USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 19
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"After Oak Hills Captain Rieff was elected captain of a company of cavalrymen belonging to the regiment commanded by Colonel J. C. Monroe at Arkadelphia. Colonel Monroe's regiment was a part of the brigade commanded by General Cabell and Captain Rieff was in all the battles in which this brigade took part. He was with Price in the raid into Missouri and participated in the battles of Prairie Grove. Cane Hills, Cove Creek, Fayetteville, Back Bone. Poison Spring, Mark's Mill, Pine Bluff. Prairie de Ann, Pilot Knob, Jefferson City. Booneville. Missouri, Little BIne, where Generals Cabell and Marmaduke were cap- tured, and Carthage, not to mention many skirmishes. Later Captain Rieff was promoted to major and then to lieutenant colonel.
"After the war Colonel Rieff returned to Fayetteville and found nearly all of his property confiscated. Later he went to Yell county. where he operated a grist and saw mill and a cotton gin. He lived for a few years in Little Rock and then removed to Booneville."
When the Civil war broke out Colonel Rieff was living at Fayette- ville. After the war he lived at Little Rock for a time and subse-
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quently removed to Charleston, Franklin county. There he established and operated a lumber null, nvig at Charleston for about seven years. From there he removed to Yell county, where he engaged in the same busmess and also in contracting. He is now residing in Booneville and is one of the best known and most honored residents of that locality.
Colonel Riett's wife was Mary J. Spencer, a native of Cane Hill, Arkansas, and they were married about the year 1854. Mrs. Rieff, a worthy and much-loved woman and an efficient helpmate to her hus- band, is now seventy-five years old. The seven children born of this umon all survive, and are as follows: Olie S., Maurice B., Dr. William L., Jo Meck, Miram F., Nellie B. Arbuckle (nee Rieff), and Kate S. Eeds (nee Rieff).
JOSEPH B. PAINE is state secretary of the Farmers' Union and re- sides at Van Buren, Arkansas. He represents one of the old and im- portant families of the state, many of its members having won distinc- tion in the professions, while several of the name have achieved pros- perity as exponents of what Daniel Webster has called the "most ini- portant labor of man"-farming. He was born in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, July 11, 1855, the place of lus nativity having been old Fort Coffee, where his father remained in charge of a mission school for a period of ten years. His father was that noted gentleman, the Rev. Francis M. l'aine, D. D., M. D., whose religions work in Oklahoma and Arkansas extended over a period of half a century and was termi- nated only by his death on January 16, 1896.
Rev. Francis M. Paine was born in Giles county, Tennessee, July +, 1822, and was a son of Gabriel Paine, who took his family to Union county, Illinois, when the future missionary and minister was growing up, and after tarrying there for a few years came to Arkansas and located at Clarksville, Johnson county, where he became the proprietor of a hotel and passed on to his reward in 1864. Gabriel Paine had passed his early life as an exponent of the great basic industry of agri- culture and his sons, beside the one already mentioned, were Dr. Hous- ton Paine, who passed his life in and about Fort Smith and died there, leaving a family who shared in the allotments of the Cherokee In- dians; Bryant, who died in Clarksville, Arkansas; and Columbus, also deceased.
The subject's father attained to manhood's estate in the vicinity of Anna, Illinois, and was there married to Miss Susannah Rich, who was born the year following his own birth, and who still survives, mak- ing her home with her son in Van Buren. In 1844 the young couple eame to Arkansas and located at Clarksville, where Mr. Paine engaged in his work as a pastor. He had been liberally educated in medieine as well as theology while a resident of Illinois, and some six years after coming to Arkansas he was assigned to duties in the Choctaw Nation. He did work at Newhope and at Fort Coffee as superintendent of mis- sion schools and remained at his post until the events of the Civil war brought him to the opinion that it was expedient to take his family South. He was a sympathizer with the South, and he joined the Con- federate army, where his twofold profession brought him into great usefulness as both a chaplain and a surgeon. When peace was re- stored he resumed his work as a minister and a physician and continued it actively until a few years prior to his death. He was presiding elder in the Arkansas conference several times and was a preacher of mueh power and influence in the Southern Methodist church. He left a large family of sous and daughters, who were as follows: Robert L., who
Joseph 1 bestat
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died at Clarksville, Arkansas, and was the father of a family; Thomas W., who died in the Choctaw Nation without living issue; Joseph B., of this notice; Eliza, wife of John W. Webb, of Paris, Texas; Mary, who died at Fayetteville, unmarried; Mattie, who married William Adkins, of Cameron, Oklahoma; Lizzie, who became the wife of Charles B. Wilson and died at Clarksville, Arkansas; Flora, who married Robert Eichenberger and resides at Ozark, Arkansas; Hallie, wife of the Rev. D. B. Price, of Helena, Montana; and Emma, who married the Rev. II. S. Shangel and resides at Milton, Oregon.
Joseph B. Paine, the immediate subject of this review, was edu- cated at Emery and Henry College in Virginia, began life as a teacher and farmer and continued so for many years. He lived at Clarksville until 1885, in that year removing to Crawford county to engage in fruit growing, with special attention paid to peaches and berries. His location in the latter county was in the vicinity of Van Buren. While thus engaged Mr. Paine gained a thorough knowledge of the fruit busi- ness and was chosen by the Farmers' Union in 1905 to handle the fruit of the association, to collect the accounts and disburse the funds for northwestern Arkansas. In August, 1910, he was elected state seeretary, to succeed M. F. Diekinson, and immediately took possession of the office at Jonesboro.
On October 11, 1877, Mr. Paine was married at Lamar, Arkansas, to Miss Mary E. King, a daughter of Wesley and Susan ( Towell ) King, whose other children were Holly, first wife of E. A. Kline, and Nannie, Mr. Kline's present wife. The issue of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Paine are: Joseph E., of Fort Smith, an engineer on the Frisco road; John F., of Van Buren, a fireman on the Iron Mountain road; Benson P., a elerk in the office of the superintendent of the Frisco road at Fort Smith ; Paul, of Van Buren; Lora, a teacher; and Olga, Thelma and Ruth, all of whom reside at the parental home.
Fraternally Mr. Paine is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, which organization he joined in 1880 at Clarksville; he joined the Knights of Pythias in 1883 at Ozark : and beeame a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen at Van Buren in 1900, hay- ing represented the latter order in the Grand Lodge. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
JOSEPH W. VESTAL. The reputation of this well known eitizen of Little Rock as a sueeessful horticulturist and floriculturist far transcends loeal limitations and he has the distinction of being one of the most extensive operators in this important line of enterprise in the south- west, having specially well equipped propagating grounds and green- houses in the immediate vieinity of Little Rock. His son, Charles, is associated with him in the business, which is both wholesale and retail in its functions, and the enterprise is eondueted under the firm name of Joseph W. Vestal & Son.
Joseph W. Vestal reverts with due measure of satisfaction to the faet that he can elaim the fine old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity. He was born at Harveyburg, Warren county, Ohio, on the 9th of November, 1833, and is a son of Aaron H. and Sarah ( Wysong ) Vestal, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Vir- ginia. In 1842 his parents moved to Cambridge, Indiana, where he was reared to maturity and here he was afforded the advantages of the com- mon schools of the period. His entire aetive business career has been one of elose identifieation with the interesting work of horticulture and Horiculture and he is now numbered among the oldest and most snecess-
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ful representatives of this line of enterprise in the entire Union. In 1850 Mr. Vestal started a vegetable garden at Cambridge, Indiana, and in 1860 he there erected and equipped a greenhouse. He began opera- tions upon a very modest seale, but by elose study and vigorous applica- tion he made consecutive progress and eventually developed an enter- prise of large proportions. He was the first wholesale dealer in his line in the west.
He continued his residence in Indiana until 1880 when, seeking a wider field for his work, he came to Arkansas and established his home in Little Rock. Across the river and adjoining Baringeross he secured a large traet of rich land and there established his greenhouses and propa- gating grounds. He has developed the business until it is at the present time the largest of its kind in the entire southwest. The plant of the firm, of which he is the head, has the most modern and effective equip- ment that can be secured, and this fact, as coupled with the specially favorable soil and elimate, gives facilities for the produeing of all vari- eties of flowers under the most effective conditions. Joseph W. Vestal & Son have twenty-four greenhouses, varying in length from one hun- dred and thirty to two hundred feet, and besides this equipment there are between four and five hundred feet of bed sash. About fifteen acres of land are devoted to the production of magnolias. evergreens and other shrubberies used for ornamental purposes. Besides con- trolling a large wholesale and retail business in the supplying of eut Howers in Little Rock and the territory tributary to that city as a dis- tributing center. the firm also has an important wholesale trade in bulbs, plants and evergreens, shipment being made as far west as Cali- fornia and to various sections of the east, also into the south, southwest and old Mexico. During his residence in Little Rock Mr. Vestal has retained customers who began trading with him in Indiana in the '60s. The fine retail store of the firm, at 409 Main street, Little Rock, is by far the largest of its kind in the state and is conceded to be one of the best in the entire southwest. Specialty is also made of the growing of small fruits and in an individual way Mr. Vestal has for many years carried on a large business in the propagation of sweet potatoes and in the selling of the plants of this delectable tuber. He is recognized as an expert in the growing of sweet potatoes and his produets have attained wide reputation for their superiority. From the early days of his labors as a hortienlturist in Indiana to the present time he has carried on a large annual business in the shipping of sweet potatoes. Mr. Vestal has been treasurer of the State Horticultural Society for twenty-five years.
In polities Mr. Vestal is aligned as a supporter of the eanse of the Republican party and he is a most appreciative member of the time- honored Masonie fraternity, with which he has been affiliated since 1856. He is a prominent and valued member of the various bodies of the or- ganization in Little Rock, has attained to the thirty-second degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and is also identified with the Ancient Arabie Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
In the year 1856 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Vestal to Miss Josephine C. Lombarger, who was born and reared in the city of Philadelphia. She is deceased. They had five children, Charles, who is associated with his father in business: Elizabeth, widow of William Smith, of Little Rock: Ellen, who is the wife of Henry Weigel, of Chi- cago. Ilinois: George, who is deceased. was professor of horticulture in the State Agricultural and Mechanical College. New Mexico, and Frank. also deceased, was a florist of Little Rock. For his second wife. Mr. Vestal married Mrs. Nora Carns.
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ALLAN WALTON is the viee-president and general manager of the Arkansas Grocer Company, at Blytheville, and he has been a resident of this state sinee 1902, coming hither as a contribution to its eitizen- ship from the state of Missouri. Mr. Walton was born in St. Louis county, Missouri, on the 4th of March, 1864, and he represents two prominent pioneer families in that section. His father was Frederiek Bates Walton, whose birth occurred in Virginia, whence he accompanied his parents to Missouri in early childhood. He was graduated in St. Charles College, at St. Charles, Missouri, passed a number of years of his married life as a farmer at Bellefontaine, and later was engaged for a short time in the general merchandise business at St. Louis. After retiring from active participation in business affairs he removed to Winterhaven, Florida, where he was summoned to the life eternal on the 24th of December, 1908, at the age of seventy years. Frederick B. Walton was a son of Robert A. Walton, who was a farmer and manu- facturer in the days before and subsequent to the war, some of his goods going to the United States government during the war, in the shape of blankets for its soldiery. For his wife Robert A. Walton mar- ried a Miss Bates, a daughter of Frederiek Bates, the second governor of Missouri, and a niece of Edward Bates, attorney general in Presi- dent Lincoln's cabinet. The old Bates home was in the mansion built by the governor at Bellefontaine in 1807, and the same is still standing in a state of good preservation today. Upon the issues of the Civil war the Walton and Bates families were divided between the North and the South, some remaining loyal to the Union and other members en- couraging the Confederacy. With the exeeption of the attorney general, Edward Bates, and General John Coulter Bates that family seemed to favor the eause of the Confederaey.
The Walton family settled at Bellefontaine about the year 1840 and at that time Governor Bates had been a resident of Missouri for some fifty years, having removed thenee from Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Walton were the parents of ten children, seven sons and three daughters. Frederick B. Walton married Miss Louise Conway, a daughter of Samuel Conway, who settled at Bellefontaine among its frontiersmen in 1799, his native home having been Kentucky. Mrs. Walton was born at Bellefontaine in the year 1840 and she was sum- moned to the life eternal in 1896, at the comparatively young age of fifty-six years. Of the children born to this union those to reach mature years were: Allan, the immediate subject of this review: Guy, who is now in the employ of the Meyer Brothers Drug Company: Howard, who is a salesman for the Cincinnati Cloak & Suit Company of St. Louis; Graee, residing at St. Louis; Roy, who is in the employ of the Ely-Walker Dry Goods Company, of St. Louis; and Miss Gladys, who likewise resides at St. Louis.
In the publie schools of his native plaee Allan Walton received his early educational training, his boyhood and yonth having been passed upon the old homestead farm in Missouri. After a fair common school education he turned his attention to telegraphy and became an operator. After several months' identification with that business, however, he abandoned the service and entered the wholesale grocery house of Jar- ratt, Gilliland & Roberts, in St. Louis, as a elerk. After remaining with that eoneern for a time he entered the employ of the firm of Clark & Stuyvesant, who were engaged in a similar line of business at St. Louis. In 1902 he made another change, coming in that year to Arkansas and loeating at Jonesboro, where he joined the wholesale house of Marens Berger. In 1907 he became interested in the Arkansas Vol. III-9
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Grocer Company and eame to Blytheville as its manager and vice-presi- dent in that year. The Arkansas Grocer Company was incorporated in 1904 with a eapital stock of fifty thousand dollars, which has recently been increased to eighty thousand dollars, nearly all of which amount is in the hands of its offieers as the result of an active shifting of the stock in 1911. Strictly a jobbing business is carried on by the company and it is now recognized as one of the largest and best concerns of its kind in this section of the state.
On the 21st of October, 1903, was recorded the marriage of Mr. Walton to Miss Virginia Feild, the ceremony having been performed at Jonesboro, Arkansas. Mrs. Walton is a daughter of Henry A. Feild, of Memphis, Tennessee, a veteran of Forrest's gallant command. This union has been prolifie of one ehild, Virginia Feild Walton, whose natal day is the 6th of August, 1904.
In polities Mr. Walton endorses the cause of the Democratie party, and although he has never shown aught of ambition for the honors or emoinments of publie office of any description he is ever on the qui rire to do all in his power to advanee the best interests of the community in which he resides and of the country at large. In the grand okl Masonie order Mr. Walton has passed through the circle of the York Rite branch, holding membership in the lodge, chapter and commandery at St. Louis, Missouri. At Blytheville he is a valued, and appreciative member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In business affairs Mr. Walton is energetie, prompt and notably reliable. He has been watehful of all the details of his business and of all indications pointing to prosperity, and thus he has gained a distinctive position in the commercial world of Blytheville, but this has not been alone the goal for which he is striving, and he belongs to the class of representa- tive American citizens who promote the general prosperity while ad- vaneing their own individual interests.
CHARLES J. GRIFFITH. Enterprising and progressive, Mr. Charles J. Griffith has met with marked success during his aetive career, and by a persistent application of his native talent along eertain lines of industry has attained prominence and distinction, being now superin- tendent of the railway department of the Little Rock Railway and Electric Company and a director and one of the large stockholders of the Big Bear Mining Company, which is developing what promises to be one of the richest mineral properties in Arkansas.
Born and bred in Rochester, New York, Mr. Griffith learned teleg- raphy when young, and subsequently beeame interested in the study of electricity and its wide possibilities. As an electrician and electrical engineer of skill he beeame connected with street railway systems and the inauguration of lighting plants, his operations along that line tak- ing him into different parts of the country. In 1890 he was associated with the Pine Bluff Water and Light Company, of Pine Bluff, Arkan- sas, and in 1892 located at Little Rock and for five years was associated with the Street Railway Company of this city. The following five years Mr. Griffith was similarly occupied in other places, but in 1902 re- turned to Little Rock, where he has sinee been employed in the street railway service. He is now superintendent of railway department of the Little Rock Railway and Electric Company, which in addition to owning and operating the street railway system has a large electric light and power plant in the city, which it is operating successfully. As superintendent of railway affairs Mr. Griffith is entitled to much credit and praise, the street railway system of Little Rock being every-
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where noted for its efficient operation and practically perfect service. He takes great interest in the growing prosperity of the eity and is a valued member of the Chamber of Commerce, and one of the public- spirited citizens of the city, county and state.
In 1890 Mr. Griffith married Miss Rose Baeder, who became the mother of two children, Fay and Sylvia. Mrs. Griffith died in 1898. In 1900 he married Miss Addie M. Shelton, and of this union there are four children : Paul, Marguerite, Charles and Thelma Rose.
HON. L. CLYDE GOING, member of the House of Representatives in the state legislature and engaged in the practice of law at Harrisburg, is one of the most energetic, enterprising and successful professional men of this seetion of the state. He has devoted the major portion of his active career to an extensive law clientage and to the affairs of the various important publie offices of which he has been incumbent, and it would seem that he has always possessed an "open sesame" to unloek the doors of suceess in every enterprise that he has undertaken. As a legislator and as prosecuting attorney of the Second Judicial District he has been a constant agitator and worker for the general welfare and reform, both in administration and in state, county and municipal improvements.
A native of Harrisburg, Poinsett county, Arkansas, Mr. Going was born on the 28th of June, 1872, a son of Samuel and Bettie (Sloan) Going, the former of whom was a native of Louisiana and the latter of whom claims Virginia as the place of her birth. Samuel Going came to Arkansas soon after the close of the Civil war and he is best rement- bered as a newspaper man and as a prominent participant in state polities and affairs. He edited a newspaper at Forrest City, Arkansas, later at Harrisburg, and at one time canvassed the state in the interest of Mr. Johnson, candidate for the Demoeratie nomination for the United States Senate. He established the family home at Harrisburg in 1870, and there continued to reside until 1878, in which year he volunteered his services as a nurse during the great seourge of yellow fever that was raging at Memphis, Tennessee. He contracted the sickness himself and died in that city. His cherished and devoted wife, who still sur- vives him, is now living at Hot Springs.
Mr. Going, of this notice, was educated in the public schools of Harrisburg and subsequently he was matriculated as a student in the law department of the University of Arkansas, at Little Rock, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1893, duly receiving there- from his degree of Bachelor of Laws. Ile initiated the active practice of his profession in that year at Harrisburg and has been eminently successful as a versatile trial lawyer and as a well fortified counselor. In 1904 he was elected prosecuting attorney of the Second Judicial Dis- trict of Arkansas, giving such effective service in that capacity that he was re-elected as his own successor in 1906. In 1910 he was elected to represent Poinsett county in the state legislature and in the 1911 session of that body he took a conspicuous part in the passage of prom- inent legislation and attracted considerable attention for his ability as a legislator, not only in local affairs affecting his distriet, but also in a broad way, in matters affecting the welfare of the state as a whole.
One of the most important measures in which he took part was the defeat of the "back-tax" hill, which had previously passed the Senate. He assisted in the passage of the medical school bill, under which the medical department of the University of Arkansas, hereto- fore condueted under private management, becomes a part of the prop-
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erty of the state and a department proper of the state university. He also advocated and was largely instrumental in the passage of the bill establishing the State Board of Health, a beneficent measure modeled on similar legislation in some thirty-five other states. He was a strong advocate in the House of what was known as the Bradham-Hurst bill, which passed the House but failed in the Senate. Had this bill become a law it would have placed in the hands of the state tax commission the authority for fixing and collecting the taxes on all public service corporations in the state, instead of such taxes heing levied or assessed by local county assessors and boards of equalization. Mr. Going is chairman of the important judiciary committee, vice-chairman of the committee on public service corporations, and a member of various other committees. In connection with the discharging of the duties connected with his various public offices Mr. Going has acquitted himself with all of honor and distinction and he has ever had at heart the best interests of the community and state at large.
At Harrisburg, in the year 1896, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Going to Miss Birdie Rooks, who was born and reared at Harris- burg. Mr. and Mrs. Going are the fond parents of three children, whose names are here entered in respective order of birth-Hazel, Maurice and Loraine.
In politics Mr. Going is a stalwart advocate of the principles and policies for which the Democratic party stands sponsor, and in connec- tion with the work of his profession he is affiliated with a number of representative har organizations. Fraternally he is a valued and ap- preciative member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World and the Elks. His leadership has been manifest in many lines and he has seldom failed of accomplishment in whatever he has undertaken. He stands today as one of the strong men of Arkansas, strong in his honor and his good name, in the extent of his influence and in the result of his accom- plishments.
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