Williford, Arkansas – odd statistics

Williford is in Sharp County, northeast Arkansas, with a small area touching Missouri. The 2010 population was 75, up from the 2000 census count of 63.

Detailed 2000 numbers showed: 32 households, 18 families and 46 housing units. Racial makeup: 96.83% White; 3.17% two or more races.

Twenty-five percent of households had a child under 18; 43.8% of households were married couples living together. Forty percent were made up of individuals. Thirty percent of families and 29.6% of the total population lived below the poverty line, including 71.4% of those under 18. No one 65 or older was living in poverty.

The town has a couple of stone buildings; one is a library.

Here is a satellite view: https://www.google.com/maps/@36.2507463,-91.3609756,1622a,20y,3.75t/data=!3m1!1e3

In 1930, Williford’s population was 357.

“Williford is a small community located in the eastern part of Sharp County near the Spring River, one of Arkansas’s most popular streams for recreational floating. During the early twentieth century, it was one of the county’s largest and fastest-growing towns, but since then it has experienced a steady decline resulting in an almost nonexistent business district and a population of fewer than eighty citizens.

“By 1890, the town consisted of three general stores, a saloon, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, a one-room schoolhouse, a doctor’s office, and a post office. By the turn of the century, the population more than doubled. In 1907, a steel frame bridge was constructed across the Spring River, stimulating growth. The Sharp County Bank was established by 1911, and, in 1912, a ten-room hotel was opened for business. Finally, on December 8, 1914, the town was officially incorporated.”

In 2004 the local school district merged with Oak Ridge Central School to become Twin Rivers school system. Twin Rivers closed in 2010.

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5984#