This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: careyrogers Surnames: Paramore and Gould Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.arkansas.counties.greene/2840/mb.ashx Message Board Post: I never heard this one before. The info comes from an email list of Arkansas historians. Was Paragould really named for James Paramore and Jay Gould? While doing research on Arkansas railroads, I found this article in the February 11, 1903, Arkansas Gazette, about S.W. Fordyce and the naming of Paragould, Arkansas. In 1903, S.W. Fordyce stated that the town of Paragould wasn't named for James Paramore and Jay Gould, but after the fact that the Cotton Belt, paralleled the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern tracks for about 20 miles south of what would become Paragould. At first the name was Parallel-Gould, but according to Fordyce it was shortened to Paragould by the time he actually put the name on the map. Fordyce and James Paramore built the narrow-gauge Texas & St. Louis through Arkansas in the early 1880's. The Texas & St. Louis would later become the St. Louis Southwestern, nicknamed the Cotton Belt. Below is the transcribed article from the February 11, 1903, Arkansas Gazette. "Town Of Paragould How It Was Named Col. S.W. Fordyce Says He Named It Because the Cotton Belt Paralleled the Gould's Road There. Col. S.W. Fordyce of St. Louis, who is now connected with a syndicate which is constructing short lines for the Frisco, was the center of a crow of friends while in the lobby of the Capital hotel Monday night after he had appeared before the house committee relative to the "Jim Crow" street railway bill. Someone brought up Senator M.P. Huddleston of Paragould and introduced him to Col. Fordyce as from that city. "Senator, I am certainly glad to meet you," said the colonel. "I laid out that town of yours, and named it too. "I was going over the right of way of the road which is now the Cotton Belt with Engineer Boykin, and when we came to the point in Greene county where the Cotton Belt crossed the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern, and then ran beside it for about twenty miles, I thought it would be a good place for a town, the location being the junction of both roads. So Boykin laid off and platted the town and then came the naming of it. "By that time the road had been built and it was noticeable that it paralleled the Iron Mountain for quite a distance. "'Boykin,' I said, as we stood in the newly laid off town, 'there is the Gould road and our road runs parallel to it for about twenty miles to the south. What's the matter with making the name from that. How would Parallel-Gould do? For short, let's call the town Para-Gould.' He thought it was a pretty good idea and that was the name we put on the map, except that we cut out the hyphen and capital letter and made it Paragould, which it has remained. "And that, Senator Huddleston, is how the town in which you live came to be called Paragould." (Arkansas Gazette, February 11, 1903; page 4, column 5) Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. <br>