A History Of Cleveland County, Arkansas ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Information obtained by the files of Billie Langford, past issues of the Cleveland County Herald, Godspeed's Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas, and Cleveland County Potpourri. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- USGenWeb NOTICE: Libraries and individual researchers may download this file for personal, non-commercial use only. Any other use requires written permission from the transcriber. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net ------------------------------------------------------------------- A History of Cleveland County, Arkansas County and Township Boundaries In 1819, most of this area was in Clark County. By the time Arkansas became a state, in 1836, the area was called Union County. Bradley County was created December 18, 1840. The area now known as Cleveland County was a part of this county. Dorsey County was formed by an act of Legislature, April 17, 1873. It was formed from parts of Bradley, Jefferson, Dallas and Lincoln Counties and was named in honor of Stephen W. Dorsey, a Republican senator, who entered Congress in that year. On March 5, 1885, Dorsey County was renamed by an act of the General Assembly in honor of Grover Cleveland, who had just been elected President of the United States. The first meeting of the Dorsey County Board of Supervisors was held at Pleasant Ridge, on May 17, 1873. At this meeting the county was divided into eight townships: Red Land, Lee, Saline, White Oak, Whiteville, Smith, Miller and Harper. The next meeting was held at Toledo, June 2, at the residence of N.V. Barnett. It was declared a temporary courthouse. The county seat was then located at Toledo, July 7, and the county purchased the residence there of M.T. McGehee for a courthouse, which later burned on March 9, 1889. After the courthouse had burned, other villages in the county became interested in having the courthouse in their area, including: New Edinburg, Kingsland, Rison, and Beasley's Switch. Each petitioned in its own right. An election was held June 29, 1889, with Rison being the final choice. Early Settlers Early pioneers began to settle in what is now Cleveland County by 1834. John Harvie Marks, Nathaniel Barnett, both wealthy slaveholders, along with David Gilmore and several others, moved into the Red Land Township area with their families. Land was cheap, at $.35 per acre. The pioneers found Indian tribes here when they arrived, mostly Quapaw. Some other families that settled in the area before 1850 were the families of Samuel Blankenship, Lydia Dorman, John Wooldridge, Paschal B. Andrews, John Davis, Robert Harper, Roland Vint, Nancy McMillon, John Chappell, John Tucker, Pleasant Culpepper, William Gilbert, Marion Hudson, Rachel Kimbrell, Nancy Whitehead, Abraham Smith, James Overton, Gabriel May, Adereston Rogers, Joseph Merriweather, Ransom Capps, Elisha Gunn, Thomas Chowning, John Hudson, Jesse Varnell, Paschal Roberts, Silas Baggett, David Patrick and Madison T. McGhee. This is just a partial list of families in the county before 1850. There are more listed in The Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Southern Arkansas. Some of the earliest doctors in Cleveland County were: Louis Leali, T.B. Tims, W.A. Ward, A.D. Rogers, E.H. Moses, A.W. Preston, C.A. Standfield, William D. Barnett, C.D. Niven, John B. Chowning, T.J. Julian, J.C. Thompson, T.W. Chowning, Lewis Julian, A.T. Clark and W.W. Haley. Sixteen newspapers have been published in Cleveland County during its history. The Toledo Blade, established in 1879, was probably the first. The longest running newspaper, The Cleveland County Herald, has been in publication since 1896. The first wireless radio came to Cleveland County in 1923 at the home of Dr. Attwood in Rison. Early Towns New Edinburg In 1835 folks began to appear and build homes in the vicinity of Cleveland County now known as New Edinburg. In 1838 a house of worship was built. It was called Free House, as every denomination and every color, worshipped there. The cemetery was started soon thereafter. The building was erected by William Walker. The town lots were laid out in 1860. The sale of the lots was conducted at Eagle Creek, about a mile and a half east of New Edinburg. An early settler by the name of McDaniel lived in the area. The name of New Edinburg, suggested by John H. Cherry, a merchant of Marks' Mills, was adopted. That name was from a town in Scotland. The home of Dr. E.H. Moses was one of the first homes built there. A native of Georgia, he married Miss Nancy Davis, a daughter of one of the pioneers in the community. The Civil War slowed the growth of the town, but in 1867, E.P. Marks moved there and established his drug store. Soon J.J. T. Kendricks opened a general store and in 1877, W.D. Attwood came to start his business enterprise. During the Civil War, New Edinburg won a fixed place in Southern History in the battle of Marks' Mills on April 26, 1864. A Federal wagon train, loaded with supplies and escorted by 1,000 to 1,500 strong, partly colored troops, had been sent from Pine Bluff to Camden. On the return of the train, the Federals were ambushed at Marks' Mills by an overwhelming force of confederates. Some of the whites and nearly all of the Negroes were killed, and a large number of whites were taken prisoners. Homes used as hospitals during the battle of Marks' Mills were the homes of John Harvie Marks, Watt Smith, Bill Davis, Warren Crane and Mrs. Civility Powell Marks. In 1903, a new high school was built. W.R. McEwen was the superintendent and there were 115 pupils enrolled. Toledo Six years after Cleveland County was formed and the town of Toledo had been designated as the county seat, the citizens of the town petitioned the county court to have the town incorporated. The incorporation order was signed by Judge L.F. Oaks. William P. Stephens, Esq., represented the petitioners in the court. Toledo at one time had a court house, three attorneys practicing law, a blacksmith, a drug store, dry goods store, and grocery store. There was also a school called the Toledo Academy. Kingsland Kingsland was the second town to be incorporated in the county, on July 22, 1884, with a population of around 500. It was located on the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Railroad (Cotton Belt Railway) which had only recently been built. According to a notice dated November 21, 1882, the post office was first called Arkatha Cohasset. That name was later rejected and changed to Kingsland, in honor of a railroad official. In 1910, the business district was reported to have included: Tippy Sneed Store, J.E. McCoy Store, Cleveland County Bank, Thomas and Lee Mercantile, Odd Fellows Lodge Hall, Dykes Drug Store, Attorney E.A. Gibson, Morgan Hotel, a telephone office and McDade's Picture Studio. Rison The first settler at what is now Rison, was J.M. McMurtery who erected his home in 1880. The second house in Rison was built by E.W. Emerson and W.B. Sadler. Mr. Sadler married Mr. Emerson's sister. Together the two men built the first store in Rison. The first hotel was built by Mr. Jesse Harrison in 1882. The first minister was Rev. T.J. Varnell, a Baptist. Incorporation of the Town of Rison was approved in the Cleveland County Court August 26, 1890, by Judge J.F. Johnson, after a petition bearing 30 signatures of residents of the town had been filed. It was named in honor of Billie Rison of Fort Worth, Texas, a lawyer and official of the Cotton Belt railroad. Mr. Rison and Col. Camuel W. Fordyce, who constructed the railroad, laid out the town. The incorporation of the town came on the heels of Rison being declared the county seat as the result of a special election which had been held following the destruction of the courthouse at Toledo, by a fire, in March 1889. Atty. W.S. Amis represented the petitioners in court. J.T. Renfrow was later elected the first mayor of the town. The Cotton Belt Railroad (the St. Louis, Arkansas and Texas Railroad) had been built through this section of the state several years previously and Rison had been designated as a station on the new railroad. Mt. Elba The settlement of Mr. Elba began between 1840 and 1850. By 1850 there was about 80 families in the area. In 1845 a license was issued to Simeon Goodwin to keep a public ferry at Mt. Elba. In 1847 a grocery store was opened there, and Joseph Meriweather was appointed postmaster there. It was discontinued July 1866. In 1854 Temperance Chapel Methodist Church South was organized, it met in a two story building on the property of Madison Tate McGehee. The Masonic Fraternity met on the upper floor. A cemetery soon started near by, and it was known as the Cherry Cemetery, or Temperance Chapel Cemetery. Robert and John Cherry owned "Cherry Brothers' store in the area.