Newspaper Conway Weekly Times (Conway, Ark.) 190?-190?

About Conway Weekly Times (Conway, Ark.) 190?-190?

Conway is in central Arkansas on the northern bank of the Arkansas River. In 1871, Asa Peter Robinson, an engineer for the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railroad, established Conway Station as a stop on the railroad’s route. Conway became a commercial center as the surrounding farmers visited to sell their crops and buy supplies. When the Arkansas legislature created Faulkner County 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. By the early twentieth century, Conway boasted several colleges: Central College for Women (also called Central Baptist College), Arkansas State Normal School (later the University of Central Arkansas), and Hendrix College.

In 1901 James “Jim” Bennett Higgins became editor and publisher of the Faulkner County Times (1???-190?). Higgins renamed the Faulkner County Times, so that by 1902, it was known as the Conway Weekly Times. 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.  In January 1905, Judge Isaac M. Campbell succeeded Bullion as editor.

In November 1905, the Times was re-endorsed as the official organ of the local Farmers’ Union of Faulkner County. On January 1, 1906, Benjamin “Ben” Loring Griffin took editorial charge of the Conway Weekly Times to run the paper as the organ of the state Arkansas Farmers’ Union. Griffin leased the newspaper from the owner, Louis “Sharp” Sharpe Dunaway, Sr., who had purchased the newspaper plant in 1900 and leased it to others to run over the years. Higgins, Bullion, and Campbell had likewise leased the Times from Dunaway. Meanwhile, Dunaway worked as a sales agent for the Arkansas Gazette (1889-1991), a paper published in Little Rock, and he traveled the state to solicit subscriptions. After leasing the Faulkner County Times, Griffin renamed it the Conway Weekly Times. The new Times was an independent, non-partisan paper. Griffin was also the secretary-treasurer of the Arkansas Farmers Union. In his introductory editorial in the Times, he wrote that he would run the paper as the state organ of the Arkansas Farmers Union, which was headquartered in Conway. Griffin planned to install a newspaper press and enlarge the Times plant. Mary Elizabeth Walker joined the Times office in 1906, working as Griffin’s chief office clerk and associate editor of the paper.

In February 1906, a fire caused $10,000 worth of damage in Conway. It burned the office building of the Times; fortunately,  insurance had been taken out on the Times building just hours before. Later that year, Griffin complained in the paper about the lack of a good water supply in town, stating that much of the property in Conway could have been saved from fire and their insurance rates cut in half if they had access to a reliable water supply.

Griffin eventually separated the Farmers Union paper from the Times, using the Times’ printing plant to establish the Arkansas Union Tribune (1906-19??) as a standalone Arkansas Farmers Union paper. Griffin ran both papers concurrently, publishing his non-political newspapers on Thursdays. By the end of 1906, Griffin announced that the Times would be a Democratic paper. The Tribune remained an apolitical paper, as the Arkansas Farmers Union professed to stay out of politics as an organization.

Griffin’s personal connections to George Washington Donaghey, a gubernatorial candidate in 1907, led to political controversy before Donaghey announced his campaign. Griffin’s announcement of Donaghey’s forthcoming run for governor at a Farmers Union meeting led to rumors that Griffin was attempting to influence the otherwise non-political Farmers Union to support Donaghey. Meanwhile, it was rumored that Senator Jeff Davis (formerly governor) was also trying to influence members of the Farmers Union to support his pick for governor, William Fosgate Kirby. In the Times, Griffin refuted claims that he was trying to use the Union to back a political party, suggesting instead that it was other politicians who were guilty of this. Prior to these events, a Times article, republished by the Arkansas Gazette on May 2, 1905 suggested Donaghey should be a candidate. After the controversy, there were calls for Griffin to resign from his position as secretary of the Farmers Union. Despite this, the Times continued supporting Donaghey’s campaign, and he later won the 1908 election for governor.

In November 1907, Griffin resigned from his active role in the Times Publishing Company but retained his stock. He explained that he was too busy as secretary of the Farmers Union to keep running the Times. Instead, Griffin focused on his Union activities, which included publishing the Tribune as the official organ of the Farmers Union. Richard Thomas Johnson, Sr. took over Griffin’s role as editor of the Times.

When Griffin left the Times in November 1907, Mary Walker left with him but continued working as his office clerk. In August 1908, Walker married Fred DeCatur Vore, Sr. who was living in Atoka, Oklahoma and publishing the Atoka Democrat (1905-1909).  After marrying, Walker left Griffin’s office and moved to Atoka. The Vores later returned to Arkansas and moved to Stuttgart, where Mary Vore founded and ran the Grand Prairie News (1916-1928) with Walter Leslie Kennedy, Sr.

On January 1, 1908, James “Jim” Bennett Higgins became publisher and editor of the Times. Higgins had previously run the Faulkner County Times from 1901 to 1906, after which Griffin took over and renamed it the Conway Weekly Times. Andrew Jackson Witt, Sr. joined Higgins to run the newspaper. In February 1908, they renamed the paper to the Arkansas Farmer (190?-1917). The Farmer continued supporting Democratic policies and Donaghey’s run for governor. It also included agricultural and horticultural advice and news.