Known as "Mouth of Cache" from 1799 to 1837, Clarendon by 1828 had a post office and ferry and served as the crossing for the Memphis to Little Rock Military Road. The town became the Monroe County seat in 1857 and was incorporated two years later. Destroyed by Union forces in 1864, Clarendon revived and became the site of early factories producing oars, staves, and pearl buttons. The town revived again after being engulfed by the 1927 Flood. Simon P. Hughes, Governor of Arkansas from 1885 to 1889, lived here.