Conway Day, Arkansas

Arkansas time line with a salute to Conway Day
By Aunt Ludie

In 1836 Arkansas was admitted to the union, as a token on July 4, a twenty-
fifth star was added to the United States Flag showing her new sisterhood.
On August 1, the first election for the new state was held. James S. Conway
was elected governor, receiving 5,338 votes to 3,222 for Absalom Fowler and
28 for Alexander S. Walker. The first governor of the state was inaugurated
at three o’clock in the afternoon on September 13. The ceremonies of the
occasion were held in the hall of the House of Representatives, where the
governor-elect had been escorted from his residence, attended by brass
bands, parading citizens and state militia. When finishing his inaugural
address he quickly took the oath of office, which was administered by
Albert Pike, Esq. A twenty-six-gun salute was fired in honor of the
occasion.

By 1837 Governor Conway approved an act of General Assembly which provided
for publication of a digest of Arkansas laws. Only a few days later the
state bar of Arkansas was organized at Little Rock. The following lawyers
were charter members: Chester Ashley, William McK. Ball, S.D. Blackburn,
John J. Clendien, John W. Cocke, William B. Conway, Edward Cross, P.T.
Crutrchfield, William Cummins, Abasalom Fowler, Nathan Haggard, Samuel S.
Hall, Samuel H. Hempstead, William B.R. Horner, Lemuel Lincoln, Albert
Pike, William Scott, F. W. Trapnall, and George Watkins.

In 1838 the first steps and bids for a State Penitentiary was on the
planning board. By 1839 the commissioners for the state penitentiary was E.
A., More, William Gilchrist and C.L. Jeffries were posting bids. In 1840
governor Conway offered a reward of $5.00 for the return of a “very
handsome white pig, six or eight weeks old that escaped from his lot in
Little Rock, It is of Berkshire breed, and the female of a pair of pigs
presented me by Mr. James B. Keats farm only a day before it escaped.
Governor Conway’s time ending he returns to his beautiful plantation in the
Red river country of Lafayette county to improve the fruitfulness of his
estate.

(From excerpts of Arkansas Gazette centennial paper 1836-1936)