Stout Lumber Company Materials

Collection

Identifier: MC 2192

Staff Only
Select files to request

Scope and Content Note

The collection contains typescripts, drafts, notes, correspondence, and photographs relating to The Stout Family in Arkansas, unpublished reminiscences by James L. (Jim) Gardner, co-authored by Hope Halpin, about working for Stout Lumber Company of Thornton, Arkansas, and about Stout Lumber founder Jim Stout and his family. Correspondence is primarily between Halpin and Gardner, but also includes a letter from Libby Wheeler to Halpin with an enclosed copy of Dwight Agnew’s “Report on Investigation of the Stout Family Activities in Arkansas,” produced for the Stout Foundation.

Dates

1914-1986

Creator

Halpin, Hope, 1901-1989 (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Access Information

Please call (479) 575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu at least two weeks in advance of your arrival to ensure availability of the materials.

Use Information

No Use Restrictions Apply.

No Interlibrary Loan.

Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).

Biographical Note

James (Jim) Lee Gardner, Sr., was born May 31, 1986, in Thornton, Arkansas, to William Lee and Mary Eula Gardner. He attended Hendrix College before joining the U.S. Coast Artillery Reserve, in which he served from 1917-1919 before returning to school. After graduation, he worked with Stout Lumber Company, and later with Arkmo Lumber Company and with his own company, Wynne Lumber Company, formed in 1942 in partnership with Henry L. (Roy) Coldren in Wynne, Arkansas. Gardner married Ruby C. Reed in 1928, and the couple had two children, James Lee Gardner, Jr., and Jack Reed Gardner. He passed away July 15, 1992, and is buried in Bluff Cemetery in Springdale, Arkansas.

Hope M. Halpin was born August 28, 1901, in Sioux City, Iowa, to Bartholomew Edward and Harriet P. Storey Halpin. The family later moved to Thornton, Arkansas, where her father was general manager of the Stout Lumber Company and served as a president of the Citizens Bank of Thornton and of the Thornton school board. Hope Halpin worked for The Eagle, a Notre Dame-based magazine, for a Baton Rouge, LA-based radio station, WJBO, and worked in advertising for Kirsehman Stores in New Orleans, LA, before moving to Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1955. She worked at the University of Arkansas Department of Printing Services until her retirement. Halpin passed away September 28, 1989, in Fayetteville, Arkansas.