Welcome
to the
Desha County
Genealogical Website
My name is
Anita Montgomery, and I am the coordinator for the Desha County, Arkansas
website. Mr. Louis Reitzammer recently
retired as coordinator at the ripe young age of 91. An immense thank you to Mr. Reitzammer for his support and
patience during the transition. Please
bear with me as I learn and as we transition the website.
A
Missouri-Pacific passenger train makes its way out of Snow Lake in northern
Desha County during the 1927 flood that devastated the county. It was the last train out of Snow Lake.
A Short History of Desha County
January
1839 saw the formation of a new county along the Mississippi River in Southeast
Arkansas. It was named “in honor of the
late Colonel Ben Desha” (pronounced “De-Shay”). The 1840 U.S. Census reported a population of 2794, 1598 of whom
were slaves.
From
1861 on, through a series of boundary changes,
Desha County lost most of its western uplands to neighboring counties,
but gained in 1879 a large slice of northern Chicot County. This acquisition includes what are now the
towns and communities of McArthur, Arkansas City, Masonville, Halley, Trippe
Junction, part of Tillar, Reed and McGehee.
Desha County now consists of approximately 805 square miles of rich
delta land with bountiful fish and game.
Belleville,
later Red Fork, was Desha’s first permanent county seat. In 1843, the seat was moved to Napolean, then
to Watson in 1874, and finally to Arkansas City in 1881 where it remains today.
|
Cemetery Listings (under
construction)
|
||
|
1840 Census |
||
|
|
Surrounding
Counties