USA > Arkansas > A pictorial history of Arkansas, from earliest times to the year 1890. A full and complete account, embracing the Indian tribes occupying the country; the early French and Spanish explorers and governors; the colonial period; the Louisiana purchase; the periods of the territory, the state, the civil war, and the subsequent period. Also, an extended history of each county in the order of formation, and of the principal cities and towns; together with biographical notices of distinguished and prominent citizens > Part 13
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
in the Territory up to 1830, and was the organ of the Demo- crats as against the Whigs, so long as it remained in Mr. Woodruff's control. He continued to edit it until 1838, when he sold it to Edward Cole, but in 1841 it reverted to him. He sold it again, in 1843, to Benjamin J. Borden, and retired from the printing business, and went out of politics.
In the year 1846, however, he established the "Arkansas Democrat," with John E. Knight as one of the editorial staff. In 1850, the Gazette having been sold by its owner to Dr. A. W. Webb, and being about to suspend publication, Mr. Woodruff bought it, and consolidated the two papers under the name of the "Arkansas Gazette and Democrat," but soon dropped "Democrat" out of the name, and took up the old name with which it was originally established. During the time it had been out of his possession it had been the organ of the Whig party. On the consolidation of the two papers, John E. Knight withdrew, and Alden M. Woodruff, the eldest of Mr. Woodruff's sons, became associate editor. In March, 1853, Mr. Woodruff sold the paper to C. C. Danley, and re- tired permanently from the newspaper business. After giv- ing up printing, he became an active and successful real es- tate agent, and was, also, United States Pension Agent for many years. On the Ist of October, 1836, upon the admis- sion of the State into the Union, he was elected State Treas- urer, and served as such to November 20th, 1838.
On the 14th of November, 1827, at Little Rock, he was married to Jane Eliza Mills, who was born at Louisville, Kentucky, February 10th, 1810. His family consisted of eleven children, of whom three sons and five daughters sur- vived him. He died at Little Rock, June 19th, 1885, in the 90th year of his age. From his unswerving integrity and perfect uprightness of character he possessed the esteem and respect of every one. His aged wife, also, survived him, but died March, 1887, aged 77 years. His five daughters surviv- ing him are Mrs. C. R. Vaughan, Mrs. Mary Bell, Mrs. John
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FROM 1819 TO 1825.
Jabine, Mrs. Joseph A. Martin, and Miss Georgine Wood- ruff ; and his sons are Alden M. Woodruff, William E. Woodruff, Jr., the present State Treasurer-having been such since January 12th, 1881-and Chester A. Wood- ruff, the youngest of the family. In the different families there are over twenty grand-children.
Judge Daniel T. Witter, in an article written in 1873, re- lates the following concerning the establishment of the Ga- zette at the Post, to-wit :
"In November, 1819, I set out from St. Louis, Mo., where I was then living, to go to a point on the Arkansas river, then known as 'The Little Rock,' which in those days was always spoken of with the definite article 'the' before it, to distin- guish it from the Big Rock, a few miles higher up the river. On the evening of the 20th of December, 1819, a large keel- boat from St. Louis, bound for Fort Smith, laden principally with provisions for the troops at that place, and on which your correspondent was a passenger, entered the Arkansas river on its destination upwards. The waters of the Arkan- sas had never been disturbed, at that time, by the wheels of a steamboat. Progressing slowly up stream, as was usual in those days, on the evening of the 25th of December we reached the Post of Arkansas, then the seat of Government of the Territory. Finding. the water too low to proceed any farther till a rise in the river, we were compelled to wait there several days . Loafing about the village, I, one day, made the acquaintance of a Dr. Kay, then a resident of the Post. Among other things, he told me that a young man from New York had arrived there a few weeks before with a printing press, and had commenced the publication of a weekly newspaper, called the ‘Arkansas Gazette.' He kindly proposed that I should walk with him to the printing office, and he would introduce me to the new editor. I gladly accepted the proposition and went with him, and on entering
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
he introduced me to his friend, Mr. Woodruff-the same lit- tle, old, white-haired gentleman you often see in the streets of Little Rock, apparently as active and as brisk now as he was then-fifty-four years ago. Between the parties thus intro- duced there sprung up a friendship, a confidence and inti- macy, that has existed to the present hour, and which, I trust, will beeternal. Mr. Woodruff was at that time the sole editor, compositor, clerk and devil of the office, and had no assist- ance in either department. He occupied a small, French- built house of two rooms, the largest of which was probably eighteen or twenty feet square. In this room he had his type cases, his editor's table, his stove and his bed, with the other necessary paraphernalia of a sleeping room and printing of- fice ; in the other, a much smaller room, was his printing press, fixtures and appurtenances. On taking leave, Mr. Woodruff very politely invited me to call as often as my en- gagements would permit, and as I had no engagements on hand at that time, I called very frequently. Stepping in one day, I found him engaged at the press in the little room, I seated myself at his table and looked over his exchanges. I saw at my entrance, that he had a young man assisting him at the press, and supposed he was some printer on a tramp, who had fallen in for a job. They soon worked off the form, washed and entered the room where I was sitting. On en- tering, Mr. Woodruff introduced Mr. Roane to my acquain- tance, who, after sitting a few moments, rose and retired. I
asked Mr. Woodruff where he picked up this pressman. He told me he was not a printer, but a lawyer that occasionally assisted him at the press. A lawyer, thought I. It was, Mr. Editor, the late Judge Sam. C. Roane, who afterwards ac- quired fortune and fame by a strict attention to his own bus- iness. The Judge was more seedy in appearance, at that time, than any one I had ever known with a lawyer's license in his pocket. In fact 'Old Grimes,' so famous in song and
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FROM 1819 TO 1825.
story, would have appeared a perfect Beau Nash in his pres- ence. In our subsequent associations, the Judge and I had many a hearty laugh over our first interview. Judge Roane subsequently held several high and important offices and po- sitions, discharging the same with ability and fidelity, and thereby securing for himself the respect and applause of his fellow-citizens. The Judge died a few years ago, leaving a large estate to his widow and children, the fruit of his toils and labors. But I must go back to my friend Woodruff. He still remained for some time the 'man of all work' in the Gazette office, and persevering, triumphed over many difficulties and embarrassments, and with but little official 'aid or comfort,' succeeded in placing the Gazette high in the con- fidence and respect of its patrons, as well as his contempo- raries of the press throughout the country. Indeed, within two or three years after its first establishment, Mr. Hezekiah Niles, of Niles' Register, then published in Baltimore, pro- nounced the Arkansas Gazette the best conducted paper west of the Mississippi river ; a high compliment indeed, as Mr. Niles was then the admitted chief of American journalists."
One of Mr. Crittenden's early acts as acting Governor was to issue a proclamation declaring the Territory of Arkansas to be one of the second grade of Government, and directing an election for Delegate to Congress to be held. This act was duly legalized by an Act of Congress on the subject. The election took place on the 20th day of November, 1819. The candi- dates were James Woodson Bates, Henry Cassidy, Alex. S. Walker, Perley Wallis and R. F. Slaughter. An extremely light vote was polled, only 102 votes in all. Of these James Woodson Bates received 84 votes, Henry Cassidy 10, Alex. S. Walker 8, Perley Wallis and R. F. Slaughter none. Mr. Bates thus became the first Delegate to Congress from Arkan- sas Territory. He was born in Goochland county, Virginia, about 1788. He was a brother of Frederick Bates, Secretary
12
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
of Missouri Territory, and followed his brother to St. Louis, where he settled in 1816. In 1819, on the creation of the Territory, he moved to Arkansas, and was at once elected to Congress. In 1823 he moved to the newly established town of Batesville, which was named after him. In 1825 Presi- dent Adams appointed him Judge of the Superior Court. In 1830, after his term as Judge had expired, he moved to Craw- ford county, and lived on a farm near Van Buren. He was a Member of the Constitutional Convention of 1836, and was Register of the Land Office at Clarksville. He died in Craw- ford county in 1846.
Mr. Bates had previously (August 3d, 1819) been appointed Judge of the First Circuit, composed of the Counties of Ar- kansas and Lawrence, but resigned to become a candidate for Congress, and Stephen F. Austin, late of Missouri Territory, was appointed his successor July 10th, 1820. Judge Austin held court one term, and resigned in the autumn of 1820, being succeeded by Richard Searcy, November 11th, 1820. Neill McLean, of Kentucky, was appointed August 25th, 1819, Judge of the Second or Southern Circuit, composed of the Counties of Pulaski, Clark and Hempstead. He served from this date until December 10th, 1820, when he resigned, and was succeeded by Thomas P. Eskridge, of Staunton, Virginia.
On the 26th of December, 1819, Governor Miller reached the Territory and assumed the duties of Governor, which up to that time had been discharged by Robert Crittenden, as acting Governor.
Judge Witter, who was an eye-witness of the occur- rence, thus describes Governor Miller's arrival, and some of those who accompanied him: "On the evening of the 20th of December, 1819, a large keel-boat from St. Louis, bound for Fort Smith, laden principally with provisions for the troops at that place, and on which I was a passenger, entered the Arkansas river on its destination upwards. The waters of
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FROM 1819 TO 1825.
the Arkansas had not at that time been disturbed by the wheels of a steamboat. Progressing slowly up the stream, as was usual in those days, on the evening of the 25th of Decem- ber we reached the Post of Arkansas, then the seat of Govern- ment of the Territory. Finding the water too low to proceed any farther till a rise in the river, we were compelled to wait there several days.
"The day after our arrival at the Post, Gen. James Miller, the hero of Lundy's Lane and Fort Erie, and who had been appointed by President Monroe Governor of the Territory, ar- rived at that place to enter upon the discharge of the duties of said office. He came up the river in a splendidly fitted up barge, with a large and well finished cabin, having most of the conveniences of modern steamboats. This boat had been fitted up, manned and furnished by the U. S. Govern- ment expressly for his use. On the after-part of the cabin, on both sides, her name, 'Arkansaw,' was inscribed in large gilt letters. She had a tall mast, from which floated a magnifi- cent national banner, with the word 'Arkansaw' in large letters in the center, and the words 'I'll try, Sir !' the motto of the regiment he commanded at Lundy's Lane, interspersed in several places. The Governor had with him some of his old army friends as well as several young gentlemen princi- pally from the North, who were disposed to try their fortunes in the wilds'of Arkansaw.
"Of the former class was Major Noah Lester, then late of the U. S. Army, who had distinguished himself for his gal- lantry on several occasions in the war with Great Britain. Major Lester died at Little Rock the ensuing summer, and was the first person that died and the first buried at that place.
"Of the same class, also, was Captain - Spencer, of the Army, who had been one of Major-General Brown's Aides dur- ing his brilliant campaign on the Niagara frontier, in 1813 and 1814. Capt. Spencer was a nephew of Chief Justice
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
Spencer of the Supreme Court of New York. He had his wife with him, a very interesting and accomplished lady. He was the first sheriff of Phillips county, having been appointed to that office by Governor Miller.
"Of the latter class was Samuel Dinsmore, of New Hamp- shire, and Rufus P. Spalding, of Connecticut, two young men of promising talents, who formed a co-partnership in the practice of law, but both getting sick the ensuing summer, went North, and neither returned again. Dinsmore, a few years later, was Governor of New Hampshire. Spalding subse- quently settled in Ohio, and soon became a distinguished man in the State, was elected several times to Congress, and, I believe, is still residing in Ohio.
"There were, also, Ferdinand Morgan and Dr. James W. Mason, both of Massachusetts. Both went to Louisiana and settled in Ouachita parish. Morgan became a large cotton planter, a State Senator, and General of the Militia, and was afterwards killed at Monroe, by Stirling, whilst engaged in a street fight with another man. Mason, after marrying in Louisiana, was engaged in planting and merchandising for several years; amassed a fortune; raised a family, which he left in affluence, and died several years ago.
"Among others of that Company was David Miller. Everybody on the Arkansaw river in early times knew Dave. He was a generous, whole-souled fellow, full of energy, enter- prise and fun. He married a daughter of Bill Montgomery, at the mouth of White river, and was one of the first and most successful steamboatmen on the Arkansas. He died several years since."
During the year 1820 the following appointments are noted in the files of the Gazette, to-wit :
By the President: William Douglas Simms, of Alexan- dria, Virginia, to be Register of the Land Office at Arkansas, in Arkansas ; Henry W. Conway to be Receiver of Public Mon- eys at the same place ; Hartwell Boswell to be Register of the
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FROM 1819 TO 1825.
Land Office for the District of Lawrence, in Arkansas ; John Trimble, of Kentucky, to be Receiver of Public Moneys at the same place ; William Trimble to be U. S. District Attorney in Arkansas; Col. Joseph Selden, of the Army, late of Vir- ginia, to be a Judge of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Arkansas; Col. David Brearly to be Agent for the Cherokee Indians.
By the Governor : Major S. B. Archer* to be Judge of the Circuit Court of the First Judicial Circuit. Col. Edmund Hogan to be Brigadier-General of the Militia of the State of Arkansas; Charles Brearly to be Judge of the Court of Com- mon Pleas in the County of Arkansas; R. P. Spalding and S. Dinsmoor, Aides de Camp to the Governor, April 8th, 1820.
Post offices established, and names of Postmasters: Cad- ron, Thomas H. Tindall, Postmaster ; Clark county, Jacob Barkman, Postmaster; Hempstead county, John English, Postmaster; White Run P. O., Peyton Tucker,¿ Postmaster.
The extent of settlement along the Arkansas river, at this date, will be seen by the following extracts from a Journal of Travels, made in the year 1819, by Thomas Nutall, Member of the Philosophical Society of the Academy of Natural Sci- ences ; Journal published in Philadelphia in 1821, to-wit :
"Coming along the bend of the 71 Island, we struck upon an enormous planter, or immovable log, but again escaped without accident. About noon we landed at Mr. McLane's, a house of entertainment. Here I was advised to proceed with my small cargo and flat-boat to the Post of Ozark, on the Arkansas, by the bayou which communicates between the White and Arkansas rivers.
(*) The name S. B. Archer here is believed to be a misprint for S. F. Austin. The name Archer does not appear in the State records as successor to Bates, but the name Austin does. Nor is the name Archer mentioned by Judge Witter, a contemporary, in his account of those times heretofore quoted.
(t) From Gazette of March 18th, 1820: "New Post office: Amos Wheeler is appointed Postmaster at Little Rock."
Same, April 8th, 1820: "Richard Searcy is appointed Postmaster at Davidsonville, Lawrence county."
Same, May 9th, 1820: "Colonel Edmund Hogan is appointed Postmaster at Crystal Hill, Pulaski county."
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
"February 14th. To-day we proceeded up White river with considerable difficulty and hard labor, the Mississippi not being sufficiently high to produce any eddy.
"15th. We continued with hard labor ascending White river to the bayou, said to enter seven miles up the stream. The latter proceeds from the bayou in a direction of west to northwest, the bayou or cut-off continuing to the southwest.
"In this distance there are no settlements, the land being overflowed by the back-water of the Mississippi. We passed nearly through the bayou, in which there are four high points of land; the current carrying us almost three miles an hour towards the Arkansa, which it entered nearly at right angles with a rapid current and a channel filled with snags. The length of the bayou appears to be about 8 or 9 miles.
"16th. Leaving the bayou we entered the Arkansa, which was very low, but still red and muddy from the freshet of the Canadian.
"18th. To-day we towed along two bars much more con- siderable than any preceding bends, but had the disappoint- ment to spend the night only a single mile below Madam Gordon's, the place of our destination, with the boats, and only sixteen miles above the bayou by which we entered the Arkansa. This house is the first which is met with in ascending the river. A mile and a half from Madam Gor- don's there was a settlement, consisting of four or five French families, situated upon an elevated tract of fertile land, which is occasionally insulated by the overflowings of the White and Arkansa rivers.
"On this side of the Arkansa, the floods cover the whole intermediate space to White river, a distance of 30 miles. Within this tract cultivation can never take place without re- course to the same industry which has reclaimed Holland from the ocean. The singular caprice of the river, as it acci- dentally seeks its way to the sea, meandering through the al- luvial valley, is truly remarkable. The variation of its channel
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FROM 1819 TO 1825.
is almost incredible, and the action which it exercises over the destiny of the soil can scarcely be conceived. After pur- suing a given course for many ages, and slowly encroaching, it has at length, in many instances, cut through an isthmus, and thus abandoned, perhaps, a course of six or eight miles, in which the water stagnates, at length becomes totally insu- lated, and thus presents a lagoon or lake. One of these insu- lated channels, termed a lake, commences two miles from hence and approaches within four miles of the Arkansas, or the Post of Ozark, offering a much nearer communication than the present course of the river.
"The town, or rather settlement, of the Post of Arkansas, was somewhat dispersed over a prairie nearly as elevated as that of the Chickasaw Bluffs, and containing in all 30 or 40 houses. The merchants there transact nearly all the business of the Arkansa and White river, where Messrs. Brahan & Drope, Mr. Lewis and Monsieur Notrebe, who kept well assorted stores of merchandise, supplied chiefly from New Orleans, with the exception of some heavy articles of domestic manufacture obtained from Pittsburgh.
"The improvement and settlement of this place proceeded slowly, owing, in some measure, as I am informed, to the uncertain titles of the neighboring lands. Several enormous Spanish grants remained still undecided. That of Messrs. Winters, of Natchez, called for no less than one million acres, but the Congress of the United States seems inclined to put in force a kind of agrarian law against such monopolizers ; had laid them, as I was told, under the stipulation of setting up on this immense tract a certain number of families.
"The first attempt at settlement on the banks of the Arkansa was begun a few miles below the bayou, which commu- nicates with White river. An extraordinary inundation oc- casioned the removal of the garrison to the borders of the lagoon, near Madam Gordon, and again disturbed by an
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
overflow, they at length chose the present site of Arkansas.
Had the unfortunate grants of Mr. Law been carried into effect, which proposed to settle at and around the present village of Arkansas 9,000 Germans from the Pa- latinate, we should now probably have witnessed an extensive and flourishing colony in place of a wilderness still struggling with all the privations of savage life.
"March 4th. About noon, I arrived at the cabin of Mr. Joseph Kirkendale, 4 miles above the cut-off in the river.
"This farm, like those below on Old river, was situated upon a small and insulated prairie, or open and elevated meadows, about 15 miles from the Great Prairie.
"At Mr. Kirkendale's I had an interview with the principal chief of the Quapaws, who landed here on his way down the river. His name, to me, unintelligible was Ha-kat-ton (or the dry man). He was not the hereditary chief, but received his appointment as such in consequence of the infancy of the children of the Grand Barbe. His appearance and deport- ment were agreeable and prepossessing, his features aquiline and symmetrical.
"He brought with him a roll of writing, which he unfolded with great care and gave it me to read. This instrument was a treaty of the late cession and purchase of lands from the Quapaws, made the last autumn, and accompanied by a sur- vey of the specified country.
"To my inquiry respecting the reputed origin of the O-guah-pas, he answered candidly that he was ignorant of the subject ; and that the same question had been put to him at St. Louis by Governor Clark.
"We spent the evening with Major Lewismore Vaugin, the son of a gentleman of noble descent, whose father for- merly held a considerable post under the Spanish Govern- ment.
"Fifteen miles above this place, Monsieur Vaugin informed me of the remains of an aboriginal station of considerable ex-
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FROM 1819 TO 1825.
. tent, resembling a triangular fort, which the Quapaws, on their first arrival in this country, say was inhabited by a peo- ple who were white and partially civilized, but whom at length they conquered by stratagem.
"Six miles above Mr. Vaugin's, at Monsieur Michael Le- Bonn's, commences the first appearance of a hill in ascend- ing the Arkansa. It is called the Bluff, and appears to be a low ridge, covered with pine, similar to the Chickasaw Cliffs. In the evening we came to a little above the second Pine Bluff:
"14th. We proceeded to Monsieur Bartholomes, where Mr. Drope stayed about two hours. Mons. Bartholomes, and two or three families, who are his neighbors, are entirely hunters, or in fact Indians in habit, and pay no attention to the culti- vation of the soil. These, with two or three families at the first Pine Bluffs, are the remains of the French hunters, whose stations have found a place in the maps of Arkansa, and they are in all probability the descendants of those ten, Frenchmen whom De Tonti left with the Arkansas on his way up the Mississippi, in the year 1685 .* From this place we met with no more settlements until we arrived at the Little Rock, 12 miles below which, and about 70 miles from hence, by the meandering course of the river, we again met with a house.
"25th. Two miles further lived Mr. Daniels.+ From this place proceeds the road to St. Louis on the right, and Mound Prairie Settlement, and Natchitoches on Red river on the left. From the appearance of aboriginal remains around Mound Prairie, we may safely infer the former existence of the na- tives on that site, and it appears also probable that this must have been the fertile country of the Cayas, or the Tani- cas, described by LaVega, a people who, at this time, are on the verge of extermination.
(*) 1686.
(+) Wright Daniel.
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
"In the course of the day we passed the sixth Pine Bluff, behind which appears the first prominent hill that occurs to view on the banks of the Arkansa. The façade or cliffs, in which it terminates on the bank of the river, is called the Little Rock, as it is the first stone which occurs in place. The river, no longer so tediously meandering, here presents a stretch of six miles in extent, proceeding to the west of north- west.
"In the evening we arrived at Mr. Hogan's, or the settle- ment of the Little Rock, opposite to which appear the cliffs,* formed of a dark, greenish colored, fine grained, slaty sand- stone, mixed with minute scales of mica, forming what geol- ogist commonly term the granwacke slate, and declining beneath the surface at a dip or angle of not less than 45 de- grees from the horizon. The hills appear to be elevated from 150 to 200 feet above the level of the river, and are thinly covered with trees.
"There are a few families living on both sides, upon high, healthy and fertile land ; and about 22 miles from Hogan's there is another settlement of nine or ten families, situated towards the source of the Saline Creek, of the Washita, which enters that river in 33 degrees, 27 minutes. This land, though fertile and healthy, cannot be compared with the alluvious of the Arkansa, notwithstanding which, I am informed, they were receiving accessions to their population from the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. The great road to the southwest connected with that of St. Louis, already noticed, passing through this settlement, communicates downwards also with the Post of Washita, with the remarkable thermal springs near its sources, about 50 miles distant, and then proceeding 250 miles to the settlement of Mound Prairie, on Saline Creek, of Red River, and not far from the banks of the latter, con- tinues to Natchitoches.
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