|
Hillsboro, Arkansas
No longer in existence, knowledge of this one time cultural
center of south Arkansas is slowly shrinking. In fact, all that
remains to physically mark it's place is the town's cemetery.
Being born in El Dorado, Arkansas, one might think I'd know
some of the county's history, but I only lived there a total
of six years. It wasn't until my grandfather showed me our Union
County ancestral home that I knew of Hillsboro, Arkansas. This
county map reflects Hillsboro
and Elijah's nearby homestead. There is no town, although it's
still listed on some road maps. The only thing that marks Hillsboro
is the town's cemetery. The cemetery is still used. When I visited
the cemetery in late 1997, I saw tombstones reflecting recent
deaths.
Most of what I know about about
Hillsboro comes from talks with long-time county residents and
a newspaper article about the history of Hillsboro. It's too
bad, but as those whom have first hand knowledge leave us behind,
Hillsboro's history is doomed to dim.
The following newspaper article
gives but a peep at the rich history of Hillsboro and Union County.
El Dorado Daily News
Sunday, May 2, 1965
Found In Old Newspapers
Editor's Note: This is another of the hundreds of stories
of Union County people, places, or events to be found from persual
[sic] of old newspapers, books and records.
By CLAYTE WHITTEN
Nostalgic memories of Old Hillsboro
have apparently been aroused by last week's column on the small
pox epidemic there as revealed in the pages of the El Dorado
Eagle during January, February, and March of 1882. Requests have
been numerous to review a bit of its general history.
Hillsboro, which was once one of
the most thickly populated towns in Union County, is now little
more than a dot on a highway map some 12 miles southeast of El
Dorado on the Strong Highway. When one reaches Burnside's store
and the radio tower (going east), a gravel road branches off
to the right. About a mile down this is the Old Hillsboro Cemetery
which is practically all that remains of the once prosperous
town in the center of Johnson Township.
There is a grove of giant trees,
and with careful prodding, one can unearth mounds of brick and
rotting timbers. Not a single building remains standing, but
plenty of people still living today can recall it as a place
of booming business, prosperous homes, and the center of educational
and cultural activities.
Hillsboro, according to Goodspeed's
History of South Arkansas, was settled around 1845 with a post
office being established a year later. Some of the early merchants
were listed as Coleman, Pratt, Slason, and Billis.
Presumably the place was named
for a Hill family, but which of the four unrelated Hill families
it was is still open to question. The most commonly accepted
version is that it was named for Col. Wright Hill, an early settler
of the region and a Confederate officer.
Names on the headstones in the
cemetery read like a roll call of modern El Dorado. It includes
Williams, Warren, Tatum, Burnside, Hearin, Newton, Holbrook,
Hunt, Cabaniss, McMath, Jordan, Jones, Jameson, Bryant, Pendleton,
Shulenberger, Carmichael, Miles, McHenry, Aiken, Finley, Dearing,
Thompson, Smith, Loventhall, Hudson, Clark, McKinney, and others.
Hearin's Academy, probably an outgrowth
of the early custom of providing governesses for one's own children
and those of neighboring plantation owners, was followed by other
schools of the best remembered of which is probably Hillsboro's
Academy. Many outstanding educators got their start here. Among
them were A.B. Hill, a one-time Arkansas Supervisor of Schools;
Mrs. Martha Hudson White, who later headed the speech department
at the University of Arkansas, and Miss Ellie Tatum, who for
many years was principal of Hugh Goodwin School in El Dorado.
Medicine seemed to have been another
field in which Hillsboro was used as a proving ground. Young
doctors were prone to set up an office in Hillsboro, practice
for a few years, and then move on to "greener pastures."
During the first half century of its existence, the town had
physicians named Thompson, Moella, Goldsmith (records show this
one of the very earlies [sic]), McMath, Stevenson, Finley, McHenry,
Mayfield, Smith, Nolan, Pratt, Vines, Jameson, and Grace.
In 1890 the general stores were
Williams and Smith, C.P. McHenry and Co., John Loventhal, and
Hudson Bros. Mr. Hudson was also proprietor of the town's only
hotel, the Hillsboro House. Physicians at that date were M.A.
McHenry and Morgan Smith, and the postmaster was Thomas W. Williams.
Even at that date the town was still known far and wide for the
scuppernong grape used for both fruit and wine making. The original
vineyard in the area was the Holbrook vineyard, which in 1890
was owned by C.P. McHenry.
Hillsboro was the boyhood of the
late Minor Wallace. United States Congressman, lecturer, and
writer, and his Recollections of Hillsboro and New London
Days is a rich source of material for the local history fancier.
Wallace spoke of the Cherry Ridge
road leading into Louisiana and mentioned as examples of old
Southern mansions the following houses to be found on that road:
The elder John Hearin, Holbrook, Pendleton, "Little John"
Hearin, Green Newton, Aiken, and Finley.
Because of what happened to it,
the Pendleton home would probably be of the greatest interest
today. In 1942 Dr. and Mrs. R.W. Williams bought the old home
from the Tatums and had it moved, piece by piece, to a hill on
the eastern edge of El Dorado where East Hillsboro Street becomes
the Strong Highway. Every detail of the fine old structure and
grounds was preserved, even to the formation of a pond on the
south edge of the lawn (the old location at Hillsboro had a pond
on either side). Only small wings were added at the back and
the 16-foot ceilings dropped two feet so as to make a more comfortable
second story. The original nine-foot doors, floor-length windows,
18 x 19 foot rooms, four huge chimneys, hand hewn sills, and
curving stairways are the same.
Hillsboro's very prosperity was
its downfall however, according to tradition. When a route was
being selected for what is now the Missouri Pacific Railroad,
delegations from communities all over south Arkansas and north
Louisiana went to committee meetings and used influence to bring
the tracks their way. But not so Hillsboro. The city fathers
felt it unnecessary as they could not imagine a place as important
as Hillsboro being bypassed.
But that is exactly what happened,
and shortly after the turn of the century, business began to
decline and people began to move out. Hillsboro is now merely
a memory or a page from the history book.
Return to Elijah's Home
Return to Elijah's Journey
Return to Elijah Did What?
Return to opening page
|