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Goodspeed’s 1891 Biographical Memoirs

be erected on the southwest corner of the square, in the town of Hamburg. During the April term, 1853, the commissioners were instructed to let the contract for the building of a county court house, on Monday, May 30, 1850, said building not to cost exceeding $5,000.

In January, 1854, the first payment is recorded as made to the contractors, and the building was completed in September of the same year, as at the October term of court following Samuel F. Maines was released from all responsibility attached to his office as commissioner. In 1869 the court house was burned and the construction of the present one almost immediately begun. It is a substantial brick structure, having the clerk's and sheriff's offices and jury rooms down stairs, and the court-room in the second story. About the same time, a new jail was built. It also is of brick, and two stories high.

It will be of interest to refer to those individuals who have been called upon to serve the people of Ashley County in the various capacities mentioned. Some of them indeed many, held office two or more terms.

Judges- W.E. Willis, A.J. Hays, H. Bryant, M.M. Fleming, T.T. Harris, W.S. Lawson, J.P. Wammack,* W.T. Duckworth, James L. Pugh, W.G. Rolfe, W.S. Lawson, T.J. Wells, J.C. Downey,

Clerks- G.W. Worthington, J.B. Savage, R. F. Holmes, A.W. Files, J.J. Curry, +, W.J. White, F.L. Thompson, Z.P. Stell++.

Sheriffs- W.M Ducker, James Norris, B. Tiner, B.C. Gibbs*, J.P. Harbinson, M.H. Dean, T.D. Norris, Thomas S. Stilwell, J.P. Clark.

Treasurers- J.N. Thompson, Amos Waddle, W.F. Conner, L. Denson, W.H. Scott, John Goodwin, J.W. Everett, P.T. Harbinson, W.B. Stell, W.T. Evans, J.J. Jenkins, J.H. White, R.B. Sawyer, J.B. Bunn**.

Coroners- John Hinkson, Abner Files, ++, T.P. Ailes, A.J. Shockley, Benjamin Tiner, C.P. Cobbert, H.C. White, J.S. Barnes, J.F. Ramsour, W./P. Fisher, H.W. Wade, T.A. Hanbey, A. Oster, John Hill, Jesse Hill, William Smith, W.B. Rolfe, J.S. Hall.

Surveyors- D.D. Sims, C. Allen, William E. Willis, William Hughes, F. Tatum, W.T. Duckworth, Robert Daniels, R.D. Harang, William Hughes, J.H. Callaway, William Hughes, J.B. Jackson.

Assessors-J.H. White, W.W. Cochran, W.H. Allen, J.W. Taylor, D.F. Dunn, R.F. Tucker, M. Muchian, B.M. Watson, W. F. Chiles.

The representatives from this county were: Thomas B. Savage, in the Ninth Legislature; in the Tenth, John R. Allen: Eleventh, John Hill; Twelfth, not given; Thirteenth, Robert Tucker; Fourteenth, Robert Tucker, Fifteenth, not give; Confederate Legislature, held at Washington, Ark., from September 22 to October 2, 1864, Robert tucker; Sixteenth, J.H. Johnston; Seventeenth, Ashley was in Twenty-second District, containing Ashley, Chicot, Drew and Desha Counties, represented by N.M Newell, C.F. Simms, R.S. Curry, D.S. Wells, and Z.H. Manns, Eighteenth, same counties, represented by A.J. Robinson, C.W. Preddy, H. Marr, E.A. Fulton, J.W. Harris and John Webb; Nineteenth, District represented by S.W. McLeod, John C. Rollins, Z.J. Pindall, O.F. Parish, J.T.W. Tillar and J.E. Joslin; extra session convened by Gov. Elisha Baxter, May 11, 1874, and held until May 28, 1874, the district represented by J.T.W. Tillar, L.L. Johnston, A.W. Files and X.J. Pindall; Twentieth, Ashley County represented by J.D. Bragg; Twenty-first, Hogan Allen; Twenty-second, E.L. Lowe; Twenty-third, A.W. Files, Twenty-fourth, W.G. Rolfe; Twenty-fifth, Hogan Allen, Twenty-sixth, Hogan Allen, who is present incumbent.

The first settlement in Ashley County, of which there is now any trace, was made by the French, at Long View, on the Saline River, this being near the highway cnnecting Arkansas Post and Monroe, in Louisiana. Of this settlement there were two families, Fogle and Buleet- who claimed to have located there in 1769 or 1770. Some years later came Acan, and these, with their grown up children, constituted for perhaps three-quarters of a century the white people of the present Ashley County.

In 1842, Isaac and Thomas Denson located at Fountain Hill, coming from Mississippi. They were men well suited for the niche they fill in the pioneer history of the county of their adoption. They were in turn followed by others, who were lured, either by exaggerated tales always told of a new territory, or led by the roving propensities that pushed so many daring spirits into the