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County's Timber Industry Emerged In Late 1800s, Wendy Bradley Richter

Articles

Throughout the history of the United States, wood has been one of the nation's most useful raw materials. For pioneers of the Clark County area, plenty of timber was available from forested areas and from the clearing of land. In the late 1800s, with growth and expansion of population and improvements in transportation, a great lumber and timber products industry emerged.

Salt Manufacturing: One Of County's Earliest Industries, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Salt manufacturing has long been a source of curiosity for many interested in southwest Arkansas' earliest days. It is not known precisely when Indians first began extracting the mineral from the earth near the Ouachita River in Clark County, but it was certainly prior to the arrival of the first European explorers. Because of its lengthy historical significance, one site, Bayou Sel, was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1974.

Burrow Gang In Clark County (Or Famous Outlaw Has Ties To Clark County), Wendy Bradley Richter

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Clark County has seen its share of crime in the years since it became a part of Arkansas Territory in 1819. One of the Territory’s five original counties, the county covered a large geographical area in the earliest years. And, the Military Road (later called the Southwest Trail) passed through the heart of the area, carrying people of all sorts on their way to the West and Southwest. Later, the railroad crossed the county, too, somewhat paralleling the road.

Baseball A Hit In Clark County For Over A Century, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Baseball is among the nation's most popular sports, and Arkadelphia's history of the sport goes back almost 150 years. According to local legend, baseball was introduced in Clark County by a young man named Charley Murta in 1874.

One Of County's 'Most Notorious Murders' Remembered, Wendy Bradley Richter

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About a year ago, the Clark County Historical Association published a small booklet entitled "Wanted: Crooks, Scoundrels, Notorious Characters, and Other Legendary Figures in Clark County, Arkansas." Among the characters featured in the volume were the nationally-known outlaws Jesse James and Rube Burrow, who both have Clark County ties. However, another lesser known criminal committed what some have termed "one of the most notorious murders in Clark County," and perhaps the only murder remembered with a place name---Clyburn's Leap. Originally researched by local historian Grace Benton Nelson, Clyburn's story is featured in the "Wanted" book.

Smith's Accounts Give Look Into Clark County's Early History, Wendy Bradley Richter

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One of Clark County's pioneer citizens was Willis S. Smith - a sheriff, teacher, doctor, farmer, and writer. Arriving in the county in 1833, Smith witnessed the area's transformation from frontier wilderness to a typical, rural Arkansas region. And, significantly for us today, his accounts of those early days offer glimpses into the past not available elsewhere. We owe much of our knowledge about Clark County's beginnings to Smith.

Rose Hill Cemetery Dates Back To 1870s, Wendy Richter

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Historic Rose Hill Cemetery on Main Street in Arkadelphia has served the city as a principal burial place for decades. In that capacity, it is now the final resting place for some of Clark County's most well-known citizens Its historical significance has been recognized nationally, being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

Okolona Settled In 1830s, Grew For Decades, Wendy Bradley Richter

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The town of Okolona was first settled by Americans in the early 1830s when settlers began arriving by covered wagons from Okolona, Mississippi. These first residents built their homes on low ground nothwest of where the railroad depot later stood. After a few years of mud, the small settlement moved to the town's current location on higher ground. The pioneers included the Shackelford, Ethridge, Buchanan, Tarpley, Anderson and McGuire families. Among others who came were Pettus, Cargile, East, Ross, Park, Bell, Hays, Hardin, Weir, Harris, Cloud, McGill, Bonner, Logan and Wingfield.

New Book Recounts History In Dallas, Clark Counties, Wendy Bradley Richter

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The Dallas County Museum in Fordyce and Turtlehull Publishing have recently made available a new book that contains information about Clark County, Ouachita College and south Arkansas region."'My Own Precious One': A Year of Courtship in Letters from 1889-1890 between Princeton, Arkansas, and Pittsboro, Mississippi," edited by Sandra Parham Turner, Melrose Smith Bagwell and Doris Smith Beeson Faulkner, is a real treasure.

Curtis Founded As Fuel Stop For Trains, Wendy Bradley Richter

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The community of Curtis, south of Arkadelphia on U.S. Highway 67, was first established in the 1870s along the route of the Cairo & Fulton Railroad (later St. Louis, Iron Mountain, & Southern Railroad). Railroad officials chose the location as a fuel stop along the rail line, about halfway between Arkadelphia and Gurdon. At first, trains picked up wood there, and later, they stopped for coal.

The first train to receive supplies at the Curtis fuel chute arrived on June 30, 1873. A group of area residents celebrated the even, but realized the place had no name. According to local …

Graysonia Once A Thriving Community, Wendy Bradley Richter

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The town of Graysonia in western Clark County once boasted of a population of about 1,000 people, but today, can no longer be found on area maps. The story of its rise and fall parallels that of many southern timber company towns which no longer exist.

Graysonia was established soon after William Grayson and Nelson McLeod became the principal stockholders in the Arkadelphia Lumber Company and renamed the company Grayson- McLeod Lumber Company. The company operated the sawmilling community of Daleville, located across the Ouachita River from Arkadelphia. By 1907, the company had depleted the timber supply in the Daleville …

Hignight Known As Bear, Buffalo Hunter, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Among Clark County’s earliest settlers was a man named Abner Hignight, who moved to the area shortly after the beginning of the nineteenth century. According to family legend, Hignight traveled southwest from Missouri into Arkansas, riding a buffalo along the primitive path that was later called the Southwest Trail or Military Road. Hignight eventually settled along that road, about two miles west of Hollywood. In 1823, after the U.S. land office opened in Washington, Arkansas, he acquired land on the east side of the Terre Noir Creek where the road from Hollywood to Antoine crosses the stream today. It is …

Bozeman House, A Reminder Of Successful Farming Operation, To Receive Historical Marker Dedication, Wendy Bradley Richter

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About four miles west of Arkadelphia, the historic Bozeman House stands as a reminder of a bygone era. The frame, Greek-Revival structure was built in the mid-1840s for early settler Michael Bozeman. Bozeman owned one of the most successful farming operations in pre-Civil War Clark County, amassing holdings of more than 9,000 acres.

Michael Bozeman was born in Georgia in 1808. His family moved to Alabama in 1819, and later, he moved further west to Clark County, Arkansas, in 1835. As he stated in later life, one of his goals in coming to Arkansas was to “prove that cotton could …

Rebecca Davis Barkman Has Fascinating Story, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Jacob and Rebecca Barkman were among Clark County’s earliest residents, arriving about 1811 and constructing a cabin near the Caddo River on land acquired from the Indians. Jacob Barkman is quite well-known in the annals of Clark County history, and many have even called him the “Father of Clark County.” However, his wife’s life story is equally fascinating.

Some of the earliest descriptions of Arkansas’s pioneer settlers came from travelers. One visitor whose work was widely read was geologist George William Featherstonhaugh (pronounced fan-shaw), who came to Arkansas and Clark County in the 1830s. His book about the trip, “Excursion …

Clark County Historical Association Organized In 1972, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Since 1972 the Clark County Historical Association has pursued its mission to “discover, preserve, and disseminate” information about Clark County and its people. To achieve these goals, the organization’s activities range from the operation of a Museum in a historic structure to publication of historical information to placement of historical markers to production of living history events.

The Clark County Historical Association held its official organizational meeting at a local restaurant on October 30, 1972, with 127 in attendance. Interested parties from all walks of life attended that first meeting, organized primarily by educator Amy Jean Greene. Their common objective …

Dunbar Expedition Stopped In Clark County: Public Invited To Attend Program On Expedition Today, Wendy Bradley Richter

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In 1804, a cadre of explorers left Natchez, Mississippi, seeking to learn more about the Ouachita River and the celebrated hot springs of the Ouachitas at the request of President Thomas Jefferson. This meant that Lewis and Clark were not the only explorers of the United States’ huge, newly-acquired parcel of land called the Louisiana Purchase. William Dunbar of Natchez and George Hunter of Philadelphia led the excursion up the Ouachita, constituting the first American investigation of its new territory. Their reports pertaining to the river’s environs provide some of the earliest descriptions of the Ouachita River region, including the …

Clark County Library, Wendy Bradley Richter

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The Clark County Library is one of the oldest library buildings in the state of Arkansas. Its origins date back to 1897, when about thirty Arkadelphia women founded the Woman’s Library Association. With a goal to establish a public library in the city, the women’s work was representative of early efforts to establish such entities in the state. Notably, the library was among just a very small number of public libraries serving Arkansas in the first part of the twentieth century.

The Clark County Seat, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Clark County was first established in 1818, and therefore became one of the five counties in existence at the time Arkansas became a Territory in 1819. The centerpiece of Clark County government has always been its county courthouse. Historically, the county seat is the place where most citizens came into direct contact with government, whether it be to assess personal property, pay real estate taxes, obtain a marriage license, or register to vote.

Daleville, Wendy Bradley Richter

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No one living today recalls the 1886 founding of one of Arkansas’s largest lumber mills and its surrounding community, once located directly across the Ouachita River from Arkadelphia and known as Daleville. No visible evidence of the original mill remains today, but the operation played an important role in Clark County’s economy for many years.

The organizer and first president of the Arkadelphia Lumber Company was R.W. Huie. Huie chose the mill’s location, across the river east of Arkadelphia and on the Iron Mountain Railroad (later Missouri Pacific and Union Pacific). The mill sat at the end of the railroad’s …

Clark County Court House, Arkadelphia, Wendy Bradley Richter

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The centerpiece of Clark County government has always been the county courthouse. Historically, it is the place where most citizens have come into direct contact with government, whether it be to assess personal property, pay real estate taxes, obtain a marriage license, or register to vote. Clark County was first established in 1818, and therefore became one of the five counties in existence at the time Arkansas became a Territory in 1819. Court was held in various places in those early days, such as the home of pioneer Jacob Barkman, west of the Caddo River, near what is now Caddo …

Arkadelphia Cotton Mills, Wendy Bradley Richter

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In 1889 the Arkadelphia Cotton Mills (also known as Ouachita Cotton Mills) began its short-lived, but impressive existence in Arkadelphia. The manufacturing concern had previously operated at Royston from the mid-1870s, but was moved to Clark County. The facility sat on the bank of the Ouachita River, and was initially managed by J.W. Garrison, who had run the mill in Royston and was also a large stockholder. When the factory opened, it gave Arkadelphia the privilege of having one of the most popular and profitable industries in the South at the time. And certainly, the large building atop the bank …

Pottery Of The Caddo Indians, Wendy Bradley Richter

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For thousands of years, the land that is now known as Arkansas has been inhabited by native peoples. For much of that time, the Ouachita River valley and much of southwest Arkansas was home to the Caddo Indians and their ancestors.

Archeologists are able to glean a great deal of information about Arkansas’s first people by studying their pottery. According to the Arkansas Archeological Survey, pottery can tell us much about the “material, religious, and intellectual life of past societies and their social interactions such as settlements, trade, and conquests.”

Ouachita River Frozen At Arkadelphia, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Severely cold weather visited Clark County many decades ago. The years of 1918 and 1899 included some of the lowest temperatures on record. It was so cold that the Ouachita River froze here in Arkadelphia! Photographs from 1918 illustrate that some area residents seized the rare opportunity to walk across the river.

Interestingly, the Southern Standard newspaper had relatively little to say about the extreme temperatures. On January 17, 1918, the paper did, however, recall 1899 as the year of the “big freeze” and characterized current conditions as being the “coldest weather during past week we have had here for …

Roads And Trails, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Arkansas has long had a reputation for bad roads. As American settlers moved toward the West in the early 1800s, transportation routes were not only rough and filled with curves, but also dusty in dry weather, and muddy on rainy days. Traveling across Arkansas Territory was difficult, and many travelers lamented the condition of the trails and roads of the day. One man who described his travels through Arkansas was George William Featherstonhaugh (pronounced fan-shaw), who visited Arkansas and Clark County in the early 1830s. His book about the journey, “Excursion Through the Slave States,” was published in 1844. Featherstonhaugh …

County Seat Saw Several Homes Before Arkadelphia Became A Territory, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Clark County was one of the five counties in existence at the time Arkansas became a Territory in 1819. The county’s center of government and business activity has traditionally been the county seat. It was the place where early citizens came into direct contact with government, whether it be to assess personal property, pay real estate taxes, obtain a marriage license, or register to vote. Court was held in various places in territorial Clark County, such as the home of pioneer Jacob Barkman, west of the Caddo River, near what is now Caddo Valley. Later, a county seat was established …

The Gurdon Light A Popular Attraction To Area, Especially On Halloween, Wendy Bradley Richter

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According to witnesses, on many nights a mysterious glow appears along the path of the old railroad track about four miles north of Gurdon, not far from Interstate 30. The light sways back and forth across where the train traveled, one to three feet above the ground. Sometimes it appears to be a “yellowish white” “orange-red” or even a “bluish white.” And, it appears in all kinds of weather. This phenomenon—commonly known as the Gurdon Light—has been the source of much discussion and speculation since the 1930s. Local legend says that the murder of railroad section foreman Will McClain explains …

Callaway Article Recalls Early Murder, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Samuel Davis Callaway, born in Clark County shortly after his family’s arrival in the area in 1818, recalled a great deal about some of the memorable people of the county’s past in his series of articles, “Early Reminiscences of Clark County.” The series appeared in the Gurdon Times in the early 1900s. An old man by that time, Callaway left us one of the few eyewitness accounts of the county in the nineteenth century available today.

Halliburton's Features To Be Released, Wendy Bradley Richter

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The Clark County Historical Association published “This ‘N That by Hal: A Collection of W. H. Halliburton’s News Features, 1909-1976.” As its title suggests, the book contains a variety of articles from a variety of newspapers from over six decades. Halliburton’s daughter, Caryl Halliburton Linton, lives in Arkadelphia and wrote the introduction for the collection of articles.

W. H. “Hal” Halliburton spent his entire career as a journalist. Born in 1887 in Reydel, he attended Ouachita College. His byline first appeared in 1909 when he began writing for the school’s literary magazine, “Ripples.” By 1920, Halliburton was hired as the …

Drive-In Johnson, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Arkadelphia residents tagged a Ouachita college professor with the nickname “Drive-In Johnson” in the early part of the twentieth century with good reason. Dr. W.S. Johnson, an educator-turned-entrepreneur, had capitalized on serving the needs of those new- fangled machines known as automobiles by opening the town’s first service station.

Caddo Hotel, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Through the years, many well-known landmarks in Clark County have been lost. One of the area’s most memorable structures stood in downtown Arkadelphia for almost eighty years, and long-time residents certainly recall the Caddo Hotel. Unfortunately, the building was destroyed by fire in 1989.