Jonesboro and Arkansas's Historic Northeast Corner

Ray Hanley, Diane Hanley

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781439613375
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Join Ray and Diane Hadley as they retell the history of the communities that make up Jonesboro and Arkansas's Northeast Corner in vintage images.

When Union soldiers returned North after the Civil War, they brought home stories of a sparsely populated area with bountiful timber and potential for homes and farms. Over the next 50 years, first by wagon train and then by railroads, settlers came to build not only homes and farms but also thriving communities in the Clay, Greene, and Craighead counties of northeastern Arkansas. Today, visitors and residents of the area see the bustle of Jonesboro and the thriving Arkansas State University. Readers of Jonesboro and Arkansas' Historic Northeast Corner will discover Jonesboro as it lived a century ago, a promising town of 7, 000 citizens. As the 20th Century opened, modern and attractive towns such as Corning, Piggott, Rector, and Paragould began to thrive. The evolution of these historic areas-from slow-paced villages with dirt roads and horse-drawn wagons to the bustling towns of the late 20th century-is chronicled in this Images of America edition.

Two

PARAGOULD AND GREENE COUNTY

By an act of the state legislature in 1833, Greene County was split off from the originally very large Lawrence County in the Arkansas Territory, three years before statehood. It was named to honor Revolutionary War hero Nathaniel Greene, a brilliant leader of the militia serving George Washington in numerous battles. Greene issued personal IOUs to contractors to furnish troops with supplies, since the revolutionary government lacked funds with which to equip the ragtag Continental Army. At the end of the war, General Greene had to sell everything he owned to pay off these debts incurred to help found the United States. In error the “e” was initially left off the end of the county’s name, but this was later corrected.

The first permanent settler on Crowley’s Ridge in Greene County was Benjamin Crowley, who settled there in 1822, building a fine plantation-style home c. 1832. Over the years, the original log home evolved into a clapboard-sided mansion, and even served as a community clubhouse in the 1930s. Time, neglect, and the elements took their toll, however, and despite valiant citizens’ efforts to restore and save the house, it was torn down in the early 1970s.

Businessman W.S. Pruett came to Greene County in the 1850s with only $1.50 in his pocket, but he soon met with good fortune. In 1881, he and his partner J.J. Lambert bought up land around the expected junction of two railroads and platted a town with a corporation called the Southwest Improvement Company. The converging tracks belonged to competing railroad men J.W. Paramore and the wealthy business baron Jay Gould; the infant town at the tracks’ crossing was named by compromise, combining the names of the two railroad men into “Paragould.” In 1884, the Greene County seat was moved from the fading town of Gainesville to thriving Paragould. The new county seat grew rapidly and gained an impressive courthouse by 1888. The city raised an additional $300 above the county’s efforts to erect the imposing tower on the building, seen here c. 1910. Local citizens then contributed $700 to add a chiming clock to that tower. For the next 35 years, the clock chimes echoed across town each night to signal the 9 p.m. curfew, which required children to be off the streets and in their homes. As seen below, with the 1911 Children’s Pageant on the lawn, the Courthouse was the center of activity for the town.

The 1911 Children’s Pageant used the courthouse steps as the stage for the crowning of the Queen Miss, the honor that year going to Miss Carolyn Thompson. The city of Paragould is quite proud today to boast that the historic building where these children stood almost a century ago is now being restored to house the area Chamber of Commerce. A new, modern courthouse next door to this building serves as the seat of county government for Greene County.

In the golden era of picture postcards, essentially from 1905 to 1920, every town with a courthouse tower had postcard views taken from that high vantage point, which was usually the tallest structure in town. In this case, c. 1908, the photographer had pointed his lens north down Third Street, a dirt thoroughfare lined with large trees and homes. Today the area is much more commercial in nature.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the tallest point in most Arkansas cities, if not the courthouse tower, was a water tower, which also became a common vantage point for photographers. On a cold winter day c. 1905, a photographer captured this view from atop the water tower looking toward the imposing courthouse and, further down, the almost empty, snow-covered street. The lone person visible, driving a horse-drawn buggy, perhaps had stopped at the West Side Public School building to the right.

Paragould’s birth as a railroad crossroads in the 1880s gave rise initially to a wooden frame depot for the Cotton Belt Railroad, as seen above in 1892, with men and baggage carts seemingly awaiting a train. The railroad helped build the town, initially as a shipping point for timber products from the county, then also for agricultural products...