City street names from soldiers

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

• McIntosh Street — A one-block long street turning east a block south of Pickens Road and going to North Davis Street. Honors another Confederate general, James McIntosh. He also died instantly from a shot on March 7; his death apparently occurred minutes after that of Gen. McCulloch. An 1849 West Point graduate, Gen. McIntosh led the cavalry brigade consisting of about 2,000 riders in the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 11th Texas Cavalry and the 1st Arkansas and 1st Texas Cavalry battalions. Although he was a Confederate, Gen. McIntosh was buried at the National Cemetery in Fort Smith.

• McNair Street — Turns right off of Hayden Road before the first curve and is part of Ridgemoor Estates. It passes five street cuts and veers off to a cul-desac at the end. One of these streets McNair Street passes is McNair Place. McNair Street honors Col. Evander McNair, who was in charge of the 4th Arkansas Infantry in Gen. McCulloch’s Division. Col. McNair was promoted to brigadier general later in the war.

• McRae Lane —Turns left (west) off of Clark Street and circles around to a residential neighborhood. Clark goes straight ahead at the fork, passing one residence before it, too, forks. One fork leads to Pea Ridge’s sewer system, while the other fork ends at a residence a few hundred feet farther along. McRae was named for Col. Dandridge McRae, who led the Confederate’s 21st Arkansas Infantry under Gen. McCulloch. He may also have led the 15th Infantry.

• Pace Lane — Turns north at the east end of Carden Road. It honors two brothers, John H. Pace, 34th Arkansas, who came to Benton County 30 years before the Battle of Pea Ridge with his parents, Christopher and Margaret Woods Pace, and his brother, Milton A. Pace, who was Co. F, 15th Arkansas. Milton drew a pension in Benton County after the war. It seems that John and Milton had brothers in the Civil War, but I failed to find any record of their having been in the

Battle of Pea Ridge.

• Parks (nee Park) Circle — A three-part street in Ridgemoor Estates. Take McNair Street off of Hayden Road (Ark. Hwy. 265) and two prongs of this circle will turn to the south. No Park participant could be located on either side of the battle. With two of the three parts of Park being Union and one being Confederate, it was decided to consider it a Confederate street, since there were participants named Parks on that side. The Pea Ridge Planning Commission had wanted to be able to simply add an “s” to Park, rather than change the entire name, which was forbidden by the street ordinance. Such a name would still make it easy to identify in the event of a 911 call. It was decided to name the street after Robert Calvin Parks and Thomas Jefferson Parks, both of whom served under Col. Stand Watie at the Battle of Pea Ridge.