Arkadelphia

For Little Rock Public Radio, this is Dan Boice, with Naming Arkansas.
Arkadelphia, the seat of Clark County, has a name that looks impressively classical. In the early 1800s, Adam Blakeley built a blacksmith shop and his settlement was called Blakeleytown for several decades. Around 1840, the growing town was renamed Arkadelphia, but there are no records of who did the renaming or why. One logical guess is that the town was settled by immigrants from Arkadelphia, Alabama, the only problem with this story being that when in 1843 the Clark County town got its post office and official name, the Alabama town of Arkadelphia did not yet exist. Probably then, someone knew enough Greek to know that “delphia” has to do with brothers, as in the name Philadelphia, and just added the “Ark” for the state’s name in an effort to make the town look sophisticated. With its two fine universities, Arkadelphia has plenty of sophistication whatever its name might signify.
For the University of Arkansas at Monticello this is Dan Boice.