I have driven through the northeast Arkansas town of Piggott, but I've been mostly unaware of its long and fascinating history — one that begins with a prominent doctor and includes one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
The Clay County seat — one of two there today — was named for James A. Piggott, a medical doctor from Illinois who came to the area in 1872, settling near what is now modern-day Piggott.
The town was originally named Huston after another prominent citizen, but was later renamed for the highly respected doctor, who led the effort to successfully petition the U.S Postal Service for a post office at the rural settlement.
Both the town and post office were established in 1882, the same year railroad tracks were laid to haul out valuable timber. With the shift of residents toward the railroad, Clay County’s original seat of government, Boydsville, was no longer convenient for citizens. As a result, a special election in 1891 awarded the county seat to Piggott.
The town went through a major population growth in the 1910s. In 1913, two of what would become Piggott’s most famous residents, Paul and Mary Pfeiffer, moved with their children to the town from St. Louis.
The Pfeiffers purchased 65,000 acres in the Piggott area, which they divided into farmsteads and rented to tenants who came to Arkansas from all around the country.
When the Pfeiffer family arrived in Piggott, the growing city featured a town square built around the two-story brick Clay County Courthouse constructed in 1889. Businesses and stores lined the square. Many of the businesses in Piggott were agriculture related, such as farm implement dealers, leather shops, blacksmiths and a grain mill and elevator.
Piggott’s largest hotel, the Palace Hotel, opened in 1912, across from the railroad depot at the corner of Front and Main streets. Hotel advertisements boasted of the establishment’s 14 well-ventilated rooms with all the “modern conveniences.”
In spite of the Pfeiffers' many civic and philanthropic contributions to Piggott, they are no doubt best known as the parents of Pauline Pfeiffer, who married the famous American writer Ernest Hemingway. During their marriage, which lasted from 1927 to 1940, the Hemingways regularly visited the Pfeiffers in Piggott. The Pfeiffers even converted an old barn behind their home into a writing studio for their son-in-law. It was in this studio that Heminway wrote parts of “A Farewell to Arms” and other short stories.
Supposedly, Hemingway had mixed feelings about his in-law’s hometown, including a strong dislike of the hot and humid Arkansas summers. But he did write in the February 1934 issue of Esquire magazine that one of the places he would rather be, other than Paris, was “Piggott, Arkansas, in the fall.”
Today the Pfeiffer’s former house and property are owned by the Arkansas State University System and operated as The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum and Educational Center. The museum features exhibits on Hemingway and life in Arkansas in the 1930s. It also serves as the northern anchor for Crowley’s Ridge Parkway, a National Scenic Byway that goes through eight counties in eastern Arkansas. Just across the street from the Hemingway-Pfeiffer Museum is the Matilda and Karl Pfeiffer Museum and Study Center, which focuses on the lives and unique collections of Pauline Hemingway’s brother and sister-in-law.
I’ve never been to these two museums, but they are definitely on my Arkansas bucket list. I’ve actually been to Hemingway’s home in Key West, Florida, so I need to pay his Arkansas museum a visit as well. There are many other attractions to see and experience in Piggott that perhaps I’ll explore in a future column.
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