Newspaper The Faulkner County Times (Conway, Ark.) 1???-190?

About The Faulkner County Times (Conway, Ark.) 1???-190?

Conway is the Faulkner County seat in central Arkansas just north of the Arkansas River, and it became a commercial center as the surrounding farmers visited to sell their crops and buy supplies. When Faulkner County was formed in 1873, Conway was chosen as the county seat. The region originally had a low population, but incentives for establishing farms in the area drew German and Irish settlers.

The Populist Party, also called the People’s Party, formed in 1891 and quickly gained many supporters in Arkansas. Populist Party members were primarily farmers, and the party drew its supporters from local chapters of farmers unions, like the Arkansas Farmers Union (formerly the Farmers Educational Cooperative Union of America) and National Farmers’ Alliance, which had merged with the Arkansas Agricultural Wheel.

In 1896, John Parker Harvey Russ founded the Populist newspaper in El Paso, Arkansas on the western edge of White County bordering Faulkner County. Russ worked as editor and publisher for the paper, which he printed on Saturdays. In 1897, Russ moved the Populist to Conway, one of the largest towns nearby. In Conway, he renamed the paper to the People’s Advocate and published it on Thursdays. Russ brought on D. T. Wilson to assist with editing and publishing.

Prior to starting the Populist, Russ served in the Arkansas Senate. During his first term in 1891, Russ was one of the first people to present a women’s suffrage bill to the Arkansas Legislature, though the bill was tabled. He was also a farmer and served as president of the Arkansas Agricultural Wheel. Russ was well-known in Arkansas as a Populist leader in Faulkner County.

By May 1898, Russ and Wilson had left the Advocate, and William Dyke and W. J. Caldwell took over as publishers, with Caldwell as editor. In November 1898, Caldwell sold his interest in the Advocate to Charles Love Russ, son of John Russ. Caldwell continued working as editor with John H. Cherry as associate editor. In Cherry’s introductory editorial in the Advocate, which was shared by the Osceola Times (1870-current) in the November 12, 1898 issue, Cherry wrote that every family should be able to afford their own home and not be forced to pay rent or live in a boarding house. Cherry already had a reputation as a Populist leader and was a delegate at almost all the national Populist conventions. Later in November 1898, Caldwell left the Advocate and moved to Louisiana to work as a teacher. In 1899, Charles Russ continued working as the publisher, with John Russ rejoining to work as editor. William Edgar “Ed” Green replaced John Russ as editor later that year.

In the fall of 1899, Green renamed the Advocate to the Faulkner County Times. Following the name change, the Times was listed briefly as a non-partisan paper before shifting it to support the Democratic Party. Green continued working as editor into 1900, when he also took over as publisher for a short time.

In 1900, Louis “Sharp” Sharpe Dunaway, Sr. purchased the Times newspaper plant. At that point, the paper was a small enterprise, consisting of a Washington hand press, jobber, and a handful of type. Early in 1900, Green and Richard Thomas Johnson leased the Times from Dunaway for a year. However, by the end of 1900, Johnson had left, and Green terminated his lease with the Times and moved to Little Rock. While at the Times, Green also worked as the mailing manager for the Arkansas Gazette. He left the Times to move to Little Rock where his new wife lived and focused on his work at the Gazette, rather than traveling back and forth from Conway to Little Rock. Dunaway had to find someone else to run the Times.

In 1901, Dunaway formed the Times Publishing Company, with Dunaway as owner, Elmer Rudolph Thompson business manager, and Jesse England Martin the editor. Prior to this, Martin was the Faulkner County representative in the Arkansas legislature and county sheriff. In 1901, Martin was appointed county assessor and Dunaway took over briefly as editor. Over the following years, Dunaway leased the Times to others to run but retained his investment in the paper. Thompson remained at the paper for years as the printer.

Dunaway was a longtime friend and political supporter of Governor Jeff Davis. After Davis’s death in 1913, Dunaway wrote a book about Davis’s life and political career. Dunaway became a well-known figure in Arkansas newspaper circles for his work as a circulation manager soliciting subscriptions for the Arkansas Gazette (1889-1991) out of Little Rock, where he worked for most of his career. He was also a supporter of equal rights for minorities. In 1925, Dunaway published a book about Arkansas, What a Preacher Saw Through a Key-Hole in Arkansas, which stood out for its coverage of the Elaine Race Riot. Most newspapers described the Elaine event as a “rebellion” of Black rioters attacking white plantation owners. Dunaway, however, labeled the event a massacre, writing that over 800 innocent Black Arkansans were murdered, and he disparaged the dominant narrative of the time that was reported in newspapers.

Later in 1901, James “Jim” Bennett Higgins leased the Times from Dunaway and took over as editor. Prior to this, in 1897, Higgins founded the Cleburne County Tribune (1897-19??) in Quitman but sold the paper after a year and a half and moved to Conway. Higgins renamed the Faulkner County Times, so that by 1902, it was known as the Conway Weekly Times (190?-190?). In 1903, Kenneth Wade Bullion joined the Times as editor, and Higgins left, going on to serve as a clerk in the Arkansas Legislature from 1903 to 1909.