The Ridge House was built about 1836 and is the oldest known building still standing in Fayetteville. Sarah Bird Northrup Ridge, widow of John Ridge, a Cherokee leader who was slain during intertribal conflict, purchased the house in 1840 and moved her family out of the Indian Territory to Fayetteville. Sarah Ridge helped organize the … More Ridge House
Ann James, a teacher at the Fayetteville Female Seminary, left that position to start a female seminary in the Mount Comfort community in 1848, complementing the male Ozark Institute that had been operating since 1845. James was born in London, England, the daughter of missionary parents. She came to America in the mid-1840s, joining family … More Mount Comfort Female Seminary
When gold was discovered in California in 1849, a wagon train from Fayetteville went west through the Cherokee Nation, adding Cherokee travelers to their number and continuing across southern Kansas, following the Arkansas River and crossing the Santa Fe Trail before joining north-south trails along the front range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The … More Cherokee Trail
The two letters below were sent by Matilda Tebbetts, nee Winlock (1830-1892) to her sister, Louisa Ann Winlock Durrett (1822-1874), in 1846 and 1847. The first was written while both Matilda and Louisa were still single. Matilda was attending the Fayetteville Female Seminary at the time. Prior to moving to Fayetteville for schooling, though, she … More Two Letters from Matilda Winlock Tebbetts
A meeting of citizens was assembled at the Washington County Courthouse on the Fayetteville Square on April 5, 1847, to consider a resolution regarding recent action in the Mexican War. Major E.D. Dickson chaired the meeting, and James H. Stirman served as secretary. W.S. Oldham, Dr. Thomas J. Pollard, W.L. Wilson, Alf M. Wilson, James … More Resolution Honoring Archibald Yell
Prior to the establishment of National Cemetery at the southern end of present-day Lt. Col. Leroy Pond Avenue, the hillock upon which it sits was originally known as Gallows Hill. View Gallows Hill in a larger map The hilltop had a hanging gallows from at least the 1840s to the Civil War. The first people … More Gallows Hill
[This was the first incorporation of Fayetteville. The city was reincorporated in 1859 and then again after the Civil War under the state's new constitution.] January Term. AD 1841 Be it remembered that on this day two thirds of the taxable inhabitants of the town of Fayetteville presented their petition to this court praying that … More Court Order for Incorporation of Fayetteville
During the 1840s, Fayetteville was incorporated, the city’s first newspaper was published and a wool-carding factory was opened. … More Timeline — 1840s