For Little Rock Public Radio, this is Dan Boice, with Naming Arkansas.
Fulton County has two town names that combine blacksmiths and bad penmanship.
When the people of the town of Crossroads sought a post office in 1880, the US postal service said that because there was already an Arkansas town named Crossroads, they needed to pick another name. The town’s postmaster was the local blacksmith who was good at shoeing horses but not at naming towns. In a panic, he sent in the name of his wife, Agnes. But his handwriting was so bad that the official name of the town became Agnos, spelled with an O-S.
Just a few miles north, the town of South Fork, which also had its mail delivered to the blacksmith, also had its request for its name denied by the Postal Service. As several men were discussing this with the blacksmith, one noticed that there was a particularly nice saddle being repaired, and said we should name the town Saddle. The postal service thought that was just fine, so the towns of Agnos and Saddle gave witness to the importance of good blacksmiths and good handwriting.
For the University of Arkansas at Monticello, this is Dan Boice