AAC
FEATURE Tapestry
1862, Woodruff County was established from parts of Arkan- sas and Lawrence counties. It was named in honor of William Woodruff, editor and publisher of the Arkansas Gazette, the first newspaper in Arkansas. While each of these counties was created under the auspices of a new constitution (something that was necessary as the state left the Union), there were very few substantive changes made to that constitution aside from replacing references to the United States of America with refer- ences to the Confederate States of America. As such, county formation remained implicitly in the hands of the legislature. By 1864, Arkansas’ third constitution was written under the terms of the U.S. government’s plan for wartime reconstruc- tion, intended to hasten the reestablishment of loyal state gov- ernments in the Southern United States. Ratified on March 14, 1864, this new constitution provided for a Unionist state government, in spite of the fact that a Confederate one — though significantly weakened — continued to exist. While a couple of drastic changes were included in the 1864 constitu- tion — abolishment of slavery and repudiation of secession, for example — it did not change the approach taken with re- spect to the establishment of counties, except that minimum county size was reduced from not less than 900 square miles in the original constitution to not less than 600 square miles. Te population size requirement tied to representation in the House remained unchanged. Only one county was formed by the General Assembly under this constitution. Indeed, Little River County was established on March 5, 1867, out of Sevier and Hempstead counties and named for the Little River, a tributary of the Red River, which serves as the county’s north- ern and eastern boundaries. A mere four years after the adoption of its third constitution,
Arkansas re-entered the Union and a fourth constitution was ratified on March 13, 1868, in order to begin the Reconstruc- tion Era under the terms of the Reconstruction Acts of 1867. Tis constitution made racial discrimination illegal, provid- ed support for both lower and higher public education, and fixed legislative apportionments to favor counties with large African-American populations. Moreover, the 1868 constitu- tion also significantly enhanced the power of the state govern- ment and broadened the powers of the governor. Nonethe- less, still no express provisions were written with respect to the establishment of counties, aside from the now commonplace requirement that no county then established should ever be reduced by the establishment of any new county to less than 600 square miles, nor could any county established thereafter contain less than 600 square miles. Te population require- ment contained in each previous constitution, however, was conspicuously absent. All but two of Arkansas’ final 17 coun- ties were formed under this constitution. By the end of 1873,
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Arkansas was divided into 73 counties. • Sharp County, established July 18, 1868, out of Law- rence County and named after Ephraim Sharp, an early settler and state legislator from Lawrence County.
• Grant County, created on Feb. 4, 1869, from portions of Jefferson, Hot Spring, and Saline counties and named for General (later President) Ulysses S. Grant.
• Boone County, established April 9, 1869, out of Car- roll and Marion counties and named for frontiersman Daniel Boone.
• Nevada County, created March 20, 1871, from Colum- bia, Hempstead, and Ouachita counties and named af- ter the state of Nevada, which has a similar outline to the county’s boundaries.
• Logan County, established March 22, 1871, out of Franklin, Johnson, Scott, and Yell counties. Logan County was originally named Sarber County, after the state senator who proposed the county’s creation to the legislature. However, the legislature later changed the name to Logan County in honor of James Logan, an early settler in the area on Dec. 14, 1875.
• Lincoln County, created March 28, 1871, from Arkan- sas, Bradley, Desha, Drew, and Jefferson counties and named after President Abraham Lincoln.
• Baxter County, established March 24, 1873, out of Ful- ton, Izard, Marion, and Searcy counties and named for (and by) Elisha Baxter, then governor of Arkansas. No- tably, Baxter County was created as a result of Governor Baxter himself introducing legislation to the General Assembly on a day on which most of the legislature was not present, thus those representing the counties that ultimately lost land to Baxter County could not vote against the bill.
• Clay County, created March 24, 1873, from Randolph and Greene counties. It was
originally named Clay-
ton County after John Clayton, a state senator, but was changed in 1875 to Clay County in honor of Secretary of State Henry Clay due to a resentment held by citizens in the area against John Clayton’s brother, Powell, who had been the first Reconstructionist governor of Arkansas.
• Garland County, established April 5, 1873, out of por- tions of Hot Spring, Montgomery, Saline, and Clark counties and named for Augustus Hill Garland who served as governor in 1874, U.S. senator from 1876 to 1885, and U.S. attorney general in 1885.
• Faulkner County, created on April 12, 1873, from Conway and Pulaski counties and named for Colonel Sanford C. Faulkner a Confederate soldier and the composer of the song “Te Arkansas Traveler.”
COUNTY LINES, SUMMER 2020
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