The Desha & Searcy Families

Franklin Desha built this house in 1847 on land his family had worked for years. He was the grandson of a Kentucky governor, the son of a Robert Desha who settled at Helena, and the nephew of the Benjamin Desha for whom Desha County is named. He married Elizabeth Searcy, daughter of Richard Searcy — the first clerk and judge in the Arkansas Territory, for whom both the city of Searcy and Searcy County are named.

Their house passed down through their descendants — through the Stroud and Vandiver lines — and remains a family home today.

Franklin Desha built this house in 1847, and it has been in his family ever since.

He was the son of a Robert Desha who settled at Helena, Arkansas, and the grandson of Joseph Desha, the ninth governor of Kentucky. His step-father was Hartwell Boswell, a prominent early figure of nearby Batesville. His uncle was Benjamin Desha, for whom Desha County is named.

Franklin was a veteran of the Mexican–American War, and he married Elizabeth Searcy, daughter of Richard Searcy — the judge for whom Searcy and Searcy County are named. During the American Civil War he served in the Confederate Army, and in 1863 the property was the site of a Confederate encampment.

The two portraits above show him as a young man and in his later years.

His house — a double-pen dogtrot of exactly the sort brought west by Upper South settlers — was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.

Elizabeth Jett Searcy was the wife of Franklin Desha and the daughter of Richard Searcy, the first clerk and judge of the Arkansas Territory, for whom the city of Searcy and Searcy County are named.

The two portraits above show her as a young woman and in her later years. Together she and Franklin raised their family in the house he built in 1847, which passed down through their descendants — the Stroud and Vandiver lines — and remains a family home today.

Elizabeth Searcy married Franklin Desha, and together they made this house a home.

She was the daughter of Richard Searcy, the first clerk and judge in the Arkansas Territory — the man for whom both the city of Searcy and Searcy County are named. Through her, the house joins the Desha and Searcy families, two of the most important names in early Arkansas.

The family’s stewardship of the house — from Franklin and Elizabeth through the Stroud and Vandiver lines to the present day — is the thread that ties 1847 to now.

Robert Desha was Franklin’s father — the family member who settled at Helena, Arkansas, on the Mississippi River.

The published record around the Robert Deshas of this family is genuinely tangled: there is a well-documented Robert Desha (1791–1849) who was a Tennessee congressman and the brother of Governor Joseph Desha — but who moved to Mobile, Alabama, not Helena. The National Register record for this house, however, names Franklin’s father as a Robert Desha who settled Helena.

There were evidently more than one Robert Desha in the family, and the family’s own records are the final authority on which is which. The full family tree — with the sources that settle this question — is coming to this site.

Joseph Desha was Franklin Desha’s grandfather — and one of the most consequential figures of his generation in the Ohio Valley.

He was the ninth Governor of Kentucky (1824–1828), after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives (1807–1819) and in Kentucky’s legislature. A veteran of the War of 1812, he fought at the Battle of the Thames. His governorship was turbulent — it included the famous “Old Court–New Court” controversy and a controversial pardon of his own son.

His brother was a Robert Desha (the Tennessee congressman), and the Desha family carried its Kentucky roots westward into Arkansas, where Joseph’s grandson Franklin built the house you can visit today.

Benjamin Desha was Franklin’s uncle and the namesake of Desha County, Arkansas.

He was a veteran of the War of 1812, wounded at the Battle of Mackinac Island. In 1822 President James Monroe appointed him receiver of public moneys for the Arkansas Territory, bringing the Desha family west from Kentucky. He died in 1835, and three years later the Arkansas legislature created Desha County (December 12, 1838) in his honor.

His brother’s grandson — Franklin Desha — built the house this site celebrates.

Richard Searcy was the first clerk and judge in the Arkansas Territory — and the man for whom both the city of Searcy and Searcy County are named (the county was created December 13, 1838, the day after Desha County).

His daughter Elizabeth married Franklin Desha, uniting the Desha and Searcy families. Between them, the two names run through Arkansas history like a watermark — a county for each, a city for one, and a house that still stands as their shared legacy.