USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 3
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Mr. Mitchell has demonstrated at Fayetteville his prowess as a builder. He has erected cottages and sold them; built homes and rented them; and the results of his efforts are everywhere visible in this town. He has platted a number of additions, among them being Mitchell's Ad- dition, Fairland and Sunset. He is a small fruit-grower and an apple man and works in harmony with the horticultural and agricultural de- partments of the University in exploiting the products of orchard and field. He is a member of the Commercial League and a stockholder of the Citizens' Bank of Fayetteville. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and with the time-honored Masonic order, in the latter of which he is a member of Washington Lodge, No. 1, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Far West Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and Baldwin Commandery, Knights Templars, in which he is a past eminent commander.
On the 20th of September, 1882, Mr. Mitchell was united in mar- riage to Miss Mary L. West, a daughter of James and Jane (Crawford) West, of Tennessee. Mrs. Mitchell was the elder of two children, her only brother being Samuel W. West, general attorney for the Cotton Belt Railroad. Mrs. Mitchell was summoned to cternal rest on the 1st of January, 1909, and she is survived by the following children: Samuel A., who was graduated in the University of Arkansas as a member of the class of 1903, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, later attended the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, in the law department of which he was graduated in 1906, and he is now engaged in the practice of law in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, where he is counsel for the Mercantile Trust Company ; John L. is a merchant at Fayetteville; Sybil Andie is a student in the New England Conservatory of Music, at Boston; and Ara Evelyn is a graduate in the University of Arkansas as a member of the class of 1909, and her father's present companion.
ARTEMUS FLOYD WOLF. The late Artemus Floyd Wolf, of Fayette- ville, was for a few years an active figure in the material growth of the city of his new home and was taken from the community, as well as from his family and friends, just as his usefulness to all became most apparent. Hle was an example of that limited number who go skyward like a rocket in, the realm of finance, and by over-zealousness to duty he actually gave his life to the promotion of schemes of legitimate business which required a high degree of proficiency as an organizer and of ability.
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A young man at his untimely demise, his achievements in a few brief years will show Mr. Wolf to have been of extraordinary mould. He re- ceived his education in the Academy of Paris, Arkansas, and in the Uni- versity of Fayetteville, but he completed the course in neither of these institutions, finding it expedient to begin his combat with the world at an early age. When but seventeen he began teaching in the public schools of Logan county, Arkansas, and although there was general satisfaction over his enlightened methods, he made little more than a living while en- gaged in the capacity of a school-master. He eventually became principal of the schools at Greenwood, Arkansas, and when he abandoned the work there he took the agency of a townsite company and unconsciously trod the path which led to fortune.
In the sphere of promotion such as that in which Mr. Wolf was en- gaged there have been few men who possessed the particular native ability to make it a financial success. In it several strong elements of character are necessary to make an ideal combination and he seemed to possess them. After a year as an agent, in which time he made himself acquainted with the details and dominant features of it, he began putting those principles into practice in an enterprise of his own founding. He organized a com- pany, known as the Security Land Company of Fayetteville, and in time. was working a crew of fifty men. Something of the scope of his transac- tions will be realized when it is known that he opened the townsites of Bessie, Lucien and Hallett, Oklahoma, but he died before the business of the latter was completed. His work in the field of promotion began in 1907 and closed with his death, June 17, 1910.
Mr. Wolf's identification with Fayetteville dated from the year 1904. and the part he played in its development was of the most important char- acter. He was interested in the life of the community in the most altru- istic fashion and his home upon Mt. Nord was a famous domicile. It was the Arkansas building, the handsome structure erected by the state upon the ground of the World's Fair at St. Louis, Missouri, which was pur- chased hy Mr. Wolf and erected upon the most sightly point in Fayette- ville for his own home. Here his friends, and they were many, were ever welcome, the Arkansas Building, as the Wolf residence was generally known, being the center of a generous hospitality.
In his speculations in Fayetteville property Mr. Wolf was one of the conspicuous figures. Among his important achievements in this line was his erection of the Wolf Block, and he was a member of that progressive company which erected that admirable hostelry, the Washington Hotel. At one time he was a stockholder of the Arkansas National Bank. Like most men of wholesome nature, the free life of the country and the lure of pastoral pursuits drew him strongly and he nourished an ambition to abandon the townsite business and engage in fruit-growing near Fayette- ville, instead. This was to be an early consummation, for he had already purchased the Patent estate for the consideration of some fifty thousand dollars, on whose broad acres he intended to establish a country home and engage in the growing of those various fruits to which the salubrious climate of the state is favorable. As a fruit farm Mr. Wolf's property would have had few competitors in all the length and breadth of Arkansas.
Artemus Floyd Wolf was a native of Arkansas, having been born near Paris, this state, and he was still a young man, his birth having occurred November 25, 1875. As his father was a farmer, his years to his majority were spent among the scenes and activities of the country. The father. whose name was William David Wolf, was a native of North Carolina, and he married Lydia Webb. Removing to Arkansas early in their mar- ried life, it was in this state that they reared their family of fourteen chil-
Vol. III-2
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dren. He received his elementary education in the district schools, and its further steps have been previously mentioned.
On June 25, 1899, Mr. Wolf married at Washburn, Arkansas. Miss Ila B. Ford, a daughter of Albert and Nettie (Bell) Ford, natives of Iowa and Arkansas, respectively. The issue of the union of the subject and his wife are Ruth, aged ten ; George, aged eight; and Ford, aged six.
Mr. Wolf is deeply and sincerely regretted in many quarters and by no means the least in Masonic circles. Ile gave generously of his time and attention to Masonry. He took all the degrees in both the York and Scottish Rites, and he had been selected to take the thirty-third degree, but died before it could be conferred. IIe held life membership in the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and his liberality toward enter- prises requiring public support was proverbial. Ile was an active mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church. South, giving his hand to all the good causes promulgated by the Fayetteville congregation, of which he was a trustee. Of him it may be said in the words of the poet.
"To live in hearts we leave behind, Is not to die."
LEIGH REDING PUTMAN is the general manager of the Northwest Arkansas Lumber Company, of Fayetteville, and he is a representative of one of the oldest families of Washington county. He is a son of Dr. Red- ing Putman, a retired physician at Fayetteville, whose residence in Wash- ington county dates from 1836, in which year his father, also Reding Putman (once spelled Putnam), homesteaded on a farm some four miles south of Fayetteville and passed his remaining years in the county as a farmer. Following up the history of the Putmans or Putnams, as they are one and the same family, we find them immigrating westward from North Carolina, where Daniel Putnam seems to have been the remote head. He was the great-grandfather of the subject of this review and his son Reding was born on the 20th of April, 1792, and died in 1865. at Fayetteville. Reding Putman, Sr., was twice married, his first union having been to Miss Stacy Combs. They became the parents of eight chil- dren, concerning whom the following brief data are here offered: Delilah, who married John Risley, died in Washington county, Arkansas; George died at Canton, Illinois, and was survived by a family; Eliza A. became the wife of William Farmer and she passed away in Washington county, this state; James died in Kansas; Prudence married a Mr. Wilcoxen and lived and died in the state of Illinois; Robert died in lowa; and Bennett died in Kansas. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Putman married Phoebe (Marsh) Stelle, widow of Alexander Stelle and a daughter of John and Nancy (Searing) Marsh. She was born in New Jersey on the 14th of May, 1787, and her death occurred on the .11th of May. 1884. To this union was born one child, Dr. Reding Putman, of Fayetteville. Mr. Putman was a soldier in the war of 1812 and prior to that conflict he saw service against the Indians of Indiana, taking part in the battle of Tippe- canoe, under General Harrison, in 1811.
Dr. Reding Putman was horn in Melean county, Illinois, in 1830. His educational training was such as was afforded in the schools of the locality and period. Ile was a child of but six years of age at the time of his parents' removal to Arkansas, where he grew up, making the most of his opportunities and preparing himself for a medical career. Hle studied medieine alone and gleaned the elementary principles of the science as the foundation of his medical knowledge. He practiced upon license instead of on diploma from a college and as time passed reached a point of high efficiency in the treatment of all common diseases. He was en-
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gaged in practice in the ante-bellum days and when he finally abandoned his profession he engaged in the general merchandise business at Fayette- ville, as a partner of George Reed. In those early days all the stock of the mercantile establishment had to be freighted in wagons from St. Louis, Missouri. With the encroachments of age Dr. Putman withdrew from business and he is now living in retirement at Fayetteville. In Washing- ton county was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Putman to Miss Elizabeth Reed, a daughter of John Reed, a native of Tennessee. Mrs. Putman was born in Tennessee in 1835, and she is still living. Dr. and Mrs. Putman had four children, namely: Mrs. Anna King, of Fayetteville; Robert, who passed away when young; Mrs. Mary Deaver, of Springdale, Arkan- sas : and Leigh Reding, the immediate subject of this review.
Leigh Reding Putman was born in Fayetteville. Arkansas, on the 29th of May, 1875. He was educated in the city schools and in the state university, leaving the latter institution prior to his graduation in order to enter the business world. He entered the employ of the Byrnes Lumber ('ompany at Fayetteville and after being identified with their business for a number of years he purchased stock in the Northwest Arkansas Lumber Company, in which thriving concern he was elected secretary and manager in 1899. Mr. Putman is a man of marked business capacity and fine in- tellectual qualifications, and his contribution to the business world of Fayetteville has been of prominent order. In addition to the lumber in- dustry Mr. Putman has other interests in this city of broad scope and importance. He is secretary of the Arkansas Cold Storage & Ice Com- pany, is a director in the Fayetteville Building & Loan Association and he was a charter member of the First National Bank. In politics he is a staunch Republican, and while he has never manifested aught of desire for the honors or emoluments of public office, he has given most efficient service as a member of the city board of aldermen.
On the 5th of June, 1900, Mr. Putman married Miss Nell Byrnes, a daughter of A. M. Byrnes, a lumberman and building contractor at Fay- etteville. Mr. Byrnes was born in Dublin, Ireland, whence he came to America. He married Miss Mary McCoy, and in their family of six chil- dren Mrs. Putman was the third in order of birth. To Mr. and Mrs. Put- man have been born three children,-Reding, Mary E. and William Byrnes.
Mr. Putman is past chancellor of Criterion Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and is ex-vice regent of the Hoo Hoos. He is president of the Arkansas Lumber Dealers' Association, and is a director of the South- western Lumber Dealers' Association, embracing the states of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas.
ALBERT L. TRENT is a representative business man of Fayetteville, with a career as a farmer, public official, banker and real-estate man. Few citizens of Washington county can exhibit a better claim to pioncership of the county than he, for his father founded the family here when this section was but sparsely settled, eight years prior to the admission of Arkansas into the sisterhood of states.
Rev. Josiah Trent, father of him whose name introduces this article, was born in Virginia, in 1801. He was doubly orphaned in childhood and. as a consequence, lost the opportunity of an education. He left his native state alone as a young man and crossed over into the frontier coun- try of Arkansas-then a territory-and established his home five miles west of Fayetteville, in 1828. He turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, that being the only vocation to which he could apply for a liveli- hood, and he was identified therewith during much of the remainder of
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his life. He was converted to the Christian religion before coming west and as settlers gathered in from every direction and churches were formed he was called to serve as a preacher. He was a Methodist in doctrine but was a Christian first, and he did good for the Master's cause among all classes and all creeds. He was essentially a good man and the homely commands of the scriptures were exemplified in his daily life. He pos- sessed a remarkable intellect and his mode of living made a strong and lasting impression upon the new citizenship of his community. He was summoned to eternal rest on the 26th of March, 1876, and the issue of the "Little Rock Democrat" of that week reviewed his life and said, among other things, in summing up the article, that "Rev. Trent was one of the great men of his time here." In Washington county, in 1830, was sol- emnized the marriage of Rev. Trent to Miss Sarah Woolsey, a daughter of Samuel and Matilda Woolsey, who came to Arkansas from Illinois. Mrs. Trent passed away in 1885 and of the children who grew to maturity the following brief record is here incorporated: Matilda became the wife of S. H. Peden and died in Washington county, Arkansas, in 1908. Wesley Clark was a merchant in Washington county for a number of years but is now a resident of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Mary J. is the wife of John McGee and they maintain their home at Alvord, Texas. Martha married Lewis Banks and she was summoned to her reward at Bowie. Texas, about 1885. Sultana died in 1872, unmarried. J. W. M. died in 1894, unmarried, having been county assessor of Washington county for eight years prior to his death. Sallie married Caleb C. Conner and she died in 1886. Camille passed away single, in 1884. Lou S. became the wife of W. H. Smith, who resides in Whittier. California. Albert, the youngest in the family, is the immediate subject of this review.
The grandfather of Rev. Trent was a New Jersey man and he gave twelve sons to become soldiers in the Revolutionary army, one of whom was Rev. Trent's father. William Trent, of this dozen patriot band, was a citizen of the vicinity of Trenton, New Jersey, that city having honored him by taking his name. Rev. Josiah was the youngest in a family of thirteen children and he wandered away from home as a tender youth. Experience with the multifarious affairs of the world developed in him a faculty for organization and his lack of education, alone, barred his way to achievements of state and perhaps national reputation.
Albert L. Trent, of this review, was born at the old Trent home near Farmington, on the 3d of March. 1855. He received a fair education in his youth and began life as a farmer. After a few years he came to Fay- etteville and assumed the reponsibilities of a deputy sheriff, and later he became deputy county clerk. In 1886 he left the courthouse and was made cashier of the Washington County Bank. He served in a similar capacity in the National Bank of Fayetteville and in the Arkansas National Bank at Fayetteville until 1909, when he resigned from the banking business in order to engage in the real-estate business. In this connection he has platted three additions to Fayetteville,-the City Park Addition, in which about fifteen acres are reserved for a public park, with a spring and lake: Trenton Heights and Sunset Additions, all of which property he owned. He is extensively interested in fruit-growing and is developing and improving a stockfarm near town for his home. During his banking career Mr. Trent was absent from . Fayetteville for three years, during which time he was located at Brownwood, Texas, where he was cashier of the First National Bank until 1897, in which year he disposed of his inter- ests and resumed his connection with banking here. In politics Mr. Trent accords a loyal allegiance to the cause of the Democratic party. His in- terest in everything pertaining to the welfare and progress of the state is
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deep and sincere and in as far as he has found it possible he has co-oper- ated in public measures for the general good. His religious faith is in harmony with the teachings of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and he and his wife are numbered among the most popular citizens in Fayetteville.
Mr. Trent has been twice married. In 1882 was solemnized his mar- riage to Miss Mary Allen, a daughter of Andrew and Matilda Allen. She became the mother of three children and was summoned to her reward on the 25th of November, 1895. Of the children, Mary S. is the wife of Pro- fessor J. Melvin Wilson, of Fayetteville; and Bessie M. and Lillian R. remain at the paternal home. On the 1st of June, 1897, Mr. Trent mar- ried Miss Nettie Conner, a sister of Caleb C. Conner, a history of whose career appears on other pages of this work.
MAJOR GREENFIELD QUARLES. Among the notable figures who have lent dignity and honor to the beneh and bar of the state of Arkansas a place of especial distinction must be accorded to Major Greenfield Quarles, a lawyer of high attainments and a citizen of progressive ideas and sound eivie judgment. Ife is a man who has enjoyed a good deal of distinction, being county and probate judge and president of that im- portant organization, the People's Savings Bank & Trust Company. He is likewise one of the well-known veterans, having experienced one of the most thrilling and adventurous of Civil war eareers.
Major Quarles is a native Kentuckian, his birth having occurred in Christian county, that state, April 1, 1847. He received a good educa- tion, attending the private schools of both Clarksville, Tennessee, and Helena, Arkansas, and also the Virginia Military Institute, from which he was graduated July 4, 1870. He was a spirited youth and naturally his sympathies were with the Southland, the seene of his birth and that of his fathers. In consequence at the early age of fifteen he so maneuvered as to enter the Confederate service and was placed on the staff of his unele, Brigadier General, William A. Quarles. He was in the thickest of the conflict and was twiee wounded, the second wound being received at Franklin, Tennessee, while carrying brigade colors. After his recovery he was taken prisoner and was incarcerated at Camp Douglas, Chicago, where he was held for three months. His interest in the comrades of those trying days has never abated and he is dis- tinguished as quite one of the youngest of those brave wearers of the gray and blue who participated in the struggle between the states.
Major Quarles is a son of John N. and Penelope (Brunson ) Quarles, the father a native of Virginia, and the mother of Tennessee. Both par- ents are deceased, the father passing away in March, 1874, and the mother in December, 1907.
In 1870 Major Quarles came to Helena and read law in the office of Tappan & Homer, being admitted to the har in the year 1871. His active practice continued until 1905 and covered a period of nearly thirty-five years, and in this time he achieved high prestige in the pro- fession. In 1905 he was elected president of the People's Savings Bank and Trust Company and is now entering upon his third term as county and probate judge. He has ably represented his district in the legis- lature, being elected in 1879 and re-elected in 1881, and, proving very efficient in his guardianship of the publie interests, his record of forcible and appropriate argument to support his claims in the arena of the state's assembly is still remembered. A Demoerat in polities, he has ever been passionately devoted to the interests and principles of his party, always ready to do anything, to go anywhere, to proclaim its
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ideas and support its candidates. Recommended by his past record in 1884 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the first judicial district and in 1895 was again elected to the legislature, where again he met grave questions with perfect valor and incomparable ability, and, his services to the state being of such notable character, in 1897 he was elected to the state senate, in the upper house. as in the lower, gaining laurels.
Being essentially publie-spirited, Major Quarles is a stanch advocate of the advancement of the public school cause and it is to his unfading credit that he was the first Southern gentleman in eastern Arkansas to take an interest in the public education of the state. For thirty years he was president of the board of education of the city of Helena, being elected in 1872 and serving until 1902, when he resigned, much to the general regret. But his impress has been left upon the schools and their excellence is a monument to his unflagging zeal for the cause of their improvement.
Our subject received the title of major in the following wise. On April 15, 1898, at the inception of the Spanish-American war. Arkansas furnished her quota of men and Major Quarles was appointed major of the First Arkansas Regiment of Volunteer Infantry. Owing to the speedy termination of the conflict the regiment never saw active service and was mustered out October 25, 1898, at Fort Logan H. Roots, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Major Quarles laid the foundation of a household of his own on December 10, 1873, when he was united in marriage to Miss Ida Gist, a native of South Carolina and a daughter of Colonel Thomas Gist, of that state, and Mary ( Bogan) Gist, also of South Carolina. They have one daughter, Lucille, who became the wife of C. I. Polk, of Helena, and their two children, Cadwallader and Greenfield, entitle Major Quarles to the pleasant role of grandfather.
CHARLES B. PADDOCK, M. D., one of the prominent and well known physicians and surgeons of Fayetteville, Arkansas, has been engaged in the active practice of his profession for fully a decade. He is a physician of experience, ability and thorough equipment, and has gained a well de- served reputation throughout Washington county. He is one of the pro- gressive members of the profession, and besides attending to his private practice is also interested in movements projected to advance the standard of the excellence and efficiency of his fellow practitioners throughout the state.
At Utica, New York, on the 18th of January, 1863, occurred the birth of Dr. Charles B. Paddock. His father was the late Dr. Samuel F. Paddock, who practiced medicine in Fayetteville from 1858 to the time of his death, save for a short period during the Civil war, when he re- turned to his old home in the Empire state while the storms of the rebel- lion were at their height. However, he returned to Arkansas in 1863, re- suming his citizenship and the care of his property despite the dangers of military activity and the threats of the Bushwhackers. Dr. Paddock, Sr., was likewise born in Utica, New York, in the same house in which the subject of this review first saw the light of day and where also occurred the birth of his father, Samuel F. Paddock, Sr. Dr. Paddock was born in 1833 and his father was a son of a Scotsman. Samuel F. Paddock, Sr., passed his life in the banking business at Oneida, New York. He married Camilla Cowles and to them were born, George, Robert (deceased), Bray- ton, Samuel F. and Frederick, the latter two of whom are also deceased.
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