State Profile: Jefferson

What is now the State of Jefferson began as the  5 westernmost counties of Arkansas Territory. Much of this land was open prairie, and early settlers were skeptical of its use as farmland, so settlement was slow. Prosperity (now the state capital) was one of the first communities of any size, founded in 1819 by land speculator Scott Hanson, who saw great potential in drawing settlers to “Far Western Arkansas.” 

Despite the efforts of Hanson and other speculators to draw in settlers, much of the region remained relatively empty of Euro-American settlement. There were several Native Nations that resided in those five western counties, most notably the Comanche, Osage, Wichita, Kiowa, and Caddo peoples. The presence of these tribes, along with several notorious bands of outlaws, gave “Western Arkansas” the reputation of lawlessness that slowed early migration to the region, much to Hanson’s frustration. He managed to keep law and order in Prosperity with his own private militia force, but the rest of the region remained outside the practical purview of the territorial government in Little Rock. 

As such, when the movement for statehood started gaining steam in the mid-1820s, several territorial leaders wanted to offload “that vast, unsettled and uncivilized portion.” Scott Hanson, who served in the legislature at this time, proposed that, instead of having the territory just lopped off and potentially lumped back into the Upper Louisiana Territory, it should be set up as a second state, which he dubbed “Jefferson.” This was what the Arkansas Territorial Legislature ultimately sent to Congress in 1827. Hanson, ever the savvy businessman, used the potential of a “State of Jefferson” to drive up land sales. Congress ultimately rejected the idea of creating two separate states in 1827 but agreed to organize the western portion of Arkansas as the “Territory of Jefferson” when the rest of Arkansas became a state in 1829. There being no other community of significant size in the new territory, Prosperity was named the new territorial capital, and Hanson became the first territorial governor appointed by President Hamilton. 

Hanson continued to work to bring in new settlers, especially in the eastern portion of the territory that bordered Arkansas. In 1833, after coal deposits were discovered 60 miles southwest of Prosperity, the town of Coalville was established to serve as a base for miners working in the region, and proper wagon roads soon connected the two towns, which in turn linked the coal fields back to Arkansas via the Prosperity-Fort Smith Highway. In 1834, John L. Anderson purchased land from Hanson’s land company some 40 miles northwest of Prosperity along the Arkansas River, where he set up a trading post. The city of Andersonville ultimately grew up around Anderson’s little settlement, which, according to the 2020 census, is Jefferson’s largest city.

The following year, in 1835, the United States declared war on the Mexican Empire and joined forces with the Northern Mexican Republic, based in Texas, New Mexico, and California. The Army used Fort Smith, in Arkansas, as one of its main bases of operation, which meant that soldiers and equipment often shipped out southwest through Jefferson on their way to Mexican Texas, leading to a boom in new settlement and - even more importantly, road construction, linking Coalville to the Texan border town of Elizabeth, just across the Red River and about 90 miles to the southwest of Jefferson’s mining hub. 

After the war ended in 1837, many soldiers ended up settling in eastern Jefferson after they were demobilized at Fort Smith, and the Coalville-Elizabeth Highway became a vital trading route between the United States and the Free State of Texas and the larger Mexican Republic. The U.S. Army also increased their presence in the Jefferson, in part to bring order to what was still seen as the “lawless” western side of the territory, but also to have a closer presence to help back up the Mexican Republic, which was seen by many in Franklin as unstable. Fort Canton, on the North Canadian River and only a few miles from the border with Kanasaw Territory, and Fort Comanche, about 45 miles north of Wichita Falls in Mexican Texas, were built during these years, helping to spread settlement and “civilization” across the whole of the Jefferson Territory. 

As Wilbur Haines took office in Franklin in 1845, with trouble brewing between the Republic and Empire of Mexico, Jefferson continued to see growth. Scott Hanson, who had retired from being governor in 1838, saw it as his final mission in life to see Jefferson attain statehood. He worked with politicians and business leaders in Prosperity, Andersonville, and Coalville to organize a constitutional convention in late 1844, the product of which was approved by voters in February of 1845 and sent off to Congress. With Minnesota Territory also applying for statehood a few weeks later, it was an easy sell to Congress. On April 4th, 1845, President Haines signed the Jefferson Enabling Act into law, making Jefferson the 28th state in the Union.