“Mule Ears Wilson” of Southwest Arkansas
Many Arkansans have heard the story of one of Arkansas history’s most memorable events—a violent altercation on the floor of the House of Representatives in 1837 when a legislator killed a colleague with a knife. What some may not realize is that one of the participants hailed from southwest Arkansas. John Wilson was a leading politician in the territorial period and the days of early statehood. Wilson served as the State of Arkansas’s first Speaker of the House in the 1830s.
John Wilson was born in 1787 in Virginia, and his family moved to Kentucky when he was quite young. He later moved to Missouri where he married before arriving in Clark County, Arkansas, in 1829. The Wilsons lived in Blakelytown (later known as Arkadelphia) for a few years before moving north of the small village. There, he farmed land just to the north of what is now Ouachita Baptist University’s main campus and built a grist mill. Not much is known about the mill, except that even though Wilson operated it for a relatively brief time, the creek where it stood still retains the name “Mill Creek,” and a road continues to bear the moniker as well.
John Wilson never lost an election in Arkansas. He was a popular politician, and some suggested he could have been governor, had he run for the office. Not only did Wilson serve as Speaker of the House, but he was also appointed president of the newly-created Real Estate Bank of Arkansas. On a personal level, Wilson had quite an unusual physical characteristic: his ears wiggled involuntarily when he talked. Because of this, contemporaries sometimes referred to him as “Mule Ears Wilson.”
During a session of the General Assembly in December of 1837, the Senate sent a bill to the House intended to “encourage the killing of wolves.” The bill provided for the payment of $3 for each wolf scalp delivered to a justice of the peace, who would issue a receipt to the hunter. The receipt would then be submitted to the county treasurer for actual payment. In the ensuing discussion regarding the bill, one legislator joked that the State Treasurer should pay the $3. Another suggestion offered up was to make the wolf scalps themselves legal tender.
The sarcasm didn’t stop there, for then, J.J. Anthony of northeast Arkansas moved that wolf hunters obtain their receipts from the President of the Real Estate Bank (Wilson!). Anthony’s proposal caused quite a stir. Speaker Wilson declared him to be “out of order” and asked him to be seated. Anthony refused--twice. Wilson left his chair and approached Anthony on the floor. Anthony pulled out his long knife and Wilson did the same. Grandison Royston of Hempstead County pushed a chair between the two men, but to no avail. They began to slash at each other, and Anthony drew first blood, almost severing Wilson’s hand. Wilson grabbed the chair, held it up, then shoved his knife into Anthony’s chest, killing him instantly.
The legislature expelled Wilson and he was indicted on a murder charge, with the trial held in Saline County following a change of venue. He was represented by attorney Chester Ashley and acquitted, probably because Anthony had been the first to draw his knife, although some suggested it may have been because of his political connections. Even with the turmoil and his departure from the House of Representatives, Wilson’s popularity continued. He was subsequently elected Clark County Judge in 1838 and then to the House of Representatives from Pike County in 1840, to which he had moved. He left the state in the 1840s and died in Texas in 1865.