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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 |