Caulksville (Logan County)

Historical Population as per the U.S. Census:

Caulksville is a town in northwestern Logan County, located at the intersection of State Highways 22 and 23. While it incorporated at a much later date than the bordering town of Ratcliff (Logan County), Caulksville is the older settlement of the two.

Caulksville was named for Robert Caulk, who received a land patent at the location of the town in 1860. He and his family are said to have arrived in the area in the 1830s. Available records do not show that Caulk served in any army during the Civil War. After the war, more settlers arrived in the area, and Caulk opened a post office in 1870. A Missionary Baptist church was built a few miles north of Caulksville that same year.

In 1886, a Cumberland Presbyterian congregation was founded under an oak tree in Caulksville. For some time, it used the former school building of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in nearby Ratcliff for its services. In 1904, a Methodist congregation was formed, and a church was built; the building was shared with the Cumberland Presbyterians. The church was damaged by a tornado in March 1924, but it was repaired by the end of the year. In 1930, the dwindling Methodist congregation sold the church building to the Presbyterians, who remodeled it in 1949 and added a fellowship hall in 1956.

In 1891, the town of Caulksville had two general stores and three grocery stores, a grist mill, a cotton mill, and a blacksmith shop, according to the Goodspeed history of Logan County. However, the post office was closed in 1910, and the population of the town began to dwindle, a process accelerated by the Depression. Perhaps to prevent being annexed by Ratcliff, the town was incorporated in 1965. The population of the town was 208 in the 1970 census, and it has remained in the low 200s since that time.

Agape Fellowship church was founded in Caulksville in 1983. In 2015, the town had a grocery store, a restaurant, and an electronics store. Elementary through high school students attend County Line Public Schools, located between Ratcliff and Branch (Franklin County). The county line actually runs through the school complex.

For additional information:
Logan County Historical Society. Logan County, Arkansas, Its History and Its People. Paris, Arkansas: Logan County Historical Society, 1987.

Steven Teske
Butler Center for Arkansas Studies