Pieces Of The Past

Pettigrew community gathers for homecoming

The Pettigrew Heritage Committee members had to step up to the plate after the passing of Wayne [Martin],” says Susan Collins, one of those members. “We had really depended upon Wayne to handle the details of deciding the years’ themes, all the planning, decision making and preparation work.

“Then after Wayne’s death, the committee needed to make some serious decisions concerning the mission of the committee and the future,” Collins goes on. “So, as a group, we decided that we did not want the hard work, wonderful leadership and Wayne’s vision to just fade away.”

That explains how the 34th annual Pettigrew Day celebration, homecoming, community supper and concert has continued to happen every year since Martin’s death in 2010. But the event, which Collins says is intended for the “community of Pettigrew, both current and past residents, and anyone interested in history,” owes its inception to Bob Besom and the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History, who started a relationship with the Mooney-Barker-Martin families way back in 1985. Besom, the museum’s director for many years, was invited in before the auction of the contents of the Mooney-Barker Drug Store, a Pettigrew landmark for most of a hundred years, and many items joined the Springdale museum’s collection, including photographs copied for a couple of decades at Pettigrew Day.

This year’s Pettigrew Day, set for April 14, is themed “Music, Music, Music” and will feature performances by the River Ramblers and Celtic performers Sara and Carole between 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., when the fundraising dinner showcases “some of the best cooks in Arkansas.”

“The committee provides good oldfashioned beans and cornbread and the best fried potatoes and onions anywhere,” says Collins, while also asking participants to bring a side dish and or a dessert to share. More music by the Bear Chasers follows.

Proceeds from the dinner go to maintain the Pettigrew Community Building, once the rural school. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is used for everything from baby showers to a voting precinct for a portion of Madison County.

“We believe in community and as such want to provide the community with a beautifully restored historic venue to be proud of and to use,” Collins says.

Photo courtesy Daniel P. Martin Helen Mooney Barker, longtime proprietor of the MooneyBarker Drug Store in Pettigrew, is pictured as a young mother with a car full of kids in an image scanned from the original negative inscribed “1 mile west of Pettigrew.” The sale of the drug store...