Timeline -- 1820s

1828
George McGarrah, his wife and their three sons settle near Big Spring at what is now the corner of Spring Street and Willow Avenue.
Larkin Newton is appointed postmaster by President Andrew Jackson.
October 17 — Washington County is established and the town of Washington Courthouse, renamed Fayetteville a year later, is chosen as the county seat.

1829
The first county courthouse, a crude 20-foot by 20-foot log building with puncheon floor, is erected about where Block Street passes between the present-day Bank of Fayetteville and the Old Post Office.
Because of confusion arising from another Arkansas town in Hempstead County already being named Washington, the postmaster general orders Washington Courthouse to be renamed. City commissioners choose the name Fayetteville because two of the commissioners were from Fayetteville, Tenn.