CITY OF MCCRORY, ARKANSAS
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THE HISTORY OF MCCRORY
Around 1840, a traveler riding
through what is now Woodruff County stopped at a cabin in the woods to ask
directions. A woman who gave her name as Jennie came to the door surrounded
by children of every size. Later, the traveler jokingly said he had asked
his way at Jennie's Colony, referring to the multitude of children. The name
stuck and for many years after, the area was known as "Jennie's Colony."
Or so the story goes. Other sources assure us Jennie's Colony was
named for Jennie Edmonds, an early settler of Woodruff County. Still others
confidently state that Jennie's Colony got its name from Jennie Barnes,
whose husband first settled there. Whatever the true story of Jennie's
Colony may be, it is a fact that a part of the Colony later became the site
of the town of McCrory.
It all began when Cyrus G. McCrory came to Arkansas from Tennessee in 1860
and bought several hundred acres of "Swamp Land" property. At his death in
1869, his son Cyrus Wade McCrory became administrator of his estate. When
the Missouri Pacific railroad began negotiations to run tracks through the
McCrory farm lands, Wade McCrory donated the site for the depot and fifteen
acres of right-of-way to the railroad company.
The town of McCrory was plated, and
Wade McCrory sold hundreds of plots to settlers. Comfortable homes were
built. Stores and businesses sprang up along Edmonds Avenue, the main street
of the newly laid out town. A post office was authorized. A fine Methodist
Church was built. And in the upstairs of the church, on Christmas Eve, 1889,
fifty-five citizens signed an incorporation petition. Woodruff County Court
granted the petition on January 30, 1890, and the town of McCrory was born.
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CONTACTS:
ROGER SMITH, PRESIDENT
KIP DAVIS, VICE PRESIDENT cityman05@hotmail.com
SHIRLEY THOMPSON, SECRETARY
PAULA BARNETT, EDITOR (870) 731-2263 wcm@centurytel.net
GARY TELFORD, HISTORIAN/GENEALOGIST wgt@centurytel.net