Stone Gardens: A Tennessee-born slave was sold to his white father for $40 at a Berryville slave auction in 1848

Richard "Dick" Fanche

Richard "Dick" Fancher was born into slavery on March 18, 1837, in Overton County, Tennessee. His mother was an enslaved woman, and his father was James F. Fancher, a white landowner.

At age 10, in 1848, Dick was sold at a public auction in Berryville, Arkansas. James Fancher bought him for $400 and brought him to the family farm in Osage Township, Carroll County.

Dick grew up working alongside James Fancher's white children, including James Knox Polk Fancher, who later became a judge and Confederate veteran. The two boys shared childhood experiences despite the racial divide imposed by slavery.

By the 1850s, Dick worked as a cook. After Thomas Washington Fancher, James's son, married Elizabeth Sneed in 1856, Dick was assigned to their household.

He prepared meals for the family until the Civil War disrupted the region. The 1860 slave schedule shows James Fancher owning six enslaved people, including a 25-year-old Black male who matches Dick's age.

During the war, Thomas served in the Confederacy, and Elizabeth relied on enslaved labor, including Dick and Hannah Riggs. Hannah had been willed to Elizabeth by her father, Charles Sneed, in 1855. Charles died in 1865 from war-related causes, and Hannah remained with Elizabeth while Thomas was away,

.Emancipation freed Dick at the war's end. He married Hannah Riggs around 1873. Hannah, born in 1856, had been enslaved first in the Stamps family and then with the Sneeds. The couple settled in the Harrison area of Boone County,with Hannah's mother, Fanny Riggs.

They raised a family there. The 1880 census lists them in Osage Township as a mulatto household. Dick worked as a laborer and could neither read nor write. Hannah managed the home.

Their children included Isaac Carlock (born 1875) and Thomas (born 1879), with Fanny living with them.By 1900, the family lived in Harrison. Dick, recorded as born in March 1844, headed a household of seven. Hannah could read and write. Their children were Isaac (24), Thomas (21), Mattie (19), Frederick Douglas "Fred" (13), and Hattie (8). Hannah reported five children, all living. .

The family was the only Black household on their street. Dick gained local recognition for his barbecue skills, noted in a 1908 Berryville newspaper item. The family also recovered from a smallpox outbreak in Harrison in 1901.

Economic hardship and racial tensions led to violence. White residents blamed Black workers for taking railroad jobs during a period of limited employment. This resentment fueled the Harrison Race Riots of 1905 and 1909.

In 1905, after a Black man was accused of burglary, a white mob attacked the jail, whipped prisoners, burned Black homes, and ordered African Americans to leave. About 30 men carried out the violence, shooting windows and beating people tied to trees.

Many Black residents fled immediately.

The 1909 riot completed the expulsion. It began after a Black man was convicted of assaulting a white woman, prompting a lynch mob. Though the prisoner was relocated, the threat drove out nearly all remaining Black families.

On January 28, 1909, most left town along the main roads. Only one Black resident, Alecta "Aunt Vine" Smith, stayed.

The Fanchers relocated to Eureka Springs by August 1909. Newspapers reported Dick attending the funeral of Hampton Bynum Fancher, his former enslaver's son, in Eureka that summer.

in Eureka Springs, the family found work at the Basin Park Hotel, a major tourist spot built in 1905. Dick and his relatives took jobs as porters, laundresses, and other service positions. The hotel's eight-story design, built into the mountainside so each floor meets street level, made it a landmark in the spa town known for its mineral springs.

In early 1911, James Polk Fancher learned that his half-brother Dick was ill. The judge traveled from Berryville to Eureka Springs to visit. Their shared father, James Fancher, created a family connection that persisted despite racial lines.

Dick died on May 2, 1911, at age 74. His obituary in The Star Progress described him as highly esteemed, industrious, and one of the last "old-time" Black residents tied to the Fancher family.

James Polk purchased a burial plot in the colored section of the IOOF Cemetery and paid for the gravestone.

He attended the funeral and kept in contact with Dick's children afterward. Hannah died in 1913. Her obituary noted her standing in the community and her history of enslavement.

The children continued their lives: Isaac until 1940, Thomas until 1917, Fred until 1932, Mattie into the mid-1900s, and Hattie as part of the family line.

Eureka Springs provided temporary safety, though its small Black community faded over time as tourism declined.

Richard Fancher's life spanned enslavement, freedom, family-building, and forced displacement. His story shows the lasting effects of slavery and the violence that enforced racial exclusion in places like Harrison.

The gravestone paid for by his white half-brother stands as evidence of a personal bond that crossed racial boundaries in an era defined by separation.