USA > Arkansas > Biographical and pictorial history of Arkansas. Vol I > Part 46
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
After five years' careful training by the best teachers in Ar-
------ ..
497
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
kansas, he attended Spring River Academy in Missouri two years, and returned home, in 1850, master of a good education and a polished gentleman, crowned with a good name. The California gold fever swept the east in 1850, and Jordan had a bad case, communicated, not by any miserly impulse for wealth, but by the supposed romance of a journey overland across the continent, which cost his father many shekels. The romance wore threadbare in two years, and he returned to eat the fatted calf in his father's mansion, wiser and richer in experience than shining coin. In 1853 he summoned courage to tackle the farm again, but was not a success. In the fall of that year he commenced reading law with Judge Batson, his future father- in-law, and this time wrote success over the archway. His grandfather, William Cravens, was a pure Celt; he came to America after the revolution, settled in the Old Dominion, and is the common source of a numerous posterity scattered over the south and west. His mother was of pure Anglo-American blood, so we have in him a union of the Celt and Anglo-Saxon, now an antagonistic trans-Atlantic element of volcanic tenden- cies, defying the efforts of England's greatest statesmen to har- monize. We are not advised as to which, the Celt or Saxon, predominates in Brother Cravens, nor to which he leans in their quarrel across the Irish channel. He inherits both sides, and an equilibrium of native forces would establish neutrality, but the positive predominates over the negative in his nature, and we feel justified in the opinion that, if he were in the British parliament, the Saxon would feel the blows of the Celt.
. He espoused the cause of the losing side in the late war between the States, and found his first experience as a volun- teer on the staff of General Burrow, who captured Fort Smith in the absence of Federal opposition. The ennui of inactive camp-life did not satisfy his Celtic blood; he was soon " spoil- ing for a fight," and went to Missouri in quest of one or more, and on August, 1861, was accommodated at Dugg Springs, where he fought on his own hook in the regiment commanded by his cousin, Colonel Jesse L. Cravens. Here his romantic and tragic ideas of war were to some extent grati- fied in a splendid cavalry charge, some hard fighting, some 63
498
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
blood-letting and deaths on both sides. He was at the head of the column, and was as gallant a knight as ever drew a sabre. After lending a helping-hand to Colonel Cravens at Dugg Springs, he withdrew and rode over to the command of Colonel Churchill, like a true knight of old, and reinforced his com- mand at the great battle of Oak Hills, on the 10th of August, 1861. In this battle he was thrice wounded, by minie ball through the shoulder, left arm and in the leg. These severe wounds disabled and cooled him down until October, when he joined the Seventeenth Arkansas infantry, commanded by Colonel Lemoyne, and was elected major of the regiment at Fort Pillow, in the spring of 1862. When the army was reorganized at Corinth, in the spring of 1863, Major Cravens was elected colonel of the regiment, which was known after the reorganization as the Twenty-first Arkansas infantry.
This was a high and a merited compliment, and his fellow citizens have not forgotten the soldier who so nobly and gal- lantly led his regiment of veterans at Corinth, Iuka, Port Gibson and Champion Hills. On the 17th of May, 1863, he was captured at Big Black river, Mississippi, by the Federals. After these events he took a trip to Johnson's island, at the expense of the United States, to see some Confederate officers who had taken up their head-quarters at that famous retreat on Lake Erie. This situation, although delightful, was attended by misguided public considerations on the part of the United States, which influenced Colonel Cravens and his comrades to remain there until the end of the following February. After his exchange he crossed over into the trans-Mississippi depart- . ment and took command of fragmentary commands which had been consolidated into a single regiment. Lee's surrender found him at his post. He came home, commenced the prac- tice of law, and is yet actively engaged in it. In 1866 he was elected to the State senate, having previously been a mem- ber of the lower house in 1860. In 1872 he was a candidate for the electoral college on the Greeley ticket, that compound of time-serving democracy and apostacy from the teachings of a life-time. The author was very reluctantly seduced into voting this ticket as a choice of evils, but feels sick and prays for political absolution every time he thinks of it, and Colonel
ENG,CO.NY
ELECTRO-LIGHT
HON. JOHN M. HEWETT.
499
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
Cravens only supported it as a choice between an apostate who had deserted and come into the democratic lines, and ultra radicalism which then obtained. Colonel Cravens was now a widely-known and a very popular man, and the electors of the third congressional district chose him to represent them in the forty-fifth, forty-sixth and forty-seventh congresses of the United States.
He retired from politics at the close of the forty-seventh congress with the conscious conviction that he had done all in his power, as a patriotic representative, to promote the inter- ests committed to him. In 1868 he married Miss Batson of Clarksville, daughter of the late Judge Felix I. Batson of the supreme court, his old preceptor. Colonel Cravens possesses many noble qualities of head and heart; is a man of great tenacity of purpose; he is a warm friend and a good hater. In company with his friends he is warm-hearted and genial, and loves wit and repartee and the sunny side of life.
HON. JOHN MARSHALL HEWITT, MARIANA.
Hon. J. M. Hewitt was born in the city of Frankfort, Ken- tucky, July 22, 1841, and there grew to manhood, receiving a classical education in the best schools of his native city. Be- fore he attained his majority, the civil war, with its train of untold evils, burst on the country. The war experience of Mr. Hewitt's family illustrates that of hundreds of others in the border States. In a private letter to the author, he says : "The war was a bitter experience to me. My father had four sons, two on each side during the war; also one son-in-law on each side All my old school-mates and associates, as well as relations, in Kentucky were about as equally divided. One of my brothers was killed at Fort Donelson on the Confederate side."
When I read this, a sweet and simple, yet sublime and pathetic little poetic gem came rushing through my memory and begged for recognition ; and I give it, that it may charm some kindred spirit and claim the tribute of a hallowed tear.
.
500
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
"O, mother what do they mean by the blue ?
And what do they mean by the gray ?
The mother's eyes filled up with tears;
She turned to her darling fair,
And smoothed away from the sunny brow Its treasures of golden hair.
I saw two cripples to-day,
And one of them said he fought for the blue,
The other, he fought for the gray.
Now he of the blue had lost a leg,
The other had but an arm.
The leg was lost in the Wilderness fight And the arm on Malvern Hill.
Then the mother thought of other days -
Two stalwart boys from her riven; How they knelt at her side, and lisping, prayed, -
Our Father who art in heaven.
How one wore the gray, and one wore the blue,
How they passed away from her sight, And had gone to a land where the gray and the blue Are merged in colors of light."
In 1861 Mr. Hewitt joined the Federal army as adjutant of the Second Kentucky cavalry, and was attached to the staff of General Rousseau as assistant acting adjutant-general. He was an active participant in the bloody battle of Shiloh ; was cap- tured by General John Morgan at Cynthianna on his first raid into Kentucky, but escaped that night and returned to his com- mand. He was admitted to the bar by the court of appeals in Kentucky, in 1865. In 1866 he settled in St. Francis county, Arkansas, and engaged in cotton planting. After the creation of the county of Lee, in 1873, he moved to Marianna and re- sumed the profession of law, and has continued his planting interest in connection with his profession ever since. Mr. Hewitt, although a Federal soldier, coming among us at the close of the war, is, and has always been, eminently conserva- tive in politics, and is an active, effective and pronounced democrat. He came to us at an era when we were exhausted, poor and powerless, and much oppressed by the seemingly ceaseless demands of the spoliators who were then in power.
.
The war had ended its work of desolation. Every Confederate soldier from Texas to Virginia had obeyed in good faith the ยท last order of the hero who surrendered at Appomattox. Ile
.
501
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
was in a conquered province, belonged to the victorious party, and every present outlook invited him to unite with the dom- inant party, for both political and financial fortune. But his sense of justice and patriotism was too deeply woven in the fabric of his nature to be drowned by the siren temptations of the spoliator, and he stood true to his convictions and his man- hood, unscathed by the political cyclone which swept Arkansas. He is an eminent refutation of the slanders which circulate as political coin in the north, misleading the masses in the belief that southern men are prejudiced against northern or Union gentlemen. He has labored long and zealously for the material advancement and prosperity of the State, and his fellow citizens delight to honor him for his worth. He was active in aiding the native element in securing control of the State, and in recognition of his valuable services in this direction, the demo- cratic State convention of 1876 accredited him as a delegate to the national democratic convention which assembled in St. Louis in 1876. In 1880 the democracy of Lee county elected him to the legislature, where his fine abilities soon found recog- nition in his election as speaker pro tempore. In the fall of 1882 the democracy of Lee county re-elected him to the legis- lature, and at the session of 1883 he was made chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1884 he was elected to his third term in the legislature, and was chairman of the committee on cir- cuit and justices' courts at the session of 1885. In January, 1886, he was elected president of the State Bar Association, in recognition of his abilities as a lawyer and presiding officer. He is well versed in parliamentary law, and presides with dignity, ease and facility. His fine appearance and suavity of manner lend a charm to the discharge of official duties.
The State democratic convention, which convened at the capitol in June, 1886, elected him president of the convention. In September, 1886, he was elected by his friends and neigh- bors to a fourth term in the legislature, and that body, when it convened in January, 1887, elected him speaker of the house. He is a fine lawyer, an affable, courteous gentleman in all the relations of life, and is a fine party manager and leader.
502
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
HON. A. B. WILLIAMS, WASHINGTON.
Judge Williams was born near Burkeville, Cumberland county, Kentucky, the 9th of April, 1828. In 1830 his father moved to the territory of Arkansas and settled in Hempstead county, where the son has since continuously resided, with the exception of five years' residence in Pike county, Arkansas. He embraced all the educational facilities the country then placed at his disposal, and at the age of seventeen was prepared to enter on a collegiate course, which he did at Wirt College, Sumner county, Tennessee, where he graduated in 1848, two years before the author entered the same institution. He re- turned home from college and entered the office of Judge Field in Washington, Hempstead county, as a law student, and in the latter part of 1849 was enrolled as a member of the bar.
In 1860 he was elected county and probate judge. In 1862 he was elected to the State senate. In 1865 he was elected circuit judge under the organization of the Confederate States government, but when the Confederate States collapsed, his commission died. In 1866 he was again returned to the State senate. In 1884 he was appointed judge of the ninth circuit, and served in that capacity a short time. In October, 1886, President Cleveland appointed him on the Utah Commission under the Edmonds bill (and the senate subsequently confirmed him), to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Colonel J. R. Pettigrew. An able lawyer who has known him long and intimately says of him : "He has a strong mind and most ex- cellent judgment, and is a good judge of human nature. He knows how to select and to carry a jury with him; his judg- ment and tact in this respect is rarely equaled. He is strong and persuasive in argument; is a fine practitioner. In my judgment he has no superior as a criminal lawyer in the State. Some of his best efforts in criminal cases would do credit to the ablest criminal lawyers of the nation. He is modest and unas- suming, and does not impress any one on first acquaintance with the idea that he is a man of ability, and in this respect " is a great sell." Such is Brice Williams when in full vigor of health.
503
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
HON. THOMAS C. MCRAE, PRESCOTT.
Hon. Thomas C. McRae was born at Mt. Holly, Union county, Arkansas, December 21, 1851. After accomplishing an academic education he went to New Orleans, and took a thorough course in a business college ; from thence he went to the University of Virginia, and graduated in the law depart- ment, and in January, 1873, was admitted to the bar. In 1877 he represented Nevada county in the legislature. In 1881 he was a member of the electoral college, and voted for Hancock and English. In 1884 he was elected chairman of the democratic State convention and delegate to the democratic national con- vention at Chicago, and to the forty-ninth congress to fill the unexpired term of the Hon. J. K. Jones, who was elevated to the senate. In 1886 he was elected to the fiftieth congress. These rapid promotions to high offices indicate the great popu- larity of the young man in his district. He has an aptitude for politics- a personal magnetism which wins the popular heart and becomes formidable when an opponent gets in his political pathway. Those who have heard and know him best pronounce him an able, a plausible debater, and fascinating speaker. His past record certainly indicates a future full of promise to himself and the State.
GENERAL ROBERT C. NEWTON, LITTLE ROCK.
General Robert C. Newton was born in Little Rock, June 2, 1840, of ancient English lineage, whose history extended back into colonial times more than two hundred years. His father came to the territory of Arkansas in 1830, a poor, wandering youth, seeking fortune and place in the wilderness, and after- ward acted a very prominent, honorable and conspicuous part in the early politics and history of the State. He was cashier of the old Real Estate Bank; was clerk of Pulaski county for several years ; was elected and served three times in the lower house of the State legislature, and served his constituents two terms in the State senate. In 1841 President Harrison ap- pointed him United States marshal for the district of Ar- kansas, and in 1847 he was elected to congress, an honor never conferred on any other old-line whig in Arkansas prior to the
504
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
final dissolution of that party. General Newton's uncle, Thomas Newton, was a commodore in the United States navy, and died in 1860. His maternal grandfather, Colonel John Allen, died leading his regiment into action at the battle of the River Raisin. His maternal aunt, Eliza Allen, married Thomas Crittenden, and is the mother of ex-Governor Thomas S. Crittenden, of Missouri, and by a second marriage is also the mother of ex-Governor Eli Murray of Utah. One of the general's ancestors married the sister of President Mon- roe. He is also related to the deceased widow of President Lincoln. General Newton was partly educated at the Western Military Institute in Tennessee. He studied the languages and mathematics under an excellent private tutor. He commenced reading law at the age of eighteen, and was admitted to the bar in 1860. He entered the Confederate army in 1861, as a private, and was in the battles of Woodsonville, Shiloh, Corinth, Prairie Grove, Helena, Little Rock, Jenkins' Ferry and many minor engagements. He was successively promoted to various military offices until he was acting brigadier-general in com- mand of the Arkansas State troops, at the end of the war. Governor Baxter, in 1873, appointed him major-general of the State troops, a position which he filled during the Brooks- Baxter war under martial law, and on several occasions since then his head quarters have been in the field. General Newton was eminently social in his relations to society and was at times a florid speaker; then, again, a close logical reasoner, and was always effective before a court and jury. He died at his resi- dence in Little Rock since the above was written.
HON. T. C. HUMPHRY, FORT SMITH.
Judge Humphry was born on a farm in Logan county, Ar- kansas, December 20, 1846, the son of Hon. Charles Humphry, representative in the legislature from Scott county in 1840. When the late civil war commenced he was but fourteen years old, and had, up to that time, enjoyed but very limited facilities to acquire an education, all of his time after he was old enough to go to school being required on the farm. At the age of seven- teen he volunteered his services as a soldier in the Confederate army, and served as such near two years, being discharged a
-
Hti+1
HON. THOMAS C. HUMPHRY.
ELECTRO LI
GEN. ROBERT CRITTENDON NEWTON.
505
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
few months before the surrender of the Confederate armies, because of physical disability occasioned by exposure in the army. At the close of the war he settled at Galla Rock in Pope county, and bent every energy and resource of his nature to acquire an education under very uninviting circumstances. He attended a common school five months in 1865, and ad- vanced very rapidly ; after this, necessity forced him to become his own tutor. He was soon able to teach a common neighbor- hood school, and in this way defrayed expenses and sustained himself. He read medicine under Doctors Talbot and Leith at Galla Rock, near two years, and then attended the Missouri Medical College in St. Louis two sessions, and graduated from that institution in 1869. Doctor Humphry practiced medicine about three years, and then abandoned that profession because he found it uncongenial to his taste, and removed to Judsonia and opened a drug store, which in turn grew monotonous, and he entered the political arena in 1874, and was elected to the legislature from White county, and did good service in the memorable session of 1874-5. Prominent in his legislative record was the bill introduced by him asserting and seeking to enforce the assumed right of the State to tax railroad lands. which became a law, and was very warmly and ably contested in the supreme court of the State and of the United States, the litigation resulting in sustaining the act. Whilst a member of the house he was often called to the chair to preside as speaker pro tem., and discharged the duties imposed by that office with marked ability.
In 1876 he returned to Logan, his native county, and read law two years privately at his own home, and was admitted to the bar, but was not satisfied with his qualifications, and entered the post-graduate class of the law department of the University of Louisville, and at the end of one year graduated in that in- stitution with the degree of doctor of laws, and was soon after admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the State. In 1879 he was appointed probate and county judge of Logan county, to fill an unexpired term of one year, and in 1S80 was elected to that office by the people on the democratic ticket. In 1881-2 he owned and edited the Paris Express in the interest of the demo- cratic party and the people. Judge Humphry has attained 6+
506
BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
high masonic honors and promotion from the humblest position in subordinate lodges to the most worshipful grand master of the State. In the fall of 1886 he removed to Fort Smith, where he continues his professional pursuits.
THOMAS J. OLIPHINT, LITTLE ROCK.
Thomas J. Oliphint was born near Murfreesboro, middle Tennessee, on the 22d of March, 1842, the son of an itinerant Methodist preacher. In 1844 his parents moved to west Ten- nessee, near Memphis, and in 1854 to White county, Arkansas, where the son received an academic education. He volunteered as a Confederate soldier in April, 1861, and served during the entire war when not restrained by the stern influences of a Federal prison. General Pat. Cleburne was his first colonel. Colonel T. D. Merrick led the Tenth Arkansas infantry in the bloody battle of Shiloh, and the knightly plume of young Oliphint waved over that field of carnage, and the rattle of his needle-gun swelled the chorus of war.
After the battle of Shiloh he was transferred to the trans- Mississippi department and joined the cavalry service, in which he rose to the grade of lieutenant. He was with General Price when he invaded Missouri, was in many skirmishes and battles, but was captured on Price's retreat and confined in the peni- tentiary barracks at Little Rock, where he was permitted, at the expense of the Federal government, to inuse on the vicis- situdes of war until its close, in the spring of 1865. The ex- change of the relations of a soldier for those of a civilian found him without means, with a widowed mother and several sisters to support. With this task before him he went bravely to work, learned the photographer's art, and with it accom- plished the task before him, reading law at intervals of leisure. No idle time ever accumulated on his hands. In due time he was licensed, and practice I his profession at Searcy two years, then came to Little Rock, where he yet resides. His ambition, nursed with untiring industry, enabled him to prepare and pub- lish "Oliphint's Digest" of the decisions of the supreme court of Arkansas, being a continuation of the work of Judge Rose, from the 22d to the 4th Arkansas Reports, a work involving great labor and fine legal discrimination, and of great assist-
.. .. ...
CON
ELECTRO LIGHT ENG.
THOMAS J. OLIPHINT.
0
ITGI
FLECTY
GEORGE THORNBURGH.
507
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
ance to the profession. Scotland and Ireland claim a monopoly of his blood and brain ; a cross of Celt with Celt, full of self-con- fidence and strong pertinacity of purpose well defined in Brother Oliphint, which has, balanced with the restraints his good judgment throws around it, constantly carried him forward and upward. Every year with him has marked a nearer advance to the front rank, which contains the seat he toils to fill in the near future.
HON GEORGE THORNBURGH, WALNUT RIDGE.
Hon. George Thornburgh was born in Mason county, Illi- nois, January 25, 1847, and is of English-German extraction. When eight years of age his father moved to Smithville, Law- rence county, Arkansas, where he grew to man's estate. His educational facilities and opportunities were extremely meager, but he had the taste, the desire, and the noble resolution to overcome and surmount these obstacles by self-culture and self- denial. These elementary principles, in their nature, lie at the foundation, and are the best structural basis, on which to build a good name and a useful life, and fortunate is the youth who makes the discovery, and embraces it as a rule of action.
Mr. Thornburgh educated and polished himself, and advanced far enough in the field of literature and science to become a practical teacher at Hillhouse Institute and New Hope Acad- emy, both institutions in Lawrence county. In 1867 he began the study of law at Smithville under the supervision of Colonel Baker, and in 1868 entered the law department of Cumber- land University, Tennessee, and remained there but one ses- sion, but by extraordinary application accomplished as much as the average student does in two sessions. He was admitted to the bar in the winter of 1868, but did not enter on the regu- lar practice of his profession until 1873, when he opened an office in Powhattan, Lawrence county. He is a hard working steward in the Methodist church ; is quite distinguished in his masonic relations ; was grand master of the State in 1878 and 1879, and grand high priest in 1830, and deputy grand mas- ter ; has been active and efficient as alderman, school director, Sunday school superintendent and president of a large manu- facturing enterprise at Walnut Ridge, where he now resides.
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.