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Go 976.7 H15b 1628861
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01728 5203
E
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/biographicalpict01hall
BIOGRAPHICAL
AND
PICTORIAL HISTORY
OF
ARKANSAS.
C
BY JOHN HALLUM.
VOL. I.
ALBANY : WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY, PRINTERS. 1887.
IAOIHTANDOIE
УЯОТАН ДАЙЯОТОІЯ
THE SAUTIC ITELYUR
2A2M ХЯА
YHAUNA
F881.377
1628861
Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven,
BY JOHN HALLUM,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
Noble Youth, behold the Pantheon ; and let the fires of ambition kindle thy soul and light thy way to its portals.
DEDICATION.
This work originated in the affectionate solicitude of my wife to pro- vide useful and profitable entertainment for a restless nature when not engaged in the active discharge of responsible duties. "Write the Bench and Bar, the History of Arkansas, or a combination of both. Such a work or works would lead you through an original, an untrod- den field in our local literature, and would furnish useful employment and profitable entertainment for your talents. If you would bring such a work up to the standard of your capacity, I am sure an appre- ciative public would receive it favorably. I would appreciate a work brought to that standard infinitely more than any pecuniary considera- tion could inspire."
Thus wrote the Sponsor to the Biographical and Pictorial History of Arkansas, whose cultured eye has, with parental solicitude, scanned every page of the manuscript, anxious to verify the kind prophecy, and to remove impediments to its fruition ; with what result, a critical, yet generous public will determine.
Then, to you, my devoted guardian, whose claims are first on my gratitude and affectionate consideration, this work is dedicated as a testimonial of the high estimation in which you are held by the
LONOKE, ARKANSAS, July 25, 1887.
AUTHOR. .
-
PREFACE.
The author's original design was to confine this work to the bench and bar of the State, but in the progress of its execution, it was found a difficult task to divorce the history of individuals from that of the State, because as the former made the latter, they are as intimately blended as the colors of the rainbow, and as difficult to separate- hence the natural combination of both. It was found a laborious and difficult task to gather from conflicting oral and traditional sources, the major part of the material embodied in the biography of the early set- tlers in the territory, who have passed away without leaving any per- manent record or written history. This is lamentably the case with many of the ablest men who were determinate factors at an important epoch in our early history.
To rescue this history from threatened oblivion, before it passed beyond the reach of authentic record, has been a labor of love, inspired by a sense of duty, long neglected by our citizens.
Many of the events related in the progress of the work, grew out of that intemperate heat engendered by the formation and crystallization of political parties during our territorial existence; and with the hour of their origin, dates radical differences of opinion, colored by partisan birth, which has been continued and handed down to the descendants of the actors; and it would be as idle as visionary in the historian to expect to reconcile and please those who embrace these opposite views. No such expectation has been indulged. The only solicitude felt by the author, is to avoid partisan feeling, and to make the nearest . approach to truth.
Where criticism has been invited, it has to some extent been indulged in the interest of history, without reference to the personal desires of the living, where such desires would antagonize the austerity and sim- plicity of truth.
vi
PREFACE.
The limited history of a class of young men who have put on the toga virilis, under flattering auspices to the State and society have been embraced for two considerations, in opposition to the commonly re- ceived opinions of the public; first, because they are the honorable representatives of a class on whom the highest hopes and interests of society are now devolving; and secondly, because this work is intended to touch the springs of inspiration in the young as well as the aged, by examples from their own class. The author has always felt a deep interest in this class of young men. The value of their example to noble youth is inestimable. The example of the matured and finished character is always valuable, but often not more so than that of the young man who is expanding and crystallizing into noble, moral and intellectual proportions. The young man, advancing on an upward plane with his "arrows pointed to the sun," will always challenge the admiration of mankind, and impart a valuable lesson to his race. The superficial critic, who has no capacity to peep beneath the surface of things, nor to take in any other than a finished picture, will not be sat- isfied with this division of the work, but charity will ascribe the failure to his misfortune.
Another important consideration is found in the defense of the good name of the State against the slanderous imputation of repudiation raised by her spoliators and those claiming to hold obligations against the enfranchised people created by them.
The artistic execution of the Portrait and Pictorial Department has been limited, and denied that high art standard much desired by the author, not from choice, but by financial considerations not easily over- come by an obscure and impecunious author, essaying for the first time recognition in the guild of letters.
This design finds sanction in that cultured art which is wedded to the illustrated literature of the day, and a desire to hand down to posterity, a grand gallery of our local celebrities.
The scope marked out for this work embraces two more volumes to follow at intervals of one year apart, if unforeseen contingencies do not prevent the execution of the labor.
Many biographical sketches have been omitted from this volume for want of space, and because the proportion of biography to history already exceeds the desired limits.
The author has been greatly aided in collecting material for this
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vii
PREFACE.
work by the Hon. Samuel W. Williams, whose long residence in Arkansas, love for this character of literature, and tenacious memory, peculiarly fits him for such valuable and kind offices. In a great num- ber of instances he has pointed me to sources of information when it was not within his immediate knowledge.
The author for the same reasons acknowledges the obligation under which he has been placed by the Hon. William Walker of Fort Smith, the Hon. A. M. Wilson of Fayetteville, the venerable John Peel of Bentonville, the Hon. Jesse Turner, the Hon. Benjamin T. Du Val, Governor Elias N. Conway, General Albert Pike, the venerable W. F. Pope, Governor Henry M. Rector, and Mrs. Elizabeth R. Wright, the accomplished daughter of Governor Fulton, and to J. H. Van Hoose of Fayetteville, Arkansas. These parties have been uniformly courteous, and have rendered me much valuable aid in the collec- tion of material.
And it would be an offense against letters to omit the acknowledg- ment of valuable aid extended by my wife and constant companion - the foster-mother of this undertaking-whose solicitude for the result far exceeds that of the novitiate who responded to her solicitation to undertake the task of,
LONOKE, ARKANSAS July 28, 1887.
AUTHOR.
ELECTROLIGHT EVECONY
JOHN . HALLUM.
hant
LECTO LIGHT , vo .
MATTIE A. HALLUM.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
-
JOHN HALLUM.
The Hallums are descended from ancestors in the middle classes of England, the family there embracing the historian and the poet; here Governor Helm of Kentucky, Secretary Bristow of President Grant's Cabinet, President Polk, and a long roster on both sides of the water who have never broken through the veil of honest obscurity.
Hallam is the proper way to spell the name; the substitution of the u in place of the a in the last syllable is a corruption growing out of the freedom incident to back-woods life and republican simplicity where heraldry is lost in a common level. Helm is an abbreviation and corruption of the original name, springing from the same sources. This innocent invasion of ancient orthography is an inheritance which has given rise to many regrets, too late to obviate at this distance in the line of departure without injustice to others.
About 1770, two younger brothers, William and Henry Hallam, cut off from ancestral inheritance by the laws of entail and primogeniture, sought to lay foundations by their own enterprise in a field of more promise and a wider range than England extended to the portionless scions of her gentry and nobility. Imbued with the broadest spirit of religious freedom and toleration, so deeply rooted in the institutions of Maryland, they first located at Hagerstown in that colony. Both mar- ried and became the heads of large families. Henry settled in Virginia; William in South Carolina, and there became one of the largest planters of his day. From the latter the author's wife is descended, from the former the author, the relationship being in the fourth degree. Both adhered to the fortunes of the colonies and became revolutionary sol- diers. William was captured at the battle of Germantown on the 4th
B
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
of October, 1777. The British officer to whom he was delivered after capture insulted him, and slapped him in the face with his sword, and paid the penalty of his temerity with his life. The brave cavalier shot him dead instantly, made good his escape and settled in South Carolina after peace was declared.
General Van Rensselaer of revolutionary fame was his warm personal friend, and honored him with several visits at his palmetto plantation after the revolution. He was a cultured gentleman of the old school. His will is before me, broad, enlightened and liberal; he cuts through the laws of primogeniture and divides equally all his possessions between a large family of sons and daughters.
In that tide of immigration which came pouring its westward flood across the Alleghanies after the revolution, came William, Henry, John and Andrew Hallum to the frontier settlements in Tennessee in 1795, and settled on the historic Cumberland, in what is now designated as Smith county, Tennessee, all sons of Henry, the revolutionary sire; and with them came Rachel, daughter of William, the soldier, and wife of her cousin William, the pioneer. Henry is the grandfather of the author; William is the grandsire of his wife. All were men of courage and marked individuality of character, and all were staunch friends and supporters of General Jackson.
I was born on an eminence overlooking Cumberland river in Sumner county, Tennessee, on the 16th of January, 1833, the son of Bluford Hallum and Minerva Davis, my mother being descended from one of the first pioneer settlers in the Cumberland valley, an emigrant from North Carolina.
My father (now in his eightieth year) was always passionately fond of letters, and his range of knowledge and research embraces a wide field of literature and the sciences. If not inherited, his inclinations in this direction, to some extent, were imparted to his son, whom he taught from his lap to read well by the time he attained.his sixth year. Ten- nessee had no public-school system worthy of the name in those days, and I was sent to the rather indifferent old field schools of the period from my sixth to my fourteenth year, from four to six months in each year, the remainder of the time being devoted to agricultural hus- bandry.
When fifteen years old my father set me free and gave me my board as long as I would accept it. He then lived within a few furlongs of Wirt
xi
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
College, then a flourishing seat of learning in Sumner county, Tennes- see, founded on private enterprise, since defunct.
I was poor, and had, a few months before, refused to accept a college endowment at Cumberland University, founded on the private subscrip- tion of warm-hearted friends, whose memories will always be dear. Vanity and false pride, perhaps, led me to reject the boon; my mind then revolted at the idea of being educated on charitable foundations, and inspired the idea of ability to educate myself. But my false pride was delicately and artfully overcome in a way I did not suspect at the time.
W. K. Patterson, then president of the college, and William Ralston, a merchant in the vicinity, came to my father's, and after consultation with him, called me in as the fourth member. The president was uni- versally beloved, and one of the most magnetic characters I ever met. He opened up a plan for the acquisition of an education and the pay- ment of all expenses attending it with the most winning plausibility. He would furnish the books and tuition, and the merchant my clothing until they could qualify me for a teacher, and thus enable me to pay them with interest. My father, who was in the Christian conspiracy, gave me board and advised acceptance of the offer. My boyish ambi- tion climbed to the summit, and on commencement day I matriculated, remaining, however, only two years, at the end of which time I felt the embarrassment of a mountain of debt, and the strongest desire to remove it, without its having been intimated that my noble creditors wanted or expected pay at that time. To relieve myself of this embar- rassment I taught school eight months at profitable remuneration, and paid off every dollar I owed in the world. At this period I made the mistake of my life in not returning to college and completing the clas- sical education there commenced.
Ambition to enter the professional arena at an early age overpowered my better judgment, and I hugged law books to my bosom and taught school two years, whilst reading under my own direction.
I was admitted to the bar at Memphis, Tennessee, in May, 1854, since which time I have been enrolled in the supreme and Federal courts of Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, and the supreme court of the United States.
I did not believe in the doctrine of secession as a remedy for real and imaginary evils, but repudiated that sublime doctrine of patriotism
xii
AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
which required me to take up arms and strike down in blood my fellow citizens of the seceding States because they honestly differed with me in the interpretation of constitutional sanctions and guaranties. Loy- alty to my native State, under all the circumstances leading to the war between the States, was paramount to that I owed the dominant majority of the States professedly warring on constitutional sanctions designed to protect the slaveholding States. I believed, with General Lee, that patriotism has its qualifications and limitations, and that if I must take sides in a civil war I would go with my people whether they survived or perished.
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HON. JAMES R. PETTIGREW
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.
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
HISTORICAL.
CHAPTER I.
T HE discovery of America by the poor Genoese navigator under the sympathizing patronage of Isabella, opened up to the human race the grandest possibilities yet made patent to the world.
The native majesty of an adorable woman has linked her name with an achievement which will outlast and outshine all the artificial and adventitious greatness imparted to the simple wearer of a crown.
This discovery gave the world a momentum, first in arms, then in the arts and sciences, which now encircles it in a halo of light.
To-day we can stand on the mountain top, above the clouds, where Balboa first threw his eyes westward on the Pacific ocean, and in a moment whisper to the tenants in the ancient palace of Andalusia, and in another moment to all the capitals and commercial marts of the world.
In the sixteenth century Spain attained the summit of her greatness and the first place in the sisterhood of nations. From 1520 to 1556 Charles V, as king of Spain and emperor of Germany, carried her banners and victorious arms from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and her proud marine was mistress of all the waters navigated by man.
1
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
Chivalry marked out for achievement in that iron age feats hitherto unknown to the wildest visions of romance.
Pizarro, with a handful of daring followers, invaded South America, ascended the lofty Andes and took possession of the throne of the ancient Incas in the name of Spain.
The daring and sublimely heroic Cortes burned his ships behind him to inspire his followers with iron nerve and make certain glory or death. He conquered Mexico and took pos- session of the palace and the throne of the ancient Montezumas. in the name of Charles V.
Balboa ascended the northern Andes, discovered the western ronte to the Indies, and solved the mighty problem to navigation in the name of Spain.
In this connection we deem it appropriate to give a short historical and biographical sketch of De Soto, the first European explorer of Arkansas.
Fernando De Soto, the great Spanish explorer, was born about 1496, when Spain was beginning her ascension to the foremost power in the world. Of a noble family, De Soto spent several years at one of the Spanish universities and dis- tingnished himself in literature. A chivalric soldier, in 1519 he accompanied the celebrated Pedrarias Davila to America as governor of Darien.
In 1527 he supported Hernandez in Central America, and was the most liberal and elevated in sentiment of all the Span- ish-American explorers and conquerors. In 1528 he explored the Central American coast for seven hundred miles in search of the supposed straits connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 1532 he joined Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, and with fifty horsemen the next year penetrated to the heart of that ancient empire of the Incas. He entered Cuzco the seat of empire and captured the Inca Atahualpa, who paid an im- mense sum for ransom, but Pizarro treacherously refused to re- lease the monarch, which greatly incensed De Soto.
Soon after this he returned to Spain the possessor of great riches, and was flatteringly received by the great emperor, Charles V. In 1536 De Soto proposed to Charles V to under- take the conquest of Florida at his own expense. This unde- fined country extended an unknown distance in the heart of
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3
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
the continent and was then believed to be the richest country in the world.
With six hundred men, twenty-four priests and twenty offi- cers, equipped at his own expense, he set sail from San Lucan in April, 1538, and landed in Tampa bay, May 25, 1539, hav- ing stopped in the West India Islands, where the ladies accom- panying the expedition were left. Narvaez had preceded him some years, and by his cruelties had raised legions of enemies to all Europeans. This was unfortunate for De Soto and his brave followers, and caused them the loss of eighty men and forty-two horses in a great battle near where Mobile now stands, fought in October, 1540.
In July, 1539, he sent his ships to Havana. After various wanderings and the loss of many men and horses he reached the Mississippi river in June, 1541, at the third Chickasaw Bluffs, where Memphis now stands. He remained here from June 19 to July 29, then crossed the Mississippi and marched to the highlands of White river in Arkansas, being the first European to plant foot on our soil. This was the western limit of his exploration.
From the head waters of White river he proceeded south by way of Hot Springs, to an Indian village called Autamque on the Washita river, where he spent his third winter.
In March, 1542, he broke up his camp on the Washita and followed that stream to its confluence with the Mississippi, where he was attacked with fever, and died in May or June, 1542, after having appointed Mascoso his successor.
To conceal his death from the natives his body was wrapped in a mantle and sunk in the middle of the stream at midnight. Ilis followers, reduced more than one-half, started east but were driven back to the river, where they passed the next winter.
In 1543 they constructed boats and descended the river to the gulf, where they dispersed. Condensed from Appleton's Cy- clopedia.
When De Soto entered Arkansas and for more than two centur- ies afterward it was inhabited by three powerful tribes of Indians, since known in our history as the Great and Little Osages, who inhabited a large territory extending from the Missouri river to Red river, Texas, and it was also inhabited by the Quawpaws.
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
The Cherokees, who occupied western Arkansas long after, did so in virtue of treaties with the United States. The Chickasaws in De Soto's time occupied a vast region of country to the east of the Mississippi river. After this, one hundred and thirty-two years elapsed before another European visited Arkansas.
In 1673 two bold Jesuit explorers, Marquette and Joliett, crossed the lakes from Canada and descended the Illinois river to its confluence with the Mississippi, thence down the Missis- sippi to the junction of the Arkansas, but did not colonize or take possession of the country. In 1682 La Salle, a French explorer, following the same route, descended the Mississippi to the gulf and took possession in the name of France, and named the country Louisiana in honor of Louis XIV of France. In 1686 Tonti left several French Canadians at an Indian village of the Quawpaw tribe, located at a point on the Arkansas river, subsequently known as the Arkansas Post, but these early trappers soon left and returned to Canada or perished. This Quawpaw village was occasionally visited by a · French trader, and sometimes by a missionary, but no perma- nent settlement was made in Arkansas until 1721, when the celebrated John Law established a number of French colonists and their families at the Indian village to which they gave the name of Arkansas Post. This was the first permanent settle- ment in Arkansas.
John Law is an important factor in the history of Arkansas and deserves special mention. He was a native of Edinburgh, and was of the illustrious house of the Duke of Argyle and one of the most remarkable men of the age in which he lived. Le possessed great learning on subjects connected with finance, the most fascinating manners and commanding person. IIe was the author of several works on finance -he examined in person the operations of the great banks of England, Amster- dam and Venice.
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