This little village is prettily located on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, five miles north of Rogers. It was laid out in 1881 by Albert Peel, who built the first house and opened the first store in the place. It now contains the railroad depot, two stores, kept, respectively, by Albert Peel and J. R. Dunagin, a blacksmith shop and grain warehouse, also a district school-house. Grain, railroad ties, fence posts and fruits, especially small fruits, are extensively shipped from this station.
Brightwater is a station on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad, two miles northeast of Avoca. As a village it was established about the year 1840, by an old pioneer settler, Enoch Trott, who kept a tavern or “stand” and a grocery, principally for the use of the drovers and other travelers on the old State road. A leading article sold at the grocery was in liquid form. It was called “Trott’s Stand.” At the breaking out of the war Judge Long kept the only store in the place. This store-house and the few other buildings there were burned on the occasion of the battle of Pea Ridge. The first improvement there, after the war, was made by Albert Peel (now of Avoca), who bought the land and put up a dwelling-house and a store-house. It now consists of the general store of Joe Dickson & Son, the drug store of Drs. T. M. & R. S. Rice, the grocery store of Hill & Lynch, a blacksmith shop and a fruit evaporator, the latter by Kimmons & Son. The capacity of the fruit evaporator is about 200 bushels per day, and when operated the proprietors employ about twenty-five hands. The place has a district school-house, but no church edifice. The only organized church there is the Christian, and the members thereof worship in the school-house. Pea Ridge Lodge No. 119, A. F. & A. M., is located at Brightwater. In amount of shipments the place compares well with other stations on the road.
Back to: Benton County, Arkansas History
Source: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago, IL, USA: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.