For Little Rock Public Radio, this is Dan Boice, with Naming Arkansas.
A number of Arkansas towns are not in the counties of the same name: Historic Washington is not in Washington County, but Hempstead, and the town of Searcy is in White County, many miles from Searcy County. The Faulkner county city of Conway was at least established in Conway County in 1871, but it was not named for the same Conway as the county. Conway County was named for young Henry Wharton Conway, a territorial delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives, who may be best known for having been killed in a duel by his former friend, Robert Crittenden. Fifty years later, when a railroad station was established near the town of Evans in Conway County, the town was renamed in honor of the state’s first elected governor, James Sevier Conway, who was no relation to Henry. In 1873, when Faulkner County was created, in it was the new town of Conway and the source of future confusion.
For the University of Arkansas at Monticello, this is Dan Boice.