I love historical places and the history behind them is always amazing to me. This is the Rice Upshaw House that is believed to have been built in 1827 or 1828 by Reuben Rice. As of October 6, 2004, this house is registered with the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest documented log structure still standing in Arkansas under Criterion C and under Criterion A due to the homes early date and the family’s role in early settlement for its association with exploration and settlement in Randolph County.
fixed from picture taken from The Upshaw Family
The Rice Upshaw Home is located on highway 93 going towards Dalton, Ar. The Rice family moved from Hawkins County, Tennessee, to join other family members who settled in this area around 1802. The United States did not acquire this land from France until 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase, and the Arkansas Territory was formed in 1819. Lawrence County was approximately two-thirds of the northern part of Arkansas which at the time was part of the Missouri Territory. On October 29, 1835 Randolph County was created and Arkansas became the 25th state on June 15, 1836.
Randolph County's many streams and rivers attracted early settlers as they made travel easier than in other parts of the state besides providing easy water access for settelements. One of the first settlers to arrive in Randolph County in 1802 was William Looney and three of his slaves. He returned to Tennessee in 1803 to encourage his cousins, Coleman and Fielding Stubblefield, to return to the Eleven Point River in Arkansas with him. A wagon train arrived from Tennessee in 1812 brought his extended family to meet him which included the Rice family. The nearest place for these early settlers to get supplies was in Cape Girardeau, Missouri that took William two weeks to get there and back.
Reuben Rice and his family settled approximately one mile east of the Eleven Point River by a small creek now known as the Upshaw Creek which was across the river about a mile away from William Looney. Legal documents found that Reuben signed his name with an (X) leaving the impression that he must have been illiterate and yet found that he was commissioned as an election judge in 1824, 1827, and 1829 for Davidson Township. It is believed that the elections were held in his home during the years he served. There is also a distinct possibility that the house which stands today may have been used as a polling place for territorial elections.
Rice built the current house on the property c.1826. A recent dendrochronology study of the house, conducted by the University of Arkansas, determined that the logs were cut between June 1826 and April 1827 from trees that began growing between 1700 and 1751. Logs were normally allowed to season for several months. Therefore, the house could have been built in late 1826, but was most likely built in 1827 or as late as 1828.
After Reuben’s death, his son Thomas Blackman Rice and his wife Nancy Stubblefield Rice moved into the home. Their daughter Lydia married Andrew Jackson Upshaw and continued to live in the home which had became known as “Old Monarch.” While in her seventies, Lydia’s daughter-in-law, Melissa Upshaw, wrote a book titled Lydia of the Valley, that recorded stories told to her of the people who had made the house their home. The book mentions specific features of the property, many of which no longer exist. One feature specifically mentioned is a springhouse and detached kitchen, which could easily be the outbuilding that remains standing to the west of the house.
The house has been owned by Rice and Upshaw family members for almost 180 years. The house remains in the Upshaw family today and is now owned by Dorothy Jean Upshaw.
Today, the Rice-Upshaw House represents an important tangible link to the early history of Arkansas and Randolph County. Constructed c.1826, the Rice-Upshaw House is an outstanding example of an early nineteenth century log dwelling. The Rice-Upshaw house is one of the two oldest remaining standing buildings in Arkansas, and a rare surviving example of a building from Arkansas’s territorial period.
Links I used as sources to retell this house's story.
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~arrandol/UpshawFamAlbum.htm
http://reach.blackrivertech.org/?page_id=2
http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/historic-properties/_search_nomination_popup.aspx?id=2130
http://hiltonhandcraft.com/heritagecenter/BuildingStudy/RiceUpshaw/Default.asp
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17925159@N00/623648162/
http://www.randolphcomuseum.org/news.htm
