The Lone Star Community Building is located off Highway 45 near Hindsville, Ark. and it was constructed as a school in 1903. The same family that built it continues to maintain it for generations.
HINDSVILLE, ARK. – Jeremy Merriman of Hindsville is a fifth-generation caretaker of one of the most well-known structures off Highway 45 in Madison County. The Lone Star Community Building has been a fixture in the local community since its construction in 1903.
The Community Building was built by brothers Jasper and Ike Cook. They even brought their sawmill to the land they owned to cut wood for the building, Jeremy said. They constructed the building to serve as a school because they felt the closest school was too far for their children to have to walk to. Their efforts not only helped their own children but other children from the community. Jasper was Jeremy’s great-great-grandfather.
“It was finished in 1903, and the last class graduated in 1955,” Jeremy said. “Jasper donated it to the building to the community and it has been maintained by members of the Burkes family ever since. If the community ever decides that it doesn’t want (the building), it goes back to the Burke family.”
Jeremy is a Burkes on his mother’s side, placing him in the lineage of caretakers.
“It’s gone down through the Burkes,” Jeremy said.
Despite its appearance, the building has never been used as a church. It has, however, been used for various educational purposes for more than a century. A gospel singing school met there in the 1930s and the Madison County Homemakers Association used it for many years until the last Homemaker, Florence Burkes, died. Although not a school technically, the local Lone Star 4-H Club currently meets there.
In 2023, a Free Little Library was installed at the school with the first books donated by the Marion County chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the Revolution, of which Jeremy’s wife, Kristina Merriman, is a member.
“We help keep it stocked,” she said, adding that the library is intended for the entire Lone Star community to use.
The entire building belongs to the community for its own betterment, she said.
In addition to the various educational purposes, the local community is allowed to rent the building for funerals, memorials, and other community-based group events. Sometimes people from outside the Lone Star community ask to rent the building but they are denied, Jeremy said. The local community keeps the building pretty full, however.
“It’s used a lot,” he said. “A couple of times a week someone is up there.”
While much of his upkeep efforts are focused on mowing and maintaining the grounds, Jeremy also makes needed repairs on the building itself. He and the board of directors, which includes Burkes family members and several community members, agree that the property needs to be kept as original as possible with any renovations made to keep at least the original appearance. The building doesn’t even have indoor plumbing and there is only one fuse for the entire building.
“It has a very nice outhouse,” Jeremy said. “It has the original floor, chalkboard, and some of the original desks and pews.”
The board had discussed placing the Lone Star Community Building on the National Register of Historic Places, but they agreed they didn’t want to give up control over the building and its uses.
Rev. Max Bowlin is the chairman of the board of directors for the Lone Star building. He said most of the board’s role is to manage the building’s finances, which are mostly funded through offerings and fundraisers.
“It’s a historical landmark,” he said. “Even for the younger generation. It means a lot to the people.”
He attended the school himself for three years before area schools were consolidated, Bowlin said. He even has a picture of both his parents together as students that his grandmother, who was a teacher at the school, had. The photo is from 1926.
The future of the building is the same as it is now, Max said.
“We’re going to take care of it so that people can use it,” he said, adding that even the local children groups who use the building seem to understand the importance.
“It’s a special building and they know it needs to be taken care of,” he said.
