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 17
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 17
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 17
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 17
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 17
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 17
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 17
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 17
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 17
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One day while he was just finishing a superior and somewhat new style of hunting knife, Dr. Bowie happened to enter the shop. The moment he saw the article he determined to possess it at any price. Black had not really made it to sell-simply to gratify a desire to see how fine a blade he could make, and keep it. But a bargain was finally arranged, the blacksmith to complete it and put Bowie's name on the handle. The inscrip- tion being neatly done read: "Bowie's Knife." Its beauty and finish attracted wide attention, and all who could afford it ordered a similar one, the name of which was soon shortened into "Bowie Knife." Bowie died a patriot's death, fighting for the in- dependence of Texas, by the side of David Crockett.
The one pre-eminent thing which entitles the Arkansas pioneer, Sandy Faulkner. to immortality is the fact that he is the real, original "Arkansaw Traveler." He was an early settler, a hunter, a wild, jolly, reckless spendthrift, and a splendid fiddler. He was of a wealthy Kentucky family, and settled
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first in Chicot County and then on the river only a few miles below Little Rock. By inheritance he received two or three moderate fortunes, and spent them royally. Of a roving nature, a witty and rol- licking companion, he would roam through the woods, hunting for days and weeks, and then en- liven the village resorts for a while. He was born to encounter just such a character as he did chance to find, playing on a three-stringed fiddle the first part of a particular tune. Now there was but one thing in this world that could touch his heart with a desire to possess, and that was to hear the re- mainder of the tune,
After meeting this rare character in the woods what a world of enjoyment Sandy did carry to the village on his next return! "With just enough and not too much," with fiddle in his hand, the villagers gathered about him while he repeated the comedy. His zest in the ludicrous, his keen wit and his inimitable acting, especially his power of mimicry and his mastery of the violin, enabled him to offer his associates an entertainment never surpassed, either on or off the mimic stage.
After the war Faulkner lived in Little Rock until his death in 1875, in straitened circumstan- ces, residing with a widowed daughter and one son. Another son was killed in the war; the two dangh- ters married and are both dead, and the son and only remaining child left this portion of the coun- try some years ago.
When Faulkner died-over eighty years of age -he held a subordinate office in the legislature then in session, which body adjourned and respect- fully buried all that was mortal of the "Arkansaw Traveler," while the little morceau from his harmless and genial soul will continue to travel around the world and never stop, the thrice wel- come guest about every fireside.
What a comment is here in this careless, aim- less life and that vaulting ambition that struggles, and wars and suffers and sows the world with woe that men's names may live after death. Poor Sandy had no thought of distinction; his life was a laugh, so unmixed with care for the morrow and so merry that it has filled a world with its cease- less echoes.
Though there may be in this country no titled aristocracy, there are nobles, whose remotest de- scendants may claim that distinction of race and blood which follows the memory of the great deeds of illustrious sires. It is the nobles whose lives and life's great work were given to the cause of their fellowmen in that noblest of all human efforts- liberty to mankind. There is something forever sacred lingering about the graves, nay, the very ground, where these men exposed their lives and struggled for each and all of us. All good men (and no man can really be called good who does not love liberty and independence above everything in the world) cannot but feel a profound interest in the lineal descendants of Revolutionary fathers. " My ancestor was a soldier in the war for inde- pendence!" is a far nobler claim to greatness than is that of the most royal blue blood in all heraldry.
W. P. Huddleston, of Sharp's Cross Roads, Independence County, has the following family tree: Israel McBee was for seven years a soldier in a North Carolina regiment in the Revolutionary War. He died in Grainger County, Tenn., aged 110 years. He was the father of Samuel McBee, who was the father of Rachel McBee, who married John Huddleston, the grand father of W. P. Hud- dleston, Jr. The McBees were originally from Scotland.
Samuel S. Welborn, of Fort Douglas, Johnson County, was the youngest son of Elias. Samuel was born December 30, 1842. His grandfather, Isaac Welborn, was seven years a soldier in a Georgia regiment, and died at Hazel Green, Ala., in 1833, aged eighty-four years.
Samuel H. Hempstead is a name illustrious in Arkansas outside of the fact that it is descended directly from a soldier in the war for independ- ence. The above-named was born in New London, Conn., in 1814, and died in Little Rock in 1862. He was a son of Joseph Hempstead, born in New London in 1778, and died in St. Louis in 1831. Joseph was a son of Stephen Hempstead, born in New London in 1742, and died in St. Louis in 1832. Stephen was a soldier in the American Revolution, serving under Col. Ledyard at the battle of Fort Griswold, near New London, when
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these towns were captured by the British under Benedict Arnold, September 6, 1781. Hempstead was wounded twice during the engagement-a severe gunshot wound in the left elbow disabling him in the arm for life. He wrote and published in the Missouri Republican in 1826, a detailed ac- count of the battle.
Stephen Hempstead's father was also Stephen Hempstead, born in 1705 and died in 1774. The records of Connecticut, Vol. VII, show that he was made an ensign in a train band company, by the colonial council, in October, 1737, where he served with distinction through this war, known as King George's War. In May, 1740, he was made surveyor by the council. He was the son of Joshna Hempstead, born in 1678, and died in 1758. He was a representative in the Connecticut council in October, 1709; a member of the Royal council in October, 1712; ensign in train band com- pany in 1721; lieutenant in same company in May, 1724; auditor of accounts in May, 1725. He was the son of Joshua Hempstead, Sr., born in 1649, and died in 1709; Joshua Hempstead, Sr., was a son of Robert Hempstead, born in 1600 and died in 1665. The last-named was the immigrant to America, one of the original nine settlers of New London, Conn., the founder of the town first called Hempstead, on Long Island. In 1646 Robert ·Hempstead built a house at New London for a res- idence, which is still standing, an ancient relic of great interest. It is occupied by descendants of the builder, named Caits, from the female branches. Though much modernized the old house still shows the port-holes used for defense against the Indians. A daughter of Robert Hempstead, Mary, was the first white child born in New London, March 26, 1647.
Fay and Roy Hempstead, Little Rock, are de- scendants of this family. Other descendants live in St. Louis, Mo.
Jesse Williams, of Prince William County, Va., enlisted under Dinwiddie's call in the French- Indian War on the English settlers in 1754, under then Lieut. - Col. Washington, of the First Virginia Regiment of 150 men. The command at- tempted to reach where is now Pittsburg to relieve
Trent's command at that place. Two descendants of the Trents now live in Washington County. In this hard march to Fort Duquesne the men dragged their cannon, were without tents and scant of pro- visions, and deprived of material or means for bridging rivers. They fought at Fort Necessity. Washington cut a road twenty miles toward Du- quesne. On July 3 the fight took place, and July 4 Washington capitulated on honorable terms.
In 1755 Jesse Williams again entered the ser- vice under Washington and joined Braddock at Fort Cumberland. In 1758 he was once more with Washington when Forbes moved on Fort Duquesne, being present at the capture, and helped raise the flag and name the place Pittsburg.
In the Revolutionary War he was one of the first to enlist from Virginia, and was commissioned captain, and was present in nearly all the battles of that long war.
The maternal ancestor of the Williams family was Thomas Rowe, of Virginia, a colonel in the war for independence, who was at the surrender of Yorktown.
David Williams, a son of Jesse, married Betsy Rowe. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and served with distinction, and also in the Seminole War. He settled in Kentucky, Franklin County. His children were Jacob, Urban V., Betty, Mil- lie, Hattie and Susan; the children of Urban V. Williams being John, Pattie and Minnie. Bettie married Jeptha Robinson, and had children, David, Owen, Austin, May, Hettie, Ruth, Sue, Jacob, Frank and Sallie. Hettie married Dr. Andrew Neat, and had children, Thomas, Estelle (Brink- ley), Ella (Ford), Addis and Ben. Sue married George Poor, and had children, George, Lizzie, Sue and Minnie. Jacob Williams, the father of Mrs. Minnie C. Shinn (wife of Prof. J. H. Shinn, of Little Rock), Otis Williams and Mattie Wil- liams, Little Rock; Joseph Desha Williams and Maggie Wells, Russellville; Lucian and Virgil, Memphis, are all of this family. Jacob Williams was a private in the Fifth Kentucky, in the late war, under Humphrey Marshall.
Among the pioneers of what is now the State of Arkansas, there was perhaps no one family that
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
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furnished so many noted characters and citizens as the Conway family. Their genealogy is traced "back to the reign of Edward I, of England, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, to the cele- brated Castle of Conway, on Conway River, in the north of Wales, where the lords of Conway, in feudal times presided in royal style." Thomas Conway came to America about the year 1740, and settled in the Virginia colony. Henry Conway was his only sou. The latter was first a colonel and afterward a general in the Revolutionary War. His daughter, Nellie, after marriage, became the mother of President Madison, and his son, Mon- cure D., was brother-in-law to Gen. Washington.
Thomas Conway, another son of Gen. Henry Conway. settled, during the Revolutionary period, near the present site of Greenville, Tenn. He married Ann Rector, a native of Virginia, and member of the celebrated Rector family. To this union seven sons and three daughters were born, and all were well reared and well educated.
In 1818, Gen. Thomas Conway moved with his family from Tennessee to St. Louis, in the Territory of Missouri, and soon after to Boone County, where he remained until his death, in 1835. Henry Wharton. Conway, the eldest son, was born March 18, 1793. in Greene County, Tenn., and served as a lieutenant in the War of 1812-15; subsequently, in 1817, he served in the treasury department at Washington, immigrated to Missouri with his father in 1818, and early in 1820, after being appointed receiver of public moneys, he immigrated in company with his next younger brother. James Sevier Conway, who was born in 1798, to the county of Arkansas, in the then Territory of Missouri. These two brothers took and executed large contracts to survey the public lands, and later on James S. became surveyor-general of the Territory. During the twenties Henry W. Conway served two terms as a delegate in Congress, and received the election in 1827 for the third term, but on the 29th of October of that year, he was mortally wounded in a duel with Robert Crittenden, from the effects of which he died on the 9th of November, following. [See account of the duel elsewhere in this work. ]
A marble shaft with an elaborate inscription, erected by his brother, James S. Conway, stands over his grave in the cemetery at Arkansas Post.
James S. Conway became the first governor of the State of Arkansas, upon its admission into the Union, serving as such from 1836 to 1840. after which he settled on his princely possessions on Red River in the southern part of the State. He was a large slave holder and cotton planter. He died on the 3d of March, 1855, at Walnut Hill, his country seat, in Lafayette County.
Frederick Rector Conway, the third son of Gen. Thomas Conway, was a noted character in Missouri and Illinois. John Rector Conway. the fourth son, was an eminent physician, who died in San Francisco in 1868. William B. Conway was born at the old homestead in Tennessee, about 1806. He was thoroughly educated, read law under John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, and commenced the practice at Elizabethtown in that State. He moved to Arkansas in 1840, and in 1844 was elected judge of the Third circuit. In December, 1846, he was elected associate justice of the supreme court. He died December 29, 1852, and is buried by the side of his noble mother, in Mount Holly Cemetery, Little Rock. The sixth son, Thomas A., died in his twenty-second year in Missouri.
The seventh and youngest son, Gov. Elias N. Conway, was born May 17, 1812, at the old home- stead in Tennessee, and in November, 1833, he left his parents' home in Missouri, and came to Little Rock, and entered into a contract to survey large tracts of the public lands in the northwest- ern part of the State. Having executed this con- tract, he was, in 1836, appointed auditor of State, a position which he held for thirteen years. In 1852 and again in 1856, he was elected on the Democratic ticket as governor of the State, and served his full two terms, eight years, a longer period than any other governor has ever served. Much could be said, did space permit, of the emi- nent services this man has rendered to Arkansas. Of the seven brothers named he is the only one now living. He leads a retired and secluded life in Little Rock, in a small cottage in which he has
5
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resided for over forty years. He has no family, having never been married.
Robert Crittenden, youngest son of John Crit- tenden, a major in the Revolutionary War, was born near Versailles, Woodford County, Ky., Jannary 1, 1797. He was educated by and read law with his brother, John J. Crittenden, in Russellville, that State. Being appointed first secretary of Arkansas Territory, he removed to Arkansas Post, the temporary seat of government, where on the 3d day of March, 1819, he was inaugurated and assumed the duties of his office. On the same day James Miller was inaugurated first governor of the Territory. It seems, however, that Gov. Miller, though he held his office until succeeded by Gov. George Izard, in March, 1825, was seldom present and only occasionally performed official duties. This left Crittenden to assume charge of the position as governor a great portion of the time while Miller held the office. Crittenden con- tinued as secretary of the Territory until succeeded by William Fulton. in April, 1829, having served in that capacity a little over ten years. In 1827 he fought a duel with Henry W. Conway, the ac- count of which is given elsewhere. According to Gen. Albert Pike, with whom he was intimately associated, "he was a man of fine presence and handsome face, with clear bright eyes, and unmis- takable intellect and genius, frank, genial, one to attach men warmly to himself, impulsive, generous. warm hearted." He was the first great leader of the Whig party in the Territory, and continued as such until his death, which occurred December 18, 1834, at Vicksburg, Miss., whither he had gone on business. He died thus young, and before the Territory, which he had long and faithfully served, became a State.
Archibald Yell, not unfamiliar to Arkansans, was born in North Carolina, in August, 1797, and while very young immigrated to Tennessee, and settled in Bedford County. He served in the Creek War as the boy captain of the Jackson Guards, under Gen. Jackson, also under the same general in the War of 1812-13, participating in the battle of New Orleans, and also in the Seminole War. He was a man of moderate education, and when
the War of 1812 closed, he read law and was ad- mitted to the bar in Tennessee. After the close of the Seminole War, he located at Fayetteville, Lin- coln County, Tenn., and there practiced law until 1832, when President Jackson gave him the choice to fill one of two vacancies, governor of Florida or Territorial judge in the Territory of Arkansas. He chose the latter and in due time located at Fayetteville, in Washington County. He was a man of fine personal appearance, pleasant and humorous, and possessed the faculty of making friends wherever he went. He was elected and served as grand master of the Masonic fraternity in the jurisdiction of Arkansas; was a Democrat in politics, and the first member of Congress from the State of Arkansas; was governor of the State from 1840 to 1844; was elected again as a member of Congress in 1844, and served until 1846, when he resigned to accept the colonelcy of an Arkansas regiment of volunteers for the Mexican War. He was killed in the battle of Buena Vista, February 22, 1847.
In his race for Congress in 1844, he was op- posed by the Hon. David Walker, the leader of the Whig party, and they made a joint canvass of the State. Yell could adapt himself to circumstances -- to the different crowds of people more freely than could his antagonist. In 1847 the Masonic fra -. ternity erected a monument to his memory in the cemetery at Fayetteville. Gov. Yell was a man of great ability, and one of the great pioneer states- men of Arkansas.
The eminent jurist, Judge David Walker, de- scended from a line of English Quakers, of whom the last trans-Atlantic ancestor in the male line was Jacob Walker, whose son George emigrated to America prior to the war of the Revolution, and settled in Brunswick County, Va. Here he mar- ried a lady, native to the manor born, and be- came the first American ancestor of a large and distinguished family. One of his sons, Jacob Wythe Walker, born in the decade that ushered in the Revolution, early in life removed to and settled in what is now Todd County, Ky. Here, on the 19th day of February, 1806, was born un- to him and his wife, Nancy (Hawkins) Walker,
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the subject of this sketch-David Walker. Young Walker's opportunities for obtaining a school edu- cation in that then frontier country were liinited, but, being the son of a good lawyer, he inherited his father's energetic nature, became self-educated, read law and was admitted to the bar in Scotts- ville, Ky., early in 1829, and there practiced until the fall of 1830, when he moved to Little Rock, Ark., arriving on the 10th of October. Soon after this he located at Fayetteville, Wash- ington County, and remained there, except when temporarily absent, until his death. From 1833 to 1835 he was prosecuting attorney in the Third circuit. He was one of the many able members of the constitutional convention of 1836. In 1840 he rode "the tidal wave of whiggery " into the State senate, in which he served four years. In 1844 he led the forlorn hope of his party in the ever memor- able contest with Gov. Yell for Congress. In 1848, while on a visit to Kentucky, and without his knowledge, a legislature, largely Democratic, elected him associate justice of the supreme court over strong Democratic opposition, embracing such men as Judges English and William Conway, both of whom afterwards succeeded to the office.
He had always been a lover of the Union, but when the Civil War came on, having been born and reared in the South, and having become attached to its institutions, he finally chose rather to cast his fortunes with the proposed Confederacy than with the Federal Union. In February 1861, he was elected a delegate to the State convention which convened on the 4th of March, and finally, at its adjourned session, passed the ordinance of secession. He and Judge B. C. Totten were can- didates for the chairmanship of this convention, the former representing the Union strength, and the latter the disunion element as it was then developed. Walker received forty out of the sev- enty-five votes cast, and thereupon took the chair; but owing to the rapid change of sentiment all of the majority, save one, finally voted with the minority, and Arkansas formally withdrew from the Union, with Judge Walker as a leader. In 1866 he was elected chief justice of the State, but in less than two years was removed from the office by
military power. At the close of the reconstruction period he was again elected to the supreme bench and served thereon until September, 1878, when he resigned at the age of seventy-two, and retired to private life. He died September 30, 1879. He was a pious and conscientious man, an able jurist, a pioneer of Arkansas, highly respected by its citi- zens.
Gen. Grandison D. Royston, a son of Joshua Royston and Elizabeth S. (Watson) Royston, na- tives, respectively, of Maryland and Virginia, and both of pure English descent, was born on the 9th of December, 1809, in Carter County, Tenn. His father was an agriculturist and Indian trader of great energy and character, and his mother was a daughter of that eminent Methodist divine, Rev. Samuel Watson, one of the pioneers of the Holstein conference in East Tennessee. He was educated in the common neighborhood schools and in a Presbyterian academy in Washington County, Tenn. In 1829 he entered the law office of Judge Emerson, at Jonesboro, in that State, and two years after was admitted to the bar. Sub- sequently he emigrated to Arkansas Territory, and in April, 1832, located in Fayetteville, Washing- ton County, where he remained only eight months, teaching school five days in the week and practic- ing law in justices' courts on Saturdays. He then moved to Washington, in Hempstead County, where he continued to reside until his death. In the performance of his professional duties he trav- eled the circuits of the Territory and State in that cavalcade of legal lights composed of such men as Hempstead, Fowler, Trapnall, Cummins, Pike, Walker, Yell, Ashley, Bates, Searcy and others.
In 1833 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Third circuit, and performed the duties of that office for two years. In January, 1836, he served as a delegate from Hempstead County in the convention at Little Rock, which framed the first constitution of the State; and in the fall of the same year he was elected to represent his county in the first legislature of the State. After the expulsion of John Wilson, speaker of the house, who killed Representative John J. Anthony, Roy- ston was on joint ballot elected to fill the vacant
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speakership but declined the office. In 1841 President Tyler appointed him United States dis- trict attorney for the district of Arkansas, which office he held a short time and then resigned it. In 1858 he represented the counties of Hempstead, Pike and Lafayette in the State legislature, and became the author of the levee system of the State. In 1861 he was elected to the Confederate Con- gress, serving two years. In 1874 he was a dele- gate from Hempstead County to the constitutional convention, and was elected president of that body. In 1876 he represented the State at large in the National Democratic convention at St. Louis. and voted for Tilden and Hendricks. He was al- ways a Democrat, a man of culture, refinement and winning manners, and enjoyed in a large degree the confidence of the people. He obtained his title as general by serving on the staff of Gov. 'Drew with the rank of brigadier-general. He died August 14, 1889, in his eightieth year. He, too, was one of the last prominent pioneers of Ar- kansas, and it is said he was the last surviving member of the constitutional convention of 1836.
Judge James Woodson Bates was born in Goochland County, Va .. about the year 1788. He was educated in the Yale and Princeton Col- leges, graduating from the latter about 1810. When quite young he attended the trial of Aaron Burr, for treason, at Richmond. Soon after grad- uating he read law. In the meantime his brother, Frederick Bates, was appointed first secretary of Missouri Territory, and was acting governor in the absence of Gov. Clark. About 1816 he fol. lowed his brother to the West, and settled in St. Louis. In 1820 he removed to the Post of Arkan- sas and there began the practice of his profession, but had scarcely opened his office when he was elected first delegate to Congress from Arkansas Territory. In 1823 he was a candidate for re.
election, but was defeated by the celebrated Henry W. Conway, an able man, who commanded not only the influence of his own powerful family, but that of the Rectors, the Johnsons, Roanes and Ambrose H. Sevier, and all the political adherents of Gen. Jackson, then so popular in the South and West. The influence and strength of this combined opposition could not be overcome.
After his short Congressional career closed, lie moved to the newly settled town of Batesville, and resumed the practice of his profession. Batesville was named after him. In November, 1825, Presi- dent Adams appointed him one of the Territorial judges, in virtue of which he was one of the judges of the superior or appellate court organized on the plan of the old English court in banc. On the accession of Gen. Jackson to the presidency. his commission expired without renewal, and he soon after removed to Crawford County, married a wealthy widow, and became stationary on a rich farm near Van Buren. In the fall of 1835 he was elected to the constitutional convention, and contributed his ability and learning in the forma- tion of our first organic law as a State Soon after the accession of John Tyler to the presidency, he appointed Judge Bates register of the land office at Clarksville, in recognition of an old friend. He discharged every public trust, and all the duties devolved on him as a private citizen. with the utmost fidelity. Strange to say, whilst he possessed the most fascinating conversational powers, he was a failure as a public speaker. He was also a brother to Edward Bates, the attorney- general in President Lincoln's cabinet. He was well versed in the classics, and familiar with the best authors of English and American literature. He died at his home in Crawford County in 1846, universally esteemed.
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