Hughes is the second-largest town in St. Francis County. Located halfway between Mud Lake (St. Francis County) and Greasy Corner (St. Francis County), Hughes is part of Arkansas’s Delta region, near the Mississippi River, and a center of agricultural production.

In 1836, with the earlier opening of the Military Road in east Arkansas, white people settled the area. According to historians, farmers who were named Hughes lived near the present-day town in the early 1800s, including John J. Hughes, who farmed 1,000 acres, and Elijah C. Hughes, who farmed 2,000 acres. But the settlement was formally named for the family of Robert Hughes—no relation to John or Elijah—a native of Senatobia, Mississippi, who never moved to the town but who bought a farm in the area in 1907.

[Encyclopedia of Arkansas]