Pea Ridge settlers were mostly farm families. Early farms usually focused more on supplying family needs and less on production of crops for market. Most families kept livestock, raised large gardens, and harvested wild berries, such as the plentiful blackberries. As community life developed, farm families could market corn, oats, wheat, tobacco, butter and cream, eggs and meats. After 1881, with the building of the railroad through nearby Garfield and Avoca, and with the rise of the new city of Rogers (all in Benton County), the area's apple industry grew quite strong, supplying an economic boon to Pea Ridge and the county during the late nineteenth century and into the 1920s.