18 Feb 2016 Celebrating history and family

by Sonja J. Keith

Not only is Jack Shock’s home in Searcy a testament of his love of nostalgia, he has re-created a special place that reflects a deep appreciation for history and love of family.

Footsteps from Jack’s house built about 10 years ago sits a nearly 400-square-foot building which is home to countless family treasures, including a post office.

“The Museum, that’s what my grandfather called it,” Jack said.

From 1887 until 1973, Jack’s family operated a store and post office in Enola (Faulkner County). Today, the post office has been re-created with the wooden fixtures and other items. 

Jack has special memories of his grandparents, Ruth and W.E. Bailey, and spending time in their store and like his grandfather, he feels a strong commitment to preserve history and share it with others.

W.E. was a longtime president of the Faulkner County Historical Society and was very involved in several of the group’s projects, including construction of the Cadron Settlement Blockhouse. “That’s where we got the bug was from my grandfather who was determined to make sure all of his family knew their place in history.”

Originally from Enola, W.E. joined the Army and became a musician. Among the family photos in the Museum, there is one of W.E. marching in President Franklin Roosevelt’s inaugural parade. “He saw the world through the Army, picked up skills — winemaking, beekeeping, furniture-making — but also had a passion for writing and for history that he left to his grandchildren.”

After retirement in 1973, W.E. built a space (which is identical to the one at Jack’s home) where he re-assembled the interior of the post office. “They are both gone now, as are my parents. My sister, brother and I ended up with this stuff and we wanted to put it back together.”

The Museum has the post office window with mail slots and the rural postmaster’s work station and leather satchel. 

“It was a little less open than this but for the most part it’s the exact same setup,” Jack said. “All my cousins and I grew up behind the counter. We learned how to read here. My grandmother would give us letters and she would say, ‘Find where this one goes.’ It was just a fantasy world for me.”

Jack recalls at the end of the day, wooden rubber stamps would be pulled from a drawer to cancel all the stamps, which he considered a real treat. “It’s very obvious that my family keeps everything,” he said with a laugh. “She would even sell money orders for Sears back in the day.”

The Museum also has store display cases that are now filled with family items, including Jack’s father’s baseball jersey from the 1930s, his grandmother’s hats and Army memorabilia.

“I think my dad wanted me to be a pitcher like he was, and my mother wanted me to be a preacher. They got a teacher instead.” Jack has been a journalism teacher for 31 years and is on the faculty at Harding University.

Jack said his grandmother, who was particularly fond of the title “postmistress,” had a remarkable story. She was divorced and raising two children during the Depression. “The only thing she knew to do was to open a café,” he said, adding that she operated it along with the store. “She just had to do what she had to do to feed her kids.”

Among the many items, Jack said one of his favorites items is the white dishes from the café. He also has the counter where customers sat and ate. The wood has carved slots where men would whittle. “They didn’t have any jobs and no place to go. To kill time, they would sit here.” 

At the café, his grandmother would sell a cup of chili and keep ketchup and crackers on the table for customers to add to their meal. “Because no one had any money and she was feeding the whole community. I love to think about her in those terms and think about what that means for me in 2016, and how I can leave the ketchup and the crackers on the table for people.”

Trunks and filing cabinets contain more treasures, including Jack’s grandfather’s writings and historical research as well as record books from the store. “We have all of the accounts payable books back to 1892, including who bought stamps and how many and the daily reports. They kept all of them.”

Among the documents is a record of Jack’s mother’s grandfather buying groceries from Jack’s father’s mother on April 20, 1941. Jack and a colleague from Harding were also able to find where a relative had made a purchase at the store. “It’s a voice from the past. It’s nice. It helps people connect.”

Other items in the Museum include:

A handmade replica, created by W.E., of the Greathouse Family house. The original house, which was located near Highway 64 in the area of the Eight Mile Store, had historical significance as a weigh station and boarding house. “My grandfather knew they were going to tear down this house,” Jack said. “He was determined to save that piece of history so he whittled one in the late 1960s.” 

W.E. displayed the replica at the Faulkner County Fair and would take it to schools, sharing with others what life was like in the 1800s. “He was sort of a master of public relations, which is what I teach. He taught me all of that,” Jack said. “He was always on the cutting edge of helping people remember where they came from and how important that was. It wasn’t something to be bulldozed and forgotten. Of course we have to push forward, move and grow but you have to remember.”

A collection of tools from grandfathers and uncles. “It’s a stark reminder for me,” Jack said, thinking about what his hands look like as a college professor versus theirs as farmers and hunters. “I’m a first generation to attend college. My parents were born and raised on the farm.”

W.E. also specialized in making maps and the Museum has a framed Faulkner County map reflecting his research on every school, church and cemetery. “On his own time, on his own money, he became a cartographer.”

A table, made by W.E. in the 1960s in the shape of Faulkner County, created from trees native in the county. He also created a similar piece in the shape of Arkansas. He planed and finished the wood and glued the pieces together.  

“This was before anybody was doing butcher block or butcher block was hot,” he said. “After a day of work, running a store six days a week in conjunction with my grandmother, with no Internet, he researched all the trees native to Faulkner County.”

The Museum also has items from Jack’s childhood, including toys, his baby high chair, a metal Christmas tree and a trove of newspapers and clippings. Some treasures were discovered in an old barn where they were discarded. “There’s a story behind everything in this room and I know it.”

Jack said the Museum is not a shrine to his past or those who went before him. “I see it more of a charge,” he said. “I see it as my place in the cosmos right here at this time, bringing a primitive collection forward.”

Describing himself as “extremely nostalgic,” Jack spends as much time as he can in the Museum and is happy to share it with others, although it is not open with set hours for visitors. He said the tneed to share it outweighs any concerns. “I think that would be in line with what my grandfather had in mind in the beginning.”