Core Family Papers

Collection

Identifier: MC 1380

Staff Only
Select files to request

Scope and Content Note

The collection includes personal materials of the members of the extended Core family, including both Mr. and Mrs. Core's parents and grandparents, as well as their children and Mrs. Core's siblings. These range from diaries, scrapbooks, and correspondence to financial and medical records.

The collection also contains materials gathered by Dorothy Core in her historical and genealogical research. They address four distinct areas of history--colonial Arkansas, Arkansas County after 1805, the rice farming industry, and genealogy. One group of materials is comprised entirely of original government documents of Arkansas County in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; among these documents are materials from the Civil War era, including the poll book from the county's secession convention in February 18, 1861, and receipts to individuals for acquisitions for "County War Purposes." The materials on Arkansas County include files pertaining to the activities of the county chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Grand Prairie Historical Society. In her research for articles in the Grand Prairie Historical Society Bulletin, Dorothy Core accumulated extensive files on colonial Arkansas and Arkansas County. Some of the historical materials pertain to the activities of her family. She inherited materials on the Arkansas Flying Farmers from her parents, who were keenly interested in aviation and applied their skills as pilots to their work as farmers. Also, several files address the participation of her mother and sister in social organizations in Arkansas County. Finally, her genealogical research includes correspondence, family newsletters, and other materials.

The collection contains a wide range of materials, including letters, postcards, diaries, funeral memorials, scrapbooks, yearbooks, maps, photographs, and photograph albums. The most notable materials include the sixteen diaries of Norman Core's grandfather, Marcus Sylvester Core. Dating from 1877 to 1906, the diaries chronicle the experiences of the Core family before they moved to Arkansas. The collection includes over eight hundred photographs, as well as photograph albums. They include images of both immediate and extended families, as well as the towns of Stuttgart, DeWitt, and Almyra in Arkansas County. Especially noteworthy are photographs of the Flying Farmers. Also noteworthy is a photograph of Arkansas Congressman William F. Norrell, taken by Norman Core's father Heber, a professional photographer.

Among the materials donated to Special Collections were a number of maps of Arkansas County and other areas in Arkansas. Most of these have been placed in the library's main collection. Maps retained in the Core Papers pertain directly to either Core family members or research by Dorothy Core. Notable among these are a map of Prairie County dating from 1893 and maps of Arkansas Post.

Dates

1723-1996

Creator

Core Family (Family)

Access Information

Please call (479) 575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu at least two weeks in advance of your arrival to ensure availability of the materials.

Use Information

No Use Restrictions Apply.

No Interlibrary Loan.

Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).

Biographical Note

Dorothy Jones Core was born on September 1, 1920, in Stuttgart, the daughter of George Rex and Sarah Sweigard Jones. She graduated from Stuttgart High School in 1936, and attended Arkansas State College in Jonesboro as a freshman in 1936-1937. In the fall, 1937, she attended Texas State College for Women in Denton. She finished her studies at TSCW in the fall, 1939, graduating with high honors.

Norman Watts Core was born on September 28, 1918, the son of Heber Samuel and Reba Watts Core. He graduated from Stuttgart High School in 1936, and spent his freshman year in college at the College of the Ozarks. In the fall of 1937 he enrolled at Arkansas State Teachers' College in Conway. Graduating from ASTC in May, 1940, Norman Watts Core married Dorothy Jones on June 22, 1940. They had three sons, Boyce, Marc, and Jerry.

Mr. Core taught science and directed the band at the high school in 1941 in England, Arkansas. In December, 1941, he accepted a position as an assistant air traffic controller at the Chief Airway Traffic Control Center in Jacksonville, Florida. He returned to Stuttgart in September, 1942, where he worked first for the Harmon Construction Company, and then T.P. Coogan, Incorporated. He enlisted in the United States Navy in June, 1943, and served as an air transport officer at naval air stations in Kansas and Arizona. In February, 1944, Mrs. Core resigned her position as a clerk at the Army Air Force depot in Stuttgart, so that she could be with her husband. In November, 1944, Mr. Core was transferred to the naval air station on Johnson Island in the Pacific Ocean, where he remained until his discharge in April, 1946.

The Cores then returned to Arkansas County, where Mrs. Core's father and her brother-in-law, James R. Oliver, were well established in the rice farming industry. The Cores became farmers, but by the early 1960s Mr. Core had begun to sell insurance; from 1961 Mrs. Core worked as an accountant for the Rice Center Supply Company, a John Deere subsidiary in Stuttgart. In the mid-1960s she began tracing her family history. She joined the National Daughters of the American Revolution in 1966. She became active in the local chapter of the DAR, serving as its president in the 1970s. She likewise became involved in the Grand Prairie Historical Society, assisting in the editing of its journal in from 1971 to 1992. Her passion for local history was shared by her husband, who was president of the Grand Prairie Historical Society.

History remained a primary interest of Mrs. Core. In the 1980s she collaborated with Dr. Morris Arnold, a distinguished professor of Laws at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock, on Arkansas Colonials, 1686-1804. In 1992 to 1994 she was chief editor of the Grand Prairie Historical Society Bulletin. She also became involved with the Elderhostel program, and traveled to Europe, China, and Australia. Norman Watts Core died on November 23, 1995, while Dorothy Jones Core died on April 19, 1997.