City of Jonesboro, AR history

During the Civil War, Jonesboro was the site of a skirmish between Union and Confederate forces on August 2, 1862.

The first court house was finally completed but was destroyed by a fire in 1869.

Another building was constructed on the same site, but it fell to a major fire in 1878 that destroyed most of downtown Jonesboro.

In 1881, the Cotton Belt Railroad established a line that reached Jonesboro.

Founded as the county seat in 1859 and laid out by J.N. Burk on land donated by Fergus Snoddy, it was named for state senator William A. Jones. It was incorporated as a city in 1883, soon after the railroads reached the area.

John W. Snyder, Secretary of the Treasury under President Harry S. Truman, was born in Jonesboro in 1895.

St Bernard's Medical Center admitted its first patient in 1900.

In 1909, the Arkansas legislature established a regional agricultural training school in Jonesboro.

In 1910, a group of area farmers decided to try growing rice in the fields outside of town.

Early melting of the Mississippi River Valley from the northern states caused the river to swell, and back up into the Arkansas tributaries. media/Flood 1927.jpg plain

Their success led to the creation in 1930 of what was at the time the largest rice mill in the world, operated by Riceland Foods, Inc.

Hytrol relocated to Jonesboro, AR in 1962 with 26 employees, and since then we’ve grown to more than 1,000. media/Hytrol.jpg plain

That institution flourished and expanded over the years, and later became Arkansas State University in 1967.

Jonesboro was dragged into the national spotlight in 1998, when a pair of boys, aged 11 and 13, hid in the woods outside Westside Middle School and opened fire, killing four students and a teacher.

The Regional Medical Center of NEA was purchased in 2003 by Triad Hospitals of Plano, Texas, and was renamed NEA Medical Center.