Lafayette County Circuit Clerk

03/12/2026

Community Clean-Up Day!!

🎡 IT STARTS HERE — COMMUNITY CLEAN-UP DAY 🎡

Lots of work has been put towards bringing our fair back, and it starts here! We ask anyone who can donate their time to come out and help us take the first step toward bringing the Lafayette County Fair back.

📍 Lafayette County Fairgrounds
📅 Saturday, March 28, 2026
⏰ 8:00 AM

Big, big things are coming, so keep a look out! 👀

👉 Tag your friends
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👉 Come help support your community

As a community, we are stronger together. Let’s all work together to BRING BACK THE LAFAYETTE COUNTY FAIR! 🎠

03/09/2026

Jury trials for March 16-18, 2026 have been cancelled.
Please do not report.
Thank you,
Dana Phillips, Circuit Clerk

03/06/2026

Jury trails for
March 16-18,2026
Have been cancelled.
You do not need to report!!

03/04/2026

Agenda for Quorum Court Meeting-
March 11, 2026

03/04/2026

Here’s the unofficial results for 2026 Primary Election.

03/03/2026

🇺🇸ELECTION DAY🇺🇸
‼️Polls are open until 7:30 pm‼️
🇺🇸Stamps City Hall🇺🇸
🇺🇸Bradley City Hall🇺🇸
🇺🇸Lafayette County Annex 🇺🇸

03/02/2026

Reminder:
Today, March 2 is the last Day to Early Vote! 8am-5pm 🗳️
Tomorrow, March 3, is ELECTION DAY! All 3 voting centers will be open from 730am to 730pm! 🇺🇲🇺🇸🇺🇸

02/28/2026

Lafayette County Bicentennial is 2027
Part 2
Posted by Maebell Pierson

The act that created the county in October 1827 designated the houses of Joshua Morrison as the temporary county seat, but ten days later an act was passed authorizing an election for commissioners to locate a permanent county seat. In 1828 the first courthouse was built on Chickanninny Prairie, about 10 miled southwest of the present town of Lewisville, near the Red River crossing known as La Grange on the Rube Russell place. A stone monument was placed near the site in 1976. The courthouse and jail were made of logs. Joshua Morrison was the first sheriff. The first county judge was Jacob Buzzard who served from 1829 to 1836. In 1830 the census gave the population of the county as 748.
In 1841 the courthouse was moved to Old Lewisville, where H.M. Lemay, James Trigg and F. Herndon had made a plat of the land to for4m a new town. The land was given by J.N. Wilson, in honor of Lewis B. Fort, an early settler and prior owner of the site. The building was a two story brick and served from 1840 to 1889.
The seat of government was moved south about two miles on August 26, 1890 to New Lewisville soon after the Cotton Belt Railroad came to Arkansas, a new town began to form about 2 miles south of the courthouse and was called Galveston, then New Lewisville and presently Lewisville. On August 26, 1890, the county government was moved to New Lewisville. John Steel acquired the land where Lewisville stands in 1845 from the United States Government. In 1883 his heirs deeded the land to Southwestern Improvement Association of St. Louis, Missouri and in September 1890 it was a gift for the site of the courthouse with the stipulation that the family cemetery would remain where it was. The cemetery is east of the courthouse and is the only cemetery on the grounds of a courthouse in Arkansas. John Steel and his wife and several children, one of which was a lieutenant in the Confederate Army, are buried in the cemetery. A wooden frame building was constructed and a separate building was provided for the clerk. “Outdoor plumbing” was a fashionable necessity and county records show court orders approving payment for well curbing and for building a privy.
In 1901, the court voted to build another courthouse and D.L. King was named to oversee construction of a two story brick building that was completed July 7, 1904. This courthouse would serve the county until 1940 when the present courthouse was built. Thus the county has had five courthouses.
Early travel was by Indian trails, then later wagon trails. Boats traveled the river and ferries were used to cross the river. Travel on the Red River was hindered by the Great Raft until its final removal several years after the Civil War. Steam boats carried cotton to market along the river to New Orleans, Louisiana. The road from Washington, Arkansas to the Conway plantation was built about 1832. In 1844 the route was extende3d to Shreveport, Louisiana. The Road Act of 1838 gave the counties the responsibility for building and maintaining roads. The county was authorized to levy a road tax, against every man of 21 or over, payable in $8.00 cash or four days work, per year. The county judge appointed a man as road-overseer in each township. This system continued until about 1898. The roads did not improve appreciably until the 1900’s. Much road work was done after the beginning WPA. The county now has an improved road system with an increasing number of hard-surfaced farm-to-market and recreational access roads.
The coming of the Iron Horse in the 1880’s did much to bring in population. In the hills, covered with pine forests, the railroads opened up the county to commerce and industry. It ran from Texarkana to Waldo and was known as the Narrow Gage. The name was changed to Cotton Belt on November 17, 1903. A few years later the L and A Railroad was built and its general offices and shops located in Stamps, remaining there until the “depression years”.
During the War Between the States Confederate camps were located at Lewisville, Soldier’s Ridge (near Gin City), and at Dooley’s Ferry. Capt. Sam H. Dill’s company was formed in May 1861 and became a part of the Sixth Arkansas Infantry. A cavalry company under Capt. C.C. DuBose was formed in July of 1861. In 1862, the county sent a company headed by Capt. D.W. Harris which was to participate in campaigns east of the Mississippi. Later the old men and boys were taken to form R.B. Ford’s cavalry company and operated in the Trans-Mississippi Department. No battles were fought in Lafayette County.
In 1842 Walnut Hill Academy was chartered as a private school. In 1860 a public building was erected to be used for school and church purposes. Often more than one denomination would use the buildings. The early schools were of the one-room, one-teacher variety. A township might have as many as four schools in order to accommodate students who even then had to walk several miles to school. By 1890 “Old” and “New” Lewisville had improved schools, but the rural schools had the barest essentials.
Made up of fertile river valleys and rolling land, the county is well adapted to farming, forestry and the raising of livestock. The mining of gravel has been a major industry, and at one time the county had reportedly the largest sawmill in the world at Stamps. Cotton was the main crop and the timber industry the main industry.

02/27/2026

Posted by Ms. Maebell Pierson:

Lafayette County Bicentennial is 2027

Lafayette County is approaching a milestone and is due to celebrate 200 years in existence in October 2027. The 200th anniversary of an event is called a bicentennial. This term comes from the Latin prefix bi-, meaning "two," combined with centennial, meaning "a hundred years," thus signifying a period of two centuries.
Lafayette County was created into existence a mere 51 years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
It would be wonderful to have citizens come together in kindness with ideas on how to celebrate this historic event.
This Bible passage is an inspiration and should be followed and applied in everyday life for us all……and when you go vote…..or elected to an official position.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. – Proverbs 3:5–6 (KJV)
This verse calls for complete reliance on God, urging individuals to trust His wisdom over their own limited human reasoning. It emphasizes that true guidance comes from acknowledging God in every aspect of life—decisions, relationships, and daily actions. The promise is that when this trust is genuine, God will make one’s path straight, even when the way ahead is unclear.

Controversy has recently been rampant in Lafayette County. Negative comments are common during heated election years but sometimes more than others. Our county is struggling and is in dire need of strong leadership that will bring the county together and unify to make Lafayette County prosperous again. Hopefully individuals can learn from previous mistakes and strive to do better in the future for all the citizens of Lafayette County. Just a reminder that any elected official should make a commitment to serve the people that elected them to the best of their ability. This is true for everyone previously elected or will be elected in the near future. We are all under an obligation to do our best in helping our county…..by voting…..by serving….by just stepping up and asking what can I do to help……and especially praying for God’s guidance
And now for some Lafayette County history…….
“In the Beginning”
Lafayette County became Arkansas’ 14th county on October 15, 1827 when the Territorial Legislature carved it out of Hempstead County. The eastern boundary was the Ouachita River, the southern boundary – Louisiana. Hempstead County joined it on the North, while it extended westward to the border of the Louisiana Purchase, which later became Texas. In 1852 Columbia County was formed and 1874 Miller County, which had been annexed to Lafayette County in 1838, was reformed. Lafayette County was left with an area of only 525 square miles. Lafayette County was named in honor of the Marquis de La Fayette, a Frenchman who aided the colonist in the American Revolution. In 1906 the legislature decreed the pronunciation to be Lafayette.
This Southwestern portion of Arkansas was first inhabited by the “Kadohadacho Caddo” Indians and the Quapaw. The Quapaw Treaty removing them from the area was signed in 1815. In 1908 a flood on the Red River uncovered Indian Burial Grounds and relics on the site of the first courthouse on Chickaninny Prairie. In 1818 Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, ordered a trading post set up on the Red River near Sulphur Fork (above Spring Bank Ferry) on Long Prairie. Stephen F. Austin (Father of Texas), his father Moses Austin and Sam Carson operated the post until they went to Texas. The post was operated until 1822.
Around 1820 a group from Tennessee came up the Red River to an area about ten miles north of the Louisiana-Arkansas boundary. They landed at a beautiful prairie area about ten miles long and only a few miles wide and named it Long Prairie. Some of these families were Wallace, Clark, War, Manning, Dyer, Hutson H. Robinson, Duty, Dooley, Peterson, Murrell, a slave named Big Joe Robinson and James S. Conway (the first Governor of Arkansas). James S. Conway had been appointed by President James Monroe to survey the western boundary of Arkansas. The first town platted in Lafayette County was Conway at the northern section of Long Prairie.
Other early settlers were Capt. Hugh Bradley, Moses Morrison, Thomas Bradshaw, George Hill, John Caffery, Morehead Wright, W.A. Higgs, Solomon Ruggles, and a man named Frenchard.

Watch for Part 2 to be posted later

02/24/2026

‼️EARLY VOTING ENDS MARCH 2, 2026‼️

We get so wrapped up in the Presidential elections, but forget about our local races.

Please go out and vote. There are candidate races that are happening now that will effect who will be on the November ballot, but we have to VOTE NOW to selct the best choice to run in the NOVEMBER election There are sales tax and school millage issues that the community needs to decide on, also.

‼️The Primary election is going on right now through the 3rd of March‼️

11/03/2025

Trials scheduled for
Nov. 24-26, 2025
have been cancelled!

10/29/2025

With a deep sense of gratitude and a continued commitment to serving the citizens of Lafayette County, I, Dana Phillips, officially announce my candidacy for re-election as Circuit Clerk/ex officio recorder.

During my first term, I implemented key initiatives aimed at improving efficiency and accessibility for all residents. I worked closely with Arkansas Access To Justice to successfully execute the installation of a court kiosk in the vault of the circuit clerk’s office. The court kiosk is available for public use in Lafayette County courts. In 2023, the office was awarded a $21,176.25 grant to have historical documents from the land records scanned in and available for public viewing through our land management system. I also transitioned the office to a computerized jury program, which streamlines jury selection and makes the whole process more efficient.

Moving forward, I am dedicated to further modernizing and ensuring the circuit clerk’s office continues to operate with the utmost professionalism and transparency.

My heart and devotion have always been dedicated to working with the public and serving my community. I will continue to be committed to working with all citizens, elected officials, civic and community leaders to make Lafayette County the best it can be.

It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as your Circuit Clerk. I ask for your continued trust and support in the upcoming election.