Lakeport Plantation

We've moved our blog!

2014-11-24T07:42:00.001-08:00

Visit our blog at our new website -- http://lakeport.astate.edu/news/

We will no longer update the blog on this blogger/blogspot platform.

All the posts have been migrated to the Lakeport Blog page -- http://lakeport.astate.edu/news/

Lakeport Legacies · UAM's Historic Properties and Tourism in Southeast Arkansas

2014-09-12T12:06:00.001-07:00

Lakeport Legacies:

UAM's Historic Properties and Tourism in Southeast Arkansas

presented by

Dr. John Kyle Day (University of Arkansas at Monticello)

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Law office of Gov. X. O. Pindall at Arkansas City and the Taylor House near Winchester are two historic properties recently acquired by UAM

The University of Arkansas at Monticello is engaged in plans to create a Southeast Arkansas Heritage Trail anchored by its three historic properties: WW II Italian POW Camp near Monticello (Drew County), the law office of Arkansas Governor Xenophon Overton Pindall in Arkansas City (Desha County), and the ca. 1846 Taylor House at the Hollywood Plantation near Winchester (Drew County). Dr. John Kyle Day, associate professor of history, will discuss the university's plans to save, preserve, and interpret these important historic sites for students and the public.

Please RSVP to this Free Event
870.265.6031
lakeport.ar@gmail.com

Lakeport Legacies (LL) meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. LL, held on one of the last Thursdays of the month at the Lakeport Plantation, features a history topic from the Delta. For more information, call 870.265.6031.

Lakeport Legacies · Slave Life in Chicot County: Toil and Resistance on the River

2014-08-11T13:15:00.000-07:00

Lakeport Legacies:

Slave Life in Chicot County: Toil and Resistance on the River

presented by

Kelly Jones (University of Arkansas)

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Wealthy planters, like Chicot County's Elisha Worthington, benefited from the work of the slaves they owned. Worthington, the largest slaveholder in Arkansas, owned 543 slaves and four plantations, including the Sunnyside Plantation. Photo courtesy of Annie Paden.

In the antebellum period Chicot County's economy was dominated by slavery and cotton. The labor of slaves, who cleared vast forests and cultivated cotton, helped make Chicot County one of the wealthiest places in the Unites States. Slave life in the peculiar institution was complex; while not free, slaves developed their own culture, married, worshiped and, at times, sought the freedoms they were denied. Kelly Jones, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arkansas, will explore the world of slaves and slavery in Chicot County through court records, the census, newspapers and WPA narratives.

Please RSVP to this Free Event
870.265.6031
lakeport.ar@gmail.com

Lakeport Legacies Images of Chicot County: A Book Project

2014-07-08T09:25:00.002-07:00

Lakeport Legacies:

Images of Chicot County: A Book Project

presented by

Blake Wintory, Lakeport Plantation
and
LaRhonda Mangrum

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Swimmers enjoying Lake Chicot, 1918. Photo Courtesy of William Alexander Percy Library, Greenville, MS.

Lakeport Plantation is starting work on a pictorial history of Chicot County with Arcadia Publishing, known for its iconic Images in America series. Chicot County has a long history rooted in agriculture, business and the communities that sprung up along the Mississippi River, grand oxbow lakes and railroads. Come see and remember the history of Chicot County through the images we are discovering. You can also help the project. We are seeking pictures of community events, businesses, historic structures, and people. Send an email or call if you have something.

All are welcome to this Free Event
870.265.6031
lakeport.ar@gmail.com

Lakeport Legacies Bowie Knives: The Chicot County Connection

2014-06-11T07:44:00.001-07:00

Lakeport Legacies:

Bowie Knives: The Chicot County Connection

presented by

Bill Worthen, Director of Historic Arkansas Museum

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Bowie Knives on display at Historic Arkansas Museum

Bill Worthen, director of the Historic Arkansas Museum and Life member of the Antique Bowie Knife Association, will discuss the Bowie Knife's connection to Chicot County. Rezin and John Bowie, brothers of the famous James Bowie, came to Chicot County in the late 1820s. Evolving from simpler hunting knives, the decorative bowie knife popularized by their brother James, became a favorite weapon of gentlemen and outlaws in the antebellum South. While James's original knife was lost at the Alamo in 1836, several of Rezin Bowie's knives survive in both public and private collections.

Please RSVP to this Free Event
870.265.6031
lakeport.ar@gmail.com

Summer Hours 2014 -- Saturday Hours added

2014-05-12T10:16:00.001-07:00

In addition to Lakeport's regular weekday tours, Lakeport will add Saturday hours (11 am - 3 pm) from May 24 until July 26.

Summer Hours 2014

May 24 - July 26

Mon-Friday Tours at 10 am & 2 pm

Saturdays Open to visitors 11 am - 3 pm

Closed Sundays

Closed Memorial Day, Monday, May 26

Closed Independence Day, Friday July 4

Lakeport Legacies -- Clinton Bagley -- Truths & Reinterpreting the Past

2014-05-05T09:07:00.001-07:00

Lakeport Legacies:

Truths & Reinterpreting the Past: Examples from the Lower Mississippi Valley

presented by

Clinton Bagley, Mississippi Department of Archives & History

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Using Mount Holly, Washington County, MS (left) and Stanton Hall, Natchez, MS (right) as examples, historian Clinton Bagley will explore the architecture and history of the Lower Mississippi Valley. Images courtesy of Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress; and Historic Resource Inventory Database, MDAH.

Historian and Greenville native, Clinton Bagley, will explore the architecture and history of the Lower Mississippi Valley. Using Mount Holly on Lake Washington and Stanton Hall in Natchez as his primary examples, Bagley will slay popular myths and show how historic records, genealogy and oral histories can bring a historic house to life.

Please RSVP to this Free Event
870.265.6031
lakeport.ar@gmail.com

Lakeport Legacies -- Drennen Dale

2014-04-07T08:14:00.000-07:00

Lakeport Legacies:

Drennen Dale: John Drennen's Unfinished Legacy in Chicot County

presented by

Tom Wing, Drennen-Scott Historic Site; University of Arkansas at Fort Smith

Thursday, April 24, 2014 (helps to have the right date)

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Portrait of John Drennen (1801-1855)

John Drennen, a merchant and politician who co-founded Van Buren (Crawford County) in 1836, was also a prominent planter in Chicot County. Tom Wing, Director of the Drennen-Scott Historical Site, will discuss Drennen's unfinished legacy in Chicot County. Drennen and his estate owned the Deerfield Plantation, later renamed Drennen Dale. In some historical accounts, part of Drennen Dale was donated to Chicot County to form a new county seat at Lake Village. The Drennen-Scott House in Van Buren was continually occupied by descendants of John Drennen from 1836 until it became part of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith in 2004. The restored house is an integral part of UAFS's Historical Interpretation Program.

All are welcome to this Free Event.

Lakeport Legacies--Remembering Camp Monticello

2014-03-05T09:04:00.000-08:00

Lakeport Legacies:

Remembering Camp Monticello: Archaeology of Arkansas’s World War II Home Front Heritage

presented by

Dr. Jodi A. Barnes, Arkansas Archeological Survey, University of Arkansas at Monticello

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Refreshments & Conversation @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Camp Monticello, the Italian Prisoner of War (PoW) camp located in Monticello, is a significant part of Arkansas’s World War II Home Front heritage. It opened as a training facility for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in 1943 and served as a PoW camp for Italians from 1943 to 1946. Dr. Barnes will discuss recent excavations at the site and the role of historical and oral records archeology.

All are welcome to this Free Event.

This is an official event for Arkansas Archeology Month.

2014 Lakeport Legacies Schedule

2014-02-07T10:39:00.000-08:00

2014 Lakeport Legacies Schedule

Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held on one of the last Thursdays in the spring and summer months. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments and conversation at 5:30 pm · Program at 6:00 pm

March 20 · Remembering Camp Monticello: Archaeology of Arkansas’s World War II Home Front Heritage · Dr. Jodi Barnes (University of Arkansas, Monticello · Arkansas Archeological Survey)

April 24 · Drennen Dale: John Drennen's Unfinished Legacy in Chicot County · Tom Wing (Drennen-Scott Historic Site · University of Arkansas, Fort Smith)

May 29 · Truths & Reinterpreting the Past: Examples from the Lower Mississippi Valley · Clinton Bagley (Mississippi Department of Archives & History)

June 19 · Bowie Knives: The Chicot County Connection · Bill Worthen (Historic Arkansas Museum, Director)

July 31 · Images of Chicot County: A Book Project · Dr. Blake Wintory (Lakeport Plantation) & LaRhonda Mangrum (Arkansas Gravestones Project)

August 28 · Slave Life in Chicot County: Toil and Resistance on the River · Kelly Jones (University of Arkansas)

September 25 · UAM’s Historic Properties and Tourism in Southeast Arkansas · Dr. John Kyle Day (University of Arkansas, Monticello)

Lakeport Legacies meets at Lakeport Plantation -- 601 Hwy 142, Lake Village, Arkansas.

Call 870.265.6031 or visit http://lakeport.astate.edu for more information.

The Lakeport Plantation is an Arkansas State University Heritage Site.

Craftsmen in Chicot County 1860-1870: A Brief Look

2013-12-06T13:10:00.000-08:00

Advertisements for architect/builder and a painter/paper-hanger in The Chicot Press, February 26 1870

In an 1870 Chicot County newspaper two craftsmen advertise their services. Architect and builder J.W. Trawick is an "Architect and Builder" at "Luna, Ark." He "solicits contracts for buildings of every style, and will promptly perform all work in his line." Your "Satisfaction is guaranteed" he states confidently. In the 1870 Census, Trawick is listed as a thirty-four year old carpenter. Living at Luna Landing, he was born in North Carolina, as was Jane (sp?), his thirty-three year old wife.

John Barnes, a "Painter, Paper-hanger and Glazier" also advertised his services. Barnes offered a more verbose and sweeping guarantee: "All work done by him warranted to give entire satisfaction, and to be as good as any done in the South." In the 1870 Census, Barnes is a thirty year old painter. Living at Lake Village, he was born in Illinois; his wife, Mary Jane, age eighteen, was a native Arkansan.

Ten years earlier in 1860, Barnes is a twenty-three year old painter; listed this time in the Census as a Indiana native. In 1860 he share a Lake Village residence with several other craftsmen:

Charles Pearcy, 29 year old bricklayer, born in Kentucky

Margaret Pearcy, 18, born in Tennessee

Charles H, 4, born in Mississippi
Richard, 4 months old, born in Arkansas

Isaac Norton, 25 year old bricklayer, born in New York
George Rundle, 23 year old painter, born in Virginia

Living next door the bricklayers and painters in 1860 is Andrew J. Herod, a mechanic (builder). Herod was in Chicot County as early as 1858 and likely arrived in Lake Village to help build the new county seat. He advertised his services in the January 17, 1861 Chicot Press-- the only antebellum Chicot County paper known to survive. Like Trawick, a decade earlier, Herod styled himself a "Architect and Builder." He

SOLICITS contracts for buildings of every style. He is also prepared to furnish Designs, Estimates, and Perspective Drawings of all the modern orders of architecture: build, measure, superintend, and furnish working plans for building at modest prices.

Herod, a Mississippi native, was later appointed Mississippi's State Architect by Governor Benjamin G. Humphreys in 1865. However, little is known about Herod, and by 1870 he was farming in Yazoo County, Mississippi.

The Chicot Press, January 17, 1861

Above Herod's 1861 advertisement is an ad for A & E Molero, Plain and Ornamental Plasters and Cistern Builder. In the 1860 Census Edward and William Molero are English born plasters, likely brothers, ages twenty-six and thirty-five. They are living in the Packet House Hotel with a number of Lake Village notables (lawyers, a printer, a merchant, a mechanic/builder and a physician), including Daniel H. Reynolds and William B. Street. A year later the British-born plasteres had been recruited into Reynolds' Chicot Rangers. The Moleros settled in Meridian, Mississippi where Edward appears in the 1870 Census and William in the 1910 Census.

Other building tradesmen residing in downtown Lake Village in 1860:

John T. McMurray, 23, painter, born in Jamaica, Residing at the Parker House Hotel.

Daniel B. Miles, 22, bricklayer, born in Mississippi. Residing next door to the Parker

House Hotel with his wife, Arthenia Miles, 22

John C. C. Bayne, 30, painter, born in Georgia. Living with his family.

sometime between 1857 and 1860]

Margaret Bayne, 24, born in Alabama

Charles J. Bayne, 6, born in Mississippi

George Bayne, 3, born in Mississippi

Thomas Bateman, 20, bricklayer, born in England. Living at the Buck Horn Hotel, John

Hunnicutt, Innkeeper

Holiday Hours 2013-2014

2013-11-15T07:31:00.001-08:00

Lakeport will be

Closed:

Thanksgiving Holiday

November 27, 2013 -- Limited Hours (staff onsite only at 10 am and 2pm)
November 28 - December 1, 2013

Reopening December 2, 2013

Christmas & New Year's Day Holidays

December 21, 2013-January 5, 2014

Reopening January 6, 2014

We have Lakeport Christmas Tree ornaments for sale.

For $12, we'll ship it to your address.

"Mexican Tamale" Recipe, Lake Village M. E. Church South Cook Book, ca 1920

2013-10-18T10:04:00.002-07:00

Mrs. C. B. Cornell's "Mexican Tamale" Recipe

Just in time for this weekend's Hot Tamale Festival in Greenville...a ca. 1920 recipe for "Mexican Tamales"

This recipe appears in a cookbook published by the Lake Village Methodist Episcopal Church South (today's Lakeside United Methodist Church), around 1920. The cookbook is part of the Arkansas Cookbook Collection at the Special Collections at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

Anybody know who Mrs. C.B. Cornell was? She was living in Lake Village as late as 1946.

I wonder how these "Mexican Tamales" compare to Mrs. Rhoda's Hot Tamales?

Lakeport Legacies: Edward A. Fulton

2013-10-08T09:06:00.002-07:00

Lakeport Legacies:

Thursday, October 24

Refreshments @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Edward A. Fulton and Reconstruction in Drew County

Dr. Blake Wintory, Lakeport Plantation

Cleveland Gazette, December 3, 1887

Edward Allen Fulton, a former slave in Missouri and abolitionist in Chicago, served as Drew County's only African American legislator during Reconstruction. Little has been written about this African American Reconstruction leader, politician and newspaper editor. In 1866 he arrived in Chicot County to farm, later relocating to Little Rock. He returned to southeast Arkansas and Drew County in 1870 as a census taker and was elected the Arkansas House later that year. His career in Republican politics during Reconstruction proved to be controversial--he survived an assassination attempt (possibly by a Republican rival), later ran unsuccessfully for Secretary of State, and was an out-spoken proponent of Civil Rights.

Lakeport Legacies: A History of the Jews in the Delta

2013-09-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

Lakeport Legacies: A History of the Jews in the Delta

Dr. Stuart Rockoff, Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life

Thursday, September 19
Refreshments @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Space is limited. Please RSVP by phone:
870.265.6031

Join us for Dr. Rockoff's overview of the history of the Jews in the Delta.

Many people are shocked to find out that Jews have thrived in the “most southern place on earth.” Indeed, while Jews have always been a tiny minority of Arkansas and Mississippi’s population, they have forged communities and preserved their religious traditions for over 160 years. Jews flocked to the Delta as it emerged as the leading cotton producing region in the country in the late nineteenth century. Jewish merchants and their families opened stores in most every Delta market town.They have worked to assimilate into the culture of the Delta, but at the same time, they sought to preserve their religious traditions and formed cohesive social and religious communities that brought this dispersed population together. While recent decades have seen a steep decline in the Delta’s Jewish population. Jews still pray and socialize together, keeping the light of Judaism shining in the Mississippi River Delta in the 21st century.

This is a free event, but please RSVP. Space will be limited.

Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held on the last (usually) Thursday at the Lakeport Plantation. Each month a topic from the Delta region is featured. The event is free and open to the public. Lakeport Legacies meets at Lakeport Plantation -- 601 Hwy 142, Lake Village, Arkansas.

Another proud presentation of the:

Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life

For more information on the ISJL – www.isjl.org

Lakeport Legacies: Hernando de Soto's Route through Arkansas: What's the Evidence?

2013-08-08T10:22:00.001-07:00

Hernando de Soto's Route through Arkansas: What's the Evidence?

Thursday, August 22

Refreshments @ 5:30 pm

Program @ 6:00 pm

Join us for a presentation by Dr. Jeff Mitchem on the archeological evidence for Hernando de Soto's 16th Century Spanish expedition through Arkansas.

Layered glass chevron bead from Parkin Archeological State Park is evidence of the de Soto expedition.

Spanish explorer Hernando Soto and 600 men landed in Florida in May 1539 and entered what is now Arkansas on June 28, 1541. The expedition crossed the state and returned to the Mississippi River at Guachoya, near present day Lake Village, where de Soto died on May 31, 1542. The expedition’s archeological trail combined with four surviving narratives, provides an accurate reconstruction of de Soto's route through Arkansas.

All are welcome to this Free Event.

Lakeport Legacies -- Film: When You Make a Good Crop

2013-07-15T09:54:00.001-07:00

Sunnyside Company Bond, ca 1910

Join us for a showing of the film When You Make a Good Crop: Italians in the Delta. Filmed in 1986, the 28 minute feature traces Italian heritage and beginnings in the 1890s as tenants and sharecroppers on Sunnyside plantation and their legacy in the Delta in the 1980s.

July 25, 2013

Refreshments @ 5:30 pm

Film @ 6:00 pm

Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held on the last Thursday at the Lakeport Plantation. Each month a topic from the Delta region is featured. The event is free and open to the public. Lakeport Legacies meets at Lakeport Plantation -- 601 Hwy 142, Lake Village, Arkansas.

Lakeport Plantation’s Permanent Exhibits Win 2013 AASLH Award of Merit

2013-07-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

NASHVILLE, TN—June 2013—The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) proudly announces that the Lakeport Plantation is the recipient of an Award of Merit from the AASLH Leadership in History Awards for Lakeport’s Permanent Exhibits. The AASLH Leadership in History Awards, now in its 68th year, is the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history.

In September 2012, permanent exhibits were installed at the Lakeport Plantation house near Lake Village, Arkansas along the Mississippi River. Lakeport, an Arkansas State University Heritage Site, is one of Arkansas’s premier historic structures and the state’s last antebellum plantation house along the Mississippi River. The interpretation tells a remarkable story of Delta laborers, families and the plantation cotton economy that built and sustained the Lakeport house in 1859 until its restoration between 2002-2007.

The achievement of Lakeport’s permanent exhibits is telling this unique Delta story and its plantation heritage while maintaining the historic integrity of the Lakeport house and weaving together the stories of planters, enslaved laborers, sharecroppers, farm laborers, craftsmen, and preservationists. Since the house had changed little since its 1859 construction, the goal was to treat the house as the major artifact. To meet that goal, unobtrusive exhibits, designed in collaboration with Quatrefoil Associates of Laurel, Maryland, complement the restoration and preservation of original architecture and historic paint finishes. No interpretation is placed permanently on walls; instead minimalist-styled exhibits tell Lakeport’s stories Original furniture and smaller artifacts, displayed in vitrines, complement Lakeport’s interpretive themes throughout the house. Other innovative media engage visitors: projection of images, text and video onto walls; oral history kiosks, and soundscaping makes the house feel inhabited.

This year, AASLH is proud to confer eighty-eight national awards honoring people, projects, exhibits, books, and organizations. The winners represent the best in the field and provide leadership for the future of state and local history. Presentation of the awards will be made at a special banquet during the 2013 AASLH Annual Meeting in Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday, September 20. The banquet is supported by a generous contribution from the History Channel.

The AASLH awards program was initiated in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and

local history throughout the United States. The AASLH Leadership in History Awards not only honor significant achievement in the field of state and local history, but also brings public recognition of the opportunities for small and large organizations, institutions, and programs to make contributions in this arena. For more information about the Leadership in History Awards, contact AASLH at 615-320-3203, or go to www.aaslh.org.

The American Association for State and Local History is a not-for-profit professional organization of individuals and institutions working to preserve and promote history. From its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, AASLH provides leadership, service, and support for its members who preserve and interpret state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful in American society. AASLH publishes books, technical publications, a quarterly magazine, and monthly newsletter. The association also sponsors regional and national training workshops and an annual meeting.

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Lakeport Plantation Hosts African American Legislators Exhibit in June; Lakeport Legacies to Host Presentation on African American Legislator Exhibit

2013-06-07T07:44:00.000-07:00

Arkansas African American Legislators, 1868-1893, a traveling exhibit produced by the Arkansas History Commission and Black History Commission of Arkansas, will be displayed at the Lakeport Plantation during the month of June.

Arkansas African American Legislators, 1868-1893 tells the story of the eighty-five African Americans who served in the Arkansas General Assembly in the 19th century. After the Civil War, the Arkansas adopted a new constitution in 1868 and its provisions included the right to vote and hold public office for black males. African American lawyers, merchants, ministers, educators, farmers, and other professionals served in the Arkansas General Assembly. Photographs of forty-six of the eighty-five legislators are an integral part of the display. Also featured is a complete listing of the legislators and a short history of post-Civil War and election law “reforms” that effectively ended African Americans election to legislative positions until the 1970s.

Green Hill Jones, Courtesy
Arkansas History Commission

Over a dozen black men represented southeast Arkansas and Chicot County during this time. The men included James Mason, the mulatto son of Chicot County planter and slaveholder Elisha Worthington; Edward A. Fulton, a noted abolitionist from Illinois; George W. Bell, a former slave who worked as a college president and physician; and men like, Nathan Edwards, John Webb, and Green Hill Jones, who eked out their living as farm laborers into the early 20th century.

For Lakeport Legacies, Lakeport’s monthly history talk, Dr. Blake Wintory, assistant director of the Lakeport Plantation, will present his research on Arkansas's African American Legislators. Dr. Wintory’s presentation on June 27 at 5:30 pm will highlight what is known about the black men who represented Chicot County from 1868 to 1893.

Nathan Edwards, Courtesy
Arkansas History Commission

For more information about the exhibit at the Lakeport Plantation, call Blake Wintory, 870-265-6031 or email lakeport.ar@gmail.com. To schedule the exhibit in your institution call the Arkansas History Commission at 501.682.6900 or e-mail state.archives@arkansas.gov.

Lakeport Legacies is a monthly history talk held on the last Thursday at the Lakeport Plantation. Each month a topic from the Delta region is featured. The event is free and open to the public. Lakeport Legacies meets in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house.

Lakeport Legacies with LaRhonda Mangrum Recording the Cemeteries of Southeast Arkansas

2013-05-10T07:34:00.001-07:00

Join us for our first Lakeport Legacies!

Thursday, May 30, 2013 5:30 pm

History Written in Stone: Recording the Cemeteries of Southeast Arkansas with LaRhonda Mangrum

Hill Cemetery, Chicot County.
Courtesy LaRhonda Mangrum

Cemeteries are important landmarks for families and communities and essential resources for historians and genealogists. Some cemeteries are visible and well maintained, while many others have been forgotten or lost. On Thursday, May 30, at 5:30 pm LaRhonda Mangrum will discuss her work documenting cemeteries in southeast Arkansas for the Arkansas Gravestones Project. Mrs. Mangrum, a Chicot County native, is the coordinator for southeast Arkansas and the coordinator for Ashley, Chicot and Drew counties. The gravestone project’s mission is to "capture and archive digital images of our ancestors’ gravestones." She has been gravin’ since 2011 and has documented over 100 cemeteries for the Arkansas Gravestones Project. For more information about the project visit the http://www.arkansasgravestones.org/.

Lakeport Legacies is a new monthly history talk held on the last Thursday at the Lakeport Plantation. Each month we'll have a topic from the Delta region (AR, LA & MS). The event is free and open to the public. Lakeport Legacies will meet in the Dining Room of the Lakeport Plantation house. For more information, call or email Blake Wintory – 870.265.6031, lakeport.ar@gmail.com.

The Lakeport Plantation is an Arkansas State University Heritage Site. Constructed ca. 1859, it is Arkansas’s only remaining antebellum plantation home along the Mississippi River. The plantation was donated to Arkansas State University in 2001 by the Sam Epstein Angel family. After more than five years of restoration, the plantation opened as a museum and educational center in September 2007 and new permanent exhibits were unveiled in September 2012.

Flyer.pdf

Summer Hours 2013

2013-05-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday Summer Hours 2013

May 25 - July 27 (That's 10 Saturdays!)

Open 11:00 am to 3:00 pm

Lakeport will be closed

Memorial Day

Monday, May, 27, 2013

4th of July

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Regular Monday thru Friday Hours

Tours

10:00 am
2:00 pm

Japanese American Internment Commemoration ceremonies to be held April 16

2013-04-08T11:54:00.003-07:00

Japanese American internment in Arkansas during World War II will be commemorated through two ceremonies in Desha County on Tuesday, April 16, 2013.

Events include dedication and opening of the World War II Japanese American Internment Museum at 1 p.m. in McGehee, sponsored by the McGehee Industrial Development Foundation, and a 3:30 p.m. unveiling of outdoor exhibits developed through Arkansas State University at the Rohwer Relocation Center. Both projects were initiated through grants from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Program at the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Actor George Takei, who portrayed Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu on the original Star Trek television series, will be a special guest at both events. Takei was interned as a young boy with his family at Rohwer. Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe also has been invited to make remarks.

In 1942, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the federal government forced Japanese American citizens to leave the West Coast, out of fears for national security. They were imprisoned during the war at ten relocation centers, mostly in western states, with two in Arkansas – at Rohwer just north of McGehee and at Jerome just south of McGehee. These towns were the temporary homes for more than 17,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans.

The new commemorative museum, housed in McGehee’s historic train depot at 100 South Railroad Street, will serve as the Jerome-Rohwer Interpretive and Visitor Center. Opening ceremonies will be followed by a reception and tours of the featured exhibit, “Against Their Will: The Japanese American Experience in World War II Arkansas,” until 3 p.m.

“Communicating with former internees and their children has been so meaningful and educational,” said Cindy Smith of McGehee, who is coordinating the day’s events and currently serves as chair of the Arkansas State Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission. “It is a pleasure for the city of McGehee to help preserve this history.”

The outdoor interpretive exhibits at the Rohwer site include a series of kiosks and wayside panels, with audio components narrated by Takei. Researched by students in the Heritage Studies Ph.D. Program at Arkansas State University and designed for the university by the 106 Group of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the exhibits provide a glimpse into the lives of Japanese Americans once interned there. The exhibits will be maintained by Desha County.

“Arkansas State University is grateful to be a partner with so many others in these commemorative efforts,” said Dr. Ruth Hawkins, director of Arkansas Heritage Sites at ASU. “This is a painful chapter in our nation’s history that must not be forgotten.”

A National Historic Landmark, the Rohwer site today includes only the Japanese American cemetery and the remains of the camp’s hospital smokestack. Preservation work at the cemetery is expected to begin later this spring under the leadership of the University of Arkansas-Little Rock.

Matching funds and support for the McGehee museum grant were provided by the McGehee Industrial Foundation, the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the Arkansas Department of Rural Services, Clearwater Paper Corporation, and the Joseph F. Wallace Trust. The featured exhibit, created through the University of Arkansas-Little Rock Public History Program, is on loan from the Delta Cultural Center in Helena.

Matching grant funds for the Rohwer exhibits were provided by Arkansas State University, with support from the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism, Desha County, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

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New Year's Open House -- January 26, 2013

2013-01-15T10:33:00.001-08:00

Start 2013 with Lakeport Plantation's new exhibits and hot cocoa. Come join us for our New Year's Open House from 12 pm to 3 pm on Saturday January 26.

Built in 1859, Lakeport is the last antebellum plantation home along the Mississippi River in Arkansas. New exhibits installed throughout the house are based on years of restoration and research in family records, archives and oral histories. On display are artifacts found during restoration and original items donated back to Lakeport.

All are welcome to this free event.

Gifts of 2012

2012-12-18T14:48:00.001-08:00

The Season of giving is the perfect time to reflect on the gifts Lakeport has received in 2012.

In April Lakeport received nineteen of the original balusters that had been removed and placed in Helen Epstein Kantor's Greenville home ca 1950. Read more about the balusters in the post: Balusters Return to Lakeport!

Balusters in Kantor house, 2008

In June Richard M. Johnson, brought Lakeport a number of goodies for a long-term loan. We received several books; Two books, from the 1830s, belonged to Richard's great-grandfather Lycurgus L. Johnson; the remainder of the books belonged to Richard's grandfather, Dr. Victor M. Johnson and included medical texts, a bee keeping manual, and literary volumes. Richard also brought Lakeport his grandmother Martha Johnson's beaten biscuit maker, his grandfather's bee foundation maker, and a cradle that was in use in the family from the 1870s into the 1970s. Richard also donated a love seat which needs restoration.

In September, during the opening of our exhibits, we received several donations.

Cat Johnson Pearsall, daughter of Robley Johnson, donated her father's baby book, family newspaper clippings and her father's final written memories of Lakeport. Inside her father's baby book we found a lock of young Robley's hair and his first photo from Thanksgiving Day 1908 in Greenville, Mississippi.

Victor & Martha Johnson with son Robley, Thanksgiving Day, 1908, Greenville, Miss.

The 1908 photo's location in Greenville has proved a bit of a mystery. There seems to be an iconic rose window in the background that might be a church. Victor and Martha were introduced at the First Christian Church in Greenville, a church his sisters Linnie Johnson and Annie Johnson Starling founded. But the structure in the background doesn't seem to resemble known images of the Christian Church (like this one at the Mississippi Department of Archives & History) or any other turn of the century church in Greenville.

Bill Gamble, a Greenville resident and a descendant of Lyne Starling, donated Lyne's 1871 Yale Yearbook. The Starlings, led by William Starling, purchased Sunnyside Plantation in 1868. Lyne's brother Charles also attended Yale that year and married Annie Johnson at Lakeport in 1878. You can read about their sister Lollie's memories of Lakeport in the post Laura (Lollie) P. Starling (1854-1946).

On a related note: Ben & Phyllis Starling, residents of Botha, Alberta and descendants of Charles Starling, donated William Starling's Civil War notebook and surveyor's hand level (ca. 1863).

Finally, two portraits were shared with Lakeport. One is a portrait of Sam Epstein, who bought Lakeport in 1927 from Victor Johnson. It is on loan to Lakeport from Lynda Festinger White, grand daughter of Mr. Epstein.

Sam Epstein, ca. 1940

Ed Warren, grand nephew of Frank H. Dantzler, Jr. donated the portrait of Mr. Dantzler's mother, Julia Drake Dantzler. The portrait hung at Lakeport while Mr. Dantlzer managed Lakeport from 1927-1950 (Dantzler partly owned Lakeport between 1927-1940).

Julia Drake Dantzler, mother of Frank Dantzler, Jr., ca. 1880

Thank you to all the donors in 2012 and years past! Donations deepen our understanding of Lakeport's history and create a richer experience for visitors.

New Exhibits Installed at Lakeport

2012-11-06T09:07:00.000-08:00

Lakeport has entered a new phase with the installation of permanent exhibits. Designed in collaboration with Quatrefoil Associates in Laurel, Maryland, the exhibits are based on years of restoration and research in family records, archives and oral histories. The exhibits tell the stories of the house, the restoration, and the people who lived and worked at Lakeport. Yet, they are designed to be unobtrusive, blending in with the main exhibit--the Lakeport house. On display now are artifacts found during restoration and original items donated back to the house.