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Maggie Smith Collection

 Collection
Identifier: MC 6

Scope and Content Note

Five original business papers, 1824-1831, and photocopies of material Maggie Smith used in preparing her article, "The Nicks and Gibson Papers and Lovely County" (Benton County Pioneer, vol. 12, no. 4, October, 1967, pp. 86-95).

The collection includes legal documents, descriptions of parcels of land, correspondence, inventories, accounts, and advertisements. The papers pertain to the business of merchants Nicks & Gibson, to the estate of John Nicks and the activities of his heirs, and to land claims and sales, especially following passage of "An Act to Aid the State of Ohio in Extending the Miami Canal from Dayton to Lake Erie, and to Grant a Quantity of Land to Said State to Aid in the Construction of the Canals Authorized by Law; and for Making Donations of Lands to Certain Persons in Arkansas Territory" (May 24, 1828). Most of the Act pertained to canals in Ohio. Sections 8 and 9, however, provided for land grants in Arkansas to settlers displaced by the first article of the treaty between the United States and the Cherokee Indians west of the Mississippi, ratified May 23, 1828.

A collection of papers was found in the dump near Watts, Oklahoma. These papers, which had been stolen from the residence of Robert S. Gibson, Siloam Springs, in 1913, were taken to Jack Gregory, then the Watts school principal. He apparently gave some of them to Maggie Smith (she in turn donated them to Special Collections). The remainder were given to the Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa, Oklahoma, by Dr. Caldeen Gunter. At the request of Maggie Smith, copies of these papers were given to Dr. Walter A. Brown for the Arkansas Historical Quarterly files, and were deposited by Dr. Brown in Special Collections.

NOTE: Items marked with an asterisk are those original documents in Special Collections. The remainder are in Special Collections only as photocopies. Some of them are dry-process photocopies; some are wet-process, apparently made around 1967 or before. These are brown and faded. Dry-process photocopies were made of these, usually at two or more different exposures, during July and August, 1986. In addition, copies of many of the documents (or portions of the documents) in the Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa, were donated to Special Collections by the Gilcrease Institute in April, 1987. These are marked with "G." Most of these copies are additional copies of especially faded photocopies that were already in Special Collections. One of them (item 12a), however, is new.

Dates

  • 1824-1885

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

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

RESTRICTED. Items 3, 9, 14, 18, and 28 (original documents) are fragile. Positive photocopies available for research. Use of original material requires special permission.

No Interlibrary Loan.

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

Biographical Note

Lovely County was created in 1827 by the Arkansas Territorial Legislature. The county included most of a large purchase of land, in present-day northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma, made by Indian agent William Lovely in 1816. The county seat was Nicksville, near the present location of Tahlequah. In 1828 the western border of Arkansas was moved to its present location, and a special session of the Arkansas Territorial Legislature "extinguished" Lovely County and incorporated its Arkansas lands into Washington County.

Extent

0.25 Linear Feet (42 items in 1 box)

Arrangement of the Papers

Materials are arranged chronologically.

All the copies of each document are clipped together as one item.

Acquisition Information

Five original business papers, 1824-1831, were donated to Special Collections by Mrs. Melvin (Maggie) Smith, Siloam Springs, January 11, 1980. In addition, Mrs. Smith had already donated photocopies of material she had used in preparing her article, "The Nicks and Gibson Papers and Lovely County" (Benton County Pioneer, vol. 12, no. 4, October, 1967, pp. 86-95).

Processing Information

Processed by Nan Lawler, Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas, in May 1987. Finding aid language was updated by Catherine Wallack in November 2023 as part of a project to update outdated or harmful description related to slavery or to enslaved persons.

Title
Maggie Smith Collection
Status
Completed
Author
Nan Lawler
Date
May 1987
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Department Repository

Contact:
University of Arkansas Libraries
365 N. McIlroy Avenue
Fayetteville AR 72701 United States
(479) 575-8444