June 23, 2011

In the 1830s, North Carolina native Leonidas Polk became the first Episcopal bishop in Arkansas. Approximately eight years after his ordination in 1830, Polk was appointed missionary bishop of the southwest, an area that included Arkansas. He visited Little Rock (Pulaski County) and southwestern Arkansas in 1839. Though he spent little time in the state, he was instrumental in establishing the Episcopal Church in Arkansas. Polk joined the Confederate cause in the Civil War and was killed in action in Georgia in 1864.