During the Civil War , General Marmaduke established a camp on the present location of the town that bears his name. He an his men had crossed the St. Francis River at Chalk Bluff in Clay County, and came on into Greene County to stay in camp for two or three months. They used the camp for headquarters, and sent out scouting parties to watch a group of guerilla soldiers under Quantrell in Clay County . About five miles east of Rector there is a little grove with about thiry graves holding the remaines of Quantrell's soldiers.

Godspeed's history gave a description of the town in 1889:

"Marmaduke , a town of about 200 inhabitants on the Cotton Belt Railroad , twelve miles northeast of Paragould, contains four stores, a blacksmith shop, cotton gin and press, church, school house , a sawmill and boarding house. From here a tramway is run a mile out on the St. Francis River , where other mills are located. The village was first laid out in 1882 by the Railroad Company."

Marmaduke was prosperous sawmill town as long as the timber lasted.Fire destroyed a number of business houses and the town was hard hit by the depression, but has recovered some extent. Marmaduke has it's own water system ,has electricity and telephone service, has a good school system and three churches Methodist , baptist, and Church of Christ. At present , the town has about eight hundred inhabitatants.

Notes found "The History of Greene County" author Vivian Hansbrough