Written by Frances H. Shiras, 1939
(Now Frances Shiras McClelland)
Printed by J.W. Daniels and Shiras Bros. Print Shop, 1940
Second Printing Dec. 1982
By Anne Ramey
This book may be ordered for $8.95 + $.59 tax + $5.00
shipping and handling,
total $14.54, from:
The Cherry Tree Bookstore
860 Highway 62E - #10
Mountain Home, Arkansas 72653
(800) 882-4668
The book is 159 pages plus an 8-page index. Some of the material from the book is included below.
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This page contains
Author's Note for the Second Edition
Contents
Foreword
Dedication
Historic Ford, a poem
Some Experiences in Writing the History of Baxter
County
This is a reprint of the first history of Baxter County, published in 1940. Information was gleaned over several years from many interviews with families of the early settlers, from the files of The Baxter Bulletin, from legal documents, county records, and other sources.
It is the history of the county before the dams were built, to form big beautiful lakes which characterize the county today.
In the 1930s, when this material was being gathered, the older citizens of the county had been the children of the Civil War days. They were eager to tell stories of their childhood and of life in the pioneer days, as told to them by their parents in the long twilight hours before the coming of electricity, radio and television.
This book has long been out of print. Because of recent innovations in the printing process it is possible to reprint it just as it was first issued.
Included in this edition is a useful index, sent to me by a helpful reader in Missouri a few years after it was first published.
Frances Shiras McClelland
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Go Back to Judi's Genealogy Page
History is a fragile thing if left to live only in the memory of man. Man's memory fades and when he passes on, his knowledge of the things which make history goes with him.
Although the History of Baxter County does not date back many years and is not filled with events of national or international importance, it is precious to Baxter County citizens of today and to the descendants of the builders of the county who will follow. Much of the story has been buried by Time, but most of it remains, which if grasped now can be retained.
Progress is gauged by looking backward and further efforts are encouraged by examples set in the past.
History is still being made and probably Baxter County's greatest chapter lies in the future, but none will be more beautiful than that which is gone.
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This book is dedicated to the men who made its publication
possible -- members of the firm of Shiras Brothers' Print Shop, Tom
Shiras, Enness Shiras, Irl Paul and Rex Bodenhamer.
They personify the spirit of progress and cooperation which
built the county and in their newspaper, The Baxter Bulletin, have
faithfully and truthfully recorded the county's history as it
happened and have ever supported anything which was for the
progress of Baxter county and North Arkansas.
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Go Back to Judi's Genealogy Page
"History is a fragile thing if left to live only in the memory of man.
Man's memory fades and when he passes on his knowledge of the things
which make history goes with him.
"Although the history of Baxter County does not date back many years and is
not filled with events of national or international importance, it is precious
to the citizens of the county today and to those who are to follow. Much of the
story has been buried by Time, but most of it remains, which if grasped now can
be retained.
"Progress is gauged by looking backward and further efforts are encouraged by
examples set in the past.
"History is still being made and Baxter County's greatest chapter probably
lies in the future, but none will be more beautiful than that which is gone."
That foreword to the History of Baxter County would stand true
for other counties of the state. The Historical Society in encouraging local
historians to gather material now will greatly enrich the history of the state
as a whole.
Naturally one would not begin to compile a history of an Arkansas county
hoping to gain either fame or fortune. The person who writes a county history
will write for history's sake. I cleared about $35 as I remember it, and my
partner, J. W. Daniel, linotype operator and pressman who printed the book after
work hours, the same. That was during the depression, however, and money
was not much of an object.
The History of Baxter County is a product of a battle against
boredom. (I am sorry to say I don't write if I can find anything else to do
unless there is some demand for it.) Several county histories had been written
and my mother suggested Baxter County should have one too. Since I had only a
part time job in my father's and uncle's newspaper office, there was much time
with nothing very interesting to do, so I started haphazardly and leisurely
collecting material with no thought of whether or not it eventually would be
printed. This material -- in horrible shape -- was stuffed in an old
music case. Later, with no knowledge of how a history should be written,
I put the information together, and consequently the book is not arranged
as it should be, is not as complete as it should be, and there are
several errors. If anyone here plans to write a county history, I would
suggest that you use this one as an example of how one should not be
written.
But in writing it I came to the realization that all history is not composed
of heroes, kings and statesmen, and that everyone who contributes his best
efforts, even though in a small way, to culture, government or building of the
country, has his place in history. I came to appreciate greatly the work of the
men who hewed farms out of the wilderness, of men and women who taught in one-
room log school houses, of men who preached the gospel in brush arbors and women
who made rough cabins into homes, raised large families, and still found time to
help their neighbors at a quilting bee or in time of sickness or death. I
realized the contribution of the men who set up the grist mills to grind their
neighbors grain into meal and flour and later of the men who built the cotton
gins and stores -- of those who served their county as representative, sheriff
or judge. For the first time, in hearing the story from those who had
experienced it, I realized the great courage of the men and boys who took their
muskets and rode their horses off to fight in the Civil War, and of the
women and children, who left at home, often suffered loss of all their
food, stock and sometimes their home itself in a raid by bushwhackers. I
felt the tragedy of the floods, drouths and tornadoes which destroyed
some of that which these people had built. I could picture the excitement
when the steamboats came up river with store-goods and loaded the cotton
and other farm products to take to markets. I got an idea of how it was
to travel before roads replaced trails and trains and cars took the place
of hacks, and the whole broad picture of the people and their changing
customs which evolved finally into the county as we see it today.
The gathering of material naturally is more interesting than the writing of
it. Material for a county history comes from three main sources -- official
records, old newspapers and personal interviews with elderly citizens. There
are, of course, old family Bibles, diaries, letters and memoirs with valuable
information. History books and encyclopedias were used to some small extent and
the Goodspeed books, written around the turn of the century, contain much
valuable material about early families.
But back to the diaries and memoirs -- it seems that people of the older
generation took more time to record events of their lives than do people today.
They very meticulously described the towns and countryside, telling the location
of each home and business place, wrote in detail about their families and their
neighbors, not omitting descriptions and little character sketches. Perhaps it
was because they lived more leisurely -- so I've been told, although when
I think of the things they had to do just to maintain life, I conclude
they just used their time to better advantage. Also they seem to have
had a better conception of the value of local history. Perhaps because
things didn't happen in the world so swiftly and on such a big scale as
they do now and communication with the rest of the world was so scant
their local doings assumed more importance.
The older generation, too, seems to have had a better memory for details. A
great part of the information came from talking to elderly people who had come
to the county as children. Some of them would talk for hours about their trips
in covered wagons, about the people who came with them in the wagon
trains, about building their homes, planting their first crops, building
churches, schools, stores and of their social meetings. All were eager to
tell of their experiences and their recollections of their childhood
seemed not to have dimmed after sometimes as much as 70 or 80 years.
These elderly people compose one of the best sources of information and
as they leave one by one, much valuable information will be lost. For
that reason anyone who intends to write a county history should not delay
these personal interviews.
My father was very helpful in this phase of writing the Baxter County history
-- as well as in every other. He knew all the "old-timers" in the county and
when they came in the office, or if he met them on the streets, he would
ask them to tell me their stories, and knowing them well himself, he
could often prompt them if they seemed likely to forget some interesting
incident. Then there would be drives to their homes in various parts of
the county. Some aged grandmother there would tell of incidents of the
early days and would, sometimes with the aid of the family Bible, give
the data on her family. The family histories to me loom important in a
county history, as many people today do not cherish the old records and
do not remember any family data, so that soon all traces of the old
families could be lost.
Old files of newspapers are very valuable for they carry in detail every
important development as it happened. They are very interesting reading too --
but pretty hard on persons who suffer from hay fever. In looking over the
History of Baxter County I find how indebted it is to the
newspapers of the county. Among their most valuable contributions are articles
written by W. R. Jones of Yellville (in the Arkansas Gazette and
Baxter Bulletin) and memoirs about the early days in Mountain Home
by John Q. Wolf of Batesville and Dr. J.F. Norman, now of Springfield, Mo., and
features by my uncle, Tom Shiras, in which much of the material on some subjects
already was collected.
Baxter County, however, would not have had a printed history had it not been
for J.W. Daniel, Shiras Brothers Print Shop, and my father, Enness Shiras. J.W.
printed the book at night after work while I read proof or wrote more copy. We
both left Mountain Home with 25 pages or so unprinted and my father finished the
job for us. Our only cost was for paper and ink, and as I said before the profit
on the book was only about $100. (We turned a few remaining copies over
to Shiras Brothers when sales became so occasional they were more trouble
than they were worth.) Had we paid other costs for printing we would have
lost money -- anyhow somebody would have lost money. It couldn't have
been us, because we didn't have any to lose.
This, however, may be one reason more county histories have not been
written. But with the encouragement of the Historical Society, perhaps
much material will be gathered now while it is available and something
can be worked out for printing later.
Dedication
Historic Ford
By Francesca (Posey) Shiras
From this high cliff whose ancient crevasses
Make homes for countless ferns and columbines,
The lovely maples, oaks, and graceful vines,
We view the scene that history prefaces;
For there the river tumbling, rushing past,--
Forever young, though ages old, and strong,
Runs shallower, and forded all the throng
Of nomads, westward driven to a vast
Ungoverned realm of happy hunting grounds;
And following them the sturdy pioneers,
With little worldly goods and less of fears,
Who sought new homes where nature's wealth abounds.
They need no monument for future ages,
For, History, their spirit makes your pages.
Some Experiences in Writing the History of Baxter County
From The Arkansas Historical Quarterly
Autumn, 1946
By Frances Shiras