Kentucky long hunter John Standlee crossed the Mississippi River sometime between 1778 and 1780. Standlee lived on the Cossatot River in southwest Arkansas with his brothers Benjamin and William, hunting for the market. After moving back to Kentucky and Missouri, the Standlees settled down and began families. John Standlee wished to make his permanent home in Arkansas. He informed his three sons that they would travel from Missouri to Arkansas to establish a permanent location for the family. John Sr. and his sons William, Davis, John Jr., and their brother-in-law, John C. Benedict, migrated to Arkansas for good in 1811.[1]
The group made their way to the Devil’s Fork of the Little Red River, where they cleared a few acres, built cabins, and remained for roughly thirty months, hunting “Buffaloes, Bears, Elks, Deer and Turkeys” before returning to Missouri. In 1814, John Sr. moved his family back to Devil’s Fork, but Benedict and his family did not return.[2]
[1] Josiah H. Shinn, Pioneers and Makers of Arkansas (Little Rock: 1908), 45.
[2] Shinn, Pioneers, 45.
Arkansas Wildlife History 