Meet the Mayor of West Lamartine!
Larry Polk at the workbench |
When it rains in these parts, I often open the Facebook page of a guy that I know is going to post the amount of rainfall he received in West Lamartine. When I heard him called the Mayor of West Lamartine, I was intrigued. But when he repaired my mother's favorite clock, I knew I had to get a microphone on him and learn more about Larry Polk.
Larry and his wife Jean live just about a mile off U.S. 371
in Lamartine. As befitting a
"public servant" in the role of mayor, Larry's Facebook profile and
background picture both feature a highway sign bearing the name of his
community. Larry and Jean are active members of First Baptist Church in
Magnolia, where Larry serves as a deacon. A stack of New Testaments on his
workbench attests to his service through the Gideons organization.
Larry has done just about every kind of engineering there is to be done. He cut logs to put himself through college--two years at Southern Arkansas University and two at Louisiana Tech, where he earned his degree in engineering. Having retired from Albemarle, Larry reflected that he had done everything he had wanted to do in engineering. He had worked with pumping in the brine field, on transformers providing power to the wells and even in drilling operations.
Larry at the rain gauge |
So it was no wonder that when a friend handed Larry an old
clock years ago and asked if he could get it running, he added another skill to
his resume. Larry became a clockmaker, a term that is used to describe someone
who repairs clocks.
There's much that can go wrong with one of the old clocks.
They can get "out of beat", causing them to stop running altogether.
He has diagnosed a case of this issue by asking his client to hold his phone up
to the clock so he can hear the beat. Another problem may be the wear and tear
that comes from the gears continually spinning, sometimes causing the hole in
which they sit to become elongated and restricting movement. In the case of my
mom's clock, it had been in storage for eight months and some of the gears
became rusty. A cleaning put it back in working order and it keeps good time
today.
Obviously the title of Mayor of West Lamartine does not indicate an elected position. He earned the moniker when a neighbor on the other side of U.S. 371, Greg Rich, referred to Larry as Mayor of Lamartine. Larry replied that he was only mayor of the western half while Greg was the mayor of the eastern half.
Lamartine is one of the oldest communities in our county. As I spent some time there talking to Larry, I became intrigued with what is labeled by some as the oldest community in our county. It's on its way to becoming a ghost town, save for the modern houses that remain. Once upon a time, a two-story brick plantation house was home to John Dockery and his son Thomas, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General during the Civil War.
Dockery named the community after a French poet and
politician, Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, whom he admired. Dockery
had big plans for the new community, which in 1851 boasted a post office, a few
stores and a number of churches. Most of their remains are long gone today.
Today it is little more than a ghost town. A memorial marker
on the highway tells the abbreviated history of the community. It incorrectly
lists Lamartine as the birthplace of T.P.
Dockery. He was actually born in
Montgomery County, North Carolina, where his father had participated in the
Indian removals there. The family moved to Tennessee and on to Columbia County,
where land was plentiful and cheap.
Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church |
A cousin, LaJoyce Doran, told me that Shiloh was the church
where her aunt Katie Hyde had died and was buried. Katie passed away dramatically one Sunday
morning while sharing her testimony at church. She succumbed while speaking at
a revival service, shouting that she could see Jesus before she passed on the
spot. What a revival service that must have been!
The senior Dorman had come to the area with his wife, lured by free land. He and his wife had 18 children, 16 who lived to adulthood. His son, Wylie Richard Dorman, was one of those survivors. His son, Joe Washington Dorman transitioned from farmer to blacksmith and operated a smithy, or blacksmith shop, across the road from where the plaque now stands. His wife's father, J.W. Whitehead, had been a blacksmith and perhaps it was from him that Joe learned the trade. When the railroad came through Waldo, he was one of the merchants to relocate.
Joe Dorman's sons learned to weld and drive welding trucks and were
working in the oil fields at the tender age of 14. Joe had taught them to weld in the
1920s, converting Model T Fords into wagons when people could no longer afford gas
during the Great Depression. They called the converted Model Ts “Hoover Wagons”.
Dr. Tony Dorman shared the information about his family
line. He observed that his grandfather had lived near Dr. Grimmett in Waldo and
married the twin sister of Grimmett's mother. She died in a freak accident from
injuries she sustained by backing up to the fire place. Tony's grandfather, as
he tells it, went to Rosston, found an old maid and married her since he had
been left with an infant child following his wife's demise.
To the west of the plaque, County Road 60 is known as Beech Creek Road. The Mayor of West Lamartine lives down this road, not far from U.S. 371. His brick house, neat as a pin, sits back from the road behind his pond. Out back he maintains a garden and his weather observation site.
Beech Creek Missionary Baptist Church |
Go far enough out the Beech Creek Road, as I did recently and you'll come to Beech Creek Missionary Baptist Church, founded in 1850. It attests to the importance of religion in the founding of Columbia County. Tony's great-great grandfather, Green Washington Dorman, is buried in that church's cemetery. He was born in 1920 and died in 1907.
But it's time to get back to the mayor and his ability at
clock repair. He had always wanted a clock and today owns several. His favorite
is a weight-driven model from the Gustav Becker Clock Company. Becker is one of
the better known and higher quality clockmakers from the mid to late 19th century. Some of his clocks are so
well made of such quality material that they were still precise after over 100
years of service.
Fun fact: many clocks with pendulums have the letters R and A, separated by a down arrow. My mom's clock has these letters. This has led some folks to make the observation, "I have an RA clock." But the R/A is not the name of the clock, but rather instructions on adjusting the pendulum. R stands for Retard, A is for Advance. By turning the adjusting knob below, the pendulum will swing faster or slower.
Larry's workshop held three or four clocks he was working on at
the time of my interview, and they were all unique and interesting models. Given enough time and parts, which can
sometimes be difficult to come by, he will soon have them all operating
correctly again.
This has been a longer introduction to my podcast than
usual. Much of it came from the entry on Lamartine from the Encyclopedia of
Arkansas, but other of it came from Facebook correspondence. I'm always
intrigued by vibrant communities that once existed but today are a mere shadow
of the past, remembered in piles of bricks or church cemeteries. It's doubtful
that Lamartine will ever be restored to its former glory, but that's probably
ok with its current residents.
Larry is a soft-spoken man of deep faith. I enjoyed visiting with him and hearing his story. If you'd like to take a listen, I encourage you to click the link below or tune in wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for your time, Larry!
Very interesting! Have known Mr. LT Polk most my life. I'm also related to the Dorman's. Joe Dorman taught my dad to weld. He's now 80 years old and still welding. A craft my dad took with him his entire career/life.
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