USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 20
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COLONEL ROBERT C. HALL. No field of usefulness is wider and more important than that of the educator, and to be at the head of the school system of a large city is to wield incalculable influence. If the man in whose hands this great trust is reposed be wise, broad-minded and of advanced ideas he is the benefactor of thousands of the younger generation and his ideas may find fruition in many future careers. Little Rock is to be congratulated upon the character and attainments of the gentleman who has been captain of her public schools since the year 1907-Colonel Robert C. IIall, whose ability is recognized far be- yond the boundaries of the state.
This prominent educator was born in Nansemond county, Virginia, on the 2nd day of November, 1864, his parents being Cornelins and Martha (Darden) Hall. He is the scion of an old Virginia family, distinguished in the Sonth, and his father was a Confederate soldier, having served throughout the great struggle between the states. The subject was reared and educated in a preliminary way in his home town of Suffolk, being for three years a student in the Suffolk Military Academy. He subsequently entered the University of Virginia, re- mained within the portals of this famous institution of learning for four years and was graduated with the class of 1884.
While in college Mr. Hall had come to the conclusion to adopt the profession of an instructor and for six years after finishing his own education he taught school in the Old Dominion. His identification
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with Little Rock dates from the year 1891, when he became principal of a private school in this city. The excellence of his methods and the splendid results attained were "advertised by his loving friends," i. e., his pupils and their gratified parents, and in 1896 he was invited to lend his abilities to the public schools of Little Rock as principal of the high school, and in such capacity he remained for six years. Fol- lowing this he became principal in charge and president of the Arkan- sas Military Academy of Little Rock and eondueted that institution for another six years. The school being then discontinued Colonel Hall again became connected with the public schools as principal, which con- neetion he maintained until 1907, when he was chosen superintendent of the public schools of Little Rock, and continues in that office at the present time.
Under Colonel Hall's enlightened direction the schools have flour- ished and advanced in very appreciable degree and the best of modern thought and method are at the disposal of the young people of the city. His knowledge of the science of education is broad and comprehensive and he discharges his duties with a sense of conseientious obligation that has received the endorsement of the general publie.
In 1896 Colonel Hall established a happy life companionship by marriage, Miss Agnes Bowes becoming his wife, their union oeeurring in Boston, Massachusetts. They are the parents of four children, Mur- ray, Norman, Haleyon and Beverly, and their home possesses an atmos- phere of culture and fine principles which is pleasantly expressive of the professional ideals of its head and the personality of his admirable wife.
CHARLES A. PRATT. One of the honored citizens and eminently successful business men of Little Rock is Charles A. Pratt, president of the Exchange National Bank and engaged in the ownership and op- eration of railway eating houses and hotels. He has been a resident of Little Rock since 1888 and thus has witnessed the rapid development of the city, while at the same time contributing very materially to the same. Since as a youth he began life as a brakeman on the railroad. Captain Pratt has done all things well and his association with any enterprise has proved the open sesame to its sueeess. He has developed a finely systematized and prosperous husiness out of his railroad cafes and it is largely due to his diserimination and well directed administra- tive dealing that the Exchange National Bank has become one of the most substantial and popular banking houses of the state of Arkansas.
Mr. Pratt was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is the son of Alexander F. and Antoinette (Powers) Pratt. When quite young his parents removed to Waukesha, Wisconsin, in which place he was reared and attended the publie schools. It early devolved upon him to go forth into the world as a wage earner and he was a youth when he eame to St. Louis and entered railroad service as a brakeman on the Missouri Pacific Railroad. He proved faithful and efficient and later was pro- moted to the position of passenger conductor. and while acting in that capacity during a period of six years he made the record of never hay- ing a wheel off the track or a serious injury oeeurring to a passenger. His railroad serviee was on the main line of the Missouri Pacific be- tween St. Louis and Kansas City and for eight years he lived at Sedalia, the headquarters of that division. It was at Sedalia that he first entered the hotel and eating house business, becoming proprietor of the Garri- son House of that eity. Retiring from train serviee Mr. Pratt bought a number of eating houses on the Iron Mountain division of the Missouri
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Pacific and the Texas & Pacific Railway, and ever since that time, for a period of nearly twenty-five years, he has been successfully engaged in the operation of these restaurants and hotels, the business being now confined to the Missouri Pacific system. Mr. Pratt has carried on the business with notable efficiency and satisfaction to the patrons of the railroad. It is his own individual enterprise and not under supervision of the railroad, being carried on under the name of C. A. Pratt. He is vice-president of the Little Roek, Hot Springs & Western Railroad and a director in the Arkansas Central, both Gould properties.
In 1888 Mr. Pratt established his headquarters for the above de- scribed business in Little Roek, which city has since been his home. Since 1890 he has been engaged in banking in the capital city, becoming connected with it in that year as a stockholder and director of the old Citizens' Bank. In 1904 the consolidation of the Exchange National Bank and the Citizens' Bank was effected, and in 1906 Mr. Pratt be- came president and has ever sinee remained in this high position. Since that time the Exchange National Bank has made great strides in strength and influence in Little Rock, and it is the banking house of a large number of the most important cotton firms and other industries in Little Rock and the state. It has a capital stoek of three hundred thou- sand dollars. In May, 1911, the loeation of this bank was changed from Seeond and Main streets to the corner of Capitol avenne and Main street-the Masonic Temple-in which it occupies new and elegant quar- ters representing a large expenditure of money. The personal integrity and high standing of the interested principals of the monetary institu- tion constitute its most valuable asset and give assurance of its con- tinned growth and prosperity.
In April, 1887, Mr. Pratt laid the foundation of a happy household by marriage, his chosen lady being Miss Martha R. Riley, of Jefferson City, Missouri, daughter of P. H. Riley. Their one daughter, Nona, is the wife of John D. Rather and resides at Tuscumbia, Alabama.
ROBERT B. WILSON. Americans are beginning to realize the moral as well as the historical significance of genealogical foundations. A, nation which relies upon the record of its homes for its national char- aeter cannot afford to ignore the value of genealogical investigation as one of the truest sources of patriotism. The love of home inspires the love of country. There is a wholesome influence in genealogical re- search which cannot be over-estimated. Moreover, there is a deep human interest to it. Robert Barnett Wilson, whose name forms the caption for this review. is a prominent and influential lawyer at Russellville. Arkansas, and he is descended from a long line of noted and brilliant men.
Robert Barnett Wilson was born in Shelby county, Tennessee, the date of his nativity being the 26th of May, 1854. He is a son of Ben- jamin F. and Mary W. (Williams) Wilson, the former of whom was summoned to the life eternal in April, 1904. and the latter of whom passed away in June, 1897. The father was a native of Gooehland county, Virginia, the son of Barnett and Polly (Parish) Wilson. In the agnatie line the ancestry is traeed back to the Scottish Highland family of that name, which has produced so many notable figures both in Scotland and in America. When about twenty-one years of age Benjamin F. Wilson immigrated from Virginia to Shelby county. Ten- nessee, where was solemnized his marriage to Miss Mary W. Williams, a daughter of Robert Williams, whose ancestry was of Welsh descent. In the latter part of 1854 he brought his family to Arkansas, settling
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in Conway county, a few miles above the old river town of Lewisburg, which later gave place to the present town of Morrillton. Two years later Mr. Wilson purchased a small farm on the Arkansas river, in the southeast corner of Pope county, whither he removed his family and where he devoted his attention to agriculture and stock raising. At the time of the inception of the war between the states, although opposed to secession and having voted against secession, he gave evidence of his loyalty to the cause of the South by enlisting as a soldier in the Con- federate army. He served with all of valor and efficiency throughout the entire struggle, participating in a number of the most important engagements marking the progress of the war.
The Wilson family, of which the subject of this review is a mem- ber, was founded in America by Robert B. Wilson's great-great-grand- father, Richard Wilson, the son of Robert Wilson, of Dunfermline, Scot- land. Richard Wilson immigrated from the land of hills and heather to America about the year 1752, locating in the old commonwealth of Virginia. His wife was Janet Ross in her girlhood days. Richard Wil- son obtained a grant of land in King and Queen county, where he was engaged in planting and where he reared to maturity a family of chil- dren. James Wilson, great-grandfather of him to whom this sketch is dedicated, after his marriage to Anna Kidd removed from King and Queen county to Fluvanna county, where he continued to reside until his death, in 1820. Barnett Wilson, a son of James Wilson, was one of the most substantial citizens of Fluvanna county, where he lived until his death, in 1862.
Among Mr. Wilson's ancestors were many notable personages, who gained distinction in art, literature, the sciences and in war. Among them may be mentioned Alexander Wilson, who, in 1714. became the first professor of astronomy in the University of Glasgow, Scotland; Andrew Wilson, a distinguished physician and author, who was grad- nated in the University of Edinburg as a member of the class of 1749: Arthur Wilson (1595-1652), an historian and dramatist of note; and a number of others.
Mr. Wilson, the subject of this review, passed his boyhood and youth in Pope county. His father having been financially broken up by the ravages of the Civil war, young Wilson was compelled to make a regular hand on the farm, attending school in the neighborhood for short periods during the intervals of farm work. But by close appli- cation at school and studying every leisure moment at home, by the time he arrived at age he had acquired a fair common school education. After teaching school a few months he entered Union University at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, in February, 1872, and remained there until the end of the session in June.
In order to obtain money with which to return in the succeeding fall he returned home and taught a publie school during the summer, but when he applied for his pay he found no money in the treasury, the country then being in the throes of reconstruction and in the hands of the carpet-bagger, which system and condition was more discreditable to the North, more intolerable to the South and left a deeper scar than all the horrors of the war: for the Southern soldier, after making as brave a fight as history records, surrendered as brave men and in good faith renewed their allegiance to the Union and its government, and with the feeling that they had surrendered to brave men and would re- ceive the treatment always accorded by the brave to the brave. And had the brave men of the North, who did the fighting and to whom the surrender was made, had their wish in the matter we have no doubt that
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the brave men of the South would not have been disappointed; but as is too often the case, after the war was fought those who did the fighting returned to their avocations of peace, while the politician and the grafter took charge of the public affairs, formulated the policy of the North toward the South, which was that of the worst and most cowardly plunder and rapine.
Failing to receive pay for his teaching the school young Wilson had no other alternative but to work another year, and in the fall of 1873 he entered St. John's College at Little Rock, a military institu- tion under the auspices of the Masonic Fraternity, which he was at- tending when Governor Baxter was forcibly ousted from the governor's office by Brooks. Baxter, when ousted, not knowing who were his friends, went to the college and placed himself under the protection of the students, who at once laid down their books and took up their guns, and Wilson, having a room in the main building, Baxter was placed in it and there guarded by the students until the next day and until his friends had gathered in sufficient force to take him back and establish his headquarters in the city. During the Brooks-Baxter struggle young Wilson rendered valuable services to the Baxter cause by organizing the new recruits who were constantly coming, into companies and in- structing them in the manual of arms, and the officers as to their duties, also by going among the Brooks' forces and reporting to Baxter all he could learn of importance.
After the end of the college term he worked on the farm and taught school until the spring of 1875, when he entered a law office to study law, and was admitted to practice in May, 1876.
On November 21, 1877, he was married to Miss Anne Mary Howell, a daughter of Jesse C. Howell and Adalissa ( Hardaway ) Howell, both of whom had been raised in Kentucky and both of whom had been dead several years, the father having died in 1861 and the mother in 1873. Mrs. Wilson was born on a farm in Pope county, February 17, 1856, where she grew to womanhood and was left at the death of her mother. Young Wilson, having no means, and his wife being in the same condi- tion, they passed through the proverbial starvation period of the young lawyer, but by close industry and strict economy on the part of both himself and wife, who has proven to be a true helpmate, they, in a reasonable time, became in comfortable circumstances and now have a competency. His law practice has been large and varied and while earnestly prosecuting his chosen profession he has not forgotten the avocation in which he was reared, but soon began to acquire farming interests, which have grown until he now owns abont five hundred acres of good farms besides wild lands which he is bringing into cultivation. He also owns valuable city property in his home city.
In the spring of 1878 he was appointed to fill out an unexpired term as county judge of Pope county, and was at the succeeding elec- tion elected for another term. Up to the time of his incumbency the county had been running behind in its finances and was then over thir- ty-two thousand dollars in debt, with no publie improvements to canse the deficit. As soon as he became county judge he inaugurated a sys- tem of reform and during his incumbency he redneed the indebtedness over one-half, greatly to the disgust of the hangers-on.
In the spring of 1888 Mr. Wilson was appointed by President Cleve- land as register of the United States land office at Dardanelle, and while the appointment for this office is for a term of four years the appointee is subject to removal at the pleasure of the president at any time, with or without cause, and although his predecessor, a Republican,
H.B. Dudley
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had been allowed by Mr. Cleveland to serve his full term and although Mr. Wilson made an excellent official and there was no complaint against him in any way, yet President Harrison removed him just as soon as he could get to him, in August, 1889, appointing a Republican in his place. He then returned to Russellville and has ever since devoted hin- self to the practice of law and to his farming interests.
To the marriage union of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were born: H. Howell Wilson, January 6, 1879; Mary, March 4, 1881 : Frank C., May 31, 1886; Adalissa, October 25, 1893; and Robert B., Jr., April 23, 1897. H. Howell Wilson graduated in the Russellville High School, then grad- nated as an electrical and mechanical engineer in the State University in 1901 and now holds a responsible position with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Mary attended Maddox Seminary at Little Rock and then the Virginia Female Institute at Roanoke, Virginia. She married E. H. Rankin in May, 1904, to which union one son was born, Robert Wilson Rankin, who lives with Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, his mother having died April 28, 1910. Frank C. graduated in the Vanderbilt Dental College in 1908 and is now praetieing his profession at Russellville. Adalissa and Robert B., Jr., are still at home, eondueing to the vanishing pleas- ures of child family life.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are affiliated with the Methodist Church, South. They have always been in the lead in working and giving to every enterprise, religious or seenlar, which looked to the betterment of their fellow men and the progress of the community, and when the people of the city were bidding for the location of the agricultural school they not only worked unceasingly but they gave more for the required bonus than any one else, although there are several citizens of the city much more wealthy and who are benefited more than they by the securing of the school.
In polities Mr. Wilson has always been a Demoerat and has always supported the party ticket with one exception, and that was when a certain candidate for governor and for nomination by the state Demo- eratie convention, after having been nominated, appeared before the convention which nominated him and urged the delegates to stultify themselves by ignoring their instructions and to nominate a man for supreme judge over another who had received a large majority of the instructed vote at the primaries. At the ensuing general election Mr. Wilson seratched this nominee for governor and voted his ticket openly, giving his reasons therefor.
This has always been his character, open and frank in his utter- anees, and not only open and frank, but conscientious. And this he has carried into his law practice. He has stood for the observance of the law and good morals, both as a citizen and as a lawyer, and for years he has refused to defend any one guilty of betraying or violating female chastity, or of selling intoxieating drinks, or gambling, or carry- ing weapons, or any other like offense which is done with deliberation or to gratify some lust or for personal gain, holding that a lawyer should consistently stand for the observance of the law and of eorrect principles and practices of life, and not become a party to their breach by selling his services for the purpose of assisting the violators to escape just punishment.
HOWARD BAILEY DUDLEY. Although fate did not permit Howard Bailey Dudley to be a native son of Arkansas, his birth having oeeurred in the neighboring state of Missouri, yet sinee his early manhood he has been a loyal citizen of the state. Not only is he identified in an
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important manner with the commercial and mercantile life of the place, his business being that of a hardware merchant and dealer in farming implements, but he has played a prominent and praiseworthy part in the management of the civie affairs of Stuttgart and DeWitt, having upon his record a term as postmaster of the first named city and as county treasurer and deputy eircuit clerk of Arkansas county. He is a good citizen in all that the term implies and it is to men of his stamp that the amazing progress of this particular seetion is due.
Mr. Dudley was born in Palmyra, Missouri, the date of his birth being Angust 1, 1855, and his parents, William and Georgia (Davis) Dudley, were both natives of Kentucky. Through the paternal house he is related to the Dudleys of Kentucky, they being one of the dis- tinguished families of the Blue Grass state. After a preliminary edu- cation obtained in the public schools of his locality, Mr. Dudley entered St. Paul's College at Palmyra, Missouri, and there received his higher training. He was a very young man when he left his native state and came to Arkansas. He had plenty of pluck and independence, as well as initiative and he made a fortunate step soon after coming to Stutt- gart by purchasing a quarter section of school land, which he improved and which now, greatly advanced in value. he still owns.
Mr. Dudley soon became well known in Stuttgart and during Cleve- land's second administration he was appointed postmaster of that eity and proved a most faithful and efficient assistant of Uncle Sam. Not long after the conclusion of these duties Mr. Dudley made the race for circuit clerk of Arkansas county. but was defeated by fifty-six votes, and being selected as his successful opponent's deputy, he served faithfully and well in that eapaeity for two years. He was then elected cashier of the DeWitt Bank, but after serving for six months he resigned to accept the appointment of county treasurer at the hands of Governor Jones and so filled the unexpired term of C. S. Norman, deceased.
In the year 1901 began Mr. Dudley's gratifying connection with the business world, for in that year, in association with M. A. Baker, he bought the hardware business of Norman & Willey, and these two continued in business until 1906, when Mr. Dudley bought his partner's interest in the business and since that time has conducted it under the firm name of H. B. Dudley.
Associated with Mr. Dudley in the conduet of a business that is extensive and far-reaching in all the lines of merchandise that it carries is his son, Roger W. Dudley, who is a fine example of that type of busi- ness man evolved by the exigent possibilities of the twentieth century, alert. progressive, enterprising-the worthy seion of a sire who is very proud of the down-to-now business hustler who is his chief lieutenant and who will, in the course of time, be his sneeessor.
Mr. Dudley assumed marital relations on the 16th day of November, 1880, when he was united in the bonds of matrimony to Miss Pearl White. Mrs. Dudley is a native of Missouri and a daughter of M. C. White, who was born in Missouri, and his wife was born in Kentucky. This happy union has been further cemented by the hirth of the follow- ing children: Bessie B .. Nannie M. (wife of H. C. Perry, of Grayville, Illinois), Roger W. and Sam D.
Mr. Dudley is not only an enterprising business man and a progres- sive citizen, but is a conscientious Christian as well, being a member of the Baptist church and its Sunday school superintendent for the past decade. He is the stalwart champion of the cause of good education and it is indeed appropriate that he should be president of the De Witt ITigh School Board. His interests are by no means limited to the activities
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mentioned, but among other things he is also president of the DeWitt Creamery and Ice Factory. It has been truly said of him that he is always to be found to the fore when there is anything presented to his attention for the upbuilding of DeWitt and the uplifting of mankind.
It goes without saying that he gives his hand and heart to the men and measures of the Democratic party, standing high in its councils and ever willing to do anything in his power to promote its interests legiti- mately. He is a member of DeWitt lodge No. 157, F. & A. M., of De Witt, Arkansas.
DAVID BENTLEY RUSSELL, secretary of the State Building Company and also of the Ozark Diamond Mines Corporation, is the scion of one of Arkansas' leading families and is one of the ablest young financiers and business men of the city of Little Rock. He was born at Morrillton, Arkansas, on the 17th day of May, 1874, and is the son of David Bell and Addie L. ( Bentley ) Russell.
David Bell Russell was born in Pennsylvania. He made a highly ereditable record as a Union soldier in the Civil war and he belonged to the army under General Steele that captured and occupied Little Rock in 1863. He was with the army in this state until the close of the war and so favorably was he impressed with its apparent oppor- tunities and advantages that he decided to remain and make it his home. He located in Conway county, at old Lewisburg, the original county seat of that county, which subsequently, upon the building of the Little Rock & Fort Smith Railroad, was abandoned as a town and replaced by the present city of Morrillton. The elder Mr. Russell became a prom- inent and successful planter in Conway county, of which he was also sheriff during the early '70s. Later he was United States marshal for one term. during which he made his business headquarters in Little Rock. He was a Republican in politics and was a prominent member of that party in Arkansas, ever being ready to do anything, to go any- where to advance the interests of what its admirers are pleased to term "the Grand Old Party." Mr. Russell continued to live at Morrillton until his demise, which took place on May 28. 1903.
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