Counties, Cities, and Towns

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Entry Category: Counties, Cities, and Towns - Starting with N

Napoleon (Desha County)

The town Napoleon of Desha County was located at the confluence of the Mississippi River and the Arkansas River. Although its founders had hoped that its location would make it a major city comparable to St. Louis, Missouri, or New Orleans, Louisiana, the town was badly damaged during the Civil War and then totally destroyed within ten years of the war by the flooding of the rivers. Jacques Marquette visited the area where these two rivers meet in 1673. The area may also contain the burial location of Pierre Laclede Liguest, the founder of St. Louis, who died and was buried on a trip north from New Orleans in 1778. The town was not established, though, until the time of …

Nashville (Howard County)

Nashville is the county seat of Howard County in southwest Arkansas. A regional center for agriculture and transportation, it has also become the location of several manufacturing enterprises and was the location of the first Dillard’s department store. Louisiana Purchase through Early Statehood No evidence of pre-European settlement in the Nashville area exists, although stone tools found in the area indicate that the Caddo did travel through the site and hunt there. The first European explorers in the area were hunters who would have seen forested hills watered by two small creeks. Isaac Cooper Perkins, a farmer and Baptist missionary, was the first to settle in the place that would become Nashville. Although his earliest land grant is dated 1836—the year …

Nathan (Pike County)

Nathan (Pike County) is a small community founded in the mid-1800s. Although it began as a farming community, by the early 1900s, its economy was driven by the numerous logging operations established in the area. In the twenty-first century, the residential community stretches along Gum Tree Road approximately a half mile off of State Highway 369 in western Pike County near the Howard County border. Several families settled in the area by the 1830s, the most significant to the town’s development being that of Pleasant White. While White is reported to have settled in 1829, no land grant document is found before 1855. More evidence confirming his settlement is the burial of his eldest infant child, Anthony, in the area cemetery …

Native (Clark County)

Native was a short-lived community in Clark County. Established to support a lumber mill, the settlement existed for several years in the late nineteenth century. No evidence of the community exists in the twenty-first century, and few references to the community appear in historical resources. Located in the same section as Burtsell (Clark County), the community was about five miles southeast of Okolona (Clark County).   Early landowners in the section include William Nelson, who acquired 160 acres in 1856. Another early landowner was Edward Trimble, who obtained a federal land patent for more than forty-six acres in 1859. Other landowners arrived in the area after the Civil War. These included Joshua Stewart, who obtained forty-seven acres in 1872, and John …

Natural Steps (Pulaski County)

Natural Steps is an unincorporated community located on Highway 300 between Lake Maumelle and the Arkansas River in Pulaski County. It takes its name from a unique sandstone formation in the shape of parallel stair steps. A 1932 archaeological investigation into the Natural Steps area conducted by staff at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County) uncovered fifty-seven burials, as well as pottery from both the Quapaw and Caddo tribes. An exact sequence of Native American habitation of the area, however, remains unknown. A Spanish land grant conveyed land at Natural Steps to Eli Stidwell. Another early white settler was John Standlee, who was in the area from 1778 to 1780. In the 1810s, merchant John Taylor purchased …

Nebraska (Scott County)

Nebraska is a historical community that was located in eastern Scott County along the Fourche La Fave River valley. The town was established in 1854 as an agricultural community prior to the Civil War. Nebraska was originally located between the current communities of Harvey (Scott County) and Nola (Scott County). Archaeological evidence from the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods shows native people living along the Fourche La Fave River valley near Nebraska. Prior to European exploration, the Caddo tribe lived along the valley. Thousands of archeological sites and burial mounds are located throughout the area. During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, French hunters and tradesmen explored the waters of the Fourche La Fave River and other tributaries of …

Needmore (Scott County)

The community of Needmore is located along Highway 71 in south-central Scott County. Never officially incorporated as a town, the community stretches from the top of a large hill, known as Needmore Hill, to the hill’s base. Buffalo Creek and the Fourche La Fave River are within a few miles of Needmore. The area where Needmore is now located was once a wilderness inhabited by natives of the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods. Prior to European exploration, the Caddo tribe lived along the Fourche River Valley. Burial mounds and other archaeological sites can be found along the Fourche La Fave River near Needmore. During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, French trappers and traders traveled west from Arkansas Post, …

Nella (Scott County)

The unincorporated community of Nella is located in southwestern Scott County. It was established in 1903 along Clear Fork Creek, which is a distributary of the Fourche La Fave River. The agriculture and timber industries have traditionally been important economic resources for the community. Prior to European exploration, the area surrounding Nella was a wilderness. Numerous archaeological sites and burial mounds are located along the banks of prominent waterways such as the Fourche La Fave River. Archaeological findings have provided evidence of early inhabitants dating to the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods, and the Caddo tribe later inhabited the area. During the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, French hunters and tradesmen traveled west from Arkansas Post exploring portions of …

Neuhardt (Crittenden County)

Neuhardt is an unincorporated community in south-central Crittenden County, located on Arkansas Highway 147 between Anthonyville and Edmondson. The town grew up around 1900 as a result of the timber industry and was named for lumber tycoon George Neuhardt, who purchased thousands of timbered acres in the area. Information regarding George Neuhardt is scarce, but it is known that he suffered tremendous commercial losses due to flooding and eventually committed suicide when forced into bankruptcy. Following the Civil War, a statewide timber industry expanded in earnest due to the construction of railroads and availability of powered machinery. Cutting of timber in the Arkansas Delta (including Crittenden County) and the “sunken lands” of northeast Arkansas played a pivotal role in encouraging …

Nevada County

Located in the West Gulf Coastal Plain, Nevada County has a variety of sandy loam and silty clay loam soils, as well as extensive pine and hardwood forests. The Little Missouri River, the major stream in the area, separates Nevada County from Clark and Pike counties to the north. The Reconstruction legislature formed Nevada County in 1871 from Hempstead, Ouachita, and Columbia counties. Prescott, the county seat with a population of 3,101 (as of the 2020 census), is the largest city. Other important towns are Emmet, Willisville, Rosston, Bodcaw, Falcon, Cale, and Bluff City. The reason for the selection of the county’s name has been lost. “Sierra nevada,” as in the Sierra Nevada in California, means “snowy range” in Spanish. …

New Edinburg (Cleveland County)

Located on Highway 8 between Warren (Bradley County) and Fordyce (Dallas County) is the town of New Edinburg. Before 1873, it was located in Bradley County. In 1873, Bradley County was divided, and New Edinburg landed in Dorsey County (later renamed Cleveland County). The New Edinburg Commercial Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Native American tribes likely traveled through the area and may have settled along the banks of the Saline River. Many artifacts have been found to support this. Several white families settled in the area in the 1830s. These first families—Marks, Smith, Davis, Crain, Washburn, McDaniel, and Hudson—were wealthy, possessed many slaves, and were well educated. By the 1840s, a group of businessmen met at …

New London (Union County)

New London was the main center of commerce in eastern Union County during the Civil War and the forty years afterward. After the railroad bypassed it in 1902, the town was diminished, and all that remained was a collection of houses around a steepled church with an old cemetery. New London began with the arrival of a wagon train from Gilgal, Alabama, in 1839. The wagons carried sixteen families with livestock and some African American slave families, led by a Baptist minister, Elder C. Norsworthy. Two years later, a second wagon train brought eight families. That group came through Alabama but was from Union County, North Carolina, and followed the route that carried most of the pioneers to Texas from …

Newark (Independence County)

Throughout much of its history, Newark has been one of Independence County’s larger towns. Called by the local newspaper the “Queen City of South Independence” in the early 1900s, the town held great promise to be a significant part of the history of the county. Like most small towns in early twentieth-century Arkansas, its early years were full of hope and prosperity, but it later suffered the loss of its business community and a significant part of its populace. Post-Reconstruction through the Gilded Age Newark was founded as an alternate site to an older town plagued with a major drawback. The pre–Civil War community of Akron (also known as Big Bottom) was subject to the destructive overflows of the White …