Arcola still lives

For The Madera Tribune

Arcola School.

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A number of folks who are interested in the history of Madera perked up when attention recently turned to an important name from Madera’s County’s past. We are talking about Arcola.

“Arcola” was brought to this area in 1868, and carries with it images of the Old South. At one time it was the ante-bellum name of a plantation near Demopolis, Alabama. Its owner, Samuel Strudwick, was a proud man. He was also old — too old to try to start all over again after 1865. He had, however, no choice. Things would never be the same. The South had lost the war.

Arcola had always been moderate in size. The slaves were as small in number as the cotton fields were large, making life something less than idyllic. Sipping mint juleps under the magnolias all day long was hardly a reality for Strudwick. Yet he and his family had made a living, and his social standing was secure as long as there was a stratum below which he could never descend.