November 26, 1905

Hugh Anderson Dinsmore, the first Arkansan from Benton County appointed as a U.S. foreign minister, and Governor Jeff Davis, who was running against Dinsmore’s friend Senator James H. Berry for his U.S. Senate seat, became embroiled in a physical altercation at the Washington Hotel in Fayetteville (Washington County). News accounts said the clash was over a letter Dinsmore claimed the governor stole, said letter being written by Berry to Dinsmore. At one point, Dinsmore pulled a gun and “pistol-whipped” the governor. No shots were fired, and neither man was arrested.