Governor James Sevier Conway

1836-1840

James Sevier Conway was born in Greene County, Tennessee. Conway was educated by private tutors and attended public schools.

In 1820 he moved to Arkansas where he worked as a surveyor. He formed a surveying business with two of his brothers. Conway's company took over the land that would later become the city of Little Rock, Arkansas and he is known as the founder of that city. Conway purchased a large cotton plantation in the town of Walnut Hill in Lafayette County, Arkansas.

In 1832 Conway became the surveyor-general of the Arkansas Territory and served in that position until 1836.
Conway became the first elected Governor of Arkansas when it became a state in 1836. Conway focused his administration on schools and roads. He established a state military to patrol the western frontier and worked to have a federal arsenal established at Little Rock, Arkansas. He worked to get funding for a state penitentiary. He pushed for the establishment of a state library and university but was unsuccessful.

Conway left office in 1840 and returned to his plantation. He continued to be active in public affairs.

James S. Conway is buried at the Conway Cemetery Historic State Park near Bradley, Arkansas.

James Sevier Conway was the brother of Arkansas Governor Elias Nelson Conway, brother of Congressman Henry Wharton Conway, first cousin of Senator Ambrose Hundley Sevier and Governor Henry Massey Rector. He was third cousin of Confederate General James Lawson Kemper.

--Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Despite his lack of political experience, Conway was nonetheless the Family's nominee for governor of the new state in 1836. To accomplish this, the Family manipulated the residency requirements for the office in the new constitution so as to make the popular Archibald Yell ineligible. Citing his responsibilities as Surveyor General, Conway refused to canvass the state as was the custom of the times. He still garnered 60% of the vote, thanks largely to the efforts of his kinsmen and of the Family's political organ, the Arkansas Gazette under the editorship of William Woodruff.

Considering the Jacksonian origins of the Family's power, ironically the the principal accomplishment of Conway's administration was the creation of state's first banks. Despite Andrew Jackson's notorious hostility to such institutions, the banks were initially supported in Arkansas by Whig and Democrat alike, eager to cash in on an expected frenzy of land speculation in the newly created state. The pay off never came, due in part to the Financial Panic of 1837 and to the realization that a large amount of land existed in the trans-Mississippi west. Thanks largely to the bonds issued to finance the banks, by the time Conway left office in 1840, Arkansas's accumulated debt was nearly $3 million.

However, Conway appeared oblivious to the state's financial woes. In 1837, when the federal government gave $50,000 to Arkansas as its share of the sale of federal lands, Conway called a special session of the legislature and cut the state's tax rate in half. During the next meeting of the General Assembly, he pushed through bills to build a prison and create a university. Neither took place, however, because no money was available.

When Conway stepped down, the population of Arkansas was 97,574, nearly double what it had been when he took office. --Source: Old State House Museum