I had the opportunity recently to spend some time in Chicot County in far southeastern Arkansas. This is one of the state's richest agricultural areas, but also one of its most poverty-stricken. It is home to Lake Chicot, among the more beautiful lakes to be found anywhere, and it has been home to an array of settlers ranging from Lebanese to Chinese, though the population is majority black, as it has been for generations.
Chicot County, which was created by the Territorial Legislature in 1823, takes its name from the French--meaning a snag or submerged timber, not an uncommon encounter on the Mississippi River, which forms the eastern border of the county. The name is pronounced "she-co," despite how newly arriving newscasters might pronounce it.
Lake Village is the county seat. The first seat was Villemont, a small town named after one of the colonial commanders at Arkansas Post, Carlos de Villemont, who in 1795 received a land grant in the area and referred to it as being near the "Island del Chicot." In 1847 the town of Villemont was washed away by the Mississippi River, and the nearby village of Columbia assumed the mantle of county seat. It, too, was ultimately destroyed by the river, but the county seat had already been relocated to Lake Village in 1857.
Other important towns in the county are Dermott in the north and Eudora south of Lake Village near the Louisiana border.
Many Arkansans do not know Lake Village. Most people see only the part of town located along Highway 65, perhaps stopping for a tank of gas but not venturing into town. I urge a leisurely drive along Lake Shore Drive, which will take you along the shores of America's largest oxbow lake.
Agriculture has always been the lifeblood of Chicot County. For millennia the Mississippi River laid down vast deposits of silt, and in the process created prime cotton-growing land. In 1890, for example, Chicot County was second in the entire nation in cotton production with 21,432 bales, losing out only to East Carroll Parish in Louisiana. (Interestingly, a few antebellum farmers experimented with growing rice, with 6,000 pounds being produced in 1860.)
Along with a long growing season and consistently warm weather, vast amounts of labor were required to produce cotton, and this resulted in large numbers of enslaved people being brought to the county. The 1840 census documented that 22 percent of all Arkansas slaves lived in Chicot and Lafayette counties. By 1860, the 7,512 slaves in Chicot County comprised nearly 80 percent of the total population. The largest slave owner in the state in 1860 was a Chicot County planter Elisha Worthington, who held title to 528 human beings.
With the end of the Civil War in 1865, vast numbers of black "freedmen" registered to vote and exercise their voting rights in profound numbers. Chicot County produced a large number of black politicians, probably the best known being James W. Mason. He was the son of his mother's owner, the aforementioned Elisha Worthington, who had an open relationship with this enslaved woman. Mason served in the state Senate as well as Chicot County judge.
Chicot County, which suffered little damage during the Civil War, regained its economic footing in the 1870s and 1880s, reinforced dramatically with the arrival of the Memphis, Helena, and Louisiana Railroad at Lake Village in 1903.
In 1895 a group of 98 Italian families arrived in Chicot County to work at Sunnyside Plantation, one of Elisha Worthington's five plantations before the Civil War. While many of these immigrants later resettled in Washington County, others remained and have become prominent citizens. Other immigrant groups settling in Lake Village included a number of Chinese families as well as a contingent of Lebanese.
During my recent trip to Lake Village, I visited the Museum of Chicot County, located in the historic Dr. E.P. McGehee Infirmary. Much of the building is given over to interpreting local medical history; other exhibits cover various ethnic groups, the local Lakeside High School, the Masonic lodge, etc. While the museum collections are quite nice and varied, the building is in need of extensive repairs. Chicot County has a rich history, and that heritage is deserving of a first-rate museum.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial on 08/24/2014