October 30, 1819, was another notable date, indicating the arrival of William E. Woodruff at Arkansas with his printing press.

The Birth of the Gazette

The greatest date for Arkansas history is November 20, 1819, the date when the first issue of the Arkansas Gazette made it appearance at Arkansas.

Other events have had a more or less marked influence on Arkansas men and affairs, and their dates have become monumental landmarks signaling the student to corner-stones of political growth, - bases from which new bearings are to be made. But towering over all these, in both absolute and relative importance, must be rated the first issue of the Arkansas Gazette, the initial beacon of a greater intelligence, the first headlight of a great progress, and the commanding index to the march of improvement and power.

William E. Woodruff lacked the higher forms of education, was not blessed or burdened with wealth, but was the happy possessor of a trade. He had something which he could do, and he had that something well in hand. Opportunity in 1819 seemed to have her habitat in the West and the sons of the East were seduced by her call. It has been said that the energetic sons of the East went West at that time, while the drones remained at home. This is a superficial showing, however, as a very slight acquaintance with affairs will demonstrate that these stay-at-home drones had energy enough to take care of the East and place mortgages on the seemingly greater energies of the West.

When Opportunity Whispered

Woodruff had a trade, but no location. He might have worked at the cases in New York and made a competence. Opportunity whispered that the West was a better field and Woodruff inclined his ear. He found nothing that promised at Wheeling, at Louisville, at Russellville, or at Nashville. It seemed that he had been beguiled by a siren voice and that the West was not what it had been pained. Panegyric had lauded his rowing a boat from Wheeling to Louisville, and his walking from Louisville to Nashville. This is superficial also, as the common heritage of men at that time was to row or walk. All peoneers could do either, and it was a poor specimen of manhood that would hitch up a team to go ten miles. Walking was in vogue and it devotees numbered all the able bodied populace. The caravans of covered wagons that moved from the Atlantic States in early days carried the household goods, the aged and the infirm. The men and women walked with the horses from the Fords of the Dan, to the Fords of the White, and were all the better for it. Woodruff could row a boat, and walk four hundred miles, two things which proclaimed his title to ordinary American manhood as measured by the standards of his day, standards which Americans might adopt today without any loss of prestige, strength or power.

But although he had not found a mecca, he still had hopes. There was St. Louis on the borders of civilization and Arkansas Post far beyond its confines. Should he take St. Louis, or should he take Arkansas Post? St. Louis already had a newspaper and the competition there would be great indeed. Arkansas Post was the capital of a new territory, had no paper, and with a true Macedonian cry was shouting, "Come over and help us." It is said that he tossed up a dollar and that the decree of chance favored Arkansas. There is nothing in the after life of William E. Woodruff that points to the habit of settling momentous questions by an appeal to chance. His life seemed to be made up of balances in which reason was the umpire. Reason pointed to Arkansas Post with unerring finger and William E. Woodruff crossed the Rubicon and entered Arkansas. The issue of his after life demonstrated the wisdom of his choice.

He landed at Arkansas with his printing press on October 30, 1819, and on November 20 of that year, just twenty one days after his arrival, issued the first copy of the Arkansas Gazette, and continued to issue it at the same stand, without the loss of a single issue, and without a tardy issue , on every Saturday, to December 29, 1821, the date of the first issue at the City of Little Rock.

The Gazette in Two Languages

Arkansas Post at this time was one hundred and thirty three years old, and was largely populated by peopel of French descent. So large was the proportion of French speaking people in Arkansas Post and in the territory at large, that Woodruff printed his announcements for office in English and French. The whole population at the post could not have numbered more thatn two hundred, and most probably not more than one hundred and fifty. There were thirty dwelling houses built in the French style, besides several stores, a mill and a hotel. The two principal streets were Front street and Main street. The principal business was the buying of peltries and cotton. The French hunters and trappers lived on almost every stream in eastern Arkansas and bartered their wares at Arkansas Post or New Madrid. The cotton plantations were around Arkansas Post, but did not yield the quantum of goods or money that followed the trade in furs and skins. The mercantile business of the post was considered large for the times.

Business Men of 1819

James Scull ran a mill which did a large business. The principal cotton factor was William Drope of New Orleans, and Frederick Notrebe acted as his agent at the post. Drope ran this business in conjunction with a store which arried everything from sugar to sawmills. Samuel Mosely kept another large general store on Main street, and for ten years had been the principal competitor of Notrebe. Mosely died before Woodruff reached the pace, and his widow in January, 1820, married Terrence Farrelly of the firm of Farrelly & Curran. This firm opened up at the post in December, 1819, having come from Pittsburg with a large stock of all kinds and sorts of goods, plently of energy and a determination to win. They occupied the house formerly occupied by Captain Allen, and reached out with claw hammer hands for cotton and peltries. Eli J. Lewis was postmaster, clerk of the Circuit Court, tanner and storekeeper, and the boomer of the town.

Big Adventures of the Early Days

Lewis & Thomas kept the largest genereal store down on Front street, carried dry goods, groceries, hardware, queensware, boots and shoes, hats, caps, books and stationery. In the first issue of the Gazette they took a double column three quarter page advertisement and kept it going all the time. They offered eighty barrels of good whisky, one barrel of peach brandy and one barrel of fourth proof whisky, among an array of other articles that would have done credit to Marshall Field, or any other kind of department store. Pryor & Richards had been doinga good buisness, but closed out about the time of Woodruff's arrival. Farrelly & Curran were passably good advertisers; Notrebe touched it gingerly but Lewis & Thomas had the modern idea and took printer's ink in preference to anything else as a means to an end. It is possible that Woodruff would have starved before getting a sound start had it not been for the generous help of this firm. Woodruff's rates were one dollar for each fifteen lines and fifty cents for same space for each subsequent insertion. Lewis & Thomas carried a standing advertisement of about two hundred lines, which warmed Woodruff's heart all through the winter of 1819-20, when he found it most difficult to make both ends meet.

There were Delinquents then Also

The subscription price of the paper was three dollars a year if paid in advance and four dollars a year if paid at the end of a year. The frequent calls in the paper for advance subscriptions during the first year justify the conclusion that a very large number of his subscribers preferred to pay thirty three and one third per cent more and wait tile the end of the year for a receipted bill; and the most urgent plea at the end of the year to call and settle, showed that there were quite a large number of subscribers who still owed the printer, and who were not anxious about the receipt.

Arkansas Post's Greatest Honor

Arkansas had long been a post under both French and Spanish rule. It's people were not unacquainted with the politer forms of life as expressed in the higher walks of life at Paris and Madrid. Arkansas was continued as a post under American rule and hither had come many of the officers of the American army. Arkansas had been honored signally by Congress in being selected as the capital of the territory. True, there was no other town in the territory, but that did not detract from the honor rightly ascribable to a town already there, - and a town that had lived longer than several of the colonial governments. But the greatest honor the town ever had was the honor conferred on it by the unknown printer, William E. Woodruff.

Robert Crittenden on October 30, 1819 was not as big a man as Woodruff in the eyes of the inhabitants of Arkansas, nor was the governor, James Miller, who arrived a short time afterward. Crittenden and Miller could run the territory, but it took Woodruff to show it off.

There was only one road, the one running from Davidsonville in Lawrence County to Ouachita in Louisiana, an dover this road, once a month, the mail was carried on horseback. Sometimes during 1819 and 1820 that mail rider did not show up, for two whole months, and frequently his pouches did not contain a single letter or package for Arkansas. The people of the town wanted more of the limelight. They desired to have some sore of recognition in the great outside world. They wanted more mails, more roads, more opportunities. Woodruff's printing press was the means to the end, and Billy Woodruff was the man of the hour. The fullblood Quapaws from the Southwest looked on with grunts, long and deep; the halfbreeds disclosed their French or Spanish antecedents by long and suspicious scrutiny; while the Americans whispered, "Now watch the town grow."

Nor were these people very far wrong in their estimates of men. Crittenden and miller were greater in a special sense, but not equal to Woodruff in the permanency of influences set to work by him and them. Crittenden and Miller fixed certain forms and blazed the way for rising political institutions. Woodruff fixed forms of thought and prepared men for conduct under any and all institutional forms. Crittenden and Miller were evanescent. Woodruff was permanent and far more influential.

The Gazette Brought Results

But aside from generalities, Woodruff filled the bill as outlined by the populace. he had not been there four months before he got mails once every two weeks, and the promise from the postmaster general of a weekly mail. A road was cut to Cadron, and another to Montgomery's Landing. People began to migrate to the territory, and hardly an issue of the paper came out that did not tell of these waves of people pushing over the country. More letters cam in the mail pouches, and greatest of all, the Arkansas Gazette every week carried the happenings of the world to the firesides of the people. The printer was the greatest man in town, as he ought to be in every town.

Woodruff had not subscribers when he landed, nor did he waste any time in getting them. The people took the job off his hands. He asked no man to take the Gazette, but old citizens of the town took his lists and drummed the town and country.

Woodruff unloaded his press and moved it into an old house off Front street which belinged to Richmond Peeler and set it up ready for operation. This house had no value before Woodruff occupied it, but by January 20, 1820, it had so increased its worth as to be sold in an action for debt by Joseph Stillwell and was bought in by Woodruff.

Woodruff was the "whole push" He had no helper but himself, and not only had to prepare all the matter, but set itup and run the press. The editorial matter of the paper cost nothing for the reason that there was no editorial matter in the paper. One column was given to local reporting and all the rest of the paper to advertisements and general reading matter clipped form easter and foreign papers. The reading matter occupied about 75 percent of the paper and the advertising about twenty five percent.

The paper was printed on sheets eleven inches wide by eighteen inches long, and had four pages of four columns each. it was uniformly of this size while printed at the post.

There was no speical delivery of the paper in town and each subscriber was requested to call for his paper. The subscribers did this with alacrity, as they all wanted the news, besides never tiring of seeing Billy Woodruff work. One would that that the interest would wear out in time, but it does not. No thorough going man can pass a great newspaper press without compliment it by a look. So much the more was the feeling at Arkansas Post.

The machine talked faster than the men could talk, and ever so much better. In twenty one days Woodruff ran off his first edition a bright, well printed, newsy document. It set the post on fire and cost Lewis & Thomas a barrel of whisky in celebration.

Woodruff wrote a sensible salutatory, one line of which is worth a quotation, and then worth remembrance. He said, "It is the duty of every man to be useful in whatever situation he may be placed in life," and then proved his right to say it by keeping the Gazette going as a headlight for the State's progress to power.

An Early Oracle

One anonymous writer in the first issue stated what the town needed and what it could do without. He said, first, that the town and territory had a sufficient number of lawyers - more than were then making a living by their practice.

The writer said, second, that probably enough physicians were on hand to meet every demand, and that unless things got very much worse, no more doctors were needed.

But the thing wanted and wanted bad was an influx of farmers, or a lot of them to work the farms. These pictures of the pen show the condition of things better than any words of ours and lead to the conclusion that things have not changed materially in eighty seven years.

The first issue of the paper had five marriage notices and one obituary, which was a good beginning and a fair omen. Fifty one letters were advertised and the names on the list belong to men who in other parts of the territory and State acqured celebrity.

There were two tailors in town and they both advertised the lastest cuts and fashions. The day of "hand me downs" had not come and all people dressed more decently and adorably. Mr. Craig kept a tavern where men of fashion congregated to discuss the news and show their clothes. Stokeley H. Coulter, a fine old fashioned tailor from North Caorlina, kept all the latest plates, beneath which ran the legend, "Clothes make the man and I make the clothes." Out on Main street J.B. Burt kept another shop with the motto, "Eat to please yourself, but dress to please other." In 1820 a third tailor shop was opened by John B.O. Ragan, who took for his trademark the words: "The tailor makes the man, and that suit is best that fits best."

Shoemakers were flush with money at the place, as $2.50 pegged shoes were unknown. A tailor made man had fine sewed boots, which cost from $10 to $15 a pair. And the father of the writer of this article made fine beaver hats which proclaimed their wearers as finished productions.

These advertisements are indices to the town. They show a degree of wealth and thrift not found in ledger footings and balances. They also show a high degree of refinement and social standing. In this atmosphere the Gazette began its career and in this community for two years it sustained itself with credit.

(Source: Pioneers and Makers of Arkansas by Josiah H. Shinn, A.M. 1908, page 11- 19)