Daniel Webster Jones
Daniel Webster Jones (15 December 1839 – 25 December 1918) was a Democratic governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas.
Daniel Webster Jones was born in Bowie County, Texas. His family moved to Washington, Arkansas in 1840. Jones attended Washington Academy there and later studied law. During his childhood, James Black, creator of the famous Bowie knife, lived with his family before moving to Washington, Arkansas. Black attempted to show Daniel his metallurgical secret in 1870, the only person known to have knowledge of Black's secret.
Jones was elected Governor of Arkansas in 1896, and was reelected in 1898. During his term appropriations were made for the new state capitol building, and a law ordering uniform textbooks in schools was passed.
Daniel Jones is buried at the Oakland Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas.
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Several global companies are headquartered in the northwest corner of Arkansas, including Wal-Mart (the world's largest public corporation by revenue in 2007), J.B. Hunt and Tyson Foods. This area of the state has experienced an economic boom since the 1970s as a result.
In recent years, automobile parts manufacturers have opened factories in eastern Arkansas to support auto plants in other states. Additionally, the city of Conway is the site of a school bus factory.
Tourism is also very important to the Arkansas economy; the official state nickname "The Natural State" was originally created (as "Arkansas Is A Natural") for state tourism advertising in the 1970s, and is still regularly used to this day.
Bowie returned, with his knife, to Texas and was involved in a knife fight with three men who had been hired to kill him. Bowie killed the three would-be assassins with his new knife and the fame of the knife was established. Legend holds that one man was almost decapitated, the second was disemboweled, and the third had his skull split open. Bowie died at the Battle of the Alamo five years later and both he and his knife became immensely famous. The fate of the original Bowie knife is unknown; however, a knife bearing the engraving "Bowie No. 1" has been acquired by the Historic Arkansas Museum from a Texas collector and has been attributed to Black through scientific analysis.
Black soon did a booming business making and selling these knives out of his shop in Washington, Arkansas. Black continued to refine his technique and improve the quality of the knife as he went. In 1839, Black was nearly blinded by an attacker and was no longer able to continue in his trade.
Black's knives were known to be exceedingly tough, yet flexible, and his technique has not been duplicated. Black kept his technique secret and did all of his work behind a leather curtain. Many claim that Black rediscovered the secret to producing true Damascus steel.
In 1870 at the age of 70, Black attempted to pass on his secret to the son of the family that had cared for him in his old age, Daniel Webster Jones. But Black had been retired for many years and found that he himself had forgotten the secret. Jones would later become Governor of Arkansas.
The birthplace of the Bowie knife is now part of the Old Washington Historic State Park which has over 40 restored historical buildings and other facilities including Black's shop. The park is known as "The Colonial Williamsburg of Arkansas". The American Bladesmithing Society has also established a college at the site to teach new apprentices, journeyman, and masters in the art of bladesmithing.
From 1863 to 1865 Old Washington was the site of the Confederate capitol of Arkansas after the fall of Little Rock, Arkansas to Union forces. The original Confederate State Capitol building (Arkansas) where the refugee government fled is still present in the park, and is part of the Camden Expedition Sites National Historic Landmark.
In 1873 the town went into decline when the railroad bypassed it. Two fires, one in 1875 and another in 1873 visited destruction on the center of town. In 1939 the town lost its position as the county-seat to nearby Hope, Arkansas.
In 1958 the Pioneer Washington Restoration Foundation began preserving the unique buildings and sites that currently lie within the park.
The park was established in 1965 and opened in 1973. The Southwest Regional Archives was established there in 1978. Since 1978 over 200,000 artifacts related to 19th century life have been recovered in the park and is the site of ongoing archaeological research on 19th century American small town life.
