This Old House is the Idlewild School house , located on
Highway33. According to deed recorder, the acre of land on which
it stands was sold to School District 22. for one dollar, by
Hortia and Clarence Day, whose children attended school there.
One of their son, George still lives in the community: another,
John lives in Hazen. The late J.S. Mathis, father of Mrs. John
(Margaret) Fricker, was the main carpenter when the one-room
structure was built in 1921. From then until 1949 when the
district consolidated with DeValls Bluff Schools, it was the
school attended by all the children in the community. In 1950,
it was purchased by the Idlewild Home Demonstration Club.
Over the years this building has been the focal point of the
community activities and served many other purposes in addition
to housing the school and later the club. Church services,
Sunday School, Boy Scout meetings, bridal showers and stork
showers, "play parties", pie suppers, cake walks, wiener roasts,
picnics, gospel singing- all have been and still are part of the
history of this old House.
Attendance at a reunion held at Idlewild in 1976 evidenced the
way past and present residents feel about the community and the
old school. The register showed attendance of 273 from all over
Arkansas, as well as from Ca, Fla, Mich, Ill,Tenn, MIss, Kan,
La, Tx, Iowa, Ok,and Va.
Several months ago the Prairie County Historical Society met
with the Idlewild Home EH Club to give support and encouragement
to efforts being made to preserve this historic building. Their
very generous gift of $100 was very much appreciated but much
more is necessary.
Maintenance of the building and grounds is an on-going main
project of the club and certainly the 15 members appreciate and
need all the encouragement and support available. In spite of
hard work on fund raising projects, and making every effort to
economize (the latest, having the electricity shut off to save
the $200.00 plus annual flat rate), the club is still far short
of funds badly needed to paint the building. This is the object
of their current fund raising project, giving away a full sized
Flower Garden Quilt, pieced and quilted by club members.
Donations are $1.oo each. The drawing will be held at the club's
annual bazaar and bake sale Nov. 15 - nine a.m. until noon at
Idlewild. You are cordially invited to attend and be present for
the drawing.
