Timeline -- 1830s

1830
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is organized by the Rev. John Buchanan of Cane Hill in a blacksmith shop owned by John Lewis on East Center Street.

1832
The Methodist Church was established in Fayetteville.

1833
Alfred Wallace opens one of the first general stores, if not the first, on the west side of what is now the Fayetteville square. Soon after, the McGarrah family built a store at the corner of East and Center, with William McGarrah running the store.

1834
October 28 — The Cumberland Presbyterian churches of Fayetteville, Mount Comfort, Walnut Grove, Prairie Grove and White River convened at Cane Hill to organize a Presbyterian College, which resulted in Cane Hill College eventually being created.
The Methodist Episcopal Church South was organized at the home of Lodowic Brodie.
Isaac Murphy, later a state senator and governor, moved to Fayetteville with his wife Angelina Lockhart Murphy to teach school and practice law.

1835
Feb. 27 — Patent for the land of the original town is issued by President Andrew Jackson. It was described as the south half NE one-quarter and north half of SE quarter, Section 16, Township 16, Range 30 West. In easier terms to understand, this is the land bounded by what are now College Avenue on the east, Gregg Avenue on the West, Dickson Street on the north, and South Street on the south.
Soon after, the city was surveyed into lots by Charles McClelland, the deputy county surveyor, and a survey team of John West, William McGarrah, James Parr, John Smallman and A. Mankins.
All of the lots except the square were auctioned off by A. Whinnery between 1835 and 1837, raising $6,339 in the course of 169 sales, the money being used for erection of a courthouse and clerk’s office.
The military road was cut through Fayetteville en route from St. Louis to Fort Smith.
November 5 — The Washington Lodge of the Masons, the first Masonic lodge in Arkansas, is chartered in Fayetteville. In 1840, a two-story frame hall was erected on land deeded by Archibald Yell.

1836
Lodowic Brodie and A.B. Anthony build the city’s first brick house for school purposes on what is now called School Avenue, between Meadow and Center.
Arkansas is granted statehood. Archibald Yell, a Fayetteville resident, is elected the state’s first congressman.
Isaac Murphy became the first county treasurer of Washington County and served through 1838.
October 27 — The Fayetteville Female Academy was chartered with Robert H. Mecklin in charge of the school.
November 3 — The first state legislature passes an act to incorporate the town of Fayetteville. The first alderman, the equivalent of a mayor today, was P. Vinson Rhea.

1837
A new county courthouse is built of brick in the center of the Fayetteville square.

1838
January 18 — The city’s first bank, a branch of the State Bank, was opened. Jacob Wythe Walker was an early president, if not the first, of the bank, signing the bank’s lithographed currency from February to November.

1839
Archibald Yell contracts for construction of two-story jail, with dungeon and debtors’ cell in the lower story and a jailor’s residence on the upper floor. It was built on the southwest corner of College and Rock by Matthew Leeper for $4,000.
Sophia Sawyer, a missionary to the Cherokee Nation, moves to Fayetteville after civil strife between Cherokee factions and establishes the Fayetteville Female Seminary.