas state archaeological site files...moreover, the nomination actually stated that the site could benefit from archaeological work...so they called me...That's how I came to know about the Wynn-Price House.

Last week I met Skip over at the house, and let me say that it a hidden gem in Garland City...to steal words from the AHPP website, "this grand Greek Revival design, luxurious in both plan and elevation, was undoubtedly constructed largely from materials shipped up the Red River from New Orleans and elsewhere (we know that the marble for the two fireplaces was so ordered). The tall imposing two-story portico with its flanking single-story 'temples' must have been one of the most majestic edifices in the region"...it is certainly one of the most complex Greek Revival houses that I have seen in Arkansas...Ironically, I HAVE visited the African-American cemetery associated with the Wynn-Price plantation (known as Wynns Cemetery)....but when I visited it last year (with Anthony Clay Newton), we had no idea that a huge antebellum mansion lay just around the corner...go figure.

The description below is a brief excerpt from the AHPP website entry for the Wynn-Price House...below you also find links to my photographs of the structure and the AHPP entry...I look forward to investigating this house--and its associated plantation--in the near future.

As is frequently the case in Arkansas, attempts to study even significant characters in local or regional antebellum history are frustrated by a lack of primary sources. Reconstructing the life and activities of William Wynn is no different, though we do know through census records, slave ownership records and deed information that he was a successful farmer, and probably growing cotton, the staple crop of the Red River valley during this period. However, when considered within the broader context of American and regional history during the period of 1835 (the first documented date of William Wynn's arrival in the Red River area) to 1861, the primary sources that do survive support certain additional conclusions about Wynn's investment activities and his hopes for the "city" of Garland as a major commercial river and overland transportation crossroads...Though the site probably also retains potential to reveal further information about the occupation of the site by William Wynn, his two sons (the 1840 Lafayette County census indicates two males between the ages of 20 and 30 living with him, though not necessarily at this site) and his slaves, a professional archaeological investigation of the site remains to be done. Such investigation, upon completion, may justify additional areas of significance for the property.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcbrandon/sets/72157603949469598/

http://www.arkansaspreservation.org/historic-properties/_search_nomination_popup.asp?id=5

The Obama-Arkansas Connection

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:55:00 +0000

Below is an article by Joy Russell of the Madison County Genealogical & Historical Society. It appeared in the Friday, February 15th, 2008 issue of the Madison County Record.

The current national newscasts are filled with the names of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the top two Democratic candidates for President of the United States of America. The Clintons have been well known to Arkansas residents since the mid-1970’s with Hillary Clinton serving as Arkansas’ First Lady from 1979 to 1992 when her husband, Bill, was Governor of the State. The Clintons were married in Fayetteville on Oct. 11, 1975, and their daughter, Chelsea, was born in Little Rock on Feb. 27, 1980.

However, Obama also has roots that run deep in Northwest Arkansas. Obama’s great-great-great-great-great grandparents were Nathaniel and Sarah (Ray) Bunch, who came to Arkansas about 1840 and settled near Dinsmore, about three miles south of Dry Fork. The community of Dinsmore is in the extreme northwest corner of Newton County and is only about a half-mile from both the Carroll and Madison County lines.

Nathaniel Bunch was born on April 23, 1793, in Virginia and served in the War of 1812 under General Andrew Jackson. Family legends say he took part in the Battle of New Orleans. Soldiers who served in the War of 1812 were given “land bounty certificates,” which entitled them to claim 80 acres of land from the government, and it is believed that Nathaniel Bunch used his land bounty certificate to claim the land that he settled in Arkansas.

Anna Bunch, born in 1814, was the daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah. She married Samuel Thompson Allred in Tennessee and they moved their family to Newton County, Arkansas, about 1845. They were the great-great-great-great grandparents of Barack Obama. Nathaniel and Sarah Bunch, Samuel and Anna (Bunch) Allred, and Samuel’s parents, John and Phoebe (Thompson) Allred, are all buried at Liberty Cemetery near where the Bunch family settled at Dinsmore. There are many graves of the Bunch and Allred families in this cemetery, most of whom are relatives of Barack Obama.

Frances A. Allred, daughter of Samuel and Anna, was born in 1834 and married Joseph Samuel Wright. On Aug. 11, 1869, Margaret Bell Wright was born to Frances and Joseph. Margaret married Thomas C. McCurry in Chautaugua County, Kansas, on March 13, 1885. Margaret and Thomas McCurry were the great-great grandparents of Obama, and their daughter, Leona McCurry, married Rolla Charles Payne in 1922. Both Leona and Rolla were born in Kansas, lived there, and are
buried there.

Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Lee Payne, was born to Leona and Rolla in October 1922, and married Stanley Armour Dunham in 1940. Their daughter, Shirley Ann Dunham, married Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., in 1960 but they were divorced in 1963.

Their son, Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., was born on Aug. 4, 1961, and is now an Illinois senator vying for the U.S. Presidency. Barack Obama still has many cousins in this area, including the Bunch, Holt, Combs, Hargis, Wright, and Stamps families. Further information on the genealogy of Barack Obama can be found at the Madison County Genealogical and Historical Society.

The Fate of the Woodruff House...

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:39:00 +0000

Listed on Arkansas’s 2007 "Most Endangered Places" by The Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas, the Woodruff House remains one of Arkansas’s most notable properties...Unfortunately, it stands a very serious chance of being lost forever, unless larger forces intervene.

First, the back story (drawn largely from The Quapaw Quarter Association's web site). In 1851 Mr. William E. Woodruff, founder of The Arkansas Gazette, bought 23 1/3 acres of land, then just outside the city limits, on the East side of the city. His family was growing so rapidly he wished more rooms for them, also to gratify his own desire and love for a desirable country home, and the leisure and privacy that such a home afforded him. Facing Ninth Street, near College Street, he built a beautiful substantial two and one-half story thirteen room, brick home, full of comfort and so roomy (7,000 sq. ft.) that not only his own family, but many friends and many strangers found pleasure visiting within its walls. The immediate enclosure about his home and garden occupied ten city blocks (today it has been winnowed down to three lots).

When the Federal army took possession of Little Rock, the Woodruff House was confiscated. This lovely old home, with the exception of two rooms allowed for Mrs. Woodruff to occupy, was used for the white officers of a black Union regiment as their headquarters, and later used as a hospital for Federal officers. After the war, the family occupied it again until Mr. Woodruff died on June 19, 1885. After Mr. Woodruff's death the home became the property of the oldest child, Alden Mills Woodruff, and he and his family occupied it for a period of five years, from July, 1886, to March, 1891.

At the turn of the century, the house was remodeled into apartments, and fronted on East Eighth Street. In September, 1921, it was purchased for a home for business girls and was renamed “The Business Girls Cottage Home." It was last used as apartments, but a fire in recent years damaged some of the rooms. It now needs total restoration.

Its prime location near the Clinton Presidential Center, the headquarters of Heifer International, and the future Lion’s World Services for the Blind Headquarters, puts it at possible risk of being eventually demolished for a hotel, condos, or other retail establishment. However, an even more immediate threat is the high level of vagrant activity in the area. Preservationists are all too painfully aware of what happened to the historic Mosaic Templars Building in March of 2005--destroyed by fire. The same fate could befall the Woodruff House as well if immediate steps are not taken to secure and protect the property.

It would be a tremendous loss for Little Rock and the State of Arkansas if this home was not preserved and refurbished.

I am, of course, a bit biased...I am interested in the Woodruff House from not only a preservation perspective, but also an archeological one. The Woodruff House is a prime example of what my colleague Leslie C. "Skip" Stewart-Abernathy has calls an "urban farmstead." The house once had a substantial garden to the east of the structure, and north of the house was the servants' quarters, a wood yard, a large chicken house, barns, and other ancillary structures one would expect to find on a nineteenth century farm of the genteel class. On the west side was a large laundry house built over a large cistern, which furnished the water for washing. Farther to the West extending to Rector Avenue was a fine orchard, cornfield, potato patch, and so on. Archeological excavations at the Woodruff house could not only shed light on the daily life of the Woodruff family--an important family in Arkansas history by all measures--but it could also give us insights into the workings of these urban farmsteads, the trauma of the Civil War in Little Rock, the dawning of the modern, consumer age and what life was life for those enslaved in the urban South.

The Arkansas Archeological Survey is looking for ways that we can help save and conduct research on the Woodruff House as we speak. And I hope to report in the near future that either myself of Dr. Stewart-Abernathy will begin work on the project soon...In the meantime, consider donating to The Quapaw Quarter Association's effort to save the Woodruff House...

click here to donate

Samuel Dickinson

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:27:00 +0000

The below obituary is from the December 14th Hope Star. Sam Dickenson was a legend in Arkansas history and archeological circles...I never got the opportunity to meet him, but I have heard lots of stories....He published several articles with Sam Dellinger in the 1930s and depending who you ask either one "Sam" or the other was "the Father of Arkansas Archeology." Although Dellinger is home likely to be credited by professionals, Dickenson was a home-grown archeologist (unlike Dellinger). He taught history and Spanish at SAU back in when is was "Magnolia A&M"...and even directed the National Youth Administration (the NYA was a WPA-like program for the youth) project to build the Greek Theater still standing on SAU's campus (It's recently been put on the National Register of Historic Places).

PRESCOTT--Samuel Dorris Dickinson, 95, of Prescott, died Friday, November 30, 2007, at a Prescott care and rehab center. He was born February 26, 1912, in Prescott, to Sam P. and Bessie Sue Litton Dickinson. He studied American archaeology, and for several years he was engaged in that profession. He taught at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. He was in charge of the University of Arkansas's WPA archaeological laboratory. Then, he turned to journalism and for a total of 28 years, he held the position of associate editor to the Little Rock Arkansas Gazette, the Little Rock Arkansas Democrat, and the Shreveport Journal. In retirement he continued to contribute to archaeological, historical, folklore, and literacy journals, as well as to newspapers and popular magazines. He translated colonial French and Spanish accounts of Louisiana and Arkansas. He published six books and his analysis of Gombo, the African-French dialect spoken by Louisiana slaves, was one of the very few ever published on that subject. Both the Arkansas Preservation Alliance and the Arkansas Historical Association gave him lifetime achievement awards. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He has been called the ‘Father of Arkansas Archaeology' because his archeological research was the first done in a scientific manner in this state.

Survivors include his caregiver and friend, Ronnie Vandiver, of Prescott. Memorial services will be at 2 p.m., Saturday, December 15, at Brazzel/Cornish Funeral Home Chapel in Prescott, with Mr. Ed Talley officiating. Arrangements are by Brazzel/Cornish Funeral Home in Prescott. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Cammie Henry Room, Eugene Watson Library, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Natchitoches; Riley-Hickingbotham Library, Ouachita Baptist University, Arkadelphia; the First Methodist Church of Prescott, or the Old Washington Foundation, Washington, Arkansas.

The Huckster

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:25:00 +0000

David Sixbey and James Willis (both former SAU history faculty--one I drink coffe with, the other I shoot pool with...depending on the time of the day), alerted me to the appearance of a letter of Tom Forgey's (yet another retitred SAU history faculty member..he's also a former Arkansas lawmaker and Deputy Sheriff) in the most recent issue of Arkansas Times. It made me smile, so I thought I would pass it along...

The Huckster

After listening to Bro. Huckabee's declaration that he is not running for vice president because he always runs "for the gold, and not the silver" I am reminded of his race for lieutenant governor (Silver? Bronze? )

As an opportunist he prevailed, barely. And the rest is history.

If the Republicans are goofy enough to try an unnatural coupling of the Bro. with Giuliani (a New York-Arkansas axis) they ought to look at what happened in 1928 when the Democrats tried that with Al Smith (New York) and Joe T. Robinson Arkansas.)

The Bro. should slip quietly into retirement, oiling his arsenal of guns — a Weatherby rifle, a Browning shotgun, a Barelli duck gun and his most beloved, a rusty 20-gauge shotgun (guess which one he paid for).

Tom Forgey
Magnolia
see the original at:

http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=1f8ba15c-dba7-4954-ab84-4551ae7b7db9

I Hate It Here (When You're Gone) 4:10

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:26:00 +0000

I love my job...I have a busy, challenging mix of teaching and research. I have 11 counties of cool archaeological sites wide open for my investigation. I have had (so far) good support from the main office of my organization when it comes to getting equipment, project support, and such...The only fly in the ointment is that my wife lives 5 hours away.

Now I am not in the worse situation...I have colleagues who live much further apart from their spouses--Arkansas to Florida, Baton Rouge to Berkeley, and (for awhile) I had a friend who taught in Virginia while her spouse worked in the UK. Hey, the new SAU Africanist historian's wife is still in Senegal. However, those who know me well, know that I am not built to live alone...enter my new favorite song.

Sky Blue Sky is the sixth studio album by Chicago rock band Wilco, released on May 15, 2007 by Nonesuch Records. I bought it in May while I was in Florida working on the Kingsley Plantation project...but over the summer the album began to sink in. Many of you are familiar with Sky Blue Sky whether you know it or not--Wilco licensed six songs from the Sky Blue Sky sessions to a Volkswagen advertisement campaign, a move that generated criticism from fans and the media. But, to my knowledge, "I Hate it Here" was not one of the six (or maybe I have not caught that one yet). It has become my new "theme song" of sorts...

Let me set the record straight, however...I like Magnolia...the song is not about hating where you live...the song is about hating being without someone...Below are the lyricsto "I Hate it Here"...anyone who knows me will recognize me in "I try to stay busy...I do the dishes, I mow the lawn."

I try to stay busy

I do the dishes, I mow the lawn

I try to keep myself occupied

Even though I know you're not coming home

I try to keep the house nice and neat

I make my bed I change the sheets

I even learned how to use the washing machine

But keeping things clean doesn't change anything

What am I gonna do when I run out of shirts to fold?

What am I gonna do when I run out of lawn to mow?

What am I gonna do if you never come home?

Tell me, what am I gonna do?

I hate it

I hate it here

When you're gone

I caught myself thinking

I caught myself thinking once again

Have to try to keep my mind out of this

Try not to pretend

I'll check the phone

I'll check the mail

I'll check the phone again and I call your mom

She says you're not there and I should take care

I hate it here

When you're gone

I try to stay busy

I take out the trash, I sweep the floor

Try to keep myself occupied

Cause I know you don't live here anymore

PS: We are working on getting my wife a bit closer to southwest Arkansas and she has been able to telecommute for a week every month...so we're working on it.

John Barleycorn Lives, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 16:27:00 +0000

Last night...I took visiting friend and researcher Carl Carlson-Drexler to Bayou Bistro after a long day looking at Civil War-related sites in Hempstead and Nevada Counties...

and I bought my first legal Magnolia beer! I said I would believe it when I saw it so...John Barley Corn Lives!

John Barleycorn Lives!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 02:15:00 +0000

"Prohibition officially ends in Magnolia next week"...these words were met with thunderous applause by those present...the words were even more humorous as they were spoken by Ben Johnson, historian and author of John Barleycorn Must Die: The War Against Drink in Arkansas (The companion book to the Old State House Museum exhibit linked to at the right)...As Johnson himself said, the back of the book claims that "[n]obody knows more about drinking in Arkansas than Ben Johnson."

Ben was talking about the fact that at long last a Magnolia business (other than the Country Club) had obtained a liquor licence....after a public debate that seemed like it lasted forever, The Bayou Bistro (pictured below) has been granted a liquor licence...making Magnolia a better place for archeologists.

BTW: Although it may have been maligned in the press of late, I would point out that The Bayou Bistro was named the business of the month by the Magnolia Chamber of Commerce in March 17, 2006...and it is some of the best food in town (regardless of the fact that it is now wet).

One Year Anniversary...

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 00:37:00 +0000

This month is both the one year anniversary of my permanent arrival in Magnolia and the one year anniversary of the discovery of the theft of the Cedar Grove ceramic vessels from the AAS-SAU Research Station facility in the Bruce Center.

I'll be posting a one-year report to the blog in the next couple of weeks...that'll take care of the anniversary of my tenure as AAS-SAU Research Archeologist....but as for the stolen pots...

Last week, the Magnolia Banner-News ran a nice front-page, above-the-fold story that hopefully puts the pots back into the public memory (so they can keep an eye out for them) and may drum up some donations for building our security measures. Look here for a PDF of the article.

The Magnolia Banner-News continues to do a great job of covering both the case and archeology in general.

All of you out there...keep your eyes out for the pots...Click here for PDF list of what was stolen or here for a full color web site version. The Offical Press Release regarding the theft can be found here.

Who Are the Hoo-Hoo?

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:10:00 +0000

Just a touch north of my station territory in Clark County is the town of Gurdon, Arkansas. Gurdon seems to be known for two things--the mysterious Gurdon Light and the International Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo.

I'll write a bit about the Gurdon Light in a later post (maybe around October), but let me explain a bit about the Hoo-Hoos...

The International Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo, Incorporated is a fraternal and service organization whose members are involved in the forests products industry (not just lumber, but also truckers who ship the stuff, journalists who print on the stuff, etc.)...The organization was founded in 1892 in Gurdon and now has members in such far flung places as Australia, New Zealand, Maylasia and South Africa...The order publishes the Hoo-Hoo Log and Ta1ly Magazine quarterly. There were 7,300 members in 1994.

The order was founded by a group of timber industry men who were trapped on a train in Gurdon tring to get to a Yellow Pine Industry conference in Camden, Arkansas...While they waited for their delayed arrival, they formed a new order...It was decided to call the new order the "Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo", and not the "Ancient Order of Camp Followers" as one founding father suggested.

These guys were way ahead of their time in terms of post-modern-style humor...the Hoo-Hoo was designed to be a parody of a faternal organization and was intended to fight superstition and conventionalism...What I love about the Hoo-Hoo is that they have a sense of humor about their organization...The chief executive officer of Hoo-Hoo is the Snark of the Universe (formerly the Grand Snark of the Universe). The Board of Directors includes the Chairman, Vice-President, Secretary-Treasurer, the Seer of the House of Ancients and the Supreme Nines. The Supreme Nines include the Supreme Hoo-Hoo, Senior Hoo-Hoo, Junior Hoo-Hoo, Scrivenoter, Bojum, Jabberwock, Custocatian, Arcanoper and Gurdon. The Hoo-Hoo emblem is a black cat with its tail curled into the shape of a figure nine.

If you ever go by Gurdon...stop by the International Headquarters...

Hey...I've done lots of timber-sale-related archeological surveys...I wonder if they'd let me in the order?
---
Hoo-Hoo Links

http://www.hoo-hoo.org/
http://www.hoo-hoo.org/pdf/HHI-History.pdf
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1199

Vashti McCollum and the Columbia County Connection

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:48:00 +0000

When you think of activists for the separation of church and state you probably think of Madalyn Murray O'Hare--the founder of the American Atheiest movement who was murdered in 1995 in Austin, Texas (one of my former hometowns...In fact, I recently learned that I rented a storage unit in the same complex that the O'Hare's stolen gold coins had been stashed)...

But before Ms. O'Hare there was another woman who fought for the separation of church and state...and that woman, Vashti McCollum (shown to the right), has an unexpected connection to Columbia County...and as we are coming up on the one year anniversary of her passing, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit Vashti's story.

Vashti Cromwell McCollum (November 6, 1912–August 20, 2006) was the plaintiff in a landmark 1948 Supreme Court case that struck down religious education in the public schools. She had been born and raised in New York...Her father, a disabled World War I vet, was an architect and an atheist who successfully lobbied the state of New York to end religious classes in public schools there...Vashti moved to Champaign-Urbana in order to attend the University of Illinois...there she met Dr. John P. MCCollum, a professor of horticulture, whom she married in 1933.

James McCollum (shown to the left), the first of Ms. McCollum's three sons, was in fourth grade in a Champaign school when he was required to take religious classes during school. The classes were held on campus, were taught by a former missionary to China, and were mainly a Protestant program...Ms. McCollum, of course, did not approve and fought a long battle in the courts...the US Supreme Court eventually agreed to hear the case, and on March 9, 1948, it delivered an 8-to-1 decision saying that the religious education classes in Champaign's public schools violated the constitutional provisions for separation of church and state.

Writing for the majority, Justice Hugo Black stated that "The First Amendment has erected a wall between the church and the state which must be kept high and impregnable." According to James McCollum "the significance of the decision was that it was the first case of impression that held the several states accountable to the strictures of the establishment of religion clause of the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution under the aegis of the due process clause of the 14th Amendment." All cases, involving school prayers, aid to parochial schools, sectarian religious displays on public property and other such incursions into Jefferson's wall of "separation of church and state" by the states and their municipalities, descend from this case.

The McCollums have historical connections to southwestern Arkansas and Columbia County (The family name is listed in the Goodspeed's History in 1889)...and James McCollum, the child that Vashti acted on behalf of, has returned to the area...Jim, a retired lawyer, now lives in Emerson just south of Magnolia. He is an employee of SAU, a student in the Agricultural program and he remains active in Americans United for the Separation of Church and State...He and his wife (who, interestingly enough, teaches religious studies at SAU) have become friends of mine...hell, Jim was even my sponsor into the Magnolia Rotary.

On last thing...Jim is fond of pointing out that Vashti was named for the queen of Ahasuerus in the first book of Esther who was one of the few biblical women to stand up for women’s rights. I think that's a pretty cool fact.

Check out the brief biography of Vashti written by Jim here:
http://www.inmccollum.org/JIMMC/vashti_mccollum.htm

---
Other links
Americans United for the Separation of Church and State
James T. McCollum's Home Page

Frog Level

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 13:14:00 +0000

The Old Frazier Plantation was built in what was then still part of Lafayette County, Arkansas, in 1852…It still survives, and has become something of a landmark of regional (and in many ways state-level) importance. However, it is known now as “Frog Level.”

William Frazier built this great example of Greek revival architecture, but the current owner is attorney Joe Woodward. Yesterday I visited Frog Level for the second time (the first time was about a year ago when one of my volunteers, Vernon Perry, was initially giving me a tour of the county). Yesterday, I visited because I had run into Mr. Woodward at a historic preservation meeting in Magnolia the night before…he told me that one of the chimneys at Frog Level had fallen during the fierce winds we had had during a storm a few days earlier…He also told me that the insurance adjuster was coming out and that if I wanted to tag along, I was welcome.

So Anthony Clay Netwon (local professional archaeological technician and AAS volunteer) and I headed out to Frog Level for a look around…we got to see what a 1850s chimney fall looks like when it is fresh for a change…although the chimney had been encased in a light concrete-type stucco sometime in the 1940s-50s…beneath the stucco were the handmade bricks…soft-fired with one dry struck surface…the bright orange bricks were made of the local sandy clay and really had very few inclusions (i.e., tempering agents such as fired clay, horse hair, etc.).

Although we had come out to Frog Level to document the fall, we also wanted to look into possibly doing some archeological work at the plantation site….aside from the impressive standing home, there would have been many outbuildings and other structures that served the plantation and surrounding community.

For instance, only a few hundred feet from the house—at its current gated entrance--is a marker designating the place at which the Ferguson and Morgan store once stood. Although most folks in Columbia County think that the house itself served as the first County Courthouse, it was this store that hosted the first terms of County Court (held on March 21, 1853). At the first County Court two men, Ananias Godbolt (whose plantation site is now in Nevada County….I hope to investigate that one as well) and Andrew J. Thompson were appointed commissioners to locate a site for a permanent county seat. They found a higher elevation nearer the center of the new county—the current site of Magnolia, Arkansas.

Not only was this store the “seat of justice” for a brief time in Columbia County, but it also would have been (for a much longer period of time) an important nexus point for the larger community as a place were goods were bought and sold…and a place were neighbors met, information was passed along and, in reality, a community born.

I am very interested in using archaeology to shed some light of the Ferguson and Morgan store…as well as the many other buildings at Frazier Plantation and the other homes that made up the Frog Level community…Frog Level community….that brings me to my final point.

One of the things that clearly impressed me with Mr. Woodward was his ability to cut through many of the myths surrounding Frog Level and to more clearly understand the “history behind the story.” Early avocational historians such as Hattie Kilgore and Mary Davis Woodward used to say that the name "Frog Level" was “first given to the imposing structure by a young attorney, B. F. Askew; the name was chosen because the frogs were so numerous in the bottoms near-by" (Woodward 1949). Both Joe Woodward and I believe that Frog Level was originally a name used to refer to the greater community in the area--the name was probably taken from some settlers past experience in Frog Level, North Carolina (or Virginia, Alabama, Georgia…take your pick)…as the community shrank and moved to Magnolia, the main house at the Frazier Plantation became the only part of Frog Level left…thus the house became known as “Frog Level.”

At any rate, I plan to revisit Frog Level in the fall (when the foliage is gone) and map out the potential locations of outbuildings and other house places…maybe we’ll do our first SAU Spring Break dig at Frog Level…I’ll keep you posted.

---
Woodward, Mary Davis
1949 "'Frog Level,' Oldest House in Columbia County," Arkansas Historical Quarterly 8 (Spring 1949): 327-30.

---

Purple Hull Peas and Tiller Races...

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 12:39:00 +0000

Well...I'm back from the Arkansas Archeological Society summer archeological training program (AKA the "summer dig")...this year it was hosted by my sister station (Henderson State University) and we excavated two Archaic (6,000 old) sites near Malvern, Arkansas...I had a good time.

While I was there I took note that Malvern holds the "Malvern Brick-Fest" every June. Brick-Fest is a celebration of the town's claim to "Brick Capital of the World" (the Acme Brick plant produces 30,000 bricks per hour). But Brick-Fest pales in comparison to the events about to take place this weekend in Emerson, Arkansas...just south of Magnolia in southern Columbia County...this weekend is the PurpleHull Pea Festival...

There is a lot going on at the festival....there's the PurpleHull Pageant, the PurpleHull Pea Gospel Singing, the PurpleHull Pea Auction, the Walk for World Peas (I love that one), the World Cup PurpleHull Pea Shelling Competition...but the undoubted highlight is the World Championship Rotary Tiller Race...that's right....I said THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROTARY TILLER RACE.

Shane Waller of Junction City races toward the finish during
the World Championship Rotary Tiller Race, part of the PurpleHull Pea
Festival in Emerson on Saturday. Waller won last year's championship.
Photo by ib1yysguy on Flickr.

The race started as a joke at the very first PurpleHull Pea Festival in 1990, but it has evolved into a monster...There simply is no other event like it. The web site proclaims that it is "...unique among motor sports, we like to say it is the highlight of the tiller racing season. 'Course, to the best of our knowledge, our one-day event is the tiller racing season."

Racing divisions include Stock, Overall Stock, Modified, Powder Puff, and Super Dirt Slangers...the rules specify that all Tiller Pilots (yes, that's what they are called) much be in control of their tillers as the cross the line and...and how is this for playing into stereotype...all participants must wear shoes.

Wait....it gets even better...During the race, a team of Tiller Girls roams the crowd...as there is no admission charge, they take up donations....The Tiller Girl who collects the largest total amount of donations earns points toward winning the title of "Tiller Goddess." Check out the 2001 "Tiller Goddess" Christie Dupree pictured to the right.

So, if you're down my way in late June...you've gotta come see this...If you can't check out the website: http://www.purplehull.com/index.htm

Living in Glass Houses....

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Wed, 30 May 2007 13:33:00 +0000

I've returned to Magnolia after two weeks of helping my friend James Davidson and his University of Florida archaeological field school excavate a Spanish mission (more on that soon over on the Farther Along blog).

At any rate, my first full day back at the SAU Station and I got to witness what David Jeane and Frank Schambach have been telling me about for some time...this morning (around 8:15 am) a physical plant employee was mowing outside our laboratory area...the mower threw a small rock which hit one of the large windows that surround the Bruce Center...the resulting shatter was spectacular and it remains standing--crackling away as the structure further fractures--as I write.

I understand that it cost $1000 to replace these windows...and I understand that this rock-shatter business happens fairly regularly (at least two times a year)...so I wonder why they don't use a small weed eater instead, or simply landscape the Bruce Center so it will not need to be mowed...it has to be cheaper in the long run...

During Finals...

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:41:00 +0000

...this is what the snack machine in the Bruce Center on the Southern Arkansas University campus looks like. Not much to choose from, eh? 1 microwave popcorn, 2 peanut butter & crackers, 3 dove bars and a Mounds bar....sad...I took the peanut butter & crackers.

Mag-Town Music

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Tue, 08 May 2007 00:35:00 +0000

Magnolia is in a dry county...and therefore has few venues for live music...I am therefore surprised to find a bunch of videos from Magnolia bands and hip-hop groups on YouTube...It has to be a real indicator that the digital age is allowing more folks access to the technologies to let their creativity be heard...man, I wish I could have done this in Eva, Tennessee in the 1970s!

At any rate, check out the video below...JDBfromtheMAG Presents "Mingle": The Ode to the Block...I like it because its raw and it shows lots of scenes of Magnolia neighborhoods...It was posted in March of 2007.

Oozeball 2007...

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Sun, 06 May 2007 18:08:00 +0000

Ahhhh...another interesting SAU tradition--oozeball. Southern Arkansas University students celebrate the end of the spring semester and let off steam before finals with an annual mud volleyball game. Check out the YouTube video of this year's event:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-e8GTWzkUU

As we have our roots as an agricultural school & our campus maintains a large agricultural component...I love that at one point in the video you can hear the cows bellowing in the background.

Rotarians...

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 20:42:00 +0000

Well ...Next week I'm becoming a Magnolia Rotarian...

I'm sure that a great number of my friends will be floored by that prospect. I know...somehow it seems incongruous--an academic anthropologist joining an organization that evokes images of business...perhaps smokey rooms in hotel dining rooms in the 1950s...Please...put those images out of your mind (Although I do have the right build and glasses to fit into that mental image...I just need a cigar). The modern rotary is first and foremost a service organization with surprisingly broad-minded objectives.

I am not going into the organization blind, you see...I have given many Rotary Club programs on archaeological work in my day and I have been surprised myself at some of the ideas promulgated by Rotary International. First, anybody who knows me can easily see how I would find the Rotary motto "service before self" attractive....Additionally, the stated object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service, to encourage high ethical standards, and to help build understanding, goodwill and peace in the world...

Well, that sounds pretty cool...not to mention pretty anthropological.

The final straw, of course, is that many of the interesting SAU folks I have met are members of the Rotary (and networking was, of course, what was behind Rotary's founding). I figure I can also use "make up meetings" in other southwestern Arkansas towns (i.e., Hope, El Dorado, Texarkana, and Camden) as a way to "spread the gospel" of archeology....

At any rate...wish me luck...

Next stop: IOOF (*grin*).

Holt Hall Foundations

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 16:05:00 +0000

On Thursday, April 12, 2007 Dr. Ben Johsnon of the SAU History Department notified me that the Physical Plant employees had unearthed some foundations...When I heard this, I hoped that it might be the foundation of Old Main (the first structure on the SAU campus...See some of early posts here for some pics). . .Alas, it was not Old Main, but it was one of the first generation of SAU's buildings.

Holt Hall was one of the first dormitories quickly built in response to the overwhelming enrollment following the opening of what was then the Third District Agricultural School (TDAS) in 1909. Dr. James Willis identified the foundations and provided us with a date of 1911, which corresponded with the material remains--the foundations are made of a simple aggregate concrete without any rebar supports (certainly pre-1930s).

David Jeane (my AAS-SAU Station Asst.) and I spent a few hours documenting the remains of these foundation before the SAU Physical Plant took a jackhammer to the upper portions of the foundations.

Interestingly, Steven Oches' digital photography class showed up as well to document us documenting the foundations...

Above: The concrete foundations of Holt Hall.

For more pictures of the foundations (including some of the pics by Steven Oches' students) check out:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcbrandon/sets/72157600089736058/

Race, Katrina and Public Intellectuals

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 18:08:00 +0000

Last night I attended SAU's Kathleen Mallory Lecture. The series was named in honor of a long-time Professor of English and Foreign Languages at SAU who has been instrumental in the National Writing Project program, the Youth Writing Festival hosted by SAU among other important contributions.

The lecture series is meant to bring scholars working in the fields of African diasporic and African-American studies to Southern Arkansas University to share their scholarship with students and members of he greater community. . .sounds right up my alley, eh?

At any rate, this spring's lecture was a breath of fresh air...Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell (Assoc. Professor of Politics and African American Studies at Princeton University) provided a thoughtful analysis of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with an emphasis on how the actual disaster was not the hurricane, but the structural inequalities that the hurricane highlighted--a long history of environmental racism, differential access to transportation, resources and political voice.

Even better is the fact that Dr. Harris-Lacewell kept a great sense of humor in her presentation that made discussions about race a bit more approachable for those who are usually uncomfortable with the topic...Dr. Harris-Lacewell is a fine example of what I think a public intellectual should look & sound like...and exactly what I needed to feel a bit more excited about SAU.

Kudos to her, kudos to the Kathleen Mallory series and kudos to SAU.

Find out (a lot) more about Dr. Harris-Lacewell at:
http://www.melissaharrislacewell.com/

Of course, I like her even more when I see that she shares my inexplicable urge to put my whole life on the web.

Of Mounds, Turkeys and Spirits....

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 19:12:00 +0000

As you know from previous posts, in late March the AAS-SAU Research Station hosted the Caddo Archaeological Conference...all went well (with a few of the normal hick-ups)...you can check out my Flickr pages here for pictures of the event if you like.

I have one interesting story to pass along from the conference, however...on Sunday a bunch of archaeologists, members of the Caddo Nation and avocational folks took a couple field trips to two legendary Caddo sites--the emergent Caddo site known as Crenshaw Mounds and the massive Battle Mound. Both are located nearby our home base over in the Red River Valley. John Miller, who was a AAS-SAU station assistant back in 1980s and who had worked some salvage at Battle Mound did us a big favor and lead the tour (Lord knows I don't know enough about these sites to yet speak with any authority and David felt comfortable with Crenshaw, but not Battle).

Turkey in foreground, Battle Mound in background (photo by Duncan McKinnon).

At any rate...we were greeted at Battle Mound (in some accounts the place of Caddo origin) by a very tame turkey who accompanied us from the farm road out to the large, multi tiered mound and back....When I ran into the land owner he said "Did you bring a friend with you?" (pointing at the turkey)...I figured that the turkey belonged on the farm and he was pulling my leg...but he finally convinced me that he had never seen the turkey before.

As the turkey escorted us on our trek away from the mound and back to our cars...I had to wonder if it was symbolic--if not an outright supernatural--manifestation of the ancient Caddo...here to make sure that their descendants and archaeologists treat the place with some respect.

The El Dorado Promise

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Brandon) — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 09:33:00 +0000

I don't know how much of the "outside world" has heard about this, but The El Dorado (pronounced "El Door-ay-doe" in southwest Arkansas) Promise is an icreadible scholarship program available to students who granduate in El Dorado, Arkansas. Murphy Oil Corporation created the Promise to give El Dorado students an additional opportunity to pursue higher education.

The Promise provides graduates of El Dorado High School a tuition scholarship that can be used at any accredited Arkansas public university or community college, or any accredited private or out-of-state university...that's right ANY college or university...its not needs-based or anything...

Check it out at: http://www.eldoradopromise.com/