If you are going to be in Bentonville this fall to visit Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, I urge you to also visit the nearby Peel Mansion Museum and Heritage Gardens. This large and impressive home was built in 1875 by up-and-coming lawyer and future U.S. congressman Samuel W. Peel. During his long life of 93 years, Peel was an eyewitness to a great span of Arkansas history. He also made history by being the first Arkansas congressman to be born in the state.
Samuel West Peel was born near Batesville in Independence County on Sept. 13, 1831. His parents were John Wilson Peel and Elizabeth West Peel, farmers and merchants. He had two sisters. Peel's mother died when he was 4 years old, but his father soon remarried and had 11 more children.
The Peel family moved to Carrollton in Carroll County, where his father had a store. His father also served three terms during the 1850s as Carroll County clerk. Young Samuel worked as a deputy county clerk, and beginning in 1858 he served three terms as county clerk.
The Civil War erupted during Peel's tenure as county clerk, and he hid the county archives in a burial vault in the local cemetery to prevent their destruction by invading Federal armies.
Samuel Peel joined the Confederate army as a private and was soon elected major in the Third Arkansas Infantry Regiment, a unit of state troops. He received his introduction to the horrors of modern warfare in August 1861 at the Battle of Wilson's Creek near Springfield, Mo.--a bloody baptism of fire for both sides. Though the Confederates won the battle, their casualties numbered more than 1,200 killed and wounded. Peel also saw action at the Battle of Prairie Grove west of Fayetteville. Peel held the rank of lieutenant colonel when the war ended.
Returning to Carroll County at the end of the war, Peel found his home burned, not an unusual situation in northwestern Arkansas, where both unionists and secessionist neighbors waged a bitter conflict.
Ironically, Peel retrieved the county records from the local cemetery, but within a year a fire at the new county courthouse--a log structure--destroyed the archives which Peel had tried so hard to save.
Seeking a new career, Peel read law under his brother-in-law, Judge James M. Pittman, being admitted to the bar in 1865. He then opened a law office in Hindsville in Madison County. Two years later he moved his family and law practice to Bentonville. Peel's brother-in-law, future governor James H. Berry, moved to Bentonville and joined Peel's law firm in 1869. By appointment of Gov. Elisha Baxter, Peel became prosecuting attorney in 1873.
With his law practice flourishing, Peel felt confident enough to build a new home for his family--a 14-room brick residence designed in the Italianate style. Bricks for the home were produced by John Braithwaite, an English immigrant who built Bentonville's first brickyard. The structure was originally heated by eight fireplaces, each featuring distinctive mantels. The front of the home is distinguished by a three-story tower. The Peel Mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Peel had a brick icehouse built near the home. With walls almost one foot thick, the icehouse could store ice for much of the summer. Commercial ice production began in Bentonville around 1900, which meant local deliveries made the icehouse obsolete.
In 1880 Peel made an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Congress. Two years later he was successful--embarking on a congressional career that lasted a decade. Peel was an advocate of railroad construction, especially in rugged northwest Arkansas. He also promoted programs to improve agriculture. Peel took a close interest in Indian affairs, no doubt nurtured by his service as chairman of the House Committee on Indian Affairs.
Peel was defeated in his 1892 bid for re-election, falling to Hugh A. Dinsmore of Fayetteville, who had recently served as American minister to the Kingdom of Korea. Returning to his law practice, Peel specialized in Indian legal matters, serving for a time as the legal representative of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indian nations.
Dying in December 1924 at the age of 93, Peel was buried in Bentonville Cemetery.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com.
Editorial on 09/18/2016