The Beginning and End of
Spring Hill, Arkansas
Encyclopedia of Arkansas
Complete article can be seen at https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/barling-sebastian-county-987/
Written by Lilly Wingfield
Barling, Arkansas
Barling was established by Aaron Barling, a former soldier stationed at Fort Smith in 1817. He purchased land about eight miles east of Fort Smith on Little Rock Road in November 1830. His farm—and the surrounding area—became known as Spring Hill because of some springs located on his farm at the foot of a hill travelers used as a campsite.
The defining moment of Spring Hill’s nineteenth-century existence came on January 24, 1890, when the town received its own post office. Since there was already a Spring Hill post office for a township of the same name in Hempstead County, the town was forced to offer a new name for its post office. Local citizen and future state governor, William Fishback, suggested that the post office—and subsequently the town—be known as Barling after its first settler. Only gradually did the new name take hold; some old maps read, “Spring Hill, Barling Post Office.”
(note: The funeral Homes and Newspapers were still using the "Spring Hill" name until after 1909)
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