Old Statehouse Museum in Little Rock

A recent layover at UAMS Medical Cneter in Little Rock offered an opportunity to visit a site important to the history of all counties in Arkansas - The Old Statehouse Museum.

This is the building where Secession from the Union was hotly debated and where Isaac Murphy cast the lone dissenting vote during the final tally. The Izard County Representative, Alexander Adams, was one of four holdouts who also voted against Secession until the final vote.

This was the center of Arkansas Governance where Henry Rector ordered the State Militia to hunt down and arrest all members of the Mill Creek Peace Organization Society

An article in The Arkansas Encyclopedia of History and Culture reads:

Most county residents opposed secession. Alexander Adams, the county’s representative in the state legislature, voted against secession until the final vote. He was one of the last four holdouts. In May 1861, the Mill Creek Peace Organization Society was formed with the aim of keeping peace in the county and maintaining neutrality in the coming war. That November, Governor Henry Massie Rector ordered the county’s state militia and the Third Arkansas Cavalry to arrest members of the group. Society members who resisted were shot. The ninety-seven who were arrested either joined the Confederate Eighth Arkansas Infantry or were sent to prison at Little Rock (Pulaski County).

NOTE - Check in later this week for a post on our visit to the Old Independence Regional Museum in Batesville!