The group settled along the Caddo River, drawn to the area by an abundance of rich bottomland and fresh water.

Browning constructed a two-story log house just west of Caney Creek, which soon became the center of the expanding community.

Clingman, a physician and minister associated with the Church of Christ was in the area before Browning's group arrived.

The first school teacher was Captain Robert S. Burke, a former military officer and Browning's brother-in-law.

Midway through the war, Union soldiers burned the Burke schoolhouse and the Browning cotton press.

Following the war's end, the center of the community shifted to a location 2 miles (3 km) south of the Caddo River, first settled by John Hays Allen and Amariah Biggs.

In 1870, retired army Colonel Philander Curtis, a Connecticut native, settled in the area.

In 1877 an adjacent area became "Amity Township", and in 1880 the town made a move to become incorporated, but it did not come to pass until 1907.

Richard Burke died in 1883, and the school struggled until 1888, when Samual M. Samson arrived in Amity.

Shortly after 1900, the Gurdon and Fort Smith Railroad was constructed through Amity, greatly improving the economy of the town.

Soon, the logging industry began to thrive, with large sawmills opening in Rosboro and Glenwood.

Just before World War II, the shortage of cinnabar caused a brief but productive mining industry in the nearby mountains south of the town, a phenomenon which became known as the Quicksilver Rush.

[7] The paper is a weekly publication and covers Clark and Pike counties as well as the Bismarck, Arkansas, area.

They also publish the Old Time Chronicle, a quarterly folk history magazine covering South Arkansas.

[8] In 2015, Russell and Kim Jones of Rosboro started Amity Trade Days in the former Bean Lumber Company's sawmill facility.

Amity is located in northwestern Clark County 2 miles (3 km) south of the Caddo River.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Amity has a total area of 3.3 square miles (8.5 km2), all land.