Timeline
1821 Little Rock Chosen as Capital
Much to the dismay of settlers in Arkansas, the Senate ratified the Choctaw Treaty. Official protests from the Territory over the proposed treaty failed to reach Washington before President Monroe signed the bill on January 8. By the 1820 census, Indians already outnumbered settlers in Arkansas, 14,760 to 14267, and territorial officials claimed that the influx of the Choctaw Nation would be a grave deterrent to the progress of Arkansas.
On August 6, incumbent James Woodson Bates defeated Matthew Lyon in the race for delegate to Congress. Lyon accused Acting Governor Crittenden of manipulating the vote in Bates' favor.
Due to rival claims to the proposed town site, the General Assembly met and adjourned without having relocated the capital to Little Rock. Though the United States owned the property, speculators held two different types of land claims by which they hoped to gain title. William Russell, of Saint Louis, had acquired "preemption claims" based on the settlement of the site; Chester Ashley represented a group holding New Madrid claims granted to citizens who lost land in the New Madrid earthquake. The New Madrid claimants called their town Arkopolis to distinguish it from Russell's Little Rock. At one point in the controversy, the claimants, represented by Ashley, removed all of the structures from that portion of the town site claimed by Russell. Finally, realizing both sides could profit from compromise, Ashley and Russell came to an agreement on November 22, making rival claimants joint owners.
Secretary of State John Quincy Adams officially appointed William E. Woodruff Printer to the Territory. He was to be paid for the publication of the laws of the United States and for other official business. After the rival claims to the Little Rock town site were settled, Woodruff set out for the new capital where he moved into a one room log printing office. He published his first issue at Little Rock on December 29.
