Statesmen, Scoundrels, and Eccentrics: A Gallery of Amazing Arkansans

Jacob Wolf

Jacob Wolf Major Jacob Wolf was one of those larger-than-life settlers on the Arkansas frontier. His economic good sense and willingness to work hard made him a prosperous man,which in turn allowed him to attain considerable political power. The Wolf House, located at Norfork in Baxter County, is generally recognized as the state’s oldest surviving public building. Wolf was born in Rowan County, North Carolina, the son of Pennsylvania German descendants.Educational opportunities were few, and Wolf spent little time in school. The family moved to Kentucky in , and Jacob married there in , the first of his three marriages. After his wife died,Wolf moved toArkansas around.In  he married his second wife,Elizabeth Lantz Saunders,and they had ten children before Elizabeth died about . On November , , Wolf filed a claim for seventy-six acres of land lying immediately below the juncture of the White and Big North Fork rivers. On a height overlooking the beautiful White River, Wolf built his home, which he envisioned to be the first in a town named Liberty. Wolf secured a license to operate ferries across the White and Big North Fork rivers, and a settlement gradually grew up around Wolf’s homestead. A post office opened in . Izard County was created in ,and the following year Wolf won election to the territorial legislature.He succeeded in pushing through legislation to locate the permanent county courthouse in Liberty, and he donated land for a courthouse.He also got the contract to build the building.Thus,the Wolf House was constructed not as a residence but as Izard County’s first seat of justice. Joan Gould, author of the entry on the Wolf House in the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, described the new structure as “a two-story log house with a central breezeway on the first level, typically called a dogtrot, to serve as the courthouse. The large upperlevel room that extends over the breezeway served as the courtroom.”  Large yellow pines were felled to build Wolf’s house. Pines practically disappeared from the river valleys of the Ozarks later in the nineteenth century,but they were considered inexhaustible whenWolf was building the courthouse. Liberty prospered for a time. When writer and editor C. F. M. Noland visited the site on a trip up the White River in , he found a tavern and inn (probably in Wolf’s dwelling, as was typical of the time),a store,and blacksmith shop,situated on an “elevated and commanding ” location. Among the county officials housed in the courthouse at Liberty was John P. Houston, brother of famed Texan Sam Houston. Additional counties were created from Izard County, and by  Liberty was no longer conveniently located and the county seat was moved to the now disappeared town of Athens. Still a legislator, Wolf secured the return of the land he donated for the courthouse. Thus, Wolf moved his family of sixteen children and five stepchildren into the structure. Over time additional structures were added, including two cabins for slaves.A large barn and stable completed the homestead of a successful businessman and politician. Wolf was obviously moving up the ladder of frontier political and economic power. Described as a “large, brawny man with clear blue eyes crowning a strong brave countenance,” Wolf looked the role of patriarch. Shortly after his arrival in Arkansas, he was commissioned a major in the Arkansas Territorial Militia—thereby earning Wolf a title that followed him the rest of his life. He worked as a blacksmith, a trade that was dear to him, as well as a carpenter and storekeeper. In  the post office at Wolf’s home was renamed North Fork,and Wolf was appointed postmaster, a post he held until his death. An ardent Baptist, Wolf helped organize the White River Baptist Association in  and served as its treasurer.His religious convictions did not prevent him from owning slaves, of which he had fifteen in . A peek into Wolf’s values came when he sat for a photograph a few years before he died on the first day of . He insisted on having three props included in the photo: his hammer and anvil, a Baptist hymnal, and a Bible. The Wolf House was sold in ,and it remained in private hands (including occupation and ownership by two of Wolf’s sons during  NATIVES, EXPLORERS, AND EARLY SETTLERS the post–Civil War era and...