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Scrapbook pages and photographs, ca. 1853-1950s

Manuscript Collection 1003

• Information about William Minor Quesenbury
• Information about the Collection
• Contents of the Collection

INFORMATION ABOUT WILLIAM MINOR QUESENBURY

William Minor Quesenbury (1822-1888) was a teacher, poet, editor, soldier, and artist from Crawford County, Arkansas.  He was born to a large family near Van Buren and after attending the local schools enrolled in St. Joseph's College, Bardstown, Kentucky.  Quesenbury served in Archibald Yell's regiment during the Mexican War, and then moved to Fort Smith around 1847.  He taught for a brief period at Cane Hill College, Washington County, and finally settled in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he established a newspaper, the South West Independent in 1853.  His newspaper lasted until 1857, and two years later he again resumed his career as an editor for the Arkansaian, a Fayetteville newspaper owned by James Pettigrew and Elias C. Boudinot.  During the Civil War, Quesenbury served in the Confederate army under the command of Albert Pike, and spent most of his service in the Indian Territory and Texas.  He died at Neosho, Missouri in 1888.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE COLLECTION

The materials in this collection include a scrapbook consisting of a series of newspaper articles about William Minor Quesenbury published in the Arkansas Gazette in 1932 and 1940.  Two photographs, taken in 1940, of original sketches drawn by Quesenbury in the 1870s are also included, along with a portrait of Emily Lynch, a resident of Van Buren in the 1870s who married a member of the Quesenbury family.  An undated courtship note to Emily signed by "Mr. Cush," a page of clippings from the Van Buren Press, circa 1853, and other unidentified clippings concerning the Quesenburys completes the collection.  A complete inventory follows this introduction.

Scrapbook pages, newspaper clippings, and photographs pertaining to William Minor Quesenbury and the Quesenbury family were donated to Special Collections by Mrs. Chessie D. Quesenbury, Little Rock, Arkansas, December 12, 1989.

Processed by Kim Allen Scott, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas, in December, 1989.

Special Collections also holds a William Minor Quesenbury Receipt and Letter. See also William Minor Quesenbury (MS Qu3).

CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION (7 items)

 
Folder 1.   Quesenbury family materials, 1853-1950s.

   1. Scrapbook pages, 1932, 1940.

   2. Van Buren Press clippings, ca. 1853.

   3. Undated clippings, ca. 1940s-1950s.

   4. Courtship note, ca. 1878.

Folder 2.   Photographs, ca. 1878-1940.

   1. Emily Lynch, ca. 1878.

   2. "Cyclops," cartoon sketch by William Quesenbury dated 1878.

   3. "Van Buren," sketch of courthouse and surrounding buildings by William Quesenbury, ca. 1870s.