Heroes, Healers and Humdingers ... we heard their voices and met them all!

We've learned something about the Civil War. These (rounded) headstones in the Eureka Springs Cemetery mark the graves of two Union Soldiers with the same last name. If they had been Confederate Soldiers, and some Confederate Soldiers are buried there, their headstones would have points. There was no fighting in Eureka Springs, but battles were fought in nearby Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove and sick and wounded soldiers were brought to Eureka Springs for the healing waters.

Two years ago, we wound through Eureka Springs on our trip home from a "House in Mourning" at the Rogers Historic Museum. Torches were burning throughout Eureka Springs Cemetery beside Highway 62. 
Standing in a semi-circle behind a tall headstone inside the cemetery was an old-fashioned choir singing to an audience, as a preacher stood in front. They seemed to be from another era.
We couldn't imagine what was going on, so we checked the Internet and found that we had stumbled onto the Eureka Springs Historical Museum's 4th annual "Voices from Eureka's Silent City."
We bundled up the next night and returned to Eureka Springs to hear stories from Civil War surgeons, nurses, soldiers, doctors, a mason and a preacher.

Hey look at us. We've paid our couples fee of $20 are are at the front of the line to get on the bus and ride to the cemetery Friday night. Fill the bus from the back. The tours went every 20 minutes from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. It was a busy evening.

We arrived at the cemetery at dusk. Friday night was unseasonably balmy, which was a blessing. The past two years, we wore heavy boots, gloves, coats, scarves and hats. This year, we wore light vests and saw one man wearing shorts.

Here's our first tour guide. "Mute your cell phones, but please take lots of photos. Follow your guides and hang onto your buddy. You'll stop along the way and hear the Voices of eight people in the Silent City ... and you'll get to see them ... as they once were."

Before we hear the voices, here are a couple of extras thrown in for free.

Maybe in some cemeteries you've seen monuments that look like logs. We know we have and wondered about that. Friday night we learned something. For a few years at the end of the 19th Century, Woodmen of the World insurance members could receive these headstones - some tall, some short - for free if they had insurance with them. It came with the policy, and eventually they decided it was cost prohibitive.

If you hit this "stone" with your knuckle, it will ring like a bell because it was cast from zinc more than 100 years ago in one of the eastern states. The guide said that this type stone marker was a "Genealogist's dream" because the names are easy to read all these years later. 

 

An 8-year-old little girl was the heartbreak of her parents. They chose an angel to protect the final resting place of their child. The angel appears to be writing the child's name.  If you look closely, you can see the finger writing.  

This year the Voices tour was dubbed, "Heroes, Healers and Humdingers."  
First we will visit the healers.  We noticed that each resting place offered clues as the the person's significance.  For instance, this stop has a small table, a blanket, a crutch, and a black medical bag.

Meet Dr. Pearl Hale Tatman, the first female physician in Arkansas. Doc Pearl had a general practice, however, she concentrated on pregnant women and bringing babies into the world. She often gave them necessities for the newborn.   

Doc Pearl later married a pharmacist, Albert Tatman.  He became a doctor.  They are buried together in the plot behind her.  You can still stay in her three-bedroom Victorian house in Eureka Springs for about $200 a night. 

This sturdy woman was no one to trifle with -- a super nurse. Margaret McLaughlin RADM was a Eureka Springs graduate who rose to become the Chief Nurse Officer of the U.S. Public Health Service and Assistant Surgeon General of the United States.  She was born in 1910, died in 2003 and is buried near a large fountain.  She believes nursing is a noble calling and encouraged young members of our group to pursue that career.

Dr. Alvah Jackson considered himself quite the healer, who was especially fond of bear grease and "Jackson's Eye Water."  This avid hunter also sold medicinal plants and potions through the mail. He claimed one miracle.  His nearly blind son washed his muddy eyes out with water from Basin Springs. The next morning he told his father, I can see.  That is why he peddled the bottles of water as an eye wash.

Dr. John Fremont Ellis was truly a doctor with a large practice and was staff physician at the Crescent Hotel, a monument that he helped build.  But he was more famous for his business foresight.

He helped bring a railroad to Eureka Spring, establish and operate the power company, and install water and sewer lines.  He was living in an apartment on the third floor of the Rosewater-Ellis Building when it caught fire.  He had a heart attack and died while he stood on the street and watched the file consume the building on Spring Street. He is buried in the grave just behind where he sits and talks on the phone.

Next, we have a hero.  A simple man who was the most popular man in Eureka Springs. 

George Head.  You remember George Head?  See the fireman's helmet on the ground?  Maybe he delivered ice to your house on a hot summer day before you had electricity.  And then he was that lineman who fixed your electricity.  He knew absolutely everybody and everybody knew him, including the children he taught to square dance on Saturday nights in the Auditorium.  He was a volunteer firefighter for 38 years.  He was fighting the fire when Dr. Ellis died.  George and his wife are buried in the graves behind him. 

What is a Humdinger, you say?

Miss Kitty Goodwin was a very friendly sort.  Men found her and her "funhouse" especially entertaining. At this point in the tour, we were at the Pauper's graves where no graves are marked.  Could Miss Kitty be buried here? 

Miss Lena Wilson was 80 years old when she died in 1963.  Remarkable, considering the circumstances in which she lived.  Before this well educated eccentric spinster fell into hard times, she was a school teacher for 16 years. After her father and mother died, she lost her home to foreclosure.  She spent most of her years in a shack that she built herself. She lived with her 12 dogs, three cats and pigs.  Take a good look at the picture.  That wooden wagon was pulled by a donkey or a little pony through the streets of Eureka Springs as she went about and was paid by residents to collect trash. Sometimes she would find that she was able to repair old cast-offs.  She would secretly leave them with other "unfortunates."  She is buried in the Wilson family plot, with only a metal marker used by the funeral director as her headstone. 

I guess Humdingers can have all sorts of souls -- good, bad, funny and evil.  And possibly just mentally ill.  Bad.  Evil.  Mentally ill.  Who really knows?  Johnny Poynter was 21 years old when he died.  If you look closely, you will see that the top of the tall monument behind "Johnny" is broken off.  A seemingly cruel prank.  Our guide explained that this often happened and what it meant -- a life cut short or a murderer was buried here. In our next blog, we will talk more about Johnny.  

If you look at the young girl's headstone from a earlier picture, it looks like that top also was broken off.

Miss Kitty always likes visitors and if she is really here, then in the Silent City she will still be.  Listen for her voice and the voices and tales of others.  The good people at the Eureka Springs Historical Museum will be happy to fill in the blanks.

Dwain and Megan