Arkadelphia, Arkansas

The town on the Ouachita River was first settled around eighteen oh nine by Adam Blakely, who ran a blacksmith shop. It went by Blakelytown until eighteen thirty-eight, when residents renamed it Arkadelphia, a blend of Arkansas and the Greek word adelphia, meaning brother-place. The city incorporated on January sixth, eighteen fifty-seven.

During the Civil War it supplied salt and ordnance to Confederate forces. The real story that shaped Arkadelphia long-term came in the eighteen eighties: local Baptists founded Ouachita Baptist College in eighteen eighty-six, and local Methodists started Arkadelphia Methodist College, now Henderson State University, in eighteen ninety. That pair of colleges, still operating today on opposite ends of town, turned a small river settlement into a genuine college city.

Current population sits around ten thousand.