A restored Victorian cottage is one of many examples of the varied architectural styles and periods of Cane Hill.

One of Washington County’ s – and the state’ s – most significant historic towns almost slipped into oblivion before a philanthropic sponsor undertook its preservation and rebirth as a historic, educational and cultural gem, open year-round to visitors and activities.

Canehill, six miles south of Lincoln on state Highway 45, endures today centered on a remarkably restored Cane Hill College, originally chartered in 1850. Founded in 1834 by Cumberland Presbyterians to educate young men for ministry, it would evolve to be a very early four-year college. Arkansas would become a state two years later, in 1836.

The tiny, remote community was humbly sustained by family farms and several mills operated on local streams, where wheat and corn were milled. Mills were also used to saw lumber and process wool by“ carding.” Products were carted away by wagon. The arrival of an institution of higher learning was an unlikely advancement for the area.

By 1854 the college at Cane Hill’ s charter enabled students to earn a four-year degree. Women could attend a female seminary established about a mile away.

The Civil War, which saw a skirmish at Cane Hill before the more significant battle at Prairie Grove, disrupted the economy of the western county and shuttered the college. It reopened in 1865, merging with the female seminary a decade later. By 1876-77, a course catalog shows that students could study Greek, Latin, history, literature, calculus, chemistry, geometry, trigonometry, zoology and astronomy, with other religion classes such as“ Evidences of Christianity” and“ Moral Philosophy.”

Misfortune came with an arson fire in 1885 that burned the only building that had survived the war. The present brick structure was erected in 1887, but by 1991

Interior of the Presbyterian Church. Photo courtesy of Kinco Constructors, who restored multiple buildings there with award-winning results.

its supporters elected to move the school to Clarksville, starting a school that today is the University of the Ozarks.

The building became Canehill’ s public school and was in use into the 1950s. It then stood empty for decades, at risk of fire or collapse and steadily deteriorating for lack of maintenance. A singular champion named Bill Leach took on the extraordinary goal of restoring and preserving not only the college but multiple surviving historic structures of the town, personally investing several millions of dollars from 2013-17. He established Historic Cane Hill, a nonprofit organization,

28 • SEPTEMBER 2025 • OZARK LIVING