Entries - County: Saline - Starting with H

Haskell is a city on Highway 67 in Saline County, about seven miles south of the county seat of Benton. Once recognized as a railroad town, located between the Missouri Pacific and the Rock Island tracks, Haskell is best known in the twenty-first century as the home of the Harmony Grove School District. Southern Saline County, watered by creeks that flow into the Saline River, was a rugged wooded area when Arkansas became a state in 1836. One of the first to receive a land grant for the area that would become Haskell was Mabel Gilbert, who received land grants dated 1837 and 1838. Other early settlers included Thomas Montgomery and William Washington White. Following the Civil War, railroads began to …

George Moreau Holt played a prominent role in antebellum Arkansas as a physician, an Arkansas State Militia general, and a major in service to the Confederacy. He is also the only general officer of the Arkansas State Militia and its descendant organization, the Arkansas National Guard, to be killed in action by enemy forces. George M. Holt was born on July 4, 1831, in Tipton County, Tennessee, the third son of six of Archibald Murphy Holt and Margaret Tilford Holt. His father, initially a engineer, later became a prominent physician in Bedford County, Tennessee. Holt and his brother Joseph followed in his footsteps by becoming physicians. Little information is found to detail the early life of Holt except what is …

Hughes Cemetery, located at the end of South Richards Street in Benton (Saline County), is the final resting place of former state representative, and co-founder of Benton, Green B. Hughes. The cemetery is located between Depot Creek, which is a tributary of the Saline River, and the Union Pacific tracks near the Christy Acres neighborhood in Benton. Left largely ignored by the City of Benton, the area continued to become overgrown until 2004, when the Hughes Cemetery Association was founded to help take care of cemetery. Hughes Cemetery was added to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places in 2019. Hughes Cemetery takes its name from former merchant, judge, and state representative–turned-farmer Green B. Hughes, who died on June 24, 1858. …

David Terry Hughes Sr. was a longtime journalist, photographer, and newspaperman from Benton (Saline County). Hughes’s newspaper career began with freelance photography for the Benton Courier at age fourteen. In addition to newspapers in Arkansas, Hughes worked for papers in Texas, Virginia, Florida, Illinois, Saipan, and Guam. He was the grandson of noted Arkansas poet and columnist Anna Nash Yarbrough. David Terry Hughes was born on February 8, 1948, in the Panama Canal Zone to Frank Hughes and Jessie Shaver Hughes. His father served in the U.S. Army; when he was stationed in Panama in 1949, he was killed while crossing the street when Hughes was only a year old. Hughes’s mother remarried but soon separated. His three half brothers …

Green B. Hughes was an influential figure in early Arkansas. He served as the first postmaster at what is now Benton in Saline County in 1836. Later, Hughes served as county clerk and county judge before being elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives. He also served as a railroad commissioner and chairman of the Saline County Democratic Party. Hughes died in the summer of 1858, reportedly leaving behind an estate worth a considerable amount. Green B. Hughes was born in Tyrrell County, North Carolina, in 1800 to parents of Welsh descent. He moved to Hot Springs (Garland County) in 1818, when Arkansas was still a territory. He married Louisa West, the sister of Claiborne West, one of the signers …

The Skirmish at Hurricane Creek was a Civil War battle fought on October 23, 1864, at Hunter’s Crossing, two miles south of present-day Bryant in Saline County. Confederate forces ambushed a Union cavalry force on its return to Little Rock (Pulaski County) from a raid on Princeton (Dallas County). On October 19, Major George Avery’s Union cavalry command left Little Rock and proceeded to Princeton in order to capture and destroy weapons reportedly stored there. On October 21, they were met near Tulip (Dallas County) by the advance pickets of Colonel John L. Logan’s cavalry, resulting in constant skirmishing until reaching Princeton. Here, the Confederates were pushed south of town approximately two miles. The Union forces returned to Princeton, where …

Hurricane Lake is a 332-acre manmade lake located in Benton (Saline County) at the confluence of Hurricane Creek and the Little Hurricane Creek. Construction of the lake began in 1942 with the Hurricane Creek Dam built by Alcoa Mining Company to flood the area. Hurricane Lake’s primary function was to provide water for Alcoa’s Hurricane Creek aluminum plant. Hurricane Lake was also used for recreational activities by company employees and their families. In the twenty-first century, the lake and its surroundings are owned by the Hurricane Lake Estates Development Company. In 1891, bauxite ore, an essential material used in the production of aluminum, was discovered four miles southwest of Hurricane Creek near Benton. Because of the need for aluminum during …

Charles Dean “Bullet” Hyten was a master potter and the originator of the famous Niloak Pottery. Although he was not the first pottery maker in Saline County, his patented swirl technique and use of locally sourced clay gave his pottery a unique look. Because Hyten’s pottery-making process was a trade secret, his creations became valuable historic artifacts. Charles Hyten was born in Benton (Saline County) on March 14, 1877, to John F. Hyten and Hattie E. Brown Hyten. His father, a potter by trade, had moved the family to Benton around 1876. There, he opened a pottery business and continued working until his death in 1881 following an illness. Hattie Hyten, widowed with four children, married Frank Woosley, who had …