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THE 
 
 HIGH LIGHTS 
 
 OF 
 
 ARKANSAS 
 HISTORY 
 
 BY 
 
 DALLAS Tr HERNDON 
 •I 
 
 Special Edition Printed for DistTibxtion 
 By 
 
 THE ARKANSAS HISTORY COMMISSION 
 

 Copyright, 1922 
 
 by 
 
 DALLAS T. HERNDON. 
 
WHY? 
 
 There is in the history of the State of Arkansas no 
 want of the sort of material which makes for a flavor of 
 individuality. In the choice of things chosen for this 
 narration of events — chosen and arranged to tell the 
 story of the growth of enterprise and what not wrought in 
 Arkansas in the space of nearly four centuries since the 
 time of DeSoto — the aim has been to choose those things 
 which have made the history of Arkansas different— 
 which give it its flavor of interest quite its own. But 
 last, and first also — first as the motive for ''playing up" 
 the ''high lights" of the history of Arkansas like street 
 lights, hung one at every street comer, that those who 
 pass may see the way plainly — the story of Arkansas is 
 told here step by step, one thing at a time and everything 
 in the order of its doing, each as something done apart 
 from the many other processes helping always to make 
 the complex story of life and growth complete, so that 
 any who should like such a work may have by him a handy 
 manual of the really significant facts concerning the his- 
 tory of the State. 
 
LlBRARr Or COlsGrvcSS 
 
 DECEIVED } 
 
 APR 2 1^23 
 
 DOCUWtNTS u.V.olOr 
 
HIGH LIGHTS OF ARKANSAS HISTORY 
 1541-1921 
 
 Hernando de Soto (1541). 
 
 The first white men entered what is now the State 
 of Arkansas June 18, 1541. Charles V, King of Spain, 
 commissioned Hernando de Soto, 1538, governor of Cuba 
 and general of Florida. DeSoto landed in Florida May 
 31, 1539, near where the city of Tampa now stands, with 
 a military force of a thousand men. He had been com- 
 missioned by the king to explore Florida, as then the 
 whole Mainland of North America was called. After due 
 preparation the expedition set out for the interior. Dur- 
 ing the next two years, from the middle of 1539 until 
 June, 1541, they traveled more than a thousand miles, 
 through the present States of Florida, Georgia, Alabama 
 and Mississippi. Like the other early Spanish explorers, 
 DeSoto 's first aim was to discover mines of gold and 
 silver, whence no great care was taken, perhaps, to write 
 out a proper journal of the expedition. Luis Hernandez 
 de Biedma, one of the party with DeSoto, kept a brief 
 diary. A Portuguese adventurer, who signed himself 
 "A Gentleman of Elvas," also of the party, wrote a nar- 
 rative of his adventures. From these two accounts, as 
 the principal sources of information, the route of DeSoto 
 in his wandering east of the Mississippi has been traced 
 with tolerable accuracy. That he crossed the Mississippi 
 River on June 18, 1541, is certain. But the exact point at 
 which he crossed is in doubt. And equally uncertain, for 
 the most part, are the course and extent of his wandering 
 after he had crossed the great river. The weight of evi- 
 dence seems to favor, as the most likely place of crossing, 
 the site of the present city of Memphis. It is certain 
 that the expedition penetrated far into the interior of 
 Arkansas. Sometime during the fall of 1541 the ex- 
 plorers discovered '* a lake of very hot and somewhat 
 
6 High Lights 
 
 brackish water"; of which, says the ** Gentleman of 
 Elvas," the horses drank so much **that it swelled their 
 bellies." Thus it is practically certain that they were 
 then at the now famous Hot Springs. The winter of 
 1541-1542, from November to March, they spent in winter 
 quarters at a point on the Ouachita Eiver, near the south- 
 east comer of Ouachita County, Arkansas. DeSoto died 
 May 21, 1542, near the mouth of Red River in the present 
 State of Louisiana. 
 
 Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet (1673). 
 
 After DeSoto, the next white men who visited any 
 part of the country now within the State of Arkansas 
 were the Frenchmen, Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit mis- 
 sionary, and Loius Joliet, a fur trader and explorer. Some 
 time prior to 1665 Marquette was sent by the Jesuits 
 as a missionary^ to the Indians about the Great Lakes. 
 Having heard from the Indians stories of a great river 
 to the westward, he laid the matter before the governor 
 of Canada, who gave Marquette permission to fit out, *'at 
 his own expense," an expedition to go in search of the 
 river. Marquette and Joliet, accompanied by five boat- 
 men, set out from Michilimackinac May 13, 1673, in two 
 large canoes. From Lake Michigan they entered Green 
 Bay, ascended the Fox River for a space, crossed over to 
 the Wisconsin River and floated down to the Mississippi, 
 which they reached June 17, 1673. Continuing down 
 stream, they arrived, early in July, at a native village 
 where an old Indian told them that ''the next great 
 village ' ' was * ' called Arkansea. " *' We embarked, ' ' says 
 Marquette in his journal, ''early the next morning with 
 our interpreters and ten Indians who went before us in a 
 canoe. Having arrived about half a league from Ar- 
 kansea, we saw two canoes coming toward us." The ex- 
 plorers were kindly received and treated as friendly visi- 
 tors. They rested in the village, perhaps two or three 
 days, when, on July 17, (1673), they left to return to their 
 homes. Passing up the Illinois River, they traveled 
 
Arkansas Histoey 7 
 
 thence by land over to Chicago River, which they de- 
 scended to Lake Michigan. Marquette died May 18, 1675, 
 at a mission situated near the site of the town of Luding- 
 ton, Michigan. 
 
 Robert Cavelier^ Sieur de la Salle (1682). 
 
 LaSalle, on his voyage from Canada down the Mis- 
 sissippi, went ashore at the mouth of the Arkansas River 
 March 12, 1682. King Louis XIV, of France, had grant- 
 ed him "letters patent" on May 12, 1678, authorizing 
 him to continue the explorations of Marquette and Joliet, 
 to find *'a port for the king's ships in the gulf of Mexico, 
 discover the western parts of New France, and find a way 
 to penetrate Mexico. ' ' Accompained by Henri de Tonti, 
 his lieutenant, Jacques de la Metarie, a notary, Jean 
 Michel, a surgeon, Zenobe Membre, a misionary, and a 
 number of Frenchmen '* bearing arms," LaSalle set out 
 from Michilimackinac early in the spring of 1682. Thence 
 to the mouth of the Arkansas the party followed closely 
 the route of Marquette and Joliet westward and down the 
 Mississippi. They went ashore at the Chickasaw Bluffs 
 and sent out a hunting party to procure game for food. 
 Pierre Prudhomme, one of the hunters, having lost him- 
 self in the woods, was found only after a search of nine 
 days. LaSalle then built a small fort there, called it 
 Fort Prudhomme, and left the lost hunter in command. 
 LaMetarie, the notary, says in his journal, ''On the 12th 
 of March we arrived at the Kapaha village of Arkansa." 
 They visited several other Quapaw villages in the vicin- 
 ity, made friends of the Indians, who, through their chief, 
 acknowledged that the country belonged to the King of 
 France. After resting several days, the explorers pro- 
 ceeded on their way down the Mississippi. 
 
 L0UISU.NA, Province of France (1682). 
 
 LaSalle, having arrived at the mouth of the Missis- 
 sippi, there, on high ground situated a short distance up 
 the river, erected a cross bearing the arms of France and 
 
8 HioH Lights 
 
 the following inscription: ''Louis le Grand, Roi de 
 France et de Navarre, Reque; Neuvieme April, 1682." 
 By dint of this act, France laid claim, from April 9, 1682, 
 to "all the country drained by the great river and its 
 tributaries." At the same time, LaSalle called the whole 
 region Louisiana, in honor of Louis, the King. Thus the 
 present State of Arkansas became part of Louisiana and 
 a French possession. 
 
 Henri de Tonti^ Founder of the First Settlement 
 IN Arkansas (1686). 
 
 LaSalle, in 1682, after his discovery of the mouth of 
 the Mississipi, returned to Canada and sailed thence to 
 France, whither he w^ent to bring out to Louisiana a party 
 of colonists. To Tonti, whom he left, meanwhile, in the 
 Illinois country, LaSalle had given a large tract of land 
 situated near the mouth of the Arkansas River. In the 
 spring of 1686 Tonti received orders to go to the mouth 
 of the Mississippi to meet LaSalle, who had sailed, in 
 July, 1684, from France with 290 persons in four ships. 
 Whereupon Tonti, with 40 of his men, left Fort St. Louis 
 and went down the Mississippi. After waiting near the 
 mouth of the river for some time and hearing nothing of 
 the fleet, he returned to the Indian villages on the Arkan- 
 sas River. There he left ten of his men to establish a 
 post. Of this first settlement attempted in the lower Mis- 
 sissippi Valley, Tonti sajs in his account of it: "My 
 companions, delighted with the beauty of the climate, 
 asked my permission to settle there. As our intention 
 was only to humanize and civilize the savages, by associa- 
 ting with them, I readily gave my consent. I formed the 
 plan of a house for myself at the Arkansas. I left ten 
 Frenchmen of my company there with four Indians, to 
 proceed with the building, and I gave them leave to lodge 
 there themselves, and to cultivate as much of the land as 
 they could clear." This was the beginning of Arkansas 
 Post . 
 
Arkansas Histoby 9 
 
 The Catholic Church Granted Lands (1689). 
 
 Henri de Tonti, founder of the first settlement sit- 
 uated at Arkansas Post, deeded November 20, 1689, to 
 the Catholic Church a large tract of the land granted him 
 there by LaSalle. By this gift he hoped to aid in making 
 of the settlement a permanent colony. And during the 
 next three years he supported there, at his own expense, 
 a missionary, whose business it was to look after the 
 spiritual welfare of the natives and instruct them in the 
 art of agriculture. 
 
 John Law's Colony (1718). 
 
 John Law, son of a banker of Edinburgh, Scotland, 
 was granted, 1718, by the Duke of Orleans, then regent 
 for Louis XV of France, a tract of land on the Arkansas 
 River near the trading post which Tonti had established. 
 This grant, described as twelve leagues square, contained 
 82,160 acres. Law 's adventure, variously known as ' * The 
 Western Company," ''The Company of the West," ''The 
 Mississippi Bubble," etc., w^as conceived as a scheme of 
 colonization. He agreed to settle 1,500 colonists upon the 
 lands granted him, and to maintain a military force 
 ample to protect the settlers from the Indians. A few 
 months later, in 1718, one LaPage du Pratz brought over 
 to Louisiana 800 colonists, part of whom settled on Law's 
 lands. Du Pratz acted as overseer of Law's plantations. 
 M. Levens came over as manager and trustee of the 
 grant, which Law caused to be fashioned into a duchy. 
 Other colonists, consisting of Alsatians and Germans, 
 were sent over in 1719; and the same year, some 500 
 negro slaves were imported also. Upon the failure of 
 Law's financial speculations in France, the colonists 
 abandoned the settlement; some returned to Europe; 
 others setttled along the Mississippi not far from New 
 Orleans. When LaHarpe, the French explorer, passed 
 up the Arkansas in 1722, there were then only forty- 
 seven settlers on the grant. At the time of his second 
 visit in April, 1723, the settlement was entirely deserted. 
 
10 High Lights 
 
 Arkansas Post Made Permanent Settlement (1722). 
 
 The Duke of Orleans, regent for the infant King of 
 France, Louis XV, commissioned in 1722, Bernard de la 
 Harpe to explore the Arkansas River and ''establish a 
 permanent post at the Arkansas. ' ' Such a place was in- 
 tended to serve "as a connecting point" between settle- 
 ments in the Illinois country and others in lower Louis- 
 iana. It was proposed, also, as a result of the establish- 
 ment of such a trading post, "to facilitate the introduc- 
 tion of horses, mules and cattle from the Spanish prov- 
 inces." In September, 1722, La Harpe, having repaired 
 and improved the stockade, stationed at the Post of the 
 Arkansas a regular garrison, under the command of 
 Lieutenant de Boulage. La Harpe says, in his report of 
 the expedition, that "prior to this time the place had been 
 only a trading and military post among the Indians." 
 Indeed, there is hardly any doubt but that, since the first 
 settlement there by Tonti in 1686, the post had been from 
 time to time utterly abandoned, sometimes several years 
 together. La Harpe' visit marked the beginning of its 
 civil history. And thereafter, throughout the periods of 
 French and Spanish possession of Louisiana, the post 
 continued a center of trade and government. 
 
 France Ceded Louisiana to Spain (1762). 
 
 By the treaty of Fontainebleau, in effect from No- 
 vember 3, 1762, France ceded Louisiana, including the 
 present State of Arkansas, to Spain. The treaty of 
 Fontainebleau put an end to the French and Indian war, 
 as the Seven Years was known in America; which war 
 had begun in 1753. France, as a result of the war and 
 the treaty of peace, lost all her possessions on the conti- 
 nent of North America. England acquired Canada, in- 
 cluding that part of Louisiana south of the Great Lakes 
 and east of the Mississippi River. At the same time and 
 place — Fontainebleau, 1762 — France ceded to Spain, by 
 secret negotiations, all that part of Louisiana west of the 
 Missississippi. The first governor, under Spanish rule, 
 
Arkansas History 11 
 
 was Don Antonio de Ulloa. Ulloa arrived in New Or- 
 leans, the residence of the governor of the province, 
 March 5, 1766; at which time Spain actually took pos- 
 session. 
 
 Arkansas Post (1765). 
 
 Captain Philip Pittman, of the British Army, visited 
 Arkansas Post in 1765. In his observations, entitled 
 ''Present State of the European Settlements on the Mis- 
 sissippi," as published in 1770, he says of the post: **The 
 fort is situated three leagues up the river Arkansas, and 
 is built with stockades in a quadrangular form ; the sides 
 of the exterior polygon are about one hundred and eighty 
 feet and one three-pounder is mounted in the flanks and 
 faces of each bastion. The buildings within the fort are, 
 a barrack with three rooms for the soldiers, commanding 
 officer's house, a powder magazine, a magazine for pro- 
 vision, and an apartment for the commissary, all of which 
 are in a ruinous condition. The fort stands about two 
 hundred yards from the water-side and is garrisoned 
 by a captain, a lieutenant and thirty French soldiers, in- 
 cluding sergeants and corporals. There are eight houses 
 without the fort, occupied by as many families, who have 
 cleared the land about nine-hundred yards in depth; but 
 on account of the sandiness of the soil and lowness of the 
 situation, which makes it subject to be overflowed, they 
 do not raise their necessary provisions. These people 
 subsist mostly by hunting, and every season send to New 
 Orleans great quantities of bear's oil, tallow, salted buf- 
 falo meat and a few skins." 
 
 Founder of City of St Louis Died at Arkansas 
 Post (1778). 
 
 During the Spanish occupation, actually from 1766 
 to 1800, the Arkansas Post grew in importance as a 
 center of trade. The government of the Arkansas coun- 
 try, known as the ''Parish of Arkansas, in the Province 
 of Louisiana," was under the immediate control of a 
 
1^ HioH Lights 
 
 commandant, who resided at the Post. Besides the com- 
 mandant and his soldiers, who resided in the fort, a quite 
 considerable town had grown up, outside the walls of 
 the military post, of settlers engaged in trade and agri- 
 culture. Pierre Laclede, the founder of St. Louis, and an 
 enterprising merchant, maintained a branch storehouse at 
 the Post until his death there in 1778, 
 
 Don Joseph Valliere, Commandant at Arkansas 
 Post (1785-1790). 
 
 Of the many commandants who, during the French 
 and afterwards the Spanish occupation of Louisiana, re- 
 sided at Arkansas Post, Don Joseph Valliere is perhaps 
 best known. He was ordered there with the Sixth Span- 
 ish Regiment, of which he was commander, in 1785. He 
 continued in control of the affairs of the District of Ar- 
 kansas until 1790. In the meantime, he had married a 
 daughter of Lewismore Vaugine, who resided at the Post. 
 On June 11, 1793, he was granted, by authority of the 
 Spanish government, a large tract of land situated on the 
 White River. He died in 1799, perhaps at the Arkansas 
 Post. The grant of land to Valliere was but one of many 
 such made by Spanish authorities to individuals. And 
 like many another such princely grant, the claim of his 
 heirs to the land, after many years and much troublesome 
 litigation, was disallowed by the courts of the United 
 States. 
 
 Birth of First Child in Arkansas Born of English- 
 American Parentage (1800). 
 
 "In the early part of the year 1800 William Patter- 
 son, Sylvanus Philips and Abraham Philips," says Jewell 
 in his History of Methodism in Arkansas, *' moved from 
 Kentucky to Arkansas and settled three miles south of 
 the St. Francis River, at a point known as the Little 
 Prairie, on the bank of the Mississippi River. John Pat- 
 terson was born at this place during this year. He was 
 
Abkansas Histoby 13 
 
 the first white child born in this part of the State, and 
 probably the first child born of American parents in the 
 State. In the summer of 1800, William Patterson cnt the 
 large cane where the city of Helena now stands, and built 
 a rude warehouse for storing goods and provisions for the 
 acommodation of barge shipping, as there were no steam- 
 boats at that day." The Sylvanus Philips, to whom this 
 writer refers, was a member of the first General Assem- 
 bly of Arkansas, which met at Arkansas Post in Febru- 
 ary and October of 1820. The county of Philips, organ- 
 ized that year, was named for him. 
 
 Spain Traded Louisiana to France (1800). 
 
 By the Treaty of San Ildefonso, secretly negotiated, 
 Charles IV, of Spain, agreed October 1, 1800, to restore 
 Louisiana to France, in exchange for "an Italion king- 
 dom of at least one million inhabitants. ' ' The Treaty of 
 San Ildefonso was confirmed by a second treaty, con- 
 cluded at Madrid, March 21, 1801, though the deal was not 
 finally settled until October, 1802 , when Charles IV 
 signed the Treaty of Madrid. Thus Louisiana was re- 
 stored to France, and Spain acquired in exchange for her 
 title the Italian State of Tuscany. These negotiations, 
 and the resulting restoration of Louisiana to France, 
 were instigated by Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Con- 
 sul of the Kepublic of France, as a measure of effecting 
 the realization of his plans to rebuild and expand the 
 colonial empire of France. 
 
 Louisiana Purchased by the United States (1803). 
 
 The province of Louisiana was purchased by the 
 United States from France April 30, 1803. The purchase 
 was brought about by the insistence on the part of the 
 United States upon the right of its citizens to the naviga- 
 tion of the Mississippi River. As long ago as 1795 Spain, 
 by treaty, had "agreed that the navigation of the said 
 river, in its whole breath, from its source to the ocean," 
 
14 HiaH Lights 
 
 should be free to citizens of the United States. Thus, 
 when it became known that Napoleon, by intrigue, had 
 effected the return of Louisiana to France, public opinion 
 took alarm in the United States, especially throughout 
 the western country, at what President Jefferson called 
 a ''policy," on the part of France and Spain, "very om- 
 inous to us," And when, on October 16, 1803, the Gov- 
 ernor of Louisiana suspended "the privilege which the 
 Americans had enjoyed of importing and depositing their 
 merchandise and effects" at New Orleans, Mr. Jefferson 
 wrote the American minister at Paris to sound the French 
 Government on the matter of ceding to the United States 
 the Island of Orleans, including the city of New Orleans. 
 A few days later Mr. Jefferson sent James Monroe to 
 France, with $2,000,000 at his disposal, for the purchase 
 of the island, to cooperate with Robert Livingston, the 
 minister, in conducting the negotiations. In the mean- 
 time, beset by multiplying difficulties in Europe, Na- 
 poleon abandoned his dream of rebuilding the colonial 
 empire of France, in so far as regarded the holding of 
 Louisiana at all events. Thus, Talleyrand, Napoleon's 
 Prime Minister, offered to sell the United States the 
 whole of Louisiana, explaining that without the island 
 and city of New Orleans the province would prove worth- 
 less to France. And, after some misgiving and hesitation 
 on the part of the Americans, the terms of the purchase 
 were drawn up in a formal treaty, known as the Treaty 
 of Paris, in which the United States agreed to pay 80, 
 000,000 francs. Eventuallv, the total cost amounted to 
 $27,267,621. 
 
 William C. C. Claiborne, First American Governor 
 OP Louisiana (1803). 
 
 President Jefferson appointed William C. C. Clai- 
 borne Governor of Louisiana on October 31, 1803, the 
 same day that Claiborne was named by the President 
 as one of the commissioners to take over the province on 
 behalf of the United States. On December 20, following, 
 
Abkaksas History 15 
 
 in taking formal possession of the country, the new execu- 
 tive issued an address to the people of Louisiana. In it 
 he assured them of the inheritance of freedom under the 
 United States and the security of their property and re- 
 ligious liberty. 
 
 The Stars and Stripes Raised at New Orleans (1803). 
 
 The formality of giving possession of Louisiana to 
 the United States was done at New Orleans on December 
 20, 1803. President Jefferson had appointed General 
 James Wilkinson and William C. C. Claiborne, the latter 
 then governor of Mississippi Territory, commissioners to 
 take over Louisiana from Pierre Clemant Laussat, the 
 French commissary. On November 30, 1803, the Mar- 
 quis de Casa Calvo, as the representative of the Spanish 
 Government, transferred the province to Laussat, who on 
 December 20, 1803, transferred it to Wilkinson and Clai- 
 borne. Then the Stars and Stripes were raised in New 
 Orleans, for the first time, in token of the sovereignty of 
 the United States over the territory west of the Missis- 
 sippi River. Thus the domain of the United States was 
 extended westward to the summit of the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, and Arkansas became a part of the American Re- 
 public. 
 
 Control of Upper Louisiana, Including the Present 
 State of Arkansas, Transferred to the United 
 States at St. Louis (1804). 
 
 Although the transfer of Louisiana to United States 
 was made on December 20, 1803, the actual exercise of au- 
 thority over the upper or northern part of the province, 
 which included Arkansas, did not begin until March 10, 
 1804. On that day Major Amos Stoddard, of the United 
 States Army, assumed the duties of governor of upper 
 Louisiana at St. Louis. In his account of the occasion, 
 Major Stoddard says: ''The ceremony of transfer from 
 Spain to France occurred between the hours of eleven 
 
16 High Lights 
 
 a. am. and twelve m., March 9, 1804. The Spanish flag 
 was lowered and the standard of France was mn up in 
 its place. The people, although conscious that the sov- 
 ereignty of France was being resumed but for a moment 
 and simply as a necessary formality in the final transfer, 
 nevertheless could not restrain their joy at seeing float 
 over them once more the standard which even forty years 
 of the mild sway of Spain had not estranged from their 
 memory. So deep was the feeling that, when the custom- 
 ary hour came for lowering the flag, the people besought 
 me to let it remain up all night. The request was granted 
 and the flag of France floated until the next morning over 
 the city from which it was about to be withdrawn for- 
 ever. At the appointed time on the next day, March 10, 
 1804, the ceremony of transfer from France to the United 
 States was enacted. The flag of the French Republic was 
 withdrawn and the Stars and Stripes waved for the first 
 time in the future metropolis of the Valley of the Missis- 
 sippi. Thus St. Louis became perhaps the only city in 
 history which has seen the flag of three nations float over 
 it in token of sovereignty within the space of twenty-four 
 hours." 
 
 Louisiana Divided; Aekansas Attached to the Tebei- 
 TORiAL Government op Indiana (1804). 
 
 On March 26, 1804, President Jefferson approved an 
 act of Congress dividing Louisiana into two parts, viz: 
 The Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana. 
 The former embraced what is now the State of Louisiana 
 and the latter included all the remainder of the purchase. 
 Under the provisions of this act the District of Louisiana 
 was made subject to the territorial government of Indi- 
 ana, of which Gen. William Henry Harrison was then 
 governor. Some historians state that by this act all of 
 tipper Louisiana, which included the present State of 
 Arkansas, was made a part of the Territory of Indiana. 
 This is a mistake. The act merely regarded the District of 
 Louisiana, or Upper Louisiana, as it was commonly 
 
Arkansas History 17 
 
 called, as unorganized territory and attached it to Indi- 
 ana for judicial purposes, etc. On October 1, 1804, Gov. 
 William Henry Harrison, of Indiana, and the judges of 
 the territory visited St. Louis for the purpose of holding 
 a session of the court and making laws for the District of 
 Louisiana. They enacted fifteen laws, ''identical with or 
 adapted from those already in force in the old Northwest 
 or Indiana Territory." The District of Louisiana was 
 was also divided into five subdistricts of St. Louis, St. 
 Charles, Cape Girardeau, Ste. Genevieve and New Mad- 
 rid. Colonel Samuel Hammond was appointed Lieutenant- 
 governor or commandant of St. Louis ;Colonel Return J. 
 Meigs, of St. Charles ; Colonel Thomas B. Scott, of Cape 
 Girardeau; Major Seth Hunt, of Ste. Genevieve; and 
 Pierre Antoine Laforge, civil conmaandant of New 
 Madrid. 
 
 District of Louisiana, Including Arkansas, Created the 
 Territory of Louisiana (1805). 
 
 An Act of Congress approved March 3, 1805, made 
 over the District of Louisiana into the Territory of 
 Louisiana. The same act named St. Louis as the 
 seat of the new territorial government. The Presi- 
 dent appointed James Wilkinson, a native of Mary- 
 land, governor ; Joseph Browne, of New York , secre- 
 tary; John B. C. Lucas, of Pennsylvania, John Co- 
 burn, of Kentucky, and Rufus Eaton, of St. Louis, judges. 
 In 1805 Aaron Burr visited St. Louis. The circumstances 
 of Burr's visit confirmed public opinion in the suspicion 
 of Willrinson as aiding the alleged conspiracy of Burr 
 to establish an independent empire in the southwest. For 
 this, and his arbitrary acts as governor, President Jef- 
 ferson removed him from offipe March 3, 1807, and ap 
 pointed in his stead Captain Meriwether Lewis, a native 
 of Virginia. 
 
18 High Lights 
 
 District of Arkansas Formed (1806). 
 
 The Legislature of the Territory of Louisiana, 
 by an act approved June 27, 1806, created the Dis- 
 trict of Arkansas out of territory taken *^from the 
 southern part of New Madrid District." The boun- 
 daries of the new district, as afterwards fixed by 
 proclamation of Governor Meriwether Lewis, were de- 
 fined as all of New Madrid District south of "a line be- 
 ginning on the Mississippi River opposite the second 
 Chickasaw Bluff and continuing west indefinitely." The 
 southern boundary was given as the thirty-third parallel 
 of north latitude. Stephen Worrell was appointed com- 
 mandant, or deputy governor, of the new District of 
 Arkansas. 
 
 Civil Government Organized in the District of 
 Arkansas (1808). 
 
 Though created more than two years before by the 
 Legislature of Louisiana Territory, no steps were taken 
 to organize civil government in the District of Arkansas 
 until August 23, 1808. On that day Governor Meriwether 
 Lewis appointed the following officers for the district: 
 Harold Stillwell, sheriff; John W. Honey, judge of the 
 probate court, clerk of the court of common pleas, and 
 recorder of the district; Joseph Stillwell, Francis Vau- 
 gine and Benjamin Foy, judges of the court of common 
 pleas; Perley Wallis, deputy attorney-general for the 
 district; Andrew Fagot, justice of the peace, notary 
 public and coroner. Benjamin Foy was also empowered 
 to act as justice of the peace. 
 
 Osage Indian Treaty (1808). 
 
 On November 10, 1808, a treaty was concluded be- 
 tween the United States and the Osage Indians, by which 
 the latter relinquished all claim to most of their lands 
 now included in the State of Arkansas. The Osage tribe 
 claimed all that part of the State north of the Arkansas 
 
Arkansas History 19 
 
 Biver. And by the treaty of 1808 they ceded all of the 
 said territory except a narrow strip north of the Arkan- 
 sas and east of the present western boundary. 
 
 Hemphill's Salt Works — the First Manufacturing 
 Industry (1811). 
 
 The earliest factory, of which any definite informa- 
 tion has been obtained, was John Hemphill's salt works, 
 established at Blakeleytown, Clark County, in 1811. 
 Blakeleytown was a small settlement on the Ouachita 
 Eiver a short distance below Arkadelphia. Salt was made 
 here by the Indians for many years before the first white 
 settlements were founded in Arkansas and some writers 
 think it was at this point that DeSoto made salt in the 
 winter of 1541-42. Hemphill continued the busines until 
 his death in 1825 and his heirs carried it on until about 
 1850. 
 
 The New Madrid Earthquake (1811). 
 
 The first shocks of the New Madrid earthquake were 
 felt December 16, 1811. The area most violently shaken 
 by the disturbance was, it seems, some thirty miles 
 square, of which the town of New Madrid was situated 
 near the center. Less violent effects of the disturbance 
 were manifest hundreds of miles around, especially along 
 the Mississippi. The "sunk lands of the St. Francis" 
 river basin, situated in Craighead, Mississippi, Poinsett 
 and other counties of northeast Arkansas, still remain as 
 visible evidence of the quake. The following account was 
 written from contemporary sources: "Eye witnesses 
 have told us that these concussions were divisible into 
 two classes, in one of which the motion was perpendicular, 
 whilst in the other it was horizontal. Of these, the latter 
 were the most destructive ; when they were felt the houses 
 crumbled, the trees waved together and the ground sunk. 
 The undulations at such times were described as resem- 
 bling waves, which increased in elevation as they ad- 
 
20 High Lights 
 
 vanced, and when they had attained a certain fearful 
 height, the earth would burst and vast volumes of water 
 and sand and pit-coal were discharged, as high as the 
 tops of the trees, leaving large crevices or chasms where 
 the ground had burst. Lakes of twenty miles in extent 
 and more were made in an hour, whilst others were 
 drained, and whole districts were covered with white 
 sand, so that they became uninhabitable." On February 
 17, 1815, Congress passed an act for the relief of the 
 earthquake sufferers, by which they were given certifi- 
 cates that entitled them to locate new homes on the public 
 lands. Such claims or patents issued to claimants under 
 the said act of Congress, became known as "New Mad- 
 rid Certificates." 
 
 The Beginning of the Presbyterian Church in 
 Arkansas (1811). 
 
 There seems to be no doubt that the first Prot- 
 estant sermon preached in what is now the State of Ar- 
 kansas was delivered at Arkansas Post in 1811 by the 
 Eev. John P. Carnahan, a minister of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian faith. Mr. Carnahan subsequently became 
 a resident of the Pyeatt settlement at Crystal Hill, some 
 twelve or fifteen miles up the Arkansas from Little Rock; 
 there his daughter was married to Henry Pyeatt on Feb- 
 ruary 10, 1820. This pioneer preacher conducted the first 
 camp meeting in Arkansas. It was opened on Friday, 
 May 24, 1822, and continued for five days, *'with good 
 results for the cause of Christianity." The meeting was 
 held on the farm of Major John Pyeatt. Another camp 
 meeting was held at the same place, beginning on May 15, 
 1825, in which Mr. Carnahan was assisted by the Eev. 
 Robert Sloane. The first regular Presbyterian church to 
 be organized in Arkansas is still in existence and is known 
 as the First Presbyterian Church of Little Rock. It was 
 organized on Sunday, July 27, 1828, by Rev. James W. 
 Moore, who has been called the ''Father of Presbyter- 
 iansim in Arkansas." Mr. Moore was bom at Milton, 
 
Abkansas History ^1 
 
 Pennsylvania, September 14, 1797, attended the common 
 schools in his native town, united with the church in 1820, 
 and in 1824 entered the Theological Seminary at Prince- 
 ton, New Jersey. Upon completing his studies he waa 
 licensed to preach and on November 21, 1827, was or- 
 dained as a missionary for Arkansas. On January 25, 
 1828, he arrived at Little Rock and preached his first 
 sermon the following Sunday. The church organized in 
 July consisted of only seven members. This little congre- 
 gation worshiped in various houses until the next sum- 
 mer, when a small chapel was erected on the corner of 
 Main and Second Streets, which was used until 1847. 
 Mr. Moore died on January 25, 1873, after exactly forty- 
 five years in the Presbyterian ministry in Arkansas. 
 
 The Name of Louisiana Territory Changed to the 
 Territory of Missouri (1812). 
 
 The Territory of Orleans was admitted to the Union 
 April 8, 1812, as the State of Louisiana. The adoption 
 of the name Louisiana by the new State necessitated a 
 change of the name of the then Territory of Louisiana. 
 Accordingly Congress passed an act, approved June 4, 
 1812, to the effect that thenceforth the Territory of Louis- 
 iana should be known as the Territory of Missouri. 
 Though the rest of Missouri was divided the same year 
 (1812) into five counties, the District of Arkansas still 
 continued as such for a time. In the Territorial Legis- 
 lature, which met in December, 1812, the first Territorial 
 Legislature of Missouri having a house of representativs 
 who were chosen by the people, the District of Arkansas 
 was not represented. 
 
 Bounty Lands Reserved for Soldiers (1812). 
 
 By an Act of Congress, approved May 6, 1812, six 
 million acres of the public lands were reserved for vet- 
 erans of the War of 1812. Of these so-called bounty 
 lands, there were two million acres set apart in a body in 
 
22 High Lights 
 
 what is now Arkansas. The lands surveyed and reserved 
 for this purpose embraced the triangular tract situated 
 between the Arkansas and AVhite Rivers, beginning at 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 Arkansas County Created (1813). 
 
 At an adjourned, or second session of the first 
 General Assembly of Missouri "all that part of Missouri 
 Territory south of New Madrid County" was created 
 the county of Arkansas. The act creating the new county 
 was approved by Governor William Clark December 31, 
 1813. The boundaries of the county, as then defiined, 
 included nearly the whole of the present State of Arkan- 
 sas; which had, according to a census taken in 1814, a 
 total male population of but 827. The second General 
 Assembly of Missouri met on December 5, 1814. To this 
 assembly was elected Henry Cassidy from Arkansas 
 County, who sat as its first representative in the Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 The Entrance of Methodism (1815). 
 
 The Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Church, 
 which met at Bethlehem, Tennessee, October 20, 1815, or- 
 ganized Spring River Circuit as part of the Missouri 
 District. The Conference failed to appoint a regular 
 "rider" of the new circuit, but before the close of the 
 year a "supply" w^as found in the person of Eli Lindsey, 
 a pioneer preacher, who lived then on Strawberry River, 
 near the mouth of Big Creek. Though there had been, no 
 doubt, sermons preached upon occasions before 1815 in 
 what is now the State of Arkansas, it is certain that the 
 organization of the Spring River Circuit was the first 
 work "laid off" there by a conference of the church in 
 regular manner. It is said of Lindsey that he attended 
 all the house-raisings, log-rollings and frolics, and after 
 the labors and festivities were over would ask permission 
 to say a "few words." Then he would preach a short 
 
Arkansas History 23 
 
 sermon and in\dte those present to attend regular ser- 
 vices at his next appointment. His circuit extended from 
 the Little Red River northward to the Missouri line. 
 There were no church buildings and he preached wher- 
 ever he could find a suitable place. At the close of the 
 year 1815 he reported a membership of ninety-five in his 
 circuit. That part of the Tennessee Conference lying 
 west of the Mississippi River was organized as the Mis- 
 souri Conference in 1816. The conference formed also 
 that year the Hot Springs Circuit. The appointments for 
 Arkansas were : Spring River Circuit, Rev. Philip Davis ; 
 Hot Springs Circuit, Rev. William Stephenson. These 
 two circuits included all of the present State of Arkansas. 
 At the close of the year the two circuit riders repored 
 190 members. The first conference for the District of 
 Arkansas was held at the Ebenezer Camp Ground in 
 Hempstead County, September 6, 1822. The licensed 
 preachers in the district were: James Blackburn, Gil- 
 bert Clark, William Harned, Benjamin Ogden, Daniel 
 Rawles, Joseph Reid, Salmon Ruggles, Thomas Tennant 
 and John Tollett. John Scripps was presiding elder of 
 the district, Gilbert Clark was chosen secretary of the 
 conference, William Stephenson, Francis Travis and John 
 Henry were chosen elders, and Green Orr was licensed 
 to preach. The General Conference in 1836 ordered the 
 establishment of the Arkansas Conference, the first ses- 
 sion of w^hich was held at Batesville, Bishop Morris pre- 
 siding. The members of the conference at its organiza- 
 tion were: Thomas Bertholf, Fountain Brown, Henry 
 Cornelius, John A. Cotton, Erastus B. Duncan, Jesse A. 
 Guice, Robert Gregory, John N. Hamil, John Harrel, 
 John L. Irwin, Charles J. Karney, Burwell Lee, Moses 
 Perry, Charles T. Ramsey, Richmond Randle, William 
 Ratcliffe, John H. Rives, Winfree B. Scott, A. D. Smythe, 
 Sidney Squires, William Stephenson, W. H. Turnley, 
 Lemuel Wakelee and Jacob Whitesides. 
 
24 High Liohts 
 
 Davidsonville, the First Postoffice (1817). 
 
 The first postoffice in what is now the State of Ar- 
 kansas was established at Davidsonville, in June, 1817. 
 One Adam Richie was the first postmaster. In point of 
 priority, the postoffice at Arkansas Post was a close 
 second. The office at the latter place was established 
 July 1, 1817, with Eli J. Lewis as postmaster. The office 
 at Little Rock, of wliicb Amos Wheeler was the first post- 
 master, was established in March, 1820. 
 
 The Cherokee Indians Ceded Lands in Arkansas (1817). 
 
 By a treaty concluded July 8, 1817, with the Chero- 
 kees of Georgia, the United States Government granted 
 that tribe of Indians a large tract of land in what is now 
 the State of Arkansas. The lands so ceded were given 
 to the Indians in exchange for a part of the lands claimed 
 by them east of the Mississippi River. The grant in- 
 cluded the greater part of the State situated between the 
 Arkansas and White Rivers and west of a straight line 
 drawn from a point on the Arkansas River near the 
 present town of Morrilton in a northeasterly direction to 
 the White River. 
 
 The First Quapaw Treaty (1818). 
 
 In a treaty concluded at St. Louis, August 24, 1818, 
 the Quapaw Indians, for whom Arkansas is named, ceded 
 to the United States all lands claimed by them in the pres- 
 ent State of Arkansas, except a triangular tract south 
 of the Arkansas River. The tract reserved was bounded 
 on the north by the Arkansas, on the east and south by a 
 straight line drawn due southwest from a point on the 
 Arkansas opposite Arkansas Post to the Saline River; 
 on the west hy a straight line from the latter point on 
 the Saline River north to the Arkansas at Little Rock. 
 By a second treaty, of November 15, 1824, the Quapaws 
 ceded the lands reserved to tliem, as just described in 
 the treaty of 1818. 
 
Arkansas Histoby 25 
 
 How Arkansas Got its Name (1819). 
 
 The name ^'Arkansas" manifestly is a word of In- 
 dian origin. Nor is there, seemingly, any doubt as to 
 its meaning; nor any uncertainty about how the name 
 should be pronounced ; nor yet, any doubt why Congress, 
 which created the Territory of Arkansas by an act ap- 
 proved March 2, 1819, called the new territory "Arkan- 
 saw." Most American ethnologists now, it seems, are 
 agreed that the Arkansa, or, as they are better known, 
 the Quapaw Indians, are of Siouan stock; which is to 
 say, they are but one of a number of tribes embraced in 
 the Siouan family of North American Indians. Other 
 kindred tribes of the Siouan family are the Kansa, 
 Omaha, Osage and Ponca. These latter tribes, with their 
 near kinsmen, the Quapaw (Arkansa), were once, per- 
 haps as late as the early part of the sixteenth century, 
 united in an alliance, as five confederated tribes, who 
 inhabited jointly the region of the lower Ohio valley. 
 Later, probably before the end of the sixteenth century, 
 the several tribes of the confederacy migrated from the 
 region north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi 
 rivers. Four of the allied tribes — the Kansa, Omaha, 
 Osage and Ponca — moved northward and across the Mis- 
 sissippi ; while the other tribe — the Quapaw, as they were 
 then only known, — migrated down the Mississippi. There- 
 after, the Illinois Indians, who, not unlikely, had helped 
 to drive the allied tribes out of what is now southern 
 Illinois, gave the two groups new names. The four tribes 
 who had moved northward were called bj^ the Illinois the 
 0-ma-ha; which meant the '^upstream people." While 
 to the Quapaw, they gave the name U-gakh-pa; which 
 word meant, in the language of the Illinois, the ''down- 
 stream people." Thus the early French explorers heard 
 the Indians whom they found dwelling in what is now 
 Arkansas call themselves Quapaw; by other Indians, no 
 doubt, the French heard the Quapaw called U-gakh-pa. 
 The French explorers wrote, of course, the word 
 Ugakhpa euphonically ; that is, as each writer heard the 
 
26 High LaaHxs 
 
 Indians pronounce it. For example, Marquette wrote it 
 (1673), Arkansea; LaSalle (1680), Aconsa; Jontel 
 (1687), Acsanceas; Penicaut (1700), Arkansas; Adair 
 (1775), Aqualipa; Pike (1811), Arkansaw. It is sig- 
 nificant, too, that the earliest writers but rarely wrote 
 the word Arkansas with a final *'s". Almost never was 
 the "s" added except to express the plural. And stu- 
 dents of ethnology are commonly agreed that the now 
 familiar spelling, with a final "s", is really erroneous. 
 The same is true also of Kansas. Both Arkansas and 
 Kansas, properly speakinc;, should be written without 
 the final *'s", as in the spelling of Omaha, Ottawa, Wich- 
 ita, etc. Owing to an error of custom in adding a final 
 *'s" to Kansas, originally to express the plural, the 
 name is now universally pronounced improperly. And 
 so also, there are those who pronounce the name Arkan- 
 sas correspondingly incorrect — wdth the final "s" 
 sounded and the accent put upon the second syllable. Such 
 persons may easily avoid this error by remembering that 
 the correct spelling of the tribal name of the Indian tribe 
 from which the State of Arkansas gets its name was Ar- 
 kansa. When thus spelled, without the final *'s", the 
 accent falls naturally enough on the first and last syl- 
 lables. That the last syllable should be pronounced as if 
 it were spelled '*saw" is evidenced by the fact that the 
 name of the Territorj^ of Arkansas, which appears ten 
 times in the act of Congress that created it, is invariably 
 spelled ''Arkansaw." Not until many years after Ar- 
 kansas became an organized Territory did it, it seems, 
 occur to anyone to pronounce the name other than that 
 clearly indicated by the spelling ''Arkansaw", as used 
 by Congress in creating the Territory. The word Ar- 
 kansas was first employed as a place name by the Indians. 
 For, in 1673, Marquette, as he passed down the 
 Mississippi River on his exploiting expedition, was told 
 that the Indian village situated then near the mouth of 
 the river which is now the Arkansas was, as Marquette 
 wrote in his journal, "called Arkansea." When in 
 
Arkansas History 27 
 
 1686, Tonti, the explorer, founded the first white settle- 
 ment near the Indian village of ''Arkansea," he called 
 the place Arkansas. This settlement, which, in time, came 
 to be known as Arkansas Post, was, during the next hun- 
 dred years and more, the only settlement In what is now 
 Arkansas that had a place name. Meantime, much of 
 the region now embraced in Arkansas was called by the 
 French, and later by the Spanish, authorities the "Par- 
 ish of Arkansas." In 1806, the territorial legislature of 
 Louisiana formed the greater part of what is now the 
 State of Arkansas into the ^'District of Arkansas." In 
 December, 1813, the territorial legislature of Missouri 
 created the *' County of Arkansas"; which county em- 
 braced the greater part of the present State of Arkansas. 
 In the spring, or early summer, of 1818, a petition was 
 framed at Arkansas Post, which many of the inhabitants 
 at and in the vicinity of the Post signed, ''respectfully 
 petitioning the Congress of the United States" that the 
 Congress create a new "Territory of Arkansaw." This 
 petition was sent to Washington, where it was presented 
 to Congress and a bill introduced to effect the will of 
 the petitioners. What could have been more natural 
 than that the petitioners should have chosen the name 
 Arkansas, or that Congress should have adopted it? In 
 reality, tradition and custom gave the locality its name 
 of Arkansas ; Congress simply ratified what custom long 
 since had made etfective. 
 
 The Territory of Arkansas Formed (1819). 
 
 Congress created the Territory of Arkansas by an 
 act approved by President James Monroe March 2, 1819. 
 The boundaries, as defined in the act of Congress, were 
 practically the same as those of the present State of Ar- 
 kansas except on the west, where the boundary was given 
 as the "western territorial line." The latter meant the 
 western boundary of Louisiana, as purchased of France. 
 Thus the Territory orig-inally inclnded the present State 
 of Oklahoma and part of Colorado. By subsequent 
 
28 High Lights 
 
 treaties with the Choctaw Indians (1825) and the Chero- 
 kees (1828) the boundary on the west was fixed as at 
 present. The new Territory was called Arkansas in 
 the act of Congress — where it was spelled Arkansaw — in 
 response to a petition which emanated from a meeting 
 of a number of the inhabitants at Arkansas Post in the 
 spring of 1818. In their petition, which prayed Con- 
 gress to establish a new Territory, they asked that it be 
 called ''Arkansaw." 
 
 The First Newspaper in Arkansas Established (1819). 
 
 On a Saturday, November 20, 1819, William E. 
 Woodruff issued, at Arkansas Post, the first number of 
 The Arkansas Gazette. This was the beginning of jour- 
 nalism in Arkansas. There had been, prior to that time, 
 six newspapers published west of the Mississippi river. 
 Of the six which began publication before Woodruff 
 founded the Gazette, all but one disappeared after a few 
 years. The St. Louis Republic, founded in 1808, and 
 The Arkansas Gazette, founded in 1819, are the two old- 
 est papers, now in existence, west of the Mississippi. 
 
 The First Arkansas Legislature (1819). 
 
 The first legislature assembled to enact laws for the 
 new Territory of Arkansas met at Arkansas Post on a 
 Wednesday, July 28, 1819. The members continued in 
 session until August 3. This first legislature, unlike any 
 of its successors, was composed of the governor, who, 
 having not yet arrived in the Territory, was represented 
 by the territorial secretary acting as governor, and the 
 three judges of the Superior Court — then the supreme, or 
 highest, court of the Territory. The most important 
 measure enacted was an act declaring in force in Arkan- 
 sas ''all the laws and parts of laws now in existence in 
 the Territory of Missouri, which are of general and not of 
 local nature, and which are not repugnant to the organic 
 law of this territory." Thus quick work was mode of 
 
Abkansas History 29 
 
 the matter of providing Arkansas with a ready-made 
 system of general laws. The members were, Robert 
 Crittenden, acting governor; Charles Jouett, Andrew 
 Scott and Robert P. Letcher, judges. 
 
 The First General Election in Arkansas (1819). 
 
 The first general election in Arkansas was held on 
 Saturday, November 20, 1819, the same day on which 
 appeared the first issue of The Arkansas Gazette. On 
 that day the voters of the Territory chose a delegate to 
 Congress, five members of a legislative council and nine 
 members of a house of representatives. There were six 
 candidates for delegate to Congress : Stephen F. Austin, 
 James Woodson Bates, Henry Cassidy, Robert F. 
 Slaughter, Alexander S. Walker and Perley Wallis. A 
 total of 1272 votes was cast, distributed among the six 
 candidates as follows: Austin, 343; Bates, 401; Cassidy, 
 156; Slaughter, 138; Walker, 226; Wallis, 8. Stephen 
 F. Austin, son of Moses Austin, announced his candi- 
 dacy only thirteen days before the election. It was said 
 afterwards that many voters in distant parts of the Ter- 
 ritory knew nothing of his announcement until after the 
 election. Had he entered the race at an earlier date, per- 
 haps the result of the election had been different. James 
 Woodson Bates having received a plurality was declared 
 elected. Austin went shortly to Texas, where he founded 
 a colony of Americans. The city of Austin was named 
 for him. 
 
 The First Masonic Lodge Organized (1819). 
 
 When Andrew Scott was appointed judge of the 
 Superior Court of Arkansas Territory in 1819 he was 
 master of a Masonic lodge working under dispensation 
 at Potosi, Missouri. With his appointment and prospec- 
 tive removal to Arkansas, the lodge surrendered its let- 
 ter of dispensation, but Judge Scott asked and obtained 
 permission from the Missouri Grand Lodge to retain the 
 
30 High Lights 
 
 jewels, to be presented to the first Masonic lodge organ- 
 ized in Arkansas. Shortly after he settled at Arkansas 
 Post a few Masons residing tliere petitioned the Grand 
 Lodge of Kentucky for letters of dispensation to organ- 
 ize a lodge. The petition was granted on November 30, 
 1819, and on the next day Eobert Johnson was installed 
 as worshipful master. This lodge was the first in Ar- 
 kansas, of which anything definite can be learned. Upon 
 the removal of the seat of government to Little Rock 
 several of the members followed the capital and the lodge 
 surrendered its dispensation. Arkansas was then with- 
 out a Masonic organization of any kind until 1836, when 
 the Masons of Fayetteville obtained a dispensation from 
 the Grand Lodge of Tennessee to organize a lodge. It 
 was named Washington Lodge No. 82, and was presented 
 with the jewels brought from Missouri by Judge Scott 
 seventeen years before. 
 
 The Fiest General Assembly (1820). 
 
 The first General Assembly — the first legislature 
 made up of members chosen by the people — met at Ar- 
 kansas Post February 7, 1820. Governor James Miller 
 did not arrive at Arkansas Post, the temporary seat of 
 government, until Sunday, December 26, 1819. Three 
 days later, December 29, he issued his procalamation 
 calling an extraordinary session of the General Assem- 
 bly, as elected in November, for the first Monday in 
 February following, which was February 7, 1820. The 
 members of the council were: Sylvanus Phillips, Ar- 
 kansas county; Jacob Barkman, Clark county; David 
 Clark, Hempstead county; Edward McDonald, president, 
 Lawrence county; John McElmurry, Pulaski county. 
 The meml^rs of the house were : William 0. Allen and 
 Wm. B. R. Horner, Arkansas county; Thomas Fish, 
 Clark county; John English and Wm. Stevenson, Hemp- 
 stead county; Joab Hardin and Joseph Hardin, speaker, 
 Lawrence county ; Radford Ellis and Thomas H, Tindall, 
 Pulaski county. 
 
Aekansas History 31 
 
 The Site of Little Rock Laid Out for a Town (1820). 
 
 The first white settler on what is now the site of the 
 city of Little Rock was Williams Lewis, a hunter and 
 trapper. Lewis, according to the sworn testimony of 
 Chester Ashley, came down the Arkansas River with his 
 family in July, 1812, and located near a spring on the 
 south bank of the river, where he erected a "shack" about 
 eight by ten feet, roofed with clapboards, with boards 
 set up against the sides, too low^ to stand up in, and open 
 at the ends. Lewis remained there only about three 
 months, "subsisting wholly on the spontaneous produc- 
 tions of the earth and the charity of a few neighbors on 
 the north side of the river, and had not planted or cul- 
 tivated anything. ' ' In October, 1812, William Lewis, be- 
 fore starting up the Arkansas River on a buffalo hunt, 
 gave the boards of his "shack" to a neighbor and never 
 occupied the place again. Upon his return from the buf- 
 falo hunt, he and his family lived with William Mabbitt 
 a portion of the year 1813. Then he was absent until 
 March 18, 1814, when he returned in company with Ed- 
 mund Hogan and again lived with him and Mabbitt until 
 May, when he left the Territory of Missouri for good. 
 But before the close of 1814 Lewis obtained through the 
 United States land office at Nashville, Tennessee, a cer- 
 tification for a preemption claim, to cover a tract of land 
 on the Arkansas River near the Little Rock, on account 
 of "habitation and cultivation." This claim was sold by 
 Lewis to Elisha White for ten dollars. White sold the 
 claim to Wright Daniels, a settler a few miles down the 
 river, who sold it to Reuben Blunt, and Blunt sold it to 
 Benjamin Murphy. None of these holders of the cer- 
 tificate went to the trouble to perfect a title and the claim 
 finally fell into the hands of William Russell, a profes- 
 sional land speculator. Russell sold, or transferred, 
 parts of the claim to William Trimble, Townsend Dick- 
 inson, Henry W. Conway and Rufus Spalding. Town- 
 send Dickinson sold his interest to Robert C. Oden and 
 William Russell quit-claimed to Robert Crittenden one- 
 
32 High Lights 
 
 gixteenth of a "preemption to land originally improved 
 by AVilliam Lewis and granted to B. Murphy." All this, 
 preparatory to having the seat of government removed to 
 Little Rock, was arranged, it seems, in the fall, or winter 
 of 1819. The Arkansas Gazette of May 27, 1820, then 
 published at Arkansas Post, says: "It is contemplated 
 to remove the seat of government of the territory the 
 ensuing fall from the Post of Arkansas to a place called 
 Little Rock on the south side of the Arkansas river, about 
 three hundred miles above its mouth. The land at Little 
 Rock is in possession of a company of enterprising gen- 
 tlemen from St. Louis, who have already surveyed and 
 laid off a town ; the site of which for natural beauty and 
 advantages is not surpassed by any west of the moun- 
 tains. ***** It is, moreover, the place, and the 
 only place, where the great road from Missouri to the 
 Red River can cross the Arkansas." When the Gen- 
 eral Assembly met for the second and last time at Arkan- 
 sas Post on October 2, 1820, Joseph Harden, of Lawrence 
 county, was chosen speaker of the house. On the 13th 
 Townsend Dickinson conveyed to Harden an interest in 
 the Murphy preemption claim, no doubt for the purpose 
 of enlisting his cooperation in securing the passage of 
 the bill for the removal of the seat of government to 
 Little Rock. The "company of enterprising gentlemen 
 from St. Louis," as mentioned by The Arkansas Gazette, 
 consisted of one person, William Russell. The others — 
 Trimble, Dickinson, Crittenden, Oden et al., — were all 
 Arkansas politicians, who were, it would seem, more in- 
 terested in "lining their pockets" than anything else. 
 The act for the removal of the capital was approved by 
 Governor Miller on October 18, 1820, five days after 
 Speaker Harden acquired an interest in the town site, 
 the act to take effect June 1, 1821. In the meantime 
 Frederick Bates, recorder of land titles in Missouri Ter- 
 ritory, had issued in the fall of 1815 New Madrid certifi- 
 cates to Eloy Dejarlois, Francis Lessieur and Peter 
 Porier, which entitled them to locate lands in lieu of 
 
Arkansas History 33 
 
 those they had lost by the New Madrid earthquake. These 
 certificates were bought by William 'Hara, of St. Louis, 
 who assigned to Stephen F. Austin a half interest in 
 the Dejarlois certificate. The 160 acres to which the 
 holder of this certificate was entitled, were located by 
 O'Hara and Austin on February 24, 1819. O'Hara sold 
 to James Bryan a one-sixth interest in the Lessieur claim, 
 of 160 acres, which had been located by James C. Can- 
 field in November, 1819. And to James Bryan O'Hara 
 sold a one-third interest in the Porier claim. Austin dis- 
 posed of his interest to James Bryan and went to Texas. 
 On August 17, 1820, the deeds relating to these several 
 transfers were filed with Archabald Gamble, a clerk of the 
 court in Jefferson county, Missouri; which deeds were 
 also recorded in Pulaski county by A. H. Rennick, clerk, 
 November 23, 1820. In these documents it was set forth 
 that O'Hara and Bryan ''had agreed to lay out and sur- 
 vey the said three tracts of land located by the certifi- 
 cates above described into town lots, streets and commons, 
 
 in form and manner as appears by a map 
 
 or town plat hereto annexed." Thus it is plain that 
 O'Hara 's and Bryan's town could not have been laid 
 off prior to August 17, 1820. As these New Madrid 
 claims overlapped the Lewis preemption, upon which the 
 Russell crowd based their claim to the land — land upon 
 which Russell had begun laying out a town probably as 
 early as February, 1820 — a conflict of interests was in- 
 evitable. In the fall of 1819 Russell took the dispute 
 over title to the proposed town site into the courts. And 
 in June, 1821, the Superior Court of the Territory de- 
 cided the matter in his favor. This decision gave him 
 possession of nearly all the improvements that had been 
 made. The New Madrid claimants were highly indig- 
 nant. Some of them blew up with powder most of the 
 buildings they had erected; others moved their build- 
 ings off of that portion of the town site of which Russell 
 had obtained possession. Whereupon, in November, 
 1821, Russell proposed a compromise. Chester Ashley 
 
34 High Lights 
 
 was opposed to having any dealings with Russell; but a 
 majority of the New Madrid claimants, fearing the re- 
 sults of the court decision and knowing that an eifort 
 was being made to remove the seat of government to 
 Crystal Hill, concluded that a compromise was safest. 
 The Arkansas Gazette of December 29, 1821, in the first 
 issue published at Little Rock, says: "Until \\-ithin a 
 few weeks, the title to the tract of land selected as the 
 town site has been in dispute; but happily for the town 
 and the territory generally, the parties concerned became 
 sensible of the propriety of settling their conflicting 
 claims in an amicable manner, which they have done, and 
 the soil is now free from dispute." 
 
 The Missouri Compromise — Arkansas and Slavery 
 (1820). 
 
 President Monroe approved March 6, 1820, a famous 
 act of Congress, known as the Missouri Compromise. As 
 a result of this act, the differences which had grown up be- 
 tween the North and South over the question of the exten- 
 sion of slavery, as applied to the whole of the Louisi- 
 ana purchase — except, of course, the State of Louisiana — 
 were temporarily settled. The effect upon the subsequent 
 history of Arkansas was fraught with the greatest sig- 
 nificance. Thus the way was left open for the Terri- 
 tory of Arkansas, where already there were not a few 
 slaves, to become the slave state that it did. The Com- 
 promise, which made an exception of the then Territory 
 of Missouri by providing for its admission to the Union 
 as a slave state, prohibited slavery in all the rest of 
 Louisiana, as purchased of France in 1803, north of the 
 parallel which fonns the boundary between Arkansas 
 and Missouri westward to the western boundary of the 
 Louisiana purchase. In all the country south of this line 
 of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude 
 the question of the existence of slavery was left for set- 
 tlement by the people themselves. And since the nat- 
 ural conditions in Arkansas were highlv favorable to the 
 
Arkansas History 35 
 
 development of slavery as a profitable institution, the 
 growth of the slave population there kept pace with the 
 ever increasing white population. 
 
 The First Duel Fought in Arkansas (1820). 
 
 The first duel between Arkansans was the one fought 
 by William 0. Allen and Robert C. Oden on March 10, 
 1820. Allen was a member of the Legislature and Oden 
 was a young laAvyer. Two stories have been told regard- 
 ing the cause of the duel. One is that Allen, who was 
 some twenty-five years older than Oden and who was 
 lame, became incensed because Oden got possession of 
 his cane and would not return it, playfully retreating as 
 Allen advanced. This was kept up until Allen became 
 angry, limped to his room and wrote the challenge. The 
 other story is that the two men were at dinner together 
 when Oden ofiPered some criticim of a speech Allen had 
 made in the Legislature. As the argument advanced, 
 Oden accused Allen of disputing his word, seized the lat- 
 ter 's cane and struck him with it. The duel followed, 
 Allen firing first and the bullet striking a button on 
 Oden's coat and inflicted a serious but not fatal wound. 
 As he was falling he semi-consciously discharged his pis- 
 tol, the ball struck Allen in the head, killing him instantly. 
 The grand jury of Arkansas County indicted Oden for re- 
 ceiving a challenge, and George W. Scott and Elijah 
 Morton for having acted as seconds. Through technicali- 
 ties the men were found *']iot guilty as charged in the in- 
 dictment." In October, 1820, in part, no doubt, as a re- 
 sult of the unfortunate affair between Allen and Oden, 
 the Legislature passed a law declaring that death re- 
 sulting from a duel was murder. Courts were required 
 to accept the testimony of seconds, the witnesses being 
 granted immunity for the part tliey might have taken. 
 This put an end to dueling in xVrkansas, but it was an 
 easy matter for the duelists to evade the law by going 
 outside the boundaries of the Territorv or State. 
 
36 High Lights 
 
 The Steamboat ''Comet" at Arkansas Post (1820). 
 
 Navigation of the Arkansas River by steamboats was 
 begun as early as March, 1820 — almost exactly ten years 
 after the first steamboat had descended the Mississippi 
 to New Orleans. The ''Comet," commanded by Captain 
 Byrne, arrived at Arkansas Post at 10 o'clock p. m., on 
 March 31, 1820. In spite of the hour and the darkness 
 of night, quite a few of the inhabitants were up and at 
 the landing; who, according to the report of the incident 
 as published in the next issue of The Arkansas Gazette, 
 gave Captain Byrne a most cordial welcome. The Cap- 
 tain said that he had made the trip from New Orleans in 
 eight days. Not until January 27, 1821, did the "Comet" 
 come again to the Post. But thereafter, the "Comet" 
 and other steamboats passed up and down the Arkansas 
 at more frequent intervals. 
 
 Dwight Mission Founded (1820). 
 
 The American Board of Missions of the Presbyterian 
 Church decided in 1818 to found a mission among the 
 Cherokee Indians, who resided then in what is now the 
 northwest quarter of the State of Arkansas. Rev. 
 Cephas Washburn was selected by the board to estab- 
 lish and take charge of the mission. Washburn was 
 bom in Vermont in 1792 and while still a boy had the 
 misfortune to break his leg by falling from a cart. Un- 
 able to work on his father's farm, he became interested 
 in the study of theology, attended Andover Seminary, and 
 in 1818 graduated at the University of Vermont. Imme- 
 diately after receiving his degree he went to Savannah, 
 Georgia, to engage in the ministry and was soon after- 
 ward assigned to the Cherokee mission in Arkansas. In 
 the fall of 1819, accompanied by Asa and Jacob Hitch- 
 cock, Alfred Finney and a Mr. Orr, he set out for the 
 Cherokee country. On July 3, 1820, the party reached 
 Little Rock, where Mr. Washburn was waited on by 
 Matthew Cunningham, Stephen F. Austin "and other 
 
Arkansas History 37 
 
 leading citizens, " who requested him **to preach a Fourth 
 of July sermon the next day." The request was granted, 
 and this was the first sermon preached in Little Rock. 
 The audience consisted of ''fourteen men and no 
 women." Passing on up the Arkansas River, the party 
 selected a site in what is now Pope County, near the 
 mouth of Illinois Creek, and there established the Dwight 
 Mission, named in honor of Timothy Dwight, president of 
 Yale College and a friend of missions. Two comfortable 
 log cabins were completed by the first of October, 1820, 
 when Washburn and Finley left the others in charge and 
 returned east for their families. They arrived at the 
 mission again on May 10, 1821, and from that time until 
 the removal of the Cherokees to the Indian Territory 
 in 1828 Mr. Washburn did all he could to advance the 
 interests of his Indian friends. He and Mr. Finney 
 went with the Indians to their new home and ministered 
 to their wants for more than ten years. When Mr. Wash- 
 burn gave up missionary work he settled in Benton 
 County, Arkansas, where he preached and taught school 
 for several years. He was then pastor of a Presbyterian 
 Church at Fort Smith for two or three years and in 1855 
 removed to Norristo^^m, then a town of some importance, 
 not far from the mission he had established thirty-five 
 years before. In the spring of 1860 he started for Hel- 
 ena, where the Presbyterian Church was without a 
 preacher, but was taken ill enroute and died at the home 
 of Dr. Roderick L. Dodge in Ltitle Rock on March 17, 
 1860. 
 
 The Cession to the Choctaw Indians (1820). 
 
 The Choctaws, by treaty concluded October 20, 1820, 
 were ceded all that part of the Arkansas Territory situ- 
 ated south of the Arkansas River and west of a straight 
 line drawn from Point Remove (near the present town 
 of Morrilton) in a southwesterly direction to Red River. 
 The country so ceded included about one-fifth of the 
 area of the present State of Arkansas. The treaty was 
 
38 High Lights 
 
 negotiated by General Andrew Jackson and General 
 Thomas Hinds, who met the Choctaw chiefs at Doak's 
 Stand, on the old Natchez road, in the State of Mis- 
 sissippi. The Choctaws accepted the lands ceded them 
 in Arkansas in exchange for lands they claimed in 
 Mississippi, whence they agreed to remove to their new 
 home west of the Mississippi. Naturally enough the news 
 of such a treaty raised a storm of opposition in Arkan- 
 sas. Hundreds of settlers who had selected lands and 
 established their abodes in the country ceded to the 
 Choctaws were threatened, according to the terms of the 
 treaty, with expulsion from the region set apart as the 
 exclusive abode of the Indians. 
 
 The Name of Little Rock Changed to Arkopolis (1821). 
 
 The Arkansas Gazette of February 10, 1821, contains 
 the following ''extract of a letter to the Editors, dated 
 Arkopolis, (formerly Little Rock), February 5, 1821. 
 Gentlemen — On the 3d Inst, we had a large and respect- 
 able meeting of the citizens of this place and its vicinity, 
 for the purpose of gi\ang it a name ; and we unanimously 
 adopted the above — a combination of the first syllable 
 of Arkansas, and the Greek word polls, or 'city'. Not- 
 withstanding the weather was very unfavorable the day 
 passed with much cheerfulness and mirth; and it gave 
 me peculiar pleasure to witness the cordial expressions 
 of good will, and the wishes of all present, for the im- 
 provement of our new Seat of Government." The new 
 name, however, was soon abandoned. "Little Rock," a 
 name first given to the place by Bernard de la Harpe. 
 the French explorer, in his account of his voyage up the 
 Arkansas in 1722, was by this time too widely current to 
 be changed by the formal resolution of the few inhabi- 
 tants of the tovm. LaHarpe had called it La Petite Roche 
 (Little Rock) in order to distinguish it from the higher 
 rocky bluff (now called Big Rock) situated two miles 
 farther up the river. Thus, from the small out-cropping 
 
Arkansas History 39 
 
 of stone on the bank of the river, the name of the capital 
 city of Arkansas was conferred upon the site of it nearly 
 a century before the first settlement was made there. 
 
 The Capitol Removed to Little Rock (1821). 
 
 An Act of the Territorial Legislature, approved by 
 Governor James Miller October 18, 1820, provided that, 
 after June 1, 1821, the sessions of the Legislature and of 
 the Superior Court should be held at Little Rock. There- 
 after Arkansas Post, designated as the temporary seat 
 of the territorial government in the act of Congress cre- 
 ating the Territory, lost much of its prestige as the prin- 
 cipal center of life and affairs in the Territory. The 
 passage of the act of October 18, 1820, w\hs due chiefly 
 to the representations of Amos Wheeler, who, on behalf 
 of himself, Chester Ashley, William Russell and others, 
 went before the General Assembly with a proposal to 
 donate a site for a capitol building and a guarantee of 
 $20,000 that a suitable structure for the legislative ses- 
 sions would be erected without expense to the Territory. 
 No public buildings of any kind had been erected at Ar- 
 kansas Post. The legislative session that met in Febru- 
 ary, 1820, was held at the house of Robert Crittenden and 
 the adjourned session in the following October was held 
 in a house rented from John Larquin. The argument 
 that Little Rock was nearer the geographical center of 
 the Territory, and that the site was not in danger of over- 
 flow, had, no doubt, some weight. 
 
 *'The Arkansas Herald" — the Second Newspaper 
 (1821). 
 
 The Arkansas Gazette of September 22, 1821, pub- 
 lished an announcement of a new newspaper, which the 
 publishers, ''John H. Wilkins and Company," said 
 would begin publication "about November 1st," at Da- 
 vidsonville, then the county site of Lawrence County. 
 Though there are now no copies of the Herald known to 
 
40 High Lights 
 
 be in existence, there seems but little doubt that this was 
 the second newspaper published in the Territory of Ar- 
 kansas. 
 
 The Steamboat ** Eagle" at Little Rock (1822). 
 
 The "Eagle", commanded by Captain Morris, was 
 the first steamboat that ascended the Arkansas River as 
 far as Little Rock. It arrived there on March 16, 1822, 
 ''seventeen days from New Orleans," according to The 
 Arkansas Gazette of March 19th, the next issue after the 
 event. The boat arrived at an early hour in the morn- 
 ing, and Captain Morris, in order to "arouse the town," 
 fired a salute of several guns. After a stop of about an 
 hour, the "Eagle" continued on its way up the river to 
 Dwight Mission. But on account of the low stage of the 
 water, Captain Morris was compelled to unload the 
 freight of the "Eagle," which was intended for the Mis- 
 sion, at a point some ten miles below and turn back. 
 Thus, on the 19th of March, he arrived again at Little 
 Rock, whence he proceeded on his return voyage to New 
 Orleans. 
 
 The Mn^iTAKY Roads — the First Move to Open the Mem- 
 phis-Little Rock Road (1824). 
 
 During the years that Arkansas continued as a Ter- 
 ritory — from 1819 to 1836 — a considerable sum of money 
 was appropriated from time to time by the United States 
 Government for the opening and construction of roads in 
 different parts of the Territory. The several roads for 
 which these appropriations from the national treasury 
 were made were known either as military roads or post 
 roads. The military roads were so-called because the 
 chief purpose of the government in the construction of 
 such was the intent to facilitate the movement of troops 
 and munitions of war to and from the western frontier, 
 and from point to point along the western boundary of 
 the Territory. The military roads were intended also to 
 
Arkansas History 41 
 
 expedite the removal of the Southern Indian tribes to 
 the Indian Territory; which removals, after 1824, be- 
 came the settled policy of the national government. The 
 post roads manifestly were opened as routes for the car- 
 rying of the mail. In 1824 Congress appropriated 
 $15,000 for the survey, etc., of a military road from 
 Memphis to Little Rock. This was the beginning of road 
 building by the government in Arkansas. Subsequently, 
 additional appropriations were made, and, by 1828, the 
 road from Memphis had been opened all the way to Fort 
 Gibson, through Little Rock and Fort Smith. Alto- 
 gether, first and last, about a quarter of a million dol- 
 lars were spent by the government on that part of this 
 road alone from Memphis to Little Rock. The north 
 and south military road was begun in 1832. This road 
 was, during the years from 1832 to 1836, opened from 
 Hicks ' Ferry, on Current River, to Fulton, on Red River. 
 It crossed White River some eight miles below Bates- 
 ville ; the Arkansas, at Little Rock. There was a western 
 branch of this road, from Washington westward to Fort 
 Towson. 
 
 The Quapaws Ceded All of Their Lands in Arkansas 
 TO THE United States (1824). 
 
 By treaty, in 1818, the United States acquired pos- 
 session of all lands claimed by the Quapaw Indians in 
 Arkansas except a triangular tract south of the Arkan- 
 sas River (see First Quapaw Treaty, 1818). In a sec- 
 ond treaty, concluded November 15, 1824, the Quapaws 
 ceded the rest of their claim, as secured to them for a 
 reservation by the treaty of 1818. The latter treaty, that 
 of 1824, was negotiated at the house of Bartley Harring- 
 ton by Robert Crittenden, who, at the time, was acting 
 governor of Arkansas. Under instruction from John 
 C. Calhoun, Secretary of War, Crittenden inveigled the 
 Quapaws into an acceptance of the cession against their 
 will. They agreed to remove to the country inhabited 
 by the Caddo Indians, the removal from Arkansas to 
 
42 High Lights 
 
 commence not later than January 20, 1826. For their 
 lands in Arkansas the United States agreed to pay each 
 of the four head chiefs of the Quapaw Nation the sum of 
 $500; to give, for the use of the tribe, merchandise val- 
 ued at $4,000, and to pay them an annuity of $1,000 in 
 specie for a term of eleven years. According to agree- 
 ment, the removal of the Quapaws was effected in 1826. 
 A Frenchman, Antoine Barraque, was appointed to con- 
 duct them to their new abode. The lands assigned them 
 in the Caddo country were in an unhealthy location. 
 Many of the tribe sickened and died, among them Chief 
 Heckaton. Their crops were destroyed by floods and 
 they became so discouraged that a large number returned 
 to their old homes on the Arkansas Eiver. They found 
 their lands there in the hands of white settlers and they 
 were wanderers upon the face of the earth. On May 13, 
 1833, the United States, by a new treaty, gave them a 
 reservation in the Indian Territory. 
 
 The Westeen Boundary Established South of the Ar- 
 kansas River (1825). 
 
 Of the several Indian treaties touching the matter 
 of land titles in Arkansas, none was of greater histori- 
 cal importance than the second Choctaw treaty, concluded 
 January 20, 1825; which treaty settled permanently the 
 western boundary question from the Arkansas River 
 south to the Red River. As established by Act of Con- 
 gress March 2, 1819, in the act creating the Territory, 
 the western boundary of Arkansas was designated as 
 the ''western territorial line"; which meant that it in- 
 cluded the present State of Oklahoma, and more. Ac- 
 cording to the terms of the treaty with the Choctaws 
 of October 18, 1820, the western boundary of Arkansas — 
 south of the Arkansas River — was fixed at a line drawn 
 from Point Remove, on the Arkansas, in a southwesterly 
 direction to Red River. Mention is made of the indigna- 
 tion raised in Arkansas by this arrangement in the topic 
 entitled: ''The Cession to the Choctaw Indians (1820)." 
 
Arkansas History 43 
 
 It was frequently and openly asserted in Arkansas at the 
 time that General Jackson and General Hinds, who ne- 
 gotiated the treaty of 1820, were ignorant of the true 
 nature, location and settlement of the country ceded by 
 them to the Choctaws. Following the treaty of 1820, 
 many settlers were compelled to abandon their settle- 
 ments in the ceded region. Petitions were sent from Ar- 
 kansas to Washington asking that a new treaty be drawn. 
 Thus, in November, 1824, John C. Calhoun, Secretary of 
 War, summoned a number of the Choctaw chiefs and 
 head men to Washington. More than two months were 
 spent in making proposals and counter proposals. On 
 January 20, 1825, a treaty was concluded, in which the 
 Choctaw delegates ceded to the United States ''all that 
 portion of the land ceded to them by the second article 
 of the treaty of Doak's Stand, lying east of a line begin- 
 ning on the Arkansas River one hundred paces east of 
 Fort Smith, and running thence due south to Red River; 
 it being understood that this line shall constitute and re- 
 main the permanent boundary between the United States 
 and the Choctaws * * *." 
 
 The First Church House in Arkansas Built by Bap- 
 tists (1825). 
 
 The first regular house of worship erected in Arkan- 
 sas was built in 1825 at Little Rock by the Baptists. It 
 was situated on the south side of Third street between 
 Main and Scott streets. One who often saw it said of 
 this first church house that it was built of neatly hewed 
 logs. The organization of the church was effected by 
 the Reverend Silas T. Toncray in 1824, who was its pas- 
 tor from the date of organization until 1829. In the 
 spring of 1832 Rev. Benjamin F. Hall, a minister of the 
 Christian (sometimes called Campbellite) Church, came 
 to Little Rock and conducted a series of revival meetings 
 in the Baptist Church. So many of the members turned 
 ** Christians" that a Campbellite Church was organized 
 and the Baptist congregation was almost broken up. A 
 
44 High Lights 
 
 few of them did remain faithful to the Baptist creed and 
 reorganized what afterward became the First Baptist 
 Church of Little Rock. It seems that the early Baptists 
 were very liberal in allowing others to use their house 
 of worship. The Presbyterians held services in it for a 
 short time and the constitutional convention of 1836 met 
 within its walls. 
 
 The First Steam Sawmill in Arkansas (1826). 
 
 The first sawmill in Arkansas propelled by steam 
 began cutting lumber at Helena, July 27, 1826. A re- 
 port of the matter, dated July 28, 1826, to The Arkansas 
 Gazette, as published in the issue of August 8, 1826, is 
 as follows: ''Yesterday at 12 o'clock a steam sawmill, 
 built by Messrs. Porter & King, in the upper part of our 
 little town, was put in operation, with two saws. It runs 
 extremely well and cuts fast. This mill has been built 
 from the stump in two and a half months, under the di- 
 rection of Mr. Porter, with not more than from four to six 
 hands. It adds greatly to the prospects of our town by 
 furnishing the means of building without a resort to the 
 tedious and laborious mode of cutting out plank with 
 the whip-saw." By way of comment upon the report of 
 his correspondent, the editor said: "This, we believe, is 
 the first steam sawmill ever erected in the Territory of 
 Arkansas — indeed, we do not know of any machinery 
 whatever in the territory that is propelled by the power 
 of steam. We hope the enterprising proprietors will 
 meet with liberal encouragement; and that their exam- 
 ple will be followed by others in the different sections 
 of the territory where a sufficient water-power for simi- 
 lar purposes cannot be conveniently obtained." 
 
 The First Stage Line (1826). 
 
 Before the advent of the railroad, the most popular 
 mode of overland travel was by means of the stage coach. 
 The first stage route in Arkansas was that established by 
 
Arkansas History 45 
 
 Wright Daniels between Little Rock and Arkansas Post 
 in the fall of 1826. Mr. Daniels had the contract for 
 carrying the mails between the two points and put on 
 coaches for the conveyance of passengers. The coach 
 left Little Rock every Tuesday at noon and arrived at 
 Arkansas Post the following Thursday in the evening. 
 Returning, it left the Post on Friday morning at eight 
 o'clock and arrived in Little Rock on the following Mon- 
 day about 10 A. M. The fare for the through trip, one 
 way, was $8.00, and each passenger was allowed to carry 
 fourteen pounds of baggage. Joseph Henderson was the 
 agent at Little Rock and Eli J. Lewis at Arkansas Post. 
 
 The Seminary Land Grant (1827). 
 
 In an act of Congress, approved February 17, 1818, 
 which provided for the estblishment of additional land of- 
 fices in the Territory of Missouri, provision was made 
 also for the reservation of ''one township of land on the 
 water of the Arkansas River * * * for the use of a sem- 
 inary of learning. ' ' Thus, more than a year bef or the Ter- 
 ritory of Arkansas itself was formed. Congress proposed 
 to reserve a considerable body of land in the then unor- 
 ganized Territory for a college or higher institution of 
 learning. Time passed, Arkansas was created a Terri- 
 tory, and nothing w^as done either by Congress or the Ter- 
 irtory to select or use the lands so reserved. But on 
 March 2, 1827, the President approved another act of 
 Congress reserving two townships mthin the Territory of 
 Arkansas, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever". 
 Governor Izard appointed an agent to select the two town- 
 ships, but his death occurred before the work was com- 
 pleted and the selection was finished under the adminis- 
 tration of Governor Pope. The Gazette of February 2, 
 1831, said: "Major Elias Rector has just completed the 
 selection of the remainder of the two townships of land 
 which were granted by Congress for seminary purposes in 
 this territory and reported them to the governor last 
 
46 High Lights 
 
 week. * * * The selections which have been made, we 
 understand, are all first class land. If judiciously dis- 
 posed of, the proceeds arising from their sale or lease 
 may constitute a fund to establish an institution for the 
 education of the youth of the present day, and of future 
 generations, which may redound to the credit of our ter- 
 ritory and to the imperishable honor of the future State 
 of Arkansas." This optimistic view of the editor was 
 never realized. By the act of March 3, 1833, the gover- 
 nor was authorized by Congress to sell twenty sections 
 and apply the proceeds to the erection of buildings, but 
 there is nothing to show that anything was ever done 
 under this act. In the compact of June 23, 1836, which 
 provided for the admission of Arkansas to statehood, 
 Congress gave the General Assembly full power to man- 
 age the donation of the two townships, which were "to 
 be applied solely for the purposes of the donation". On 
 December 17, 1838, Gov. James S. Conway approved an 
 act of the General Assembly making him the agent of 
 the state to sell what remained unsold of the seventy-two 
 sections, at not less than $10 per acre. At the first pub- 
 lic auction on February 17-18, 1840, only four eighty-acre 
 tracts were sold, bringing $3,312. In his message of the 
 following November, Governor Conway recommended 
 that the minimum price be reduced to $5 an acre. On 
 December 28, 1840, Governor Yell approved an act fix- 
 ing the price of the seminary lands at $6 per acre for all 
 lands sold at private sale within six months; $5 per aero 
 during the next six months; $3 for the next six months, 
 and after that time $3 per acre, "until otherwise altered 
 by law". One can plainly see that, under the terms of 
 this act, a prospective purchaser would have had to wait 
 only eighteen months to secure his land for half of w^hat 
 it would cost him if he had bought within six months after 
 the passage of the act. Besides the clause "until other- 
 wise altered by law" suggested still further reductions 
 in price and had a tendency to retard the sales. Had the 
 entire grant of seventy-two sections been sold at $10 per 
 
Arkansas History 47 
 
 acre — the price first fixed by the General Assembly — the 
 sum of $460,800 would have been realized, from which, 
 of course, certain expenses would have to be deducted . 
 The last blow to the university land grant was dealt by 
 the Legislature of 1844, which memorialized Congress for 
 the right to use the funds received from the sale of the 
 lands for the support of common schools. This privilege 
 was granted and all hope of a state university according 
 to the original plan vanished. 
 
 The "Lost County of Lovely" (1827). 
 
 An act of the General Assembly, approved by Gover- 
 nor George Izard October 13, 1827, created a new county 
 to which was given the name of Lovely. The county em- 
 braced, in part, what was known as the "Lovely Pur- 
 chase", and thus the county got its name. The Lovely 
 Purchase embraced a large and imperfectly bounded 
 tract of country situated between the western boundary 
 of the Osage cession of 1808 and the Verdigris River. 
 This tract was purchased, in July, 1816, bv William and 
 Peter Lovely from the Osage Indians. The United States, 
 by the Cherokee treaty of 1817, granted part of the 
 Lovely tract to the Cherokee Indians. Then, in 1824, 
 by act of Congress, the western boundary of Arkansas 
 was fixed so as to include what was afterwards known as 
 the "forty-mile strip"; which strip constituted the lands 
 erected into the county of Lovely in 1827. By dint of the 
 -Cherokee Treaty of 1828, which established the present 
 western boundary of Arkansas, the greater part of 
 Lovely county was cut out of Arkansas. It is said of 
 William Lovely, one of the original purchasers of the 
 Lovely tract, that he was a soldier of the American Rev- 
 olution; that he afterwards settled in Tennessee, where 
 he became a friend of the Cherokee Indians ; moved west 
 with members of that tribe, where he engaged in Indian 
 trade. Thus, in 1816, he purchased of the Osages thf 
 tract of land which thereafter took the name of the Lovely 
 Purchase. 
 
48 BLiQH Lights 
 
 The Crittenden-Conway Duel (1827). 
 
 In 1824 the Secretary of the Treasury of the United 
 States at Washington intrusted Henry W. Conway with 
 $7,000 to pay the Quapaw Indians for their reservation. 
 At tliat time it was no unusual thing for persons hand- 
 Hng trust funds to apply some of the money to their own 
 use and replace it before final settlement. Mr. Conway 
 used some of the Quapaw fund. When he reached Little 
 Rock he explained to Mr. Crittenden, then acting gover- 
 nor, what he had done and asked what sum would be 
 needed to satisfy the Quapaw demand. Crittenden re- 
 plied. "About six thousand dollars." Conw^ay then paid 
 him $6,400, taking his receipt. A few months later the 
 balance of $600 was returned to the treasurer of the 
 United States at Crittenden's request. In the campaign 
 of 1825, when Conway and Bates were tlie opposing can- 
 didates for delegate, Crittenden rather favored Conway 
 and nothing was said about the matter. Two years later 
 Crittenden was a supporter of Robert C. Oden, who 
 brought Conway's appropriation of trust funds into the 
 campaign as an issue. Mr. Conway admitted the truth 
 of Oden's charges, but explained that be had withheld 
 the money "v^ith the consent of Mr. Crittenden. In an 
 article in ''The Arkansas Gazette" of June 19, 1827, 
 Crittenden denied that he had ever given Conway per- 
 mission to retain the money. The next issue of the paper 
 contained a communication from Mr. Conway, in which 
 he said: 
 
 "I can only reiterate what I have already stated in 
 my circular of the 18th of May, that it was by his per- 
 mission and assent that I retained the money, or I should 
 have paid over to him the full amount, before any part 
 of the money was wanted for the treaty. * * * In a 
 subsequent conversation on the same subject. Mr. Crit- 
 tenden mentioned that the whole of the money, he 
 thought, would not be wanted for the treaty, and if it 
 
Arkansas History 49 
 
 were not perfectly convenient for me to repay it then, 
 that I could refund it to the government on my return to 
 Washington." 
 
 The whole question now settled down to one of verac- 
 ity between Mr. Conway and Mr. Crittenden, Conway's 
 defeat of Oden by a vote of nearly three to one showed 
 clearly which one the people of the territory were most 
 inclined to believe. That expression of confidence evi- 
 dently chagrined Mr. Crittenden. Under date of August 
 27, 1827, he wrote to Mr. Conway as follows : 
 
 **Sir — I had believed that the newspaper altercation 
 between us had closed with my last publication, and that 
 you would have sought a different issue. 
 
 *' Indifferent as to who should make the call, I now 
 announce to you that I will challenge you on or before 
 the 20th of October next. I regret, sir, that the peculiar 
 situation of my family precludes an immediate settlement 
 of our difference. 
 
 ''Colonel Oden will hand you this note and act for 
 me for the present. Col. Benj. Desha wall act as my first 
 friend after his arrival, wliich will be in six or eight days. 
 
 ''Yours, &c., 
 "Rob't Crittenden." 
 
 The duel was fought early on the morning of Octo- 
 ber 29, 1827, on the east side of the Misissippi River, 
 opposite the mouth of the White River. Wharton Rec- 
 for acted as Mr. Conway's second and Benjamin Desha 
 as Mr. Crittenden's. At the first and only fire, Mr. Con- 
 way was mortally wounded. He was taken across the 
 river, to the house of William Montgomery, where he 
 died on the 9th of November. The bullet from Conway's 
 pistol passed through the lapel of Crittenden's coat, but 
 did not inflict any injury. Just before leaving Little Rock 
 for the rendezvous, Mr. Conway, perhaps with a pre- 
 monition of his fate, placed in the hands of William E. 
 Woodruff the above letter he had received from Mr. 
 
50 High Lights 
 
 Crittenden and letters from Sylvanus Phillips and Wil- 
 liam Montgomery of a later date, to be published in "The 
 Arkansas Gazette" in the next issue after the duel. The 
 letters were intended to show that the affair was not of 
 his seeking, but that he had been forced into it. Mr. Phil- 
 lips wrote: 
 
 '*In speaking on the subject of the dispute between 
 yourself and Mr. Crittenden, he (Mr. Crittenden) said he 
 had been badly treated by you and your party, and that 
 there would be a good deal of hard fighting before or 
 after the election ; that if you did not challenge him, he 
 would challenge you," etc. 
 
 Mr. Montgomery said: ''Some time in July, Mr. 
 Crittenden and myself got into conversation about the 
 election, and the abuse in the Gazette on different char- 
 acters. He said that yourself and he must fight — that it 
 could not be got over, without you made acknowledg- 
 ments, which he expected you would not do. He also said 
 he had tried every way to get you to challenge him, and 
 if you did not, he would challenge you. I mention this 
 as a friend, that you may be on your guard, and practice, 
 if it is your opinion he will do so." 
 
 Mr. Conway's untimely death was sincerely mourned 
 throughout the territory. A Kentucky newspaper, com- 
 menting upon the affair, said: "Down in Arkansas, when 
 a man can not be gotten rid of at the polls, he is imme- 
 diately killed off in a duel." 
 
 The Western Boundary Established North of the Ar- 
 kansas RrvER (1828). 
 
 Of equal historical importance, perhaps, to the Choc- 
 taw treaty of 1825, which settled permanently the west- 
 ern boundary question from the Arkansas River south 
 to the Red River, was the Cherokee treaty of May 6, 
 1828. Governor Izard was instructed as early as 1825 
 by the Secretary of War to negotiate with the Cherokees 
 
Arkansas History 51 
 
 for the cession to the United States of that part of their 
 reservation which, according to the treaty of 1817, lay 
 east of the present western boundary of Arkansas. See 
 topic, ** Cherokee Indians Ceded Lands in Arkansas 
 (1817) ". But Governor Izard found the Cherokees vio- 
 lently opposed to such a cession; so much so, indeed, that 
 the council of the nation had passed sentence of death 
 upon any member of the tribe who should dare to enter 
 into negotiations for a cession of their lands. Thus the 
 matter was delayed until 1828; when a delegation of 
 Cherokee chief and warriors were induced to go to Wash- 
 ington for the purpose of arriving at a settlement of the 
 issue. It was there, at Washington, that a treaty was 
 finally concluded May 6, 1828, which settled the western 
 boundary of Arkansas north of the Arkansas river upon 
 a straight line drawn from the point where the Choctaw 
 boundary line began on the south bank of the Arkansas 
 to the southwest corner of Missouri. See topic, "The 
 Western Boundarv Established South of the Arkansas 
 River (1825)". 
 
 The School Lands; the First Attempt to Establish 
 Public Schools (1829). 
 
 The act of Congress of 1819, by which the Territory 
 of Arkansas was established, reserved the sixteenth sec- 
 tion of land in each township as "an endo\^Tiient for the 
 common schools of the township in which said section is 
 located". Ten years passed before the territorial leg- 
 islature took any steps whatever to render this land grant 
 available for the purpose for which it was intended. By 
 the act of November 21, 1829, the Legislature authorized 
 the county court, upon petition of the citizens of any 
 township, to appoint a trustee of the school lands in such 
 township. It was made the duty of the trustee to lease 
 the land, "for a period not to exceed five years at a 
 time". The money received from such leases was to be 
 applied by the county court towards the support of one or 
 more common schools in the township. But in a coun- 
 
52 High Lights 
 
 try where land was more plentiful than almost anything 
 else, the trustees found it a difficult matter to lease the 
 school lands for a sum sufficient to establish and main- 
 tain public schools, and as no appropriation was made 
 by the General Assembly to supplement the rentals, 
 nothing came of this act. When Arkansas was admitted 
 to the Union as a state in 1836, the constitution, under 
 which the state was admitted, contained a pro\^sion to 
 the effect that '*it shall be the duty of the General As- 
 sembly to provide by law for the improvement of such 
 lands as are or hereafter may be granted by the United 
 States to this state for the use of schools, and to apply 
 any funds which may be raised from such lands, or from 
 any other source, to the accomplishment of the object for 
 which they are or may be intended. James S. Conway, 
 the first governor of the state, said in his inaugural ad- 
 dress: **The fabric of the state, when once constructed, 
 must stand for ages. It must be fixed in the understand- 
 ing and reverence of the people. Let us therefore exam- 
 ine for and collect all materials calculated to enlighten 
 the public mind and diffuse general and useful knowledge. 
 We have ample means for the establishment of such insti- 
 tutions of learning as will insure universal education to 
 the youth of our country. Knowledge is power; it is 
 the lever which sways everything in a popular govern- 
 ment." The ''ample means" referred to by the gover- 
 nor were, manifestly, the lands embraced in the six- 
 teenth sections. He either overestimated the value of 
 the lands or underestimated the cost of maintaining an 
 effective public school system. Apparently he did not 
 realize the necessity of supplementing the sixteenth sec- 
 tion fund by taxation — a method to which the state finally 
 had to resort. The General Assembly of 1837 memorial- 
 ized Congress for authority to sell the school lands and 
 apply the interest of the money so received for school 
 purposes. This authority was granted by an act of Con- 
 gress approved February 15, 1843. On February 3, 
 1843, twelve days before Congress granted the state 
 
Arkansas Histoby 53 
 
 power to sell the sixteenth sections, Governor Yell ap- 
 proved an act of the Legislature 'Ho establish a system 
 of common schools in the State of Arkansas". It pro- 
 vided that upon the request of the people of any town- 
 ship in which there were as many as five householders 
 and fifteen white children, the county court should order 
 an election for a commissioner for that township, whose 
 duty it should be to sell, or lease, as the people preferred, 
 the sixteenth section on ten years' credit, at not less 
 than $2 per acre, the funds thus accruing to be perpetual, 
 only the interest to be used. There was to be elected also 
 a board of three trustees, who should have control of the 
 fund and supervision of the township school or schools. 
 Naturally, this law was a failure, because the fund ob- 
 tained by the sale of the sixteenth section was insufficient 
 to meet the requirements of anything like an efficient 
 school system. In order to supplement the fund acquired 
 from the sale or lease of the sixteenth section, the General 
 Assembly on December 18, 1844, petitioned Congress for 
 authority to sell the seminary lands and apply the pro- 
 ceeds to the common schools. This permission was given 
 by an act of Congress, approved on July 29, 1846; and 
 by another act, approved March 3, 1847, the state was 
 directed to apply the funds arising from the sale of the 
 saline lands for the same purpose. A new school law 
 was approved by the governor January 5, 1849; which 
 act provided that the funds arising from the sale of the 
 seminary and saline lands should be divided among the 
 counties in proportion to the school population and that 
 the fund should be a perpetual endowment for the schools 
 of the county. In his message to the General Assembly 
 in November, 1850, Gov. John S. Roane took the view 
 that a public school system in a state with as sparse a 
 population as Arkansas had at that time was doomed to 
 failure. He condemned the transfer of the seminary and 
 saline lands to the use of the common schools, character- 
 izing the funds as ''a mere pittance", and recommended 
 the repeal of the law giving the seminary funds to the 
 
54 High Lights 
 
 common schools. The General Assembly of 1852 passed 
 an act makinn: the secretary of state ex-officio state com- 
 missioner of schools; authorizing the election of a county 
 school commissioner, who was to be ex-officio county 
 school superintendent, and who was required to report to 
 thie state commissioner. David B. Greer, secretary of 
 state and ex-officio commissioner, made his first annual 
 report to the governor in 1854. "The condition of com- 
 mon schools in the state." savs the report, "presents a 
 gloomy picture, but the friends of education should not 
 be discouraged. The same difficulties experienced by Ar- 
 kansas in their establishment have been more or less felt 
 in all the new and sparsely settled states. * * * The 
 great obstacle in the organization of common schools is 
 not so much a deficiency in the means to sustain them, 
 but it is attributable to the indifference that pervades 
 the public mind on the subject of education." Governor 
 Henry M. Rector, in his message to the General Assem- 
 bly in 1860. said: "Th(^ common school system seems to 
 be radically defective. In the last report made by the 
 secretary of state, as state commissioner of common 
 schools, it may be seen that there are only twenty-five 
 common schools organized and kept up in the state from 
 the common school fund. This is a sad commentary 
 upon the present system." Such were the educational 
 conditions in Arkansas, as regards public schools, at the 
 beginning of the Civil War in 1861. 
 
 The Invention of the Famous Bowie Knife (1830). 
 
 The "Bowie Knife" was, according to the late Gov- 
 ernor Dan. W. Jones, the invention of one James Black, 
 a blacksmith, at Washington, Hempstead county. Black 
 was a native of New Jersey, where he was born in 1800; 
 served an apprenticeship, which ended in 1818 ; removed 
 to Hempstead county, Arkansas, about 1824, where he 
 found employment with another blacksmith by the name 
 of Shaw. Because he fell in love with Anne Shaw, one 
 of his employer's daughters. Black was discharged and 
 
Arkansas History 55 
 
 located a shop of his own on the Cossatot River, where 
 he became a farmer as well as blackmith. After a brief 
 residence there, he removed to Washington; married 
 Anne Shaw and established himself as a blacksmith. Be- 
 ing a fine workman, especially in the matter of tem- 
 pering steel, he soon had all the work he could do. In 
 1830 James Bowie, while in Washington, procured Black 
 to make for him (Bowie) a knife, according to a pattern 
 which he is said to have whittled out of an old cigar box. 
 Black made the knife, but after completing it made an- 
 other by a pattern of his own, and when Bowie called 
 for his knife Black offered him his choice of the two. 
 He promptly selected Black's pattern. Not long after 
 this Bowie became involved in a quarrel with three des- 
 peradoes and killed them all with the knife Black had 
 made. After that when anyone wanted a knife from 
 Black he would order it to be ''made like Bowie's". It 
 was in this way that the name originated. When Bowie 
 was killed at the Alamo in March, 1836, his body was 
 found surrounded by dead Mexicans and the knife made 
 by James Black still clasped in his hand. Governor 
 Jones said of the knife and its maker : "Other men made 
 knives in those days, and later, but no one has made the 
 'Bow^e Knife' except James Black. He undoubtedly 
 possessed the Damascus secret. It came to him mysteri- 
 ously and it died in the same way. ' ' 
 
 Hot Springs — The First Bath House (1830). 
 
 In 1830 Asa Thompson leased the Hot Springs and 
 put up the first bath house for the accommodation of visi- 
 tors. This first bath house was a primitive affiair ; for, in 
 1832, the bathing facilities were described as follows: 
 Directly in front of what is now the site of the Arling- 
 ton House, and below one of the hot springs, there was a 
 cavity cut into the rock, into which the water flowed. This 
 was used as a bathing pool and had no covering except 
 the bushes with which it was surrounded. The only 
 vapor bath facility was a niche cut into the rock at the 
 
56 High Lights 
 
 base of the mountain where the Big Iron bathhouse was 
 afterward built. The hot water was conveyed into a pool 
 under an open floor, over which was a rude seat for the 
 bather to sit upon ; the niche was covered overhead with 
 rocks and boards and in front with a blanket. About fifty- 
 feet south of this there was a log bathhouse with one 
 plank tub in it, and a hundred yards still farther south, 
 at the foot of the mountain, was placed another log bath- 
 house, with a single wooden tub. The population increased 
 during 1832 by the arrival of the Physic brothers and Hi- 
 ram A. Whittington. Philip Physic opened a little store, 
 but it seems that he did not remain long. Hiram A. Whit- 
 tington was born in Boston, January 14, 1805. He 
 learned the printer's trade, came to Arkansas in Decem- 
 ber, 1826, and worked on the "Gazette" at Little Rock 
 until June, 1832. He then went to Hot Springs for his 
 health, and in order to make expenses while there started 
 a little store with a capital of $500. In 1836 he married 
 Miss M. E. Bigliam and opened a hotel. In 1842 he sold 
 his store and continued in the hotel business until 1849, 
 when he removed to Montgomery County. He was elect- 
 ed representative from that county to the Legislature in 
 1850, but soon after that returned to Hot Springs. Fea- 
 therstonhaugh, the English traveler and geologist, visited 
 the springs in December, 1834, and decribes the accommo- 
 dations as follows: ''Four wretched looking cabins, in 
 one of which was a small store, contained all the accom- 
 modations that these springs offered to travelers. We 
 had never seen anything worse or more unpromising 
 than they were, but driving up to the store, a Mr. Whit- 
 tington, who purchases bear skins and other skins of wild 
 animals of the hunters, paying for them in the commodi- 
 ties he gets from Little Rock, was obliging enough to say 
 we might take possession of one of the log cabins. Hav- 
 ing taken care of our horse we accordingly moved into 
 the first that we had passed on our arrival. It had a roof 
 to it, as well as a little portico, as a defense against the 
 rays of the sun, but this was literally all that it had. for 
 
Arkansas History 57 
 
 not an article of furniture was there either in the shape 
 of a table or chair. The floor was formed of boards 
 roughly and unevenly hewn, and unfortuately some of 
 them were wanting. ' ' 
 
 The **Old State House" — Ten Sections of Land 
 Granted for its Erection (1831). 
 
 Governor John Pope, in his first message to the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, October 13, 1829, urged the necessity for 
 better quarters in which to conduct the affairs of the ter- 
 ritorial government. He gave it, also, as his opinion that 
 the United States Government, if properly approached, 
 would provide the means for the financing of the neces- 
 sary building. Accordingly the General Assembly ad- 
 dressed a memorial to Congress upon the subject; the 
 merits of which memorial were ably presented at Wash- 
 ington both by Governor Pope and Ambrose H. Sevier. 
 the delegate to Congress. Thus, on March 2, 1831, Presi- 
 dent Andrew Jackson approved an act of Congress ap- 
 propriating ten sections of public lands in Arkansas **for 
 the purpose of raising a fund for the erection of a public 
 building at Little Rock". The said act of Congress left 
 the matter of selection and sale of the ten sections to the 
 discretion of the Legislature. Whereupon, they, the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, passed an act in October, 1831, giving the 
 whole ten sections to Robert Crittenden in exchange for 
 his residence in Little Rock; which act Governor Pope 
 promptly vetoed. Congress then passed another act plac- 
 ing the disposal of the lands and the erection of a state- 
 house entirely in the hands of Governor Pope. Pope ap- 
 pointed Chester Ashley as his agent to select and sell the 
 lands. By January, 1833, a sufficient sum had been real- 
 ized to warrant the commencement of the building. Orig- 
 inal plans were dra^\m, at the instance of Governor 
 Pope, by Gideon Shyock, who had designed the Kentucky 
 capitol. The latter recommended, as superintending 
 architect, George Weigart, who brought Shyock 's plans 
 to Little Rock. Fnding the plans as drawn by Shyock 
 
58 High Lights 
 
 too elaborate, considering the funds available, Govemor 
 Pope, with the aid of Mr. Weigart, modified the plans in a 
 manner to cut down the cost to the sum which it was ex- 
 pected would be realized from the sale of the ten sections 
 of land. In the meantime Congress, by an act of June 15, 
 1832, had granted the territory another 1,000 acres for 
 the erection of a courthouse and jail at Little Rock. 
 This '' thousand-acre tract" was sold and the proceeds ap- 
 plied to the erection of the statehouse. Again, in 1836, 
 Congress gave an additional grant of five sections of 
 land towards the completion of the building. Altogether 
 there was raised from the sale of the original ten sections 
 $31,722; from the sale of the 1,000-acre tract $16,657; 
 from the sale of the five sections $38,000. The General 
 Assembly of 1840 appropriated $37,000, with which the 
 building was finally completed. Thus the total original 
 cost of the building amounted to $123,379. The land 
 upon which the building was erected was acquired through 
 donations by Chester Ashley, David G. Eller and William 
 Russell, and by the purchase of three other lots from 
 William Russell. The site was conveyed to the Territory 
 by deeds from Ashley, Eller and Russell, made on Jan- 
 uary 14, 1833. 
 
 Little Rock Incorporated as a Town (1831). 
 
 A law entitled "An Act for the Regulation of the 
 Town of Little Rock," passed by the General Assembly, 
 was approved by Governor George Izard October 27, 
 1825. This, it seems, was the first piece of legislation 
 framed for the government of Little Rock. Under this 
 act Robert Crittenden, Joseph Henderson, Nicholas Peay, 
 Bernard Smith and Isaac Watkins were elected trustees 
 for the year 1826. Bernard Smith, chosen by the trustees 
 themselves president of the board, was in effect the first 
 mayor of the town. Another law, "supplementary" of 
 the act of 1825, for the further "regulation of the town," 
 was approved by Governor Izard October 20, 1827. In 
 this latter act Little Rock is twice mentioned as a "cor- 
 
Arkansas History 59 
 
 poration". Thus, it may be said that the incorporation 
 of Little Rock, in effect, dates from the passage of the act 
 of October 20, 1827. But it was not until November 7, 
 
 1831, that the status of the "corporation" was fully de- 
 fined as "a body politic and corporate", having a 
 "mayor and town council," who, with their successors, 
 forever, were entitled to exercise "all the privileges and 
 franchises incident to a corporation or body politic". 
 Under the latter act Little Rock elected its first mayor 
 by popular choice. The election was held on Januarj^ 2, 
 
 1832, and resulted in the election of Dr. Matthew Cun- 
 ningham, mayor; Charles Caldwell, Benjamin Clemens, 
 David Holt and John McLain, councilmen. 
 
 The Question of Admission to the Union First 
 Raised (1833). 
 
 The United States census of 1830 showed that Arkan- 
 sas had a population of 30,388, of whom 25,671 were 
 whites. In the political campaign of 1831 for delegate to 
 Congress the opposing candidates were Ambrose H. Se- 
 vier and Capt. Ben Desha. The latter promised that, if 
 elected, as soon as Arkansas had the population required 
 by law, he would endeavor to secure the passage of a bill 
 providing for the admission of Arkansas to statehood. 
 Sevier contented himself by saying that until the terri- 
 tory had the requisite population, the discussion "of this 
 excitable question is premature. ♦ * * When we are out 
 of debt, and when we have the population and the means 
 to support a State Government, I am as anxious as the 
 most impatient to see this territory become at State." 
 Sevier was elected, but made no move during that term to 
 have Arkansas admitted to the Union. In 1833 Sevier and 
 Robert Crittenden were the candidates for delegate to 
 Congress. It does not appear that either Crittenden or 
 Sevier alluded to the subject during the campaign. Again 
 Sevier was elected, defeating Crittenden by nearly two 
 thousand votes. At the opening of the twenty-third 
 Congress on December 2, 1833, he took his seat in the 
 
60 High Lights 
 
 House of Representatives and, before the session was 
 many days old, introduced a bill providing for the taking 
 of a census of the inhabitants of the Territory of Arkan- 
 sas, for the purpose of ''ascertaining her eligibility for 
 statehood." The bill was referred to the committee on 
 territories, which reported favorably. Then, shortly after 
 Sevier had introduced his bill providing for a census of 
 the territory, and before that measure had been favor- 
 ably reported by the committee, a committee of Michigan 
 citizens arrived at Washington with petition asking for 
 the passage of an act to enable the people of that terri- 
 tory to form a constitution and be admitted to statehood. 
 Without waiting to consult mth the people of Arkansas, 
 Sevier decided to act upon his own initiative. In a letter 
 of January 21, 1834, to The Arkansas Gazette, he said: 
 "You will perceive that, on yesterday, I introduced a 
 resolution inquiring into the expediency of permitting the 
 people of Arkansas to form a constitution and come into 
 the Union upon an equal footing with the original States. 
 I have done this for a variety of reasons. Michigan is 
 now apptying for admission and I have every reason to 
 believe that her application will be granted. Michigan, 
 of course, will be a free State, and should she go into the 
 Union as such, the happy balance of political power now 
 existing in the Senate will be destroyed, unless a slave 
 State should go in with her. The delegate from Flor- 
 ida is not now in his place, but were he here, and were 
 he to press Florida, it would probably exclude us, and, 
 in that event, our admission, in all probability would be 
 deferred until Wisconsin should apply. When would this 
 application be made? Not for a quarter of a century. 
 Such a procrastination would not be willingly subscribed 
 to by any of our fellow citizens. Upon the whole, I think 
 this not an unfavorable opportunity for our admission. 
 At this time, also, we should be able to come in without 
 trammels upon the subject of salvery. Having no memo- 
 orial from our Legislature upon the subject, and no pe- 
 tition from the great body of the people, I have taken 
 
Arkansas History 61 
 
 upon myself this responsibility. The people cannot be 
 injured by my application, inasmuch as their acceptance 
 or refusal of a State Government will depend entirely 
 upon themselves." A few days after this letter was 
 written, a bill was introduced in the Senate to enable the 
 people of Arkansas to form a constitution preparatory to 
 admission into the Union; a similar bill regarding the 
 Territory of Michigan was also introduced in the Senate. 
 Both bills were ''laid on the table" near the close of the 
 session, and there they remained. 
 
 The First College on Arkansas Soil (1834). 
 
 B, W. McDonald, in his "History of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church," says: "On the 28th day of Oc- 
 tober, 1834, a meeting of the Cumberland Presbyterians 
 of "Washington County, Arkansas, was held in the Cane 
 Hill meeting house for the purpose of taking the neces- 
 sary steps to establish a school. * * * This school was 
 opened in April, 1835, and was probably kept up in some 
 form until seventeen years afterward, when Cane Hill 
 College was chartered. This school in the wilderness, 
 some say, was the first institution of learning ever es- 
 tablished on Arkansas soil. Its prime object was to edu- 
 cate young men, preparing them for the work of the min- 
 istry." A hewed log house of two rooms was built and 
 served as a school building until a few years before the 
 commencement of the Civil War. Among the instructors 
 was Rev. Cephas Washburn, a missionary widely known 
 in the early history of Arkansas. In 1850 a brick build- 
 ing was erected, and on December 15, 1852, the collge was 
 incorporated by act of the Legislature. At the beginning 
 of the year 1861 the college was in a flourishing condition. 
 Then many of the young men in attendance joined a com- 
 pany of State troops and in May the institution closed its 
 doors. The close of the war found the buildings in ruins, 
 but in 1868 a frame building was erected and the college 
 was reopened, with Rev. F. R. Earle at the head of the 
 faculty of three members. Regular terms were held and 
 
62 High Lights 
 
 classes graduated until October 10, 1885, when the college 
 building was burned. Temporary quarters were ob- 
 tained and the following year a substantial brick building, 
 two stories high, was erected. The last class of graduates 
 was that of 1887 — ^two young men and one young woman. 
 After struggling along for two years more, the institution 
 closed its doors. 
 
 The First Theatrical Performance (1834). 
 
 The following account of the first theatrical perfor- 
 mance given in Arkansas is from the Arkansas Gazette 
 of November 4, 1834 : '* A first attempt at theatrical per- 
 formance was made in this town, last night, by the 'Little 
 Rock Thalian Society', in the representation of the com- 
 edy of the "Soldier's Daughter", which was performed 
 far better than we had anticipated. The theatre has been 
 fitted up with much taste and judgment, and the scenery 
 does great credit to the talents of the artist. We have 
 neither time nor room to speak of the incidental merits 
 of the actors — indeed, where all performed their parts 
 so well, and so much to the satisfaction of the numerous 
 and respectable audience, it would be invidious to par- 
 ticularize. As a whole, the performance went off well, 
 entitling the young gentlemen engaged in it to much 
 credit. The same play will be repeated tomorrow even- 
 ing, together with the clebrated farce of "Raising the 
 Wind ' ', when we hope all who feel inclined to a few hours ' 
 rational amusement will attend, and we feel assured that 
 they will not return dissatisfied. It may not be improper 
 to add that the receipts of the society, after defraying 
 the actul expenses incurred by it in fitting up the house, 
 etc., are to be appropriated to charitable purposes." 
 
 A Convention to Frame a State Constitution Caij^d 
 — The Last Territorial Legislature (1835). 
 
 What proved to be the last Territorial Legislature 
 of Arkansas assembled in Little Rock on October 5, 1835. 
 
Aekansar History 63 
 
 In his message at the opening of the General Assembly, 
 Governor William S. Fulton said : ' ' Considering the pe- 
 puniary sacrifices and the increase of burdens which a 
 change of government was calculated to produce, I hav(^ 
 doubted the expediency of too sudden a change, but I have 
 felt no desire to check the tide of popular opinion in favor 
 of a State Government; and as the people have willed it. 
 I now feel it to be my duty to forward this important 
 object by all the means competent to be used by the ex- 
 ecutive power of this Territory." The bill authorizing a 
 constitutional convention passed the house of representa- 
 tives on October 23rd, bv a vote of 27 to 7. and the next 
 day it passed the council, 17 to 11. Notwithstanding the 
 Governor's declaration that he felt it to be his duty to 
 forward this important object, he refused to sign the 
 measure. On November 2nd he returned it to the house, 
 with a message, in which he said: 
 
 "I regret that I could not approve the bill which 
 originated in your house, and which was delivered to me 
 some days since, providing for the election of members to 
 a convention to frame a constitution and system of gov- 
 ernment for the people of Arkansas. * * * My reasons 
 for withholding my approval were, because I did not 
 believe that the General Assembly of the Territory of 
 Arkansas posessssed the power to pass such an act ; and 
 that, as the executive officer of a territorial government 
 erected by acts of Congress, I had no power to sanction 
 or concur in such an act. * * * Both branches of the 
 Legislature having passed the bill by such large major- 
 ities as clearly to indicate that it would have passed a 
 second time in each house, by a majority of more than 
 two-thirds, I have considered it useless to return the bill 
 to you for reconsideration. Agreeably, therefore, to the 
 provision of the organic law, the bill has now become an 
 act without my signature, so far as it is consistent with 
 the constitution and laws of the United States establish- 
 ing a Territorial Government in Arkansas. *' 
 
64 High Lights 
 
 Little Rock Incorpoeated as a City (1835). 
 
 By 1835 the people of Little Rosk had decided that 
 the charter of 1831 was inadequate to meet the demands 
 of the rapidly growing town. Consequently, a public 
 meeting was called for the evening of October 14. 1835, 
 at the Presbyterian Church ''for the purpose of concert- 
 ing measures for obtaining from the Legislature a charter 
 for our tow^i, which will enable the citizens thereof to pass 
 and enforce wholesome laws and ordinances", etc. Rev. 
 W. W. Stevenson presided and Lemuel R. Lincoln was 
 chosen secretary. According to the Arkansas Gazette's 
 account of the meeting, Messrs. Roysdon, Ashley, Rorer, 
 Spragiie, Crutchfield, Stevenson and Pike were appointed 
 a committee to draft a charter and report to an adjourned 
 meeting at the same place on the evening of the 16th. 
 At the adjourned meeting Dudley D. Mason was called 
 to the chair and C. E. Rice was appointed secretary. The 
 report of the committee was amended slightly and unani- 
 mously adopted. It was then referred back to the com- 
 mittee with instructions to make a correct copy and draft 
 a petition to the General Assembly requesting the pass- 
 age of a law incorporating the city of Little Rock. The 
 committee carried out the instructions, and on November 
 2, 1835, Governor William S. Fulton approved the act of 
 incorporation. The act provided that the first election for 
 city officers should be held on the second Wednesday in 
 November, 1835, and that the officers then elected should 
 serve until the first Monday in January, 1837. At the 
 first election on November 11, 1835, the following officers 
 were chosen : James Pitcher, mayor ; William M. Field, 
 city judge ; Sterling H. Tucker, recorder ; John N. Boyle, 
 treasurer; R. C. Hawkins, superintendent of streets; 
 Luther Chase, constable; N. H. Badgett, David G. Eller, 
 William Jordan, Benjamin Linebaugh, Daniel Ringo, F. 
 M. Rutherford, Henry F. Shaw and R. A. Watkins, 
 aldermen. 
 
Arkansas History 65 
 
 DA\^D Crockett, on his way to Texas, 
 
 Spent the day in Little Rock (1835). 
 
 The following account is taken from the Arkansas 
 Gazette of November 17, 1835: "Among the distin- 
 guished characters who have honored our city with their 
 presence, within the last week, was no less a personage 
 than Colonel David Crockett — better known as Davy 
 Crockett — the real critter himself — who arrived on 
 Thursday evening last, with some six or eight followers, 
 from the Western District of Tennessee, on their way to 
 Texas, to join the patriots of that country in freeing it 
 from the shackles of the Mexican Government. The news 
 of his arrival rapidly spread, and we believe we speak 
 within bounds when we say that hundreds flocked to see 
 the wonderful man, who, it is said, can whip his weight 
 in wildcats or grin the largest panther out of the 
 highest tree. In the evening, a supper was given him, at 
 Jeff eries ' Hotel, by several anti-Jackson men, merely for 
 the sport of hearing him abuse the administration, in his 
 outlandish style, and we understand they enjoyed a most 
 delectable treat in a speech of some length with which he 
 amused them. Having no curiosity that way ourself, we 
 did not attend the show. But our negihbor of the Advo- 
 cate was there, and so delighted was he, that he says he 
 can now 'die contented'. Happy man ! The Colonel and 
 -his party, all completely armed and well mounted, took 
 their departure on Friday morning for Texas, in which 
 country, we understand, they intend establishing their 
 future abode, and in the defense of which we hope they 
 may cover themselves with glory." 
 
 Delegates to the First Constitutional 
 Convention Elected (1835). 
 
 Agreeable to the act of the General Assembly pro- 
 viding for the holding of a convention to frame a state 
 constitution, delegates to such a convention were elected 
 on December 8, 1835. Among those elected were not a 
 
QQ High Lights 
 
 few whose names are distiiiguislied hi Arkansas history. 
 Arkansas County elected Bushrod W. Lee; Arkansas and 
 Jefferson, Terrence Farrelly; Carroll, John F. King; 
 Carroll and Izard, John Adams ; Chicot, John Clark and 
 Anthony H. Davies ; Clark, John AVilson ; Conway, Nim- 
 rod Menef ree ; Crawford, James Woodson Bates, Kichard 
 C. S. Brown and John Drennen ; Crittenden, John D. Cal- 
 vert and Wright W. Elliott; Greene, G. L. Martin; 
 Hempstead, Grandison D. Royston and James H. Walker ; 
 Hot Spring, James C. Conway; Independence, John Ring- 
 gold and Townsend Dickinson; Izard, Charles R. Saun- 
 ders; Jackson, John Robinson; Jefferson, Samuel C. 
 Roame ; Johnson, Lorenzo N. Clarke ; Johnson and Pope, 
 Andrew Scott; Lafayette, Josiah N. Wilson; Lawrence 
 and Randolph, Thomas S. Drew, David W. Lowe, Henry 
 Slavens and Robert Smith; Miller, Travis G. Wright; 
 Miller and Sevier, Richard Ellis; Mississippi, Nathan 
 Ross; Monroe, Thomas J. Lacy; Phillips, Henry L. Bis- 
 coe and George W. Ferebee; Pike, Elijah Kelly; Pope, 
 Thomas Murray, Jr.; Pulaski, White and Saline, Wil- 
 liam Cummins, Absalom Fowler and John McLain; St. 
 Francis, Caleb S. Manly and William Strong; Scott, 
 Gilbert Marshall; Sevier, Joseph W. M. Kean; Union, 
 Andrew J. May; Van Buren, John J. Lafferty; Wash- 
 ington, William McK. Ball, Mark Bean, James Boone, 
 Rovery McCamy, David Walker and Abraham ^VTiinnery. 
 
 The First Constitutio^^al Convention (1836). 
 
 The first convention to frame a state constitu- 
 tion met on Monday, January 4, 1836, in the Bap- 
 tist Church at Little Rock. The next day, January 5, 
 f ohn Wilson, of Clark County, was elected president, and 
 Charles P. Bertrand, of Little Rock, secretary. The con- 
 vention then voted to hold its session in the Presbyterian 
 Church, where it met the next day, and continually there- 
 after until its work was finished, January 30, 1836, on 
 Saturday. C. F. M. Noland, of Independence County, 
 was appointed by the convention as its special messenger 
 
Arkansas History 67 
 
 to carry the new constitution to Washington City for 
 presentation to Congress. The constitution was signed 
 by all but two of the members of the convention — Nathan 
 Ross, of Mississippi County, and David Walker, of Wash- 
 ington County. 
 
 Arkansas the Twenty-Fifth State 
 Admitted to the Union (1836). 
 
 The people of Arkansas took matters into their own 
 hands by framing and submitting a constitution, as had 
 been done before upon more than one occasion, without 
 waiting for the approval of Con.gress as expressed in the 
 formality of an enabling act. The Arkansas Gazette, of 
 February 4, 1836, published the proposed constitution of 
 Arkansas in full ; a copy of which was received at Wash- 
 ington by Ambrose H. Sevier, delegate to Congress, on 
 the last day of February. Whereupon, Mr. Sevier, with- 
 out waiting for C. F. M. Noland, who did not arrive with 
 the official copy of the constitution until March 8th, pre- 
 sented it to Congress as he found it published in the Ga- 
 zette. James Buchanan, of Pennsylvanian, reported a 
 bill in the Senate for the admission of Arkansas into the 
 Union. A bill for the admission of Michigan, as intro- 
 duced by Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, was passed by 
 the Senate April 2nd. The Arkansas bill was then taken 
 up and passed two days later, on April 4th. Both bills 
 were passed in the House of Representatives on June 
 13th; both were approved also on the same day, June 
 15th, by President Andrew Jackson. Owing to certain 
 provisions in the Michigan bill, which had to be voted on 
 by the people, Michigan was not finally admitted until 
 January 26, 1837. Thus Arkansas, admitted June 15, 
 1836, is the twenty-fifth State in the Union. 
 
 The United States Arsenal 
 
 at Little Rock Begun (1836). 
 
 Congress provided for the establishment of an ar- 
 senal at Little Rock in the spring of ]8m. On the 26tli 
 
68 High Lights 
 
 of September, Lieut. F. L. Jones arrived in the city to 
 select the site. A tract of thirty-six acres was recom- 
 mended and was purchased by the Government from Haw- 
 kins, McLain and Blodgett for $3,000. Maj. Richard B. 
 Lee was placed in charge of the construction, and in the 
 spring of 1837 submitted the plans to Gov. J. S. Conway, 
 who on May 24, 1837, wrote to Major Lee suggesting that 
 the appropriation of $14,000 was too small to provide an 
 arsenal of sufficient capacity. A few months later Lee 
 advised the governor that the appropriation had been 
 increased to $40,000 and that the work would be com- 
 menced immediately. The plan of the arsenal enbraced 
 the storehouse and officers' quarters, fronting toward 
 Ninth Street ; the barracks, on the south side of a square, 
 the east and west sides of which were to be occupied by 
 the gun sheds, shops, etc. On May 15, 1838, Senator 
 William S. Fulton wrote to the Arkansas Gazette that he 
 had just received information from the Ordnance De- 
 partment that the following arms and munitions had been 
 ordered to Little Rock: 
 
 16 six-pounder cannon, 
 
 1,800 charges of grapeshot, etc., 
 
 8,500 muskets, 
 
 1,500 Hall's rifles, 
 
 30 barrels of rifle powder, 
 
 7,000 pounds of rifle balls, 
 
 1,000,000 musket cartridges, 
 
 8,500 infantry accouterments, 
 
 1,500 rifle accouterments. 
 
 These supplies, amounting to 100 tons, arrived on the 
 steamboats ''Elk" and ''Little Rock" on June 23, 1838, 
 and the arsenal soon afterward "went into commission". 
 Work on the buildings went on for several years, the total 
 cost of the arsenal being nearly $100,000. At the begin- 
 ning of the war between the States, in the spring of 1861. 
 the arsenal was peaceably surrendered to the State au- 
 
Arkansas History ^^ 
 
 thorities. After the war it was continued as an army 
 post until 1893, when the citizens of Little Rock acquired 
 1,000 acres of land on Bi^ Rock, on the north side of the 
 river, which was offered to the Government in exchange 
 for the old arsenal ^^ronnds. The offer was accepted and 
 the new fort named Logan H. Roots, after Colonel Logan 
 H. Roots, who had been active in effecting the exchange. 
 Thus the old arsenal grounds became the property of the 
 city and was converted into what is known now as the 
 City Park. 
 
 The First State Election (1836). 
 
 As provided by the constitution, the first State elec- 
 tion in Arkansas was held August 1, 1836. State con- 
 ventions, much less primary elections, had not then come 
 into general use. Nominations were most commonly 
 made in local public meetings, to which all the citizens 
 of the county, for example, were invited. The first such 
 mass meeting, for the purpose of nominating canidates 
 for the office of governor and members of Congress, was 
 held at Fayetteville, on May 14, 1836. Robert McCamy 
 was elected chairman of the meeting; which adopted, as 
 the important part of its proceeding, a resolution favor- 
 ing James S. Conway for governor; Archibald Yell, for 
 Congress; and recommending the election of Ambrose 
 H. Sevier to the United States Senate by the General 
 Assembly. A similar meeting was held June 4th in Law- 
 rence County. A mass meeting of citizens of Pulaski, 
 White and Saline Counties was held at Little Rock on 
 June 18th. Both the latter endorsed the candidates nomi- 
 nated at Fayetteville in May. Meanwhile, a committee 
 of the Fayetteville meeting, composed of B. H. Smithson, 
 Isaac Murphy, J. M. Hoge, James Boone and Onesimus 
 Evans, had communicated with Mr. Conway for the pur- 
 pose of inducing him to become a candidate. And, on July 
 5th, after the meetings in Lawrence and Pulaski, his ac- 
 ceptance of the nomination was published in The Ar- 
 kansas Gazette. Thus Conway for governor, Yell for 
 
70 High Lights 
 
 Congress and Martin Van Buren for President of the 
 United States headed the ticket of what was then known 
 as the Democratic-Republicans. An opposition ticket was 
 got into the field in the same manner. The opposition, 
 which called itself the People's ticket, nominated Absa- 
 lom Fowler for governor; William Cummins, for Con- 
 gress, and supported Hugh L. White for President. Of 
 the votes cast for governor, Conway received 5,338; 
 Fowler, 3,222. For Congress Yell received 6,094 ; Cum- 
 mins, 2,379. 
 
 This campaign really marked the beginning of politi- 
 cal parties in Arkansas. During the territorial period 
 the people were frequently divided into factions, follow- 
 ing personal leaders, and these factions have somtimes 
 been erroneously referred to as parties. That the party 
 spirit was not fully developed in 1836 is seen in the names 
 given to the opposing tickets, to-wit: ''Democratic-Re- 
 publican Ticket" and ''People's Ticket." They subse- 
 quently became known as the Democratic and Whig par- 
 ties, respectively. In the campaign the former was re- 
 ferred to by the Fowler supporters as the "Van Buren 
 Ticket". 
 
 The Fiest State Legislature (1836). 
 
 The constitution of 1836 provided that the General 
 Assembly should consist of a Senate and House of Repre- 
 sentatives; that the Senate should consist of not fewer 
 than seventeen and not more than thirty-three members ; 
 that the House should consist of not fewer than fifty-four 
 nor more than one hundred members; and divided the 
 State into districts for the election of members of the 
 two houses. It was also provided that the members elect- 
 ed on the first Monday in August should meet on the 
 second Monday in September. The statehouse, though 
 not completed, was put in condition for the session, which 
 assembled therein on Monday, September 12, 1836. Sam- 
 uel C. Roame was elected president of the senate; John 
 Wilson, speaker of the house of representatives. 
 
Arkansas History 71 
 
 James S. Conway^ First Governor 
 
 OF THE State, Inaugurated (1836). 
 
 A public meeting was held in Little Kock on the 
 afternoon of September 12, 1836, with Mayor James 
 Pitcher presiding, for the purpose of planning a fitting 
 public demonstration in celebration of the event of the 
 first inauguration of a governor of the State. James De 
 Ba — was selected as marshal and given full power to ap- 
 point his aides. Shortly after noon on the 13th a pro- 
 cession was formed and moved to Governor-elect Con- 
 way's residence to escort him to the capitol. First came 
 Captain Kavanaugh's company of mounted volunteer's 
 then a band of music, next carriages containing Mr. Con- 
 way, W. S. Fulton, A. H. Sevier, Judge Edward Cross, 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Rector and Captain Brown, of the 
 United States Army, and the carriages were followed 
 by a large body of citizens. Upon arriving at the capitol, 
 Governor Conway was conducted to the Hall of Repre- 
 sentatives, where he delivered a short inaugural address. 
 The oath of oflQce was then administered by Albert Pike, 
 after which a salute of twenty-six guns were fired. The 
 procession then reformed and escorted the governor 
 back to his home. 
 
 The Real Estate Bank Incorporated (1836). 
 
 The Constitution of 1836 authorized the General As- 
 sembly to incorporate two banks — ''one State Bank, with 
 such amount of capital as may be deemed necessary, and 
 such number of branches as may be required for public 
 convenience," etc., and "one other banking institution, 
 caluculated to aid and promote the great agricultural in- 
 terests of the country. * * * " Accordingly, the first 
 General Assembly of the State passed, and Governor 
 James S. Conway approved October 26, 1836, an act in- 
 corporating a "Real Estate Bank"; which bank was 
 intended to forward the agricultural interests of Arkan- 
 sas . Agreeable to the language of the constitution, the 
 
72 High Lights 
 
 act of incorporation provided also for the raising of funds 
 as capital for the bank upon a pledge of the faith and 
 credit of the State. Thus, the original charter called for 
 an issue of $2,000,000 in bonds by the State, the bonds to 
 bear interest at the rate of six per cent, the proceeds 
 from the sale of which were to constitute the working 
 capital of the bank. In return for the loan of it credit as 
 security against the loss of its $2,000,000 in bonds, the 
 State took mortgages on the real estate of the stock- 
 holders of the bank. The stockholders mortgaged a total 
 of 127,500 acres of land to the State, which they claimed 
 was worth $48 dollars an acre, or a total value of $6,- 
 120,000, to secure the pa^Tnent of the $2,000,000 in bonds. 
 Disinterested appraisers valued the land at $2,603,000, 
 and many thought these figures too high, an opinion fully 
 sustained by subsequent developments. The main bank 
 was located at Little Rock, with branches at Helena, Phi- 
 lips County; at Columbia, Chicot County, and at Wash- 
 ington, Hempstead County. By this arrangement the 
 northwestern part of the State deemed itself neglected. 
 And on February 24, 1838, Governor Conway approved 
 an act authorizing a fourth branch, to be located at Van 
 Buren, Crawford County, and the issuance of $500,000 
 in bonds to procure its capital. The stockholders of this 
 branch mortgaged to the State 79,601 acres of land, 
 valued at $751,830. In September, 1838, the central board 
 of directors disposed of 1,530 of the bonds at par ($1,- 
 530,000). The Treasurer of the United States purchased 
 500 of these bonds, to be held in trust for the benefit of 
 the Smithsonian Institution; Joseph D. Beers, of New 
 York purchased 1,000 ; and the other thirty were sold to 
 Richard M. Johnson, then Vice-President of the United 
 States. On December 12, 1838, the main bank at Little 
 Rock opened its doors for business. The Helena branch 
 was opened February 15, 1839 ; the Columbia branch on 
 the 5th of March following, and the Washington branch 
 on the first of April On October 31, 1839, the loans and 
 discounts of the parent bank and branches amounted to 
 
Arkansas History '^ 
 
 $1,585,190.80. Two days later the parent bank at Little 
 Rock suspended specie payment, a policy which was 
 quickly followed by all the branches. Then the trouble 
 commenced. Suspension of specie payment was expressly 
 prohibited by the bank's charter, which provided, among 
 other things, that for every refusal to redeem its notes 
 and obligations in current money of the United States, 
 the injured party might recover damages at the rate of 
 ten per cent per annum on the full amount of the note in 
 question. Nor was there any good reason for suspension. 
 At the time the order was issued the bank's outstanding 
 circulation was $156,910, its loans and discounts exceeded 
 its capital by only $85,190.80, and it had in its vaults in 
 gold and sivler $111,967.54— a much larger specie reserve 
 than banks of that day were accustomed to carry. Under 
 an act of the General Assembly, approved January 15, 
 1855, Governor Elias N. Conway, appointed William R. 
 Miller and William M. Gauge, expert accountants, to in- 
 vestigate the Real Estate Bank. They made a report 
 on June 27, 1856, by which the gross assets of the bank 
 were shoA\m to be $5,006,507, more than half of which, or 
 $2,514,500, the accountants found to be worthless. This 
 left as the net assets $2,492,007. The liabilities amounted 
 to $2,415,759. By foreclosure of the mortgages on the 
 lands given it as security against the loss of its bonds, the 
 State eventually recovered, for the most part, the money 
 which it had borrowed for and advanced to the bank. 
 Of the so-called Holford bonds, or the $500,000 in bonds 
 issued under the act of 1838, which bonds were intended 
 to procure capital for the opening of a branch bank at 
 Van Buren, the history is given elsewhere. 
 
 The State Bank of Arkansas Incorporated (1836). 
 
 The constitution of 1836 authorized the establish- 
 ment of a State bank. Accordingly the first General As- 
 sembly lost no time in creating such a bank. A charter, in 
 the form of an act of the General Assembly, was approved 
 by Governor James S. Conway November 2, 1836 — just a 
 
74 High Lights 
 
 week after his approval of a similar act incorporating 
 the Real Estate Bank. Thus the ''faith and credit" of 
 the State was capitalized to the amount of another $1,- 
 000,000 by the issue of bonds bearing interest at the rate 
 of five per cent ; which $1,000,000, with the surplus prom- 
 ised from the Treasury of the United States, the five per 
 cent fund from the sale of public lands, the seminary and 
 salt springs funds, were expected to furnish all the cap- 
 ital necessary for such a bank. The main bank was to be 
 located at Little Rock, with branches at Batesville and 
 Fayetteville. A third branch was afterward established 
 at Arkansas Post, by an act of the General Assembly 
 of 1837. In 1838 a fourth branch was provided for at 
 Washington. Unlike the Real Estate Bank, the State 
 Bank had no private stockholders. It was a public trust, 
 created to be the fiscal agent of the State ; the State fur- 
 nished its capital ; the State assumed sole responsibility 
 for its debts. The Legislature had absolute power to di- 
 rect its affairs. Owing to the low rate of interest pro- 
 vided for, five per cent, only $169,000 was realized from 
 the sale of the original bond issue of $1,000,000. In 1837 
 another issue of $1,000,000 in bonds was authorized at 
 six per cent ; and, in 1838, still another, of $300,000. Of 
 these several bond issues, there were sold, first and last, 
 but $1,169,000 worth. The bank received $286,156 as sur- 
 plus revenue from the United States Treasury. The five 
 per cent fund yielded $26,725. On November 1, 1839, 
 the bank suspended specie payment. Its outstanding 
 circulation then amounted to $43,420 and it had on hand 
 the sum of $76,678.17 in specie. In 1842, by act of the 
 General Assembly, the bank was placed in liquidation. 
 The process of liquidating assets, accounting for losses by 
 defalcation and what not, was continued until 1860, when 
 it was found that, of the 1,169 bonds sold for $1,000 each, 
 there were then 610 bonds unredeemed. The unpaid in- 
 terest on the bonds amounted to $677,717, which, added 
 to the principal, made a debt against the State of $1,- 
 287,717. During the war nothing was done about the 
 
Arkansas History 75 
 
 debt. The debt was funded in 1868, when new bonds were 
 issued for $1,147,522 as the debt then outstanding against 
 the State on account of the State Bank. 
 
 The First Steam Ferry Boat on thb 
 Arkansas River (1838). 
 
 The Arkansas Gazette of July 4, 1838, contained the 
 following account of the first steam ferry on the Arkan- 
 
 ''We are gratified in being able to announce the ar- 
 rival, on Wednesday morning last, of the steam ferry- 
 boat Little Rock, which was built expressly for the lower 
 ferry at this place, where she will commence running so 
 soon as the necessary floats or wharf-boats can be con- 
 structed on each side of the river, for her to land at. 
 
 ''This boat was built at Cincinnati, since March last, 
 under the personal superintendence of Capt. Thomas J. 
 Haldeman (The late commander of the steam-boat Ar- 
 kansas), and is one of the strongest built boats on the 
 Western waters. She is 86 feet long by 33 feet wide, to 
 the extremity of her guards, with 314 feet depth of hold, 
 and has a beautiful new engine of sufficient strength and 
 power to give her speed equal to most of the boats on the 
 Arkansas. Her trip from Cincinnati to this place was 
 made in eight days and 18 hours, with between 30 and 40 
 tons of freight on board ; and she has since her arrival 
 given evidence of the great power of her engine by tow- 
 ing a flat-bottomed boat (nearly 90 feet long by over 18 
 feet wide), with nearly 50,000 feet of plank and scant- 
 ling, a distance of nearly 40 miles. She has a comfort- 
 able cabin for passengers, officers' room, cook room, etc., 
 with capacious gangways (forward and on each side of 
 the boilers) sufficient for two of the largest wagons and 
 teams, 3 or 4 smaller carriages, 20 or 30 head of horses 
 or cattle, with sufficient other room for more than 200 
 foot passengers. 
 
76 High Lights 
 
 "Travelers may now rely on having a safe and ex- 
 peditious mode of crossing the Arkansas, at the lower 
 ferry, at all stages of the river, which will probably tend 
 as much toward the prosperity of our thriving town as 
 any other improvement, to the same extent, that could 
 be made. 
 
 "It is expected that she will commence plying regu- 
 larly on the ferry in the course of next week — at all 
 events, as soon as the wharf -boats can be prepared." 
 
 Arkansas a Mission of the Episcopal Church (1838). 
 
 On September 16, 1838, Rt. Rev. Leonidas Polk was 
 elected missionary bishop of Arkansas by the Episcopal 
 convention at Philadelphia. When news of this reached 
 the state, the Arkansas Gazette of October 31, 1838, 
 said: "This will be pleasing intelligence to the Episco- 
 palians in this state, many of whom have not heard the 
 peculiar service of their church for many years. Churches 
 of various denominations have been established in all 
 parts of Arkansas, but we do not believe that a minister 
 of this denomination has ever preached within our 
 bounds." Polk was bom in North Carolina in 1806; 
 graduated at the West Point Military Academy in 1827 ; 
 attended the Episcopal Theological Seminary at Alex- 
 andria, Virginia; was ordained priest in 1830; was ap- 
 pointed missionary bishop of the southwest on Septem- 
 ber 16, 1838, a field covering Alabama, Arkansas, Indian 
 Territory, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. On May 
 20, 1841, this territory was di^dded and he was made 
 bishop of the separate diocese of Louisiana. At the be- 
 ginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate 
 army and was killed at Pine Mountain, Georgia, June 15, 
 1864. In the spring of 1840 Bishop Polk sent Rev. Wil- 
 liam H. C. Yeager to Little Rock and a small congrega- 
 tion was organized, which developed into Christ Church 
 parish. Among the original members of this church were; 
 John H. Crease, Gordon N. Peay, T. D. Merrick, William 
 
Arkansas History 77 
 
 E. Ashley, John E. Reardon, Lavinia Reardon, Mrs. 
 Helen Scott and Miss Harrit Grafton. 
 
 The Arkansas Grand Lodge of Masons Organized (1838). 
 
 On November 21, 1838, representatives of four Ma- 
 sonic lodges organized, at Little Rock, the Grand Lodge 
 of Arkansas. These four lodges, which thus effected the 
 organization of the Grand Lodge, were then the only- 
 Masonic lodges in the state. They were: Washington 
 Lodge, of Fayetteville, organized in 1836 ; Western Star 
 Lodge, of Little Rock, organized in February, 1838; 
 Morning Star Lodge, of Arkansas Post, organized in 
 1838 ; Mount Horeb Lodge, of Washington, organized in 
 1838. William Gilchrist was elected the first Grand Mas- 
 ter; George C. Watkins, the first Grand Secretary. In 
 the new organization, Washington Lodge became No. 1 ; 
 Western Star, No. 2 ; Morning Star, No. 3 ; Mount Hor^b, 
 No. 4. 
 
 The Arkansas Penitentiay Established (1838). 
 
 On December 13, 1838, Gov. James S. Conway ap- 
 proved an act of the General Assembly making an ap- 
 propriation of $20,000 for a penitentiary, to be located 
 at some point convenient to the seat of government. 
 Commissioners were appointed to select a site. On July 
 24, 1839, they reported that they had purchased from 
 P. T. Crutchfield 92.41 acres, ''about a mile and a quar- 
 ter west of Little Rock, for $20 per acre." Construction 
 of a prison was commenced soon after the purchase of 
 the location, but the building was not completed until 
 1842. Four years after the penitentiary was first occu- 
 pied as a prison, the main building was destroyed by fire, 
 during a revolt of a few of the convicts bent upon mak- 
 ing their escape. The Arkansas Democrat of July 31, 
 1846, says : "The main building of the penitentiary was 
 destroyed by fire on Thursday, the 30th of July. * * * * 
 The most immediate cause of the revolt and destruction 
 
78 High Lights 
 
 of the building was the recent and entire change in the 
 agents and keepers of the prison, by which raw and in- 
 experienced men were placed in charge of the prisoners. 
 We understand that only five of the convicts (including 
 Morgan, who was killed by another convict on the side 
 of the keepers,) were actively concerned in the revolt, 
 and that some ten or twelve of the convicts declared them- 
 selves ready to aid the keepers, and several of them did 
 actually render efficient service. " On December 23, 1846, 
 Governor Thomas S. Drew approved an act providing 
 for the rebuilding of the penitentiary, at a cost not to 
 exceed $10,000, and the contract was let to George Brodie 
 for that amount. The new building was occupied in 
 1849. During the early years of the Civil War, Federal 
 prisoners were confined in the penitentiary, and after 
 Little Rock was occupied by the Union forces commanded 
 by General Frederick Steele in September, 1863, it was 
 converted into a place for the confinement of Confed- 
 erate prisoners. The General Assembly of 1899 pro- 
 vided for the erection of the New State capitol on the 
 site of the old penitentiary. A new site for the peniten- 
 tiary was afterwards acquired in the southwestern part 
 of Little Rock, where the State's prison kno-uTi as ''the 
 Walls" was completed and occupied in 1910. 
 
 The First Theatre for Professionals Opened; Albert 
 Pike's Poem in Honor of the Occasion (1839). 
 
 From the Arkansas Gazette, January 23, 1839 : ' ' The 
 new theatre, under the management of Mr. Waters, 
 opened on Wednesday night last. The house was crowded 
 with a respectable audience, and we were gratified to 
 observe that the ''dress circle" Avas filled with a great 
 share of the beauty and fashion of the city, which will 
 vie with any in the Union for appearance and propor- 
 tionate numbers. 
 
 "Previous to the performance, a pretty little address, 
 written for the occasion, by Albert Pike, Esq., was deliv- 
 ered by Mrs. Waters, which will be found below. The 
 
Arkansas History 79 
 
 pieces on the first night were Charles the Second, and 
 the 'Young Widow,' which were performed to the de- 
 light of the audience. 
 
 '*Por a small company, the performers are very ef- 
 fective, and combine considerable dramatic talent — suffi- 
 cient, at all events, to render their acting highly amus- 
 ing, and frequently intensely interesting, as the tearful 
 eyes of a portion of the audience sometimes testify. 
 Messrs. Douglass, Wharam, Waters, McCurdy and 
 Wolfe, would do credit to any theatre, and the ladies of 
 the establishment, Mrs. Waters and Miss Armstrong, in 
 some of their characters cannot be surpassed. 
 
 "We are somewhat surprised that so few of our coun- 
 try friends visit the theatre. The nights are now moon- 
 lit and pleasant; the performances close at an early 
 hour, and a ride of six or eight miles on a brisk pony 
 would not be unpleasant, particularly if there were a lot 
 of lively girls in company. Besides good acting they 
 would sometimes hear good singing and see good danc- 
 ing; Sam Waters does all that himself. 
 
 "We see our fastidious neighbors of the Times are 
 getting somewhat severe in their strictures on the char- 
 acter of the pieces performed. For our part, we see no 
 occasion for it ; a bit of harmless pleasantrj^ on the stage 
 gives the entertainments a zest, and if people don 't wish 
 to be thought to like it, why, they needn't appear to un- 
 derstand it." 
 
80 High Lights 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 On the opening of the Little Rock Theatre, 
 
 By Albert Pike. 
 
 Delivered by Mrs. Waters. 
 
 (Behind the scenes) 
 
 Now don't persuade me — for I cannot do it. 
 (Coming forward) 
 
 You barbarous man. I never shall get through it. 
 
 (Going round as if to escape) 
 
 No door left open! Where, where shall I go? 
 Wliat shall I do? I'll faint with fright, I know. 
 
 (Coming forward) 
 
 I'm so confused ; I'll speak — oh, no ! I do not dare ; 
 And yet you look good-natured, I declare. 
 Ladies! will you hear what I have to say 
 In my good man's behalf? I will not long delay. 
 Here late the Indian held undoubted sway — 
 (Those not yet old, can recollect the day;) 
 Here, where we stand, a dense, dark forest stood, 
 And the Arkansas rolled its troubled flood, 
 Through pathless wilderness, to the ocean. 
 All now is changed, Life, with its constant motion, 
 Is eddying here, and wit, and grace, and beauty, 
 Approve our humble efforts, and make duty 
 A pleasure exquisite, while we engage, 
 The first time here to introduce the stage. 
 Here have we cast our lot, in pleasant places. 
 And yours already are familiar faces. 
 Here do we hope to pass our future days, 
 Cheer 'd by the kindly guerdon of your praise. 
 Like mariners wafted by pleasant breeze. 
 Graced by your kindness, we still hope to please, 
 
Arkansas History 81 
 
 To give for reprehension or rebuke no cause, 
 
 But still become more worthy your applause. 
 
 Our object to amuse — be not severe, 
 
 Nor listen with too critical an ear ; 
 
 But view our efforts with indulQ:ent eye, 
 
 And pass our imperfections lightly by. 
 
 Scan not too closely our poor bill of fare, 
 
 Since to improve it is our daily care. 
 
 Until a nightly banquet we insure 
 
 Fit for the palate of an epicure. 
 
 We have no fears — a generous audience 
 
 Gives to the trembling actress confidence ; 
 
 Cheers the rough road — the heavy task makes light, 
 
 And gives new zeal on each returning night. 
 
 We are resolved to please — and we will do it ; 
 
 And now, kind friends, say — shall Sam Waters 
 
 The First Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- 
 lows Organized (1839). 
 
 The following advertisement appeared in the Ar- 
 kansas Gazette of August 7, 1839 : 
 
 I. o. 0. F. 
 
 Far West Lodge No. 1 of the Independent Order of 
 Odd Fellows of the State of Arkansas will be opened in 
 the City of Little Eock, on Monday, the 12th inst., after 
 which the installation of officers will take place according 
 to ancient usage. 
 
 Transient brethren and brethren in good standing 
 are invited to attend. By order. 
 
 Little Rock, August 5, 1839. 
 The Beginning of Coal Mining in Arkansas (1840) 
 
 The Arkansas Gazette of January 15, 1840, pub- 
 lished the following news: ''Mr. Walker, a gentleman 
 practically acquainted with coal mining operations, left 
 
82 HioH Lights 
 
 at our office, a few days since, a specimen of excellent 
 anthracite coal, which he had procured on land belong- 
 ing to Mr. E. B. Alston, at Spadra Bluff, in Johnson 
 county, a few yards from the bank of the Arkansas. 
 From a partial experiment we made in burning it, we 
 think it the best we have ever seen, from the fact of its 
 igniting more freely than any coal of the kind used east 
 of the Alleghanies. This is the first anthracite we 
 recollect hearing of being found west of the mountains, 
 and will no doubt prove a profitable source of business 
 to the miners, and an economical fuel for domestic and 
 manufacturing purposes. Mr. Walker has leased the 
 land of Mr. Alston, and gone to the north to procure 
 laborers acquainted with the business, with a view of 
 immediately entering on the prosecution of it. We 
 have no doubt that in a few months such of our citizens 
 as wish for a more economical fuel than we have here- 
 tofore been using will be able to obtain a supply of this 
 coal, which will make a saving of full fifty per cent in 
 the cost of the article. The mere price paid for haul- 
 ing wood in Little Eock would more than pay the whole 
 cost of the anthracite. The additional comfort of its 
 use will prove a great inducement to burn it when our 
 citizens once become acquainted with it and familiar 
 with the process of igniting it, the difficulty of which is 
 the only objection we ever heard urged as:ainst it. One 
 good fire of it will, in ordinary weather in this climate, 
 last the whole day without replenishing, and prove a 
 saving, not only of money, but of the annoyance of con- 
 stantly replenishing a wood fire to preserve an even 
 temperature. ' ' 
 
 The "Arkansas Traveler" — How it Originated (1840). 
 
 The tune of the "Arkansas Traveler" belongs, no 
 doubt, to that class of music commonly known as folk 
 songs. As such, it is not, of course, the composition of 
 ony one person. But the fact seems to be pretty well 
 established that Sandford C. Faulkner was the man 
 
Abkansas History 83 
 
 who brought the air into prominence and for that reason 
 came to be known as the original "Arkansas Traveler", 
 Sandford C. Faulkner was born in Georgetown, Ken- 
 tucky, March 3, 1803. In 1829 he came to Arkansas and 
 located in Chicot county, where he became interested in 
 cotton planting. Ten years later he removed to Little 
 Rock. During the Civil War he was captain of ordnance 
 at the arsenal until Little Rock was occupied by the 
 Federals in 1863. He then went to Texas, where he re- 
 mained until the close of the war. Returning to Little 
 Rock, he again engaged in business as a planter until a 
 few years before his death, when he sold his two plan- 
 tations and lived practically retired from active business. 
 He died on August 4, 1874. In a notice of his death 
 the Arkansas Gazette of the 5th said: **It is well 
 known throughout the Southwest that Colonel Faulkner 
 was the original impersonator of the 'Arkansas 
 Traveler', and it was his pride to be known as such. 
 The story, it is said, was founded on a little incident 
 which occurred in the campaign of 1840, when he made 
 the tour of the state in company with the Hon. A. H. 
 Sevier, Governor Fulton, Chester Ashley and Governor 
 Yell. One day, in the Boston Mountains, the party ap- 
 proached a squatter's cabin for information of the route 
 and Colonel 'Sandy' was made spokesman of the 
 company, and it was upon his witty response the tune 
 and the story were founded. On the return to Little 
 Rock, a grand banquet was given in the famous 'bar- 
 room' which used to stand near the Anthony House, and 
 Colonel 'Sandy' was called on to play a tune and tell the 
 story. Afterward it grew in popularity. When he 
 went to New Orleans, the fame of the 'Arkansas 
 Traveler' had gone before him, and at a banquet, amid 
 clinking glasses and brilliant toasts, he was handed a 
 violin by the then governor of Louisiana and requested 
 to favor them with the favorite Arkansas tune. At the 
 old St. Charles Hotel a special room was devoted to his 
 use, bearing in gilt letters over the door, 'Arkansas 
 Traveler'." 
 
84 High Lights 
 
 FoET Smith (Incoepoeated 1842). 
 
 The "town of Fort Smith" was incorporated by an 
 act of the General Assembly approved December 24, 
 1842. Major Stephen H. Long selected, in 1817, as a 
 suitable location for the erection of a military post, a 
 point of land between the Arkansas and Poteau rivers. 
 ''In allusion to its peculiar beauty," as he said. Major 
 Long called the place "Belle Point". Later, the next 
 year perhaps. General Thomas A. Smith, then in com- 
 mand of the Ninth Military Department, appointed 
 Major William Bradford commandant of the post and 
 ordered him to erect the necessary fort. By September, 
 1820, the buildings of the fort, though only partially 
 completed, "formed two sides of a hollow square, termi- 
 nated by strong blockhouses at the opposite angles and 
 fronting towards the river". Meantime, the name of the 
 post had been changed to Fort Smith, in honor of the 
 commander of the military department in which the new 
 fort was situated. Major AVilliam Bradford was com- 
 mandant until February, 1822, when he was succeeded 
 by Colonel Matthew Arbuckle. The western boundary 
 of Arkansas from the Arkansas river to the Red river, 
 as fixed by the Choctaw treaty of 1825, began at the Ar- 
 kansas "one hundred paces east of Fort Smith". Thus, 
 in 1837, or perhaps 1838, it was decided to abandon the 
 old fort and erect a new one on the border within the 
 boundaries of Arkansas. The site selected is the site 
 of the present city of Fort Smith. As a military reser- 
 vation, the United States Goverimient bought there of 
 Captain John Rogers a tract of 296 acres, "having a 
 front of 100 yards on the south side of the Arkansas 
 river, immediately below the Choctaw^ line"; which was 
 to say, just east of the western boundary. The new fort 
 was begun in July, 1838. The original plan provided for 
 a quadrangle enclosure 450 by 600 feet, walled with stone, 
 with barracks, officers' quarters, etc., inside the walls. 
 By 1842, though the fort was incomplete, the Government 
 had spent $120,000. Nor was it ever completed, though 
 
Arkansas History 85 
 
 it was occupied continually until 1871. The town grew 
 up around the fort. Captain Rogers, founder of the 
 town, laid off 160 acres of his land in town lots in 1837. 
 He had built already a large warehouse there ; was then 
 engaged in all kinds of "storage, forwarding and com- 
 mission business". And, by December, 1842, the place 
 had grown sufficiently to induce the General Assembly 
 to incorporate it as a town. 
 
 The Catholic Diocese op Little Rock 
 Established (1843). 
 
 The Diocese of Little Rock was formed by the 
 Catholic Church in 1843. It embraced the State of Ar- 
 kansas and the Indian Territory, and on March 10, 1844, 
 Rt. Rev. Andrew^ Byrne was consecrated bishop of the 
 Diocese. He was born in Navan, Ireland, December 5, 
 1802. When about eighteen years of age he came with 
 Bishop England to America and was ordained priest at 
 Charleston, South Carolina, November 11, 1827. A few 
 years later he was transferred to New York, where he 
 became known as a preacher of great power. When he 
 came to Little Rock to take charge of his new diocese he 
 brought with him Fathers Corry and Donohue, who were 
 the only priests in the state for some time. Bishop 
 Byrne died at Helena, Arkansas, on June 10, 1862. 
 During the Civil War and until February 3, 1867, the 
 diocese of Little Rock was without a bishop. Then the 
 Rt. Rev. Edward Fitzgerald was consecrated. He ar- 
 rived at Little Rock on March 17, 1867, and during the 
 year visited the principal cities and towns of the state, 
 traveling on horseback, by steamboat and stage. Prob- 
 ably the most noted event that occurred during his 
 bishopric was the building of St. Andrew's Cathedral at 
 Little Rock, the corner-stone of which was laid on July 
 7, 1878. It was dedicated on November 29, 1881. 
 
 The First Public Library (1843). 
 
 The first library in Little Rock, and the first in 
 Arkansas of which any definite knowledge can be ob- 
 
86 High Lights 
 
 tained, was established by William E. Woodruff in 1843. 
 It was not a free library, but the books were intended for 
 circulation among those who were willing to pay a small 
 annual fee. Each book carried the following label: 
 ** Little Rock Circulating Library. Established by 
 William E. Woodruff in the year 1843. Please read and 
 return in two weeks. Price $2 per year." Mr. Wood- 
 ruff's library contained most of the best histories, ancient 
 and modern ; practically all of the standard novels, books 
 of travel, biography, scientific works and a number of the 
 leading poets. There was not much of what could be 
 called ''light reading", for the founder's taste did not 
 run in that direction. He was fond of lyric and de- 
 scriptive poetry and used to express his gratification 
 that it was his privilege to set type on the first volume 
 of Tom Moore's poems ever printed in America. Mr. 
 Woodruff's library came to a somewhat tragic end. 
 While the Federal troops were in possession of Little 
 Rock the books were stored in the home of Alden Wood- 
 ruff. A fire broke out in a building near by and the 
 contents of Mr. Woodruff's house were carried into the 
 street, preparatory to removal to a place of safety, in 
 case it became necessary. Soldiers passing by helped 
 themselves to books and in this way many of the most 
 valuable were lost. So few remained that the library 
 was never reopened. 
 
 War with Mexico; the Response of Arkansas 
 TO the Cai.l for Volunteers (1846). 
 
 The annexation of Texas by tlie United States, ef- 
 fected by act of Congress approved March 1, 1845, was 
 highly displeasing to the Mexican Government; which 
 still entertained hope, in spite of the ten years since 
 Texas had won its independence, of reconquering the 
 country. Upon annexation General Zachary Taylor, in 
 command of the military forces of the United States in 
 the Southwest, was ordered to take possession of the 
 country to the Rio Grapde. Early in 1846 the Mexicans 
 
Arkansas History 87 
 
 began mobilizing an army along the Rio Grrande, across 
 the river from General Taylor's army of occupation. 
 The first conflict of arms occurred May 8, 1846, at Palo 
 Alto. Thereupon the United States, by act of Congress, 
 approved May 11, 1846, declared ''war already exists 
 by act of the Mexican Government". On the same day 
 the President was authorized to call for 50,000 volunteers 
 for the war. Arkansas was called upon to furnish one 
 regiment of mounted men for service in Mexico, and one 
 battalion to guard the western frontier of the state. The 
 latter was made necessary because the regular garrisons 
 in the western forts were ordered to Mexico. As soon 
 as the requisition reached Gov. Thomas S. Drew, he is- 
 sued his proclamation calling upon the able-bodied men 
 of the state to enlist for such service and to rendezvous 
 at Washington, the county seat of Hempstead county. 
 Perhaps no other state in the Union had as great an in- 
 centive for entering the war as Arkansas. Next door 
 to Texas, they were as "brothers of one family". Many 
 of the Americans from the states east of the Mississippi, 
 on their way to Texas, had passed through Arkansas, 
 and some of them had lived for a while in the state before 
 continuing their journey. For years the letters of 
 Stephen F. Austin, giving an account of the progress of 
 his colony, had appeared in the newspapers and had 
 been read vdth. intense interest by the people of the state. 
 From 1835 until the declaration of war in 1846, the Ar- 
 kansas newspapers had constantly published news of the 
 Texas revolution and had openly expressed sympathy 
 with the struggle the Americans there were making for 
 independence. This expression of sympathy found an 
 echo in the hearts of the Arkansans. It awakened public 
 sentiment in favor of the revolutionists and stirred up the 
 fighting spirit. The leaders of the revolution were well 
 known and popular in Arkansas. When General Sam 
 Houston, after the inhuman massacre at the Alamo, called 
 upon the people of the United States for assistance, a 
 large number of young men from Arkansas had rallied 
 
88 High Lights 
 
 to the standard of the ''Lone Star Republic". Then, 
 too, the people of Arkansas were firm in the belief that 
 for ten years or more Mexican influences had been ac- 
 tively exerted among the Lidians to incite them to make 
 war upon the settlements of the western frontier. The 
 call for volunteers gave them an opportunity to settle old 
 scores, and the prompt response of the Arkansans 
 evinced an ardent desire on the part of the people of the 
 state that the settlement be both summary and final. 
 
 Arkansas at the Battle of Buena Vista (1847). 
 
 Wlien war was declared with Mexico Colonel Archi- 
 bald Yell, then a member of Congress, immediately re- 
 signed his seat and returned to Arkansas, where he en- 
 listed as a private in the Arkansas regiment of Mounted 
 Volunteers. At Washington, Arkansas, where the or- 
 ganization of the regiment was perfected, he was elected 
 colonel. From Washington the Arkansas troops 
 marched overland to Mexico, where they were attached 
 to General Wood's division of General Taylor's army. 
 While in Monclova, General Wood detached Companies 
 E. and K and organized them into a squadron commanded 
 by Capt. Albert Pike. To this squadron fell the honor 
 of bringing on the battle of Buena Vista, February 23, 
 1847, the only action of consequence in which the Ar- 
 kansas troops were engaged. Concerning the conduct of 
 the Arkansas regiment on that occasion, and the death 
 of Colonel Yell, a contemporary and competent au- 
 thority afterwards wrote: "With the exception of Pike's 
 and Preston's companies, the Arkansas regiment had 
 not been thoroughly drilled. It showed a woeful lack 
 of discipline, and at the battle the companies completely 
 'lost their heads'. Colonel Yell, seeing the disordered 
 state of the command, hastily gathered about him some 
 thirty or forty of his bravest, dashed impetuously with 
 them into the thickest of the light, and needlessly, nay, 
 recklessly, threw away his life in an attempt to save the 
 honor of his state and his own name. Never fell a 
 
Arkansas History 89 
 
 braver son of an ungrateful state. After nearly fifty 
 years, no testimonial, erected by the state, tells of his 
 name and fame. The Americans were outnumbered at 
 Buena Vista four to one, yet against these great odds 
 they achieved one of the most signal victories of the war. 
 That the Arkansas troops did their part to make the his- 
 tory of that battle what it is the proof is ample. In the 
 presence of a superior force, it is not surprising that raw, 
 undisciplined troops should show signs of panic at the 
 beginning of the engagement. But when the smoke of 
 battle cleared away, the Mexicans were in full flight with 
 the Americans in hot pursuit. Numerous stories of in- 
 dividual bravery during the battle of Buena Vista have 
 been told, one of which will bear repeating here. Joshua 
 M. Danley, a youth of twenty years, was a private in 
 Company B, commanded by his brother, Capt. Christo- 
 pher C. Danley. Early in the battle a Mexican lancer 
 charged young Danley and inflicted a slight wound in his 
 arm. "Josh" grasped the lance near the head and in 
 the struggle that followed both combatants were un- 
 horsed. In the fall from the horse the Mexican released 
 his hold upon the lance. Danley seized it and ran his 
 enemy through the body with his own weapon. He 
 brought the lance home with him as a trophy. 
 
 Treaty of Guadalupe; Ambrose H. Sevier, one of the 
 Peace Commissioners (1848). 
 
 In the spring of 1847 President James K. Polk sent 
 Nicholas P. Trist to Gen. Winfield Scott's headquarters 
 for the purpose of entering into negotiations with the 
 Mexican Government for the restoration of peace. He 
 carried with him a treaty which had been prepared by 
 the cabinet, though his secret instructions authorized 
 him to make certain changes if it became necessary. 
 One thing, however, he was to insist upon, and that was 
 the cession of New Mexico and California, for which he 
 was authorized to pay Mexico $25,000,000, unless he 
 could obtain the cession on better terms. On August 24, 
 
90 High Lights 
 
 1847, an annistice was arranged and the Mexican Gov- 
 ernment appointed four commissioners to meet Mr. Trist. 
 The Mexican commissioners refused to entertain Trist 's 
 propositions and asked time to formulate other terms. 
 Trist continued his negotiations, and on February 2, 
 
 1848, succeeded in concluding the Treaty of Guadalupe 
 Hidalgo (a small place on the outskirts of the City of 
 Mexico), which embodied essentially all the features de- 
 sired by the President. The territory now comprising 
 the states of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada 
 and Utah, the western part of Colorado and the south- 
 western part of Wyoming, was ceded to the United States 
 for $15,000,000. The United States also agreed to 
 assume the payment of claims held by her citizens against 
 Mexico, provided the total amount of such claims did not 
 exceed $3,250,000. The treaty was forwarded to Wash- 
 ington, where, on account of certain misunderstandings 
 between Polk and Trist, tlie sentiment was divided as to 
 its acceptance. The treaty was, however, finally accepted 
 and sent to the Senate, where it was promptly ratified. 
 The Mexican Government, still hoping perhaps to secure 
 better terms, delayed the ratification of the treaty. Polk 
 then appointed Nathan Clifford and Senator Ambrose 
 H. Sevier, of Arkansas, commissioners to consult with 
 Mexican commissioners and secure the ratification of the 
 treaty. Clifford and Sevier met the Mexican commis- 
 sioners at Queretaro and succeeded in accomplishing 
 their mission. By this treaty more than half a million 
 square miles were added to the territory of the United 
 States. And in the acquisition ot this terriory, Arkansas 
 had played, in more ways than one, a conspicuous part. 
 
 St. John's College Founded by , 
 
 Masonic Fraternity (1848). 
 
 In 1848, Elbert H. English, for many years grand 
 master of the Arkansas Masonic Grand Lodge and af- 
 terward chief justice of the Supreme Court, conceived 
 the idea of a college to be conducted under the auspices 
 
Arkansas History 91 
 
 of the Masonic fraternity. Through donations from the 
 grand and subordinate lodges and friendly individuals, 
 enough money was obtained to purchase a tract of 105 
 acres of land in the suburbs of Little Rock. On Dec. 31, 
 1850, the institution was incorporated under the name 
 of St. John's College. The work of erecting a building 
 was not commenced until 1857, which was ready for 
 occupancy in the fall of 1859, A military academy was 
 then opened mth John B. Thompson, of Richmond, Vir- 
 ginia, president; J. F. Bronaugh, also a Virginian, vice 
 president; and John B. Lewis, drill master. During 
 the first year the attendance was good and the college 
 started its career mth excellent prospects. Then the 
 war came and its doors were closed. Thompson, 
 Bronaugh and Lewis all entered the Confederate army 
 and the cadets were organized into a company called the 
 ** Capital Guards", commanded by Gordon N. Peay. 
 Thompson was killed at Shiloh, Bronaugh fell during the 
 siege of Petersburg, and Lewis was the only one of the 
 original instructors to survive the war. The buildings 
 were used for hospital purposes, first by the Confederates 
 and later by Federal troops. In 1868 or 1869 the college 
 was reorganized with Oliver C. Gray as president. As- 
 sociated with Gray were W. C. Parham and Theodore 
 Jobe as instructors. When Gov. Elisha Baxter was 
 ousted from the state house in the spring of 1874, he 
 established his headquarters at St. John's College, the 
 cadets acting as his bodyguard. The Brooks-Baxter war 
 caused the institution to cease activity for a time. 
 After the gubernatorial dispute was settled it reopened 
 with Rev. A. R. Winfield as president. The establish- 
 ment of public schools, the troubles encountered during 
 the war, caused a decline in patronage and the grand 
 lodge after a few years discontinued the school and 
 ordered the sale of the property. With the proceeds of 
 the sale the Masonic Temple on the corner of Fifth and 
 Main streets was erected, where stands now the Ex- 
 
92 High Lights 
 
 change National Bank Building. Where the college 
 once stood is now one of the residence districts of the 
 City of Little Rock. 
 
 Arkansas Grand Lodge, Independent Order 
 OF Odd Fellows Organized (1849). 
 
 Following the organization of the first lodge of the 
 Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Little Rock in 
 1839 there were but three other lodges formed during 
 the next ten years: Telula Lodge, No. 2, at Helena; 
 Fro'ntier Lodge, No. 3, at Fort Smith; Independence 
 Lodge, No. 4, at Batesville. And on June 11, 1849, rep- 
 resentatives of these four lodges met in Little Rock, 
 where they organized the Grand Lodge of Arkansas. 
 The order had then, in Arkansas, a total membership of 
 144. There are now nearly six hundred lodges in the 
 state, with a membership of more than thirty thousand. 
 
 The Washington Monument Begun ; a Block of 
 Marble for the Monument Quahried 
 IN Arkansas (1849). 
 
 A popular movement to erect a suitable monument 
 to the memory of George Washington was started in 
 1833. The movement was organized under the name of 
 the ''Washington National Monument Society", with 
 headquarters at Washington City. The Arkansas 
 Gazette of October 27, 1835, said: "The subscription to 
 this object is limited to the sum of one dollar for each 
 individual subscribing. It will be seen by the following 
 notice that collectors of contributions are wanted for 
 Arkansas and several other states and territories. We 
 hope that Arkansans will not be backward in contributing 
 their mite to this noble object: they owe as much to the 
 memory of Washington as any other portion of the 
 American people." Work was actually begun on the 
 monument in 1848. The Arkansas State Democrat, in 
 its issue of September 28, 1849, said: "We are advised 
 
Arkaktsas History 93 
 
 that the citizens of the western portion of our State 
 have succeeded in obtaining a block of marble, of the 
 requisite size, from the Carroll county quarries, and that 
 it has reached Van Buren, from which point it will be 
 shipped, via New Orleans, to Washington City. Senator 
 Borland has promised to procure the arms of our state 
 engraved upon tliis block when it arrives at its desti- 
 nation. Our citizens up the creek have shown a very 
 laudable zeal in this matter for which they deserve the 
 highest commendation. Whilst in some other states 
 large appropriations have been made by the legisla- 
 tures, for a similar purpose, the people of our western 
 counties have made up a purse and sent off a block on 
 their o^vn hook. This monument and the marble are 
 samples of the public spirit and productions of the state, 
 of which every citizen will be proud. We learn that it 
 is the intention of the citizens of this county to send 
 along with the marble a block from the granite quarries 
 near this city. Those persons who may be disposed to 
 aid in this object will find a subscription list at our office." 
 Work on the monument was abandoned in 1857. In 
 1877, with funds appropriated by Congress, the work 
 was resumed. The monument was completed in 1884. 
 
 The First Railroad Company in Arkansas 
 Incorporated (1853). 
 
 The Arkansas Central Railroad Company, incor- 
 porated by act of the Ceneral Assembly, which act was 
 approved January 10, 1853, was formed for the purpose 
 of building a railroad from Memphis to Little Rock. Of 
 the history of the project of a railroad from Memphis to 
 Little Rock, The Arkansas Gazette of March 3, 1853, 
 published the following account, copied from a Memphis 
 paper of an early date: "From 1845, up to the present 
 time, the idea of a great central trunk line railroad, 
 commencing opposite this city and running westwardly 
 through Arkansas to her western boundary, has been a 
 prominent and favored one in the public mind. Gen. 
 
94 High Lights 
 
 Edmund P. Gaines foreshadowed the project of the 
 Pacific Railroad over that route, in his address to the 
 convention which assembled here in that year, and 
 was presided over by Mr. Calhoun. That convention, 
 in which Arkansas was well represented, warmly favored 
 the project. 
 
 ''Again, in the Pacific Railroad Convention which 
 assembled here in October of 1849, and in which the 
 State of Arkansas was most fully and ably represented 
 by eighty- two of her most talented and distin,guished 
 citizens, * * * the same route for a road was em- 
 phatically endorsed. The resolution which passed the 
 convention in reference to the location of the Pacific 
 Railroad left the terminus on the Mississippi at "some 
 point between the mouth of the Ohio and the mouth of 
 Red River", but the Arkansas delegation in mass, to- 
 gether with the delegations from Mississippi, South Caro- 
 lina, Alabama, Tennessee and Virginia, voted unsuccess- 
 fully for a substitute which designated the eastern ter- 
 minus of this road ^^at Memphis, on the Mississippi 
 River". This convention recommended the donation of 
 lands by the general government, in aid of this great 
 road, as well as of its prolongation to the Atlantic at 
 Charleston. 
 
 ''Again, in 1852, two successive State conventions 
 were held at Little Rock, in Arkansas, both of which 
 recommended, distinctly and emphatically, this east and 
 west central route, and asked for donations of land — the 
 Legislature, also, granting a liberal charter. 
 
 "In short, through a series of years, the project of 
 a great central road from opposite this city, west- 
 wardly through Arkansas, to her western frontier, has 
 been a fixed and favorite idea, not only with the people 
 of Arkansas, who have time and again endorsed and 
 urged it, and in all sorts of ways have given their coun- 
 tenance to it, as their first and most cherished project; 
 hut ^v^th the people of a large majority of all the 
 
Arkansas History 95 
 
 Southern States. It was as notoriously desirable by 
 everj''body, and everywhere, as any project which has 
 ever been discussed before the public. It was notori- 
 ously the favorite and desirable project of Arkansas. 
 As proof of this, we need only point to the charter 
 granted by the last Legislature of that State and the 
 inducements therein held out to capitalists. * * * " 
 
 Covering the construction of the road, The True 
 Democrat, of Little Rock, in its issue of Dec. 15, 1857, 
 said: ''The road has already been partly completed 
 and is entitled to the glorious eulogy of being the first 
 to start the 'iron horse on the soil of Arkansas'. The 
 road, which the editor referred to as completed, included, 
 it seems, but a few miles of track from opposite Mem- 
 phis to Hopefield. The road was completed to Madison, 
 on St. Francis river, early in 1858. As stated in an- 
 other topic, trains began running over that part of the 
 road between DeVall's Bluff and Little Rock in Feb- 
 ruary, 1862. On account of the war, the section between 
 Madison and DeVall's Bluff was not completed until 
 nearly ten years later. B}^ the act of July 31, 1868, the 
 company was entitled to state aid, in the form of bonds 
 at the rate of $10,000 per mile, or a total of $1,200,000. 
 With this encouragement the gap was closed, the last 
 spike being driven on April 11, 1871. The Arkansas 
 Gazette, in giving an account of the event said: "We 
 are now bound to the Bluff City — when the water gets 
 out of the way." 
 
 Public Lands Granted the Cairo and Fulton 
 Railroad Company (1853). 
 
 The President of the United States, Franklin 
 Pierce, approved February 9, 1853, an act of Congress 
 making a grant of land to the States of Missouri and 
 Arkansas "to aid in the construction of a railroad from 
 a point upon the Mississippi River opposite the mouth 
 of the Ohio River, via Little Rock, to the Texas bound- 
 ary, near Fulton, in Arkansas, with branches to Fort 
 
96 High Lights 
 
 Smith and the Mississippi River". The company for 
 whose benefit this grant was made had only been in- 
 corporated on January 12, 1853, by the General As- 
 sembly of Arkansas, as the Cairo and Fulton Railroad 
 Company. Under the act of Congress, of February 9, 
 the company received six sections (3,840 acres) per mile. 
 The promoters of the enterprise soon discovered that 
 it was much easier to build a railroad on paper than it 
 was with the pick and shovel. Four years passed after 
 the passage of the land grant act, the provisions of 
 which required a certain amount of work to be done 
 within a specified time, in which nothing was done in 
 this matter of actual construction. The panic of 1857 
 put a stop to public work all over the country and rail- 
 road construction was for a time suspended. In De- 
 cember, 1857, the president of the Cairo & Fulton called 
 for the payment of an installment on stock subscriptions 
 "sufficient to grade twenty-five miles, extending from the 
 White River northward, to protect the land grant". 
 With this work completed it was decided to wait until 
 business conditions improved before continuing con- 
 struction. In 1858 offices were established in Little 
 Rock, with Mason Brayman as president; W. W. 
 Everett, secretary; James S. Williams, chief engineer. 
 The unsettled financial conditions of the country still 
 prevented the effectual prosecution of the work. In- 
 stead of improving, conditions grew worse until 1861, 
 when the country became involved in civil war. Bray- 
 man and Williams w^ere both graduates of West Point. 
 The former returned North, entered the army and be- 
 came a brigadier-general. Williams entered the Con- 
 federate army as a colonel, but after the war Bra^Tnan 
 returned to Little Rock to resume his place as presi- 
 dent of the Cairo & Fulton Railroad Company. By an 
 act of July 28, 1866, the land grant was revived and in- 
 creased to ten sections per mile, making a total of 
 1,945,600 acres. In March, 1868, the interests of the 
 State of Missouri in the St. Louis & Iron Mountain 
 
Arkansas History 97 
 
 Railroad were sold to Thomas Allen, who interested 
 some Eastern capitalists and the line was finished to the 
 Arkansas state line. A consolidation was then effected 
 with the Cairo & Fulton company, under the name of 
 the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern, and work was 
 commenced on the ''Arkansas Extension". Under an 
 act of the General Assembly of Arkansas, approved 
 July 31, 1868, state aid in the form of bonds to the 
 amount of $3,000,000 was awarded to the Cairo & Fulton 
 Railroad Company. Meanwhile, the land grant was 
 growing steadily more valuable and the company had 
 now sufficient working capital, so that the offer of State 
 aid was declined. By the fall of 1872 the road was in op- 
 eration as far south as Arkadelphia. In January, 1874, 
 trains began running between St. Louis and Texarkana. 
 This road now forms part of the Missouri Pacific system. 
 
 The First Geological Survey of x^lrkansas (1857). 
 
 The first geological survey of Arkansas was made 
 by Dr. David Dale^Owen in 1857-58. A report of this 
 survey, or ''reconnaissance" as it was called, was pub- 
 lished' at Little Rock in 1858. In February, 1859, the 
 General Assembly made an appropriation to continue 
 the work. Doctor Owen was reappointed, but died on 
 November 3, 1860. His second report, edited by his 
 brother, Richard Owen, and his assistant, Edward T. 
 Cox, was published at Philadelphia about a year after 
 his death. 
 
 The First Cottox Factory Established (1857). 
 
 A factory for the production of cotton and woolen 
 goods was established in 1857 at Royston, Pike county, 
 by the Arkansas Manufacturing Company. The prin- 
 cipal promoters of the enterprise were Henry Merrill, 
 a Georgian, and John Matlock, of Camden, Arkansas. 
 It turned out yarn and thread until 1863, when it was 
 removed to Texas by order of the Confederate Govern- 
 ment. After the war the plant was brought back to 
 
98 High Lights 
 
 Royston. After Mr. Matlock's death the machinery 
 was purchased by the Arkadelphia Manufacturing 
 Company and taken to that city, where a factory was 
 opened on a larger scale. W. W. Bell, the first super- 
 intendent of the Royston mills, also established woolen 
 mills at Camden and Nashville. None of these factories 
 is now in existence. 
 
 The State School for the Blind Founded (1859). 
 
 Next to the penitentiary, established in 1838, the 
 School for the Blind is the oldest of the State's insti- 
 tutions. The first effort made to provide for the education 
 of the blind in Arkansas was in 1850, when Rev. James 
 Champlain, a blind Methodist minister, opened such a 
 school at Clarksville in Johnson county. His pupils 
 numbered only five, and failing to receive the support 
 and encouragement he anticipated, the school was closed 
 after about five months. In 1858, a Mr. Haucke, a blind 
 Baptist preacher, visited Arkadelphia, where he inter- 
 ested a number of the charitably inclined citizens of the 
 community in a movement to establish a school for the 
 blind. In October of that year an association was 
 formed for the purpose, and the name of "The Arkansas 
 Institute for the Education of the Blind" was adopted. 
 The school was opened in February, 1859, with Mr. 
 Haucke in charge and seven pupils in attendance. On 
 February 4, 1859, the institution was incorporated and 
 Governor Elias N. Conway appointed the following 
 board of trustees: T. E. Garrett, Harris Flanagin, T. A. 
 Heard, J. B. McDaniel, J. W. Smith, H. B. Stewart, S. 
 Stephenson, W. A. Trigg and J. L. Witherspoon. Mr. 
 Haucke resigned his position in tlio summer of 1859 and 
 Otis Patten was selected as his successor. Mr. Patten 
 and Isaac Lawrence spent some thime in traveling over 
 the state, trying to induce the parents of blind children 
 to send them to school. Through their efforts the at- 
 tendance increased and the institution prospered until 
 the fall of 1863, when, owing to conditions growing out 
 
Arkansas History 99 
 
 of the Civil War, it was closed. The General Assembly 
 of 1866-67 appropriated $8,000 for buildings, $1,200 for 
 salary of a superintendent, and $200 a year for the 
 support of each pupil. With this encouragement, the 
 school was reopened in March, 1867. On July 22, 1868, 
 Governor Powell Clayton approved an act for the re- 
 moval of the school to Little Rock. It was closed at 
 Arkadelphia about the middle of September and opened 
 at Little Rock in the second week of October, in "Rose 
 Cottage", with Liberty Bartlett, R. L. Dodge, and C. 
 C. Farrelly as trustees. A tract of about eight acres, 
 in the southern part of the city, was purchased, a brick 
 building and several temporary frame buildings were 
 erected, and the institution was removed to its present 
 location in 1869. By an act of March 15, 1879, the name 
 was changed to the ''Arkansas School for the Blind". 
 In 1885 the Legislature appropriated $60,000 for addi- 
 tional buildings. The first brick structure was then 
 converted into a workshop, where the boys were taught 
 broom and brush making, mattress making, chair caning, 
 etc. The girls were taught sewing, both by hand and 
 machine, bead work and some other occupations. 
 
 The Streets of Little Rock Lighted 
 First by Gas (1860). 
 
 A franchise was granted by the City of Little Rock, 
 April 5, 1860, to the ''Little Rock Ga« Company". 
 The "True Democrat", in its issue of May 5, 1860, con- 
 tained the following announcement: "The gas house is 
 now nearly completed. The contractors, the Messrs. 
 Slaughter, have more than complied with all the stip- 
 ulations of their contract. We understand that the 
 street pipes and other gas fixtures are now here. We 
 may confidently look for the works to be in full blast by 
 the first of August, at which time our streets are to be 
 lighted. We think the contractors entitled to much 
 credit for the prompt, efficient and very satisfactory 
 manner in which they have complied with their con- 
 
100 HioH Lights 
 
 tract." The gas works then, where the artificial gas 
 was manufactured, were situated at the foot of Cum- 
 berland street. In those days, when the streets of Little 
 Rock first began to be lighted by gas, Richard Wilson 
 and Benjamin Pate — commonly called Dick and Ben — 
 were the city lamplighters. As they went their rounds 
 in the evening, it is said that each carried a small ladder 
 and a lantern, both which they used in lighting the 
 street lights. In the morning they made their rounds 
 without the lantern and turned oflP the gas. They were 
 often accompanied by a crowd of small boys, who in- 
 sisted upon lightening their labors by carrying the lan- 
 tern and ladder. 
 
 The First Telegraph Line in Arkansas (1860). 
 
 The True Democrat, of Little Rock, in its issue 
 of March 21, 1860, said: ''The operations of the electric 
 telegraph are the wonder and admiration of the world. 
 * * * At the South and Southwest, there are several 
 lines in every State, except Arkansas, and companies for 
 new lines constantly organizing * * * In our city, 
 the subject of a line has been the topic of discourse for the 
 last three years and now is a favorable opportunity to 
 act in the matter. Mr. W. D. Snow, of the firm of 
 Snow, Ketchum & Co., is on a visit among us. They 
 have long been engaged in the business, and constructed 
 several thousand miles. They are well indorsed by let- 
 ters to several of our citizens, and will join them in tak- 
 ing the necessary stock for a line to Memphis, and lease 
 the line for a term of years if desired, and establish 
 branches at once to the thriving localities of the State." 
 The editor of the same paper, quoting Mr. Snow, said, 
 March 24, 1860: *'In the short space of sixteen years, the 
 invention, in connection with the House & Bain instru- 
 ments, has spread until now there is in o"Deration on this 
 continent between 70,000 and 80,000 miles, or nearly 
 240 per cent more than there are miles of railroad, the 
 aggregate receipts of which, already, in 1858, exceeded 
 
Arkansas History 101 
 
 the entire revenue of the post ojffice department, on a 
 total number of messages bearing a proportion of 15 
 per cent to all the letters despatched through the mails." 
 Just one week later the editor printed the following an- 
 nouncement: ''As soon as the stock of the telegraph 
 line from our city to Memphis is subscribed, we learn 
 that Mr. Snow will visit all the thriving localities of 
 the State and enlist interest in branch lines centering 
 at Little Rock. Of the routes named, a line to Bates- 
 ville, to Helena, to Pine Bluff and Napoleon, to Cam- 
 den, to Clarksville, and Paris, Texas, and thence to 
 Galveston. In addition to Fort Smith and Van Buren 
 having taken stock and secured offices in the Missouri 
 line, we learn from a gentleman from Fayetteville, 
 Washington county, that the citizens of the latter place 
 have promptly taken the necessary stock for an office in 
 that place, on the Missouri line. In the month of June 
 these three localities will be in lightning communication 
 with ''the rest of mankind". 
 
 How Arkansas Seceded from the Union (1861) 
 
 Governor Henry M. Rector approved, January 15, 
 1861, an act of the General Assembly which provided 
 "That the governor shall issue his proclamation, or- 
 dering an election in all the counties of this state, sub- 
 mitting to the people the question of 'Convention' or 
 'No Convention', to be held on the 18th day of Feb- 
 ruary, 1861, * * * " The act further provided that, in 
 the event the people voted a convention, upon its or- 
 ganization the said convention "shall take into consider- 
 ation the condition of political affairs, and determine 
 what course the State of Arkansas shall take in the 
 present political crisis." Accordingly, Governor Rec- 
 tor, on January 16, ordered the election held as di- 
 rected by the act which he had approved the day before. 
 In the first days of February, it was rumored in Little 
 Rock that the steamboat "S. H. Tucker" was coming 
 up the Arkansas with three or four hundred regular 
 
102 High Lights 
 
 troops of the United States on board, in order to rein- 
 force the troop of artillery stationed at the arsenal, 
 under the command of Captain James Totten. Hun- 
 dreds of citizens armed themselves and hurried to Little 
 Rock for the avowed purpose of taking forcible pos- 
 session of the post. At the request of the city council, 
 and a public meeting of citizens, Governor Rector was 
 induced to demand the surrender of the arsenal and its 
 supplies. Captain Totten and his men evacuated the 
 post with the honors of war on February 8, 1861. 
 These events, doubtless, had a decided effect upon the 
 election of February 18, in which the proposition for a 
 convention carried by a majority of 11,586 votes. The 
 convention met on Monday, March 4, and continued in 
 session until March 21. Though several ordinances of 
 secession were proposed, all were defeated, and the con- 
 vention adjourned to meet again on August 19, after 
 the people had voted, August 5, on the question of se- 
 cession. However, the president of the convention was 
 authorized to call the delegates together '*at any time 
 between this and the 19th day of August, A. D., 1861, 
 if in his opinion an exigency should arise". The fall of 
 Fort Sumter, April 14, 1861; the call of President 
 Lincoln for volunteers to suppress secession; an order 
 for the dispatch of a thousand reaiilars of the United 
 States army to Fort Smith, afforded the ''exigency" 
 which prompted David Walker, of Fayetteville, presi- 
 dent of the convention, to assemble the delegates in a 
 second session on May 6, 1861. And on the afternoon of 
 the first day of this extraordinary session (May 6) an 
 ordinance of secession was passed by a vote of sixty- 
 fi:ve to five. As soon as the president announced the 
 vote, four of those who had voted in the ne^rative chan<?ed 
 their votes to the affirmative, leaving Tsnac INlur-nhv, af- 
 terwards governor, the only dele^ra^-e who went on rer^ord 
 as opposed to secession. On May 10, the convention 
 passed an ordinance adopting the provisional consti- 
 tution of the Confederate States, as framed and adopted 
 at Montgomery, Alabama, February 4, 1861. 
 
Arkansas History 103 
 
 Arkansas Admitted to the Union of the 
 Confederacy (1861). 
 
 The Arkansas secession convention elected, May 10, 
 1861, Augustus H. Garland, Robert W. Johnson, Hugh 
 F. Thomason, Albert Rust and W. W. Watkins dele- 
 gates to represent the State of Arkansas in the Con- 
 federate Congress. These delegates were formally 
 seated as members of the Congress at Montgomery on 
 May 18. 1861. 
 
 Battle of Oak Hill — First Arkansas Soldiers of 
 
 the War of Secession Engaged in Battle (1861). 
 
 The battle of Oak Hill, called by the Union forces 
 the battle of Wilson's Creek, was fought in southwestern 
 Missouri, near Springfield, August 10, 1861. There sol- 
 diers enlisted from Arkansas for the War of Secession 
 were engaged for the first time in battle. The Con- 
 federates, of which there were some six thousand, were 
 commanded by General Benjamin McCulloch. They 
 were attacked by a Federal force of eight or, as some 
 say, ten thousand men led by General Nathaniel Lyon. 
 The Arkansas troops included the regiments commanded 
 by Colonels Thomas J. Churchill, De Rosey Carroll, 
 Thomas P. Dockery, James Mcintosh, and William E. 
 Woodruff's battery — the whole forming a brigade, of 
 which General N. B. Pearce had command. It was Gen- 
 eral Lyon's intention to surprise the Confederate camp, 
 but the approach of the Federals was discovered by 
 Capt. Lee M. Ramsaur, of Churchill's regiment, in time 
 to give the alarm. Before the Confederates were fairly 
 in battle formation they were thrown into some con^ 
 fusion, but General Lyon failed to press his advantage, 
 giving them time to rally. The battle began about seven 
 o'clock in the morning and lasted until one o'clock in 
 the afternoon, when the Federals retired from the field. 
 In this action the Arkansans lost 91 killed, 317 wounded 
 
104 High Lights 
 
 and 4 missing, supposed to have been captured. The 
 Federal loss was heavy, General Lvon being among the 
 killed. 
 
 Battle of Elkhorn, oe Pea Eidge — First Engage- 
 ment OF THE War of Secession Fought on 
 Arkansas Soil (1862). 
 
 The battle of Elkhorn, or Pea Ridge, was fought 
 March 6, 1862. It was the first engagement of the war 
 fought in the State of Arkansas. The Confederates 
 commanded by Generals Stirling Price and Benjamin 
 McCulloch attacked General Franz Sigel at Benton ville 
 and forced him to fall back to the main body of Federals 
 on Pea Ridge, under the command of General Samuel R. 
 Curtis. Pea Ridge is a plateau about ten miles long by 
 five miles wide in the northern part of Benton County. 
 Curtis' force numbered 20,000 men, while the Confed- 
 erates, commanded by General Earl Van Dorn, numbered 
 only 15,000. Notwithstanding the odds against him. 
 Van Dorn attacked the Federal position on the 7th of 
 March, and after an engagement which lasted several 
 hours, forced Curtis to give way. During the night 
 Curtis moved to a stronger position and on the 8th of 
 March Van Dorn retreated southward, instead of hold- 
 ing the field and awaiting a Federal attack. Some 
 skirmishing occurred between his rear guard and the 
 Federals. The Confederate loss at Pea Ridge was 
 given at 185 killed, 525 wounded and 300 missing. 
 Curtis' loss was reported as 402 killed, 800 wounded and 
 300 captured. Generals Mcintosh and McCulloch of 
 the Confederates were both killed in this battle, a battle 
 without permanent advantage to either side. 
 
 The Arkansas State Troops Transferred to the 
 Confederate Service (1862). 
 
 The Arkansas secession convention, in May, 1861, 
 created a military board with power to arm and equip 
 such troops as might be deemed necessary for the de- 
 
Arkansas History 105 
 
 fense of the state against invasion. This board was 
 composed of Governor Henry M. Rector, Christopher C. 
 Danley, of Little Rock, and Benjamin C. Totten, of 
 Prairie County. Mr. Danley soon afterward was suc- 
 ceeded by Samuel W. Williams, and when the latter 
 entered the army he was succeeded by L. D. Hill, of 
 Perry county. This board issued a call for 10,000 vol- 
 unteers and in a little while companies began to report 
 from all parts of the state. N. B. Pearce, formerly an 
 officer in the United States army, and James Yell were 
 appointed brigadier-generals by the convention to or- 
 ganize the men into regiments and brigades. The First 
 regiment of state troops was; commanded by Col. 
 Patrick R. Cleburne; the Second, by Col. James Mc- 
 intosh; the Third, by Col. John R. Gratiot; the Fourth, 
 by Col. J. D. Walker; the Fifth, by Col. Thomas P. 
 Dockery. There were also a ''Southwest Arkansas 
 Regiment", commanded by Col. Evander McNair, and a 
 cavalry regiment (the Third), commanded by Col. De 
 Rosey Carroll. These troops rendezvoused at Poca- 
 hontas, Randolph county, Gratiot's and Walker's regi- 
 ments were disbanded after the battle of Oak Hill. 
 Early in September, 1861, Gen. Wm. J. Hardee, of 
 Georgia, came to Arkansas as the representative of the 
 Confederate Government, to arrange for the transfer 
 of all Arkansas troops to the Confederate service. 
 Every man was permitted to decide the question for 
 himself and those that objected to being transferred 
 were mustered out of service. This resulted in the 
 disbanding of Dockery 's and Carroll's regiments, many 
 of the men enlisting in other commands. The transfer 
 was formally effected June 2, 1862, by the proclamation 
 of Governor Rector. 
 
 The First Railroad Trains to and out of 
 Little Rock (1862). 
 
 The Memphis and Little Rock Railroad Company 
 announced, February 20, 1862, that on and from that 
 
106 High Lights 
 
 day the company would run a train daily, both ways, be- 
 tween Little Rock and DeVall's Bluff. The announce- 
 ment, which appeared in the True Democrat of Feb- 
 ruary 20, said also: "Hanger, Rapley & Gaines are 
 running the new sidewheel steamer 'Charm' between 
 DeVall's Bluff and Clarendon, in connection with their 
 double daily line of stages from Clarendon to Madison, 
 making the trip comfortable and pleasant and twenty- 
 four hours shorter than by any other route. A regular 
 line of packets from Memphis connects with the road at 
 DeVall's Bluff, offering excellent facilities for the 
 shipment of freights at all seasons and without the risk 
 and delay attending the navigation of the Arkansas 
 River. Cars leave Little Rock every day at 8 o'clock 
 A. M. and (passengers from Little Rock) arrive at 
 Memphis next day at 4 o'clock P. M. Returning, leave 
 Memphis at 7:30 o'clock A. M,, arrive at Little Rock at 
 4:30 P. M. Tickets can be procured of J. L. Palmer, 
 Anthony House, Little Rock, and at the ticket office of 
 the Memphis & Charleston Railroad at Memphis." 
 
 The State Capitol Removed to Hot Springs (1862). 
 
 In the spring of 1862 the Federal army commanded 
 by Gen. Samuel R. Curtis invaded Northern Arkansas 
 and marched toward Little Rock. Without waiting for 
 authority from the Legislature, Gov. Henry M. Rector, 
 on May 6, 1862, wrote to Edmund Burgevin, adjutant- 
 general of the State, as follows: **Sir: In my absence 
 from the capital, you are authorized and empowered to 
 raise volunteers, swear them into service as provided in 
 my proclamation of the 5th inst., and to operate against 
 the approaching Federal army to the best advantage, so 
 as to impede their progress towards the capital and 
 south of it, if they should continue their march onward 
 after reaching this point. You are authorized to call 
 upon Col. S. Faulkner, C. S. military storekeeper, for 
 any ammunition on hand belonging to the Confederate 
 Government, and charge the same to the State of Ar- 
 
Arkansas History 107 
 
 kansae. You are further authorized to call upon the 
 State quartermaster at this place for subsistence, trans- 
 portation, etc., necessary for such men as you may swear 
 into service as provided by said proclamation." Imme- 
 diately after giving these instructions to the adjutant 
 general, the governor, secretary of state and state treas- 
 urer packed up the most important state records, funds, 
 etc., and went to Hot Springs, where temporary quarters 
 were established. Many people deemed this action on 
 the part of the governor unnecessary. The "True Dem- 
 ocrat" in its isue of May 22, 1862, said: "We would be 
 glad if some patriotic gentleman would relieve the anxi- 
 ety of the public by informing it of the locality of the 
 state government. The last that was heard of it here, i^ 
 was aboard of the steamer 'Little Rock' about two weeks 
 ago, stemming the current of the Arkansas River." The 
 same paper in its issue of July 3, 1862, said: "Under 
 the title 'Where is the Seat of Government?' a writer in 
 the 'Gazette' of last week shows that the seat of gov- 
 ernment is at Little Rock. Indeed, in the absence of any 
 official notification of removal or change of location it 
 cannot be otherwise. If part of the state government is 
 rusticating, we suppose there is some reason for it, but 
 it is decidedly inconvenient to those who have business 
 to transact with the state." Toward the latter part of 
 July the scare was over and Governor Rector returned 
 to Little Rock. On November 29, 1862, Governor Flana- 
 gin approved an act providing : ' ' That the sum of sixty- 
 eight dollars be and the same is hereby appropriated, out 
 of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, 
 to pay John I. Stirman, late secretary of state, for mon- 
 eys expended in consequence of the removal of the seat 
 of government from Little Rock to Hot Springs during 
 the summer of 1862. 
 
 The Battle of Pbaibie Grove (1862). 
 
 Prairie Grove, from which the battle there on De- 
 cember 7, 1862, took its name, is situated in Washing- 
 
108 High Lights 
 
 ton County, some ten miles south of Fayetteville. The 
 battle of Prairie Grove was fought by Union troops un- 
 der the command of Generals James G. Blunt and Fran- 
 cis J. Herron and an army of Confederates commanded 
 by Generals Thomas C. Hindman and James F. Fagan. 
 The battle was begun by General Hindman, who made 
 an attack just before noon on the position of General 
 Herron. The fighting continued throughout the after- 
 noon. General Fagan 's brigade of four regiments, who 
 held the right of the Confederate line, gallantly repelled 
 several vigorous charges of the Federals. General Her- 
 ron was reinforced, about an hour before sunset, by 
 General Blunt, which brought the strength of the Fed- 
 erals up to 16,000 men. Charles W. Walker, in describ- 
 ing the battle, says: ** During the night of the 7th both 
 armies were retreating. The Federals began moving 
 their trains to Fayetteville early in the night. The Con- 
 federates began their retreat about midnight. The vic- 
 tory of the Confederates, though complete, were fruitless, 
 barren of good results to the South. • * * Accord- 
 ing to General Hindman 's report, "our loss in killed was 
 164, wounded 817, missing 336; Federal loss, 400 dead 
 on the field, 1,500 wounded, number of prisoners in our 
 hands 275, including 9 officers." Blunt and Herron re- 
 ported a loss of 175 killed, 813 wounded and 263 missing. 
 The Confederates also captured 500 stand of small arms, 
 23 wagons laden with supplies, and five flags. Hindman 
 explained his retreat on the grounds that his ''supply 
 of ammunition was reduced far below what would be 
 necessary for another day's fighting, and that my bat- 
 tery animals were literally dying of starvation". 
 
 The Capture of Arkansas Post (1863). 
 
 Arkansas Post, in January, 1863, was defended by a 
 force of 3,000 Confederates commanded by Gen. Thomas 
 J. Churchill. On the morning of January 8th, his pick- 
 ets reported a fleet of gunboats and transports coming 
 up the Arkansas River. The next day some 20,000 Fed- 
 
Arkansas History 109 
 
 eral troops, commanded by Gen. John A. MoClernand, 
 were landed and preparations were commenced for at- 
 tacking the post. Churchill placed the works in condi- 
 tion to receive an assault, which came in the aftrenoon of 
 January 9, and which was repulsed. Later, on the same 
 day, the gunboats, commanded by Admiral David D. 
 Porter, opened fire and succeeded in inflicting some dam- 
 age upon the defenses. About noon on January 10, a 
 general assault was made, but the Federals were again 
 repulsed with heavy losses. On the 11th of January, 
 1863, General Churchill surrendered the post. He was 
 taken a prisoner to Camp Chase, Ohio, where he was 
 held three months as a prisoner of war. When exchanged 
 he was assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department. 
 The minor officers and privates, who had surrendered at 
 Arkansas Post, were afterwards paroled. 
 
 Battle op Helena (1863). 
 
 A Confederate force of 7,640 men, commanded by 
 General Theophilas H. Holmes, made an attack upon 
 General Samuel R. Curtis, in command of the Federal 
 garrison at Helena, on July 4, 1863. The first attack 
 was made at an early hour in the morning, and the fight- 
 ing continued until noon. In their first assault, the Con- 
 federates captured some of the outer works of the Fed- 
 eral fortifications; which Federals, rallied presently by 
 General Curtis, recaptured and reinforced. The attack 
 on Helena by General Holmes was declared by critics 
 to have been an error, since the place was strongly for- 
 tified and garrisoned by a force superior in numbers to 
 the attacking army. The Confederates lost 152 killed, 
 291 wounded and 406 missing. From Helena General 
 Holmes retired to Searcy, where he remained in camp a 
 short time, when he returned to Little Rock; whence he 
 had set out originally for the purpose of attacking 
 Helena. 
 
110 High Lights 
 
 The Last Duel Fought in Arkansas (1863). 
 
 On August 27, 1863, while the Confederate army 
 was falling back toward Little Rock, an engagement 
 took place at Reed's Bridge over the Bayou Meto. Gen. 
 L. M. Walker was in command of the Confederate forces 
 thus engaged, with Gen. John S. Marmaduke in com- 
 mand of a division under him. After the battle, Marma- 
 duke criticized Walker for his management of the troops. 
 When Walker heard of this he demanded an apology, 
 which was not forthcoming, and he then challenged Mar- 
 maduke to a duel. They met the next day a few miles 
 from Little Rock and fought with pistols. Walker was 
 severely wounded and was taken to Little Rock, where he 
 died the next day. This was the last duel in Arkansas. 
 
 Capture of Little Rock (1863). 
 
 The fall of Little Rock into the hands of the Fed- 
 erals occurred on September 10, 1863. General Freder- 
 ick Steele marched out of Helena August 8, under or- 
 ders from General Samuel R. Curtis, ^vith an army for 
 the purpose of effecting its capture. The principal skir- 
 mishes incident to this movement on the part of the 
 Federals were as follows : West Point, August 14th ; 
 Harrison's Landing, August 16th: Grand Prairie, Au- 
 gust 17th; Brownsville, August 25th: Reed's Bridcre, 
 August 27th; Shallow Ford, August 30th; Ashley's Mills. 
 September 7th. The Confederates made their last stand 
 on September 10, at Fourche Bayou, four miles from 
 Little Rock. A line of battle had been formed there to 
 receive the invaders, and when they approached a bril- 
 liant dash by the Confederates checked the Federal ad- 
 vance and captured four pieces of artillery. About nine 
 miles below the city, Steele had ordered Gen. J. W. Da- 
 vidson to cross the river and attack the works of the 
 Confederates there in the rear with his cavalry division, 
 while the main body of the Federal army moved up the 
 north bank. While exulting over their temporary vic- 
 tory in the capture of the artillery, the Confederates 
 
Arkansas History 111 
 
 learned of the attack by Davidson on the south side of 
 the river. Whereupon, they abandoned their position on 
 Fourche Bayou and crossed the river to repel the attack 
 of General Davidson. When General Steele reached the 
 Confederate trenches he found them deserted and hur- 
 ried forward to the bank of the river opposite the city. 
 There batteries were planted and a few shots fired, when 
 it was learned that General Stirling Price, who had suc- 
 ceeded General Theophilas H. Holmes in command of the 
 Confederates, had ordered a retreat. The last of the 
 Confederates left the city about 5 p. m. on September 10, 
 1863, and from that time until 2 a. m. of September 11, 
 Steele's victorious army was moving in. The occupa- 
 tion of Little Rock placed all that part of the state north 
 of the Arkansas River in the hands of the Federals. 
 
 The State Capitol Removed to Washington, Hempstead 
 County (1863). 
 
 A resolution adopted by the Legislature and ap- 
 proved by Governor Harris Flanagin November 27, 
 1862, provided: '^That the governor be and he is hereby 
 invested with authority to move the seat of government, 
 and all property of a moveable character belonging 
 thereto, to a place of safety, not beyond the limits of the 
 state, when, in his judgment, it shall be deemed expe- 
 dient." At the same time the judges of the Supremo 
 Court and the Court of Chancery were directed to re- 
 move **the library and all books and papers belonging 
 to said courts to the said temporary seat of govern- 
 ment; and by giving notice in two or more of the nublir 
 newspapers of the slate, of the time and place of said 
 removal, proceed to hold said courts, as is otherwise 
 provided by law: Provided, that it shall be the duty of 
 the governor to return the seat of government and prop- 
 erty, and of the iudf>'es to return the library, books and 
 papers to Little Rock, when the cause of removal ceases 
 to exist." Early iu September, 1863, when it became ap- 
 parent that Genernl Frederick Steele's intention was to 
 
112 High Lights 
 
 occupy Little Rock with his army, Governor Flanagin, 
 under the authority conferred upon him by the said res- 
 olution, issued his proclamation directing the removal 
 of the seat of government to Washington, Hempstead 
 County. A session of the Legislature was convened there 
 in September, 1864, and Washington continued to be 
 Governor Flanagin 's capital until the spring of 1865, 
 when his administration was brought to an end by the 
 fortunes of war. Since that time the seat of govern- 
 ment has remained at Little Rock without interruption. 
 
 David 0. Dodd Executed as a Spy (1864). 
 
 While General Frederick Steele's army lav at Little 
 Rock, in the fall of 1863, David 0. Dodd, a youth of sev- 
 enteen years, spent some time in the city, employed in a 
 sutler's store. Early in December, 1863, Dodd's father 
 appeared in Little Rock and took his family, consisting 
 of his wife, two daughters and David to Camden. The 
 elder Dodd left some business matters unsettled and Da- 
 vid returned to Little Rock to look after them. General 
 James F. Fagan, of the Confederate army, then near 
 Oamden, gave the boy a pass. He readied the city in 
 safety and remained there until after Christmas, when 
 he set out intending to return to Camden. He was cap- 
 tured at a point some eight or ten miles southwest of the 
 city, on the Hot Springs road ; whence he was taken hack 
 to the city and accused of being a spy. LTnfortunately, he 
 had in his possession a memorandum book, or diary, 
 which contained entries written in the telegraphic dots 
 and dashes of the Morse code. Some of these entries re- 
 ferred to the strength of the Federal forces ; though no 
 evidence was produced to show that it was the boy's in- 
 tention to turn the information over to the enemy, he 
 was tried by court-martial and hanged on January 8, 
 1864, by order of General Steele. 
 
 The Constitution of 1836 Re-established (1864). 
 
 Not long after the occupation, on September 10, 1863. 
 of Little Rock by General Frederick Steele, a movement 
 
Arkansas History 113 
 
 was started for the formation of a state government that 
 would be in harmony with the national Federal adminis- 
 tration. On October 24, 1863, about a dozen citizens of 
 Crawford and Sebastian counties met at Fort Smith and 
 adopted resolutions favoring the establishment of a loyal 
 state government under a new constitution. Six days 
 later a public meeting was held in Little Rock for a sim- 
 ilar purpose. Dr. John Kirkwood presided and Dr. E. 
 D. Ayres w^as secretary. A committee, consisting of 
 Isaac Murphy, William M. Fishback, E. W. Growl, E. 
 P. Filkins, and C. V. Meadors, was appointed to draft a 
 communication to President Lincoln, assuring him of 
 the loyalty of the people of the State, and asking the co- 
 operation of the National Government to restore Arkan- 
 sas to its original status as a member of the Union. 
 About the same time conventions were held at Fort 
 Smith and Van Buren and adopted resolutions calling 
 upon the people of the several counties to elect delegates 
 to a constitutional convention, to meet in Little Rock on 
 the first Monday in January, 1864. The resolutions de- 
 clared that ''The purpose of such convention shall be to 
 re-establish civil government and to restore normal re- 
 lations with the Central Government". Acting upon the 
 recommendations of these public meetings, twenty-four 
 counties elected delegates to the proposed constitutional 
 convention. The counties represented in the convention 
 were as follows: Clark, Columbia, Conway, Crawford, 
 Dallas, Drew, Hot Spring, Independence, Jackson, Jef- 
 ferson, Madison, Montgomery, Newton, Ouachita, Pbil- 
 Hps, Pike, Polk, Pope, Pulaski, St. Francis, Saline, Se- 
 bastian, Sevier, and Yell. The delegates met at Little 
 Rock on January 4, 1864, and the convention was or- 
 ganized by the election of John McCoy, president, and 
 Robert J.'t. White, secretary. Lieut-Colonel Chandler 
 administered the oath of allegiance to the members. A 
 committee of twelve was appointed to draft a consti- 
 tution. On January 13, the committee reported the old 
 constitution of 1836, with certain changes "made neces- 
 
114 High Lights 
 
 sary by the spirit of tlie times." Provision was made 
 for submitting the constitution to a vote of the people at 
 an election to be held on the 14th, 15th and 16th of Marsh, 
 when state officers and members of the General Assembly 
 were to be elected, to take office in the event the consti- 
 tution was ratified. The convention adjourned sine die 
 on January- 23, 1864, ha\dng been in session only eighteen 
 days. At the election the constitution was approved by 
 a vote of 12,177 to 266. 
 
 Battle of Poison Spring (1864). 
 
 General Frederick Steele set out from Little Rock 
 in March, 1864, on what is known a« the Camden Expe- 
 dition. He had planned and undertook the expedition for 
 the purpose of driving the Confederates out of the State. 
 On April 15, his advance reached Camden, where the 
 Confederate army of General Sterling Price had win- 
 tered. The town was occupied after but slight resistance. 
 Three days later a spirited engagement was fought 
 twelve miles northwest of Camden, between the Confed- 
 erates, commanded by Generals William Ij. Cabell, J. S. 
 Marmaduke, S. B. Maxey and Thayer's division of the 
 Federal Army. The result was a victory for the Confed- 
 erates, who captured 220 wagons and 150 prisoners. This 
 action was called by the Confederates the battle of Poison 
 Spring, and by the Federals the battle of Prairie d'Ane. 
 
 Battle of Marks' Mill (1864). 
 
 The battle of Marks' Mill was fought April 25, 1864. 
 General Powell Clayton, in commiand at Pine Bluff, had 
 started a supply train in support of General Frederick 
 Steele's Camden Expedition. At Marks' Mill, about two 
 miles north of the present town of New Edinburgh, 
 Cleveland county, while the Federals were encamped, 
 they were attacked by General James F. Fagan's divi- 
 sion. The escort of the supply train, consisting of 1,600 
 infantry and 400 cavalrv\ were not ready for the attack 
 and after a short fight surrendered. Three hundred of 
 
Arkansas History 115 
 
 the cavalry- made their escape but the rest were made 
 prisoners and the entire train of 240 wagons was cap- 
 tared. Steele reported that the attacking force was com- 
 posed of the forces of Fagan and Shelby and numbered 
 5,000 men. 
 
 Battle of Jenkins' Ferry (1864). 
 
 The defeat of the Federals at Marks' Mill, where 
 General Powell Clayton lost the supply train intended for 
 the support of General Frederick Steele's Camden Ex- 
 pedition, left Steele in the heart of the enemy's country 
 without sufficient ammunition and provisions to carry on 
 an aggressive campaign, and he started on his retreat to 
 Little Rock. At Jenkins' Ferry on the Saline River, 
 about ten miles southwest of the present town of Sheri- 
 dan, he was attacked on the morning of April 30, 1864, 
 by General Sterling Price, Avho had received reinforce- 
 ments from General Kirby Smith. By skillful maneuver- 
 ing, Steele succeeded in getting his army across Saline 
 River on pontoons, though he had finally to burn his 
 wagons and supplies to prevent them from falling into 
 the hands of the Confederates. The fight lasted about 
 four hours and a half and both sides suffered severe 
 lasses. The Confederates did not pursue beyond the 
 Saline and Steele arrived at Little Rock after a tedious 
 march. 
 
 Price's Raid (1864). 
 
 Early in September, 1864, General Sterling Price, 
 with General James F. Fagan second in command, broke' 
 camp in Southwest Arkansas and started on a raid 
 through the northern part of the State and into Missouri. 
 He met with resistance at various points, the most stub- 
 born being Pilot Knob, Missouri, September 27th. The 
 place was strongly fortified, but after one day's fight- 
 ing the Federals blew up their ammunition and retreated 
 during the night. It was thought that Price's objective 
 point was St. Louis, but before reaching that city he 
 
116 High Lights 
 
 turned westward. Sharp skirmishing occurred almost 
 daily, with considerable engagements at Independence, 
 Booneville and Westport. At Marias des Cygnes (marsh 
 of the swans), Kansas, Price found himself confronted 
 by a strong force and suffered a reverse. Over three 
 hundred of his men were captured, including a number 
 of general and field officers. This broke the backbone 
 of the raid and Price started to retrace his steps. Late in 
 October he reached his former quarters in the southern 
 part of Arkansas. This movement practically ended the 
 war in Arkansas. 
 
 The Sueeender of the Confederate State Government 
 (1865). 
 
 The last significant official act of Governor Harris 
 Flanagin, as chief executive of the Confederate govern- 
 ment of Arkansas, was, it seems, the proclamiation of an 
 appeal "To the People of the State of Arkansas", dated 
 May 23, 1865, at Washington, Arkansas. In order to 
 prevent the spread of lawlessness and anarchy, he urged 
 that "the people of every neighborhood form themselves 
 into police guards, whose duty it shall be to protect the 
 peace and quiet of the country." A "Law and Order" 
 meeting of citizens met on June 15 in the court house — 
 where Governor Flanagin had maintained the office of 
 chief executive at Washington — and adopted the follow- 
 ing resolutions of good-will and submission to the Union 
 government, as headed by Governor Isaac Murphy at Lit- 
 tle Rock : 
 
 "Whereas, By the dissolution of its civil govern- 
 ment and the surrender of its armies, 'The Confederate 
 States of America' has become extinct, and its citizens 
 absolved from all further duties of 'allegiance, and 
 
 "Whereas, Every friend of humanity must be 
 equally opposed to a state of anarchy; and of hopeless 
 civil war with all of its horrors; we therefore resolve, 
 
Arkansas History 117 
 
 "1. That we returD to aud renew in good faith, and 
 with the sincere intention to keep the same, our allegiance 
 to the 'United States of America;' and that so many as 
 may be able conscientiously to do so are advised to take 
 the oath of amnesty lately proclaimed by President 
 Johnson. 
 
 "2. That we can give full assurance to said Gov- 
 ernment of the United States that hostility to its au- 
 thority has entirely ceased in our county, land there exists 
 no lawlessness amongst us, which does not arise from a 
 mere love of plunder, and which every good citizen is 
 desirous of having suppressed in the speediest legal and 
 constitutional manner, or otherwise if necessary. 
 
 **3. That we tender to the proper authorities, civil 
 and military, of the United States our hearty co-opera- 
 tion for this purpose, and will receive them in amity 
 and good will. 
 
 "And whereas. His excellency, Isaac Murphy, has 
 recommended to the citizens of each county to make nom- 
 inations of civil officers to be appointed in their respective 
 counties, and whereas, the present county officers were 
 elected by and have the confidence of the people, and we 
 believe are willing to take and faithfully observe the 
 oath of allegiance to the Constitution, laws and proclama- 
 tions of the United States, included in the amnesty oath : 
 Resolved further, 
 
 ''That we recommend the appointment of our pres- 
 ent county officers to their respective offices, so far as the 
 governor may not be precluded by previous action in the 
 matter — they taking the necessary oath and making the 
 proper bonds." 
 
 The General Officers from Arkansas in the Confeder- 
 ate Service (1861- '65). 
 
 Arkansas furnished four major-generals and twenty 
 brigadier-generals to the Confederate armies, besides 
 
118 High Lights 
 
 nine brigadier-generals commissioned by the state au- 
 thorities. The major-generals, in the order of their ap- 
 pointment, were: Thomas C. Hindman, Patrick R. Cle- 
 burne, James F. Fagan, and Thomas J. Churehill. The 
 brigadier-generals, with the date of the appointment of 
 each, where the date could be had, were: Charles W. 
 Adams, 1862; Frank C. Armstrong, April 23, 1863; W. 
 N. R. Beall, April 17, 1862; Archibald J. Dobbins, 1864; 
 Thomas P. Dockery, August 10, 1863 ; Edward W. Gantt ; 
 Daniel C. Grovan, February 6, 1864; Alexander T. Haw- 
 thorne, February 22, 1864: John L. Logan; Thomas H. 
 MoCray, 1863; Evander McNair, November 4, 1862; 
 Dandridge McRae, November 5, 1862; M. M. Parsons, 
 November 5, 1862 ; Albert Pike, August 15, 1861 ; Lucius 
 E. Polk, December 20, 1862 : Daniel H. Rejmolds, March 
 12, 1864; John S. Roame, March 20, 1862; Albert Rust, 
 March 6, 1862 ; James C. Tappan, November 5, 1862 ; L. 
 Marsh Walker, April 11, 1862. The following were com- 
 missioned brigadier-generals by the State of Arkansas: 
 Seth M. Barton, N. B. Burrow!! William L. Cabell, John 
 H. Kelly, James iMcIntosh^ John B. Murray, N. B. 
 Pearce, Charles W. Phifer and James Yell. 
 
 Confederate Women or Arkansas (1861- '65). 
 
 A^Tiile the men of Arkansas were in the field for prin- 
 ciples, the women of the state nobly lent them aid in 
 every possible way. They would meet in halls, churches 
 and private homes to scrape linen, make bandages and 
 other hospital supplies, often contributing their table 
 linen, bed clothing, cambric curtains, and what not, for 
 the purpose. They organized sewing societies for mak- 
 ing clothing for the soldiers. Aristocratic fingers, un- 
 used to work, were taught by heroic resolution to han- 
 dle the needle, knit socks, card wool, and even use the 
 hand loom in weaving cloth. The cloth they wove was 
 <x>arse in texture and the garments they made were not 
 of the latest fashion, but they served to keep their loved 
 ones comfortable. It was no doubt due to the heroic 
 
Arkansas History 119 
 
 labors and sacrifices of the woman that the South was 
 able to liold out as long as it did. On the state capitol 
 grounds in Little Rock stands a monument dedicated in 
 1912 ''To the Mothers of Arkansas" for the part they 
 took in these labors and sacrifices. Soldiers' monuments 
 have been erected all over the country, but Arkansas is 
 one of the very few states thus to commemorate the un- 
 selfiish devotion of its daughters in times which tried 
 men's souls. 
 
 The Public School System of Arkansas Established 
 (1867). 
 
 By the autumn of 1863 practically all that part of 
 Arkansas north of the Arkansas River was in the hands 
 of the Federals. Under a proclamation by President 
 Abraham Lincoln a constitutional convention was held 
 at Little Rock in January, 1864. And under that con- 
 stitution Isaac Murphy was elected governor. For some 
 years before the war he had been a teacher in North- 
 western Arkansas. He was naturally interested in the 
 subject of education. In his first message to the General 
 Assembly he said: ''As this is the first session of the 
 Legislature of the free State of Arkansas, I tinist that 
 your honorable body will provide by law that every 
 child in the State shall have an opportunity of acquiring 
 a good education, and not only give the opportunity, but 
 make the education of the rising generation a duty to the 
 State, to be enforced by proper penalties. Ignorance 
 leads to slavery; intelligence to freedom." That Legis- 
 lature failed to act upon Mui-phy's suggestion, and at the 
 next session, which met in November, 1866, he used 
 stronger language in urging the establishment of a free 
 school system based on taxation. On March 18, 1867, 
 five days before the final adjournment, the General As- 
 sembly passed a law which, in many respects, has formed 
 the basis of all subsequent school legislation. It pro- 
 vided that "for the purpose of establishing a system of 
 oommon school education in this State a tax is hereby 
 
120 High Lights 
 
 levied of twenty cents on every $100 worth of taxable 
 property in this State, and shall be collected and paid 
 into the State treasury annually, in the same manner as 
 now provided by law for other State taxes. The act also 
 provided for the election of a State superintendent of 
 public instruction at the general election in 1868, and 
 for an appointment by the Legislature for the interim. 
 The Legislature elected F. E. Earle, president of Cane 
 Hill College, superintendent of public instruction, but he 
 was removed by a military order of Gen. E. 0. C. Ord 
 on August 9, 1867, on the grounds that "his services are 
 not needed". Stephen B. Weeks, in a history of the pub- 
 lic school system of Arkansas, published by the United 
 States Bureau of Education, says of the Murphy govern- 
 ment: "The service of this regime was not so much the 
 actual organization of schools, but the creation of re- 
 sources which made the schools of the future a possibil- 
 ity. For this service the 'rebel' Legislature of 1866-67 
 and the 'Union' governor, Murphy, deserve to be held 
 in grateful remembrance by the people of Arkansas." 
 
 A State Constitution Framed and Adopted by Carpet- 
 bag Reconstructors (1868). 
 
 Congress passed March 2, 1867, over President An- 
 drew Johnson's veto, the famous reconstruction act "for 
 the more efficient government of the Rebel States". Un- 
 der this, and supplementary acts, Arkansas and Mis- 
 sissippi were constituted the Fourth Military District. 
 Major-General E. 0. C. Ord was made commander-in- 
 chief of the district, \^-ith headquarters at Vicksburg, Mis- 
 sissippi. The sub-district of Arkansas was commanded 
 first by Brigadier-General C. H. Smith, and later by 
 General Alvan C. Gillem. On July 8, 1867, several mem- 
 bers of the Arkansas General Assembly assembled in 
 Little Rock to attend an adjourned session of that body; 
 whereupon they were told by General Smith that he had 
 orders from General Ord not to allow them to organize 
 for the transaction of business. Thus did military rule, 
 
Arkansas History 121 
 
 as perpetrated by the Congressional plan of reconstruc- 
 tion, begin its work of undoing the orderly and efficient 
 civil government established under Governor Isaac Mur- 
 phy. The next important undoing step, as provided for 
 under Congressional reconstruction, called for the regis- 
 tration of voters, under the superintendence of the mili- 
 tary government. This was done in preparation for the 
 holding of an election for the choice of delegates to a con- 
 vention to frame a State constitution. On September 26, 
 1867, General Ord issued ''General Orders No. 31", de- 
 claring the registration of voters in Arkansas complete 
 and ordering an election "commencing on the first Tues- 
 day in November". General Order No. 31, also appor- 
 tioned the seventy-five delegates to be chosen from the 
 several counties, and prescribed rules and regulations 
 to govern the manner of conducting the election in all 
 precincts. The election was held in the different pre- 
 cincts of the various counties on separate days. Thus 
 the election for the State as a whole continued through 
 several days. But few of the ex-Confederates took any 
 part at all in the election, many of whom were disfran- 
 chised. Under the tutelage of the army of occupation, 
 the negroes were marched to the polls and told how to 
 vote. Of the delegates chosen, eight were negroes; the 
 rest, but for a few notable exceptions, were carpetbag- 
 gers and scalawags. The convention met at Little Rock, 
 in the house of representatives, January 7, 1868, and 
 continued in session until February 11, The constitu- 
 tion, as framed by this convention, gave the negroes the 
 elective franchise and otherwise provided the necessary 
 machinery for keeping the control of State affairs in the 
 hands of the carpetbaggers. The new constitution was 
 declared adopted by the people April 23, 1868, by a vote 
 of 27,913 ''for" to 26,597 "against". 
 
 The Arkansas Deaf Mute Institute Established (1868). 
 
 The Arkansas Gazette and Democrat of March 21, 
 1851, contained the following announcement: "The 
 
122 High Lights 
 
 trustees of the Clarksville Institute have made arrange- 
 ments to have a class of deaf mutes taught. The school 
 for mutes T^ill open on the first of May. Tuition gratis. 
 Boarding can be had very reasonable. Only a limited 
 number of pupils (6 or 8) Avill be taken. Persons wish- 
 ing to send may know more by addressing the 'Trustees 
 of the Clarks^nlle Institute, Johnson County, Ark. Ap- 
 plication must be made soon." This was the first at- 
 tempt to establish a school for the education of deaf 
 mutes in Arkansas. The Clarksville Institute, however, 
 for want of patronage, was, after few months, suspended. 
 Then, in 1860, a deaf mute school was organized in Fort 
 Smith. Then came the war. and, like many similar in- 
 stitutions in the South, it was crushed out of existence. 
 On July 10, 1867, Joseph Mount, himself a deaf mute, 
 opened a school in Little Rock. It was a private institu- 
 tion, though the city contributed to its support. By an 
 act of the General Assembly 'approved July 17, 1868. 
 this school Avas incorporated as **The Arkansas Deaf 
 Mute Institute" and permanently located at Little Rock. 
 It has since enjoyed the liberal support of State, as one 
 of the charitable institutions of the State. 
 
 Maetial Law Declaeed — One of the Typical Outrages 
 OF Reconstruction (1868). 
 
 r 
 
 The first Republican governor, under the constitu- 
 tion of 1868, General Powell Clayton, was inaugurated 
 July 2, 1868. And the Clayton regime, of the next four 
 years, made a record of tyranny and misrule as black as 
 the blackest of the ''Black Republican" governments per- 
 petrated upon the Southern States by Congressional re- 
 construction. Under the pretense of suppressing the Ku 
 Klux Klan, Clayton, almost immediately upon taking of- 
 fice, organized a secret detective force composed of his 
 political henchmen; issued instructions to tlie oflficers 
 of the State militia, according to his own statement, "to 
 proceed with the utmost secrecj^ and dispatch in the 
 further org-anization of the State Guards". The 
 
Arkansas History 123 
 
 ^'Ouards" thus secretly organized were made up of ne- 
 groes and guerrillas, whose chief recommendation was 
 their zest and capacity for the bloody work which Clay- 
 ton had for them to do. On November 4, 1868. the militia 
 having been organized with ''the utmost secrecy", Gov- 
 ernor Clayton issued his proclamation declaring mar- 
 tial law in the counties of Ashley, Bradley, Columbia, 
 Craighead, Greene, Lafayette, Little River, Mississippi 
 and Woodruff. Three days later he divided the State 
 into six military districts and appointed a commanding 
 officer in each ''for the purpose of perfecting the or- 
 ganization of the militia and carrying into effect the 
 proclamation declaring martial law." Martial law was 
 soon extended to other counties, until the greater part of 
 the State was in the hands of the "State Guards". 
 Naturally enough, social conditions were not normal fol- 
 lowing the War. But where there had been one out- 
 rage committed during Governor Isaac Mruphy's ad- 
 ministration, from 1864 to 1868, there were scores of 
 murders and robberies and what not as soon as Clay- 
 ton's Guards took the field. 
 
 The Ku-Klux Klan (1868). 
 
 It is said upon the very best authority that "There 
 "^as really no organization of the Ku-Klux Klan in the 
 State of Arkansas." That there were "sporadic at- 
 tempts" to form such an organization, w^hich "came to 
 naught", seems a true enough statement of the facts. 
 Yet the late Powell Cla>i;on, during the time of his ad- 
 ministration as governor of Arkansas, made a great fuss 
 of accusinq- the Ku-Kln^ of every crime imajrinable. One 
 acnuainted with condition^ froni perso-nal observation 
 said. "Clav<-on was no coward. TTio ey"^iihition of a^^Dre- 
 hension at th'^ existonne of the Ku-Klux must have been 
 simula+od. He had his spy in the onlv lodo-e ever or- 
 ganized in Little Rook, and he knew that it heM but 
 one meeting: that it never took the slightest action of 
 any kind and disbanded." There were, it seems, other 
 
124 High Liohti 
 
 lodges formed during the Clayton regime; whose his- 
 tory was much the same as this brief history of the lodge 
 at Little Rock. It is true, perhaps, that the late General 
 Robert G. Shaver was commissioned by the Grand Wiz- 
 zard, General Nathan B. Forrest, Grand Dragon of the 
 realm of Arkansas. But it is true also that the organiza- 
 tion of the State as a realm A\^as never perfected. Thus 
 Clayton's accusations at the time, and as well the vin- 
 dictive stuff of the same sort with which he late in life 
 all but filled his book, ''The Aftermath of the Civil War 
 in Arkansas", were manifestly framed by himself and 
 his henchmen for reasons of his own of a political nature, 
 or from pure malice. 
 
 The State Debt Funded (1869). 
 
 Of the more than three million dollars in bonds is- 
 sued for the benefit of the Real Estate Bank and the State 
 Bank of Arkansas thirty years before, there was, in 
 1869, an unpaid balance, including principal and interest, 
 of $4,331,092. Part of these old bonds fell due on Jan- 
 nary 1, 1868. But the State had not the money with 
 which to redeem them. Thus Governor Powell Clayton 
 advised, in his message to the General Assembly in No- 
 vember, 1868, that steps be taken to fund the whole 
 amount of the State's bonded debt by issuing new bonds 
 and cancelling the old ones. An act to that effect was 
 accordingly passed; which act Clayton approved April 
 6, 1869. By this act the governor was ''authorized and 
 required to fund the debt of the State, consisting of bonds 
 issued by the State to the Real Estate Bank and the 
 State Bank, by issuing new bonds of the State, .... 
 
 for the sum of $1,000 each, payable thirty 
 
 years after date and bearing interest at the rate of six 
 per cent, per annum." Of the bonds thus funded, all 
 have been long since paid, except the so-called Holford 
 bonds, the history of which is told in another place. 
 
Arkansas History 125 
 
 The Fiest Street Railway in Abkaksas 
 Incorporated (1870). 
 
 The first street car company in Arkansas was in- 
 corporated at Little Rock June 17, 1870. W. E. Wright 
 was president and the franchise required the company 
 to have one-half mile of track laid and in use within 
 three years. The company failed to carry out this pro- 
 vision and on June 13, 1873, a franchise was granted to 
 the Citizens Street Railway Company. About the same 
 time the Little Rock Railway Company was incorporated. 
 On October 10, 1876, Logan H. Roots, Thomas Fletcher 
 and John M. Harrell applied for a charter to lay a street 
 railway line on Markham Street; and at the same time 
 John Cross and Charles R. Diver submitted a proposi- 
 tion to construct a street railway. Both the latter prop- 
 ositions were accepted and, shortly thereafter, the first 
 **mule car" made its appearance upon the streets. Dur- 
 ing the period from 1881 to 1887 three other street rail- 
 way companies were incorporated. One of these — the 
 City Electric Street Railway Company — ^obtained a 
 charter permitting it to use either electric or steam 
 power. The line was built from the junction of Second 
 and Louisiana Streets to the southwestern part of the 
 city, two diminutive locomotives were purchased, and the 
 road went into operation on July 4, 1888. The locomo- 
 tives each drew one or two cars, as occasion demanded, 
 and made the round trip in about an hour. In June, 
 1895, this company and the Capital City Railway Com- 
 pany went into the hands of a receiver and were reor- 
 ganized as the Little Rock Railway and Electric Com- 
 pany, with Judge Wilson E. Hemingway as president. 
 
 The State Medical Society of Arkansas 
 Formed (1870). 
 
 Delegates from a number of county medical soci- 
 eties met in Little Rock November 21, 1870, for the pur- 
 pose of effecting a state organization of the physicians 
 of Arkansas. At that meeting Dr. J. M. Holcombe, of 
 
126 , High Lights 
 
 Jefferson county, presided, with Drs. E. V, Deuell and 
 M. C. Boyce acting as secretaries. A constitution and 
 by-laws were adopted and the following officers were 
 elected: Dr. P. 0. Hooper, president; E. R. DuVal, W. 
 P. Hart and S. W. Jones, vice presidents; E. V. Deuell 
 and Julian C. Feild, recording secretaries; Claiborne 
 Watkins, corresponding secretary; J. B. Bond, treas- 
 urer. The organization was called the State Medical 
 Association. In October, 1875, a new constitution and 
 by-laws were adopted and the name was changed to the 
 State Medical Society of Arkansas. The new constitu- 
 tion was signed by 217 members and the following offi- 
 cers were elected: Dr. W. B. Welch, president; Drs. 
 Albert Dunlap, Randolph Brunson, J. P. Mitchell and 
 E. T. Dale, vice presidents; Dr. R. G. Jennings, secre- 
 tary; Dr. A. L. Breysacher, treasurer. Since that time 
 the growth of the society has been steady. It now has 
 more than a thousand members. 
 
 The IJNnrEEsiTY of Arkansas Established (1871). 
 
 The University of Arkansas was established by an 
 act of the General Assembly approved March 27, 1871. 
 This act, ''for the location, organization and main- 
 tenance of the Arkansas Industrial University with a 
 normal department therein", accepted the terms of the 
 so-called Morrill act of Congress. Justin S. Morrill, a 
 member of Congress from Vermont, had proposed as 
 long ago as 1857, a bill in Congress "donating public 
 lands to the several states and territories which may pro- 
 vide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the me- 
 chanic arts." The House passed the bill in April, 1858. 
 It was not, however, taken up by the Senate until the 
 next session, where it was passed February 1, 1859. 
 Whereupon, President James Buchanan promptly vetoed 
 it. But Morrill brought in a new bill in December, 1861; 
 which was passed by both houses of Congress, and ap- 
 proved by President Abraham Lincoln July 2, 1862. 
 Thus each state or territory was granted, upon certain 
 
Arkansas History 127 
 
 conditions, 30,000 acres of public lands for each of its 
 senators and representatives in Congress, as appor- 
 tioned nnder the census of 1860. States wishing to ben- 
 efit by the grant were required to accept the gift and 
 agree to all the conditions imposed within the space of 
 two years. Arkansas was, then, of course, one of the se- 
 ceded states; so that nothing was done about the mat- 
 ter in Arkansas until 1864. But on May 11, 1864, Gov- 
 ernor Isaac Murphy approved an act of the General 
 Assembly accepting the grant and pledging the State of 
 Arkansas to fulfil all the conditions imposed. Then 
 came the struggle in Congress over reconstruction; the 
 refusal of Congress to seat the senators and representa- 
 tives elected to Congress from Arkansas, as recon- 
 structed by the Murphy government, and nothing further 
 was done about the university grant until 1866. In July 
 of that year Congress amended the Morrill act so as to 
 include the reconstructed states, and extending the time 
 three years for their acceptance of the conditions. Ac- 
 cordingly, Governor Murphy approved, January 31, 
 1867, another act similar to the one he had approved in 
 1864. But the Murphy government was not allowed to 
 establish the university. A new constitution was 
 adopted by the carpetbagger regime in 1868, Powell 
 Clayton was elected governor and on July 23, 1868, he 
 approved an act entitled *'An Act establishing an Indus- 
 trial University". Under this act, a board was ap- 
 pointed to receive bids for a location and to report to 
 the next session of the General Assembly. Nothing hav- 
 ing come of these plans, a new act was passed at the ses- 
 sion of 1871; which, as already stated, was approved 
 March 27. By the terms of this act, any county, city 
 or incorporated town was authorized to bid for the loca- 
 tion of the University and to raise money for the erec- 
 tion of buildings either by levying a tax or by the issue 
 of bonds. Fayetteville was the successful bidder and 
 the site chosen was without buildings, except one six- 
 room dwelling. The citizens of Fayette\ille and Wash- 
 ington County undertook to remodel the dwelling and 
 
128 High Lights 
 
 erect a two-story frame structure which could be used 
 temporarily for school purposes and later be converted 
 into a dormitory. The university opened on January 
 22, 1872, with N. P. Gates as president. 
 
 The First Knights of Pythias 
 Lodge Organized (1872). 
 
 On October 20, 1872, Alpha Lodge No. 1, Knights 
 of Pythias, was instituted at Fort Smith. This was the 
 first Pythian Lodge organized in Arkansas. It lived but 
 a few months, but before it perished two other lodges 
 had been organized in the state. Damon Lodge No. 3, 
 at Little Rock, was instituted on April 14, 1873, and is 
 now the oldest lodge in the state. On June 23, 1881, the 
 Arkansas Grand Lodge was organized, with eight lodges 
 participating. The membership in the state at that time 
 was not quite five hundred. Thomas Essex, of Little 
 Rock, was elected the first grand chancellor and John 
 M. Taylor, of Pine Bluff, the first grand keeper of the 
 records and seal. At the beginning of the year 1921, 
 there were over one hundred lodges in Arkansas, with a 
 membership of about six thousand. 
 
 The Press Association Organized (1873). 
 
 Pursuant to a call made by the editors of several 
 newspapers of Arkansas, a number of editors and pub- 
 lishers met on October 15, 1873, in Little Rock for the 
 purpose of organizing a state press association. James 
 Torrans, of the Li4tle Rock Republican, was called to 
 the chair and J. N. Smithee, of The Arkansas Gazette, 
 was elected secretary. H. A. Pierce, J. N. Smithee and 
 William R. Burke were appointed a committee on per- 
 manent organization, after which the meeting adjourned 
 until 10 a. m. the next day. At the adjourned session 
 the committee submitted a constitution, which was 
 adopted. E. N. Hill, J. B. Bezzo, and Adam Clark were 
 then appointed a committee to prepare a code of by- 
 laws for the association, but at the evening session this 
 
Arkansas History 129 
 
 committee was given until the next annual meeting to 
 complete its work. The following officers were then 
 elected : J. N. Smithee, president ; James Torrans, vice 
 president; Jacob Frolich, secretary; William R. Burke, 
 treasurer. Immediately after the election of officers, the 
 association adjourned to the Metropolitan Hotel, where 
 a banquet was served. A number of toasts and responses 
 were offered and the evening was a ' ' feast of reason and 
 flow of soul." At the conclusion of the banquet the Ar- 
 kansas Press Association adjourned to meet on the first 
 Wednesday in June, 1874. Since its organization the as- 
 sociation has held annual meetings, and has also held a 
 number of '' mid-winter meetings", at which the social 
 feature predominated. At the forty-ninth meeting, held 
 in Hot Springs, June 15-16, 1921, steps were taken to 
 build a club house at Glenwood, Pike County, where Gra- 
 ham Burnham, of the Glenwood "Houn' Dog", offered 
 to donate ten acres of land on the Caddo River for the 
 purpose. In fact, the project was first proposed in 1920, 
 and a special committee, appointed to examine the site, 
 made a favorable report. 
 
 The Brooks-Baxter War (1874). 
 
 In the election of 1872 the Republican party of Ar- 
 kansas was split up into two factions. The ''Minstrels", 
 who claimed to be the regular Republicans, nominated 
 Elisha Baxter as candidate for governor. The "Brin- 
 dles", who identified themselves with the national "lib- 
 eral" Republicans, put in nomination Joseph Brooks. 
 The Democrats did not nominate a candidate of their 
 own, but endorsed the nomination of Brooks. The elec- 
 tion was held November 5, 1872. Of the more than 
 eighty thousand votes cast, Baxter was officially de- 
 clared to have received a majority of 2,948. Brooks re- 
 fused to abide by the returns, as officially made, declar- 
 ing that he himself had been legally elected. A conven- 
 tion of Brooks' supporters met at Little Rock on Janu- 
 ary 4, 1873, but two days before the day set for the meet- 
 
130 High Lights 
 
 ing of the General Assembly. The Brooks men were bent 
 it seems, on making an issue of the disputed election in 
 the legislature. In view of the gathering of Brooks men, 
 Ozra A. Hadley, acting governor, put the state capitol 
 under a guard of Powell Clayton's militia. Thus the 
 plans of Brooks and his followers to force the seating of 
 Brooks as governor were, for the time, defeated. Bax- 
 ter was inaugurated and the General Assembly contin- 
 ued in session until April 25, 1873. On June 3, following, 
 T. D. W. Yonley, the attorney general, instituted, on the 
 relation of Brooks, quo warranto proceedings in the Su- 
 preme Court against Baxter; which the court dismissed 
 the next day, declaring that it had no jurisdiction in the 
 matter. Powell Clayton, who, by dint of his hold upon 
 affairs as governor, had got himself elected to the United 
 States Senate in 1871, had thus far supported Baxter, 
 intending no doubt to use Baxter as a willing tool in 
 maintaining his (Clayton's) control of the state from 
 his seat in the United States Senate. Brooks ' next move 
 was to file a suit in the circuit court of Pulaski County 
 setting forth that Baxter had usurped the office of gov- 
 ernor and demanding that he be ousted. While this suit 
 was still pending, the Clayton wing of the Eepublican 
 party discovered something upon which they had counted 
 not all: Baxter refused to take orders from Clayton; in 
 making appointments, he was plainly trying to choose 
 men of character and ability for positions of trust regard- 
 less of politics; frustrated were the well laid plans of 
 Clayton's followers to use the government to enrich 
 themselves. Clayton promptly went over to the side of 
 Brooks. Likewise, most of the Democrats, who had sup- 
 ported Brooks, turned now to Baxter. On April 15, 
 1874, Judge John Whytock, of the Pulaski Circuit Court, 
 in the absence of Baxter and his attorneys, decided 
 Brook's suit against Baxter in favor of Brooks — that 
 Brooks was the lawfully elected governor. What then 
 happened is best told perhaps by Baxter himself, in a 
 letter written a few weeks later to the New York Herald : 
 "By an extraordinary coincidence Mr. Brooks and his 
 
Arkansas History 131 
 
 friends were convenient to the scene of the judgment. 
 Without awaiting the issue of the writ of ouster, and 
 upon the overruling of the demurrer, no moment of time 
 being given for the filing of an answer on the merits of 
 the case, these gentlemen procuring a mere copy of the 
 minutes of the judge's action, and, by a second conici- 
 dence, finding the chief justice close by, had Mr. Brooks 
 secretly sworn as governor. The party proceeded with- 
 out delay to the executive office, where, as I have in a 
 public proclamation remarked, the traditions of the 
 American people would have rendered it absurd to place 
 an armed guard or even a vidette, Mr. Brooks, in per- 
 son, with an armed force of a dozen or twenty, took 
 possession of my room, and I was permitted to the alter- 
 native of forcible and unseemly ejection, or of such ar- 
 rest and punishment as he might see fit to inflict. Before 
 I could take measures to reoccupy the state-house it was 
 filled with armed desperadoes." Governor Baxter went 
 at once to St. John 's College, near the present City Park, 
 whence he issued a proclamation to the people and com- 
 missioned the college cadets as a sort of body guard. 
 Later he established headquarters at the Anthony House 
 on the south side of Markham street between Main and 
 Scott streets. Meantime, both Baxter and Brooks had 
 appealed to President U. S. Grant for recognition; who 
 said in reply that the contest was a matter for the courts 
 to settle. Senator Clayton telegraphed Brooks from 
 Washington, ''We rely on your maintaining your van- 
 tage ground, which you must hold at any cost. ' ' A meet- 
 ing of the leading lawyers of the state at Little Rock 
 on April 16th denounced the whole judicial proceedings 
 by which Brooks justified his revolutionary act of 
 usurpation as null and void. In an address signed by 
 forty-four attorneys, the people were urged to rally to 
 the support of Baxter, Volunteers from many parts of 
 the state hurried to Little Rock, in support of the one side 
 or the other, until within a few days there were not less 
 than three thousand armed men in the city. Robert C. 
 
132 High Lights 
 
 Newton was appointed Major-General of Baxter's army; 
 Brooks commissioned Major-General James F. Fagan 
 commander-in-cliief of his forces. The first actual fight- 
 ing occurred on the afternoon of April 20, 1874. The 
 fighting started by the parading of some five hundred 
 Baxter reinforcements, just arrived from Pine Bluff, 
 who had halted in front of the Anthony House to hear 
 Governor Baxter speak from a balcony of the hotel. 
 A pistol was fired, as the result of a scufile between two 
 ofiicers of the opposing forces. In the excitement, other 
 shots were fired, and then followed an irregular skirm- 
 ish in Markham street between Brook's men, who were 
 posted near by to guard the State Capitol, and the Bax- 
 ter men. David F. Shall, sitting near a window in the 
 hotel was killed, and two others were wounded. On 
 April 30th, the steamboat ^'Hallie", with two hundred 
 Baxter men on board, was sent down the Arkansas 
 to intercept a company of negroes intended as rein- 
 forcements for Brooks. Near New Gascony, twenty- 
 five miles below Pine Bulff, the two forces engaged in a 
 skirmish, in which seven of the Brooks men were killed 
 and thirty others wounded. There was fio'hting again on 
 May 8th, in which the steamboat *'Hallie" played an 
 imrtortant part. As the steamboat passed up the river 
 with a company of Baxter men on board, sent to capture 
 supplies and reinforcements coiming to the relief of 
 Brooks, the "Hallie" was fired on as it passed the 
 State Capitol. Several hundred Brooks men were sent 
 by train to the south of Palarm Creek, where thev con- 
 cealed themselves and waited for the **Hallie". In the 
 fighting that followed, between the Brooks men on shore 
 and the ''Hallie", there were several casualties on both 
 sides. This affair is known as "The Battle of Palarm". 
 The ''"War" was finally settled by proclamation of Presi- 
 dent Grant, issued May 15, 1874, in which Baxter was 
 recognized as the lawfully elected governor. 
 
Arkansas History 133 
 
 *'Lady Baxter" Christened (1874). 
 
 Soon after the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, 
 the steamboat "Pontchartrain" brought from New Or- 
 leans a sixtj^-four-pound cannon for the defense of Little 
 Rock. This gun was placed on the bank of the river, 
 in a position to destroy any boat coming up stream. 
 Thus, during the first half of the war, the old gun was 
 kept in readiness for the defense of the city. When the 
 Confederates evacuated Little Rock on September 10, 
 1863, upon the approach of General Frederick Steele, the 
 big gun was spiked by order of Capt. John T. Trigg, 
 commanding the battery, and was abandoned, being too 
 heavy to carry on the retreat. Late in April, 1874, dur- 
 ing the Brooks-Baxter "War, the Baxter forces found the 
 old cannon lying half -imbedded in the earth near the foot 
 of Byrd street. It was resurrected, christened ''Lady 
 Baxter", made ready for use, and was placed in position 
 in the rear of the Metropolitan Hotel, on the corner of 
 Main and Markham streets, to prevent the landing of 
 boats coming up the river with men or supplies for 
 Brooks. The only time the gun was discharged after its 
 resurrection was in the salute fired in honor of Governor 
 Baxter's return to the capitol on May 19, 1874. Subse- 
 quently, "Lady Baxter" was mounted in the old capitol 
 grounds, where it still stands as a mute reminder of re- 
 construction days. 
 
 A New Constitution ; the End of Carpetbag 
 Mis-rule (1874). 
 
 On April 22, 1874, while the Brooks-Baxter war was 
 at its height, Governor Baxter issued a call for the Gen- 
 eral Assembly to meet in special session on the 11th of 
 May. Pursuant to the call, the Legislature met (inside 
 the Baxter lines) and as both the Lieutenant-governor 
 and Speaker Tankersley were absent, J. G. Frierson was 
 elected president pro tempore of the senate, and James 
 H. Berry was chosen speaker. The most important 
 act of the session was that of calling a constitutional 
 
134 High Lights 
 
 convention, which act was approved by Governor Baxter 
 on May 18, 1874. It provided for an election to he held 
 on the last day of June and apportioned the delegates 
 among the several counties of the state. At the election 
 80,259 votes were cast **For Convention" and only 
 8,547 ''Against Convention". The convention organized 
 by the election of Grandison D. Royston president and 
 Thomas W. Newton secretary. On September 7, 1874, 
 the constitution was completed and signed by a majority 
 of the delegates. The constitution was submitted to the 
 people at an election held on October 13, 1874, when it 
 was ratified by a vote of 78,697 to 24,807. 
 
 The Restoration of White Supremacy (1874). 
 
 On July 21, 1874, while the constitutional convention 
 which framed the present constitution of Arkansas, was 
 still in session, a mass meeting of citizens in Little Rock 
 issued a call for a Democratic state convention; sug- 
 gested a basis of representation for such a convention of 
 eighty-five delegates; proposed that the said convention 
 be held immediately upon the adjournment of the con- 
 stitutional convention. It was assumed, as a matter of 
 course, that the new constitution would provide for the 
 election of a new set of state officers; which it did, set- 
 ting October 13, 1874, as the day for the election. Thus, 
 the proposed constitution provided for two elections in 
 one — its own ratification or rejection and the choice of 
 new state officials, who should take office in the event of 
 the adoption of the constitution itself. But m.eantime the 
 Democratic state convention, as proT)osod at Littlo Rock 
 in Julv, had met there on September 8th. The dele9:ates 
 nominated Eb'sha Baxter for <rovornor on the first ballot. 
 But Governor Baxter d^ob'ned thf^ nom^'nation, as hp s?iid, 
 in a message ncknowledp-infr the honor donp him. "for the 
 public jyood". i^"-ain the conv^n+ion nominated ln'm — 
 this time by acclamation : a^-ain he recused to accent; 
 wherounon Aup'ustns H. ^arla^id wr"^ nominated. The 
 Republicans took the position that the proposed consti- 
 
Arkansas History 1S5 
 
 tution was illegallj^ framed. Naturally, therefore, they 
 put in nomination no opposing ticket. Thus Garland 
 and the rest of the Democratic ticket were elected, Oc- 
 tober 13, 1874, by a practically unanimous vote. The in- 
 auguration of Garland, which took place November 12, 
 1874, is sgnificant as the final consumation of the process 
 by which Arkansas was freed of the political regime 
 foisted upon it by Congressional reconstruction. So- 
 called "Reconstruction", as instituted and maintained by 
 the familiar combination of carpet-baggers, scallawags 
 and negroes had had its day ; real reconstruction of a new 
 political, social and economic structure was, with the 
 election of Garland, honestly and hopefully begun. 
 
 Arkansas Represented at the Centennial. 
 Exposition in Philadelphia (1876). 
 
 Governor Augustus H. Garland, in his message to 
 the General Assembly on November 1, 1875, on the first 
 day of the special, or adjourned, session of the Legisla- 
 ture of that year, recommended that an appropriation 
 be made for an exhibition of the state's products at the 
 Centennial Exposition, to be held in Philadelphia during 
 the summer of 1876, in celebration of the hundredth an- 
 niversary of the Declaration of Independence. Accord- 
 ingly, the sum of $15,000 was appropriated for that pur- 
 pose, by an act approved November 30, 1875. Though 
 the fund was a modest one, it is said that the building 
 which was erected was highly appropriate to the oc- 
 casion; that the exhibits displayed were a credit to the 
 state. The truth of both these statements is avouched by 
 the acts of the Bureau of Awards in awarding Arkansas 
 honorable mention as follows: (1) For a large, well- 
 planned state building; (2) For a large, comprehensive, 
 and very attractive exhibit of the natural and industrial 
 products of the state, and a very valuable mineral col- 
 lection; (3) For a large collection of native woods; (4) 
 For an exhibit of agricultural products, especially of 
 corn and cotton, the latter equalling any fiber of its kind 
 
136 High Lights 
 
 raised in the United States. The state took first and 
 second premiums also of $1,000 and $500 each for cotton 
 exhibited in the bale. This was the first attempt on the 
 part of Arkansas to display its resources abroad. The 
 next year, in 1877, a statue designed to represent the 
 gtate coat of arms on the Arkansas building at the expo- 
 sition was brought from Philadelphia and set up on a 
 pediment over the main entrance of the State Capitol. 
 
 Hot Springs Made a National Park (1877). 
 
 The title to the land upon which much of the city of 
 Hot Springs is built was in dispute until 1877. There 
 were then three separate claimants of land there, whose 
 claims overlapped. Elias Rector, father of Governor 
 Henry M. Rector, bought, in 1820, a Ncav Madrid certifi- 
 cate of one Francis Langlois, which certificate he (Rec- 
 tor) located on a tract including the springs. Another 
 claim to the land was based on the settlement of Lud- 
 ovicus Belding, who settled at the spring in 1828. Still 
 others knowTi as the Hale claimants, based their titles on 
 the occupation of the valley by John Perciful, who 
 bought, in 1809, the occupation claim of Manuel Prud- 
 homme, the latter having built the first cabin there in 
 1807. This uncertainty as to the o"svnership of the town 
 site, it seems, retarded the growth of the town almost 
 from the time that Arkansas was created a territory, 
 in 1819, until the question was finally settled. The "Daily 
 Advertiser" of Philadelphia on May 18, 1835, printed 
 an article in which it was said that the Hot Springs 
 "have been knoTvm almost as long as the Arkansas River 
 and have been a place of great resort, particularly from 
 the South, for many years past. All that is necessary 
 to make them a place of fashionable resort — as they have 
 heretofore been for health — is the want of those exten- 
 sive and permanent edifices which are usually looked for 
 by visitors at such places. Such buildings cannot be ex- 
 pected until the title to the land on which they (the 
 springs) are situate shall be settled". In the meantime, 
 
Aekansas History 137 
 
 Congress had passed an act as early as 1832 setting apart 
 four sections of land, including the springs, as exempt 
 from private ownership, ^'by purchase, settlement or 
 preemption". Nevertheless, the several claimants per- 
 sisted in their claims, and in 1852 went into the courts to 
 determine by litigation who was entitled to the property. 
 Some years later the United States Supreme Court de- 
 cided against all three claimants. But in 1877 Congress 
 authorized the appointment of commissioners to settle 
 the rights of possession. By this time the valley con- 
 tained some four thousand inhabitants. The commis- 
 sioners placed valuations upon the various parcels of 
 land and decided who were entitled to purchase the same. 
 In this way the Belding and Hale claimants were enabled 
 to purchase at least a portion of the land they claimed, 
 but the Rector claim was barred. The commissioners 
 also laid out the city and caused the Hot Springs Reser- 
 vation to be surveyed. The survey was approved by an 
 act of Congress on March 3, 1877, making this reserva- 
 tion the second national park in the United States, the 
 Yellowstone National Park having been established by 
 the act of March 1, 1872. 
 
 The State Horticultural Society Formed (1879). 
 
 The State Horticultural Society of Arkansas was 
 organized on May 24, 1879. E. F. Babcock was elected 
 the first president and M. "W. Manville, secretary. Prior 
 to that time fruits and vegetables, that come under the 
 head of horticulture, had been grown in various sections 
 of the state, but no concerted effort has been made to 
 encourage the industry. The society was incorporated on 
 January 31, 1889. Under its auspices the first fair was 
 held in Little Rock, beginning on May 15, 1889. The 
 society holds its meetings annually. 
 
138 High Lights 
 
 The First Station of the Weather 
 
 Bureau in Arkansas Established (1879). 
 
 The United States Weather Bureau opened at Little 
 Rock the first station in Arkansas for observing and re- 
 cording weather conditions July 1, 1879. The '' Arkansas 
 
 Democrat" of June 27, 1879, says: 
 
 ''Sergeant Wm. Line, of the United States Signal 
 Service Corps, United States Army, accompanied by his 
 family, arrived in the city a few days since from Toledo, 
 having been ordered to take up his residence and estab- 
 lish a station in this city. 
 
 ''He Is now obeying orders, having rented room 
 No. 1, second story of the Stoddard block, from the roof 
 of which the observations will be taken, and upon which 
 the many and complicated instruments are now being 
 secured. The roof of the building is about seventy-five 
 feet above the street, and the weather indicator and other 
 instruments can be seen from all parts of the city. The 
 ofiGcer informs us that he will keep a report as follows : 
 meteorological observations, report of barometer, ther- 
 mometer, humidity, wind and its direction and velocity, 
 amount of upper and lower clouds and the direction in 
 which they move, amount of rainfall, and weather 
 phenomena in general. 
 
 "The iron staffs upon which the instruments are 
 fastened are hollow and connect with delicate instru- 
 ments in the office, denoting the conditions without the 
 necessity of examining the instruments on the roof. Re- 
 ports will be made daily after the 1st of July." 
 
 The First Telephones in Arkansas (1879). 
 
 The Western Union Telegraph Company installed 
 telephone service at Little Rock in 1879. The Little Rock 
 Exchange, put into service in November of that year, 
 is, it seems, the third oldest telephone exchange in the 
 
Arkansas History 139 
 
 United States. The Western Union in 1881 sold the ex- 
 change to a local company, of which the late Col. Logan 
 H. Roots was president. In 1883, the Southwestern Tel- 
 egraph and Telephone Company was organized and pur- 
 chased the property. The exchange, located at 108 Scott 
 street, then the office of the Western Union, started 
 with but ten subscribers. The first directory was pub- 
 lished in 1880. There were then, within a year after the 
 installment of the exchange, about eighty subscribers. 
 The following is quoted from an article which appeared 
 in The Arkansas Gazette of August 1, 1915 : ' The first 
 operator in the Little Rock telephone exchange was the 
 late A. F. Adams, who later became superintendent of 
 the company in Little Rock and died after 25 years' ser- 
 vice. Beauregard Morrison, noAv buyer for the Fones 
 Bros. Hardware Company, was the first night operator 
 and Mrs. Morrison has the distinction of being not only 
 the first woman operator in Little Rock, but in the United 
 States. Sam W. Rayburn, president of the Union Trust 
 Company, and Ashley Peay, city sidewalk inspector, 
 were among the first of the operators in the exchange." 
 Since its establishment in 1879, the exchange has been 
 twice moved — first to the second story of the building 
 on the northwest corner of Second and Main streets, and 
 later to its present location on the southeast corner of 
 Seventh and Louisiana streets. 
 
 When the FmsT Ex-President or President 
 
 OP the United States Visited Arkansas (1880). 
 
 General Ulysses S. Grant, ex-President^of the United 
 States, visited Little Rock, and Arkansas, in April, 1880. 
 General Grant arrived in Little Rock at 7 o'clock on the 
 evening of April 15, where he remained until the morn- 
 ing of April 17th. The visit, intended as a courtesy to 
 the State of Arkansas as a whole, was generally so es- 
 teemed; delegations from many parts of the state were 
 sent to Little Rock formally to greet and welcome the 
 distinguished visitor. An eye-witness of the events of 
 
140 High Lights 
 
 the memorable occasion, accounting for the cordial man- 
 ner of General Grant's reception, said: 
 
 ''The Democratic leaders of the state, who were es- 
 pecially grateful to the ex-president, bestowed upon him 
 every mark of respect. It was on May 15, 1874, that 
 President Grant issued his memorable proclamation by 
 which he recognized Elisha Baxter as governor of Ar- 
 kansas after a month's armed contest with Joseph 
 Brooks and his supporters, which resulted in the re- 
 storation of the state to the control of the Democratic 
 party. In conversation with General Grant, Col. B. D. 
 Williams, a Democrat, said: 
 
 *' 'The Democrats of Arkansas have a warm spot 
 in their hearts for you, both for your kindness to Lee 
 at Appomattox and for your recognition of Governor 
 Baxter six years ago." 
 
 *' 'Well, what else could I have done?' replied Gen- 
 eral Grant. 'The properly constituted authorities had 
 declared in 1872 that Baxter was elected governor and 
 he was recognized as such by the Legislature. I only 
 performed my duty. The Democrats of Arkansas, I 
 have found, are a pretty good set of fellows'." 
 
 His two nights in Little Rock he spent at the old 
 Capital Hotel. During the morning of April 16th, there 
 was such a parade as was never before seen in Arkansas. 
 In a brief speech, following the parade. Grant said : 
 
 "Citizens of Arkansas: It is with much pleasure 
 that I find myself among you. I believe that your future 
 prosperity lies in the absence of all sectional feeling and 
 animosity. You have the soil to cultivate and the lati- 
 tude for a great variety of productions, but I understand 
 you need many more people thoroughly to cultivate your 
 cotton. These people, I hear, are coming, and I wish for 
 Arkansas that the welcome of all newcomers may be 
 cordial, no matter from whence they come. I thank you. ' ' 
 
Arkansas History 141 
 
 In the evening he was given a banquet at Concordia 
 Hall; upon which occasion he responded to the toast, 
 ''The United States of America." 
 
 The Bar Association of Arkansas Organized (1882). 
 
 The first attempt to organize a bar association in Ar- 
 kansas, of which there is any known record, was that of 
 November 24, 1837, when nineteen lawyers met in Little 
 Rock and organized the "Bar Association of the State 
 of Arkansas". These lawyers were: Chester Ashley, 
 William McK. Ball, S. D. Blackburn, John J. Clendenin, 
 John W. Cooke, William Conway B, Edward Cross, P. 
 T. Crutchfield, William Cummins, Absalom Fowler, 
 Nathan Haggard, Samuel S. Hall, Samuel H. Hempstead, 
 William B. R. Horner, Lemuel R. Lincoln, Albert Pike, 
 William C. Scott, F. W. Trapnall and George C. Wat- 
 kins. Mr. Ball was from Fayetteville, Mr. Haggard from 
 Batesville and Mr. Horner from Helena. All the others 
 resided at Little Rock. This association seems to have 
 held no meetings after January 15, 1838, when the presi- 
 dent was directed to appoint a committee of three ''to 
 draft a petition to the Legislature, praying an appropria- 
 tion for the procuring of a law library, for the use of the 
 Supreme Court, and members of the bar licensed to prac- 
 tice therein, to be under the control and safe keeping of 
 this association". But on March 15, 1882, a meeting was 
 held at the office of Judge U. M. Rose, at Little Rock, for 
 the purpose of taking the necessary steps to organize a 
 State Bar Association. Twenty-two lawyers were pres- 
 ent, viz: B. B. Battle, M. W. Benjamin, B. C. Brown, 
 Sterling R. Cockrill, C. S. Collins, George E. Dodge, Z. 
 P. H. Farr, B. S. Johnson, John McClure, C. B. Moore, 
 John M. Moore, George B. Rose, John M. Rose, U. M. 
 Rose, W. L. Terrv, and Samuel W. Williams, of Little 
 Rock; M. L. Bell and W. S. McCain, of Pine Bluff; T. C. 
 McRae, of Prescott ; Charles Coffin, of Walnut Ridge ; T. 
 P. McGovern, of Jonesboro, and M. T. Sanders, of Hel- 
 ena. M. L. Bell was called to the chair and M. T. Sanders 
 
142 High Lights 
 
 "was chosen secretar}^ Judge U. M. Rose offered a reso- 
 lution to the effect that the meeting deemed it important 
 and proper to organize a State Bar Association, "to ad- 
 vance the science of jurisprudence, to promote the admin- 
 istration of justice, to uphold the honor of the profession 
 and to encourage cordial intercourse among the members 
 of the bar". After the adoption of the resolution a com- 
 mittee of three was appointed to draft a constitution and 
 by-laws, with instructions to report to an adjourned meet- 
 ing to be held on May 24, 1882. A call was then issued 
 to the lawyers of the state, inviting them to meet in 
 Little Rock on that date to perfect the organization. 
 The meeting of May 24th was held in the hall of the 
 House of Representatives. All parts of the state were 
 represented, the constitution and by-laws prepared by 
 the committee were adopted, with some slight altera- 
 tions, and an association with eighty-nine charter mem- 
 bers was organized. Marcus L. Bell was elected presi- 
 dent; Sterling R. Cockrill, secretary; George E. Dodge, 
 treasurer, and a vice president was elected for each of the 
 twelve judicial districts, to-wit: 1. AV. W. Howes, For- 
 rest City; 2. T. P. McGovern, Jonesboro; 3. Charles 
 Coffin, Walnut Ridge; 4. J. E. Wilson, Yellville; 5. 
 George S. Cunningham, Dardanelle; 6. J. C. England, 
 Lonoke ; 7. W. S. Eakin, Perry^dlle ; 8. J. N. Crawford, 
 Arkadelphia; 9. T. C. McRae, Prescott; 10. W. T. 
 Wells, Monticello; 11. W. P. Grace, Pine Bluff: 12. 
 Benjamin T, DuVal, Fort Smith. 
 
 The State Hospitai. for Nervous 
 Diseases Opened (1883). 
 
 The Hospital for Nervous Diseases, commonly called 
 the Insane Asylum, dates its beginning from April 19, 
 1873, when Governor Elisha Baxter approved an act of 
 the General Assembly providing for the establishment of 
 the "Arkansas State Lunatic Asylum" at Little Rock. 
 The act authorized the governor to appoint five trustees, 
 who should "manage and direct the affairs of the in- 
 
Arkansas History 143 
 
 stitution and appoint a superintendent". It carried also 
 an appropriation of "not exceeding $50,000" for the 
 purchase or erection of the necessary buildings. Owing 
 to the unsettled political conditions which led up to and 
 followed the Brooks-Baxter war, the first board of trus- 
 tees was unable to do more than purchase a site for such 
 an institution. In his last message to the General As- 
 sembly, Governor Augustus H. Garland urged the im- 
 portance of establishing the asylum without delay. Gov- 
 ernor William R. Millers, too, discussed the necessity 
 for such an institution in his messages of 1877 and 1879. 
 The General Assembly of 1879 passed an act appropri- 
 ating $40,000 for the establishment of the asylum and 
 directing that it be located at Snow Springs, an out-of- 
 the-way place, some four or five miles from the city of 
 Hot Springs. This bill was vetoed by Governor Miller, 
 on the grounds that the appropriation was insufficient 
 and the location undesirable. There the matter rested 
 until February 8, 1881, when Governor Churchill ap- 
 proved an act providing for a levy of a one-mill tax on 
 all the property of the state for two years, and the ap- 
 propriation of $150,000 "for the purpose of building, 
 organizing, furnishing and operating an insane asylum, 
 at or near Little Rock". With a portion of the ap- 
 propriation immediately available, the trustees went to 
 work and the institution was opened on March 1, 1883. 
 
 The First Municipal Waterworks ix Arkansas (1884). 
 
 In 1884 a waterworks company was organized at 
 Little Rock; a standpipe was erected near the foot of 
 Cross sreet. After passing through several ownerships, 
 Zeb Ward acquired a controlling interest in the company. 
 In 1886, he began the construction of large reserx^oirs 
 on the bluff where the reservoirs of the Arkansaw Water 
 Company now are, some two miles up the Arkansas 
 from the center of the city, situated on an elevation of 
 about two hundred and fifty feet above the business dis- 
 trict. Water was turned on May 4, 1888. The supply is 
 
144 High Lights 
 
 t 
 
 pumped from the Arkansas River into the reservoirs, 
 
 where it is filtered before being turned into the mains. 
 In 1889 the plant and franchise were purchased by east- 
 ern capitalists, who changed the name to the Home Water 
 Company. In 1910 the name was again changed to the 
 Arkansaw Water Company. 
 
 The Holford Bonds Repudiated (1884). 
 
 The General Assembly of 1836, which created the 
 Real Estate Bank, authorized an issue of two million 
 dollars in state bonds in order to provide the bank with 
 the necessary capital. In 1838, another issue of $500,000 
 in bonds was authorized to raise capital for a fourth 
 branch of the Real Estate Bank, which branch was to be 
 established at Van Buren. With these latter bonds, the 
 directors on September 7, 1840, through their agent, se- 
 cured from the North American Trust and Banking 
 Company, of New York City, the sum of $121,336.59, by 
 depositing the $500,000 in bonds as security for the re- 
 payment of the sum advanced. Whereupon, the North 
 American Trust and Banking Company sold the bonds 
 to James Holford and Company, of London, England, 
 for $325,000. Then, presently, the North American 
 Trust and Banking Company failed. This brought 
 James Holford to New York, where he began steps to 
 collect the interest already due him, and to secure him- 
 self against loss of the principal he had invested in the 
 bonds of the Real Estate Bank. The State of Arkan- 
 sas, through Governor Archibald Yell, took the position 
 that it owed, on account of these bonds, only the $121,- 
 336.59, with accrued interest, which sum the Real Estate 
 Bank had received from the North American Trust and 
 Banking Company. This position, which Arkansas held 
 to until the matter was finally disposed of, was based 
 upon the assumption that the Real Estate Bank had only 
 hypothecated or mortgaged the bonds, as the directors 
 claimed, to the North American Trust and Banking Com- 
 pany; that the latter company, if it sold the bonds to 
 
Arkansas History 145 
 
 Holford, had acted in bad faith; for which the State of 
 Arkansas could not be held either legally or morally ac- 
 countable. Holford, on the other hand, showed that he 
 had, in effect, bought the bonds outright of the North 
 American Trust and Banking Company for $325,000. 
 He had, he said, been an innocent purchaser; as such, 
 he was entitled to collect from the State of Arkansas the 
 full amount of the bonds — $500,000 with interest until 
 the bonds were paid. Eventually the Holford claim was 
 sold to Benjamin D. Whitney, who brought suit in the 
 Pulaski Chancery Court against the Real Estate Bank 
 for the recovery of the face value of the bonds, with in- 
 terest. The court held that the bonds could not have been 
 lawfully sold for less than their par value, since the Real 
 Estate Bank act declared any such sale illegal and void ; 
 but because the bank appropriated to its use the $121,- 
 336.59 advanced upon the bonds, ''it is but just to con- 
 clude that the bank is bound in equity and good con- 
 science to repay the money with interest, upon a rede- 
 livery of the bonds". Rather than accept such a settle- 
 ment, "Whitney appealed the case to the Supreme Court 
 of Arkansas; w^hich court affirmed the decision of the 
 chancery court. "When the funding bill was before the 
 General Assembly in 1868, the amount of the $121,336.59, 
 with accrued interest, was $334,747. Instead of funding 
 this sum, which w^ould doubtless have met the approval 
 of every honest taxpayer in the state, the authors of the 
 funding measure proposed to have the state assume the 
 payment of the entire $500,000 in bonds, which, with the 
 interest then due, amounted to $1,360,000, or over a mil- 
 lion dollars more than the courts had decreed that the 
 state justly owed. The proposition to issue new bonds 
 for the whole amount met with so much opposition 
 that the Holford bonds were held in abeyance for several 
 months, though they were finally funded for $1,268,000. 
 And at the state election of 1884 the payment of these 
 bonds was repudiated by what is known as the ''Fish- 
 back Amendment". 
 
146 High Lights 
 
 Bauxite Discovered (1887). 
 
 The discovery of bauxite deposits in Arkansas was 
 made by the late Dr. John C. Branner, then state geolo- 
 gist, in June, 1887. He recognized it at several places 
 along the road running south from Little Eock, a little 
 more than a mile south of where the road crosses the 
 Fourche Bayou. Doctor Branner wrote, shortly after 
 his discovery, to a reduction works in Pittsburgh, Penn- 
 sylvania, calling their attention to the nature and extent 
 of the deposits, but failed to interest them. He then made 
 a trip to Syracuse, New York, but with no better success. 
 The first mention in the report of the commissioner of 
 mines, manufactures and agriculture of shipments of 
 bauxite was in 1899, when 5,045 tons were shipped. It is 
 said, however, that there had been several small ship- 
 ments of the ore made before that time. There are three 
 well defined fields where the ore has been found, viz : The 
 Fourche district, which lies south of the Fourche Bayou 
 and between the Rock Island Railroad and the Pine 
 Bluff division of the Missouri Pacific; the Bryant dis- 
 trict, about eighteen miles southwest of Little Rock, in 
 Bryant Township, Saline County; the third is really a 
 part of the Bryant district, being separated from it only 
 by Hurricane Creek, and is almost due east of Benton. 
 The greater portion of the ore comes from the Bryant 
 field, and is shipped from the town of Bauxite, situated 
 on the Rock Island Railroad. The commissioner of 
 mines, manufactures and agriculture, in his report for 
 1920, says : '^More than ninety per cent of all the bauxite 
 produced in the United States is mined in Pulaski and 
 Saline counties and all of the bauxite used in the United 
 States in the manufacture of aluminum, in 1919 came 
 from the Arkansas deposits. 
 
 The First Electric Lights 
 
 Introduced in Arkansas (1888). 
 
 The first electric lights in Arkansas were installed at 
 Little Rock in September, 1888. The end of that year 
 
Arkansas History 247" 
 
 saw seventy street lights in operation. This included the 
 four municipal towers, located at Markham and Pulaski 
 streets, Tenth and Bishop streets. Main and Twenty- 
 first streets, and Ninth and Rector streets. In tinae the 
 towers were discarded and lights installed at nearly 
 every street crossing in the central portion of the city, 
 and at frequent intervals in the other parts. The plant 
 is now operated by the Little Rock Railway and Electric 
 Company. 
 
 The Arkansas Conpederate 
 
 Soldiers' Home Established (1890). 
 
 The Arkansas Confederate Soldiers' Home, for the 
 care of indigent veterans, of the War of Secession, was 
 opened December 1, 1890. The movement which resulted 
 in the establishment of the home was started some time 
 before by certain weU knoMoi Confederate veterans. For 
 the purpose of raising funds by popular subscription, 
 and in order to manage the enterprise effectually, they 
 organized an association of Confederate veterans. In 
 this manner, through the efforts of the association, a 
 fund of $8,500 was raised. And during the summer of 
 1890 a tract of some sixty acres of ground, about six 
 miles southeast of Little Rock, was purchased; an old 
 residence on the place was remodeled, and the home 
 formally opened December 1, 1890. On April 1, 1891, 
 Governor James P. Eagle approved an act authorizing 
 the pajTiient of pensions to disabled Confederate soldiers 
 and their widows, and for the levying of a tax to raise 
 the necessary revenue. The same act also provided: 
 ''That ten thousand dollars of the fund thus raised shall 
 be and is hereby appropriated annually for the erec- 
 tion and maintenance of a Confederate Home as is now 
 established by the Ex-Confederate Association of Ar- 
 kansas, which sum shall be paid on the order of the di- 
 rectors of said association. * * * Provided, that no 
 inmate of the said Confederate Home shall be entitled 
 to draw a pension as provided for in this act ; Provided 
 
148 High Lights 
 
 further, that no part of the ten thousand dollars here 
 as annually appropriated, shall be used until the said 
 Ex-Confederate Association of Arkansas shall have 
 conveyed to said state the lands belonging to said Ex- 
 Confederate Association with a good and sufficient 
 title." Thus responsibility for the management and 
 maintenance of the home was taken over by the state. 
 With the first annual appropriation of $10,000 a new 
 building was erected. It was completed in 1892. In the 
 summer of 1911 the inmates were moved into tents while 
 the entire home was remodeled. 
 
 The State Banker's Association Organized (1891). 
 
 The movement for the organization of a state bank- 
 ers' association originated with the bankers of Little 
 Rock in the summer of 1891. M. H. Johnson, cashier of 
 the Bank of Little Rock, and Oscar Davis, cashier of the 
 German National Bank, sent out letters to the banks of 
 the state requesting those who favored the organization 
 of an association to permit the use of their names in 
 the issue of a call for a meeting for that purpose. 
 Thirty-nine bankers endorsed the plan in letters and their 
 names were signed to a call to meet at the Richelieu 
 Hotel, in Little Rock, on October 20, 1891. There were 
 then only about eighty banks in the state. Representa- 
 tives from a majority of these banks met at the time 
 and place designated. W. B. Worthen, president of the 
 Associated Banks of Little Rock, called the meeting to 
 order and stated its object. The greater part of the 
 first day was spent in discussion, and on October 21st 
 the Arkansas Bankers Association was formally organ- 
 ized by the election of Logan H. Roots, president, and 
 M. H. Johnson, secretary. C. T. Walker, of Little Rock ; 
 W. H. Gates, of Jonesboro; B. J. Brown, of Fayetteville ; 
 H. G. Allis, of Little Rock; and S. H. Horner, of Helena, 
 were appointed a committee to draft a constitution and 
 by-laws, whereupon, the association adjourned to meet 
 on April 26, 1892. Since its organization the association 
 
Arkansas History 1*9 
 
 has been influential in bringing about better business 
 relations between the bankers and business men of the 
 state, and in procuring the enactment of laws for the 
 general improvement of banking conditions. 
 
 Arkansas at the Columbian Exposition (1893). 
 
 The World's Columbian Exposition, at Chicago in 
 1893, held in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the 
 discovery of America, surpassed in magnificence all 
 previous expositions. The General Assembly of Arkan- 
 sas, in the session of 1891, failed to appropriate money 
 for any exhibit, but a number of progressive citizens took 
 the preliminary steps in December, 1891, to have the 
 state properly represented. Wherefore, a joint stock 
 company was formed to raise funds for the purpose. 
 This company, known as the "Arkansas World's Fair As- 
 sociation", raised a sufficient sum of money to erect a 
 building at Chicago. It was 66 by 92 feet, two stories 
 high. In the center of the rotunda was placed an im- 
 itation fountain of Hot Springs crystals which was 
 lighted by electricity. A few months before the meeting 
 of the General Assembly of 1893, the association offered 
 to present to the state the building and the exhibits al- 
 ready collected, if the Legislature would make proper 
 provisions for the State's representation at the exposi- 
 tion. The Legislature accepted the offer and appro- 
 priated $15,000 for the purpose of arranging and taking 
 care of the exhibits. The Legislature further authorized 
 the commisssioner of mines, manufactures and agricul- 
 ture to loan the permanent exhibit of the department to 
 the would 's fair commissioners, and to co-operate with 
 them in the effort to have Arkansas well represented. 
 Provision for an educational exhibit were made, which 
 was conducted by the superintendent of public instruc- 
 tion. Altogether, the exhibits were the greatest ever 
 made by the state up to that time. Forty-two awards 
 were granted to the educational exhibit; seven for 
 apples in the horticultural department ; three for cotton 
 
150 High Lights 
 
 in the agricultural department, and Arkansas received 
 a wide advertisement for the high character of its ex- 
 hibit in general. 
 
 The Arkansas Daughters of the 
 
 American Revolution Organized (1893). 
 
 The Daughters of the American Revolution organ- 
 ized their first chapter in Arkansas at Little Rock in De- 
 cember, 1893, with twelve charter members. Mrs. W. 
 A. Cantrell was the first state regent. The first state 
 conference was held at the Hotel Marion in Little Rock 
 February 22, 1909. At that time there were but four 
 chapters in the state. The work of the state conference 
 stimulated an interest in the society and during the next 
 year eight new chapters were organized. Since then 
 there has been a steady Q-rowth of the society in the 
 state. All the chapters have contributed liberally to 
 the national memorial hall fund. They have aided in the 
 establishment of public libraries, the collection and pres- 
 ervation of historical memorials, documents, and what 
 not. 
 
 Arkansas Bonds Bought by the United States 
 
 FOR THE Smithsonian Institution REPAro (1895). 
 
 When the Real Estate Bank was established, in 
 1836, the United States, as trustee of the Smithsonian 
 Institution, bought with funds of the institution 500 of 
 the bonds, maturing on October 26, 1861, and 38 other 
 bonds, maturing on January 1, 1868. And, as trustee 
 of the Chicasaw fund, the United States invested 
 $90,000 of that fund in Arkansas state bonds. On Jan- 
 nary 1, 1874, the balance due on these bonds, principal 
 and interest, was funded into 250 new bonds, of $1,000 
 each, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent per 
 annum. The United States had invested $3,000 of the 
 Chickasaw orphan fund in bonds issued by the state for 
 the benefit of the Real Estate Bank. These several bond 
 purchases, with interest due, were an unsettled claim 
 
Arkansas Histoey 151 
 
 against Arkansas for nearly sixty years. On the other 
 hand, the State of Arkansas had a valid claim against 
 the United States for five per cent of the proceeds aris- 
 ing from the sale of public lands within the state; for 
 certain tracts of swamp, internal improvement and in- 
 demnity school lands which had been granted the state 
 by acts of Congress, but to which the state had never 
 been given a clear title; and for lands patented to the 
 state and afterwards sold by the United States, or al- 
 lowed to be entered under the general land laws. By an 
 act of the General Assembly, approved April 8, 1889, 
 the governor was directed to undertake to negotiate 
 a settlement of these sundry claims and counter claims. 
 In 1893 Governor Fishbank presented claims against the 
 United States aggregating $2,161,067.71. And on Au- 
 gust 4, 1894, the President approved an act of Congress 
 conferring power on the Secretary of the Treasury and 
 the Secretary of the Interior to effect an adjustment of 
 the differences. A commission, representing the United 
 States, was appointed to visit Arkansas and report on 
 the value of the lands claimed by the state. The report 
 of the commmission, which the United States accepted, 
 allowed Arkansas, as owing to it by the United States, 
 a total of $1,451,231.61. Governor James P. Clarke, 
 acting for the State of Arkansas, agreed to allow, as 
 owing by the state to the United States, a total of $1,- 
 611,803.61. And upon this basis a compromise was ef- 
 fected February 23, 1895. This left a balance of $160,572 
 due the United States. To adjust this balance Governor 
 Clarke agreed to give to the United States $572 in cash 
 within thirty days and 160 bonds for $1,000 each, payable 
 on January 1, 1900, with interest at the rate of six per 
 cent per annum. The settlement was accepted by the 
 General Assembly in a concurrent resolution adopted on 
 February 27, 1895. 
 
152 High Lights 
 
 United Daughtees of the Confederacy (1896). 
 
 The United Daughters of the Confederacy date their 
 beginning in Arkansas from a meeting held at Hope in 
 March, 1896, when Pat Clebonrne Chapter was organ- 
 ized with Mrs. C. A. Forney as president. Before the 
 close of the year three other chapters were organized. 
 They were: Mary Lee, at Van Bnren; Memorial, at 
 Little Rock, and Hot Springs chapter. Li May, 1905, 
 the statue, ''The Defense of the Flag", on the capitol 
 grounds, was unveiled. The Daughters of the Confed- 
 eracy were active in procuring funds for the erection of 
 this statue, as well as for the ''Mothers' Monument", 
 also located on the capitol grounds. The U. D. C. have 
 also been influential in the erection of monuments at 
 Fort Smith, Helena, Van Buren and other towns, and 
 have rendered substantial aid to the Confederate 
 Soldiers' Home. Through the work of the society many 
 interesting and valuable relics of the war have been col- 
 lected and preserved. 
 
 The Arkansas Federation of Women's 
 Clubs Formed (1897). 
 
 In 1897 the State Federation of Women's Clubs was 
 formed at Little Eock. Mrs. W. C. Ratcliffe was elected 
 the first president. During the early years of the fed- 
 eration the principal work of the clubs was of a literary 
 character. Then such subjects as art, music, library 
 extension, education, home economics, conservation, 
 health, and even politics came to be considered, broad- 
 ening the scope of club work and adding to their use- 
 fulness. For the advancement of local needs and to 
 promote greater sociabilit}^ — ^more concert of action — 
 the state has been divided by the federation into six dis- 
 tricts, each of which bears the name of the principal city 
 or town lying within its boundaries, viz : Camden, For- 
 rest City, Fort Smith, Harrison, Little Rock and Pine 
 Bluff. Each district has a chairman, who keeps in touch 
 with the state chairman, and thus the state work is kept 
 
Arkansas History 153 
 
 before each district, in order that the effort in behalf 
 of any movement may be uniform all over the state. 
 Annual meetings are held and these are invariably well 
 attended. In 1918 the meeting of the National Federa- 
 tion of Women's Clubs was held at Hot Springs. This 
 was made possible by the united effort of the clubs be- 
 longing to the Arkansas Federation. Over 1,200 dele- 
 gates attended the national meeting and the women 
 returned to their homes with a better opinion of Ar- 
 kansas as a state and loud in their praises of Arkansas 
 hospitality. 
 
 Arkansas in the Spanish- American War (1898). 
 
 The United States Battleship Maine was blown up 
 in Havana Harbor February 15, 1898. As a result of this 
 unfortunate affair public sentiment in the United States, 
 which was already deeply incensed against Spain be- 
 cause of the latter's long-continued tyrannical oppres- 
 sion of Cuba, demanded that the United States punisli 
 Spain and free Cuba. The public soon became settled 
 in the conviction that the Maine had been blown up at 
 the instance of Spanish authorities. For such a delib- 
 erate outrage nothing less than a declaration of war was 
 tolerable. Accordingly, President William McKinley 
 sent a message to Congress on April 11, in which he said : 
 "In the name of humaity, in the name of civilization, in 
 behalf of endangered American interests, which give us 
 the right and the duty to speak and to act, the war in 
 Cuba must stop". Congress adopted resolutions April 
 18, which amounted to a declaration of war, and on April 
 23 the President issued his proclamation calling for 125,- 
 000 volunteers. War was actually declared by Congress 
 on April 25, 1898. And on that very day Governor Dan 
 W. Jones received information from Washington that 
 Arkansas was epected to furnish, of the 125,000 volun 
 teers called for, two regiments of infantry. Since there 
 were not two regiments of the Arkansas National Guard 
 well enough organized and equipped to be mustered into 
 
154 High Lights 
 
 service as units, Governor Jones called for volunteers for 
 two new regiments. In liis call, the governor said: "Little 
 Eock, Arkansas, having been designated as the place of 
 rendezvous by the Secre':ary of War of the two regi- 
 ments of infantry called from Arkansas to enlist as 
 United States volunteers, the place of camp is hereby 
 fixed at the corner of College Avenue and Seventeenth 
 Street, in said city, and designated as 'Camp Dodge', as 
 a tribute of respect to the late Dr. Roderick Dodge, a 
 long and honored resident of the State, to whose estate 
 the site of the camp belongs, and whose heirs have cour- 
 teously donated the use of the same for this purpose." 
 The First Arkansas Volunteer Infantry was mustered 
 in on May 18th for two years, "unless sooner dis- 
 charged", with Elias Chandler as colonel; John M. Dun- 
 gan, lieutenant-colonel; Greenfield Quarles and Clem- 
 ent R. Schaer, majors. Soon after the regiment was 
 mustered in it was ordexed to Camp Thomas, Chicka- 
 mauga Park, Georgia, where it remained until late in 
 September, when it was ordered to return to Arkansas. 
 It was mustered out at Fort Logan H. Roots on October 
 25, 1898. The Second Arkansas Volunteer Infantry was 
 mustered in May 25, 1898, with the following regimental 
 officers: Virgil Y. Cook, colonel; DeRosey C. Cabell, 
 lieutenant-colonel; Claude H. Sayle and James J. John- 
 son, majors. On the last day of May, 1898, the regiment 
 arrived at Camp Thomas, Chickamauga Park, Georgia, 
 where it was assigned to the Second Brigade, Second 
 Division, Third Army Corps, the First Arkansas having 
 arrived three days earlier and been assigned to the First 
 Brigade of the same division and corps. On September 
 9, 1898, the Second Regiment was ordered to Camp Shipp, 
 Anniston, Alabama, where it remained until February 25, 
 1899, when it was mustered out. The Spanish-American 
 War was formally ended December 10, 1898, by the 
 Treaty of Paris. 
 
Arkansas History 155 
 
 The Colonial Dames of America (1898). 
 
 The Colonial Dames of Arkansas was incorporated 
 February 26, 1898. Since that time the Society has been 
 influential in preservation of the old state house and 
 grounds in their original form, and has placed in the new 
 State Capitol a tablet commemorating the planting of the 
 first cross on Arkansas soil by De Soto in 1541. The 
 society also presented to the Little Rock High School an 
 engraving of Martha Washington made from Gilbert 
 Stuart's portrait. It has also urged a general observ- 
 ance of "Flag Day" each year, and otherwise given en- 
 couragement to worthy patriotic undertakings. 
 
 The New State Capitol — Corner Stone Laid (1900). 
 
 Governor Dan. "W. Jones approved April 17, 1899, 
 an act of the General Assembly providing for the erec- 
 tion of a new state capitol building, on the grounds then 
 occupied by the state penitentiar}^, and appropriating 
 $1,000,000 for the purpose. The act provided for the 
 appointment by the governor of six commissioners — one 
 from each congressional district — to be known as the 
 ** State Capitol Commission." Governor Jones ap- 
 pointed J. M. Levesque, of Cross County; Charles Gor- 
 don, of Jefferson; A. H. Carrigan, of Hempstead; 
 George W. Murphy, of Pulaski; George W. Donagliey, 
 of Faulkner, and Robert M. Hancock, of Baxter. This 
 board organized May 10, 1899. The architect's plans 
 submitted by George R. Mann were selected and the con- 
 tract for the construction was awarded to Caldwell & 
 Drake, of Columbus, Ohio. A report of this commission 
 at tlie close of the year 1900 shows that the foundation 
 of the building was completed. Tlie corner-stone was 
 laid November 27, 1900, by the Arkansas Grand Lodge 
 of Freemr.sons. Governcr Jeff Davis was opposed to the 
 location of the new capitol, and during the six years lie 
 was in office the work of construction proceeded but 
 slowly. Owing to the illness of Governor John S. Little, 
 who came into office in January, 1907, not much progress 
 
156 High Lights 
 
 was made during his term. In the primary campaign of 
 1908 George W. Donaghey, a member of the commission, 
 made his race for governor on the issue that the imme- 
 diate completion of the capitol was of paramount im- 
 portance. He was nominated and elected, and as soon as 
 he was inaugurated he set to work to carry out his ideas. 
 The Arkansas Gazette of December 25, 19io, said: "The 
 Capitol Commission's Christmas gift to the State of 
 Arkansas this year will be the magnificent new state capi- 
 tol, that stands like the Parthenon of old on the eminence 
 at the western extremiy of Fifth Street. The writer was 
 present when the first spade of dirt was throA\m, ten years 
 ago, on which occasion a number of eloquent speeches 
 were made commending the great undertaking of the 
 state. * * * Those ten years have marked a strange 
 ebb and flow of politics in this state, at which time the 
 building has stood like an endangered ship in the storm, 
 but where the first spade of dirt was thrown ten years 
 ago stands the creation that was then but a castle in the 
 air. It cost more than was anticipated, in money, time, 
 trouble and hard feeling, but it is now an accomplished 
 fact, and there should be no more state capitol sentiment 
 in Arkansas history for some years to come. * * * Many 
 men have worked for the completion of the new state 
 capitol building, but among those who have labored in- 
 telligently, none has devoted more time and trouble to 
 the enterprise than his excellency, Governor George W. 
 Donaghey, a practical builder and a man of the people. 
 No man in Arkansas could have been better fitted for the 
 position he was called to assume than Governor Dona- 
 ghey, for while any strong, intellectual man might hope 
 to fulfil the duties of governor of this state. Governor 
 Donaghey was a renowned contractor as well, and the 
 desire to give the people of Arkansas a new state capitol 
 that would stand the ravages of time lay next to his heart. 
 He will be he first governor to establish office in the new 
 building. ' ' 
 
Arkansas History 157 
 
 The Apple Blossom Made the State Flower (1901). 
 
 The General Assembly by ''Senate Concurrent Reso- 
 lution No. 1", passed January 30, 1901, adopted the 
 Apple Blossom as the state flower. The resolution is as 
 follows : 
 
 Whereas, Most of the states have by resolution de- 
 clared what should be their state floral emblem; and 
 
 Whereas, Arkansas has not by resolution of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly declared what is her floral emblem; be it 
 therefore 
 
 Resolved by both houses of the General Assembly, 
 that the "Apple Blossom" be declared the state floral 
 emblem of Arkansas. 
 
 Natural Gas Discovered (1901). 
 
 There are two kno^vn natural gas fields in Arkan- 
 sas — one in the nortliwestern part, embracing Crawford, 
 Scott and Sebastian counties, and the other in Union 
 County and probably some of the adjoining counties. 
 The first gas well in the state was drilled on the Massard 
 Prairie, south of Fort Smith, in 1901. Subsequent tests 
 have demonstrated that the northwestern field exends 
 from the vicinity of Alma, Crawford County, to Poteau, 
 Oklahoma. The daily production of gas in this field, from 
 wells in operation in 1919, was 200,000,000 cubic feet. 
 One well has a daily record of 24,000,000 cubic feet and 
 is one of the largest in the Southwest. Pipe lines have 
 been laid to the nearby cities and thousands of homes are 
 supplied wdth fuel for cooking and heating purposes. 
 The public utilities of Fort Smith and Van Buren, as well 
 as the coal mines in the vicinity, are operated with power 
 generated by natural gas, and a num'ber of manufactur- 
 ing concerns have availed themselves of the cheap fuel. 
 In the southern field, gas was discovered near El Dorado 
 late in the year 1920 by the Constantine Refining Com- 
 pany, who were prospecting for oil. The initial flow at 
 
158 High Lights 
 
 this well was heavy enough to warrant the belief that a 
 gas field could be developed, which would equal that in 
 the northwestern part of the state. Up to July, 1921, five 
 other gas wells had been found in this field. The gas has 
 been piped to El Dorado, where it is used for domestic 
 and manufacturing purposes. 
 
 The Arkansas Historical Association Formed (1903). 
 
 During the winter and spring of 1903, Dr. John Hugh 
 Reynolds, then professor of history in the Universitj^ of 
 Arkansas, gave some lectures on Arkansas history to the 
 literary societies of the University. This led to the or- 
 ganization in June, 1903, of the Arkansas Historical So- 
 ciety, at Fayetteville, by the students of the University. 
 During the summer circulars were distributed and a few 
 of the students made some historical research in their 
 respective counties. On December 18, 1903, the society 
 was reorganized on a broader basis, with James K. Jones, 
 president; John H. Rejmolds, secretary; R. J. Wilson, 
 treasurer. A change in the name was also made, the word 
 "association" being substituted for ''society." The 
 constitution adopted declared the objects of the Associa- 
 tion to be: ''1. To prepare an inventory of all source 
 material for the history of Arkansas. 2. To collect said 
 material, either at the University or the state capital. 3. 
 To encourage, by issuing publications, the study and the 
 writing of all phases of the state's history." As secre- 
 tary of the association. Dr. Reynolds worked indus- 
 triously to carry out the aims as stated in the constitu- 
 tion. Not\vithstanding his persistent efforts and the 
 friendly support of the newspapers, the membership of 
 the Association did not grow as liad been anticipated, and 
 the organization was without sufficient funds to publish 
 the results of its research. In this emergency it was de- 
 cided to appeal to the General Assembly. Accordingly, 
 an act was passed at the session of 1905, the provisions 
 of which were as follows : The president of the Associa- 
 tion was authorized to appoint five persons from the ac- 
 
Arkansas History 159 
 
 live membersliip of the Historical Association, to consti- 
 tute a cominission, with the duty to supervise and direct 
 the printing of the first vohime of the publications of the 
 Association, and to ascertain the location and state of 
 preservation of all extant sources of information con- 
 cerning the history of Arkansas. Under the provisions 
 of this act, the Arkansas Historical Association published 
 its first volume of reports. The act of 1905 was tern 
 porary in character and provided for the publication of 
 but one volume. But on May 28, 1907, the governor ap- 
 poved another act continuing the work of the Association 
 and appropriating $1,600 to aid in printing a second vol- 
 ume of publications. A second volume was accordingly 
 published in 1908. Volumes three and four have since 
 been published. 
 
 Arkansas at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904). 
 
 To commemorate the centenary of the Louisiana 
 Purchase, an industrial exposition on a gigantic scale was 
 planned for St. Louis in 1904. The General Assembly of 
 Arkansas appropriated in 1901 $30,000 for an exhibit of 
 the state's products and resources. An appropriate 
 building was erected upon the exposition grounds and the 
 work of gathering materials for a display that would out- 
 rival all previous etforts was commenced. The Legisla- 
 ture of 1903 made an additional appropriation of $50,000, 
 making a total of $80,000, a sum sufficient to place Ar- 
 kansas on a footing equal to that of the other states. The 
 superintendent of public instruction collected specimens 
 of class work done in the public schools, photographs of a 
 large number of school buildings, etc., and the agricul- 
 tural, mineral and manufactured products of the state 
 received many flattering comments from the visitors to 
 the exposition. September 22, 1904, was Arkansas Day. 
 As in previous competitive exhibitions, Arkansas cotton, 
 fruits and mineral display were awarded prizes for their 
 excellence. 
 
160 High Lights 
 
 The Boys Industrial School Established '(1905). 
 
 On April 25, Governor Davis approved an act pro- 
 viding for the establisliment of a " State Reform School, 
 for the dscipline, education, employment and reforma- 
 tion of convicts under the age of eighteen years". The 
 act also provided that white and colored inmates should 
 be kept in separate quarters, and that the female con- 
 victs should be kept to themselves. As thus established, 
 the institution was for both sexes and was placed under 
 the management of the penitentiary board. An ap- 
 propriation of $30,000 was made for the purchase of a site 
 and the erection of buildings. A site a few miles west of 
 Little Rock was purchased, a three-story brick building 
 erected, and the school was opened in the fall of 1906. 
 ''The Arkansas Gazette" of August 23, 1908, said: "The 
 Reform School is located about four miles from the end 
 of the Highland Park car line. It consists of about two 
 hundred acres of land, which is said to be of about as 
 poor a variety as can be found in Arkansas. That such 
 an institution was located on such unfertile ground is 
 deplored by nearly everyone who visits the institution 
 and who can imagine what could be done by such a school 
 of boys upon rich soil". In 1915 the probation officers 
 of Jefferson and Pulaski counties prepared a bill for the 
 removal of the school to a good farm. This bill was 
 approved by the County Judges Association and the 
 State Federation of Labor. It was passed by the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, but was vetoed by Governor Geo. W. 
 Hays on the grounds of economy. At the next session of 
 the General Assembly, a similar bill was passed and was 
 approved by Governor Charles H. Brough. Up to this 
 time the institution had been under the control of the 
 penitentiary board and was regarded as a penal in- 
 stitution. The act of 1917 changed the name to the 
 ''Boys Industrial School of the State of Arkansas" and 
 provided for a board of managers, composed of three 
 men and two women. 
 
Arkansas History 161 
 
 The United States Daughters of 1812 (1905). 
 
 In the latter part of 1905 Mrs. Herman Wilmans, of 
 Newport, was appointed organizing president of Arkan- 
 sas by the president of the national society of the 
 Daughters of 1812. Mrs. Wilmans drew up the state by- 
 laws, Avhich were approved by the national executive 
 board, and the Arkansas State Society w^as formally 
 organized with eight charter members. Nicholas Head- 
 ington Chapter — the iirst in the state — was organized at 
 Little Eock October 24, 1908; John Craig Dodds Chap- 
 ter, Batesville, March 25, 1910; Simon Bradford Chap- 
 ter, Pine Bluff, September 19, 1911, and Chalmette Chap- 
 ter, Texarkana, November 20, 1913. On March 28, 1914, 
 the first state council met in Little Eock. At that time 
 there were 103 members in the state, ninety of wdiom were 
 present at the meeting. 
 
 Diamonds Discovered in Arkansas (1906). 
 
 On August 1, 1906, John W. Huddleson picked up on 
 his farm, near the mouth of Prairie Creek and about two 
 and a half miles southeast of Murfreesboro, Pike County, 
 two glittering pebbles. These he sent to Charles S. 
 Stiflft, founder of the firm of Charles S. Stifft & Com- 
 pany, Jewelers, of Little Eock, who pronounced them 
 genuine diamonds. The stones were later sent to New 
 York, where they were examined by experts and cut and 
 polished by the well known firm of Tiffany & Company. 
 In the rough, these first two diamonds weighed about 
 three carats each. A company was shortly formed to 
 prospect for diamonds and John T. Fuller, a mining 
 engineer, who had been connected with the De Beers 
 Company, of South Africa, was employed to examine the 
 Pike County field and report. Mr. Fuller said in his re- 
 port that "the diamond-bearing rock occurs in South 
 Africa in what is there locally known as a 'pipe', which 
 is the neck, or vent, of an old volcano, filled up solid with 
 diamond-bearing rock. This rock is technically know as 
 peridotite, a rock of bluish green color, and known in 
 
162 High Lights 
 
 Africa as Kimberlite, or more popularly as blue ground. 
 That the diamond-bearing rock found on your property 
 in Pike county is peridotite is unquestioned. That it oc- 
 curs on the property in a 'pipe' similar to its occur- 
 rences in South Africa has been, to my mind, sufficiently 
 demonstrated". In 1908 the Arkansas Diamond Com- 
 pany was organized with an authorized capital stock of 
 $1,000,000 for the thorough development of the diamond 
 field. A modern reduction plant was erected and up to 
 1920 over five thousand diamonds had been taken from 
 the small area covered by the peridotite formation. The 
 largest of these diamonds weighed eighteen carats and 
 another weighed eleven carats. There are four small 
 areas of the peridotite and the Kimberlite Diamond 
 Company is also operating in the field. 
 
 An Arkansan Appointed Ambassador to the Hague 
 Peace Conference (1907). 
 
 President Theodore Roosevelt paid a visit to Little 
 Rock and Arkansas in 1905. At Little Rock, in the City 
 Park, he addressed an audience of several thousand peo- 
 ple on October 25. A luncheon was given in his honor 
 at the Scottish Rite Consistory. On the latter occasion, 
 the late Judge LT. M. Rose responded to the toast ''The 
 President of the United States." When, in 1907, it fell 
 to the lot of Mr. Roosevelt to choose an ambassador to 
 represent the United States at the second Hague Peace 
 Conference, he appointed Judge Rose a member of the 
 commission. Li a "Memoir" of his father, George B. 
 Rose says: "Early in 1907 [October, 1905] Mr. Roose- 
 velt, then president of the United States, passed through 
 Little Rock. At a luncheon given to him Judge Rose re- 
 sponded to a toast in his honor. This made so favorable 
 an impression upon Mr. Roosevelt that he appointed 
 Judge Rose an ambassador to the Hague Peace Confer- 
 ence of that year, along with Mr, Jos. H. Choate and 
 General Horace Porter. From the day of his appoint- 
 ment Judge Rose devoted his whole time to the study of 
 
Arkansas History 163 
 
 international law, so that when the conference assembled 
 he was far better eqnipped than most of the delegates. 
 Added to this was his perfect mastery of the French 
 language; and these, with the charm of manner that 
 made him a natural diplomat, gave him a conspicuous 
 position in that distinguished gathering." 
 
 The Arkansas History Commission Established (1909). 
 
 The Arkansas Historical Association was instru- 
 mental in effecting the establishment of the Arkansas 
 History Commission, as a permanent state department of 
 public arcliives and history. The Association, in a re- 
 port made to the governor on September 1, 1908, recom- 
 mended that an expert archivist be employed to superin- 
 tend the removal of the records and papers from the old 
 capitol to the new; that in the place of the speciar com- 
 mission, as representing the Association, a Commission 
 to be a permanent department of the state be created. 
 The report emphasized the fact that, owing to the prob- 
 able removal of the state government shortly to the new 
 state capitol, *^ A failure to provide for the permanent or- 
 ganization of state historical work at the next session of 
 the General Assembly would probably mean that Ar- 
 kansas history would sustain a greater loss in the next 
 two years than it has in any other quarter of a century." 
 Under th^ leadership of Dr. John Hugh Reynolds, the 
 Association followed up its recommendations to the gov- 
 ernor with a systematic campaign of agitation to shape 
 public opinion favorable to the establishment of a perma- 
 nent state department of history and archives. Thus the 
 act' creating the Arkansas History Commission was 
 passed and approved by Governor Geo. W. Donaghey 
 May 31, 1909. The said act provided: 1. That the 
 headquarters of the Commission should be in the new 
 state capitol. 2. That the said Commission should be 
 an honorary board of trustees composed of the chief jus- 
 tice of the Supreme Court, the presidents of the Univer- 
 sity of Arkansas and the State Normal School, and six 
 
164 High Lights 
 
 other persons appointed by the governor. 3. That at 
 the first meeting of the Commission the six appointive 
 members should by lot divide themselves into six classes, 
 whose terms of service should be two, four, six, eight, ten 
 and twelve years, respectively, after which the term of 
 such appointees should be twelve years. 4. That a sec- 
 retary^ be employed, as director of the department, at a 
 salary of $1,800 per year, whose duty it should be to 
 carry out the provisions of the act, under the rules and 
 regulations laid down by the Commission. 5. That all 
 books, pamphlets, documents, etc., collected by the Com- 
 mission should forever remain the property of the state. 
 The board of commissioners, as at first constituted, was 
 composed of E. A. McCulloch, chief justice; John N. 
 Tillman, president of the University of Arkansas; J. J. 
 Doyne, president of the State Normal School ; A. C. Mil- 
 lar, of Little Rock; James H. Berry, of Bentonville; H. 
 B. McKenzie, of Prescott ; J. F. Mayes, of Fort Smith ; 
 Miss Clara B. Eno, of Van Buren, and J. H. Reynolds, of 
 Fayetteville. A bill making an appropriation for the 
 secretary's salary was passed by the General Assembly 
 of 1911, but it was vetoed by the governor. At a meet- 
 ing of the board on August 24, 1911, the following pre- 
 amble and resolution were unanimously adopted : 
 
 "Whereas, the recent veto of the salary item of the 
 secretary of the Arkansas History Commission renders 
 the payment of said salary impossible until another ap- 
 propriation is made ; and 
 
 "Whereas, Dallas T. Herndon, of Georgia, a man 
 well qualified for the secretaryship, has agreed to ac- 
 cept the office, trusting to the good faith of the next leg- 
 islature to reimburse him, on condition that the Commis- 
 sion on its part, while assuming no financial liability, 
 agree to recommend to the next General Assembly an 
 appropriation to cover said salary: 
 
 "Therefore, be it resolved, that the Arkansas His- 
 tory Commission hereby elect Dallas Tabor Herndon 
 secretary on the conditions named above." 
 
Arkansas History 165 
 
 Of the work accomplished in the upbuilding of the 
 department since 1911, The Arkansas Gazette in its Cen- 
 tennial Edition of November 20, 1919, says : ' ' Mr. Hern- 
 don has collected hundreds of volumes of old newspaper 
 files and quantities of historical documents, including 
 thousands of old letters and papers that belonged to men 
 who have been prominent in the state's affairs. He has 
 also made bibliograpliies of all written history of the 
 state, has compiled information concerning many thou- 
 sands of persons who have lived in Arkansas and had a 
 part in its history, and has made rosters of the soldiers 
 from Arkansas in the Mexican War and the Civil War, 
 besides building up a museum of Arkansas history. In 
 general, he has devoted himself to organizing the state's 
 historical sources into a system of public archives. The 
 state owes to his faithful labors the gratifying progress 
 that has been made in the work of preserving its event- 
 ful history." 
 
 The Tuberculosis Sanitarium Founded (1909). 
 
 This institution was created by an act of the General 
 Assembly approved May 31, 1909. An appropriation of 
 $50,000 for a site and buildings and $30,000 for main- 
 tenance during the ensuing two years was made. Con- 
 trol of the sanitarium was placed in the hands of a board 
 of trustees, to consist of six persons appointed by the 
 governor, two of whom were to be practicing physicians. 
 A site was selected on a ridge in the foothills of the Mag- 
 azine Mountains, about four and a half miles southeast 
 of Booneville, at an elevation of about one thousand feet 
 above sea level. The General Assembly has been con- 
 sistently liberal in its biennial appropriations of funds 
 for the maintenance of the institution. 
 
 The Arkansas State Flag Adopted (1913). 
 
 Governor Joe T. Robinson approved February 26, 
 1913, "Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 11", adopting 
 an oflBcial state flag. The movement for a state flag be- 
 
166 High Lights 
 
 gan early in the year 1912, when the Pine Bluff Chapter, 
 Daughters of the American Revolution, voted to present 
 the new Battleship Arkansas with a stand of colors, con- 
 sisting of a United States flag, a naval battalion flag and 
 an Arkansas state flag. The regent of the chapter ap- 
 pointed a committee to obtain a copy of the state's offi- 
 cial flag. This committee wrote to the secretary of state, 
 who replied that Arkansas had no official flag. The com- 
 mittee then prepared and published in the leading news- 
 papers of the state an article asking artists and design- 
 ers — especially those living in Arkansas — to submit de- 
 signs for a state flag to a committee which would select 
 the one deemed most appropriate. All designs were to 
 be sent to the secretary of state, who was authorized to 
 name the committee of selection. The first committee met 
 at the Hotel Marion, in Little Rock, early in January, 
 1913, but failed to select a design. A second committee, 
 from sixty-five designs submitted, selected the one made 
 by Miss Willie K. Hocker, of Pine Blutf. The flag is a 
 rectangular field of red, on which is placed a large white 
 diamond, bordered by a wide band of blue — national col- 
 ors. Across the diamond is the word 'Arkansas' and 
 three blue stars, one above, two below the word. On 
 the blue band are placed twenty-five stars. The design- 
 er's explanation of the reasons for the design shows that 
 it was meant to typify a number of important events in 
 Arkansas history. The national colors were used be- 
 cause Arkansas is one of the United States. The three 
 blue stars upon the w^hite diamond represent the three 
 nations — France, Spain and the United States — which 
 have successively exercised dominion over Arkansas; 
 • they also indicate that Arkansas was the third state to 
 be erected in the territory acquired by the Louisiana 
 Purchase. The twenty-five stars in the blue band show 
 that Arkansas was the twenty-fifth state in the order of 
 admission into the Union. It came into the Union with 
 Michigan, which fact is shown by the two stars close to- 
 gether at the lower angle of the band. The diamond 
 
Arkansas History 167 
 
 was selected because Arkansas has the only known dia- 
 mond bearing deposits in the United States. 
 
 Arkansas at the Panama-Pacific Exposition (1915). 
 
 In the summer of 1915 the Panama-Pacific Exposi- 
 tion was held in San Francisco to celebrate the comple- 
 tion of the Panama Canal. The General Assembly of 
 Arkansas in 1913 failed to make an appropriation for a 
 state exhibit, and to wait until the next meeting of the 
 legislature, which fell in 1915, would be too late to make 
 the necessary preparations. Governor Geo. W. Hays 
 called a meeting of citizens in Little Rock for February 
 12, 1914, in order to take the necessary steps for having 
 Arkansas suitably represented. That meeting was unan- 
 imous in its sentiment that a fund must be raised and 
 a collection of the state 's natural and artificial resources 
 should be sent to San Francisco. The history of the Ar- 
 kansas exhibit can not, perhaps, be better told than in 
 the words of Governor Chas. H. Brough's message to the 
 legislature of 1921 : 
 
 ''Early in 1914 many of the representative citizens 
 of our state met in Little Rock and requested Gov. Geo. 
 W. Hays to use his efforts to see that Arkansas was rep- 
 resented at the Panama-Pacific Exposition. Many vol- 
 unteered large contributions and it was thought that the 
 whole plan could be carried out without calling on the 
 state for an appropriation. However, the industrial de- 
 pression from which the entire country suffered in the 
 summer of 1914, as a result of the declaration of the 
 world's war, was such that private subscriptions could 
 not be relied on to finance an Arkansas exhibit. There- 
 upon, the commission appointed by the governor wrote 
 to all the representatives and senators elected to the 
 1915 General Assembly, asking them whether they would 
 agree to support an appropriation of $40,000 for the pur- 
 pose of exhibiting the resources of our state at San Fran- 
 cisco. Favorable replies were received from ninety sen 
 ators and representatives, stating that they would sup 
 
168 High Lights 
 
 port the bill to appropriate $40,000 for that purpose. 
 Upon receipt of what was thought to be the necessary 
 number of pledges, Governor Hays requested some rep- 
 resentative citizens to lend their credit, in the shape of 
 a note of $500 each, payable March 1, 1915. * * * • 
 The bill appropriating the $40,000 was passed by a two- 
 thirds majority of the senate of the General Assembly 
 of 1915 and only lacked one vote of having a two-thirds 
 majority in the house. The appropriation was contested 
 on the ground that it would require a two-thirds majority 
 of each house, and our Supreme Court held that because 
 the bill lacked one vote of the necessary two-thirds in the 
 house, it had failed to become a law. 
 
 **I presented this matter to the General Assembly 
 of 1917 and it received the necessary two-thirds majority 
 in the senate, but failed again in the house. The ques- 
 tion was again brought to the attention of the General 
 Assembly of 1919, passed the Senate by a vote of 28 to 0, 
 and received more than two-thirds majority of those 
 present and voting in the house, but not a two-thirds 
 majority of the entire membership. The Supreme Court 
 sustained the opinion of the attorney-general that an ex- 
 traordinary appropriation of this character required a 
 two-thirds membership vote of each house and the citi- 
 zens of our state, w^ho acted from such patriotic motives 
 in 1915, will lose $24,194 which was advanced for the 
 honor of our state, unless legislative relief is given." 
 
 With the funds raised by private subscription and 
 the notes given by citizens, a capacious building was 
 erected at San Francisco, and a representative collec- 
 tion of Arkansas products was in position when the ex- 
 position opened. The General Assembly of 1921 failed 
 to make an appropriation to pay the $24,194 mentioned 
 by Governor Brough, and it is quite probable that the 
 whole subject will be presented to future legislatures. 
 
Arkansas History 169 
 
 An Arkansas Song Officially Adopted (1917). 
 
 The General Assembly, by ' ' Senate Concurrent Res- 
 olution No. 6," adopted, January 12, 1917, the song "Ar- 
 kansas" as the official state song. The resolution is as 
 follows : 
 
 Whereas, Arkansas has never adopted officially a 
 State Song, and 
 
 Whereas, "Arkansas" is recognized by almost all 
 the schools of the state as the State Song, 
 
 Therefore, Be it resolved by the Senate, the House 
 concurring therein, that the song "Arkansas" by Mrs. 
 Eva Ware Barnett be adopted as the State Song. 
 
 Arkansas in the World War (1917-1918). 
 
 The United States, by joint resolution of Congress, 
 made a formal declaration of war against Germany April 
 6, 1917. One of the first official acts on the part of Ar- 
 kansas in support of the war was that performed by 
 Governor Charles H. Brough, agreeable to the request 
 of President Woodrow Wilson, in the appointment of a 
 state council of defense, to cooperate with the National 
 Council of Defense and the National Government in the 
 prosecution of the war. The work of the state council 
 embraced the organization of a campaign of education 
 for the directing of public opinion; the providing of 
 chairmen for the food, fuel and employment administra- 
 tions ; the organization of the several Liberty Loan cam- 
 paigns. To raise a national army, instead of relying 
 upon the traditional plan of recruiting an army by mus- 
 tering volunteers. Congress passed the Selective Service 
 Law, which became effective May 19, 1917. On registra- 
 tion day, June 5, 1917, of the thousands subject to reg- 
 istration in Arkansas, there were but 600 in all the state, 
 of a total of 149,627 men subject to draft as being be- 
 tween the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one years, who 
 failed to register. Later, under the supplementary act 
 
170 High Lights 
 
 of Congress of August 31, 1918, extending the draft to 
 include those between the ages of eighteen and forty-five 
 years, there were registered in Arkansas a total of 
 199,857. Of these, 51,858 were actually inducted into 
 service. Besides, Arkansas furnished its National Guard 
 of three regiments. The latter were trained at Camp 
 Beauregard, Louisiana, where they were mustered into 
 the service of the United States. The First Arkansas 
 Infantry (National Guard) became the One Hundred 
 and Fifty-third regiment in the National Army; the Sec- 
 ond Lifantry became the One Hundred and Forty-second 
 Field Artillery ; and the Third Infantry formed the basis 
 of the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Infantry and the 
 One Hundred and Forty-first Machine Gun Battalion. 
 All were attached to the Thirty-ninth Division. The first 
 unit of the division arrived in France on August 12, 1918, 
 and the last on September 12, 1918. As soon as it became 
 known that the war department intended to establish a 
 number of training camps, or cantonments, the Board of 
 Commerce of Little Rock took the necessary steps to se- 
 cure the location of one of the cantonments near the city. 
 The Army Post Development Company was organized 
 with a capital stock of $300,000; which company, com- 
 posed of the leading business men of Little Rock and 
 North Little Rock, bought and consolidated a number of 
 small farms and offered the Government 3,000 acres of 
 land in fee simple for the cantonment. In addition to 
 this, indeterminate leases on 10,000 acres adjoining were 
 obtained and turned over to the Government. On June 
 11, 1917, the war department announced that Little Rock 
 had been selected as one of the sites for training camps, 
 and that $3,500,000 had been appropriated for the con- 
 struction of the necessary buildings, etc. On June 23, 
 the contract was awarded to James Stewart & Company, 
 of New York and St. Louis. Maj. John R. Fordyce was 
 selected to superintend the work as construction quarter- 
 master. The cantonment was named Camp Pike, for 
 Brig.-Gen. Zebulon M. Pike, who, as a lieutenant in the 
 regular army, explored the Mississippi River to its 
 
Arkansas History 171 
 
 source soon after, the Louisiana Purchase, and later led 
 an expedition into the Southwest, discovering and nam- 
 ing Pike 's Peak in Colorado. It was at Camp Pike that 
 the Eighty-Seventh division, composed of drafted men 
 from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi was 
 organized and trained. Accepting the offer of the peo- 
 ple of Lonoke to furnish a tract of 960 acres, rent free, 
 the Government in November, 1917, began the establish- 
 ment of an Aviation Field near that town. Following 
 the custom of the war department of naming aviation 
 schools or camps for flyers killed in service, the Lonoke 
 camp was named for Capt. Melchior M. Eberts, who was 
 killed while making an exhibition flight at Columbus, 
 New Mexico, on May 8, 1917. Twenty-three young men 
 of Arkansas were among the first to enter this aviation 
 school to prepare themselves for the air service abroad, 
 but the armistice was signed before any of them were 
 actually inducted into service. In addition to the avia- 
 tion field at Lonoke, the Government expended about one 
 million dollars on an aviation warehouse and the devel- 
 opment of the picric acid plant at Little Rock, though 
 neither was completed in time to be of service before the 
 armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. The follow- 
 ing table, shows the whole number of men furnished by 
 Arkansas for acutal service: 
 
 In the United States army 66,437 
 
 In the navy and marine corps 5,359 
 
 In the coast guard 66 
 
 Of these, there were killed in action, 292; died of 
 wounds, 112; wounded in line of duty, 1,751; died of 
 disease, 417; accidental deaths, 16; committed suicide, 
 1; drowned, 2; murdered, 3; died from other known 
 causes, 8; cause of death undetermined, 27; captured, 24; 
 missing (presumed to be dead), 7. The total casualties 
 sustained was 2,660. This total, however, does not in- 
 clude those who died in camps in the United States. 
 
172 High Lights 
 
 A New Constitution Framed (1918). 
 
 Agreeable to an act of the General Assembly of 1917, 
 an election was held on Tuesday, June 26, 1917, for the 
 choosing of delegates to a constitutional convention. The 
 representation in the convention was so fixed by the act 
 calling it as to give each county the same number of del- 
 egates that it had members in the lower house of the As- 
 sembly besides these each congressional district was 
 given two delegates at large. The convention met on 
 November 19, 1917, the time fixed by the convention act 
 of the General Assembly, and organized by electing T. 
 M. Mehaffy president. Committees were appointed to 
 draft the various articles of a new constitution and the 
 convention adjourned to meet the following July. At 
 that time — July, 1918 — the work of combining the reports 
 of the committees occupied but a comparatively short 
 time and the new constitution was ordered to be sub- 
 mitted to the people at a special election on December 
 14, 1918. Persons versed in the science of civil govern- 
 ment regarded the new constitution as being far more 
 modern, more liberal and more democratic than the con- 
 stitution of 1874, but the voters, it seems, took a differ- 
 ent view. At the election there were but 23,782 votes cast 
 in favor of its adoption, with 38,897 cast against it. 
 
 The Girls' Industrial School Opened (1919). 
 
 The act of the General Assembly of 1917, which pro- 
 vided for the removal of the Boys' Industrial School to 
 a more suitable site, carried also an appropriation of 
 $9,000 for a Girls' Industrial School— $3,000 for the sal- 
 aries of teachers, $5,000 for maintenance, and $1,000 for 
 buildings. The building allowance was purposely made 
 small, as it was intended that the old buildings of the 
 State Reform School should be occupied. The governor 
 was authorized to appoint a board of managers, con- 
 sisting of three women and two men. Circumstances 
 were such as to render it impracticable to use the build- 
 ings of the old Reform School, and, in 1918, a campaign 
 
Arkansas History 173 
 
 was started to raise $100,000 ''for a Girls' Industrial 
 School and Women's Reformatory." Tlie full amount 
 was subscribed and $55,000 was realized in actual cash. 
 Congressman T. H. Caraway obtained an appropriation 
 of $50,000 from the United States Government. In Jan- 
 uary, 1919, an ideal location of 200 acres in Saline county, 
 only nineteen miles from Little Rock, was purchased and 
 the school was opened in the little dwelling already on 
 the place. 
 
 The Arkansas State Farm for Women 
 Established (1919). 
 
 Governor Charles H. Brough approved March 28, 
 1919, an act of the General Assembly providing for the 
 establishment of a state reformatory for women, to be 
 known as the ' ' Arkansas State Farm for Women. ' ' The 
 act provided for the appointment by the governor of nine 
 directors, five of whom should be women. These direc- 
 tors were authorized to purchase a fai*m of not less than 
 120 acres to * ' include woodland and tillable pasture, with 
 a natural water supply, and be located reasonably near 
 some railroad". The act appropriated $5,500 for sal- 
 aries and $4,500 for maintenance. The directors ac- 
 quired 185 acres about two and a half miles from Jack- 
 sonville, in the northeastern part of Pulaski County, the 
 location being convenient to the main line of the Mis- 
 souri Pacific Railroad. The purchase was made in 1919, 
 though the institution was not opened until early in the 
 year 1920. 
 
 Oil Discovered in Arkansas (1920). 
 
 The first production of oil in commercial quantities 
 in Arkansas came from what is known as the ** Hunter 
 Discovery Well", near Stephens, Ouachita County, late 
 in the year 1920. This well, with leases on several thou- 
 sand acres of land, was promptly taken over by the 
 Standard Oil Company. The second oil well was drilled 
 by the White Oil Corporation about eight miles south- 
 
174 High Lights 
 
 west of El Dorado. It ''came in" on December 23, 1920, 
 with a daily flow of twenty-five barrels. But the Arkan- 
 sas oil boom really had its beginning with the completion 
 of the Mitchell & Busey well, which ' ' came in " on Janu- 
 ary 10, 1921, with a daily production estimated at ten 
 thousand barrels. Arkansas first appeared in the reports 
 of the United States Geological Survey as an oil produc- 
 ing state in March, 1921, with 10,000 barrels as the 
 monthly output. On July 1, 1921, Arkansas stood sev- 
 enth in the list of the oil producing states, being exceeded 
 only by California, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas 
 and Wyoming. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Arkansas, first American child born in 12 
 
 Attached to Territory of Indiana 16 
 
 Made part of Territory of Louisiana 17 
 
 And Missouri Compromise 34 
 
 Admission to the Union planned 59 
 
 Convention to frame state constitution 62 
 
 Twenty-fifth state admitted to the Union 67 
 
 Furnished block of marble for Washington monument 92 
 
 Secession of 101 
 
 Admitted to the Confederacy 103 
 
 Confederate State Government surrendered 116 
 
 Confederate women of 118 
 
 Confederate Generals of 117 
 
 State debt funded 124 
 
 University established 126 
 
 Spanish-American War 153 
 
 State flag 165 
 
 State song 169 
 
 World War 169 
 
 Arkansas county, created 25 
 
 Arkansas, District of, formed 18 
 
 Civil government organized in 18 
 
 Arkansas Post, permanent settlement and growth 10 
 
 As it was in 1765 11 
 
 Founder of St. Louis one of first merchants at 11 
 
 Post office at 24 
 
 Arkansas, Territory of, how it got its name 25 
 
 Created 27 
 
 Origin and pronunciation of 25 
 
 Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs, formed 152 
 
 "Arkansas Traveler", how it originated 82 
 
 Banks, the Real Estate, history 71 
 
 The State, history 73 
 
 Holford Bonds repudiated I44 
 
 Banker's Association organized i4g 
 
 Bank bonds bought by United States paid 150 
 
I N D E X— Continued 
 
 Baptists, built first church house 43 
 
 Bar Association, organized 141 
 
 Barraqua, Antoine, and removal of Quapaws 42 
 
 Battles, Oak Hill, 103; Elk Horn, first in Arkansas, 104; Prairie 
 Grove, 107; Arkansas Post, 108; Helena 109; Capture of 
 Little Rock, 110; Poison Spring, 114; Marks' Mill, 115; 
 Jenkins' Ferry, 115; Price Raid, 115. 
 
 Bauxite, discovered 146 
 
 Blind School, school for blind established 98 
 
 Bounty lands, soldiers of 1812 21 
 
 Bowie knife, history of 54 
 
 Boy's Industrial school, established 160 
 
 Brooks-Baxter War, history of 129 
 
 Catholic Church, granted land at Arkansas Post 9 
 
 Diocese of Little Rock established 85 
 
 Claiborne, Win. C. C, first American Governor of Louisiana 14 
 
 Coal, first mined 81 
 
 College, first on Arkansas soil 61 
 
 Colonial Dames, organized 155 
 
 Confederacy, Arkansas Troops transferred to 104 
 
 Surrender of State Government 116 
 
 General officers furnished by Arkansas 117 
 
 Arkansas women in 118 
 
 Soldier's home 147 
 
 Confederate Soldier's Home, established 147 
 
 Constitutional Convention, first move to frame constitution 62 
 
 Delegates to first 65 
 
 First convention met in Little Rock 66 
 
 Constitution of 1836 re-established 112 
 
 Constitution of 1868 120 
 
 Constitution of 1874 133 
 
 Constitution of 1918 172 
 
 Conway, James S., inaugurated first Governor 71 
 
 Crockett, David, in Little Rock 65 
 
 Daughters of 1812, the United States, organized 161 
 
 D. A. R., organized 150 
 
 Davidsonville, first post office ; 24 
 
 Deaf Mute In?titute, established 121 
 
I N D E X— Continued 
 
 De Soto, Hernando, first explorer 5 
 
 Diamonds, discovered 161 
 
 Dodd, David O., executed as a spy 112 
 
 Duels, first in Arkansas 35 
 
 The Crittenden-Conviray duel 48 
 
 Last in Arkansas 110 
 
 Dwight Mission founded 36 
 
 Earthquake, the New Madrid 19 
 
 Elections, first general 29 
 
 First state 69 
 
 Electric lights, first in state 146 
 
 Episcopalians, Arkansas a mission of the Episcopal church 76 
 
 Expositions, Centennial, 1876 135 
 
 Columbian, 1893 - 149 
 
 Louisiana Purchase, 1904 159 
 
 Panama-Pacific, 1915 167 
 
 Farm for Women, established 173 
 
 Ferries, first ferry boat 75 
 
 Flag, State adopted 165 
 
 Fort Roots, established 69 
 
 Fort Smith, early history; incorporated 84 
 
 France, ceded Louisiana to Spain 10 
 
 Acquired Louisiana of Spain 13 
 
 Sold Louisiana to United States 13 
 
 Gas, natural, discovered 157 
 
 Gazette, the Arkansas, first newspaper 28 
 
 General Assembly, first 30 
 
 First State 70 
 
 Geological survey, first 97 
 
 Girls' Industrial school, opened , 172 
 
 Grant, U. S., first Ex-President to visit state 139 
 
 Helena, first settlement on site of 13 
 
 Had first saw mill in Territory 44 
 
 History Commisssion, established 163 
 
 Historical Association, formed 158 
 
 Holford bonds, repudiated 144 
 
 Horticulture, Society of formed 137 
 
I X D E X— Continued 
 
 Hot Springs, visited by De Soto 6 
 
 Land titles; first bath house; made reservation 55 
 
 Capital removed to 106 
 
 Made National Park 136 
 
 Indians, Cherokee, lands ceded to in Arkansas 24 
 
 Osage treaty 18 
 
 First Quapaw Treaty 24 
 
 Cession to Choctaws, 1820 37 
 
 Quapaws ceded all their lands 41 
 
 Insane Asylum, established 142 
 
 Joliet, Louis, discovered Indian village "Arkansae" 6 
 
 Knights of Pythias, first lodge 128 
 
 Ku Klux Klan 128 
 
 Lady Baxter, history of 183 
 
 LaSalle, Robert Cavalier Sieur de, visited Indian village 
 
 "Arkansae" 7 
 
 Law, John, his colony 9 
 
 Legislature, the first 28 
 
 Libraries, first public 85 
 
 Little Rock, post office at , 24 
 
 Laid off for a town 31 
 
 Dispute over land titles 31 
 
 First sermon at 37 
 
 Name changed to Arkopolis 88 
 
 Made capital 39 
 
 First church house in 43 
 
 Incorporated a town 58 
 
 First theatrical performance 62 
 
 Incorporated a city 64 
 
 David Crockett at 65 
 
 Arsenal begun 68 
 
 Streets lighted by gas 99 
 
 First train to 105 
 
 Captured by Federals 110 
 
 First street railway 125 
 
 Water works in ;___ 143 
 
 Electric lights in 146 
 
I N D E X— ContiTiued 
 
 Louisiana, named and made possession of France 7 
 
 Louisiana Territory, name changed to Missouri Territory 7 
 
 Loveley, county of, "lost" 47 
 
 Loveley Purchase, history 47 
 
 Manufactures, first cotton factory 97 
 
 Hemphill's salt works 19 
 
 Marquette, Jacques, discovered Indian villages "Arkansae" 6 
 
 Masons, first lodge of.. 29 
 
 Grand lodge organized 77 
 
 Methodism, beginnings of 22 
 
 Medical society, organized 125 
 
 Mexican War, response of Arkansas 86 
 
 Ambrose H. Sevier, peace commissioner 89 
 
 Military Roads, first move to open, etc., 40 
 
 Mining, beginning of coal mining „ 81 
 
 Missouri Compromise, effect on Arkansas 34 
 
 Missouri Territory, how it got the name 21 
 
 New Madrid, earthquake 19 
 
 Newspapers, Arkansas Gazette established 28 
 
 Second newspaper established, Arkansas Herald, 39 
 
 Press Association 128 
 
 Odd Fellows, first lodge of 81 
 
 Grand Lodge organized 92 
 
 Oil, discovered 173 
 
 Penitentiary, established, history 77 
 
 Pike, Albert, his address, opening night of first theatre 80 
 
 Post Offices, Davidsonville, Arkansas Post and Little Rock.... 24 
 
 Presbyterians, beginnings of Church 20 
 
 Press Association, organized 128 
 
 Railroads, first incorporated.. 98 
 
 First trains in and out of Little Rock 105 
 
 Public lands granted Cairo and Fulton 95 
 
 First street railway 125 
 
 Reconstruction, martial law declared 122 
 
 End of 134 
 
 Rose, U. M., Ambassador to the Hague Peace Conference 162 
 
 Saw mill, first in Arkansas Territory 44 
 
 School lands, history of; first attempt to establish public schools.. 51 
 Schools, public, established 119 
 
I N D E X— Continued 
 
 Secession, how Arkansas seceded 101 
 
 Seminary lands, history of grant 45 
 
 Sevier, Ambrose H., peace commissioner to Mexico 89 
 
 Smithsonian Institution, bonds paid 150 
 
 Spanish-American War, Arkansas in 153 
 
 Spain, acquired Louisiana 10 
 
 Traded Louisiana to France 13 
 
 State line, first in Territory 44 
 
 State Capitol, the new, corner stone laid; history of .-. 155 
 
 State, flag-, adopted 165 
 
 State flower, 157 
 
 State house, the old, the Ten Section Land Grant; history of... 57 
 
 State song, adopted 169 
 
 Steamboats, "Comet" at Arkansas Post .— 36 
 
 "Eagle" at Little Rock 40 
 
 St. John's College founded; history of 90 
 
 St. Louis, founder of died at Arkansas Post 11 
 
 Telegraph, first line established 100 
 
 Telephones, first in state 138 
 
 Theatres, first theatrical performance 62 
 
 First professional opened 78 
 
 Tonti, Henri de, founder of first settlement in Arkansas 8 
 
 Tuberculosis Sanitarium, founded 165 
 
 U. D. C, organized 152 
 
 United States, purchased Louisiana 13 
 
 Took formal possession of Louisiana at New Orleans 15 
 
 Upper Louisiana transferred to, at St. Louis 15 
 
 State bonds paid 150 
 
 University of Arkansas, established 126 
 
 Valliere, Don Joseph, commander at Arkansas Post. 12 
 
 War of 1812, bounty lands for soliders of 21 
 
 Washburn, Cephas, preached first sermon at Little Rock 37 
 
 Washington, Arkansas, capital removed to Ill 
 
 Washington Monument, state furnished block of marble for 92 
 
 Water works, first municipal 143 
 
 Weather Bureau, first station established 138 
 
 Western boundary, South of Arkansas river 42 
 
 North of Arkansas river 50 
 
 World War, Arkansas in 169 
 
 Yell, Archibald, at battle of Buena Vista 88 
 
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