Editing White County, Arkansas (section)

==History==
The first Americans that are believed to have settled in White County were John and Nancy Magness. They started in Tennessee and came to White County around 1815 and set up a farm in what is now [[Letona, Arkansas|Letona]]. White County was established by act of the [[Arkansas Territorial Legislature|Arkansas territorial legislature]] on October 23, 1835, by combining parts of [[Independence County, Arkansas|Independence]], [[Jackson County, Arkansas|Jackson]], and [[Pulaski County, Arkansas|Pulaski]] counties.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Akridge |first=Scott |title=White County |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/white-county-814/ |url-status=live |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |publisher=Central Arkansas Library Systems |language=en-US}}</ref>

On May 17, 1862, White County was the site of the Little Red Skirmish between Union Major General Samuel J Curtis and a force of about 100 loosely-organized Confederates, followed by the [[Battle of Whitney's Lane|battle at Whitney Lane]] in June.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=6647 |title=Skirmish at Little Red River (May 17, 1862) |publisher=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |date=September 13, 2011 |access-date=November 30, 2018}}</ref> also known as The Skirmish at Searcy Landing.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2794 |title=Action at Whitney's Lane |publisher=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |access-date=November 30, 2018}}</ref>

In 1876, a religious cult called the Cobbites existed for a short period south of Searcy. Named after the group's leader, Reverend Cobb, bizarre behavior by members of the cult led to attention from local citizens, but after the murder of a man from Searcy, a mob attacked the group. Several Cobbites were killed and others arrested. Little is known about Reverend Cobb, not even his full name, other than that he came from Tennessee to White County in 1876. To his followers, he claimed to be God or Jesus Christ. He apparently believed he could perform the works of God, and he used a sycamore pole to command the [[sun]] to rise each morning and did the same each evening to command it to set.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Watkins |first=Shelby |title=Cobbites |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Cobbites-5504/ |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>

During the 1960s, the U.S. Department of Defense constructed several Titan II missile silos in the county in the early 1960s. An accident at one site in 1965 killed fifty-three workers when a welder hit a hydraulic line with their welding rod, causing a fire that removed the oxygen and suffocated most of the workers in the facility.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Titan II Missile Accident (1965) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/Titan-II-Missile-Accident-9001/ |access-date=2025-01-03 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>