• honeysucklefarm.ok@gmail.com

Tag: mary berg

Looking for Land in All the Right Places

This post is an update to last week’s post about the deeds I found. I had a little pocket of time last week that I didn’t expect to get so I headed into Gentry, Arkansas on a quest. I stopped at City Hall and talked to the ladies there. I told them I was looking for Pierson’s Addition in Gentry. They hadn’t heard of it but I assured them there really was an addition by this name because I had a deed saying it exists. They looked and looked and finally found this:

Pierson's Addition map, Gentry, Arkansas.
Pierson’s Addition map, Gentry, Arkansas.

Pierson’s Addition map- Gentry, Benton County, Arkansas.


A map of the addition! (Thank you ladies of Gentry City Hall!) They showed me where I was on the map and gave me what sounded like simple directions to Lots 22 and 23 in Block 3 of Pierson’s addition- the lots that Albert BATES sold to the JANUARY’s (see last week’s post). So I pulled out of the City Hall parking lot excited and ready to find the lots. What started out looking like a very quick and simple drive was anything but quick and simple. According to the map, I should have been able to pull East out of the City Hall lot, turn South on Highway 59 at Little Debbie’s store and take the first street on the left- which should have been Elm Street- and go to the end of the street on the South side (right side). Alternatively, I could have taken the second left off Highway 59 onto Maple Street and gone to the same lots since the lots stretched the full distance between both streets.
I’ll save you guys some time- Elm and Maple Streets no longer exist in Gentry. There is a street close to the old grocery store that is now called 1st street and I don’t know if it’s the former Elm Street or Maple Street- or neither. I tried to get my bearings. I looked on the map for a different street. The only other named street was Center Street. In case you want to go looking for that- don’t. Center Street is now 3rd Street. There have obviously been some major changes to this area between 1962 and now.
I decided to utilize Benton County’s online resources and see if I could trace the property from Albert’s 1962 deed up through the present time to see who owns it and if possibly I could still find the property with any certainty. I wondered if the property might now be under the grocery store parking lot? Or perhaps it was now part of the church yard of the church that faces Main Street just East of the Dollar General? It took a while but here’s what I found.
The property changed hands quickly several times after Albert sold it. Some of the owners didn’t even own the property a month before they deeded it over to the next owner. Finally in July of 1975 Mary BERG deeded the property over to the Arkansas Conference Association of Seventh-Day Adventists. That is the last I can find of this property. If something else happened to it, I couldn’t find it online.
I know there is a church off of Main Street just past the Dollar General that takes up a considerable amount of the area where Albert’s place was. I don’t recall the denomination of the church though (maybe Assembly of God?). I will say I think Albert would have been pleased to have the Adventists ultimately receive the property as Albert and Dettie were Seventh-Day Adventists themselves. Neither Albert nor Dettie lived to see the property go to the SDA church. Dettie died prior to Albert purchasing the property and Albert died in 1967- almost 10 years before the church received his former dwelling place. His obituary says he was a member of the local Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

Albert Bates' obituary.
Albert Bates’ obituary.

Albert BATES’ obituary from Northwest Arkansas Times newspaper.


Maybe in the future I’ll see what kind of church records that church has and we can learn a little more about Albert’s religious choices in life. In the meantime, if you’d like to get an idea of what Albert and Dettie’s beliefs might have been as SDA members, you can check out the church’s website here. Keeping in mind, of course, that the SDA church had a big split just prior to World War II and afterward the religion consisted of the traditional group and the SDA Reformed Movement group. The split came about because SDA is a pacifist religion and some members of the church felt compelled to fight in WWI while some did not. You can find a more detailed (yet still fairly brief) history of the religion at the Seventh_Day_Adventist_Reform_Movement wiki.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this little addendum to last week’s post. Don’t forget you can also enjoy my friends’ blogs:
Down in the Root Cellar by my SIL, Becky
Recipes from Lena by my friend, Teresa
Theology for Mom by my friend, Rochelle
Digging Genealogy by my distant cousin, Annie
Have a great week!


Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

Have no product in the cart!