Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas

Lafayette Gregg was named chair of the state banking association. That same year, he was appointed as a state commissioner to represent Arkansas during the “World’s Columbian Exposition” (the World’s Fair of Chicago) in 1893. He died in November 1891, however, only a month after becoming the banking association chair and two years before the fair. Gregg was a member of one of the pioneering families in northwestern Arkansas and was involved in nearly every major historical event in Arkansas history that happened during his lifetime. Most remembered as an instrumental figure in the location of Arkansas Industrial University—later the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County)—he was also a banker, lawyer, state representative, Civil War veteran, and Arkansas Supreme Court justice.