Editor's Note: The following is from Billie Jines' 1996 booklet, "The Streets of Pea Ridge." It has been updated to include new streets and those scheduled for future development.
After more than a century as a town, Pea Ridge had named its streets. And in doing so, had developed a unique system for naming the streets ... to call all north-south streets after Union participants of the Battle of Pea Ridge, and all east-west ones for their Confederate counterparts.
In 1995, Ordinance No. 215 was passed by the Pea Ridge City Council. The street naming segment of the detailed ordinance made it mandatory to use the north-south for Union and east-west for Confederate names of combatants of the Battle of Pea Ridge.
Confederate names:
• Parks (nee Park) Circle -- A three-part street in Ridgemoor Estates. Take McNair Street off of Hayden Road (Ark. Hwy. 265) and two prongs of this circle will turn to the south. No Park participant could be located on either side of the battle. With two of the three parts of Park being Union and one being Confederate, it was decided to consider it a Confederate street, since there were participants named Parks on that side. The Pea Ridge Planning Commission had wanted to be able to simply add an "s" to Park, rather than change the entire name, which was forbidden by the street ordinance. Such a name would still make it easy to identify in the event of a 911 call. It was decided to name the street after Robert Calvin Parks and Thomas Jefferson Parks, both of whom served under Col. Stand Watie at the Battle of Pea Ridge.
• Patton Street -- Heads west from N. Curtis Avenue at Colliers' Drug and Bill 'n Dubs Furniture. It's part of the "old highway." The 1959 street-naming committee told me that it honored a young man who hid on a mountaintop and saw the battle, then joined on the Confederate side. The Patton family lived on the battlefield, between Big Mountain (now known as Elkhorn Mountain) and Little Mountain (Round Top) about two miles west of Elkhorn Tavern. Two of the Patton sons were in the battle, according to a descendant of one of them, Dr. James S. Garrett of Holden, Mo. He said they were Thomas William Patton, who commanded a company, and James Monroe Patton, who was Dr. Garrett's great-grandfather. It was his belief that Patton Street was named for T.W. Patton, his great-uncle.
• Pickens Road -- Runs east-west all the way through town, passing the downtown business section and school campus and becoming a county road at both the east and the west later. Here, again, two brothers, Cyrus L. Pickens and Robert A. Pickens, of the 34th Arkansas Infantry and the 15th Arkansas Infantry, respectively, lived on that road after the war. Cyrus L. was the judge for Pea Ridge for 31 years, and Robert A., at one time, was Benton County sheriff. Both were among the 100 original shareholders, who made possible the founding of the Bank of Pea Ridge in 1911.
• Pike Street -- A two-block-long one at the north end of Curtis Avenue, dead-end at the west and running into Clark Street behind the school campus at the east. It honors Brig. Gen. Albert J. Pike. General Pike led the Indian Brigade at the Battle of Pea Ridge. He was a colorful Arkansas teacher, poet, editor and a lawyer.
• Price Street -- Three blocks long, it goes from North Curtis Avenue to Carr Street and honors Major Gen. Sterling Price. Gen. Price is reported and documented to have been hit when a bullet went through his right arm below the elbow and hit him in the side, causing a contusion. This took place early on March 7, on the first day's fighting around Elkhorn Tavern. The general did not get off of his horse, staying put but having an aide bandage his arm with handkerchiefs. In fact, there he sits on his horse during the fighting on March 8 and again as the retreat is about to begin. These can be seen in paintings of the battle by Hunt P. Wilson, who was there. Price is seen with his right arm bandaged and him handling his horse with the left arm.
• Rains Street -- A one-block long street between South Curtis Avenue and South Davis Street. It is the second street south of Lee Town Road. Honors Brig. Gen. James S. Rains of the 8th Division Missouri State Guard.
• Sims Lane -- East off North Weston near West Pickens Road. It was named for Col. W.B. Sims, who led the 9th Texas Cavalry for the Confederacy.
• Slack Street is Arkansas Hwy. 72 West -- Heads west from Curtis Avenue. It honors the third general killed at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Brig. Gen. William Y. Slack, who led the 2nd Missouri Brigade. Gen. Slack had been seriously wounded the August before the Battle of Pea Ridge when he fought at the Battle of Wilson's Creek near Springfield. He had not completely recovered at the battle here. At Pea Ridge, a bullet struck him in the abdomen only inches from his earlier wound. Mortally wounded, he was carried to a field hospital at the tanyard and later moved to a farmhouse on Rollers Ridge near the present site of Gateway. There he died March 20, 1862, several days after the battle. He was buried in that area, but in 1880, his body was re-interred in the Confederate Cemetery at Fayetteville. His widow brought their two sons for the service. One son had only been six months old when his father had been killed, but was 18 years old when he came for the reburial at Fayetteville. There are two monuments on the Pea Ridge National Military Park, not including grave markers in Ford Cemetery. One of the two monuments bears the names of the generals killed at Pea Ridge: Mc-Culloch, McIntosh and Slack. Pea Ridge has a street that honors each of them.
• Stone Street -- Turns east off of North Curtis Avenue opposite the street named Patton, goes one block passing the Church of Christ as it heads to North Davis Street. Honors J.A. Stone, Co. K, 4th Arkansas.
Editorial on 04/10/2019