The call for papers and presentations at the 30th annual Delta Symposium at Arkansas State University will continue to be open for almost another month. The initial call was issued by symposium organizers several week ago.
The Rector Cougar 4-H Club brought smiles and Christmas cheer to the Rector Nursing Home recently by decorating residents’ doors with festive decorations and spending quality time with them.
Among Clay County histories, there are conflicting claims in regard to just whom Clayton County was named. Was it General Powell Clayton or his brother John Middleton Clayton? Local Historian Robert T. Webb in his 1933 History and Traditions of Clay County attests that Clayton County was named, and then unnamed, for General Powell Clayton as the previous Governor of Arkansas. His book was the first extensive history written of Clay County, and benefited from the oral history of old settlers that had been there at the founding of Clayton County. Later historians O.L. Dalton and J.M. Oliver, Jr., writing for the Piggott Banner and the Clay County Courier respectively, took the stance that Clayton County was in fact named for John M. Clayton. Oliverâs accounts describe how in early 1873, freshman State Representative Benjamin H. Crowley (grandson of Crowleyâs Ridge namesake, Ben Crowley) introduced the bill to create a county from parts of Randolph and Greene Counties but found no traction until partnering with John M. Clayton to pass the bill, stipulated by naming the county for John Clayton. In Oliverâs Corning Cavalcade he gives a slightly different account that the creation of Clayton County was delayed because legislators refused to name a county for the hated Powell Clayton, and that eventually a compromise was made to ostensibly name the county for the popular Senate President, John Clayton.
The schedule of activities is now underway as the Piggott Area Chamber of Commerce hosts the sixth annual 12 Days of Christmas. This year’s holiday offering kicked-off this past Saturday, Dec. 7, and will run through Friday, Dec. 20.
RECTOR STUDENTS TOUR MEGA BRAIN
The Piggott Mohawks played host to the Armorel Tigers for three games on Thursday Dec. 5.
Part Twenty: Welcome to Clay County. Welcome to Clayton County is a limited weekly column exploring the life of General Powell Clayton, the original namesake of our county, our early history, and why we are not called Clayton County today.
Rector High School Student Council members are giving back to their community as they host their annual food drive. The food drive began Dec. 2 and will run through Dec. 13.
The Clay County Sheriff’s Department reports that on Tuesday, Nov. 26 the department was notified by a Rector police officer that they were observing suspicious activity involving two vehicles in the Harp’s parking lot.
Miss Arkansas Teen attends Piggott event