Arkansas Cumberland College, at Clarksville, Arkansas, was established by the Arkansas Synod, April 15, 1891. It had an endowment of $40,000, of which about $30,000 was productive. The buildings and grounds were valued at about $20,000. The college was the outgrowth of several years' work by an educational commission appointed by the Arkansas Synod for the purpose of raising $50,000 as an endowment for a school to be located at the will of the synod. A charter was secured May 5, 1891. The college opened September 7, 1891, with nine teachers, and during the year enrolled 217 pupils of both sexes. A chair of Bible study was created soon after the organization of the college. This department "was made equal to and coordinate with other departments of the college course," so that study of the Bible was a prerequisite for graduation. Since there was no special endowment for this chair, the work of teaching the Bible was distributed among the other professors after the first year.

After five years work the report to the General Assembly showed an enrollment of 142, a building and grounds valued at $25,000, but only $15,000 productive endowment and $10,000 non-productive. The same report listed the requirements for the degrees conferred by the college as follows: A.B., four years work, Ph.B., four years work, B.S., three years work, B.L., two years work.

Evidently the young school had some years of rough sailing for in 1899 the committee on education reported to the General Assembly that the future of Arkansas Cumberland College was problematical; at that time the doors of the College were closed and its friends were about ready to recommend that it be reduced from a college to a first class seminary. But the end was not yet, for in 1901 the college was prospering, with an enrollment of over 100. The Rev. F. R. Earle, working as endowment agent, had secured $4,500, and expected to raise $50,000. What happened to the college after that time is not recorded in the minutes of the General Assembly, although five probationers were reported in 1904. During its years of existence as a Cumberland Presbyterian college a fair number of ministerial candidates enrolled there, and received assistance from the school as well as from the General Assembly.

[Source: Evans, Henry Bascom. "History of the Organization and Administration of Cumberland Presbyterian Colleges." Ph.D. Dissertation. Nashville, TN: George Peabody College for Teachers, August 1938, pages 298-300.]