The town began to get organized when word spread in 1886 that local land had been donated by one Wade McCrory to the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway for their projected route from Memphis, Tennessee to Little Rock.

[3] Given that another railway called the Batesville and Brinkley Railroad had in the early 1880’s built two miles west of town, local McCrory businessmen in 1906 tried to leverage their railroad connections by creating a tramway running from McCrory directly to the Batesville & Brinkley, at a point originally known as Martin’s Junction, later Jelks, and finally becoming Patterson in 1919.

[4] On May 21, 1910, the owners decided to form a fully-fledged railroad called the McCrory and Beedeville Southern Railway.

[4][5] The line to Jelks was completed around August of 1911, along with two miles (to Comers Spur) toward the Beedeville objective.

[4] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.4 square miles (6.2 km2), all land.