February 24, 2007

New Hampshire native James Miller was appointed Arkansas’s first territorial governor in 1819. A veteran of the War of 1812, he distinguished himself at the Battle of Lundy’s Lane and was a brigadier general by war’s end. He arrived at Arkansas Post (Arkansas County) in 1819 aboard a boat decorated with flags emblazoned with “Arkansaw” and “I’ll Try Sir,” the latter being a slogan he made famous during the War of 1812. Never happy in Arkansas, he resigned his post and accepted an appointment as collector of the port of Salem, Massachusetts, a post he held until two years before his death in 1851.