University of Arkansas home page Special Collections
  bullet Library Home  Special Collections Home  Manuscripts Home

WILLIAM H. HUGHES PAPERS

Correspondence, scrapbooks, clippings, publications, ca. 1871-1971
Manuscript Collection MC 1088
Return to Special Collections Home Page
Return to University of Arkansas Libraries Home Page

WILLIAM H. HUGHES

William Herschel Hughes, educator, political thinker, and poet, was born in Sumner County, Tennessee, on March 6, 1882. His mother was a sister of John Hallum, a noted lawyer and Arkansas historian. Hughes' parents moved to Arkansas from Tennessee in 1886 and settled near Whitener, Madison County. Hughes began schooling in public schools which at that time were open only three months a year. He supplemented his education by attending Hindsville Academy, Hindsville, Arkansas. At the age of fourteen, Hughes successfully passed the examinations for a teaching certificate. He could not secure a teaching position though, because of his age. After receiving a diploma from the Pea Ridge Masonic Institute he taught for several years in a secondary boarding school in St. Paul, Arkansas. While teaching at West Fork, Arkansas, in 1915, he married Ruby Carroll, also a teacher. Three years later he became school superintendent at Huntsville, Arkansas. By 1918, Hughes was a correspondent for the Southwest American and the Arkansas Gazette, and he also served as editor of the Madison County Democrat. He took correspondence courses from the University of Arkansas and received a Master of Arts degree in English and history. After thirty years of teaching, the Great Depression forced Hughes to look for a more sustainable work so he left his teaching profession to go briefly into real estate. He was licensed as a real estate broker in 1936. Shortly after that, the Northwest Arkansas Times offered him a position and he wrote features for seventeen years until his retirement. He was considered one of the most knowledgeable men about Arkansas politics of his day. Hughes is the author of a book of poetry, Five Yellow Candles, which received favorable acclaim from the New York Times Book Review as well as many other newspapers.

THE COLLECTION

Dr. Helen Yvonne Hughes, Conway, Arkansas, donated her father's papers to Special Collections on November 24, 1991.

The collection contains correspondence, scrapbooks, newspaper and magazine articles, publications, brochures, pamphlets, school notebooks, and other papers.

Restrictions Apply. Grade books ("Arkansas School Register" and "Teachers Pocket Class Record") from 1926- 1927 and 1931-1932, when William H. and Ruby Carroll Hughes taught school are restricted in compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (U.S. Code). Researchers desiring access to the material should consult with the Head of Special Collections.

Processed by Vera Ekechukwu, May 1996. Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Series 1. William Herschel Hughes, ca. 1897-1971. Boxes 1-6.

Family and official correspondence; school certificates and diplomas; three photographs (two of William H. Hughes and one unidentified); last will; Second World War ration books; tax receipts; various membership cards; invitations; class and speech notes; contracts; reports; pamphlets; brochures; bulletins; newsletters; school programs; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, commencement announcements (1928); souvenir booklets (1908-1910--apparently given by a teacher to a student at the end of the school year, contain the names of the teachers, the school board, and the pupils); scrapbooks (mostly newspaper clippings and few letters); manuscript articles; newspaper and magazine articles written by William H. Hughes, Ruby Carroll Hughes, Helen Yvonne Hughes, and Ruby V. Hughes; book of poems Five Yellow Candles by William H. Hughes (Bar D Press, Siloam Springs, Arkansas, 1939); and other papers.
Box 1
    Biographical material.
  1. School diplomas, certificates, and licenses.
    Correspondence
  2. Academy of Springdale, Springdale, Arkansas; Pea Ridge Masonic College, Pea Ridge, Arkansas; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, ca. 1900-1914.
  3. Family, 1913, 1929, 1930.
  4. Ruby V. and Irwin Hughes, ca. 1960-1966. (Contains also newspaper article about Ruby V. Hughes and newspaper obituaries)
  5. Re: poetry and other writings, ca. 1920-1959.
  6. Official, ca. 1907-1959.
  7. Miscellaneous personal and family papers.
    Professional papers
  8. Lecture and speech notes--Pea Ridge Masonic College, University of Arkansas, and others.
  9. Teacher's contracts.
  10. Teacher's and principal's reports.
  11. United Farm Agency, 1936.
Box 2
Box 3
    Other papers
  1. Chatauqua Institute, ca. 1908, 1963.
  2. St. Paul High School, St. Paul, Arkansas, ca. 1912-1914.
  3. Bruno Agricultural School, Bruno, Arkansas, ca. 1930.
  4. Lonoke High School, 1888, and others.
  5. University of Arkansas, 1905, 1924, 1926-1928.
  6. Arkansas Education Association, 1909, 1929.
  7. Souvenir booklets, 1908-1910.
  8. Kappa Delta Pi Newsletters, 1927, 1932.
  9. Future Farmers of America-banquet programs, 1930, 1931.
  10. Miscellaneous papers.
  11. Expositions, 1904, 1915. (Promotional material, picture postcards, and letters, from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Missouri (1904), and Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and San Diego, California (1915)
Box 4
  1. Manuscript articles.
  2. Newspaper and magazine articles.
  3. Other publications by William H. Hughes.
Box 5
Arkansas State Department of Education publications.
Box 6
Three newspaper scrapbooks.
Return to "Contents of Collection"

Series 2. John Hallum, ca. 1871-1907. Box 7.

Letters written mostly by John Hallum to William H. Hughes; John Hallum's license to practice law in Tennessee (1854), Arkansas (1870), Missouri (1872), and Colorado (1874); copyright for Bibliographical and Pictorial History of Arkansas (1887) by John Hallum; pamphlets; one newspaper article about John Hallum; and published Supreme Court of Arkansas proceedings.
Box 7
    Correspondence, William H. Hughes-John Hallum
  1. 1871, 1892, 1894, 1896, 1898.
  2. 1902.
  3. 1903.
  4. 1904.
  5. 1905.
  6. 1907.
    Other papers
  7. Official documents.
  8. Published court proceedings.
Return to "Contents of Collection"

Series 3. Helen Yvonne Hughes, ca. 1950-1956. Box 8.

Letters, greeting cards, picture postcards, and photographs, received from the international students by Helen Hughes while she worked at Public Relations Office, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Box 8
  1. 1950-1951.
  2. 1952.
  3. 1953.
  4. 1954.
  5. 1955-1956.
  6. No date.
Return to "Contents of Collection"
Return to Special Collections Home Page
Return to University of Arkansas Libraries Home Page