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Cross County, Arkansas traces it's
beginning to an act of the General
Assembly passed 15 November of 1862,
entitled, "An act to establish the
county of Cross." The county was taken
out of
Crittenden, and St. Francis
Counties. Cross County is bounded on
the north by
Poinsett, on the east by
Crittenden, on the south by St.
Francis, and on the west by Woodruffand Jackson
Counties. Cross County is divided into
twelve townships; Hickory Ridge,
Mitchell, Coldwater, Twist, Brushy
Lake, Searcy, Tyronza, Fair Oaks,
Ellis, Bedford, Wynne, and Smith.
Cross County was named for Col.
David C. Cross, an officer of the
Confederate Army who came to the area
in the 1840's. Eventually he was to
own eighty five thousand acres of land
making him a wealthy man and the most
extensive landowner in the county.
Col. Cross died August 21, 1874 at the
home of his friend William Perry
Wilkins and is buried in the Wilkins
family cemetery.
There have been five county
seats. The town of Wittsburg was
designated as the first county seat,
but due to Union forces patrolling the
area during the Civil War, county
business could not be conducted there.
Three commissioners were chosen to
decide where the county seat should be
located. April 18, 1863 they chose
Pineville as the county seat. Dr. B.
D. McClaran was the first County
Clerk. No courthouse was erected at
Pineville. Dr. McClaran lived near
Pineville and the County's business
was conducted in his home.
In May 1865, commissioners met
at Pineville and selected the town of
Cleburne as the next county seat.
Cleburne, named after Patrick R.
Cleburne, a Confederate general from
Helena, Arkansas who had been Col.
Cross's commander in the Civil War,
was located in the center of the
county. Col. Cross deeded the center
block in the town containing 3/5 acre
to the county on which to build a
courthouse. His residence on the site
was used as a temporary courthouse.
The county seat was at Cleburne from
1865 to 1868.
As early as 1866 petitions, had
been circulated asking that the seat
be changed to Wittsburg. In June 1868
three locating commissioners were
elected and in October 1868 they
selected Wittsburg, by now a thriving
river port, as the next county seat.
Wittsburg was the county seat from
1868 to 1884.
In 1882 when the Helena branch
of the Iron Mountain and Southern
Railroad was completed, Wittsburg
began to decline. Steam trains were
replacing steamboats. Many business
and professional people were moving to
Vanndale, which was located on the new
railroad. An election was held and in
1884 Vanndale was declared the next
county seat. The first courthouse
built there in 1888.
Meanwhile, the town of Wynne
south of Vanndale was growing. Wynne
started in 1882 when a train derailed
leaving one boxcar without wheels and
off the tracks. The boxcar was placed
upright and designated Wynne Station
in compliment to Capt. Jessie W.
Wynne, a veteran of the Civil War and
a prominent businessman and banker of
Forrest City, Arkansas. Wynne was
formally incorporated May 28, 1888. In
July 1903 a petition was presented to
the county court asking that an
election be held to move the county
seat from Vanndale to Wynne. Wynne won
the election and has remained the
county seat of Cross County, Arkansas.
Mrs. Jimmie S. James
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