BENTON — Patricia Ashley of Benton knew she had something special when she noticed the envelope in her mailbox said “The White House.”
Inside was a personal letter from President Barack Obama sending his “warmest wishes” on the 175th anniversary of Saline County and on Ashley’s recollections of her grandfather, Wes Ashley, one of the founders of what became the Ralph Bunche community.
Ashley had written to the president, along with Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and others, about the community and her grandfather, but she said she was surprised to receive a reply.
“I was stunned to see that I had received an answer,” Ashley said. “Once I read it, I was screaming and hollering.”
Wes Ashley was born in 1871 just six years after the Civil War. He purchased land outside Benton in 1904 and built a home at the top of a hill on Dixie Street.
According to Ashley’s research on her family, this turned out to have been the beginning of the African-American community in Benton.
“The community was platted around the house,” she said, citing county land records.
Ashley said her grandfather was a skilled entrepreneur who was a farmer, raised hogs, worked at a sawmill and was the foreman of a gravel pit. He also owned a sanitation service for more than 35 years.
“He started with a wagon, but then had a truck to pick up trash later,” she said.
In the letter, dated Sept. 7, President Obama wrote that Ashley’s story of her grandfather was one of “countless tales of individuals who overcame tremendous obstacles to forge new trails that have shaped our country’s pathway” and become part of the nation’s story of progress.
“Through hard work and unwavering faith in America’s promise of equal opportunity, generations of determined men and women joined in common purpose to build a better future for all our children,” the president wrote. “Their memory continues to inspire us and reaffirm a fundamental American truth: that out of many, we are one.”
Ashley said her grandfather died in 1964, at the age of 93. When she became an adult, she said, she realized that little was known about him, and she began a search for her grandfather’s story.
Ashley headed for the Saline County Library, where she met Steve Perdue, curator of the David O. Demuth Arkansas Room at the Herzfeld Library in Benton. Perdue is a historian and genealogist who helped Ashley start her research.
Using county tax records, recorded deeds of land sales in the county and the national census, she was able to bring some of her grandfather’s story together.
Wes Street, named by community members, ran behind the house and was named for Ashley’s grandfather, but later the name was changed to Gum Street.
“The land was re-platted about 1930 when it became part of Benton,” Ashley said.
She would like to see the name changed back. Ashley hopes the president’s letter will help her achieve that goal.