Earlier this month, I wrote two cover stories for this newspaper's Sunday Perspective section about a trip down U.S. 67 from Benton to Texarkana. I didn't venture off the highway much, but I did have to make the short detour on U.S. 278 from Hope to Washington.
For those interested in Arkansas history, the trip to Washington is a must. I've long considered Historic Washington State Park to be our state's version of Colonial Williamsburg.
Washington, which had a population of 730 people in the 1880 census, was down to just 180 residents by the 2010 census. The community is now dominated by the state park.
"The Southwest Trail was built during Arkansas' territorial period, linking St. Louis to Texas and crossing Arkansas from the northeast corner to the southwest corner," Steve Teske writes for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "William Stevenson, a Methodist preacher, established Ebenezer Campground for revival meetings on a sandy hill that would soon become the site of Washington. Elijah Stuart built a log house on the same hill, perhaps as early as 1818, and his house also served as an inn and tavern.
"Hempstead County was organized in December 1818, and Stuart's tavern was designated as its first permanent seat of government in 1824 because of its central location. The land around the tavern was surveyed and laid out in square blocks oriented along the Southwest Trail. A land auction in 1826 created the structure of the city, and merchants began conducting business soon thereafter. Washington applied for incorporation in 1830. Incorporation lapsed following the Civil War and wasn't reinstated until 1880. Important early settlers in the city included John Johnson, Ephraim Mirick and Abraham Block."
James Black established the blacksmith shop in which he is said to have created the first bowie knife for Jim Bowie in 1831. Black was born in New Jersey in May 1800, ran away from home at age 8 and went to Philadelphia, where he became an apprentice to a silver-plater. His apprenticeship expired when Black was 18, and he headed west. Black first settled at Bayou Sara in Louisiana and set up a blacksmith shop there.
"Some think that Black met Bowie for the first time there in 1822," writes Josh Williams of Historic Washington State Park. "In late 1823, after battling disease and major floods, Black decided to move. He went up the Red River to Fulton and settled in the vicinity of Washington. Around 1824, Black was hired by blacksmith William Shaw.
"While working for Shaw, Black made a reputation for himself as a skilled craftsman, and Shaw offered to make Black a partner. Shaw had nine children. The eldest daughter was Anne, age 16. Black and Anne Shaw fell in love, but her father objected to the relationship."
The two married in 1828.
Stevenson, meanwhile, is credited with spreading Methodism across Arkansas. The circuit-riding preacher, who was born in 1768 in South Carolina on the border of Cherokee territory, had Presbyterian parents. His mother later became a Baptist. Stevenson heard a Methodist preacher and converted at age 31. He moved with his wife and eight children to Missouri in 1809 and wrote one of the earliest accounts of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12.
Stevenson ran unsuccessfully against Stephen F. Austin for a seat in the Missouri Territorial Legislature in 1815. He moved to Arkansas in 1816 and was appointed the following year by the Methodists' Missouri Conference as a circuit rider for what was known as the Hot Springs Circuit.
Stevenson was elected as the representative from Hempstead County to the first territorial legislature in 1820 and proposed that the capital be moved from Arkansas Post to Little Rock. That move took place in 1821.
Washington became quite cosmopolitan for its time. In addition to Methodists attracted by Stevenson, there were Jews such as Block, the patriarch of the first documented Jewish family to move to Arkansas. Block was born in 1780 or 1781 in Bohemia. He came to Virginia at about age 12 and later served in the War of 1812.
Block and his wife had 14 children. Block moved to Arkansas in 1823 and had started a business at Washington by 1825. Block died in March 1857 on a trip to New Orleans and is buried there.
In addition to Anglo settlers heading to Texas, members of the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations traveled through Washington as part of the Trail of Tears removal from their native lands.
"Residents began petitioning for a new road in 1821," Teske writes. "By 1828, the Camden to Washington Road was having additional work done. A new courthouse was built in 1836, and many of Arkansas' most prominent attorneys practiced in Washington during the following 25 years. The Washington Telegraph began in 1840. It was the oldest weekly newspaper west of the Mississippi River until it ceased publication in 1946. A Presbyterian church was established in 1836, and a Baptist church was built in 1845.
"Washington had both a male and female academy, as well as several smaller schools. In the summer of 1846, 870 volunteers gathered in Washington to form a cavalry unit to serve in the Mexican War. By 1860, Washington included seven dry goods stores, two drugstores, a tailor shop, a watch repair shop and other businesses. Wealthy families built mansions, some of which have been restored and are preserved in Historic Washington State Park. The area had many slaves who served as household servants and worked in the cotton fields surrounding the city."
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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.