USA > Arkansas > A pictorial history of Arkansas, from earliest times to the year 1890. A full and complete account, embracing the Indian tribes occupying the country; the early French and Spanish explorers and governors; the colonial period; the Louisiana purchase; the periods of the territory, the state, the civil war, and the subsequent period. Also, an extended history of each county in the order of formation, and of the principal cities and towns; together with biographical notices of distinguished and prominent citizens > Part 47
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652
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
pealed or amended in whole or in part, until it was difficult to keep advised as to the precise state of the laws without careful investigation.
The Act to provide means to pay the expenses of the State Government and retire outstanding Auditor's warrants and Treasurer's certificates, provided for the issue of twenty-five hundred State bonds, of the denomination of $1,000 each, payable in 30 years, with 6 per cent. interest, payable half yearly, in January and July. They were called Loughbor- ough bonds, taking their name from Hon. James M. Lough- borough, Senator from the Tenth District, who introduced the measure and secured its passage. The bonds contemplated by the Act were issued and sold on the market, and are now running to their maturity, which will be the year 1905. In the meantime the interest is being paid and a sinking fund created out of the State's revenue to provide for the payment of the principal at maturity or call.
The Joint Resolution of thanks to Governor Baxter recited that :
"Whereas, The people of Arkansas owe a debt of gratitude to Elisha Baxter for the fearless and manly stand he took against the corruption and fraud that have pervaded Arkan- sas for the past six years therefore,
"Resolved, That the heartfelt thanks of this General Assem- bly, in behalf of the people of the entire State, be tendered to Ex-Governor Elisha Baxter, for the great and meritorious serv- ices that he has rendered to the people and State. Our very best wishes follow him in his retirement from public life, and may he find more enjoyment than can be found in any offi- cial position."
The Joint Resolution, reviewing the three State Govern- ments of the preceding six years recited that, when the State Government of 1868 was instituted, the total bonded debt of the State, on all accounts, was $3, 252,401.00; its floating debt was nothing, and there was in the treasury, in lawful
653
NOVEMBER, 1874, TO JANUARY, 1881.
money of the United States, the sum of $319,237.00 From July 3d, 1868, to October Ist, 1874, there was paid into the treasury, on all accounts, the sum of $6,674,511.00, or about $1, 100,000.00 per annum. There was paid out during that period, on account of interest and sinking fund, $515,204.00, leaving $6,159,307.00 to pay the ordinary expenses of the State Government for six years, beside the sum in the treas- ury to begin with. The whole expenses of the State Govern- ment, properly administered, should not have exceeded $300,- 000.00 per annum; or $1,800,000.00 for the six years; or, allowing $200,000.00 for payment of the militia and claims, $2,000,000.00. Adding the floating debt, created during that time, $1,857,721.00, to the $6,674,511.00, paid into the treasury, made a grand total of $8,851,469.00 as the total ex- penses of six years, or $6,236,265.00 more than it ought to have been.
For this expenditure a few public buildings, of the prob- able cost of $100,000.00, were to be seen, leaving $6,238,- 265.00 to be accounted for. It farther recited that, in addi- tion to this, the bonded debt had been increased by the issue of $3,350,000.00 of funded bonds, issued for internal improve- ments ; $5,350,000.00 for railroad aid, and $3,005,846.00 for levee bonds, making a total of $11, 705,846.00 of bonds issued, and a grand total of bonds issued, $11,705,846.00; floating debt created, $1,857,721.00. Total of debt created, $13,- 563,567.00.
The averments of the Joint Resolution were summarized as follows :
Amount in treasury at commencement, $319,237.00; re- ceived in six years, $6,674,511.00. Total resources, $6,993,- 748.00.
Paid out for expenses in six years, say, $1,800,000.00 ; paid out for militia and claims, say, $200,000.00 ; paid out for sinking fund and interest, $515,204.00; paid out for
654
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
public buildings, say, $100,000.00. Total paid out, $2,615,- 204.00.
Total received, $6,993,748.00; total paid out, $2,615,- 204.00 ; to be accounted for, $4,378,544.00; add total debt created, $13,563,567.00. Total cost to State, $17,942, 111.00.
The Resolution directed the Finance Board to correspond with the holders of outstanding bonds, with a view to consol- idate and settle them on a just basis, and one within the abil- ity of the people to pay.
In the progress of events, however, it proved that the amount of debt created during this period, to-wit : $13,563,- 567.00 of principal, on which interest ran from date, was re- duced in the following particulars, to-wit: With reference to the railroad aid and levee bonds, the Supreme Court of the State, Chief Justice E. H. English, and Associate Justices David Walker and Wm. M. Harrison, decided, in an opinion delivered by Judge Walker, in the case of the State against the Little Rock, Mississippi River & Texas Railway Com- pany, reported in the thirty-first volume of the Arkansas Re- ports, that the Act authorizing the issuance of the bonds had never been passed as required by law, and that, therefore, the bonds issued thereunder were void. By this means, bonds to the amount of $8,604,773.00 were effected. The payment of these bonds, either in principal or interest, was further pro- hibited by the Amendment No. I to the Constitution, or Fish- back Amendment, adopted in 1884.
The $1,857,721.00, representing the floating debt, was called in and taken up by the issue of the Loughborough thirty-year bonds.
Another Act of this Assembly authorized the State Treasurer to exchange bonds of any fund in the treasury for State bonds. Under this authority, the sum of $38,000.00 in United States bonds, to the credit of the school fund, bearing six per cent. interest, was exchanged for $64,000.00 of State or Lough- borough bonds, drawing six per cent. interest, thus making a
655
NOVEMBER, 1874, TO JANUARY, 1881.
gain of $1,560.00 per annum in the interest, or $20,280.00 gained in interest for the school fund from the date of the Act to the present time, 1888.
The school fund has now (1888) to its credit in the treas- ury, the sum of $136,000.00 in State or Loughborough bonds, drawing 6 per cent. interest.
On the 18th of December, 1875, G. W. Hill was appointed Superintendent of Public Instruction, and served as such until October, 1878.
In the summer of 1876 there was held, at Philadelphia, the "Centennial"' celebration, or the hundredth anniversary of the declaration of independence of the United States. Under the Act to secure a proper representation of the resources and pro- ducts of the State, Governor Garland appointed Dr. George W. Lawrence, of Hot Springs, and George E. Dodge, of Little Rock, Commissioners for Arkansas. These gentlemen devoted much time and attention to securing and properly exhibiting sam- ples of the productions and resources of the State, and presented a display which was not only creditable to the State, but to their efforts in its arrangement and display, and which com- pared favorably with the displays made at that great exposi- tion by other and older commonwealths. For some time prior to this date the ladies, in various towns in the State, had by a combined effort, by means of fairs, concerts, fetes and the like, raised a considerable sum of money, which they for- warded to the Commissioners for the general good of the cause. The amount, or part of it, was employed in the pur- chase of a handsome fountain, which was placed in front of the Arkansas building in the space allotted the State, and af- ter the conclusion of the exhibition, the fountain was brought home and placed in position in the State-house yard in front of the main building, where it now does service. A coat-of- arms of the State on the outer wall of the main building also came from the "Centennial."
656
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
In the month of September, 1876, occurred an election for State officers. William R. Miller was the Democratic candi- date for Governor, and General A. W. Bishop the Republi- can candidate. The entire vote cast was 108,633. Mr. Mil- ler received 70,425 votes, and General Bishop, 38,208. The other State officers elected were B. B. Beavers, Secretary of State; John Crawford, Auditor; Thomas J. Churchill, Treasurer; W. F. Henderson, Attorney-General; J. N. Smithee, Commissioner of State Lands ; George W. Hill, Su- perintendent of Public Instruction ; John R. Eakin, Chancel- lor; Jonathan W. Callaway, Clerk of Chancery Court. Mr. Callaway served till 1886, being elected for several successive terms.
At the Congressional election, held in November, L. C. Gause was re-elected from the First District for the term from 1877 to 1879; W. F. Slemons from the Second District ; Jordan E. Cravens, of Clarksville, from the Third District, and T. M. Gunter from the Fourth District.
The event of the greatest excitement of the year was the Presidential election, occuring in November. The candidates were Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, and William A. Wheeler, of New York, the Republican candidates; Samuel J. Til- den, of New York, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, of. the Democrats. In the election, November 7th, Tilden re- ceived a popular vote of 4, 284, 265, and Hayes 4,033,295. The Returning Boards gave Hayes 185 votes and Tilden 184; but the Democrats disputed the giving of the votes of Florida, Lou- isiana and South Carolina to the Republican candidate, as part of the 185.
In the extraordinary state of public excitement over the sub- ject, a Bill was introduced into Congress to create an Electo- ral Commission to settle the questions in dispute. It was to consist of five Senators, five Representatives, and five Judges of the Supreme Court. When the Bill was pending before Congress, Colonel W. F. Slemons, Congressman from the
5
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WILLIAM R. MILLER. Twelfth Governor of the State.
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
Second District of Arkansas, was one who not only voted against the measure, but opposed it at every turn. The Bill was passed, and, on becoming a law, the Commission was made up to consist of eight Republicans and seven Demo- crats. When the questions at issue were presented before it, the Commission, by an unvarying vote from eight to seven, decided every question presented in favor of the Republicans. The result was to confirm the 185 votes for Hayes, giving him the office by one vote. The vote of Arkansas was for Tilden and Hendricks.
Governor William R. Miller, the twelfth Governor of Ar- kansas, was inaugurated January 11th, 1877, and was the first native-born Arkansian to occupy the Gubernatorial chair.
He was born at Batesville, Independence county, Arkan- sas, November 23d, 1823, and lived on his father's farm until he was twenty-one years old. In 1848 he was elected Clerk of Independence county, which position he held until 1854. Dur- ing this time he studied law, but was not admitted to the bar until later. In 1854 he was appointed by Governor Elias N. Conway to fill the unexpired term of Captain C. C. Danley, as State Auditor, which place he filled from September 16th, to December 26th, 1854, when, the Know-Nothings being in a majority in the Legislature, he was defeated for the po- sition, but was elected thereto at the next term, November 10th, 1856, and served to April 18th, 1864. On the institution of the Murphy Government at that date, he turned over. the of- fice to his successor, James R. Berry. He was again elected Auditor in 1866, defeating Mr. Berry for the place, but was ousted under the Constitution of 1868, and Mr. Berry became his successor. Governor Miller was then admitted to the bar, at Little Rock, and returned to Batesville, where he engaged in the practice of the law. In 1874, under the Constitution of that date, he was again elected Auditor, and served until January, 1877, when he became Governor. Having served
659
NOVEMBER, 1874, TO JANUARY, 1881.
as Governor two terms, or four years, he returned to Bates- ville, where he resided until 1886, when he was again, for the fifth time, elected Auditor, making five full terms and one unexpired, of that office, during which he served, covering a period of thirteen years' service, and with four years' Governor- ship, makes a total of seventeen years' service.
The places of his residence in Arkansas were at Batesville, to 1854; from 1854 to 1868, at Little Rock; from 1868 to 1874, at Batesville ; again, from 1874 to 1881, at Little Rock ; from 1881 to 1886, at Batesville; and from 1886, at Little Rock. He died at this latter place, November 29th, 1887, aged 65 years, and is buried in Mt. Holly Cemetery. In Batesville, on the 27th of January, 1849, he married Miss Susan E. Bevens, a daughter of William C. Bevens, of that By this marriage there are four children living, two place.
daughters and two sons. The daughters are Mrs. W. J. Joblin, now residing in New Mexico, and Mrs. J. E. Williams, wife of Hon. J. E. Williams, Senator from the Pulaski dis-
trict. The sons are William R. and Hugh Miller, both residing in Little Rock. Governor Miller was the author of Miller's Digest of the Revenue Laws, and other val- uable compilations of the laws of the State. Governor Miller's ancestors, for two generations back, were persons of uncommonly long lives. His grandfather, Simon Miller, who came to Arkansas in 1814, lived to the age of 96 years, and died in Crawford county. His father, John Miller, lived to the age of 98 years; was born in Bedford county, Vir- ginia, in 1787; came to Arkansas with his father in 1814, and died in Batesville in the year 1885.
In Governor Miller's administration, the course of affairs was peaceful and uneventful. After the disturbances of past times, the State settled down into a condition of progress and advancing prosperity, in which there were few incidents worthy of note outside of the usual routine of ordinary happen- ings. The biennial elections, and the sessions of the Legisla-
660
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
ture, grew to be the only ripples on the smooth surface of events. Of its general course, it may be said that it was prudent and economical. In his own participation in it, he pardoned but few convicts, believing that the courts and juries were the first and best judges of what justice each par- ticular case required.
The twenty-first session of the Legislature was held from January 8th to March 8th, 1877. James K. Jones, of Wash- ington, Hempstead county, was elected President of the Sen- ate, and Jacob Frolich, of Searcy, White county, was elected Secretary. In the House, D. L. Kilgore, of Columbia county, was elected Speaker, and Thomas W. Newton, of Little Rock, Clerk.
The Acts of the session worthy of note were: authorizing counties to fund their indebtedness; appropriating $30,000 for. additional buildings at the penitentiary ; acts for the maintenance of the State Industrial University and the Blind Asylum ; for the payment of interest on the public debt; and authorizing counties to hire out county convicts, either to individuals, or by the establishment of county farms.
On this Assembly was devolved the election of a United States Senator to succeed Senator Powell Clayton, whose term of office was to expire March 4th, 1877. Governor Garland was elected without opposition to the office, for a term ending March 4th, 1883.
In March, 1878, Judge David Walker resigned from the Supreme Bench, and Judge Jesse Turner was appointed March 29th to succeed him.
Commencing in the month of August, 1878, and continuing from that time until the coming of frost, late in November, for the season was very late that year, a most terrible scourge of yellow fever, in an epidemic form, prevailed in many places in the South, notably in Memphis, Tennessee, Grenada, Mississippi, and New Orleans, and Shreveport, Louisana. The first case in Memphis appeared August 10th, and the last one
66 1
NOVEMBER, 1874, TO JANUARY, 1881.
November 28th. Although it was raging with great violence on both sides of the State, it did not prevail in Arkansas as an epidemic, and but few cases at all, and they coming from refugees and contagion, instead of being indigenous. Rigid quarantine measures were established to prevent travel into the State from infected districts, and under the direction of the local Board of Health of Little Rock, which, in the absence of any law creating a general Board, assumed jurisdiction over the whole State, inspecting officers were stationed at Hopefield, Forest City and Argenta, for the inspection of travel over the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad. Dr. Len P. Gibson acted as Health Officer on the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad, stationed at Carondelet, or South St. Louis, and Dr. J. J. Jones, at Poplar Bluff, and Dr. Dale, at Texarkana, and there were similar officers at other points. No one was permitted to travel, unless able to show a "bill of health," or physician's certificate, that the holder had been in no infected district within the space of six weeks.
By means of these precautions, aided by the general efforts of the citizens, the plague was kept out of Arkansas to any considerable extent, though the fever made its appearance at Hopefield, in Crittenden county, on the river opposite Mem- phis, in a number of instances. At Argenta, also opposite Little Rock, the Health Officers, Francis H. Moody and Dr. J. M. Bohemier were taken with an illness resembling the yellow fever, from which they both died. It was supposed to have been yellow fever contracted from inspecting baggage of per- sons coming from infected points.
During the prevalence of the scourge, volunteer nurses and physicians went from all parts of the Union to minister to the sick in Memphis and the points at which it was worst. Among these Dr. J. C. Easley, a prominent physician of Little Rock, went to Memphis and tended the sick, and, con- tracting the fever, died there from it.
662
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
In the month of September, 1878, occurred the election for State officers. Most of the old officers were their own suc- cessors. Governor Miller was elected for a second term, with- out opposition, receiving 88,730 votes. Jacob Frolich was elected Secretary of State; John Crawford was re-elected Auditor ; T. J. Churchill, re-elected Treasurer ; W. F. Hen- derson, re-elected Attorney-General; D. W. Lear, Commis- sioner of State Lands; James L. Denton, Superintendent of Public Instruction ; John R. Eakin, Associate Justice of the Su- preme Court, and D. W. Carroll, Chancellor. Judge Carroll is the present Chancellor, having filled the office from the date of his election, now a period of twelve years. On the 3Ist of October, James L. Denton became Superintendent of Public Instruction, and served as such till October 11th, 1882, when he was succeeded by Dunbar H. Pope, his Chief Clerk, who served to October 30th, and was succeeded by Wood E. Thompson, the present incumbent.
In the Congressional election occurring in November of the year, Poindexter Dunn was elected Congressman from the First District for the session from 1879 to 1881 ; W. F. Slemons, re-elected for the Second District; Jordan E. Cra- vens, re-elected for the Third District, and T. M. Gunter, re- elected for the Fourth District.
The twenty-second session of the Legislature was held from January 13th to March 13th, 1879. M. M. Duffie, of Princeton, was chosen President of the Senate, and Lou T. Kretchmar, Secretary. In the House, J. T. Bearden, of Camden, was elected Speaker, and John G. Holland, of Searcy, Clerk.
Governor Miller was inaugurated January 17th, 1879, and entered upon his second term.
The important Acts of the session were Acts to support the State Government ; to maintain the State Industrial Universi- ty, and the benevolent institutions of the State; continuing the Finance Board; repealing the laws making the Holford
663
NOVEMBER, 1874, TO JANUARY, 1881.
bonds and coupons receivable for taxes; encouraging the building of railroads; abolishing Clark county; for the re- pairing and building of levees ; memorializing Congress for an appropriation of $20,000.00 to stop the river from encroach- ing on the city of Pine Bluff ; and a Joint Resolution, intro- duced by Hon. W. M. Fishback, Representative from Sebas- tian county, proposing an Amendment to the State Constitu- tion, which has been mentioned.
The appropriation asked from Congress for the improve- ment of the river and prevent its encroachments on the city of Pine Bluff was granted, and under it work was conducted under the superintendency of Captain H. S. Taber, of the United States Engineer Corps, which resulted in throwing the current of the river farther off from the bank, and prevent- ing it from cutting away the bank on the Pine Bluff side, as it had been accustomed to do in every rise of the river. Owing to the light and sandy nature of the soil, the banks of the river there being all alluvial and bluff banks, had for a number of years been cutting away and caving into the river, at each season of high water, until considerable portions of the town itself had gone in this way; but since the Govern- ment work was done, none of this has been observed, and it is believed to have been effectually stopped.
On the Legislature of 1879 was devolved the election of a United States Senator to succeed Senator Stephen W. Dorsey, for the term of six years, from March 4th, 1879, to March 4th, 1885. The prominent competitors for the position were Hon. Robert W. Johnson, Colonel J. D. Walker, of Fayet- teville, and Ex-Governor Elisha Baxter. After an exciting contest, Colonel Walker was elected.
In the summer of 1879 the yellow fever again made its appearance in Memphis and at other points in the South. The State Medical Society had appointed a Committee from its members to urge upon the Legislature the passage of a law creating a State Board of Health. Although the matter
664
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
had not yet been presented to the Legislature, Governor Miller, from the necessity of the case, issued a proclamation vesting the Committee with powers to act in the emergency, the same as a regularly constituted State Board of Health. By the vigilance and efforts of this Board, and rigid quaran- tine measures, the disease was a second time prevented from gaining a footing in Arkansas.
In the year 1879 John M. Moore resigned the office of Re- porter of the Decisions of the Supreme Court, which he had held since 1874, and was succeeded by Judge B. D. Turner, of Searcy. Judge Turner served as such until his death, Octo- ber 6th, 1887, when he was succeeded by Hon. W. W. Mansfield, of Ozark, the present incumbent.
The biennial election of State officers was held in Septem- ber, 1880. General Thomas J. Churchill was nominated as the candidate of the Democrats. The Republican party made no nominations of its own, but the Greenback party, which-had sprung up prior to that time, having put out a full State ticket, headed by W. P. Parks, of Lafayette county, the Republican vote was generally given to that ticket. The total vote cast at the election was 115,619, of which Churchill received 84,190 votes and W. P. Parks received 31,429 votes. Majority for Churchill, 52,761 votes.
The other State officers elected at the same time were Jacob Frolich, re-elected Secretary of State; John Crawford, re-elected Auditor; William E. Woodruff, Jr., Treasurer ; C. B. Moore, Attorney-General; D. W. Lear, Commis- sioner of State Lands ; James L. Denton, Superintendent of Public Instruction; Elbert H. English, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Governor Churchill was inaugurated before the Legislature, January 13th, 1881.
The year 1880 was the year of a Presidential election. There were several nominations for the office. The Republi- can National Convention met in Chicago, June 5th, and nomi-
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NOVEMBER, 1874, TO JANUARY, 1881.
nated General James A. Garfield, of Ohio, for President, and Chester A. Arthur, of New York, for Vice-President. The Democratic candidates were General W. S. Hancock, of the United States Army, and William H. English, of Indiana.
In the election, November 2d, Garfield and Arthur were elected, their electorial vote being 214 against 155.
The vote of Arkansas was cast for Hancock. The Presi- dential election was also the occasion of the election of Con- gressmen to the Forty-seventh Congress, from 1881 to 1883. Poindexter Dunn was re-elected for the First District ; James K. Jones, of Washington, Hempstead county, for the Second District; Jordan E. Cravens, re-elected for the Third Dis- trict, and Thomas M. Gunter, re-elected for the Fourth Dis- trict.
In the tenth census taken in this year, the population of Arkansas was given at 802,525; being 591,531 white, and 210,666 colored persons ; a gain of 318,054 over the previous census.
CHAPTER XXX.
FROM 1881 TO 1885.
THE ADMINISTRATIONS OF GOVERNORS T. J. CHURCHILL AND JAMES H. BERRY.
GOVERNOR THOMAS J. CHURCHILL, thirteenth Governor of Arkansas, was born on his father's farm, near Louisville, Jefferson county, Kentucky, March Ioth, 1824. He was educated at St. Mary's College, in Kentucky, where he grad- uated in 1844, and then took a course of law in the Transyl- vania University. . In 1846, at the breaking out of the Mex- ican War, he enlisted as a Lieutenant in the First Kentucky Mounted Riflemen, commanded by Colonel Humphrey Marshall, and served in that war. In January, 1847, with a scouting party of seventeen men, under Captain Heady, he was made prisoner near the Hacienda of Encarnacion, by General Minon's Cavalry, who had previously captured Major John P. Gaines and Captain Cassius M. Clay, of Colonel Marshall's Regiment, and Major Solon Borland, of Colonel Yell's Arkansas Regiment, at the same place. Lieutenant Churchill was sent to the City of Mexico, and held as a pris- oner for a while, and was then given the freedom of the city on parole, and when General Scott was advancing on the City of Mexico, he was moved to Toluca, from which point he was subsequently exchanged, but not until the war was virtually over. In 1848 he moved to Arkansas, and settled in Little Rock. Here, in 1849, July 31st, he married Miss Ann Sevier, daughter of Senator Ambrose H. Sevier, and grand-daughter of Judge Benjamin Johnson. When, as 666
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