Blanche Hanks Elliott

Blanche had more or less decided to forsake her career for the life of a farm wife. She heeded the call for some WPA supervisory projects, including one where beef was canned by the trainload night and day at the Good Canning Co., in Fort Smith in 1934. She took a job briefly as supervisor of sewing and home canning projects in 17 counties, but was disgusted by red tape and inequities and simply got out. On the farm at Mt. Comfort, Lester and Blanche raised poultry, beef and hogs. At various times they operated their own hatchery, had laying hens and raised both turkeys and broilers. They went through the era when the poultry business evolved from grueling routines of manual labor to the more mechanized and automated techniques of today. In the process they bought and paid for the Mt. Comfort farm they had leased in the depths of the Depression. Their daughter, Shirley, was born in 1937.

On Lester's birthday, Oct. 25, 1952, the Elliott's accompanied some friends from Iowa to the old home on War Eagle Mills Farm. The friends had seen a handbill for a private sale and were interested in buying garden tools and home furnishings. A picnic lunch was packed, and Blanche was in a state of eager anticipation to return to the site of the farm women's rest camps which had been such a gratifying experience for her.

Ed and Lester tried out their fishing rods in the river while Ruth and Blanche inspected the items for sale in the house. They each bought a few things, and Blanche inquired of the lady of the house what they were going to do with the farm. The question was referred to her husband, and from him Blanche learned the 120 acre farm might be for sale. Not much more happened that day, except immediately and for days to come, as Blanche Hanks Elliott recalls, "I couldn't think of anything except that I would like to be here at this place."

Lester didn't take the notion seriously at first. "It's not big enough anyhow," he said, comparing the acreage to the Mt. Comfort farm. But Blanche got him to return to War Eagle anyway, and then they found out they could obtain an option on an adjoining 160 acres. Lester became as serious about War Eagle Mills Farm as Blanche was. They started negotiating in Nov. 1952, and by Feb. 1953, the deal was made. They had to borrow money for the down payment on the War Eagle place, and Lester divided his time between the two farms separated by a 30 mile drive until Blanche and Shirley could move to War Eagle in June, 1953. They managed to hang on until they could sell the Mt. Comfort place and firm up their position on their new lands.

Most of the rest of the story has been told many times. Blanche was a member of the Northwest Arkansas Hand-weavers Guild, and she volunteered her house, built by Sylvanus Blackburn in 1832, for a workshop in March, 1954. On the last day of the workshop, the public was invited to view antique weaving and weaving done by members during the workshop. There was a surprisingly large turnout of people-including many from Rogers, Springdale and Fayetteville. With that sort of encouragement, it was almost a natural step to invite other artists and craftsmen, and hold a full blown fair for the public in the fall. The dates were Oct. 29, 30 and 31, 1954, and the exhibits were set up in Blanche and Lester Elliott's home, Margaret Richter's home, Frank Strode's cabin and a local store, with visitors directed to tour the community and its exhibits. Visitors signed a register at the Elliott home, and a total of 2,253 were enumerated.

Blanche Elliott philosophizes now that the location, setting and time were probably all just right when the War Eagle Fair was started in 1954. Without quarreling with that statement, one has to add another vital ingredient: Leadership. When Lester Elliott was terminally ill, he urged his wife to sell all their cattle and put War Eagle Mills Farm on the real estate market. These things she did dutifully. But the price of the farm was not low, and while there were many lookers there were no takers. When Lester died on Feb. 12, 1976. the future of War Eagle Fair and its related activities were clouded. Blanche's grief was profound, and for some time she had nothing to say, but just as when she recovered from her illness on the first day of the first fair, her comeback was strong and sustained.

Blanche passed away in December 1990. Her daughter, Shirley Sutton now lives at War Eagle Mills Farm and has served as the Executive Director of The War Eagle Fair since Blanche's retirement. Shirley's husband, Fred Sr, passed away in August 2002. He is missed.

ON THE MORNING of the first arts and crafts fair at War Eagle, AR, Blanche Elliott awoke with a sick headache. "I couldn't get my head off the pillow," recalls the Executive Director of the Ozarks Arts and Crafts Fair Association who is now readying the 25th annual edition of the "War Eagle Fair" for an anticipated 100,000 visitors on Oct. 20, 21, and 22. The pain and nausea continued throughout the day. That first year exhibits were set up in the Elliott home. Occasionally throughout the day, someone would stick their head into Blanche's bedroom and sympathize with her plight. The sympathy was appreciated, but not particularly effective. Late in the evening, she managed to get dressed and to make it down the stairs. A visitor volunteered to give Blanche the first and only chiropractic treatment of her life. Buoyed by a heartening turnout of visitors to tour arts and crafts exhibits in homes, cabins and barns of the tiny little community far off the beaten path in Northwest Arkansas, Blanche staged a complete recovery and hasn't even come close to missing a day of the annual fair in the ensuing quarter of a century.

"It was just nerves," she explains. "I know that's all it was. Perhaps. But ever since Blanche Elliott has seemed to have nerves of steel, as she guided the War Eagle Fair to a position of national eminence in the arts and crafts movement, as well as sparking great development within the Ozarks. .

Blanche Elliott's nervousness on that October morning in 1954 may have come from a premonition of how significant the inaugural of the War Eagle Fair was to be. From her background, it could be said that Blanche Elliott had been preparing all her life for the job that was ahead of her.

Blanche was born midway between Springdale and Fayetteville at Johnson, or Johnson's Switch, as the railroad shipping point for products of the Ozark White Lime Co., and Crescent Lime Co., was known. Her father was a carpenter, cooper and strawberry raiser, among other vocations. Blanche and her three sisters and a brother picked strawberries in the spring and apples in the fall. Her father made barrels for the apple harvest, and when one of the lime companies sent its products to the St. Louis World's Fair, Nathan Hanks was chosen to make the barrel for the prize winning exhibit. Blanche's mother reclaimed the barrel after the fair, and today it is among Blanche's prized possessions.

She missed the era of the one-room school. Johnson had a two room, L-shaped school, with grades one to four in one room and fifth through eighth grades in the other. And of course, the two rooms could be joined for the socials and entertainments which were a staple of small Ozarks communities early in the century. Blanche got an early start in school, but it did not diminish her fervor for learning. When her older sister Bess started the first grade, four-year-old Blanche tagged along and cried to stay. On the way home with her mother, they met a school director who asked what had brought on the tears. When told, he said the school was not crowded, so why not let her stay for a few days? The child would soon grow tired of the routine and ask to stay home with her mother. Blanche didn't miss a day that year.

And she never did get tired of school. Blanche finished eight years at Johnson, then moved into Fayetteville and lived with relatives through high school which she completed in three years because she had had so much ninth grade work at Johnson. After high school she enrolled in the University of Arkansas. She met a young clerk in the Washington County Hardware Co. A native of Minnesota, Lester Elliott had been forced to drop out of school when his father died with influenza in 1918. He and his brothers and sisters lived with their mother on a small farm. During her sophomore year at the University, Blanche and Lester were married. She stayed in school and graduated in 1924. Her first job took her away from Northwest Arkansas. She taught home economics in Camden, Tennessee. But not for long.

Blanche and Lester got work in Polk County, AR. Blanche was in extension work out of Russellville, and Lester worked in the poultry department at Arkansas Tech. While at Russellville, Blanche implemented a farm women's rest camp. The idea was both innovative and responsive to a need. Farm women of that day were hard pressed by long days and multitudinous chores. The rest camps were designed to be a break in that virtually continuous routine, with time away from the farmstead and an emphasis on crafts and recreation. The first camp with which Blanche was associated was held in the Ozark National Forest at Freeman Springs. Seeing the spirits and vitality of those harried housewives so visibly lifted by a break in the routine made an impression on Blanche that she has never forgotten.

Blanche was transferred back to Benton County in the fall of 1927. Lester bought a half interest in a dairy herd on the edge of Bentonville, and Blanche continued extension work as the Great Depression settled on the land. She continued to promote farm women's rest camps in the northwest corner of the state. The site was a line of cabins on the War Eagle River, directly across from the mill pond from where the present War Eagle Fair is held. The camps continued for a number of years, but as the Depression deepened the Quorum Court, which financed extension work, decided to cut back. Blanche transferred to Batesville for a short time, then came back to Washington County where she and Lester lived in a tenant house, keeping their cows on his mother's place until they leased a farm at Mt. Comfort.

A full schedule of events was held in 1976. She stayed right on at War Eagle, with a determination that recalls her earlier statement that "I couldn't think of anything except that I would like to be here at this place." That determination and dedication to a life's work that has meant so much to so many people from the Ozarks and beyond will be in the spotlight in the 25th annual Ozarks Arts and Crafts Fair at War Eagle.

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