Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 08/05/09

SUMMARY

The burials in the Kirkpatrick Cemetery, though small in number, reveal much about the early settlement of Saline County and the Bryant/Collegeville area. Although the damage to the gravestones and the change in the surroundings preclude the cemetery’s listing on the National Register, it is still significant to the early history of Saline County. For that reason the property is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A with local significance. As a burial ground it is also being nominated with Criteria Consideration D.

ELABORATION

The Kirkpatrick Cemetery was established in what was originally Collegeville, Arkansas, but is now within Bryant’s city limits. Both towns are in Saline County and serve as suburbs for the greater Little Rock area. Prior to the expansive reach of Little Rock, Collegeville was a hamlet, home to several pioneers who settled to take advantage of the region’s agricultural benefits, and later establish a growing commercial trade on the Saline River. The Kirkpatrick family traveled from Orange County, North Carolina, and became contributors to early development of Collegeville, which eventually grew into Bryant, Arkansas.

Saline County was originally within the Missouri Territory, established in 1812 after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. At the time, the Southwest Trail crossed the territory, connecting the mid-Mississippi River Valley of the St. Louis-St. Genevieve region of Missouri to the Red River valley of northeast Texas.[1] In 1815, William Lockhart brought his family with him from North Carolina and settled where the Saline River intersected with the Southwest Trail, four-miles south of modern day Benton. The Lockharts remained the only white settlers in the Saline River region until 1817, when others followed their path and aided in the growth of a community.[2]

As salt works and water mills were established, commerce grew with the local development along the Saline River. These factors influenced an influx of settlers migrating to the region, who would establish the city of Benton in 1831, and found surrounding small communities, including the hamlet of Collegeville.[3] It is believed that Collegeville began when a group of pioneers were en route to homestead in Texas, when they were halted by a flooded creek. Instead of continuing on the intended journey, the pioneers settled there, northeast of Lockhart’s settlement, naming the camp Dogwood Springs.[4]

In 1823, Ezra M. Owen came to the supposed Dogwood Springs to establish a farming settlement with the primary intention of building a State University. He plotted off forty acres of land in the geographical center of Arkansas, designated lots, and named his settlement Collegeville. It was the first named town in Saline County, which is now the oldest town, and it was quickly populated by pioneers, as the area was capable of growing good crops. [5]

The developing region was soon known as Saline County, formed on November 2, 1835, with the city of Benton being the county seat.[6] The following year the state of Arkansas was established and Ezra Owen made an effort in 1836 to have his enterprising village become the state capital. This was due to Owen’s expectations of Collegeville being the home of the State University. Neither of his intended plans were fulfilled, as the school was never built and the town lost the capital entitlement by a few votes.[7]

Paisley and Elizabeth Kirkpatrick brought their family to Collegeville from Orange County, North Carolina. Paisley married Elizabeth Allen on March 12, 1833, and they had five children that made the journey with them: Sara Jane, 16, Hannah, 9, Lemuel, 7, Isabella, 5, Joseph, 1. Paisley purchased 725-acres in the Collegeville area, which is now Bryant, where he built the family farmhouse. There, he was a carpenter and a blacksmith in addition to owning livestock and cultivating a large farm of cotton and wheat. Their farmhouse was on the stagecoach route, a wagon trail for those heading west toward California. The road was also a military highway that ran from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to Little Rock, then to Hot Springs, Arkansas Post and then on to Monroe, Louisiana. Today, the road is known as Old Stagecoach Road, AR 5. Paisley owned several slaves to operate his farm and did considerable blacksmith work around the area as documented in the probate court of Saline County after his death at the age of 43 in August of 1852.[8]

Apparently the period leading up to the Civil War was devastating to the widow Kirkpatrick. In 1860, her eldest son, Lemuel and her son-in-law, Ambrose Thompson joined the Confederate Army. Ambrose left his wife, Hannah and their three-year old daughter, Serepta, to stay with her mother. In July of 1860, tragedy struck and Hannah died at the age of 19. She was followed a week later by her seven-year old sister, Elizabeth Catherine. Elizabeth Catherine was buried next to her father who died two months before she was born.

The Civil War soon spread into Saline County, where Benton was occupied from 1863 to1864. Several skirmishes occurred in the vicinity and women of the local communities were required to treat the wounded and bury the dead.[9] The oldest son of the Kirkpatrick family, Lemuel, served as a Private in the 1^st Company of the Arkansas Infantry. He was killed in action in Tennessee, 1863. In 1861, the widow Kirkpatrick married Judge John Alfred Medlock, who acquired the Kirkpatrick property and became guardian of the minor children, Isabella, 16, and Joseph, 12. Elizabeth Kirkpatrick Medlock died in1862 at the age of 46 and was buried next to her first husband, Paisley, in the family plot.

Ambrose Thompson returned home from the war to learn of his wife’s passing and his daughter was being cared for by his father, Ransom Thompson. Ambrose later married Rachel Hockersmith. Joseph Kirkpatrick at the age of 14 was the only surviving son. He went to live with Rachel's father, A.R. Hockersmith, and later married Martha Huchingson in September of 1869. Joseph died in 1891 and was buried in the Ransom Thompson cemetery in Benton, where today, it is known as the Old Rosemont Cemetery. He was Saline County’s Treasurer between 1878 and 1884. Joseph's son John Paisley Kirkpatrick was also Saline County’s Treasurer from 1896 to 1900 and Saline County Judge from 1924 to 1928. Isabella Kirkpatrick married Caleb Fletcher on March 17^th, 1863, and later was married to John Barrow of Little Rock. Sara Jane Kirkpatrick, who was married to Andrew Milliner, later married Col. John A Bingham, a Confederate officer in April of 1868.

In 1873, the Iron Mountain Railroad came to Saline County, the line ran from Little Rock to just south of Collegeville. A small village was developed around the railroad’s depot, on the highest point between Little Rock and Texarkana, Arkansas. The railroad was a major contribution to the county’s recovery from the war. The hamlet became officially known as the Bryant Township in 1878. The origin of the name has no historical account, but it continued to grow and it was incorporated as the city of Bryant in 1892.[10]

The Depression came and went in Collegeville and Bryant, affecting the local economy along with the rest of the country. During World War II, aluminum became an important product to the war effort, and the local bauxite deposits were contributed by the aluminum plants that were built in Bauxite, Arkansas, near Bryant. These plants influenced a population increase that doubled by 1950, from 173 to 387. Another major network that aided in regional growth was soon established, when Interstate 30 was built through Saline County in the 1950s.[11] The highway physically separated Bryant from Collegeville.

The small community of Collegeville no longer continued modern development, and a lot of land was neglected while nature reclaimed its territory. The forgotten Kirkpatrick Cemetery was among the area that was left to be reclaimed by trees. The city of Bryant, however, continued to expand. Its development reflected its growth; from 1999 to 2000, the city population nearly doubled from 5,269 to 9,764.[12] The city limit of Bryant soon reached over I-30, and claimed the undeveloped land of Collegeville.

In 2002, a commercial building was being added near the intersection of Highway 5, or Old Stagecoach Road, and Marketplace Avenue, when the cemetery was discovered by local resident Bill Holder. The site was left elevated from the surrounding development, and the developer built a brick wall around the southern and western sides to help preserve it from the encroaching modern structures.

The cemetery was found in a fairly well preserved state, though the headstones had collapsed, they remained legible. Today, the graves of Elizabeth Catherine Kirkpatrick and Hannah Kirkpatrick Ambrose are marked with handmade bricks that have not been touched for nearly 150 years. The site was recorded as archeological site 3SA313 in the Arkansas Archeological Survey database by Mary Beth Trubitt, Station Archeologist for the Arkansas Archeological Survey.

In October 2008, the site was resurveyed by professional archeologist Meeks Etchieson and archeology technician George Gatliff. They identified seven unmarked grave depressions and two graves marked with plain sandstone markers. According to Patsy Kuhn, a descendent of the Kirkpatrick family, her grandfather, John Paisley Kirkpatrick, was born in 1870, therefore was unaware of the cemetery’s existence. The family’s farmhouse stood on the original homestead a few hundred feet from the cemetery, until 2008, when it burned to the ground during an arson fire. Yet, the old cellar is still visible.Recently, local historian Anthony Rushing added the memorial for Lemuel Kirkpatrick.It is placed between Paisley and Elizabeth Catherine.

The Kirkpatrick Cemetery tells the story of a pioneer family during an era when America was facing a decision over slavery, a push westward toward the gold fields of California, women enduring disease and hardships while their husbands were away at war facing death each day. This cemetery shows the hardships faced by early settlers of the era between 1850 and 1862. Hard work, disease, and numerous sacrifices of life and loved ones led to the early deaths of those buried in this cemetery. The Kirkpatrick’s worked to help build a community and establish what has now become a still growing city in the center of Arkansas.

[2] Landreth, Eddie G.“Saline County.” Saline County History and Heritage Society, 2009. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture online athttp://encyclopediaofarkansas.net accessed 18 June 2009.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Dyer, Steven. “Bryant (Saline County).” Bauxite, Arkansas, 2009. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture online athttp://encyclopediaofarkansas.net accessed 18 June 2009.

[5] Goodspeed Publishing Company. “Saline County.” The Goodspeed Biographical & Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1889. Reprint, Easley, SC: Southland Historical Press, 1978. p. 237.

[6] Landreth.

[7] Goodspeed, p. 237.

[8] Saline County Probate Court Records – July term 1853, October term 1859, September 6, 1862 and May 11, 1863 located at the Saline County Courthouse.

[9] Landreth.

[10] Goodspeed, p. 237.

[11] Dyer.

[12] Dyer.

SIGNIFICANCE

The burials in the Kirkpatrick Cemetery, though small in number, reveal much about the early settlement of Saline County and the Bryant/Collegeville area. Although the damage to the gravestones and the change in the surroundings preclude the cemetery’s listing on the National Register, it is still significant to the early history of Saline County. For that reason the property is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A with local significance. As a burial ground it is also being nominated with Criteria Consideration D.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1850 US Federal Census for Orange County, North Carolina

1860 US Federal Census for Saline County, Arkansas

Akridge, Scott. “Southwest Trail.” White County Historical Society, 2009. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture online athttp://encyclopediaofarkansas.net accessed 18 June 2009.

Boswell, Mabel Lawson & Mayer, Valine Boswell. “BRYANT POFILES 1828-1976.” The Bryant Bicentennial Committee of 1976.

Dyer, Steven. “Bryant (Saline County).” Bauxite, Arkansas, 2009. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture online at http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net accessed 18 June 2009.

Correspondence with George Gatliff, Archaeological Technician for the State Archaeological Society by Patsy Kuhn via email and in person beginning July 2008.

Correspondence with Mary Beth Trubitt, Station Archaeologist for the central Arkansas area, Henderson State University, by Patsy Kuhn via email June 2008.

Goodspeed Publishing Company. “Saline County.” The Goodspeed Biographical & Historical Memoirs of Central Arkansas. Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1889. Reprint, Easley, SC: Southland Historical Press, 1978.

Landreth, Eddie G. “Saline County.” Saline County History and Heritage Society, 2009. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture online athttp://encyclopediaofarkansas.net accessed 18 June 2009.

Saline County Probate Court Records – July term 1853, October term 1859, September 6, 1862 and May 11, 1863 located at the Saline County Courthouse.

Saline County Officials 1835-1936 from a list found onwww.rootsweb.com/arsaline/coofficial.html.

Utley, Vivian Williams. “Home of Judge Medlock had room known as “Prophet's Chamber.” The Benton Courier Centennial Edition 1836-1936. Reproduced from the Arkansas Gazette, Sunday Magazine by permission.

The US Genealogical web archives. Saline County Arkansas Historywww.usgwararchives.org/ar/saline/history.