History of White County Arkansas United States of America

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Local History Notes:

WHITE COUNTY is located in the northeast part of Central Arkansas, and is bounded north by Cleburne, Independence and Jackson Counties, east by Woodruff, south by Prairie and Lonoke, and west by Faulkner.

Its boundary lines are as follows: Beginning in Range 3 west, at the point where White River crosses the line dividing Townships 9 and 10 north; thence west on the township line to the line dividing Ranges 5 and 6 west; thence north on the range line to the line dividing Townships 10 and 11 north; thence west on the township line to the line dividing Ranges 7 and 8 west; thence south on the range line to Little Red River; thence up said river, in a westerly direction, following its meanders, to the middle of Range 8 west; thence south on section lines to the line dividing Townships 8 and 9 north; thence west on the township line to the line dividing Ranges 10 and 11 west; thence south on the range line to Cypress Creek in Township 5 north; thence down Cypress Creek following its meanders to the line dividing Ranges 5 and 6 west; thence north on the range line to the line dividing Townships 5 and 6 north; thence east on the township line to White River; thence up White River following its meanders to the last crossing of the line dividing Townships 7 and 8 north; thence west on the township line to the southwest corner of Section 35, Township 8 north, Range 4 west; thence north on section lines until White River is again intersected; thence up the river following its meanders to the place of beginning; containing an area of 1,015 square miles, or 650,000 acres. Of this about 12,000 acres belong to the United States, 27,000 to the State, 81,000 to the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Company, and the balance to individuals. Only about 10 per cent of the land is improved. Prices range from $5 to $25 per acre for improved, and from $1 to $10 for unimproved property.

The face of the county is somewhat rolling, $2,595,215, on which the total amount of taxes charged for all purposes was $32,633. In taxable wealth it then ranked as fourth in the State. In 1888, the real-estate assessment was $2,440,883, and personal property $1,252,715, aggregating $3,693,598. The total amount of taxes charged thereon for all purposes was $56,407.88. These figures bear evidence that from 1880 to 1888 the taxable wealth of the county increased a little over 42 per cent - a most encouraging showing.

The St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad enters White County about five miles west of its northeast corner, and runs thence through the limits in a southwesterly direction, its length here being about thirty-nine miles. It was completed in 1872. Soon after the Searcy & West Point Railroad was constructed, running from West Point to Searcy, and crossing the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern at Kensett. The cars on this road are drawn between Searcy and Kensett by an engine, and between Kensett and West Point by horses. Its length is ten and a half miles. The Memphis branch of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad connects Memphis with the main line at Bald Knob in the county's northeast part, its length being about ten miles, thus making the combined length of railroads within the county sixty-one miles or more. These roads, together with White River as a navigable outlet, afford excellent transportation facilities.

The population of White County, according to the United States census reports, has been as follows at the various decades mentioned: 1840, 920; 1850, 2,619; 1860, 8,316; 1870, 10,347; 1880, 17,794. Immigration to the county since 1880 has been so large that at the present its population must considerably exceed 20,000. The colored population was, in 1860, 1,435; in 1870, 1,200; in 1880, 2,032, at about which figure it still remains.

The Royal Colony, consisting of several families from Tennessee, was founded by James Walker and Martin Jones at the head of Bull Creek, in the northwest part of what is now White County. Lower down on Bull Creek were the settlements of Fielding and Frederick Price. Lewis Vongrolman founded a German settlement on Big Creek and Little Red River with John Magness, Philip Hilger, James King, the Wishes, Yinglings and others. Philip Hilger established and kept the "Hilger's Ferry" across Little Red River, on the old military road leading from Cape Girardeau to Little Rock. Farther north, near the Independence County line, was the Pate Settlement, founded by Lovic Pate. Alfred Arnold, John Akin and John Wright founded the settlement on Little Red River below where West Point is situated. Near the present town of Judsonia was a settlement founded by William Cook and Henry R. Vanmeter. Reuben Stephens settled in the Pate Settlement on the creek that now bears his name. Samuel Guthrie and John Dunaway also settled in that neighborhood.

From: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas, GoodSpeed Publishing Co., 1890

Biographies:

Stephen Brundidge, representative, was born in White county, Ark., Jan. 1, 1857; son of Stephen and Minerva Brundidge. He attended private schools, studied law at Searcy, Ark., was admitted to the bar in 1878, and practised in Searcy. He was elected prosecuting attorney for the 1st judicial district of Arkansas in 1886 and again in 1888. He was a member of the Democratic state central committee of Arkansas from 1890 and was a Democratic representative from Arkansas in the 55th, 56th, 57th and 58th congresses, 1897-1905.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Prof. Augustine W. Bumpass, a prominent citizen and teacher of White County, is a native of Madison County, West Tenn., where he was born, near Jackson, on January 22, 1851. He is the eldest son of Dr. E. L. and Lucinda E. (Young) Bumpass. His father was a native of Giles County, Tenn., where he was born April 15, 1816, being reared in Lauderdale County, Ala., and there educated both in literature and medicine. Graduating at the Louisville Medical College, in the class of 1841-42, with the highest honors, he was for many years a prominent physician in Alabama, but removed to Madison County, Tenn., in the latter part of 1850, where he resided until 1856, at which time he removed to Arkansas and settled in Prairie (now Lonoke) County. Here, in a wild and unsettled country, he purchased land and opened up a farm, which he conducted in connection with his practice until his death, December 3, 1883. He was a man of generous and humans impulses, a warm-hearted and devoted Christian, and a member of the Christian Church. He was a Master Mason and a member of the I. O. O. F., standing high in both of those societies. An old line Whig until the dissolution of that party, he then affiliated with the Democratic party until his death. The mother of our subject, Lucinda E. (Young) Bumpass, was a native of Alabama, where she was reared, educated and married. She was the daughter of Elder James Young, a prominent minister of the Christian Church in Alabama. He died in 1852. Mrs. Bumpass died on December 5, 1881, aged fifty-nine years, eight months and nine days. Dr. Gabriel Bumpass, grandfather of Augustine W., was a native of North Carolina and died in Lauderdale County, Ala., in 1875, aged one hundred and seventeen years. He was the oldest physician in America, if not in the world, having practiced medicine for more than eighty years. He was a remarkable man in many respects, and as physician, farmer or merchant, was very successful. Our subject's parents were married in Lauderdale County, Ala., on May 18, 1845. To their marriage seven children were born, five sons and two daughters, five of whom are living, as follows: Mary E. (at Pine Bluff, Ark.), Augustine W. (near Searcy, in White County, Ark.), Samuel J. (at Lonoke, (Ark.), Edward K. and Ross H. (at Pins Bluff, Ark.), The two last named are mechanics and buggy and carriage manufacturers; Samuel J. is a farmer, stock-raiser and trader. Romelia C., the eldest, a daughter, and Robert W., the fourth child, are dead. A. W. Bumpass was reared in Tennessee to the age of five years, and from that time in Arkansas, where he was educated, obtaining a good academic instruction and preparing himself for the profession of law. However, he began teaching early in life and has paid but little attention to the law, except in the lower courts. Commencing for himself at the age of eighteen as a teacher in the public schools of his State, he has been occupied in teaching more or less for twenty years, gaining an enviable reputation in many counties where he has been engaged in the public and private schools and academies. He is a politician of some note, and represented his county (Lonoke) in the legislature, in 1879 and 1880, taking always an active interest in the campaigns of his party, Democratic. He was married in Lonoke County, Ark., on April 25, 1875, to Miss Virginia C. Kirk, a native of Marshall County, Miss., born April 11, 1856, a daughter of Richard L. and Virginia (Hayes) Kirk. Her father is dead, but her mother is a resident of White County, at the home of her daughter. Prof. Bumpass and wife have five children, four sons and one daughter: Edward W., Herbert R, Robert H., Prentice and Mary Moyner. The Professor is a member of the Christian Church and takes an active interest in church and Sunday-school matters. He has been Sunday-school superintendent for many years, was notary public from 1885 until 1889 in White County, and is a highly educated, intelligent gentleman, having the respect and confidence of those with whom he comes in contact. Generous to a fault, he aids all worthy enterprises to the extent of his time and means.

From: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas, GoodSpeed Publishing Co., 1890

History of White County Arkansas

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