Fayetteville History

Butterfield Trail

The Butterfield Overland Mail Co. began operations through Northwest Arkansas in September 1858 and continued with its transcontinental stagecoach operation until the advent of the Civil War.

The stagecoach line, which carried mail and passengers from St. Louis, Mo., to San Francisco, Calif., in under 26 days, proved to be one of many economic stimuli to the Fayetteville area during the late 1850s. The Butterfield operation, itself, established a major stable and wagonworks at Fayetteville along with construction of a hotel, the Butterfield house, operated by Charles Butterfield, a son of John Butterfield, owner and manager of the line.

But the operations also provided stronger, better connections between Fayetteville and the northern cities such as St. Louis and Cincinnati. Not being near a navigable river, Fayetteville merchants relied on overland teamsters to bring in supplies and drygoods from larger manufacturing centers. While the Butterfield Line didn't transport these goods, its consistent use of the roads brought along other transportation-related companies.

Follow this link to see a history of the entire route.

For those wishing to following the historic route of the Butterfield Overland Mail Company, the map below shows the original stagecoach route with historic spots noted along the way. So far, we have the sections pretty well detailed through Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and part of Texas, but intend to add the rest of the route as time permits. There are parts of the trail that have been lost to time, especially the Texas section, where few roads ever developed along the old route. Go to the link below the map to get more detail.

View Butterfield Stage Route-Arkansas in a larger map

Timeline -- Prior to 1820

1804
President Thomas Jefferson negotiates the Louisiana Purchase from France, including the land that would one day become the state of Arkansas.

1814
The Missouri Territorial Legislature creates Lawrence County, which initially covered the northern half of Arkansas, including present-day Fayetteville.

1817
July 17 -- Land in the Arkansas Territory, including Northwest Arkansas, is taken from the Osage Nation and given to part of the Cherokee Nation that had agreed to move westward.

1819
Although the French and early American traders had likely visited the region where Fayetteville now exists, the first recorded visit by an Anglo-American was by Frank Pierce, who was hunting buffalo near the West Fork of the White River. William Campbell wrote in his history of Fayetteville that Pierce was seeking advantage for a shot when "he discovered a band of Indians stalking the same game. He did not shoot, but spent the night beneath a great elm. Next day he crossed the present town site and striking across to the Illinois [River], followed it to its mouth, thence on the Arkansas to points in the east." Nine years later, Pierce returned and settled near where he had spent that uneasy night, Campbell wrote.
March 2 -- The Arkansas Territory is created by an act of Congress, splitting it administratively off from the Missouri Territory.

Timeline -- 1820s

1828
James McGarrah, his wife Mary, and their three sons settle near Big Spring at what is now the corner of Spring Street and Willow Avenue.

Larkin Newton is appointed postmaster by President Andrew Jackson.

October 17 — Washington County is established and the town of Washington Courthouse, renamed Fayetteville a year later, is chosen as the county seat.

1829
The first county courthouse, a crude 20-foot by 20-foot log building with puncheon floor, is erected about where Block Street passes between the present-day Bank of Fayetteville and the Old Post Office.
Because of confusion arising from another Arkansas town in Hempstead County already being named Washington, the postmaster general orders Washington Courthouse to be renamed. City commissioners choose the name Fayetteville because two of the commissioners were from Fayetteville, Tenn.

Timeline -- 1830s

1830
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is organized by the Rev. Andrew Buchanan of Cane Hill in a blacksmith shop owned by John Lewis on East Center Street.

1832
The Methodist Church is established in Fayetteville.

1833
Alfred Wallace opens one of the first general stores, if not the first, on the west side of what is now the Fayetteville square. Soon after, the McGarrah family builds a store at the corner of East and Center, with William McGarrah running the store.

1834
May — On a march from Jefferson Barracks in Bloomington, Iowa, to Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, the G Company of the U.S. Dragoons passes through Fayetteville. The death of Charles Gatliff and the desertion of Christopher Bench are noted at Fayetteville. Among the officers of G Company passing through are Lt. Jefferson Davis, later the president of the Confederate States of America, and Capt. Nathan Boone, the youngest son of Daniel Boone.

October 28 — The Cumberland Presbyterian churches of Fayetteville, Mount Comfort, Walnut Grove, Prairie Grove and White River convene at Cane Hill to organize a Presbyterian College, which resulted in Cane Hill College eventually being created.

The Methodist Episcopal Church South is organized at the home of Lodowic Brodie.

Isaac Murphy, later a state senator and governor, moves to Fayetteville with his wife, Angelina Lockhart Murphy, to teach school and practice law.

1835
Feb. 27 — Patent for the land of the original town is issued by President Andrew Jackson. It was described as the south half NE one-quarter and north half of SE quarter, Section 16, Township 16, Range 30 West. In easier terms to understand, this is the land bounded by what are now College Avenue on the east, Gregg Avenue on the West, Dickson Street on the north, and South Street on the south.
Soon after, the city was surveyed into lots by Charles McClelland, the deputy county surveyor, and a survey team of John West, William McGarrah, James Parr, John Smallman and A. Mankins.
All of the lots except the square were auctioned off by A. Whinnery between 1835 and 1837, raising $6,339 in the course of 169 sales, the money being used for erection of a courthouse and clerk’s office.
The military road was cut through Fayetteville en route from St. Louis to Fort Smith.

November 5 — The Washington Lodge of the Masons, the first Masonic lodge in Arkansas, is chartered in Fayetteville. In 1840, a two-story frame hall was erected on land deeded by Archibald Yell.

1836
Lodowic Brodie and A.B. Anthony build the city’s first brick house for school purposes on what is now called School Avenue, between Meadow and Center.

Arkansas is granted statehood. Archibald Yell, a Fayetteville resident, is elected the state’s first congressman.

Isaac Murphy becomes the first county treasurer of Washington County and serves through 1838.

October 27 — The Fayetteville Female Academy is chartered with Robert H. Mecklin in charge of the school.

November 3 — The first state legislature passes an act to incorporate the town of Fayetteville. The first alderman, the equivalent of a mayor today, was P. Vinson Rhea.

1837
A new county courthouse is built of brick in the center of the Fayetteville square.

1838
January 18 — The city’s first bank, a branch of the State Bank, is opened. Jacob Wythe Walker was an early president, if not the first, of the bank, signing the bank’s lithographed currency from February to November.

1839
Archibald Yell contracts for construction of two-story jail, with dungeon and debtors’ cell in the lower story and a jailor’s residence on the upper floor. It was built on the southwest corner of College and Rock by Matthew Leeper for $4,000.

Sophia Sawyer, a missionary to the Cherokee Nation, moves to Fayetteville after civil strife between Cherokee factions, and she establishes the Fayetteville Female Seminary.

Timeline -- 1840s

1840
Census shows that the Fayetteville population is 425. Washington County’s population is 7,148.
Charles F. Town publishes the city’s first newspaper, The Witness, a relatively short-lived paper that carried mostly national news.

1841
Fayetteville was incorporated this year. Municipal operations were suspended during the Civil War.
The Royal Arch Masons established the Far West Chapter at Fayetteville.

1844
The Far West Seminary was incorporated on Nov. 30.

Archibald Yell and David Walker run for Congress, Yell as a Democrat and Walker as a Whig. Yell eventually won the election, his second time to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.

1845
May 19 — Robert W. Mecklin and Robert Graham organize the Ozark Institute in northwest Fayetteville near Mount Comfort. The school, which had more than 100 men in attendance at its height, continued in operation until 1857.

1846
Isaac Murphy was elected as Washington County’s representative to the Arkansas General Assembly.

1847
February 22 — Archibald Yell is killed by a Mexican lance during the Battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican War.

1848
Addison Crouch establishes a carding factory on South East Avenue. The factory had the capacity to card 100 pounds of wool per day through use of a treadmill generated by horses and mules.

The Christian Church is organized by Rev. Robert Graham with about 50 members.

Isaac Murphy is re-elected as Washington County’s representative to the Arkansas General Assembly.

May 23 — The Episcopal Church is founded by Rev. W.C. Stout.

1849
Catholic congregants begin meeting together in Fayetteville, although formal organization of a church wouldn’t happen until 1878.

Timeline -- 1850s

1850
Census shows Fayetteville’s population is 598, a 40 percent rise from the previous decade. Washington County’s total population was 9,970.

Robert Graham founds Arkansas College, although it wouldn’t be chartered by the state for another two years.

1852
William Campbell writes that Fayetteville had six dry goods stores doing business in Fayetteville by this year.

William E. Smith begins publication of the Western Pioneer, which lasts only a short time.

December 14 — Arkansas College becomes the first college to be chartered by the state of Arkansas to award degrees. The college operated near the intersection of College and Dickson streets until the outbreak of the Civil War.

1853
William Quesenbury begins publication of the South-West Independent along with William E. Smith as printer.

1854
James Stevenson establishes the city’s first drug store.

June — A contract is let to build a new county courthouse, the third, in the center of the Fayetteville square. It burned during the Civil War.

1856
The first published music written by a Fayettevillian appears this year. The composer was Professor Ferdinand F. Zellner, a noted violinist who taught music at the Fayetteville Female Seminary. The song, believed to be the first Arkansas sheet music published by an Arkansan, is titled “The Fayetteville Polka.” The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture has a modern recording of the music.

The first Washington County Fair is organized and held on the square with exhibits in the courthouse, and livestock shows and races are held in the street.

The Methodist Episcopal Church is established on Rock Street near West Avenue.

August 12 — The Mountain Lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows is organized at Fayetteville.

1858
The Butterfield Overland Mail Co. begins daily mail runs from St. Louis to San Francisco, with a stop in Fayetteville. Charles Butterfield, son of the owner of the Overland Mail, builds a house in Fayetteville and moves his family here. The line quit operations through Fayetteville near the advent of the Civil War, the last stage going north within days of the Battle of Wilson Creek near Springfield, Missouri.

The Fayetteville Female Institute is chartered, operating at the northwest corner of College Avenue and Dickson Street.

The Missionary Baptist Church is organized in the home of the Rev. John Mayes.

1859
James R. Pettigrew and Elias C. Boudinot start The Arkansian, a newspaper that includes a wealth of local information as well as news from the Indian territories. It continued until 1862 and the beginning of the Civil War.

A city charter is granted to Fayetteville by the legislature, which realigns the city government as a mayor-council form. J.W. Walker was the first chosen mayor.

Timeline -- 1860s

1860
The federal census shows Fayetteville population to be 972 people, a 63 percent increase over the previous decade’s census. Washington County’s total population was 14,673.

The Fayetteville Democrat is started by W.W. Moore. Its equipment was destroyed by Confederates early in the Civil War, and it ceased publication after less than a year of publication.

First telegraph line is strung by the Stebbins Telegraph Co. from Jefferson City along the old military road, through Fayetteville and into Fort Smith.

Stephen Bedford, a local merchant, is elected the second mayor in the city's new mayor-council form of government.

1861
March 4 — A convention to consider secession is convened in Little Rock. David Walker and Elias C. Boudinot, both of Fayetteville, are elected president and secretary, respectively.

1862
General Benjamin McCulloch ordered Confederate forces under his command to burn all the commercial buildings, military stores and vacant houses in Fayetteville on February 25. After setting torches to the city, the Confederate troops retreated beyond the Boston Mountains but returned within a week headed north to do battle at Pea Ridge. 

On December 6, General Herron and his Union forces marched through Fayetteville on their way to support General Blunt at the battle of Prairie Grove on December 7. The Confederate forces under the command of General Hindman fought through the day and then withdrew during the night. Most of the wounded were moved to Fayetteville where hospitals had been established.

1863
January 8 — Lt. Col. A.W. Bishop is made provost marshal of Fayetteville, and Col. M. Larue Harrison is post commander when Union troops again occupy Fayetteville.

January 27 — The Boston Morning Journal of Boston, Massachusetts, reported that “an enthusiastic Union demonstration occurred” in Fayetteville on this date. Speeches were made by a Dr. Johnson, described as a prominent Union refugee, and Col. Bishop of the 1st Arkansas Cavalry, among others. According to the story, fifteen homeguard companies were organized, and hundreds of citizens signed a petition to Congress requesting an election for a member of Congress from Arkansas.

February — The guerrilla leader William Heffington brings more than 100 followers from Mount Magazine to Fayetteville to become part of the Union Army.

March 27 — The Springfield Daily Republican of Massachusetts reports from Fayetteville that Confederate Gen. William Lewis Cabell "is collecting scattered rebel forces north of the Arkansas river, evidently with the design of operating against our troops in that section."

April 18 — Confederate forces attack Union troops headquartered in Fayetteville early in the morning with cannon fire from East Mountain and cavalry charges from the hollow surrounding Big Spring, but they are repulsed by the Union infantry and cavalry. Most of the battle rages near the intersection of Dickson Street and College Avenue.

1864
Oct. 3 — Major Gen. James Fleming Fagan of the Confederacy attacks Fayetteville from the west after a nearly month-long siege of the downtown, but his effort fails to drive the federal troops out.

1866
E.E. Henderson arrives from Indiana and organizes Fayetteville as District No. 1, the first public school district in the state. The American Missionary Society builds a brick building to school the city’s African American students, the first public school in Fayetteville and perhaps the state.

1867
National Cemetery is established on the south side of Fayetteville. It was one of the original fourteen authorized by President Lincoln.

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is established on Block Avenue near the intersection with Dickson Street.

1868
St. James Methodist Episcopal Church is established at the corner of Willow Avenue and Center Street this year.

April — James Van Hoose and Dr. Thomas Pollard are commissioned to oversee the building of a new courthouse, the fourth, in the center of the square.

July — The Fayetteville Weekly Democrat begins publishing with E.B. and W.B. Moore as editors. The Moores were sons of W.W. Moore, who had published the similarly named Fayetteville Democrat for about a year before the outbreak of the Civil War. The Weekly was later renamed the Fayetteville Daily Democrat and eventually the Northwest Arkansas Times.

August 15 — The first known baseball game played in Fayetteville occurred on this day. The Primitive Base Ball Club, made up of soldiers stationed at Fayetteville, and the Urban Club, presumably townspeople who formed a team, played each other. The game occurred on the same day as the Slow Mule Race.

Timeline -- 1870s

1870
The federal census shows Fayetteville’s population to be 955, a slight drop from the pre-Civil War population of 972. Washington County’s total population was 17,266.

August 24 — A new order of incorporation was recorded by the county court after residents had asked the legislature to dissolve the previous charter. E.I. Stirman was elected the new mayor.

Johnny Fosfender opens Fayetteville’s first commercial bakery.

1871
The Baldwin Commandery No. 4 of the Knights Templar was established in Fayetteville.

William Etter erected a bank on the east side of the square that was bought in 1873 by William McIlroy in partnership with Denton D. Stark, who in 1874 fled the state after questions of improper handling of funds.

March 20 — An independent school district is organized, and the first meeting of a Fayetteville school board is held.

1872
Arkansas Industrial University begins holding classes as the state’s land-grant university. It would later be renamed the University of Arkansas.

The First Presbyterian Church is established at the northwest corner of College Avenue and Spring Street.

The Methodist congregation builds a brick church at 112 West Center Street.

June 10 — A group of Fayetteville women meets at the Methodist Church and organizes the Southern Memorial Association to secure a site for proper burial of Confederate soldiers who had died at battles in Fayetteville, Prairie Grove and Pea Ridge. A cemetery was eventually established on three acres of land on Mount Sequoyah (East Mountain) near the eastern end of Rock Street.

July 2 — The Washington County Medical Society is organized with Dr. Pollard serving as president.

1873
The First Presbyterian Church, U.S., is organized by a committee appointed by the Presbytery of Arkansas.

1875
Sept. 2 — James R. Pettigrew begins publication of the Arkansas Sentinel.

1877
Augustus Volner comes to Fayetteville with machinery for the city’s first foundry, installed near the corner of Mill and Rock.

February — The McGarrahs’ two-story cabin burns.

1878
The Catholic Church is established in Fayetteville, although holy mass had been held for many years prior.

1879
Peter Van Winkle erects the Van Winkle Hotel, reputed to have been the largest frame structure in the state at the time, the third floor of which was fitted up for one of the city’s first opera houses.

Frontier Lodge No. 1626 of the Knights of Honor was established in Fayetteville.

Timeline -- 1880s

1880
The federal census shows Fayetteville’s population to be 1,788, an 87 percent increase from the 1870 population. Washington County’s total population was 23,844.

The Fayetteville Commercial League, similar to a chamber of commerce, is established this year.

1881
A cyclone hits the Fayetteville square, destroying many of the buildings and killing at least one person.

June 8 — Track of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway reaches Fayetteville, and the first train arrives with the president of the rail company, Charles Warrington Rogers, aboard. A crowd estimated in the thousands greeted the train about where North Street crosses the line.

1882
July 4 — The first regularly scheduled passenger train of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway arrives in Fayetteville, coming from Pierce City, Mo.

1884
August 23 — Travis Post No. 19 of the Grand Army of the Republic is mustered.

October 23 — The Pacific & Greater Eastern Railway Co. was incorporated, and track was eventually laid east to Wyman.

November 6 — The Washington County Bank is chartered at Fayetteville with W.B. Welch as president.

1885
Originally published in West Fork, The Republican newspaper is moved to Fayetteville by the owner, W.M. Simpson, and sold the next year to Thomas Brooks and Damon Clark.

The city’s first daily paper also appeared this year. T.P. Price, Frank J. Price and Albert H. Price began publication of The Evening Call, but soon suspended operations.

St. James Baptist Church is established this year on Willow Avenue near Mountain Street.

Fayetteville becomes a city of the second class.

Washington School is built on Highland Avenue between Lafayette and Maple at a cost of about $9,131.55. In the first year, 741 students attended.

1886
Construction of the Fayetteville and Little Rock Railway, better known as the St. Paul Branch, begins.

The first phone line, established as the Washington County Telephone Co., is run from Fayetteville to Farmington, Prairie Grove, Viney Grove, Rhea’s Mill and Cincinnati. However, equipment used on the line turned out to infringe on patents owned by Bell Telephone.

The Fayetteville Building and Loan Association No. 1 is organized with stock issued in two series of $100,000 each. E.B. Harrison was the first president.

March 22 — The Young Men’s Christian Association is organized by Ellis Duncan and Mark Dean.

1887
Fayetteville Lodge No. 28 of the Ancient Order of United Workmen was established this year.

June 16 — The Knights of Pythias organize the Criterion Lodge No. 36.

1888
Col. J.L. Cravens opens an insurance office in Fayetteville. It was not the first such enterprise but the earliest known date. J.H. Van Hoose and E.B. Wall had also sold insurance during the same time period.

The Bank of Fayetteville is established with Lafayette Gregg as president.

January — The Fayetteville Electric Light and Power Co. is organized and a plant is built near where the Old County Courthouse now stands at the intersection of College Avenue and Center Street. Power initially came from the Old Red Mill at the foot of the hill on Greenland Road.

1889
A group of residents hires a Chicago consultant to make a survey of potential sources of water, and they build a pump station on the West Fork of the White River at the eastern end of what is now called Pump Station Road. The original building was replaced by the existing stone building in 1925. Water was pumped to a reservoir on East Mountain at an elevation high enough to serve even the top towers of Old Main. The city bought the waterworks in 1907. The old water treatment plant on Mount Sequoyah was torn down in 1999, and the property was turned into a city park. One later reservoir was turned into a home on Oklahoma Way.

Moore’s Funeral Chapel opens for business.

Timeline -- 1890s

1890
The federal census shows Fayetteville’s population to be 2,942, a 65 percent increase from the 1880 population. Washington County’s total population was 32,024.

The Fayetteville Grocer Co. is organized.

Shultz & Son opens the city’s first steam laundry on Dickson near the Frisco depot.

Jefferson School is built at the corner of South and Church.

1891
Senator Tillman of Washington County introduces Arkansas’s first “Jim Crow” legislation during the General Assembly. The law would require African-American residents who are traveling by railroad to sit only in designated cars. Similar legislation over the next two decades would lead to racial segregation of most public buildings and institutions.

1892
Thomas Brooks establishes the Washington County Review, which continued publication until 1913, when it was absorbed by The Fayetteville Republican, then owned by D.C. Ambrose. Ambrose’s son, Roscoe Ambrose, continued publication but changed the name to The Fayetteville Republic.

M.W. McRoy opens a job-printing shop.

Herbert Hoover, later a president of the United States, lives in Fayetteville during part of this year while assisting John C. Branner in his geological survey of the state.

1894
Louise Payne establishes the Fayetteville Daily.

September 25 — A smoldering match catches a stable east of the square on fire, and it spreads to the Baum Brothers store, destroying it and killing one man.

1895
Professors W.N. Gladson and W.B. Bentley install a switchboard on the third floor of the Bank of Fayetteville through a phone service that was eventually bought up by Southwestern Telephone.

B.W. Redfern, George Bryan and W.S. Pollard form a partnership to start the city’s first ice-making plant near the Frisco switch track between Center and Meadow streets.

June 6 — Woodmen of the World, Oak Camp No. 12, is chartered in Fayetteville.

1896
The first edition of the University of Arkansas yearbook, The Cardinal, is published and named after the university's mascot. A couple of years after the university mascot was changed to the Razorbacks in 1910, the name of the yearbook was changed to The Razorback.

The Fayetteville National Building & Loan Association is organized, and E.B. Harrison is elected president.

1897
A new county jail is erected for $14,000 at the intersection of College Avenue and Mountain Street.

Although the city had had bucket brigades from at least the time of the Civil War, the city’s first horse-drawn fire wagon wasn’t purchased by the city until this year. Frank Mayes was fire chief at the time.

The Seventh Day Adventists establish a church on South Street near College Avenue.

April — The Mildred Lee Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is organized with twenty charter members.

1898
Capt. J.T. Eason opens an insurance business.

A chapter of the United Confederate Veterans is organized in Fayetteville.

Oakleaf Lodge No. 12 of the Woodmen of the World is established in Fayetteville.

1899
Leverett School is built at the corner of Cleveland and Garland.

The Methodist congregation builds its third church at the corner of Dickson Street and Highland Avenue and acquires a parsonage north of the church.