Editing Bradley County, Arkansas (section)

===1824-1940===
During the war of 1812, Captain Hugh Bradley had frequent conversations with Spaniards who had explored the Red River country. The Spaniards told of the richness and wildness of that area.

About 1817, Captain Hugh Bradley, Ike Pennington, James Turner, Charles H. Ceay, and James Beard with their families moved using keelboats on the Cumberland River. They went west of Prairie D'Ane along the Red River near Shreveport, Louisiana. But the floods of the Red River caused diseases and fevers to the point of discouraging the inhabitants.

Around the year 1824, Ike Pennington started a settlement two miles north of where Warren now stands.

Captain Hugh Bradley moved to what was then Clark County in 1825. By 1826 they had all settled permanently near Pennington and had begun their permanent residences.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/about/|title = Bradley And Cleveland County: Memories Of An Early Settler, Cleveland County Herald, Thursday, September 14, 1899, Page 2, Arkansas Family Historian |author= Rufus Buie |date= 1899}}</ref>

In early years, there was settlement known as the Saline Settlement and as the Pennington Settlement. Later it was named Cabeens. Postal service in the area was first established in 1832 at Cabeens, which may have been named after J.T. Cabeen, an early surveyor.<ref name="encyclopediaofarkansas.net">{{Cite web|url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/bradley-county-750/|title = Encyclopedia of Arkansas}}</ref>

Dr. John Thomas Cabeen served as postmaster from 1832 until 1843. John Harvie Marks donated thirty acres, and John Splawn donated ten acres of land for the town site. The first circuit court met on April 26, 1841, at Hugh Bradley's house. The name of Cabeens was changed to Warren in 1843. In 1850, the town of Warren was incorporated.

In 1840, a new county was created out of Union County, and named for Hugh Bradley.<ref name="encyclopediaofarkansas.net"/>

Some settlers from Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee arrived in the 1840s and 1850s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tinsman (Calhoun County) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/tinsman-calhoun-county-7268/ |access-date=2024-12-06 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>

Around 1849, Wiley and Louisa Powell moved to Bradley County, taking the title to the land that is now Hermitage. The following year. Louisa's parents, James and Susan Thompson, joined the Powells that year, as did Robert Pulley (who was pastor of Holly Springs Baptist Church) and the Jarrett family. Jefferson Singer, who had lived in Bradley County since 1840, acquired the Powell Farm at a later date. A post office for Hermitage was established in 1854. The name of the town was to honor President Andrew Jackson, whose home in Nashville, Tennessee was called The Hermitage.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hermitage (Bradley County) |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/hermitage-bradley-county-6131/ |access-date=2024-12-06 |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |language=en-US}}</ref>

The Bradley Lumber Company began logging the virgin hardwoods before 1901. In 1901, the Warren, Johnsville, and Saline River (WJ & SR) railroads began operations. It was owned by the Bradley Lumber Company. The railroad operated 15 miles of rails. It connected Warren with Hermitage and there was a connection with the Rock Island. There was a connection with the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway.

The Warren, Johnsville, and Saline River (WJ & SR) railroads brought the logs to the Warren plant. Finished products were shipped to Rock Island and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway. In 1920, it was renamed the Warren & Saline River Railroad (W&SRR).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.american-rails.com/ark.html|title = Arkansas Logging Railroads: History, List, Background}}</ref><ref name="srs.fs.fed.us">https://www.srs.fs.fed.us/pubs/ja/ja_darling001.pdf The Early Mills, Railroads, and Logging Camps of the Crossett Lumber Company | O. H. "DOOGIE" DARLING AND DON C. BRAGG</ref> The [[Warren & Ouachita Valley Railway]] was jointly owned by the Arkansas Lumber Company and the Southern Lumber Company. It began operations around 1901 connecting Banks with Warren.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Logging Railroads Of Arkansas: Geared Steam In The Ozarks |url=https://www.american-rails.com/ark.html |access-date=2024-12-06 |website=American-Rails.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>https://www.american-rails.com/images/rock-island-map.jpg The Rock Island, map 1938</ref>

Parts of former railroads of the lumber companies were changed to company roads for trucking logging to mills in Warren. Those company roads were straight, level, and with long radius curves because the railroads were built straight, level, and with long radius curves. Many company roads because county roads. Temporary spur rail lines were built to remove some of the virgin timber. The rails and crossties were repeatedly reused. There was earthwork [[cut (earthworks)]] for the spur rail lines remain.<ref name="srs.fs.fed.us"/>

The Bradley Lumber Company at Wheeler and Martin street employed 1,100 workers in year 1941. That company was only of the largest purchasers of hardwood in the south. A leading product was unassembled furniture which was crated and shipped to eastern assembly plants. There was a flooring plant and a hickory products department. The company had a village of 4 and 5 rooms houses for its employees.

A Southern Lumber Company mill was at the west end of Pine Street. That plant employed about 400 people to make oak and pine flooring. The company also owned a village for its employees.<ref>{{Cite book |last=on |first=Best Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eRujhKef6FkC&dq=%22the+southern+company%22+arkansas+bradley+county&pg=PA347 |title=Arkansas: A Guide to the State |date=1941 |publisher=Best Books on |isbn=978-1-62376-004-5 |language=en}}</ref>