KUAR Arkansas’s Amazing Place Names # 31
Probably the most famous Arkansas railroad station name of a city is Paragould, the seat of Greene County and named for two powerful railroad barons. The Texas & St. Louis Railway, later called the Cotton Belt, was owned by J.W. Paramore, and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad was owned by the infamous Jay Gould. Where the lines intersected in Greene County, each railroad build its own station, and a community quickly formed around the two stations. As it grew, of course, the town needed a name. Instead of choosing one of the two station names, the town’s first postmaster decided to combine the names of Paramore and Gould and so crafted the word Paragould. Jay Gould was reportedly furious at being the second banana, so to speak, and demanded that the town devise another name. But it was too late: the U.S. postal service had officially decreed Paragould, and so the name and the city remain.
Daniel Boice
University of Arkansas at Monticello