continued.....3rd series The New County is Formed The gold rush welled the population. By 1850, the census showed 964 people in the city, and almost 8000 in all of Crawford County. The majority lived south of the Arkansas River. Lack of a bridge presented hardships crossing the river to conduct county business at the distant courthouse in Van Buren and people south of the river clamored for a solution. The legislature created Sebastian County in January of 1851 and named it in honor of former county judge and U.S. Senator, William K. Sebastian. Residents set up a very temporary seat of justice at the home of Eaton Tatum, in Marion Township near the village of Actus, later call Jenny Lind. The designated county commissioners met on January 27 and chose James Clark the first county judge, and Samuel Brooke Stevens as the county's first sheriff. In March, after considerable debate, the commissioners voted to locate the permanent seat on about 40 acres of land donated by Reuben Coker. He named the new county seat "Greenwood" for his friend Alfred B. Greenwood, Circuit Judge for northwest Arkansas. The Sebastian County commissioners held their first official meeting in Coker's home. By summer, a temporary 16 foot-square log court house was built by County Clerk John Carnall and others near what would become the southwest corner of Greenwood's future public square. Traveling 20 miles south through the near-wilderness to conduct county business did not appeal to Fort Smith merchants. So John Rogers, the merchant referred to as the "father of Fort Smith," donated in 1852 a downtown lot for a "permanent seat of justice." Within a few weeks, most of the Sebastian County records turned up in Fort Smith. South Sebastian county residents quickly erected a new double-log courthouse on the northeast corner of the original donation of land for the city of Greenwood. It was the county's first courthouse that was paid for by county funds. ***** more to come. Probably will be ten days from today. We are celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary and trying to get everything ready for it. Have a good week. Carolyn (Parsons) Smedley http://www.geocities.com/angelears1 angelears@alltel.net "Angelears are there to listen... Then hears the person's soul"... Psalms 18:24