USA > Arkansas > Biographical and pictorial history of Arkansas. Vol I > Part 27
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the opinion as published. This one decision has given its author a passport to fame. He was defeated for the United States senate in 1848 by W. K. Sebastian. Judge Hempstead died at his home in Little Rock, June 25, 1862, in the forty- eighth year of his age, and meridian splendor of an unclouded intellect.
JUDGE W. S. OLDHAM, FAYETTEVILLE.
Judge Oldham was born near Winchester, in Franklin county, Tennessee, in 1810. He was liberally educated ; studied law, and for a short time practiced in Winchester. In 1835 he came to Arkansas, and settled in Fayetteville, where he continued to reside as long as he made Arkansas his home. He married the daughter of Colonel James McKissick, a wealthy, influential citizen and director of the Branch State Bank at Fayetteville. This connection promoted his aspiring and ambitious views, and secured him the Incrative and promi- nent position of bank attorney as early as 1837. The Branch Bank at Fayetteville at that time was the fiscal agent for north- west Arkansas.
In 1838 he was elected to the legislature. In 1842 he was again elected from Washington on the democratic ticket. At that time Washington was by far the most populous county in the State, and sent six representatives to the house. Crawford was the next in population and sent three representatives. At this session he was elected speaker of the house. In 1845 he was elected by the legislature associate justice of the supreme court, but his taste an dinclinations led him to prefer political to judicial life, and he did not remain on the bench long. In 1846 he engaged in a very animated contest for congress against Colonel Robert W. Johnson with Colonel Alfred M. Wilson of Fayetteville as a tender to hold " the great north-west " in check and to give it to Colonel Johnson in the end. This powerful combination was of singular origin, and may be traced to Judge Oldham's too sanguine estimate of his own abilities and influ- ence when antagonized by great popular leaders, and especially to his inability to fathom and control men. "Honest Alf. Wil- son " was always a tower of strength in " the great north-west "*
* For particulars see life of Alfred M. Wilson, page 282.
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but had no inclination to go to congress. Personally he was strongly attracted to Judge Oldham, to whom he had thrown all of his strength in his contest against one of the famous and popular Conways for a seat on the supreme bench in 1845. Judge Oldham soon after removed to Austin, Texas, and there became influential in social, professional and political circles, and during the war of the rebellion represented Texas in the Confederate senate. If he had been kind to Wilson, instead of aggressive and defiant after the latter invited con- ciliation, he would unquestionably have been elected to the United States senate. He died in Austin a few years ago.
JUDGE GEORGE W. PASCHAL.
Judge Paschal came from Georgia about 1837, and settled at Van Buren. His wife was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, an educated, celebrated beauty, descended from a long line of In- dian chiefs. She was gifted with fine conversational powers, and imparted a charm to the social circle. She was aunt to Elias C. Boudinot, who is, perhaps, the most learned and cele- brated of his race. Of Judge Paschal's early history nothing is known to the author. Judge William Walker, who knew him well, is of opinion he was of Hebrew origin. He was small in stature, had dark hair and eyes, and was possessed of an energetic, nervous temperament. He came to Van Buren, with his young wife, in the uniform of a soldier. He was a great and almost constant worker; delighted in composition ; wrote a romance and read the manuscript to a few select friends, including John Linton, but whether ever published the author is not informed. In the court-room he was ever restless and nerv- ous, and was noted for the habit of walking the floor, with book in hand. He was not long in establishing local fame as a law. yer, which soon extended to the limits of his adopted State, and ultimately became national.
There is a sorrowful romance connected with his blood and his fame. It is said his brother was much the greater lawyer, but a calamity overtook him in Georgia and he fled the State, under an assumed name, and went to Louisiana, where he was known as Mr. Brewer. From Louisiana, he was extradited to Georgia during his brother George's residence in Van Buren. 37
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The trouble passed away, and Mr. Brewer came to Van Buren and entered the office of George W. Paschal. He, it is said, inspired and originated the higher order of brain work emauat ing from the office of Paschal & Brewer. The laws of Texas were afterward codified and digested in a voluminous and masterly manner, and herein hearsay and tradition proclaim that the unseen pen of the master was guided and inspired by Mr. Brewer. Whether true or false the author, of his own knowledge, does not know - but it is a matter of certainty that Paschal achieved a large measure of fame in Texas which fol- lowed him to Washington and expanded to national propor- tions. In 1842 the legislature of Arkansas elevated him to a seat on the supreme bench of the State. His ambition seems to have been devoid of desire for political fame, but great and comprehensive in its relations to professional fame.
His history and life during his stay in Arkansas and every- where else, so far as the author has been able to ascertain, was that of a worthy and aspiring man. He provoked, unavoid- ably, jealousies and criticism incident to the accomplished fact that he had crossed the pathway and obscured the fame of rivals. These things are inherent in the infirmities of man - are founded in the primal laws of his creation. In 1845 Paschal and Albert Rust, as democrats, and Thomas W. New- ton and Charles Fenton Mercer Noland ran a hurdle race for congress, and Paschal was defeated by Newton, who had a plurality of twenty-three votes. Absalom Fowler was noted for his austere code of social ethics. His wife was an old friend and acquaintance of Judge Paschal's. When the judge went to Little Rock to assume judicial functions he called on Fowler and said to him : "I will shortly do myself the honor to call on Mrs. Fowler," to which he replied : " By g-d, you will not go until I invite you, will you ?" Some of the "Old Bar" say that Arkansas did not present a field capable of sufficient expansion for Judge Paschal, and hence his removal to Texas in 1848. After the war he removed to Washington city, where he died a few years ago, leaving, as an inheritance to his children, a national fame.
ELECTRO LIGHT ENG.COM.
JAMES M. CURRAN.
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
JAMES M. CURRAN.
The usurpation which drove the Celtic kings of Ireland · from the throne, planted in their stead an imported dynasty and a despotism, which has led to the voluntary exile of many thousands of her sons, who have sought asylum in every region inhabited by man. These pilgrim sons have carried the fame and maintained the genius of Ireland wherever letters are known and valor admired. The crown prosecutions at the close of the last century, which led to the execution of Emmet and many compatriots, inspired one of the most gifted brains and eloquent tongues Ireland ever gave to the world, in the person of John Philpot Curran, whose burning, consuming eloquence, in defense of the victims of those persecutions, swept the world like a cyclone of fire and lighted up the altars of indignation which will burn in the breast of man as long as the oppressions of Ire- land are remembered. Animated by feelings of the deepest aversion to the oppressors of his native Erin, Thomas Curran, a near relative to the great orator, in early youth expatriated himself, and from the deck of an emigrant ship, as she rode out of the harbor of Queenstown in 1811, headed for the United States, bade farewell to Ireland. After some years prospecting in the United States he visited Kentucky, and there joined a colony of fifteen families; came with them to the territory of Missouri in 1815, and settled in Batesville in Independence county, being preceded by six families who had settled there the year previous. In 1821 he married Jane, the daughter of James Moore, a native of Vermont, of Irish extraction, who came to Batesville in 1814. John Miller, the father of Governor Miller, married another daughter, and Judge Townshend Dickinson married the third daughter.
James M. Curran, the son of Thomas, was born at Bates- ville, Arkansas, December 10, 1821. When about ten years old both father and mother died, leaving the boy an orphan at that tender age without patrimony. His uncle and aunt, Judge Townshend Dickinson and wife, took the boy to their home, raised him as carefully and tenderly as they could have raised one of their own children, and gave him a good academic education, which he acquired in the schools of Batesville.
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He vacated the school-room to enter the law office of Ashley & Watkins, with whom he read until his admission to the bar in November, 1841. He immediately opened an office in Lit- · tle Rock, and at once commenced his ascension as a star of the first magnitude at a bar filled with able men. A miser in nothing but the economy of time, he never suffered the drafts and amenities of social life to invade the laborious studies his ambition had marked out as necessary in attaining the goal of a noble ambition. Gifted, able, noble, brilliant, no young lawyer ever marched with firmer tread and surer compass to the front rank than "Jim Curran." When the firm of Ashley & Watkins was dissolved in 1844, upon the election of Mr. Ashley to the senate of the United States, Judge Watkins as- sociated Mr. Curran with him in the practice. This partner- ship continued until Judge Watkins became attorney general, in 1848; after that Mr. Curran was associated until his death with George A. Gallagher, an able lawyer whose memory is dear to the " old bar of Arkansas."
In June, 1849, he married Sophie, the daughter of Gover- nor William S. and Matilda Fulton. His accomplished and gifted sister-in-law, Mrs. Elizabeth R. Wright, eldest daughter of Governor Fulton writes the author: " It is too bad that a life so full of interest, intense energy, courage of the most ele- vated character - ambition that aspired to the highest walks and rewards of his profession, dying before reaching the merid- ian of man's alloted span ; yet, in the heritage of a well- earned fame; should, alas! live only in the memory of surviv- ing friends and tradition. It is impossible for you, who knew him not, to write a sketch Mr. Curran's memory deserves from the meager data furnished you. No one can regret this more than his daughter, Mrs. Francis Johnson, and myself. Mr. Curran attended the circuit in south Arkansas, where I then lived. All spoke of the rapid progress he had made, of his brilliant mind and prospects. He was employed in most of the important cases in that circuit, and was generally opposed by Captain Pike. I have often heard men say, who were com- petent to judge, that they would as soon have 'Jim Curran' as Albert Pike, which I regarded as an immense compliment, because Albert Pike stood at the head of his profession.
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Mr. Curran was thoroughly devoted to his profession, and fell a martyr to its relentless demands. There were no rail- roads in those days ; he rode the circuit on horseback, through all seasons and phases of weather ; rain and cold, and heat in succession, made their demands on a frail, physical constitu- tion, unable to bear up under constant pressure. Failing health followed as the result of continued exposure ; but instead of seeking rest and repose, to be found alone in the cessation of professional labor, he continued to labor and bear up against the ravages of consumption, contracted by exposure on the circuit, until death came to his relief on the 6th of October, 1854, in the thirty-third year of his age. My relationship to him, perhaps, disqualifies me to give an impartial estimate of his character and abilities ; if so, I am consoled in the fact that none have been more modest in their estimate of both, and many have awarded a much higher meed of commendation. His love and unselfish devotion to family and friends exalted him in the estimation of all who knew him."
A great lawyer, now gathered to his fathers, who knew him well in private and professional walks, who had fought the same battle against adversity, and had climbed along the same dazzling heights, to which nothing but a finely organized and cultivated brain can lead, said of him : " In the death of Curran, Arkansas lost her brightest child. A native of the State, born poor, his future depending on his own exertions, with naught but a strong heart, an upright conscience and a gigantic mind, he en- gaged in the battle of life, resolved to win fame or an early grave, and won both:
.""'The sleepless boy perished in his prime.' He made a reputation for intellect, integrity and unsullied honor. He devoted his whole strength, both of body and mind, to the labors of his profession, which he worshiped with enthusiasm as great as the Persian the day-god; he sacrificed the pleasures of youth on the altar of duty, and by day and night cultivated. and expanded the resources of a great mind." His daughter married Frank Johnson, son of the late Robert W. Johnson, a member of the bar.
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JUDGE WILLIAM WALKER, FORT SMITH.
For the ancestral line from which Judge Walker is descended, see the biography of his relative, Judge David Walker. George Walker, who was the uncle of Judge David Walker, and a senator in congress from Kentucky in 1814, was the grand- father of William Walker, who was born at Nicholasville, Ken- tucky, the 6th of February, 1816, the son of David Walker and Caroline Lewis, the daughter of General William Lewis, who commanded the Kentucky troops at the battle of the River Riasin. General Lewis moved to Arkansas, became a large planter, and died in Little Rock in territorial times. His brother, Joshua Lewis, was judge of one of the courts in New Orleans for thirty years. Judge Walker rapidly acquired an academic education at Shelbyville, Kentucky, but felt the in- spiration of wild oats at an early day, and quit school at the age of sixteen, to indulge the exuberance of that excessive vitality, in contact with the practical world. His first business experience was acquired in the capacity of clerk in a mercantile house at Louisville, in which he served an apprenticeship of four years.
Tiring of commercial monotony, he called in the cash due for this service, strolled down to the inland quay, mounted the deck of a palatial Mississippi steamer bound for New Orleans, and soon became a jolly favorite in that lively Creole city. When cash became conspicuously and ominously scarce he explored the commercial resources of the trade between New Orleans and Bayou Sara in the capacity of clerk to a coast steamer. on the deck of which his staying qualities lasted one year. Social; jovial, brainy, magnetic and gifted, young Walker made friends wherever he went. But Louisiana was not large enough to hold him long, nor prolific enough to ward off that monotony which was certain to invite the young man's exile. His poetic conception next embraced the "land of flowers," and led him on the deck of a coasting schooner to dare the dangers of the Rigolet narrows and the billowy waves of the gulf. Here in Flora's kingdom, shot out into the ocean as the north conti- nent's greeting to the Spanish main, the young tourist found more tares than flowers, and soon found practical exemplifica-
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tion of the homely and trite old adage that " all is not gold that glitters." The wayward trend of his mind to speculate in wild-oat futures, here for the first time in life, found its limita- tion, and drew in bold colors the line between the practical and poetical conceptions of life. The contrast was strong enough to put brakes on one, and the other in motion. If the reader desires to hear and see William Walker wild and grandly elo- quent, let him tip a social glass of generous sherry at thirty de- grees, then give him the lofty theme of an alligator swamp in Florida, in which to locate his muse, and fabled Parnassus will grow pale and weep for the imposition the muses have imposed on the credulous all along the centuries. He left Florida im- pregnated with the cold, prosaic vicissitudes of life, and in De- cember, 1835, pulled up in the little frontier village of Lewis- burgh, in Conway county, Arkansas, where he found that novel and extreme character, " Old John Linton," of whose house- hold he became a member, and a student at law with rare and apt application. Nauseated with a heroic dose of roseate fic- tion in his Louisiana and Florida campaigns, he rushed to the other extreme of the pendulum and became eminently wise, conservative and practical, ever after in prosaic Arkansas.
He was admitted to the bar in 1837, but acted as clerk of the circuit court at Norristown, in Pope county, two years be- fore opening a law office. His novitiate at the bar commenced at Norristown, opposite Dardanelle Rock, where he remained until 1842, when he removed to Van Buren. He was elected judge of the circuit court, but was ousted on quo warranto, on the ground that the office was not vacant when the election was held. He married Mary, the daughter of the celebrated Major Wharton Rector, who figures so conspicuously in our early history. She is related to the Conways and Seviers, and all the Rectors who figure in this volume.
Judge Walker was an original secessionist, and served the south in the capacity of quarter-master during the war. He always regarded money as a burthen and never wanted it only when it could perform some kind and immediate office. When in full practice he was a lawyer of great ability, and was feared by both bench and bar because he sometimes, in fact often, indulged a vein of terrific irony and sarcasm. His prejudices
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are strong and hard to remove ; he is warm in his friendships, and open and bitter in his enmities, and fearless in all he un- dertakes. He took advantage of the recent boom at Fort Smith, sold his adjacent farm and realized a handsome com- petency. Mrs. Walker being the business manager of the firm, the judge will never suffer.
HON. CHRISTOPHER C. SCOTT, CAMDEN, ARKANSAS.
Judge Scott was born April 22, 1807, at the family mansion in Scottsbury, Halifax county, Virginia, the son of John B. Scott, a revolutionary soldier, and Patsey Thompson, the beau- tiful and accomplished daughter of a wealthy planter. As the name indicates, the family is of Scotch descent, crossed and engrafted on the hardy Anglo-Saxon of the British colo- nies. Family tradition assures us that the ancestral founder of this family of Scotts left Scotland about 1740 and settled in Virginia. This emigrant, the great grandfather of Judge Scott, had three sons - Thomas, Francis and James - all of whom settled in Gloucester county, Virginia.
Thomas, the grandfather, married Katharine Tomkins, the accomplished daughter of a princely farmer, and settled in Prince George county, Virginia, where, on the 26th day of Septem- ber, 1761, John B., the father of our subject, was born. John B. Scott was a high spirited, brilliant youth, of great promise. At the early age of fourteen he was thoroughly prepared and matriculated at Hamden Sidney College, and was at once recog- nized as the first scholar in his class. He was the pride of an influential and honored family, who designed him for the service of the State. When the young collegian, at the age of eighteen, heard the drum beating, the cannon roaring, and the fife proclaiming the mighty contest on which the colonies had entered, his Caledonian blood felt the noble courage of Bruce, and
" The patriotic tide,
That poured through Wallace's undaunted heart."
Blessed with the tears and benedictions of mother and father he joined the cavalry commanded by "Light-horse Harry," and fought under him and the great Washington until the sur-
ENG. CO. NY.
ELECT
HON. CHRISTOPHER C. SCOTT.
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render at Yorktown consummated the greatest historic event in modern times, and developed the grandest, the noblest character history has given to man in all the ages -Washington. Count Pulaski presented the soldier-boy with a sword, for bravery under his chivalrous eye, on the field, which is a cher- ished heir-loom in the family. Again, for gallantry on the field, he was promoted from the ranks to lieutenant. After the revolution there was formed a very select society of revo- lutionary soldiers, called " The Society of the Cincinnati," of which General Washington was president, and General Knox secretary. Young Scott belonged to this society, and his de- scendants have deposited his certificate of membership, signed by Generals Washington and Knox, in the archives of the war department.
After the revolution he entered William and Mary College and graduated in that seat of learning. He studied law under the celebrated Chancellor Wythe of Virginia; was a fine speaker, a sound lawyer, and was soon elected to the legislature of Virginia, and by that body brigadier-general. In 1803 he was commissioned as a colonel in the United States army, and was stationed at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, from 1803 to 1806. President Jefferson tendered him a commission as judge of the superior court in upper Louisiana in 1806, but he declined. In 1812 he raised a company, composed exclusively of the old soldiers of the revolution, called the "Silver Grays," and com- manded them two years. In 1814 he was a candidate for congress without opposition, but died before the election. His wife followed him in 1817, thus leaving Christopher an orphan at the tender age of eleven. William Scott took charge of the person and fortune of the boy in the capacity of guardian and brother. His early education was intrusted to his brother's wife Bettie, the daughter of the Hon. Christopher Clarke of Bedford county, Virginia. She was an accomplished woman and a great favorite in Richmond and Washington society, where she spent much of her time. She spent one season at the White House with the famous "Dolly Madison.". She took great interest in her little protege, introduced him to three presidents and many of the first men of the nation. This noble woman moulded the character of the man, and left the
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impress of her noble teachings on his life. Judge Scott revered her memory as that of a sainted mother. His education was finished at Washington College, where he graduated in his twentieth year with the highest honors of his class. His favorite sport was hunting and fishing -in this he frequently indulged as a recreation from study. At the landing of a great trout he grew wild with delight. In this he commands the author's admiration. If there is any thing royal in forest or stream, it is found in the heroic struggle of the trout to escape the stealthy wiles of his captor. I have landed thousands, and never one without a thrill of intense delight.
After graduation, he removed to Gainesville, in eastern Ala- bama, whither his brother John had preceded him. Here he entered the office of Van De Graff, a lawyer of local celebrity. After admission to the bar in 1828, he soon tired of the prac- tice and became restless, and for a time abandoned his profes- sion, to embark in mercantile pursuits. At the end of two years he had lost his patrimonial estate in exchange for costly experience, which left him a sadder, yet wiser man, and, para- doxical as it may seem to the superficial observer, the loss was a great gain. Before this, necessity had never whispered her inspiration in his ear, that inspiration so devoid of romance, so full of stern reality. Necessity is a stern, inexorable teacher ; she dives down and stirs up the uttermost depths of mind and soul. But she points her index finger to the stars, and opens the way to nobler and grander possibilities than all the ex- chequers of the world. Hitherto he had only studied law as a polite accomplishment, now he felt the necessity of studying it as a science and winning and wearing its hard-earned laurels and rewards. With this end in view, he returned to Virginia and entered the law school at Staunton, and there pursued his studies with the greatest avidity, completing the allotted. course in July, 1832. In Angust, 1832, he married Elizabeth Smith, the accomplished daughter of Hon. Daniel Smith, for many years judge of the court of appeals of Virginia, and, at the time of his death, judge of the special court of appeals of Virginia.
After marriage, he returned to Gainesville, Alabama, and en- tered npon an active and prosperous professional career. In 1842 one of those clouds which sometimes shadow the best of
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