About Independence County Arkansas...

When Arkansas Territory was separated out of Missouri Territory in 1819, the new territorial assembly at Arkansas Post rapidly moved to create new counties. One of them was Independence County, created in 1820 by dividing Lawrence County along the watershed between the Black and White river valleys.

Independence County was the ninth county to be formed in Arkansas and was the fourth after the Territory of Arkansas was created. The Act creating the county passed by the Territorial legislature was signed by Jas. Miller, governor on October 23, 1820.

As originally formed, the county included a large area of land extending from the mouth of Little Red River to the Missouri line and included all or parts of Fulton, Baxter, Sharp, Izard, Stone, Cleburne, Van Buren, White, Jackson and Woodruff Counties. The first courthouse was built at Batesville and the county seat has remained in the town of Batesville.

The first post office at Batesville was opened as Poke Creek November 7, 1820, with Charles Kelly, the county’s first sheriff, as postmaster. The name of the office was officially changed to Batesville on January 7, 1824.

One of the first settlements of Arkansas was at the Batesville site. There is a record of a John Read opening a store there in 1812 and there is also an authentic record of John Luttig’s store, which had a $5,500 stock of goods at the site in 1815. Poke Bayou was visited by the writer Henry R. Schoolcraft, who described it as a village of a dozen houses in 1819.

The county grew steadily in its first forty years of existence and in 1860 had reached a population of 14,307, although the land area had been substantially reduced. Independence County was fourth in population among the state’s counties in 1860.

Communities:

Cities:

Towns:

  • Magness
  • Moorefield
  • Oil Trough
  • Pleasant Plains
  • Sulphur Rock

Census-designated places

  • Bethesda
  • Desha
  • Floral
  • Salado

Other unincorporated communities:

  • Antioch
  • Cedar Grove
  • Charlotte
  • Cord
  • Dota
  • Gainsboro
  • Jamestown
  • Limedale
  • Locus Grove
  • McHue
  • Pfeiffer
  • Rosie
  • Sandtown
  • Thida
  • Walnut Grove

Townships

  • Ashley
  • Barren
  • Big Bottom-Wycough-Logan
  • Black River-Marshall
  • Cushman-Union
  • Departee
  • Dota
  • Fairview
  • Gainsboro
  • Greenbrier
  • Hill
  • Huff
  • Jefferson
  • Liberty
  • McHue
  • Magness
  • Moorefield
  • Oil Trough
  • Relief
  • Rosie
  • Ruddell
  • Salado
  • Washington
  • White River

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Above image: IOOF Home Band, Batesville AR (Jeannette Harper)