Our town of Pea Ridge is 165 years old this year. Of course the settlement of the little village which became known as Pea Ridge began somewhat earlier, after an 1828 treaty with the Osage Indians opened up our part of Arkansas for white settlement. I'm hearing these days more references to "The Ridge" than we used to hear. We now have a church in town known as The Ridge Church, and our athletic teams may be known as "The Ridge" teams. Actually that is not a new expression. "The Ridge" or Pea Ridge was first the name of the sizeable "ridge" (or plateau) bounded on the south by Little Sugar Creek and on the north by Big Sugar Creek, and extending east and west from present day Bella Vista almost to Garfield. Early settlers were often said to live "on Pea Ridge." That didn't mean that they lived in the town of Pea Ridge, for at first the town didn't exist, but that they lived "on the Ridge" northeast of Bentonville.
Pea Ridge as a town has its birthday on Aug. 5, 1850, the date when the first post office was established in town. People had been moving into the area since about 1830, and numerous farms and homesites had been established. But prior to 1850, the mail coming to people in the area was delivered by stagecoach to Elkhorn Tavern, and distributed from there. The town's name may have been spelled Pearidge at first, but that spelling soon gave way to Pea Ridge as we know it today.
I'm thinking of 1915 at this point, 100 years ago, because that was a time of transition for Pea Ridge. Things were changing. The old 1800s town was taking on new features that would mark the next century of its life. Between 1910 and 1920, the central block of town, from today's City Hall building westward to the southeast corner of Curtis and Pickens, was being rebuilt. The old original wood frame store buildings were giving way to the new concrete block structures which still stand today in that part of "old town." The Bank of Pea Ridge was organized in 1911, with the early bank board meetings held in College Hall, the auditorium of the Mt. Vernon Masonic College, and the bank constructed its new building on the east side of Putman's Store in the town's central block. Most recently the old bank building housed our Community Library.
The old wood frame Putman's Store, located at the southeast corner of the main intersection, was moved to a location on the north side of the Presbyterian Church, where the structure was incorporated into the new Putman house. The house still exists today, on the hill between the Presbyterian Church and the Cannonball Restaurant. The new Putman Store was the concrete block building which still stands on the corner today. Through the years it has hosted many businesses, including Crawford's NAPA Parts Store, which later moved out west on Slack Street.
In 1915, you could still graduate from the old Pea Ridge College, then known as the Mt. Vernon Masonic College. In 1915 you might start school at Sassafras School northeast of town, or Shady Grove School northwest of town, or Possum Trot School west of town, or Cross Lanes School east of town, or Twelve Corners School, or Central School at Lee Town, or Corinth School. If you wanted to go to high school, you would come into Pea Ridge and attend high school in the College Building.
In 1915, apples were still the king money crop in Benton County and around Pea Ridge. "Everybody" had an apple orchard. All around the country were apple orchards, apple processing sheds and apple dryers. Back in 1881, the growing apple industry had brought the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad through eastern Benton County, bypassing Pea Ridge, and starting up new towns like Rogers, Garfield, Avoca and Lowell. Apples would remain huge in our area for another 10 years.
In 1915, you probably wouldn't have a car; you probably wouldn't have a phone; and you probably wouldn't have electricity in your house. Early cars started out to be basically horseless carriages. They looked like buggies with motors under the seats. Most cars were very expensive in 1915, but that was changing. The Model T Ford had arrived. While most of the vehicles on the streets in Pea Ridge were still horse-drawn buggies and wagons, now and then you might see a car.
In 1915, many of the old soldiers who had fought in the Civil War and in the Battle of Pea Ridge were still living, and many were joining in the Old Soldiers Reunions which might have both former Union and former Confederate soldiers gathered at Elkhorn Tavern or at the College in Pea Ridge or in Bentonville.
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Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Editorial on 11/11/2015