Important Arkansas historical events and significant anniversaries for September 13, with notable births and deaths of people with Arkansas connections for this date. Information is drawn from state archives, historical societies, contemporary newspapers and other media archives, and legal records. Much of this information comes from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, an online publication. ChatGPH has collected this data.
1836 — Arkansas state government formally began operating. Although Arkansas entered the Union on June 15, 1836, its new state government began on September 13, when James Sevier Conway became Arkansas’s first governor. Conway later retired to his plantation, Walnut Hill, in Lafayette County.
1842 — Zachary Taylor wrote from Fort Smith about Comanche captives. Future president and U.S. Army general Zachary Taylor, then commanding at Fort Smith, wrote the adjutant general on September 13 concerning ransom efforts for white children captured by Comanches and held in Texas. The letter survives in the University of Arkansas collections…