Small-town newspapers have traditionally served as sources of news for Arkansas citizens. Among the stories included in the local papers were items about politics, government, deaths, marriages, social occasions, church activities, business and economic development, advertisements, community news, and personal stories.

Arkansas’s first newspaper was the Arkansas Gazette, founded by William Woodruff at Arkansas Post in 1819. The Gazette served all of Arkansas Territory and moved with the territorial capital at Arkansas Post to Little Rock in 1821. Later, various smaller local papers served the upper Ouachita River valley region during the nineteenth century. Among those was the Southern Standard, published in Arkadelphia. The Standard began publication in 1868, and its files have been preserved since 1869. Of special interest to researchers today, the Standard recorded many unusual occurrences as witnessed and experienced by its readers. In 1888, the Standard reported the following story with the headline of “A Father at Eighty” about a Hot Spring County man:

“It is not often the good fortune of mankind to reach the age of eighty years and be possessed of the faculties of early manhood. Our city was this week visited by Mr. Burton Davis, a well-to-do and very extensive farmer, living ten miles from Tulip, Dallas County. Mr. Davis was born in Chatham County, North Carolina, in 1808 and came to Arkansas fifty-two years ago. At the age of 36 he married and became the father of twelve children, eleven of whom he raised. Left a widower at the age of 63, he was again married at the age of 70 and had one child, which died. Now, in his eightieth year, Mr. Davis is the proud father of a bouncing baby which is now about three months old. Hot Spring County can rightfully boast of having the oldest daddy in the country, we think.

“Mr. Davis is as hale and hearty as our average citizen of sixty, managing his entire business, and looks as if he would last a quarter-century yet. He finds Arkadelphia to be the best market for his cotton and stock and is often in our city.”