James Sevier Conway

James Sevier Conway. December 9, 1796 - March 3, 1855. , A founder of Lafayette County , First governor of Arkansas, In 1823 James Sevier Conway began a successful plantation in the rich soils near the Red River. In 1826 he married Mary Jane Bradley, a beautiful young women who had moved to the area as a child. In 1828 he built a plantation house, boat landing, and commissary at Port Conway on the Red River, and was named postmaster. From 1836 to 1840 he served as Arkansas's first governor; after which he built a plantation house here, and named it Walnut Hill., When the Conway's young daughter died of pneumonia in 1845, he chose this quiet spot near his home for the family cemetery so he could be close to his daughter. Just two weeks later his young son was also laid to rest here. Today, more than forty members of the Conway and Bradley families are buried here., The plantation was later sold, but the family retained the cemetery. In 1977 the ten acre cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1984 it became part of the Arkansas State Park System, and in 1986 Conway Cemetery State Park was dedicated in honor of Arkansas's first governor., [Sidebar:] , James Sevier Conway , . 1796 - born in Greene County, Tennessee , . 1820 - arrived in Arkansas to make land surveys , . 1823 - settled in the Lafayette County area and began acquiring what eventually would become a large cotton plantation , . 1825 - President John Quincy Adams chose him to survey the state's western boundary between the Red River and the Arkansas River , . 1831 - President Andrew Jackson appointed him Commissioner of the Arkansas Territory to identify and survey the state's southern boundary , . 1832 - appointed to the newly created office of Surveyor General for Arkansas Territory , . 1836 - elected the first governor of Arkansas, served a four-year term, then returned to Walnut Hill