Arkansas was part of the Louisiana Purchase and administered under the Territory of Missouri until 1819 when the Arkansas Territory was organized.  In 1820, a large county was formed and named Crawford County, but it was nothing like the Crawford County that exists today.  It ran south of the Arkansas River, beginning at about Dardanelle and the eastern boundary of the present Yell County, all the way to Fort Gibson in Indian Territory.  The present boundaries of Crawford County were not set until about 1881.

 

The Town of Alma was a settlement that began about 1835, after the land passed from the control of the Osage Indians.  In the years that followed, the land changed hands several times, including once during the Civil War when it was bought with Confederate money.  Although, it had no name at the time, the area west of town along Frog Bayou was used by the Confederate Army for campsites for mounted troops during the fall and winter of 1861-62 because of the more moderate temperatures and better forage than the area around Fayetteville.  After the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862, many of the defeated Confederates walked back over the Boston Mountains in a late winter storm and followed Frog Bayou back down to their camps.  A few years after the war, this place finally became a real town.  In late 1868, the land where Alma sets was bought by the man who is called the father of Alma.

 

Col. Matthew F. Locke was born in 1824 in Rutherford County, Tennessee.  He served during the Mexican War and settled in Texas after that war.  Locke served in the Texas legislature and was an old friend to Governor Sam Houston.  During the war, Locke raised and commanded the 10th Texas cavalry and fought at Stones River.  In 1868, Col. Locke came to Crawford County and bought the land on which the city of Alma now stands, including the lot where the Alma Church of Christ is today and one across the street.  This area was orginally called Gumtown, but about 1872 a Post Office called Alma was established.  About that same time, the railroad from Little Rock to Fort Smith was coming through, and Col. Locke donated land for a depot and convinced the builders to move the line about half a mile so as to come through town.  The first house in town was built for Col. Locke, and he lived in Alma for forty years before moving back to Texas.  He died two years later in 1911.

 

The Alma Church of Christ was organized in the fall of 1877.   At that time there were already three churches in town, Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian.  On October 13, 1877 "the disciples met  and entered an organization with Brother George W. Owens as pastor, A.J. Moody as an elder, E.B. Hassett and L.B. Byers as deacons.  James E. Smith was clerk."

 

The orginal membership was twelve, not counting Brother Owens who was engaged to preach once a month at the rate of $13.00 per trip.  In May 1878, the church settled with Brother Owens for seven trips ($98.50.)  In 1880, they engaged Brother A. G. Lucas to preach for $12.50 per trip and settled with him in June 1881 for $150.00.  The next month, the church held its first "protracted meeting."  Brother B. W. Lauderdale preached for ten days.  There were nine additions, and Brother Lauderdale was paid $26.00.

 

In April 1883, the church engaged Brother J. T. Jones to preach.   He would be connected with the church for many years. Brother Jones helped build the first building on the present site about 1890.  Previously the congregation had met in the City Hall.  Brother Jones would be around in 1911 to marry William Farris and Viola Ada Starbird, parents of Hilda Knight and grandfather and grandmother of Jimmy Knight.  At the age of 95 in 1942, Brother Jones married Jimmy's parents, Hilda Farris Knight and Bill Knight.  Both William Farris and Bill Knight served as elders for the Alma congregation.  

 

By the turn of the century, the church had eighty members and over 150 people had passed through the twenty-three years since it had been organized.  During those early years, several people joined the church who still have decendants attending today.  Uriah Couch who came in 1881 was Jimmy Knight's great-great grandfather's brother-in-law.

 

In November 1882, a family moved here and brought a letter from their congregation in Maury County Tennessee.  They were Burton and Nancy Ann Warfield and their daughter Mary Burton, called Minnie.  Four years later, Minnie married Uriah Counch's brother-in-law, James A. Farris, a widower whose first wife had been Mahalia Couch, Uriah's sister.  The church must have figured heavily in the marriage deal.  Minnie's father was an elder, and that same summer, during a gospel meeting, James A. Farris and his daughter Callie (from his first marriage) were baptized.  Callie would become the mother of Snow Anderson, a faithful member, who lived for many years in a home across the street from the church building.  James and Minnie Farris went on to have four children and to become the grandparents of Jay Coleman and Katheryn Brooks, both long time members of the Alma congregation.  They were also the great grandparents of Mike Coleman and the great-great grandparents of Hollie Coleman Dobbs, Micaleigh Coleman, and Derick Coleman.  Now of course there are great-great-great grandchildren, Levi and Ian Dobbs, attending the Alma congregation. Going back to Burton and Anna Warfield, who arrived in Alma in 1882, the influence of that one family, through their daughter Minnie and her husband James Farris, has now come down to the 7th generation.  

 

On September 25, 1896, Brother J. M. Norwood and Brother J. T. Jones began a meeting that ran for ten days, whereupon Norwood left, and Jones continued the meeting for another week.  To pay for seventeen days of preaching, twenty-five members contributed $41.95.   Norwood received $26.75 and Jones $16.20.

 

Brother J. T. Jones continued to preach through the 1920s.  Several others preached in the 1930s and 1940s, Wade Ruby from Harding at Morrillton, J.O. Murphy, and Nelson Gardner.  L. C. Sears rode the train once a month from Searcy, Arkansas to preach.  Tillman Pope also preached, and L. O. Sanderson held several meetings.   

 

In the late 1950s, Bill Sherrill preached for the Alma congregation followed by Van Ledbetter in the early 1960s.  Cleaton Crosy and Jimmy Lackey preached in the late 1960s.  Johnny Mahan, Raymond Cantrell, Phil Smith, and David Banks preached in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s.  Merrill Pence, has preached for the Alma congregation since 2001.

 

The Alma Church of Christ has continued to meet in the same location since the first building was built in 1890.  In the early 1960's the congregation met in the Alma Elementary School building for a short time while the present building was torn down and a new structure was built on the same site.  Additions were made in the 1970s, and in 2006, another addition was added along with extended parking.

 

 

A Work in Progress to Be Continued...

Thank you to Jimmy Knight for sharing his research and family information.