William Russell

William Russell was a St. Louis land speculator who led a group of investors to purchase land in the area of Little Rock originally settled by William Lewis in 1819.

Russell became involved in a conflict over land claims with William O'Hara that ignited the so-called New Madrid Land War in April 1821. O'Hara had purchased title to lands offered by the federal government in the wake of the New Madrid earthquake. Unfortunately, the government claims overlapped with those held by Russell. Conflict erupted when it became clear that Little Rock would become the site of the state capitol. O'Hara had accidentally built his proposed capital site on land indisputably owned by Russell. The town was moved in the middle of the night about three blocks west, from what would become Scott Street to the location of present-day Center Street: "[A]bout one hundred men, painted, masked, and disguised in almost every conceivable manner engaged in removing the town. These men with ropes and chains, would march off a frame house on wheels and logs, place it about three or four hundred yards from its former site and then return and move off another in the same manner." O'Hara called his new town Arkopolis, a name that never caught on.

The "war" ended when the overlapping claims were divided equally between both landowners, but the dispute continued to simmer until both Russell and O'Hara lost their land under the Preemption Law of 1830.