Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Fredonia, AR

Fredonia is an incorporated town in eastern Prairie County, officially recorded by the Census Bureau as Fredonia (Biscoe): locals have always called it Fredonia, while the post office and most official records use the name Biscoe, and mail is addressed to Biscoe, AR 72017.

The town sits on Surrounded Hill between the White River and the Cache River, on U.S. Highway 70 a few miles east of DeValls Bluff.

The community's post office opened in 1872 under the name Fredonia, then cycled through names: Surrounded Hill in 1875, Fredonia again in 1881, Surrounded Hill again later that same year, and finally Biscoe in 1902, a name chosen to honor landowner John Biscoe.

Local tradition links the name Fredonia to the Republic of Fredonia, the short-lived 1826 revolt in Mexican Texas associated with Arkansas Cherokee and Texan settlers.

The town was incorporated on July 27, 1909, apparently under the name Biscoe, even though residents continued to call their town Fredonia.

During the great Mississippi River Flood of 1927, the Red Cross cared for nearly 2,000 refugees at Biscoe.

By 1937 the town supported five churches, eight general stores, two cotton gins, two blacksmith shops, three filling stations, two bus stations, a drugstore, a train depot, and a post office.

In the early twentieth century, Biscoe's baseball team, led by pitcher Bill Thomas, regularly defeated teams from Brinkley, Cotton Plant, and Hazen.

Biscoe's schools were consolidated into the DeValls Bluff School District during the 1960s, desegregating in the same action.

The Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, more than 60,000 acres of wetlands and bottomland hardwood forest famous for migrating waterfowl, lies along the Cache River just east of town.