Lafe

History

The first settler of Lafe was Herman Toelken, a German immigrant who had been living in New Haven, Missouri, and was seeking new opportunities in an unsettled area. Toelken began cutting railroad ties for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern (later Missouri Pacific) railroad in order to save enough money to purchase land and send for his family. When Toelken was settled he began advertising in a Minneapolis German newspaper seeking other German Lutherans to come to the area. Several families responded to this advertisement, and an assortment of German immigrant families followed him from Franklin County, Missouri. On December 9, 1889, an application was made to the US Postal Service for the establishment of a post office for "Newberry, Arkansas", so named due to a sawmill operator of the same name who had set up in the area. The name "Newberry" was denied by the Postal Service, so the postmaster combined the names of his daughters and reapplied with the name "Loulyma", which was accepted. Mail arrived addressed to "Loulyma" and freight arrived addressed to "Newberry". In 1901 a new postmaster named Lafayette Mueller took over and sought to settle the name permanently by resubmitting a new name. Townspeople elected to name the town "Lafe" in honor of the new postmaster, and the name was officially changed on May 21, 1902.

Geography

Lafe is located in the valley of Big Creek on the western side of Crowley's Ridge, with Big Creek flowing northwest towards the Black River. Arkansas Highways 135 and 34 intersect in Lafe; Highway 135 leads north to U.S. Route 62 east of Corning and south to Paragould, the Greene County seat, while Highway 34 leads east to Marmaduke. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town of Lafe has a total area of , all land.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  111
• white-tailed deer

  Odocoileus virginianus (Zimmermann, 1780) · Mammalia
  110
• raccoon

  Procyon lotor (Linnaeus, 1758) · Mammalia
  108
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  86
• Red-winged Blackbird

  Agelaius phoeniceus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  71
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  69
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  52
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  49

Largest nearby schools

• PARAGOULD PRIMARY SCHOOL
  Elementary · PARAGOULD · 662 students · 15.4:1 ratio
• OAK GROVE MIDDLE SCHOOL
  Middle · PARAGOULD · 512 students · 17.7:1 ratio
• MARMADUKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
  Elementary · MARMADUKE · 418 students · 17.4:1 ratio
• MARMADUKE HIGH SCHOOL
  High · MARMADUKE · 299 students · 4.5:1 ratio
• OAK GROVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
  Elementary · PARAGOULD · 249 students · 19.2:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.63 — 2026-08-04
  6 km ENE of Steele, Missouri
• M 2.93 — 2026-06-30
  14 km SSW of Williamsville, Missouri
• M 2.64 — 2026-05-29
  12 km E of Williamsville, Missouri
• M 2.64 — 2026-05-15
  8 km NW of Tiptonville, Tennessee
• M 4 — 2026-04-23
  1 km WNW of Cooter, Missouri
• M 2.84 — 2026-03-02
  3 km NW of Marston, Missouri