TRI-LAKES AREA — There were kids on top of kids running around the Gibbs cabin during Reconstruction in the 19th century.
The same cabin will see a similar sight soon.
The cabin, built in 1868 by John Crockett Gibbs, is on permanent display at the Hot Spring County Museum in Malvern. The cabin will be dedicated during a ceremony at 2 p.m. today and will be open for viewing, as will the museum's other historical structures: the Boyle House and an 1876 log cabin. There will be a reception following the ceremony on the lawn in front of the cabin.
Janice West, chairwoman of the Hot Spring County Museum Commission, said the story of the Gibbs cabin is one that was almost lost to time and circumstance.
Gibbs and his wife, Serena Alabama Harris, married in 1868 in Arkadelphia and rode the same horse to the cabin, where Gibbs' family had homesteaded land. The couple had 10 children together, and as the family grew, theyadded on to the cabin, building a house around it. The original cabin was all but forgotten until the Ouachita unit of the Department of Corrections purchased the property on Walco Road.
The prison was buying up a lot of land in that area at the time.
"When they got to the part that had the cabin, they stopped," West said.
The prison offered the cabin to the museum after it was discovered in May 2008. It took the commission 17 months to properly move, preserve and prepare the cabin to be viewed.
"It's been a lengthy process because we've done everything we can to get us recognized on the National Register [of Historic Places]," West said.
Not everything from the original cabin could be relocated. West said the original fireplace and chimney couldn't accompany the rest of the structure, but the commission "took the brick into town and intend to use that at some point." A flue in the style of those made during that time period was constructed, and a pot-bellied stove, just like one that would have been usedin 1868, was added.
The cabin also now features some timber that isn't original.
Cherry boards were added to the porch after being donated by a local farmer, West said.
The pitter-patter of little feet was once commonplace in the Gibbs cabin, and school children from all over the county and beyond will soon fill it with the sound of children again. West said the museum hosts between 700 and 800 school groups each year.
Those students will learn about the Gibbs, a prominentfamily in Malvern that homesteaded much of the city's land. It was Gibbs land that was donated to the railroad in what would become downtown Malvern, thereby ensuring that Malvern would become the county seat instead of Rockport, which was the county seat before the rail line was installed.
The museum is open from12:30-4:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays through the end of the year. In January, the museum will return to its normal operating hours of 12:30-4:30 p.m.
Wednesday through Friday.
For more information, call (501) 337-4775.
Tri-Lakes, Pages 129, 130 on 10/04/2009