White Cliffs, Arkansas is situated on about twelve sections of land located on the only part of Little River County that is north of the Little River. Until about 1893, White Cliffs was located about one mile north of it’s present location, half-way between the limestone cliffs bordering the Little River and the town of Brownstown.
Early Settlers:
The earliest mention of settlers
in this area is of the Walker, Hopson, Johnson and Stewart families. These were wealthy planters who traveled to
Arkansas from North Carolina and settled down in the White Cliffs area about
1826. According to some accounts, these
families stayed in the settlement for about 15 years. The Walker family moved on to Brownstown and
Ben Lomond and the Hopsons went to Paraclifta.
The Johnsons and Stewarts left for Columbus over in Hempstead County.
Another prominent family who lived in White Cliffs around that time was the Bailey Inglish family. Bailey and his family moved into the area from Miller County about 1824. His wife Jane died about 1835 and is reportedly buried in the area. Bailey moved on to found the town of Bonham, Texas.
Timeline of Industry in White Cliffs:
Many companies tried to mine the limestone from the cliffs,
and eventually they all failed and moved on.
Factories:
Western Portland Cement Company 1901
Lime Products Company 1918
Krippendorf/Tuttle White Cliffs Products Company 1921
Ideal Cement Company 1927
Florida Company bought the cement plant. 1929
Little River News October
19, 1927
Deed on Record for White
Cliffs Deal
White Cliffs, Stock Farm Deal was put on record Tuesday;
Consideration was $62,700 for 1245 acres:
Tuesday the deeds for the purchase of the White Cliffs
properties were put on record by the company.
The deeds as on record shows that the White Cliffs Stock Farms,
consisting of 1245 acres of land in Little River county was deeded to M.O.
Matthews, and in turn Mr. Matthews deeded the land to the Ideal Cement
Company. The deed states that the White
Cliffs Stock Farm was to receive $62,700.
This tract of land is located ten miles east of Ashdown and
one mile east of White Cliffs. The Ideal
people expect to start the construction of a $3,000,000 cement plant at that
place it is stated. However, no
additional information could be learned Tuesday.
DeQueen Bee,
DeQueen Arkansas Thursday July 8, 1965
Reprinted with permission of Betty
Snider (DeQueen Bee editor)
An empty concrete vault stands sentinel over the ruins of the many foundations that mark the site of White Cliffs.
Once included in the office building, the vault stands within a stone's
throw of the elegant circular steps of Will Kelly's home, which was also graced
by a rock walled wine cellar. Perched atop the majestic White Cliff that
rises almost vertically from the east bank of Little River, this residence must
indeed have been a setting befitting a cement baron.
These cliffs have a long and interesting history. Its limestone was famous long before the Civil War. It was prepared in crude fashion by simply scooping a hole in the soft limestone rock, filling it with pieces of the rock and building a fire beneath. The lime thus secured was shipped by steamboat to New Orleans.
White Cliffs was once a steamboat landing. The steamboats would come
up Little River to Hood's Landing and blow their whistles which could be heard
in Brownstown. About 1895, two steamboat captains, John and Will Kelly, who had
navigated Little River and become familiar with White Cliffs, secured the
interest of some Chicago capitalists and started a cement factory there.
It was never very successful and the Kellys were forced out. The place
was taken over by some Dutch capitalists. They invested more than two
million dollars and erected an immense plant. The buildings of this plant
and the attendant town totaled over 100 buildings, including a school and two
hotels. (One of these, the Schockenbach, with 50 rooms, was used for a
school after the decline of White Cliffs, Will Boggs was the teacher.)
They turned out good cement and some of it may be seen in Little Rock.
The basement of the state capitol was constructed of cement from this plant.
However, the Dutch brought with them old country ideas which doomed them to
failure in the fierce competition of American firms using modern methods.
Also, a vast amount of fuel is necessary to manufacture cement, and the cost of
this was prohibitive. The railroad being on the opposite side (of Little
River), it was necessary to transport coal across the river in buckets that ran
on a cable. This was too expensive and finally the plant was abandoned.
Frank Lane of Paragould bought the property, wrecked the buildings and scrapped
the machinery.
In the teens the Kruppendoff and Tuttle White Cliffs Products Co. made
agricultural lime, concrete filler, asphalt filler, road coating and a whiting,
said to be a superior paint pigment. They established an extensive
plant and operated for several years.
The rock which gave White Cliffs its name is ninety percent limestone, so
soft it can be easily broken with the hands and rapidly disintegrates when
exposed to the elements. It was formed from the remains of marine life
millions of years ago when this was the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico.
Shark teeth and fossil sea urchins are relatively easy found. Fossilized
bones of mosasaurs (giant marine reptiles, up to 60 to 70 feet long) of the
Cretaceous period are reported to have been found. There have also been
reports of other fossils being found, including a coiled snake, among the
billions of fossil sea shells. Lloyd Garrison of Brownstown tells of finding a
large fossilized sea turtle.
Mrs. Belle McGoodwin, also of Brownstown, states that White Cliffs was
settled by Grandma Walker and her family. She had the first flower garden
in Southwest Arkansas. At that time White Cliffs was a steamboat landing
and freight was hauled many miles overland to this point on Little River.
When the teamsters became ill they would go to Grandma Walker's for help.
When they returned again the grateful freighters would bring her flowers for
her garden. The jonquils, buttercups and narcissus of southwest Arkansas
originally came from this garden. There
is a family burying ground on this farm. Some of the dates on the
gravestones back to the seventeen hundreds.
One of the many stories of the White Cliffs concerns a lass of that section who had a most devoted suitor. One day they were walking on the cliffs and the lover proposed again. "Let's see if you have the courage," replied the girl. "If you have nerve enough to jump off the cliffs, I'll marry you." The awesome plunge down into the river held no terror for the lovesick swain. He jumped and by some miracle, extremely wet but still intact, clambered up the cliffs to claim his bride. "No chance," said the girl when he finally reached her side. Do you suppose I would marry a man who is fool enough to jump into the river just because someone asked him to?"
Letter from
Mrs. Milton Beck
The only part of Little River County that is located north of Little River is the 12 sections known as the White Cliffs area. An empty concrete vault marks the ruins of the many foundations left at the site of White Cliffs.
A lime formation is exposed to form White Cliff hills of
solid limestone approximately 150 feet high.
These cliffs have a long and interesting history beginning before the
civil war. There were three attempts by
different corporations to develop mineral resources here.
White Cliff was originally located one mile north of the
cliff proper, on the road to Brownstown.
In the old town there were two stores, several homes and a hotel know as
the Cliff House. The Cliff House was built about 1890. A large concrete cistern marks the back of
the building which faced west. The Cliff
House was used as a hotel for a short time before the first cement plant drew
the town to the perimeter of the cliff. The Cliff House was then used for a
school, which was known as the Shorkenbach School.
Henry Sandefur, D.R. Fawcett, Smith and Coates moved their
stores to the new town located on the cliff.
The stores all faced east with the Sandefur store on the south end. Henry Sandefur’s store later became the Fred
Schirmer store.
The new town was laid out in streets and many homes were
built by the cement company. All the
homes were supplied with river water by a system of pipes. The Negroes lived in separate housing area
east of the quarry. Another hotel was
built near the plant on the north side of the quarry hill, which was later
moved to the top of the hill.
In November 1893, two steamboat captains, John and Will
Kelly, who had navigated Little River and became familiar with White Cliffs,
secured the interest of some Chicago capitalists and started a cement factory
at White Cliff. Portland Cement and
Chalk Company was incorporated for the purpose of manufacturing Portland
Cement, chalk, lime, calcimine, whiting, brick and artificial marble. This corporation…
In 1920 school was held in a hotel one mile north of White
Cliffs. In 1921 school was held in a
company house in White Cliffs. A wall
was removed to make two rooms into one large room, it was heated by a fire
place. In the kitchen Mr. Foster
Williams had put a load of peanuts which he had dug. He told us to help ourselves and you may be
sure we did.
Mr. Olan Farrel was the teacher. Before the 1922 term of school began, a one
room school house was built, since it was rather large, the school board hired
two teachers, Emma Nelson and Allen Garrison.
In order to make two
classrooms, curtains were hung across the room.
This building was used until 1933, then a more modern school house was
erected. This school was later
consolidated with the Mineral Spring District.
The White Cliff school was the only school east of the
Little River in Little River County.
In 1929 a Florida
Company bought the cement plant and several families from Florida moved to
White Cliffs. Some of these people were
middle aged and had never seen snow. It
started snowing about 2 p.m. that day and Belle McGoodwin the teacher was
unable to keep the Florida children in their seats they were so excited. She turned out for recess so they could get
outside in the snow. They got enough
snow before it was over with, the snow stayed on the ground for 2weeks.
These are the teachers who had a great influence on the
children:
Olan Farrel, Emma Nelson, Allen Garrison, Belle G.
McGoodwin, Asa Hubbard, Vivian McKinney &
Mrs. Robert Sessions
Mrs Belle G. McGoodwin is the sister of Allen Garrison.
The first school was held in a hotel one mile north of White
Cliffs. Teachers are as follows:
Alex Whitehead
Ernest Johnson
Mrs. Dell Lee
Will Boggs
Mrs. O.D. Gentry
Mrs. Belle McGoodwin taught there the month of March 1910,
while Mr. Boggs campaigned for representative for Little River County.
*Entire article reprinted from the Little River County Genealogy Society 2006 Spring Journal*
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