Visitors Guide to Rector, Arkansas
Rector mural
Rector is a railroad town on the St. Louis and Texas railroad line (Cotton Belt). Rector is located on the eastern side of Crowley’s Ridge, a geological formation runs for about 150 miles along the Mississippi River floodplain of southeast Missouri into northern Arkansas. Its wooded hills rise up to 250 feet above the surrounding fields of cotton, corn, rice and soybeans. Prior to an 1808 treaty, the area was claimed by the Osage, who lived in Missouri but hunted in Arkansas.
The area’s first American settlers congregated in a community called Scatterville. Scatterville occupied a strategic location along Crowley's Ridge and at least two skirmishes occurred at Scatterville between Union and Confederate forces vying for control of Northeast Arkansas during the American Civil War. In 1882 the St. Louis and Southwestern railroad was constructed down the eastern edge of Crowley’s Ridge as far as Paragould and the Southwestern Improvement Association platted the town of Rector about two miles south of Scatterville. Rector was named after Henry Massey Rector, who was Arkansas’ Governor at the time it seceded from the Union in 1861. After the formation of Rector the inhabitants of Scatterville abandoned the community and gradually migrated to Rector. All that remains of Scatterville today is a cemetery.
After incorporation in 1887, Rector grew rapidly having the ability to export and import goods using the railroad. Rector’s first buildings were made of wood and fires in dry months would destroy entire city blocks. These fires motivated builders to rebuild using brick. In the early 20th Century the population of Rector reached its present size. Local businessman Matthew J. Motsinger founded Motsinger Park which hosted baseball games on Sunday afternoons in summer and an annual Fourth of July picnic. It had a swimming pool, bandstand, and a caged area where Motsinger kept monkeys. Rector Central Park was transformed from a muddy lot for wagons and horses to a park in 1913 by the Rector Women’s Club. Located on Main and Front streets, Rector Central Park was the site of band concerts on Thursday nights and other events. Today, it is the site Rector’s annual Labor Day celebration. Rector’s annual Labor Day celebration, which has grown from one day to four since its 1941 beginning, starts the weekend before Labor Day. It includes games, fair rides, a rodeo, a parade, beauty pageants, a talent show, gospel music, and political speeches.
www.rectorarkansas.com - The official website of the City of Rector.
