Poinsett County Courthouse
The Poinsett County Courthouse is located on a city block of downtown Harrisburg, bounded by Court, North Main and East Streets. It is a two-story concrete structure, set on a raised foundation; the central block is topped by a tiled hip roof, with an octagonal tower set on a square base at its center. The front facade has a Classical Revival tetrastyle Corinthian portico with a enclosed gable pediment. Wings on either side of the main block are lower in height, but project beyond the main block's front and back, they are capped by low balustrade surrounding a flat roof. The courthouse was designed by Mitchell Seligman of Pine Bluff and built in 1917 to replace an earlier courthouse, destroyed by fire; the building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. National Register of Historic Places listings in Poinsett County, Arkansas
Joel Roberts Poinsett
Joel Roberts Poinsett was an American physician and diplomat. He was the first U. S. agent in South America, a member of the South Carolina legislature and the United States House of Representatives, the first United States Minister to Mexico, a Unionist leader in South Carolina during the Nullification Crisis, Secretary of War under Martin Van Buren, a co-founder of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts. Joel Roberts Poinsett was born in 1779 in Charleston, South Carolina, to a wealthy physician, Elisha Poinsett, his wife Katherine Ann Roberts, he was educated in Connecticut and Europe, gaining expertise in languages, the law, military affairs. In 1800 Poinsett returned to Charleston hoping to pursue a military career, his father did not want his son to be a soldier. Hoping to entice his son to settle into the Charleston aristocracy, Poinsett had his son study law under Henry William DeSaussure, a prominent lawyer of Charleston. Poinsett was not interested in becoming a lawyer, convinced his parents to allow him to go on an extended tour of Europe in 1801.
DeSaussure sent with him a list of law books including Blackstone's Commentaries and Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, just in case young Poinsett changed his mind regarding the practice of law. Beginning in 1801, Poinsett traveled the European continent. In the spring of 1802, Poinsett left France for Italy traveling through the Switzerland, he hiked up Mount Etna on the island of Sicily. In the spring of 1803 he arrived in Switzerland and stayed at the home of Jacques Necker and his daughter, Madame de Stael. Necker, French Finance Minister from 1776 to 1781 under Louis XVI, had been driven into exile by Napoleon I. On one occasion, Robert Livingston, the United States minister to France, was invited for a visit while he was touring Savoy and Switzerland. Poinsett was compelled to assume the role of interpreter between the deaf Livingston and the aged Necker, whose lack of teeth made his speech incomprehensible. Madame de Stael tactfully assumed the duty of translation for her elderly father. In October 1803, Poinsett left Switzerland for Vienna and from there journeyed to Munich.
In December he received word that his father was dead, that his sister, was ill. He secured passage back to Charleston. Poinsett arrived in Charleston early in months after his father had been laid to rest. Hoping to save his sister's life, Poinsett took her on a voyage to New York, remembering how his earlier voyage to Lisbon had intensified his recovery. Yet, upon arriving in New York City, Susan Poinsett died; as the sole remaining heir, Poinsett inherited a small fortune in town houses and lots, bank stock, "English funds." The entire Poinsett estate was valued at a hundred thousand dollars or more. Poinsett arrived in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg in November 1806. Levett Harris, consul of the United States at St. Petersburg, the highest American official in the country, hoped to introduce Poinsett at court to Czar Alexander. Learning that Poinsett was from South Carolina, the Empress asked him if he would inspect the cotton factories under her patronage. Poinsett and Consul Harris traveled by sleigh to Cronstadt to see the factories.
Poinsett made some suggestions on improvement. Poinsett did not believe the cotton industry could be successful in Russia because of the necessity of employing serfs who received no compensation and therefore could have no interest in its prosperity. Furthermore, he believed that the institution of serfdom made it difficult for Russia to have a merchant marine or become industrialized. In January, 1807, Czar Alexander and Poinsett dined at the Palace. Czar Alexander attempted to entice Poinsett into the Russian military service. Poinsett was hesitant, which prompted Alexander to advise him to "see the Empire, acquire the language, study the people", decide. Always interested in travel, Poinsett accepted the invitation and left St. Petersburg in March 1807 on a journey through southern Russia, he was accompanied by eight others. With letters recommending them to the special care of all Russian officials and Royston made their way to Moscow, they were among the last westerners to see Moscow before its burning in October 1812 by Napoleon's forces.
From Moscow they traveled to the Volga River, by boat to Astrakhan, situated at the mouth of the river. Poinsett's company now entered the Caucasus, containing a diverse population, only acquired by Russia through conquests by Czars Peter the Great and Catherine the Great; because of ethnic conflict, the area was dangerous. They were provided with a Cossack escort as they traveled between Tarki and Derbent, but when a Tartar dignitary claimed that this would only provoke danger, the escort was bypassed for the security of the Tartar chiefs; this new security increased the numbers in Poinsett's company, which they believed made it less vulnerable to attack as it passed out of Russia proper. Thus, they were joined by a Persian merchant, transporting young girls he had acquired in Circassia to Baku and harems in Turkey. With a strong Persian and Kopak guard, the party left Derbent and entered the realm of the Khan of Kuban. While traveling through the Khanate, a tribal chief stole some of the horses in Poinsett's party.
Poinsett boldly decided to go out of his way to the court of the Khan in the town of Kuban to demand their return. As there were never any foreigners in this place, the Khan was surprised. Of course, he had ne
Time in the United States
Time in the United States, by law, is divided into nine standard time zones covering the states and its possessions, with most of the United States observing daylight saving time for the spring and fall months. The time zone boundaries and DST observance are regulated by the Department of Transportation. Official and precise timekeeping services are provided by two federal agencies: the National Institute of Standards and Technology; the clocks run by these services are kept synchronized with each other as well as with those of other international timekeeping organizations. It is the combination of the time zone and daylight saving rules, along with the timekeeping services, which determines the legal civil time for any U. S. location at any moment. Before the adoption of four standard time zones for the continental United States, many towns and cities set their clocks to noon when the sun passed their local meridian, pre-corrected for the equation of time on the date of observation, to form local mean solar time.
Noon occurred at different times but time differences between distant locations were noticeable prior to the 19th century because of long travel times and the lack of long-distance instant communications prior to the development of the telegraph. The use of local solar time became awkward as railways and telecommunications improved. American railroads maintained many different time zones during the late 1800s; each train station set its own clock making it difficult to coordinate train schedules and confusing passengers. Time calculation became a serious problem for people traveling by train, according to the Library of Congress; every city in the United States used a different time standard so there were more than 300 local sun times to choose from. Time zones were therefore a compromise, relaxing the complex geographic dependence while still allowing local time to be approximate with mean solar time. Railroad managers tried to address the problem by establishing 100 railroad time zones, but this was only a partial solution to the problem.
Weather service chief Cleveland Abbe had needed to introduce four standard time zones for his weather stations, an idea which he offered to the railroads. Operators of the new railroad lines needed a new time plan that would offer a uniform train schedule for departures and arrivals. Four standard time zones for the continental United States were introduced at noon on November 18, 1883, when the telegraph lines transmitted time signals to all major cities. In October 1884, the International Meridian Conference at Washington DC adopted a proposal which stated that the prime meridian for longitude and timekeeping should be one that passes through the centre of the transit instrument at the Greenwich Observatory in the United Kingdom; the conference therefore established the Greenwich Meridian as the prime meridian and Greenwich Mean Time as the world's time standard. The US time-zone system grew from this, in which all zones referred back to GMT on the prime meridian. In 1960, the International Radio Consultative Committee formalized the concept of Coordinated Universal Time, which became the new international civil time standard.
UTC is, within about 1 second, mean solar time at 0°. UTC does not observe daylight saving time. For most purposes, UTC is considered interchangeable with GMT, but GMT is no longer defined by the scientific community. UTC is one of several related successors to GMT. Standard time zones in the United States are defined at the federal level by law 15 USC §260; the federal law establishes the transition dates and times at which daylight saving time occurs, if observed. It is the authority of the Secretary of Transportation, in coordination with the states, to determine which regions will observe which of the standard time zones and if they will observe daylight saving time; as of August 9, 2007, the standard time zones are defined in terms of hourly offsets from UTC. Prior to this they were based upon the mean solar time at several meridians 15° apart west of Greenwich. Only the full-time zone names listed below are official. View the standard time zone boundaries here; the United States uses nine standard time zones.
As defined by US law they are: From east to west, the four time zones of the contiguous United States are: Eastern Time Zone, which comprises the states on the Atlantic coast and the eastern two thirds of the Ohio Valley. Central Time Zone, which comprises the Gulf Coast, Mississippi Valley, most of the Great Plains. Mountain Time Zone, which comprises the states and portions of states that include the Rocky Mountains and the western quarter of the Great Plains. Pacific Time Zone, which comprises the states on the Pacific coast, plus Nevada and the Idaho panhandle. Alaska Time Zone, which comprises most of the state of Alaska. Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone, which includes Hawaii and most of the length of the Aleutian Islands chain. Samoa Time Zone, which comprises American Samoa. Chamorro Time Zone, which comprises Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Atlantic Time Zone, which comprises Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands; some United States Minor Outlying Islands are outside the time zones defined by 15 U.
S. C. § exist in waters defined by Nautical time. In practice, military crews may
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is a principal agency of the U. S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy; the Census Bureau is part of the U. S. Department of Commerce and its director is appointed by the President of the United States; the Census Bureau's primary mission is conducting the U. S. Census every ten years, which allocates the seats of the U. S. House of Representatives to the states based on their population; the Bureau's various censuses and surveys help allocate over $400 billion in federal funds every year and it helps states, local communities, businesses make informed decisions. The information provided by the census informs decisions on where to build and maintain schools, transportation infrastructure, police and fire departments. In addition to the decennial census, the Census Bureau continually conducts dozens of other censuses and surveys, including the American Community Survey, the U. S. Economic Census, the Current Population Survey.
Furthermore and foreign trade indicators released by the federal government contain data produced by the Census Bureau. Article One of the United States Constitution directs the population be enumerated at least once every ten years and the resulting counts used to set the number of members from each state in the House of Representatives and, by extension, in the Electoral College; the Census Bureau now conducts a full population count every 10 years in years ending with a zero and uses the term "decennial" to describe the operation. Between censuses, the Census Bureau makes population projections. In addition, Census data directly affects how more than $400 billion per year in federal and state funding is allocated to communities for neighborhood improvements, public health, education and more; the Census Bureau is mandated with fulfilling these obligations: the collecting of statistics about the nation, its people, economy. The Census Bureau's legal authority is codified in Title 13 of the United States Code.
The Census Bureau conducts surveys on behalf of various federal government and local government agencies on topics such as employment, health, consumer expenditures, housing. Within the bureau, these are known as "demographic surveys" and are conducted perpetually between and during decennial population counts; the Census Bureau conducts economic surveys of manufacturing, retail and other establishments and of domestic governments. Between 1790 and 1840, the census was taken by marshals of the judicial districts; the Census Act of 1840 established a central office. Several acts followed that revised and authorized new censuses at the 10-year intervals. In 1902, the temporary Census Office was moved under the Department of Interior, in 1903 it was renamed the Census Bureau under the new Department of Commerce and Labor; the department was intended to consolidate overlapping statistical agencies, but Census Bureau officials were hindered by their subordinate role in the department. An act in 1920 changed the date and authorized manufacturing censuses every two years and agriculture censuses every 10 years.
In 1929, a bill was passed mandating the House of Representatives be reapportioned based on the results of the 1930 Census. In 1954, various acts were codified into Title 13 of the US Code. By law, the Census Bureau must count everyone and submit state population totals to the U. S. President by December 31 of any year ending in a zero. States within the Union receive the results in the spring of the following year; the United States Census Bureau defines four statistical regions, with nine divisions. The Census Bureau regions are "widely used...for data collection and analysis". The Census Bureau definition is pervasive. Regional divisions used by the United States Census Bureau: Region 1: Northeast Division 1: New England Division 2: Mid-Atlantic Region 2: Midwest Division 3: East North Central Division 4: West North Central Region 3: South Division 5: South Atlantic Division 6: East South Central Division 7: West South Central Region 4: West Division 8: Mountain Division 9: Pacific Many federal, state and tribal governments use census data to: Decide the location of new housing and public facilities, Examine the demographic characteristics of communities and the US, Plan transportation systems and roadways, Determine quotas and creation of police and fire precincts, Create localized areas for elections, utilities, etc.
Gathers population information every 10 years The United States Census Bureau is committed to confidentiality, guarantees non-disclosure of any addresses or personal information related to individuals or establishments. Title 13 of the U. S. Code establishes penalties for the disclosure of this information. All Census employees must sign an affidavit of non-disclosure prior to employment; the Bureau cannot share responses, addresses or personal information with anyone including United States or foreign government
Great Mississippi Flood of 1927
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with 27,000 square miles inundated up to a depth of 30 feet. To try to prevent future floods, the federal government built the world's longest system of levees and floodways. Ninety-four percent of the more than 630,000 people affected by the flood lived in the states of Arkansas and Louisiana, most in the Mississippi Delta. More than 200,000 African Americans were displaced from their homes along the Lower Mississippi River and had to live for lengthy periods in relief camps; as a result of this disruption, many joined the Great Migration from the south to northern and midwestern industrial cities rather than return to rural agricultural labor. This massive population movement increased from World War II until 1970; the flood began with heavy rains in the central basin of the Mississippi in the summer of 1926. By September, the Mississippi's tributaries in Kansas and Iowa were swollen to capacity.
On Christmas Day of 1926, the Cumberland River at Nashville, exceeded 56 ft 2 in, a level that remains a record to this day, higher than the devastating 2010 floods. Flooding peaked in the Lower Mississippi River near Mound Landing and Arkansas City and broke levees along the river in at least 145 places; the water flooded more than 27,000 square miles of land, left more than 700,000 people homeless. 500 people died as a result of flooding. Monetary damages due to flooding reached $1 billion, one-third of the federal budget in 1927. If the event were to have occurred in 2007, the damages would total around $930 billion or $1 trillion; the flood affected Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Arkansas was hardest hit, with 14% of its territory covered by floodwaters extending from the Mississippi and Arkansas deltas. By May 1927, the Mississippi River below Memphis, reached a width of 60 miles; the flood's most dramatic moment occurred on April 29, when authorities—hoping to protect New Orleans—dynamited the levee 13 miles below the Crescent City at Caernarvon in order to flood the less populated Acadian region of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes.
Without trees, deep roots, wetlands, the denuded soil of the watershed could not do its ancient work of absorbing floodwater after seasons of intense snow and rain. On April 15, 1927, 15 inches of rain fell in New Orleans in 18 hours. More than 4 feet of water covered parts of the city. A group of influential bankers in town met to discuss how to guarantee the safety of the city, as they had learned of the massive scale of flooding upriver. A few weeks after, they arranged to set off about 30 tons of dynamite on the levee at Caernarvon, releasing 250,000 cu ft/s of water; this was intended to prevent New Orleans from suffering serious damage, it resulted in flooding much of the less densely populated St. Bernard Parish and all of Plaquemines Parish's east bank; as it turned out, the destruction of the Caernarvon levee was unnecessary. The New Orleans businessmen did not compensate the losses of people in the downriver parishes. To address the disaster Congress passed the Mississippi Flood Control Act which put greater stress on construction in the Mississippi Delta Levee Camps, despite warnings from the NAACP of harsh living conditions and mistreatment of black laborers within the camps.
By August 1927, the flood subsided. Hundreds of thousands of people had been displaced. In terms of population affected, in territory flooded, in property loss and crop destruction, the flood's figures were "staggering". Great loss of life was averted by relief efforts by the American Red Cross through the efforts of local workers; the Great Mississippi River Flood disproportionately impacted African Americans, like many other floods in U. S. history. It is estimated that of those who lost their homes, more than half a million were black. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans were displaced from their workplaces; the federal government did not contribute a dime of direct aid to the thousands of flood victims, despite a record budget surplus. The Red Cross established racially segregated camps in the flood zones. Black families lived in floorless tents in the mud without cots, chairs or utensils, eating inferior rationed food. Sometimes forced to work on the levees without pay, black men had to wear tags identifying that they were laborers in order to receive rations, to show which plantation they “belonged to.”
Women with no working husband did not get supplies. African Americans, comprising 75% of the population in the Delta lowlands and supplying 95% of the agricultural labor force, were most affected by the flood. Historians estimate that of the 637,000 people forced to relocate by the flooding, 94% lived in three states: Arkansas and Louisiana. In one location, over 13,000 evacuees near Greenville, were gathered from area farms, evacuated to the crest of the unbroken Greenville Levee, but many were stranded there for days without clean water. Following the Great Flood of 1927, the US Army Corps of Engineers was charged with taming the Mississippi River. Under the Flood Control Act of 192
Craighead County, Arkansas
Craighead County is a county located in the U. S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 96,443; the county has two county seats -- Lake City. Craighead County is Arkansas's 58th county, formed on February 19, 1859, named for state Senator Thomas Craighead, it is one of several dry counties within the state of Arkansas, in which the sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited. Craighead County is included in AR Metropolitan Statistical Area. Craighead County was part of the territory claimed for France on April 9, 1682 by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who laid claim to all of the land drained by the Mississippi River and its tributaries. LaSalle's claim was named Louisiana in honor of King of France; the Treaty of Fontainebleau was signed between France and Spain and ownership of the Louisiana territory west of the Mississippi River was transferred to the Spanish crown as a result of the Seven Years' War and Craighead County became a Spanish possession. Spain controlled of the territory encompassing the county until October 1, 1800 when Napoleon Bonaparte forced Spain to return the lost territories to France under the Treaty of Ildefonso.
Napoleon maintained grandiose plans to establish a vast French Empire in Louisiana but the Royal Navy prevented him from transferring troops or settlers to the acquired territories. Fear was high in the United States that Napoleon would attempt to close the Mississippi River to American trade. President Thomas Jefferson inquired about purchasing an area near the mouth of the river to ensure that it would stay open to American goods. Napoleon, needing money, offered to sell the United States the entire territory of Louisiana for $23,213,568; the treaty was finalized in 1803 and the land that would become Craighead County became the possession of the United States. Craighead County remained in the Louisiana Territory until the State of Louisiana was admitted to the Union. At that time the territory that includes modern day Arkansas was attached to the Missouri Territory. In 1813 the area was included in a new political subdivision known as Arkansas County, a political subdivision of the Arkansas District of the Territory of Missouri.
In 1815 the county was further subdivided and Lawrence County was formed with its seat at Davidsonville. This new county included most of; the modern Craighead county lay within Arkansas County and within Lawrence County. Residents of the Missouri Territory soon began petitioning Congress for admission to the Union, their request did not include the District of Arkansas and Arkansas residents petitioned for separate territorial status for their district. In 1819 the Arkansas Territory was formed. In 1838, Poinsett County was included most of present-day Craighead County; this situation persisted until 1850 when residents of the area complained about the distance to the Poinsett County seat. In 1858 State Senator William A. Jones campaign platform included a promise to seek the formation of a new county for the area, his election helped push legislation for the formation of the new county. The new county was to be formed from lands taken from Greene and Poinsett counties, it was to be named "Crowley County" in honor of Crowley's Ridge which runs through the center of the county.
Senator Thomas Craighead represented Mississippi County, opposed the bill because the farmland it took from Mississippi County was a major source of property taxes for the county. One day while Senator Craighead was away from the floor, Senator Jones amended the bill to change the county's name to "Craighead County"; the Senate, approved the bill as amended. Craighead County was formed February 19, 1859. Lake City, just across the St. Francis River from the Buffalo Island area, was added as a second county seat in 1883. In the early 20th century, Clay and Craighead counties had sundown town policies forbidding African Americans from living in the area. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 713 square miles, of which 707 square miles is land and 5.5 square miles is water. Crowley's Ridge is the county's most prominent geological feature; the region is served by the Jonesboro Municipal Airport. Scheduled commercial flights between Jonesboro and St. Louis Lambert International Airport, are offered daily by Air Choice One.
Greene County Dunklin County, Missouri Mississippi County Poinsett County Jackson County Lawrence County As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 82,148 people, 32,301 households, 22,093 families residing in the county. The population density was 116 people per square mile. There were 35,133 housing units at an average density of 49 per square mile; the racial makeup of the county was 89.27% White, 7.78% Black or African American, 0.33% Native American, 0.60% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.93% from other races, 1.06% from two or more races. 2.12% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 32,301 households out of which 32.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.30% were married couples living together, 11.40% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.60% were non-families. 25.20% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.10% had someone l
United States Secretary of War
The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation between 1781 and 1789. Benjamin Lincoln and Henry Knox held the position; when Washington was inaugurated as the first president under the Constitution, he appointed Knox to continue serving as Secretary of War. The Secretary of War was the head of the War Department. At first, he was responsible including naval affairs. In 1798, the Secretary of the Navy was created by statute, the scope of responsibility for this office was reduced to the affairs of the United States Army. From 1886 onward, the Secretary of War was in the line of succession to the presidency, after the Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President pro tem of the Senate and the Secretary of State.
In 1947, with the passing of the National Security Act of 1947, the Secretary of War was replaced by the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Air Force, along with the Secretary of the Navy, have since 1949 been non-Cabinet subordinates under the Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of the Army's office is considered the direct successor to the Secretary of War's office although the Secretary of Defense took the Secretary of War's position in the Cabinet, the line of succession to the presidency; the office of Secretary at War was modelled upon Great Britain's Secretary at War, William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, at the time of the American Revolution. The office of Secretary at War was meant to replace both the Commander-in-Chief and the Board of War, like the President of the Board, the Secretary wore no special insignia; the Inspector General, Quartermaster General, Commissary General, Adjutant General served on the Secretary's staff. However, the Army itself under Secretary Henry Knox only consisted of 700 men.
Parties No party Federalist Democratic-Republican Democratic Whig Republican Confederate States Secretary of War Bell, William Gardner. Commanding Generals and Chiefs of Staff 1775-2005: Portraits and Biographical Sketches. Washington, D. C.: United States Army Center of Military History. Grossman, Mark. Encyclopedia of the United States Cabinet 1789-2010. Armenia, New York: Greyhouse Publishing. King, Archibald. Command of the Army. Military Affairs. Charlottesville, Virginia: The Judge Advocate General's School, U. S. Army
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Poinsett County, Arkansas
