Celebrating centennial
Posted on Wednesday, October 8, 2008
DECATUR ó The city of Decatur is officially celebrating being 100 years old this year. One hundred years is counted from the time when the community was incorporated and became a city.
The community existed many decades before 1909. It was first known as Corner Springs. An old picture in the Decatur State Bank portrays the city as a community under what is now the stop light on Main Street. Originally the city was platted with five streets: North, South, East, West and Main streets. All of those street names except Main Street have since been changed.
Among the original pioneers in the area were William F. Burrow and Henry C. Hastings, who purchased land sections in the northern part of the city. When the community of Corner Springs applied for a post office of that name, the application was rejected. The name of Decatur was submitted, and the first post office opened in 1882 with John Cotton as postmaster.
The name Decatur came from Navy Admiral Stephen Decatur, reportedly a distant relative of someone living in the community.
The completion of the Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad (now the Kansas City Southern railroad ) through the city in 1892 brought many changes to the area, including the ability to produce crops and ship them elsewhere. The area around Decatur was primarily agricultural. Early days saw apples as a major product, with many railroad cars shipped from Decatur. During season, many rail car shipments of strawberries and beans were likewise shipped from Decatur. The city had a canning factory located where the north building of the chicken processing plant now stands. To my knowledge, only tomatoes were canned at the plant.
The first bank, the Bank of Decatur, opened in 1906 and closed during the latter stages of the depression, around 1937. The Decatur State Bank was formed in 1954. Incidentally, the Bank of Decatur was robbed on Feb. 28, 1923. The safe was stolen and taken south of town. It was recovered intact ó apparently the robbers were never able to open it.
By 1915, the population of Decatur was 246. In addition to the bank, the city had a newspaper ó the Decatur Herald founded in 1896 ó a lumber company, two grocery stores, four general stores, three hotels ó the Londagin, Wilkins, and Gordon hotels ó a hardware store, a telephone company, a drug store, a restaurant, and a second-hand goods store. At one time, the city produced its own electricity with a generator located where the south chicken processing plant now stands.
With the founding of Peterson Industries in 1939, the area around Decatur began to switch from truck farming to chicken farming. As you know, the growth of the Peterson Industries facilitated tremendous growth of chicken-related businesses and farming in the surrounding area.
The first processing plant was located in the former Gordon Hotel on south Main Street and was owned by Seymour Processing Company of Kansas. The company won the national ì Chicken of Tomorrowî contest in the early 1950 s. This along with the development of the Peterson Male put the company and the city on the global map.
In February of 1955, the city was recognized by Look magazine as an All-America City ó the smallest city to ever win such an award. It was based on the many improvements the city made the previous few years, including a sewer system, an airport, a bank and new stores on Main Street.
Over the years, Decatur has had a movie theater and a drivein theater. Movies were played two nights each week.
Sports have been important to the area ó mostly baseball and basketball and, more recently, football. The 1923 basketball team was undefeated and played teams in the four-state area and was champion of all of Northwest Arkansas. A lighted baseball field was constructed in the old city park. During the 1940 s the high school girlsí basketball team went to the state tournament twice ó and this was before schools were divided according to student enrollment. Football was introduced to the community in the 1950 s ó first with six-man football, then eight-man football and finally the full eleven-man football.
As with many small communities, life seemed to revolve around the school and local churches. Such was the case with Decatur. Schools Little is known about when the first schools were organized in Decatur. Apparently the first school was only an elementary school. Sometime after entering the 20 th Century, a high school was begun, but this school only went through the tenth grade. Officially, the first graduating class from the high school was in 1921. It had two graduates ó Iva Jane Peek and her brother Ray Scoggins.
Many of you either personally knew or knew of Miss Iva Jane as she was affectionately known. She taught the first and then the third grades in Decatur for many, many years. Our city library is named in her honor.
Small country schools were consolidated with the Decatur schools. These included Word, Cottage Grove, Mount Zion, Falling Springs, Coats, Rocky Comfort and Burgin Valley.
The first permanent school building, which included the high school, was built where the city offices now stand. This building was erected around 1910 and was destroyed in a tornado on June 6, 1937. The replacement school building, built by the WPA, was first occupied in 1940 and now contains the city offices, the police department, a sheriff substation and the community center. The current school buildings were built in 1960 and 1970. A newer elementary school was occupied just a year ago. Churches Four major churches appear to dominate the cityís history. Corner Springs Mission Missionary Baptist Church (now the First Baptist Church ) was organized in 1869. A short time later that church sold land for the construction of the Methodist Church. The Assembly of God Church was organized about 1939.
I have been unable to determine when the Seventh-day Adventist church began here. Shortly after the major tornado that blew away the school in 1937, the Baptist, Methodist and Seventh-day Adventist churches were used as temporary classrooms, in addition to the old city hall, located where the Handi-Mart parking lot is. Of course, all of these churches have built new buildings in recent decades.
Time marches on ! Decatur continues to evolve from its humble beginnings. The next hundred years will see the area change even more.
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