Kickstarting a county

The Cleveland County Courthouse in downtown Rison is a graceful structure, designed by Theodore Sanders and incorporating the Modern Renaissance and Classical Revival styles of architecture. It was completed in 1911 following a lengthy, contentious battle over where the county seat should be located.

The county was formed in 1873 by the Reconstruction-era Arkansas Legislature from parts of Bradley, Dallas, Jefferson and Lincoln counties and named Dorsey County in honor of Republican U.S. Sen. Stephen Dorsey. Dorsey, the son of Irish immigrants, was born on a farm in Vermont and later moved with his family to Oberlin, Ohio. He served in the Union Army, returned to Ohio, founded a tool company and became active in Republican politics. Dorsey came to Arkansas in 1871 when he was elected president of the Arkansas Central Railway Co.

From his base in Helena, he took advantage of legislation that allowed railroad companies to sell government-backed bonds to finance expansion. The Arkansas Legislature chose him as the state’s junior senator in 1872. Dorsey served until 1878 and then moved to New Mexico, where he was plagued by lawsuits concerning his business dealings.

With former Confederates back in control of the Legislature, Dorsey County was changed to Cleveland County in 1885 to honor President Grover Cleveland. A fire destroyed the courthouse at Toledo in 1889 and residents of Rison, Kingsland and New Edinburg sought the county seat. Following two contested elections, the Arkansas Supreme Court finally named Rison the county seat in April 1891.

A frame courthouse was constructed in 1892 at a cost of $8,000. It had become dilapidated by the time the 1911 courthouse was built for $65,000. Floors in the new courthouse consisted of brightly colored ceramic tiles, and there were pressedtin ceilings. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in April 1977. Despite this stately anchor, Britt Talent, publisher of the Cleveland County Herald, noticed something in 2012 after the Fordyce Bank & Trust Co. acquired the Bank of Rison. Talent says: “The departure of the Bank of Rison was going to leave my newspaper office, a hardware store and a law office as the only businesses on my block of Main Street.” He published an article asking people to attend a meeting to discuss the future of downtown. About 20 showed up, enough to call a second meeting two weeks later.

“Our whole idea was to generate traffic to downtown Rison,” he says. “Once we had people coming on a regular basis, we hoped businesses eventually would follow.” Rison Shine Downtown Development was formed, and a Christmas parade was held for the first time in many years.

The group later developed a small park on a vacant lot on Main Street centered around a giant live oak tree. Almost 200 people showed up on the afternoon of July 11, 2013, for the dedication of the park. The crowds downtown for that year’s Halloween event were even larger. “I don’t think anyone had any idea there would be that many people,” Talent says. “… We’ve made a dent, but we still have a ways to go. I’m seeing more traffic downtown on a regular basis than I’ve seen in a while. Hopefully more people will see this progress and be willing to take a chance on opening a business.”

On the late Friday afternoon in February that Talent gave me a walking tour of downtown, a steady stream of people were heading into the Main Street Café adjacent to the park. The Rison Pharmacy has opened in a former bank building, the Rison Athletic Club has expanded its operations in the old City Pharmacy building, and there was new construction downtown in 2016 for the first time in almost 25 years with the completion of a banking facility and a floral shop. The effort to spur activity in one of Arkansas’ least populous counties— Cleveland County had 8,689 residents in the 2010 census, almost 5,000 fewer people than lived there a century earlier—has spread. Mark Peterson, a community development specialist for the University of Arkansas’ Cooperative Extension Service, spoke to Rison Shine members in February 2015 and urged them to expand their efforts across the county. A month later, Kickstart Cleveland County was born.

On the Friday night of my visit to Rison, people from all parts of the county gathered at the county fairgrounds to celebrate the initiative. During a conference in Little Rock last summer, the Cooperative Extension Service presented Kickstart Cleveland County with an award for having the top community development effort in the state. Peterson says: “There were several worthy candidates, but Kickstart Cleveland County’s strong record of accomplishments and community involvement throughout the county won the day.”

At a time when many rural counties are losing population, Cleveland County has shown slow but steady growth. When Arkansans from other parts of the state think about Cleveland County at all, it’s likely because of the excellent deer hunting or the traditionally potent football program at Rison High School. But those who live in a county that claims both Johnny Cash and Paul “Bear” Bryant as natives understand that economic development in the 21st century is far different than it was several decades ago. The key these days is creating a quality of life good enough that those natives who go elsewhere for college will return to start small businesses and raise their families. There may be fewer than 10,000 people in the county, but its business and civic leaders appear to have figured that out.

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