Six CALS EOA Entries Everyone Should Read

By Kelly Houston Jones, assistant professor of history at Arkansas Tech University

Kelly Houston Jones is currently wrapping up a book project called A Weary Land: Slavery on the Ground in Arkansas.

I’d like to kick this list off with the entry on C. Fred Williams, written by my fellow UA Little Rock alum, Cody Lynn Berry. Dr. Williams encouraged me to pursue graduate education in history. What a kind and brilliant Arkansas historian he was, illuminating fascinating aspects of Arkansas history, including the story of Marlin Hawkins, of my home county, Conway County.

In my travels across the state as a historian, talking with folks about slavery in Arkansas, I find many people who are surprised to find out the extent of slavery’s reach into all corners of state. I find myself referring people to Carl Moneyhon’s entry on slavery incredibly often, and I still rely on it as a quick reference for slave population statistics for various counties and census years. Anyone seeking a bit more information on slavery in Arkansas should look it over.

Old Hickory community, by the CALS EOA staff historian Mike Polston, on my list because this is where my family is from (half of them, at least). Cousins of the Massingills discussed in the entry, my family has been in the area since before the Civil War era. The Hawkins general store, a landmark remarked upon by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 2000 and 2001 issues, is walking distance from my father’s porch. We’ve spent countless hours sitting there together overlooking the spaces described in the entry, talking of Old Hickory’s history and future.

On the topic of nostalgia, I must place Petit Jean Mountain, covered by Donald Higgins, on my list because I have visited countless times since my childhood. The park and its views never get old.

Now that I live in Russellville, I have come to spend more time than ever enjoying Arkansas’s outdoors. Kayaking at Lake Dardanelle State Park and nearby areas has become one of my favorite ways to break away from “screen time.”

Finally, everyone should check out the story of Arkansas’s four Carnegie Libraries, written by John Spurgeon. All of Arkansas’s libraries are more important than ever these days, as the “information age” inundates us with mountains of material to make sense of. I’m proud that Morrilton’s Carnegie Library is one of the two still functioning as libraries in the state.