Centennial history of Arkansas, Part 129

Author: Herndon, Dallas T. (Dallas Tabor), b. 1878
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago, Little Rock, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1172

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WALTER J. SHUDDE, M. D.

Dr. Walter J. Shudde, a well known representative of the medical profession in southern Arkansas, practicing successfully at El Dorado, where he specializes in genito- urinary diseases, was born in Knippa, Texas, March 25, 1895. His parents, John A. and Anna (Franke) Shudde, were natives of Fayette county, Texas, where they were reared and married and they still reside in the Lone Star state, making their home at Sabinal, where the father follows the occupation of farming.

Dr. Shudde pursued his education in the University of Texas, where he took his academic work and later mastered the elements of medical science, winning his M. D. degree as a member of the class of 1918. In November, 1917. he enlisted for service in the Medical Corps of the navy and in June, 1918, immediately after his graduation, he was called into the service, being assigned to the Eighth Naval Station at New Orleans. Later he was transferred to the New York receiving ships and subsequently was assigned to duty on the U. S. S. Texas. A later assignment transferred him to the U. S. S. Mars, on which he served to the time of his release from active military duty. He is still, however, on the roll of the United States Naval Reserves.

In 1920 Dr. Shudde hegan private practice at Homer, Louisiana, and on the 1st of April, 1921, he removed to El Dorado, where he has since been located. Here he became a partner of Dr. Jerry C. Falvey and is now practicing in this connection.

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Already he has won a creditable place among the capable physicians and surgeons of the city. He performs all his professional duties with a marked sense of conscientious- ness and responsibility and by reason of his thorough collegiate training and his broad experience he has accomplished great good in carrying on his professional duties here. He belongs to the Medical Society of Claiborne Parish of Louisiana and also to the Louisiana State Medical Society and broad reading and study have at all times kept him apace with the onward march of the profession.

Dr. Shudde is also well known in Masonic circles. He belongs to Harmony Lodge, No. 6, A. F. & A. M., of Galveston, Texas, and to Texas Consistory, No. 1, A. A. S. R., in which he has attained the' thirty-second degree. He is also a member of El Mina Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Galveston.

On the 12th of September, 1920, Dr. Shudde was united in marriage to Miss Pearl Vaughan of Zwolle, Louisiana. Mrs. Shudde is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and is highly esteemed for her splendid qualities of heart and mind. Both Dr. and Mrs. Shudde have gained many warm friends since hecoming residents of El Dorado and the circle of their acquaintance is constantly broadening. Warm-hearted hospitality is extended to them in the best homes of the city and they have become well established in public regard.

GEORGE BROWN.

Cleveland county is proud to number among her representative citizens George Brown, a well known attorney and statesman with residence in Rison. His birth occurred on the 3d of December, 1874, a son of John W. and Josephine (Case) Brown. The paternal grandfather, Abner Brown, enlisted for service in the Civil war from Tennessee and shortly after the close of that conflict removed with his family to Arkansas. Here John W. Brown was reared to young manhood and commenced farming. He has since followed agricultural pursuits, achieving more than gratifying success, and he is now living in the northern part of Cleveland county, on a highly improved farm. He is sixty-eight years of age. In Tennessee in 1872, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Brown to Miss Josephine Case, who is likewise in her sixty-eighth year. She is of Irish descent, members of her family having come from Ireland to America in 1850, locating in West Tennessee. There Mrs. Brown was born. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Brown three boys and six girls were horn, all but one girl living. George Brown, whose name initiates this review, is one of twins, they being the firstborn.

In the acquirement of an education George Brown attended the public schools of Cleveland county and as a boy of fourteen years he started out in life on his own account as a farm hand. He likewise worked as a laborer in various sawmills in Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma and at the age of twenty-five years started to study for the ministry. For three years he held pastorates in the rural districts of Cleveland county but in 1902 returned to his work in the sawmills, also securing work on various farms throughout the state. During his spare time Mr. Brown studied law, Judge Woodson Mosley, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this work, heing his preceptor. In 1907 he was admitted to practice in the circuit court of Cleveland county and he remained a constant student of his chosen profession, attending many lectures in the law department of the State University at Fayetteville. He never re- ceived his LL. B. degree, but in 1917 was admitted to practice in the supreme court. He now practices in all state and county courts and has an extensive and lucrative general clientage. He also does corporation work and is local attorney for the Lane & Bowler Company of Stuttgart, attorney for the Boke Oil & Gas Company of Rison and looks after the legal affairs of I. E. Moore and other large planters of this county. In 1905 Mr. Brown was elected to the office of justice of the peace, holding that position until 1909. Subse- quently he represented Cleveland county in the Arkansas state legislature in the session of 1909-1911 and introduced the first state-wide prohibition bill in the legislature. He has served for short periods as deputy prosecuting attorney and in the absence of the regular prosecuting attorney served through one session of court in that office. He has also served through part of two terms as special judge, in the absence and dis- qualification of the regular judge and during the sessions of 1917 and 1919 and in the special session of 1920, was a member of the state senate. In 1919 he was joint author, with Senator Greathouse and Senator McFarland, of the bank guarantee bill, which was introduced but failed to pass in that session. In August, 1917, he volunteered for service in the United States army and went into training at Leon Springs near San Antonio, Texas. There the Seventh Infantry Officers Training Corps was stationed. After a tryout of twenty-seven days, however, he was honorably discharged and a short time afterward was commissioned by the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson,

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as a member of the district exemption board for the eastern district of Arkansas. After serving three months in that capacity he resigned to accept a commission as first lieutenant in the Arkansas National Guard and he was active in recruiting work until the government abandoned the volunteer system. He then offered his services to Major Moore, constructing quartermaster in charge of the government acid plant at Picron, this state, was accepted and assigned to position as checker in the government store room. He served in that capacity until twenty days after the signing of the armistice, when he again received his honorable discharge.

On the 23rd of January, 1910, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Brown to Miss Mattie Harrison, a daughter of Jessie Harrison, a well known citizen of Rison. They have one adopted daughter, Hazel Kesterson Brown, seven years of age, who is a student in the local schools. Mrs. Brown is prominent in the social and club circles of Rison and is president of the Robert H. Crockett Chapter, Daughters of the Confederacy at Rison. She is likewise worthy matron of the chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star here.

The religious faith of the family is that of the Baptist church, to the support of which they are generous contributors. Mr. Brown is active in the affairs of the American Legion and is a charter member of Hale Post of Rison. Mr. Brown's career has been notable, inasmuch as he has worked his way upward to a prominent position in legal and financial circles and also by reason of the excellent service which he has rendered in public office. Possessing a most genial and pleasing personality he has made many stanch and true friends and has won the confidence and respect of all with whom he has come into contact.

ROBERT EMMETT McCANN.

Robert Emmett McCann is proprietor of a well appointed photographic studio of Fort Smith, known as the McCann Photo Company. Mr. McCann was born in Eagle Grove, Iowa, November 27, 1884, and is a son of William and Ellen (Duddy) McCann. He acquired a public school education in his native state and came to Arkansas in 1896, when twelve years of age, in company with his parents, who settled in Mena, after which he pursued his studies in the schools of that place. At a later period he returned to Iowa and again attended school there. Once more he became a resident of Mena and took up photography there, continuing in the business in that city until 1917, when he came to Fort Smith and purchased the H. H. Redner Photographic Company, since which time he has conducted business at his present location. He also has branch establishments at Mena, Arkansas, and at Poteau, Oklahoma. He does all kinds of photographic work of the highest grade, and commercial photography as well, and the latter department of his business is assuming extensive proportions, amounting to thousands of dollars each year. His kodak photo finishing department also returns to him a handsome revenue annually. He started business in Fort Smith in a modest way and through the excellence of his work and the application of progressive modern business methods he has developed his interests to a point that makes his establishment one of the best and largest of the kind in the state. In fact, his studio would be a credit to a city of much larger size than Fort Smith. He is a consistent advertiser, progressive in all respects, and he has read papers on advertising before national con- ventions of photographers. He keeps in touch with the latest improved processes in his art and his ability has brought him prominently to the front.

Mr. McCann was married to Miss Gertrude Carter of Mena, Arkansas, and they have one son, Robert E., Jr. Mr. McCann is a member of the Ad Club, the Business Men's Club, the Rotary Club and the Country Club, and is keenly interested in every plan or project for the business development of the community and the upholding of all civic standards.

L. C. HATTAWAY.

L. C. Hattaway, who was conducting the Palace Drug Store of Fort Smith and was the treasurer of the Carnahan Drug Company, is at present secretary of the Cooper Clinic. He is the possessor of most sterling attributes of character and those sub- .stantial business qualifications which make for continued success along commercial lines. Opportunity has ever been to him a call to action and obstacles and difficulties in his path have served as an impetus for renewed effort on his part. Thus it is that he has pushed his way forward until he is now enrolled among the representative business men of the city. He is a native son of Arkansas, his birth having occurred in Van Buren, on the 6th. of February, 1884. No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of life for him in his youthful days, which were largely devoted to the acquire- Vol. II-52

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ment of a public school education and such interests and pleasures as engage the atten- tion of the boy and youth. When he started out in the business world he turned his attention to the drug trade and was identified therewith in Van Buren for a year. In 1903 he removed to Fort Smith and here entered Germann's Drug Store as an employe, remaining in the position for two and a half years, during which time he gained a thorough knowledge of the drug trade. Actuated by a landable ambition he wisely used his time and talents in the acquirement of a capital that would enable him to engage in business on his own account. On leaving the Germann establishment he bought a half interest in the store of H. L. Benning, which up to that time had been conducted under the name of Benning & Underwood. He succeeded the junior partner in the firm and the style was then changed to. Benning & Hattaway. The two men were thus associated in business for two years, at the end of which time they consolidated their interests with the Palace Drug Store, then conducted by W. L. McGee. After three months they pur- chased the interests of Mr. McGee and afterward consolidated their business with that of the Crescent Drug Store in 1909. Mr. Hattaway has remained the manager of the Palace Drug Store, which has perhaps the largest trade in the city. He carries an extensive line of drugs and druggists' sundries and the store is most pleasing by reason of its attractive arrangement, the excellent line of goods sold and the courteous treat- ment accorded all patrons. Mr. Hattaway has developed the business in the most progres- sive fashion and well merits the prosperity that has come to him.

It was in 1905 that L. C. Hattaway was united in marriage to Miss Era Brown, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. B. Brown of Springfield, Missouri, and they now have one child, Mary Elizabeth. Mr. and Mrs. Hattaway are well known socially in Fort Smith, where they have a circle of friends almost coextensive with the circle of their acquaint- ance. Mr. Hathaway belongs to the Business Men's Club and manifests a keen and helpful interest in every project put forward by that organization for the benefit of the trade conditions of Fort Smith. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons and with the Knights of Pythias and loyally follows the teachings and purposes of these orders, which are based upon a recognition of the obligations and responsibilities which every indi- vidual should feel toward his fellowmen. His business record should serve to inspire and encourage others, indicating what can be accomplished through individual effort, intelligently directed.

WILLIAM J. HENDRIKS.

One of the prominent citizens of Camden is William J. Hendriks, vice president and manager of the South Arkansas Grocery Company, dealers in wholesale groceries. Mis- souri claims him as a native son, for he was born at Cape Girardeau, on the 16th of January, 1875, a son of Louis V. and Mary E. (Howard) Hendriks. Louis V. Hendriks was born in Europe, on the line between Holland and Belgium, and he came to the United States as a youth. Upon the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in the Federal army and served throughout the conflict. At the close of the war he located in Cape Girardeau and was prominently identified with the jewelry business there for some forty years. His death occurred in July of the year 1898, when but sixty-one years of age. Mrs. Hendriks, who was born in Cape Girardeau county, Missouri, is still living, at the age of seventy-three years, and she is making her home in St. Louis.

William J. Hendriks received his early education in the common schools of Cape Girardeau and in due time he entered St. Vincent's College, where he took a business course. Upon putting his textbooks aside he identified himself with railroading and for several years he was railroad clerk and cashier for various roads in Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee. In 1903 he came to Arkansas as station agent at Clarendon, on the Cotton Belt Route, and he was active in that capacity for a period of three years. Subsequently he occupied a like position for the Missouri Pacific System at Hot Springs for three years and then went to Stuttgart, where for one year he was active in the employ of the Cotton Belt Railroad. In July, 1910, he was transferred by that road to the more important office at Camden and he was station agent there for the next eight years. In 1918 he severed his connections with railroading and became manager of the South Arkansas Grocery Company. At the first annual meeting following his connection with the company, January 1, 1918, he was elected to the office of vice president and he has since held that. official position. In the years intervening since Mr. Hendriks took over the management of the concern the business has shown an increase of four hundred per cent and notwith- standing the present business depression it still shows a healthy growth. He is an indefatigable worker, a man of marked capacity, quick and decisive in his methods, keenly alive to any business proposition and its possibilities.

On the 7th of October, 1897, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Hendriks and Miss

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Eugenie V. Snider, a native of Millersville, Missouri. To their union seven children have been born: Louis V., a well known business man of Camden; Wilma M., the wife of G. B. Rucks of Forrest City, this state; Margaret, who is a graduate of the Morse School of Expression at St. Louis and is living at home; Blanche M., who graduated from the Camden high school with the class of 1921; Vivian E., a student in the high school; William J., Jr., and Rohert V., students in the grammar school. The family is affiliated with the Catholic church and Mrs. Hendriks is an active worker in its various charities.

Fraternally Mr. Hendriks is identified with the Woodmen of the World, Knights and Ladies of Security and various other societies. He was for two years secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of Camden and is still an active worker in that body. He does not let his extensive business and his important social interests occupy his entire time but he takes part in the public life of the community, especially in support of those projects and movements which have for their object the general good. His ideas are practical, his efforts resultant and his cooperation can always be counted upon to further any measure that he believes will prove beneficial to the community at large.

JAMES A. SMITH.

James A. Smith, now living retired in Hot Springs, has figured most prominently in connection with the business interests of the city. His activities have been of a char- acter that have contributed to the commercial progress and upbuilding of Hot Springs, as well as to the advancement of his individual fortunes. He is a man of most dis- criminating judgment in relation to business interests and possesses the ability to coordinate seemingly diverse elements into a unified and harmonious whole. His plans have always been carefully formulated and he has never failed to reach his objective. Today he is enjoying the fruits of an active and well spent life, surrounded hy all of the comforts and many of the luxuries that go to make life worth living. He was born in Rome, Georgia, February 17, 1847, so that he has now passed the seventy-fifth milestone on life's journey. His parents were Alexander H. and Eliza ( Brown) Smith, both natives of North Carolina. They were married in Georgia, to which state they had removed with their respective parents in childhood days. The father was for many years a farmer of Floyd county, Georgia.

James A. Smith was educated in the district schools, his opportunities being limited by the fact that the schools of that period and locality were of a primitive character. The little temple of learning was a log house with crude furnishings and the methods of instruction were also most primitive as compared with the methods of the present day. In 1865, when a youth of eighteen years, he started out in the world with the hope of winning the success which is the goal of all business endeavor. He made his way to South Pass, Illinois, where for two years he was engaged in freighting. He bought two teams of mules on credit, driving one team himself, while an employe drove the other team. He thus freighted from South Pass to Jonesboro, the county seat, which was then an inland town without a railroad. After two years he sold one team of mules and drove the other team to Arkansas, his destination at the start being, however, Kansas City. He was accompanied by two brothers who wished to go to Arkadelphia and they decided to let the mules settle the question by taking their own road. When they reached the forks of the road which was the divisional point the mules turned into the Arka- delphia road. When their journey was over Mr. Smith purchased a livery stable and for about two years was engaged in that business. He next went to Fort Worth, Texas, and followed freighting in that section of the state for a short time. He afterward removed to Weatherford, Texas, where he conducted a grocery store, together with a billiard hall and a howling alley and when he left Texas he went to the Buffalo range in Kansas, where he hunted buffaloes and also worked at the Kickapoo Indian Agency. After a winter there spent he removed to Arizona, where he worked in the Senator mine for a period of eighteen months. Returning to Kansas, he was located in Wichita for a short time and then again became a resident of Arkadelphia. After a brief stay there he returned to the scenes of his youth and spent six months visiting in Mississippi and Georgia, but the lure of the southwest was upon him and once more he made his way to Texas, settling in Weatherford, where he was employed for six months. On the expiration of that period he came to Hot Springs, arriving here on the 11th of September, 1877. Here he found employment as a member of the Pinkerton detective force and later he became actively identified with business interests here through the purchase of two livery stables, which he conducted for two years.

In 1879 Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Mrs. Jennie A. Jones and soon afterward he turned his attention to the real estate business, in which he engaged continuously

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for forty-two years. He is one of the best known real estate dealers in Hot Springs and developed a business of extensive proportions. No man in all the city is better informed concerning realty values or has negotiated a larger number of important realty trans- actions. In 1915 he was one of the organizers of the Arkansas Building & Loan Asso- ciation, of which he became president and in that capacity he has continued. He is truly a self-made man. His parents were in modest circumstances and Mr. Smith took care of the family, while his father served through the Civil war as a member of the Confederate army. He has made wise use of his time, talents and opportunities as the years have passed and has continually added to his possessions as the result of his judicious investment in property that has continually risen in value. He has prospered to a notable extent as the result of his close application, his sound judgment and his enterprise and he has recently given to his children thirty thousand dollars each.

About 1888 Mr. Smith was called upon to mourn the loss of his first wife. On the 4th of July, 1889, he was married to Miss Ida Sammons of Hot Springs, and they have become parents of six children: Truesdale, who is the wife of Edward Apples of Hot Springs; Archer J., who is in charge of his father's real estate business; Ray S., who is looking after the building and loan department of the business; Frances Emily, the wife of William H. Barry of Hot Springs; Ruth Emily and Jim Ida, at home.

Mr. Smith is a Mason, belonging to Sumpter Lodge, No. 419, A. F. & A. M., being one of the oldest representatives of that lodge. He also has membership in the Modern Woodmen of America and belongs to the Business Men's League. He knows the mean- ing of earnest toil and of days filled with hard tasks; of months in which there were few leisure hours, but he has lived to enjoy in well earned rest all of the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. Hot Springs numbers him among her substantial citizens and accords him that respect which is ever tended the individual who has truly won the proud American title of a self-made man.

JOHN GIBSON WATKINS, M. D.

For seventeen years Dr. John Gibson Watkins has engaged in the practice of medicine in Little Rock, specializing in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. He is recognized as an eminent specialist, whose training has been most thorough and whose ability is of pronounced character. Dr. Watkins was born on a farm in Montgomery county, Arkansas, August 15, 1879, and is one of a family of five sons and five daughters, whose parents were Charles J. and Roanna (Mayberry ) Watkins. The father was born in Tennessee in 1847, while the mother's hirth oc- curred in Montgomery county, Arkansas, in 1851, and there they were married after reaching adult age. Mr. Watkins located at Mount Ida, Arkansas, where he followed farming and merchandising, remaining an active, prominent and representative citi- zen of that place to the time of his death, which occurred June 5, 1921. For little more than a year he had survived his wife, who died February 11, 1920. Of their family of ten children two sons and a daughter died in childhood, while two daugh- ters died after reaching maturity.

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Centennial history of Arkansas, Part 129

Author: Herndon, Dallas T. (Dallas Tabor), b. 1878 Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Chicago, Little Rock, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 1172

Author: Herndon, Dallas T. (Dallas Tabor), b. 1878
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago, Little Rock, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1172