Chris has been a great sport on this vacation and has assisted Kathy in satisfying some of her genealogical questions. This morning we headed for the Arkansas Vital Statistics office in Little Rock in search of Ted Perdew's death certificate.
After a wait of over an hour, we are now in possession of the certificate! We already knew his birth and death dates and his parent's names, so the new information included the fact that he died of a heart attack (infarction of myocardium) at the VA Hospital. But the best part was discovering that he had been living in Hot Springs, Arkansas before his hospitalization! Ah, other avenues to pursue!
Another fact on the certificate was the name of the funeral director. After checking the phone book, we discovered that the company (Ruebel) was still in business in Little Rock. A quick phone call and Justin assured us that he would copy what information they had and it would be ready when we arrived. And he was true to his word! While verifying much of the same information as the death certificate, we also learned that the next of kin listed was a sister, Mrs. Henry Solberg. There are two known sisters that were living at this time, we believe, but there is no way yet to determine which this is (the married names Kathy has are different from this one). It appears she may have been living at the same address in Hot Springs that was reported for Ted. (Or she simply listed his address)
On that successful note, we decided to head out of town. However, sometimes we are easily distracted and decided to check out the Arkansas State Fair! The day was cool and dreary so the crowd was pretty small. We checked out the Hall of Industry that had the vendors and enjoyed some of the displays. We toured one building in which they were asking Spam trivia questions (Kathy shudders). We, of course, ate a few fair-type goodies like funnel cake and roasted corn.
The most fascinating foods were offered, though (by fascinating I might mean fried things that we never have imagined). Some of the offerings included
- Hot beef sundae
- Fried Coke
- Chocolate covered bacon
- Fried Oreos
- Fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
- Fried dough
We were actually surprised this Fair seemed much smaller than the Kansas State Fair. This is not comparing the number of attendees (it was a gloomy Thursday afternoon), but rather the number of exhibits and buildings. One of Kathy's favorite activities at the Kansas State Fair is touring through the RVs, camping trailers, and modular homes. There did not seem to be any equivalent activity in Arkansas. For us, it was a disappointment. But the midway did seem to have some new rides we were not familiar with and we are sure the grandsons would have enjoyed them immensely.
We finally headed south and decided to stay the night at Cane Creek State Park, south of Pine Bluff. This State Park is situated along the Arkansas River, so we feel right at home. (And we still pronounce it "Ar-kansas" like at home!) It is a nice campground with good separation between all of the spots. But the month of October brings quite a new glamour to the campground! Most of the spots were already reserved and/or occupied. Some of those spots have been reserved for nearly a year!
The reason for the “rush”
in October is that many of the same families return each year and they all decorate their sites for Halloween. And we don't mean just decorate, we definitely mean DECORATE! There are lights everywhere and all types of wonderful displays: partially buried skeletons, ghosts dancing in rings or flying from trees, horse drawn hearses, many inflatable pumpkins and other spooky paraphernalia, and lots and lots of jack-o-lanterns of all types. It is a veritable Halloween wonderland! Our site looks very boring compared to all the glitter of the other sites.We talked to one gentleman tha
t actually lives only three miles away, but his family stays at the campground each October so that they can participate in the Halloween decoration extravaganza. They make their reservations a year ahead for twelve sites.It was a busy day. We hope to continue on toward the Mississippi River. Kathy gets one more bit of genealogy searching. Her great-great-grandfather, Samuel Woods Reid, was an Irish riverboatman. He is found on the 1860 census in Napoleon, Arkansas, and later served with a Confederate unit called the Napoleon Grays (made up of mostly Irish riverboat men according to one source).
Napoleon, situated at the junction of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers, no longer exists. The rivers have done their work and the town has supposedly disappeared.
We hope to go to the Desha County courthouse at Arkansas City, Arkansas, to see if there is any other information about the Napoleon Grays or Sam's time in Napoleon. Then Kathy plans to let Chris rest from genealogy for the rest of the trip!
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