History, goat hair part of Drennen-Scott house work

story by Marla Cantrell
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There is a goat without the benefit of hair today, so that the plaster walls inside the historic Drennen-Scott house in Van Buren can truly be called authentic.

“I came in here one day,” Dr. Henry Rinne, dean of the College of Humanities at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, said, pointing to a spot near the entryway, “and there was this man with a knife, cutting little pieces of goat hair and mixing it in with the plaster. … Today, contractors might use something like fiberglass, but not when this was originally done.”

The Drennen-Scott estate was purchased by the UAFS in 2005. It’s in its last phase of renovation before opening to the public this fall. The house overlooks the Arkansas River, and the railroad tracks that jog along nearby.

“This was where John Drennen built his home,” Rinne said. “In this place, where he could see the empire he had built in this frontier town.”

Rinne said the house, built in 1836, is unique because the family never let it out of their hands. They knew the value of the homestead and what it could mean to the preservation of local history. So the generations continued to stay, each being told the story of the man from Pennsylvania who heard the promise of “go west young man” in the 1820s and believed it. He is often called the founding father of Van Buren.

“It’s important because he really is a self-made man,” Rinne said. “He’s an entrepreneur of the first order. He came here, saw a way to sell firewood to fuel the steamboats on the river and started making money. That led to other ventures, and more money. He and his partner basically bought the land that became Van Buren.”

The cost to buy an entire city back in the 1800s? $11,000

And now money is flowing in to maintain Drennen’s little piece of paradise. To date, $5.5 million dollars in grant money has been donated to the cause.

The house will not only be a draw for tourism; it will also serve as a classroom. The hands-on learning center will be a new dynamic for a relatively new program: the university started its historic interpretation major in the fall of 2004. The students will also work in the accompanying visitors center and conduct group tours.

And while the use of the home has been decided, the cost to see it has not.

“We’ve looked at how other sites handle admission,” Rinne said. “Some charge a set fee and others ask for donations. We haven’t determined exactly how it will work here.”

There is little time to work out those details. Most of the renovation on the North Third Street property has been completed. The walls are bare — there is a decision about wallpaper that is still looming. The original light fixtures have been restored and the refinished wood floors wait beneath cardboard coverings. Already, newly installed windows exhibits are in place on the interior plastered walls which show the progression of the home.  Stair-step layers of rough-hewn wood peer out from behind period wallpaper, which is in turn behind a more modern bead-board. A similar window into the ceiling shows the rafters are nothing more than logs still dressed in bark, bearing the weight of the roof.

Rinne, who grew up in Washington, D.C., knows the lasting effects of seeing into the past. One of the primary missions of the house will be to educate schoolchildren. In the visitors center, there is space enough for a classroom of students to sit. There will be a projector on the wall where the story of John Drennen, as well as the evolution of his house, will unfold.

Visitors will learn that Drennen was a friend of Albert Pike, the co-chair of the Arkansas Constitutional Convention, an Indian agent, and Sam Houston’s business partner. On the tour, a well-informed guide might mention Aunt Caroline, who once enticed a swarm of bees to set up residency on the site and who had an affinity for greyhounds. There is a graveyard for her pets somewhere on the property.

Rinne is now considering a plan to run public transportation from the downtown depot to the estate. The site’s one challenge is its location. It can’t be seen from the street, which could deter drivers who have no idea what stands at the end of the winding driveway.  And it’s on a hillside, a possible deterrent to tourists coming in on the excursion train, who would have to hike the hill to see the house. The historic house is at 222 N. 3rd St., not far from downtown Van Buren.

But even without a way to transport tourists, Rinne expects traffic to be brisk from the very beginning. The story of the house and the family who occupied it are too big a draw to stay off the radar for any length of time. And he expects the promotion, both from the UAFS and Van Buren, to cause a rush of sightseers, who will in turn tell others about the experience.

And if you’ve ever wondered about the “Scott” in the Drennen-Scott name, this is where it came from: Drennen’s daughter Caroline married her father’s business partner, Charles Scott. That’s when the two names, and a considerable amount of money, merged.