Searcy is the largest city and county seat of White County, Arkansas. It was originally called White Sulphur Springs at the time the county was formed and was the site of a health spa in the 1820’s until the three kinds of springs – white sulphur, chalybeate, and alum – dried up. The State Legislature changed the town’s name to Searcy in 1838, to honor Richard Searcy, a prominent Arkansas Legislator. Several land ownership disputes arose in the Searcy area, eventually ending up in the United States Supreme Court. Israel Moore won the disputes and was in charge of laying out Searcy’s original streets, and he proceeded to name the major streets of Searcy for those of downtown Old Philadelphia near Independence Hall: Race, Arch, Market, Vine, Spring, and the tree-honoring streets of Cherry, Spruce, Locust and Pine. In 1957, Searcy named Moore Street after the 19th-century founder. Despite having lost many factory jobs in the late 20th century, Searcy experienced a brief economic revitalization in the past decade from the leasing of mineral rights to natural gas companies. Almost all drilling in the Fayetteville Shale area has since ceased. In 2019, the city of Searcy was the winner of the “Small Business Revolution on Main Street” award of $500,000 to revamp six small businesses (Wikipedia, 2019).
Citation
Wikipedia. (2019, Jul. 28). Searcy, Arkansas. Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org.
How it all Began 