With no roads and unreliable rivers, much of Arkansas, including present-day Nevada County, was slow to fill up with settlers. The Nevada County Depot and Museum features three men. Stephen Vaughan came up the Little Missouri early, perhaps as early as 1812. Meriwether Lewis Randolph purchased many tracts of land in Arkansas. Gad Bradly was a free black.
Nevada County was formed on March 20, 1871, mostly from land in one of Arkansas' original five counties, Hempstead. By 1871, the land used to form Nevada County was in Hempstead, Columbia, and Clark counties.
Large Indian villages were at several location when the settlers came were mostly friendly with no millitant confrontations. When the settler population grew, the Indians moved on.
The museum has several artifacts from the Civil War. A biography features Captain William J. Blake, C.S.A. General Frederick Steele, the commanding general in Little Rock, was not eager to take up his role in the Red River Campaign.
The last strategic move by Federal troops west of the Mississippi River on April 10 - 13, 1864 ended in the defeat of the Federal Red River campaign. The troops turned and headed back to Little Rock, rather than continue the advance on the Red River ports. The same happened to the north prong of the attack at Mansfield, Louisiana. The Depot Museum displays many artifacts from the Civil War.
Written for Harland McKelvy by Lawyer Thompkins about 1928, this article covers the creation by the Arkansas Legislature, first court, first settlement, first commissioners, and some early officials.
