RECOLLECTIONS
50 Years Ago Pea Ridge Graphic Vol. 4 No. 14 Thursday, April 3, 1969
Announcement is being made in this week’s Graphic of another new business for Pea Ridge. It is Dorotha’s Beauty Salon, located in the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Sexton, who have recently moved here from Tulsa. The Sextons purchased the L.E. Hardy farm located a half mile east of the stop light in Pea Ridge.
Within the city limits of Pea Ridge, there exists one cemetery that apparently is known only to the few who have long know this town as home. It had been 40 years since Dewey Buttry had been to the old cemetery. He was uncertain about whether he could find it again. Buttry first eyed the native stones around a clump of trees beside the fence, then he looked back across the next field to the clump of trees he had first pointed out. Sure enough, there beneath the oaks, sassafras, walnut and persimmon, were the stones not visible a few yards away. He remembered that one story he had heard was that the Riches worked their slaves during the week with iron weights on their legs. On Sundays, the slaves of other masters were brought together for foot races, with the leg weights removed. “As a boy,” he reminisced, “remembering that there were slaves buried there, and I would be a little afraid.” The almost forgotten cemetery is no longer protected by a fence. Undoubtedly, it has already been desecrated by the carting off or destruction of some of the grave markers. Yet, the land there still is the final resting place of some to who Pea Ridge also was once home.
40 Years Ago Pea Ridge Graphic Scene Vol. 14 No. 14 Wednesday, April 4, 1979
A&M Food Services, Inc., a Tulsa firm, has announced the scheduled opening of a Pizza Hut in
Pea Ridge sometime in April. The pizza restaurant is located in their new 9,200-square-foot Battlefield shopping center that is also nearing completion. Jerry Eddingfield, designer and builder for the project, told the Pea Ridge Graphic that the center “will be an asset to the trade area of Pea Ridge primarily because of the lack of services and retail outlets now serving the city and surrounding populace.”
30 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 24 No. 14 Thursday, April 6, 1989
Pea Ridge Marshal Billy Joe Musgrove believes bicycle theft is a growing problem that needs a solution. The result is a project designed to discourage bicycle theft as well as make it easier to identify bicycles that have been stolen. All bicycles have serial numbers, Musgrove said, so he wants those numbers on file in his office.
Around the turn of the century, the Bank of Pea Ridge was situated where the library is now. A gentleman by the name of W.T. Patterson ran the bank for many years. As the story goes, it seems Patterson was carrying money to the back of the bank building to be taken away. Patterson dropped some of the money, $10 gold pieces. The story goes that none of the money was ever found. Recently, a $10 gold piece, dated 1881 (CC) Carson City Mint mark, was found near where the old bank was. The gold piece was four inches in the ground and in excellent condition. The wholesale value of the coin is between $375 and $425. The gold piece is not the only coin that has been found in this area.
20 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 34 No. 14 Wednesday, April 7, 1999
Mike and Barbara Freeman announced the sale
of The Times of Northeast Benton County to Community Publishers Inc., of Bentonville. The sale was effective April 1. CPI is the parent company of The Benton County Daily Record and also publishes weekly newspapers in Rogers, Bella Vista, Siloam Springs, Gravette, Gentry and Decatur. The Freemans owned The Times since November 1987 and plan to remain in the area.
The sixth graders at Pea Ridge Middle School participated this year in a walk-a-thon sponsored by the Bank of Pea Ridge to raise money for their spring field trip to the Ozark Natural Science Center in Huntsville. The students were challenged to raise money by collecting pledges from relatives, friends and businesses to support their seven-mile walk through the Pea Ridge Military Park on March 24. Leave it to a group of energetic sixth graders, they accomplished the task and far surpassed the expectations of the bank committee. They raised $2,000.
10 Years Ago The TIMES of Northeast Benton County Vol. 44 No. 14 Wednesday, April 8, 2009
While school students were bringing home their report cards, Pea Ridge schools received theirs as well. Pea Ridge Elementary School earned the highest rating possible — 5 noting schools of excellence for improvement. “We’re excited… our teachers, parents and students work very, very hard,” said Keith Martin, principal of the Pea Ridge Elementary School. Pea Ridge Middle School scored 3, which means it met the standards.
A policy to allow drug testing at Pea Ridge schools is on this month’s School Board agenda Monday. The policy has been reviewed at the last two board meetings. Questions were raised about how to fund the policy and how to begin the testing. Farmington schools just do random testing, said school superintendent Mike Van Dyke, who added: “A lot of schools do a baseline then random.”
Amnesty is being offered for the more than 270 people wanted on warrants in Pea Ridge. In cooperation with the Rogers Police Department, the Pea Ridge Police Department is offering amnesty to any person who turns himself or herself in. The amnesty only applies to nonviolent, misdemeanor warrants. “We’ve always cooperated with this in the past. We have joined with other agencies to support amnesty week,” said Pea Ridge Police Chief Tim Ledbetter.