AACFAMILY & FRIENDS
to divide the county in 1885 into two judicial districts: a Northern one in Des Arc and a Southern one in the former county seat of DeValls Bluff. Other counties lacked such barriers but were
particularly large and two seats made sense in the days of horses and buggies. Logan County began as Sarber County in 1871, named after a Republican state senator named John Sarber. Te original seat was a town called Ellsworth, but an election was held to change the seat to Paris. In 1875, Paris became the county seat of a new Logan County renamed after an early settler because many Democrats were none too fond of having their county named after a Republican following Reconstruction. Paris proved to be a long way away for the residents of the southern part of Logan, as a trip to Paris took two days due to poor transportation. Tis part of the county wanted a courthouse of their own, so in 1901 Logan was divided by the General Assembly into two judicial districts. Te Northern district was to remain based in Paris, with the Southern district seat chosen by voters to be the historic Booneville (which won out over Magazine). Paris remained the main county seat, housing all pre-1901 records for Logan County. In other cases, as was the case in the contested
Sebastian County, a new town “boomed” with population and began to demand the clout of a county seat. In a state where local government was the most prominent government in folks’ lives, being able to have a county courthouse and be the center of a judicial district meant a lot for the prestige of a community. Over time, the block of land that was the original
Arkansas settlement was broken up into numerous different counties until all that was left was officially organized as Arkansas County. Tis resulted in the need for a new county seat that was more centrally located than the original Arkansas Post. A location was selected, and the new resulting community was, following the drawing of a name from a hat, named DeWitt in honor of former New York Governor DeWitt Clinton in 1855. However, Stuttgart, incorporated in 1889 as a settlement of German immigrants, found its footing at the turn of the 20th century as a booming agricultural center. Soon to be known as the rice capital of the world, Stuttgart became the judicial seat for the northern half of Arkansas County
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in the early 1920s due to its growing size and obvious clout in the county. Teir courthouse signifying this new status was built in 1928. For the time being, dual county seats remain a distinctive reality of local government in Arkansas. However, with the cost of maintaining older courthouses growing every year, it is likely that future consolidation issues will arise. Moving forward, balancing history with fiscal pragmatism is likely to become increasingly difficult. Courts may be forced to make final determinations in the conflict between Article 13 and long-time practice.
Jay Barth is M.E. and Ima Graves Distinguished
Professor of Politics and Bill and Connie Bowen Odyssey Professor at Hendrix College. Barrett Goodwin is a senior Politics major at Hendrix who collected information and drafted portions of this piece.
Sources: Various entries of Te Encyclopedia
of Arkansas History and Culture (http://www.
encyclopediaofarkansas.net/) Te Encyclopedia of Arkansas. 1962. Arkansas Almanac 1962. Little Rock. Te Arkansas Almanac Company, Inc. Banks, Wayne. 1959. History of Yell County,
Arkansas. Van Buren, AR: Te Press Argus. Edrington, Mabel F. 1962. History of Mississippi County, Arkansas. Ocala, FL: Ocala Star-Banner. Field, Hunter. “Dual County Seats Claimed by
Some Counties.” Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 20 March 2016. Goodspeed’s History of Craighead County, Arkansas. 1964 (1889). Van Buren, AR: Te Press Argus. Hanley, Ray and Hanley, Steven. 1999. Sebastian and
Crawford Counties, Arkansas. Arcadia Publishing. Te History and Families of Carroll County,
Arkansas. 2003. Berryville, AR: Carroll County Historical and Genealogical Society. Logan County, Arkansas: Its History and its People. 1987. Paris, AR: Logan County Historical Society. Snowden, Deanna, editor. 1986. Mississippi County,
Arkansas: Appreciating the Past, Anticipating the Future. Little Rock: August House.
75 Counties - One Voice COUNTY LINES, SUMMER 2016 29
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