Log Cabin Democrat

Centennial Edition

History of Faulkner County Towns and Townships


From the LCD Centennial Edition 1873-1973:

NAYLOR IN NEWTON TOWNSHIP

"Naylor lies in a flat plain on State Road 36. First known as Pleasant Valley, Col. H.D. Flippen had settled here prior to the Mexican War of 1846. At the beginning of hostilities he entered federal service as a mere 240 pound private, but rose to the rank of a colonel.

Andrew Graham settled near this place in 1860. One of the early post offices before either Enola or Pleasant Valley was located nearby on Muddy Bayou.

In the Spring of 1868, the citizens of Pleasant Valley and Mount Vernon built a log meeting house about three-fourths of a mile southeast of the present church site on land owned by H.D. Flippen. During the same year a literary school was taught in the log church by Miss Mollie Prothro. Each Saturday and Sunday a singing school was taught by Joe Matthews.

That fall, 1868, a Methodist church was organized by the Rev. J.R. Maddox and the new church was called Pleasant Valley Methodist Church. Charter members were a Mrs. George Casey, Nancy Casey Henry, Margaret Casey Maddox, Annie Harris, Mollie Harrie Shoulders, Mrs. L.B. Graham and Mrs. John Charles.

Pastors for the first five years were a Rev. Hicks, who served in 1869 as the first pastor; Tom Graham, 1870-1871; Rev. Hall 1872-1873, and Rev. Stone, 1874. In 1876 a boxed church was erected in the town proper on four acres of land donated by Mrs. L.B. Graham.

This building served the congregation until 1894 when another building was erected. This second edifice was destroyed by fire in 1911. In 1912 a two-story building was erected and stood until it was razed in 1947, when the present stone building was completed.

Dr. Jesse Michael Reynolds and his wife, Eliza J., planned to come to Arkansas. Dr. Reynolds preceded his wife and two children to this new land. He selected a site on a crest of a hill and cleared away land for the home place which was 18 feet square. His floor in this rough cabin was earthen. He then moved his family to Arkansas and this new home.

The next year a paling kitchen 20 feet from the house was built and more ground cleared up and a log crib and shed was added to the growing farm. Then as years passed Dr. Reynolds cleared and fenced a good-sized farm.

In time he was able to erect a white five-room frame house with a large hall, porch and closets. He built this house with his own labor. His neighbors, however, assisted him in rolling in the huge log foundation pieces and assembling the three chimneys. The stones required for the chimneys were quarried at the site, on a nearby Cascade Mountain, two miles from his home.

Jesse Michael Reynolds had attended public schools about six months of his life. After his youngest children reached the age of five he attended Little Rock Medical College. His early life had taught him the medical properties of many herbs and roots. He compounded medicines from them in the treatment of minor diseases within his own family group and among his neighbors prior to attending medical school.

John Hugh Reynolds was born to this couple Jan. 3, 1869, and was to become a local teacher and later president of Hendrix College in Conway.

After graduation from medical college Jesse Michael Reynolds built and maintained a wide practice on horseback or in his two-wheeled carriage. Later he acquired a two-horse buggy.

Robert D. Naylor and his wife, Frances Amanda Wilson of Georgia, came to Faulkner County in 1869. Theirs was an ox-drawn wagon, as were most of the early migrants. Bill Richards came with them and helped drive the wagon while Naylor rode ahead on his horse.

Alex Campbell and John Knowles Charles were the first to be buried in Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Naylor. Their families had settled in Arkansas, near Cascade Springs, erecting a story and half house which is still occupied.

The Rev. A.C. Graham donated six acres of land adjoining the four-acre church site, making the church land eight acres with two acres for a cemetery. In addition he willed the church 100 acres of land, in 1931, for use in the construction of the 1949 stone building which was dedicated May 22, 1949 by Bishop Paul E. Martin. In 1938 a campaign was begun to change the name of Naylor to Graham in memory of the Rev. Augustus C. Graham, but the move was defeated.

The post office was first located at Cascade, a mile south of the Methodist church. This office was at first called Muddy Bayou and was opened Jan. 15, 1879 with Alfred Shoulders as postmaster. The name was changed to Cascade under postmaster William B. Wilson. The office at Naylor opened at the townsite Sept. 11, 1899, with James M. Henry as postmaster. This office was closed Feb. 28, 1907.

Today at Naylor there are two stores, a number of homes and the Methodist church and its cemetery. The school buildings have long been abandoned as such, but are now the meeting place of Naylor Baptist Church."



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