USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 29
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Mrs. Barnes received her preliminary educational training in the public schools of Illinois and in those of Fort Smith and through her deep and intelligent interest in all matters pertaining to her husband's business and in current affairs she has developed splendid mental attainments. At Fort Smith, in 1874, was solemnized her marriage to Mr. Barnes and to this union were born four daughters and one son,-Mrs. Elizabeth Eads, Mrs. Adelyn Bushnell, Mrs. Maude Miller, Miss Katherine Barnes, and Thomas H. Barnes, Jr., who died at the age of three years.
Thomas H. Barnes, who died at his home in Fort Smith, on the 13th of April, 1898, was born in Estill county, Kentucky, in 1842 and he was a son of Colonel Sidney M. and Elizabeth (Mize) Barnes, both of whom are deceased. Sidney M. Barnes was likewise born in Estill county, the date of his nativity having been May 10, 1821. He was a lawyer by pro- fession, having been admitted to the Kentucky bar at the age of twenty- one years. At the age of twenty-five years he was elected to represent
To Barned.
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Estill county in the Kentucky state legislature as a Whig. He en- thusiastically and determinedly espoused the Union cause at the outbreak of the Civil war. Prior to the inception of that sanguinary struggle he, in company with Judge John M. Harlan, who later became one of the judges of the United States supreme court, made speeches throughout the Bluegrass commonwealth in opposition to secession. As soon as the war started he recruited and organized a regiment of twelve hundred men, which became known as the Eighth Kentucky Infantry, of which he was made colonel. He participated in many of the battles of the army of the Cumberland, including Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain, in each of which he commanded a brigade. His regiment, the Eighth Kentucky, was the first to plant the Union flag on Lookout Mountain. Originally a Whig, Sidney M. Barnes became a stanch advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party at the time of its organization and in 1868 he was the Republican nominee for the office of governor of Ken- tucky. In February, 1871, he located at Little Rock, Arkansas, where he entered upon the practice of law in partnership with M. W. Benjamin. In 1874 Mr. Barnes was a member of the state constitutional convention and in 1829 he was appointed United States district attorney, by President Hayes, for the Territory of New Mexico, where he resided for a number of years. Late in life he removed to Carthage, Missouri, where his death occurred on the 19th of May, 1890. He was survived by two sons,- Thomas H. Barnes and James Kent Barnes.
Thomas H. Barnes was indebted to the public schools of his native county for his early educational training, that discipline having been later effectively supplemented by a course of study at Center College, Danville, Kentucky. When the dark cloud of the Civil war obscured the national horizon he, like his father, became a sympathizer with the Union cause and he enlisted as a soldier in the Forty-seventh Kentucky Volunteer In- fantry. He saw active service in many important conflicts marking the progress of the war and after the close of the Rebellion, he began the study of law in his father's office. He was admitted to the bar and in 1871 accompanied his father on his removal to Arkansas. He, however, did not locate at Little Rock, hut proceeded directly to Fort Smith, where he established a permanent home and inaugurated the practice of law. He was a particularly able and versatile lawyer. For four years he was incumbent of the office of United States district attor- ney for the Western district of Arkansas, which position he held at the time of his death, but most of his success and distinction as a lawyer came from his individual clientage, his work being largely in the federal court at Fort Smith. For a number of years he was a law partner of the late Colonel E. C. Boudinot. During the memorable years that Fort Smith was the federal court headquarters for the Indian territory and a large stretch of country beyond, Mr. Barnes' practice in this court was very large, often keeping him busy day and night for months at a time. The amount of work he accomplished was at times prodigious, but, possess- ing a fine mental and physical equipment, he was always equal to a successful completion of the tasks that came to him. His figure looms large in Fort Smith's historic federal court period. He was one of the coterie of high-minded lawyers who loved their profession in its noblest traditions and never deviated from a high ethical standard. An orator of power, a keen lawyer, an acute logician, and withal a student of men, possessing a rare insight into their natures, Mr. Barnes was, indeed, a man of fine legal ability. He ever commanded the most loyal admiration and respect of his fellow practitioners and as a citizen his condnet was at all times irreproachable. He was affiliated with a number of professional
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and fraternal organizations of representative character. Mr. Barnes' death, on the 13th of April, 1898, was deeply mourned by a large circle of friends and acquaintances throughout Fort Smith and Sebastian county and it is conceded that no one ever manifested a more sincere and helpful interest in the good of the general welfare than did he.
DR. MASKELL CURWEN KARR. One of the most promising young men in Little Rock, Arkansas, is Dr. Maskell Curwen Karr, the physi- cian who has recently established himself in the practice of the medieal profession in this city. A professional man, and above all a physician, may always be looked upon as making more or less a sacrifice of himself to aid humanity and the cause of science. He receives less monetary returns for his work than a business man and yet as a general thing he has expended much more time and money in preparation for his career than the business man. The physician who looks upon his profession as a means of livelihood is an utter failure. Monetary considerations had very little to do with Dr. Karr's choice of a profession.
Born among us, in Little Rock, in November, 1883, many of us re- member his father, John Karr. who died November 24, 1894. John Karr was born near Cleves, Whitewash township. Hamilton eounty. Ohio, in 1835. He was edueated in Ohio, studying law in the Cincinnati Law School, from which he graduated in the class of 1859. Prior to this law course he had taught school, beginning when he was but eighteen years of age. In the early part of the war he founded and was editor of the Ohio Republie at Cincinnati, this paper being largely devoted to promulgating the principles of the Union. During the war, by appoint- ment of Governor Brough, he was state military claim agent. Mr. Karr was the founder of the Cincinnati Star, which began publication in 1867 and which later was combined with the Times under the name of the Times-Star, and in which Mr. Karr was in partnership with Charles P. Taft, the present owner of this paper, Mr. Karr having sold out his interest in the paper to Mr. Taft in October, 1877. In that year Mr. Karr came to Little Roek and praetieed law in this city until 1883, when he returned to journalism and founded and was the editor of the Rural Workman, an agricultural paper. His plant burned in 1889, and in that same year he was appointed by President Harrison to the posi- tion of state statistician for the agricultural department. In addition to this he was corresponding secretary for the State Agricultural So- ciety. About 1880 he had established a fine fruit farm adjoining Little Rock on the west and adjoining the present location of the Country Club, this farm being his home for the rest of his life. In his later years he took great interest in agriculture and horticulture in addition to the literary work towards which he had always been strongly drawn. In his early life in Cincinnati he was a member of the Cincinnati Literary Club, which numbered among its members sneh men as Hayes, Garfield and other well known characters. He was a Republican in polities, being a very influential member of the party. He was a man whose loss was deeply felt not only by his family and his friends hut by the whole county. He had married Fannie Hughes, a lady who was born in the same county and township as he, both of the families being of early pioneer stock in Hamilton county. Her grandfather, Ezekiel Hughes, bought the first tract of land ever sold west of the Great Miami. Mrs. Karr is still living in Little Rock, where she is loved and respected not only for the sake of her husband, but on account of her own sweet, gracious personality.
Her son, Maskell Curwen, received his education in Little Rock
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and in Cincinnati; in the latter city he was graduated from the Hughes High School in 1902, after which he studied medicine in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, graduating therefrom in the elass of 1909. After spending one year as interne in Seton Hospital of Cin- einnati, he established himself in the practice of his profession in Little Rock, where he has already a number of patients, each one of whom has become his staunch friend and supporter. Dr. Karr is one of the progressive physicians who believe in nature's remedies wherever prac- ticable. He has the enthusiasm of youth combined with the knowledge that generally comes with more mature years. Dr. Karr's personality is such that he is very popular, not only professionally but socially. He has a great future before him in Little Roek.
RICHARD H. THOMPSON. The city of Little Rock is particularly blessed by the fine citizenship of its younger generation, and prominent among those young men who contribute by their ability and staneh character to its high standing among Southwestern eities is Richard H. Thompson. assistant cashier of the Exchange National Bank. Mr. Thompson was born in Little Rock and here has passed his entire life, his love of its institutions being of the most loyal character. The Thompsons have been identified with Little Rock since within a very short time after the Civil war, the first of the family to come to the city having been the subject's father, Andrew J. Thompson, and hoth father and son have always been identified with some financial institution.
Mr. Thompson of this review was born in Little Rock on the 18th day of May, 1872, his parents being Andrew J. and Emily (Hubbard) Thompson. The former was born in Somerset county, New Jersey, in 1844, and was there reared and educated. His boyhood was passed in that serious and thoughtful time when the Nation was going down into the "Valley of Decision" and when the great question, "Shall the Nation live?" which had so long pressed for settlement was about to be tried out. He was still in school when the war came on and at the age of nineteen years he joined the Union army and served throughout the conflict. Soon after the return of peace Andrew J. Thompson came to Little Roek and took charge of the savings bank which had been established in this city by the Freedman's Bureau, and was known as the Freedman's Savings Bank. It was located on the southeast corner of Louisiana and Markham streets, in the building which later was known as the Mutual Life Building. In 1878 Mr. Thompson became identified with the German Savings Bank (now the German National Bank), this being the oldest monetary institution in the city. He was at first assistant cashier and later vice-president of that bank, being actively identified with its management until 1883, when, in association with a number of others, he organized a new street railway company in Little Rock and built several miles of street railway operated with horse ears. His company eventually bought out the old street railway line and the two were then operated as one system, this continuing till the purchase of the line by outside capitalists, who changed it into an electric line. In February, 1887, Mr. Thompson went to Pine Bluff, where he assisted in organizing and took charge of a new bank in that city. His career was unfortunately ent short by his death at the zenith of his usefulness as a business man and citizen. He is remembered by all as a man of the finest type and his death was universally re- gretted. He was particularly able and efficient as a banker and ever possessed the confidence of the business world. He was a prominent Mason and Knight Templar, being grand commander of the Arkansas Knights. Mrs. Thompson, who survives her husband and makes her
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
residence at Little Rock, was born in Henry county, Indiana, her father being Richard Hubbard. She came to Little Rock when a girl and taught a school for the negro children that was conducted under the auspices of the Freedman's Bureau of the government, the Hubbards, like the Thompsons, being people of strong emancipation sentiment.
Richard H. Thompson was reared and educated in Little Rock, and has been engaged in banking since he became eighteen years of age. At that age he accepted a position with the old First National Bank, with which institution he was connected for three years. He then be- came associated with the old Citizens Bank, which was later merged into the Exchange National, and continued with that for four years. In 1898 he engaged with the German National Bank and was with that bank continuously until June, 1911, during the latter period of which he held the position of assistant cashier. In June, 1911, he took the position of assistant cashier of the Exchange National Bank, his present position.
Mr. Thompson contracted a happy marriage when on the 16th day of March, 1898. Miss Susie Wiegel. daughter of Lewis Wiegel, became his bride, their union being celebrated in Little Rock. They have three children, namely : Richard HI., Jr., Lewis Andrew and Frank Earle, and their home is an abode of culture and charm.
GEORGE ARMSTRONG LEIPER. the president of Leiper & Company. wholesale and retail dealers in lime, cement, sewer pipe, tiling, brick, etc .. is the originator and guiding spirit of one of the important enterprises that contribute materially to the industrial and commercial prestige of the city, and both as a business man and a citizen of high ideals is well entitled to consideration in this historical compilation. Mr. Leiper is a Southerner, his birth having occurred at Nashville, Tennessee, on the 9th day of March. 1855. and his parents being George A. and Mary (Spence) Leiper.
Mr. Leiper was reared and educated in Nashville and came to Little Rock in young manhood, the date of his arrival in the city being Janu- ary 5. 1884. This change of residence was to take the position of man- ager for the lessees of the Arkansas State Penitentiary, which he filled until 1888. He then returned to Nashville for a year, coming back to Little Rock at the end of the twelve months and resuming his former position, which he held until 1893. The year mentioned marked his advent into the industrial world. for he then established a brick mann- facturing plant. which he successfully condneted here for a period of about ten years. In 1900 he established the present business of G. A. Leiper & Company, wholesale and retail dealers in lime. portland cement and other building materials in that line. together with sewer pipe and various other kinds of pipe, tile, fire clay, fire brick, sand and the like. Ile has experienced success and this has been but the logical result of good judgment, fine executive capacity, enterprise and high prin- eiples. He is extremely publie spirited and has done much to advance all those causes likely to result in benefit to the whole of society. He is a charter member of the Quapaw Club and of the Country Club and is affiliated with various other organizations.
On the 20th day of April. 1885. Mr. Leiper was united in mar- riage to Miss Florence Caruthers, of Memphis, Tennessee, daughter of the late Captain J. S. Caruthers, a distinguished Confederate soldier and representative of an old-time Southern family. They share their
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charming and cultured home with six sons and daughters, namely : Brent Spence, Florence, Mary, George A., Jr., Frances and Ellen.
The subject's uncle, Philip Brent Spence, for whom his eldest son is named, was commander in what is said to have been quite the last engagement of the Civil war. This gentleman now resides in Nashville. The following account of the affair referred to and the achievements of the distinguished officer recently appeared in a publication of Little Rock :
"Colonel Spence entered the - Confederate service as a lieutenant and by meritorious service rose to the rank of colonel commanding, and is said to have been in command of the Confederate rear guard in the last engagement of the war at Four Mile creek, near Whistler, Alabama, April 12, 1865. This distinguished cavalry leader was born on the Charlotte road a few miles from Nashville, near the Leiper plantation, and came of pioneer stock, his father, Brent Spence, having emigrated from Belfast. Ireland, and settled in Davidson county, Tennessee, in 1810. His mother was Elizabeth Shute, daughter of John Shute, one of the earliest pioneers. Colonel Spence was a student at Princeton College when the war broke out, and he left to enlist in the Confederate army. He was commissioned a lieutenant April 14, 1861, and reported in June to Major General, afterward Lieutenant General Leonidas Polk at Memphis, with whom he served as assistant inspector general until after the battle of Chickamauga. He was promoted several times for meritorious service in the provisional army. Colonel Spence later was placed in command of the Sixteenth Confederate Cavalry regiment and took part in the battles of Belmont, Perryville, Shiloh, Corinth, Mur- freesboro, Chickamauga, the Atlanta Campaign and minor engagements in Georgia, Alabama and around Mobile. In his official report of the Mobile campaign, General Dabney H. Maury said, 'Canby was moving with 60,000 soldiers and Farrugut's fleet to attack 8,000 ill-appointed Confederates and capture them. * It is true Colonel Spence * handled his men with excellent skill and courage, for he made 60,000 Federals move very circumspectly every day and entrench themselves every night against them, and here I will say Colonel Spence was one of the most efficient and comfortable outpost commanders I ever had to deal with. He always took what was given him and made the most of it. He was devoted. active, brave and modest. and did his duty to the very last day of our existence as an army.'
"In 'Destruction and Reconstruction' by Lieutenant General Rich- ard Taylor, is the following statement about the retreat from Mobile : 'During the movement from Mobile toward Meridian occurred the last engagement of the Civil war in a cavalry affair between the Federal advance and our rear guard under Colonel Spenee.'
"Colonel Spence married in Kentucky after the war and made his home at Newport, Kentucky. He was postmaster of Newport during Cleveland's first administration, and was United States consul at Quebec. Canada, under President Cleveland's second administration. About ten years ago he removed to Nashville, Tennessee, where he is still living. at a ripe old age."
GEORGE E. COCKMON is a well-known citizen of Little Rock, being prominent in real estate cireles and very active in the promotion of Arkansas lands and in agricultural and horticultural development. He firmly believes in the future of this part of the Southwest and has assisted materially in its development. His operations include a wide variety of properties, including large and small plantations, pine lands.
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cut over lands, hardwood lands; phosphate, coal, marble, granite and mineral lands; apple, peach and berry farms; stock, dairy and poultry farms. Mr. Cockmon's firm is thoroughly conversant with every acre of land in the state as to topography and the productive qualities of the soil, and have associated with them an eminent authority in the person of R. A. Campbell, the veteran expert land and timber man of Arkansas, who has had twenty-five years' experience in cruising and estimating lands, this gentleman having sole charge of the land, farm and timber department.
George E. Cockmon is a native of Saline county, Arkansas, where his birth occurred on the 25th day of May, 1872. His father was the late W. S. Cockmon, who was born in North Carolina and came to Arkansas in 1856, settling in what was then a portion of Pulaski county, but which by subsequent cutting off became a part of Saline county. He enlisted in the Confederate army in Pulaski county at the breaking out of the war between the states and served throughout the conflict as a member of the Third Arkansas Infantry. He was a farmer by occupation and was a man highly respected in his community.
Mr. Cockmon of this review was born and reared upon the farm, but he has not had much personal experience with the great basie industry, for while still a young boy he moved to Little Rock and attended school in this city, his residence here dating from the year 1888. His first position of importance was as a carrier in the postoffice, and his service in this capacity extended over a period of six years under Postmasters James Mitehell and W. S. Holt. Since 1902 he has been actively engaged in the real estate business and he has met abund- ant success in this field, being one of the most prominent real estate men in the eity. In 1911 he enlarged the scope of his business, reorgan- izing it on a more extensive scale and operating under the firm name of George E. Coekmon & Company, with offiees at 219 West Markham street. He is taking an active and very definite part in the great new movement which is rapidly bringing Arkansas to the front and developing its rich natural resources. He is essentially publie-spirited and the friend of good government and progress.
Mr. Coekmon married in 1892 Miss Annie Dighl, of Little Roek. They have one child, a daughter Claudia. Mr. Coekmon is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the Letter Carriers' Associ- ation.
JUDGE JOHN W. BLACKWOOD is one of the most prominent and able members of the beneh and bar of Little Rock. He is a lawyer of the highest attainments, has acted as special judge in both the Circuit and State Supreme Court, while as a lawyer he represents corporations of importance and other business interests. He is fortunate in possessing a most excellent legal mind. He gets at the heart of a question and, discovering quickly the underlying principles of law, states his eonelu- sions in clear, terse English. Little Roek possesses a legal fraternity of high prestige, and it is to such men as the subject that this gratifying fact is due.
Judge Blackwood is a native son of the state. his birth having occurred at Old Austin, in Lonoke county, on the 16th day of July, 1855. Ilis family is one which has been identified with the state for over half a eentury, his father, John Blackwood. a native of North ('arohna, having left that commonwealth some years previous to the Civil war, coming to Arkansas and settling in Lonoke county. This step was taken in the year 1855. The elder gentleman was a man of no
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small influence in the community in which his interests were eentered. The subjeet's mother previous to her marriage was Nehedabell Swain, and she was born in North Carolina. The Blackwood family is of Welsh origin, and was founded in America in the Colonial period.
It is to the glory of American institutions and American oppor- tunity that Judge Blackwood, although one of the distinguished law- yers of the state, is practically self-educated. He passed his boyhood and youth in what is now Lonoke county and received his elementary education in the publie sehools. Having come to the conclusion to adopt the law as his profession, he attacked his Blackstone with valor and finished his preparation in the law elass in Little Rock in 1879, under the direct tuteledge of Colonel Sam W. Williams. He was admitted to the bar in Little Rock in 1879 and began practicing his profession in that year in Little Rock, which has ever since been the field of his activities. He formed a partnership with his old college mate, J. E. Williams, which continued for twenty-eight years. He met with reeog- nition and suceess and after a career of thirty active years he is known over a wide area.
On the 12th day of January, 1887, Judge Blackwood was married at Windsor, Canada, his chosen lady being Miss Georgie O. Waters, a native of Canada and a daughter of Thomas Waters. Judge and Mrs. Blackwood share their charming and hospitable home with one son, Gordon F. Blackwood.
CHARLES A. WADDELL. The office of county surveyor of Greene county is the particular field of usefulness in which are engaged the energies of Charles E. Waddell. He has served since 1904, having been three times re-elected. and this faet is sufficient in itself to show how well he has performed its duties and is an eloquent tribute to his worth and capacity. Possessed of all the requirements of the position, he has discharged the duties of the office in a manner to satisfy in every way the people of the district.
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