Independence County Historical Society

03/10/2026

Learn about AI & Genealogy with Mr. Scott E. Lee Monday, March 16th at 1pm.

01/15/2026

Dr. Buckley T. Foster will be presenting at our meeting on Sunday, January 18 at 2 PM at the Old Independence Regional Museum. The public is invited to attend.

Dr. Buckley T. Foster, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of 19th-Century Southern and Arkansas History at the University of Central Arkansas. He is a 7th-generation Arkansawyer. Foster's first book, Sherman’s Mississippi Campaign, started as his dissertation at Mississippi State University. His latest monograph, So Great Was the Slaughter: Market Hunters, Sportsmen, and Wildlife Conservation in Arkansas, examines the decline of market hunting, the rise of the modern sportsman, and the origins of wildlife conservation in Arkansas from 1800 to 1925. The University of Alabama Press has published both. His subsequent research project involves the Federal side of early wildlife conservation, the Migratory Bird Law/Act, and the fight between non-resident sportsmen and market hunters at Big Lake in Arkansas. He has written for Arkansas Wildlife, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Historical Quarterly, and Greenhead Magazine. He has appeared on the Bear Grease podcast, the Arkansas Game and Fish Podcast — Arkansas Wildlife —and a segment of Arkansas Outdoors on KFSM TV in Fayetteville.

So Great Was the Slaughter: Market Hunters, Sportsmen, and Wildlife Conservation in Arkansas reveals the untold story of Arkansas conservation pioneers who tried to save the state’s game and fish populations. As Arkansas entered the twentieth century, the national demand for meat, combined with the ability to ship millions of animals to hungry cities like New Orleans, Memphis, and Chicago, had driven many species, including bison and passenger pigeons, to extinction in Arkansas. Many others, including deer, bear, turkey, quail, and fish, were in danger of disappearing.
In response, an unlikely coalition of Arkansas sportsmen, hunters, and conservationists created a vision for conservation legislation, game laws, and the establishment of fish hatcheries and wildlife refuges. With support from influential outsiders like E. A. McIlhenny and the United States Biological Survey, they waged a long battle against entrenched political and commercial interests.
Buckley Foster’s meticulous research reveals how these pioneers fought to save the state’s wildlife resources from destruction and laid the foundations for sustainable, modern wildlife management in Arkansas. So Great Was the Slaughter will fascinate hunters, conservationists, historians, and those interested in the history of wildlife conservation and conflicts between market hunters and sportsmen in the United States and the American South.

09/17/2025

Jason Harmon will be presenting at our meeting on October 19 at 2 PM at the Old Independence Regional Museum.

Jason Harmon is an Arkansas native whose family arrived in Arkansas Territory by 1828. Many of his early ancestors are buried within the Buffalo National River Park in Newton County, where they settled and farmed as early as 1850.

Jason was born in Harrison, Ark., in Boone County. He graduated from the University of Arkansas with degrees in history and anthropology, then worked at the Arkansas Archeological Survey.
Jason’s first story was published in the venerable Ozarks Mountaineer Magazine, about his great-great uncle, Loyd Brisco, who was a famed ginseng collector. He also worked as a newspaper reporter for the Northwest Arkansas Times in Fayetteville and for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Later, Jason served as editor at the Lake County Examiner newspaper in Lakeview, Ore., and then as editor of Farm Collector Magazine, an international publication about collecting and restoring vintage farm equipment.

In 2003, Jason co-authored the book When Money Grew on Trees, a true- crime story about former Madison County Sheriff Ralph Baker, who died in 1998 under FBI investigation for official corruption.

Today, Jason is an archeologist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, through the Stone County Conservation District in Mountain View, Ark. Jason lives in Buffalo City, Ark., and became enthralled by that community on the White River in Baxter County. His interest will soon be turned into a book about Buffalo City’s fascinating 200-year Arkansas history.

Synopsis of the presentation: Where is Buffalo City? That is the first question asked by nearly everyone who hears about the historical community located on the White River in Baxter County, Arkansas. Their confusion about the nearly extinct town is understandable, and one reason Jason Harmon is determined to help answer the question by delving into the community’s 200-year Arkansas heritage. That history involves deep connections to communities up and down the White River, including Batesville, Old Carrollton in Carroll County, Ark., Jacksonport, Des Arc, Norfork and many other Arkansas towns. Jason’s presentation will cover Buffalo City’s earliest settlement, the nearly forgotten salt trade that originated in Batesville and beyond, and especially the indispensable role that the Old Independence Regional Museum and its collections bring to Arkansas historical research.

07/14/2025

Please join us on Sunday, July 20, at 2:00 PM to hear Becky Wood talk about her research on the Cushman area. The talk will be held at the Old Independence Regional Museum.

04/25/2025

Please join us this Sunday, April 27, at 2:00 PM for a talk by Stu Smith on the Batesville Sports Hall of Fame. The talk will be held at the Old Independence Regional Museum.

04/04/2025

Applications are now being accepted for the annual David Stricklin Research Fellowship. The fellowship was created in recognition of David’s many contributions to the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, the Central Arkansas Library System, and the community. It aims to support students, teachers, and researchers in accessing and using materials from the CALS Butler Center collections.

Application Requirements
250-word proposal abstract
resume
two letters of recommendation
timeline
budget
preliminary list of CALS Butler Center collections to be used

Deadlines and Notification
Applications must be received by May 15. The recipient will be notified by June 1 and will need to accept or decline the award by June 15 at which point either the recipient will be announced, or a runner-up will be notified.

Additional Requirements
Recipients must submit a final narrative report detailing the research performed, with all funded research completed by December 1. They are also required to write a blog post for the Roberts Library/Butler Center blog, between 500 and 1,000 words in length, about their project and the research conducted for the fellowship.

Award Value and Payment Details
The award has a maximum cash value of $1,000.
Allowable costs include travel, lodging, and a limited stipend.
Submit applications by U.S. Mail or email by May 15 to:
Brian Robertson
Butler Center for Arkansas Studies,
Central Arkansas Library System
100 Rock Street Little Rock, AR 72201
Email: [email protected]

03/28/2025

About 15 years ago, a Sheriff in Missouri contacted the Independence County Sheriff's Department for help in locating the original burial place for a tombstone. He called George Lankford of the Independence County Historical Society requesting any help. Come to find out, Isaah Hine, a Union soldier during the Civil War, was buried in his family's small cemetery on their property west of Cushman. In recent years, the tombstone was stolen from the grave and, somehow, was found in a roadside ditch in Missouri. The tombstone was returned to Independence County, and finally, in November, Historical Society members, re-erected the stone at Pleasant Valley Cemetery, south of Cushman--not too many miles from its first location, which is now an overgrown thicket of trees.

We thank Board member Catherine White Harris, her husband, Bruce, and their farm aide for erecting the tombstone at Pleasant Valley Cemetery, with help from Becky Wood, another Board member, for arranging permission for the stone to be placed there.

A job well done and a good deed accomplished!

03/25/2025

The Independence County Historical Society will meet April 27, 2025, 2 p.m., at the Old Independence Regional Museum, 9th & Vine Streets, Batesville. Because of Easter falling on the regular quarterly meeting date of the third Sunday in April, it has been postponed one week. Same time and place.

After a short business meeting to elect new officers and present the Heritage Award for outstanding volunteer service to the organization, the speaker will be Stu Smith, former Batesville High School coach and former State Legislator. His topic: The Batesville Area Athletic Hall of Fame, which was organized in the 1990s.

Dr. Edward Tenace, Professor at Lyon College, and President of the Historical Society, invited all guests to attend the meeting, including the living members of the Hall of Fame.

12/20/2024

09/19/2024

OCTOBER MEETING OF SOCIETY

The quarterly meeting of the Independence County Historical Society will meet Sunday, October 20, 2024, at 2 p.m., in the Old Independence Regional Museum. Anyone interested in history is invited to attend the free meeting.
Speaker will be Cameron Gillespie, who grew up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where he received his Batchelor of Science degree at ASU.
His presentation topic is "The Bell Foley Dam: A Controversy of the Eastern Ozarks." It is the subject of his Master's degree thesis to complete a Master of arts degree from Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri, which he will receive in December, 2024.
A public school classroom teacher for eighteen years, he currently is teaching history at Batesville Charter High School, a position he has held since 2019. His historical interests include: American History, History of the Ozarks and Upland South, and History of Enslavement.
The online Encyclopedia of Arkansas explained the purpose of the Bell Foley Dam and U.S. Congress action on the bill to authorize it:
"The Flood Control Act of 1938 authorized a dam on the Strawberry River as part of measures affecting the whole White River basin. However, a federal review of the project in 1953 found the proposed dam not to be justified, and the project was moved to an “inactive” category. The multi-agency White River Basin Comprehensive Study, completed in 1968, authorized the construction of what was to be named the Bell Foley Dam along the river northeast of Poughkeepsie (Lawrence County), with a reservoir to cover approximately 12,000 acres. The project was funded, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers carried out some initial work on the dam but had to halt when President Richard M. Nixon put a temporary freeze on public works projects in 1970. Though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opposed the dam, citing adverse effects upon local fauna, the project did have significant support from Arkansas’s congressional delegation, as well as from numerous businessmen, especially speculators who had already bought land in the area in anticipation of the dam’s construction. Governor David Pryorcame out against the project in June 1975 and, two years later, vetoed a bill that would have funded the state’s portion of recreation costs, thus killing the project."

08/01/2024

Independence County Historical Society
PO. Box 2722
Batesville, AR 72503-2722

Single copies of the Chronicle are $10 and membership (4 issues) is $30.

07/15/2024

Please join us on July 21 at 2:00 PM for a talk by Duncan P. McKinnon, Ph.D. on the Civilian Conservation Corps in Arkansas. The lecture will be at the Old Independence Regional Museum. See more below:

The Civilian Conservation Corps in Arkansas: From Active Camps to Archaeological Landscapes

A component of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal program was the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which provided a sense of immediate relief to the citizens of Arkansas throughout its duration (1933-1942). CCC camps were established across the state to support projects related to soil and water conservation, forestry and wetlands management, recreational facilities, among others. These once active camp locations are now archaeological landscapes. Several of these contain the remains of foundations, standing structures, overgrown roads and pathways, and water management systems. Others represent empty landscapes of former thriving camps. As a whole, they define past human activity that connects members of present communities with those of the past, and reveal a shared history that can be compared to contemporary social concerns to consider future trajectories.