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White County, Arkansas
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April Program
Charles Stuart and Dr. Michael (“Mickey”) Barnett of Heber Springs will present Mike Disfarmer, Photographer to the White County Historical Society at 7 p.m., Monday, April 25 at Harding Place in Searcy. Charles and Mickey are President and Vice-President, respectively, of the Cleburne County Historical Society. This program, which is open to the public, is the latest in a series of programs of historical interest they have been presenting to local groups in the Cleburne County area.
Disfarmer Photographs
Mike Disfarmer, a somewhat reclusive photographer in Heber Springs from about 1915 until his death in 1959, has achieved world-wide recognition for his work. His unrecognized (at the time) skills coincided with unequalled stresses on the isolated population of the Cleburne County area, caused by the great depression of the 1930s followed by World War II. As a result, the images of local people captured by Disfarmer have been featured in three books and are displayed in museums throughout the world. Disfarmer was known as Mike Meyer until he legally changed his name in 1939. Born in 1882 in Indiana, he moved to Heber Springs with his mother in 1914 and started a photography studio in the family home. He was in business with George Penrose by 1916, as Penrose and Meyer Studio on Main Street, next to the Jackson Theatre. Later he built and operated his own studio on First Street, just north of Main. The images captured by Disfarmer were recorded on glass plate negatives, which had been replaced by celluloid negatives many years before by all except for highly specialized uses. The use of this technique, along with the people subjects, his relationship with them, and the stressful times all combined to result in the widespread interest in his work. Disfarmer had no family heirs so several thousand glass plate negatives were salvaged from his estate and eventually came into the hands of photography experts in New York. They recognized the extraordinary uniqueness of the work and over the years Disfarmer became a well known name in the world of photography. The people of Heber Springs and Cleburne County, who lived their life with Disfarmer and thought little about him except he was “the local picture taker” were slow to recognize the fame this enigmatic former resident had attained. The reaction of the local residents to the acclaim that the Disfarmer images of themselves does itself make for an interesting study in human character. Dr. Barnett, whose successful practice of family medicine was highly dependent on assessing and evaluating the human mind, and who grew up and lived in the town where Disfarmer was the only photographer for most of the time, is uniquely qualified to present a program on the human aspects of the Mike Disfarmer , Photographer phenomena.
Mickey Barnett
Dr. Michael (Mickey) Barnett practiced family medicine in Heber Springs for 37 years before retiring in 2001. He continues to share his medical knowledge as a volunteer adviser to a diabetes training class at the local hospital. He has been a well-liked, respected member of the community his whole life. Except for a tour of duty in the military, he has never lived anywhere but Heber Springs.
Mickey’s family ties go back to the 1800s in the Cleburne/White County region. His mother’s family, the Robbins, migrated to the Rose Bud community in the 1850s. His grandparents Louis Eb, a dentist, and Dotte Martin Robbins moved to Heber Springs from Rose Bud in 1916. His great- uncle was O. B. Robbins, a Ford dealer in Heber Springs and sometimes political candidate, who was widely known in the area. His paternal grandparents were Albert Mark and Lillian Belamy Barnett, who came to the Hiram community about 1890 where they farmed before moving to Heber Springs in 1916 to go into the mercantile business. Many of the Barnett progeny were also active in Heber Springs business and professional circles.Mickey is currently vice president of the Cleburne County Historical Society. He was a key source of information and appeared in Sheldon Jacobs’ recent film, A Dam Story, about the building and impact of Greers Ferry Dam. The award winning documentary film was recently featured on AETN public television.
The Cleburne County Historical Society has been featuring a special exhibit on the life and works of Mike Disfarmer for the past several months. Mickey is uniquely qualified to comment on and explore the phenomena that Mike Disfarmer and his works have become.
Charles Stuart
Charles Stuart has long-time ties to Cleburne County. He was born at Banner but lived at Heber Springs for eight years in the 1940s. Charles’ grandfather, Christopher Columbus Stuart, came to Banner (then Independence County) from Tennessee in the late 1850s. He married Emily Ellafair Jackson, whose family had come from Georgia about the same time. Charles maternal grandparents were Hubert Martin (came from North Carolina about 1889) and Maud Cranford, who was born in Wolf Bayou in 1882, from parents native to Alabama. Other ancestor surnames with Cleburne County ties are Clark, Kever, Norton, and Phillips. Charles has lived in Cleburne County a total of 25 years. Most of his working life was spent in California, where he was an engineer for Hughes Aircraft. After his retirement, he and his wife, Reggie, moved back to Heber Springs. A Cleburne County Historical Society volunteer for seven years, Charles has served as president for the last year. He especially enjoys old structures, old machines, old pictures, and maps. He has coordinated the computerization of the genealogical and pictorial history records of Cleburne County and worked on special exhibits such as the Disfarmer Exhibit, presently featured at the Historical Society.