In  thinking  of  the   towns  in  I.awrence  County  that  played  an  important part in its development in an earlier day, we are reminded of Smithville, which came into existence during the days when Arkansas was a territory.

 The history of Arkansas is silent as to date of the birth of Smithville, but from tradition of history it is certain to have been in existence in 1832.*  In writing something of the early history of this historic town, we can not well refrain from saying something of the great old County of Lawrence, of which Smithville was for a time the capital.  Lawrence County was  organized on January 15,1815 at the home of  a friend, Solomon Hewit, and the first court was held at his residence a few  miles  down  Spring  River  from  the  town  of  Imboden.  Then  Davidson was made the county seat in 1815, and remained there until 1829 when it was removed to Old Jackson where it remained for only three years,  when again  it was removed,  this time  to  Smithville,  remaining at this old historic island village until 1868 from which place it was moved to Clover Bend where it remained for less than a year.  In 1869 Powhatan was made the county seat, which distinction it holds to this day. It was erected in 1888. John S. Fichlin originally owned the land where Powhatan now stands. (The court house was moved to Walnut Ridge in 1963).  In the archives at this bastile are kept records of great value and interest.  * According to Freeman's History Of Lawrence C'ounty, Smithville became a town in 1837.

 The Fortenberry family reached Arkansas from Virginia in 1816 and invaded the wilds and settled in Strawberry River valley in 1816. Eli Thornburg was another old settler of the Smithville section of the
country. He served as postmaster at Smithville for 20 years and was mayor of the town for 10 years. Then there were the Millers, the Raneys, the Sloans and many other families now prominent in the annals of Arkansas who became infatuated with the emerald clad hills that surround Smithville and made early settlements there.

  The commissioners who were designated to locate a new site for the courthouse were David Orr, Alexander Smith and William Thompson. James H. Benson donated 50 acres of land for the new site.

  Three men were legally executed at Smithville, one Negro about one mile west of town (place still known). Two white men on what was then known as Smithville-Batesville road. The exact place not known now.   The court house stood on the same block, but east of where the bank is now.

  The following are some of the names of the county officials who served as county officers during the time the court house was at Smithville.

  County Judge: John HARDIN, J.C. FLOYD, J. FICKLIN, A.H. NUNN, John MILLIGAN, G.M. McGHEHEY, C.S. WAINWRIGHT, Solomon YEAGER,  great grandfather of the editor and Josiah DENT.

  County  Clerk:  D.W.  LOWE,  L.S.  BROWN,  J.B.  WILMUTH,  A. HAMMOND,  J.B.  TONY,  N.C.  Steadman,  J.  N.  Hillhouse,  Z.P.  ALEXANDER, A. LOWE and J.H. SNIDER.

  NOTE: J. N. HILLHOUSE,  who was born February 22, 1832 (just one hundred  years  after  Washington),  was  elected  clerk  of  Lawrence County just before he was 20 years old but was 21 before he was sworn in. He succeeded N.C. STEADMAN  deceased under whom he served as deputy.

  County  Treasurers:  C.T.  STEWART,  J.B.  WILMUTH,  Henry  KING, Edward HOLT, James McCARROLL, L.W. ROBERTSON,  E. TAYLOR, Edward SHARP and Samuel HARP.

  Representatives in constitutional convention: Robert SMITH, Thomas S. DREW, David W. LOWE, M.D. BARBER, S. ROBERTSON and Bouldin DUVALL.

  In the spring of 186l the first company of soldiers was organized at Smithville by Captain Z.P. ALEXANDER, who had been county clerk from 1858-60.

Some of them enlisting under him were: Robert JONES, T.J. WARNER, Dr. Andrew BALFOUR, William G. SLOAN, W.G. MATHENEY, James H. HENDERSON, Dr. John R. WELLS, Wiley JONES, James C. HOLMS, James M. PHELPS, Mr. WANN, Charles A. STEWART, and John LINDSAY and others.

  In 1862 while Federals under General Curtis had possession of part of Arkansas there was a post maintained at Smithville about three months.  During this time one skirmish was fought about 9 miles northwest of Smithville on Osburns Creek. Rebels were defeated and captured.  Wiley C. JONES  was  in  the  bunch,  but  he  swam  the Mississippi River near Memphis, and escaped his captors.

  In about 1831 or 32 Congress made an appropriation to open a road from Old Jackson (then in Lawrence County) to Arkansas Post, first post office in the state. The road was to cross White River near Batesville and the mail at Smithville was carried over this route horse back twice a week. One among the first carriers was Frank BIGGERS.
 

 On a hill southeast of the courthouse, across the street and present  highway 117, an almost escape proof  jail was erected. Like the court house,  it  was  never  repaired  and  the  secure  building  was  almost impossible to tear down. It stood until it rotted down and after almost  90 years the remaining chunks were burned in preparation for another building.

  Following is a partial copy  written by Rev. Joseph G. TAYLOR in 1925.

  "This writer remembers the jail from early childhood. It was a 14 x 16 foot structure and floored with hewed logs 12 by 12 inches square, laid side by side crossway of the jail. The outside corners were dove-tailed and laid on a low stone foundation. On the ground logs or sills the walls were built of 2 by 10 inch slabs laid one on another and nailed down with thousands of square nails. Counting the 2 inch slabs from bottom to top, there were 42, which would make the structure seven feet high inside and eight feet high outside.

  The old jail never had the distinction of lodging any notorious criminal.  Probably  its  greatest  and  most  frequent  service  was furnishing sleeping quarters for over indulgent patrons of the saloons and occasionally lodging the community "Best Man." At that time, not only Smithville, but all such trade centers had its "Best Man"  more commonlv known as "The Bully of the Town." His territory was not confined to the corporate limits of town. He was the man who could "whip" any man in a fair fist fight within the surrounding area. The place of meeting to decide this honor was just outside the town limit about 400 yards southeast of the jail. The time for the contest was wet days and Saturdays. Saturday afternoons were especially good timing when a number of contestants had become sufficiently "spirit filled" to try for the belt. Someone stood by to referee to see that it was a fair fight and to call for the next contestant if any. It was told that one bully said he had held the title a dozen times and had never had the satisfaction of being mad.

  Old stories from the early times related that fist fighting and duel pistol fights were the common styles of settling disputes. When soldiers returned from the Civil War and young men returning from the West and Southwest which, was being settled, knives, brass knuckles and pistol fighting was introduced. This took much of the sport out of finding the "Best Man" in the area. Knives, brass knuckles and hidden pistols were looked on as cowardly and underhanded.

  The Civil War by no means ended the fist fighting. This writer, when a boy, saw one near where the old jail stood. The two men, cousins to each other, were big double fisted men. They met on a stone porch and no referee was required. Both seemed to have the satisfaction of being mad. Not a word was spoken but soon black eyes and bloody noses were visibie. Before the two minute fight was over, 30 to 40 men had gathered in groups to watch and discuss the fight. One old timer remarked -- "It was the purtiest I ever seed--no weapons used."  These old buildings were sacred landmarks and should never have been removed."
 

 According to the written record of Rev. Joseph G. Taylor he had a cousin by the name of Rad RANEY who was pretty wild in his young manhood. He would drink occasionally, play jokes and have fights. One day when about half drunk he stuck his head inside the courthouse door when court was in session and shouted, "Rad's a horse". The judge turned to the sheriff and said, "Take that horse across the street and put him in the stable. We've got a stable for such horses as he." (meaning the jail). It took all Rad's relatives and friends to keep him out of jail.

 Another joke concerned this same person and a Tom McCARROLL who had a fight in front of the old court house. Rad knocked Tom down and got on top of him. Tom reached up and pulled Rad down and bit out a piece on one side of his nose. Tom afraid that he would be indicted and sent to prison for maiming, ran away to Texas and
homesteaded one half section of land on which Dallas now stands. Tom got homesick and through mutual friends, it was arranged that Rad wouldn't testify against him. When the case was brought up in court Rad was asked, "Is this man the one who bit out the side of your nose?" Rad replied, "I don't know. I might have done it myself."              Joseph G. Taylor 1948
 

  Two of the most widely known landmarks in Northeast Arkansas in in 1837, when Lawrence County's second county seat was moved from Old Jackson to its third location in Smithville. According to Freeman's History of Lawrence County, the courthouse at Davidsonville was a two story building 30' x 35' which was about the description of the court house at Smithville. The difference being that the Davidson court house was brick 8" x 8" square and 2" thick. The court house at Smithville was a frame building throughout and was located back of
what is now Lawrence County Branch Bank.  Fred RUDY informed us that his father, Dr. D.B. RUDY, bought the old caurt house about 1904, and used the usable lumber in building a drug store. The material was used later in the Smithville gin building which was razed in 1952. The material was then used in building barn now owned by Homer MIZE. It is a known fact that the court house stood for 67 years and its material is still in use 148 years later.

  Following is a partial copy of an article written by Rev.Joseph G. TAYLOR in 1925 after retiring as a Presbyterian minister.

  "When the old court house was built at Smithville, my grandfather, William G. TAYLOR, had a contract of furnishing the boards or two footshingles. The two foot bolts were of heart cypress from Black Riverbottoms, hauled to the old Taylor mill place on Strawberry River. There the bark and sap were removed, the clear cypress boards riven with froe and mallet, shaved with a drawing knife on a drawing horse and then hauled to Smithville's Old Red Court House in an ox wagon. The boards being 24 inches long were put on three ply or three double `showing 8" to the weather', as they said.   I was born and raised 3 miles south of Smithville and lived in and near the place until I was 40. When I left the county it looked about the same. I made many inquiries of those living there and no one can remember the house being remodeled or repainted. It looked as red the last time I saw it as it did the first.
                                             By Joseph G. Taylor
 

  County (1841)

When Jeanne HAYES of Prairie Grove came Io my home in early 1983 she informed me of some long lost Smithville history. She inquired if I knew anything about her great great grandfather, Myrick D. NEWTON, and family living here from 1837-1841. I hadn't heard of the Newtons and contacted Cleo TURNBOW, the local historian. He had heard that some Newton had lived here but did not know the given name or where they lived. Neither of us thought there were any Newton graves in Smithville Cemetery. She then gave me the following article.

Batesville NEWS
Nov 11, 1841
page 2 column 2
no heading

 We have just received the painful intelligence of the assassination of MYRICK D. NEWTON, Attorney at law, residing at Smithville. He was shot by some cowardly assassin, secreted on the road side, as he was returning home from this place, (within a half a mile of his home), and instantly killed. Suspicion rests on several individuals, one of whom is apprehended. Mr. Newton has left a helpless and distressed family.The frequency of  such dastardly  deeds  of  blood, is  well calculated to fill the mind with horror, and to ruin the country in which we live. No man's life is secure  -   there is no shield against the assassin.  We deprecate mob law, and look only for security in the firmness and vigilance of  the people, who should leave no lawful means untried to bring the perpetrators to justice.

  The same article appeared in the Arkansas Times and Advocate in Little Rock on November, 22, 1841.