Conway Printing Company, A History of Tradition

   The history of Conway Printing Co. extends back to the 19th century. John Williamson (J. W. as he liked to be called) Robins, a young pioneer from Tennessee, came to Conway with his new bride, Minnie Freeman Robins, in the 1870's . He brought with him a small inheritance from the family plantation and a yearning to write. He spent the next 20 years working at Frauenthal and Swartz dry goods store as a bookeeper and began to acquire properties of timber,several sawmills, a lumber company and tracts of real estate in this growing town. The couple's first son, Frank E. Robins was born in December 1880.
   In 1893, after J. W. had heard that a local printing company was for sale, he proposed a swap to the owner of the business, Mr. J. W. Underhill, of several of his timber tracts and a sawmill for the printing company and it's newspaper operation, then known as the Log Cabin. They agreed, with the transaction taking place on Jan. 1, 1894. Unfortunately, the elder Mr. Robins was stricken with appendicitis and died at the age of 40 after owning the company only 6 months.
   As his young son Frank was just a lad of 13, Frank's wife, Minnie, needed some help and enlisted the assistance of the previous owner, Mr. Underhill. Frank Robins Sr. began working at the company in 1902, and assumed the position of editor upon the death of Mr. Underhill in 1906. Since that time Conway Printing Company has been owned and operated by 5 generations of the Robins and Ferguson families. The current owners, John and Bill Ferguson, being the great-great-grandsons of J. W. Robins. For more detail on this history, or other facts about Conway and Faulkner County, reference "Faulkner County: It's Land and It's People" published by the Faulkner County Historical Society.

Graphical History Archive

<click image to download>(356k)	A Conway Printing christmas ad from 1901
Vol. 1 Number 1, the first copy from the press run of the inaugural editon of the daily Log Cabin Democrat, September 14,1908 This paper was "archived" by Frank Robins Sr. by placing it in an envelope in his roll top desk where it lay for over 70 years. Coming to light again when the desk was refinished by his great grand daughter, Mary Virginia Ferguson	<click image to download>(759k)
<click image to download>(84k)	Composing Room 1896
A proclamation from Arkansas Governor Jefferson Davis, dated April 10th, 1906, commissioning Frank E. Robins (then 26 years of age) Mayor of the city of Conway.	<click image to download>(205k)
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