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The
rural village of Victor, established between 1877 and
1881, has served as an active trading center for the
surrounding farming community for nearly a century.
Originally named Eureka, it is thought the name was
changed to honor a middle grove tobacco buyer who
settled in Monroe county in the early 1800 s. The
village is located at the intersection of the Paris to
Louisiana road, laid out in 1831 as one of the
earliest roads in the region, with another road and
the Calhoon branch of the Salt River. Limestone bluffs
to the south and steep hills to the north constrained
the settlement to a narrow strip running east-west
along the major artery. never formally platted, Victor
developed in an informal pattern in which the shops
formed a central business cluster to the west of the
crossroads and the sheds, barns and other outbuildings
were interspersed among the outlying houses.
Victor
displayed a typical array of small businesses two
general stores. a barber shop, drugstore with a
Woodman Lodge upstairs. and two blacksmith shops. in
addition the village contained two churches, the
Fairview Union church, an interdenominational meeting
house ministered to by traveling preachers, and the
Christian church, formed in 1912 by the Hattersley
family as the result of a split with the older church.
All were frame structures, as were the houses.
Limestone for foundations was readily available from
the nearby creek6ed lumber was hauled from a local
sawmill.
Early
commerce was dominated by three families --the
Stetsons, Hattersleys and Calhoons. Foremost among the
Calhoons was A. Odell Calhoon, widely known as a blacksmith,
inventor, bee-keeper and philosopher. His house, as
well as that of one of his sons, A. Owen was a
frame structure of a vernacular cottage style
characterized by steeply pitched gables with a cross
gable and two-story porch centered on the front. The
Calhoon blacksmith shop, established in 1882 by A.
Odell and his father, Robert combined the manufacture
of spring wagons with general blacksmithing and
woodworking. The lot east of the Hattersley store was
the scene of numerous social events including croquet
matches and occasional traveling tent shows. Farmers
came from miles around on Sunday afternoons to play
baseball on the creek bluff.
In
the 1920's a fire in the Sturner general store spread
to adjacent stuctures destroying the south side of the
business block. This area was never rebuilt. in 1931
relocation of state highway 154 removed Victor even
farther from direct commercial routes, and the village
rapidly declined in population and importance. Now
standing on the future site of the Clarence Cannon
reservoir, only a few buildings remain.
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