Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 08/02/06

SUMMARY

Wallace-Menard-Coose Cemetery is part of a landscape that retains physical traces, as well as historical and cultural continuities, from Arkansas’ colonial era. The orientation of the cemetery and its older grave rows conforms to the orientation of the 1797 Spanish grant in which the cemetery is located. The persons buried in the cemetery include numerous descendents of the original grantee, Marie Messager (1741-1804). Among these descendents are members of the Menard family that is connected with the early history of the Menard-Hodges nearby archeological site, a National Historic Landmark. The Nady community is the namesake of the Nady family that immigrated to Arkansas County from France early in the 19th century. Members of the Menard and Nady families played a prominent role in Arkansas and Desha counties in the mid- and late 19th century. As such, the Wallace-Menard-Coose Cemetery is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places with local significance under Criterion A and Criteria Consideration D for Cemeteries. At the time the property was submitted to the AHPP for National Register nomination, the case presented was not strong enough to warrant NR listing, due to two facts: The Wallace-Menard-Coose Cemetery is not the oldest cemetery in the area, and there simply was not enough information to warrant National Register listing. When more concrete and solid information is presented to make a strong and viable case for NR listing, it is the intent of the AHPP to re-evaluate the cemetery’s significance and proceed with nominating the cemetery to the National Registerof Historic Places.

ELABORATION

The environs of Nady, at the southern tip of the Little Prairie, are in the portion of Arkansas that saw the earliest European settlement in what is now the state of Arkansas, including Tonty’s 1686 post (Arnold 1991: Figure 1). The Menard-Hodges archeological site, about one-half mile southwest of Wallace-Menard-Coose Cemetery, along with the adjacent Wallace Bottom archeological site, appear to be the locations of the late 1600s Quapaw village of Osotouy, Tonty’s 1686 Post, and the early to mid-1700s French Arkansas Post (House 2002).

In the early years of the American era, Spanish Grant 2351, comprising 320 arpens (approximately 272 acres) was surveyed by William Russell for the heirs of “Marie Messagee” (Marie Messager, ca. 1741-1804). This survey was recorded on the 19th of February 1818 (Christensen 1971: 27). Property abstracts for tracts within Spanish Grant 2351 give the date of the original grant as 1797. Marie Louise Catherine Messager, a native of Kaskaskia in upper Louisiana, came to Arkansas Post between 1787 and 1793 with her second husband, merchant Jacques Charles Gossiau. Upon her death in 1804, she left the Spanish grant to her son Athanase Racine (1772-1848), by her first husband Athanase Racine (d. 1781), a native of Quebec (Core 1978, 1979, 1980). The location of the Marie Messager’s grave is unknown. Marie Messager’s descendents, by Jacques Charles Gossiau, include Napoleon Bonaparte (N. B.) Menard (1849-1916) and his brother Julian Menard (1851-1918), both buried in Wallace-Menard-Coose Cemetery, and their respective descendants, many of whom are also buried in the Wallace-Menard-Coose Cemetery.

At the time of the Edward Palmer’s pioneering archeological investigations in Arkansas in 1881-1883 on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, the brothers N. B. and Julian Menard had homes adjacent to the large Indian mound at the Menard-Hodges site (Jeter 1990: 138-140, 242-251). A photograph dated ca. 1900 shows Menard family members and their relatives standing in front of Julian Menard’s home.1 In his bookColonial Arkansas, Morris Arnold (1991: 45-46, Figure 18) commented that the interior chimney and surrounding galleries of this structure conform to a vernacular style common in colonial Louisiana. Dorothy Core (1980b:17) identified the woman standing at the left in this photograph as Lucille Nady Menard Sweeny (1814-1917). Lucille Nady and her brother Frank Nady (1833-1903), natives of France, came to Arkansas via New Orleans with their father Francois (Frank) Nady (d. 1845), mother, and siblings in 1844. In 1845 Lucille Nady married Athanase Francois Menard (1803-1861), great grandson of Marie Messager and Jacques Charles Gossiau. The couple’s children include the brothers N. B. and Julian Menard. Following Francois Menard’s death, Lucille Nady married Jasper Sweeny. An entry in Goodspeed’s (1890)Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas states that the younger Frank Nady, following his service in the Confederate Army, amassed a farm embracing 1,000 acres of fine bottomland, a cotton gin and livestock. Lucille Nady and the younger Frank Nady are buried in Wallace-Menard-Coose Cemetery.

The descendents of the Menards and Nadys include many individuals buried in Wallace-Menard cemetery with family names Wallace, Rice, Stoneking and others (Core 1991).

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF SELECTED PERSONS BURIED IN THE WALLACE-MENARD CEMETERY

Lucille Nady Menard Sweeny (1814-1917)Lucille Nady and her brother Frank Nady (1833-1903), natives of France, came to Arkansas via New Orleans with their father Francois (Frank) Nady (d. 1845), mother, and siblings in 1844. In 1845, Lucille Nady married Athanase Francois Menard (1803-1861), great grandson of Marie Messager and Jacques Charles Gossiau. The couples’ children include the brothers N. B. and Julian Menard. Following Francois Menard’s death, Lucille Nady married Oliver P. (Jasper) Sweeny. The long life of Lucille Nady exemplifies the joint French and English-speaking cultural heritage of this part of the Arkansas Delta.

Frank Nady (1833-1903)Frank Nady and his sister Lucille Nady (see above), natives of France, came to Arkansas via New Orleans with their father Francois (Frank) Nady (d. 1845), mother, and siblings in 1844. An entry in Goodspeed’s (1890) Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas states that the younger Frank Nady, following his service in the Confederate Army, amassed a farm embracing 1,000 acres of fine bottomland, a cotton gin and livestock. The Arkansas Post Museum State Park exhibits an original portrait photograph of Frank Nady and his wife Emily. A photograph in the Desha County Museum shows Frank Nady and others at Yancopin in Desha County ca. 1901 (Kelley 1977).2

Julian Menard (1851-1918)Julian Menard and his brother N. B. Menard (see below) were descendants of Marie Messager, the recipient of the Spanish era land grant that includes the location of Wallace-Menard-Coose Cemetery. At the time of Edward Palmer’s pioneering archeological investigations in Arkansas in 1881-1883, the two brothers N. B. and Julian Menard had homes adjacent to the large Indian mound at the Menard-Hodges site (Jeter 1990: 138-140, 242-251). In an 1882 drawing by African-American Artist Henry J. Lewis (Jeter 1990: Figure 7.32) depicts the homes of Julian Menard and N. B. Menard, respectively, flanking the mound. The archeological site of Julian Menard’s 19th century home is among the cultural resources within the boundary of the Osotouy Unit of Arkansas Post National Memorial.

Napoleon Bonaparte Menard (1849-1916)At the time of Edward Palmer’s pioneering archeological investigations in Arkansas in 1881-1883, the two brothers N. B. and Julian Menard had homes adjacent to the large Indian mound at the Menard-Hodges site (Jeter 1990: 138-140, 242-251). N. B. Menard’s house appears to the right of the mound in Henry J. Lewis’s 1882 sketch, cited above. The site of N. B. Menard’s home, along with that of his brother Julian is within the boundary of the Osotouy Unit of Arkansas Post National Memorial.

SIGNIFICANCE

Wallace-Menard cemetery is part of a landscape that retains physical traces, as well as historical and cultural continuities from Arkansas’ colonial era. The persons buried in the cemetery include numerous descendents of French settlers who arrived on the lower Arkansas River area before 1803. Among these are members of the Menard family who are descendents of Marie Messager (ca. 1741-1804), the recipient of the 1797 Spanish Grant in which the cemetery is located. The Menard family is also connected to the early history of the Menard-Hodges nearby archeological site, a National Historic Landmark. The Nady community is the namesake of the Nady family that immigrated to Arkansas from France early in the nineteenth century. Members of the Menard and Nady families played a prominent role in Arkansas and Desha counties in the mid- and late nineteenth centuries.

The orientation of the cemetery and its older grave rows conforms to the orientation of the Spanish grant in which the cemetery is located.

Though the Wallace-Menard cemetery continues to be used for burial by local families, this occurs infrequently. Over 80% of the marked graves predate 1956. It is being nominated to the Arkansas Register under Criterion A with local significance for its association with the Colonial and early American era exploration and settlement and Criteria Consideration D for cemeteries.

Notes:
1 Original photograph is in possession of Ray W. Menard, Tulsa, OK; copy on exhibit at Arkansas Post Museum State Park, Gillett.

2 Original photograph at Desha County Museum, Dumas.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arnold, Morris S.
1991 Colonial Arkansas: a Social and Cultural History. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville.

Christensen, Katherine
1971 Extracts of Arkansas Early Land Records, 1816-1823. Photocopy of manuscript on file at Arkansas Archeological Survey, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Core, Dorothy
1978 "Marie Messager, an Arkansas Matriarch, Part I." Grand Prairie Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 21, Nos. 3 and 4, pp. 26-30.

1979 "Marie Messager, an Arkansas Matriarch, Part II." Grand Prairie Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 22, Nos. 1 and 2, pp. 38-48.

1980a "Marie Messager, an Arkansas Matriarch, Part III." Grand Prairie Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 23, Nos. 1 and 2, pp. 21-42.

1980b "Some Descendants of Marie Messager." Grand Prairie Historical Society Bulletin, Vol 23, Nos. 3 and 4, pp. 11-29.

1991 "Nady: An Arkansas County Family and Community I." Grand Prairie Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 34, Nos. 3 and 4, pp. 2-11.

Goodspeed Publishing Company
1890 Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas. Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago. Transcibed copy of entry for Frank Nady athttp://www.rootsweb.com/~ardesha/goodspd.htm. Accessed 21 March 2006.

House, John H.
2002 "Wallace Bottom: A Colonial-Era Archaeological Site in the Menard Locality, Eastern Arkansas." Southeastern Archaeology 21: 257-268.

Jeter, Marvin D.
1990 Edward Palmer’s Arkansaw Mounds. University of Arkansas Press, Fayetteville.

Kelley, George P.
1977 "Frank (or Francois) Nady." Grand Prairie Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 20, Nos. 1 and 2, pp. 4-5.