Day Trip to Oil Trough or What to do during a pandemic…

On Monday, a writer friend and I decided to take a short road trip to Oil Trough, Arkansas. You may ask why we would do such a thing… TWO REASONS

People can go stir crazy sitting around their homes for weeks, even if they have lots of things to keep them busy. I am writing the fifth volume of my Shiloh Saga, editing volume one so I can have an e-book published, taking care of two dogs–Shiloh and Perkins, reading lots of historical fiction, and watching old movies on TV. Once in a while, I clean some portion of my house, but that’s not high on my list of priorities. I also attend on-line church, message my friends when I think about it, and run errands in my new Jeep (but that’s a story for another time). I just wanted to get out of the house. So Oil Trough seemed like a wonderful choice for a day trip.

Reason two is probably more pertinent to this blog. Oil Trough will play a significant role in the crisis point of the last volume of this saga. I named the last book, ‘Til Shiloh Come, a phrase from the scripture I used as the pivotal theme of the books. You can check it out at Genesis 49:10. I can’t tell you what happens in the story, but I will tell you a little bit about the beautiful little town of Oil Trough and its part in Arkansas history.

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Oil Trough is a very old settlement in the state. The original name of the community was Pleasant Island (I like that name a lot). After fifteen years, plus or minus three, the name was changed to Oil Trough. This area was a haven for animals in the early days, and bears thrived there. This brought hunters who killed the bears by the scores and rendered their fat for the oil used in a variety of products, like cosmetics, cooking oil, hair dressing and tanning oil. The settlers used hollowed-out trees (hence Oil Trough) to store the treasure, and the very large “troughs”, some up to five or six feet in diameter, were floated down river as far as New Orleans, where the valuable oil was sold. Oil was not the only treasure found in this Independence County community. Settlers were drawn to the area by soil so fertile it could grow corn(maize) at the rate of forty to fifty bushels an acre and “pumpkins too large for a man to heft.” In 1864, a skirmish between the Union and Confederate forces took place on the banks of the White River at Oil Trough. This incident will be a pivotal scene in ‘Til Shiloh Come.

Today, Oil Trough is a rural community of about 260 people. Agriculture remains the prominent occupation of most of its residents. The beauty of “Pleasant Island” is evident as the river bends here and runs toward the Ozark foothills. The current runs swiftly here, and we saw an otter playing in the blue water. Our trip showed us why the first of the inhabitants of the area thought island was an appropriate name for this beautiful place. I enjoyed this day trip exceedingly. My friend and I completed the day with a picnic lunch in my car with wonderful food from the Razorback Drive-In at Bald Knob. We didn’t think about a virus or a lock-down the entire day.

Arkansas is an awesome place. Maybe you can get out and see some of it while the stores are all closed. The whole day was a bargain–a little bit of gasoline and the cost of strawberry short cake!

How the Shiloh Saga Started

One Friday while I was sitting at the front desk at the office at church, I had some time on my hands.   Being an “Office Angel” at First United Methodist Church in Jonesboro, I didn’t feel I should just piddle the time away, so I began to look for something worthwhile to occupy my time.   A large book sitting on the counter caught my eye.  Two Centuries of Methodism in Arkansas:  1800-2000, written by Nancy Britton, became that spark that sent me into a four year writing spree that evolved into the first two part of the Shiloh Saga.

This thorough, fascinating book is a comprehensive history of the work and continuing growth of the United Methodist Church in the state.  At the end of the lengthy work is an appendix containing mini histories of the congregations of Methodist churches across Arkansas.  Two of those churches became significant to the story of Shiloh.  These two early churches mark their histories from the earliest days of the state and still  have active congregations today.  Let me tell you a bit about them.

In THE DREAM OF SHILOH, Laurel lives in the Hawthorn community in Washington County.  She and her family belong to the Methodist community of a church that had been established in 1831 as Ebenezer Methodist, a home church led by Josiah Trent.  Later they built a log church, which also became a subscription school — a rarity in this time period.  In 1848, a new church was built and the named was changed to Hawthorn.  I chose to use the name Hawthorn because it was most appropriate to the time period of the story.   In the 1850’s the congregation finally built a clapboard building, only to have it demolished by federal troops during the Civil War.  That did not end the life of this church.  If you travel to Farmington, not far from Fayetteville, you will find a beautiful  modern brown and white  church near the site of the original building.  If you know the area you will see I borrowed some of the family names to give to Laurel’s friends, family, and members of her church family.

The Shiloh Church was obvious choice for my major setting for several reasons.  The most important, of course, is the name.  I’ll talk about that later.  Shiloh church also has a very early history in Arkansas.  The records indicate a congregation as early as 1830.  The original church was a log structure built to house worship services and the community school.  In the beginning to the story, Shiloh Methodist Church was in the southern part of Greene County, but in 1959, the state legislature drew new county lines to create Craighead County.  I am a native and still reside in Craighead County .  Today Shiloh United Methodist Church is a brick building sitting atop a hill very near the location of the original log building.  This rural community is only a few miles from the once thriving town of Greensboro, which unlike Shiloh church did not survive to see our time.  The story of Greensboro is a tale to tell on another occasion.

Shiloh United Methodist Church Craighead County, AR

From filling idle time to filling empty pages, over the next four years I wrote the long, long story of Shiloh and Laurel and Patrick MacLayne.  The writing has been a labor of love.

Drop me a line…Pat