When I was young, I loved thumbing through Newport High School yearbooks from the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Those yearbooks had a prominent spot on the bookshelf of our family home in Arkadelphia. My father graduated from what's now Ouachita Baptist University at Arkadelphia in 1948. He was older than the typical college senior since he had served a couple of years in the armed services during World War II. He was offered a job as a high school coach at Newport, and my mother became an elementary school teacher there. I have a sister who was born in Newport. By the time I was born, the family had moved to Arkadelphia to go into business.
My favorite part of those old yearbooks were the photos of the Thanksgiving Day football games between Newport and Batesville. The crowds were massive. At the time, the two towns were roughly the same size. Batesville had a population of 6,414 in the 1950 census, and Newport had 6,254 residents. Since then, Batesville has grown to more than 10,000 residents (10,248 in the 2010 census) while Newport has remained relatively stagnant (7,879 residents in the 2010 census).
My mother, who grew up at Des Arc during the Great Depression, would talk about how she would go to Batesville for the White River Water Carnival, which was held for the 75th time in September. Batesville always seemed like a happening place to her.
It's a gray fall Friday, and James L. "Skip" Rutherford III and I are talking about those Thanksgiving Day games as Rutherford drives us into his hometown of Batesville. The man most Arkansans know simply as "Skip" graduated from Batesville High School in 1968 and headed
to the University of Arkansas, where he was the editor of the Arkansas Traveler student newspaper in 1971-72.
After working for a time as the public relations director of McIlroy Bank & Trust Co. of Fayetteville, Rutherford went to work in 1979 in the Little Rock office of newly elected U.S. Sen. David Pryor. In 1983, Rutherford left Pryor's staff to work for Mack McLarty, who at the time was the chief executive officer of Arkansas Louisiana Gas Co.
Rutherford founded the Political Animals Club of Little Rock, served on the Little Rock School Board, was the chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas, was an adviser to Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign and was the point man for the development of the Clinton Presidential Center. He has served since 2006 as the dean of the Clinton School of Public Service.
Arkansans tend to associate Rutherford with Little Rock, but his family roots run deep in Batesville. Col. James Rutherford was born on July 7, 1825, at Rutherfordton, N.C., and moved west to Batesville in 1849. He was elected as a justice of the peace in 1850, was a Confederate officer at the Battle of Shiloh, served as a state senator, was a delegate to the 1874 Arkansas Constitutional Convention and was a civic leader in Batesville until his death in 1914. The colonel was the great-great-grandfather of Skip Rutherford.
Skip Rutherford's father, James L. Rutherford Jr., was born at Batesville in 1921. He became one of the state's leading tennis players in high school, was a star in multiple sports at what's now Lyon College at Batesville and had a long career in insurance and banking.
As we head down Main Street toward revitalized downtown Batesville, we slow down in front of two historic Rutherford family homes. Farther down Main Street in the business district, there's a marker on the front of a building known as Rutherford Hall, which has housed everything from a saloon to a brothel to a Ford automobile dealership through the years. It's hard to get away from the Rutherford name in Batesville.
Batesville was one of the first settlements in Arkansas. Those who love Arkansas history can spend days reading the various markers and looking at old homes and buildings.
"Geographically, Batesville was destined to exist," George Lankford writes for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. "It stands at the point where waters of the White River exit from the sedimentary stone of the Ozarks. River traffic was forced to stop at the shoals to off-load cargo, regardless of the direction of travel. Warehouses, supply stores and buyers of furs and produce naturally congregated there. The town became one of the major cultural centers of the region. In the 19th century its leaders, many of whom moved to Little Rock, exercised influence on the political development of Arkansas far beyond what its modest size promised."
French fur traders were in the area by the 1700s. A settler named John Reed was living along Poke Bayou (which runs into the White River at Batesville) by 1812.
"By 1819, when tourist Henry Rowe Schoolcraft visited the area, there was a village of a dozen houses at Poke Bayou," Lankford writes. "He considered his arrival there from upstream a 'return to the land of civilization.'"
As tempting as it is to spend the day talking about Batesville's colorful history, we're here to view what's happening now and discuss the future. Batesville has the feel of a far larger city. That's because it has made itself the trade and medical center for an area of north-central Arkansas that has more than 50,000 residents. The keys to its transformation into a regional center have been strong banks, a focus on education and quality of life.
During a luncheon at the hip 109 Main restaurant, I have bank executives sitting on either side of me. Dale Cole is the chairman of First Community Bank. Phil Baldwin heads Citizens Bank.
First Community Bank has a large headquarters on the main highway into town, and Citizens is building a similar headquarters a few blocks to the north. Those buildings practically scream "progress" as we drive up U.S. 167. Both banks are heavily involved in community development activities. If you find a First Community Room at a local facility, you're likely to find an adjacent Citizens Room.
"Wherever you find strong banks, you'll find a strong community," Cole says.
Cole began his banking career at Dallas in 1974. He quickly moved up through the ranks at banks in Texas and Arkansas. When Boatmen's Bank sold to NationsBank in 1996, Cole lost his job. Several people in Batesville told Cole that he should start a bank there. He went door to door to raise $3,452,300 from 153 investors. The bank opened on Aug. 4, 1997, at 710 St. Louis St. with 14 employees and $3 million in capital.
By 1999, First Community had moved into the growing Searcy market. That was followed by banking locations in Cave City, Bald Knob, Highland, Cabot, Jonesboro, Mountain Home, Bay, Lepanto and finally Little Rock in October 2017 with a high-profile branch at the corner of Cantrell and Kavanaugh. In 2008, First Community moved into Missouri and now has banks at Goodman, Neosho and Jane.
In October 2013, meanwhile, Citizens announced a strategy to grow into a regional banking organization through expansion and acquisitions. At the same time, it announced the hiring of Baldwin, the former president and chief executive officer of Southern Bancorp. Baldwin had grown that bank's assets from $250 million to $1.2 billion and increased its net income from $412,000 to more than $9 million a year. The bank now has locations from Fayetteville and Rogers in northwest Arkansas to Little Rock, Hot Springs, Arkadelphia, Monticello and Crossett.
While at Southern Bancorp, Baldwin had helped lead strategic planning initiatives for Clark County and Phillips County. In July 2015, officials from the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce, Lyon College and the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville convened a meeting of more than 300 Independence County residents to discuss the feasibility of a comprehensive countywide planning process. Almost 1,200 county residents responded to a survey that was used to determine the focus of the planning process. A list of strategic goals was later released, and leaders across the county have been working since then to implement what's known as Impact Independence County.
"When you look at Batesville and see what's happening here, it's easy to understand why the city is so successful," Cole says. "The vision is being executed by a professional team of young, progressive leaders who surround themselves with quality team members who share their vision. We're just beginning to see what can be done here with their focus on the future. You can make good things happen by working together, and our mayor and chamber of commerce have done this."
In the knowledge-based economy of the 21st century, communities that have institutions of higher education have a leg up on the competition. Batesville has two.
Lyon College, which is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, was founded as Arkansas College in 1872 after Batesville lost out to Fayetteville in a bid for the state university. Rev. Isaac J. Long led the effort to open a denominational college. A school on the eastern edge of town opened in September 1872 with Long as its president. In 1994, the Arkansas College board of trustees voted to change the name of the school to Lyon College in honor of businessman Frank Lyon Sr. of Little Rock.
What's now UACCB opened in 1975 as Gateway Vocational-Technical School. Bill Walmsley of Batesville, who was a state senator at the time and is still active in civic affairs, said the name Gateway was chosen "not only because Batesville is the gateway to the White River basin but also because this school was to be the gateway to education and a better quality of life for people in this area."
The Arkansas Legislature passed a bill in 1991 that transformed Gateway and 13 other vocational-technical schools across the state into technical colleges. The publication Community College Week recognized Gateway Technical College in 1991 as being among the nation's 50 fastest-growing community colleges. The college joined the University of Arkansas System in October 1997.
Those who truly want to understand Batesville's commitment to the future need look no further than the Batesville Community Center and Aquatics Park. Taxpayers approved a one-cent sales tax in 2012, ground was broken in March 2014 and the facility was fully operational by last year. There's a gym that can accommodate three basketball and six volleyball courts, a racquetball court, group and individual fitness rooms, a weight room, community meeting rooms, a competition pool, a children's play pool and more. The facility now has more than 8,000 members. It's open from 5 a.m. until 9 p.m. each Monday through Friday and from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. on weekends.
"Batesville has become the hub for this entire part of the state," Baldwin says. "That's why it feels like a much larger place than it is."
Crystal Johnson, president of the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce, puts it this way: "At the beginning of the Impact Independence County planning process, Phil told us to dream big. We did."
Editorial on 11/11/2018