[Illustration: (_Laws of the Territory of Arkansas: Comprising the
Organic Laws of the Territories of Missouri and Arkansas, with the
Amendments and Supplements Annexed; All Laws of a General Nature
Passed by the General Assembly of the Territory of Missouri, at the
Session Held in 1818; Together with the Laws Passed by the General
Assembly of the Territory of Arkansas, at the Sessions in 1819 and
1820._)]
William E. Woodruff, the first Arkansas printer, was a Long Islander
who served his apprenticeship at Sag Harbor with Alden Spooner, nephew
of the early Vermont printer of that name. Woodruff transported
printing equipment purchased at Franklin, Tenn., to the Post of
Arkansas, and there, on November 20, 1819, he began to publish _The
Arkansas Gazette_. He later moved his press to Little Rock, where the
newspaper has continued to the present day.[76]
In his _History and Bibliography of American Newspapers 1690-1820_
(Worcester, Mass., 1947) Clarence S. Brigham locates the only complete
file of early issues of the _Gazette_ at the Library of Congress.
It must be reported here, regretfully, that the Library released
these along with later issues for exchange in July 1953 as part of a
space-saving operation, after making microfilm copies for retention.
Subsequently the same file, extending from 1819 to 1875, was described
at length under item 649 in Edward Eberstadt and Sons' Catalog 134
(Americana) issued in 1954.
Two copies of the first book published in Arkansas, printed by
Woodruff at the Post of Arkansas and dated 1821, now share the
distinction of being the earliest specimens of Arkansas printing in
the Library. The fact that Arkansas officially separated from the
Missouri Territory in July 1819 helps to explain the title of this
book: _Laws of the Territory of Arkansas: Comprising the Organic
Laws of the Territories of Missouri and Arkansas, with the Amendments
and Supplements Annexed; All Laws of a General Nature Passed by the
General Assembly of the Territory of Missouri, at the Session Held in
1818; Together with the Laws Passed by the General Assembly of the
Territory of Arkansas, at the Sessions in 1819 and 1820_.
In the initial issue of the _Gazette_ Woodruff claimed to have
established his press entirely at his own expense. His imprint on
these _Laws_ discloses his eventual employment as official "printer to
the Territory," and among the resolutions of the new general assembly
to be found in this volume is that of April 1, 1820, appointing
Woodruff to the position. A resolution of the assembly, approved
October 25, 1820, directs how official documents printed by him were
to be distributed:
RESOLVED ... That the governor be, and he is hereby,
authorized to have printed in pamphlet form, a sufficient
number of copies of the laws of the present general
assembly, and all laws of a general nature passed by the
general assembly of Missouri, in eighteen hundred and
nineteen, and also the laws passed by the governor and
judges of this territory, which have not been repealed
by this general assembly; and to distribute such laws on
application of those entitled to copies, in the manner
herein-after provided, to wit: To the governor and
secretary each one copy; to the judges of circuit and
county courts, to the clerk of superior court, to the
sheriff of each county, to every justice of the peace, to
every constable, to the prosecuting attorney in behalf of
the United States, and circuit or county court prosecuting
attornies, to the territorial auditor, to the territorial
treasurer, to the coroner of each county, to every member
of the general assembly, each one copy: _Provided_, it
shall be the duty of every officer, on his or their going
out of office, to deliver the copy of the laws with
[which][77] he shall have been furnished, in pursuance of
this resolution, to his successor in office.
_Resolved also_, That a sufficient number of copies shall
be sent, by order of the governor, to the care of the
several clerks of each county, in this territory, whose
duty it shall be to distribute one copy to every officer or
person allowed one in the foregoing part of this resolution.
_Resolved also_, That the governor be, and he is hereby,
authorized to draw on the territorial treasurer for the
amount of expenses arising thereon, which are not otherwise
provided for by law.
The two copies in possession of the Library of Congress carry no marks
of previous ownership. One was recorded in the _Catalogue of Additions
to the Library of Congress Since December, 1833_, dated December 1,
1834.[78] Whether this was the copy which retains a late 19th-century
bookplate or the copy which the Library had rebound in 1914 is
uncertain.
[Footnote 76: See _Wilderness to Statehood with William E. Woodruff_
(Eureka Springs, Ark., 1961); Rollo G. Silver, _The American Printer
1787-1825_ (Charlottesville, 1967), p. 140.]
[Footnote 77: Brackets in text.]
[Footnote 78: Page 12 (combined entry: "Laws of Arkansas, &c., &c.,
1818 to 1821, 1823, and 1825").]