Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-01-24
LITTLE ROCK. ARKANSAS.
It's Early Settlement Hnd iss
Subsequent Growth.
From lhe clnelnpau commsrei.l-L

~ A-DNNay Va AhN ttAANI Va ~ AAu-d<
has ever been published. Fernando De-
Soto was lis 6rst explorer Of any note.
and historians still disagree as to
whether he was buried beneath the
waters Of the mighty stream with which
his name IS inseparably linked, or under
the turbid waves Of the Arkansas. As
De Soto did not explore the country
with direct view to its settlement OF
improvement, neither he nor his Spanish
followers left any permanent memorials
of their visits, in its nomenclature, ex-
eept in a single instance Bayou
Departee No river bears Spanish
name. But the enterprise of the sub
sequent French settlers is manifest in
the names of streams and Localities.
Louis XIV, in 1920 made a grant OF
twelve square miles to the celebrated
John Law, on the Arkansas river, on
condition that he should settle on il if
teen hundred German emigrsnts, and
maintain at his own expense a sufficient
military force to protect them against
the Indians. Two hundred Alsstians
arrived, and five hundred negroes were
imported from Africa by the Mississippi
Company, of which John Law was the
founder, and which has given his name
notorious immortality. The scheme
as is well known, failed, and the colony
after few struggling years, was aban,
doned. 1t moved to place about thirty
miles from New Orleans, which has since
been called "Cole dor, or the 0Golden
Coast, from the wealth and prosperity
of the descendants of the original colony,
among whom the French language event
ually took the place of the German
Except by enterprising French ex-
plorers, in search of gold, no visit was
made to the State for long time after
ward. 1t is probable that the next per-
manent settlement was made near the
the close of the last century, but it can
not be definitely ascertained. The site
then selected was one hundred miles be-
low Little Rock, on the Arkansas river.
No splendid patronage of world re
nOwned fnancier gave prestige TO the
undertaking, which was, this time, the
result of the gradual increase of the
prosperity of Arkansas. This colony
had great difficulties to encounter.
Their village was on the low, alluvial
soil of the river bank, and disease made
extensive ravages. The surrounding
forest was unbrOken, and formed an OBJ
stacle to the clearing aAd settlement of
the country The colony would pro-
badly have perished in oblivion, were it
not for the cession of the Louisiana ter
ritory to the United States, which threw
the country open TO the enterprise of
new race of people. The territory Of
Arkansas was established, by act of
Congress, March 2, 1919, the whole
population not exceeding one thousand,
exclusive of Indians. The point sc
la petite Rochelle or the little rock,
had been regular places for crossing the
river with the Indians from time i'm
memorial. Though it has never been
fordable there, yet break in the hills
rendered it 2 favorable place for transi-
tioa. The great Indian trail passed
over the present site of the city. A few
families settled here, and Little Rock,
became the extreme outpost on the west
ern frontier of the United States.
Practically. it was as far from the
national capital as Alaska Is at present |
A mail-carrier on horseback once a
month supplied tie people at Little
Rock with news. from Washington city, !
at least three months old. Governor |
Miller was the first executive Of the |
Territory Mr.. William E. Woodruff, |
who survives as a citizen Of Little Rock,
on November 20, 1919, issued the first
newspaper ever published in the Terri |
tory, called the Arkansas Gazette, which |
still flourish9s, under the supervision Of |
his son. The settlement was named |
Arkapolis, by some aspiring student, |
but it soon resumed the descriptive title |
it now bears. After the State was ad- |
mitted into the Union, in 1886, the |
growth of the State became more rapid, |
though still retarded by lawsuits concern
ing conflicting stiles to the land on
which the town is situated, A final |
Of these cases vas not made
till the December term of the United
States Supreme Court for 1867. Tn |
war, which desolated so many fair cities,
seems here to have stayed its insatiate
hand, and rather to have developed than
injured its prosperity, Large property /
holders have been compelled by pecun-
ary need, to relinguish town lots 20
more energetic and anterprisiBg men,
who have erected fine houses and stores.
The Capital of Arkansas has lis elegant
mansions, its business blocks, its tenn
pies of worship, its courts of justice, its
public buildings, and every necessary
of thriving city, except
is hotels. Nothing deserving of that |
name exist in Little Rock, At the |
House a visitor is starved, |
odged il a barn, and allowed to attend |
10 his own wants for the same moaey
Is will procure accommodation at the /
Burnett House or the Fifth Avenue
aotal, Visitors are cautioned against
trusting to the tender mercy of the pro-
1rietors of the Anthony House. The
State-hOuse is a respectable building, hut
n a very aiiapidated condition at pre-
ent.