Nashville, Arkansas

==History==
Mine Creek Baptist Church was built along the banks of Mine Creek by the Rev. Isaac Cooper Perkins (1790–1852) in the area where Nashville now stands around 1835.<ref name="The Nashville Leader, 21 Sept. 2009">[http://www.nashvilleleader.com/articles/2009/03/28/news/01news.txt ''The Nashville Leader'', 21 Sept. 2009]</ref> Settlers later established a post stop along the settlement roads in 1840,<ref name=Centennial>{{Cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6hUUAAAAYAAJ&q=nashville&pg=PA902| title=Centennial History of Arkansas, Volume 1| author=Dallas T. Herndon|authorlink=Dallas T. Herndon | location=Chicago and Little Rock| publisher=S.J. Clarke| year=1922| isbn=9780893080686}}</ref>{{rp|902–903}} and a post office incorporated in 1848.<ref name="The Nashville Leader, 21 Sept. 2009"/> Michael Womack (1794–1861), a [[Tennessee]] native reputed to have killed the British general [[Edward Pakenham]] during the [[War of 1812]], settled in the area with his family in 1849.<ref name="Genealogy of Michael Womack">{{cite web| url=http://www.womacknet.com/features/michaelwomack.html| title=Michael Womack – Pioneer Arkansan| access-date=26 December 2015}}</ref> The area was then known by locals as "Mine Creek", but was also called "Hell's Valley"<ref>''Arkansas Historical Quarterly''. "Hell's Valley, Nashville", 13:265</ref> and "Pleasant Valley".

Settlement in the area progressed slowly but steadily, though industry declined during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Following the war, the village's prospects improved, industry and settlement picked up, and the town was officially incorporated as Nashville on 18 October 1883, with D.A. Hutchinson serving as the first mayor.<ref name=Centennial/>{{rp|903}} Womack is attributed with first proposing the name and called the town after [[Nashville, Tennessee]].<ref name="Genealogy of Michael Womack"/> The following year, Nashville and [[Hope, Arkansas|Hope]] were connected via railroad, spurring further growth, and the county seat was relocated from [[Center Point, Howard County, Arkansas|Center Point]] to Nashville.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.arkansasheritage.com/life_times/counties/d_j.asp#howard |title=ArkansasHeritage.com |access-date=2008-08-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517122748/http://www.arkansasheritage.com/life_times/counties/d_j.asp#howard |archive-date=2008-05-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref> With the establishment of county government in the town, and due to the increased trade and access brought by the railroad, Nashville continued to grow. The town had a population of 928 in 1900, and boasted "a cotton-compress and [[cotton gin|gin]]" and a "bottling-works";<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=5iA9AAAAYAAJ&q=nashville&pg=PA1257 ''Lippencott's New Gazetteer: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer or Geographical Dictionary of the World'', Vol.2.] A. Heilprin and L. Heilprin, Eds. (Philadelphia: J. Lippencott, 1906):1257</ref> by 1920 the population had risen to 2,144.<ref name=Centennial/>{{rp|903}}

In the years before the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]], Nashville was a prosperous, if small, town. According to author [[Dallas T. Herndon]], Nashville was "a banking town, with electric lights, waterworks, an ice and cold storage plant, a canning factory, foundries, machine shops, a flour mill, two newspapers, a brick factory, fruit box and crate factory, mercantile concerns... well-kept streets, [and] modern public schools."<ref name=Centennial/>{{rp|903}}

An EF2 tornado struck the town on [[Tornado outbreak sequence of May 5–10, 2015|May 10, 2015]], and killed two people.