Editing Russellville, Arkansas (section)

===Settlement===
Before the town was named Russellville, its vicinity was known as Chactas Prairie, The Prairie, or Cactus Flats.<ref>{{cite book |last1=West |first1=D. Porter |title=D. Porter West's Early history of Pope county; a story |date=1906 |location=Pope County, Arkansas |page=9 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/41036286/ |access-date=December 30, 2022 |quote=The situation is most beautiful, being a small prairie, dotted all over with nice little groves of trees.}}</ref> Located on the southern edge of the [[Ozark Mountains]] and north of the Arkansas River, this setting was an ideal settlement area.<ref>{{cite web |title=Russellville Downtown Historic District |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/795d2530-138b-450a-8ac7-7a00eaa303a5/ |website=National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=February 16, 2023 |quote=This property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places in accordance with the attached nomination documentation...}}</ref>

Throughout the 18th century into the early 19th century, seasonal movements of the seminomadic [[Osage Nation|Osage Indians]] from western [[Missouri]] brought them annually into Arkansas,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sabo III |first1=George |title=The Osage Indians |url=http://archeology.uark.edu/indiansofarkansas/index.html?pageName=The%20Osage%20Indians |website=Indians of Arkansas |publisher=Arkansas Archeological Survey |access-date=February 10, 2024 |location=University of Arkansas Little Rock}}</ref> including the valley where Russellville is now located. Between [[Cherokee history#Removal era|1815]] and 1828, the area was within a [[Cherokee]] reservation. Under a new treaty concluded on May 6, 1828,<ref>{{cite web |title=Treaty with the Western Cherokee, 1828 |url=https://treaties.okstate.edu/treaties/treaty-with-the-western-cherokee-1828-0288 |website=Tribal Treaties Database |publisher=Oklahoma State University |access-date=February 10, 2024 |location=Stillwater, Oklahoma}}</ref> the western boundary of Arkansas was established, with seven million acres west of Arkansas in [[Indian Territory]] (present-day [[Oklahoma]]) provided to the Cherokees "forever." The Cherokees agreed to leave the Arkansas lands within 14 months.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Littlefield |first1=Danel F. |last2=Underhill |first2=Lonnie E. |title=The Cherokee Agency Reserve, 1828-1886 |journal=The Arkansas Historical Quarterly |date=Summer 1972 |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=167–168 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40022264 |access-date=February 18, 2023 |publisher=Arkansas Historical Association |location=Fayetteville, Little Rock |doi=10.2307/40022264 |jstor=40022264 |quote=The Indians left behind them many well-cultivated farms and substantial dwellings. White settlers moved onto the land and occupied the improvements. Many even purchased the land and improvements from the departing Cherokees, who, of course, had no right to sell them.}}</ref>

The first house in what is now Russellville, a one-and-a-half-story hand-hewn log house, was built by J.C. Holledger in 1834 and purchased the next year by Dr. Thomas Russell.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Walter L. |title=Dr. Thomas Russell: Founder of Russellville |journal=The Arkansas Historical Quarterly |date=Winter 1961 |volume=20 |issue=4 |page=389 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/40030659 |access-date=February 16, 2023 |location=Fayetteville, Little Rock |doi=10.2307/40030659 |jstor=40030659 |quote=According to May Russell, the doctor bought the first house on the present site of Russellville. This was a one-and-a-half-story hand-hewn loghouse that stood until 1898 on what is now the corner of Main and Houston Streets. The house was built in 1834 by J. C. Holledger.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Thomas Russell, M. D. |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84023017/1885-06-18/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1885&index=0&date2=1885&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Russell+Thomas&proxdistance=5&state=Arkansas&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=Thomas+Russell&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1 |access-date=February 16, 2023 |work=The Russellville Democrat |issue=22 - 12th Year |publisher=B. F. Jobe |date=June 18, 1885 |location=Russellville, Arkansas |page=3 |quote=In search of a new home and a milder climate, he came to Arkansas, and located in the Arkansas River Valley, A. D. 1835, one year prior to the admission of the State into the Union.}}</ref> One of the first businesses to be established in the town was a store opened in the 1840s by brothers James Madison and Benjamin "B.D.R." Shinn. In 1852, with a cash capital of $500, Benjamin's son, [[Jacob L. Shinn|Jacob Shinn]] established one of the first general stores—just down the road from the log home of Thomas Russell—in an 18&nbsp;ft by 24&nbsp;ft building.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Speer |editor1-first=William S. |editor2-last=Brown |editor2-first=Hon. John Henry |title=The Encyclopedia of the New West |date=1881 |publisher=The United States Biographical Publishing Company |location=Marshall, Texas |pages=155–156 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JjlEy4Bq3dMC |access-date=June 24, 2023}}</ref>  Shinn replaced the wood structure store with a [[masonry]] structure, a building completed in 1876 and which, still standing today, is known as the Shinn Building.<ref>{{cite news |title=Our Home Patrons - J. L. Shinn |work=Russellville Democrat |date=December 7, 1876 |location=Russellville Arkansas |page=2 |quote=This building stands over the identical spot where Mr. S. sold his first dollars worth of goods and was finished only last May.}}</ref> It was built at the junction of an east–west road from [[Lewisburg, Arkansas|Lewisburg]] to [[Clarksville, Arkansas|Clarksville]] and a north–south road between [[Dover, Arkansas|Dover]] and the military road crossing at [[Norristown, Arkansas|Norristown]] on the Arkansas River.<ref>{{cite map |author =D. F. Shall |title =Colton's Railroad & Township Map of Arkansas |year =1854 |publisher =J. H. Colton & Co.}}</ref> The intersection is now West Main Street and Denver Avenue (formerly River Street). Before the construction of the masonry building, the existing store was moved to the back of Shinn's property and, during construction, continued in operation.

====Antebellum period====
According to tradition, in the 1840s, the choice of a name for the community of five homes and a store was between Russellville—for Thomas Russell, who had the first home in the area and was a doctor—and Shinnville—for [[Jacob L. Shinn]] who established the community's first store.<ref>{{cite web |title=Russellville Downtown Historic District |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/795d2530-138b-450a-8ac7-7a00eaa303a5/ |website=National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=February 16, 2023 |quote=It is said that at a town picnic on July 4, 1847, it was decided that the new settlement which consisted of a general store and five houses should be given a name. They determined the name should be either Russellville, after Dr. Thomas Russell, largely because he had the first home with brick chimneys and was a doctor, or Shinnville, after Jacob L. Shinn, who established the first general store in the settlement. The results of the election to name the town were seven votes for Russellville and only five for Shinnville.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=West |first1=D. Porter |title=D. Porter West's Early history of Pope county; a story |date=1906 |location=Pope County, Arkansas |page=9 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/41036286/ |access-date=December 30, 2022 |quote=At the close of the war Mr. Jake Shinn returned home in 1847. He had saved his wages and opened up a small store; pointing west opposite to Mr. Hugh Wells. Shortly afterwards a number of neighbors from the settlement of the prairie casually met, and the question of a name for the town arose and the subject was discussed pro and con. Mr. Shinn’s friends claimed the name upon the ground of his having the first store, Mr. Russell’s for occupying the first house. The vote was taken and the result was the town was named Russellville.}}</ref> However, Russellville was actually named about 1842 when Jacob was a teen.<ref>{{cite news |title=Thomas Russell, M. D. |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84023017/1885-06-18/ed-1/seq-3/ |access-date=March 2, 2023 |work=The Russellville Democrat |issue=22, 12th year |publisher=The Democrat Printing Company |date=June 18, 1885 |location=Russellville, Arkansas |page=3 |quote=About the year 1842, when but a small hamlet, this place was named, by a majority vote of its citizens, Russellville, in honor of Doctor Thomas Russell, who was at the time one of the principal landowners, and a prominent citizen. }}</ref> Russellville is listed on mail routes in requests for proposals for carrying the mail in 1842,<ref name="U. S. Mail Proposals">{{cite news |title=U. S. Mail Proposals |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/131010528 |access-date=February 25, 2023 |work=Arkansas State Gazette |issue=15 Vol. XXIII |publisher=William E. Woodruff |date=March 23, 1842 |location=Little Rock, Arkansas |page=1 |quote=Leave Washington every Saturday at 6 a. m., arrive at Russellville every Monday by 6 p.m.... Leave Russellville every Tuesday at 6 a.m., arrive at Washington every Thursday by 6 p.m.}}</ref> when Shinn was 15, and in 1846, when he was 19,<ref>{{cite news |title=Proposals for carrying the mails of the United States |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/287730127 |access-date=February 25, 2023 |work=Arkansas True Democrat |issue=22, Vol III |publisher=A. H. Rutherford |date=February 11, 1846 |location=Little Rock, Arkansas |page=3 |quote=Leave Camden every other Friday at 6 a. m., arrive at Russellville next Sunday by 6 p.m.... Leave Russellville every other Monday at 6 a.m., arrive at Washington next Wednesday by 6 p.m.}}</ref> so naming the community after Jacob would have been quite unlikely. However, in the 1840s, his uncle, James Madison Shinn, and father, B. D. R. Shinn, operated a store in the small frontier community, so any truth in the naming tradition may apply to them.<ref name="New West">{{cite book |editor1-last=Speer |editor1-first=William S. |editor2-last=Brown |editor2-first=Hon. John Henry |title=The Encyclopedia of the New West |date=1881 |publisher=The United States Biographical Publishing Company |location=Marshall, Texas |pages=155–156 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JjlEy4Bq3dMC |access-date=March 16, 2023}} Note: The Shinn's youngest son, Charles W., was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in June 1864.</ref>

A post office was established as early as the early 1840s based on request for mail route proposals and certainly by 1854.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Baldwin |first1=Thomas |last2=Thomas |first2=J (MD) |title=A New and Complete Gazeter of the United States |date=1854 |publisher=Lippincott, Grambo & Co. |location=Philadelphia |page=1013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_5s6AAAAcAAJ&dq=russellville+arkansas+%22post+office%22&pg=PA1013 |access-date=February 18, 2023}}</ref>