Ravanna, Arkansas

Ravanna, Arkansas, has the distinction of being located in the exact southwest corner of the state. In fact, the Texas state line is only 300 yards west of the center of town and the Louisiana state line is only two and a half miles south.

Like so many other towns, there are several stories of how Ravanna got its name. Alice Brown, a lifetime resident of the area says that it was most likely named after a railway employee when the railroad came through in 1892. This was a common practice of the time.

The whole area, including Era, was settled by migrants coming from the eastern states, especially Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas. All of the region now called Sulphur Township was settled more or less simultaneously. The earliest settlers began arriving around 1836, and the influx continued up through the 1880s, From most accounts, it appears also that most settlers came by way of Jefferson, Texas, which for about a half century served as a major gateway to this area and all points west.

People arriving in the area were seeking new land on which to settle. From the beginning, timber was the biggest resource because all of this region of Arkansas was covered with dense virgin pine forest.

Some of the surnames associated with the early settling of Ravanna (1850s) were Endsley, Day, Brown, Sprayberry, Betterton, Sullivan, Allen, Hughes, Walden, Joiner, Beck, Stuckey, Arnold, Banner, Griffin, and Dillon.

Most of the people who came were farmers. Farming of course was an activity of first priority to insure the survival of everyone. Once the land was cleared. a small community came into existence. Other activities emerged to serve the needs of people. The blacksmith and the grist mill were probably the first, followed by the cotton gin and the sawmills.

According to Alice Brown, a lifetime resident of Ravanna, timber was the community’s chief industry throughout its existence. She says that even before the railroad came in 1892, men cut timber for railway ties and telephone poles and hauled them to Queen City and Jefferson, One of the first cotton gins in Ravanna was owned by Alfred Brown. It was a horse drawn gin. Later there was a steam gin owned by Wash Sullivan. Hiram Brown owned a grist mill and a blacksmith shop.

Brown says that after the railway came, there were five sawmills at different times which furnished lumber for this and other communities. Owners of those mills were Matt Griffin, Wash Sullivan, Roscoe Dillon, Tobe Sprayberry, and Elmer Brown, in this order.

By 1936, most of the virgin forests had been cut, and the remaining trees were mostly small, second growth and more suitable for pulpwood than for lumber. Fortunately, at about this time the paper industry developed a great demand for small trees. As a result, pulpwood evolved into a major industry throughout the township. The pulpwood industry was especially active in Ravanna, where there was a large pulpwood yard for the receiving and loading of the wood onto rail cars for shipment to the mills.

Brown relates that when the railroad arrived in 1892, there were three stores operating in Ravanna. They were owned by Joel Stuckey, Arthur Banner, and Will Arnold. Following the coming of the railroad, other stores appeared through the years under the names of Grigg Yates, Tom Brown, J. W. Burlton, Jim Taylor, John Treadway, B. Cockroft, Mart Jones, Elmer Brown, and Battle Walden, not necessarily in this order. Brown points out that... these stores did not all exist at the same time, but it is said that 12 were in operation in 1912, when a fire destroyed six stores and the post office due to a lighted cigarette being carelessly thrown into an uncovered joint in a gas line. However, these businesses were rebuilt.

The post office was established on March 23, 1896, with Jim Yates serving as the first postmaster. He was followed by Jim Stuckey, J. T. Taylor, Mrs. J. T. Taylor, and finally Mrs. Alice Brown, who was the last. Her term ran from 1942 to 1955.

Also, according to Brown, the first depot agent was Grigg Yates, who was followed by Tobe Sprayberry. They were the only depot agents during the time that the depot remained in Ravanna.

Ravanna had two churches, a Baptist, and a Methodist, which were blown away by a storm in 1913 and were never rebuilt. Those who attended church had other churches nearby, namely, Enon Baptist and Concord Methodist.

Beginning around 1930, Ravanna went into a slow decline. The population decreased, especially during World War II. Except for the pulpwood industry, there was virtually no local economic activity to sustain the population. Farming, as in all other parts of Sulphur Township, was becoming extinct.

Today (1992), Ravanna exists only in name. There are no stores or shops and no depot or post office. Mail comes by rural mail carrier. The few residents in the vicinity are either retired persons, small scale farmers, or those who commute to jobs elsewhere.