Arkansas State Farm for Women

aka: Pea Farm

The Arkansas State Farm for Women, also known as the “Pea Farm,” was a 185-acre complex located at Macon (Pulaski County), 2.5 miles north of Jacksonville (Pulaski County). It operated from 1920 to 1936, with Mary Dewees as its first superintendent. The opening of the prison, which was for the rehabilitation of white women, was driven by the advocacy of middle-class women.  

The Pea Farm, which was approved in 1919, opened in 1920 in Macon in the countryside north of the Arkansas River. There, the inmates learned sewing, cooking, gardening, planting flowers, canning, and cleaning. The inmates planted onions, turnips, watermelons, cantaloupes, tomatoes, and peppers—no peas. The “pea farm” was a nickname abbreviation for the “penal farm” that it was. The prison was for white women; Black women were sent to the notorious Cummins Unit and housed in a wooden barracks known as the “Chicken Coop.” (Before the establishment of the Pea Farm, white women were also sent to Cummins.) 

The female staff of the prison included Dewees as superintendent; Miz Brockman as warden; Blanche Dodge as psychologist; Caroline Leichliter as assistant superintendent and dietician (she arranged menus and taught cooking classes); and Ada Murphy as teacher. Most inmates had less than a fifth-grade education, and some were unable to write. Murphy held regular classes so that women would leave with improved skills. Men who worked there were V. O. Brockman, an assistant superintendent, and Frank Martin, a trusty guard. 

The Pea Farm closed in 1936 after several controversies and incidents. For many years, the women’s prison was kept a secret; many of the property owners found out about the prison only by word of mouth. Too, the prison faced allegations of mistreatment of the women. In Jacksonville, authorities launched an investigation into these allegations, and a bipartisan Arkansas Senate investigation found wide-spread sexual abuse of the prisoners by male officials and volunteers tasked with protecting them.  

One notorious inmate at the Pea Farm was Helen Spence of Arkansas County, a famous outlaw whose story captured the imaginations of many during her life and engendered a body of legend afterward.  

The Pea Farm housed a total of 242 women over the years, with an average of thirty-three inmates at any given time. After the prison’s abrupt closure, many of the women were sent to Collegeville State Farm for Women in Alexander (Saline and Pulaski counties). 

The buildings were eventually torn down. All that remains are the streets in the area named after the inmates of the prison.  

For additional information:
Campbell, Sarah. “Mystery of Women’s Prison.” Arkansas Leader, September 18, 2014. https://arkansasleader.blogspot.com/2014/09/featured-story-mystery-of-womens-prison.html (accessed January 16, 2025). 

Chambers, Erle. “Correctional Institutions.” In Arkansas and Its People: A History, 1541–1930, vol. 2, edited by David Thomas. New York: American Historical Society, Inc.: 1930.  

Tallqvist, K. G. “Kaleidoscopic Review of a Visit to the Arkansas State Farm for Women.” Arkansas Democrat, December 31, 1922, p. 29. 

———. “Superintendent and Staff in Charge of Arkansas State Farm for Women.” Arkansas Democrat, December 24, 1922, p. 23. 

———. “State Farm Board for Women Outlines Needs.” Arkansas Democrat, January 14, 1923, p. 19. 

Parkinson, Denise. Daughter of the White River: Depression-Era Treachery & Vengeance in the Arkansas Delta. Charleston, SC: History Press, 2013. 

Smith, Ryan Anthony. “Gendered Confines: Women’s Prison Reform in 1920s and 1930s Arkansas.” MA thesis, Arkansas State University, 2017. 

Clayton Delong
Jacksonville, Arkansas 

Comments

    Clayton Delong is a great writer and investigator on his subject matter.

    Susan Greeson Little Rock, AR