February 4, 1874

William Allan Oldfield was born in Franklin (Izard County). He was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-first U.S. Congress and to the nine succeeding Congresses, serving from 1909 until his death in 1928. During that time, he served as a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means and was chosen as chair of the Democratic Congressional Committee, campaigning across the country for Democratic candidates and incumbents. He was reelected to the Seventy-first Congress, his tenth consecutive term, but he died before he could take office. His wife took his place in Congress, becoming the first woman in Arkansas elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.