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.

Comments

[Jeanne Goff]

Who was Fayetteville named for.