KUAR Arkansas’s Amazing Place Names # 33 Butterfield
The Hot Spring County town of Butterfield began life in the 1850s as a station on the Concord Stagecoach line. The town’s first postmaster, Alexander Womble, originally got the post office and the town to be named Womble. But in 1892, for no recorded reason, the town’s name was changed to Butterfield.
Three stories have grown up to explain the new name:
The first says it is named for the famous Butterfield Stagecoach Line, even though the station was NOT on the Butterfield Line.
The second tale says that the town was renamed for a Colonel Butterfield who was a frequent visitor.
The third story gives the origin as the name of railroad supervisor D. A. Butterfield. This seems the most reasonable, given that by 1892 the Butterfield Stagecoaches had already been long gone, and except in Arkansas tall tales, towns are rarely named for visitors. And so the old stagecoach way station was named for one of the railroads that had spelled the demise of the stagecoaches.
Daniel Boice