Place Names

Last updated on 2/12/2019

Arkansas

Thompson:  Thompson was a small community that consisted of a store, a post office, a railroad stop, a tie yard, and a full community center.  It was located near a ford on the White River in Northwest Arkansas.  The White River was probably a creek at this location.  Supposedly the town got it's name from Lewis W. Thompson who built the store in 1884.  The town no longer existed after the Second World War.

Sources:  History of the Thompson Townsite, Madison County Musings, Winter 1998 & Boston Mountains Still Echo Sounds of Vanished Hamlets, Northwest Arkansas Times, 26 Oct. 1975.

Missouri

Nevada: Nevada is the county seat of Vernon County, on the main line of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway and on the Lexington Southern and the Nevada & Minden divisions of the Missouri Pacific Railway, 107 miles south of Kansas City and 280 miles west of St. Louis.  It lies in the heart of an exceedingly rich agricultural, stock and fruit region, and overlies extensive beds of bituminous coal.   Source:  The Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, Vol. IV, 1901

Vada: Roy Peterson lived in Vada, Missouri when he met Bertha Lawson.  Vada is a small community in Texas County, Missouri.  According to Texas County Place Names, 1928-1945, a post office was located there from 1918 to 1929 and Vada is a shortened form of Nevada Jackson, the postmaster's daughter.