Editing Fargo, Arkansas (section)

==History==
Main lines and branches of railroads were being built across Arkansas in the late 1880s. By 1898, two of them—the [[St. Louis Southwestern Railway]] running roughly north–south, and the [[Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad]] (M&NA) running roughly east–west—crossed. A post office with the name Fargo was established at the crossing, but it was not yet a town. In 1911, the two railways built a depot in Fargo.<ref name="CALS-Fargo">{{cite web |title=Fargo (Monroe County) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/fargo-monroe-county-6193/ |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |publisher=Central Arkansas Library System |access-date=March 18, 2024}}</ref>

At least 33 settlements formed along the railroad as the M&NA was built, including Fargo, where Leroy Mahon owned the farmland at the railroad crossing.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Handley |first1=Lawrence R. |title=Settlement across Northern Arkansas as Influenced by the Missouri & North Arkansas Railroad |journal=The Arkansas Historical Quarterly |date=1974 |volume=33 |issue=4 (Winter) |pages=273–292 |doi=10.2307/40023291|jstor=40023291 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Fargo Plat |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/media/fargo-plat-14452/ |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |publisher=Central Arkansas Library System |access-date=March 18, 2024}}</ref>

===Development as a "freedmen's town"===

Leroy Mahon platted the land and created a settlement for Black families. In doing so, he created a [[freedmen's town]].

Leroy ("Lee") Washington Mahon was born into slavery as Leroy Stenhouse in 1861 in [[Greenville County, South Carolina]]. The surname Stenhouse was the same as their slaveowners. When freed, his parents and their children worked as [[sharecropping|sharecroppers]]. In 1888, Leroy and his brother Tom moved to Monroe County, Arkansas for better opportunities.<ref>{{cite book |title=Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves, Volume 2, Part 6 |publisher=U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (1936-1938) |location=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/11709/11709-h/11709-h.htm#StanhouseTom |access-date=March 18, 2024}}</ref> In about 1900, Leroy changed his surname to Mahon, and in 1911 he platted the town on {{convert|40|acre|ha|abbr=off}} of his farmland and Black homeowners bought plots and built homes.<ref>{{cite web |title=Sasheer Zamata's Great-Grandfather Founded the Town of Fargo |url=https://www.pbs.org/video/ancestors-founded-town-fargo-b0mu1h/ |website=Finding Your Roots |publisher=Public Broadcasting System (PBS) |access-date=March 18, 2024 |format=excerpt}}</ref>

The first established church in Fargo was called First Baptist and Bethel Presbyterian.

In 1920, Floyd B. Brown established the [[Fargo Training School|Fargo Agricultural School]], which brought students from across the state and had some financial supporters even outside Arkansas. The school focused on outreach and community service in Fargo, gravelling the mud roads, bringing electricity and telephone service to the town, and holding an annual farmers' conference that brought hundreds of farmers to the area to share information and knowledge.<ref name="Hill">{{cite AV media |people= Hill, Jack (Producer) |date= 1994 |title=Reporting for Arkansas: Work Will Win |url=https://vimeo.com/708267721 |access-date=March 16, 2024 |archive-url= |archive-date= |format= |time= |location= |publisher=Arkansas Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and Special Collections at University of Arkansas Libraries }}</ref>