May 1, 1816

Henry Rector, who became Arkansas’s sixth governor, was born at Fontaine’s Ferry near Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Elias Rector, was one of the numerous Rectors who worked as deputy surveyors under William Rector, the surveyor-general for Illinois and Missouri. Henry Rector was part of Arkansas’s politically powerful dynasty known as the “Family” during the antebellum period, but he was not always comfortable in that role and played a part in its downfall. He was, in the sagacious judgment of William Minor Quesenbury, “a violent man who fights people.” Not only did his two years in office reflect this, but he also pistol-whipped his sons’ schoolteacher because the man had disciplined one of his children.