USA > Arkansas > Biographical and pictorial history of Arkansas. Vol I > Part 30
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
321
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
then personally campaigning. His first effort was to learn the peculiar psychological weaknesses of each of the officials with whom he had to deal in prosecuting his almost forlorn hope and suit for pardon ; and it was not long until the sagacity of the old jurist was richly rewarded and the best line of delicate approach made clear.
The pardoning bureau of the red-tape department of justice was then presided over by a jolly old ex-judge of the court of appeals from " the eastern shore of Maryland," who had a fond weakness for indulging " the inner man," and was locally celebrated for his attachment to "rock and rye." Here were two ex-judges of celebrity, both congenial when auspiciously approached, and here was a common platform on which each had stood for half a century without ever being suspicioned of entertaining repudiation tendencies - a sympathetic bond of union, embracing the tenderest and most profound considera- tions; a talisman of no uncertain import in the hands of the artful judge from the west when approaching the guileless judge from the east. Next morning, at the official hour of ten, he of the west sent in his card to the sub-mogul of the east, which, pro forma, led to a hasty introduction, formal in- terview and delivery of papers, with the assurance that they were the foundation of an expected pardon for a very worthy but singularly unfortunate young man, followed by an invita- tion to return at ten A. M. next day. At this juncture an irate M. C. from North Carolina entered the official sanctum and imperiously demanded why an application for pardon, fathered by him, had not been acted on and favorably disposed of.
This inconsiderate boldness of the young upstart M. C. aroused a spirit of retaliation in the old Marylander, who re- sented the unauthorized invasion, and then in very emphatic terins assured him that there were three hundred cases on the pardon docket ahead of his, and that it would not be considered until regularly reached on the docket some months hence. This announcement of an imperative rule of the office was very discouraging to Judge Compton, whose case was, to use his own felicitous language, " perfectly fresh." The old Marylander was in a rage at the undignified treatment received at the hands of the inexperienced M. C. from Tar 41
٢,٢٢ ..
322
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
river, in presence of the courtly Compton from Arkansas. Now the art of the diplomat and finesse of the shrewd western lawyer comes strikingly into play. He bade the official good morning and left, but returned in a moment as though some- thing of importance had escaped him, and as the official turned on his chair, facing the man of the west, the latter said : " Par- don me, judge, I have come a long way, have suffered the fatigue and discomforts of travel. All my life I have been addicted, under such circumstances, to a weakness for spiritual comfort, and now feel that it is necessary to indulge it. Can I find any rock and rye in Washington ? if so, where ?" An affirmative answer came, and the western man continued : " I do not know what your habits are, judge, and crave your indulgence for asking you to smile with me over a glass of rock and rye. In the west it would be considered an unpar- donable breach of etiquette to avoid this invitation. You may be a temperate man, and the invitation may prejudice me in your good opinion ; if so, I beg you to consider the customs of the country from which I hail, and that nothing could be farther from my design than intention to infringe on your sense of propriety." The old Marylander's eyes and coun- tenance lighted up in a halo of social sun, as he blandly nega- tived any such violent presumption, and led the way to the abode of rock and rye, on Pennsylvania avenue, where the jurist of the east tipped and re-tipped glasses with the jurist from the west until the two were cemented in a bond of union.
As they parted for the day to be reunited on the morrow, the son of the east said to the no longer doubtful pilgrim of . the west, " would you like to take the pardon back with you ?" and a rousing "bumper" of rock and rye was again pledged to an affirmative response and assurance that Judge Caldwell's harsh treatment and judgment of the mail robber should never go into effect. It is useless to further illustrate the potency of profane spirits by saying the pardon was baptized in another bout of rock and rye before Judge Compton returned to the west. The author, one warm day in August, at the judge's chambers, heard the hero of this episode relate it, in the presence of Judge Caldwell, in shirt-sleeves, inimitable style and much animation, and I am sorry it was one of those sto-
4
. .......
323
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
ries which loses more than half of its charm in an effort to transfer it to paper. Judge Compton, with his three hundred pounds avoirdupois, was pacing the chamber to and fro, and when his back was turned to his auditory Judge Caldwell would let his soul out of his eyes and talk and laugh inaudibly through them until the return trip facing us was made by the hero of his own story. I know not whether Judge Caldwell or myself enjoyed it the more, nor which exerted himself the more to change front as the actor was advancing or retreating. But I do recollect and know that after the rehearsal of rock and rye by a master, it was an unpropitious time to seek en- couragement to produce the then contemplated " Bench and Bar of Arkansas." Each of these distinguished jurists threw an hundred tons of cold water on the author's undertaking, and left him feeling as if drowned beneath the Arctic sea; so quick and easy is the transition from high to low temperature ; so quick the arc of extremes described along the journey in every phase of life.
WILLIAM J. DYER.
William Joel, the son of Doctor James S. Dyer and Martha Hallum, was born in Smith county, Tennessee, on the 29th of September, 1829. When quite young his parents moved to Hartsville, now the county seat of Trousdale county, Tennes- see. Here he received a thorough academic education, finish- ing it under Joseph Holt, an accomplished scholar and teacher, who married Jane Davis, the author's maternal aunt. In 1852 he graduated in the law department of Cumberland University and was admitted to the bar in Tennessee. His diploma from the university by statute admitted him to practice in all the courts · of that State. On the maternal side he is related to Governor Helm and Secretary Bristow of Kentucky, and to President Polk. . His father was a man of high integrity, unswerving de- votion to principle, and commanding attainments, and of great social worth ; a self-made man of the old school, who almost died in the saddle, a martyr to professional devotion. The young man was the relative, and in boyhood the companion of the author in those Attic days which animate youth with high hopes and ambition whilst the heart is pure and fresh. He had
sigort
324
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
splendid attainments and great capabilities, a high sense of honor, and strictly adhered to the highest teachings of profes- sional ethics. On the paternal side he was nearly related to Judge Burford of Dallas, Texas, and with him in Dallas he commenced his professional career in 1853-4. In the fall of 1855 he located in Danville, Yell county, Arkansas, and prac- ticed his profession there for some time. Whilst there one of those unfortunate episodes, unavoidable and always to be re- gretted, crossed his peaceful pathway and gave expression to a very resolute trait of character indicative of that dauntless cour- age developed in later life. An Arkansas bully threatened to chastise him because in the gallantry of his refined and accom- plished nature he had shown the bravo's wife (an old acquaint- ance in Tennessee, whom he casually met at the hotel, after years of separation) only that polite attention which the cir- cumstances demanded. The reply to this threat was char- acteristic : "My body was not made to be chastised by man ; if you attempt it without just cause, it will be at the peril and in all probability sacrifice of your life - no mortal shall abuse the gifts of God to me." That night the desperate bully entered his bed-room after he had retired, and seized him to drag him forth into the street and lost a great part of his under jaw for his temerity. Shot, released, discharged by the commit- tal court. Justified written on the record. Shortly before the commencement of the civil war a combination of circumstances carried him back to his native State, where he joined the Con- federate army in a spirit of devotion and patriotism, and was elected captain of Company B, in the Twentieth regiment of · Tennessee volunteers, commanded by Colonel Joel A. Battle.
The last letter the author ever received from him is here given, together with the reply thereto. They represent the closing scenes of an unalloyed and unbroken friendship, long before it was ever contemplated that his sister would one day be the author's wife.
CAPT. WILLIAM JOEL DYER.
325
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
CAMP TROUSDALE, SUMNER CO., TENN., May 21, 1861.
Lieutenant JOHN HALLUM, Camp Pickering, near Memphis, Tenn .:
MY DEAR COUSIN - My regiment leaves in a few days for the east, presumably northern Virginia. My heart and soul is in the contest ; I am, you know, a State's right democrat, as defined by that greatest of southern statesmen - John C. Cal- houn. The election of Lincoln by the aggressive anti-slavery element of the north was equivalent to a declaration of war against the south, and the institution of slavery - we have the alternative presented of tame and odious submission, or se- cession and war. In this hour of supreme necessity, hesitation would be treason. The south, if true to herself, will surely triumph, and may the God of battles lead her sons.
* *
* *
Your friend and relative,
WM. J. DYER.
CAMP PICKERING, NEAR MEMPHIS, -
May 25, 1861.
Captain WM. J. DYER, Camp Trousdale, near Gallatin, Tenn .:
DEAR COUSIN - Your characteristic letter of the 21st, so full of conviction, patriotism and hope, received. We both take up the sword, but from very different convictions. No one admires the great talents of Calhoun more than I do, and if we could eliminate from his teachings the fatal heresies of nulli- fication and secession, he would indeed be a worthy idol ; but no government on earth recognizing the doctrine of secession and nullification can be made stronger than a rope of sand. Disintegration and dissolution for any cause whatever, was never contemplated by the framers of the government, but, on the contrary, the greatest solicitude by the members of the convention which framed our federal system is vehemently manifest in oposition to that idea - that power.
The right of revolution is inherent in all people, but the south is not appealing to that right. I greatly fear the south will not, cannot succeed. The north outnumbers us more than two to one. The resources of the two peoples are still more
326
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
disproportionate. We are the same people, the same blood ; we all belong to the dominant race of the earth - the differ- ence is wholly climatic. That great tier of western and north- western States will, in all probability, decide the issue of this war. It is a piece of inexcusable folly - yes, a crime - to pro- claim to the masses that one southern can whip on the field six northern men. That great tier of States contains the best material for the organization of an army the world ever saw. Those States were opened up by men who took their families in ox-carts, with rifle in one hand and axe in the other, and felled the forest and repelled the savage.
If I lived on that side of Mason and Dixon's line, I would call my children around me and leave it as an injunction to the remotest generation, never to lay down their arms as long as " that great inland sea," that highway of nations - the Missis- sippi river - was blockaded, or tribute demanded for the com- merce that floats in God's name on its bosom to the sea.
Slavery will perish, or be rendered absolutely worthless, in the clash of arms. In the last presidential campaign I was an active party in the arena for Stephen A. Douglass, and pro- claimed these sentiments, these convictions, on an hundred stumps before the people.
Now as to why I take up the sword for the south, entertain- ing these convictions so strongly -first, because assumed or pretended neutrality would be a farce, a cowardly mockery ; and second, because I would rather sacrifice a thousand lives than to take up arms against my mother, the southern States. I love the Union, but I love the south and her people more, - and am willing to share her fortunes, misguided though she be in precipitating this contest before exhausting constitutional remedies. My regiment is hourly expecting orders to move up the river. * * *
Truly your cousin and friend,
JNO. HALLUM.
The war separated us, and these letters represent the last communications that ever passed between us.
Captain Dyer was in the bloody battle of Fishing creek in east Tennessee, where the earth drank the blood of the brave General Zollicoffer. He participated in all the battles of that
327
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
campaign - was called " the little captain " from his diminu- tive physical proportions. His sabre kissed the sun, and was re-baptized at the head of charging columns on Shiloh's bloody field, where he was wounded and left for dead. The ground where he lay was taken and retaken at the point of the bayonet. In one of the lulls of battle " old Pat Brennan," a brave son of Erin, hunted his "little captain's" body and carried it in his arms off of the field to give it decent burial, but he survived to be the hero of many hard-fought battles after that. He was wounded in the same charge and under the lead of General William B. Bate, when that gallant son of Tennessee gave a leg to his country.
After the re-organization of the army Captain Dyer organ- ized a battalion of cavalry and joined that brave, dashing cava- lier, General John H. Morgan, whose deeds will live in prose and song as long as our people love their heroes. He was a commissioned captain in this service, and was always the con- fidant of his commander. Captain Dyer virtually won the battle of Hartsville (his home) before a gun was fired. He made the circuit of the Union army and captured every vidette and picket on Federal duty, and gave the signal of battle be- fore the Federal commander knew the rebels were at hand. This well-directed strategy enabled an inferior to capture a su- perior force. He was in the saddle and in command when General Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House. This event saddened his heart and darkened his life; when tid- ings of the surrender came, he turned to his friend and said : "I do not want to survive the downfall and thraldom of my country." He crossed to the west of the Mississippi, and on the 23d of September, 1865, in Arkansas, on the banks of Little Red river, died. He was a fluent, polished, condensed reasoner, and never made any attempt at oratory or ornate phraseology. The times and circumstances in which he lived were not propitious for the development of high legal attain- ment, and he died too young to achieve permanent forensic fame.
"Full many a gem of purest ray serene Old ocean's unfathomed depths bear;
Full many a rose blooms to blush unseen,
And waste its fragrance on the desert air."
rta cent To mof
328
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
HON. BENJAMIN T. DU VAL, FORT SMITH.
Colonel Benjamin T. Du Val was born in Boone county, Virginia (now West Virginia), 21st of January, 1827, of Huguenot descent ; his father, Captain William Du Val, a native of Maryland, was a merchant and Indian trader, and in 1828 established a trading-post on the Arkansas river at Fort Smith, where he removed his family in 1829. Young Ben was educated in the primary and rudimentary branches of edu- cation at Fort Smith by private tutors, and was sent from thence at an early age to St. Joseph's College at Bardstown, Kentucky, where, at the expiration of three and one-half years, he graduated in his seventeenth year. After leaving college, he returned to Arkansas, and for a while read law under Judge Jesse Turner at Van Buren. He next studied law under that profound scholar, profound lawyer, and great and brilliant man, General Albert Pike, at Little Rock, and under his guid- ance was admitted to the bar in 1847, but did not then enter on the practice of his profession. He acted as deputy United States marshal until some time in 1849, when he opened a law office in Fort Smith, where he has since continuously resided.
In 1852 he was presidential elector on the democratic ticket, and as one of the three electors cast the vote of Arkansas for Franklin Pierce. In 1856 he was elected chief clerk of the lower house of the State legislature, and drew up, and by his influence secured the passage of the bill creating Sebastian county. In 1856 he took the stump against that short-lived political heresy, known as know-nothingism, and did good service at the funeral. In 1858 he was elected to the legisla- ture as an anti-Johnson democrat, and on the resignation of Oliver H. Oats, was elected speaker of the house of repre- sentatives. In 1860, the electors of Sebastian county re-elected bim to the legislature, and he was made chairman of the committee on Federal relations.
In 1861 he was appointed paymaster-general of the Arkansas State troops. In 1862 he was appointed quarter-master on General Fagan's staff and served in that capacity until the end of the war, and was in the engagements at Helena, Mark's Mill, Pilot Knob and the engagements attending Price's raid
ONY
ELECTRO LIGHT NG.
BENJAMIN T. DU VAL.
329
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
into Missouri. After the war he opened a law office in New Orleans and practiced there one year, but became dis- satisfied at the political outlook in Louisiana and came back to Fort Smith. In 1872 he was a candidate on the coalition ticket for attorney-general of the State and was elected, but was "counted out" by the radical party. In 1874 he was em- ployed by the government to investigate frauds in Federal ex- penditures in the western district of Arkansas, and did his work . well. He has frequently been appointed special supreme court judge, a very clear indication of his recognized legal attain- ments. Colonel Du Val is an active, sagacious, far-seeing poli- tician, is always called into council by the democratic leaders, has frequently been prominently spoken of as a jurist fitted for a seat on the supreme bench, and as good senatorial material, but he cares nothing for office, is instinctively modest and retiring, and will not embark in contest for his individual promotion. He is both by blood and marriage, connected with many prominent men; his sister Catharine married Major Elias Rector, one of the most noted men of his day ; his pater- nal aunt, Susan Du Val, married William Nesbit, member of congress from South Carolina ; his paternal aunt, Julia Du Val, married Pierce W. Butler, governor of South Carolina ; his cousin, Isaac H. Du Val, was a general in the Federal army and member of congress from West Virginia ; his uncle, Ed- ward W. Du Val, was Indian agent for the Cherokees a num- ber of years ; his father was a man of great energy and force of character.
HON. WILLIAM M. HARRISON, PINE BLUFF.
Judge Harrison was born in the seaside village of Church Creek, Dorchester county, Maryland, on the 1st of June, 1818. His father was a staunch old ship-carpenter and farmer, who, appreciating the advantages of a good education, sent him to the common and grammar schools of the town until he was master of a good English education at an early age. In 1836, at the age of seventeen, he entered the service of a village mer- chant, and in the fall of 1837 accompanied his patron to Vicks- burgh, Mississippi, and remained there in his service until the spring of 1840. After this he went to the town of Columbia, 42
、
330
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
Chicot county, Arkansas, where he taught school twelve months. In 1841 he returned to Maryland and taught school until the spring of 1844, when he returned to Chicot and taught school again, and wrote in the circuit clerk's office. At an early age le selected the legal profession as an avocation wherein he would ultimately become stationary for life. He utilized all of his leisure time for five years in reading law, and was finally ad- mitted to the bar in Columbia, Arkansas, in May, 1845. He commenced his professional career in Columbia, but when Drew county was created in 1847 moved to Monticello. In 1852 he was elected to the State senate, and actively supported the homestead and exemption law, which then first became an important feature in the domestic polity of the State. He was not a candidate for re-election, but was elected to the house at the stormy session of 1860, when hot-headed politicians were threatening war with all of its untold calamities.
At this session there was a majority of eight for the Union, Judge Harrison being one of the number. To these convic- tions he adhered through storm and through sunshine with the fidelity of the needle to the pole. He is descended from sires who fought at Concord and Lexington, and all along the line to Yorktown. His political opinions were always known ; no secrecy ever hedged them in from public scrutiny. In 1864 he was compelled (to avoid imprisonment or banish- ment) to abandon home and family and seek protection within the Federal lines at Pine Bluff, where he remained. until the final catastrophe at Appomattox. The circumstances impelling his flight from home savored of persecution, and were well calculated to arouse a spirit of resentment and retaliation in minds less noble than his; but, to his honor, he rose above the passions of the hour, and never failed to embrace opportunities to favor the adherents of the south where he could do so con- sistently with his obligations to the government. This period of his life eclipses all the good services he has rendered the State, either as legislator or jurist, and this is not said in any disparagement of these commendable services. He was emi- nently conservative toward the people of the south, and desired reconstruction with as little jar and friction as possible, and always opposed the odious and degrading disfranchisement of the dominant race at the south for political ends.
I dolamatila
331
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
In May, 1865, Governor Murphy ordered an election for judge and prosecuting attorney, and the polls were opened no- where in the circuit except Pine Bluff ; sixty odd votes were cast, all for Judge Harrison, except two. He was commis- sioned as circuit judge under these circumstances, and held court one day in Pine Bluff, and then forwarded his resignation to the governor, not wanting the office unless freely conferred by a majority of the electors, but the governor refused to accept the resignation. At this juncture a very large and influential number of the bar in the circuit, knowing his conservative character, persuaded him to continue in the office. In 1868 he was elected associate justice of the supreme court, under the constitution and new order of things ordained that year. In 1874 a long-suffering and oppressed people were enfranchised, and the renegade parasites who had festered and fattened on the spoils of the State were retired to everlasting privacy in Arkansas, and are now only remembered for their conspicuous infamy and the enormity of their spoliation. Judge Harrison before the war was an old-iine whig, during the war a consist- ent Union man, and after the war, up to 1874, a conservative republican, but the odium which attached to the misrule of that party in Arkansas, never soiled his record. In a letter to the author he states his position with great perspicuity, thus : " Af- ter the war I affiliated and heartily acted with the republican party. In 1874, because of the encroachments of that party on the rights of the southern States, and its shameful corrup- tions, I severed my connection with it and became a demo- crat." At the democratic convention of 1874, he was nomi- nated for the office of associate justice and was elected on the ticket. Altogether he served fourteen years on the supreme bench,
Conservatism has been the great prop and stay, in fact the corner-stone of his character ; it has upheld and sustained him in all the relations of life, and nowhere is it more easily traced and distinguished than in his judicial career. He was neither an ambitious judge nor a brilliant jurist, but in every opinion he ever wrote a conscientious desire to discover and proclaim the law is manifest. He was not stubborn and tenacious of his opinions like many jurists, but was always open to argu-
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.