It's 1:30 p.m. on a Tuesday, and dinner is served. This is dinner in the old Southern style, early afternoon rather than evening. We're seated in the grand dining room of the Graham-Gaughan-Betts House, which was constructed in 1858 by Joseph Graham at a time when Camden was booming as a cotton port on the Ouachita River. The home, which has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1974, is known for its elaborate front porch and its interior woodwork.
I'm with a group of fellow Arkansas history enthusiasts, and we're retracing the route of the troops commanded by Union Maj. Gen. Frederick Steele during the Civil War's Camden Expedition in 1864. Steele used this house as his headquarters during his short occupation of Camden that spring. We're having fried chicken, greens, peas, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, biscuits and gravy as the owner of the home, George Betts, urges us to get seconds. I'm reminded of the summer midday meals of my youth upstream on the Ouachita River at Arkadelphia. My father would come home from work, we would eat a big meal at 1 p.m., and then he would take a short nap on the couch before going back downtown. We called that dinner. Supper on summer evenings consisted mainly of leftovers.
Betts gives us a tour of the home after the meal. The application for the National Register that was filed by his parents in the 1970s notes: "When the Graham-Gaughan-Betts House was built for Maj. Graham in 1858, it was planned to be one of the best and most handsome of the period. Building on a lot acquired from his brother, Dr. Henry Graham, this two-story frame structure was planned as a residence for Maj. Graham's large family. Maj. Graham and his wife, Mary, were natives of North Carolina, and the house they built in Camden was modeled after a North Carolina home that Mrs. Graham had admired as a girl. Camden's best craftsman was hired to make the interior of the house as handsome as possible. ...
"Mrs. Graham was intensely Southern in her sympathies and did much to alleviate the discomfort and suffering of Confederate soldiers as they retreated from Camden before the Federal troops under Gen. Frederick Steele in April 1864. Mrs. Graham could also adjust to strained situations. When Gen. Steele made his headquarters at her home during the brief Federal occupation of Camden, she managed to discover that they had mutual friends in New York."
Like so many Southerners, the Grahams experienced serious financial difficulties following the war. They took in boarders in an attempt to make ends meet. Maj. Graham died in 1871, and his widow continued to live in the house until her death in 1888. The house was purchased by Thomas Gaughan in 1899 and remained in his family for decades. When the Betts family bought the home in the early 1970s, an extensive renovation project began. The house is just down Washington Street from Camden's most famous structure, the McCollum-Chidester House, built in 1847 by local merchant Peter McCollum. It was the headquarters of the Chidester Stage Line in the late 1850s, was also a military headquarters during the Civil War, and has been used in the filming of television shows.
Camden was among the state's leading cities at the time of the Civil War. Daniel Milam writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture: "During the 1850s, Camden served as the supply center for several counties and was the mercantile center for a radius of 100 miles. During this time, as many as 40,000 bales of cotton were shipped from its wharfs in a single year. As a steamboat river port, Camden had accommodations and transportation to service the planter provisioning trade to New Orleans. ... After the Civil War, cotton production remained important to Camden. Much of it was accomplished by sharecropping. Steamboats continued to navigate the river, but railroads were coming. Trains opened up markets for Ouachita County's pine and hardwood forests. Though they were challenged by the railroads, the steamboats continued to serve Camden until the 1930s."
Camden flourished during the first half of the 20th century. Oil was discovered in Ouachita County in the 1920s, allowing some residents to become wealthy. International Paper Co. constructed a massive paper mill in the late 1920s, and Camark Pottery and Grapette sodas became well-known brands that came from Camden.
The Camden Army Air Field opened in 1942. The Shumaker Naval Depot was constructed just across the county line in Calhoun County. The depot closed in 1957, but the land was transformed into the Highland Industrial Park, which attracted defense contractors. The city's population soared from 3,228 in 1920 to 15,823 in 1960. It has been falling steadily since the early 1980s, though, and was down to 12,183 in the 2010 census. The 2016 Census Bureau estimate was 11,219. The biggest of the body blows came when IP closed its mill in 2000.
Despite recent economic setbacks, Camden remains filled with historic treasures. What's perhaps the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the state is the White House Cafe, which was established in 1907 by a Greek immigrant named Hristos Hodjopulas. It was next to the depot, serving those aboard the many trains coming to Camden. The founder sold the restaurant to a cousin named James Andritsos. Camden was so busy in those days that Andritsos made it a 24-hour diner.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 09/09/2017