USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 26
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
In 1894 Mr. Miller removed to Stone county and took up his resi- denee in the county seat. Here he has followed a general career alone, his professional preferences being for the field of real estate law or land litigation, the making of abstracts and the litigation of titles.
Mr. Miller is a son of Henry A. Miller, who died at Westfield, Illinois, February 6, 1911, at the age of eighty-six years. The family was founded in Sangamon county, Illinois, in 1843, by Michael Miller, a German, who left South Carolina in 1835, spent some eight years in Hardin county, Kentucky, and then settled in Mechanicsburg, Illi- mois. In that state he journeyed on to the "Undiscovered country," the father of a family of children. Henry A. Miller, the father, was born April 2, 1825, and passed his active years as a brick manufac- turer at Mechaniesburg. ITis first wife was Naney J. Mason, who died in February, 1855, the mother of the following ehildren: Sarah, wife of William Bullock, of Roby, Illinois; Elizabeth, who married Rev. E. E. Robbins and resides in Westfield, Illinois; and William H. of this review. Mary Martin became the second wife of Henry A. Miller, and the three children of this union were Dora, wife of a Mr. Kitchen, of Mechanicsburg; Horaee S .. who died leaving a family in Springfield. Illinois; and Florence, who passed away without issne.
Mr. Miller was born June 1, 1854, and received his edneation in the academy of the town in which he was reared. He was married early in his career, becoming a member of the Benedicts in Hannibal, Mis- souri, October 9, 1873, his ehosen lady being Miss Martha Belle Mason, a native of Springfield, Illinois.
The politics of Mr. Miller are Democratic. He has been active in his party as layman, with no idea of personal advancement, and he has also taken a modest part in loeal campaign work. He gave "a taste
1210
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
of his quality" in the capacity of mayor of Mountain View, bringing about several much needed reforms. He is identified with several of the business enterprises of his community, notably as a stockholder of the Stone County Bank; the Stone County Mercantile Company at Moun- tain View; the Mountain View Telephone Company; and the Stone County Live Stock and Improvement Association. He is also one of the directors of the Stone County Bank, which was founded in 1901, has a capital of ten thousand dollars and is officered by many of the strong and successful business men of Mountain View.
JOSEPH I. PORTER. Everywhere in this glorious land of opportunity are found men who have worked their way from humble and lowly be- ginnings to plaees of leadership, and of this class Joseph I. Porter is a prominent and gratifying representative. The part he has played in the development of the industrial life upon which this part of Ar- kansas so greatly depends for her coming prosperity has been of re- markable value and from every aspect he is a good eitizen. This well known and generally esteemed citizen of Stuttgart was born in Marion connty, Missouri, February 9, 1848. His father's name was Joseph C. Porter, and the maiden name of his mother was Mary Ann E. Marshall, the father a native of Kentucky and the mother of Virginia. The father enlisted at the beginning of the Civil war in the service of the Confederate army, rose to the rank of brigadier general under General Marmaduke, was wounded at the battle of Hartsville. Missouri, in Feb- ruary, 1863, and died and was buried at MeGuire's, Arkansas, on March 23.
Thus deprived of their natural protector, the fortunes of the family were at low ebb. In 1866 Joseph I., who was the eldest of the children, a youth of about eighteen, brought his widowed mother and his brothers and sisters, five in number, to Arkansas county, Arkansas, and on the prairie, about ten miles from Stuttgart, they took up their residenee. The support of the family fell upon the young shoulders of the subject, hut the same brave and dauntless spirit which has characterized his subsequent dealings was evident in that erisis. They eondueted agri- cultural proceedings and the cattle business for about twenty-six years, and followed it successfully until 1893. Ever alert and energetic, Mr. Porter, in 1886, added to the agricultural and cattle interests which already engrossed him, operations in the lumber business, his headquar- ters being sitnated at Stuttgart, and for the sake of convenience he removed to this city in the year 1892. For the first three years in which he was identified with Arkansas lumber he was in partnership with W. W. and C. W. Snell. In 1889 he purchased Mr. Snell's interest and in 1900 organized the J. I. Porter Lumber Company, of which he was president. This business has been continued in increased seope and importance up to the present time. At the present day his offices and interests include the above-named offiee; the presidency of the J. I. Porter Lumber Company at Rison, Cleveland county, Arkansas; a directorship in the Stuttgart Riee Mill Company, and the vice presi- deney of the German-American Bank.
Politically he is a stanch advocate of the men and measures of the Democratic party.
Mr. Porter laid the foundations of a happy and congenial married life when, on the 20th day of September, 1882, he was united with Miss Maggie E. Johnson, of Arkansas county, a daughter of S. S. Johnson, of Arkansas county, Arkansas. Their union was blessed by the birth
12:1
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
of four children, two daughters surviving: Mary, who became the wife of R. E. John, of Stuttgart, Arkansas, and Joanna D.
Mr. Porter's mother, the widow of Brigadier General Porter, stir- vived until March, 1872.
WILLIAM A. RUTHERFORD, of Batesville, Independence county, Arkansas, is one of the most prominent and extensive farmers in the state and he has achieved, through the route of agriculture alone, a remarkable and gratifying success. As a family of planters the Ruther- fords need no encomium. For a half century this thrifty family has exercised its powers with the soil of Arkansas and thus demonstrated a genius for reaching positive results which have proved eminently worthy of emulation.
A native son of Independence county, Arkansas, William A. Rutherford was born on the 3rd of March, 1871. His native heath is six miles south of Batesville, in which vicinity his father settled on his arrival in the state, in 1849. There Colonel James Rutherford started life upon a quarter section of land, which his personal efforts have ex- panded into a broad domain with hundreds of aeres under cultivation. Colonel Rutherford was born at Rutherfordton, Rutherford county, North Carolina, the date of his nativity being the 7th of July, 1825. He is a relative of that Rutherford of Revolutionary fame in whose honor the North Carolina county was named. Walter B. Rutherford, father of the Colonel, was born in Edinburg, Scotland, a son of Alex- ander Rutherford, one of the leading barristers of Edinhurg. Walter B. Rutherford came to the United States at the age of twenty-five years, and he married Miss Sarah Tyre, a Georgia lady, who died in 1870, five years later than her husband. In 1850 this venerable couple followed their son, Colonel James, to Arkansas, passing the residue of their lives in Independence county. Mr. Rutherford was a man of vigorous mentality, immovable in his convictions and he was a man of much influence among the ante-bellum people of Batesville and that vicinity. His children were: Catherine, who is the wife of a Mr. Murray; Isabel, who died as Mrs. J. W. Wallace; Alexander; Walter: James; William ; Mary A., who became Mrs. Montgomery ; Amelia; and George.
Colonel James Rutherford early exerted a commanding influence among his new neighbors in Arkansas, and in 1850 he was elected justice of the peace of his precinct. His education, effiectively supplemented by extensive reading and investigation, proved sufficient to grapple successfully with any question of public interest affecting his common- wealth and his ability to expound political doctrines recommended him for positions of trust and honor among his fellow men. When the Rebellion arose from the chaotic situation of the decade prior to its outbreak, Colonel Rutherford joined the forces of those favoring seces- sion and in the ensuing campaign was a stalwart Confederate soldier. At the time of the inception of the war he became lieutenant in Cap- tain Dyer's company of State Militia, this company becoming a part of the Seventh Arkansas Infantry when mustered into the Confederate service. At the battle of Shiloh the lieutenant colonel was killed and Colonel Rutherford was promoted to take his place, remaining inenmi- hent of that position in the army until August, 1862, when he resigned and returned home. Subsequently he was appointed provost marshal of Batesville and after serving for a few months in that capacity he was made enrolling officer for the remainder of the war.
1212
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
Colonel Rutherford was originally aligned as an oldline Whig in his political adherency and later he transferred his allegiance to the Democratic party, in the local councils of which organization he has been an active and zealous factor. He was a delegate from Independ- ence county to the state constitutional convention of 1874 and was largely influential in drawing up the present constitution of the state. In 1879 he was elected a member of the state Senate, in which he served with efficiency on the financial committee. During his tenure of the office of senator he was also appointed a member of a special committee formed for the drafting of a revenue bill, which he reported to the Senate. This bill passed both branches of the legislature, but met with the displeasure of the governor, who vetoed it.
On the 12th of November, 1862, was solemnized the mar- riage of Colonel Rutherford to Miss Maria L. Hynson, a daughter of Henry Hyuson, a prominent merchant at Batesville. The children born to this union are,-George L., of Greenville, Texas; James B., who died unmarried; William A., the im- mediate subject of this review; Medford M., of Independence county, Arkansas; May B., who is the wife of Edgar H. Glenn, of Batesville; and Sophia A., who passed away unmarried. With his wife Colonel Rutherford resides six miles south of Batesville.
To the public schools of his native place William A. Rutherford. of this review, is indebted for his preliminary educational training, and subsequently he pursued a course of study in Arkansas College, at Batesville, also attending a commercial college in the city of Little Rock. Ile assumed the active responsibilities of life as a farmer on a tract of land set off for him by his father, and he has had a remark- able and rather spectacular career in the field of agriculture. With- ont attempting to particularize in regard to his achievements, his at- tention has been devoted largely to the raising of corn, cotton and al- falfa, with such success as to make him a "land baron" of the state. More than three thousand acres of arable land along the Arkansas and White river bottoms respond to his magie touch and a still greater area of land stands in his name in Independence and Jefferson conn- ties. His plantations-for they are nothing short of what that term implies-provide homes for more than one hundred and twenty-five families and provide lahor for some six hundred people. His cotton crop, in bales, comes to him by the hundreds, his alfalfa mounts into the hundreds of tons, and thousands of bushels of corn are harvested from the productive valleys in which his interests are centered. Yet notwithstanding his princely domain and the multifarious details to be mastered in connection with its successful operation, Mr. Rutherford is an expansionist. Although he is a busy man, he still has capacity for more work and he reaches out for more land from year to year. He has but few other investments and they are confined to stock in the First National Bank and the Union Bank & Trust Company, of Batesville, in each of which he is a member of the board of directors.
In May, 1896, Mr. Rutherford was united. in marriage to Miss Henrietta Martin, a daughter of J. A. Martin, a resident of Jaekson county, this state. The children of this union are, -Lou Alice, James and William A., Jr. In 1903 Mr. Rutherford removed with his family to the city of Batesville, in order to be near the excellent school facili- ties offered in this place. He is the owner of one of the city's most commodious homes, the same heing located on North Main street. Here his family is comfortably domiciled and this attractive residence is generally renowned as a center of gracious refinement and liberal
1213
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
hospitality. Mrs. Rutherford is a woman of rare charm and many ac- complishments and she presides with special dignity over the affairs of the household.
While never an aspirant for publie office of any description, Mr. Rutherford is a staneh advocate of the principles and policies promul- gated by the Democratic party and he gives freely of his aid and in- fluence in support of all projects advanced for the good of the general welfare. He is a man of broad mind and versatile ability and in his extensive business operations he is widely known for his striet adher- ence to principle, his generosity as an employer and his fair and honorable methods. He is affiliated with various fraternal and social organizations of representative character and his wife is a member of the Presbyterian church, in the different departments of whose work she is most zealous. No eitizen in Batesville commands a higher de- gree of popular confidence and esteem than does Mr. Rutherford, whose contribution to progress and development has ever been of the most in- sistent order.
WILLIAM J. LOCKE, president of the Keo Shingle Company, one of the most important plants of its kind in the state, and standing in the same high eapaeity with reference to the England & Clear Lake Railroad Company, is a citizen of immense value to his partienlar section of the state. To men such as he, possessing unbounded enter- prise and executive ability and publie spirit to correspond, is dne in great part the remarkable growth and improvement experienced by the state in the past several years. In him the Seoteh-Irish amalgama- tion, which has given to America some of her greatest men, appears, and here, as in other eases, its strength is apparent. By the circum- stanee of birth Mr. Locke is a Canadian, his eyes having first opened to the light of day on the 28th day of September, 1858. His father, W. H. Locke, was of Irish aneestry, and his mother, as was indicated by her maiden name of Campbell, was Seoteh. When a child his parents removed from Ontario to Bay City, Michigan, and there he was reared and educated. He was introduced to the lumber business in early vonth and knows it in all its details from the ground up. In 1878. when abont twenty years of age, he made a radical change by setting out to make his own fortunes, and he, in company with George Van Etten, made the journey from Michigan to Arkansas. His first work was as a laborer in lumber mills in this vieinity, and proving faithful and efficient in small things he was given more and more to do. In 1891 he formed a partnership with E. N. Bixby, with whom he operated a mill on contraet work for the Phoenix Lumber Company, at Sherrill. in Jefferson county. In 1894 he and Mr. Bixby organized the Shingle Company in Lonoke county and they operated a shingle and lumber manufacturing business at Keo for two years. About 1897 they re- moved to England, Lonoke county, where they engaged in the mercan- tile business, and soon thereafter they re-established the Keo Company at what is now known as Lockesville (often called Locke's Mill), which is situated five and one-half miles west of England, in Lonoke eounty. The mill has been conducted there with uninterrupted success since that time, and is one of the important lumber and shingle manufactur- ing plants of the state. The Keo Shingle Company is an ineorpora- tion, of which Mr. Loeke is president and Mr. Bixby viee-president. The company, in addition to its timber lands, controls about three thousand aeres of rich agricultural land in the Plum Bayon district of Lonoke county and carries on a general eotton planting business. The Vol. HI-12
1274
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
company also maintains a general store at Lockesville that carries an average stock of about ten thousand dollars' value.
Mr. Locke, finding the need of better railroad facilities a crying one, in 1905 built a line of railroad from England to the plant at Lockesville. In 1910 this road was extended west four and one-half miles to Laster's Landing, on the Arkansas river, making a total of ten miles. Of this road, which is known as the England & Clear Lake Railroad, Mr. Locke is president and Mr. Bixby vice-president. Al- though projected and built as a lumber road, it is now developing into a commercial railroad and will in time become such. It is a standard gauge line and traverses a rich section of Lonoke county.
Mr. Locke has for many years called England his home, although he has a residence at Lockesville, Rural Route No. 1. For six years he gave public service of high character to England in the capacity of postmaster, and he is one of the directors of the Plum Bayou Lovec District. One of Mr. Locke's warmest interests is his Masonic affilia- tion, and he is a Thirty-second degree, Scottish Rite Mason and one of the most prominent figures of the state therein. He is also a Shriner. His personal ideals include the moral and social justice and brotherly love which since fable-environed ages have been the fundamentals of this organization, and, like all good Masons, as well as all good Ameri- cans, believes every man as good as his neighbor as long as he acquits himself properly. Merit alone counts and the "rank is but the guinea's stamp.".
On the 9th day of May, 1890, Mr. Locke established a happy home life by his marriage to Miss Sarah Shelton, who was born in Ohio. They have one daughter, Mabel, now Mrs. High. They are identified with the best social life of their community and enjoy popularity in a wide circle of friends.
HON. WEBB COVINGTON is one of the most conspicuous figures in the history of jurisprudence in Johnson county, Arkansas, having gained distinctive preferment at the bar of this section of the state. He en- tered upon practice in 1898 and his success came soon, for his equip- ments were unusually good, he having been a close and earnest student of the fundamental principles of law. Nature has endowed him with a strong mentality and he has developed that persistent energy and close application without which there is no success. His advance- ment has been continuous and commendable and to-day he is recog- mized as one of the leaders of his chosen profession at Clarksville, where he has long resided. He makes a specialty of criminal law and in that connection has been instrumental in seenring justice in a num- her of specially difficult cases. At the present time, in 1911, he is a member of the state Senate and as such is doing good work on a num- ber of important committees to which he has been appointed.
A native of the state of Georgia, Webb Covington was born in Dawson county in 1873. Ile was reared to adult age in his native place, to the publie schools of which he is indebted for his elementary educational training. After attaining to years of maturity he studied law at Cartersville, Georgia, where he was admitted to the bar in 1890. In that year he came to Arkansas, loeating at Cabin Creek, in John- son county. He did not immediately inaugurate the active practice of his profession but was engaged in other oeenpations until 1898, in which vear he opened law offices in Johnson county. Soon after this event lie removed to Clarksville, the judicial center of Johnson county, where he has since maintained his home and business headquarters. In the
1275
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
work of his profession he is associated with Colonel Jordan E. Cravens, under the firm name of Cravens & Covington.
While Mr. Covington's practice is varied and of a general nature, extending to all the courts, he is perhaps best known as a criminal lawyer, in which branch he seems to be gifted with exceptional efficiency and in which he has been notably successful in winning the cases en- trusted to his care. He has been engaged on one side or the other of nearly every important criminal ease brought up in the western sec- tion of Arkansas. The following case is cited to show his method of procedure: "In February, 1902, a particularly desperate gang of criminals, known as the Dunn gang and composed of the leader, John P. Dunn, George Durham, Fred Underwood and Joe Clark (known as 'Smiler Joe'), in resisting capture by Sheriff John H. Powers killed the sheriff and escaped. Mr. Covington was engaged on the case and for seven months, associated with the succeeding sheriff, he gathered evidence against the gang and effeeted their capture, with the excep- tion of the leader, John P. Dunn, who escaped. The other three were brought to trial and in their proseention Mr. Covington succeeded in having Durham and Underwood hanged and 'Smiler Joe' sent to the penitentiary for twenty-one years."
In 1903 Mr. Covington was elected a member of the state Senate to represent the Fourth senatorial district, comprised of Johnson and Pope counties. He served with the utmost efficiency in that eapacity for a term of four years and in the 1905 session of the Senate was elected and served as president of that august body. In the 1903 ses- sion he figured prominently in much important legislation ; he was the author of and had passed the law creating chancery courts in Arkansas and forming the state into chancery districts. In 1910 he was again elected to membership in the state Senate and in the session beginning in January, 1911, he again took a leading part in important legisla- tion. 1Ie was the author of the hill, which passed the Senate, authoriz- ing the collection of baek taxes from insurance companies doing busi- ness in the state: was also the author of the hill, which likewise passed the Senate, increasing the rate of taxation on insurance companies. He introdneed and was instrumental in the passage of a hill prohibiting discrimination in transmission of news by telegraph and telephone com- panies and fixing penalties for violation of the act; and he also intro- duced a bill, which passed the Senate, for regulating freight rates be- tween points in Arkansas on continnous mileage basis. From the fore- going it is perfectly apparent that Mr. Covington is possessed of loyalty and public spirit of the most insistent order in connection with all mat- ters projected for the furthering of progress and improvement in Arkansas. He is a citizen whose every effort is exerted in behalf of good government and as a business man he is square and honorable in all his dealings.
Mr. Covington married Miss Maggie Hamilton, and this union has been prolific of two children, -Maxie and Vivian. Mr. and Mrs. Covington are popular and prominent in connection with all the best social activities of their home community.
LOUIS JOSEPHIS, Prominent among the leading citizens of Tex- arkana is Lonis Josephs, a prominent lawyer who is well known through- ont Miller county for his philanthropie labors while serving as grand master of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas. I. O. O. F. A native of the German Empire, he was born February 14, 1874, in the province of Koenigsberg, east Prussia, where he spent the first twelve years of his
1216
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
life and obtained his preliminary education. In 1886 he accompanied his parents to Dublin, Ireland, where he attended an English school for two years, and afterward assisted to some extent in maintaining the family, working day times and attending school at night. In 1891 his parents immigrated to the United States and located at Chattanooga, Tennessee, where they have since resided.
Following his parents to America in 1892, Louis Josephs joined them in Chattanooga. Enlisting in the United States Army in Feb- ruary, 1894, he served faithfully for three years, receiving deserved promotion and winning an excellent record for efficiency as a soldier. Being honorably discharged in 1897, Mr. Josephs lived for a number of years in Atlanta, Georgia, where, on August 24, 1897, he was united in marriage with Miss Annie Schiff. Coming from there to Sonth- western Arkansas in May, 1901. he located at Winthrop, Little River county, and was there engaged in mercantile pursuits for eight years.
While at Winthrop Mr. Josephs took up the study of law, and later entered the law department of the University of Arkansas, from which he was graduated with the class of 1908. He was admitted to practice in the State Supreme Court at the same time. but did not engage in practice seriously, however, until 1909. when he settled in Texarkana and opened offices in the State National Bank building. A devoted and enthusiastie member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mr. Josephs has passed through the various chairs of the local and grand lodges. and in 1909 was honored by the Grand Lodge of Arkansas in annual session at Hot Springs by being unani- monsly elected grand master of the Grand Lodge, in which capacity he served the customary term of one year. During that year Mr. Josephs, who has unselfishly given much of his time, without com- pensation, to the philanthropie work of the Odd Fellows, practically gave up his professional and business interests in order to devote his attention to this work, a praiseworthy action, in commendation of which too much cannot be said. At the Grand Lodge session of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows held at Ft. Smith in October, 1910. he was elected to a two-year term as grand representative from Ar- kansas to the Sovereign Grand Lodge. Mr. Josephs is also a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons. being past master of the Blue Lodge at Winthrop, a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas. A. F. & A. M. He has recently be- come a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. hav- ing joined Texarkana Lodge, No. 399. May 31, 1911.
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.