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A Brief History of Dell by Mrs. Otto Bradberry
"Mrs. Otto
Bradberry of the Lost Cane Community in North Mississippi County
gave this brief history of Dell, Arkansas, during the years of 1902-1911,
to her daughter, Mrs. Olive Bradberry Ritter, who wanted to keep the information
for her children and her brother's children and to share it with the Mississippi
County Historical Society:
Mrs. Bradberry
moved to Dell from Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, in the spring of 1903, when
she was 11 years old. Previously the town was called Rozelle. When the
citizens there learned that there was another town in the state named Rozelle,
they changed the name to Dell. She does not know why they gave it that
name.
In 1902 a
new railroad had been built that ran through Dell. It was called the Jonesboro,
Lake City and Eastern. It made a round trip from Jonesboro to Blytheville
each day. The initials, J. L. C. & E., helped the amateur poets to
come up with some rhymes such as:
" J. L. C &
C., Pay for you riding, and get your rocking free." The road had been built
hurriedly and the riding was quite rough.
The streets
were mud, filled with stumps and logs, that spring. The depot was a box
car.
There was
one store in which the post office was housed. The store owner, J. D. Richardson,
was also the postmaster. The post office had been located near the bayou,
which runs just north of town, until the trains started running.
There was
no church; there was one at Ekron, just a few miles north. The first church,
which was built later, was a Methodist church.
Since it was
a lumber town and surrounded by virgin timber, except for about 10 or 12
cleared places that were used as farm land, there were several men who
came to work for short periods of time, working at timber cutting, sawmills,
stave mills and other lumber jobs. There was a hotel which housed these
people. It was a wooden, box, two-story building, with about 40 rooms.
As in all
frontier towns, there was a saloon.
Teachers during
the early part of the century were J. D. Swift, John Shearer, Tom Stubbs,
and Mrs. Della Angleton. It was a one-room school for grades one throught
eight.
The hotel
which had outdoor plumbing and a pump in the kitchen, was operated by John
and Martha Riggs and daughter Lou, who had moved there from Illinois.
Early farmers
were Augustus Koehler, Mr. Peterson, John, Sam, and Hugh Perry, John, Dick
and Clay Lott, Ben Sizemore, George Ray, Joe Nanny, George Nanny, Seth
Southwood, and Sam, Don and Will Hector. Dell is located in Hector
township, named for this family.
One man was
shot and killed on Main Street in 1911. A few years later a man was murdereed
on Main Street in front of the saloon.
The town,
except for the few farms, was surrounded by heavy forests where there were
wolves, bobcats, bears and many kind of small animals, such as squirrels,
mink, oposums, coons and rabbits. Wolves howled at night and could be heard
in Dell, even as late as 1915.
There were
two Indian mounds north of town on the J. F. Mooney farm. No potter or
skeletons were ever found in them. One of them was used as a cemetery by
the early settlers, because the land was often flooded before the levees
were built. The cemetery is still preserved."
from:
Dell Town Hall 2001
Dear friends,
I'm very glad to report that all is well in our small rural Arkansas Town.
The new millennium has proven to be good for us bringing industrial growth
and possible opportunities for expansion for the future.
The Town of Dell, Arkansas, population 251, is located in the extreme northeast
corner of the state in the northern Mississippi River Delta. More
specifically, it is located about halfway between Blytheville and Manila
on State Highway 18. It almost rests on the banks of the Big Lake Wildlife
refuge.
Our area and community boasts some of the richest farmland in the world.
Crops include cotton, soybeans, rice, milo and corn. Cotton is the largest
crop. Dell's economy is mainly agriculture related. Two cotton gins border
the Town on the east and west with a cotton warehouse located within the
Town limits. Other businesses located within Dell are Kenny's Carpet Store
(located in the old Taylor Freeman store building), Brownlee's Grocery
and Home Oil Company. The town also has a private school, Mississippi County
Christian Academy.
The Town and surrounding area economy will receive a giant boost soon.
TECO Power Services of Tampa, Florida is presently constructing a 300-400
million dollar power plant to be completed in 2003. The jobs for the local
residents as well as tax revenue from the plant should allow for a much
improved quality of living for our citizens. Myself, and the Town Council
negotiated this project for about two years. We are talking with other
possible industries and hopefully other good news will follow in the future.
Kenneth
Jackson
Mayor