Madison: Scott Bond Empire

Madison, which was mostly an agricultural community by the twentieth century, was home to the first African American millionaire in Arkansas, Scott Bond, a land owner, farmer and businessman.  By the time of his death in March 1933, Bond owned and farmed 12,000 acres in and near Madison, raised livestock, and operated a large mercantile store, several cotton gins, a lumber yard, a sawmill and a gravel pit that supplied the Rock Island Railroad.  The farm on which the Bond family resided was calld "The Cedars." He and other family members are buried in Madison.