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- The columns and crosspieces are beautifully rounded "with only occasional signs of the slip of the draw knife." The floors are of an inch and a quarter six-inch heart pine and they are in very good condition.
The owner of the Frazier plantation, William Frazier, came to this section of Arkansas before Columbia County was formed from a part of La Fayette County. It is said by some of the older residents that this family had lived in Ouachita County where flood waters had inundated their farm lands.
In the state tax assessment lists of 1852, before Columbia County was formed and while "Frog Level" was a part of La Fayette County, Frazier was assessed on 480 acres of land; he owned 14 taxable slaves, valued at $4,900. He had one pleasure carriage assessed for $40, three horses at $50 each, one mule at $50, thirteen head of cattle at $5 each. His jewelry was assessed at $100. On this evaluation, Frazier paid a state tax of $13.51 and a county tax of $14.51.
On the first tax list of Columbia County, the Frazier plantation was valued at $1,440, dated 1853. In 1861, 845 acres, valued at $2,335 were assessed, sixteen taxable slaves, valued at $8,000, two pleasure carriages valued at $100 each, 6 taxable horses, valued at $425, 25 head of cattle at $5 each. The total evaluation of this property was $11,275, on which a state tax of $18.77 was paid and a county tax of $29.19.
To show what the Civil War did to Frazier, the tax list for 1866 shows the following record. He had acquired 1046 acres, assessed for $1,0406, one horse at $50, one mule at $50 and six head of cattle at $30. The total value of his taxable property was $1,156, or barely one-tenth of all his taxable property owned in 1861. However, tax rates were higher, and in 1866 he was assessed $11.76 in state taxes and $5.88 in county taxes.
- Only a few hundred feet from the house is a marker designating the
place at which the Ferguson and Morgan store once stood. Here the first
terms of County Court were held on March 21, 1853. This court was followed
by Circuit and Chancery Courts, which convened in the same house April
17, 1853.
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