In 1888, railroad and timber investors led by George W. Fouke built the Texarkana, Shreveport, & Natchez (T.S. & N) Railroad, extending south from Texarkana to Boggy Creek. In 1889, James Franklin Shaw led Seventh Day Baptists in finalizing plans for a colony south of Texarkana, choosing Sec. 22, T.17, R.27W, and in the spring of 1890 J.F. Shaw and John E. Snell completed the purchase of that land from Fouke's company, surveyed the boundaries, and laid out the streets of a town they named Fouke. In October 1890, Shaw and fellow believers secured the relocation of the Fairland post office to the new railroad town, where at least 12 families of about 50 people were living, church services had begun, and a small one-room school had been completed. By 1900, Fouke had grown slowly to 88 people, including some who were not Seventh Day Baptists, and it had a public school, active businesses, and three additional churches: Church of Christ, Methodist, and regular Baptist. By 1906, the population had reached about 250, with five stores, a railroad depot, millinery shop, corn mill, barber shop, gin, drug store, hotel, blacksmith and repair shop, planing mill, printing office with a newspaper, 51 dwellings, and a post office with two rural delivery routes. In 1911, Fouke petitioners appeared before Miller County Judge, C.W. Kimbell, to incorporate the town of Fouke, Arkansas.