About

“Readers will benefit from this excellent examination of a visionary Arkansan, a man whose vision improved one part of Arkansas in the first half of the Twentieth Century.”
—Clyde A. Milner II, Arkansas State University

Clay County, Arkansas, was a flatland with little improvements at the outset of the twentieth century. Into this primitive society came a St. Louis entrepreneur with a liking for agriculture. Paul Pfeiffer bought large tracts of land, set up tenant farmers, and reigned for nearly fifty years as a beneficent landlord. Laymon records the gratitude of many a family who remember with appreciation loans made to acquire equipment. When farming was interrupted by the coming of the railroad, both Pfeiffer and his tenants adapted to a lumbering economy—so long as the hardwood forest lasted. Interestingly, Laymon’s account includes the fate of tenants following the break-up of “Pfeiffer Country.”

Author

Sherry Laymon received her PhD in heritage studies at Arkansas State University, has taught at Ouachita Baptist University, and is now at work on her third book on Arkansas history.

Publisher

Distributed for the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies