Columnists

Washington in Arkansas

Long before he died in 1799, George Washington was deeply revered throughout the new United States of America. Furthermore, by the time Arkansas became a state in 1836, Parson Weems' wildly popular--and wildly fictitious--biography of the Father of Our Country had elevated Washington to the status of an Old Testament prophet. Throughout our history, Arkansas residents have demonstrated the wisdom of the statement that Washington was "first in the hearts of his countrymen."

The most obvious memorials to Washington in Arkansas are the city and county named in his honor. The town of Washington was settled about the time Arkansas became a territory in 1819. The town site was situated atop some sandy hills at the juncture of several Indian trails and the Southwest Road, the major route through the nascent territory.

Reflecting that odd-couple dichotomy so common in frontier America, the first two structures built at what would become Washington were a religious meeting house and a tavern. The tavern would host hundreds of migrants making their way into Texas, not the least being Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin. Perhaps Washington is best known as the Confederate state capital after Little Rock fell in September 1863.

Washington still exists as a city of the second class, but its prominence declined after the Civil War when railroads bypassed the city--and the upstart town of Hope eventually became the county seat.

Washington County has, unlike the town, prospered through the years and today is the third largest county in Arkansas with 211,552 residents.

The Legislature created Washington County in 1828, giving the name of the first president to a large tract of land formerly a part of the short-lived Lovely County. Drawn by the good farmlands in the western and northern parts of the county, settlers poured into the area.

Much to the benefit of the county and its county seat of Fayetteville (also named for a Revolutionary War hero, the Frenchman Lafayette), a number of early settlers stressed the need for education. The Cane Hill School, which was established in 1835 by settlers of the Cumberland Presbyterian faith, evolved into Cane Hill College in 1852 and served an important role until its demise in 1891.

Fayetteville was home to multiple educational institutions in its history, including a school for Cherokee girls. The city waged a successful campaign in 1872 to become the home of the new state university, an action which has benefited the area tremendously.

Today Washington County is populated with a remarkable mix of people, especially in Fayetteville's neighboring city of Springdale. In addition to a large Hispanic population, Springdale is home to America's largest community of Marshall Islands natives.

One of the early settlers of Washington County was a remarkable young lawyer named David Walker. In a long and brilliant career as a lawyer, a Whig politician, and a jurist, David Walker contributed much to Arkansas history. He was also married to a distant relative of George Washington.

Although Washington was apparently unable to have children, he had a number of siblings, and they in turn had numerous children. A surprising number of Washington relatives seem to have settled in Arkansas. Walker's wife, Jane Washington Walker, was the granddaughter of Warner Washington, a first cousin of the first president.

Three great-nephews of George Washington were among the numerous Virginians who settled in White County in the 1840s. W. E. Leach, president of the White County Historical Society, has identified the Washington settlers as George Fayette Washington, Francis Augustine Washington, and Samuel Thompson Washington. All were the sons of Samuel and Dorthea Washington, and residents of the Kanawha Valley in what is today West Virginia.

The Arkansas History Commission is also home to a number of physical artifacts from George and Martha Washington. These artifacts, which include a piece of wood from Washington's original coffin, were given to territorial Governor William S. Fulton.

A Reconstruction-era U.S. senator from Arkansas, Steven W. Dorsey, sponsored the 1870 legislation that made Washington's birthday a federal holiday.

Perhaps the best known veteran of the Continental Army to die in Arkansas was Matthew Lyon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who came to Arkansas in 1821 to assume control of the Indian trading post at Spadra Bluff near modern Clarksville.

Finally, the most haunting connections between the nation's first president and Arkansas are the graves of numerous Revolutionary War veterans, some of them unmarked, in our state. Local chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution have done an amazing job of erecting memorials when graves can be found.

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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in Hot Spring County. Email him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com.

Editorial on 02/22/2015

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