Columns

HISTORY MINUTE

Of the many figures to shape higher education in Arkansas, John W. Conger has perhaps the most unique experience. Throughout his leadership career, he served as president of five colleges, including three in Arkansas.

What’s the Plan?

It may be necessary to plan ahead. There are times when you don’t anticipate events that put your life in disarray. The Boy Scouts motto, as well as the Girl Scouts’ is “Be Prepared.” It was explained in the Girls Scout handbook like this: “A Girl Scout is ready to help out wherever she is needed. Willingness to serve is not enough; you must know how to do the job well, even in an emergency.”

HISTORY MINUTE

Herman Davis went from deep poverty in a remote corner of Arkansas and became the most decorated Arkansan of World War I. He was born just outside what is now Manila in Mississippi County in 1888. The family lived in a small shack outside the town near Big Lake and ran a small store. The family was desperately poor. He had to quit school after fourth grade in order to go to work to help the family, mostly as a hunter and developed a reputation in the community as an expert shot, which would serve him in the war.

HISTORY MINUTE

It is a story that stretches back more than twelve hundred years in Arkansas, and it started with a letter. In 1876, Mary Eliza Knapp wrote to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, to report a curious find on her property near Scott in Lonoke County, one which sparked a sensation in the area. Knapp had discovered a series of ancient Native American mounds and astronomical calendars that dated back to the seventh century, known as Toltec Mounds.

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The South Arkansas Sun

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