While the thought of scrapbooks often conjures up visions of baby photos and greeting cards, a scrapbook donation recently made to the Garland County Historical Society holds more than just personal significance.
Former Garland County Judge Larry Williams, who served from 1995-2010, recently donated the four books that record his eight terms in that position, which anthologize not just his own experiences, but what happened throughout the area.
"The scrapbooks aren't just about me and my administration," he said, noting they document most major events that happened in county government during that time frame, including news articles covering many of his friends and colleagues.
Liz Robbins, executive director of the Historical Society, said in a news release, "These scrapbooks are a valuable addition to our archives, and we're very grateful to Larry, who was Garland County's longest-serving judge. The scrapbook articles will greatly enhance the ability of researchers to understand the political and civic story of our community."
The society previously received scrapbooks detailing the period of 1983-1994, when Bud Williams served as county judge, and Larry Williams said he perused those three times in just the past year, researching the Garland County Health Unit, annexation attempts by the City of Hot Springs, and former Justice of the Peace Alphonso Logan.
Flipping through his own scrapbooks brought back memories for Larry Williams, and gave him a sense of how quickly time has gone by. He shared one anecdote with The Sentinel-Record, jarred from his mind by a newspaper story written during his first term about the county's new voting machines.
"When we changed voting systems from those old lever machines ... the successful vendor had offered a trade-in allowance on those old machines, and they were stored in a building on Third Street. They came and picked up some of them, but they never came back and got the rest of them."
He said he was not getting any response from his repeated attempts to contact the vendor, so finally gave up. Williams happened to know of another jurisdiction that used the old machines and wanted to acquire them for parts.
"So I sold them -- I sold those voting machines twice," he said.
The scrapbooks also detail what he sees as his biggest accomplishment, which was his work with the quorum court, particularly former Justice of the Peace Roger Smith, to implement mandatory household garbage collection.
Williams said he was vilified for the effort and it almost cost him his third term. However, the tone has definitely changed over time, and he said, "People still tell me today that this was the best thing I did as county judge. The service is now about 20 years old, and the green carts are here to stay."
He said he added to the last scrapbook when he made the donation this past week, since he realized an invitation and the newspaper coverage from his retirement party hadn't been included. But Williams wasn't scrapbooking during his time as judge.
"I need to thank my dedicated secretaries who worked for me during this 16-year period for maintaining these books," he said.
Williams has considered writing a book about local political history, but is too busy to work on it now, with his service as Hot Springs City Director for District 4, classes he teaches in government, and positions on boards and committees. He knows, though, the scrapbooks will be kept safe at the society, and he'll be able to access them if and when he begins research for a book project.
The Garland County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization located at 328 Quapaw Ave. Its archives are open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon on weekdays.
Local on 03/26/2017