May 14, 1878

John D. Adams and William D. Blocher sold the Daily Arkansas Gazette to Ambrose Hundley Sevier Jr., son of the U.S. senator Ambrose Hundley Sevier Sr., a week after a duel (which has been described as “the last duel fought in Arkansas”) between Adams and Arkansas Democrat owner J. N. Smithee. In October of the same year, Blocher and former Gazette editor-in-chief James Mitchell purchased the Democrat. Smithee bought the Gazette from Sevier in 1882, sold it again later that same year, and purchased it again in 1896, selling it a second time in 1899.