Arkadelphia, AR news and local guide

By the late 1830s the first lots were platted and Blakelytown became Arkadelphia. The origin of the name is uncertain. Later accounts link it to Greek words for brotherhood and to the idyllic Greek region of Arcadia, while the Encyclopedia of Arkansas notes that some settlers may have borrowed it from Arkadelphia, Alabama. The town became the seat of Clark County in 1842, a brick courthouse and jail were finished in 1844, and it was incorporated on January 6, 1857. During the Civil War Arkadelphia supplied Confederate troops and served as a medical and munitions depot, a source of salt and an ordnance works, and the Arkadelphia resident Harris Flanagin was Arkansas's Confederate governor. A skirmish there on April 1 and 2, 1864, ended in a Union victory. The Cairo and Fulton Railroad reached the town in 1873. Sources Wikipedia: Arkadelphia, Arkansas