Rob-Bell

Our plantation, Rob-Bell, is still farmed by us and by our cousins through a family corporation, but the acreage between Highway 161 and Old River Lake was set aside for horses, pecans, and golf. My great-grandfather built the six-hole golf course there. My grandfather planned to add another green but died before he carried out the plans. My father now wants to add the remaining three holes in one of the pastures that is largely unused by the horses.

Because Mound Lake (formerly known as Mound Pond) is being developed and lots are selling for exorbitant amounts, Dad wants to add another nine holes across the highway along Plum Bayou and sell more lots. He figures if everyone else is selling off plantations to have Southern Living-style homes built, we ought to cash in on the deal, too. Their house still resembles a Motor Court, though, not a Southern Living mansion.

The land comes through the women in our family. My great-great-grandmother came to Arkansas with her parents in the 1850s. An uncle was granted a patent to part of the land in the 1820s before Arkansas became a state. I don’t know why her father, Thomas Pemberton, decided to leave North Carolina for the Arkansas wilderness.

Shortly after they arrived in Arkansas, the children were stricken with smallpox. Laura survived, but one of her younger brothers did not. He is buried on the plantation. On a visit in 1860 to her own mother in Alabama, Laura’s mother died in childbirth. Laura and her baby sister lived with their maternal grandmother for a year, but then their father came for them. He took them to his family in North Carolina while he and Laura’s remaining brother, a toddler, returned to Arkansas.

Laura’s new sister died shortly after the end of the war. Laura lived with her Pemberton relatives and did not return to Arkansas until her husband, Dr. O.P. Robinson, decided life as a farmer was more appealing than life as a healer. Their only child to survive to adulthood was my great-grandmother, Alice, who was born in Arkansas and grew up here.
After studying in England and Germany, Alice returned to Arkansas. She met Gordon Campbell, an insurance agent, and married him in 1905. As her parents had done, Alice and Gordon kept a house in Little Rock and a house in “the country,” as the Scott plantation was referred to. Their county house, however, was strictly used as a weekend retreat. It was built on the bank of Old River Lake.

Alice and Gordon had four children. Their only son was Robinson, who died in an automobile accident when he was in his twenties. The children and grandchildren of their three daughters, Margaret, Laura, and Sue, now have control of the plantation and the recreation land. Although all of their granddaughters have weekend homes on the lake, only my aunt Laura and my cousin Lisa (Sue’s granddaughter) live there permanently. The land continues to pass through the women in the family since neither of the grandsons has any interest in even visiting the land.

Gordon Campbell was not just any insurance agent. I’m not just saying this because he was my great-grandfather. I have notorious ancestors. He’s not the only one, but I’ll talk about my grandfather Orsi later.

Dr. Robinson and Laura Pemberton Robinson died only a few years after Alice’s marriage. As the husband of the only surviving Pemberton-Robinson child, Gordon became familiar with the Plantation by necessity. Fortunately, he was competent. I have no idea what Alice herself contributed to the management of the land, but Gordon’s contributions are everywhere: the golf course, the stables, the houses, the pecan groves.

My great-grandfather was prominent in the Little Rock community. His efforts made War Memorial Stadium a possibility. His portrait still hangs there. He would be sorely disappointed to know that his achievement in getting the Razorbacks to play football in Little Rock is being undone now. I think he would have hated Frank Broyles for that. Orville Henry was still writing about Gordon less than ten years ago.

Last Updated on October 23, 2024 by Anne Orsi