POWHATAN -- Lawrence County, known as the "Mother of Counties" because of its vast size when it was formed, is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year, and the Arkansas History Commission and other organizations are planning several events to celebrate.
The county, which once extended from Fayetteville east to the Missouri boot heel, and from the Arkansas River north into Missouri Territory, was created Jan. 15, 1815.
It was a stopping point for westward travelers and military men more than two centuries ago and eventually became Arkansas' largest county. Historians say it served a vital purpose in developing Arkansas as a state.
"Looking at those early years, there is no way we can overlook the importance of Lawrence County," said Lisa Perry, archival manager of the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives in Powhatan. "It was a transitional point for a lot of people moving south."
Some of the events to recognize Lawrence County's bicentennial year include a seminar this summer at Davidsonville Historic State Park, along the banks of the Black River in what is now Randolph County, about the area's history and Founders Day, a yearly event in Pocahontas. That event May 2 will feature historians talking about Lawrence County's birth.
The Lawrence County Historical Society will also hold an event at Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge in April, and the Walnut Ridge newspaper, the Times-Dispatch, will run features about the county in the coming weeks.
One purpose of events to celebrate the bicentennial is to draw attention to the county's historical archives at Powhatan. Perry said people can research court cases, land transactions, taxes, marriage records and other information from two centuries ago.
Lawrence County was actually designed in a house along the Mississippi River in St. Louis, near where the Gateway Arch is now, said Steve Saunders, the museum program assistant at Powhatan Historic State Park. The General Assembly of the Missouri Territory met in the home of Susannah Dubreuil on Jan. 15, 1815, and set the county's boundaries, taking land from New Madrid County and extending it into what became the Arkansas Territory four years later.
The county was named for Capt. James Lawrence, a naval captain who was injured on the U.S.S. Chesapeake during a battle in 1812. Lawrence was known for crying out to his crew, "Don't give up the ship," after the Chesapeake was damaged in war.
"A lot of people don't know this, but they immediately gave up the ship," Saunders said during a seminar Thursday. Members of the Arkansas History Commission celebrated the county's 200th birthday at Powhatan Historic State Park with speakers, a ceremony to honor an archivist, a luncheon and a birthday cake.
Historians have squabbled over the county's original boundary lines, Saunders said. The western edge was set by the "Osage Line," a line that extended south from the Missouri River near Kansas City to the Arkansas River and designated land to be used by the Osage Indian tribes. The eastern side was bordered by the St. Francis River, and the northern border edged Cape Girardeau County in Missouri.
Much of the southern border followed the Little Red River, going on to the St. Francis River.
Saunders said there were four chutes of the Little Red leading to the St. Francis, and historians are not exactly sure which one was used as Lawrence County's southeastern border.
Legislators used "Island 19" on a map of the Mississippi River as a reference point as well. However, the island was destroyed in an 1811 earthquake near New Madrid, Mo., and maps did not reflect the change in 1815.
Saunders said the campus of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville sits about a mile east of the original western border of Lawrence County.
The county's vastness was short-lived, however. Two years after its 1815 birth, the U.S. government gave a chunk of its land to the Cherokee Indian tribes as a form of restitution. A year later, Missouri became a state and set its current border with Arkansas.
Between 1819 and 1838, more counties formed from within Lawrence County, and by 1865, Lawrence County's boundaries had shrunk to its current size. Thirty-one Arkansas counties and 15 Missouri counties formed from the original Lawrence County.
During its prominence, people flocked to the county for its fertile land. It was far enough west from the swampy Delta for farming, and the Black River, which meandered through the area, provided river transportation.
More than 15,000 people lived in the Arkansas Territory in 1819, and a third of those lived in Lawrence County, Perry said.
"The large plantation farms didn't develop first in the Delta," she said. "They started here."
Businesses also thrived, said Blake Perkins, an assistant professor of history at Williams Baptist College. Perkins said he pored through archived records of the county and found several shops and taverns that fared well during the county's early days.
There was also an established court system that handled land transactions, estate inheritances and business deeds and -- oddly in what some perceived to be a raucous wilderness -- scores of slander cases.
Courts were held in the county seat, which often changed. The first circuit court was held in Davidsonville. It moved to Jackson in 1829 and then Smithville in 1837. In 1868, it moved again to Powhatan, and in 1965, Walnut Ridge became the county seat.
In one 1815 case, Perkins said, farmer Cutburd Hudson accused Mary Gibson of "stealing his cow." Gibson countered, saying Hudson took her cow. The two filed slander suits against each other. There was no resolution to the case, Perkins said.
In another case, John Commack stayed in a boarding house owned by Elizabeth Martin. In 1817, he became ill and did not pay rent during his sickness. Martin sued for restitution, and Commack said he thought she was allowing him to stay there for free while he recuperated "out of the goodness of her heart."
The court, held in Davidsonville, ordered Commack pay the rent he owed.
State Desk on 01/20/2015