From past to present... a history of Arkansas courthouses

July 7-13, 2008

A tug-of-war usually lasts a couple of minutes, but the struggle over the county seat in Hempstead County lasted sixty years.
For six decades, the citizens of the southwest county battled over a location for the courthouse and county records. On one side of the ring was Washington, the oldest county seat in Arkansas. In the other corner was a town called Hope. It took five rounds (petitions) for Hope County to gain the coveted title of county seat. Before we delve into the specifics of the struggle however, it is important to learn more about the two opponents and how they arrived at a crossroads.
Hempstead County was created in 1818, when Arkansas was still part of the Missouri Territory. Established the same year as Clark and Pulaski Counties, Hempstead is one of the original five counties in the state.
The county was named after Edward Hempstead, a Connecticut native, who was the first representative to Congress from the Missouri Territory in 1812. Edward was also a lawyer, pioneer and one of the early settlers in the new Louisiana Purchase in 1805. Hempstead died after an accident in which he was thrown from his horse in August of 1817. Although its namesake died, the county lived on and established a temporary county seat in 1819 at the town of Marlbrook. John English