Monticello Live

Drew County’s Discalced Carmelite Monastery and the Man Who Built It (Part One)

By Sheilla Lampkin (more…)

I have to share that I have a soft spot in my heart that grieves for the historic Jewish temple in McGehee, Arkansas.  Several newspapers  have carried stories about the history of the building.  I just want to add the story of my personal relationship with the temple.

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I’ve had some interesting conversations the past couple of weeks about “rolling stores” and all of the favorite treats found therein – many of which survive today.  I thought you might be interested in some lists of “how far back” some of our favorite treats existed.

From The 1900s t0 the 1920s Baby Ruth, BB Bat Suckers, Beeman’s Gum, Bit-O-Honey, Butterfinger, Candy Cigarettes, Candy Corn, Caramel Creams, Charms, Charleston Chews, Cherry Mash, Chiclets, Clark bars, Cracker Jacks, Goo Goo Clusters, Heath bars, Dubble Bubble gum, Goobers, Lifesavers, Milk Duds, Milky Way, Mounds, Moon Pies, Mr. Goodbar, O. Henry, Reese Cups, Tootsie Rolls, PEZ, Zero, Hershey’s chocolate bars and many others.  Whew!  I’d imagine we thought in the ‘20s they only had candy canes and licorice like in the old westerns! (more…)

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an essay about my memories of the rolling store of my youth along the Mississippi River levee in Desha County.  I asked for other remembrances and received a reply from Mary Lasiter about her memories of the rolling store in the Green Hill area of Drew County.  Our memories were so similar I thought you might like to read Mary’s story, so it is reprinted here with Mary’s permission.

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A little acclaimed story from Drew County history was brought to mind last week while I was attending a recent meeting of the Public Health Committee of the Arkansas House of Representatives in Little Rock.  A most interesting and kind gentleman whom I had just met asked about the state of the “Bottoms Baptist Orphanage”.

I recall hearing this term when we first moved to Drew County and wondering if it meant that some person from “the bottoms”, a local term referring to the Delta, might have founded the Baptist home.  However, research proved this to be untrue.

Today I want to share briefly the story about the Bottoms Baptist Orphanage, more familiarly known in these times as the Arkansas Baptist Home for Children.  (more…)

Nearly every city has allegedly experienced a brush with a famous person whether he/she is “good or bad”.  Bonnie and Clyde reportedly once visited Monticello.  Tillar, a small farming community in eastern Drew County, also had a visit from legendary outlaws – the notorious James boys.
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I would be remiss lest I honor Arkansas Boys State this year with a column.  Like its sister organization, Boys State is open to high school students who have completed their junior year in high school.  It takes place in the summer before the senior year and is a week-long adventure in civic education.  Boys State offers a practical, hands-on look at politics and government as students seek election at the state, county, and city levels and then engage in the governing process. Participants learn about the responsibilities of a wide range of offices, as well as the interaction between the various offices and the various levels of government. (more…)

As the end of the traditional school year, and the beginning of summer nears, my thoughts always go back to my visit to Girls’ State in the summer before my senior year in high school.

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Welcome back to our look at early cooking techniques, preparation tips and storage ideas to avoid spoilage and recipes. (more…)

Since this Sunday, March 27, is the day we celebrate Easter this year, I thought I’d share some more unknown traditions of the holiday around the world. Easter, which celebrates Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, is one of the two most important holidays in Christianity today. It has been called a move able feast because it doesn’t fall on a set date every year, as most holidays do. Instead, Christian churches in the West celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21.

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Monticello and Drew County lost a dear friend and longtime resident this past Saturday. In fact he was the kind of man who symbolized the spirit of our people. That humble, kind, generous, loving man was Tommy Matthews. Many of you will remember him as the principal of W. C. Whaley Elementary School on North Main for 23 years.

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Although we are still in the very early phases of our Private Option insurance programs, the Public Health committees have heard their first report dealing with the implications it is having on our state thus far:
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I hope you are enjoying our little tour of the Drew County Museum and will come take a look for yourself soon!! We’ll begin our journey this week in the room that now serves as the museum’s office. Along the north and east walls of that first-floor room four unique oil paintings are hanging. The first is an aesthetic rendition of the old Selma United Methodist Church. The church is one of the most recognized sites in Drew County, is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been lovingly restored in recent years. The soft, yet bright colors in the painting give the scene a pastoral quality. The painting is the work of Jerry Swope, an art teacher at Monticello High School in the 1970’s. Mr. Swope has since moved from Monticello, but left fond memories with his many friends, and this beautiful piece of art in the museum.

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On our museum tour this week we will again begin at the front door. As noted earlier, the door itself has beveled glass panes highlighted by a magnificent fanlight at the top and gorgeous sidelights. When Mr. Cavaness was building the house, he traveled to the Crescent City where he found the gorgeous door with its fanlight and sidelights, purchased them and brought the entire set to Monticello to serve as the main entry to his home.

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This March, 2013, offering will begin a series that will give you a room-by-room tour of our own Drew County Historical Museum. I hope you will enjoy these entries and will stop by the museum yourself to peruse its treasures face-to-face.

The museum itself was formerly known as the Cavaness house for those of you who never knew, or have forgotten, its beginnings. Newlyweds Garvin W. Cavaness and his wife, Pattie Phenton Wells, began construction of their home in 1906.

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While many younger folks mistakenly think of the Extension Homemakers Clubs as a group of “little old ladies who meet, eat, sew, swap recipes and make crafts”, they are sadly misinformed. EHC has an educational program that coves a gauntlet of topics from child care issues to healthy eating, to financial advice, to exercise programs and a myriad of other notable subjects to meet someone’s needs.

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This week’s column is the eighth in a series about the history of the present Extension Homemakers Clubs operating in Drew County. This week we’ll take a quick look at the Plantogo Club in northwestern Drew County.

In the early 1960s there were two separate EHC clubs in the northwestern part of Drew County. They were known as the Plantersville EHC Club and the Montongo EHC Club. During those years the two groups decided to merge and the new and larger club became the Plantogo Club. Their primary purpose was to educate housewives in new ways to do their jobs as wives and mothers.

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In this week’s contribution for the history of the Drew County Extension Homemakers Clubs, we will honor the history of the African-American EHC organization in Drew County. I want to give credit and honor to a very special lady and friend for this information. Thank you, Mrs. Inez Lindsey!

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This week we will continue our little historic look at the Extension Homemakers Clubs in Drew County to recognize the 100th anniversary of this wonderful service organization in Arkansas and Drew County. Chronological order is fuzzy in some cases, but the Southside Club is generally acknowledged as the oldest surviving club.

SOUTHSIDE EXTENSION HOMEMAKERS CLUB

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The Drew County Extension Homemakers Council is a dedicated service organization that began over 80 years ago in Drew County with local clubs who met in many communities throughout the county. Today there are 9 Extension Homemakers Clubs in the county, but in 1956 there were actually 23 active county clubs educating and serving the citizenry.

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Drew County has recently lost two more of its members from that generation of soldiers known as the “greatest generation”, because of their sacrifice during the WWII years.

Since today is Memorial Day, we will show respect and pay tribute to five great Americans and Monticellonians, as we reflect on my interviews with them for the Veterans Oral History Project when I asked them to share with me memories of their WWII service.

It takes many support people to operate an Army – or a Navy. This story tells about one man who filled a special need in the service of his country while readying the seamen to fulfill their duties.

David Olen Cockrell was drafted and entered the US Navy on June 3, 1943. He recalled that he may have decided to enter the Navy because he had had a favored cousin, Oscar Miles, who had died on the USS Arizona when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

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This information was shared during interviews as part of the Veterans’ Oral History Project through the Library of Congress. 

Charles Jackson’s military service began when he graduated from Henderson State Teachers College in 1942 and was invited by a group of naval officials visiting the graduates to enlist in a naval officer’s training program. He began this program in the fall at Northwestern University in Chicago and received his commission as a lieutenant in the spring of 1943.

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Let’s remember the very secret WWII mission of the late Dr. Roy Grizzell.

Dr. Roy Grizzell had a long and varied career in the military that began before WWII started. In the winter of 1940 he was sent to Fort Bragg, N.C. as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Infantry. He was assigned as Range Officer and Supply Officer on the post, thus beginning his career with the Military Police.

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I couldn’t possibly have a Memorial Day tribute without mentioning my dear friend, T. Robie Scott. I didn’t have the pleasure of his personal acquaintance for long, but I consider our friendship a highlight and miss his counsel and support. He was an intensely strong-willed patriot, a devoted family man and a fervent supporter of our country. Robie Scott was one of a kind – the kind America needs more of today.

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This week will be the last segment of our tour down Monticello’s historic Main Street. We’ll begin at the corner of East Bolling and South Main and proceed down the east side of the street to Midway Route. I must admit that I could not learn as much detail about this area as in earlier segments, yet I do have some interesting information.

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This week we will begin our look at the last block on west side of South Main Street. We will be traveling on the west side of the street from Bolling Avenue to Wood Creek. Looking down the block we see the stately two-story home that was built in the early 1900s by Ed Spencer. Terrell Spencer Sr. grew up there. Spencer was associated with the Monticello Cotton Mills. The grand plantation style home with its wraparound porches, columns, chimneys, dormers, accents and balcony sits on a slight elevation and adds strength and beauty to the corner lot.

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This week we’ll begin at the charming grey house with the white trim and the welcoming porches where we stopped last week. This home was built by Harry Wells (William T. Wells and brother to Mary Phenton and Myrtle Wells) around 1910. Mr. Wells was a businessman who also served in one of the county’s clerk positions for a time. The Wells family members are patriarchs in the history of Monticello and Drew County. Let’s go back and look briefly at this family since the grey house and the next one are tied to them and to the history of Drew County.

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This week let’s look at the east side of the block of South Main beginning at East College Avenue and continuing nearly to East Bolling Avenue. The first lot where we begin now holds a quaint little duplex that once claimed a “refreshing” spot in Monticello’s history.

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This week we will look at the east side of South Main Street between East Jackson and East College streets. We will begin at the site of the present First United Methodist Church. I have been unable to determine the exact type of building that formerly occupied the space where the church stands today although I suspect it may have been a family home.

That said, I have learned some interesting facts about the church that I’d like to summarize for readers. Organized in 1852, this early United Methodist congregation built the first church structure in Monticello in 1853 on their land deeded to the church by Wiley Crook. This lot sat north of our present library on the fenced lot where a handsome, two-story red brick apartment building rests today. The organizer and first minister for the church congregation was Reverend H. R. Withers.

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This week let’s continue down the west side of South Main Street beginning at its intersection with West College Avenue and continuing to West Bolling Avenue. Of course we all know that the block begins with the former private home that now houses the Drew County Historical Museum. The house was built in 1906 by Garvin Cavaness using bricks molded onsite with a Sears brick-making machine. The house became the permanent home of the Drew County Museum in 1970. For a more detailed description of the home and its history, see the 2006 Drew County Historical Journal.

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This week we’ll pick up our tour and cover the block on west side of South Main Street from West Jackson Avenue to West College Avenue. The first house we see on the north end of this block is the old Joe S. Harris house. Joe Harris was a native Monticellonian and retired brigadier general for whom the local American Legion Post was named. Harris’ military career began in 1903 as an Army private and ran through WWI (1917-1918), the formative years of the Arkansas National Guard and his command of National Guard troops during the disastrous floods of 1927. Harris was also the uncle of the late Eric Hardy, a founding father of the Drew County Museum.

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Continuing our tour down the east side of South Main Street, the next block now begins with a large, two-story red brick office building that houses the Searcy accounting firm. Before these offices were built, A. H. (Hellums) Owens owned a service station there. The service station was constructed in the 1930s-40s by the late Mr. Owens after he bought part of the side yard of the home of Mr. P. A. Whitaker to locate his business.

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Since we’ve covered the west side of South Main from the Square to Jackson Street, let’s go back to the square and look at the east side of South Main to Jackson Street. His area, too, has experienced a colorful history.

An 1886 plat map of Monticello shows that a dry goods store, a tobacco store, a millinery store, a sewing machine and gun store, a business involved in “fence making” and an “imagery” business were located on that first block from the corner to the railroad tracks in that year. (more…)