Railroads and Railroad Companies--Memphis and Little Rock Railroad (Madison, Ark.)

Chartered by the government of Arkansas in 1853, the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad was the first railroad company incorporated in that state. By 1858 it had a track completed between Madison, Arkansas, to the St. France River near Memphis, and by January 1862 it ran trains between De Vall’s Bluff and Little Rock. There was a sizable gap in the line during the Civil War between De Vall’s Bluff and Madison which required passengers to go by stagecoach and steamboat. The Civil War then interrupted construction on the line, and Union and Confederate forces utilized the railroad. Several of the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad facilities in Hopefield were destroyed when federal troops burned parts of the town in 1863. By 1864, Union forces had control of the rail line, leading Confederate troops and guerrillas to periodically destroy parts of the track. A small battle at Ashley’s Station in Arkansas took place along the rail line in August 1864.

Following the Civil War, construction resumed on the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad. The company finished construction of the track between De Vall’s Bluff and Madison in 1871, finally linking Little Rock to the Memphis area in one single line. However, the railroad was not a luxury ride, as the train cars often swayed, and derailing was not uncommon. The railroad suffered from persistent financial problems, foreclosing at least four times before 1900. Each time it was sold to a new company, some of which had similar names. The first was the Memphis and Little Rock Railway Company which purchased rights to the line in 1873, then the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad Company in 1877, then the Little Rock and Memphis Railroad Company in 1887, and finally to the Choctaw and Memphis Railroad Company in 1898. That company was bought by the Choctaw, Oklahoma, and Gulf Railroad Company in 1900, which was later sold to the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company. (Dallas T. Herndon, Centennial History of Arkansas, Vol. 1, 520–521; Van Zbinden, “Memphis and Little Rock Railroad (M&LR),” Encyclopedia of Arkansas)