USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 12
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In 1905 the subject removed from lowa to Little Rock and took the position of professor of science and director of athletics in Little Rock high school, and he held this position until 1908, when he was given the same position in the Arkansas State Normal School at Conway. He remained with the latter institution until the close of the school year in 1911, as chairman of the Faculty. Ile is a member of the lowa Academy of Sci- ences and Arkansas Polytechnic Society. While captain of Company B. lowa State Normal School C'adet Battalion, the company maintained the pleasant distinction of being the best drilled cadet company in the state, and this secured for him a cadet captain's commission from the govern- ment.
On the 28th day of November, 1900, Mr. Longstreth laid the founda- tion of a happy married life by his union in Muscatine, lowa, to Miss May Eva Bast, who was born in Wisconsin and reared in lowa, and who is a daughter of Nicholas and Katherine Bast. Mr. and Mrs. Longstreth share their cultured and delightful abode with four promising young sons and one daughter, namely: Frederick Bast, Zonola May, Wilbur E., Alvin Elbert and Noel Nicholas.
In addition to the connections above recorded, Mr. Longstreth is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and the Y. M. C. A. and has numerous fraternal affiliations with orders of world-wide existence. He finds pleasure and profit in his association with the time-honored Masonie order, the Moose Lodge and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is also an honorary member of the Stationary Engineers' Association of America, and is chairman of the Boosters' Committee of the Alumni Asso- ciation of the Law Department of the University of Arkansas. In short
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Mr. Longstreth is a most popular and influential member of society and has a wide acquaintance with the most representative people throughout the state.
RICHARD CALHOUN ROSE is the general manager of the Tri-State Tele- phone and Telegraph Company at Osceola, and is variously connected with other substantial interests of Mississippi county. He was born in Gallia county, Ohio, October 6, 1842, and his ancestry, which is of English origin, touches the Colonial epoch of our national history, there having been many generations of Roses, good men and true in "the land of the tree and the home of the brave." The father, Charles Allen Rose, who resides at Bid- well, Ohio, near Gallipolis, was born near Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1845, and came to the Buckeye state during the period of the Civil war. The elder man had been an iron worker in early life, employed about the old furnaces at Ironton, Keystone and Buckeye, Ohio, but his later years have been devoted to the great basic industry, agriculture. He married Almira Calhoun, daughter of Richard Calhoun, of the South Carolina branch of that eminent American family. Mrs. Rose died in 1898, at the age of forty- eight years, the mother of seven sons, four of whom survive: Richard C., of Osceola ; Sherman and Jackson, farmers and saw-mill men of Mississippi county, Arkansas ; and James, who remains at Gallipolis, Ohio.
Richard C. Rose received his education while a youth upon the farm, subsequently himself taking his position behind the pedagogical desk and proving an excellent school teacher, and attending Holbrook Normal Uni- versity at Lebanon, Ohio, shortly after, his earnings as a school teacher being devoted to his higher education. He removed from Ohio to Tennes- see and there again engaged in educational work as president of the Pure Fountain Normal University at Smithville, which position he retained for three years.
A wide-awake, alert, observant young fellow, Mr. Rose became im- pressed with the need of telephone service in that locality and informed himself in the science which promised for him the opening of a new field of enterprise. Soon he assisted in the formation of a company and con- structed lines and exchanges and entered actively into the operation of the new system. He was made local manager of the exchange at Covington, Tipton county, Tennessee, the same being a part of the Cumberland Tele- phone System. Some time later he disposed of his interests there and came to Arkansas to infuse with new life the telephone industry in Mississippi county.
In his new home Mr. Rose found three telephone companies in a rud- derless condition in Mississippi county, these suffering from lack of manage- ment and in dire need of a positive directing force to make them profitable, healthful concerns. These companies were the Osceola Telephone Com- pany ; the Arkansas and Tennessee Telephone Company and the Arkansas, Missouri Telephone Company. These three were merged by Mr. Rose and liis associates into the Tri-State Telephone Company and the new company began upon its career with the following officers: W. J. Driver, of Osceola, president ; G. H. Gaylord, vice-president ; and Captain S. S. Semmes, secre- tary. The company operates in the states of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mis- souri, has six exchanges, a thousand stations, and connects with the Bell system at Jonesboro and with the Cumberland system at Memphis, Ten- nessee, crossing the Mississippi river at Richardson over its own wire.
Since his advent in Arkansas in 1902, Mr. Rose has acquired various other interests, being a director of the Citizens' Bank of Osceola and hold- ing stock in various other financial concerns of the county. He has aided in the happiest fashion in the material growth of Osceola by the erection
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of homes for the tenant population; he was a member of the commission which drilled the deep well and perfected the water works plant of the city ; he is president of the Business Men's League of Osceola ; he is a member of the good roads association ; is a director of the Mississippi Valley Life In- surance Company; he helped organize the Mississippi Valley Telephone Association at Cape Girardeau, Missouri ; and he has served on the Osceola City Council. Mr. Rose was chosen president of the Mississippi Valley Telephone Association in 1910, and entertained the association that year in Osceola with a great banquet, and was elected to succeed himself as presi- dent in 1911.
As a fraternity man, Mr. Rose is a past noble grand in Odd Fellow- ship, is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
On December 27, 1900, Mr. Rose was happily married in Murfrees- boro, Tennessee, Miss Catherine B. Nichol, daughter of Captain J. W. Nichol, becoming his wife. Captain Nichol was an officer in the Confed- erate army during the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Rose share their charming and hospitable home with one son-Richard Charles. They are members of the Christian church.
WILKES B. ARMSTRONG is one of Lake City's prominent men and holds the position of cashier of the Bank of Lake City, one of the monetary institutions which emphasize and exert marked influence in conserving the financial stability and commercial prestige of the city. Not only has he the natural gifts of an able and discriminating finan- cier, but he is also a leader and his counsel is much valued by the fore- most in Demoeratie polities in the locality, where he has more than once given efficient service as an official, and he also stands as one of the extensive farmers of the locality.
Mr. Armstrong is a native of Craighead county. his birth having cceurred some four miles south of the little city, April 18. 1869. He re- ceived a part of his public school education in the schools of Jonesboro and he remained upon the old homestead until his marriage, when he established a new home close by and added his efforts to the improve- ment of that locality until the year 1894. . In that year he entered local polities as a candidate for county assessor, was nominated and duly elected, and having served one tern, he went baek to his country home. In 1900 he was appointed deputy sheriff by Sheriff Burk and served four years. In 1904 he was nominated for county and probate clerk and was elected, succeeding John B. Gregson to the office. He was his own sueeessor two years later and after four years he retired and was succeeded by Rufus L. Collins.
Upon returning to private life Mr. Armstrong went to Lake City and resumed personal supervision of his inereased and growing farm- ing interests, and these, in connection with his duties as eashier of the Bank of Lake City, now absorb his time to the exclusion of many other affairs. The Bank of Lake City was organized in 1910 and began busi- ness on June 25 of that year with a capital of twenty thousand dollars. Of this institution W. T. Lane, of Jonesboro, is president ; Dr. H. H. MeAdams is vice-president, and Mr. Armstrong is eashier. The board of directors comprise the officers and in addition G. W. Spencer, J. C. Downs, J. M. Payne, O. P. Fletcher and A. T. Gibson.
Wilkes B. Armstrong is a son of John J. Armstrong, who now resides upon his farm two miles south of Jonesboro and who came to Craighead county as early as 1844. At that time he was a boy eight years of age and he accompanied his father hither from near the
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Natural Bridge in Virginia, this beautiful locality having been the scene of his birth in 1836. The father, who had followed the trade of cabinet- maker in the Old Dominion, passed away in Craighead county, and his three sons were William, who was the first sheriff of Craighead county, Nathaniel and John J. The two former died near Jonesboro. ITis daughters were Martha, who died single; Margaret, now deceased, who was first the wife of a Mr. Moore and second of Mr. Morris; Jane, who married Harvey Robinson and is deceased: Mary, who became the wife of William White and has passed away; and Thirza, who married a Mr. Moore and is now a widow residing in Craighead county.
John J. Armstrong served in the Confederate army at the time of the Civil war and was wounded in the battle of Corinth. At the con- clusion of his service for his native Sonthland he returned to Arkansas and engaged in the peaceful pursuit of farming, following it quietly and successfully to the present time. He first married a Miss Miller, who died, leaving two daughters, one of whom, Caroline, died when a young woman. The other is now the wife of A. E. Thompson, of Craighead county. He then married Mrs. Adaline Bagwell, widow of Jordan Bagwell, a Confederate soldier of Forrest's cavalry, who is now buried at Helena, Arkansas. Of the Bagwell children one, affectionately known as "Pop," became the wife of William M. Armstrong and died in Craighead county, and Melvina passed away as the wife of J. W. Lewis. To the second union of John J. Armstrong were born two chil- dren, Wilkes B., the subject of this review, and Rosalie Elder, who died while in the prime of life. The mother passed away in 1887.
Wilkes B. Armstrong laid the foundation of a happy home life by his marriage on December 25, 1889, Miss Phoebe Ellen Pureell, daughter of James Purcell, who came to Arkansas about 1840, previous to the making of the government survey, becoming his wife. Mr. Purcell was a settler from Tennessee and followed farming and the stoek business. His wife was, previous to her marriage, Emma C. Collins, and the other children in addition to Mrs. Armstrong were John W., Hattie, who married Harmon Griffin, and Lillie, now Mrs. B. F. Wood. The wife of the subject was born on a farm adjoining the old Armstrong home- stead September 24, 1872, and she and Mr. Armstrong are the parents of Lucy May, "J. Q.," and E. Bryan. James J., second in order of birth, died at the age of eight years.
Mr. Armstrong is one of the directors of the St. Francis Levee distriet and his fraternal relations extend to the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a splendid type of the all-round useful citizen of the South-west.
WARREN E. LENON. An able exponent of the progressive spirit and strong initiative ability that have eansed Little Rock to forge so rapidly forward as an industrial and commercial center is Warren E. Lenon, who has here attained a position of prominence and influence as a business man and as a loyal and progressive citizen. He is presi- dent of the People's Saving Bank, has served as mayor of Little Rock and has done much to further the material and eivic development and upbuilding of the attractive city in which he has eleeted to establish his home and in which he has achieved success of distinctive and worthy order.
Mr. Lenon elaims the Hawkeye state as the place of his nativity and he is a scion of one of its honored pioneer families. He was born at Panora, Guthrie county, Iowa, on the 8th of October, 1867, and is a son of John D. and Margaret M. (Long) Lenon, the former of whom
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was a native of the state of Indiana and the latter also of the same state. The father established his home in Iowa about the year 1857 and became one of the sueeessful business men of Guthrie county, where he has ever commanded unqualified confidence and esteem. He con- ducted at various times a woolen mill and afterward a flour mill, and was also identified with farming and stoek raising. The subject of this review is indebted to the public schools of his native county for his carly educational discipline, which included a course in the high school at Panora, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1885. He was reared in the village of Panora and he continued to reside in his native county until he was twenty years of age, when he set forth to fight the battles of life on his own responsibility. He had the pre- seience to realize to a certain degree the promising future in store for the city of Little Rock and here he took up his residence in January of the year 1888. Prior to that, in 1886-7, he had oeenpied the position of deputy county auditor of Guthrie county, Iowa. It is pleasing to note, in view of the fact that he eame to Arkansas without financial resources, that through his own ability he has won a place as one of the substantial capitalists and essentially representative business men of the capital city of the state. Soon after his arrival in Little Rock Mr. Lenon as- sumed a clerical position in the office of the Arkansas Abstraet Com- pany, and in this connection he gained a most intimate knowledge of real estate values throughout the state, as well as concise information concerning the resources of this favored commonwealth. He finally became sole owner of the company and eventually began independent operations in the handling of real estate and the extending of financial loans on real estate securities. This enterprise proved successful through his able and careful direction and gradually the business developed into that of banking, with which line he is now most prominently identified. The Arkansas Abstract Company in 1908 was consolidated with the Beach Abstract Company and a new company was formed under the title of the Beach Abstraet & Guaranty Company, of which corporation Mr. Lenon is now president. He was one of the organizers of the Peoples' Savings Bank, which was incorporated in September, 1902, and of which he has been president from the start. This bank bases its operations upon a capital stoek of fifty thousand dollars and its surplus and undivided profits now aggregate over thirty thousand dollars. It is known as one of the substantial and able managed financial institu- tions of the state and has exereised most valuable funetions in the management and promotion of individual thrift and enterprise. having been most influential in exemplifying the progressive spirit that has given Little Rock so marked impetus along industrial and commercial lines within the last deeade. In connection with the bank he has re- tained a real estate department, which likewise controls a large and important business. Mr. Lenon was the president of the Little Roek Publishing Company, which publishes the Arkansas Democrat, the even- ing paper of Little Rock and one that will bear favorable comparison with those published in other cities of comparable size in other sections of the Union.
Mr. Lenon has shown most zealous and fruitful interest in all that has touched the material and social welfare of his home eity and has not denied his services in connection with public office or the promotion of all enterprises and measures that have conserved the general good of the community. From 1896 to 1903 he represented the Fourth ward as an alderman in the city council and in April of the latter year he was elected mayor of the city. His administration, progressive and
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business like and yet marked with due conservatism in municipal ex- penditures, gained to him in his official capacity the most unqualified popular approval and this was shown in his election as his own suc- cessor in April, 1905, and again in April, 1907. His retention in the office of mayor would undoubtedly have been indefinitely prolonged had he not deemed it expedient to resign the office, in April, 1908, in order to devote his entire attention to his large and important business inter- ests. Within his regime as chief executive of the municipal government inany notable public improvements were compassed and the period was one of much growth and development of substantial order, the advance- ment having been more definite and pronounced than during any simi- lar period in the history of the city. Within his administration prac- tically all of the modern street improvement, that is now a source of pride to Little Rock, was completed and twice as many miles of sewers were constructed as had been done during the entire previous history of the city. It was owing to his efforts while mayor of the city that the new City Hall was ereeted. There was some opposition to the work, but the opposition was overcome and the handsome edifice became one of the chief ornaments of the city. Mr. Lenon was the first to take up in a formal way the matter of securing a consistent public library building for Little Rock and it was through his personal correspondence with Andrew Carnegie that the matter was brought to a successful issue, resulting in securing to the city one of the most beautiful library build- ings in the entire Union. No worthy enterprise or measure tending to enhance the progress or social and material well being of his home city fails to receive the earnest and valuable support of its former mayor, and no citizen has a more scenre place in popular confidence and ex- teem. In April, 1910. he was elected a member of the Board of Public Affairs of Little Rock, which position he still occupies. Mr. Lenon is a stanch advocate of the Democratic party, is identified with the Benev- olent and Protective Order of Elks and various other fraternal organi- zations, besides those of more purely social character.
On the 25th of December, 1889, at Guthrie Center, Iowa. was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Lenon to Miss Clara M. Mercer, who was born in Davenport, Iowa, and who is a daughter of James E. Mer- cer, a representative citizen of that section of the state. Mr. and Mrs. Lenon have three children, Julia Margaret, Vivian Mercer and W. E., Jr., the son having been christened with the initials only.
JAMES M. HUTTON. The name of James M. Hutton is one well and favorably known in this locality, its bearer being one of the suc- cessful farmers of Manila and president of the Bank of Manila. He is all but a native of Mississippi county, his birth having occurred near Corinth, Mississippi, May 22, 1873. In the year following this event his parents removed to Landerdale connty, Tennessee, near Rip- ley, where the demise of his mother occurred. In 1875 his father bronght his children on to Arkansas and located near Big Lake, in Mississippi county.
Mr. Hutton's father. William A. Hutton, was born in Marion eounty, Alabama, in 1836, and was a son of James Hutton, who passed away in Limestone county, that state. The latter married Harriet Dobbins. and the children of the union were William A .. Constantine. who died near Manila, and Caroline, who became Mrs. Hugh Asha- branner and resides near Manila. William A. Hutton was a farmer's son and reached manhood without much education, serving throughout the Civil war as a Confederate soldier in Captain Collier's company. Vol. III-6
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Colonel Boddy's regiment of Alabama troops. After the war he en- gaged in farming and married Mary Patrick in Tishomingo county, Mis- sissippi. She was a daughter of John Patrick and a granddaughter of Llewellyn Patrick, old settlers of that county. Mrs. Hutton passed away in 1875, the mother of Eliza, who married Will Nance and died near Manila in 1906; James M., of this review; and of Margaret, who did not survive childhood. In Mississippi county the father married again, Mary Viekes becoming his wife, and the surviving children of this union are: Jane, wife of Buel Gunn, of Mississippi county; Martha, who became the wife of George Wortham and resides near Manila; Feseby, who married Wilburn Curtright, now of Randolph county, Arkansas: and William, whose home is with his aunt. Mrs. Ashabranner. As a farmer and a business man, the senior Mr. Hutton proved his ability while a man of health and vigor, his endeavors being crowned with success and his family enjoying prosperity, but illness attacked him when past fifty and he dissipated his property seeking a climate that would restore him, but in vain. He passed away about the year 1893.
At the age of fifteen James M. Hutton found himself an orphan, unable even to read. The misfortunes of the family had prechided his education and it was in such sore straits that he was forced not only to provide for himself, but to become an aid to others. To miss an education was a grievous disappointment to him and he made every effort in his power to repair the deficiency, and has given proof of the adage, that "Where there's a will there's a way." By hard labor he managed to save sufficient to pay his board while attending school a few weeks at different times. There he learned to read. got hold of the simple rules of arithmetic and laid the foundation for the edu- cation which he afterward acquired as his own teacher.
In his situation farm work seemed the only opening for him and he hired ont at day work, or by the month, as the opportunity offered, and in time became the owner of forty acres of land. He diligently applied himself to its cultivation and increased its area from time to time. He now owns four hundred acres with splendid improvements, and the two hundred and forty acres provide him annually an income more than commensurate with the needs of his family. His specialties are cotton, corn, tame grass and hogs. Mr. Hutton has extended his financial interests to merchandise and to banking in Manila, being a partner in the mercantile firm of Tiger Brothers & Levine, and presi- dent and director of the Bank of Manila.
On July 18, 1896, Mr. Hutton contracted a particularly happy marriage, his chosen lady being Miss Mary J. Ashabranner, a daughter of Joseph A. Ashabranner and his wife, whose maiden name was Mary E. Medole. Mr. Ashabranner is a native son of Mississippi county. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Hutton are five in number and by name: Joseph, Edgar, Bessie, Lissie and Hettie. Mr. Hutton is a Democrat, with strong prohibition convictions, and his ambition is to do all in his power to bring about a moral community with efficient officers to run its affairs.
ALVIS L. MALONE. A prominent and influential citizen of Jones- boro, Craighead county, Arkansas, is Alvis L. Malone, who is here engaged in the insurance and real-estate business and who has resided in this city for a period of twenty-eight years. Loyalty and public spirit of the most insistent order have ever characterized his eitizen- ship, and in all the relations of life he has so condneted himself as
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to command the unqualified confidence and esteem of his fellow men. Mr. Malone was born in Fayette county, Tennessee, on the 29th of September, 1853, and a few months later he accompanied his parents on their removal to Cross county, Arkansas. His father was the Rev. William C. Malone, whose birth occurred in Orange county, North Carolina, in 1826, and his grandfather was Samuel Malone, who was born in the year 1797. Samuel Malone was an agriculturist by occu- pation and he passed the closing years of his life in Cross county, this state, where his demise occurred in 1862. He traced his ancestry back to stanch Irish stock, married Miss Brinkley for his second wife, and was the father of Rev. William C .; Dr. David M., who is now de- ceased; and Mrs. Martha Gardner, of Vandale, Arkansas. Rev. William (". Malone was reared to maturity in a refined and Christian home and while he was not afforded the advantages of a college education in his youth, he read extensively and in time became extremely well educated. He became a Christian in early life, was ordained a minister in the Methodist Episcopal church, and in addition to preaching owned and operated a fine farm. During the Civil war he was loyal to the cause of the Union but remained in Arkansas and did not offend his Confederate neighbors during the progress of the conflict. He mar- ried Miss Elizabeth M. Gardner, a daughter of Madison Gardner, of Powhatan county, Virginia, where Mrs. Malone was born and reared. Rev. Malone passed to the life eternal at Vandale, Arkansas, in 1891, and his widow, who still survives him, now maintains her home at Wynne, Arkansas. The children born to Rev. and Mrs. Malone were as follows: Lura A., who married L. E. Stancill but who is now deceased; Alvis L., the immediate subject of this review; Mary F., who passed away at Forest City, unmarried; Willie F., who married S. Daltroff and died at Wynne, Arkansas: John K., of Jonesboro, city editor of the Daily Tribune; and Blanche, who is the wife of O. N. Killough, of Wynne.
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