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STUDY GUIDE FOR EARLY LITTLE ROCK
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When the territorial government moved to Little Rock in 1821, the place
contained fewer than a dozen houses and no regularly laid off
streets. The town grew very slowly until 1824 when the number of
families increased from five or six to about forty. In 1827 the
town contained about sixty buildings, six of them brick, eight of them
frame, and the others were log cabins. The population of Little
Rock in 1830 was 430
and increased to 700 by 1835. Little Rock in 1827 was still covered with trees and the streets were no more than trails from house to house. After the trees were cut down, the stumps remained and the streets were deeply gullied and filled with rubbish as late as 1935. The "Town Branch" overflowed with every hard rain and added to the problem.
From the start the capital town's future hinged on how successful the
steamboat could ply the waters of the muddy Arkansas to bring
supplies. Transportation and communication other than by river was even less dependable. When first settled, Little Rock's only connections with other cities was the trail from St. Louis to the southwest. The clamor was almost immediate for a road to Memphis. Construction of the Memphis-Little Rock road began in 1826, but years passed before it was an easy route to travel. Miles of swamps and numerous streams made the road hard to build and maintain. Several years after it was opened, the trip to Memphis sometimes required twenty days by wagon. The town's bitterest compliant was about the lack of mail service. At times residents would go for an entire winter without receiving a single delivery. Flooded streams, robbers, and unreliable carriers slowed the mails. Late in 1819 William E. Woodruff, a native of New York who came to Arkansas from Tennessee, began publishing the weekly Arkansas Gazette at Arkansas Post. Two years later the newspapers contained much literary material as well as news and advertisements. Editors competed with one another for government contracts to print the laws, and took sides on political questions. They even spent time arguing about misspelled works in each other's editions! Eastern newspapers provided the source for national news. Washington and Baltimore papers reached Little Rock in 20 to 30 days in 1830. Much regional news came via New Orleans. The paper supply came from New Orleans, and low water meant delivery failure many times.
This summary information was provided by the Arkansas Territorial Restoration Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here is their contact information. PHONE - (501) 324-9811 FAX - (501) 324-9343 EMAIL ADDRESS - curtis@dah.state.ar.us THEIR WEB SIGHT - www.heritage.state.ar.us |
In 1822 the Eagle was the first steamboat to land at
Little Rock. Arrivals were scarce the remainder of the decade, and
consequently a "landing" was a big event for the
populace. Chronic low-water conditions, sandbars, and snags made steam boating
a dangerous though lucrative business. 