Marion Co TOC

    History at times offers up mysteries that are never solved. Uncovering facts and piecing together an accurate compilation of family or local histories is very rewarding and the quest is truly the exciting impetus that makes it all worth while.
    The most interesting and inviting aspects of history are usually the question that has not been solved. All of us that have become engaged in searching records, documents, stories and accounts, both written and oral, and recorded histories and genealogies soon become most focused on the "missing links" and the challenge of the seemingly "unsolvable"
    Personal experience has taught me the value of patience, and the worthiness of the old adage, "if at first you don't succeed....try, try again..." Also apparent is that fact that many of these questions are not answered in an exciting and earth shattering revelation, but "evolve" with the accumulation of references and snippets of facts gleaned along the way. Such has been the case in!
    What I know, and have surmised, concerning the old town of Oakland, Marion county, Arkansas. While not of any great importance, and probably not of any particular help to anyone, this may be taken as a possible footnote to be further investigated and added to History as it is updated and rewritten. My motive is not to gain or claim any fame or seemingly importance for myself or ancestors, but a concern that I do know some facts known solely to me that should be shared.
    "Oakland had it's beginning under the name of Orcutt Flat" as stated by Mary Martin in Earl Berry's The History of Marion County, Arkansas. "Orcutt Flat became a thriving place for areas for miles around to trade for needed supplies."
    Information supplied by Mrs Eunice Hollingsworth Gilbert:
    "Jim Mashburn.........along with his six children...............helped build the first(Methodist) Church and school house (the same building) at Orcutt Flat..........This building was located just west of Jenkins store, near the Homer Rea home."
    "W.M. Fears was the first postmaster at Orcutt flat (now Oakland). The name was changed to Oakland somewhere around 1900. This new name was probably chosen because of the many big beautiful oak trees at that place."     ;That Oakland did begin under the name of Orcutt, or Orcutts Flat can be ascertained by an earlier source, and dated as well, by the following articles that appeared in the local paper, The Mountain Echo, of which I would suppose all most anyone reading this would have knowledge of.
Yellville Mtn. Echo, April 9, 1886
LOCAL ECHOINGS
    The name of the Post Office at Noe's ferry, this county, has been changed from Noe's to Oakland.
    The next reference gives an even greater insight to the name change, and the transition period that must have caused a small amount of confusion.
Mtn. Echo, November 12, 1886
POETICALLY ADDRESSED
    A letter bearing the Flippin post mark and a poetical superscription was received at the Yellville postoffice the other day, to be forwarded to Oakland. We judge from the chirography that it is Assessor Albert Cravens who has caught the "afflatus," and who, in an unguarded moment, "dashed off" the following lines:
To Jenks Griffin or Charlie Noe
    I want this letter to quickly go; To Oakland or to Orcutt Flat -- It will never get there, I'll bet my hat! Get there quick! find the man Get there, Kit, if you can. It was Noe's Ferry, once by name, But get there, now its all the same.
    The connection between that of Orcutt Flatt and Noe's Ferry is interesting. I suppose the easiest explanation is that the ferry was in fact at or a little above the riverbank area known as Orcutt flat. I have had a difficult time obtaining period maps that show exact locations, and even if they did, ferrys are, and have been, subject to variations due to changing channels and bank conditions. Some one surely knows the exact locations for the time period when the name change occurred and I would be grateful to learn just what the setup was. It's obvious that the post office such as it was was Noe's Ferry previous to be located in the actual town of Orcutt Flat, or Oakland.
    Orcutt Flatt was so named for the homeplace of my great-great grandfather, Dr. Augustus Caulincourt Orcutt. A.C. Orcutt was born at Rushford, Allegheny County, New York on September 18th, 1819. When he was just months old his father moved his family to Lewis County, Ky, and soon after, in 1824 across the Ohio River into Scioto County, Ohio.
    A.C. Orcutt grew up and was married to Mary Alice Crull in Scioto Co. in 1844. Soon after their marriage they moved across the Ohio River to Vanceburg, Lewis County, Ky.
    At Vanceburg A.C. Orcutt, and business partner James Todd, set up and ran a successful general store. In 1857 with the conflict concerning state's rights, and the slavery issue, looming on the horizon A.C. decided to move his family to Kansas, and located there in Doniphon County. Between 1857 and 1860 A.C. read, or was educated in medicine, and the rest of his life practiced that profession as well as keeping up various farming and business ventures as well. Towards the end of the war he relocated his family to Coles County, Illinois. Then, in 1870 he purchased from Jacob and Avarilla Yocham land in Marion County, Arkansas the deed which is dated "this 8th day of January in the year of our Lord One Thousand eight hundred and seventy for $200. This land was "described as follows to-wit: The East half of the South East quarter of Section One in Township Twenty (20) North of Range (16) Sixteen West and the West half of the South West fractional quarter of Section (6) in Township Twenty (20) North of Range Fifteen (15) West, containing one hundred and fifty five 68/100 acres." The White River occupied a part of Section Six and accounts for the fractional quarter section. This area was to be come known as Orcutt Flat and records confirm the fact that this is where Oakland began.
    The following information is quoted from an interview of old settler J.C.Rea by S.C. Turnbo:
OAKLAND ARK
By S. C. Turnbo
    In speaking of Oakland, Capt. J. C. Rea said, "Very soon after the close of the Civil War.....................
    I bought land from Col. A. D. Arcut (Orcutt) and added a homestead to it. The only man residing at Oakland when I went there was George Briggs ..............The first business man there was Dr. Lewis who sold drugs and goods .............. The next merchant here was Frank Norton, then Noe and Griffin. The first Postmaster at Oakland was Levi Pearson ..............
    The second Postmaster was myself ..........The first interment at Oakland was the dead body of Dr. Arcut (Orcutt) who died in 1875 and I assisted to bury his remains twice.........
    When Arcut (Orcutt) died ground for a cemetery had not been set apart and the family had his remains interred in the door yard........ in 1893 the Methodist Church here built a house of worship and layed off a plot of ground for burial purposes and the family had the doctors remains exhumed and transferred to the new marked cemetery................The bodies of two small children of Sam Arcuts (Orcutt's) son of Doctor Arcut (Orcutt) were buried here the same day ..........The dead bodies of these children and the remains of the Doctor were the first interments here."
    I have a copy of a deed executed in 1873 from Dr. A.C. and wife Mary Orcutt to J.C.Rea for 75 68/100acres of the land described previously as having been purchased by Orcutt from Jacob Yocham.
    Another deed, dated December, 1895, executed by the heirs of Dr. A.C. Orcutt unto William Fears gives the following description:
County of Marion: State of Arkansas to wit:
    One undivided part of the following lands Beginning at the SE corner of the Church Lot this being 2/3 rods south of the original corner... thence west 30 rods ...Thence north 10 &2/3 rods... thence west 15 rods Thence South 64 rods and 6' ...Thence east to the Main line ...the school house lot to be left .. this tract containing 13 acres MOL being S.E. Orcutt's part of Augustus C. Orcutt's estate being a part of the SW 1/4 of SW 1/4 sec 6 Township 20 N Range 15 West and the SE of the SE1/4 Sec 1 town 20 North Range 16 West on bank of White River............
    Thus the church and school buildings at Oakland were located on the land Dr. A.C. Orcutt bought of Jacob Yocham in 1870.

How did Orcutt Flat come to be renamed Oakland?