Texarkana
Texarkana names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Texarkana a city partly in Miller co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city partly in Miller co., Ark., and partly in Bowie co., Tex.; on the Southwestern, and the St. Louis, Iron Texas and Pacific, the St. Louis Mountain and Southern railroads; 145 miles S. W. of Little Rock. Though a unit each in being nicipal the government county seat, the part in Arkansas part of the city has a separate mu- He It contains street of Miller county. , light railroad and electric plants, numerous churches, business colleges, United States government building, a National and other banks, and several daily and weekly newspapers. It has machine and boiler works, a cotton compress, a cottonseed oil mill, ice factories, car shops, etc. Pop. of part in Miller co., Ark., (1910) 5,655; (1920) 8,257 ; in Bowie co., Tex. (1910) 9,790; (1920) 11,480; total (1910) 15,545; (1920 ) 19,737.
Texarkana a city partly in Miller co.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a city partly in Miller co., Ark., and partly in Bowie co., Tex.; on Texas Pacific, the St. Louis Southwestern, and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern railroads; 145 miles S. W. of Little Rock. Though a unit each part of the city has a separate municipal government, the part in Arkansas being the county seat of Miller county. contains street railroad and light plants, numerous churches, business colleges, United States government building, a National and other banks, and several daily and weekly newspapers. It has machine and boiler works, a cotton compress, a cottonseed oil mill, ice factories, car shops, etc. Pop. of part in Miller co., Ark., (1910) 5,655; (1920) 8,257; in Bowie co., Tex. (1910) 9,790; (1920) 11,480; total (1910) 15,545; (1920) 19,737.
Texarkana a city on the border line between Texas and Arkansas
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a city on the border line between Texas and Arkansas, twenty-eight miles north of the Louisiana boundary. The town is noteworthy for its position and name. The first syllable of the name is the first syllable of Texas; the second syllable is the first syllable of Arkansas; and the remainder of the name is clipped from the end of Louisiana. Texarkana is located astride of the state line as stated, between Texas and Arkansas. The postoffice is partly in one state and partly in the other. The proper method of addressing a letter is, Mr. John Smith, Texarkana, Texas and Arkansas. Texarkana itself is a prosperous town of about 10,000 inhabitants. Several railroads intersect here. The railroad shops employ 3,000 persons.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The oddity Aiton's Encyclopedia savored in 1910 "the postoffice is partly in one state and partly in the other" survives: the Union Station post office and federal courthouse built in 1933 still sits astride the boundary, and Texarkana remains two legally separate cities with two mayors, the Arkansas side still the seat of Miller County. What has gone is the industry Collier's listed in 1921. The cotton compress, cottonseed oil mill, ice factories and the railroad shops that Aiton's said employed 3,000 have given way to trucking on Interstate 30, and the combined population of roughly 19,700 in 1920 has grown to something under 50,000, with the Texas side about three times the size of the Arkansas side. The town's most famous native, ragtime composer Scott Joplin, born nearby in the 1860s, goes unmentioned in both accounts; he is now the subject of a local park and a Texarkana mural.
Written for this edition, 2026.