Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 08/05/15

SUMMARY

The Edgar Wright Farmstead, constructed 1921, is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, with local significance, for its association with agricultural history in Judsonia, White County. The farmstead, which consists of several outbuildings in addition to the main house, is an illustration of the types of farms that would have been found throughout White County in the first part of the twentieth century. Farms like the Edgar Wright Farmstead were an important part of the agricultural history and success of White County throughout the 1900s. Although the main house has been sheathed in vinyl siding, which precludes it from listing in the National Register of Historic Places, the Edgar Wright Farmstead still illustrates its importance to the agricultural history of White County, and is eligible for inclusion in the Arkansas Register of Historic Places.

HISTORY OF THE PROPERTY

Established on October 23, 1835, White County was the 32^nd county created in Arkansas, and was created from portions of Independence, Jackson, and Pulaski counties. The eastern boundary of the county is formed by the White River, while the other boundaries were arbitrarily chosen during negotiations with state legislators when creating the new county. The Little Red River divides the county in the middle, with Judsonia and the Edgar Wright Farmstead being located in the flatter farmland between the White and Little Red River. The first sessions of the county court were “held at the house of David Crise, on the place now known as the McCreary farm, three and a half miles east of Searcy.”[1]

The town of Judsonia, which was formerly known as Prospect Bluff, was founded on the lower Little Red River. The town was originally known as Prospect Bluff and was founded by Erastus Gregory. Around 1870 a group of people from the East settled in the community, and changed the name of the town to Judsonia. The town experienced growth following the Civil War, and by 1890 it had become an active center of commerce. In 1890, Goodspeed reported that:

The place now contains four general, one dry goods, three grocery, one hardware, one hardware and furniture, one harness, one millinery and two drug stores; also a music store, meat market, two blacksmith shops, a wagon shop, a fruit and vegetable canning factory, fruit-box factory, two sawmills, a grist-mill and cotton gin, a grist-mill and wool-carding mill, a tanyard, two hotels, a restaurant, a bakery, two livery stables, two church edifices for the white and two for the colored people; also a public school-house for the white and another for the colored people, three physicians, a lodge each of several secret and benevolent societies, a newspaper, the Judsonia Weekly Advance, etc., etc.[2]

The Baptists also had a strong influence over the town as Baptist missionaries formed a college, Judsonia University, in the town in 1871 which lasted until 1883. The college was described as having a “School-house [that] is a large frame structure. The faculty is composed of five teachers. It is a good school and has the advantages of being in a quiet, moral town, removed from the vices and temptations of large cities.”[3]

As in much of White County, since the founding of Judsonia, agriculture has been the largest economic activity in the area. Goodspeed noted that “Agriculture is here, as elsewhere, the leading occupation, but both horticulture and the raising of live stock are beginning to receive attention. The agricultural products are cotton, corn, wheat, oats, rye, peas, grass, potatoes, turnips, sorghum, etc.” White County ranked third in the state in the cultivation of sweet potatoes and tobacco, fifth in cultivation of Irish potatoes, and fourteenth in the cultivation of cotton. Goodspeed further noted that “In 1880 there were 2,319 farms in White County, 83,679 acres of improved lands, and the value of all farm products for the year 1879 amounted to $925,392.” [4]

Fruits were also an important component of the agricultural production in White County in the late 1800s. “Peaches, plums, strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries are already quite extensively raised and shipped from Bradford, Russell, Judsonia, and Beebe. These fruits are all grown to perfection; apples and pears, however, do not succeed as well. Grapes are also grown and used to some extent in the manufacture of domestic wine.” Judsonia, in the late 1800s, was “located in the center of a great fruit-growing region,” and was “surrounded with many small fruit farms.”[5]

By the early 1900s, agriculture had continued to grow and be an integral part of White County’s economy. By the 1920s, it was reported that there were 4,821 farms in White County, which included 4,662 farms owned by whites and 159 farms owned by blacks. Of the 663,680 acres in White County, 353,062 acres were encompassed in farms with 187,064 acres classified as being improved. The total value of farm property in the county was $15,303,175, which included land, buildings, implements and machinery, and livestock.[6]

By the 1930s, when The WPA Guide to 1930s Arkansas was first published, agriculture was still the backbone of the Judsonia and White County economy, with strawberries being an especially important agricultural crop for the town. The Guide noted that “Strawberries have been grown commercially in the central and western parts of Arkansas since, 1900, although the greatest increase in acreage took place after the World War. The 8,324 acres of 1919 rose to 29,978 by 1934. Nearly 800 carloads were shipped to Northern and Eastern markets in 1939 as a part of a $2,066,000 crop, which was exceeded in only 3 other States. White County, with 587 carloads, was the largest producer.”[7] The importance of agriculture in the area of Judsonia was also noted in the Guide’s tour narrative for U.S. 67. It stated:

From JUDSONIA, 120.3 m. (221 alt., 1,011 pop.), great quantities of strawberries are shipped in April and May of each year. The light sandy soil of the region has long yielded berries for out-of-State markets, and since the first co-operative marketing association was established in 1910 a dozen more have grown up in Judsonia and nearby towns. The ENTERPRISE BOX COMPANY PLANT (open seasonally) makes strawberry containers and crates of thin wood from gum trees.

White County leads Arkansas in strawberry production; 538 cars were shipped in 1940. The typical farmer along US 67 from Bradford to Beebe has perhaps ten acres in berries, about seven of which are in peak or near-peak production, while the rest have passed their prime and will soon be plowed under, to lie fallow or be planted in another crop. Expert cultivation and wise use of fertilizer greatly prolong the productivity of the fields. Some patches continue to bear well after 20 years, though most growers rotate their crops every 3 years. Five thousand plants (the usual number to an acre) set out in the early spring will produce 150,000 plants by the next spring. Farmers pluck off the blossoms so that vines will not bear the first year, since initial-crop berries are of low quality. The Klondike has been the preferred variety in the past, but the Blakemore, characterized by a waxy green cap, is increasing in popularity.[8]

Forty acres of land that is now the Edgar Wright Farmstead was purchased by Edgar Wright on January 3, 1906. A few weeks later, on January 21, 1906, Edgar Wright married Martha Burkhausen, the daughter of local doctor, Simon Henry Burkhausen. Although the land was purchased in 1906, the house on the farm was not built until 1921. Along with the main house, a tenant house, a tenant house/potato house, and a power house were all built at the same time to help sustain the farm. In subsequent years, a pump house and various sheds and a garage would also be built to support the farm.[9]

The Wrights grew at least two crops that were significant in the agricultural history of 1920s White County. Strawberries were grown on the farm, which would have contributed to the 3,396,555 quarts that were grown in White County in the early 1920s. In addition, the Wrights grew potatoes, and there were 65,992 bushels of Irish potatoes grown and 89,030 bushels of sweet potatoes grown in White County in the early 1920s.[10] The crops grown not only provided economic security for the Wrights but they also provided jobs to other area residents who helped out on the farm. At least one other crop, cotton, was grown on the farm by Page Hodge. (Mr. Hodge also drove one of the two wagons that was used to haul the lumber from the Judsonia train yard to the site where the house was built.) In addition to the farm, Mrs. Wright also helped to deliver over 100 babies in the area.[11]

Interestingly, while living at the house, Mrs. Wright was included in part of a segment on the television program 60 Minutes. The Wrights granddaughter, Mary Morgan, married Dr. Benjamin Spock. In doing a segment on Dr. Spock, 60 Minutes interviewed Dr. Spock and Mrs. Wright on the house’s front porch.

Edgar Wright worked the farm until he passed away on April 30, 1966, and his wife later passed away on July 9, 1980. After her death, the Wright’s children told the property to Jack and LaWanda Workman. The Workmans sold the property in 1986 to T. S. and Gloria Gower, who sold it to Scott and Lolita Smith in 1997. Although the property is not used for farming like it was when the Wrights lived there, the property is an important reflection of early twentieth-century farming in the Judsonia area of White County.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROPERTY

The Edgar Wright Farmstead reflects the importance of agriculture to the Judsonia area during the first part of the twentieth century. At least two of the crops that the Wrights cultivated, potatoes and strawberries, were significant crops in White County during the early 1900s. The fact that White County led the state in the production of strawberries by the 1930s illustrates the importance of this crop to the local economy. The fact the Wrights had the rather large home that they did and the number of outbuildings that they did also illustrates the fact that farming was an important economic engine in the area.

Although the main house has been sided with vinyl siding, which precludes the farm from being listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Edgar Wright Farmstead still has importance and is a significant property in the Judsonia area. As a result, the Edgar Wright Farmstead is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, with local significance, for its association with agricultural history in Judsonia, White County.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1890.

Agricultural Arkansas: Biennial Report of the State Department of Mines, Manufactures and Agriculture. Little Rock, Arkansas: Arkansas State Bureau of Mines, Manufactures, and Agriculture, 1923.

Information on the Edgar Wright Farmstead provided by Scott Smith, 2006. In the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

West, Elliott. The WPA Guide to 1930s .

[2] Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1890, pp. 119-120.

[3] Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1890, p. 125.

[4] Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1890, p. 115.

[5] Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1890, pp. 115 and 125.

[6] Agricultural Arkansas: Biennial Report of the State Department of Mines, Manufactures and Agriculture. Little Rock, Arkansas: Arkansas State Bureau of Mines, Manufactures, and Agriculture, 1923, pp. 180-181.

[7] West, Elliott. The WPA Guide to 1930s Arkansas. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1987 reprint of 1941 publication, p. 62.

[8] West, Elliott. The WPA Guide to 1930s Arkansas. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1987 reprint of 1941 publication, p. 208.

[9] Information on the Edgar Wright Farmstead provided by Scott Smith, 2006. In the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.

[10] Agricultural Arkansas: Biennial Report of the State Department of Mines, Manufactures and Agriculture. Little Rock, Arkansas: Arkansas State Bureau of Mines, Manufactures, and Agriculture, 1923, p. 181.

[11] Information on the Edgar Wright Farmstead provided by Scott Smith, 2006. In the files of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.