Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 12/03/97

ELABORATION

The Henry Madison Wood Farmstead is an example of a yeoman-class farm of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The core of the agricultural structure of this time period and earlier was a "massive body of plain folk who were neither rich nor very poor" (Frank L. Owsley, Plain Folk of the Old South). This farmstead reflects a self-sufficient type of agriculture where the labor was performed by the family. The house, wells, outbuildings, fencing and orchards are all results of the labor of the farmer and his family and neighbors. It exists today as a statement of their industry and adaptability.

The habitation of the farmstead corresponds to the flourish and decline of family farming in America. Today, few examples of farmsteads escape total decay or the mighty bulldozer, creating a significant loss in the history of built culture in rural America. The farmsteads of the middle, or yeoman, class are a further minority of preserved rural structures.

The log and frame house reveals how changes in architectural styles of the time period influenced even rural craftsmen. It reveals, as well, that rural Arkansas craftsmen and builders changed their preferences in house design far later than the urban craftsman. A one story, high-ceiling c.1895 ell was joined to the one-and-a-half story open-beamed ceiling c.1870s sections. The entire structure was unified with a plain, wide frieze board at the roofline. While having few outstanding decorative elements, the house displays an elegance in its simplicity suggesting its occupants were practical and unpretentious; yet, they were accepting outside influences in residential design. The resulting vernacular form of the Henry Madison Wood farmhouse varies from the more typical vernacular forms in rural Arkansas during the time period (i.e. center hall and two-story “I” plans). Today, this farmhouse is evidence of the individuality of practical, unpretentious farmers whose lives and lifestyles bridged the pioneer period to the Victorian period.

Henry Madison Wood represents the second generation of a pioneering Washington County, Arkansas, family. His grandfather, John Wood, Sr. and his father, Jarrett Wood, arrived in the Middle Fork White River Valley by 1829. They traveled by ox cart from Union Township, Lawrence County, Arkansas, where they had settled in 1814. Prior to that, the family originally started their immigration west from Rowan County, North Carolina, and had also lived in Smith County, Tennessee, and Barren County, Kentucky.

The Wood family had not traveled to Washington County alone. They came with at least a half a dozen other families who were also residents of Lawrence County. They all settled together in the Middle Fork Valley. The 1832 General Land Office Survey Map and field notes record that the Wood, Strain, Williford, Maxwell, West, and McAmy families all lived within one-and-a-half miles of one another. They circled their homes together for protection and for the purpose of helping one another. The next decade of land patents, plus tax and census records, indicate that these same families stayed in the valley but began to spread their homesteads further up the valley.

The local community created by these families was, and is today, called Strain. From the time of settlement and up to the turn-of-the-century, the community had one or more mills, schools, churches and, probably, one or more general stores but no record of a merchandiser in Strain remains today. It is family legend that John Wood, Sr., Henry Madison's grandfather, helped to establish the site for Fayetteville, the county seat. Jarret Wood and John Wood, Jr., Henry Madison’s father and uncle respectfully, had organized the Cumberland Presbyterian and the Baptist congregations by 1831.

Henry Madison was born in Arkansas in 1838 to Jarrett and Jane Strain Wood. Prior to the Civil War, he and a brother served as Texas Rangers. The role of the Texas Ranger was to protect the settlers from the Indians. Many family stories exist of his adventures as a Ranger. The brothers returned to Arkansas when the Civil War broke out and enlisted with the 1st Arkansas Calvary, Company B, Federal Troops. Washington County was mixed in loyalties during the Civil War with many of Henry's relatives and neighbors firmly attached to the Confederate cause. He participated in the battles of Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove.

After the war he returned to this family home and married Nancy Jane Benbrook, a neighbor, in 1867. They had one daughter, Jane, when Henry Madison built the first log section of their home. They had five children in all. Two of the girls died at their farm home on the Middle Fork. Henry Madison died in 1915. Nancy Jane, who was born in 1846, died in 1944. They are buried in the Strain Cemetery across the river from their farmstead.

The Henry Madison Wood Farmstead is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion C as an excellent example of a late nineteenth century farmstead. The Wood House is currently undergoing restoration and will be considered for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places upon completion.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bolton S. Charles. Territorial Ambition, Land and Society in Arkansas 1800-1840. University of Arkansas Press, 1993.

General Land Office Survey and Field Notes of Richland Prairie Townships, 1832.

Owsley, Frank L. Plain Folk of the Old South. Louisiana State University Press, 1977.

Sizemore, Jean. Ozark Vernacular Houses. University of Arkansas Press, 1994.

Washington County Historical Society's Flashback.

Washington County Land Patents, Tax and Census Records.