February 21, 2007

The White County town of Beebe, named in honor of railroad president Roswell Beebe, was incorporated in 1875. In 1891, Jim Smith, the man who surveyed the town’s first streets and boundaries and one of the richest men in town, built the two-story red brick building seen to the right in this 1942 photo. Over the years, the building, which bears his initials, J. S. S., has been occupied by many businesses still stands in the twenty-first century.