Batesville?

[Gypsy Heart]

Is anyone living near or in Batesville. I am doing a research project near Poke Bayou and just need a few questions answered.
Thanks

 

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[bootybay]

Pleaseeeeeeeeeeee don't tell me theres the bates Motel there...

 

[badluck]

My in-laws live 14 miles north near Cave City.

Batesville, MS is where caskets are made.

No Bates motel there.

 

[Dave45]

got a few cousins that live close to there transplanted Texans, a small town called Melbourne

 

[arkhunter]

can you give a clue as to what you need to know?

 

[Gypsy Heart]

can you give a clue as to what you need to know?

I am researching the letters of John C. Luttig, ....who was appointed guardian of Sacajawea's two small children upon her death and then later were adopted by Clark....He established a trading post on Pork Bayou (Poke Bayou)near Batesville .......I want to know where the trading post was located and how to obtain a copy any map or plat showing this as an actual site.

Luttig came to Poke Bayou from St. Louis in the spring of 1814 with a stock of goods values in excess of $2300 and later in the year the house inventoried over $5000, mostly in pelts. Luttig died, from causes which are nowunknown, in July of 1815. He had a partner, one Christian Wilt of St. Louis, who claimed the post's assets upon learning of Luttig's death. There was considerable litigation in settlement of Luttig's estate, which resulted in some detailed records which Huddleston discovered and researched for an article which was published in the Independence County Chronicle, quarterly of the County Historical Society, Vol. XIII, No. 1, October 1971.
Huddleston's research produced another bit of fascinating information concerning the history of Poke Bayou which is of interest here.
Luttig's partner, Christian Wilt, wrote Luttig from St. Louis June 1, 1815, making some comments on the business at Poke Bayou and
offering some suggestions for Luttig's guidance the letter states, in part:

"I send you Levantine silk...you should get $4 the yard for it."

Who can explain stocking $4 per yard silk in a frontier trading post in 1814? Wilt was a businessman of some experience who
could have been expected to know demand for goods in the wilderness outposts where beaver skins were valued at $1.75 each, bear skins $1, and bear oil at $1 per gallon. Silk is hardly compatible with the picture of trappers and hunters, mountain cabins, and austerely dressed child-bearing wives, and the variety and quantity of the stock in Luttig's trading post suggest the possibility
of a comparatively large pioneer population and that not all of the people lived in crude huts. The letter is found in the book: Luttig, John C., "Journal of a Fur Trading Expedition on the Upper Missouri 1812-1813," edited by Stella M. Drum, reprinted by Argosy-Antiquarian LTD, New York, 1964, page 129.

Huddleston's writings of John C. Luttig and Christian Wilt, which were published for the first time in the Chronicle, also tell of numerous early settlers on the Bayou, on White River, and in Lawrence County. The news of Luttig's death in July of 1815 was taken to Christian Wilt in St. Louis by James Moore, Jr. who carried a letter from James Moore, Sr., a justice of the peace and apparently well-established pioneer, who offered to care for the trading post until other arrangements could be made. A man named Moses Graham, who was a son-in-law of Abraham Ruddell and who owned a farm at Bell Point on the White River opposite the mouth of Salado Creek, was appointed, along with Luttig's widow, as administrator of the Luttig estate.

 

[cromeboat]

Dont know if I will be any help but will see if I can find out anything good luck

 

[arkhunter]

An Original Letter from Pork Bayou, Arkansas, April 16, 1815
Dorsey D. Jones
The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Jun., 1945), pp. 89-94
doi:10.2307/1892889
This article consists of 6 page(s).
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=01...2.0.CO;2-Z&size=SMALL&origin=JSTOR-reducePage

 

[arkhunter]

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The Arkansas News


1985 Fall
Pre-Statehood
PAGE 7

« Back to 1985 Fall Issue Articles

Independence County Seat Gets New Name:
It’s Batesville Now

BATESVILLE – Today, November 7, 1824, marks another milestone in the history of Independence County, as the county seat of Poke Creek is officially renamed Batesville.

The name honors James Woodson Bates, who practiced law in this place and was the Arkansas Territory’s first representative to the United States Congress.

It was only fourteen years ago, in 1810, that settlement began here on the White River at the mouth of Poke Bayou. By 1814 a mercantile business, operated by John Luttig and Christian Wilt, had an inventory of goods worth $5,000. That considerable sum means that the Luttig-Wilt store was then among the largest in the area of Arkansas.

There were several reasons for the early prominence of the area. The geographical location of Poke Bayou was favorable, as the mouth of the bayou was in the hills just above the poorly drained land of the White River bottoms.

The St. Louis-Arkansas Post road brought travelers through the area, and the location of a government land office at Poke Bayou undoubtedly had an important impact. The U.S. government in 1818 authorized two land offices for Arkansas. One land office was at Arkansas Post, for Arkansas County, and the other was to be at Davidsonville at the mouth of the Spring River, for Lawrence County. The office at Davidsonville opened in 1820, but within three months it moved to Poke Bayou. The government land officer assigned to Davidsonville had written back to Washington, “The President has located me in a wilderness which is extremely unhealthy.”

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, who had ended a trip on the upper White River at Poke Bayou at about that time, in January of 1819, described that settlement as “a village of a dozen houses situated on the north bank of the river . . . the situation at Poke Bayou is pleasant and advantageous as a commercial and agricultural depot.”

From 1815 to 1820 the area remained a part of Lawrence County, the second county created n the Arkansas Territory. It was named for Captain James Lawrence, a naval hero of the War of 1812 who is best remembered for his battlecry, “Don’t give up the ship!” The county seat was at Davidsonville.

By 1820, when the population of Lawrence County was more than 5,600 people, it was decided to create another county, so people would not have so far to travel to the county seat.

Joab Hardin introduced a resolution in the Territorial Legislature to create a new county with a new county seat. On October 23, 1823, Governor James Miller signed the law creating Independence County from part of Lawrence County.

Governor Miller also appointed a commission of five men—John Reed, Perry G. Magness, Robert Bean, Stephen Jones, and Matthew Adams – to select “the most suitable place in said county for erecting a courthouse and jail.” They picked the settlement at Poke Bayou.

The town was officially designated a U.S. Post Office in 1820, under the name Poke Creek, and a courthouse was built in 1822.

It is that settlement that now becomes Batesville, the county seat of Independence County.

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[Treasuredawg]

I grew up in Stone County, AR about 10 miles West of Batesville. As you know by now, Batesville is one of the oldest towns in Arkansas. In fact, DeSoto visited the area in 1541 or 2 on his tour through Arkansas. I am very familiar with the town but I don't know exactly where Luttigs trading post was located. I don't know if any record was kept of the location. Can you let us know what exactly your looking for....is it just the location or something else?

Treasuredawg

 

[Gypsy Heart]

I grew up in Stone County, AR about 10 miles West of Batesville. As you know by now, Batesville is one of the oldest towns in Arkansas. In fact, DeSoto visited the area in 1541 or 2 on his tour through Arkansas. I am very familiar with the town but I don't know exactly where Luttigs trading post was located. I don't know if any record was kept of the location. Can you let us know what exactly your looking for....is it just the location or something else?

Treasuredawg

Well...without giving to much away ...I need to find the location of the trading post as a starting point to find something else....I also need to know if Luttig's widow stayed there after he died and if so did she have another residence.....

 

[Treasuredawg]

Gypsy, have you contacted the Independence County Historical Society? If you have.....were they able to give you any info. I will be glad to go by there next time I'm in Batesville and see what I can find out if you want me to.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Gypsy, have you contacted the Independence County Historical Society? If you have.....were they able to give you any info. I will be glad to go by there next time I'm in Batesville and see what I can find out if you want me to.

I would appreciate that .

 

[Gypsy Heart]

It pays to Advertise on Tnet!!!!!!! Because of this letter I was contacted by the owner of the property I am looking for .....Yeehaw!!!!!! How cool is that!!!!!

 

[arkhunter]

very good...let us know...when you can.

 

[kgcsocusavet]

Sounds like somebody is looking for the missing gold that is rumored to have left a fort around where the Melba is via a tunnel and escaped the area via the bayou.

That's why I love rumors. ... misdirection...... that gold was never lost. Just claimed by a certain group.