BATESVILLE — Visitors looking for remnants of family history, or other historical information, find a number of resources in Old Independence Regional Museum’s archival research room.
These resources include dozens of local newspapers over the past decades that have been transferred to microfilm.
Microfilm reading machines are in short supply now, so the museum was pleased to receive a good one from the White River Regional Medical Center.
Their medical records are now stored digitally and they no longer needed it. However, the museum needed a sturdy table for the heavy machine to sit upon.
“Charles Jordan came to our rescue,” stated Twyla Gill Wright. “He offered to design and construct just the right size table for us as a donation in memory of his mother L. Irene Moody.”
He delivered on that offer and he and his wife, Linda, recently brought in the unit he had built. It even has a slide-out writing surface for researchers to take notes as they view a film, according to Wright.
Normal museum hours are Tuesday-Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3 for adults, $2 for seniors and $1 for children. The museum is located at 380 S. Ninth St., between Boswell and Vine streets in Batesville.
Old Independence is a regional museum serving a 12-county area: Baxter, Cleburne, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Marion, Poinsett, Sharp, Stone, White, and Woodruff. Parts of these present-day counties comprised the original Independence County in 1820’s Arkansas territory.
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Pictured are Charles and Linda Jordan; photo from www.facebook.com/oldindependenceregionalmuseum/
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Lacy, 34, spent most of her life in the hills of Lawrence County. Today, she lives in Cave City, the home of “World’s Sweetest Watermelons,” in what’s known as the Prince Matlock house. Its former owner helped create what’s known as the Cave Courts where the city’s cave lies above the Crystal River. He fashioned his home out of the same rocks and materials that are found among the cave’s property, and she feels blessed to now be its caretaker for many more years to come.