Dallas (Polk County)

aka: Old Dallas (Polk County)

Dallas, Polk County’s oldest town, is a rural community located approximately three miles south of Mena (Polk County) and once served as the county seat. It has gone by several names, including Panther, Dallas Park, Dallas Valley, and, most recently, Old Dallas.

The earliest settlers arrived in Dallas in 1825. Then, it was referred to as Panther—so named after an incident in which a panther attacked a small child. Local papers recalled that the child survived and lived a normal life. From 1830 to 1838, records show white settlers moving into the Dallas area from Illinois, Tennessee, and Missouri, with surnames such as Griffith (sometimes listed as Griffin), Miller, Wiles (sometimes listed as Wilds), Pirtle, Tousdale, and Jones.

After statehood in 1836 and the creation of Polk County in 1844—named for President James K. Polk—a temporary county seat was established at the home of James Pirtle where the Panther Post Office was operating. Shortly after, a site was established a half mile south of the post office. It was at this time that the town name was changed from Panther to Dallas in honor of Polk’s vice president, George M. Dallas. During the 1840s and 1850s, Dallas saw the construction of a courthouse, a Methodist church, and a Masonic lodge. By the 1850s, Dallas had a cotton gin and seven mines in the area, with gold, silver, and manganese listed as extracted minerals.

Dallas became a regional center due to its strategic location along Long’s Trail, a stagecoach trail that connected to the Butterfield Overland Mail Trail. The latter delivered U.S. mail and passengers to San Francisco, California, from 1858 to 1861.

According to local folklore, one Sunday during the Civil War, Frank and Jesse James, along with two others, forced John Pirtle to open his store, and they ran off Pirtle and his clerk, I. N. Lane, while they took what they needed. They tossed Lane twenty-five dollars for damages as they left. While many sources confirm that the James brothers spent significant time in Arkansas during the war, it is difficult to substantiate their time in Polk County, as there was no newspaper in the county at the time.

It was after the Civil War that Dallas experienced its greatest growth. The rich natural resources, clean water, abundant vegetation and wild game, fertile soil, and 275 growing days each year all contributed to the post-war population growth. Cotton, corn, wheat, and oats were the principal crops, but cotton was only grown for personal use, as lack of transportation prevented access to outside markets.

By the 1880s, Dallas possessed several thriving businesses, including a weekly newspaper, a dozen stores, as many as four churches, several hotels, boarding houses, mills, a tannery, a distillery, a blacksmithing and wood-working shop, and a jail. The town was also host to the county’s first school district and two doctors. Notable entrepreneurs included Joseph and Holder Hudgins (often called the Hudgins brothers) from Georgia. Their business endeavors included farming, milling, construction, stock raising, shingle making, banking, land purchasing, mail route running, and general merchandise sales. Local records report that the Hudgins brothers amassed over 7,000 acres, employed over seventy-five men, constructed all public structures in the community, and took in around $75,000 annually (equal to over two million dollars in 2025). The Hudgins brothers were responsible for the construction of a new courthouse in 1884, the third courthouse built in the community. The previous structures were all destroyed by fires. On April 24, 1885, as many as 3,000 people gathered for the public hanging of Columbus Moffett (sometimes spelled “Moffet” or “Moffatt”). Moffett was sentenced to death for the 1882 murder of Bell Weehunt, a local farmer. Moffett’s hanging was the only legal public execution carried out in Polk County in the nineteenth century.

By 1890, additional mines were operating in the Dallas community, including the Worthington and Burns Brothers mines. The latter claimed to produce the purest manganese in the world after assays in both Europe and the United States. In 1896, the long-awaited railroad bypassed Dallas and established a new town—called Mena—a few miles north. A year later, the Dallas Masonic Lodge moved to Mena, and the next year, county residents, including those at Dallas, voted to move the county seat from Dallas to Mena. Afterward, stores closed, people moved, and county operations in Dallas ceased.

By 1901, even the post office was closed, and the mail was routed to Mena. Only the 1906 murder of Joe Hudgins brought the spotlight back to Dallas. Hudgins, murdered by Ike and Thomas Pipkin, was shot in his yard after accusations that the Pipkins had committed arson and destroyed his property. They hid in the mountains for some time before being brought to trial and sentenced to prison.

Today, very little remains of Dallas. The vault door from the 1884 courthouse was used in the new courthouse constructed in Mena in 1902, and when that courthouse was destroyed by fire, the same vault door was used in the current courthouse, which was completed in 1939. As for the former community of Dallas, all that remains is the town cemetery. Even it is a reflection of what no longer exists, as the arch at its entrance reads, “Old Dallas Cemetery.”

However, the James K. Polk Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) adopted the cemetery; they gather there each May (and sometimes also in December) to honor the veterans buried there, speaking each of their names, branches of service, and the wars or conflicts in which they were engaged. They also place new flags on their graves and share information about one veteran’s service. The spotlight veteran for 2025 was Benjamin Franklin Thompson. Thompson, formerly of Alabama, enlisted in the Twelfth Alabama Infantry, Company H. As part of Company H, he fought in the Battle of Gettysburg—the bloodiest battle fought on American soil—and was wounded in the shoulder. Some sources report that he was captured, while others contest it, but because of his injuries, he was deemed unfit for service. After the war, he returned to Alabama before moving to Polk County in 1871. It was there that he married Eliza Joplin and resided for over half a century.

For additional information:
Buck, Melanie. “Polk County Turns 170!” Polk County Pulse, November 25, 2014. https://mypulsenews.com/polk-county-turns-170/ (accessed November 5, 2025).

Coogan, Harold. “DALLAS.” n.p., 1987. Housed in the Johnson Learning Commons, University of Arkansas Rich Mountain, Mena, Arkansas.

“Old Dallas Cemetery.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2186441/old-dallas-cemetery. (accessed November 5, 2025).

Williams, Troy, and Leon Toon, eds. History of Polk County. Dallas: Curtis Media Corp., 1988.