Bugscuffle
So how did Bugscuffle get its name? The origin began at Tate School. (In the late 1800s, Mr.Tate donated land for a school and a cemetery.) One theory claims that during a pie supper at the school, Homer Coker lamented that they were inundated with bugs and it was “just a regular bugscuffle.” Another anecdote maintains that a man was passing by the school and exclaimed that the students were “scuffling in the dirt like bugs.” Regardless, it is definitely an interesting name and stokes the imagination.
Bugscuffle was a rural area near Strickler, Arkansas. It basically consisted of the school, a cemetery, church, and Bugscuffle Road.
Bugscuffle Road today is on the U.S National Register of Historical Places. Bugscuffle Road was one segment of the Butterfield’s Overland Mail Company from 1858-1861. According to https://encyclopediaofArkansas, “it was the longest stagecoach line in world history at approximately 2,812 miles and was a major factor in the settlement of Arkansas and the American West before the Civil War. When gold was discovered in California in 1849, bringing over a quarter of a million people to the West Coast, there was a huge demand for transporting mail and passengers. At the time, the usual route was by boat, either around South America or with an overland crossing in Panama, both of which were time-consuming, expensive, and dangerous. After California threatened to secede if a faster mail service was not established, Congress voted in 1857 to subsidize a mail run from the Mississippi River to San Francisco. It required that mail be safely carried in twenty-five days or less.”
My great grandfather, Marshall Vandyke, was a farmer and the family lived in the Bugscuffle, Strickler, and Cove City area of Arkansas for several years. His son Elliot Cecil was born in the Bugscuffle area in 1907 and died in Bugscuffle in 1917. Marshall died in Bugscuffle in 1922. Both Elliot and Marshall are buried in the cemetery.
When I heard that some of my ancestors were from Bugscuffle, I was intrigued by the name. I’m looking forward to visiting in person this summer when we are in the Bentonville/Rogers area for our nephew’s wedding.