Demuth Declaration - Saline County Library

Demuth
Declaration
GENEALOGY AND LOCAL HISTORY
DEPARTMENT
SALINE COUNTY LIBRARY
Volume 4 Number 4
Steve Perdue, Curator
David O. Demuth
Arkansas Room
Winter 2009
David O. Demuth
The David O. Demuth Arkansas Room will have interesting programs
for October, November, and December 2009
"There is no king
who has not had
a slave among his
ancestors, and
no slave who has
not had a king
among his." -Helen Keller
Inside this issue:
J.P. Alley books 2
Join Arkansas
Room Collection
Ghost Ships to
be October program.
2
Trail of Tears
program a success
2
Uniforms of pre- 3
vious wars and
AETN program
Tim Ernst Returns December
3
3
Healing Waters,
History of Ralph
Bunch community and Lowe
4
With the coming of October, November, and December the Genealogy and Local
History Department welcomes new programs and
new books for researchers.
On Thursday, October 15,
Dr. Skip Stewart Abernathy
will be here to talk about
ghost ships on the Arkansas
and Mississippi River.
This program should be interesting to learn about ships
that have met their doom in
the murky waters of the
Arkansas and Mississippi.
On Monday, November 9,
Mr. Dave Elmore of the “In
Their Own Words” project
with Arkansas Educational
Television will be here to
explain the program of oral
history of Arkansas and Sa-
line County’s World War II
veterans. Also Mr. Harold
“Coach” Steelman, will display uniforms from World
War I, World War II, Korea,
Vietnam, and Desert Storm.
This should be very interesting to see what soldiers
wore in these different
conflicts.
On December 3, Mr. Tim
Ernst will make his annual
appearance with a spectacular slide presentation of Arkansas Wilderness.
So each of these presentations should be of great interest.
On another note, the Saline
County Library has secured
two great genealogy speakers for our upcoming geneal-
ogy seminars in 2010 and in
2011.
Mr. J. Mark Lowe an outstanding national genealogist
will be here in March 2010
to conduct four sessions of
our annual Genealogy for
You Seminar and in March of
2011, the nationally known
genealogist Elizabeth Shown
Mills will be our seminar
speaker.
We feel very fortunate to
have these nationally recognized genealogist speakers
for our seminars.
Our database ,World Vital
Records, which has until
recently only been available
in the library, will now be
available by remote access
from your home computer.
Let me take this opportunity
to wish you all a Merry
Christmas and a Happy New
Photos from recent book signings
Michael Lindsey
Kimberly Reynolds Rush
Roy Reed
Page 2
Demuth Declaration
Arkansas Room acquires copies of J.P. Alley’s
Hambone Meditations and Distinguished Folks
James Pinckney Alley was
born on January 11, 1885 in the
J.P. Alley
1885—1934
Siddel community of Saline
County, Arkansas. He graduated from Benton High School
in 1903. He moved to Little
Rock in 1903 where he worked
in a grocery store, and began
to submit illustrations for publication to the Arkansas Democrat
and the Southern Breeze. He
was employed as a commercial
artist by Cronk & Foster Engraving Co. in 1908. A year
later he moved to Memphis to
work for Bluff City Engraving
Company which was housed in
the same building as the Commercial Appeal. Alley did free
lance assignments for the paper
before becoming full time in
1916. His debut in the Commercial Appeal was June 6, 1914.
form in 1917 and 1920. He also
published two editions of a book
of caricature profiles, Distinguished Folks in 1924 and 1928.
Hambone was a wise and witty
African-American who entertained readers for years with his
vernacular philosophy.
Alley made many cartoons
about then Memphis Mayor
E.H. Crump and was part of the Alley was credited with helping
the Commercial Appeal win the
campaign against “Boss”
Pulitzer Prize in 1923 for its stand
Crump.
against the Ku Klux Klan.
He began a widely syndicated
editorial cartoon feature Ham- J.P. Alley died on April 16, 1934.
bone’s Meditations and published two collections in book
Arkansas’ Ghost Boats: Interpreting Early River Travel Through Archeology
Dr.
Skip
Stewart
Abernathy of
the
Arkansas Archeological Survey will be here
on Thursday, October 15 to give a
tale of the Ghost boats on the Arkansas
and Mississippi Rivers that have sunk
to the bottom of the rivers.
This should be a very entertaining
story about riverboats and what has
been found about them.
Since 1989, Dr. Abernathy
has served as the station
Archeologist of the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute
Research station. Dr.
Abernathy also serves as
Curator for Anthropology
for the Arkansas Tech
University Museum of
Prehistory and History,
and teaches two anthropology courses a year for the
Arkansas Tech University
Behavioral Sciences Department. Dr. Abernathy
is an excellent speaker and you
should learn a great deal about
archeology and the history of
Arkansas River travel. He will
be available to answer your questions about his book on ghost
boats on the Mississippi as well.
The time will be 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Call the library at 778-4766 for
information about this spooky
program.
Dr. Daniel Littlefield speaks to a large crowd
Many people who attended the
Trail of Tears program had
questions of Dr. Littlefield.
Dr. Daniel Littlefield of the UALR
Sequoyah Research Center for
Native American studies spoke to a
large crowd Monday evening ,
Aug.24.
Dr. Littlefield talked about the
Choctaw and Chickasaw who
travelled through Benton, Arkansas
on the Trail of Tears.
Many people who have Indian
ancestry attended the program.
Many had questions after the program ended.
Volume 4 Number 4
Page 3
November program will be about the AETN oral history program
about World War II veterans
Monday night, November 9,
2009, the David O. Demuth
Arkansas Room will present a
program about the oral history
program at AETN called “In
Their Own Words”, this program goes all over the state of
Arkansas and records World
War II veterans and their stories about their service to their
country during World War II.
Mr. David Elmore who lives
here in Benton, works with
AETN recording WWII veterans and civilian workers during
the war. The Saline County
Library has an agreement with
AETN to house the recordings
of the Saline County veterans
at the library . This collection
is not available for check out,
but is available for people to
listen to on a computer in the
Arkansas Room. All interviews
are on CD and are an interesting glimpse into the past.
Also on that night, Harold
“Coach” Steelman will display
his uniform collection from
WWI to Desert Storm.
“Coach” Steelman will explain
each uniform in his collection.
This should be an interesting
veterans program.
Call the
library at
778-4766
for more
information.
The uniforms will show how
the soldier dressed and
Tim Ernst Returns to the Benton Library Thursday, December 3, 2009
Call the library to register for his program.
Tim Ernst, Arkansas Nature
Photographer, returns to the
Saline County Library on
Thursday, December 3, for his
sixth appearance.
Tim is known for his spectacular visual shows on Arkansas.
He will have books and prints
for sale. His current new book
available in October is Arkansas
Wildlife, intimate portraits of
Species That Roam the Natural
State.. The book signing will
begin at 5:30-6:30 and the
program will begin at 6:30-7:30
and he will sign books until
closing at 8:00 p.m.
This is always a popular program so we ask that you call
the library at 778-4766 to register for the program.
Tim speaks all over the state
and if you have never attended
a Tim Ernst program you are
really missing a treat.
Hope that you can come
Thursday, December 3.
Tim has his cloudland journal
online where you can look at
his postings each day that website is http:/www.cloudland.net/
currentjournal.html
New Additions to the David O. Demuth Arkansas Room
The David O. Demuth Arkansas Room has recently purchased some great additions
to the Arkansas Room.
One of the additions is Jeff
Davis Governor and U.S. Senator
His Life and Speeches by L.S.
Dunaway. This book was
published in 1913 by the Arkansas Democrat press.
Also recently the Arkansas
Room purchased several out
of print county histories.
The Unfinished Story of North
Howard County by Naida Tyndall, History of Benton County
1836-1936 by J. Dickson Black,
History of Greene County Arkansas by Vivian Hansbrough,
Madison County Remembrances
of the Past by Gloria Sisk,
Boone County and Its People by
Ralph Rea, and Washington
County a Pictorial Look at our
Past by Tom Stallbraumer.
All of these county histories
will be a welcome addition to
our collection.
Some other interesting additions include Little Rock Photograph Album of the 1890’s by
Emelou Hamilton, Italians of
Sunnyside 1895-1995, this is a
history of the Sunnyside community in Chicot County. Another interesting book is Dueling Murder Crime in Early Arkansas 1819-1849 by J. Dickson
Black. This book tells about
duels that have taken place in
Arkansas over the years from
the famous to not so famous.
David O. Demuth Arkansas Room
Up Coming Programs in the Genealogy and Local History Department
SALINE COUNTY
LIBRARY
1800 Smithers Drive
Benton, Arkansas
Phone: 501-778-4766
E-mail: sperdue@saline.lib.ar..us
Healing Springs of Arkansas is January Program
On Thursday, January 14,
Dr. John Svendsen of Little Rock will present the
program “Healing Springs
of Arkansas”. Dr. Svendsen spends his spare time
searching Arkansas for
hidden springs to document.
He has been to almost
every Arkansas county to
discover springs.
Dr. Svendsen has even
found a few springs here
in Saline County and will
talk about them the
night of his program.
The program will be
from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on
Thursday, January 14
and you may call the
library at 778-4766 to
find out more information.
History of the Ralph Bunche Community
in Benton
The History of the Ralph Bunche community in Benton, Arkansas will
be presented on Thursday, February 18, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in the
meeting room of the Bob Herzfeld Memorial Library, 1800 Smithers
Drive.
Various representatives of the African-American community in Benton will present parts of the history .
6th Annual Genealogy For You Seminar, Saturday, March 13
www.saline.lib.ar.us
Saline County Library
J. Mark Lowe, is a fulltime professional genealogist, author, and lecturer who researches
primarily in original records and manuscripts
throughout the South.
Mark has published articles in APGQ, North Carolina Genealogical Society
Quarterly, SPEAK!, The
Long Hunter, and other
society publications. His
weekly local history article appears in the Robertson County Times. As the
Director of the Regional
In-depth Genealogical
Studies Alliance (RIGS
Alliance), Mark developed
and directed (with the
RIGSA team) week-long
interactive learning sessions and hands-on research focusing on original documents and manuscripts at regional archives in cooperation
with the National Archives. He is also an instructor at IGHR
(Institute for Genealogical
& Historical Research –
Samford Univ.) and the
Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy – UGA.
He is a former officer and
Board member for the
Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS), PastPresident of the Association of Professional Ge-
nealogists, a Fellow of the
Utah Genealogical Association and was awarded the
APG - Grahame T.
Smallwood Jr. Award in
2007.
Call the library at 778-4766
to register for this event.
The Spring Declaration will
have Mr. Lowe’s topics and
a schedule for the day.