Seeking uniformity: De Queen council tackles how to write city's moniker

Originally published in the Texarkana Gazette and on writeforarkansas.org on Sept. 26, 2011.

DE QUEEN, Ark.—It’s simple enough: Two words, one space, two capitals.

But not everyone in the Sevier County town of 6,000 seems to be on the same page when it comes to identifying their city.

“In some places it’s one word, sometimes it’s two words,” said Mayor Billy Ray McKelvy. “Sometimes the Q is capitalized, and sometimes it’s lowercase. … Everybody does something a little bit different.”


School buses transport children who attend De Queen, De QUEEN or DE QUEEN schools. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operates either DeQueen or Dequeen Lake, and state agencies provide services either in De Queen or DeQueen, to say nothing of the variations that appear on the signs of private businesses.

Even some of the city’s founding documents conflict on the proper form, sometimes in the same document.

The orthographical free-for-all could soon end, however. The City Council is considering a resolution codifying the proper spelling.

“We believe the correct spelling is De Queen,” McKelvy said.

That’s capital D, capital Q and a space between.

For years, that spelling had an outspoken champion in Ray Kimball, the longtime publisher of De Queen Bee newspaper.

Since Kimball’s death, resident John Hickel took up the cause. He brought the issue before the City Council last week.

“What really brought it up was, I got to looking around and there is really no official spelling of De Queen,” Hickel said.

Part of the chaos seems to stem from the name’s origin.

The city came into being in the late 19th century as Arthur Stilwell built the Kansas City Southern Railroad connecting Kansas City and the Gulf of Mexico.

Stilwell, running short of funds, approached a Dutch coffee merchant named Jan de Goeijen, who helped raise $3 million to complete the railroad.

When a town was incorporated at the Sevier County settlement of Hurrah City, it was named for de Goeijen. Because Arkansans struggled with the Dutch pronunciation (duh-HOY-en), the name was changed to De Queen.

The variations in capitalization and spacing that have since arisen haven’t necessarily caused confusion, Hickel said, though it would be nice to see a standard usage in addresses, schools and elsewhere.

“There’s nothing in it really personal for me, but I would like to see some uniformity,” Hickel said.

McKelvy said the City Council will likely pass a resolution Oct. 4 designating De Queen as the proper form of the town’s name.

He expects the city will send a yearly letter to public agencies, local businesses and sign companies reminding them of the spelling, but no other action will be taken against those who choose to ignore the hint.

After all, McKelvy notes, the sign on the front door of the post office, incorrectly written in all caps,
is literally etched in stone.