Still in Sulphur Township, Bright Star is six miles west from Doddridge, and about eight miles from Black Diamond. Very intersting story. Bright Star By Miss Alta Hicks and Mildred Cash This history of Bright Star, Arkansas was written by Miss Alta Hicks, daughter of the well-known Judge, Floyd C. Hicks, now a resident of Kiblah, Arkansas. Miss Hicks tells the story well in a few words. It would require volumes to relate the entire history of this once famous community. Practically every gray-haired person in this section recalls the fact that Bright Star was once one of the most widely known communities in the south back in it's balmy days. Many scenes that would make volumes of hair raising history were enacted back in the days of the ox cart and six shooter law around old Bright Star. We are pleased to offer this bit of interesting reading to our friends. Miss Hicks article, in full, here follows; During 1840, when this part of the country was known as the western frontier, many people of all classes and conditions emigrated from Tennessee, Georgia, the Carolinas, and other states to the east, almost every one looking for a new country in which to settle. About this time, some families by the name of Stuckey, following the usual custom of people coming west, settled in a locality about eight miles west of the Red River, eight miles north of the Louisiana line, and five miles east of the Texas line. There were other settlers who came to this locality many years before this time, but about the first settlers of whom we have any account are the Stuckeys. After the Stuckeys became permanently settled, the little settlement became known to travelers as Stuckeyville. The Stuckeys being thrifty and industrious people, the settlement grew and became a landmark on the western frontier, well known to travelers. One mild, starlight night, two men traveling on horseback arrived at the little village of Stuckeyville. As they rode near the village one of the men, upon looking up at the stars, observed one of unusual brightness, and called attention of his companion to the bright star, saying that it was the brightest star he had ever noticed. His friend was also impressed by the unusual brightness of the star. The two travelers, being strangers and not knowing the name of the little settlement through which they passed, frequently mentioned it as the place where they had first noticed the bright star, and finally they simply designated the place in their conversation with each other as "Bright Star", and thus it became known to many travelers as Bright Star. At some time, possibly several years before the civil war, a post office was established at Bright Star. The mail route which supplied Bright Star, extended from Linden, Texas to Lewisville, Arkansas, Bright Star, and Spring Bank. The mail was carried on horseback and the mail carrier was often encountered by bears and panthers on his journey. The place gradually grew into a village of importance, and was well known to travelers from eastern states. At the beginning of the Civil War it had grown to be a trading center for a large area of the surrounding country. It contained eight or ten general merchandise stores and about the same number of saloons. The merchandise was transported from Jefferson, Texas, in wagons drawn by oxen and up the Red River by steamboats which landed at Spring Bank, about eight miles east of Bright Star. It was a frontier town in which liquor traffic was carried on extensively. And a resort for all classes of people, and it became known in all parts of the country as a rough and rowdy place. Men frequently fought and killed each other. At this time the territory now composing Lafayette and Miller Counties was all one county, known as Lafayette. The site of government was at Lewisville, about forty miles from Bright Star. Red River was between the two places and consequently the people were a "law unto themselves". Disputes were usually settled by the use of weapons. However, there have always been good law abiding people in and around Bright Star, but during early days they were in a small minority. At the beginning of the Civil War, a young man by the name of Joe Tyson organized at Bright Star a company of volunteers for the Confederate Army. Some of the members of this company were at Appomattox Court House, in Virginia at the time of Lee's surrender, and through many hardships, retraced their was back to Bright Star, one of whom was my great-grandfather, Isaac Kelly. Captain Joe Tyson came back to Bright Star and spent the remainder of his life as a minister of the gospel.