Elliott

Sorry there haven't been many posts lately - it's been a busy few weeks. On August 12, we welcomed Elliott Martin Cormack to the world.

I have to admit that having a baby in the midst of a global pandemic was.....interesting. The hospital had lots of strict guideline we had to follow. I wasn't allowed to leave after the baby was born, if I did I wouldn't be allowed back into the hospital (thankfully my Mother-In-Law was able to watch Jonah for us). We had to stay inside the room at all times, we weren't even allowed out into the hallway. That meant that we had to get all of our meals from the hospital, which was ok (but annoying since there is literally a Popeyes right there that was just out of reach). We also had to wear a mask whenever a doctor, nurse or hospital worker was in the room. But after a few days we were able to take Elliott home, where he was able to meet his big brother for the first time. Jonah so far seems thrilled to have a baby brother...

Along 318

After heading back on the road, I passed by this old store by the small community of Turner. The store probably used to be quite busy back in the olden days, but now it's quiet. The signs on the front are faded and rusty.

I had a good laugh at this old Pepsi machine, sitting right below a Coca-Cola sign. That's some good Product Placement there.

I started driving south down Hwy. 318, and then stopped at this old cotton gin. There aren't too many working cotton gins left in the state now since most of the crops produced here are rice and soybeans. This old gin, complete with broken windows, looks to be used for storage.

South of the old cotton gin was this field, full of healthy looking soybeans. A dirt road cuts through the field, heading off under a sky filled with fluffy white clouds.

Further down the road, in the small town of Lambrook, was this old church that was nearly shrouded in vines and plants.

On the other side of Lambrook was this old church, which looks like it's actually still used for services.

And one last shot, of an electical pole by the old church. The pole has a bit of lean to it, which to be fair it is hard to be outside in the Summer in Arkansas without getting knocked sideways sometimes.

A Delta Church

From St. Charles I crossed over the White River and headed east, eventually running by this old church. I'm not sure how old the church is, but there are graves in the cemetery here that date to the late 1800s.

Just out of curiosity, I tried the front door and found that it was unlocked. I invitied myself in for a bit (I grew up Methodist so I didn't think anyone would mind). The church looked like it had just been left after a service. There were hymns in the pews, decorations on the wall and a choir robes still hanging in a closet. But fallen ceiling tiles were scattered across the floor, and a thick layer of dust coated every surface. 

It was like stepping into a time capsule. It's hard to guess how long it's been since the last service here, but it looks like it has been several years.

The silent piano at the front still had a hymnbook open (to pages 233 & 234, for "Love Lifted Me" and All Hail The Power of Jesus' Name," if you were curious). It was very quiet and still inside the church, except for the occasional rumblings of a crop-duster spraying a field nearby.

Cobwebs were growing by another hymnal open at the pulpit, this one open to pages 172 & 173 ("O Brother Man, Fold To Thy Heart" and "Living For Jesus"). 

I tried to find some information about this church, but had no luck. I am thankful that the church is in such amazing condition, and it is clear that people cared for it.

St. Charles

For the past few years I've been working on a photography project that has striven to chronicle the architecture and landscape of the Arkansas Delta. There was actually supposed to be an exhibition of some of the pictures this summer, but of course Covid-19 had other ideas. The exhibition may be rescheduled for next year, when (hopefully) things will have gotten better outside. But until then I have some extra time to take a few more extra pictures of the Delta. So I planned this trip in order to squeeze in as much things as possible into a day, to see as much as I could (also we are having a baby next week so I won't be able to travel all that much, especially during a pandemic).

I headed further down the road, looking for anything old or interesting along the way. Down a rocky and dusty dirt road sat this collection of metal silos, sitting under a sky filled with fluffy white clouds.

Down the road, a puddle had developed that perfectly reflected the clouds above.

Back on the main road, I drove by this old building that was baking under the warm Summer sun. The years had turned the metal walls into a mixture of rust and faded paint, showing a spectrum of colors.

From there I finally arrived in the small town of St. Charles, which sits along the White River along the edge of Arkansas County.

Situated in the middle of town is the old J. Deane and Son hardware store, which was established way back in 1890. The store operated until 1976, but the building is empty now and partially collapsing.

Someone was kind enough to leave an old truck parked outside, which definitely helped make the old place a wee bit more photogenic.

St. Charles is an old river town. It was officially incorporated in 1880, but there was a settlement here back during the Civil War. In June of 1862, Union troops sent a flotilla up the White River and met fire from Confederate troops set up around St. Charles. A shot from a canon in St. Charles struck the Union ironclad USS Mound City, piercing the steam drum and releasing scalding steam across the boat. The majority of sailors on the boat were killed, and those that jumped overboard were then shot by Confederate snipers. It is said that this was one of the most deadly single shots fired during the Civil War. There is a monument to the vicitims in St. Charles, which was built in 1919. It is a rare Civil War monument in Arkansas because it actually honors Union soldiers (along with a few Confederates who were killed during the skirmish). It is also a rare monument because it sits right in the middle of the street. It's amazing that this has stood for over a century and it hasn't been taken out by a bad driver.

The inscription on the monument is hard to read in the picture, but it states: "NEAR THIS SPOT, ON JUNE 17, 1862 / A DECISIVE BATTLE WAS / FOUGHT HERE BETWEEN THE CONF- / -EDERATES ENTRENCHED AND / THE FEDERAL GUNBOATS. / HERE WAS FIRED THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE SINGLE SHOT / OF THE CIVIL WAR, CAUSING AN / EXPLOSION ON THE “MOUND CITY” AND THE LOSS OF 148 / KILLED, BESIDES MANY WOUNDED. /O, WHERESOEVER THESE MAY BE / BETWIXT THE SLUMBER OF / THE POLES, TO-DAY THEY / COUNT AS KINDRED SOULS."

Just outside of St. Charles was another historical event, although this one does not have any historical markers. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History:

Over the course of four days in the first week of spring 1904, a succession of white mobs terrorized the black population of St. Charles (Arkansas County). They murdered thirteen black males in this town of about 500. Given the death toll, it may have been the deadliest lynching in American history. The murderers were never identified in either public reports or eyewitness accounts, and the scant surviving evidence in newspapers and manuscripts lists only the victims, not the killers or their possible motives.

On Monday, March 21, on the dock at the White River crossing in St. Charles, Jim Searcy, a white man, argued over a game of chance with a black man named Griffin, with whom he was gambling. The disagreement escalated to blows. A policeman arrested Griffin for assault and informed the black man that he was about to be hanged. Griffin struck the officer, grabbed his gun, and fled.

Griffin went into hiding, but angry white mobs were determined to find him. Whites summoned from surrounding towns and the countryside arrived from DeWitt (Arkansas County), Clarendon (Monroe County), Ethel (Arkansas County), and Roe (Monroe County). On the afternoon of Wednesday, March 23, whites on horseback roamed the countryside, accosting black citizens on sight. Those who resisted were shot. Between sixty and seventy black men, women, and children were driven from their homes and fields and then penned into a warehouse. That night, white mobs around the structure demanded to torch the building and burn all the black people imprisoned inside it. As a white witness later testified to the mob’s intent, “[T]hey wanted to exterminate the negro race.” According to a manuscript source, leaders of the mob insisted on restraint. Some of the rioters began to plead for “special negroes” who should be spared. Others urged caution on behalf of the good name of the town of St. Charles.

Around 3:00 in the morning of Thursday, March 24, the whites stormed the building, took six black men from the scores of captives, and marched them to the high point on the highway from St. Charles to De Witt, the county seat. They made the men stand in a line and then shot them dead.

On Sunday, March 27, the Arkansas Gazette, in the most detailed coverage of the killings, published a list of the dead men: Abe Bailey, Mack Baldwin, Will Baldwin, Garrett Flood, Randall Flood, Aaron Hinton, Will Madison, Charley Smith, Jim Smith, Perry Carter, Kellis Johnson, Henry Griffin, and Walker Griffin; the man originally arrested and his brother were murdered on Saturday. The Griffins bring the number killed to thirteen.

If the killings at St. Charles are viewed as a single episode, with a body count of thirteen, then the incident is the single deadliest mass lynching in American history. But for a homicide to qualify as lynching, according to the standard scholarly definition of lynching, a minimum of three perpetrators had to participate in each murder—it is in that sense that lynching is a public event. Because the number of murderers associated with each killing in St. Charles remains unknown, some of the fatalities may not be classified as victims of lynching.

It's hard to know where exactly the murders occurred based off of the historical evidence, but this was taken along the road between St. Charles and DeWitt. It's a mundane and typical scene, which hides the dark scar that runs beneath this stretch of road.

Crockett's Bluff

Our trip through the Delta headed east again, past miles of fields sitting under humid skies.

I passed through the small community of Crockett's Bluff, which sits along a stetch of highland along the White River. I stopped at this old church, which looks like it is sitll used for services.

I think the church is a Missionary Baptist Church, but I can't find any info about when it was built. Next to the church was this cemetery, which had gravestones dating back to the turn of the century.

Crockett's Bluff was established in the mid-1800s, and was named after Robert Crockett (who just happens to be the grandson of Davy Crockett). It was a busy little river town back the late 1800s. The town seemed pretty quiet these days, without much traffic passing by this old grocery store.

The store did have some convenient parking out front, with plenty of room for your tractor...

Two Churches

From Stuttgart, I headed east and drove deeper into the flat lands of the Delta. Along the way I kept a lookout for any old or interesting buildings sitting along the road.

Further down the road was this old church, which looks to be abandoned (except for the person who kindly mows the grass out front). I wish I could find out more info about the history of this place.

Down the road was another old church called Wofford Chapel, which sits by a well-maintained cemetery. I was able to see a little bit about this church's history, thanks to a cornerstone that listed the date of construction (1925).

It looks like some new siding had been applied to the church, but it has started peeling away like the layers of an onion and revealing the orginial wooden boards.

The cemetery by the church dates back to the late 1800s/early 1900s, from back when this area was settled by African-Americans during the Migration Period that happened after the end of slavery.

I love walking around old buildings like this and finding all the little details. Every piece of weathered wood, faded paint and rusted metal tells a little bit of a story and shares a bit of a history. It makes you wonder who built this place, and what all went on here (wedding, celebrations, funerals?).

There is a history embedded in these places, from generations of people who have passed through here.

I'm thankful that there are people who still care for places like this, and I hope they don't mind people like me stopping to take a few pictures every now and then.

Stuttgart

Stuttgart, one of the two county-seats of Arkansas County, is an interesting town. It's an old place, established back in the 1880s. It's also a town known for two things: duck hunting and rice. Rice was first planted around Stuttgart in 1902, and now the town is home to the largest rice producer in the world.

Riceland Foods facilities dominate the town - a massive complex sits just off of Main Street. There are numerous silos that tower over the flat Delta lands surrounding the town, creating a skyline that resembles that of a larger city. This one old silo sits just a few blocks from Main Street in the middle of a residential neighborhood. The silo doesn't appear to be used anymore, no doubt replaced with newer and fancier silos elsewhere in town.

I haven't found any info about this silo, but it seems like it's been here for awhile.

On the southern part of Stuttgart is the Rice Capital Inc. rice mill, which is one of the oldest in the city. A few years back part of the building collapsed and sparked a fire, but luckily no one was hurt. When I drove by, there were some people out doing work on part of this structure, so maybe it can be preserved?

Fortunately the people out there working didn't seem to mind anyone stopping by for a few pictures...