City street names from soldiers in battle

Editor’s Note: The following is from Billie Jines’ 1996 booklet, “The Streets of Pea Ridge.” It has been updated to include new streets and those scheduled for future development. This is the second in a series of articles on the names of the streets of Pea Ridge.

In 1995, under the leadership of Mayor Jackie Crabtree, Ordinance No. 215 was passed by the Pea Ridge City Council. The street naming segment of the detailed ordinance made it mandatory to use the north-south for Union and east-west for Confederate names of combatants of the Battle of Pea Ridge. Confederate names

• Lee Town Road and Lee Town Drive — Both of these streets, no doubt, keep alive the memory of a village virtually destroyed by the first day’s fighting at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Lee Town Road goes east from the intersection of Arkansas Highways 72 and 94 (Curtis Avenue and Slack Street). Slack Street comes into Curtis Avenue from the west and upon reaching Curtis, joins it to head northward. Across Curtis at that intersection, Slack becomes Lee Town Road. Traveling east, to the left are Smith and Davis streets, then reach the two parts of Lee Town Drive that forms a circle. Lee Town Road heads on toward the Pea Ridge National Military Park. It passes out of the city limits before it reaches the park, and it is stopped by another road or it would go to the old Lee Town site ahead.

• Lindsay Street — West off of North Curtis Avenue, the first street north of the State Hwy. 94/72 (Curtis/ Slack) intersection; goes one block to Carr Street.

Lindsay — or Lindsey — honors Flavius J. Lindsay, who served as assistant surgeon with Rains and Price at the Battle of Pea Ridge. He was born at Warsaw, Mo., to Felix G. and Eliza Ann Northington Lindsay or Lindsey — spelling of name varies.

• Lucas — or Lucus Lane — A short street that turns left (west) off of Hayden Road (State Hwy. 265) a short distance before it reaches the Missouri state line. It was named for Capt. William Lucas or Lucus of Jackson’s Missouri Battery. Although Hayden Road weaves in and out of the long, narrow strip of city limits up in that direction, Lucus Lane is mostly inside the city. Newcomers might not realize that at one time, the City of Pea Ridge annexed that narrow strip of land from its city limits to the state line, reportedly to make it possible for Pea Ridge to be able to sell gasoline at the same prices as Missouri. Hayden Road (State Hwy. 265) continues the length of that strip, sometimes within and sometimes just outside the city limits as it heads north. Both Lucas Lane and Gates Lane turn off to the left of the highway.

• McCulloch Street — Turns west off of North Curtis Avenue one block south of Pickens Road and goes to Weston Street. Named for Brig. Gen. Benjamin McCulloch, the first of the three Confederate generals killed at the Battle of Pea Ridge. Gen. McCulloch had been a Tennessee frontiersman, who went to Texas. He fought under Sam Houston at San Jacinto, was an Indian fighter with the Texas Rangers and served in the U.S. Congress. He was killed instantly on the morning of March 7, 1862, when shot through the heart. His body was returned for burial in Austin at the Texas State Cemetery.