Our Arklahoma Heritage: The turbulent times and personalities that helped to publish a 19th century newspaper

In January 1842, Van Buren welcomed the state’s first newspaper west of Little Rock: the Arkansas Intelligencer.

Founded by Francis M. Van Horne and Thomas Sterne, this weekly publication hit the streets every Saturday, boasting it went “East from a point farther West than any paper printed in the United States.”

Under the slogan “let every freeman speak his thoughts,” the Intelligencer pledged political neutrality, offering news, steamboat advertisements, and occasional apologies for printing on small sheets when newsprint shipments stalled on the unreliable Arkansas River.

Yet, the Intelligencer’s story is as much about frontier scandal and drama as it is about ink and paper.

Van Horne and Sterne, both printers, arrived in Van Buren with a checkered past from Little Rock. In 1839 and 1841, they worked covertly for William Samuel Towbridge , a businessman-turned-counterfeiter and gang-leader, printing counterfeit banknotes.

Van Horne, employed at the Arkansas State Gazette and later the Arkansas Times and Advocate, stole type from his employer to produce the fakes

Their scheme unraveled in 1842 when Trowbridge, elected mayor of Little Rock, was exposed after his wife used forged notes. Trowbridge turned informant to reduce his sentence, resulting in Van Horne’s conviction and a six-and-a-half-year term in the state penitentiary.

 Sterne escaped imprisonment and continued running the Intelligencer.

In 1842, cr was hired to replace Van Horne as editor. Wheeler brought an impressive resume, having printed the Cherokee Phoenix, the first Native American newspaper in a native language, in Georgia, and later works in Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw in Indian Territory.

His expertise enriched the Intelligencer with news from the nearby Indian Territory, which lacked its own press. Wheeler left in 1843 for Indian Territory, later founding the Fort Smith Herald in 1847.

Wheeler died in 1859 in Fort Smith and is buried in the historic Oak Cemetery.

The Intelligencer’s drama intensified in 1843 when George Washington Clarke joined the paper. By 1844, Sterne departed, and Clarke shifted the paper’s stance to Democratic, igniting a feud with Sterne’s new rival publication, the Western Frontier Whig, edited by John S. Logan.

Their “warm controversies” escalated from political barbs to personal insults--Clarke called Logan “Big Mush,” while Logan retorted with “Toady Clarke.”

The rivalry climaxed in a rifle duel in Indian Territory in 1844. At 60 paces, both missed, and the “smell of powder and bad marksmanship” led to a truce.

The Intelligencer soon banned “gross, abusive, personal” ads.

From 1845 to 1847, Josiah Woodward Washbourne, brother of Cephas Washburn, the artist behind the iconic Arkansas Traveler painting, managed the paper alongside Cornelius David Pryor.

George Washington Clarke

Clarke returned in 1847, leading the Intelligencer until 1853 with contributions from notable writers, including a mysterious 13-year-old Fayetteville girl writing as “Clementine.”

During this period, Clarke served in the Arkansas House and Senate before becoming an Indian Agent in Kansas Territory, where he gained notoriety as a proslavery leader during the Bleeding Kansas era.

After the Civil War, Clarke fled to Mexico City, founding the Dos Republicas newspaper. Clarke died in 1884 in Mexico City; his burial site is undocumented.

He was married to Ellen St. John, and they had at least one son, George W. Clarke Jr.

In 1853, Clarke’s brother Anslem Clarke took over as editor. Described as “frank, sincere, warm-hearted” yet a brilliant writer, Anslem ran the Intelligencer until his death in 1859, when the paper ceased publication.

Anslem Clarke died in Van Buren, and is believed to be buried in Fairview Cemetery, Van Buren.

 The Intelligencer’s printing press was sold to William Henry Mayers, who used it to launch the Thirty-Fifth Parallel in Fort Smith, a Democratic paper that operated until the Civil War.

Mayers died in 1892 in Fort Smith

The Arkansas Intelligencer was more than a newspaper—it was a frontier epic of ambition, scandal, and reconciliation, mirroring the wild spirit of 19th-century Arkansas.

From counterfeiters to duelists, its editors left a controversial yet indelible mark on the state’s early media landscape.