where in 1819 he began trading cotton. The local economy soon followed the shifted from trading furs to cotton. With the invention of the Cotton Gin, Notrebe built a Gin at Arkansas Post in 1827 (the foundation of which is still visible today) and shifted entirely to an agricultural economic focus. A traveler would remark that Frederick Notrebe had a few modern building adorning the banks of the River in 1832, a sign of prosperity. By 1836 Notrebe's estate included 14 parcels of land totally 3,496 acres. Notrebe's son-in-law, William Cummins, partnered with Notrebe and had another 4,633 acres. With 71 slaves working the plantations, his prominence in the area was as G. W. Featherstonhaugh put it, “the great man of the place [Arkansas Post] is Monsieur Notrebe who is said to have accumulated a considerable fortune here.” Fredrick Notrebe would die while on business in New Orleans on April 13, 1849. In popular culture The town was the subject of a chapter in Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, in which he tells a story of learning from a deathbed confession that $10,000 was hidden behind a brick in a building in Napoleon. When Twain tried to retrieve it, he discovered the entire town had been washed away. Twain reports that the early explorers De Soto, Marquette and Joliet, and La Salle visited "the site of the future town of Napoleon, Arkansas" in their pioneering journeys. See also List of flooded towns in the United States List of ghost towns in Arkansas References Further reading Act 12, Special Session General Assembly, 1874 Circuit Court Record “D” September Term 1874 p. 280, HRS, box 73, folder 6 Court Record 1873. Oct. 9, 1874 External links Historic maps of Mississippi River Napoleon, Arkansas at Historical Marker Database Photos of Napoleon from 2009 1830s establishments in Arkansas 1874 disestablishments in Arkansas American Civil War sites in Arkansas Arkansas populated places on the Arkansas River Arkansas populated places on the Mississippi River Destroyed towns Former populated places in Arkansas Former ports and harbours History of Desha County, Arkansas Inland port cities and towns of the United States Napoleon Natural disaster ghost towns Populated places established in the 1830s Populated places disestablished in the 1870s Ruins in the United States Underwater ruins