Timeline
1834 Clearing the River
Trouble in Mexico was coming to a head. After an 1833 convention, in which Texans called for separation from Mexico, Stephen F. Austin was arrested by Santa Anna and held prisoner for eight months.
Using two snag boats, three machine boats and another steamboat, Captain Henry M. Shreve reached Little Rock on February 22. In their efforts to clear the Arkansas River channel for the Corps of Engineers, Shreve and his crew removed 4,907 snags from the high water bed of the river, an average of one snag every 88 yards. Shreve later cleared the Red River raft in Louisiana.
Feeling the need for a newspaper he could have more influence over, Governor Pope made an alliance with John Steele, publisher of the Helena Herald. Steele, failing to buy out William Woodruff, established the Political Intelligencer.
In August, Governor Pope appointed Steele publisher of the digest of Arkansas laws. Woodruff, who had assumed he would get this good printing job, joined the opposition to the Governor. Underlying tension which had begun to alienate Pope from his supporters rose to the surface and Woodruff contributed as much as he could to this alienation. The final blow was probably delivered by Secretary Fulton in personal correspondence with his friend Andrew Jackson. Fulton described Pope as Jackson's enemy and a supporter of the hated Bank of the United States.
Late in the year Robert Crittenden died, but his political faction remained unified, becoming a part of the new Whig party.
< 1833 Plans for Statehood and State House | 1835 A New Governor and a Crime Wave >
