A page by David Stark
Peter McCollum built the McCollum-Chidester House in Camden, Arkansas in 1847. It was one of the first homes in the area to be built with plastered walls, carpeting, wallpaper, and an iron cook-stove. It was also the first planned lumber home in the area. McCollum sold the house to John and Leah Chidester after living in it for twelve years.
John Chidester, a stagecoach business owner, brought his family to Camden from Tuscumbia, Alabama when he decided to extend his stagecoach lines to Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Chidester received contracts from the U.S. government to deliver mail, and he believed that Camden would be the perfect place to set up the hub of his business.
The east and west wings were added to the McCollum-Chidester House just prior to the Chidesters' move from Tuscumbia in 1862. The Chidesters bought the furnishings for their new home in New Orleans, Louisiana, and had them shipped to Arkansas by steamboat. The vast majority of these original furnishings are still in the Chidester home today. Although this home would not be considered exceptionally lavish by today's standards, at the time of its construction it was very extravagant.
In 1864 over ten thousand Union soldiers came to Camden as part of the Red River Campaign. General Frederick Steele occupied the McCollum-Chidester House as his headquarters for five days. Bullet holes remain in the plastered walls of an upstairs room from when the Union attempted to find and arrest Mr. Chidester for allowing the Union mail carried on his coaches to be turned over to the Confederacy. Leah feared that the Union soldiers would plunder whatever they could find, so she hid all the money in the house in a money belt that she placed on a slave. She also buried the family's fine silver in the backyard. John managed to evade the Union soldiers, and his family was left relatively unharmed.
After the Civil War ended, life at the McCollum-Chidester House went back to normal. John and Leah raised six sons in this home. The last member of the Chidester family to live in the home was Dan, the grandson of John and Leah.
In 1963 the Ouachita County Historical Society bought the McCollum Chidester house, and it became their headquarters. After some structural repairs were made, the house was then opened up as a museum. The uniqueness of the McCollum-Chidester House as a historical sight lies in the original furnishings that compose about 95 percent of its interior. Among the most outstanding artifacts from the home are Leah Chidester's sewing machine, which was one of the first sold west of the Mississippi, and the baby walker that each of the six Chidester boys took his first steps in.