Brownsville is an unincorporated community in

Lonoke County Lonoke County is located in the Central Arkansas region of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 68,356, making it the 11th-most populous of Arkansas's 75 counties. The county seat is Lonoke and largest city is ...

, Arkansas, United States. The community is on Arkansas Highway 31 north-northeast of Lonoke. Brownsville was established in 1846 in what was at the time part of Prairie County, and it served as the first county seat. The community was named for U.S. Army officer Jacob Brown, who was killed in the

Siege of Fort Texas The siege of Fort Texas marked the beginning of active campaigning by the armies of the United States and Mexico during the Mexican–American War. The battle is sometimes called the siege of Fort Brown. Major Jacob Brown, not to be confused wi ...

the same year. By 1860, the town's population had grown to 2,000 residents, and it had a courthouse, a hotel, a newspaper, and several churches and businesses. During the American Civil War, a battle and multiple smaller skirmishes were fought at Brownsville, and soldiers from both sides plundered resources from the town. After the war, the

Memphis and Little Rock Railroad The Memphis and Little Rock Railroad was chartered in the U.S. state of Arkansas in 1853. The line ran from Hopefield, Arkansas (now West Memphis) on the east, to Huntersville (now North Little Rock, Arkansas) on the west. The eastern third was ...

bypassed the town to the south, and Prairie County moved its seat to DeValls Bluff in 1868. When Lonoke County formed in 1873, it chose Lonoke over Brownsville as its county seat, ending the town's early prominence.

References

Unincorporated communities in Lonoke County, Arkansas Unincorporated communities in Arkansas {{LonokeCountyAR-geo-stub