USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 21
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
The subject's mother, now deceased, was a member of an old pioneer family in Arkansas and was born at old Lewisburg. Her father was born in Virginia and came to Arkansas with his parents in 1819, the year it was organized as a territory. She and her husband were mar- ried in Conway county after the period of the Civil war and the sub- jeet is an only child.
Mr. Russell was reared at Morrillton, his birthplace, and his early education was obtained in the schools of that town and also at Little Rock, and in that city he secured his higher training in the State Uni- versity. His first position of importance was as an employe of the Mercantile Trust Company, and after severing that connection he be- came teller in the State National Bank, which office he retained for three years. As previously mentioned, he holds the position of secretary with the State Building Company and the Ozark Diamond Mines Corpora- tion, of both of which Mr. R. D. Duncan, cashier of the State National Bank, is president. The latter company owns valuable portions of the diamond fields of Pike county, Arkansas, and both corporations hold high prestige among business and financial houses of the state.
On the 20th day of January, 1904, Mr. Russell was united in mar- riage to Miss Edith Dodge Kidder, daughter of Charles Kidder, and a happy companionship was terminated by the death of the wife Decem- ber 7, 1907. There is one son, David Kidder Russell.
1236
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
Mr. Russell is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and is a member of the Country Club. He is a supporter of the policies and principles of the Republican party and stands as one of the progressive and loyal citizens of Little Rock, where he has secure hold on popular confidence and esteem.
SAMUEL PAUL VAUGHTER, M. D). Holding high position among his professional brethren in Little Rock is Dr. Samuel Paul Vaughter, one of the city's well known physicians and surgeons. Acute in his precep- tions, widely read in his profession and skillful in applying his acquire- ments to practical use, his value as a physician and surgeon is of the highest character. It is his aim, and a realized one, to keep in touch with the continual progress of the profession of which he is such an admirable exponent. Dr. Vaughter is a native of the state of Georgia, his birth having occurred in Franklin county, that state, on the 6th day of February, 1871, and his parents being Professor J. M. C. and Margaret (Stribling) Vaughter. The father, who is still living in Faulkner county, his home being at Conway, the county seat of Faulkner county, is one of the well known educators of the state and has taught school in Faulkner county for a great many years. He was principal of the Conway public schools for over six years and he is also county examiner of Faulkner county, a position he has held for several years. In addition to his pedagogical activities he has also taken a prominent part in publie life. having been tax assessor of Faulkner county for one term, circuit clerk for two terms and a member of the state Senate for one term. He is zealously devoted to the Democratic party and is
1 a most valued participant in party councils.
Dr. Vaughter was fortunate in receiving the greater part of his education under the enlightened tutelage of his honored father, and when a very young man he came to the conchision to adopt as his own the medical profession. He received his preparation in the medical de- partment of the University of Arkansas. at Little Rock. from which in- stitution he was graduated with the class of 1892 with high honors. He began his practice at Conway, where he remained for one year, and at the end of that time he became physician for the Arkansas Deaf and Dumb School at Little Rock and remained in that position for two years (1893-1895). He then resumed private practive at Conway until 1898. when he established himself in the practice of his profession at Little Roek, which has ever since been his home. He has proved remarkably successful and enjoys high prestige wherever known. At the time of the founding of the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Little Rock Dr. Vanghter was appointed to the chair of demonstrator of anatomy in that institution, which he filled continuously until the close of the college year in 1911. He is associated with those organizations looking toward the advancement and unification of the profession, his member- ship extending to the County and State Medical Associations. In 1902 he was elected coroner of Pulaski county and was re-elected in 1904 and 1906, filling that office for six years with the best of satisfaction.
Dr. Vanghter became a recruit to the ranks of the Benedicts when on the 17th day of June, 1894, Miss Mary Estelle MeGuire, danghter of the late Dr. MeGuire, of Dardanelle, became his bride. Mrs. Vaughter's father was a pioneer physician in Arkansas and a prominent man in his profession for a long number of years. The subject and his wife share their delightful home with a promising quintet of sons and daughters, namely : Panl. Earl, Marguerite, Marion and Stella May.
1231
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
JAMES ARTHUR BOWMAN is generally recognized as one of the lead- ing and representative citizens of Little Rock. The part he plays in the great scheme of affairs is that of a lumberman and property owner, and he is one of the most straightforward, energetie and successful of business men. In lumber cireles he has long been an important factor and his name is known far and wide among those concerned in this great branch of industry. Although not a native son he has resided here for thirty years, and from a penniless youth has come to possess a comfortable fortune and high prestige among those who know and esteem his ability and signal worth.
James A. Bowman, who stands as one of the most striking examples of that typically American produet-the self made man-was born at Westfield, Medina county. Ohio, on the 15th day of July, 1862. He spent the first twenty years of his life in LeRoy, eventually removing to Akron, Ohio, and in 1884 he came from that Buckeye state town to Arkansas and went to work as a laborer in the lumber field. His older brother, H. A. Bowman, had preceded him to Arkansas by a short time, embarking in the lumber business, and the subject worked for him for some time. H. A. Bowman upon first coming to the state had es- tablished a lumber mill about fifteen miles south of Little Roek and later he came to Little Rock and became the proprietor of a retail lum- ber yard. In 1888, having become familiar through eight years' ex- perience as an employe with the various phases of the lumber business, the immediate subject of the review established a retail lumber busi- ness for himself at the corner of Sixth and Main streets, on the east side of the street, in what is now the heart of the business district of Little Roek. He there established a very small lumber yard, to stock which he went into debt, having absolutely no cash when he went into business. From this very modest beginning the business grew and prospered amazingly and within five years he had bought the two-story brick building aeross the street from his yard, on the southwest corner of Sixth and Main streets, which property he owns at the present time and which is now occupied by Harris, the photographer, the Arkansas Savings Bank and the H. T. MeKinley jewelry store. As a business property this corner ranks perhaps second in value and importance to the corner at Fifth and Main streets, which upon completion of the State National Bank Building in 1910 became the most prominent loca- tion in Little Rock.
In 1894 Mr. Bowman discontinued the retail lumber business and for some years following engaged in the general lumber business on a larger scale. He built a large lumber mill near England in Lonoke county, which he operated for some years, and in connection with which he built the Central Arkansas & Eastern Railroad, constructed for log- ging and lumber hauling purposes, the route of said railroad extending from England nine miles east to his mill. This road was completed in 1902 and proved of as immense advantage as had been expected. Mr. Bowman subsequently disposed of his interests in this railroad and the mill and the road is now an important link in the Cotton Belt System. which is being built to connect with that company's line at Stuttgart. Since disposing of that business the subject has been financially inter- ested in various lumber and shingle mills and engages largely in the handling of lumber in car load lots. His business career has been un- usually successful and he enjoys that respeet and deference which the world instinctively and justly pays to the man whose success in life has been worthily attained.
On the 22nd day of August, 1901, Mr. Bowman laid the founda-
1238
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
tion of a happy household and congenial life companionship by his union with Miss Oetavia Jennings, a daughter of the late Roscoe G. Jennings, who died in 1898, a distinguished pioneer citizen and one of the most eminent physicians of the state. Dr. Jennings was president of the Little Rock Board of Health for a number of years, was presi- dent of the State Medieal Association and president of the Medical Col- lege of the University of Arkansas. His large family practice was scarcely limited by the boundaries of the state. He was one of the most famous authorities on smallpox and was a man of deepest learning and wide knowledge. llis old home at which he resided for a long number of years was located at Sixth and Arch street and was one of the historic landmarks of the city. Therein his children were born and reared. In June, 1911, Mr. Bowman completed the erection of the splendid residenee at 1510 Areh street, built after his own designs and under his supervision. It is one of the finest and most modern homes in Little Rock and is equipped with every facility for the comfort and convenience of a family. This charming abode Mr. and Mrs. Bowman share with two sons, James Arthur, Jr., and Everett, and it is also the center of a most generous and gracious hospitality.
Mr. Bowman is a member of the Masonic fraternity and exemplifies in his dealings the principles of moral and social justice and brotherly love for which the time-honored order stands. He is a member of the Universalist church, while Mrs. Bowman is a member of the Episcopal.
Mr. Bowman is a son of George and Elizabeth Reynolds Bowman.
DR. WILLIAM D. FOSTER is a retired physician of Gravette and is the postmaster of the little eity, his services in any eapaeity having ever been of the highest charaeter. He is a native son of the state, his nativity having occurred at Pea Ridge November 12, 1853, and his father, George R. Foster, was an exponent of the great basic industry of agriculture who settled in the above mentioned state in 1842 and was there gathered to his fathers in 1905, when his years numbered eighty-five. He was born in Bedford county, Tennessee, in 1820, and was the son of Thomas Foster, who, like himself, lies buried at Pea Ridge.
Thomas Foster was the head of the delegation of Fosters who set out with ox teams to make the journey from Bedford county to Arkan- sas, coming by way of St. Louis to Arkansas and casting anchor, so to speak, at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, afterward (in 1862) made famous as the battle ground of the Federal and Confederate forces. The Foster settlement proved a permanent one and it gave Benton county a family name which has been perpetuated here during the succeeding genera- tions.
George R. Foster was a Mexican war soldier, having joined the service from Tennessee when a young man, and at the breaking out of the rebellion his sympathies were with the cause of the Union. Condi- tions in Arkansas were snch that he found it necessary to send his fam- ily to take refuge within Union territory, and during their absence his property was destroyed by the enemy. His son, Elias, who died in Kansas at the elose of the war, and his stepson, George Jones, who wore the blue in the Sixth Kansas Cavalry, both offered their lives as a sacrifice that the Union might be preserved.
For his life companion George R. Foster married Elizabeth Jones, a daughter of George Parsons, who had previously married a Mr. Jones and been left a widow with a son named George. The latter entered the Union army, as above stated, died shortly after the war from dis-
1239
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
abilities received and is buried at Fort Smith. Mrs. Foster lived to see her seventy-seventh birthday, her demise occurring in September, 1897.
The children born to her and Mr. Foster were as follows: Elias; Dr. J. S., of Seligman, Missouri; Dr. William D., of this review; Allen J., of Fort Smith, a member of the police force of that city; Margaret, wife of Ephraim Heaston, of Miami, Oklahoma; Ellen and Alice, both deceased (the latter the wife of Rev. Charles Wade) ; and Edward, a farmer, residing near l'ea Ridge, Arkansas.
William D. Foster, whose name initiates these paragraphs, received his education in the public schools of Pea Ridge and then finished the course presented by the college at that place. His first occupation as a factor in the workaday world was as a school teacher. His choice of a career was given to the medical profession and he inaugurated his preparations by reading under the direction of Dr. A. Chenoweth, of Pineville, Missouri. Conelnding his residence at that place he removed to Exeter, Missouri, where he subsequently engaged in the drug busi- ness and where he took lectures in the Joplin College of Physicians and Surgeons. He found himself fully equipped in 1881, and first hung out his professional shingle at Nebo, the predecessor of Gravette, and followed the trend of business to Gravette when the railroad caused the establishment of the town. His professional activities extended over a period of about twenty years, and he abandoned his praetiee only after receiving the appointment of postmaster of Gravette in 1901.
Dr. Foster has ever been known for his political opinions and con- vietions, and for being a Republican he has no apology to offer, having always given an enthusiastic and whole-hearted allegiance to the men and measures for which the "Grand Old Party" stands sponsor. His first political appointment was in 1891, when he was made one of the Benton county board of pension examiners, and he was obliged to yield his position to a Democrat when Cleveland entered the White House a second time. President Mckinley restored him to rank again and he went from the examining board to the postoffice in 1901. He has wit- nessed the change from a third to a second class office and bears a com- mission from President Roosevelt and another from President Taft.
Dr. Foster's interests are by no means limited to his office, al- though his best energies are devoted to its duties, and for some six years he has been engaged as a side issue in thoroughbred horse breed- ing. He possesses and has under his control several farms, and his efforts are for the most part directed toward the development of race stock. He is the first importer of fine hogs into the county and his example has been so numerously followed as to give Benton county a highly improved breed of swine, their raising being consequently a greater profit making industry for the farmer.
Dr. Foster's history as a party man has been a varied one. He has permitted himself to be sacrificed upon the altar of expediency as a candidate for several county offices and has helped thus to lead the "forlorn hope." He has been Republican state committeeman from Benton county and is now a member of the county committee. He is at present a member of the Gravette school board, having defeated a Demoerat for the place in a Democratie territory.
Dr. Foster assumed marital relations when on June 20, 1882, in Carroll county, Arkansas, in Berryville. he was united in marriage to Mary Hartman, who was born in Pendleton county, West Virginia, in 1858, the daughter of Ahia and Mary ( Cassell) Hartman. A daughter. Tallje, was born to Dr. and Mrs. Foster. She married James P. Sparks and died at Gravette November 26, 1905, the mother of Florence and
1240
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
Clayton Foster Sparks, who are being reared in the home of their grandparents.
The social proclivities of Dr. Foster have by no means been sub- merged by weightier considerations and he finds pleasure and profit in his lodge relations. He is a Mason, being a member of both the chapter and commandery; an Odd Fellow and former delegate to the Grand Lodge; and a member of the Knights of Pythias. He is a consistent member and elder in the Presbyterian church of Gravette, which eon- gregation he helped to organize.
REUBEN D. PARTEE. A fine old Confederate veteran of the Civil war and a citizen and business man whose various interests have eon- tributed to the progress and prosperity of Little Roek is Captain Reuben Douglas Partee, who has been a loyal and publie-spirited resi- dent of this eity since 1887. Captain Partee was born at Gallatin, in Sumner county, Tennessee, on the 15th of August, 1838, in the an- cestral home of his mother, Martha (Donglas) Partee, which was set- tled over a hundred years ago and is still in possession of a descendant of the Douglas family. His father, Squire Boone Partee, was of French extraction, a native of North Carolina, but at an early day he removed thence to Murray county, Tennessee. Subsequently he established a home at Trenton, in Gibson county, Tennessee, whence removal was later made to Panola county, Mississippi. He was extensively engaged in plantation and farming interests during most of his active eareer. His seven sons all enlisted in the Confederate army: William Abner, Ark Young, Reuben Douglas, Hiram, Polk, Charles Watkins, and S. Boone, the youngest, who died soon after the war, was the captain of a company at sixteen years of age. He was a young man of great promise, a graduate of the University of Mississippi and an associate in law with Colonel L. Q. C. Lamar.
Captain Partee's second brother, A. Y. Partee, commanded a bat- tery of artillery during the seige of Vicksburg and was a gallant soldier. Having been reared to maturity on an old Southern plantation the subject of this sketeh is still interested in that line of enterprise. He received his elementary education in the schools of the locality and period and early beeame associated with his father in the management of his farming interests. At the time of the inception of the Civil war he enlisted as a soldier in the Confederate army. He was assigned to duty on General McGowan's staff, with the rank of captain. He served throughout the war in Bragg and Johnston's armies in Tennessee, Ken- tueky and in North Mississippi.
After the close of the war he located in Memphis, where he en- gaged in the cotton commission business with his eousin, Hiram A. Partee, and Colonel Blanton MeGehee, under the firm name of Partee, MeGehee and Company. Captain Partee has been twice married, his first union having been to Miss Georgia Mosby, of Jefferson county, Arkansas, who passed into the Great Beyond May 13, 1879. The issue of this marriage was: Mosley B. Partee and Mrs. Pattie Henderson. In the year 1883 was solemnized the marriage of Captain Partee to Miss Kate Webber, whose birth occurred in DeSota county, Mississippi. By this union have been born three children: Mrs. Ruby Douglas Rateliffe, Miss Sue Partee and Watkins Webber Partee. The Partee family is popular and a prominent faetor in the best social activities of Little Roek, and in their religious faith are members of the First Methodist and First Christian churches. Captain Partee is a mem- ber of the Omar Weaver Camp of Confederate Veterans. In polities
1241
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
he accords stalwart allegianee to the Democratic party and gives freely of his aid and influence in support of all measures forwarded for the good of the general welfare. He is a man of broad human sympathy and generous impulses, a thorough optimist and possessed of strong domestic tastes.
MUMFORD A. AUSTIN. The man best fitted to meet the wonderfully changed life of today is not a new type of man. He is a man resplendent with the same old sterling qualities, great in his home life, great in his civic and patriotic life and great in his religions life. Such a man is Mumford A. Austin, and he is the sort of man to make his mark in al- most any environment, for he possesses fine initiative ability, elear powers of reasoning, a broad grasp of the possibilities of the financial world, and, most important of all, a keen appreciation of human nature. He is in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortunes, and his record throughout his entire career will bear the searchlight of the fullest investigation. Mr. Austin has long been numbered among the representative attorneys and business men of Pine Bluff, Jefferson county, Arkansas, but early in 1910 he found it necessary to retire from active participation in business affairs on account of his health. Mumford A. Austin was born in Monroe county, North Carolina, on the 12th day of August, 1857, and is a son of Mr. and Mrs. R. G. Austin. In connection with the eareer of Mr. Austin recourse is taken to an appreciative resume of his business activities which appeared in a local paper, and the article is reproduced with only sueh paraphrase and modification as the province of this complication demands.
One of the leading attorneys of the state and one of the most im- portant faetors in the eommereial life of Pine Bluff is Hon. Mumford A. Austin. Mr. Austin has been a resident of Pine Bluff for more than a quarter of a century, but takes pride in referring to himself as still a young man, and he is, indeed, just in the prime of life. His career has been an interesting one when viewed from its present status. and success has crowned the efforts of a young man full of ambition. ability and determination. Mr. Austin was born in Monroe. North Carolina, and ten years later accompanied his parents to Arkansas, where they settled upon a farm in the southeast section of the state. As a youth he worked upon his father's farm for a number of years. and now that he has gained a eompeteney he often refers to the time when he rode to town upon an ox-wagon and when he suffered the many privations of the boy upon the farm.
As a young man he chose the law as a profession, believing that in this line of endeavor he could better reach his ideals in life, and, after graduating in Emory and Henry College, in Virginia, he studied law under effective preceptorship in the offices of Carlton & MeCain, at Pine Bluff. He made rapid progress in his absorption and assimilation of the science of jurisprudence, and was admitted to the bar of Arkansas in 1880. He immediately initiated the practice of his profession by opening an office in Pine Bluff, and he now stands as one of the ablest attorneys in this state. He soon earned an enviable reputation as an able practitioner, and has been associated with some of the most eminent lawyers of the Sonth, namely: Judge W. E. Hemingway. John M. Clayton (now deceased), John A. Williams, who for a number of years was eirenit judge and who later went to the Federal Beneh. and the Hon. S. M. Taylor. Up to the time of his retirement in 1910. Mr. Austin was associated with M. Danaher, under the firm name of Austin & Danaher. He was for many years attorney for the St. Louis, Iron Vol. III-10
1242
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
Mountain & Southern Railroad Company, and he was counsel for a number of big corporations and private interests. He has long been known as an able and versatile trial lawyer, and he has been concerned with much important litigation in the State and Federal Courts. IIe recently attracted much attention throughout the country by his eon- nection with the noted Ellis case in Little Rock, in which he was at- torney for Mr. and Mrs. Ellis before the case got into the eriminal courts. Later he served as a witness in this same case, and in this capacity his shrewdness in getting before the jury his testimony, which was considered one of the strongest bits of evidence in the entire trial, was highly commended. But it is not as a criminal lawyer that Mr. Austin has made his reputation, but rather as a civil lawyer, where a knowledge of the finer points of the law and the ability to reason and plead count far more than trickery and ability to piek a jury, and in this connection Mr. Austin has been an active participant in some of the most important cases in the history of the courts of the state.
However, it is not alone in the legal profession that Mr. Austin has gained prominence and prestige, for he has also large financial interests of broad scope and importance. Ile was at one time president of the Citizens' Light & Transit Company, of Pine Bluff, and in this position he proved himself a man of unusual financial and executive ability. With keen foresight, he early invested considerable money in Pine Bluff real estate, and he now owns some of the most valuable property in the city.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.