This issue of the Lawrence County Quarterly does not intend to present a complete history of Black Rock but rather to recall mostly with pictures, early days in this Black River town. The pictures were furnished by Mr. Henry Clark, a local citizen, long active in Boy Scout work and photography. Mr. Charles Penny, also  a  long  time  resident  of  Black  Rock,  furnished  the Reminiscences of life in Black Rock and on the river years ago.
The facts about early newspapers and their contents also come from Mr. Penny.
  The editors are indebted to  Mr. Clark, Mr. Penny, Mrs. Reta  Covey and Dr. M. S. Craig, Jr., a regular contributor, for  the  copy for this issue. Their generosity in sharing their time and  material is deeply appreciated.
  The brief history of Black Rock is an excerpt from an article  which appeared in the Second Foothills Celebration and was  based mostly on articles written by Mrs. Reta Covey for The  Times Dispatch at Walnut Ridge.

 In the early summer of 1911, immediately after his graduation from the Medical Department of  Vanderbilt University,  Dr. Marion Stark Craig, Sr., settled at Black Rock, Lawrence County, and entered into the practice of medicine and surgery. One year later he moved his practice to Batesville, Independence County, where he continued to live until his death on August 20,1959. In 1911, young doctors expected to have lean first years. I have heard Dad tell how, when at Black Rock with time-on-his-hands, he'd suddenly mount his horse and gallop through town and out a country road in an effort to call attention to his presence and lead viewers to believe someone had enough confidence to call him out to attend an emergency. After several such displays, the number
of his patients began to increase. While at Black Rock, Dad was associated with an older well-established physician, whose name I don't know. I will be grateful if someone can supply the name of this older physician.
Marion Stark Craig, Sr.,M.D., was a great grandson of the Joseph Hardin of Lawrence County, who in March 1815 was appointed to the Courthouse and Jail Commission, and who at the time of his death at Davidsonville on August 25,1826, was Sheriff of Lawrence and Colonel of the Third Regiment of the Territorial Militia of Arkansas.
 Dr.  Craig was born on October  11,  1884,  in  Greenbrier Township, Independence County, Arkansas. On November 10, 1914 he married Miss Mary Case at Batesville. She died there on August 27,  1929. From this union came two living children, Marion Stark Craig, Jr., M.D., of Little Rock, and Robert Andrew Craig, D.D.S., who practices dentistry in Batesville.

*A native of Batesville, Dr. Craig resides at 300 Beckwood Road,
Little Rock,  Arkansas 72205.  He  is  a past-president of the
Arkansas Genealogical Society.

An excerpt from SECOND FOOTHILLS CELEBRATION based on articles written  mostly by Mrs. Reta Covey  and which  first appeared in The Times Dispatch.

Because of numerous rocks with black color, Black Rock was legally named by a Lawrence County court order October 7, 1884 with a population of 277.  Until l882 when the Fort Scott-Kansas City Railroad established a route on land given by Dr. J. W. Coffman for its right of way, the town was nothing more than rolling hills on vast land holdings of Dr. Coffman and a few other men. With the establishment of the railroad and the incorporation of the town, Black Rock grew with a rapid surge in many directions.  Due to the abundance of timber and the access to the railroad and river for shipping, the lumbering business became a first step
to growth for Black Rock.  George W. Decker established and owned many of the first sawmills.  Rosso DeLand came from Kansas to establish a thriving lumber mill.  Each of these men owned a general store and were competitors of Mr. Owen Angle, the first merchant, who opened his general store shortly after the location of the railroad. The lumbering business survived longer than  any  other  industry  in  Black  Rock.   Including  the manufacturing of furniture in earlier years, as well as a lumber business, the Coffey Lumber Company operated until the late 1950's.  Because wood was plentiful a wooden box factory was opened in 1903 operating and offering many jobs for a few years.  Sometime around the turn of the century, with a population of about 1,000, Black Rock supported five general stores, eight grocery stores, two drug stores, five hotels, two meat markets,10 sawmills, several boarding houses, a weekly newspaper, three churches and a school. Located one mile west of town was Bonita Springs, a noted summer resort where there were mineral springs and a hotel.  Headquarters for three steam ships operating on Black River were situated in the river town. Each ship was known by name and color: The Boll Weevil, green; the Idlewild, brown; and the Ruby Pearl, white.

   With  logging  and  lumbering  profitable  industries  well established, a boom comparable to a "small scale" gold rush surged with the population increasing to about 3,000 in mid 1897.

 The amazing incident was fostered by Dr. J. H. Myers who found a 14 grain, pink ball pearl in a mussel from Black River. Many people began hunting, the number increasing daily until cold weather and high waters closed the infant industry until the summer of 1898. As many as 500 people waded the water filling large sacks with mussels that were thickly bedded on the river floor. "The find" the first year was very large, but as none knew the value of pearls, the finders sold them for almost nothing.  For instance, hundreds were sold for $5 to $50 that were really worth from $100 to $5,000 each. As can be noted in the following records taken by Dr. Myers, the finders learned the value of the gems. $1,271,000 was paid out for pearling in seven years: 1897,
$11,000; 1898, $55,000; 1899, $110,000; 1900, $20U,000; 1901, $310,000;1902, $370,000;1903, $215,000 for pearls and shells. A Blaek Rock newspaper, the BLADE, reported on June 21, 1901 that the Bank of Black Rock at 3 p.m. closing time passed$7,000 in checks through the bank for pearls for one day.

 Many Lawrence Countians today wear rings set with pearls found in those years.  During the first year or so, no effort was made to save the mussel shells.   However,  Dr.  Meyers learned that the  shells were valuable for the purpose of button making, and could be sold for $7.00 to $10.00 per ton.  In 1899 Dr. Myers shipped the f'irst carload of shells to Lincoln, Nebraska for button making.  This subsequently led to a new industry, that of making buttons.

 A small button factory was opened in Black Rock by the town's two doctors, Myers and Townsend. In 1905 a New York company opened  the  Chalmers. Button  Factory  with  Vernon  Howe as  manager.    This  employed  about  80  men.   The  industry consisted of different operations combined to produce pellets for buttons. The first step was to gather with "Tong shollers" a 500 pound load of shells from the river. The next step was to boil the shells in large vats on the shore to kill the mussels and loosen them from their shells.  After removing mussels, the third step was to sack the shells and deliver to the factory.  At the factory a fourth process was to soak the shells for two weeks in steam  heated vats to soften them.  The next step was to separate the shells by size.  A f'inal process was to cut the pellets by a hand operated machine, dusted and polished.  The pearl pellet was then sent to an Amsterdam, New York factory where the eyes were drilled and the buttons placed on cards.  The men who operated the pellet machines were paid at the end of the week according to the number of buttons he had cut in that week. The high point in the industry came in the 194U's just before the wide  scale  introduction  of  plastic  buttons.   Bowing  to  the competition, the Black Rock button industry closed completely in 1954, not only eliminating a trade but also leaving the mussels undisturbed to populate the river bed.

Clinging to the foothills of the Ozarks which rise abruptly on the west bank of Black River, Black Rock remains a scenic view from U. S. Highway 63. Even though the population has dwindled, the various industries have closed, and Main Street can easily remind one of a Twentieth Century ghost town, the citizens thrive on a
proud heritage by combining thoughts of past and present. They look for a future that will be as colorful for genorations ahead, as the past has been to them.  The present: population estimate is 800.