Lafe, Arkansas
| Lafe, Arkansas | |
|---|---|
| Town | |
Lafe
|
|
 Location in Greene County and the state of Arkansas |
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| Coordinates: 36°12′18″N 90°30′25″W / 36.20500°N 90.50694°WCoordinates: 36°12′18″N 90°30′25″W / 36.20500°N 90.50694°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Arkansas |
| County | Greene |
| Area | |
| • Total | 2.1 sq mi (5.4 km2) |
| • Land | 2.1 sq mi (5.4 km2) |
| • Water | 0 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Elevation | 318 ft (97 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 458 |
| • Density | 218/sq mi (84.3/km2) |
| Time zone | Central (CST) (UTC-6) |
| • Summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| ZIP code | 72436 |
| Area code(s) | 870 |
| FIPS code | 05-37660 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0077427 |
Lafe is a town in Greene County, Arkansas on Crowley's Ridge. The population was 458 at the 2010 census, up from 385 at the 2000 census.
The first settler of Lafe was Mr. Herman Toelken, a German immigrant who had been living in New Haven, Missouri, and was seeking new opportunities in an unsettled area. Toelken began cutting railroad ties for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern (later Missouri Pacific) railroad in order to save enough money to purchase land and send for his family.
When Mr. Toelken was settled he began advertising in a Minneapolis German newspaper seeking other German Lutherans to come to the area. Several families responded to this advertisement, and an assortment of German immigrant families followed him from Franklin County, Missouri.
On 9 December 1889 an application was made to the US Postal Service for the establishment of a post office for "Newberry, Arkansas", so named due to a sawmill operator of the same name who had set up in the area. The name "Newberry" was denied by the Postal Service, so the postmaster combined the names of his daughters and reapplied with the name "Loulyma", which was accepted. Mail arrived addressed to "Loulyma" and freight arrived addressed to "Newberry". In 1901 a new postmaster named Lafayette Mueller took over and sought to settle the name permanently by resubmitting a new name. Townspeople elected to name the town "Lafe" in honor of the new postmaster, and the name was officially changed on 21 May 1902.
Lafe is located in northern Greene County at 36°12′18″N 90°30′25″W / 36.20500°N 90.50694°W (36.204987, -90.507041). It is in the valley of Big Creek on the western side of Crowley's Ridge, with Big Creek flowing northwest towards the Black River. Arkansas Highways 135 and 34 intersect in Lafe; Highway 135 leads north 14 miles (23 km) to U.S. Route 62 east of Corning and south 11 miles (18 km) to Paragould, the Greene County seat, while Highway 34 leads east 8 miles (13 km) to Marmaduke.
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