Columbia and Lafayette counties are remote places from a transportation standpoint. No interstate highways run through the two south Arkansas counties, and Columbia County is the only one of the state's 75 counties without a river. I'm driving from east to west as part of a trip that will take me from Mississippi to Texas on U.S. 82.
"Natural resources have been the mainstay of the Columbia County economy, from cotton in the 19th century; timber; oil and gas in the mid-20th century; and later bromine," writes Mike McNeill of the online news site Magnolia Reporter. "The county's fortunes have also been closely tied to the evolution of Southern Arkansas University. Columbia County, named after the female personification of America, wielded significant political influence in Arkansas during the first half of the 20th century with family and business ties to governors Thomas McRae, Sid McMath and Ben Laney; Lt. Gov. Lawrence Wilson; state Auditor T.C. Monroe; U.S. Reps. Robert Minor Wallace and Wade Kitchens; and businessman Harvey Couch."
White settlers began arriving in significant numbers after Arkansas became a state in 1836. In 1852, Columbia County was carved out of parts of Lafayette, Hempstead, Ouachita and Union counties. The county seat of Magnolia was incorporated in 1855. Tax records indicate that Columbia County had 1,675 slaves out of a total population of almost 6,000 in 1854. The county's first federal census in 1860 showed a population of 12,449 with 3,599 of them being slaves.
"The county's creeks and bayous were more of an impediment than an aid to early travelers because they were too narrow and shallow to support water traffic," McNeill writes. "The swampy conditions of the upper Dorcheat Bayou didn't allow for practical use by boats. Rain made travel conditions worse. Only the arrival of railroads made it possible for Columbia County residents to enjoy a dependable, year-round transportation option."
Cotton was the chief crop until well into the 20th century. There are now few row crops grown here. This is timber and cattle country these days. As in the rest of Arkansas, there was a move from rural areas to the county seat that intensified following World War II. Magnolia's population more than doubled between 1940 and 1960.
"The improvement of highways in the 1950s and 1960s led to the decline of Columbia County's smaller communities as business centers as retailers concentrated in Magnolia," McNeill writes.
Both counties have fewer residents now than they did in 1940, though Columbia County has done a better job hanging on to its citizens than Lafayette County to the west. Columbia County's population fell from 29,822 residents in the 1940 census to 24,552 in the 2010 census. Lafayette County dropped from 16,851 to just 7,645 in that same period.
Lafayette County was created from part of Hempstead County in 1827. This area was the home of James Sevier Conway, the state's first governor.
"The county's original borders were the Ouachita River on the east, Louisiana on the south, Hempstead County on the north and Texas on the west," Glynn McCalman writes for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "It was named for the Marquis de Lafayette. Although the initial settlers were from Tennessee, most of the county's later settlers had more Southern roots. The extreme southeastern part of the county is even now sometimes referred to as the Alabama settlement.
"Many of Lafayette County's pioneers owned slaves. Old deeds in the courthouse at Lewisville mostly record only the first names of the transferees and ignore the reality that among the 'property' were enslaved human beings."
Though there wasn't much fighting in the county during the Civil War, residents suffered economically. Many were broke when the war ended. The advent of the railroads in the late 1800s allowed crops and timber to be shipped more easily from Lafayette County. The county began to lose population due to the Great Depression, World War II and the mechanization of agriculture after the war. Our route on U.S. 82 takes us through the two largest towns in Lafayette County, Stamps and Lewisville.
Stamps, the childhood home of legendary writer Maya Angelou, got its start as a lumber town on the railroad. Stamps was incorporated in 1898. It has bled population in recent years, falling from 2,859 residents in the 1980 census to 1,693 in 2010.
Angelou was born at St. Louis in 1928 but spent much of her childhood at Stamps, where she was raised by a grandmother and uncle. Her autobiography "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" is partially set in Stamps. The city renamed its park in her honor in 2014.
Lewisville, which is only five miles to the west, is the county seat. Lewis Barnes Fort bought land in the area in July 1836 after moving from Virginia. The resulting settlement was named in his honor. In 1828, the first Lafayette County courthouse was built 10 miles southwest of Lewisville on the Red River. The second courthouse was built at Lewisville in 1841. Slaves outnumbered whites in the county in 1850.
The federal Works Progress Administration was responsible for the county's 1940 courthouse. Lewisville is now about 55 percent African American, 42 percent white and 3 percent Hispanic. The population fell from 1,653 in the 1970 census to 1,280 in the 2010 census.
I won't leave Lewisville without the obligatory stop at the original Burge's for a smoked turkey sandwich. The restaurant, which has been around since 1962, is a member of the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.