Pfeiffer Country

by Laymon, Sherry

• ISBN13: 9780980089776
• ISBN10: 0980089778
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-01
• Publisher: Butler Center for Arkansas Studies

Summary

Paul Pfeiffer left his comfortable life in Saint Louis, Missouri. He left his prosperous business along the mighty Mississippi: the information superhighway of his day. Fancy restaurants would no longer be a part of his life. He would no longer entertain the elite of a great metropolis. He left all of that behind when he moved to the bottomlands of Eastern Arkansas in 1902. If he did so to make a difference in the lives of thousands of poor farmers, then he made the mark he intended. Pfeiffer came to own much of Clay County, Arkansas. He joined a much-disliked strata of American society: landowners whose "sharecroppers" were often helpless to improve their lot, or that of their children. But Paul Pfeiffer did make a difference in the lives of those who paid him in kind to work his land. He eschewed the usual cycle of poverty for his workers, eventually giving them the land they worked. He was a soul who lived-and fashioned the lives of others-several generations "ahead of his time." Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Contents	p. 5
Foreword	p. 7
Introduction	p. 11
Clay County-Arkansas's Frontier	p. 18
Native Americans in the Mississippi Valley	p. 20
Spanish Imprints in the Future Arkansas Delta	p. 21
French Culture in the Delta	p. 22
Transportation-River Travel	p. 23
Earthquakes Create Sunk Lands and Enlarge the Swamp	p. 24
Religion-Clay County	p. 26
Creation of Clay County	p. 28
Railroad Debut in Northeast Arkansas	p. 30
Second Migration to Clay County	p. 32
Clay County Homesteads in the Early Twentieth Century	p. 37
Cotton Fields in Clay County	p. 41
Pfeiffers in Piggott	p. 62
Pfeiffer Farm Structures	p. 89
Vernacular Architecture in the Arkansas Delta	p. 91
Pfeiffer Farm Structures	p. 92
The Layout of the Farmstead	p. 114
Pfeiffer Farming Operations	p. 119
The Great Depression Era, New Deal Politics, and the Drought	p. 133
Liquidation of Pfeiffer Farms	p. 147
Changes in Agriculture after Pfeiffer's Death	p. 162
Notes	p. 168
Bibliography	p. 198
Unpublished Materials	p. 198
Oral Interviews and Personal Communications	p. 204
Newspapers	p. 205
Public and Legal Documents	p. 209
Internet Websites	p. 211
Published Books and Articles	p. 216
Appendices	p. 223
Paul Pfeiffer's Land Transactions in Butler County, Iowa	p. 223
Paul and Gus Pfeiffer's Land Transactions in Butler County, Iowa	p. 223
Bushels of Crops Produced in Clay County, 1880-1910	p. 224
Pfeiffer Land Purchases and Sales, 1914-1919	p. 224
Pfeiffer Land Transactions, 1920-1928	p. 224
Crops in Clay County, 1910-1930	p. 225
Farms in Clay County, 1910-1930	p. 225
Pfeiffer's Land Transactions, 1931-1938	p. 225
Paul Pfeiffer Land Sales, 1939-1943	p. 226
Karl Pfeiffer Land Transactions, 1944-1954	p. 226
Farm Statistics in Clay County, 1930-1950	p. 227
Trend Toward Mechanization in Clay County	p. 227
Last Will and Testament of Paul Pfeiffer	p. 228
Last Will and Testament of Mary Pfeiffer	p. 229
Sale of Pfeiffer Property by Paul Pfeiffer	p. 231
Sale of Pfeiffer Property by Karl Pfeiffer	p. 237
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