DeWitt District Court

DeWitt District Court is a district court in the Southern district of Arkansas county. Major roads available in De Witt are US 165, SR 1, SR 1 Business, SR 130 and SR 152.

When the importance of the original county seat of Arkansas county, Arkansas Post, diminished, a new seat was desired closer to the center of the county. The area chosen was DeWitt and the name was picked by lot. The original courthouse consisted of three log buildings until a brick structure was erected around 1862. At first the town's progress languished. A main railroad line was built through the town of Stuttgart in the 1880's and a spur line was constructed down to Burks Switch around 1891. The people of DeWitt raised a large amount of money to convince the railroad to make a three-mile bend in the road and run it through DeWitt. An economic boom followed with the erection of a sawmill and the growth of the livestock and hay industry. The early settlers grew cotton but the land was not suitable for this crop and in the early 1900s, the rice industry took hold with rice growing and milling soon becoming the area’s largest industries.

Hn. B. Park Eldridge, Jr.