m John Foster Wheeler Major J.H. Sparks J. Frank Weaver Elias C. Boudinot Wooden Hand Printing Press Albert Pike Clarence F. Byrns W.D. Barksdale Jack Moseley EDITOR: Amelia Martin ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Sarah Fitzjarrald McCullough CONSULTING EDITOR: Carolyn Pollan GUEST WRITERS: Jack Moseley (fi&ntznlz INDEXING: VOL. 13, NO. 2 SEPTEMBER, 1989 Sarah Fitzjarrald McCullough Editors' Notes 2 PROOFREADERS: John Foster Wheeler, Mayor of Fort Smith 3 Ben and Anne Johnston Gene and Lou Johnston Sequoyah and the Cherokee Alphabet 12 Don Marquette Fort Smith Press 14 Art Martin Col. W.E. Decker 26 BOARD AND OFFICERS: Ken Johnson, President Chess Pie 26 Wallace Floyd, Vice President Sebastian County Newspapers 27 Don Marquette, Treasurer Available In Arkansas Libraries Virginia Bruce, Recording Secretary Pat Birkett, Correspondence Secretary News and Opportunities 30 Jo Tillery, Membership Secretary Genealogy 36 John Ayres Letters and Inquiries 37 Stewart M. Condren Del D. Conger In Loving Memory 38 Leonna Belle Cotner Rodney Cook Marquis Lafayette Dean Wm. R. "Bud" Harper E.B. Sparks, Jr. Hazel Maude Pegues Ben Johnston, Jr. R.W. "Boots" Lynch Mary Frances Oliver Gene Johnston Rev. Paul Cooke Karo Morley Whitwell Floy Looper Stanley Smithson Mrs. Hallye Vanderpool Dr. Donald J. McMinimy William Eads, Sr. Mrs. Annise Skidmore James Tuck Thomas Harper, Sr. Majorie Ann Beall Franklin Wilder Dr. Paul Leeds Rogers Pauline Moore Denton Helen Foristell Southard Clara Reed Barber Membership in the Fort Smith Historical James H. "Jim" Parker Sister Cunnigunda Rzodeczko Society includes subscription to The Journal of the Fort Smith Historical Society, which Minnie Laser Nelson Miss Virginia Gardner is published semi-annually. Year begins Edna Fargo Tustison Mrs. Lyndon E. Orr January 1 and ends December 31. Kathy Carson Pauline Dawson For membership, send dues with your name 1889 Newspapers 42 and mailing address to: Index 49 The Fort Smith Historical Society, Inc. c/o Fort Smith Public Library Annual Business Sponsors 53 61 South 8th Street COVER: Top row, left to right: John Foster Wheeler, Major J.H. Sparks, Fort Smith, Arkansas 72901 and J. Frank Weaver. Second row: Elias C. Boudinot, Wooden Hand Printing Press of the kind used in printing early newspapers, and Albert Types of memberships: Pike. Bottom row: Clarence F. Byrns, W.D. Barksdale, and Jack Moseley. Annual $ 10.00 Annual Contributing 20.00 ©Copyright 1988 ISSN 0736 4261 Annual Sustaining 50.00 By the Fort Smith Historical Society, Inc. Annual Business Sponsor .... 50.00 c/o Fort Smith Public Library Life (Individual) 100.00 61 South 8th Street Journal Back Issues ... EachcoPy 5.00 Fort Smith, Arkansas 72901 (For mail orders, add $1.00 mailing charge per copy.) CHANGE OF ADDRESS: We welcome the loan of Fort Smith historical Change of Address Cards are free at your post office. If you move, material and will return promptly. please fill one out and send it to: Fort Smith Historical Society, The Fort Smith Historical Society, Inc. is a 61 South 8th Street, Fort Smith, Arkansas 72901. non-profit organization under Sec. 501 (c) No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any form, except (3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. for brief excerpts for review purposes, without the consent of the Gifts and legacies are deductible. Editors of The Journal. 1 REMINDER — TIME TO RENEW MEMBERSHIPS FOR 1990! MAKE SOMEONE ELSE HAPPY TOO — GIVE THEM A GIFT MEMBERSHIP TO THE FORT SMITH HISTORICAL SOCIETY. John Foster Wheeler, mayor of Fort Smith in 1854, printer of the Cherokee Alphabet invented by Sequoyah, printer of the first newspaper printed using the Cherokee alphabet, brother-in-law of Cherokee General Stand Watie, and publisher of the first newspaper in Fort Smith, is featured in this issue of The Journal. Related articles are a biography of Sequoyah, history of the Fort Smith Press, biography of Col. W.E. Decker, and a listing of Fort Smith newspapers that are available on microfilm in Arkansas libraries. Brief biographical information on many Fort Smith editors is included in body and footnotes of "Fort Smith Press" and in "News and Opportunities". Microfilming of Arkansas newspapers by Arkansas Newspaper Project continues, and the search is on for copies of Arkansas newspapers that individuals may have. The following is a list of newspapers needed from our area. If you have even a single copy of one of these papers that you would lend to be microfilmed, please contact the Arkansas Newspaper Project, Mullins Library, Room 107, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701. BARLING — Barling Booster (1941-?); Constitution Review (1973-1974) BONANZA — News (1900-1910) FORT SMITH — Fort Smith News Examiner (1 969-1 971 ) Appreciator (1898-1900) Fort Smith Standard (1867) Appreciator-Union (1912-1922) Fort Smith Star (1915-1917) Arkansas Appreciator (1900-1921) Fort Smith Times Democrat (1895-?) Arkansas Baptist Flashlight (1934-1940) Fort Smith Tribune (1 930-1 943) Arkansas Volksblatt (1886-1890) Fort Smith Union News (1941-1959) Arkansawyer (1905-1908) Fraternal Union (1907-1914) Back to the Land (1911 -?) Golden Epoch (1888-1890) Banner (1896-1897) /ndex(1914) Border City Sun (1885-?) /nformer(1912-?) Catholic Herald (1892-1894) Laborer (1906) Citizen (1912-?) Our Eastern Star (1906-?) Daily Argt/s (1860-1861) People's Protector (1889-1892) Daily Sun (1897) Pythian Herald (1904-1908) Eye(1920-?) Sebastian County Bulletin (1911-1912) Fort Smith Booster (1909-1912) Southwest Farmer (1909) Fort Smith Daily News (1919-1921) True American (1885-?) Fort Smith Developer (1885-?) Union Journal (1908-?) Fort Smith Journal (1926-1928) Union Sentinel (1903-1919) Fort Smith News (1959-1969) GREENWOOD — Argus (1872-1873) Plain Dealer (1882-7) Gazette (1890-?) Sebastian County News (1939-1941) Greenwood Standard (1873-1874) South Sebastian News (1970) Leader 1891 -?) Western World (1881-1882) HACKETT — Hackett City Horseshoe (1886-1889) HARTFORD — Hartford Herald (1924-1933); Hartford Observer (1913-1924); Southwest Exponent (1905-?) HUNTINGTON — Enterprise (1920-1930); Huntington (1912-?); Journal (1892-?); Southern Worker (1901-?) MANSFIELD — Mansfield Horseshoe (1908-?); Progress (1890-?) MIDLAND — Post (1909-?) 2 of Jfort Sarah Fitzjarrald John Foster Wheeler, mayor of Fort Smith in 1854, was a man of courage and distinction. Not only did he leave a treasured imprint on local history but he also left his mark on the history of the Cherokee Indians and the State of Oklahoma as well. A man of "firsts", he established the first news- paper in Fort Smith. Prior to that he had helped establish the first Indian periodical (newspaper) in the United States.1 And he was Oklahoma's first printer.2 John F. Wheeler was born July 10, 1808, near Danville, Kentucky. His parents were Henry J. and Jane Foster Wheeler. He had three sisters: Susan Jane, Martha and a Mrs. Pooler, whose home was in Ohio and with whom the family lost touch. He also had a half-sister, Sally Wheeler, and a half-brother, Jim Wheeler.3 In February, 1822, at age fourteen, he began apprenticeship as a printer in Huntsville, Alabama. He learned the art of printing from Dandridge Farris, printer for the newspaper, the Southern Advocate. Two years later Farris became the paper's owner.4 Wheeler also worked with another printer there, Isaac Heylin Harris.5 Meanwhile, the Cherokee Indians, with whom Wheeler's life would become personally and closely entwined by virtue of his later marrying a Cherokee maiden, were making great advancements, culturally and politically. As early as 1820 they had established a repre- John Foster Wheeler sentative form of government patterned after that of Courtesy Dr. Homer C. Wheeler the United States, consisting of an elective principal chief, a Senate and a House of Representatives. They had also established a public school system; David Brown had gone north to attend school and and at that time their tribal territory consisted of when he returned home, other young men, realizing seven million acres in Northwest Georgia, southwest the advantages of a good education, followed his North Carolina and east Tennessee. In 1825 they example. Among them was Galagi'na (Galaga) adopted a syllabic alphabet of 85 characters, 6 "Buck" Watie. A prominent philanthropist in the invented by Sequoyah (George Guess), a Cherokee. north, Elias Boudinot, had a great influence on Also in 1825, the Reverend Samuel Worcester, a young Watie so the Cherokee lad adopted the name missionary sent out by the American Board of of Elias Boudinot as his own.10 Missions in Boston, settled in New Echota, Georgia, In May of 1826 Elias Boudinot went on a speaking the Capital of the Cherokee Nation. He was tour in the east to raise money for the newspaper acclaimed as the Cherokees' most noted missionary, project. Later, while arrangements for the press and and among his many qualifications were his en- type were being made in Boston, Boudinot under- thusiasm and a knowledge of printing.7 took the task of find ing a printer who would go to the Worcester composed poems, stories and other Cherokee Nation.11 material for the mission work; and a young man, He sought the aforementioned Isaac Harris, David Brown, served as translator and interpreter.8 whose father lived at Jasper, Tennessee. Harris In 1826, the Cherokee council voted to establish a agreed to go to New Echota and take the job. From newspaper to be called the Cherokee Phoenix, and a there he went to Huntsville, Alabama, where John printing office was established at New Echota. The Wheeler was still working for the Southern Advocate. paper was to be printed partly in Cherokee and The two men agreed to go to New Echota and begin partly in English.9 work on the newspaper by January 1, 1828.12 Wheeler and Harris arrived in New Echota on Meanwhile, valuable gold deposits had been December 23, 1827.