Entries - County: Prairie - Starting with B

Sometime during the night of December 19–20, 1909, an African-American man named George Bailey was shot to death by a mob while he was housed in the jail at DeValls Bluff (Prairie County). Although whites outnumbered blacks approximately two to one in Prairie County at that time, there was already racial animus in the area because a few days earlier an unknown African-American man had reportedly attacked a white man who was sleeping in a boxcar nearby. According to the Arkansas Gazette, the attack was an attempted robbery, and the attacker almost cut the victim’s throat: “At the time a party was organized to lynch the negro, but cooler counsel prevailed and the would-be lynchers were dissuaded from their purpose.” …

Biscoe, also known as Fredonia, is located on Surrounded Hill between the White River and the Cache River in eastern Prairie County. It is on U.S. Highway 70 a few miles east of DeValls Bluff (Prairie County). Surrounded Hill was surveyed by the federal government in 1849. Edwin Burr was the first settler to claim title to the land, registering his deed in Batesville (Independence County) in 1853. The area remained relatively unpopulated through the Civil War but gained significance with construction of the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad, which was completed through the Surrounded Hill area in 1871. A depot was built on flat land near the hill, and a post office was established in 1872 with the name …