Lewisburg, Arkansas was a town in southern

Conway County, Arkansas Conway County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. Created as Arkansas's 11th county on October 20, 1825, Conway County has four incorporated municipalities, including Morrilton, the county seat and most populous city. The county ...

. Founded as a trading post in 1825 by William Lewis, it served as the original county seat of Conway County from 1831 until 1883, when it ceded its role to Morrilton. Old Town of Lewisburg Stones

While thriving as a town of nearly 2,000 residents along the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...

up to the 1860s, the community was the site of significant Union troop occupation during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, from September 1863 through August 1865. Lewisburg witnessed several guerrilla killings in the area, also common in surrounding communities throughout the river valley. A skirmish in early 1865 effectively ended war activity in the county, ahead of the surrender that would conclude the overall war. In the years immediately following the war, the community became unsettled amid conflict between local militia and the Ku Klux Klan in 1868, leading to major fires in town and a declaration of martial law by Governor

Powell Clayton Powell Foulk Clayton (August 7, 1833August 25, 1914) was an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 9th governor of Arkansas from 1868 to 1871, as a Republican member of the U.S. Senate for Arkansas from 1871 to 1877 ...

in December 1868. Desirability of Lewisburg as a ferry site along the river was superseded as years passed, first by the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad bypassing the town in 1875, and later with a bridge constructed in 1919 to carry traffic onward to Oppelo and other points south of the river. The approximate area of Lewisburg is a neighborhood in the southeast portion of modern-day Morrilton.

References

Ghost towns in Arkansas {{ConwayCountyAR-geo-stub