Victor

The rural village of Victor, established between 1877 and 1881, has served as an active trading center for the surrounding farming community for nearly a century. Originally named Eureka, it is thought the name was changed to honor a middle grove tobacco buyer who settled in Monroe county in the early 1800 s. The village is located at the intersection of the Paris to Louisiana road, laid out in 1831 as one of the earliest roads in the region, with another road and the Calhoon branch of the Salt River. Limestone bluffs to the south and steep hills to the north constrained the settlement to a narrow strip running east-west along the major artery. never formally platted, Victor developed in an informal pattern in which the shops formed a central business cluster to the west of the crossroads and the sheds, barns and other outbuildings were interspersed among the outlying houses.

Victor displayed a typical array of small businesses two general stores. a barber shop, drugstore with a Woodman Lodge upstairs. and two blacksmith shops. in addition the village contained two churches, the Fairview Union church, an interdenominational meeting house ministered to by traveling preachers, and the Christian church, formed in 1912 by the Hattersley family as the result of a split with the older church. All were frame structures, as were the houses. Limestone for foundations was readily available from the nearby creek6ed lumber was hauled from a local sawmill.

Early commerce was dominated by three families --the Stetsons, Hattersleys and Calhoons. Foremost among the Calhoons was A. Odell Calhoon, widely known as a black­smith, inventor, bee-keeper and philosopher. His house, as well as that of one of his sons, A. Owen  was a frame structure of a vernacular cottage style characterized by steeply pitched gables with a cross gable and two-story porch centered on the front. The Calhoon blacksmith shop, established in 1882 by A. Odell and his father, Robert combined the manufacture of spring wagons with general blacksmithing and woodworking. The lot east of the Hattersley store was the scene of numerous social events including croquet matches and occasional traveling tent shows. Farmers came from miles around on Sunday afternoons to play baseball on the creek bluff.

In the 1920's a fire in the Sturner general store spread to adjacent stuctures destroying the south side of the business block. This area was never rebuilt. in 1931 relocation of state highway 154 removed Victor even farther from direct commercial routes, and the village rapidly declined in population and importance. Now standing on the future site of the Clarence Cannon reservoir, only a few buildings remain.