Clarendon AR: Where We've Been: History

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Clarendon, known as Mouth of Cache[1] until 1837, is the present seat of justice for Monroe County, and was supposedly named for the Earl of Clarendon, England. Although Frenchmen had cabins at the mouth of Cache River in 1799, the area was earlier inhabited by Indians. Located on the bank of White River, near the mouth of Cache River, the settlement became the crossing point for the first east-west road in Arkansas Territory. With a ferry and a post office by 1828, Clarendon soon became an important River port as well as the terminus of a stage coach line to the west. It is the only existing city to have been settled prior to the creation of the county. Clarendon was incorporated February 8, 1859. William H. Thweat was commissioned as the first mayor on May 12, 1859. The charter was dissolved in 1884 and the town was re-incorporated in 1898.

After total reduction to weeds and ashes in June 1864 when Federal forces shelled and burned the town following the Confederate capture and sinking of the Union gunboat Queen City, Clarendon revived to become an industrial port and cotton center, having the first stave and barrel factory in the state by 1889, and one of two oar factories in the United States by 1892. Clarendon was a cultural center as well, with a plush opera house by 1893 and frequent visits by showboats. Pearl buyers from around the nation purchased White River Pearls from Clarendon's Pearl Market, possibly the first in Arkansas. Pearl buttons were cut from the mussel shells at the button factories in Clarendon. Valuable pearls are still frequently found in the White River mussel shells.

The Monroe County Sun, Clarendon's only newspaper, is published weekly. It was established in 1877, according to the most reliable information at hand, and is the oldest surviving newspaper in the county.

The present Monroe County Courthouse was built in 1911 at a cost of $118,000.00 and in recent years has been refurbished considerably. The fifth courthouse to have been erected on the same court square, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

In addition to the lumber and sawmills, by 1911 Clarendon had ten factories, three banks, three hotels, ten churches and over thirty-five other businesses. Many major league baseball players in the early 1900's used bats which were gifts of the Moss Brothers Bat Factory.

The Southwestern Railway completed the railroad bridge over White River at Clarendon in 1883. The ferry boat was replaced with a highway bridge over White River at Clarendon in 1931.

The Merchants and Planters Bank was established at Clarendon in 1890 and has been in continuous service to the community.

The present City Hall building, which also houses the Monroe County Library, was built in 1969.

Numerous floods of the White River darken Clarendon's past, but the most destructive was in 1927 when the water ravaged the countryside and flowed over the levee at Clarendon, causing it to break, allowing water to submerge the town. Again the town was rebuilt, and in 1937 a new levee was completed which has kept the town secure from floods since that time. The population was 1,960 in 2000.

-- Contributed by Jo Claire English, local historian

[1] Before the French Revolution, France was divided into provinces. Picardy (capital: Amiens) was one; Ile-de-France (capital: Paris) was another. As the vernacular gradually replaced Latin, Picard was spoken in Picardy and French was spoken in Ile-de-France. For centuries these languages were on equal footing, each being a dialect of the "langue d'oil" spoken in the northern half of the country, while "langue d'oc" was in the southern. But, Paris - more central than Amiens - became the capital of the country and its dialect was imposed to the whole country.

The first white men to arrive in Arkansas were French. Father Marquette was born in Laon, one of the main cities of Picardy, so his native tongue was Picard. He, of course, also spoke French, as he had to correspond with his government. The word "cache" is probably from the Picard language. There is a word "cache" in French which means hiding place but it is a seldom-used word and was almost not used at all in Marquette's day. In Picard "cache" means hunt ("chasse" in French) and hunting was of primordial and vital importance for these explorers. Therefore, it is much more likely that in Arkansas "cache" is the Picard word representing the bountiful "hunting grounds" of the area.

Where We've Been: History | Sites | 1927 Flood | USS Queen City | Orr