Magical History Tour - Powhatan
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This cache is part of a series of caches chronicling the history of Lawrence County as seen through the eyes and writings of Walter E. McLeod and a few others. If you are doing the Magical History tour, be sure to collect the special symbol.
The cache is also available to all Geocachers as a standalone cache.
Stop #8 on the Magical History Tour. The year is 1869.
Ammo can located at a historical place in Lawrence County. Powhatan was the 5th county seat of Lawrence County. As the county boundries continued to be redrawn the county seat was moved accordingly.
Powhatan, named for the old Indian chief, is some-thing like as old as Smithville. It had its beginning with the establishment of a ferry there by James Ficklin, and at first was called Ficklin ferry. Ficklin built a fine house on the hill northwest from the ferry. The house, destroyed by fire in time of the Civil War, was, so far as any one knows, the first residence in Powhatan. Col. John A. Lindsey, a nephew of Ficklin, has sometimes been given the credit of being the founder of the town, but one of the streets in Powhatan is named Ficklin Avenue, and Ficklin was county judge from 1840 to 1844, and the writer is of the opinion that Ficklin is the founder. However, Col. Lindsey was prominently connected with the early history of Powhatan. The town was incorporated at an early date by act of the state legislature. The ferry there was, and is yet, the most accessible point at all seasons of the year on the river from Jacksonport to Pocahontas. It is at the north end of the wide flood plain on the west side of Black River. The site was ideal for the location of a town in that day. The first steamboat up the river is said to have landed there in 1829. So it is probable that there was a river crossing there at a very early date. The writer has been unable to learn much about the place until after the Civil War. It was a thriving town when the county seat was located there in 1869, and then it took on new life. Before the railroads in the county were built, it was the shipping point and trade center for a large scope of country. It had stores, shops, mills, a newspaper (The Times), a hotel, and a prosperous and happy people.
The court house built in 1873 was burned in 1885 and the present one built in 1888. The old hill on which it stands seems designed by nature for it. On its solid substance the ravages of erosion have but little effect.
Three unsuccessful efforts have been made to move the county seat to other towns. But there on its hill still stands the old court house, deserted by its former happy surroundings, silent sentinel, looking down on the old river below and out over the hills around, sad reminder of the old town's departed glory, and there it seems destined to stand for some years. But the struggle has been and is against the inevitable, and after another generation or two, the town will no longer be remembered, but the place will be pointed out as the site of a once busy mart and the dwelling place of a happy people. Do you ask what reduced it to this state of desolution. It is the old story of many another smart town - killed by a railroad that missed it.
When Hon. B. A. Morris was the representative from this county in 1887, he had a bill passed to divide the county into two districts, the Western and the Eastern. The county seat proper was to remain at Powhatan, since it can be moved only by vote of the people. The Eastern district was to have a court house where terms of the circuit court should be held. For the convenience of the Eastern district, the circuit clerk, the county clerk, and sheriff were to maintain offices at the court house in Walnut Ridge. At first a two-story frame court house was built east of the railroad, which was used until 1900, when the present court house was built.
OLD RECORDS
The most interesting thing about the old court house at Powhatan is its unbroken set of records - three vaults of them - dated from 1815 to present time. The records - hundreds of them— are of many different kinds. In them is recorded some of the history of Arkansas and the early history of many counties, before they were separated from the mother county of Lawrence.
The first two record books are designated as A and B, but are bound in one volume, beginning with the date May 29, 1815, and ending with the date December 29, 1827. Book A records matters from 1815 to 1819, while Lawrence county was part of Missouri Territory, under the jurisdiction of William Clark, governor, and Frederick Bates, secretary. Many of the records in that book bear the names of those officials.
When Missouri applied for statehood in 1819, Arkansas Territory was organized, and Lawrence county became a part of the new territory instead of a part of Missouri. James Miller was appointed the first governor and Robert Crittenden the first secretary, and served from 1819 to 1825. It was several months before Miller arrived in Arkansas, and Crittenden organized and administered the government in Miller's absence. It is said that Crittenden was the abler man of the two. In Book B is the record of matters pertaining to Lawrence county during this period.
Under territorial government of the first grade, local officers are appointed by the governor. Several of the documents recorded in Book A are the records of the appointments of justices of the peace, who seem to have been about the whole of local government. Of course there was an officer to make arrests, etc. In Book A, when the government of Lawrence county was being organized, the first record is a bill of sale for a mill and some hogs. Then follows the records of the appointment of several justices of the peace. There were then no subdivisions of the county into townships, and the justices were appointed for settlements: As, "George Rudill as Justice of the Peace for and within the Settlement of Strawberry," and "Richard Murphy as Justice of the Peace for and within the Settlement of Spring River," etc. Among other matters recorded in Book A are two retractions, or "lie bills." There are records of deeds transferring lands, which are described in various ways, but not as we describe them now. Some of the records are of the sale of negro slaves, and there is a record of a man having sold himself into fifteen years of servitude. Tradition says that he was a free mulato, and that he sold his freedom in payment for his wife's freedom in order that his children might be born free. There are many interesting documents in those old books which can not be described in this writing.
One thing about those old records that immediately attracts the attention is their neatness in form and writing. The writing was done before the days of steel pens and fine writing fluids, probably with quill pens and home-made ink. It has turned brown but is still perfectly plain. Some of it looks like printed script, and all is neatly done.
Record Book D may be said to be the first county court record. It is a large book beginning with years 1834 and ending with the year 1852. It contains many interesting records, among which are records of orders for the opening of roads, the establishment of ferries, etc. Those old records are histories in themselves, which give much insight into what was going on in the county a hundred years ago.
Original Contents:
Mentoring tape
Ink Pen
Nokia Cell Phone
Millenium Bear Beanie Baby
Duck Soap
FM Radio
CITO bags
Penny bracelet
Battlefield Inn drink token
Ball
Wal-Mart stockholder pin
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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