Tim Nutt: Are You Arkansavvy?

FAYETTEVILLE — Since becoming a state in 1836, 45 men have been elected to the office of governor. Ten others have served as acting governor. Some of these have moved on from the governor’s office to higher elected ones, such as the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives or the Presidency. Bill Clinton is probably the best-known governor, but others are just as noteworthy for various reasons.

This edition of “Are You Arkansavvy?” focuses on those who have aspired to and achieved the state’s highest office. See how many names are familiar and how well you know the men who have occupied the governor’s office.

1. This “family” man served as the first governor of the state of Arkansas, beginning in 1836.
2. The 23rd governor of the state also served as a senator, both in 1913.
3. This “Good Roads” governor initiated a number of progressive measures, including education, charities, and women’s suffrage. A religious man, he also supported the “bone dry” prohibition law.
4. This New York-transplant was the first Republican to serve as Governor since Reconstruction.
5. Appointed in 1899 to the commission charged with construction of a new state capitol, this man had to complete the project as governor due to the opposition and sickness of his two predecessors.
6. The only governor, whose surname begins with “A,” this man was a licensed pharmacist and led a moral purity crusade during his tenure from 1941-1945.
7. This man served as governor at the onset of the Civil War.
8. The 16th Governor of Arkansas, an ex-Confederate who fought at the Battle of Pea Ridge, signed the “Separate Coach Act of 1892” into law, which ushered in the Jim Crow era.
9. This man, leader of the “GI Revolt,” helped overthrow Hot Springs corruption kingpin Leo P. McLaughlin, before becoming governor in 1949.
10.  During the eight years this early governor served, he dealt with much needed internal improvements, including railroads and dirt roads, as well as handling the Real Estate and State banks problems. To date, he is the only bachelor governor the state has had.

Answers:
1. James Sevier Conway. Conway was appointed a federal land surveyor in 1820 to look at Arkansas’s western boundary. In 1831, he was elected to the territorial legislature and represented Lafayette and Union counties. Arkansas became a state in June of 1836, and Conway was nominated as the Democratic candidate for the state’s first governor, a position he won in August of that year. Conway was a member of the Rector-Johnson-Conway-Sevier extended family, a political dynasty which ruled early Arkansas politics. Conway ended his tenure as governor in 1840.
2. Joe T. Robinson. Robinson won the 1912 gubernatorial election, but days before his inauguration Senator Jeff Davis died and Robinson was elected to his senate seat. Robinson assumed his gubernatorial duties, but resigned a few months later to take his place in the U.S. Senate. In 1923, he became the Democratic leader of the Senate and five years later he was nominated for vice president in Gov. Al Smith’s unsuccessful bid for the Presidency. Robinson remained in politics until 1937, when he died unexpectedly.
3. Charles H. Brough. The state’s 25th governor served from 1917-1921 and is the only one to hold a doctorate Brough taught economics at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in the early 1900s. Considered one of the state’s most progressive governors, Brough championed women’s suffrage. During Brough’s administration, one of the state’s most violent race violence occurred in Phillips County. During the 1919 Elaine Race Massacres an untold number of African Americans were killed by white farmers.
4. Winthrop Rockefeller. Serving as governor from 1967-1971, Rockefeller, of the famed New York family,  is known for the economic changes he oversaw as head of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission. In 1966, Rockefeller successfully challenged Democratic Governor Orval Faubus, who had served in the state’s highest office for twelve years. One of the highlights of the Rockefeller administration was prison reform.
5. George Donaghey. Considered one of the state’s most progressive governors, Donaghey exhaustively supported education and during his tenure as the 22nd governor he was involved in at least the founding of six state-supported universities, as well as the state board of education. His accomplishments are many, but one of his greatest is the completion, in 1911, of the state capitol, which had been mired in political debates and machinations. Donaghey served for two terms from 1909-1913. He died in 1937.
6. Homer Adkins. Adkins worked in Joe T. Robinson’s 1912 gubernatorial campaign. Thirty years later, he successfully won his own campaign for the state’s highest office, serving as the 32nd governor from 1941-1945. Before becoming governor, though, he served as Pulaski County sheriff, an election he won with the support of the Ku Klux Klan.
7. Henry Massie Rector. Rector, the state’s sixth governor, served for two years beginning in 1860. A member of the political family dynasty, Rector refused President Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops after the fall of Fort Sumter. After the war Rector moved to Hot Springs where he was rumored to use a shotgun to collect the rents on his lands. He died in 1899.
8. James P. Eagle. In 1859, Eagle was elected sheriff of Prairie County, a position he held until the beginning of the Civil War. After Arkansas seceded, Eagle enlisted and fought in battles, mostly east of the Mississippi. He was severely wounded in the Battle of Atlanta. After the war, he worked as a Baptist minister and later entered the state legislature in 1872. From 1889-1893, he served as the state’s sixteenth governor. During his administration he signed into law many discriminatory bills citing the need for party unity. Personally, however, he opposed them. Eagle died in 1904.
9. Sid McMath. Born in 1912 in Columbia County in southern Arkansas, McMath was elected prosecutor for the Eighth Judicial District in 1946 and immediately took on the Mayor Leo McLaughlin, the boss of local politics. After his election as the state’s 34th governor in 1948, McMath immediately started progressive measures, including ambitious road building projects and brought electricity to rural areas of Arkansas. During his term, McMath also was a strong proponent for equality between the races and advocated funding for the state’s public schools and Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical, and Normal College (now UAPB). McMath was the first governor to live in the Governor’s Mansion, which had been built soon after his election. He was defeated in his bid for a third term. He died in 2003.
10. Elias Nelson Conway. The fifth governor of Arkansas, Conway was a member of the Rector-Johnson-Conway-Sevier political dynasty and a brother to James Sevier Conway, the state’s first governor. In 1836, he was appointed the first auditor of state, a position he held until 1849. He was elected governor in 1852 and served until 1860, making him one of the longest serving governors. Conway never married and rumors circulated about his sexual orientation. He died in 1892, after falling headfirst into his fireplace at his home in Little Rock.