USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 30
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Mr. Waddell has resided in Greene county for more than a score of years, the date of his first identification with it being 1889. In that year he eame to the state from Lamar county, Alabama, where his birth took place Jannary 6, 1861. His father, Jesse Waddell, was a native of North Carolina, whose birth occurred about the year 1817. He removed to Alabama in early life, gave signal proof of his loyalty to the sentiments of his section as a Confederate soldier at the time of the Civil war, and died as he had lived, on the farm, the year of his demise being 1867. He married Martha E. Fleming, who still ocenpies the homestead upon which she reared her children, this venerable lady being seventy-six years of age. Mr. Waddell's brothers and sisters, Mary F., wife of John Holly; Eliza, wife of James Colvin ; Robert W. and Jesse, all reside in the vieinity of Kennedy, Alabama.
Charles E. Waddell seeured his odueation in the common sehools, and when it came to taking his role in the workaday world it was in the first place as a farmer. However, when he eame to Arkansas he engaged in teaching in the common schools and he spent several years in the work. The long vaeation and "short" salary of the teacher in the rural schools gave little encouragement to an ambitious man and he abandoned the pedagogieal profession to become a real estate broker. This new field of endeavor brought his into close toneh with the county records and with the force having in charge the surveying of lands with which he was dealing. He was indneed to stand for the office of surveyor in 1904 and was named as the candidate of the Democratie party that year
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and was elected. He has been three times re-elected and his adminis- tration has handled the drainage surveys of Greene county, comprising one hundred and twenty-five miles of ditch and rendering useful some three hundred thousand acres of swamp lands. His interest in real estate continues in an incidental way and his financial connections with the county comprise a few investments in line with the vocation he follows.
In a social and fraternal way Mr. Waddell is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, belonging to the Blue Lodge and Chapter of Paragould in the time-honored Masonic order, of whose good principles he is a true exemplar, and belonging to Camp No. 237, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He also belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen. Mr. Waddell is unmarried.
JAMES KENT BARNES was born at Irving. Estill county, Kentucky. He was the son of Sydney M. Barnes, an eminent lawyer of that state, who. as a Republican, was a most prominent factor in its politics, and was identified with its war history. In 1871, James K. Barnes removed from Lancaster, Kentucky, where he had studied law under the widely known Judge Allen Burton, to Little Rock, where he continued his legal studies under his father until he was admitted to the bar. He at once sprang into prominence as a lawyer and was elected eity attorney. His election to that office was a marked tribute paid to his known legal ability. At the expiration of his term of office he married Miss Mary Yonley, of Quaker descent, daughter of Samuel H. Yonley, of Virginia, and a niece of the late Judge T. D. W. Yonley, who served with distinc- tion as chancellor and chief justice of the state of Arkansas. Miss Yon- ley stood high in the favor of the community because of her beauty, in- telligenee and graces of heart and manner. Shortly after his marriage Mr. Barnes and his wife took up their residence in Fort Smith, then a center of legal turmoil, because of the lawlessness in the adjacent Indian Ter- ritory, and the former entered upon the practice of the law principally in the Federal court, before which were tried many noted cases in which Mr. Barnes appeared either as leading or associate counsel. His success caused him to become widely known and sought after within the juris- dietion of that court.
['pon his arrival in Fort Smith Mr. Barnes almost at once took very active interest in municipal affairs, and became one of the recog- mized leaders of the Republican party, an honor he retained up to a short time before his death, he eschewing politics. His distinctiveness in public spirit, his initiative, and diversified abilities made him a factor in mu- nicipal affairs. Although a Republican and active in the interests of his party, he served several terms in a Democratic body, namely, the city council. As an alderman he very materially accentuated the publie spirit of the community. Many suggestions made by him and which he stren- uously advocated, but which failed to find favor with a majority of his colleagues, were adopted years afterwards by succeeding bodies, and were an evidence of his foresight and soundness of judgment. His activity as a Republican and his finesse as a politician, made of him a member of the State Republican Central Committee. and he remained a leader in that organization for many years. He was a member of the National Re- publican Convention in 1880 and enjoyed the distinction of being one of the famous "306." He was appointed postmaster by President Arthur and was reappointed by Presidents Harrison and Mckinley because of his splendid service. Ile only served one year of the Mckinley term, resign- ing to accept the appointment of United States District Attorney of the
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Western District of Arkansas to which he was reappointed by President Roosevelt and which he held at the time of his death which occurred February 10, 1909. The above enumeration of honors is palpable proof of his worth as a public servant in high places. His death ended a career of public service in one form or another, covering a period of more than a quarter of a century. Fraternally he was a Mason and a Knight of Pythias.
James K. Barnes was a man of well rounded individuality and equability of mind. He lived under the Golden Rule. He spoke noth- ing but good of his enemies. To give every man the meed of praise to which he was entitled and speak in no way of his faults was characteristic of him. James Kent Barnes, as a lawyer and a public official, was essen- tially a man of details and to that trait was due in great part his success. He reasoned instead of jumping to conclusions. As a practicing attorney and United States district attorney, he always went to trial with his cases well prepared, fortified by both law and evidence. He never sought con- viction when he doubted the justness of a conviction. He took no unfair advantage of the defendant, through technicalities, in the interest of the government. In the trial of his cases he seldom went amiss. He per- formed his duty as he saw it, unhampered by the influence of friends or the fear or enemies. He was not commercial in his aspirations. He was implacable when the evidence before him demonstrated guilt. He made no bid for glory. His close application to his duties as United States district attorney, laid the foundation of the illness which caused his death.
As an individual James K. Barnes was a jolly good fellow. Bright and witty of speech he was very companionable and added greatly to the pleasure of the social occasion. He was essentially domestic in his nature and his home life was ideal. His married life was in all respects the fruition of his early hopes and he highly prized the companionship of his wife. The devotion of the couple to the interests of one another was a subject of complimentary comment on all sides. James Kent Barnes snugly filled a large niche in the economy of life. He lived his life with his face to the sun.
The beloved widow of Mr. Barnes stands as admirable an example of useful and honorable womanhood as was her husband of manhood. She was born and educated in Winchester, Virginia, and is descended from one of the notable families of that state. She received an excellent edu- cation, attending the Dunbar Institute and the Angerone School, of Win- chester. Her parents eventually removed to Little Rock and it was there that she met and married Mr. Barnes. Mrs. Barnes is gifted as an artist, particularly in oils, and her charming home, which has long been the center of gracious hospitality, is adorned with highly commended products of her brush. She has for some years been a prominent figure in the ยท enlightened work of the Arkansas Federation of Women's Clubs, and she has served as second and first vice-presidents of the Federation. She also organized and is president of the Sebastian County Historical Society.
SAMUEL B. BRADBURN is one of the prominent and highly respected citizens of the locality and is general manager of the Paragould Handle & Manufacturing Company, whose continual progress and present stand- ing is largely credited to the experience, executive ability and tireless energy of this gentleman. Mr. Bradburn, who has been a resident of this locality since 1899, came hither from Union county. Kentucky. where has was born November 10, 1863. While approaching manhood
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he received a limited education in the rural schools and himself spent a few years engaged in the great basic industry.
However, Mr. Bradburn soon began to look about him for a business which promised faster returns than the farm, and he soon established himself in the grain business at Sturgis, Kentucky. He carried on this business as an actual dealer and as a speculator, as well, but at the end of seven years he took stock of his resources and found that he was without capital further to indulge his penchant for speculation and accordingly he left his old haunts to "begin anew."
According to Mr. Bradburn's views, Arkansas appeared a promis- ing place for industry properly applied and he accordingly located at Paragould, with the modest sum of seventy-five dollars as a nucleus of yet unmade fortunes. He concluded to engage in the milling business and erected a little "coffee-pot" in which he began getting out spokes. His eight horse power boiler and engine made hickory into salable articles surprisingly fast and the profits therefrom enabled the owner to expand the mill and increase the output. In 1905 he sold an inter- est in the plant to the Keller & Tamm Manufacturing Company of St. Louis, and the factory was chartered with a paid-up capital of ten thousand dollars. P. (. Scott is president of the company ; Theodore Loahman is vice-president; and Mr. Bradburn is secretary and treasurer. The capacity of the plant is large indeed, consisting daily of nine thou- sand wagon spokes, two thousand single trees and four thousand handles, and gives employment to thirty-five men about the mill, while an equal number are engaged in the forest getting out raw material. The greater part of the product of the concern is intended for domestic consump- tion, although there are a few foreign correspondents.
In glancing at the forbears of Samuel B. Bradburn, we find that the father was John W. Bradburn, and that he was born in Kentucky in 1824, and passed the greater.part of his useful life in Union county. that state. The grandfather, Johnson Bradburn, was one of the many Virginians who emigrated to the Blue Grass state, where he lived and died a farmer. The subject's mother was Martha Wallace, who died in 1889, at the age of seventy years, her honored husband surviving her for two years. The issue of their union were as follows: James J., of Sturgis, Kentucky; Florence, wife of W. P. Woodard. of Paragould, Arkansas; Benjamin, who died at Fort Worth, Texas; and Samuel B., of this review.
Mr. Bradburn contracted a particularly happy marriage when in March, 1889, he was united in his native county to Miss Carrie B. Farmer, a danghter of William Farmer, who went there from Indiana. Mrs. Bradburn was one of a family of six children and she and Mr. Bradburn are the parents of an interesting quartet of children. namely : Curry, Jesse, Miss Sammie and Lorain.
Mr. Bradburn is a Democrat by inheritance as well as hy personal conviction and in his religious faith is a Baptist. He is an Odd Fellow and a "Workman" and he has contributed to the development of Paragould by the erection of an excellent residence at No. 331 Poplar street. His business interests are such as to give him little leisure for other matters, but he is swayed in all his dealings by the finest ideals of good citizenship.
PERRY E. HOUSE. Standing conspicions among the active, pros- perous and progressive business men of Paragonld is Perry E. Honse. who is not only identified with the milling, grain and feed interests of this lively little city, but is an extensive dealer in cement and plaster,
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and takes contracts in concrete work, being senior member of the firm of House & Meiser, which has achieved a distinct and positive place among the permanent concerns of Greene county. He was born Janu- ary 11, 1866, in Crawford county, Indiana, which was likewise the birthplace of his father, John F. House. His grandfather, John House, was born in Virginia, where his immigrant ancestor settled in early Colonial days, coming to America from Germany. Subsequently mi- grating to Crawford county, Indiana, he improved a farm from the wilderness, and there reared his children, bringing them up to habits of industry and thrift. Some of his sons subsequently demonstrated their patriotism by serving as soldiers in the Union army during the Civil war.
John F. House was born in 1839, and has followed general farming throughout his entire life. He married Nancy Byrum, and into the household thus established twelve children were born.
As a country lad born and bred, the youthful life of Perry E. House was devoted to the multifarious employments of the farm, while the district school provided him with his education. Leaving the pa- rental roof-tree on achieving his majority, he was for three years em- ployed as salesman in a store in the near-by town of Marengo. Com- ing to Greene county, Arkansas, Mr. House secured a position as book- keeper of the Paragould Roller Mills. In 1901, after the destruction of the original mill by fire, Mr. House engaged in the milling business on his own account, and in 1903 was joined by his present partner, Mr. Meiser, the firm name being House & Meiser. The products from the mill of this enterprising firm are largely consumed in and around Para- gould, and it also furnishes a small market for corn here grown and converted into meal and chop. The stock of lime, cement and plaster kept on hand by Messrs. House and Meiser enters prominently into the building going on in Greene county, while a portion of it is consumed by the numerous contracts in concrete or other plastie work which the firm executes.
Always maintaining himself ready to perform the duty of a thoroughly loyal and public-spirited citizen, Mr. House takes his poli- ties in Democratie doses, and has for some time represented the First Ward in the City Council. As a public official he aided in the estab- lishment of the Paragould Water Works system and in the planning and installing of the sewer system, two important factors in the estimate of a modern town. Fraternally he is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Order of Masons and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He has been associated with the upbuilding of the town, being responsible for the erection of a business house and of his own commodi- ous residence at the corner of Garland and Third streets.
Mr. House married, March 7, 1894, Hattie Nash, a daughter of John O. Nash, who came to Paragould from Crawford county, Indi- ana. Her father had been married prior to his union with Mrs. Nash, and had children by his first wife. Mr. and Mrs. House have one child, a daughter named Ruth.
CHARLES A. RAITH. A man of tireless energy, in the prime of a vigorous manhood, Charles A. Raith is actively identified with the growth and advancement of one of the leading industries of Paragould, being secretary of the Henry Wrape Company, manufacturers of light barrel staves and circled heading. He was born February 25, 1852, in Saint Louis, Missouri, where he was hred and educated. His father, Julius Raith, was born near Suttgardt, Germany, in 1817, where in
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addition to acquiring a liberal education he learned the trade of a millwright. When a young man he came to Saint Clair county, Illi- nois, with his parents, who settled on a farm in that county, and there spent their remaining days. About 1849 he migrated still further west- ward, locating in Saint Louis, Missouri, and was there busily employed as a mill and factory builder for many years. He was living there when the tocsin of war resounded throughout our land, and it was largely through his loyal patriotism, which influeneed the German citi- zenship of that city, that saved it and possibly the state of Missouri from becoming Confederate territory. When the Civil war really broke out, Julius Raith was commissioned colonel of the Forty-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and was killed in April, 1862, at the battle of Pittsburg Landing. He married Elizabeth Hughes, an American lady, who died in 1857, leaving two children, namely : Edwin, a miller by trade, died at Trenton, Illinois, in 1909: and Charles A.
('harles A. Raith grew up from childhood in the home of his unele, Dr. Adolph Reuss, and from his environment after he was ten years old became proficient in the German language. He attended the Chris- tian Brothers College several terms, subsequently being graduated from a commercial college in Saint Louis, Mo. Beginning his active career as a clerk. he did office work in that eity until 1889. when he first made his advent in Arkansas. Stopping first at Saint Franeis, Mr. Raith kept books for a time in a large saw mill, and when he fell in with the Wrape people he had acquired some of the experience and equipment required for a practical man of affairs. Subsequently resigning his position as book-keeper, he eame to Paragould to enter the employ of the Henry Wrape Company as foreman of its heading department. In this capacity he showed such intelligence and efficiency that in 1896 he was made an officer of the company, and at once assumed its manage- ment.
The Henry Wrape Company is one of prominence among the timber concerns of the United States and maintains its headquarters in Saint Louis. In 1889 its mill was built in Paragould, some loeal stock- holders being taken in. A stave mill is an important part of their plant in Paragould, and the company also operates a factory at Searcy, Arkansas, the trio of plants constituting an industry which adds much to the population of the towns affected and carries a healthful influence in the industrial and commercial life of those places.
Mr. Raith married, in Paragould, February 1, 1899, Mattie Morris, who was born in Union City, Tennessee, in April, 1865, and they have two children, twin daughters, Myrtle and Mabel, born April 8, 1903.
Mr. Raith is a stanch Republican in his political affiliations, and is serving as a member of the Paragould Common Council, having been elected to that body without regard to his political views in a Democratie stronghold. Fraternally Mr. Raith is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows; of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; of the Modern Woodmen of America; and of the Woodmen of the World. At 326 West Court street is the home of Mr. Raith and his family, a modest cottage, which came into being at his own suggestion, and is among the beauty spots inhabited by the busi- ness men of the city.
ROBERT W. MERIWETHER. Prominent among the leading and long- est-established merchants of Paragould is Robert W. Meriwether, who as junior member of the firm of W. W. Meriwether & Son located here in 1883, at inception of the town, and has now the distinetion of being
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the only one of the six men that opened stores at that time to be still actively engaged in the same line of business. A son of William Winston Meriwether, he was born November 17, 1862, in Saint Francis county, Arkansas, where his parents had taken refuge when fleeing from Tiptonville, Tennessee, to escape the rigors of war, which was early thought to require but a military demonstration by the South to achieve its hopes for a new nation, and while the contest was in progress the women, children and slaves of the Meriwether family lived in Arkansas, near Marianna.
William D. Meriwether, Mr. Meriwether's grandfather, was an extensive farmer and slave owner of Kentneky, his plantation being located not far from Mayfield. He married a Miss Dabney, and of their children the three sons, Robert. David and William W., served as soldiers in the Confederate army. The daughters were Kate, who married Thomas Jordan; Sarah, wife of L. A. Lewis, of New Madrid, Missouri; and Hattie, who married Joe Tipton, and passed her life in Tiptonville, Tennessee.
William Winston Meriwether was born in Kentucky, near Louis- ville, in 1833, and received his education in his native state, in the cities of Columbus and Clinton. He subsequently engaged in farming near Island No. 10, in the Mississippi river, and save for the war period, from 1861 until 1865, continued with success until 1883. At the out- break of the Civil war his property interests and his education and training naturally turned his sympathies towards the cause of the Confederacy, and as early as his services were needed he enlisted in the Southern army, and as a part of the Army of the Tennessee took part in the campaigns commanded by Generals Bragg and Johnston from Chickamauga to Atlanta, where General Johnston was superseded by General Hood, who commanded the organization to its final defeat at Franklin and Nashville.
Taking his family baek then from Arkansas to Tiptonville, Ten- nessee, William W. Meriwether commenced life anew on his farm. In 1883, moved by conditions of greater promise on the west side of the river, he crossed the Mississippi into Greene county, Arkansas, and em- barked in mercantile pursuits at Paragould, then a mere hamlet at the interseetion of two new railroads. His business contemporaries were Messrs. Landrum, Jones, Pruett, Solace and Dickson, all of whom have passed out of the channels of trade with the exception of Robert W. Meri- wether, junior member of the firm established by W. W. Meriwether. While this firm posed as a hardware eoneern, it was forced to carry a line of groceries for awhile, in order to make both ends meet while the population was gathering in sufficient numbers to support an ex- elusively hardware establishment. The store in which the firm first located was the usual temporary structure, twenty-five feet by fifty feet, on the west end of the lot now occupied by the Clyde Mack Mercantile Company. When new surveys were made and a plat of the town definitely arranged the firm of Meriwether & Son erected, in 1892, the present establishment, and the senior member of the house. William W. Meriwether, lived to see the business develop into metropolitan propor- tions and maintain the lead as a hardware, implement and supply house for Paragould and the surrounding country.
William W. Meriwether married, in May, 1860, in Tiptonville, Tennessee, Sarah Tippett, a daughter of Rev. Tippett, a Methodist minister who went there from North Carolina. Two children blessed their union, namely : Robert W .. the special subject of this biographical sketch ; and Ida May, wife of W. W. Bandy. of Paragould. The father
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died in 1893, and his wife, who survived him, passed to the higher life in 1897. He was a stanch Democrat in politics, and although he con- tributed liberally towards the support of the Methodist church he was not a member of any religious organization.
Robert W. Meriwether received a limited education in the district schools, and at the age of eighteen years abandoned the home farm and became a clerk in a general store at Tiptonville, Tennessee. A few years later he came with the family to Paragould, and in partnership with his father established himself in mercantile pursuits, becoming junior member of the firm of W. W. Meriwether, as mentioned above, and is now principle owner of the substantial business thus established. Mr. Meriwether's interests have extended in other directions, and he is not only a stockholder in the National Bank of Commerce and in the Bank of Walcott and the Paragould Brick Company, but has aceumu- lated a considerable area of farm lands, and has brought under eultiva- tion some of the "eut over" lands adjacent to the Saint Francis river, a tract which is fast becoming transformed from a wilderness of forest and underbrush to a valuable estate.
On November 27, 1890, in Paragonld, Mr. Meriwether married Kate Hays, a daughter of A. B. and Etta (Spillman) Hays, who came from Clinton, Kentucky, to Paragould, where Mr. Hayes has served as mayor and as justice of the peace. Mr. and Mrs. Meriwether have three children, namely : Lilbourn; Ray; and William W., familiarly known as "Bill." Fraternally Mr. Meriwether is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; a Master Mason; a member of the Wood- men of the World; and is a "Hoo Hoo."
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