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Arkansas is one of the larger states of the American Union, taking
its name from the Arkansas River. Throughout the entire length, it
occupies the right bank of the Mississippi, being separated by that
stream, towards the east, from Tennessee and the North half of
Mississippi. Its boundaries to the South West and North are purely
arbitrary and conventional and are best learned from a map. With
a length of 240 miles, and an average breadth of about 225, the
area of Arkansas is 53,850 square miles, being nearly 3000 miles
larger than England (without Wales). In 1870, out of 34,000,000
acres, only 1,860,000 were cultivated, very little more than one
seventeenth of the whole. This area had increased to 3,595,000 in
1880. In 1879, the agricultural productions of the state were
22,432,800 bushels of Indian corn, 1,384,000 of wheat, 1,603,120 of
oats, 696,500 of potatoes, and 323,872,500 bales of cotton. Pop.
(1820) 14,273; (1870) 484,471; (1880) 872,564, of whom 210,593 were
colored, Indians and Chinese. Though nominally colonized by the
French in 1685, it was still virtually a wilderness, when purchased
as a part of Louisiana by the United State in 1803. It was only in
1819 and 1836 respectively that it became first a territory, and
then a state of the Union. The towns of Arkansas are small, the
principal being Little Rock, the seat of government, with 12,380
inhabitants, which about four times as populous as any other of the
principal towns, which are Camden, Fort Smith, Pine Bluff, Helena,
Hot Springs, and Princeton.
In climate and productions, Arkansas occupies, as it were, an
intermediate position between the states of the west and those of
the south. Arkansas is rich in minerals, particularly in
manganese, zinc, and gypsum. It also contains the principal
varieties of coal - cannel, anthracite, and bituminous. It
likewise possesses lead-ores, which are said to contain a large
proportion of silver. The manufactures of the state are
comparatively insignificant.
The internal improvements of Arkansas consist in great measure of
plank roads and levees or embankments against the Mississippi. In
1880, there were about 500 miles of railway in Arkansas. The
state, however, is comparatively independent of works of this
description, penetrated as it is by so many navigable rivers - the
Arkansas, the White River, the St. Francis, the Red River, the
Washita, &etc.
In 1880, the public indebtedness of Arkansas contracted mainly in
support of banks, amounted to $5,096,405 dollars, nearly half of it
representing interest accrued and unpaid. The taxation for the same
year was $613,957 dollars, chiefly the result of a direct
assessment on property of almost every description - lands, houses,
furniture, horses, mules, cattle, stock-in-trade of all trades,
gold watches, jewelry, &etc.
The state legislature meets only once
in two years. To the Lower House of Congress Arkansas, in the proportion
of its population, sends four representatives; while, like every other state, it
has two senators in the Upper House.
This article is excerpted from the Chambers's
Encyclopedia, Volume 1, published by Collier Publisher, NY - 1889 |
