November 2, 2006

Archibald Yell, a larger-than-life and colorful figure in Arkansas history, was Arkansas’s first congressman, second governor, founder of Arkansas’s first Masonic lodge, and Mexican War hero. While a congressman, he returned to Arkansas to serve as a private in Captain Solon Borland’s company of Arkansas volunteers at the onset of the Mexican War. At the Battle of Buena Vista on February 23, 1847, Yell was killed while leading a charge against about 1,000 Mexican soldiers.