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The Clark County Seat, Wendy Bradley Richter

Articles

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

Articles

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

Articles

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 …

Rome: Thriving Village Missing Today, Wendy Richter

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One of Clark County's early villages that disappeared long ago was the community of Rome, in the southwestern portion of the county, about six miles from Oklona. Specifically, it was in Section 19, Township 9 South, Range 21 West.

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 …

Patterson Left Large Legacy Behind For Clark County, Wendy Richter

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Robert Henderson Patterson was born in 1892 in Pike County, one of ten children of Robert O. and Alsie Henderson Patterson. The R.O. Patterson family had moved to Clark County in the 1870s, then to Oklahoma, returning to their fram in 1903. After serving in World War I, Robert H. Patterson spent most of the rest of his life in teh Dobyville community.

Weber House Relocated In 2005, Wendy Richter

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Many Arkadelphians may recall the structure that once stood at 307 North Sixth Street, known by locals as the "Weber House." Belived to have been built in the early 1860s by Rev. J.E. Cobb and his wife Sarah, the home changed hands several times before being purchased in 1879 by its long-time owner, Louis J. Weber. Weber lived in the home with his family until his death in 1919.

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

Articles

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.

Confederate Governor Harris Flanagin From Arkadelphia, Wendy Richter

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Many Clark Countians may not be aware that Arkansas's "Confederate" Governor was from Arkadelphia. Attorney Harris Flanagin served from 1862 to 1865, for most of the Civil War.

Dunbar Expedition Passed Through Arkadelphia In 1804, Wendy Richter

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Two hundred and eleven years ago, 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 Philidelphia 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 …

Caddo Hotel, Wendy Bradley Richter

Articles

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.

Timber Brought Industry To Clark County, Wendy Richter

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Throughout the history of the United States, wood has been one of the nation's most useful raw materials. The first settlers found wood to be abundant in most parts of North America and immediately made use of this material for construction of shelters, forts and ships, and as firewood. For the pioneers, plenty of timber was available from nearby forest areas or from the clearing of land. However, with growth and expansion of population and improvements in transportation, a great a great lumber products industry emerged.

Arkansas Power And Light Traces Back To Arkadelphia, Wendy Bradley Richter

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In December 1913, entrepreneur Harvey Couch and his associates purchased the Arkadelphia Water and Light Company, which produced small amounts of electricity for Arkadelphia. Their “Arkansas Power Company” had been incorporated just a few weeks earlier. Stockholders included Couch, J.H. Meek, J.L. Longino, W.C. Ribenack, C.S. McCain, J.B. Hampton, and J.W. Lee.

Civil War Marker Placed In Clark County In 2014, Wendy Bradley Richter

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In the spring of 1865, after four years of fighting, the American Civil War finally came to a close. As a part of the observation of the war’s sesquicentennial, a number of Civil War-related programs and events have told the story of what happened in this area of Arkansas, when military activity reached its zenith in the southwestern portion of the state.

Agriculture News Of 1915, Wendy Bradley Richter

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Years ago, a good bit of agriculture-related news appeared in front-page stories of the local newspaper. Indeed, in 1915, Arkadelphia’s Southern Standard addressed issues connected to planting, and told of many of the growing season’s firsts as the year progressed. Legends and lore, as well as factual information, were all included in the paper’s stories.

Fires Of 1915, Wendy Bradley Richter

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The 2015 edition of the Clark County Historical Journal includes articles on a wide range of topics. One of the articles, as its title suggests, "100 Years Ago: Front-Page Stories from the Southern Standard," features items found in the 1915 local newspaper. Among the newsworthy subjects were events that were much too commonplace at the time--fires.