ARKANSAS POST IS NEGLECTED SHRINE: A 1926 View of the Post

This article, published in late 1926, served as a clarion call for preservation of the site of Arkansas Post. When the State Legislature passsed the bill creating the Arkansas Post State Park thrree years later (1929). Reporter Fletcher Chenault was awarded a position on the comission responsible for developing the new park.

ARKANSAS POST IS NEGLECTED SHRINE
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First Territorial Capitol Was Cradle of Arkansas History.
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NOW IS 240 YEARS OLD
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In Danger of Reverting to Wilderness Unless Steps Are Taken to Rescue It From Oblivion.
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By Fletcher Chenault
(Staff Correspondent of the Gazette.)

Arkansas Post. Nov. 10. – As you stand in solitary contemplation on the bank of the river at Arkansas Post, you are thrilled by the thought that here is a spot of vast significance on the scroll of passing years. So strangely was its history interwoven with the history of Arkansas and the Louisiana territory, so long was its prestige maintained as the furthermost post in the wilderness, you wonder how a commonwealth could, in the days of its prosperity, neglect such a venerable shrine.

During the 240 years of its existence, Arkansas Post alternately prospered and declined under four flags, but its greatest significance to our generation is the fact that it was the cradle of Arkansas history, the first place west of the Mississippi river where the republican form of government took root and prospered. Long before George Washington was born, long before Patrick Henry thundered defiance to tyranny, in a day when only a wilderness marked the spot where Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Memphis and New Orleans now stand, Arkansas Post was the home and habitation of white men. Next to St. Louis, it is the oldest United States postoffice west of the Mississippi river.

Spot is Deserted.

Arkansas’ shrine! And it will revert to the wilderness from which it came unless the state, or some patriotic organization takes steps to rescue it from oblivion. Arkansas Post still exists, but the Arkansas Post of today is a modern settlement near the old fort and in no wise related to it. Mounds of broken and scattered brick overgrow with briars and surrounded by an open field mark the spots where the first territorial capital and the old bank once stood. They are the only sites that can be identified, and they too will disappear unless the ruins are marked with suitable monuments.

Did you know that the United States government for 132 years has maintained a reservation of 147 acres on the spot where the old Village of Arkansas stood? Most of this land has caved into the river, but the river receded and left a bar overgrown with cottonwoods and subject to overflow. A triangular section of a few acres remains on the high ground and it is on this spot the capitol and the state bank were located. The government should deed this land to the state and it should be maintained forever as a state park.

The only move ever made to preserve this historic spot was by the Pine Bluff Chamber of Commerce, which placed a stone tablet near the ruins of the old capitol. How many things could be done by the state, by the D.A.R., and even by the Arkansas Gazette, which could place a marker on the spot, or near the spot where William E. Woodruff launched this venerable sheet on November 20, 1819.

Graves Are Unmarked.

With Lloyd LaFargue, whose great-grandfather came from France to Arkansas Post more than a century ago, we wandered through the old cemetery in search of the spot where Henry W. Conway of territorial fame was buried. Scores of unmarked graves are seen, the last resting place of men and women whose names were familiar ones in those early days, “unhonored and unsung.” Just exactly 99 years ago young Conway was killed in a duel with Robert Crittenden. His grave was covered by his brother, Gov. James S. Conway, with a marble slab on which was recorded the history of this man’s career as a Revolutionary patriot, but this slab was shattered by lightning and the broken bits mostly carried away by souvenir hunters. Unless the state, the D.A.R., or some other organization, takes the pains to replace this slab, the grave of Conway, delegate to Congress, will become unknown to future generations. It should be dedicated on November 9, 1927, the 100th anniversary of his death.

The home of L. S. Jones an Indiana Republican, who has been for nine and 20 years the postmaster at Arkansas Post, worthy successor to that Eli J. Lewis, who opened the office 100 years ago, sits on one of the outer trenches of the old Civil war fort. The main Confederate defenses long since went into the river. When postmaster Jones decided to level part of the low line of breastworks to make a garden he employed an old Negro who had been a slave of Colonel Moore, C S. A. As the aged Negro attacked the breastworks with a spade, he said: “I nevah figgered when I help put up ‘ese breswuks I’d tear ‘em down agin to mek a gard’n for Yankee.”

On the site of the old capital is a cistern walled with brick, and not far away is a deep well, also lined with brick, and both are examples of perfect masonry. Here and there are scattered bits of earthenware and rare old china, and little mounds where brick chimneys stood, and that is all that remains of Arkansas Post on the spot where Henri DeTonti, a lieutenant of Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, raised the lilies of France 240 years ago.

Here in 1722 Bernard de la Harpe who discovered and named La Petit-Roche (Little Rock) found “only a trading and military post among the Indians.” Here came Don Joseph Valliere as Commandant under Spanish rule in 1795, and in 1804 the Stars and Stripes were raised while through the forests the Indians were startled by the roar of saluting guns.

It was not until 1808 that Gov. Meriwether Lewis at St. Louis established the law of the republic at the frontier post, and the records of that event, and all subsequent events, many of them inscribed in French, are in the vaults of Arkansas county at DeWitt. Then it was that the authority vested in the King’s sword gave way to the Bill of Rights of the constitution. It struck a responsive chord alike in the breasts of freedom-loving Americans and freedom-loving French living in peace and harmony, intermingling and intermarrying at this distant frontier post.

Here moved the urbane, suave, polished French gentleman, Frederich Notrebe, soldier of Napoleon, who sheathed his sword and threw away his commission when the Little Corporal began to dream of smashing empires. Here was William E. Woodruff, staunch herald of law and order and moulder of public opinion. Here died Pierre Laclede, founder of old St. Louis, and Don Joseph Valliere, Spanish grandee. Here, on December 26, 1820, came Gov. James Miller, hero of Lundy’s Lane, with a great fanfare of trumpets and a flag on which was inscribed the motto: “I’ll try, sir.” Here, on January 11, 1863, after a gallant resistance against great odds, Gen. T. J. Churchill surrendered the fort to Gen. J. A McClernand and the fourth flag again was raised to fly forever.

Here is the shrine Arkansas forgot.

Originally published in the Arkansas Gazette, November 11, 1926