Following is a report, listed in its entirety, from a handout prepared by Joe Pitts, for his program at the Pea Ridge, (Benton County, AR), Historical Society meeting held at Buttram's Chapel on June 27, 2006.

“I will start with a brief history leading up to the building of Buttram's Chapel. In 1826 George Washington Miser was a nineteen-year-old boy living with his family in Eastern Tennessee. He heard that a conference was to be held in the northeast corner of Arkansas Territory, where the U.S. Government was attempting to trade the Indians equal land in the Indian Territory for land that makes up the ten counties in northwest Arkansas Territory.

G. W. loaded provisions on a packhorse, saddled his riding horse, and came to the Arkansas Territory. He had to ride through Peoria, IL, on his way to a place where he could ford the Mississippi River. From there he rode southwest to Springfield, MO. From Springfield he took an Indian trail southwest. (This trail became the Old Wire Road). When he came around a mountain, at the top of the hill, there was a man camped beside the road. The man was William Ruddick and he had come to the Arkansas Territory for the same reason that G. W. Miser came.

When they had inspected the region, they found an area eight miles wide and twenty miles long on which the level ground was void of trees and a mass of pea vines thickly covered the ground. The men vowed that they had found the place where they wanted to settle in the future. Both men were allowed to stake and register their claims near a large spring, water being what a settler looks for first. It would be two years before this land was surveyed and plotted and the men could learn that they had each claimed a half section of land. In the meantime, William Ruddick returned home in Indiana and G. W. Miser returned to eastern Tennessee.

G. W Miser married Polly Swafford that fall and, because Polly's parents were failing in health, G. W. was persuaded to take over the Swafford homestead - temporarily. Twelve years and nine children later, in 1838,* with both of the parents deceased, G. W. told Polly that it was time to go to the Pea Patch.*

He and his family arrived in Arkansas in the Spring of 1838. He found that the large spring he had staked out was in the northwest corner of the half-section of land and most of his land was hillside for a mile south to near Sugar Creek. G. W. Miser had to made improvements on the original half section to fulfill his land patent agreement. He cleared about fifteen acres on the hill above the north of the big spring and made a campground for the Methodist Church. Church meetings were held at this camp until the next year and it became known as the Segal Campground. We don't know where the name "Segal" came from.

In 1839 G. W. Miser built a twenty-four foot square log building on the campground to be used as a school during the week and a church on Sunday. This became known as the Segal Camp Church and School.

In 1855 the U.S. Army moved in and took over the campground, church and school. After they were there about three months they left, but had burned the church and school down. This left the area without a church and school. Church was then held on the campground and school was taught at G. W. Miser's home.

In 1860, because the neighborhood was lacking a school and church, it was decided by the elders of the Methodist Church to build a church and school building. These trustees were E. H. Buttram, S. H. Mayfield, John H. Miser, M. F. Buttram, and J. H. Winton. G. W. Miser and (second) wife Jane Potter Miser bought a one-acre parcel of land from N. E. Pace, and for the sum of $1.00 deeded it to the Methodist Conference.

The Buttrams, Heads, Hilemans, Mayfields, Misers, and Wintons then began building the church and school. They donated the trees and cut and hauled them to the construction site. The logs were split, then hand hewn into boards twelve feet long, one and a half-inch thick, and whatever width could be made from the log. The studs were four by six hand-hewn timbers. The floor trusses and trusses for the upstairs were hand hewn one-foot square timbers. The roof was of split shingles. The tool that was used to hew the lumber was a broad axe.

The building faced the east and had an outside stair to the second floor on the south side. Church was held on the first floor and school was held on the upper floor.

After the Civil War, H. H. Patterson, the trustee of the Masonic Lodge, requested that the Lodge be moved to the school part of the building. The log house that had housed the lodge in Lee Town had been burned during the battle of Lee Town.

Elijah "Lige" Buttram was the pastor of the new church. My mother didn't know who was the head of the first school. The students ranged from six to twenty years of age. Professor J. R. Roberts later came and became the head of the school. Miss Nannie Roberts taught the younger children and Prof. Roberts taught the older children.

In 1874 the college [Pea Ridge Academy], which was actually as high school with college courses taught, was organized at Buttram's Chapel. The college was taught for five years at Buttram's Chapel, while the College building was being built in Pea Ridge.

W. M. Butler and Charles Rice took over the teaching in 1881. The Church and school were torn down in 1892. A new church building was built on the ground but was moved to southeast corner to make room for the graveyard that was starting to crowd the former building. The first person that was buried in the graveyard was a young girl. I can't find her name but I was told by my mother that she was related to H. H. Patterson. This single grave is in the extreme northwest corner of the graveyard.

My grandfather, Michael Farmer Buttram, and wife, Sarah Etta Miser Buttram, and several of their children were buried in the second row. In 1912 the church membership was transferred to the Brightwater Methodist Church, although the church building was used for Sunday School until a tornado blew it off its foundation in 1943. When the church membership was transferred to the Methodist Conference, the church and grounds were transferred to the newly formed Buttram Chapel Cemetery Association. In the 1830's Radius and Matty Baker started the Perpetual Fund for the Buttrams Chapel Cemetery. They went from member to member and collected fees for the Perpetual Fund. This fund is still in existence and the interest is used for the upkeep of the Cemetery.”

Comments by Mary Fern Souder

Mary Polly Swafford Miser did not die in 1838. She can be seen with George Washington (5/4) Miser on the 1840 Benton County, MO, census. George and Polly Swafford Miser had eleven children and their last child, Phebe (6/11) Miser, was born ca. 1842. Various Miser records place Polly Swafford Miser's death as between 23 November 1842-23 November 1844. George Washington (5/4) Miser was remarried to Jane Potter on 9 September 1845 in Benton County, AR and had eight more children.

George W. (5/4) Miser was a brother of Phebe (5/2) Miser who married Rev. John Buttram. John and Phebe Miser Buttram named their son, Elijah Henegar Buttram, as a namesake for her brother Elijah Henegar (5/6) Miser.

Buttram's Chapel was named for Rev. Elijah Henegar Buttram, who established the church. Rev. Elijah Henegar Buttram married Nancy Elizabeth (6/5) Miser, his first cousin, daughter of the above George W. (5/4) Miser and his wife Polly Swafford.

Joe Pitts wrote the above history when he was age 86, and died at the age of 88. An obituary for Joe N. Pitts (1920-2008) can be found at Arkansas Gravestones.org. He was a deeply respected cousin.