October 23, 2010

William Woodruff, founder of the first newspaper in Arkansas, the Arkansas Gazette, was born on December 24, 1795, in Long Island, New York. Apprenticed to a printer as a young boy, he made his way west, eventually to Arkansas Post (Arkansas County) in 1819. He not only founded the Gazette but published the first book in the territory, Laws of the Territory of Arkansas, and established the first circulating library. In 1862, Woodruff County was named in his honor.