May 22, 1830

Leonidas Polk, who had married a few weeks earlier, was ordained in the Episcopal ministry after studying at Virginia Theological Seminary. Although he spent little time in Arkansas, he is credited with being instrumental in establishing the Episcopal Church in the state through his efforts to raise money for construction and maintenance of churches. Polk did not serve the Episcopal ministry actively until eight years after his ordination, when he was designated bishop to serve a recently created mission post in the southwest. He continued the ministry at the same time he served as a general in the Confederate army during the Civil War, during which he was killed by a cannon blast to the chest.