John Newton Sarber and Sarber County, Arkansas

About the Book

The book John Newton Sarber and Sarber County, Arkansas is not revisionist history, but a re-visiting of original documents and sources during the time of Reconstruction in Arkansas. The book traces the life of John Sarber, a Radical Republican in Arkansas politics, from his boyhood in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, to his abolitionist family's move to Kansas, his fighting with the 2nd Kansas Cavalry, and his becoming active in Arkansas, and the contributions he made in the State Legislature..  He also served as a contorversial U. S. Marshal in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  Was he or was he not a "carpetbagger?"

Why was a county in Arkansas named for him?

About the Author

Mary Frances Izell Hodges, a native of Paris, Arkansas, has a Bachelor’s Degree in History and English, plus an M. Ed from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.  She has additional graduate hours in Public History at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  Ms. Hodges is a member of The Phi Beta Kappa Society.  She is retired from the Department of Rhetoric and Writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.  Currently she is a Composition Instructor at Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock, Arkansas.  Ms. Hodges is a member of the Arkansas Historical Association; Arkansas Heritage Foundation; Historic Arkansas; Logan County, (Arkansas) Historical Society, South Sebastian County (Arkansas) Historical Society; Johnson County (Arkansas) Historical Society; Kansas State Historical Society; Lawrenceville (Pennsylvania) Historical Society.  She is author of numerous articles published in historical and genealogical journals, plus the book, Life on the Black River: the Live of E.R. Coleman.  Ms. Hodges has two adult children and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.