Richmond is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Little River County, Arkansas Little River County is a county located on the southwest border of the U.S. state of Arkansas, bordering a corner with Texas and Oklahoma. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,026. The county seat is Ashdown. Little River County is ...

, United States. Richmond prospered as a commercial and political center during the late 1800s.

History

The area was explored by

Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe (4 February 1683 in Saint-Malo – 26 September 1765) was a French explorer who is credited with the discovery of Little Rock, Arkansas. He was the first known French explorer to set foot in the future state of Ok ...

, who is believed to have camped northeast of Richmond in 1719. Located approximately from the Red River, Richmond and other nearby settlements "existed mainly because of the river, which grew into a major commercial outlet from the 1830s to the 1890s". Richmond was founded by settlers from Alabama around 1853. A one-room schoolhouse was built in 1854, and prior to 1861, a two-room school was erected near the earlier building. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, Judge Lewis Davis, father of Arkansas governor Jeff Davis, taught at the school. The school building was declared unsafe in 1902, so classes were moved to the old courthouse until around 1929, when a new brick school was built. The early schools were also used for church services. In 1850, of land located east of the settlement was donated for the establishment of Richmond Church and Cemetery. A post office was established in 1857. During the

, troops of the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

led by brigadier general

Sterling Price Major-General Sterling "Old Pap" Price (September 14, 1809 – September 29, 1867) was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Western and Trans-Mississippi theaters of the American Civil War. Prior to ...

camped at Richmond for three weeks in December 1864 while returning from battle. While there, 17 soldiers died and were buried in Richmond Cemetery. In 2012, a plaque commemorating their deaths was placed at the cemetery by the

United Daughters of the Confederacy The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) is an American neo-Confederate hereditary association for female descendants of Confederate Civil War soldiers engaging in the commemoration of these ancestors, the funding of monuments to them, ...

. Richmond prospered during the late 1870s and early 1980s when it contained a chapter of the Woman's Missionary Society (1875); a

Masonic Lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...

(No.174); a steam-powered machine for grinding corn, sawing lumber, and ginning cotton (1876); a hotel called the Grand Central; a molasses mill, bank, blacksmith, churches, two gristmills, two drugstores, five law officials, and eight stores; and a newspaper called the ''Little River Pilot'' (1880). Also in 1880, a courthouse and jail were erected, and Richmond was named the county seat. After the courthouse burned in 1883, its rebuilding was paid for by the citizens of Richmond, who wanted their community to remain the county seat.

Decline

Railroads were built through Little River County in the late 1890s, thereby lessening the commercial importance of river navigation on which Richmond depended. The

Texarkana and Fort Smith Railway The Texarkana and Fort Smith Railway was the Texas subsidiary of the Kansas City Southern Railway, operating railroad lines in the states of Arkansas and Texas, with headquarters at Texarkana, Texas. On June 18, 1885, the Texarkana and Northern R ...

was interested in building their railroad through Richmond, but some landowners refused to grant a right-of-way. The railway instead completed a line though nearby Ashdown in 1892. Without a railway, Richmond began to decline in population and importance. In 1902, the county seat was moved to Rocky Comfort, and in 1929 the post office closed.

Geography

Palmetto Flats Natural Area, the largest contiguous block of alluvial terrace forest in the Red River Valley in Arkansas, is located west of Richmond.

Notable person

Edwin Mims Edwin Mims (1872–1959) was an American university professor of English literature. He served as the chair of the English Department at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, for thirty years from 1912 to 1942, and he taught many members ...

, Chair of English at

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Little River County, Arkansas Unincorporated communities in Arkansas