USA > Arkansas > Biographical and pictorial history of Arkansas. Vol I > Part 37
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good all along the line of coming years. When it comes in company with the higher virtues, we bless and love and honor in our hearts the noble youth who wears its humble raiment, far more than the purple and gold that gild a throne. Poverty in a democracy like ours never excommunicates noble youth from the acquisition of honest fame. The knowledge that no extraneous aid will come to his relief is, within itself, a power- ful incentive, a momentum which sends the pendulum forever forward in the career of gifted, aspiring youth. All of these stimulants focalized in the early boyhood of Judge Rose and made him a man before his time. He rapidly acquired a good practical education in the English branches, but had no time to invoke the dead languages, nor to halt in Greece and Rome to cultivate the classics. But in later years, when the claims that pressed on his attention in youth no longer exist, he oc- casionally breaks away from the demands of professional life and takes a stroll with the lyric muses in the fabled precincts of Parnassus, not to create, but to enjoy, the feasts spread be- fore him.
In this connection the judge facetiously writes of himself : " Under these circumstances I secured but an indifferent edu- cation which laid the enduring foundation of that solid, varied and profound ignorance that I have so often displayed in later life, under circumstances that frequently excited the warmest admiration of myself and of others."
Judge Rose began the study of his profession, at a very early age, in the office of an eminent local lawyer in Lebanon, Keu- tucky-R. H. Roundtree-whose memory he treasures with the warmest gratitude for disinterested kindness extended in his youth. From the office of his friend he went to Transylvania Law School at Lexington, Kentucky, where he graduated in 1853. The court of appeals in that State examined him and spread his name on the roster as a member of the guild. He carried this judgment of the court of appeals to the supreme court of Arkansas in 1853, where it was examined and affirmed, after due consideration, there being no error apparent on the face of either the record or applicant. He settled, with his newly-married bride, in Batesville, where he commenced his honorable and useful career, rapidly advancing to the higher
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NY.
ELECTROLIGA
U. M. ROSE.
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- stations, winning golden opinions from all as he advanced and became better known, fortitied with moral worth and spotless integrity. Governor Elias N. Conway, on the 2d of July, 1860, appointed him chancellor, and he held that position until the war ended and the reconstruction period demanded the office for converts to the republican. school. He discharged the trust imposed by this office with untiring research, learn- ing and ability of high order. In the mean time he compiled Rose's Digest of the reported cases from the first to twenty- third Arkansas, inclusive, which, in its day, was a very valuable addition to the useful literature of the profession.
Judge Rose has often been mentioned in connection with the office of senator in congress, but no consideration has ever seduced or influenced him to step aside for office since he stepped down from the wool-sack. Ne gentleman at the bar surpasses him in the thorough preparation of his cases, and herein lies one of the strong elements of success which has al- ways characterized his labors at the bar. He has always been esteemed, not only for his acknowledged ability as a lawyer in the front rank, but also for his spotless integrity and purity of life. He has embraced Europe in his travels to the east, and to the west has passed through the golden gate to the cen- tral isles of the Pacific, as a means of cultured recreation. One of the crowning fruitions of a well-spent life comes to him in the gift of two talented sons, now at the bar, who are climb- ing the hill in the footsteps of their honored sire.
HON. JOHN T. JONES, HELENA.
Judge John T. Jones was born in Essex county, Virginia, in October, 1813. His academic foundation was acquired at an institution of learning in King William county, Virginia, from which he went to the University of Virginia, where he was graduated in 1833, in literature, the classics, and law. He came to Arkansas in 1835, and located on a farm near Helena, where ne has continuously resided ever since. Like Judge Sebastian, he conducted a large planting interest in connection with his profession. In December, 1842, he was elected by the legisla- ture to succeed Judge Sebastian, as judge of the first circuit, a position he honored with signal success and satisfaction to
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the public for ten years. The circuit was a very large one, and embraced a very sparsely-settled country, including Greene, Mississippi, Craighead, Poinsett, Cross, Crittenden, St. Fran- cis, Monroe and Phillips counties. This circuit fronted more than three hundred miles on the Mississippi river. The first court in the circuit was held in Greene county, one hundred and sev- enty miles from Helena. He is a man of fine culture and at. tainments, has a wonderful fund of information, and an inex- haustible store of humor connected with early days in Arkan- sas. His life embraces a panoramic view of the olden time, and he is one of the best living specimens of "the fine old Ar- kansas gentleman." He looks on the sunny side of life, and keeps his feelings green and fresh toward his fellow men. In reply to the author's request for an account of circuit-riding and practice in the olden time, he gave the following humor- ous and entertaining account of
MY FIRST COURT.
"In the winter of 1842 my first court was held in Greene county. The weather was inclement and no one of the Helena bar was willing to undertake the trip. The State's attorney, W. F. Stanton, had an office at Marion, but really lived in Memphis. So I set out alone and reached the home of Colonel Mark W. Izard, about where Forrest City now stands, the first night, passing through old Mt. Vernon next morning. I hunted up in the woods the lawyer of that county, James Jackson, and asked him if he was going to attend the Greene court. He said he had not thought of it; but I could never find the way to that place, and, furthermore, there would be no lawyer there. I impressed on him the difficulty I would labor under in trying to hold court without a lawyer, and in- duced him to go with me. We made Walnut Camp that night, the home of Colonel Charles Nealy. The next day we faced a snow-storm of unusual severity for twenty miles, to a log cabin where Harrisburgh now stands. There, to my great satisfac- tion, we found Stanton, the State's attorney, who, with great difficulty, had crossed the swamp from Memphis, waiting in doubt and anxiety for the judge. In due time we arrived at Greenville and surprised the clerk, who plead innocence to any
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HON. JOHN T. JONES.
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knowledge of the appointed time for court. In response to inquiry for the sheriff, we were told he was twenty miles off at ' Uncle Peter's Still,' where he had been drunk the past two weeks. I directed the clerk to call in two mounted men to go for the sheriff; he responded promptly, and I instructed them to bring him in, drunk or sober. They reported with the sheriff early next morning, who seemed to be struggling hard to es- cape the fog 'Uncle Peter's' low wines had cast over his mental vision.
. " To my rather peremptory inquiry, 'Sir, what have you done with the venire ?' he responded : 'I have not had him; I don't know him. Is he an old or new comer to these parts ? What do you ax me that for ? Has he stole any thing or killed anybody, and what country did he jump ?' To which I im- patiently responded : 'Oh, my good fellow, you don't appear to understand me. Where is the grand jury?' And he replied : 'A, that's what you want, is it ? Well, we don't need any in these parts, and I don't know how to get one if we did. Per- haps you can tell.' I had a venire issued and placed in his hands at once, with directions to bring in forty good men as soon as possible, to serve as grand and petit jurors. To this he pre- sented formidable objections. It was in the dead of winter, and there were no accommodations for either court or jury, and no house in which to hold court. This difficulty was met and obviated by directions to cut down forest trees and build a huge log fire, with the trunks of trees placed around for seats. This injunction was obeyed, and the next day I opened court under these rude and primitive auspices in the wilderness. Early in the progress of the court, one of the attendants became disor- derly -the effect of too much of 'Uncle Peter's' low wines -and was ordered to jail for contempt of court. Here another difficulty presented itself. There was no jail ; but the court designated a tree near by as the jail for the term, and the offender was promptly tied to it, and the court progressed. It must not be taken for granted that Greene county has held her own since 1842 ; she has progressed with the times; and now boasts an intelligent and refined population, which compares favorably with any portion of Arkansas. In attendance on this court besides my very humorous traveling companions - James
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Jackson and W. N. Stanton - were Pope, Porter, Patterson, and Fairchild from Batesville, all lawyers of ability, true men and most genial companions.
" A. R. Porter, then prosecuting attorney in the third circuit, went to the Mexican war in Governor Yell's regiment of Ar- kansas cavalry, and met death at the head of his column, in a desperate charge at Buena Vista, on the 22d of February, 1847. Governor Yell fell in the same charge, a few minutes before Porter, pierced to death by Mexican lancers.
" James H. Patterson was a member of the leading firm of Byers & Patterson. Fairchild, then lately admitted to the bar, was, in 1855, appointed chancellor by Governor Elias N. Con- way, and in 1860, associate justice of the supreme court. The leading lawyers of Little Rock then attended the most impor- tant courts throughout the State-Ashley, Fowler, William and Ebenezer Cummins, Ringo (after retiring from the supreme bench), Watkins (afterward chief justice), Curran, Pike, Trap- nall and Cocke. Trapnall's name brings to my mind an amusing incident of 'long ago.' I was sitting in his office one day, during the session of the legislature, when a member of that august body came in and said to Trapnall : 'We have repealed that old common law.' To which Trapnall replied : 'The h-1 you have; you had much better have repealed the statutes.' Upon inquiry he found such a measure had actually passed one of the houses, and the mischief was made known and stopped. But I have got out of my circuit. Monroe county, like Greene, had no court-house when I first went on the bench. At the invitation of Squire Dyer court was held in one room of his private residence, which served also for sleeping quarters at night. 'Jim Jackson,' the lawyer of St. Francis county, was chiefly noted for his humor and kind na- ture. Ebenezer Cummins of Little Rock arrived the second day, and was too late to enter into competition for lodgings. He was absorbed until a late hour in the examination of papers, and preparation of pleadings, before he thought of procuring a bed. When this necessity occurred to him he laid his pen down, counted the beds and tenants for them, and suggested the necessity for some provision in this direction ; then 'Jim . Jackson assured him that he would be happy to share his bed .
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with him.' This relieved Cummins, and he proceeded with the work before him for an hour longer; after finishing his work he proposed to retire, and asked Jackson which bed he must occupy, and was told, 'our bed is ont in the horse trough; I am ready to go.' The next night a case was argued to the jury, and submitted about twelve o'clock; there was no room for the jury to retire to, and the lawyers had to vacate whilst they considered of their verdict, thinking the jury would soon determine on a verdict and let them in, so they could go to bed. The night was very cold, the attorneys in about thirty minutes knocked at the door for their overcoats, and an hour later they knocked for their blankets (an article every lawyer in those days carried around the circuit), and after waiting in the cold a long time to be called in by the jury, they retired to the corn crib, and were not molested until sunrise. The jury, as expected, soon agreed on a verdict, but would not an- nounce it until they had comfortably slept on it."
This interesting letter is a good index to the kind heart and warm nature of Judge Jones; he always turns the sunny side and agreeable phases of life to his fellow man. How much better the world would be if we could all follow his example. In this connection, it is due to him to say the letter was not designed for publication ; that he added a special prohibitory injunction in these words : "Not a line of this is intended for publication." To which I replied, that I did not intend to be made the involuntary instrument in violating the spirit of Holy Writ, by " hiding light under a bushel; " that my loyalty to this higher law, if pressed, would lead me to disobey the injunc- tion of a temporal court. Thus I took advantage of the judge's good nature, that my brothers might enjoy the feast, and I now crave their charitable indulgence and lenient criticism for the risk incurred to entertain them. This prayer influenced the judge, in a subsequent letter, to accord me absolution and free pardon for the breach. After this long service on the bench, Judge Jones quit the active practice of his profession to enable him to attend to his large planting interests in the Mississippi and Red River valleys. I have a letter, addressed to me by high authority, estimating his abilities as a judge, from which the following quotation is taken : "He was regarded as one
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of the best nisi prius judges ever in the State, and particularly excelled as a chancellor." This is, indeed, a very high compli- ment, coming from the source it does. It requires more talent to become an eminent nisi prius judge than judge of a supreme court, where the judge can take "a year and a day " to inform and advise himself, if he chooses, before flooding the world with light.
In 1866 Governor Garland and Judge Jones were elected to the United States senate, but were denied admission, in common with others elected from the south during the reconstruction period. When the order of Patrons of Husbandry was origi- nated, he was elected master of the State grange, and in that relation soon became favorably known to the order throughout the United States. He is a fine and ready writer, and contrib- uted with his pen largely to the literature of the order. These articles attracted much attention at the time, and gave him great prominence in the order; and when the national grange convened, he was elected master of the organization. During his administration the order attained its greatest numbers and power. He canvassed the United States, and advocated the co-operative system, productive and distributive, as the most practical solution of the conflict between labor and capital, warning capitalists to avoid the precipitation of a conflict that would become too powerful and terrible to control. He has five sons and one daughter, three boys in the learned profes- sions, one merchant, one farmer. All meet annually under the roof of the hallowed old homestead, at Christmas, in that sacred and holy union and communion which makes us all purer and greater. The daughter and her husband live in the far-off mountains of the "Old Dominion," but she could forget her bridal day as easily as the annual pilgrimage to the mansion that witnessed her natal day. The judge and his good lady live in the golden fruition of ripe old age, and their next nuptial anniversary will bring their golden wedding.
GOVERNOR HENRY MASSEY RECTOR, LITTLE ROCK.
The courage of the Celt and firmness of the Saxon are united in the blood and character of Henry M. Rector, whose great grandfather, in the paternal line, was a native of Wur-
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ELECTRO LIGHT ENG.C.O.N.Y.
EX-GOV. HENRY M. RECTOR.
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temberg, Saxony, and his grandmother, in the maternal line, was pure Irish Celt ; the intermediate family crosses being English and Welsh. The governor is fortunate in inheriting the patriotic virtues and robust constitution of these races without their vices. The first Saxon in the American line settled in Fauquier county, Virginia, during Lord Dunmore's administration of that colony as a fief of the British crown.
In that old historic county, in 1775, was born unto Frederick M. Rector, the Saxon, a son, John Rector, to whom was born in the same county, Ann Rector, wife of Tom Conway, the most celebrated mother in American annals, of whom we have given an, account in the history of the Conway family ; and to John was also born, in that grand old Commonwealth, nine heroic sons, all six feet high, whose splendid physique was only equaled by their manly courage and bearing in all the rela- tions of life. All of these nine brothers were soldiers in the war of 1812. Elias, one of them, was the father of Governor Henry M. Rector, who was born May 1, 1816, in St. Louis, Missouri. Captain Nelson Rector, another of the famous broth- ers, made a brave soldier's record on the upper Mississippi. Wharton Rector, another of these brothers, was the father of Major Wharton Rector (who figures so conspicuously in our early history), and of the late Major Elias Rector, celebrated in our local literature as " the fine old Arkansas gentleman near the Choctaw line" - a character drawn to life by the magical, the wonderful genius of his bosom friend, General . Albert Pike.
General William Rector was surveyor-general of Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas from 1816 to 1823. Fannie B. Thrus- ton, the mother of Governor Rector, was the daughter of the Hon. John Thruston of Kentucky, and niece of the Hon. Buckner Thruston, judge of the Federal court, in the District of Columbia. The Thrustons are descended from eminent English stock ; thus two lines of the high-born and high-spirited cavalier unite in Governor Rector, in whom the graft is of vigorous growth. In this connection it is well enough for the author to state his views on the transmission of character and its effect on the descendants of either vicious or noble lines, proximately and remotely. There is no doubt in his mind that
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traits of character, good and bad, descend from sire to son, sub- ject to modification produced by crosses in the line of descent and educational development. It is of vast importance to ob- serve this primal law of nature, which holds good both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Hence it is, the author, when- ever in possession of the facts in family history, has given them, as matter of interest not only to the families, but to the general public. And it is also well for those who look beyond super- ficial indications, to remember another fact clearly defined and well developed in our national character. Our Pilgrim fathers hated monarchy and all the heraldry attached to nobility and the ruling classes in England. This political antagonism sprung vigorously from opposite religious creeds, and founded its deepest roots in the persecutions the weak suffered at the hands of the strong ; in this, fanaticism and bigotry, and their twin sis- ter, intolerance, were not aliens on either side. The hatred of the Pilgrims to the established order of religion and politics naturally led them to embrace the idea, and teach to their de- scendants, that the boasted heraldry of the English cavalier and the ruling classes of England is a libel on truth and an invasion of the natural rights of man. This extreme, so deeply rooted in New England, embraced the heresy which discards the idea that there is any thing in the transmission of blood and character. On the other hand, there is no portion of the race of mankind who believe and teach the inheritable and transmissible princi- ples of character and blood with more pertinacity than the gentry and governing classes of England. The portionless scions of the gentry and nobility, the hapless victims of the harsh laws of primogeniture, settled on the historic James, colonized Virginia, and imported this doctrine with them, and the blood which made her the grand old "mother of States and statesmen." The laws of primogeniture prevailed there until late in the present century, and the pride and heraldry of blood is as deeply seated in the descendant of the cavalier as it ever was in the land of its origin. The New Englander boasts that republicanism is built on the ruins of this doctrine, and derides the idea that importance attaches to the descendant because of the achievements of his ancestors. This view is superficial, because it discards the transmissible connection be-
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tween the two. These antagonisms between the New England dogina and the Virginia idea are now settled convictions. The roots and ramifications of this clash of religious and political doctrine extend to many of the most important events in our history. In its latent roots lie the seeds which led to the war between the States.
Elias, the father of Governor Rector, was prominent in the early history of Missouri ; he was postmaster of St. Louis, and a member of the legislature. He died in 1822, the owner of large landed estates-Hot Springs, Arkansas, being one of his locations, of which the government has very unjustly deprived the governor, his only heir. From his thirteenth to his nine- teenth year he labored hard, driving teams and hauling for his step-father's salt works in Missouri; after which he spent one year at school in Louisville, Kentucky, where he laid the founda- tion on which he built a good English education himself. In 1835 he came to Arkansas to look after landed interests inher- ited from his father. In 1839 he married the accomplished Miss Field, niece of that great man, Governor John Pope, and the same year was chosen teller of the State Bank, a position he held eighteen months, after which he resigned and embarked in farming in Saline county. In the mean time he read the best text- writers on law, but did not enter on the active practice for some years afterward. In 1842-3 he was appointed United States mar- shal for the district of Arkansas by President Tyler, and held the office until superseded by his cousin, Major Elias Rector, under Polk's administration. The office came to him without solicita- tion. In 1848 he was returned to the State senate from Perry and Saline counties, after a vigorous and exciting canvass with William English, brother to our late chief justice, and said to be much. the abler of the brothers. English was a spirited whig, had buried his man, and was regarded as dangerous and fearless, but when he commenced to play for the stakes on that key, was soon convinced that he had made a mistake, and that the hazard was more than the stake was worth. In 1854 he opened a law office in Little Rock, and practiced for several years, confining himself chiefly to criminal law. As the years rolled on it was observed by the ruling political regime that Rector was feeling his political oats, and that, if something was
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not done to prevent it, he would soon develop into a dangerous political rival for democratic honors. His popularity with the masses had been subjected to the severest test in 1855, when lead- ing the forlorn hope in Pulaski county, the stronghold of whig- gery, against the able and popular Charles P. Bertrand, in a race for the legislature, in which he was successful. The Johnson fac- tion, with their family connections and allies, had long domi- nated the democratic party in Arkansas, and had monopolized its chief honors from 1836 to 1860, as we have stated in a special chapter devoted to the subject. Although recently defeated, it was a powerful and compact organization, and to tear its power down required the bold leadership of an independent, popular favorite. Rector, although an unalloyed democrat, and connected with the powerful Conway family by blood, had never been taken into the confidence of this political oligarchy. To shelve or switch him off on a side track, and appease his rising ambition, the party elected him, in 1859, to a seat on the supreme court bench. In 1860 the democratic convention registered the edicts of the oligarchy in the nomination of Colonel Richard M. Johnson for governor, an honest, fearless and able man, who had long worked in the democratic harness, performing yeoman service. But it was his misfortune to be nominated at a juncture in public opinion when it was ready and ripe for revolt against long-continued domination. Who was the man to make the breach and lead the revolt ? was the question which ran anxiously along the democratic line. The leaders in the revolt consulted and determined to run a man as near as possible to the powerful family, not to be identified with it, and Governor Rector was the man. He led the politi- cal revolution as bold as Hercules and proud as Jove, aided by the bold Tom Hindman, who led the van in his district and carried it for congress. Governor Rector was elected by a majority of two thousand four hundred and sixty-one, after one of the most exciting contests ever made in Arkansas. But the opposition, crushed in this contest, rose afterward, like Banquo's ghost, in his political pathway, as we will see before the end. He was inaugurated in October, 1860, for four years, and thus became our chief executive officer at the greatest crisis in our history, an important historical character in both State and Fed-
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