Biographical and historical memoirs of eastern Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the state, a number of biographies of distinguished citizens of the same, a brief descriptive history of each of the counties named herein, and numerous biographical sketches of the prominent citizens of such counties., Part 54

Author: Goodspeed Publishing Company
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; St. Louis [etc.] : The Goodspeed Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 836

USA > Arkansas > Biographical and historical memoirs of eastern Arkansas, comprising a condensed history of the state, a number of biographies of distinguished citizens of the same, a brief descriptive history of each of the counties named herein, and numerous biographical sketches of the prominent citizens of such counties. > Part 54

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).

The St. Francis River is a means of transporta- tion of hundreds of thousands of logs rafted to the mills on the lower waters.

Crowley's Ridge, passing through the center of the county, is especially adapted to the growth of fruits, berries and vegetables. This indus-

333

CROSS COUNTY.

try is slightly developed at the present time, yet there is an inviting field for hundreds to en- gage in these pursuits.

Stock raising may be made a source of immense wealth, as the range of Cross County is almost absolutely unsurpassed for pasturage. The west- ern portion is dotted with prairies, comprising from 100 to 10,000 acres, which afford the finest spring and summer grazing grass, while the bot- toms of the St. Francis basin furnish grass and corn, on which the cattle feed and fatten during the entire winter, without attention.

While cotton, that king of agriculture, is the principal product of the planter, yet cereals of every description grow abundantly, and it is easy to see that, with a diversity of crops, the farming interests would be improved and their value en- hanced.

The experiments with grasses and clover have proved very satisfactory, and show that they will grow as well here as in any part of Tennessee or Kentucky.

After reviewing the resources of Cross County, with its various interests-its railroad facilities. fertile soil and salubrious climate-one may safely assert that this county is destined with such ad- vantages as to become in the near future one of the foremost in Eastern Arkansas.

Dr. William D. Allen, of Wynne, Ark., has been a successful practitioner of Cross County, Ark., for forty years, and is ever to be found at the bedside of the sick and afflicted. His birth occurred in Baton Rouge, La., in 1823, and he was the fifth of a family of ten children, the result of the union of William and Clementine J. (Quillin) Allen, natives of Tennessee. Both Mr. and Mrs. Allen removed with their parents to Louisiana when children, and there attained their growth. William Allen was a farmer by occupation, also carried on stock raising, and remained in Louis- iana until 1836, when in the spring of that year he came to Arkansas. He settled about six miles southeast of the present village of Wynne, in what was then Phillips County, Ark., and when

there were about forty families living along Crow- ley's Ridge, a distance of about sixty miles. Here Mr. Allen, Sr., bought about 4,000 acres of land, on which he at once began making improvements, clearing land, erecting buildings, etc., and he brought with him a large number of negroes, who, with his family, numbered fifty-six souls. He chartered a small steamboat to transport his fam- ily and slaves to Arkansas, and landed at a point called Andrew's Landing. This boat was the sec- ond one up the St. Francis River. He then went to work and cleared about 400 acres, and resided on the same until his death, which occurred in 1846. The mother lived until 1880, and died at the age of seventy-eight years. Dr. William D. Allen was twelve years of age at the time his father moved to Arkansas, and prior to that time had at- tended school in his native State. After moving to Arkansas his father engaged a private teacher for his family and other children in the vicin- ity, and the Doctor received instruction in this manner for three years; then as new settlers came in they had permanently established subscrip- tion schools. At the age of twenty-one years Dr. Allen went to Lexington, Ky., and entered the Transylvania University, where he took a literary course of three years. There were attending, at that time, Gen. Morgan, William Walker, Gen. Buckner, Col. Pickett, and a number of others, who have since become known in history. From there Dr. Allen went to Louisville, where he took a year's course in medicine, and then went to the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated after a strict examination, in May, 1849. He then returned to Arkansas, and at once began the practice of his profession in the country sur- rounding his father's homestead. The Doctor has been in the constant practice of his profession since that time, and in the immediate vicinity of the place. In 1852, Dr. Allen was united in mar- riage to Miss Eliza Oliver, a granddaughter of John Johnson, who came to Arkansas in 1812, set- tling in Phillips, now St. Francis County, where he cleared a large tract of land, and there died about 1830. Many of his descendants are still living in this section, prosperous and well-to-do. After

334

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

marriage Dr. Allen continued his practice, and in connection speculated considerably in land, mak- ing large sums on some of their sales, and on some tracts making extensive improvements. In 1884 he came to Wynne, a station on the rail- road, that had just been named, and at that time there was but one shanty in the place. His office was a small log-cabin. In 1886 he erected an office which was destroyed in the fire that year. The Doctor is a member of the Masonic frater- nity, Forrest City Lodge No. 34, and he and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. To his marriage were born four children: Willie, John, Walter and Emmett. The first three are living in St. Francis County, where they own fine farms, and the last is attending medical lect- ures in New Orleans.

S. L. Austell, farmer, Wittsburg, Ark. This successful agriculturist owes his nativity to Cross County, Ark., where his birth occurred in 1848, and is the son of Samuel and Mabel Caroline (Wof- ford) Austell, natives of South Carolina, but who came to Arkansas at an early date. The Woffords were early pioneers, and Grandfather Isaac Wof- ford built the first house in Wittsburg. He opened a large farm, and there passed his last days, his death occurring in 1849, Samuel L. Austell at first settled on Crowley's Ridge, near the present city of Wynne, but removed to the bottoms, about one mile from Wittsburg, where he cleared about 100 acres. Mr. Austell was for many years one of the leading spirits of that section. He took a promi- nent part in politics, and was elected the first county judge of Cross County. He was also quite prominently spoken of as Governor of Arkansas. He died in 1866, and the mother in 1870. At one time he owned nearly all the land around Wynne, and speculated largely in real estate. S. L. Austell was reared principally to farm labor, and received his education in the public schools. After the death of his father, he, with his brothers, man- aged the farm until 1880, when he bought out the only remaining heir. This farm consists of about 1,100 acres, with 140 under cultivation, Mr. Austell also owns about 100 acres near Wittsburg, and in 1884 he bought the old home of the widow

of Maurice Block, at Wittsburg. Mr. Austell owns, aside from this, 500 acres on Crowley's Ridge, 175 of which are under cultivation. This land he rents out, but farms the principal part of the bal- ance himself. In 1860 his father built a cotton- gin, and this our subject still runs. In the early days of the country, Grandfather Wofford started a ferry across the St. Francis River, at Wittsburg, and this descended by inheritance to S. L. Austell, having been in the family for many years, as may be seen. In 1877 Mr. Austell married Miss Page Johnson, a daughter of Thomas Johnson, who moved to Cross County, Ark., in 1864, and here followed farming until his death, which occurred in 1875. The mother is still living. Mr. and Mrs. Austell became the parents of five children, three of whom are deceased: Blanche (deceased), Samuel (deceased), Pearl and Thomas (living) and Clay (deceased). The family are members of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church at Wittsburg. Mr. Aus- tell is only moderately active in politics, but takes a deep interest in school matters, being at present one of the directors. He is an active, energetic citizen.

Eli Bailes, farmer and treasurer of Cross County, is prominent among the comparatively young men of Cross County, whose career thus far has been both honorable and successful. Well- informed on the general topics of the day, he can not but impart to those with whom he comes in contact something of the truths with which his mind is stored. He was born in York County, S. C., in 1850, and was the youngest of a family of seven children born to Eli and Mary A. (Alex- ander) Bailes, natives, respectively, of South Caro- lina and North Carolina. The father was a tiller of the soil and died in his native State in 1886. The mother died in 1887. Eli Bailes was reared in South Carolina and his time was divided in early life between assisting on the home place and in get- ting a limited education in the common schools. During the war his father and two brothers were in the Confederate army and one brother was killed. Eli Bailes came to Arkansas in 1867, located in St. Francis, bought a farm of 110 acres, erected buildings, cleared land and remained there until

335

CROSS COUNTY.

1877, when he came to Cross County and located on the Bay Ridge farm. He remained there for four years and then removed to the McCrae farm, where from overflow and several bad speculations he met with temporary financial embarrassment. He remained on this farm until 1885, and then came to Deadrick, now known as Levesque, where he farmed about 450 acres. On this farm he has a store, mostly intended for his own plantation supplies, but has a fair stock of goods and is doing a good business. On December 1, 1888, he was appointed postmaster at Levesque and on the first of the following year, at a special election, he was made treasurer of Cross County. He has always taken a deep interest in politics and is known as one of the hardest workers for the Democratic party. He has been married twice, first in March, 1869, to Miss Dovie Lembler, a native of South Carolina, but who was reared in St. Francis County. She died in September, 1875, and left two children, a son and daughter: Charles Edward and Dovie Ethel. His second marriage took place on Janu- uary 19, 1877, to Miss Maggie Wood, who was born and reared in St. Francis County. The fruits of this union were four children, two of whom are living: Robert H. and Lucile. Those deceased were unnamed. Mr. Bailes is a good farmer and a respectable citizen.

R. B. Bamson, one of the prominent citizens of Bedford Township, was born in Devonshire, Eng- land, in 1838, being a son of William and Sarah (Louis) Bamson, also natives of England, who be- came the parents of four children: William, Mary, John (who served twelve years in the English army, and was taken with dropsy and died at Canton, China, in 1864) and R. B. (our subject.) Mr. and Mrs. Bamson both died in 1874, in their seventy- second year, having never been outside of their na- tive county. R. B. Bamson was apprenticed to a gunsmith at the age of fourteen, with whom he worked seven years, after which he followed his trade in England until twenty-seven years of age. Coming thence to America, and landing in New York September 1, 1860, he worked in a machine shop on Fifty-second Street for $5. 50 per day, and the following year went to Savannah, Ga., where

he was employed in a carriage shop at $6 per day, there remaining until May, 1862, when he joined the Confederate army, in the Fulton Dragoons, commanded by Capt. Waley. He served until May, 6, 1865 (when he was paroled), most of the time acting as a sharpshooter and scout, and was one of the "boys " who captured Gen. Crittenden, and was the possessor of that officer's pistols. After the war Mr. Bamson returned to Georgia and set- tled in Decatur, where he was married in 1866 to Mrs. S. T. Puitte, nee Moore. After his marriage he opened a shop and was engaged in the repair and manufacture of guns. In 1870 Mr. Bamson came to Arkansas, and bought a farm in Cross County, where he resided for three years, then re- moving to Douglas County, Mo., buying a farm there. He sold out two years later and went to Baxter County, where he was engaged in farming and also opened up a shop. Four years afterward he settled at Rome, Ga., resumed farming, and also ran a grist-mill and saw-mill three years. In 1879 Mr. Bamson returned to this county and pur- chased a farm, also opening a gunsmith shop, in which business he is still engaged. He owns a farm of eighty acres, with thirty acres under cultivation. In addition to farming and his gunsmith business Mr. Bamson owns a one-third interest in a steam- gin, which turns out annually 375 bales of cotton. Himself and wife are the parents of four children, three of whom are still living: W. B. and M. E. (twins) and Neoma. Mr. and Mrs. Bamson are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The former is also a member of the County Wheel, and is an enterprising citizen, lend- ing his aid to all work for the public welfare, and extending a welcome to anyone seeking a home in this community.

T. A. Bedford, druggist, Wynne, Ark. A very reliable as well as popular drug store is that of Mr. Bedford, who engaged in the drug business in Wynne, in February, 1889, and who has every requisite and convenience in this line. He is a native of Middle Tennessee, where his birth oc- curred in 1842, and is the second of four children born to John H. and Lizzie (Allen) Bedford, na- tives of Tennessee, where the father was for many

336

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

years engaged in farming, manufacturing tobacco and merchandising. In 1849 he and family moved to West Tennessee, nine miles from Memphis, and there he engaged in the cultivation of cotton, con- tinuing at this until his death, in 1851. After this his widow moved with the family to Columbia, Tenn., where she remained for three years for the purpose of educating her children. They were then sent to Lebanon to complete their education. The mother died in 1870. T. A. Bedford attended school until the end of 1860, when he came to Ar- kansas and purchased a farm in what is now Cross County, about five miles west of Wynne, bought about thirty negroes and embarked in the cotton raising business. After making one crop he went to Tennessee to visit his mother, and while there en- listed in the Confederate army, Company K, Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, commanded by Col. Paul An- derson, and was assigned to duty in Gen. Bragg's army. He was in the battles of Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Perryville, Dalton and Resaca, and was captured in May, 1864, while bearing a dispatch from Gen. Hood, would not take the oath and was sent as a prisoner to Alton, Ill. There he remained until peace was declared. In 1866 he returned to Arkansas to look after the property he had left there, and found his slaves, mules and horses gone and the plantation overgrown with underbrush. He settled here, however, and returned to agricult- ural pursuits. In January, 1868, he married Miss Mary Rebecca Cogbill, a native of Tennessee and a daughter of George Cogbill, who came to Arkansas, in 1860, settled in Cross County, and followed farming until his death, in 1867. Mr. Bedford also tilled the soil until the death of his wife, in 1882, and in the following year he went to Wittsburg, and was in the drug business at that place for some time. He was then in the ware- house and shipping business, which occupation he still continues. To his marriage were born three children: Thomas A. J. (is at present postal clerk on the Memphis & Bald Knob Railroad), Mattie R. (is a graduate of Shelbyville, Tenn., in the class of 1889), and Mamie (is attending school at Nashville, with the same teacher under whom the elder sister graduated). In 1886 Mr. Bedford was appointed

postmaster of Wittsburg, and opened the office in his drug store. He remained at Wittsburg until 1888, when he resigned the postoffice (having sold the drug store in 1887) and went to Wynne, where he purchased the drug stock of Bunch & Hamilton. He now has as fine a drug store as can be found in Eastern Arkansas, and carries a complete line of pure drugs and chemicals, toilet articles, paints and oils and the usual druggists' sundries. For compounding and putting up prescriptions he has the assistance of S. A. Miller, a graduate of the Pennsylvania School of Pharmacy, at Philadelphia and York (Penn. ) School of Sciences. This assist- ant has a complete chemical outfit and is thus pre- pared to analyze water, mineral ores and chemical compounds. Mr. Bedford owns a farm one and a half miles east of Wynne.

Alonzo A. Berry, M. D., numbered among the rising young medical practitioners in this portion of Arkansas, is a worthy son of Bart- lett A. and Elmira (Hennasu) Berry, natives of North Carolina. The former, now in his fifty- seventh year, has held a public office since twenty- one years of age. He was first sheriff of his county (Burke), which position he held during the war, and was again elected in 1887, discharging his duties of trust at the present time. He was a rep- resentative to the State legislature two terms in the Lower House, and also represented his district in the State senate from 1880 to 1884. Mr. and Mrs. Berry are members of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, and the parents of ten children: Lenore, Letitia (wife of Dr. Flow, of North Caro- lina), Alonzo A. (our subject), Clara E. (wife of Dave Berry, of North Carolina), Robert B., Lillie P., Bartlett A., Jethroe W., Forrest C. and Mar- vin G. A. A. Berry was born in North Carolina in 1865, and was educated in the common schools of his county, attending also Rutherford College, and Finley High School, at Lenoir, N. C., from which he graduated at the age of eighteen years. Fol- lowing his literary course, he entered the Louisville Medical College, and the Kentucky School of Medicine, at Louisville, Ky., graduating in 1887. He then returned to North Carolina, where he commenced practicing, but remained only a short

337

CROSS COUNTY.

time, coming the same year to Arkansas, and locat- ing in Bay Village, Cross County, where he now enjoys a large and lucrative practice. He is rap- idly becoming one of the leading physicians of the community.

Maurice Block, deceased, was for many years a leading merchant in what is now Cross County. He was born in Germany in 1819, and spent his youth until fifteen years of age at home with his father, who was a merchant, and in attending school. At the above mentioned age his father wished him to learn the baker's trade, but this not proving satisfactory to Maurice, the latter left home and went to Paris, where he worked in a clock factory, doing the fine ornamental brass work and putting on the finishing touches. He worked at this until twenty-two years of age. The year previous he wedded Miss Bettie Bloon, a native of Paris. In 1842 he came to the United States, landing at New Orleans, where he started out by selling goods through the country, and remained in that city for four or five years. While there Mrs. Block was stricken with the yellow fever and died, leaving two sons: Losso (who died in St. Louis in 1849) and Nathan (who is a merchant in Memphis). Soon after the loss of his wife, Mr. Block took his children and removed to Memphis, Tenn., where he continued his business of selling goods through the country for nearly a year. On May 17, 1849, he married Miss Anna Woubilman, also a native of Germany, and in July of the same year they moved to St. Louis, where they resided for two years. In 1851 they moved to Arkansas, settled in Bolivar, the old county seat of Poinsett County, and here made their home for little more than a year. After this they removed to the Cold Water Spring, and here Mr. Block began clerking for David Block (a man of the same name but no relation), and remained in that capacity for two years, when he became a partner in the busi- ness, doing the largest cross roads trade on Crow- ley's Ridge. In 1859 they shipped 700 bales of cot- ton and over 10,000 coon-skins. During the year 1858 this firm had the contract to furnish the city of Memphis with beef, and during that year they shipped over 2,600 head. This firm was dissolved

in 1859 by Mr. David Block retiring, and the sub- ject of this sketch then moved to Farm Hill in 1860, and there started a store. He soon built up a large trade by his honest upright dealings, and bought a farm which promised to give good re- turns, but the war breaking out he was compelled to close his store in August, 1861. In the fall of that year the Confederate soldiers burned 139 bales of cotton for him and a large quantity still in the seed, amounting in all to nearly 300 bales. Mrs. Block, with the assistance of two negro women, succeeded in saving a quantity of cotton by throw- ing the straw out of the bed ticks and filling them with cotton. Five months later this was taken from the ticks and made into two bales which Mr. Block, with the assistance of his son Isaac, took to Island No. 37, where they sold it for $1.20 per pound. During the years of the war Mr. Block bought cotton and cattle, which he succeeded in smuggling into Memphis, and which resulted in immense profits, as he often sold calico at $1 per yard, coffee at $1 per pound and salt at $100 per barrel. Those goods and others he would buy in exchange for cattle and cotton. In 1865 Mr. Block formed a partnership with his old partner, David Block, J. J. Hamilton and A. A. Luckey, and started a large store at Wittsburg, at the head of navigation on the St. Francis River. Mr. Luckey retired after six months. This firm, known as D. Block & Co., soon became one of the largest commercial firms this section has ever known, doing over $100,000 annually, and during the last year, 1875, their sales were over $175,000. Mr. Hamilton withdrew in 1874, and the subject of this sketch died on October 14, 1875. His widow continued his interest in the business until 1878, when David Block died, and the firm was dissolved, the business being sold out to J. Hall & Co. To the union of Maurice Block and his estimable wife were born ten children, seven sons and three daughters: Adam (died in infancy), Isaac (is a re- tired merchant and farmer residing at Wynne), William M. (is a real-estate agent at Vanndale), Joseph (a mute, has the position of manager of the freight department for the Missouri Pacific Rail- road, at Wynne), Samuel (died in 1870 at the age

338

HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

of thirteen years), Julia (is the wife of Ben Block, a merchant at Memphis), Jefferson Davis (a lawyer, at present prosecuting attorney from the Second judicial district of Eastern Arkansas), Callie (wife of B. T. King, real-estate agent of Springfield), Robert E. Lee (county school examiner of Cross County) and Fannie, who died at the age of ten years, in 1880. Maurice Block was long a leading merchant in this section, and was an active energetic citizen. He was the father of a family of children, all of whom are noted for their success in life, and most of whom have been the author of their own fortunes. His widow, hale and hearty, is still liv- ing and enjoying the ample means left of her hus- band's estate, makes her home alternately with one or the other of her children.

Sol. Block, senior member of the firm of Block & Ralph, merchants and planters, at Bay Ridge, Ark., is a native of Baden, Germany, where his birth occurred in 1827. He was educated in the common schools and under a private. tutor, until about twenty-one years of age, when he came to the United States (1849). Here he engaged in business for himself in the State of Illinois, re- mained there until about 1860, when he moved to St. Louis and there engaged in the insurance busi- ness (life, fire and accident). After residing in that city for about ten years he removed to Mem- phis, where he followed the same business for about the same length of time. In 1878 he came to Forrest City, Ark., was engaged as book-keeper for two years, and then, after making a trip to Europe, returned to Chicago, where he made his home for several years and was engaged in the in- surance business. Later he returned to St. Louis, where he embarked in the cigar and tobacco busi- ness, continuing at this until 1886, when he came to Cross County, Ark., and in company with J. Ralph, erected a fine storehouse on the farm, which had recently been purchased by Mr. Raph- aelski, and which Block & Ralph manage. This farm embraces a tract of 1,400 acres of land and at one time was valuable property, but had been allowed to run down and needed everything in the way of improvement. They at once began to make extensive improvements, soon had 500 acres under

cultivation, some of which they cleared from the timber. They rebuilt the dwelling, erected a large brick stable and a first-class cotton-gin, saw and grist mill. This gin and mill is the best in the county, costing about $8,000. They have an en- gine of sixty-five horse-power and can gin twenty- five bales of cotton, and saw 20,000 feet of lum- ber per day. The lumber is shipped to St. Louis. In the store they keep a full line of general mer- chandise, buy and ship cotton and all country pro- duce. They carry a stock of goods valued at $6,000 and have a rapidly increasing trade. Mr. Block was married, in 1863, to Miss Amelia Raphaelski, of English and German parentage. She was born in Liverpool, England, and came to the United States with her parents in childhood. Mr. Jacob Ralph, Mr. Block's partner, was born in Memphis, is still a young man, and was in business in Chicago for a short time. He was married, in 1886, to Miss May Bronson, and the fruits of this union has been one child, a daughter named Mabel. This large farm is one of the prettiest as well as the most val- uable to be found in this part of the country, and by it may be seen what can be accomplished when the right steps are taken and a proper amount of energy is brought to bear.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Author: Goodspeed Publishing Company Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; St. Louis [etc.] : The Goodspeed Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 836

Author: Goodspeed Publishing Company
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; St. Louis [etc.] : The Goodspeed Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 836