Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 08/04/21

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The first documented burial at Mt. Salem Cemetery was that of Barbra Swilling White (1800-1872).  As one of two historic resources linked to the small farming community of Mt. Salem, the cemetery documents the earliest families who settled in the area.  The general character of Mt. Salem was agricultural, and the individuals interred there in the historic period of significance were representative of the farmers who homesteaded on Rich Mountain.

There are 166 marked graves in Mt. Salem Cemetery.  Historic and modern graves are intermixed.  There are approximately 75 interments marked with fieldstones or blank concrete slabs.  The majority of the historic burials are in the east section of the cemetery.  As the cemetery is active and open to future burials Mt. Salem is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, Criteria Consideration D, with local significance as a resource that reflects the story of Mt. Salem’s formation and the people who were instrumental in its settlement. 

ELABORATION

Several factors brought new settlement to the Arkansas River Valley.  The New Madrid earthquake displaced many who traveled to the territory.  The area had become attractive because of cheap land and the removal of Native Americans.  When Arkansas became a state in 1836 it provided more opportunity for settlement.   The Arkansas River provided access to the western part of the state for the earliest settlers and spawned trails that transformed to roads, leading to growth and the establishment of widespread communities in the 1840s.[1] 

Keel boats could be navigated up the Arkansas River and they could be utilized as shelter on the trip.  A military road from Fort Smith brought travelers to Danville, south of Rich Mountain.  New roads and the introduction of stagecoach and railroad lines facilitated the settlement and commerce of Logan County by expanding entry and allowing growth in commerce, making it economically feasible for immigrants to disburse to new areas. 

Logan County was originally known as Sarber County, named after Arkansas Senator John Sarber in 1871.  After Reconstruction, leading Democrats in Sarber County objected to the link with the senator, as he was considered a carpetbagger and Yankee.  In 1875 the legislature changed the name to Logan County and the town of Paris was named the county seat.[2] 

The community of Mt. Salem was established when a group of families migrated from north Georgia and South Carolina in the 1850s.  Census records for residents also referred to the area officially as Bear Wallow Township, rather than Mt. Salem.  Groups that were among the first families to arrive included the Whites, Swillings, Dorroughs, Bramettes, Balkmans, Reynolds and Waters.  They had been told that land could be had for 50 cents an acre, ideal for homesteading.  The primary occupation for those who came to the area was farming.  It was reported that the soil on the uplands of the county was as productive as that in the river bottoms, so local farmers were quite successful.  Cotton, corn, and oats as well as peaches, apples and grapes were primary crops from the county.[3]

Rosa Cameron Carter of Rich Mountain, daughter of Millard Filmore Cameron (1856-1912) and Emma White Cameron (1862-1911), wrote of the agricultural character of life around Mt. Salem.  Their 160-acre farm produced subsistence crops, cotton, and produce for market. 

Rosa’s writings revolved around the great number of diverse foodstuffs produced in the area as well as information on how her family and others in the area cooperated through food sharing and processing operations utilized by the community.

Through family letters Rosa’s father Millard offered insight into transportation connections and how residents obtained goods that they couldn’t produce on the farm.  In 1899 Millard informed his brother that the railroad from Ft. Smith to Paris was completed and the Choctaw and Memphis Railroad would soon be finished.  Mt. Salem was located in the middle of these two connections, offering ease of travel to the area. 

His notes on the ordering of an organ from Sears Roebuck & Company in 1900, reiterate that local families could obtain goods they couldn’t generate through these improved modes of transportation.[4]

Mt. Salem resident Jewell White noted that community members were able to survive on their gardens and game.  Neighbors were utilized the community gristmill and sorghum mill, and cattle was shared among the families.  Horses were utilized for plowing, which provided for surplus that could be taken to near-by towns to sell or exchange.[5]   

While farming was the day-to-day occupation of Mt. Salem families, there was still time for recreation.  Neighbors paid visits and groups would travel by wagon to singing conventions in Mt. Salem and other districts.  The 1910 Mt. Salem Church and School, adjacent to the cemetery was considered the hub of the community.  The Methodist Church played a significant role in the social life of Mt. Salem.  The 37^th annual session of the Logan County Musical Convention was held at an earlier church on the site, and the 50^th session was conducted at the current building in 1922.  In 1910 a well-known gospel music instructor and songwriter, Professor R.H. Cornelious oversaw a two-week singing school in Mt. Salem.  Church services were held every third Sunday, and children attended classes at the church/school until 1930.  Families also organized pie suppers, parties, and annual decoration days at the cemetery.[6]

There was not a developed commercial sector or municipal center in Mt. Salem.  Families subsisted on the goods they produced on their land or traveled to adjacent towns to purchase articles and conduct business.  So, Mt. Salem was a community in the sense that the people who lived there collaborated with one another to survive and shared common support systems, rather than being the result of a system of laws and municipal regulations.  It was possible to access larger towns, but for the most part the residents of these remote centers obtained what they needed without having to travel on a regular basis.

Biographies

Barbra Swilling White (1800-1872) was the first person known to have been interred in Mt. Salem Cemetery.  Barbra and her husband Logan White were married in 1818 in South Carolina and moved to Georgia before 1830.  The productivity of cotton land in Georgia declined so many families made the decision to move to better farming land.

The couple arrived in Arkansas in 1856 with several other families and they made their way from Dardanelle to higher ground.  In 1860 they were living in Clark Township, Johnson County, with their three sons, and Logan was listed as a farmer.  In 1861 Logan obtained a cash entry for 40 acres from the Clarksville land office.  He died in 1864 in Springfield, Missouri, during the Civil War and was buried in the Springfield Veteran’s Cemetery.  Barbra’s daughter, Elizabeth Ann White is also buried at Mt. Salem.[7]

Barbra’s gravestone consists of a marble cross-vault die atop two bases.  The second base reads “MOTHER.”

William Enoch White (1822-1908) and his wife Elizabeth Ann White (1824-1907) of Spartanburg, South Carolina, were said to have led the first group of settlers to the area of Mt. Salem.  William’s land in South Carolina had become less fertile and comparatively low land prices in Arkansas enticed the couple to move.  In 1860 William purchased several acres of land adjacent to the Mt. Salem Cemetery and built a two-room log house, thus laying the roots for the community.  Elizabeth was the eldest daughter of Logan and Barbra White.  Her husband William was a distant cousin.  The couple had twelve children, out of which eleven joined their parents on Rich Mountain to farm.  Ten of the children are buried at Mt. Salem Cemetery.[8]

William’s grave is located in the oldest section of the cemetery adjacent to Barbra Swilling White’s marker. The gravestone is a simple, marble cross-vault die on base with spare iconography consisting of ivy leaves at the apex.  His wife Elizabeth’s gravestone displays an upright pulpit-form with closed Bible.  The die exhibits a shallow relief of the Gates of Heaven.

George Milton White (1864-1951) was the ninth child of William Enoch White and Elizabeth Ann White. George was born in the community of Mt. Salem and he remained there his entire life.  In 1870 a church was built on the site of the current Mt. Salem Church and School.  This building burned prior to 1900.  A second church, also utilized as a school was constructed; however, it also burned in 1909. 

George owned the land that the church/schools occupied and in 1894 he deeded the property to Local School District No. 56.  George served as a teacher in Mt. Salem for several years.  Sallie Melitta Harris White (1878-1950) of Logan County moved to Mt. Salem to teach in 1902, and by 1905 she George were married.

After their marriage Sallie quit teaching and became a “housekeeper” according to the census records.  She also taught Sunday School at Mt. Salem, and provided informal health care for the residents, while George served as the Superintendent of Sunday School.

In 1930 the school was consolidated with another community north of Mt. Salem.  A second warranty deed that George had filed in 1921 provided for the return of the land and school building to George upon the discontinuation of the school.  He and his wife became trustees of the building and opened it to religious services related to the Protestant faith. [9] 

George and Sallie’s four children are also buried at Mt. Salem Cemetery.

The simple upright gravestones of George and Sallie are identical, being formed from limestone with stepped shoulders and displaying a scrolled border at the apex of the stones.

John Newton White (1871-1947) was the tenth child of William Enoch and Elizabeth Ann White.  Born in Mt. Salem, he was a farmer, and provided loans to community members to purchase property.  John was the donor of the land for the Mt. Salem Cemetery, and he owned a sorghum press, which he allowed residents to use to produce molasses.

By 1900, John was married to Sarah Elizabeth Freeman White (1880-1941).  The couple had three children. Their son William Herbert White is the only one buried at Mt. Salem.[10]

John and Sarah are buried beside each other in the oldest section of Mt. Salem.  Both gravestones are limestone upright markers with square shoulders.  Iconography includes primroses carved in shallow relief.  A ceramic portrait of the couple is affixed to each marker.

Jesse Newton Carter (1876-1952) was the son of William A. Carter (1837-1887) and Eliza White Carter (1846-1915).  In 1850 William was living with his family in Upper Fourche Township in Yell County.  William enlisted in the army in 1863 at Fayetteville and served as a corporal in the 1^st Arkansas Infantry.  By 1870 he was married to Eliza and farming in Mountain Township, Logan County.

Jesse was a farmer in Mt. Salem.  In 1910 he was married to Maude Hackler Carter (1894-1950) – (her gravestone records her birth date as 1894, but census records from 1900 record her birth date as 1881).  Besides farming Jesse also taught at the Mt. Salem School and in a progressive move, required that boys take Home Economics.  The 1930 census notes that Maude was also a teacher.

Willliam A. Carter’s gravestone is a tall upright marble gravestone with rounded shoulders.  His rank in the military is denoted at the apex within a relief carving of a shield.  Eliza’s gravestone is a ground-level granite marker simply carved in shallow relief with her name, and birth and death dates. [11] 

Jesse and Maude share a granite upright marker with rubbled top and sides.  A Gothic medallion surrounded by flowers is engraved between their names, displaying a shallow carving of the word “love.”

In 1870 Millard Filmore Cameron (1856-1912) traveled with his family from Georgia to Chickalah, Arkansas, in Yell County.  In 1873 his father, Thomas Rush Cameron made the decision to move to a bluff on Mt. Magazine for the health of his second wife Martha Vaughn Cameron.  The site of his home came to be called Cameron Bluff. 

Millard married Emma White Cameron (1862-1911), the daughter of William Enoch White, in 1882 and the couple had eight children.  By 1899 Thomas had moved in with Millard and Emma in Mt. Salem, where he lived until his death in 1912.

Millard’s daughter Rosa Cameron Carter wrote in 1985 that the family’s farm consisted of 160-acres with 16 acres in orchards of apples, peaches, and pears.  A great variety of vegetables and berries were raised as well.  Millard raised bees and he dried fruit in his evaporator.  Wheat, oats, peas, and cotton were supplemental crops.  Livestock included chickens, sheep, cows and 100 head of hogs.  Butchered meat would produce pork, sausage and lard that could be stockpiled for months.  Horses and mules could be sold at market or utilized for limited travel.  Millard and his brothers owned a grain thresher, cider mill, corn crusher and pea thresher, which neighbors utilized for products from their own crops.  In addition, the use of the family-owned sorghum mill was extended to area farmers.[12]

Emma and Millard’s shared gravestone consists of a marble square-shouldered upright die on base with a centered shallow relief of a calla lily.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

The Mt. Salem Cemetery is being nominated to the Arkansas Register under Criterion A, Criteria Consideration D with local significance as a worthy link to the 19^th century settlement patterns in the rural community of Mt. Salem in Logan County. 

The core group of early settlers in Mt. Salem on Rich Mountain are aptly represented by the interred in the Mt. Salem Cemetery.  Although the community was not a commercial or political center, it was held together by the farming families who produced crops for survival and disbursement among neighbors.  The center and the character of Mt. Salem revolved around the Mt. Salem Church and School and the cemetery.  Those who resided there partook in religious and community activities on a regular basis and assisted each other when needed.

This was not a unique way of life for many rural Arkansans; however, the Mt. Salem Cemetery is an intact and pertinent repository of the history of Mt. Salem’s beginnings.  The stories of those buried there offer insight into the late 19^th and early 20^th century agricultural character of rural Arkansas and the symbiotic way of life among those who formed the nucleus of the community.

Bibliography

U.S. Census Bureau. Population 1850 United States Census. Yell County, Arkansas. William A.

   Carter. www.ancestry.com.

_____. Population 1860. Clark, County, Arkansas. Barbra White. www.ancestry.com.

_____. Population 1870. Johnson County, Arkansas. Jesse Newton Carter. www.ancestry.com.  

_____. Population 1900. Logan County, Arkansas. Jesse Newton Carter. www.ancestry.com.

_____. John Newton White. www.ancestry.com.

_____. Population 1930. Logan County, Arkansas. Maude Carter. www.ancestry.com.

“Cameron Family Letters.” Wagon Wheels, Vol. 8, No. 1. (Spring 1988).

Carter, Joe. “Mt. Salem.” Wagon Wheels. Vol. 1, No. 1. (July 1980).

Carter, Rosa Cameron. “Home Life on Rich Mountain.” Wagon Wheels, Vol. 5-4. (Winter 1985).

Goodspeed Publishing Company. “The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of

     Western Arkansas.” Chicago and Nashville: The Southern Publishing Company. 1891.

Index to Compiled Military Service Records; 1st Arkansas Union Infantry - Arkansas Research

     U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865. William A. Carter.

Logan County Historical Society. “Logan County, Arkansas: Its Land and Its People.”

     Arkansas: Taylor Publishing Company. 1987.

McNeal, Ruth. “Cameron Bluff on Mt. Magazine Named for Pioneer.” Wagon Wheels. Vol. 20,

      No. 1.  (Spring/Summer 2000).

“Pioneer Resident of Paris Celebrated Eighty-Seventh Birthday Anniversary.” FindaGrave.com.

      Mt. Salem Cemetery, Paris, Logan County, AR. William Logan White.

United States Bureau of Land Management, Arkansas, U.S., Homestead and Cash Entry Patents,

  Pre-1908. Document 7235. Logan White.

United States Bureau of Land Management. Arkansas, U.S., Homestead and Cash Entry Patents,

  Pre-1908. Certificate 6432, Volume 187. William Enoch White.

Warranty Deed with Relinquishment of Dower and Homestead. Logan County

      (Arkansas) Courthouse. Book 47. John Newton White. 1947.

White, Jewell. Young, Carolyn. Hendrix, Debbie and Hughes, Lydia. Mt. Salem, Arkansas.

      Information submitted for determination of eligibility for Mt. Salem Cemetery.

White_____. “Mt. Salem School-Church.” Arkansas Register of Historic Places nomination

      form. (November 8, 2015).