Sure, they like new—hairstyle, cute shoes, spring outfit, newest baby in the family.
But these girls also like new old. They are the volunteer women of the Baxter County Historical and Genealogical Society (BCHGS), and they get a rush when they uncover an old document or photo that reveals a new fact about the life or lifestyle of a pioneer ancestor. They get high on heritage.
The girls in the old, old office serve the community by donating hours of time helping to collect, catalog, store, and provide for research materials that preserve the history of Baxter County and its families, and by providing meetings and events designed to help everyone in the county realize the heritage we can all enjoy.
Jennifer Baker
Jennifer Baker, the current society president says, “Our office is an artifact in itself.” She’s talking about the Baxter County Heritage Center at 808 Baker Street, originally occupied in the 1950s by The Sweet Shop. When the historical society acquired the property in October, 2013, she quickly arranged for the original soda fountain to be moved back to the front lobby as a museum piece. Over the decades the fountain had been moved, used, and gone into backroom storage in another location, but Baker Street is glad to see it “back home.” Jennifer is not a native to Baxter County, but came here with her family when she was 7. Her interest in family history began to develop when she would visit her father in an Iowa nursing home and “talk family.” With a degree in social work from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, she worked for the state of Arkansas for more than 20 years in counseling and prevention on child abuse and neglect cases. She didn’t have an early general interest in history, but Jennifer says, “Growing up here I just became passionate about Mountain Home and Baxter County.” A former college classmate, Charles Blackburn, persuaded her to join BCHGS when he was president of the group in about 2000. Ever since, she has been a generalist as a volunteer, putting in many hours organizing events, planning meetings, and helping to raise funds—and she’s serving for the third time as society president.
The girls in the old, old office are a nice mixture of native Arkansans and those who, like Jennifer, have adopted, or been adopted by, the Twin Lakes region.
Joan Lanell Treat Reeves
Joan Lanell Treat Reeves (full names are important around here) was born at home in Baxter County and grew up on Walker Road where she attended the old Walker School until it was consolidated with the Mountain Home District in 1947. Not so interested in history while in school, Joan inherited the family records of her younger sister, Barbara, who died in 2000, and continues that archive for her own family. She joined the society that year. At Heritage Center, Joan likes to volunteer not so much as a researcher but more as a “friendly face” who has a lot of firsthand knowledge of Baxter County families. When visitors arrive at the center looking for their connection with a Baxter County family, Joan often knows someone the visitors know or can refer them to a local person who does.
Janice Kay Paul
An old trunk handed down by her grandmother started Janice Kay Paul on the trail of history, especially the stories told by photographs. Her grandma’s trunk—never opened in Jan’s mother’s day—yielded a treasure-trove of more than 300 historical family pictures and more than 3,000 postcards from 1901 to 1911. So Jan, an Illinois native who came to Baxter County in 2007, volunteers her spare time poring over the photo archives of the society trying to identify people and places, and digitally indexing each photo so the public can more easily find images in their own research. Jan loves poring over the details of each picture looking for clues to identify its content.
Maryanne Edge
Maryanne Edge is another who adopted Baxter County as home, moving here with her family from Virginia at age 7. She has put in several years of volunteer service as editor of Baxter County History, the society’s quarterly publication of historical articles and information. She is also webmaster of the society’s website at baxtercountyhistory.org. Her volunteer work issues from her home computer, where she also produced her two volumes of Was It Murder? The Dark Side of Baxter County History. She also managed the publication of four volumes of Focus on History, compilations of stories written by historian Mary Ann Messick. These publications are among many the society sells at Heritage Center, online, and at public events throughout the area. Maryanne also created the organization’s Facebook page.
Brenda Daphne Watson Johnson
Theological study at North Carolina University and 15 years as a long-haul trucker—those were just a couple of the adventures experienced by Brenda Daphne Watson Johnson after being born in Baxter County and graduating from Mountain Home schools.
Brenda always loved history and began her family genealogy research when just 12. She and husband Harvey have enjoyed 50 years of marriage, and returned to retire in 2000 when she began volunteering at the society’s museum at the old Gassville hospital. Her volunteer time at Heritage Center is spent helping to organize Baxter County records in the archives. Brenda also likes to be a “lookup volunteer,” digging out local facts for family researchers from here and elsewhere. Though it can be mundane sifting through tax records, bills of sale, and the like, Brenda appreciates the fact that the majority of records tell part of the story of “hard-working Baxter County citizens.”
Ercile Haughn
Ercile Haughn, born in Vidette in Fulton County, can usually be found shoulder-to-shoulder with Brenda, up to their necks in stacks of county records in the heritage center archives. As a young girl, Ercile lived in California, but came back in 1947 to attend school in Bull Shoals and graduate in Mountain Home, a classmate of Mary Ann Messick.
In her painstaking volunteer work, each old record, brought to the center from the courthouse storage vaults, has to be opened, reviewed, alphabetized, and filed chronologically. Indexed records are kept in acid-free protective file boxes in the temperature and humidity-controlled archive room. Ercile also keeps a daily eagle eye on The Baxter Bulletin, carefully clipping every obituary and other article of historical interest to be included in the society archives.
Martha White Lee
If you have ever read A Look Back, the weekly historical feature published in The Baxter Bulletin each Monday, there’s a good chance you’ve read an article by Martha White Lee, because she has written more than half of them. Another native volunteer, Martha was born in Buffalo City, attended the rural one-room school at Buford, graduated in Mountain Home, and has always had a natural interest in history, and in writing, including poetry. Since 2006 she has carried on much of the research and writing for the newspaper feature and some articles for the quarterly. She sees to it that the lobby of Heritage Center is welcoming, and keeps the literature in order.
These women are by no means all the volunteers of the society, and not all the volunteers are women, but they are a core group each week at Heritage Center. For these girls, the pleasure of volunteering to preserve history comes not only because they enjoy it for themselves, but because they affirm the society’s motto, “Preserving the Past for the Future.” They spend many of their free hours each week making sure the rich and fascinating history of the county and its families is available as a resource for all those who once lived here, and for all who call Baxter County home today. M! August/September 2014
IdaRuthMalone
I once found a bio on Ruby Catherine Messick(Granny Messick) but have misplaced it. I would appreciate any information that you might lead me to. I am having trouble locating it again. I am related to Ruby and would like very much to have the information again. Thank you in advance for any help you might be able to give me. It was so easy to find the first time. Am wondering why it is so difficult now,
Laura henschel
Does anyone remember a restaurant in the mid 80’s called “The Farm”. Or Pigeon Creek Marina? My mom and Stepdad owned this marina in 1984-1985. I am going to be traveling through Mountain Home this summer with my husband, and wanted to show him a few places.
Leta Jo Cox
I have been looking for the same site, probably. Years ago I read a wonderful write up by someone that signed rwhite. It seems to have disappeared. If you ever run into it, please let me know. The article talked about her being a ‘blood stopper’. When a large steamer exploded she was who they ran to get. At age 102. She was able to talk to the badly burned victims and stop them from having pain. She is also one of my great’s.
Jennifer Baker
You are probably referring to the Look Back column that previously appeared in the Baxter Bulletin. It is no longer available on their website. KTLO has begun a series of reprinting our Looking Back articles but it will be awhile before Granny Messick is printed.
Here is the article written by Mary Ann Messick in 2003.
The Baxter Bulletin
Senior Focus
A tale of Granny Messick, rumored to be a witch
Focus on People
Mary Ann Messick
September 9, 2003
Our family doesn’t have skeletons in the closet. We dust ‘em for display in the front room. By popular request I’m writing about my favorite ancestress, “Ole Granny Messick” – who was supposed to have been a witch.
She was my great-great-great grandmother – the first of at least 10 generations of Messicks who have either been born/lived/loved/died in Baxter and Marion counties. She was born Ruby Catherine Messick around the turn of the 18th century (probably 1797) in North Carolina. Her parents were Richard and Ruby Catherine Kohneaver Messick. Since the Messicks came from Alsace-Lorraine, a region that oftentimes belonged to Germany, then France, there is disagreement whether our nationality is German or French. As for the Kohneaver name – I don’t think you can get much more German than that.
March 20, 1814, Ruby Catherine gave birth to a son in Coffee County, Tenn. (Some say Kentucky.) She named him John Wesley Messick. Oct. 16, 1814, in Kentucky she gave birth to a daughter, Lydia Ann Messick. Both children were born sans husband. Through the years, a few prim and prudish family researchers have tried in vain to find her a husband. Truth is, she was never legally married. Perhaps a backwoods tradition was observed until a man of the cloth could come by on his circuit. Traditions were like jumping a broomstick, falling off a log backwards or simply announcing it, then going to the marriage bed. I have heard her husband was a near Messick cousin. But the main story, the one I believe to be as near to the truth as we can come at this late date was told by my father. Before the circuit rider came by, her man rode off with Col. Andy Jackson to fight in the Indian Wars. He never returned. Only recently I learned this tale might have got twisted in the telling. After coming to Arkansas, Ruby Catherine had John Wesley and his children enrolled on the Dawes Roll as members of the Cherokee Nation. Was he killed by Jackson? Or was he a Native American serving as Indian Scout for Old Hickory? Either way, the loss of her man caused Ruby Catherine to become mentally unbalanced the rest of her long life. One grandson later described her as being a little nutty and smoking a smelly clay pipe.
She was a tiny woman – frontier description, no bigger than a washing of soap. Her eyes were black as coal and as piercing and sharp as needles. She had thick, black hair, always worn long, loose and flowing. Even after it began to gray, she never wore it “done up” as was the mature woman’s style. In her mind, she was always that young girl, waiting for that man to come home. Whenever she heard a group of horsemen approaching she would run out, with arms wide open, to greet her man.
Her appearance and actions, plus her strange powers, gave rise to the notion that she was a witch. A white witch (versus black, which was evil) who used her powers for good and never for profit. She could stop blood, take the heat out of a burn and cure the thrush in a baby. All admirable abilities on the frontier. She was never ostracized, rather she was openly revered. Who wants to be at odds with a powerful healer when the nearest physician might be more than a lifetime away?
She was also cherished by her father, who remembered her along with her brothers in his will. Her son treated her with tender love and honor. During his lifetime, she was always nearby. And in death, he wasn’t buried by either of his wives; his mother lies beside him (although the exact location of their graves (is) known only to God).
In 1882, John Wesley married Celia Wilkerson and they (w)ould have 12 children. His sister, Lydia Ann, married Celia’s brother, James Alfred Wilkerson. In 1856, they all came via wagon train to Arkansas where they settled just south of Yellville on Mill Creek in what is now the New Hope community. Celia died in 1857, leaving Ruby Catherine to help care for the seven children still at home.
During the civil War, they were living at Pasco’s Mill on upper Mill Creek (where the Yellville City waterworks is today). It was here that Ruby Catherine truly became a legend in her own time.
Times were tough. The young men and boys were all off fighting, leaving easy picking for the outlaw bands, the Bushwhackers, to raid, ravish and rape. Great mills were among their favorite targets. What grain and meal they couldn’t carry off, they would desecrate and destroy, then break up the grindstone and burn the mill. Pasco’s was one of the few left in operation. In 1864, one bright, glorious afternoon in Indian summer, folks from miles around had ventured out to have what corn they had managed to hide ground into cornmeal for their winter staff of life.
It was a gala scene. Folks hadn’t gotten together for months. The men were at the mill whittling, chewing, spitting and spinning tales. The women were in the house exchanging recipes, quilt patterns, gossip and admiring the babies. The children were outside engaged in a loud and lively game of tag.
Suddenly the scene became frantic panic as a large group of horsemen approached. Since no known large troops of either side were in the area, it could only mean one thing. Bushwhackers were fast descending on Pasco’s Mills. The men were trying to hide the corn, the women were trying to hide the children and nobody seemed sure what to do, except Ole Granny Messick. She ran out with out-stretched arms to greet her long-awaited lover. The horsemen galloped into the yard fast and down jumped “Ole Morg,” the most feared of all the outlaws. As the tiny figure with open arms and long, flowing hair rushed toward him, he instinctively reached out and embraced her. Then he looked into those wild, black eyes and shook her loose. He lept astraddle his horse and motioned his men. They thundered away, like the devil himself was after them. He sent word around “stay clear of Pasco’s Mill. There’s a wild woman there.” So Ruby Catherine saved the mill, the winter’s supply of bread and about 50 souls.
In 1866, John Wesley remarried and they moved over on the prairie, on what is now Tucker Cemetery Road in Baxter County. He died in 1894 and was buried on their home place. She died in 1899 and was buried beside him.
Not long before her death, the steamboat Rosewood exploded and burned on the White River, near today’s Valley Fly In. Dr. John E. Marler rushed to the scene and when he saw the burned and bleeding passengers he did the only sensible thing – he sent the fastest horseman to Ruby Catherine. At 102, she came, clinging on for dear life behind the rider. Both her long hair and the horse’s tail were flowing in the wind.
Today there are literally hundreds of her descendants around here. I have told her story before senior citizens on down to schoolchildren (a toned-down version for little ears). I can pick out several of her descendants in the children and I recognize them to the group. Then all the kids want to claim kin to Ole Granny Messick – who was supposed to have been a witch.
Dea Windsor
The Farm was on what is now Club Blvd and was torn down some years ago. I think North Arkansas Electric has the property now. Behind SNC flooring company.
Corinne caroselli
Is your organization associated with “Heritage Days” at Cooper Park, in Mountain Home?
I am trying to fin out if there will be a observation date this fall 2018.
I am Corinne Caroselli, Vice President of the Glad Garden Club (GGC). One of the projects GGC supports is the horticultural maintenance of one of three cabins in the park.
I would like to notify our members this annual event.
Please call me as our website s not functional.
Corinne Caroselli
Jennifer Baker
Corinne, was that you at the Heritage Center earlier today?
Baxter County History Day will be Saturday, October 6 10-2 at Rapp’s Barren in Cooper Park. It is a joint effort with the Historical Society and the Parks Department. The Historical Society arranges for the speakers and the Parks Dept. arranges for the exhibitors.
We will be adverstising on our Facebook page as the event gets closer: Baxter County Historical & Genealogical Society, Inc. And also on our website http://www.baxtercountyhistory.org
Call the Society at 425-2551 and leave a message if you need more info. We are open Tuesday and Thursday 12-4.
Cody Messick
I was trying to get in touch with Mary Ann Messick ..I am Cody Messick A great grandson x 3 of ole granny Messick Ruby Catherine Messick ..I am wanting to find out if we the Messicks from Jhon Wesley Messick are on the Charokee rolls if so does anyone have a roll number ..Thank you ..I think you will see my email..
Maryanne Edge
Cody – Mary Ann Messick died on Feb. 4, 2013. Please contact the Historical Society at 870-425-2551 for assistance with your research.