What's Going on at the Society

Posted by Joy Russell

It's always difficult when problems arise and especially when it deals with being "in the red" financially. The cost of printing and postage for The Madison County Musings has increased over the years, and now it is costing us more to print and mail The Musings to you than your annual membership dues are paying for.

The last time we increased our membership dues was in 2007, but our costs of printing and postage have increased greatly. Publication of The Musings has always been considered our community service to our members, and while it was never meant to be a big-money-making part of our Society, it also was never meant to cost more to provide our magazine to you than your membership dues pay for.

After much discussion and analysis of our situation, we decided that we did not want to increase our membership dues at this time. We realize that many members are on a fixed income and it is our desire that those people will be able to continue to pay their membership dues. The solution that we decided would be the best option, is to decrease the number of issues of The Musings that each member receives each year. Since our beginning in 1982, each member has received four (4) issues of The Musings each year but beginning in 2024, we will be reducing that number to three (3) issues each year. With this change, we can keep our annual dues at $15.00 per year and still cover the cost of printing and postage.

A Chronological History of Huntsville, Arkansas was written by Huntsville Mayor Dr. Kevin Hatfield, in celebration of the 175th anniversary of the founding of the city. The book contains 19 chapters with each chapter describing the history of Huntsville by decade, beginning with the decade of the 1830's and ending with 2012. The first chapter describes the early Osage Indians who originally occupied the area and their tribal chief, Hurachais, known as the "War Eagle".

This book is a must for anyone who is interested in local Huntsville history and makes a great gift that will be enjoyed for years to come.

Pre-1920's Obituaries of Madison County, Arkansas, Residents was published in April 2011. This book contains 319 pages of full obituaries as printed in the local newspapers, covering a time period from 1855 to 1919. This book contains all available obituaries for this time period, but not all newspapers are available, so many obituaries are missing. This book is a valuable research tool, and many of the obituaries read like a story of the deceased's life.