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HOW DID ARKANSAS GET ITS NAME?
The word
"Arkansas," and its pronunciation is no less colorful and
unique than the history of the State that it names. Arkansas
is an English pronunciation of a French translation of a
Native American phrase. The word actually means "downstream
people." The people named this were the Quapaw, a large tribe
of Native Americans that settled much of the area along the
southern Mississippi River. The Algonquin Indians pronounced
this name as O-ka-na-sa. While the French explorer LaSalle
wrote the word as Arkensa, the French explorer LaHarpe wrote
this word as Arkansas. This was the spelling of the State's
name when it was admitted to the Union in 1836, however not
everyone agreed on this spelling or its pronunciation. To
finally end the long-standing dispute, a Legislative Committee
set the the official spelling as "Arkansas" and the official
pronunciation as "ARK-an-SAW" in 1881 . . . "that received by
the French from the Native Indians, and committed in writing
by the French word representing the sound; and in accordance
with same it should be pronounced in three syllables, with the
final 's' silent, the 'a' in each syllable with the Italian
sound, and the accent on the first and last syllables."
Arkansas is the only State to have both an official spelling
and official pronunciation of its name set by legislative act. |
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1820 - 1860
Colonel Walter
Cauthron, generally credited as being the founder of
Booneville, left Little Rock January 1, 1821 and joined Lt. B.
L. E. DeBonneville, who was en route to Fort Smith, at the
place where Perryville, Arkansas now stands. He was so
impressed by the beauty and fertility of the Petit Jean River
Valley that he returned six years later and became the first
permanent settler. M. T. Tatum is credited with establishing
a store and cotton press and post office somewhere around
1828. The post office was listed as being at Booneville.
This site was just a couple of miles southeast of the
present-day City of Booneville. By 1841, the community of
Booneville had 9 blocks.
There is no
clear, authenticated record of how Booneville got its name,
but a romantic blending of fact and legends leads one to
believe that it was named for Lt. B. L. E. DeBonneville, and
that the spelling was inadvertently changed. Another belief is
that the city is named in honor of Daniel Boone, since Boone
was accompanied from the east to Kentucky by his cousin, Gen.
Benjamin Logan, one member of the Logan family for whom the
county was named.
It is
interesting to note that there was no county named Logan when
Arkansas became a state in 1836. The fact is that the county
didn't exist at all. The current County of Logan was not
formed until during the Reconstruction Period, following the
War of Northern Aggression (Civil War). |
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1860 - 1878
The Civil War
had brought disorganization and disintegration to the entire
social system of Arkansas. Many farms were ruined, the
political system was in disarray, and the people were in
poverty. The road to recovery was made almost insurmountable
by the Reconstruction instituted on the South by the Radical
Republicans in control of the U. S. Congress following
President Lincoln's death. The Radicals wanted to turn
Arkansas into a Republican state. The "Powell Clayton Regime"
came into power in 1868, followed by six years of confusion
and corruption. Reconstruction in Arkansas effectively ended
in 1874 with the Brooks-Baxter war, a armed civil and military
conflict between two rival Republican claimants to the
governorship of the state. Having had enough Reconstruction,
the Democrats returned to power in 1874, wrote a new
Constitution and elected August H. Garland as governor.
Some time in
the 1870's, a quarrel apparently developed in Johnson County
over the proposed moving of the County Seat from Clarksville
(north of the Arkansas River) to Spadra (on the Arkansas
River). It was felt that this location would better serve
the entire county, especially the southern half. It is
important to remember that communication and travel in the mid
1800's was slow at best. For example, the trip from Midway to
Clarksville and back that now takes less than 1 hour by car
would have been a two-day journey during that time.
To settle this
matter, a bill was introduced to the Arkansas Legislature by
State Senator John N. Sarber. This solution was to combine
areas of Johnson, Yell, Scott and Franklin into a new county.
The new county was to be named Clayton, after Arkansas
Governor Powell Clayton. However, in a strange twist of
events, the county was named Sarber, after the Senator that
introduced the bill.
The new,
temporary county seat was located at Reveille, a few miles
north of the present-day City of Magazine and just at the foot
of Mt. Magazine. Even though no town exists at that location
now, in the mid 1800's, Reveille was a small but substantial
community and was located near the geographical center of the
county. Soon after, county commissioners decided to locate
the permanent County Seat at the top of Flattop Mountain, 12
miles north of Reveille and 6 miles southeast of the
present-day City of Paris. A small frame courthouse was
constructed at this site, which was called Anderson.
This site did
not suit the population of the new county, and a new site was
selected at Ellsworth by county commissioners. The new
location was 10 miles east of the present-day City of Paris,
approximately 20 miles northeast of the original location in
Reveille. A small courthouse was built there and the county
records were deposited at the new location in 1873. The new
location was even less popular than the previous, almost
resulting in armed conflict. An investigation of the county
records was ordered, but on the evening of February 17, 1874,
the courthouse burned to the ground. All county records were
lost, except a register of county script.
To settle the
trouble, the State Legislature ordered a public election to
select a site for a new courthouse. The present location of
the City of Paris was owned by Jesse Waddill, who had surveyed
out a city on his land. He was successful in persuading
voters to select a site on his property for the location of
the new courthouse. A new wood frame courthouse was built
there, but was destroyed by fire in October of 1877.
The location
of the new courthouse was not the only trouble in the new
county. The population of the county, as well as the state,
despised the name Sarber. Senator Sarber, for whom the new
county had been named, was a native of Pennsylvania and had
served as a Federal officer during the Civil War. He was
viewed as a "Carpet Bagger" or a "Yankee" that came into the
South to profit from the chaos that resulted during the harsh
Reconstruction forced on the former Confederate States.
As soon as
reconstruction ended, the population of Arkansas started
trying to remove any traces of Northern occupation. During
1875, Sarber County was renamed Logan County in honor of James
Logan, an Arkansas pioneer who served in the first Arkansas
Legislature. Booneville was incorporated in 1878; Paris was
incorporated in 1879. |
