USA > Arkansas > Biographical and pictorial history of Arkansas. Vol I > Part 24
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democratic convention, and actively participated in its delibera- tions. In 1880, he was elected to the senate from Crawford and Franklin counties, and was chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1886, the democrats of Crawford county demanded his much- needed services, in an effort to redeem the county from four years republican domination, and the old wheel-horse headed the ticket for the legislature, and when the ballot was officially announced, five hundred democratic majority was registered. As this record indicates, he is quite independent in politics, and he has frequently paid the penalty, but has always maintained the courage of his convictions. He was a member of Governor Roane's staff, and from that derives the title of general.
MAJOR WILBURN D. REAGAN, FAYETTEVILLE.
Major Reagan is one of the most eccentric and remarkable characters belonging to the early bar of Arkansas. His indi- viduality is so strong, pronounced and strikingly distinct from all other men, as to justify the assertion that he is strictly sui generis. He comes from an old revolutionary stock, of fearless soldiers and hardy pioneers, who, since the pilgrims landed and the colonists settled on the James, have marched in the van of our westward civilization. A stranger to luxurious and effemi- nate life, the pioneer developed sterling worth, indomitable will and unyielding tenacity of purpose, unsurpassed by any type of men the world has known ..
Major Reagan was born on a farm in Overton county, Ten- nessee, in 1812, and is of Scotch-Irish extraction. He came to Arkansas in 1830, and located in that section now embraced in the county of Carroll before the county was settled. He was poor and unblessed with educational advantages, but strug- gled with great resolution and determination against the embar- rassment, and, for practical purposes, overcame it to a great extent. He qualified himself to teach the common frontier schools, up to the standard then prevailing, and followed the occupation two or three years, closely husbanding his small accumulations, to advance his ardent legal aspirations. He read law under Judge S. G. Sneed, and, as far as it was possible for a man of his peculiar mental organism to do so, formed his style of oratory after the model of his tutor. IIe was admitted
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to the bar in 1835, and entered on a very prosperous profes- sional career at Carrollton. In 1838, he moved to Fayetteville, where he continued to reside for nearly forty years, a promi- nent actor in the forensic arena in the " great north-west." His forte was criminal law. He displayed remarkable knowledge of men, and great tact in the selection of trial jurors. He was possessed of great industry and indomitable will power. Many young men who afterward became prominent, read law under him : Judge Lafayette Gregg, the Hon. James R. Pettigrew, who became his son-in-law, and law partner, the Hon. E. P. Watson, and many others. He was celebrated for curious, remarkable and quaint originality, which bubbled up and over- flowed without restraint, in every speech of any length or importance he ever made. His title to this character of orig- inality was never rivaled or disputed by any competitor, politi- cal or forensic. When he was up in any important case, the intellectual and the curious crowd alike swelled his auditory, and he held it with unwavering interest until the closing sen- tence died away, and then all felt sorry that Reagan had closed.
Judge Gregg, his former student, is a fine lawyer, and on one occasion at Fayetteville, many years ago, in an important case, was crowding his old preceptor to the wall, in the discussion of purely a legal question.
The standing, and relation of the parties excited more than ordinary interest, and the old preceptor felt that all of his re- serve forces must be brought into action against the enemy, who was turning his batteries defiantly and effectively against him. Ridicule, sarcasm, irony, wit and invective were often subordinated as effective agents by Reagan, and he commenced his lengthy reply to his adversary in the following utterance : " If I did not know Lafayette Gregg was trained by a very fine lawyer, I would say his license ought to be taken away and the gentleman put up and stall-fed on law, and his ancestors ten years, before being allowed again to appear in court and spout top-loftical nonsense as solid law." On another occasion he felt the importance of overriding the testimony of an im- portant witness for the opposition, and assaulted him in a bitter phillipic, and concluded by saying: " IIe is the most con- temptible creature to-day that moves on the earth beneath
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God's luminary, to-wit, the sun." Major Reagan was impulsive and impetuous and combated every thing that had the sem- blance of favoring the opposition ; this sometimes led abruptly and unexpectedly to amusing complications, and sometimes to farcical embarrassment when least expected. In a trial at Fay- etteville in anti-bellum days, he introduced a verdant country- man to impeach the testimony of a lady witness, and propounded the usual preliminary interrogatories, to which " Smart Alec" replied : "Wal, as to truth, I would believe her any whar, but as to her veracity, you had better not ax me about that, I am not that sort of a hair-pin ; some say she would and some say she wont." On another occasion an adverse witness was in- terrogated as to what the major's client had said, if any thing, in relation to the transaction under consideration, and the Major, without waiting to ascertain whether his client had said any thing, impulsively and vehemently proceeded to argue his objec- tions to the interrogatory for an hour. His objections were overruled, and the witness was directed to respond to the inter- rogatory, "what did he say," to which he responded, "not one word." The ludicrous attitude of all the actors provoked irre- pressible laughter. The Major's disciplined adversary in the trial of a cause was always on the lookout for surprises. The secret defenses which lurked under the general issue in a trial at common law [which obtained in this State before the war], often afforded him ample means to ambush and annihilate his adversary, before he could recover from the shock of a masked battery. He was skilled, and delighted in these weapons. He kept his own counsel with the sagacity of an old veteran, and this often rendered it impossible for the ablest adversary to anticipate him. He always had a Roland to give in exchange for an Oliver, and when aroused, was terrible in the use of invec- tive and denunciation.
A new order of things was introduced in the era immedi- ately succeeding the war, the common-law system of pleading and practice was abolished ; the code system was substituted, distasteful reconstruction enfranchised illiterate slaves and dis- franchised the dominant enlightened classes of the south. All these things, added to the infirmities of advancing age, led Major Reagan, in 1877, to move to Waco, Texas, where he 33
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now (December, 1886) resides with a married daughter, at the patriarchal age of seventy-five. He is afflicted with blindness, to a great extent caused by long and laborious study by candle- light in early life, but he is in the full possession of an un- clouded intellect which left its impress on the times in which he lived. In 1840, he stepped aside to serve his constituents one term in the legislature, and in 1842, was defeated by a small majority for the senate.
JOHN LINTON, LEWISBURGH.
John Linton, said to be the natural son of a putative father, was born near Abington, Virginia, about 1795. History has woven an air of romance around the name of this truly original character, of thrilling interest. The child, and heir of misfortunes not his own - existence originating in the mental abandon of a delirious hour, under the ægis of an unkind star that followed him through all the changing scenes of a long life, but borne up and sustained, in every storm, by the majesty of an intellect greater than all his misfortunes. His father was an indolent, shiftless dependent on a kind-hearted, wealthy old farmer named Bailey, on whom both father and son depended. When the boy was fifteen years old, farmer Bailey fitted out three of his sons for Chapel Hill College, North Carolina. The boys traveled on horseback, accompanied by a trusty slave to care for the animals. When they bade all farewell and mounted, John burst into a flood of tears. This touched and moved the heart of the old sympathetic farmer, who ascertained from the sobbing boy that he wanted an education. This incident de- termined to a great extent and molded his future career. The old man told the boys to dismount, and wait a few hours, until John could get ready to accompany them. He sent a slave in haste to the farm after an animal for the boy. The animal was in sad plight, being matted with burrs. The light-hearted, elated youth, did not care for the appearance of the animal, but his aristocratic companions, refused to start until the animal was thoroughly cleansed.
Young Linton progressed rapidly, and in Latin proved the equal, if not superior, of any youth ever at that once famous seat of learning, where many great men were educated. But
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there was one infirmity which he never could overcome - the lingo of the plantation. His great passion was for the Latin language - he bought all the Latin grammars ever put on the market in the United States, and as a Latin scholar had no su- perior. One of the Bailey boys visited Arkansas when " Old John " was in the meridian of his fame, and told his history in Virginia as given above.
- After an incomplete collegiate course at Chapel Hill, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Abington, Vir- ginia, about 1S18, and commenced the practice of his profes- sion there, and early achieved honorable distinction. On one occasion he was associated with Governor Preston of South Carolina, in a great murder trial. When the sky looked bright- est an evil hour came, and he was indicted and convicted of the crime of mutilating or destroying a bail bond. His friends deserted him, and he lay in jail a long time before trial. Think- ing he would be disbarred and stricken from the docket, no matter what the result of the trial might be, he applied him- self in jail diligently to the study of medicine. When on the way to the penitentiary the governor's pardon came, and he was released and restored to citizenship. He never opened an office again in Virginia, but came to Arkansas, to repair his injured name and build a fortune. Ile came in territorial times and settled at Lewisburgh, in Conway county, about 1825. But the old story followed on his heels, and "stuck like the shirt of Nessus." His great talents as a lawyer in- spired strong opposition, and his phillipics made it enduring. Enemies crowded his professional pathway, and fell one by one beneath his lance. Triumphs were as numerous and great as his enemies. His Virginia record came to numerous applicants, and was returned for the addition of the presiding judge's cer- tificate of authentication, as prescribed by act of congress, but that wise and kind-hearted man, Judge Estell of Virginia, re- fused to authenticate the record, and added in explanation, " he has suffered enough ; although tried and convicted, it is a mat- ter of grave doubt as to whether he was guilty, and because of this uncertainty the executive of the Commonwealth graciously pardoned him." The author, as far as possible at this late day, has scrutinized the character of John Linton in the flood-light of subsequent years, and has found nothing in it indicating
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the criminal, and unhesitatingly gives it as his opinion that he was not guilty. The contemporaneous judgment of the gov- ernor, and Judge Estell, together with the potent fact that Linton had no influential and powerful friends to press his cause, flooded with the light of subsequent years, warrants and legitimates the conviction that he was innocent.
His faults and his talents were great, but there was nothing sordidly mean in his nature. That he would commit a felony to serve a client for money, is not worthy of belief. He was fond of his toddy and often got high up in his cups, but gen- erally deferred this hilarity until the term of court he was attending was drawing to a close. Soon after his arrival in the territory, and whilst a briefless lawyer, he attended the circuit court in Crawford county, where a criminal trial was in pro- gress, in which men, afterward eminent in the profession were engaged. The defendant was charged as accessory to a fruit- less attempt to commit murder- a crime unknown to the common law and to the laws of the territory. "Old John " took in the situation at a glance, but said nothing for sev- eral days. Having nothing else to do, he got on a spree, and became very unkempt and slovenly in appearance ; in fact, it is said he was never dressed up but once in his life. He was fond of ginger-bread and bought an armfull and went staggering into court with his bread in his arms, minus that part which was working out at the corners of his mouth. In this plight he advanced to the middle of the room and solemnly . asked the judge, if it was not time this huge joke had stopped ? The judge reprimanded him severely, and he humbly apolo- gized by saying in slow, measured accent, " that when I read the common law there was no such crime known as that charged in the indictment; but I presume it has been changed since I read it; in fact, the presumption, that it has been changed, is great, in view of the fact that so learned a judge, and such emi- nent counsel, are actually administering, it on the basis of a change." All eyes were riveted on him, when he sent this thun- derbolt crushing through the startled and bewildered brains of judge and counsel, who, for the first time, realized the mam- moth farce they were enacting. S. G. Sneed, the prosecuting attorney, as soon as he recovered from the shock, the legal dis-
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covery imparted, entered a nol. pros., and the prisoner was dis- charged. Clients flooded to " Old John," and it was said, that drunk or sober he knew the law. One of the lawyers for the defense was then young, but has since attained national fame.
The lawyers engaged in the case took him aside, and privately lectured him for not coming to them in a whisper and telling them of the farce they were acting, without public exposure. When he applied to the supreme court of the territory for license to practice, an effort (tradition says) was made to shut him out by a severe and critical examination, which was con- ducted by Judge Samuel S. Hall, who was on the territorial bench from 1823 to 1836, so says the record. . Linton answered every question satisfactorily, and with remarkable ease and facility, and displayed much more wisdom than the inquisition. Finally Judge Hall put a question which he declined to answer, and when asked why, said: "That question is now pending before the superior court, and it would be indelicate in me to advise the court what to do, as I am not in the case." Here the examination ended abruptly, and he was adjudged qualified.
In 1829, General Sam. Houston abandoned the bride of an hour, and resigned the office of governor of Tennessee, and came through Arkansas on his way to his old friends, the Cherokee Indians, with whom he had partly been raised in East Tennessee. He stopped at Lewisburgh and staid all night with Linton. Here every element centered to produce a strong friendship between these two men; they were both Virginians, about the same age, both learned and convivial, and each had recently left home, never to return, under the weight of a great sorrow. Here in the heart of the wilderness, shut out and cut off from the conventional ethics of civiliza- tion, they gave royal rein to that feeling of State pride and regard for each other, so characteristic of the sons of the "Old Dominion." Linton accompanied Houston, as a mark of esteem, to Fort Smith, one hundred miles distant. Here in the face of opportunity, they could no longer restrain themselves; the ardent was plentiful, and they celebrated the orgies of Bacchus in roaring style . tip after tip and cup after cup soon attested their unrivaled accomplishments, in that line, at that shrine. They soon became generous rivals for championship at the
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hilarious shrine of the wine-god. Houston suggested that an offering, meet and appropriate be made, indicative of the high- est regard for ancient Bacchus. And Linton said : " If it is any thing in the range of human possibilities I am ready to sacri- fice and atone to the god."
This sacrifice consisted in pulling off and consigning all their wearing apparel to the flames. Linton heroically followed Houston's lead until his shirt, the last garment, struck the flames ; he snatched that out, but Houston chided him for re- niging, and he returned it to the flames. There each stood, in a log cabin with dirt floor face to face in a state of nature. Linton was a stranger, away from home, without friends or money, and was forced to wrap up in a blanket and retire to a straw bed. Houston's servant had another suit for him, and soon repaired the loss, and before his master recovered from the spree, had him in the saddle on the way to Fort Gibson. When Linton recovered consciousness, Houston was forty miles away, not knowing the dire distress he had left his friend in. It was several days before succor came. Linton always dreaded mention of this episode, but Madam Linton never " let up" on him while he lived. She often begged him to be careful and avoid the company of " big folks," lest he should become inspired again to sacrifice to heathen gods and burn his shirt.
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Governor Houston had determined on leaving Tennessee, to forever desert the haunts of civilization, and, if possible, to destroy all trace of himself and every means of identification. After wandering around several weeks, he located in the Chero- kee nation, fifty miles west of Fort Smith, where he found a young, handsome morganatic wife, who bore him two children, so tradition says. He gave himself up to complete abandon. Occasionally he came to Fort Smith, then a military and trad- ing post. He wrapped up in a blanket or buffalo robe, in the full garb of an Indian, and spoke in broken English to enhance the supposed disguise. On one of these trips Elias Rector, "the fine old Arkansas gentleman" of western literature, recognized and frequently visited him. The Indians named and called him " Big Drunk."
In December, 1832, after three years' seclusion among sav- ages, he aroused from the mental agony and stupor into which
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رحيبيا
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he had fallen, under powerful influences and causes he never explained to the world, and said to his friend Rector : " I have now shaken off an awful nightmare, I am going to Texas and head the revolution, and one day will be president of a republic." Prophetic genius, springing from the depths of a heroic nature, the realized dream of a great man, the child of fame and fortune rising transcendently greater than tremendous misfortunes.
The author is here tempted into another digression.
I had learned from my father in early youth, the appearance and personal history of General Houston, but had never seen him. In 1855, at Raleigh, Tennessee, then the county seat of Shelby county, nine miles east of Memphis, a stranger entered my office, and desired a real estate title investigated. Instantly I recognized General Houston as my patron, and said : "I have the honor of General Houston's presence, I believe," and he said : " Yes ; why do you recognize me ?" I told him, and he was glad to meet the son of an old friend.
His brother died about 1849, leaving a widow and son in Memphis, Tennessee, on whom he always called in going to and returning from Washington. He came to my office on business for them. When the work was finished he asked the fee, and when informed no charge was made, threw down $10 and said: "Young man, you are just starting in the world with little of its goods and wares at your disposal, you cannot afford to work for nothing, and I will not accept it with- out compensation." At his invitation I rode to Memphis in the vehicle with him, and was a glad auditor to one of the finest · conversationalists I ever heard. In the evening he addressed a large audience at Odd Fellows' Hall, in one of the most ef- fective and eloquent speeches ever delivered. In allusion to a charge of selfishness and neglect of his country's material in- terest, he said : "I won with my sword an empire, and like a dutiful, patriotic son, without reward, gave it to my country ; who, since the days of Washington, can say as much ?" In the early days of Arkansas, the Hon. Bailie Peyton of Ten- nessee raised and sent many fine horses to market here. Linton gave $300 for one of these fine saddle animals and
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named him after Bucephalus, the famous horse of Alexander the Great, but pronounced it " Buck-a-fu-los."
In pronunciation he murdered the King's English, Latin scholar as he undoubtedly was, but no man ever had the temerity to tackle him more than once for this painful defect. An illustration of his terrific phillipics is given in the sketch of John Taylor. In 1837, he was elected to the legislature from Conway, but this seems to be the first and only time he ever stepped aside to hold office. He had a large and profit- able clientage in the north-west for many years, at a period when Arkansas had great lawyers. He owned a fine farm and ferry on Arkansas river near Lewisburgh. He was fond of books, and always read each volume twice before he laid it away. In fiction, Scott and Bulwer were his favorites, and woe be to the hapless individual who encountered or came across " Old John " after he had laid a volume down ; he was doomed to listen to a recitation of all the volume contained before he could escape. He was utterly indifferent to dress and personal appearance, and it is said was never dressed up but once in his life, and that was when a generous client dressed him up in broadcloth. He was a giant in physical proportions, with this singular anomaly - he had very small hands and feet. He died at Clarksville in Johnson county many years ago, and thus ended the singular career of an unfortunate and singular man.
CHARLES FENTON MERCER NOLAND.
During that transition period between the death of the old federal and republican parties, and the rise of the whig and democratic on their ruins, two more sprang into existence in Arkansas, known as the Conway and Crittenden parties. The Conway espoused the cause of General Jackson, and became the democratic party. The Crittenden espoused the leadership of Henry Clay, and became the whig party. Each had its organ, impetuous adherents and vehement leaders.
The Gazette, the organ of the Conway party, was established by W. E. Woodruff in 1819, and has ever since been an im- portant factor in the history and politics of Arkansas.
. Robert Crittenden, the founder and leader of his party in
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the territory, came as secretary in 1819 and held that official position until removed by General Jackson in 1829. Early " in the twenties " he established the Advocate as the rival journal of the Gazette, to advocate the cause of his party. Charles P. Bertrand, a brilliant journalist, politician and lawyer, was at the head of the editorial staff of the Advocate. They were brothers-in-law, having married the daughters of Mr. Morris of Kentucky.
General Albert Pike was added to the editorial staff of the Advocate in 1834, and in 1835 became the owner of the paper for one year or more, but was not involved to a great extent in the political animosities which originated before his advent in the territory.
These rival parties for political power embraced an intensity and determination of purpose rarely equaled, never surpassed, in the history of American politics. Each party was often carried beyond the bounds of moderation and temperate dis- cussion. These intemperate discussions in time bore much bloody fruit, and gave Arkansas an unenviable name abroad, from which she has not entirely recovered to this day. The duelling code was then acknowledged as of binding force by men of national renown. Members of congress, governors, senators and a president had achieved the honors of the code.
During our territorial pupilage there was no neutral ground, even for the humblest voter. A new arrival was compelled to take shelter under one of the parties. These prefatory state- ments seem necessary as an act of justice, to the fame of a worthy man, whose name has suffered in some quarters, from having been associated with that of a desperado, by Alfred W. Arrington, whose eloquent and facile pen with poetic license, has left behind unjust and erroneous impressions.
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