Black Oak was first called Dwight, in honor of Dwight Hall, the first postmaster. There was no town until the Jonesboro, Lake City and Eastern Railway built through the place in 1898-1899, when it was then named Black Oak, because it was located on Black Oak Ridge. The first merchant was Charles Barham in 1899. Gregg and Hamilton were the next merchants. France Varner ran the first gin in the town, and T.P. Nelms conducted the first drug store. At present time there are two gins, a large number of splendid stores, a packing shed for truck crops, a canning factory, a fine school, and several church buildings. Highway 18 passes by the town.

From Tom Buffaloe, noted historian, in 1957. Transcribed and prepared by Monette High School American History Class, under the leadership of teacher Ruth Ball Smith.

Black Oak was once called Kimbrell by some in the early days because Harvey Kimbrell owned a mill and gin there.

Southwest of Stottsville is the community known today as Black Oak. The Kimbrell Mill and Gin stood just southwest of the present school house. No one knows where the first cultivated land was in that community, but it is possible that it may have been a ridge parallel with Little Slough a quarter of a mile west of the present Church of Christ, and was known as the Owens place. Among the first early settlers of that community, though perhaps not the first, were the Williams, Chrisco, Roddy, and Thomas families.

The first community to the north of Mangrum, now Caraway school District, is Black Oak. It is not certain when that name was applied to that community but regardless of the name, the pioneers there obtained the Mangrum log house and moved and rebuilt it, and it served for both school and church purposes for many years. It stood near the SW corner of the present Baptist Church property. Perhaps near the mid-1890s a modern (for that day) frame one-room edifice replaced the log house, and it stood some 200 feet south of the present Baptist Church building. That was the church and school house for many years. About 1906 or 1907, a second room was added and the people of that neighborhood looked upon it as their "pride and joy".

The framed school building finally was overcrowded and it was decide to build for the years to come. Soon there was a two-story brick building on the original lot just south of the outgrown frame building. It was designed to accommodate grad and high school. This was done for several years, but mechanized farming began to depopulate the country and due to recent legislation, it became part of Monette, and only the grade school was retained, the high school grades all being enrolled in Monette. Soon two of the upper grades were in Monette. In 1957, this brick building was vacated, and in the late winter of this year (1962) a fire was discovered there. Since most of the interior was of wood, within a short time only the basement walls were left standing. All the bricks wre later sold or otherwisedisposed of, and today those basement walls mutely testify to the influence of time and natural forces.