Ben D. Brickhouse served three terms as mayor of Little Rock, from 1919 to 1925. He is remembered, when he is remembered, as the mayor who acquired the land where War Memorial Stadium stands -- Fair Park. There are other facts we could know about him.
Ben stood for Benjamin, and D stood for Dunton.
Born at Norfolk, Va., in 1873, he lived a while in Texas before his family settled in Arkansas in 1891. He earned a law degree from the University of Arkansas and practiced law at Little Rock.
He and his wife, Edna, had two children.
In 1925 he tried for a fourth term as mayor. He lost, historians say, because he had dropped out of the Ku Klux Klan. Brickhouse had been a proud Klansman and was elected twice with Klan support; but he became a vocal opponent of the white supremacist group in 1923 because, among other things, it gave him a list of men he was expected to appoint to city offices.
He was one of several city politicians who left the Klan in 1922 and 1923 as it made a play to control the Democratic Party. We'll be able to read more about this soon in "The Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Arkansas" by Kenneth C. Barnes (University of Arkansas Press, March 26; see a preview of this book at arkansasonline.com/31barnes).
Brickhouse remained active in politics but didn't run for office again until 1938, when he was elected to the state House. He served two terms as a state representative. He died in 1941.
Another interesting thing to know about him is he did not like rice.
Headline in the Feb. 12, 1921, Arkansas Democrat:
Mayor Doesn't Like
Rice; Eats It Anyway
The article below that headline is ... hmm. Read it for yourself. (It is too long to set off in italics, so I have enclosed it in quote marks.)
"Among the ardent supporters of the 'eat rice' campaign is Mayor Ben D. Brickhouse, who says that the people of Arkansas ought to live almost exclusively on rice until the present oversupply has been disposed of.
"The mayor admits that he isn't particularly fond of rice, but says he is willing to make the sacrifice of substituting rice for something he likes particularly well, such as hot biscuits. Besides, he thinks that by the time he has eaten rice for several weeks he will become really fond of it and want to make it a part of his regular diet.
"Mayor Brickhouse enthusiastically commends the movement to encourage the people of Arkansas to eat rice. Rice is not only one of the most nutritious foods known, but it is also one of the least expensive, and the mayor says that rice raised in Arkansas is better than that raised anywhere else in the world."
(How would a guy who didn't even like rice know that?)
"The movement is being helped along in Little Rock by making rice a part of the daily bill of fare at the city hospital and the city jail. And nearly all hotels, restaurants, cafes and public eating places are serving rice to their customers. This co-operation, together with the interest that thousands of families are taking, is bringing about the desired results."
While that sounds kind of goofy, the 1920-21 rice crop was a growing disaster. Buyers had not used up the year-before crop and now here came the state's largest rice crop. Rice farmers would be ruined if it couldn't be sold. Meanwhile rural communities were still reeling from violent unrest that followed the cotton price collapse of 1920, caused by an excess supply of that crop.
Something had to be done. All kinds of ideas were floated, not the least of which was sending shiploads of Arkansas rice to "the millions of starving Chinese people."
Little Rock merchants and bankers came up with Eat More Rice Week — the subject of the mayor's opinions. The Arkansas Profitable Farm Bureau carried the campaign statewide. The drive included advertisements and meetings. Rice was the topic of a cooking school. Recipe books were developed.
On Feb. 14, the Arkansas Gazette reported that rice growers at Stuttgart had voted to extend formal thanks to the people of Little Rock for their enthusiastic eating. Also, Joe Lyon, publicity chairman of the drive, had received a request from a Mr. French at El Dorado asking for recipe books for use in his newly opened Golden Tea Room and Rice Kitchen. The Gazette reported:
"Mr. French intends to serve rice at all hours and in all forms, he says."
The committee decided to continue its campaign for the rest of the month under the slogan "Eat rice. Talk rice. Serve rice. Order rice."
In late February, Eat Rice Week at Memphis included a "big rice parade." Rice from Arkansas was sold door-to-door there.
On March 1, as part of a national fund drive led by Herbert Hoover to raise money to feed starving orphans in Europe, a committee formed in Pulaski County to collect $25,000 to send those orphans some Arkansas rice. The Gazette reported, "It is believed that Pulaski County will be the only unit in the United States which will make a food shipment instead of a cash payment for relief work."
The fund drive would conclude with a "silent guest" banquet at the Hotel Marion:
"The food will consist of the coarse fare to which the suffering little ones of Europe are limited -- soup, bread, rice and water."
Wait — something in that idea clashes with the eat-more-rice campaign.
Other ideas were tried as well. On March 3, the Gazette reported that the Farm Bureau's agriculturalist, H.M. Cottrell, had spoken to many expert chicken growers about the virtues of feeding cracked rice to chickens instead of cracked corn. They said rice produced prettier chickens.
One Dr. Marvin M. Culpepper of Stuttgart, whose degree came from Johns Hopkins University, had spent 16 years breeding show chickens as a hobby. He showed his White Orpingtons in competitions and had won a $5,000 prize at Kansas City. Culpepper said cracked rice produced pure white plumage.
Another farmer, G.W. Fagan of Stuttgart, fed brewers' rice to chicks, and rice hull screenings to larger fowl. In winter, he fed his laying hens a scratch feed of cracked rice just as it came from the thresher and a mash feed made of rice bran, wheat shorts and beef scrap. (Wheat shorts is a byproduct of flour milling.) He raised White Leghorns, Colombia Rocks and White Orpingtons. His hens laid eggs like mad in Decembers and Januarys.
Cottrell also quoted a Barred Rock breeder at Gillett who used only rice and skim milk for his chickens. That man saw 25 eggs a day on average from 45 pullets and hens. I have no idea whether this was a good result or not, but Cottrell added that his birds were too fat.
Out of all this rice fervor in 1921 came an organization: the Arkansas Rice Growers Cooperative Association. In time this association became Riceland Foods, the world's largest rice miller and marketer.
I have nothing clever to say about that. I just think it's interesting, and it happened 100 years ago.
Email:
cstorey@adgnewsroom.com
