Quoted from: “A Pictorial History of Arkansas From Earliest Times to the Year of 1890” 
By Fay Hempstead St. Louis and New York  N.D. Thomson Publishing Co. 1890
Logan County Continued: (Remember the data is from 1890)

Logan is a northwestern county, south of the Arkansas river, bounded by the counties of Franklin, 
Johnson, Yell, Scott and Sebastian, and on its north border by the Arkansas river. Its area is 650 square 
miles. 

In surface the county is mountainous in the southwest, hilly in the center, and level and alluvial toward 
the Arkansas river and its tributaries in the county. There is but little prairie land. The soil is fertile and 
produces good crops.  Fruits make a fine yield. The timber growth of the county is excellent and 
abundant. The county is particularly favored with mineral resources, of which coal, iron, lead and silver 
exist. Coal is found in large quantities. There are 86 school districts, and about 100 public schools in the 
county, open from three to ten months in the year, with high schools at Boone, Magazine, and 
Ellsworth. There are church-houses in all the principal neighborhoods, representing the Baptist, 
Methodist, Presbyterian, Christian and Catholic denominations.

The towns of the county are Paris, Boonsville, Magazine, Roseville, National Springs, Chismville, 
Caulksville, Ellsworth, Prairieview, Morrison’s Bluff and Dublin. 

Paris, the county seat, has a population of about 1,000. It was first settled in 1874, and was 
incorporated as a town February 8, 1879. It contains three churches, a good school, steam grist and 
cotton gin, has telephone communication with other towns of the county; daily mail; it has two weekly 
newspapers, the Paris Express and the Paris Serpent, Magnor and Anderson publishers. 
Colonel Wlter Cauthron, one of the pioneers of Arkansas, and for fifty years a resident of what is now 
Logan county, from 1827 to 1877. When about ten years of age his parents moved to Illinois and 
settled near Belleville, which was then quite a small place. Soon after they settled, his opportunities 
for receiving education were very limited. He lived there until December, 1820, when he set out on 
horseback for the Territory of Arkansas. He crossed the Arkansas river, at Little Rock, on the first day of 
January, 1821. From Little Rock he traveled up the Arkansas river, on the south side, to Fort Smith, and 
at Perryville he fell in company with, at that time, young Lieutenant Bonneville, who was on his way, 
with an escort, to Fort Smith, where he had been assigned to duty. There were at this time a few 
settlements on the south of the river.  There was a small settlement at Perryville, then one at 
Chickalah, which is situated some ten miles west of Dardanelle, now Yell county; then on Short 
Mountain creek, near where Paris is now situated, in Logan county, then another small settlement on 
Big creek, at or near where Oak Bower is now situated, in Sebastian county. After reaching Fort Smith, 
he again set out alone on horseback for the Red river country. In going across the wilderness, he often 
traveled for days at a time, seeing no human being, except, perhaps, an Indian hunter.  At the time of 
his journey the grazing was so plentiful, even though it was winter, that his horse subsisted without 
difficulty thereon. When night overtook him, he would tie his horse to a stake, prepare his evening 
repast, spread his blanket underneath a tree and sleep soundly, except when disturbed by the 
howling of wolves, which were very numerous and troublesome. He went to the point where Fulton 
now is, and then journeyed down to Shreveport. In the Fall of 1821 he made a journey back to his old 
home in Illinois on horseback, and returned to the Red river country. On the 18th day of August, 1821, 
he was married to Miss Bashaba Wilson, on the Texas side of Red river, in what is now Red River 
county, Texas. Of this marriage there were born nine children, five sons and four daughters, all of 
whom lived to adult age, and have families. Five of them are still living. Charles Cauthron, his eldest 
son, and who was a Member of the Lower House of the General Assembly of Arkansas from Scott 
county, in 1850 and 1851, now lives at Fort Worth, Texas. Captain C. W. Cauthron, the next oldest son 
now living, resides at Greenwood, Sebastian county, Arkansas. Thomas Cauthron, his youngest son, 
lives in Booneville, Logan County, Arkansas. Mrs. Parthenia Burnes, his oldest daughter now living, 
lives near Granberry, Hood county, Texas. Lucinda, his youngest child, lives at Greenwood, Sebastian 
county, Arkansas, and is the wife of Major M. T. Tatum, a leading merchant of that place. After his 
marriage he settled on the Arkansas side of Red river, near Walnut Prarie, and opened up a small farm, 
where he lived about two years. In 1824 he sold out, and removed to the Petit Jean Valley, and settled 
near where Tomlinson is now located, in Scott county. He remained here about three years. He then 
sold out, and settled near where Booneville is now located, in Logan county. He opened up a farm and 
a store of general merchandise, and built a cotton gin, which was the first cotton gin, as well as the first 
store, that was ever established in the part of the country, and he named his place of business 
Booneville. In 1837 he sold out at Booneville, and settled on what is known as Cauthron’s Prairie, about 
eight miles southwest of Booneville, opened a farm, and engaged in farming and stock-raising, where 
he remained until within about two years of his death. His first wife died January 20th, 1849. On the 
21st day of September, 1857, he was married to Mrs. Elmor S. Burton, who was the widow of Robert 
Burton, and the mother of Major C. C. Burton, who was Clerk of the Courts of Sebastian county, 
Arkansas, for several consecutive terms before the late war.  She died January 5th, 1875. After her 
death Colonel Cauthron broke up keeping house, and spent the remainder of his time, about equally, 
with his four children living in Arkansas. He died February 9th, 1877, at the residence of his son-in-law, 
T. G. Scott, near Sugar Grove, Logan county, at the age of 79 years, 10 months, and 16 days. The only 
public offices he ever held were: Colonel of Militia, to which he was appointed by Governor James S. 
Conway in 1836, and County Judge, being elected in 1851, to fill the unexpired term of J.M. Sweeny, 
deceased. 

Colonel James Logan, one of the pioneers of Arkansas, and for whom Logan county was named, was 
born near Danville, Kentucky, in the year 1792, son of David and Rachel Logan. In 1813 he married 
Rachel Steel, in New Madrid county Missouri. In 1829 or 1830 he moved to Arkansas. In 1834 he 
represented Crawford county in the Territorial Legislature, and was a Member from Scott county in 
1836. He was agent of the Creek Indians for some twelve years. He died in Scott, now Logan, county, in 
the winter of 1859. Of his family there are two children now living, to-wit: Col. Jonathan Logan, of Yell 
county, and Mrs. Mary D. Garrett, wife of William Garrett, who was agen of the Creek Indians at or 
about the time of the late war. 

Hon. Ben. B. Chism, Secretary of State of 1889 to 1891, was a prominent citizen of Logan county. He 
was born at Booneville, Scott, now in Logan, county, in the year 1845; son of Dr. S. H. and Jeanetta 
Chism, who was Jeanetta Logan, a daughter of Colonel James Logan. He lived at Booneville until six 
years of age, when he moved to Chismville, in Scott county, where he lived until 1859, then moved to 
Roseville, in the same county, where he lived until 1886, when he became a resident of Paris, the 
county seat. In 1874 he was elected a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention from Sarber county, 
now Logan county, and in the same year was commissioned a Colonel of Militia by Governor Baxter.  In 
1876 he was elected State Senator for the counties of Yell and Logan. In 1888 he was elected Secretary 
of State for the two years from 1889 to 1891. On the breaking out of the war, though only sixteen 
years of age, he enlisted in Captain J.R. Titsworth’s Company of the Fifth Arkansas Infantry State 
Troops, and took part in the battle of Oak Hills, August 10th, 1861. After this he became a member of 
Captain David Arkbuckle’s Company in the Seventeenth Arkansas Infantry, which was consolidated 
with the Eleventh Arkansas, and commanded by Colonel John Griffith. For a long time, though only of 
the age of eighteen years, he commanded this company, Captain Arbuck having been made a prisoner 
at the fall of Port Hudson.  Colonel John Griffith being placed in command of a Brigade, Captain Chism 
served as Aide-de-Camp on the Brigade Staff at the age of nineteen years.  In the early part of 1864, 
with one man, he made a reconnaissance of the Federal gunboat Petrel, on the Yazoo river, in 
Mississippi, and laid the plan for her capture, which was accomplished by one hundred dismounted 
cavalrymen, commanded by Colonel John Griffith. 

That’s all that was written under Logan County.