Nevada County Arkansas

The history of Nevada County dates back to March 20, 1871 when it was created by an act of the General Assembly out of territory taken from Columbia, Hempstead and Ouachita Counties. It was called "Nevada" because of the similarity of its form to the state of the same name. It is situated in the Southern part of the state, being bounded on the east by Ouachita County, on the North and Northeast by Clark County (from which it is separated by the Little Missouri river) on the west by Hempstead County, and on the South by Columbia County. It has an area of 670 square miles and in 1880 had a population of 13,000 inhabitants. There ere thirteen townships, namely: Alabama, Albany, Boughton, Caney, Emmet, Georgia, Jackson, Leak, Missouri, Parker, Redland, Taylor and Union.

The first officers of the county served by appointment under Gov. Powell Clayton. They were: County and Probate Judge, D.C. Tuttle; County and Circuit Clerk, A.B. Parsons; Sheriff, J.S. Vandergriff.

The first County and Circuit courts were held at Mt. Moriah May 8, 1871. The old oak tree to which the prisoners were chained day and night, stood for many years. A stone monument now marks the spot. The county seat was moved to Rosston and remained there until 1877 when the Cairo and Fulton R.R. (later Iron Mountain and Southern - now Missouri Pacific) was completed and quite a little city had been formed at Prescott on Prairie DeAnne. (The town was laid out and settled Sept. 1873). The county seat was then (Aug. 1877) moved to that city.

In Prescott, the first county and circuit courts were held in the Methodist Episcopal Church South. In 1884 a commodious two story brick court house was built as a cost of $20,000. It was finished below end above stairs in native pine. By 1910 this building was considered inadequate for the growing population. It was razed and the present one finished in 1911, at a cost of 45 thousand and 70 dollars. At the 1940 census, the population was given as 19,786.

Some early pioneers known to have been in what is now Nevada County before 1850 were:

Nick Trammel

Bud T. Herring

James Cravens

Thomas Hood

Joseph White

William McLelland

Jonathan West

Janes J. Sanders

John L. Eads

John S. Weaver

Thomas Satterwhite

Wilburn Haynie

William B. Arnold

Neill Munn

John Hatley

William Marsh

Riley Moody

Joseph H. Garrett

Thomas Elias Wylie