Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.], Part 10

Author: Goodspeed, firm, publishers, Chicago. (1886-1891. Goodspeed publishing Company)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, St. Louis [etc.] The Goodspeed publishing co.
Number of Pages: 826

USA > Arkansas > Faulkner County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 10
USA > Arkansas > Garland County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 10
USA > Arkansas > Grant County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 10
USA > Arkansas > Hot Spring County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 10
USA > Arkansas > Jefferson County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 10
USA > Arkansas > Lonoke County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 10
USA > Arkansas > Perry County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 10
USA > Arkansas > Pulaski County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 10
USA > Arkansas > Saline County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.] > Part 10

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

In 1886, at the remarkably small cost of $35,000, were added the additions and improvements and changes in the capitol building, completing it in its present form. And if the same wisdom con- trols the State in the future that has marked the past, especially in the matter of economy in its public buildings, there will be only a trifling additional expenditure on public buildings during the next half century. The State buildings are sufficient for all public needs; their plainness and cheapness are a pride and glory, fitting monuments to the past and present generation of rulers and law makers, testifying to their intelligence and integrity.

The State library was started March 3, 1838, at first solely as a reference and exchange medium. It now has an annual allowance of $100, for pur- chasing books and contains 25,000 volumes, really more than can suitably be accommodated.

The Supreme Court library was established in January, 1851. It has 8,000 volumes, including

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

all the reports and the leading law works. The fees of attorneys' license upon admission to the bar, of ten dollars, and a dollar docket fee in each case in court, constitute the fund provided for the library.

The State Medical Society, as now constituted, was formed in May, 1875. It held its fourteenth annnal session in 1889, at Pine Bluff. Edward Bentley is the acting president, and L. P. Gibson, secretary. Subordinate societies are formed in all parts of the State and are represented by regular delegates in the general assemblies. In addition to the officers for the current year above given are Z. Orts, assistant secretary, A. J. Vance, C. S. Gray, B. Hatchett and W. H. Hill, vice-presidents in the order named.

The State Board of Health was established by act of the legislature, March 23, 1881. It is com- posed of six commissioners, appointed by the gov- ernor, "a majority of whom are to be medical grad- uates and of seven years' practice in the profes- sion." The board is required to meet once in every three months. The secretary is allowed a salary of $1,000 per annum, but the others receive no compensation except traveling expenses in the discharge of official duties.

The present board is composed of Dr. A. L. Breysacher, president; Dr. Lorenzo R. Gibson, sec- retary ; Doctors J. A. Dibrell, P. Van Patton, W. A. Cantrell and V. Brunson.

The beginning which resulted in the present elegant State institution for deaf mutes was a school established near the close of the late war, in Little Rock, by Joseph Mount, an educated mute, who gathered a few of these unfortunate ones together and taught a private school. The State legislature incorporated the school and made a small provision for it, July 17, 1868, the attendance that year being four pupils. The buildings are on the beau- tiful hill just west of the Union Depot, the im- provement of the grounds being made in 1869. The attendance in 1870 was 43 pupils, which in the last session's report, 1888, reached the number of 109; and the superintendent, anticipating an at- tendance for the current two years of 150, has solicited appropriations accordingly.

The board of trustees of the Deaf Mute Insti- tute includes: Hon. George E. Dodge, president; Col. S. L. Griffith, vice-president; Maj. R. H. Par- ham, Jr., secretary; Hon. W. E. Woodruff, treas- urer; Maj. George H. Meade and Col. A. R. Witt. The officers are: Principal, Francis D. Clarke; instructors: John W. Michaels, Mrs. I. H. Carroll, Miss Susan B. Harwood, Miss Kate P. Brown, Miss Emma Wells, S. C. Bright; teacher of articulation, Miss Lottie Kirkland. Mrs. M. M. Beattie is matron; Miss Lucinda Nations, assistant ; Miss Clara Abbott, supervises the sewing, and Mrs. Amanda Harley is housekeeper. The visiting phy- sician is J. A. Dibrell, Jr., M. D .; foreman of the printing office, T. P. Clarke; foreman of the shoe shop, U. G. Dunn. Of the total appropriations asked for the current two years, $80,970, $16,570 is for improvements in buildings, grounds, school apparatus, or working departments.

The Arkansas School for the Blind was incor- porated by act of the legislature, February 4, 1859, and opened to pupils the same year in Arkadel- phia. In the year of 1868 it was removed to Little Rock, and suitable grounds purchased at the foot of Center Street, on Eighteenth Street.

This is not an asylum for the aged and infirm, nor a hospital for the treatment of disease, but a school for the young of both sexes, in which are taught literature, music and handcraft Pupils between six and twenty-six years old are received, and an oculist for the purpose of treating pupils is a part of its benefits; no charge is made for board or tuition, but friends are expected to fur- nish clothing and traveling expenses.

It is estimated there are 300 blind of school age in the State. The legislature has appro- priated $140 a year for each pupil. On this allow- ance in two years the steward reported a balance unexpended of $1,686.84. In 1886 was appro- priated $6,000 to build a workshop, store-room, laundry and bake-oven. In 1860 the attendance was ten-five males and five females: in 1862, seven males and six females. The year 1SS8 brought the attendance up to fifty males and fifty- two females, or a total of 102. During the last two years six have graduated here-three in the

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

industrial department, and three in the industrial and literary department. Four have been dis- missed on account of recovered eyesight.

The trustees of the school are: J. R. Right- sell. S. M. Marshall, W. C. Ratcliffe, J. W. House, and D. G. Fones; the superintendent being John H. Dye.

Another commendable institution, carefully providing for the welfare of those dethroned of reason, is the Arkansas State Lunatic Asylum, which was authorized by act of the legislature of 1873, when suitable grounds were purchased, and highly improved, and buildings erected. The in stitution is three miles west of the capitol and one- half mile north of the Mount Ida road. Eighty acres of ground were originally purchased and enclosed and are now reaching a high state of improve- ment. The resident population of the asylum at present is 500 souls, and owing to the crowded conditions an additional eighty acres were pur- chased in 1887, making in all 160 acres. A care- ful inquiry shows there are in the State (and not in the asylum, for want of room) 198 insane persons, entitled under the law to the benefits of the insti- tution. Of the 411 patients in the asylum in 1888, only four were pay patients.

John G. Fletcher, R. K. Walker, A. L. Brey- sacher, John D. Adams and William J. Little are trustees of the institution, while Dr. P. O. Hooper is superintendent.

In 1885 the legislature made an appropriation of $92,500 for the erection of additional buildings and other needed improvements. This fund was not all used, but the remainder was returned into the State treasury. The total current expenses for the year 1887 aggregated $45,212.60. The current expenses on patients the same year were $29, 344. 80. The comfort of the unfortunates-the excellence of the service, the wholesome food given them, and at the same time the minimum cost to the tax payers, prove the highest possible commendation to those in charge.

The Arkansas Industrial University is the prom- ise, if not the present fulfillment, of one of the most important of State institutions. It certainly deserves the utmost attention from the best people

of the State, as it is destined to become in time one of the great universities of the world. It should be placed in position to be self-supporting, be- cause education is not a public pauper and never can be permanently successful on charity. Any education to be had must be earned. This law of nature can no more be set aside than can the law of gravitation, and the ignorance of such a simple fact in statesmen and educators has cost our civili- zation its severest pains and penalties.

The industrial department of the institution was organized in June, 1885. The act of incor- poration provided that all males should work at manual labor three hours each day and be paid therefor ten cents an hour. Seven thousand dollars was appropriated to equip the shops. Prac- tical labor was defined to be not only farm and shop work, but also surveying, drawing and labor- atory practice. Mechanical arts and engineering became a part of the curriculum. The large major- ity of any people must engage in industrial pur- suits, and to these industrial development and enlightenment and comfort go hand-in-hand. Hence the real people's school is one of manual training. Schools of philosophy and literature will take care of themselves: think of a school (classical) endeavoring to train a Shakespeare or Burns! To have compelled either one of these to graduate at Oxford would have been like clipping the wings of the eagle to aid his upward flight. In the edu- cation at least of children nature is omnipotent and pitiless, and it is the establishment of such train- ing schools as the Arkansas Industrial University that gives the cheering evidence of the world's progress. In its continued prosperity is hope for the near future; its failure through ignorance or bigotry in the old and worn out ideas of the dead past, will go far toward the confirmation of the cruel cynicism that the most to be pitied animal pell-melled into the world is the new-born babe.

The University is situated at Fayetteville, Washington County. It was organized by act of the legislature, based on the "Land Grant Act" of Congress of 1862, and supplemented by liberal donations from the State, the County of Wash- ington, and the city of Fayetteville. The school

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

was opened in 1872. March 30, 1877, the legisla- ture passed the act known as the "Barker Bill," which made nearly a complete change in the pur- view of the school and brought prominently for- ward the agricultural and mechanical departments. "To gratify our ambitious" [but mistaken] "youth," says the prospectus, "we have, under Section 7 of the act, provided for instruction in the classics."

Under the act of Congress known as the "Hatch Bill," an Agricultural Experimental Sta- tion has been organized. Substantial buildings are now provided, and the cost of board in the in- stitution is reduced to $8 per month. The attend- ance at the present time is ninety-six students, and steps are being taken to form a model stock- farm. The trustees, in the last report, say: " We recommend that girls be restored to the privi- leges of the institution." The law only excludes females from being beneficiaries, and females may still attend as pay students.

A part of the University is a branch Normal School, established at Pine Bluff, for the purpose of educating colored youth to be school teachers. These Normal Schools have for some years been a favorite and expensive hobby in most of the Northern States. There is probably no question that, for the promotion of the cause of education among the negroes, they offer unusual attractions.

The following will give the reader a clear com- prehension of the school and its purposes. Its departments are:

Mechanic arts and engineering, agriculture, experiment station, practical work, English and modern languages, biology and geology, military

science and tactics, mathematics and logic, prepara- tory department, drawing and industrial art, and music.

To all these departments is now added the med- ical department, located at Little Rock. This branch was founded in 1871, and has a suitable building on Second Street. The tenth annual course of lectures in this institution commenced October 3, 1888; the tenth annual commencement being held March 8, 1889. The institution is self- supporting, and already it ranks among the fore- most medical schools in the country. The graduat- ing class of 1888 numbered twenty.

The State Board of Visitors to the medical school are Doctors W. W. Hipolite, W. P. Hart, W. B. Lawrence, J. M. Keller, I. Folsom.

The debt of Arkansas is not as large as a cur- sory glance at the figures might indicate. The United States government recently issued a statis- tical abstract concerning the public debt of this State that is very misleading, and does it a great wrong. In enumerating the debts of the States it puts Arkansas at $12,029,100. This error comes of including the bonds issued for railroad and levee purposes, that have been decided by the Supreme Court null and void, to the amount of nearly $10,000,000. They are therefore no part of the State indebtedness.

The real debt of the State is $2,111,000, including principal and accumulated interest. There is an amount in excess of this, if there is included the debt due the general government, but for all such the State has counter claims, and it is not therefore estimated in giving the real indebtedness.

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

CHAPTER VIIL.

- 30

THE BENCHI AND BAR-AN ANALYTIC VIEW OF THE PROFESSION OF LAW-SPANISH AND FRENCH LAWS- ENGLISH COMMON LAW-THE LEGAL CIRCUIT RIDERS-TERRITORIAL LAW AND LAWYERS -THE COURT CIRCUITS-EARLY COURT OFFICERS-THE SUPREME COURT-PROMI- NENT MEMBERS OF THE STATE BENCHI AND BAR-THE STANDARD

OF THE EXECUTION OF LAW IN THE STATE.

Laws do not put the least restraint Upon our freedom, but maintain't; Or if they do, 'tis for our good, To give us freer latitude; For wholesome laws preserve us free By stinting of our liberty .- Butler.

HE Territory when under Spanish or French rule was governed by much the same laws and customs. The home government ap- pointed its viceroys, who were little more than nomi- nally under the control of the king, except in the general laws of the mother country. The neces- sary local provisions in the laws were not strictly required to be submitted for approval to the mas- 2ter powers before being enforced in the colony. Both govern- ments were equally liberal in bestowing the lands upon sub- jects, and as a rule, without cost. But the shadow of feudal times still lingered over each of them, and they had no conception that the real people would want to be small landholders, supposing that in the new as in the old world they would drift into villanage, and in some sense be a part of the possession of the landed aristocracy. Hence,

these governments are seen taking personal charge as it were of the colonies; providing them masters and protectors, who, with government aid, would transport and in a certain sense own them and their labor after their arrival. The grantee of cer- tain royal rights and privileges in the new world was responsible to the viceroy for his colony, and the viceroy to the king. The whole was anti-dem- ocratie of course, and was but the continued and old, old idea of "the divine rights of rulers."

The commentaries of even the favorite law- writers to-day in this democratic country are blurred on nearly every page with that monstrous heresy, "the king can do no wrong"-the gov- erning power is infallible, it needs no watching, no jealous eye that will see its errors or its crimes ; a fetich to be blindly worshiped, indiscriminately, whether it is an angel of mercy or a monster of evil. When Cannibal was king he was a god, with no soul to dictate to him the course he pursued. "The curiosities of patriotism under adversity" just here suggests itself as a natural title-page to one of the most remarkable books yet to be written.

The bench and bar form a very peculiar result

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

of modern civilization-to-day fighting the most heroic battles for the poor and the oppressed ; to- morrow, perhaps, expending equal zeal and elo- quence in the train of the bloody usurper and ty- rant. As full of inconsistencies as insincerity it- self, it is also as noted for as wise, conservative and noble efforts in behalf of our race as ever distin- guished patriot or sage.

The dangers which beset the path of the law- yer are a blind adherence to precedent, and a love of the abstruse technicalities of the law practice. When both or either of these infirmities enter the soul of the otherwise young and rising practitioner, his usefulness to his fellow man is apt to be perma- nently impaired. He may be the "learned judge," but will not be the great and good one.

The history of the bench and bar should be an instructive one. The inquirer, commencing in the natural order of all real history, investigating the cause or the fountain source, and then follow- ing up the effects flowing from causes, is met at the threshold with the question, Why ? What natural necessity created this vast and expensive supernumerary of civilization ? The institution in its entirety is so wide and involved, so comprehen- sive and expensive, with its array of court officials, great temples, its robes, ermine and wool-sacks; its halls, professors, schools and libraries, that the average mind is oppressed with the attempt to grasp its outlines. In a purely economic sense it produces not one blade of grass. After having elucidated this much of the investigation as best he can, he comes to a minor one, or the details of the subject. For illustration's sake, let it be assumed that he will then take up the considera- tion of grand juries, their origin, history and present necessity for existence. These are mere hints, but such as will arrest the attention of the student of law of philosophical turn of mind. They are nothing more than the same problems that come in every department of history. The school of the lawyer is to accept precedent, the same as it is a common human instinct to accept what comes to him from the fathers-assuming everything in its favor and combating everything that would dispute "the old order." It is the exceptional mind which

looks ancient precedent in the face and asks ques- tions, Whence ? Why ? Whither ? These are gen- erally inconvenient queries to indolent content, but they are the drive-wheels of moving civiliza- tion.

One most extraordinary fact forever remains, namely, that lawyers and statesmen never unfolded the science of political economy. This seems a strange contradiction, but nevertheless it is so. The story of human and divine laws is much alike. The truths have not been found, as a rule, by the custodians of the temples. The Rev. Jaspers are still proclaiming "the world do move." Great states- men are still seriously regulating the nation's "balance of trade," the price of interest on money, and through processes of taxation enriching peo- ples, while the dear old precedents have for 100 years been demonstrated to be myths. They are theoretically dead with all intelligent men, but are very much alive in fact. Thus the social life of every people is full of most amusing curi- osities, many of them harmless, many that are not.

The early bench and bar of Arkansas produced a strong and virile race of men. The pioneers of this important class of community possessed vigor- ous minds and bodies, with lofty ideals of personal honor, and an energy of integrity admirably fitted to the tasks set before them.

The law of the land, the moment the Louisi- ana purchase was effected, was the English com- mon law, that vast and marvelous structure, the growth of hundreds of years of bloody English history, and so often the apparent throes of civil- ization.

The circuit riders composed the first bench and bar here, as in all the western States. In this State especially the accounts of the law prac- tice-the long trips over the wide judicial circuits; the hardships endured, the dangers encountered from swollen streams ere safe bridges spanned them; the rough accommodations, indeed, some- times the absence of shelter from the raging ele- ments, and amid all this their jolly happy-go-lucky life, their wit and fun, their eternal electioneering, for every lawyer then was a politician; their quick- ened wits and schemes and devices to advantage

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

each other, both in and out of the courts, if all could be told in detail, would read like a fascinat- ing romance. These riders often traveled in com- panies of from three to fifteen, and among them would be found the college and law-school gradu- ates, and the brush graduates, associated in some cases and opposed in others. And here, as in all the walks of life, it was often found that the rough, self-educated men overmatched the graduates in their fiercest contests. While one might understand more of the books and of the learned technicalities of law, the other would know the jury best, and overthrow his antagonist. In the little old log cabin court rooms of those days, when the court was in session, the contest of the legal gladiators went on from the opening to the closing of the term. Generally the test was before a jury, and the people gathered from all the surrounding coun- try, deeply interested in every movement of the actors. This was an additional stimulus to the lawyer politicians, who well understood that their ability was gauged by the crowd, as were their suc- cesses before the jury. Thus was it a combination of the forum and "stump." Here, sometimes in the conduct of a noted case, a seat in Congress would be won or lost. A seat in Congress, or on the "wool sack," was the ambition of nearly every circuit rider. Their legal encounters were fought out to the end. Each one was dreadfully in earn- est-he practiced no assumed virtues in the strug- gle; battling as much at least for himself as his client, he would yield only under compulsion, even in the minor points, and, unfortunately, sometimes in the heat of ardor, the contest would descend from a legal to a personal one, and then the handy duello code was a ready resort. It seems it was this unhappy mixture of law and politics that caused many of these bloody personal encounters. In the pure practice of the law, stripped of polit- ical bearings, there seldom, if ever, came misunder- standings.

They must have been a fearless and earnest class of men to brave the hardships of professional life, as well as mastering the endless and involved intricacies of the legal practice of that day. The law then was but little less than a mass of un-

meaning technicalities. A successful practitioner required to have at his fingers' ends at least Black- stone's Commentaries and Chitty's Pleadings, and much of the wonders contained in the Rules of Evidence. Libraries were then scarce and their privations here were nearly as great as in the com- mon comforts for "man and beast." There have been vast improvements in the simplifying of the practice, the abolition of technical pleadings es- pecially, since that time, and the young attorney of to-day can hardly realize what it was the pio- neers of his profession had to undergo.

A judicial circuit at that early day was an im- mense domain, over which the bench and bar regularly made semi-annual trips. Sometimes they would not more than get around to their starting point before it would be necessary to go all over the ground again. Thus the court was almost literally "in the saddle." The saddle-bags were their law offices, and some of them, upon reaching their respective county-seats, would sig- nalize their brief stays with hard work all day in the court-room and late roystering at the tavern bar at night, regardless of the demurrers, pleas, replications, rejoinders and sur-rejoinders, declara- tions and bills that they knew must be confronted on the morrow. Among these jolly sojourners, "during court week" in the villages, dignity and circumspection were often given over exclusively to the keeping of the judge and prosecutor. Cir- cumstances thus made the bench and bar as social a set as ever came together. To see them return- ing after their long journeyings, sunburned and weatherbeaten, having had but few advantages of the laundry or bathtub, they might have passed for a returning squad of cavalry in the late war. One eccentric character made it a point never to start with any relays to his wardrobe. When he reached home after his long pilgrimage it would be noticed that his clothes had a stuffed appearance. The truth was that when clean linen was needed he bought new goods and slipped them on over the soiled ones. He would often tell how he dreaded the return to his home, as he knew that after his wife attended to his change of wardrobe he was "most sure to catch cold."

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

On one occasion two members of the bar met at a county seat where court was in session a week. They had come from opposite directions, one of them riding a borrowed horse seventy miles, while the other on his own horse had traveled over 100 miles. Upon starting home they unwittingly ex- changed horses, and neither discovered the mistake until informed by friends after reaching their des- tination. The horses could hardly have been more dissimilar, but the owners detected no change. It was nearly the value of the animals to make the return exchange, yet each set out, and finally re- turned with the proper horse. No little ingenuity must have been manifested in finally unraveling the great mystery of the affair.

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Biographical and historical memoirs of Pulaski, Jefferson, Lonoke, Faulkner, Grant, Saline, Perry, Garland and Hot Spring counties, Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the statebiographies of distinguished citizens...[etc.], Part 10

Author: Goodspeed, firm, publishers, Chicago. (1886-1891. Goodspeed publishing Company) Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Chicago, St. Louis [etc.] The Goodspeed publishing co. Number of Pages: 826

Author: Goodspeed, firm, publishers, Chicago. (1886-1891. Goodspeed publishing Company)
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Chicago, St. Louis [etc.] The Goodspeed publishing co.
Number of Pages: 826