Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hi, and welcome to know the news. I'm Becca Martin Brown, your host this week. As you know by now, we're here to encourage you to catch the can't miss stories coming in this weekend's northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette and our sister paper, the River Valley Democrat Gazette in Fort Smith.
We're going to start today with some nice, fuzzy holiday news. My, my guest is Serena Barnett, director of the Rogers Historical Museum, where you can step back in time to 1895 and have a merry little Christmas.
Hi, Serena.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Hi, Becca.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Are you feeling Christmassy?
[00:00:51] Speaker B: I sure am.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Oh, good. Maybe.
[00:00:53] Speaker B: How about you?
[00:00:56] Speaker A: I always try to work my way up to three hoes, and I'm at about a hoe and a half.
But this will make everybody feel Christmassy because the Hawkins house is this beautiful 1895 cozy little home, and now it's all dressed up for Christmas at the turn of the 20th century.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Yes. And we have our house dressed currently as if it was Christmas back at the turn of the 19 hundreds. And it's always wonderful to be able to step back. And it is like our little time capsule right here in downtown Rogers.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: So talk about what people will experience and see.
And I was really struck by some of the ways it's very much like now.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Well, of course, just like now, food was a big part of it. They would spend so much energy in preparing the Christmas dinner. And just like now, people at that time, they would have maybe a smoked ham or roasted turkey as the centerpiece of the meal, and then they would supplement with things that they grew in their gardens or that was available locally, like mashed potatoes and green beans and carrots. And they would have nuts, walnuts, pecans. People in this area had, almost everybody had their own walnut tree, it seemed, in their yard. So they would have all of that readily available to them, and they used that in their celebrations.
And then, of course, they would go out and find a Christmas tree. And back in the late 18 hundreds and early 19 hundreds, they were still using tabletop trees.
So they would go out and find just probably three, four foot tree and bring it in and decorate it on the tabletop. And many of the ornaments were even homemade. The family would make their own, and they would decorate the tree using popcorn garlands and paper cutouts for magazines. And then, of course, they would have lit candles.
They would have these candles they would put on the tree, and they would only light them for a brief time on Christmas Eve after the sun went down. And it's a wonderful experience if you've ever seen a lit tree with candles.
Of course, there's always a fire hazard lighting a Christmas tree. And so that we also are always sure to point out that there was a bucket of water handy nearby just in case the tree would have caught fire. But it was just so many wonderful traditions that were started in those early years of Rogers and the families that lived here and things that we know in some spirit still celebrate.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: We should go back and talk about who the Hawkins family were.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Okay, well, the Hawkins family, Francis Cunningham Hawkins, he actually was a sheriff's deputy, that for a while up in Larner, Kansas, and his family, they moved down to Bentonville in the late 18 hundreds, and by 1900 they were looking to move to Rogers. He was the owner of a livery stable here on First street where Ironhorse coffee shop is today, which transport directly.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: At a car dealership.
[00:04:32] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
It was like a rent a horse. You could actually go and get a horse and a buggy there for the day. People coming in off the train would need transport to get around town. So you could also stable your horse and carriage there. So it was a very vital business in the early Rogers years. And so Mr. Hawkins was looking for a home for his family to move into Rogers and live here. So in 1900, they purchased the home on the corner of second and cherry, and it's 1000 square foot brick home. It was built five years before that in 1895. It's made of local handmade brick, and that's why the house itself is that orange color, because it's the native soil.
And so they moved in Francis Cunningham, or FC, as he was known, and his wife Elizabeth. They had a young son named Frank and a daughter, Lizzie. And Frank and Lizzie grew up in that house. They ended up inheriting the house. Frank and his wife later lived there with their children. And so three generations of the Hawkins family actually lived in that home for about 80 years until 1980. And the museum acquired the home, and it's now been a part of the Rogers Historical Museum ever since.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: And it's the first location I remember for the Rogers Historical Museum.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: It was actually our second.
The first location was on First street in the old Rogers bank building, where bank OC is today.
And we were there from 1975 till about 1980, 82. And so that's when we moved into the Hawkins house. So, yes, we actually had exhibits in our administrative office, all sharing that same space for a few years until they built the key wing to expand the museum.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: And now how many thousands of feet is the whole museum?
[00:06:38] Speaker B: Oh, goodness, you're testing me there, because.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: You'Ve got three buildings.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: It's a lot.
We have more than doubled in recent years with the expansion to the old newspaper building across the street. We will know.
Let's see, it's several thousand feet. I know that for sure.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: And gorgeous.
We're going to pause for just a second.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: We'll be right back.
[00:07:08] Speaker C: If you're enjoying this podcast, consider a newspaper subscription to the northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette or the River Valley Democrat Gazette. We have a special offer for our podcast listeners, so visit nwanline.com podcast 23 to get started. You can also click the subscribe button on our websites, nwanline.com and rivervalleddemocratgazette.com, or call us at 479-684-5509 and be sure to say that you're a podcast listener. Now back to the show.
[00:07:35] Speaker A: Okay, so one of the things that I loved, I should tell you who's here with me after our pause. Serena Barnett is the director of the Rogers Historical Museum, where it is currently Christmas around 1900.
Absolutely gorgeous at the Hawkins house. And we're talking about kind of stepping back in time.
You guys put out a thing, a press release about Christmas memories from Rogers, and one of the things I loved was the 19 six suggestions for Christmas purchases from downtown Rogers merchants.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Yeah, you could find all sorts of wonderful goodies at that point. Of course, the train came in 1881 and made it possible to get goods faster and easier than ever before and brought to northwest Arkansas. And Rogers being right on the line, we had access to so many wonderful things that were from all over the country and all over the world.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: And the dance had every price point, furniture to fruit and nuts.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: Aha. It's so neat to see those prices, too, isn't it?
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Oh, golly.
The other thing that fascinated me was that giving at Christmas, giving to those less fortunate, was a big part of life, even at the turn of the 20th century. And that's reflected in some of the Christmas decor at the Hawkins house.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: It sure is.
The season of charitable giving was very much a part of our community in the turn of the 20th century. And many of the local churches would have charity drives, and they would collect quilts and other blankets and clothes and canned goods, and they would take up a collection for the Salvation army and make sure that those less fortunate at that time of the year would be able to have what they needed to get them through the winter months.
[00:09:46] Speaker A: Now, I assume the Hawkins family would have been upper middle class.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Yes, I would say comfortable middle class.
They were able to have a few extra things that others who were probably a lower income wouldn't have been able to afford. They had pieces of furniture that we have actually in the Hawkins house today. There's three furniture pieces that belong to the family. One is a mirror in the dining room. It is hung in that same spot since the family lived there, and two related pieces in the bedroom, the bedstead and the dresser, our matching set. And they were an east lake style, which was a design in the late 18 hundreds that became very popular with the rising american middle class because it allowed people to, Americans to actually buy furniture that looked custom made, but it was actually made in a factory, in an assembly line manufacturer process. But it has a lot of the features that you would look for in custom design. And so the family was able to afford to showcase specialized looking furniture for the first time. So we actually have some of those pieces that you can see on the.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Tour and the piano. And they went.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: The Hawkins didn't actually own their own piano.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Oh, really?
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Right. But there is a piano in the Hawkins house today. It's part of the museum collection.
As the story goes, it was the first piano to be delivered into Rogers on the train in 1882, and it belonged to a family that lived out New Hope. There was an old farmstead out there, and the family that lived out there had this piano, and descendants later donated it to the museum, and we put it into the Hawkins house. So if the family would have had a piano, it would have been in the parlor where it is today.
[00:12:00] Speaker A: And it wouldn't have been a stretch to think that a family.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Would have played.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: No. And it was very common in those days for middle class and upper class american families to have their children learn a musical instrument as part of their education. So it definitely could have been a thing that they could have done.
[00:12:22] Speaker A: Now the question is, is it tuned and can you still play it?
[00:12:26] Speaker B: It is not really tuned. It hasn't been touched in all over probably 30 years.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Oh, we got to talk about that.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: It's part of the museum collection, so we typically don't play our piano.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: So let me also ask you about, there's another exhibit that's over in the main museum that would be a great companion piece for families that come to see the Hawkins house. Toys well played.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Toys well played. Yes. This is a collections exhibit that highlights toys from the museum collection. And we have toys that are as old as the 1890s, all the way up to the early two thousand s. And so some of the toys you may recognize, and many of them you may have had your grandmother play with. So it's quite an exhibit, and I definitely recommend coming and checking that out.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Let's see. I think I remember seeing a Cupid doll.
Yes. And a troll.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: A troll. And there's cabbage patch doll and an old erector set even.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Oh, that should be fun. So tell everybody when you're open and how much it costs to get into the Rogers Historical Museum.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Well, we are free, Becca. And we are open from Tuesday to Saturday, from 10:00 in the morning to 04:00 p.m. And we encourage children, families of all ages, to come. We've got something for everybody. We have two children's hands on areas, one in the main museum. We have kind of a mid century theme with an old kitchen and a bakery that's reminiscent of the Harris Baking Company, a longtime business here in Rogers. And then across the street, we have the attic space that is reminiscent of an early 20th century attic. So you'll find objects from that time in our history and everything you can touch and feel and play with. And it's just a lot of fun for everybody.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: So you will be open the Tuesday after Christmas that whole week?
[00:14:41] Speaker B: Yes.
Wait, the Tuesday the 26th? No, sorry. Okay.
That's a city observed holiday since Christmas falls on a Monday. So we observe for Christmas Eve on the 26th this year. So the museum next week will be open from the 27th through that Saturday.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Okay. And Rogers Christmas at the Hawkins house continues through January 6. And toys, well played continues through the 13th. Okay. And if you've never seen the Rogers Historical Museum, it's in downtown Rogers. It's a beautiful facility and a great thing to do with the kids while they're out of school. Serena, thank you.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: To us.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: You are so welcome, Becca. Anytime.
[00:15:32] Speaker A: Happy holidays.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: You as well.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: In other headlines for this weekend, if you're an artist, especially an artist who's into baseball, you might be interested to hear the city of Bentonville is soliciting proposals for a baseball related art project to be installed at the city's Phillips Park. Mike Jones will have the details on that. This weekend, a Benton county teen was one of two winners of a national essay contest about the virtues of the Bill of Rights. Education reporter Al Gaspeny reports on that. The Fort Smith School District has decided to close trustee elementary school at the end of this academic year, and this week, the school board decided where trustee students will go next. Monica Brick tells us about that. And Thomas Ascenti talks to the owners of Sophie Maxx, a Fort Smith store specializing in gently used children's clothing. The two working mothers had helped from the Arkansas Small business and Technology Development center in opening their business, and the fall sports season may be over. No, it's not. It's still football season at my house. But we're going to put a bow on this weekend as we present our all northwest Arkansas and all River Valley football squads, as well as our all northwest Arkansas volleyball team, including players of the year, newcomers of the year and coaches of the year. And this weekend in what's up? Read more about Christmas at the Hawkins House, hear a Christmas song from Cherise Carver, and look back at 2023 with music editor Monica Hooper. All this and more. All you have to do is subscribe. You get our tablet. You get a smartphone app. You get our websites nwaonline.com and river valleydemocratgazette.com. Or call us at 684-5509 and be sure and say that you're a podcast listener. But don't call us this weekend, and don't call us Monday, because we'll be doing the same thing your family is doing, spending time together for the holidays. Happiest of holidays know the news is a weekly podcast brought to you by the newsrooms of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette and the River Valley Democrat Gazette. Thank you for listening. I'm Becca Martin Brown, your podcast host this week, and we'll see you next week getting ready for the new year.
