I’m looking for several things with the idea of putting them on display at the Pea Ridge Historical Society Museum. I’m also looking for several items of historical information.

Maybe someone out there could help out on these.

One item I’d like to find is an old-time wringer washing machine, either the more primitive handcranked design, or a 1930s gasoline motor design, or a model with an electric motor. My mother once had one of the gasoline motor washers, later converted to electric, and a later electric model sold by Montgomery Ward in the early 1950s.

Secondly, I’m looking for a few good pictures of the old downtown Bank of Pea Ridge. If possible, we’d like to find a picture taken from out front, showing the heavy round safe that stood just inside the front window. Also, we’d like to find a good picture taken inside the bank, showing the teller’s window, and anyone who worked for the bank as a teller. The person I best remember was Eufala Abbot. As I remember, the customer service area was very small.

Third, we are looking for pictures of the oldest building on the downtown school campus, known to the younger generation as the S.E.E.K. building or Home Ec Building, to the 1950s generation as the old school lunchroom, and to still older folks as the old school shop. Some of the older buildings on the downtown campus are being taken down to clear the way for the new Intermediate expansion. We are counting on preserving the white concrete block building, which I remember best as the school lunchroom of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Does someone have pictures of the building from the early years? Pictures from the 1970s and earlier would be very helpful and highly appreciated. We’d like to scan the pictures and make copies for preservation by the Pea Ridge Historical Society.

Fourth, as we approach the 150th year since the Battle of Pea Ridge, my son Jeff and I are working on telling the story of Civil War veterans from Pea Ridge who enlisted in the armies and fought in such battles as Pea Ridge, Prairie Grove, Helena, Jenkins Ferry, Shiloh, Tenn., Vicksburg, Miss., and Corinth, Miss. We have found military service records and pension records for about 40 soldiers and officers so far, most of them Confederate, a few Union. We’d like to hear from people who have family members who were Civil War soldiers, and who were residents of Pea Ridge, either before, during or soon after the Civil War. Our own family had soldiers from both sides.

Fifth, I have a great interest in the apple industry which flourished around Pea Ridge and throughout Benton and Washington counties from the 1870s through the 1920s and 1930s. But I don’t know nearly enough about that era. I’d like to hear from people who remember where apple processing sheds were located, where apples were dried, and stories about how apples were produced andshipped. I know that the apple industry was strongly influential in bringing the railroad to our area.

Does anyone have pictures of old apple processing dryers and sheds or pictures from the orchards?

Does anyone have old tools that you might be willing to donate to the museum? I’m thinking of old carpentry shop tools, farm tools, garden tools and so on. Does anyone have an old galvanized or tin water bucket with a dipper for sipping water?

How about a pulley for a well rope, for drawing water from the well? Or does someone have one of those old slim water well buckets for drawing water from a slim drilled well?

And, would anyone have one of the old kerosene (or coal oil) barn lanterns? We used one of those when we milked cows in the dark barn back in the days before farm electricity.

I’d like to learn more about the water springs that are to be found around our Pea Ridge community. I’m aware of Stroud Spring west of town, Morrison Spring north of town, the Green Street spring, the spring at Elkhorn Tavern, the spring on Charles Day’s farm on Otter Creek, and othersmall springs. Does anyone know about a spring south of town that may have been called Sager Spring? or Siegel Spring?

I know of two steampowered sawmills that operated in years gone by around our area: One operated by Jim Day, north of Pea Ridge on Otter Creek, and one at Stroud Spring operated by Bert Stevens.

Does anyone have pictures of those sawmills, or of any other local sawmills?

Finally, I’d love to learn the names of more of the early graduates of the Pea Ridge Academy, the Pea Ridge Normal College and Pea Ridge Masonic College. Does anyone know a source for finding the names of those graduates?

Do you have family members who attended the college between 1885 and 1916? Also, does someone have pictures of the old college building, especially pictures taken from the south side, or taken from the playground located to the west rear of the building?

I’d really appreciate it if folks who read this column can help out with some of these interests and curiosities. Thanks!

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Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.

Community, Pages 5 on 08/24/2011