Fayetteville Takes Readers Back in Time

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Fayetteville, written by Charlie Alison and Ellen Compton

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Two University of Arkansas staff members have published Fayetteville, a pictorial history of the city. Co-authors Charlie Alison and Ellen Compton, who have both served on the board of the Washington County Historical Society, produced the title as the latest in Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series. 

Ellen Compton has worked in the special collections department of the University Libraries where she oversaw the processing of the Fay Jones collection among other projects. She is semi-retired and continues to work in special collections part-time. Charlie Alison is manager of special projects for the office of university relations at the university and maintains a website dedicated to  Fayetteville history. He also serves as the editor of Flashback, the Washington County Historical Society’s quarterly historical journal.

Fayetteville ($21.99, www.arcadiapublishing.com) takes readers on a journey into the history of the area with the aid of over 200 vintage pictures. Alison said he and Compton spent time “culling the good ones and trying to find photographs that wouldn’t be as familiar to most readers, yet would help tell Fayetteville’s history.”

The pictures came from the special collections in the University of Arkansas Libraries and the Washington County Historical Society’s photo collection at the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History. “The staff members at both places — Marie Demeroukas at Shiloh Museum and Tim Nutt at University Libraries — gave us great guidance on tracking down photos and were very encouraging,” said Alison. 

“The book will appeal to someone who has lived in Fayetteville a long time and someone who just moved here last week. Even if you didn’t like history, you would enjoy seeing what the Fayetteville square looked like in the 1870s,” he added.

“Our desire was to contribute to the pictorial knowledge of Fayetteville by finding unpublished images,” said Compton. “These in turn would broaden knowledge of the development of the town.” 

Kent Brown, a University of Arkansas professor in the 1980s put together a pictorial history of Fayetteville in 1982, but that book has been out of print for many years. “The time seemed right for a new book,” Alison said.    

“Ellen went looking for old photos, and I went looking for historical background,” he continued. He was particularly interested in learning about Fayetteville during the first half of the 20^th century. “I really enjoyed tracking down information about pictures from that era,” Alison said.

“The best part: finding all the wonderful pictures,” Compton said. “Every day was a treasure hunt.”

After a little over a year of compiling photographs, Compton and Alison’s book went on sale July 18. The Washington County Historical Society will hold its annual Ice Cream Social at the Headquarters House on Dickson Street on Aug. 20 from 4 to 8 p.m., where Compton and Alison will be promoting their new book. The book is available online and locally at the University Bookstore, Nightbird Books, Hastings, and Barnes and Noble.

Because of the size of the book and limitation on the number of photographs, Alison and Compton focused on the period from the 1860s to the 1960s and held back on university photos. “A pictorial history of the university by Ethel Simpson, Image and Reflection, is still available from the University of Arkansas Press,” Alison said. “We thought it would be better to concentrate on Fayetteville images.”

“I hope the book reminds residents of Fayetteville about the rich history of the city and gives visitors to Fayetteville a glimpse into what the town was like. Thirty years ago, Kent Brown’s book made me more aware and curious and interested in Fayetteville’s history. I hope this one does something similar for the next generation,” Alison said.