Background
James Sevier Conway was born on December 09, 1798 in Greene County, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of Thomas and Ann (Rector) Conway.
James Sevier Conway was born on December 09, 1798 in Greene County, Tennessee, United States. He was the son of Thomas and Ann (Rector) Conway.
James was educated by private tutors and attended public schools.
Conway went from Missouri to Arkansas in 1820 with his brother under contract to survey public lands, and became the first surveyor-general of Arkansas Territory. In 1829 he was reappointed by President Jackson and continued in office until the territory was admitted to statehood.
He soon became master of a large cotton plantation and more than a hundred slaves on the Red River in Lafayette County, but continued his work in surveying, marking a part of the western boundary of the territory in 1825 and cooperating with a commission from Louisiana in 1831 in surveying the southern boundary. In both cases his work was well done.
Conway’s great ambition, to become the first governor of the state, was realized in 1836. No real parties had existed in the territory, but small groups and mass conventions meeting in different counties asked him to run for office. The ticket he headed was called “Democratic-Republican, ” though this hyphenated form was no longer used in the East. It supported Van Buren. Absalom Fowler was nominated in the same way on the “People’s” ticket, which supported Hugh L. White for president. It is interesting to note that, while Conway received 5, 338 votes and Fowler 3, 222, Van Buren received only 2, 400, and White 1, 238.
The most notable event of Conway’s administration was the passage of the acts chartering the State Bank and the Real Estate Bank, and the issuance of state bonds to put them on their feet. The speaker of the House became the president of the Real Estate Bank, but continued to hold his place as speaker until he was expelled for killing a member on the floor of the House. Governor Conway has been severely criticized for allowing “this piratical crew of fortune seekers” to take the helm from him at the start and “scuttle the financial fame of the state, ” but the most pressing need of the state was capital; this was the only way the embryonic statesmen knew to get it, and other states were doing the same thing. The failure of the banks and their subsequent dark history could not be foreseen. No one has ever questioned the integrity of Conway in connection with them; he was a man of unchallenged probity.
In 1836, federal funds to the amount of $25, 000 were turned over to him to pay Arkansas volunteers called into federal service. These funds he, because of illness, turned over to an army officer who proved careless in his accounts, and a judgment was secured against Conway for a considerable sum unaccounted for. Congress, however, upon the recommendation of Reverdy Johnson, chairman of a committee to investigate, cancelled the debt. Twice Governor Conway urged the legislature to enter upon an educational policy. Upon the expiration of his term in 1840 he retired to his plantation, where he died and was buried. His brother, Elias N. Conway became governor in 1852 and undertook to restore the credit of his state.
Conway was a member of the Democratic Party.
On December 21, 1826, Conway married Mary J. Bradley, formerly of Nashville.
