1819.  On March 2, 1819, the President of the United States approved a bill which created the Territory of Arkansas.  The bill was preceded by a debate,  which led up to the final vote in Congress, and was participated in by Taylor of New York, Clay of Kentucky, Walter of North Carolina and McLane of Delaware.  

         To oversee the new territory, President James Monroe appointed James Miller, a hero of the War of 1812, as Governor, and Robert Crittenden, a 21-year-old Kentuckian, as Secretary of the Territory.  By mistake, Miller's appointment was sent to Arkansas rather than to his New Hampshire home, delaying his arrival, but not delaying the establishment of government.  The executive and judicial branches, consisting of Crittenden and three newly appointed Superior Court judges--Charles Jouett, Robert Letcher, and Andrew Scott--constituted the legislature in the Territory's "first grade" of government.

         After an initial short session in which they made appointments, appropriated funds, and declared the laws of the Missouri Territory to be applicable in Arkansas, Jouett and Letcher left the seat of territorial government never to return.  Crittenden then called the first territorial election for November 20, 1819, seeking to elevate Arkansas to the "second grade" of government with an elected General Assembly.  James Woodson Bates was elected over Stephen F. Austin for delegate to congress. As the sole representative to Washington, this was the most powerful elected position of the Territory (Arkansas Territorial Restoration).

The Mail

          In 1819 there was but one road running from Davidsonville in Lawrence County, to Ouachita in Louisiana.  Over this road, once a month, the mail was carried on horseback.  Sometimes during 1819 and 1820 the mail rider did not show up for two whole months, and frequently his pouches did not contain a single letter or package for many communities.

          October 30, 1819, was the arrival of William E. Woodruff in Arkansas with his printing press.

          One of the greatest dates for Arkansas history was on November 20, 1819.  This was the date when the first issue of the Arkansas Gazette was published.

         When the paper started there were but two post offices in the territory—Arkansas Post and Davidsonville.  In less than six months there were six with the following postmasters:

Arkansas Post, Eli J. Lewis   
Davidsonville, Richard Searcy   
Cadron, Thomas H. Tindell   
Clark Court House, Jacob Barkman   
Hempstead Court House, John  English   
White River, Peyton Tucker   

         1835.  In 1835, the General Assembly voted to call a constitutional convention as the next step toward statehood.  After all, the Indians had been removed, and Arkansas had better roads, regular steamboat service, and met the population requirements for statehood.  Agricultural production had grown, and, through land office sales, private ownership of land had increased from 2,000 acres in 1830 to 630,000 acres in 1835.  Arkansas even had Cane Hill College, its first institution of higher learning, founded by the Cumberland Presbyterians (Arkansas Territorial Restoration).

         1836.  In the Territory's final action to qualify for statehood, the Constitutional Convention met and framed a constitution, choosing Fent Noland to deliver the document to Washington City.  The Gazette's Extra, containing the constitution, arrived before Noland, and was the basis of the House committee's consideration of Arkansas's statehood.  The Senate passed the bill for statehood in early April, but the House deliberated longer, particularly over the slavery issue.  The proposed constitution forbade the legislature of Arkansas from freeing slaves or from excluding slave importation into the State. 

         These two provisions drew the concern of John Quincy Adams and Caleb Cushing, who were otherwise willing for Arkansas to enter as a slave state.  Finally, over their protests, the bill for statehood passed.  On June 15, President Jackson signed it into law.  Although still a frontier region, Arkansas was now a state with representation in both houses of Congress and equality with the other twenty-four states of the union (Arkansas Territorial Restoration).

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     Did you know that during the Civil War, the Capitol of Arkansas was briefly moved by the Confederates to a city named Washington, Arkansas?

Land Features

The Spelling of Arkansas

     The Washington Intelligencer printed a law and spelled the word Arkansas, "Arkansaw."

     Here was a man of science named Featherstonaugh.  He visited the state in 1835, and left two forms of spelling.  Whenever he referred to the state he wrote "Arkansa."  But whenever he referred to the river he used "Arkansas."