1940 - Independence County Courthouse - Batesville, Ar. - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

Independence County was the ninth county to be formed in Arkansas and was the fourth after the Arkansas territory was created. The Act creating the county passed by the Territorial legislature was signed by James Miller, governor of the Arkansas territory, on October 23, 1820. As originally formed, the county included a large area of land extending from the mouth of Little Red River to the Missouri line and included all or parts of Fulton, Baxter, Sharp, Izard, Stone, Cleburne, Van Buren, White, Jackson and Woodruff Counties. The first courthouse was built at Batesville and the county seat has remained in the town of Batesville.

The first post office at Batesville was opened as Poke Creek November 7, 1820, with Charles Kelly, the county’s first sheriff, as postmaster. The name of the office was officially changed to Batesville on January 7, 1824.

An early Arkansas settlement was established at the Batesville site. There is a record of a John Read opening a store there in 1812 and there is also an authentic record of John Luttig’s store, which had a $5,500 stock of goods at the site in 1815. Poke Bayou was visited by the writer Henry R. Schoolcraft, who described the Arkansas settlement as a village of a dozen houses in 1819.

The county grew steadily in its first forty years of existence and in 1860 had reached a population of 14,307, although the land area had been substantially reduced. Independence County was fourth in population among the state’s counties in 1860.

The county has furnished three Arkansas governors, Thomas S. Drew, Elisha Baxter and William R. Miller.