Early Days of Marion

The town had been established only for the purpose of a County-seat or as a centralized location for the erection of public buildings to house the government and public records of the new Crittenden County (1842).

Its subsequent rapid growth into a mercantile and residential community was not planned nor even visualized by most of the early Town Fathers, many of whom were also early County Officials.

                                          A group of men bound for county county day.

It has been noted that at first the county Officials did not reside in or near Marion, but would commute to and from their homes on horseback when court was in session.

As it would be most logical to expect, Harvey W. Bigham, the first Crittenden County Court Clerk, must have soon found the rapidly increasing records of the County becoming too bulky for daily carriage in his saddlebags, which had previously been his practice.  He was determined to build a permanent residence in Marion on land which he had purchased from Dr. John S. Guilliam.

At the time there were a few log and frame cabins scattered through which is now downtown Marion and along the Fords Ferry Road (now North Main Street) and the Centerville (now Moore Avenue) Roads within one-half mile of the public square.

Despite the rather persistent rumor that the town was called Oxford before its incorporation as "Marion"  (effect of Feb. 22, 1844), it was always referred to in official records by its proper name.

 The rumor was based on the fact that early mail from Marion was postmarked "Oxford" but this was because that since the new town was not on a main mail stage road until after its incorporation, its mail was carried eastward to be mailed from the post office at Oxford Academy on the Flynns Ferry Road.