Editing Lincoln, Arkansas (section)

=== Establishment ===
The area around Lincoln first saw white settlement in the late 1820s. It was first known as '''Blackjack''' after the [[blackjack oak]]s used to build the first schoolhouse. Joseph Carter built the first store in the area in 1874, still known as Blackjack. A nearby community on Beaty Mountain known as '''Mt. Hayes''' was settled in 1877. [[Starr Hill Township, Arkansas|Starr Hill Township]] was also organized in the area during this period. The settlements drifted together and continued to grow until applying for a post office in 1884 within Carter's store under the name '''Georgetown'''.<ref name="Higginson">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5uwxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA320 | title=History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas | publisher=Higginson Book Company | year=1889 | page=320}}</ref> The name was rejected; the postal service not wanting to duplicate [[Georgetown, Arkansas|Georgetown]] in [[White County, Arkansas]] (or [[Georgetown, Madison County, Arkansas]]). Carter submitted Lincoln as the new name. He said he chose the name seemingly at random, having "seen it on a box", but others were skeptical that Carter had wanted to name the community for [[Abraham Lincoln]] all along, as he was a "[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[carpetbagger|from the North]]". Local acceptance for the name Lincoln was slow during the [[Reconstruction era]] following the bitter [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>{{ cite book |title= History of Washington County, Arkansas |author= Shiloh Museum of Ozark History |author-link= Shiloh Museum of Ozark History |location= Springdale, Arkansas |publisher=Shiloh Museum of Ozark History |year=1989 |pages=253, 260–261 |oclc=22705892 }}</ref>

The settlement remained unincorporated until the [[St. Louis–San Francisco Railway]] (commonly called the Frisco) planned a branch line (the [[Ozark and Cherokee Central Railway]] [O&CC]) between Fayetteville and Oklahoma. The [[Right-of-way (property access)|right-of-way]] acquisition process brought a railroad agent through town, and he platted a town on {{convert|22|acre|ha}} south of the proposed railroad in 1903, but modified the plat in 1907. Following this plat, the city of Lincoln was incorporated on November 23, 1907.<ref>{{ Cite encyclopedia |title= Lincoln (Washington County) |url= https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/lincoln-washington-county-1008/ |first1=Boyce R |last1=Davis |author2= Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas |date=June 19, 2018 |encyclopedia= [[Encyclopedia of Arkansas]] |publisher= [[Butler Center for Arkansas Studies]] at the [[Central Arkansas Library System]] |location= Little Rock, Arkansas |oclc=68194233 |access-date= May 10, 2020 }}</ref>