By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
The Cabot Public Library held a free local history fair last Saturday. It was its second history fair this year.
“I wished this happened 40 years ago. There would have been more people alive to fill in the blanks,” Gerald Spence said.
Civil War re-enactors First Michigan Battery G brought a cannon and set up an encampment in the library courtyard.
Local historians Rusty Eisenhower and R.D. Keever brought a display of Civil War bullets and relics they have recovered at military camps near Camp Nelson Confederate Cemetery in Cabot.
Eisenhower and Keever continue their work to preserve the once-forgotten Old Austin Pioneer Cemetery. The oldest engraved headstone dates to 1831. This month they uncovered four additional markers and two footstone markers.
Archaeologist Robert Scott with the University of Arkansas Archaeological Survey had pottery shards dating back to thousands of years ago.
The Cabot Public School’s Museum of American History displayed a soldier’s uniform from the First World War. The museum is seeking artifacts, photos and information from WWI to keep soldiers from being forgotten.
Representatives of the Major Jacob Gray Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Genealogy and Research Center at the Lonoke County Museum explained to people how to research their ancestry.
Ken McCleod of Cabot is a volunteer with Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock. McCleod gave a lecture on the attack on Pearl Harbor and about how to construct a diorama. It has a 10-by-12 feet model on the Pearl Harbor attack.
“It was informative. I enjoyed all the presentation,” McCleod said.
Cabot Public Library genealogist and reference librarian Leisa Horness said 125 people attended the history fair. “People seemed to enjoy the fair. The level of interest was good. The Civil War re-enactors made apple crisp at the encampment. I was pleased to learn of Pearl Harbor and the Old Austin cemetery,” Horness said.
