Arkansas Books

I spent many summers on Scott Street, and just across from Jug Wheeler and one block over from Dixon. I worked briefly one semester at Dixie Radio repairing appliances, radios and TV's. I also recall walking down to the RR station to see the "Wheels go round", although later when it was a diesel engine it wasn't quite as great. Mother was a friend of Morris Collier (Drug Store) and always stopped by to visit. We went to Wholesome Bread Store for bread and to the post office for savings stamps during WWII. I also recall Bloody Mary and the beer garden. Earlier I had saved a pigeon and the owner promised me all the grapes I could eat from his grape arbor. I recall fixing a juke box at a fraternity house across from the University. Also my name is on the U of AR sidewalk (up from Dixon) twice, my Father's is on at 1931, Aunt Ruth's on in '44 as I recall. We went to the Presbyterian Church on Dixon. I walked downtown to the Square and to one of the three theaters there up Dixon. It was quite a nostalgic visit to Dixon in the book.

The Other Brahmins challenges us to find out more about our culture. It is a "must have" for every reader interested in an accurate account of the black experience in an American city. In almost every ethnic culture there is a group that steps to the forefront to set the standards of social leadership. Boston being one of the older cities in this country would be no better place to look at the rise of the black upper class. Adelaide Cromwell's work explores the life of upper class blacks in this old northern city from the end of the eighteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. It is a well researched and fascinating profile of the activities of this often alluded to, but largely unknown class of Americans. The central focus is the comparison of black and white upper class woman in the 1940s. The author traces the early black leaders in Boston society; the social structure of the black upper class; factors in the lifestyle of Boston's black elite women; and race and the black upper class in Boston. I find it to be one of the finest examples of sociological scholarship. The author truly ranks among the great social historians of the day. This rare look at the black social establishment is very timely in that there had not been any resourceful books on the subject since the 1970s with the works of Gerri Majors and Stephen Birmingham. This work along with the works of Williard Gatewood( Aristocrats of Color) and William Dorsey's Philadelphia and Ours by Roger Lane were only books that I had seen published during the 1990s on the subject of the black upper class. During my own research the only article that I had read focusing on the black community of Boston was the 1948 article featured in Ebony entitled "Boston Elite Worships Ancestors". This work was a breakthrough for me and I am sure for those who have established an interest in the social history of Black America.

I enjoyed reading about life in the first half of the 20th century, told vividly and humorously. Walta tells about her childhood as if she were still a little girl experiencing it, but her style of writing changes as she "grows up." I split my sides laughing at the joke pulled on her step-dad at the Chivaree, but the Great Depression stories about sharing cold biscuits with a tramp and being bilked by an escaped convict are poignant and sensitive. She's a good "story-teller," with the ability to paint pictures with her words. She's the kind of author you'd like to get to know.

First I have to say that I adore Mrs. Sarah Fountain and I knew before I opened this book that I would love it. Mrs Fountain is an Arkansas treasure. This book is a wonderful gift for anyone that is interested in Southern history and geneaolgy. The letters paint a picture of the past in a way that nothing else can. The people were alive for me, their sorrows were mine, and I really admired the bravery of those women. Thank you Mrs Sarah! Jamie Sanders Peacock UCA 1977

the author didn't take up corrosion types and prevention from corrosion in district heating pipelines

I thought the cook book was very good. The recipes I have tried were very tasty. It was very interesting to put a little history with each set of recipes.

I have truly enjoyed this book. I had hoped to locate more information about the author. When you have background information on the author one has the tendency to interpret the book in a different form. However, this was a very interesting and detailing book about rural and urban areas. It gives the reader a broader understanding of segregation, political views and disfranchisement legislation in Arkansas during the 1890s.

BOOK IS AVAILABLE IN SOFTCOVER FROM POLISH GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY OF TEXAS ( Box 820386, Houston, TX 77282 or www.pgst.org (include $3.50 s/h)
My review from the Polish American Journal (April 2008):

People love travelogues. Historical travelogues are especially important because they supply a window into everyday life in times long past. Sometimes, those observations are so valuable that they make the book a classical insight on to a given moment in history. Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, based on his 1831 trip to the United States, remains to this day a primary source into the mindset of a new people, the Americans. Astolphe de Custine's Russie en 1839, the work of another Frenchman who visited Czarist Russia, is a similar classical statement of what makes that country tick.
Did Poles write travelogues? They certainly did. Almost a generation before de Tocqueville, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz penned his Podroze po Ameryce, 1797-1807. But if Tocqueville and Niemcewicz give us perspectives on what life was like for American society in general, Stefan Nesterowicz gives us a view of what life was like for Polish immigrants in a corner of America with which they were seldom associated: the "Old Southwest."
Americans today think of the "Southwest" as Arizona and New Mexico but, prior to the Civil War, the "Old Southwest" was Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi (just as the "Old Northwest" was Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois). Nesterowicz visited his countrymen in those three states and in Texas in 1909, as a reporter for the Toledo-based Polonian newspaper, Echa z Ameryki. The "Travel Notes" were originally translated into English by Marion Coleman and published by a small press in Connecticut in 1970. They are out-of-print. The Polish Genealogical Society of Texas commissioned a fresh translation.
The South Central states are hardly where most people expect to find Poles. In none of those states except Texas do Poles even reach one percent of the population (in Texas it's a whopping 1.23%). That said, Poles have some historical associations with the region: the oldest mass immigration of Poles to America settled in Panna Maria, Texas, in 1854, and--believe it or not--there were schemes to create Polish colonies in Arkansas in the19th century. These Polonian settlements might be small, but they were historic.
In seven chapters, Nesterowicz recounts his long train rides throughout the region. Chapter one covers the trip from St. Louis through Arkansas to New Orleans. Chapter two focuses on New Orleans, with sidebars on Polish enclaves along the Gulf Coast (Dunbar, Louisiana and Biloxi, Mississippi). Chapters three through six deal in-depth with specific regions of Texas: Galveston-Houston, Central Texas, Fort Worth and the West, and San Antonio. (Nesterowicz describes thirty individual towns in Texas, including Panna Maria, "Kosciusko," and "Cestohowa"). In chapter seven, Nesterowicz summarizes his travels and makes general observations.
Nesterowicz's observations are particularly valuable because he is writing in a segregated South. Edward Kantowicz commented that Polish immigrants during the emigracja za chlebem generally avoided Southern cities because they would have to compete for the handful of industrial jobs with local blacks, who knew the lay of the land much better. Nesterowicz's observations confirm that position, all the while exhibiting great sympathy for the South's exploited blacks. ("I replied: `Why did you bring them here against their will and then abuse them? Furthermore, thanks to the work of these disdained blacks, you grow rich.' `For a long time man tamed different animals for different purposes,' one answered, `without asking whether they liked it or not. He did the same with the black race, whenever he needed it for a purpose.'"--p. 29). Anybody who wants to accuse the Polish of anti-Semitism should read this book, where Nesterowicz frequently praises Polish Jews he meets along the way, at times suggesting how Polish Christians might learn from them. Writing at a time when Poland was divided among three empires, Nesterowicz opined that "Bringing Poles and Jews closer would be beneficial for us. Accepting many of their virtues would correct our imperfections" (p. 105).
The author is also sensitive to the exploitation suffered by Poles, and reserves particular spleen for when Poles used their countrymen for their own ends. His description of the wretched conditions Poles endured in the Gulf Coast oyster industry is appalling. (Many Poles from Baltimore, he says, were lured South by promises of easy money). His comments on how Poles sometimes defrauded their fellow Poles by selling them poor land or housing them in stables (see his description of Marche, Arkansas, p. 10) only confirmed the old Latin adage, homo homini lupus (man is a wolf to his fellow man).
Nesterowicz is far more impressed by self-standing Polish farmers. His reports always include comments of the quality of the land in particular places, the going price for local commodities, and how a farmer can build a more prosperous future for himself. Denying that he's "trying to convince people to settle in this state," (p. 137) he does add that "[f]rom what one sees in Texas, one must state that the future of our immigration does not belong in cities or factory sites" (p.134). (He also suggests that the children of these first Texas settlers consider Mexico as a place where, "with time they may blaze new trails for our emigration"-p. 137).
A delightful, easy-to-read travel narrative, the book is a two-fer: a trip back in time as well as one across a region too often neglected when studying Polish-American history. Travel Notes is fun and interesting reading.

These are moving and beautiful poems that are unlike most of what is being published these days, particularly by women poets. Boisseau's subjects are the things of this world, and yet these muscular lyrics somehow communicate a tenderness and longing that reminds me of our best bare-knuckled poets, like Philip Levine and Ellen Bryant Voigt. I read the suite of poems that opens the book, about a dead father-in-law and the cluttered workshop he left behind, and was sold on Boisseau. Absent here is the kind of self-conscious experimentation that has become the norm for many young writers; instead, these are gritty and honest and delicate at once. Like the dead man's hammer, this book seems burnished to a lovey sheen not by wildness, but work.

"Up from Arkansas" proved a welcome surprise. Having no opportunity to peruse the pages before ordering, I nonetheless gambled with the purchase, hoping that it would prove an interesting read about an obscure raid. Author Frederick Goman delivers with a focused account of the events. As the title indicates, the 2nd Battle of Springfield and the Battle of Hartville are the primary subjects of the study of this raid.

This, Marmaduke's First Missouri Raid, was an important strategic success that relieved the Union pressure on Arkansas by creating chaos for the Federals in Missouri. The two primary engagements at Springfield and Hartville were relatively small but bloody affairs. Tactically, Marmaduke's troopers were unable to break the Union defenses at Springfield and had only mixed success at Hartville while suffering heavy casualties. Although one major objective, Springfield's supply depot, was not captured, the raid did prove successful in disrupting Union initiatives elsewhere. As such it was a harbinger of greater raids to follow.

Some of the most relevant and interesting information concerning the defense of Springfield comes from the description of the formation of the "quinine brigade" and the improvised artillery battery. Another nice touch was the detailed tactical description of reforming the militia under fire. The author states unit strengths in the narrative, and also describes the artillery well.

Goman summarizes casualty estimates from each engagement, filling in blanks where possible. This is very helpful to the reader since claims in some sources were not particularly credible or logical. His conclusions about the raid's impact seem accurate and are in agreement with other appraisals.

While the overall structure of the narrative is good, some of the transitions are hard to follow. The author begins with an improbably detailed impression of U.S. Brig. Gen. Egbert Brown's inner thoughts. He then switches back to a more plausible factual accounting for the remainder of the work. The introduction to the deadfall trap at Hartville is somewhat muddled on the first read and could use some polishing.

There is no index. There are a few typos scattered about, but nothing too painful. In fact, there are fewer typos than in most comparable works.

Adding troop positions to the maps for the various phases of the Springfield battle would have been a big plus. With the current arrangement the reader will have to determine unit locations based on the text. It is particularly unfortunate that there is no map of the Hartville engagement as well.

The primary narrative consists of 82 pages; but 9 of these are photos/maps/woodcuts, and 7 more are blank separation pages, leaving only 66 pages of narrative text. Following the narrative are: a four page bibliography; a brief appendix of infantry, cavalry and artillery tactics; an appendix containing the CSA raiders' order of battle, as well Union orders of battle for both Springfield and Hartville; an appendix list of known individual casualties; an appendix of the Springfield depot supply tallies; and 7 pages of notes.

I heartily recommend this inexpensive work (when it can be found at its initial price) to those studying the war in Missouri and Arkansas. Although brief and containing some flaws, this welcome addition details a largely forgotten yet important raid. It is a work that I hope will be revised and expanded as well.