Early History
The first known settler in the area was John Scott, “a maker of sheep and cowbells,” who was also briefly the postmaster and named the town Scott's Prairie after himself. First Baptist Church was built from logs in 1854 and was the local school. The Methodist Church opened in 1857.
In June 1861, up to 5,000 Confederate soldiers led by Brig. Gen. James H. McBride set up camp in and around town, prompting Yankees in November 1863 under Maj. Austin A. King to burn the town to the ground. However, the Skirmish of Yocum Creek resulted in the only known casualties between Southern defenders and a Union patrol evacuating northern sympathizers, who were not exactly popular after the Yankees burned down Berryville, too.
The town was rebuilt and a new post office opened in 1867 with John Grim as postmaster. When clearing land on his farm, Grim had left a grove of shade trees untouched, which his neighbors dubbed “Green Forest” -- or according to some accounts "Grim's Forest."
By 1889 the town had a cotton gin operated by J. R. Hanby. The Green Forest Tribune began publication in 1889. A three-story school was built in 1893, replacing an earlier thirty-by-twenty-five-foot schoolhouse.
After Eureka Springs succeeded in dividing the county into two judicial districts, claiming the western district as its own, Green Forest proposed becoming the county seat for the eastern district, but was outvoted by larger Berryville.
In 1901, the St. Louis and North Arkansas Railroad built a rail line connecting Eureka Springs to Harrison. Stores and businesses sprang up around the Green Forest railroad depot. On September 20, 1902, a fire destroyed several businesses around the depot, including the Stone Hotel, Dr. Morrow’s Drug Store, W. L. Crow’s Store, and the printing offices of Crow & Pyron.
A new school building was erected in 1905, costing $5,000 to construct and $900 to furnish. The school was never used, though, as it was destroyed by fire on August 8, 1905. Another new school was quickly built, financed by 70 property owners who pledged two dollars for every $100 of property they owned, according to the Carroll County assessments.
Around that time, traveling preacher Lester Sumrall held a six-week revival. It was interrupted by an angry farmer in the middle of the sermon one night, who called out a neighbor who'd been cavorting with the farmer’s wife. The farmer shot the neighbor dead in front of the congregation. According to Sumrall's autobiography, the altar call drew quite a response that night, resulting in the founding of today's First Assembly of God.
In 1906, Willis Wood and Will Huttig of Kansas City along with engineer E. S. W. Drought and government assayer H. S. Mohun, drilled a 140-foot well and reported finding gold. Prospective investors hurried to profit, but it turned out the drillers were crooks -- no gold.
By 1927, the town's businesses included the First National Bank of Green Forest, chartered in 1901, several grocery stores, a marble and granite works, a wood milling company, a blacksmith, a hardware company, a tomato cannery, a telephone company, a bakery, a feed mill and a car dealership in what had been the Hanby cotton gin. It later became Tanner’s Hardware, the Country Rooster Cafe and now is Grace Baptist Church on the Square.
Most of the businesses around the train depot were destroyed along with the town of Denver in a 1927 tornado. Main Street survived, but the business district around the depot was devastated and not rebuilt. Denver, Arkansas, never recovered. The destroyed Green Forest train station was patched together with the old depot at Urbanette.
Today's restored Green Forest train station next to the soccer and baseball fields at the city park still has Urbanette markings on the big cargo door.
The public library opened in 1935.
Green Forest is the birthplace and childhood home of the late Cosmopolitan magazine publisher Helen Gurley Brown. It is also the birthplace of Baptist missionary David Crockett Graham, who also studied Chinese culture as an anthropologist. [11]
