USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 11
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The maiden name of the wife of John J. Jackson was Emily Mont- gomery, to whom he was married in Savannah, Tennessee. She died in Gainesville, Arkansas, in 1881. They were the parents of seven children, including James, who served the South as a soldier, was a merchant by oc- cupation, and died in Greene county, Arkansas, leaving a family ; Richard, the subject of this brief sketch; John F., also a soldier in the Confederate army, died in Greene county, leaving a family ; and Isaah, who was the fourth son to wear the gray in those dark days between 1861 and 1865.
As a young man Richard Jackson responded to the call of Governor Jackson, of Missouri, for troops when war seemed inevitable, and was a member of the Missouri State Guard for a short time before being mus- tered into the regular Confederate service. Belonging to the Fourth Mis- souri Cavalry, Mr. Jackson served under Colonel John (. Burbridge, his regiment being assigned to General Clark's brigade and General Mar- maduke's division. He took part in the Price raid, was wounded in the en- gagement at Pilot Knob, after which he worked his way back to the Con- federate lines under a parole, but was disabled for further military duty during the conflict. Joining his parents at their new home in Arkansas,
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Mr. Jackson soon afterward embarked in mercantile pursuits in Gaines- ville, becoming head of the firm of Jackson & Company. Such success at- tended the efforts of this company as to warrant an expansion of the busi- ness, and it was incorporated under the name of the Jackson Dry Goods Company, and in 1890 was moved to Paragould. In 1896 Mr. Jackson dis- posed of his interests in the firm, and devoted his time and energies to the selling of railroad lands, a business with which he had previously been con- nected for a number of years and which was demanding his serious atten- tion.
In 1882 the Saint Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway Com- pany had induced Mr. Jackson to become their agent for the sale of the company's lands in Green and other counties, and during the years that have since elapsed the vast domain granted the company as a bonus for building the road has been, practically, all sold. a few odds and ends only remaining before the great donation will be back into the hands of the .peo- ple. During the building of the Iron Mountain Railroad. Mr. Jackson furnished timber and ties for its construction, establishing a large busi- ness, which he has continued until the present time.
When in 1901 the Paragould Bank of Commerce was in a formative state, Mr. Jackson gave generous support to the establishment of the insti- tution, and has served as its vice-president since its organization. His ac- tivity in the upbuilding of Paragould is evidenced in the erection of the two-story brick bloek in which he maintains his office, and of the adjoining building occupied by the government as a post office, while his dwelling house on Emerson street marks his contribution to the residential district of the city.
Mr. Jackson married, in April, 1867, Jennie Stedman, who was born in North Carolina, in 1845, and came to Arkansas with her mother, Mrs. Sallie Stedman. Six children have been born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Jack- son, namely: Clara. wife of Dr. Robinson. of El Paso, Texas; Frances. wife of H. Q. Donaldson, of Paragould : Arthur W., of Paragould, is a civil engineer : Emma, living in El Paso, Texas : Margaret, who died in Septem- ber. 1909 ; and Mabel, living with her parents. A stanch Democrat in his political relations, Mr. Jackson has done duty as a delegate to state con- ventions of his party, where he has met and communed with the leaders of political thought and action in Arkansas.
THOMAS F. HUDSON, sheriff and tax collector of Arkansas county, is generally conceded to be the right man in the right place. Perhaps to arrive at the truth more closely. Mr. Hudson would be the right man for the place as the inenmbent of any position of trust, his ideas of civic faithfulness being of the highest possible character. By the circum- stance of birth he is a native of the state of Mississippi, his nativity having occurred near Aberdeen, in Monroe county, on the 16th day of February. 1855. His parents were Beasly W., a native of Georgia, and Julia A. (Keaton), a native of Mississippi. Both parents are deeeased.
Young Hudson obtained his education in the publie schools of the locality in which his youth was passed and some time previous to his majority he became identified with Arkansas county, Arkansas. He became interested in the agricultural development of the state and has back of him a record of twenty useful and active years as a farmer and overseer. He still condnets a farming estate, and his progressive methods have been erowned with sueeess.
It is perhaps through his connection with public service that Mr. Hudson is best known. The first service that he rendered the county
I. F. Hudson
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was in the capacity of deputy sheriff under L. C. Smith, his appoint- ment eoming in November, 1894. Recommended by his faithfulness in that office, he received marked proof of the community's favor and approval by his election as assessor, and he held this office for four years. He then made the raee for sheriff and collector and was elected, and so well has he condueted the affairs of his office, and so satisfactory has been his services, that the voters of the county renominated him at the spring primaries to fill this important position another term, it having been generally recognized that it was his aim at all times to uphold the law and discharge his duties fearlessly. In polities he is a stanch advocate of the policies and principles promulgated by the Democratic party, for whose interests he is ever ready to be at any personal sacrifice. Mr. Hudson derives mueh pleasure from his lodge relations and through them he has an even wider acquaintance than he might other- wise possess. He is a Woodman of the World and a member of the Aneient Order of United Workmen.
Mr. Hudson has been twice married. His first union was with Mattie C. Pike and was solemnized in the year 1877. The wife died in 1887, the mother of four children: May, Willie, Thomas B. and John. His second marriage was in 1889, to Lucy John Pike, a sister of his first wife, and to them have been born three children : Glenn, Lucins and Eulalia.
JOSEPH W. RHODES is an extensive farmer and merchant at Golden Lake and makes his residence at Osceola. He is an ex-county officer and is president of the Citizens' Bank of Osceola. He has been a resident of Mis- sissippi county since 1826, in which year he abandoned a river serviee of three years and took charge of the landing at Golden Lake and established a little store there. Although he had attained much experience in his rambles as a young man, he had not upon locating in Golden Lake com- munity gone far from his native heath, for he was born in Hinds county, Mississippi. His natal day was December 28, 1851, and his father, Henry David Rhodes, migrated with his family to Texas, passing a few years in Colorado county and passing away in Fayette county in 1866. The senior Rhodes was born in North Carolina, spent his life there as a farmer and stock man, served a few months in the Texas militia during the war and died at the age of forty-eight years. He married Mary B. Wicks, and she after the death of her husband brought her children baek to Tennessee and made it her future home. She died in Memphis in 1891. Eleven children were born of this union and ten grew to maturity. Those now living are Harry W., a lawyer at Galveston, Texas ; Mrs. James A. Cole, of German- town, Tennessee: John B., of Memphis; Joseph W .. of Osceola, Arkansas; and Matilda, wife of S. T. Smithers, of Golden Lake, Arkansas.
Joseph W. Rhodes passed ten years of his life on the prairies of Texas and was sixteen years of age when the family returned to Tennessee and stopped at Germantown. He secured his education in the country sehools and during his minority engaged in farm work. When he began upon a business career, it was as a bookkeeper at Bay Springs, Mississippi, in the cotton factory at that place. Leaving there he took his place as shipping clerk with a wholesale grocery at Memphis and subsequently elerked in the office of the Memphis & Charleston Railway. In 1876 he was indueed to become a clerk for one of the boats of the Andrews and Joplin line of Mis- sissippi packets, and was engaged in traffic between Memphis and Ashport during the succeeding three years.
As previously mentioned, the year 1876 marks the beginning of Mr. Rhodes' career in Mississippi county. At that time Golden Lake was merely
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a landing for the accommodation of the small farmer trade scattered along the banks of the river and extending back into the heavy woodland to Frenchman's Bayon. Its importance was to depend upon the energy which the land owners displayed in clearing up and planting adjacent lands. The development of this tract into a vast producing area came about and Mr. Rhodes contributed a modest share to this. While carrying on useful oper- ations as a merchant, he has seen the forest disappear from a thousand acres of land which he now owns and is having tilled. He has built a gin and grist-mill for the convenience and accommodation of the locality and he has increased the business of his store to twenty-five thousand dollars a year.
In 1902 Mr. Rhodes entered the politics of the county as a Democratic candidate for circuit clerk and recorder and was elected, but the incumbent of the office refused to surrender possession until the contest for possession was decided by the courts, which consumed the official term. He was elected again in 1904 and succeeded himself in 1906, serving in all four years and giving a most able and satisfactory performance of duty. The contest he made with C. S. Driver for the office constituted one of the famous suits of its character in the state, and the battle for the fees of office of that dis- puted term is still waging in the courts.
After retiring from office Mr. Rhodes resumed active management of his commercial, agricultural and stock interests at Golden Lake. His ex- periments with alfalfa and hogs proved to be a profitable one, the popular hay of the arid regions of the irrigating country having become one of the factors which make farming along the Mississippi pay. The subject in addition to the interests already mentioned has others of large scope and importance, being a stockholder in the Osceola Compress Company, the Cotton Oil Mill, the Mississippi Valley Life Insurance Company of Little Rock and the Citizens' Bank of Osceola, of which latter institution he is president.
On September 4, 1822, Mr. Rhodes was united in marriage near Bart- lett, Tennessee, to Miss Clara M. Pulliam, a daughter of Elijah and Ame- lia Pulliam. The issue of this happy union are: Lucy, wife of Dr. C. M. Harwell, of Osceola ; J. W., Jr. ; Charles Robert, and Miss Ella Nelson. All the family are well and favorably known and hold high place in the best social life of the community, in which their interests are centered. Mr. Rhodes is one of the most prominent of Arkansas Masons and has taken all the degrees in this time-honored order, including the Commandery, Knights Templar. He is one whose social proclivities are sufficiently genuine to make him enjoy to the utmost fellowship and fraternity, and his affilia- tions in addition to the one mentioned are with the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of Honor and the Woodmen of the World.
WILLIAM B. CHASTAIN. The mercantile and commercial life of a com- munity is extremely important, constituting not only a eriterion of its de- velopment and progress but contributing to or hindering in great measure its prosperity. In the mercantile life of Newport Mr. Chastain stands as one of the representative men, and he is a valuable factor in society from the additional fact that he is signally loyal to the duties and responsibilities of citizenship. He is one of the carly merchants of Newport, and when he began his career here in 1879 the busy metropolis of today was largely a cane-brake. Since that date, which is to say for the last thirty-two years, he has witnessed marvelous change and development and has taken a modest but effectual part in its daily life. He came out of Oil Trongh bottom, where he had located almost a decade before as a youth just attained to
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his majority. He is one of the noble army of self-made men and he began life at the very bottom of the ladder.
Mr. Chastain was born in what is now Hiawassa county, Georgia, Feb- ruary 26, 1851. His experience as a student in the public schools ended when he was a lad ten years of age, times being hard and there being no arguing with necessity. While a young man living in the Oil Trough bot- tom Mr. Chastain began to realize that he needed more education. Que of the first big projects with, which he was identified, while not entirely disin- terested, was at the same time creditable. He advanced arguments show- ing that a new school district should be formed in Oil Trough which should be more accessible and convenient than the mother district to certain pupils, himself included, for he wanted to be able to attend school and at the same time be able to continue his work, the latter phase of the matter being unavowed, however. Opposition to his plan developed, as opposition al- ways does when new districts are to be created, and he employed a lawyer to aid him, with the result that his point was eventually gained. When all was ready for the first term of school in the new educational mecca he placed his name on the roll and started to attend. Being past school age, his enemies in the fight for a new district objected to his being educated at public expense and he was denied admission ; being unable to pay tuition he began farming and made the best use of his childhood education. If worsted in a most laudable desire to drink deeper at the fount of knowledge, he had at least assumed the role of a public benefactor and had secured a much needed new district. It is pleasant to reflect that a man of this type was eventually able to triumph over circumstances and is the possessor of wide information.
For a number of years and indeed until his advent in Newport Mr. Chastain was identified with the Oil Trough community. He worked by the month; made a crop on the shares and finally rented land, as the situation compelled him to do, when his landlord demanded double rents for the lands upon which his young and ambitious tenant was producing two crops. Eventually he abandoned the uncertain fortunes of agriculture and with the small savings of almost a decade he came to Newport and established himself in the grocery business on Front street, his capital stock comprising two hundred and fifty dollars. For some time his store was on the corner occupied by the Arkansas Bank & Trust Company, and when he was forced to move from that location he took his old frame building to the site of his business house. From 1883 until 1901 he carried on business in the old frame building and in the latter year, finding himself upon a more substantial footing, he erected the Chastain Block, a two-story double briek and one of the best business houses in Newport. The building cov- ers one hundred by one hundred and fifty feet of ground, with offices above and market and grocery below. Until 1908 he conducted business in the two departments, grocery and meat market, but in that year he disposed of his grocery stock and continued his active connection only with the latter.
Mr. Chastain has been signally successful and his interests extend in several important channels. When his business expanded he engaged in feeding stock for his own use and for shipment to other markets. He owns a farm near the city, which serves him as a feeding ground and upon which is also raised grass and corn forage for his stock. This business and that of his market go hand in hand and each is somewhat dependent upon the other. In the expansion of Newport he has taken a most im- portant part and the city owes much to him. Chastain's Addition was purchased by him, laid off into more than one hundred lots and sold to buyers and improvers, and now constitutes an attractive and well-estab- lished part of the city. He has fine executive capacity, keen vision and
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sound judgment and his ideas have a gratifying way of becoming actual- ities.
The Chastian family is one of Southern origin. His father, Calvin C'hastian, was born in 1820 in North Carolina, and his vocation during his active life was that of a farmer. The elder Mr. Chastain brought his family to Arkansas in the year 1852 and eventually located in Clerburne county, where in the vicinity of Heber he still resides. Although the na- tive county of the subject was Union at the time of the Civil war, his father was a Secessionist and was an Arkansas soldier of the Confederate service, being under Generals Marmaduke and Price, participating in the famous Price raid and closing his service in the Trans-Mississippi depart- ment. In Clerburne county this venerable gentleman has served as post- master of DeKalb and has filled the office of justice of the peace.
('alvin Chastain first married Martha Garrett, who died in 1855. The issue of the union were Rebecca, who married Z. N. Dill and resides in ('lerburne county, Arkansas; James, who died in 1855; Calvin, of Bates- ville, Arkansas, a soldier of the Confederacy; William B., of this notice ; Sarah J., wife of Isaac W. Snelson. His second wife was a Miss Dill and the children resultant from their union were Jesse, of Oklahoma ; Adaline, wife of William Foust : Cynthia, wife of Wat Davis ; Thomas, of Clerburne county : Joseph, who passed away there; and Marion, a farmer living near lleber, Arkansas.
On January 6, 1822, Mr. Chastain was married at Oil Trough to Mary Caroline Jackson, daughter of James P. Jackson, and a native of Alabama. Mrs. Chastain died on September 1 of that same year.
Mr. Chastain, who is an enthusiastic lodge man, was a charter mem- ber of Fortitude lodge of the Masonic order, since consolidated with New- port lodge and called Jackson lodge. - Ile has taken all the degrees of the Scottish Rite and has been a member of the Arkansas Grand Lodge. He has been an alderman of Newport and has at all times assisted his fel- low citizens in the planning and development of a city where cane once grew, and that not so long ago. He was one of those who brought about the organization of the Farmers' Bank and is one of its board of directors.
JAMES C. HOOTEN. Doubtless one of the best known men of Poinsett county is James (. Hooten, who' is sheriff of the county, the leading mer- chant of Deckerville, and one of the most extensive and progressive agri- culturists of that part of the state. Hle was born October 31, 1826, in Blount county, Alabama, and spent his early life in his native state.
Thomas B. Hooten, his father, was a farmer by occupation and a life- long resident of Alabama. Enlisting in a Confederate regiment during the Civil war, he served in the Army of Alabama, taking an active part in many of the more important battles of the conflict. including those at Shiloh and Chickamauga. He was twice married. He married first Emma Ilill, who died in 1888. Eight children were born of their union, as fol- lows: twvonia, wife of D. D. White, of Tyronza, Arkansas; Dora, who married J. A. Northcott, died in Waterloo, Alabama : Wesley W., of Dennis, Mississippi ; James (., the special subject of this brief personal record ; Altha, wife of Edward Condrey, of Waterloo, Alabama: Rosa, wife of Will Condrey, of Waterloo; Cleveland died in childhood; and Bertha, wife of John Wilson, of Harrisburg. He married for his second wife Delia Bishop, and they became the parents of one child, Cecil.
Spending his youthful days in Waterloo, Alabama, James C. Hooten was educated in the common schools, and at the age of sixteen years began the battle of life on his own account. Going first to Hunt county, Texas, he worked as a farm laborer for four years. In 1896, while en route to his
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old home, he stopped in Poinsett county, Arkansas, and being pleased with the country roundabout and its agricultural possibilities, took up farming near Marked Tree. He succeeded well in his undertakings, and from time to time bought more land, having now title to six hundred acres, one-half of which is under culture, and is one of the largest cotton producers of this region. Enterprising and progressive, Mr. Hooten ventured into other lines of industry, and in addition to farming is carrying on an extensive and lucrative mercantile business in Deckerville, under the firm name of J. C. Hooten, which has the village trade. He is also one of the owners of the Whitton Telephone Company, of Deckerville.
Mr. Hooten is a valued member of the Democratic party, and in 1910 became actively interested in politics, and as an aspirant for the office of sheriff of Poinsett county was nominated for the position, without a strug- gle, in the primary, and in the election held a very few weeks later de- feated his Republican opponent at the polls by a majority of more than five hundred votes and took the office in November of that year, succeeding J. A. Bradsher, of Harrisburg. Fraternally Mr. Hooten is a member of Jonesboro Herd, No. 498, B. P. O. E.
Mr. Hooten married, June 24, 1900, at Tyronza, Arkansas, Ethel Morelock, who died June 12, 1906, leaving one child, Ollie. On April, 19. 1908, Mr. Hooten was united in marriage with Pearl Shaw, a daughter of Charles R. Shaw, of Waterloo, Alabama, and their only child is a little daughter named Vertie Mayflower.
OSCAR D. LONGSTRETH. One of the prominent, popular and gifted young citizens of Little Rock is Oscar D. Longstreth, who in times past has been known as a partienlarly able educator, but who, if training and capacity count for aught, will be known in days to come as one of the representative members of the bar of Arkansas. The year 1911 marks the line of division between these two careers, Mr. Longstreth at this time finally abandoning the work of instruction to devote his energies to the law. Of vigorous intellect, wide information and a concise and lucid gift of language, combined with a prepossessing personality, as a member of the law firm of Swain & Longstreth he has gamed instant recognition as one of the promising members of the bar of Arkansas. In addition to his reputation as a college and high school professor, Mr. Longstreth is a well-known athletic authority.
Oscar D. Longstreth was born in Muscatine, Iowa, on the 4th day of September, 1876, a son of J. R. and Phoebe Longstreth. He was reared on an lowa farm. Being thrown upon his own resources when fifteen years of age, he early realized the advantage of a thorough education. Returning to the city of his birth, by working nights as an assistant at the light and street railway plant he was able to attend school and to graduate from the Muscatine high school in 1895. With the idea of becoming an instructor, he took a special normal school training course in 1896 and was graduated from the Iowa State Teachers' College at Cedar Falls in 1898, receiving the degree of M. Di. ( Master of Didactics) from that well-known insti- tution. His education, in fact, has been of the most thorough sort, and should he wish he might boast of many degrees, for he received from the University of lowa the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1904 and that of Master of Arts in 1906. Early in his career as a teacher he became ini- bued with the idea of entering the law and planned one-half of his under- graduate courses to that end. After one year in an lowa law office, he finished his law studies in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, from which he was graduated as president of the class in 1908, with the degree of T.J .. B.
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In glancing in retrospect over Mr. Longstreth's pedagogical career, we find that for a number of years he was an especially successful teacher and college professor in Iowa and Arkansas, he having established his perma- nent residence in the latter state in the year 1905. As a student he spe- cialized in science and he is particularly well schooled in chemical and mechanical engineering. All of his work, however, has been done with the idea of leading up to the profession of law, the practice of which he be- gan actively at Little Rock in 1911, as before mentioned. He acts in the belief that thorough preparation and hard work will bring success.
Mr. Longstreth is a widely known authority on college athletics, being president of the Arkansas Athletic Association of Schools and Colleges, of which he was one of the principal organizers and which through his fos- tering has been recognized as the strongest organization of its class in the U'nited States, it having produced some notable amateur athletes. He is also a leading figure in the Arkansas Inter-School Contest Association, which holds contests in oratory, music, recitation, declamation, spelling and draw- ing once each year in connection with state field meet. These contests have become notable events in state educational circles. In truth, Mr. Long- streth has been interested in amateur athletics since early boyhood. He be- gan his athletic career in the Muscatine Y. M. C. A. and high school, and as quarter back on the college football team succeeded in placing his team in the lead, and later, as a football coach, he became one of the most suc- cessful in the state. As a coach and athletic director, he branched out into track athletics, basket ball and general athletics, and has become widely known for his efficiency as such. Teams under his coaching, particularly track, football and basket ball teams, won state championship recognition for several years. Mr. Longstreth's value to the students who have been fortunate enough to come into contact with him has by no means been limited to one field, for he has likewise been extremely successful in train- ing and preparing college debating clubs for intercollegiate debates.
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