By Dr. Curtis Varnell
The Mount Salem Church and school held its annual homecoming on September 20. The church and school are on the register of historic sites for the state and represents the history and character of the earliest settlers of the mountains of Arkansas. The site is now isolated and sparsely settled, nearly completely surrounded by national forest today but, during the mid-1800’s, it was a thriving community of farmers who subsisted off the rocky soils by raising cotton, corn, and various fruits.
Many of the settlers arrived in the 1850’s, leaving worn-out farmlands in South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee to purchase cheap land in Arkansas. Some of the settlers were given land as a bonus for fighting in the Mexican War or the War of 1812. Some of the early families associated with the area are the White’s, Cameron’s, Swillings, and Varnell’s. A church was built on the site as early as 1870 and the adjacent cemetery was added a year or so later.
The present church and school were built in 1910, replacing a structure that had burned. It served as a community meeting site, a church, and a school. After the great depression, people began to move from the mountain and the population declined rapidly. Much of the land was returned to the government and became a part of the national forest.
The few residents that remain in the area and the decedents scattered all over the U.S. hold an annual reunion to bring together the many individuals that have ties to the community or relatives buried in the cemetery. A celebration of the times gone by, families meet for dinner on the ground, singing, swapping of tales, and a memorial service. For a few hours, the silence of the mountain was interrupted by the joyful sounds of music presented by Kristi Culver Pfiffer, Judge Ray Jack and wife Marlene, Leona Cleveland, and Sonya Varnell. Marly and Chris Turner, recent winners of the talent show at the Johnson County Peach festival, closed out the session.
Curtis Varnell discussed the early history of the mountain with the theme, Tough Times but Tougher People. Organizer Kenneth Ezell stated it was one of the largest of the homecomings with a building full of people remembering the life, people, and history of the people of the mountain.
The Mount Salem Church and School is a historic building at 553 Mt. Salem Rd. #101 in rural Logan County, Arkansas, about 15 miles (24 km) southwest of Paris. It is a single-story wood-frame structure, with a gabled roof and clapboarded exterior. Along with the adjacent cemetery, it is the only major surviving element of the Mount Salem community, which flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This building was constructed by the community in 1909–10, and was the third building on the site. All of them served as both a church and local school.[2] The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.[1]
