Main St (now Front Street) Dardanelle on the Arkansaw, Sherwood T. Grissom (c. 1909)
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Laid out in 1847 and incorporated on January 17, 1855, Dardanelle, Arkansas is adjacent to the south bank of the Arkansas River—though the river flows northwest to southeast at this point—in Yell County. The origin of the town’s name is not known. It may have reminded early explorers of the Dardanelles in Turkey. Another possibility is Jean Baptiste Dardenne, an early French Canadian trader and holder of a 600-acre Spanish land grant in the area.1
Dardenne lived west of Dardanelle Rock from 1797 to about 1806. His land grant, known as the Chactas Prairie—aka The Prairie or Cactus Flats—, encompassed a large part of present-day Russellville, including Arkansas Tech University, with Prairie Creek running through it.
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Encyclopedia of Arkansas
Thomas Nuttall’s 1819 journal described Cherokee people living in log cabins along the Arkansas River south of the Dardanelle Rock surrounded by cotton fields and peach and plum orchards.
By 1803, Dardanelle was a contentious area, with Cherokee and Caddo groups engaging in sporadic conflict. The United States sent Major James Lovely to the area as its first Indian factor in 1813, followed by Reuben Lewis in 1817, David Brearley in 1820, and Major Edward W. Duvall in 1823. Also in 1823 Robert Crittenden met with Cherokee leaders for the Treaty of Council Oaks to discuss land ownership and borders but no consensus was met. With his brothers, Charles and Pearson, David Brearley opened the first store in Dardanelle, and his son, Joseph H. Brearley, platted the town in 1847 and, in 1851, donated lands for Brearley Cemetery just south of town.
Dardanelle became an important river town and emerging trade center during the antebellum era, receiving weekly steamboat visits from New Orleans, Louisiana; Memphis, Tennessee; and Little Rock (Pulaski County). Dardanelle’s “boomtown” reputation was aided by its trade in rum, gin, and cotton. By 1860, the town had three taverns, several mercantile businesses and cotton gins, three churches (Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian), a weekly newspaper, a doctor, a school, several attorneys, and a Masonic lodge. By 1860, the town had 239 white residents and seventy-four slaves. Settlers from Tennessee and North Carolina were most prevalent. The surrounding rich farmland was worked by yeoman farmers primarily and a few large planters. Slavery was common on the surrounding farmlands—the 1860 Census records 869 slaves in Yell County, in addition to Dardanelle’s seventy-four. The 1823 military road between Little Rock and Fort Smith (Sebastian County) ran through Dardanelle, although the Arkansas River remained the primary means of transportation. In 1860, Dardanelle was linked to Little Rock and Fort Smith by telegraph.
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- Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada New, France on 26 Aug 1718. He passed away in 1799 in Arkansas Post, Arkansas, Lousiana Territory.