This map depicts some of the administrative boundaries that are related to creation of Lovely County in 1827. Parts of present-day Benton, Crawford and Washington Counties were part of "Lovely's Purchase" and the later Lovely County, although the boundary of the latter was significantly larger than that of the former. Here's a timeline of when the various pieces of land were designated either by treaty or by territorial legislation.
1808 — Treaty of Fort Clark — In this treaty, the Osage Nation ceded land east of the fort in the Missouri Territory, which included present-day Missouri and Arkansas. A line was drawn from the Fort Clark due south to the Arkansas River and thence along the Arkansas River downstream to the Mississippi. All land east of the line and northeast of the Arkansas River was ceded to the United States. For Northwest Arkansas, it created a western territorial boundary.
1816 — The Missouri line was adjusted 23 miles westward to the mouth of the Kansas River, creating the present-day western boundary of the Missouri.
In the same year, Major William Lovely purchased 3 million acres from the Osage to provide a hunting ground to Cherokees who were immigrating to Arkansas, often referred to as the "old settlers," and create a buffer between the Osages and early Cherokees. The land came to be known as "Lovely's Purchase." Lovely didn’t actually have authority to make this transaction, but very similar terms were approved two years later.
1817 — The Cherokee “old settlers” move to Arkansas where land was offered to the Cherokees in exchange for land owned by them in Tennessee and Georgia. The eastern boundary of their land was a diagonal line that ran from the intersection of Point Remove Creek with the Arkansas River northeasterly to Shields Ferry on the White River. A western boundary line ran roughly parallel to the eastern, running northeast from near Fort Smith to the White River.
Major William Lovely dies.
1819 — Arkansas Territory is split from the southern portion of the Missouri Territory.
1824 — Congress sets western boundary of Arkansas Territory 45 miles west of Fort Smith.
1825 — West boundary set for Cherokee land in Arkansas.
1827 — Lovely County is created by the Territorial Assembly. It extends from the old Osage Line west to the 1824 boundary of the Arkansas Territory. The southern border is primarily the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers. The northern boundary is a line extending from the border between Missouri and Arkansas.
1828 — The Cherokee “old settlers” cede lands in Arkansas for present-day Cherokee Nation in present-day Oklahoma.
Lovely County is extinguished and its land becomes part of Washington County in the state of Arkansas and the Cherokee Nation west of the state line.
Washington County is created and its county seat is established at Washington Court House, renamed Fayetteville the next year.
1838-39 — Remaining eastern Cherokees forced to leave homes in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina and move west to Cherokee Nation.