60th edition of The Record highlights baseball, CCC camps

Members of CCC Camp 3777, April 1941, at Lake Catherine State Park. More photos of Civilian Conservation Corps workers in Garland County and a guide to the CCC in Arkansas are in the Garland County Historical Society's annual journal, The Record 2019. - Submitted photo
Members of CCC Camp 3777, April 1941, at Lake Catherine State Park. More photos of Civilian Conservation Corps workers in Garland County and a guide to the CCC in Arkansas are in the Garland County Historical Society's annual journal, The Record 2019. - Submitted photo

The 60th edition of The Record, the annual journal of the Garland County Historical Society that brings to "vivid life" the people, places and events that shaped the heritage of the community, will be released this month, its executive director, Liz Robbins, said this week.

Baseball takes center stage on the 2019 edition of The Record; according to a news release from the historical society, the cover features a team picture of the Pittsburgh Pirates taken on the lawn of the Eastman Hotel on March 22, 1912. Behind the players on Reserve Avenue are the Army and Navy General Hospital building on the right and the Imperial Bath House on the left.

"I'm sure readers will be entertained and educated by the articles and numerous photographs in The Record," Robbins said in the release. "Our members will receive the journal as a benefit of membership, and nonmembers can purchase the journal. Its sales help fund our work, as do sales of many books, like 'Then and Now: Hot Springs, Arkansas' that explore local history."

Baseball historian Don Duren will offer stories from Hot Springs' legendary days as the home of Major League Baseball spring training in this edition.

Some of the other features of this year's edition include the following:

• Toma Noble Whitlock tells the story of World War II hero Pvt. 1st Class Clyde House, a native of Garland County who died in combat on Dec. 6, 1944, in the Netherlands (see related story on Page One).

"Clyde has not been forgotten, however. Whitlock explains what the citizens of Margraten, Netherlands, have done to honor the Americans, including Clyde, who sacrificed their lives for the Netherland's freedom. This is an amazing story of gratitude and remembrance," Robbins said in the release.

• Clay Farrar reveals why Hot Springs was regarded as the "Mecca" for syphilis treatment in the United States from the 1870s to the mid-1940s. Dr. Christopher Thrasher explores the life of Harry Hallock, Hot Springs Reservation's only medical director, whose time here (1910-1913) was "tumultuous and ultimately tragic."

• Guy Lancaster relates the story of Gilbert Harris' lynching in 1922 and analyzes the nature and extent of Ku Klux Klan activity in the community. Later in the 1920s, U.S. Sen. Joseph T. Robinson took center stage at the Arlington Hotel as he accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president, as reported by Dr. Ronald D. Greenwood.

• Kary Goetz surveys the resources that can guide a student of President Franklin Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps in Arkansas, complete with photos of CCC members at work in Garland County. And Greenwood takes readers back in time to June 10, 1936, when FDR visited Hot Springs for the first and only time.

• Gail J. Ashbrook reveals a surprising side of Hot Springs' notorious Mayor Leo P. McLaughlin, and Renee Lambert Lucy presents fascinating vignettes of famous females -- from Annie Oakley to Polly Adler -- who were drawn to the Spa City.

• The late Rev. James W. Mosley's article about the W.C. Brown family describes the history and philanthropy of a Hot Springs family whose Neoclassic home has been a local landmark since 1898. Erin Young-Dahl separates fact from fiction as she destroys the myth of the Hot Springs volcano.

The Record's delivery is scheduled so that pick-up can begin Friday at the Garland County Historical Society, 328 Quapaw Ave. The journal sells for $25, $30 if mailed, and will be available between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Call 321-2159 for more information. Starting next week, The Record 2019 can also be ordered through the society's website at http://www.garlandcountyhistoricalsociety.com or by mail at Garland County Historical Society, P.O. Box 21335, Hot Springs AR 71903.

Local on 12/15/2019

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