A Little History...
Faulkner County, the reputation of which has rapidly spread in recent years, was organized in accordance with an act of the State legislature, approved April 12, 1873. The act provided that all that portion of the counties of Conway and Pulaski included within the boundaries herein named:"Beginning at the point where the township line dividing Townships 3 and 4 crosses the Arkansas River, and running east with said line to range line dividing Ranges 10 and 11 west; thence with said range line to township line dividing Townships 8 and 9 north; thence west with said line to the section line dividing Sections 3 and 4, Township 8, Range 14 west; thence south with said line to the North Fork of Cadron Creek; thence with the meanderings (following the middle of the channel) of said creek, to the middle of the Arkansas River' thence with said river to the place of beginning," should be formed into a separate and distinct county to be called and known by the name of Faulkner*. By further provisions of the act A.D. Thomas, A.F. Livingston and J.F. Comstock were appointed commissioners to locate the seat of justice, procure title to the site thereof, to lay out a town, and sell the lots and make deeds of conveyance to individual purchasers, and to appropriate the proceeds arising from the sale of the lots to the erection of the proper public buildings, etc. The act also provided that the temporary seat of justice should be established at Conway Station, and that the Governor should appoint the necessary county officers, to hold their positions until the next general election, etc.At this time the county courts of the State of Arkansas, were composed of a board of supervisors for each county. Accordingly after the proper officers had been appointed by his Excellency, Elisha Baxter, Governor of Arkansas, Hon. E.L. Allen, M.R. Sevier, and A.J. Horton, members of the board of commissioners, assembled at Conway, May 5, 1873, and organized their court by taking the oath of office as prescribed by law, and electing Hon. E. L. Allen, president of the board. C.H. Lander, clerk, and Benter Turner, sheriff, also appeared in their official capacity, and the thus the first court of Faulkner County was formed, and the organization of the county completed. Very little business was transacted at this term of the court. At its second session held also in May, the court sub-divided the county into thirteen road districts, and appointed overseers for each one. The commissioners appointed by the act creating the county, to select a site for the seat of justice, selected Conway, the temporary seat, for the permanent county seat. A town having already been laid out at this place no tract of land was purchased by the commissioners on which to lay out a town, but September 19, 1873, Col. A.P. Robinson, the original proprietor of the site of Conway, and the man who laid out the town, donated to the county, and conveyed by proper deeds, the large and beautiful square now occupied with the public buildings. This square is 350 feet east and west, by 460 feet north and south, and is a part of block 26, according to the plat of the town. It consist in part of open prairie, and parts are covered with small natural forests; and certainly no county in the State can boast of a larger or more handsome court yard so far as nature has provided for its beauty. (Goodspeed's 1890)
