USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 38
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
FRANKLIN PERRIN is the treasurer of Independence county, where lie has resided sinee 1852. Back of him extends an aneestry in which figure patriots, soldiers and good citizens, and in his own ideals are em- bodied the fine traditions of which he is heir. He is a veteran of the Civil war and the adventures and hair-breadth eseapes from death which were his in his devotion of life and limb to the eause which he believed to be just are indeed thrilling. In post-bellum days he has manifested versatility by following nummerons occupatiens, farming, aeting in eleri- cal capacities, engaging in the timber business and giving efficient serviee as a public official, it being his to merit and possess the regard and eon- fidenee of the community in which he is best known.
Franklin Perrin, by circumstanee of birth, is a native of the Buek- eye state, his birth having oeenrred in Clermont county, Ohio, Novem- ber 27. 1839. His father. David Perrin, was a bridge builder and mill- wright, and was born in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, in 1796. Ed- ward Perrin, grandfather of the subjeet, would have been discovered after the Revolutionary war a farmer at the foot of the Green Moun- tains. In the struggle for independenee alluded to he participated as a soldier and he was living in the old Bay state when he passed away. His children were Ezra, who spent his life in Massaelmsetts; Jonathan, who removed to Wisconsin and there passed the remainder of his life; David, father of our subject: Sarah and Eliza, the latter of whom be- came the wife of a new Englander named Henry Colton.
David Perrin was twiee married. His first wife was Electra Brainard, who bore him several children, namely: William W .: Lydia E. ( Shumate) : David B .; and Lucinda, who died in girlhood. He mar- ried his second wife at Cincinnati, she being Naney M. Baldwin, a daughter of Samnel and Flora ( Woodruff) Baldwin, who had come westward from the vieinity of Hartford, Connectient. The issue of this union were Franklin, of this review : Sarah, who died unmarried : James, a man of family, who died in Batesville, where his family still resides, in 1902; Samuel, who died young: and Caroline E., who married Patriek II. Jeffery, of Izard county, Arkansas. David Perrin had left his native Massachusetts at the age of twenty-one and had located in New York, where he learned the trade of millwright, and then moved to Michigan, settling near Pontiae. After several years he moved to Clermont county, Ohio, where he built large saw and flour mills for a cousin, Samuel Perrin. In 1840 he again made a change of residenee and went to Ken- tneky, where in the vieinity of Lexington he resided until 1847. In the latter year he crossed the boundary river and lived at Jeffersonville, Indiana, for five years. His final move took him neross the Mississippi river and he then settled in Independence county, Arkansas. Here he continued his work as a mechanic until summoned to that Undiscovered Country from whose bourne no traveler returns.
Franklin Perrin attended school in Kentucky and Indiana, and after the establishment of the family in Arkansas he spent various short periods in study in private schools in Batesville. When he reached the age at which his labor had a monetary vale he hired out and worked at anything that would bring him fifty cents a day. The opening of the war between the states found him a little distance from his majority. but ready to take a soldier's part, and in 1861 he enlisted in Captain
SO, alexander
1353
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
DeShea's company, which was made a part of the Eighth Arkansas In- fantry, Clerburne's Division of the Tennessee army. He participated in the battles of Farmington, Mississippi, and Perryville, Kentucky, and just before the Murfreesboro engagement he was detailed for service with the commissary, under Major L. Ellenburg, and was thereby pre- vented from taking active part in many historic battles of the Atlanta campaign. He was wounded in one of the engagements around Dalton, Georgia, and was in a hospital while recovering. He rejoined his com- mand at Moore's Bridge on the Chattahoochie River. At Jonesboro he was captured with Govan's Brigade and Lewis' Kentucky Brigade, and after confinement in a United States military prison for thirty days an exchange was effected at the rate of one for five and Mr. Perrin was in this way restored to his friends. He returned to Moore's Bridge, where the main army was still in camp, and went on the Tennessee campaign under General Hood. In the battle of Franklin he lost his left leg and received serious injury to his right ankle, which rendered him a perma- nent eripple. When the Federals cleaned up the battlefield at Franklin they took Mr. Perrin prisoner and held him until June 17, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky. He then went to the home of an unele at Nash- ville and lived there until November, when he returned to Batesville, reaching there in December.
At the first election after coming home from the army Mr. Perrin was elected treasurer of Independence county and kept books for a saw- mill while keeping the accounts of the county. About this time he he- came assistant instructor in Salisbury Academy at Batesville. Later the way opened for him to take a school in Izard county, and he taught there for a time, following that occupation with a season of keeping books and elerking at Mount Olive. He was elected county and circuit clerk of Izard county and served one term. Notwithstanding his physi- cal condition he engaged in farming subsequently and when that was abandoned he returned to keeping books for a sawmill concern in Baxter county. Following this he joined his brother in the cedar and timber business and was thus engaged for a decade, returning to Batesville during the time.
In Batesville he has held various city offices and has had some part in local polities for many years, having ever kept in intelligent touch with local issues. For several years he was cotton weigher here and from the cotton yard entered the court house as county treasurer in 1906. He was re-elected in 1908 and chosen a third time in 1910.
Mr. Perrin has never married and has never joined a fraternity. However, the social side of his nature is highly developed and his fra- ternal qualities are as lustrous as if polished by the bonds of fellowship in the most aneient secret order. He is a zealous member of the Presby- terian church and an active advocate of all the good causes promul- gated by the church body.
SAMUEL CALDWELL ALEXANDER. For twenty-five years closely iden- tified with the upbuilding of Pine Bluff and ever aligned with just and beneficent causes, Samuel Caldwell Alexander is to be accounted as one of the most valuable elements in the citizenship of the city. He is presi- dent of the Merchants & Planters Bank, of this city, which has the dis- tinetion of being the oldest state bank in Arkansas, and he is also presi- dent of the S. C. Alexander Cotton Company, his interest in the cotton industry of this part of the Bear state being important. In addition to his civie, financial and industrial importance he represents in himself two of the most distinguished of Southern families, the Caldwells and the Vol. III-17
1354
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
Alexanders having been prominent in North Carolina history long before the Revolutionary war, and he admirably upholds the prestige of the honored names he bears.
Mr. Alexander was born in Iredell county, North Carolina, his birthdate being September 20, 1858. Glancing back over his ancestry many distinguished statesmen and patriots are discovered, and partieu- larly among the Caldwells are many noted professional men-lawyers, physicians and clergymen. His great-great-grandfather, John MeKnitt Alexander, of Mechlenburg county, North Carolina, was secretary of the committee of citizens of that county who drew up a document, declar- ing independence from England, and signed it at Charlotte May 20, 1775, thus pre-dating the Philadelphia declaration. Other relatives gave service during the Revolution and were noted for their bravery and patriotism. The maternal ancestor, Samnel Craighead Caldwell, was graduated from Princeton College in 1761, and he had attained manhood before the termination of the immortal struggle between the colonies and the mother country. Both he and his father, David Caldwell, were great Presbyterian ministers and doctors of divinity. The subject's father, Samuel Caldwell Alexander, was also a well-known and highly esteemed Presbyterian divine, who had a pastorate in Rowan county, North Caro- lina, the scene of the birth of Mr. Alexander. His father was Robert Davidson Alexander, who was born near Charlotte, North Carolina, and followed the occupation of a farmer. The maiden name of the mother was Abigail Bain Caldwell.
Rev. Sanmel Caldwell Alexander, D. D., received as fine an educa- tion as the South afforded, those institutions in which his studies were pursned being Davidson College of North Carolina and Columbia Theo- logical Seminary, of Columbia, South Carolina. He became one of the notable figures in the American history of the Presbyterian church and he lived to see the dawning years of the twentieth century, his demise occurring in 1907, at the age of seventy-seven years. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Holmes Brown, and who was a native of Fay- etteville, North Carolina, survived him for two years, the age of this ad- mirable lady at the time of her summons to the Great Beyond being seventy-nine. The birth of the Rev. Dr. Alexander occurred in that same North Carolina county where his distinguished forbear had made his stand for liberty.
About the time of the beginning of the Civil war Dr. Alexander and his family removed to Black River Chapel, then in Bladen county, now Pender county. They remained at that place until 1873, when they removed to Wadesboro, Anson county, arriving there before any railroad had reached the place. There Doctor Alexander built the first Presbyterian church located in that neighborhood and the subject learned something of the cotton business nnder M. P. Leak and James C. Mar- shall, both of Wadesboro. Unfortunately the Civil war had left the family resources in such depleted condition that Doetor and Mrs. Alex- ander were unable to give their children the education they desired for them. Mr. Alexander was permitted to attend the Binghams' School at Mebanesville, North Carolina, for two years and six months. He was abont fifteen years of age at the time of the removal of the family from the country to the town of Wadesboro and here he had his first adventures in the world of affairs, learning the elementary details of the cotton business in which he now stands as an anthority, with the gentle- men mentioned above. In 1884 the family followed the nsnal fortune of clergymen's families and made another change of residence, this time
1355
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
locating at Rusk, Cherokee county, Texas, and although Mr. Alexander also became a citizen of the Lone Star state, he took up his abode at Cor- sicana, Navarro county, where better business opportunity awaited him. Two years later he came to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and his identification with the thriving city has been maintained since that time.
Mr. Alexander came to Pine Bluff in 1886 to accept a position as cotton classer for A. Fulton & Company, of Sherman, Texas, who had opened a branch office at this place. The successful manner in which he conducted the new business being marked, in 1890 a co-partnership was formed with W. I. Haizlip, under the name of Haizlip & Alexander, the Arkansas interests of A. Fulton & Company being purchased by these gentlemen. In 1892 Mr. Haizlip died and Mr. Alexander bought his interest and continued the business as S. C. Alexander & Company. The subject 's enterprise and executive ability have ever proved of the highest character and, ideally combined with unflinching integrity and ability to inspire confidence, prosperity visited the business. As his profits in- creased Pine Bluff real estate was invested in, the Grand Leader Dry Goods Company building, the Farmer's Warehouse and the S. C. Alex- ander office building being properties of the concern. The S. C. Alex- ander & Company cotton business stands among the first in the state, and it has made its way to this high prestige from small beginnings and by means of economy and close attention to business. He is also largely interested in the compresses and the general cotton business of Pine Bluff. The Farmers' Warehouse mentioned above, which was built by him and which he owns, was the first in Pine Bluff. He is also the pioneer in the matter of up-to-date business houses, having put the first pressed brick and plate glass front in a store in Pine Bluff. It is likewise the distinction of this progressive gentleman to have shipped the first cotton from Pine Bluff direct to Liverpool for the English spinners. Were it only in the capacity of a banker that Mr. Alexander was known to the world he would enjoy great prominence in this section of the state. As mentioned in a preceding paragraph he is president of the Merchants & Planters Bank, the oldest state bank in Arkansas. It is a tower of strength in the community and commands the respect of all. The other officers are W. L. De Woody, vice-president, and A. D. Foster, cashier. The bank was incorporated in the year 1876, and at the present time has a capital and surplus of three hundred thousand dollars.
Mr. Alexander was first married in 1892, Miss Henrietta Wilkins, of Pine Bluff, becoming his wife. She died at the birth of the son, Vir- ginins. Her father, Colonel V. D. Wilkins, was one of the prominent bankers of Arkansas, the organizer of the Merchants & Planters Bank and its president until his death. Bennie Elizabeth Green, of Texarkana, Arkansas, became the bride of Mr. Alexander on July 12, 1904, their marriage being celebrated in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the home of Mrs. Alexander's unele, General B. W. Green. Mrs. Bennie Elizabeth Green Alexander is the daughter of the late Dr. Thomas Henning Green, of Hope, Arkansas, and his wife, Matilda Weatherby Green. The Green and James families, from which the father of Mrs. Alexander descended, lived in Darlington district, South Carolina, and were prominent in the history of the Revolutionary and Civil wars. Major James and Captain John James, great-grandfather and grandfather of Dr. Thomas Hen- ning Green, gave valiant service to their country under Marion in the former conflict, and Mrs. Alexander's father and his six uncles fought for the Confederacy nearly a century later. Mrs. Alexander is a promi- nent member of the David O. Dodd Chapter of the United Daughters of
1356
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
the Confederacy and of the John MeAlmout Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. For generations her family has been prominent in the history of South Carolina and of Presbyterianism.
Mr. Alexander has but one child, the son of his first marriage. Virginius Wilkins Alexander is seventeen years of age and is now at Lawrenceville, New Jersey, preparing for Princeton.
Mr. Alexander may justly be regarded as one of the most cultured, publie-spirited and useful of citizens and in his identification of a quar- ter of a century with Pine Bluff he has made manifest the fact that he is the champion of all good measures.
LYMAN F. REEDER is junior member of the well-known law firm of McCaleb & Reeder, of Batesville, the same having added considerable luster to the bar of Arkansas. Mr. Reeder added his citizenship to Arkansas and Independence county at the close of the year 1898, and the first day of January, 1900, marked his entry in the judicial eenter of that eonnty, a youth with training but no experience in the world's honored and distinguished profession-the law. He came to this section of the state from Lexington, Missouri, where his birth occurred on the 14th of May, 1878, and where in the public schools he had acquired a liberal edneation. Having chosen the law as his life work, he studied the subject in the offices of Judge John Blackwell and Judge F. D. Fulkerson. He was admitted to the bar at Batesville, before presiding Judge Fulkerson, in March, 1900.
Following the preliminaries necessary to fit him for the practice of his profession in Arkansas, Mr. Reeder was appointed one of the counsel to defend a man charged with theft of a horse. In that case he was associated with Congressman Oldfield, but lost out before a jury of Arkansas peers, as was only to be expected as the man was appar- ently guilty. This was his first ease in court and it suffieed to break the ice, so to speak. Subsequently he entered into a legal partnership with J. C. Yancey, Mr. Reeder being the junior member of the firm. One year later the firm changed to that of Yaneey, Reeder & Casey, which continued for two years, at the expiration of which Mr. Reeder joined the late W. S. Wright, as a member of the firm of Wright & Reeder, which continued until the death of Mr. Wright, in March, 1907. Since the time last mentioned Mr. Reeder has been associated in practice with the distinguished Judge John B. MeCaleb. The strength of the firm of McCaleb & Reeder is everywhere recognized and its large and representative elientage ineludes many of the important firms and eor- porations of Batesville. They are counsel for the Weaver-Dowdy Mer- cantile Company, the Mount Olive Stave Company, the Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Company, and the Friseo Railroad Company. in the Federal court. Judge McCaleb, the senior member of the firm. is a practitioner of wide experience in the various Arkansas courts and in the Federal courts and as a jurist he presided with distinction upon the beneh of the Circuit court of the Sixteenth judicial distriet for a period of twelve years. Concerning his career a sketch appears on other pages of this work so that further data in connection therewith is not deemed necessary at this juneture.
Lyman F. Reeder is a son of Stephen S. Reeder, who passed the first years of his life in the city of Lexington, Missouri. In that place he was long a merchant of prominence and later he entered polities and served his eounty for a number of years as cirenit elerk. He was born in Starkey county, New York, in 1834, was afforded a good college edu- cation in his youth, was a volunteer Union soldier and captain of a
1357
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
company from his native county in the Civil war and he followed the westward tide of immigration to Missouri in 1877. He was eligible for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution, and in his political convictions he was a staunch advocate of the principles promulgated by the Democratic party. His father was Sylvester Reeder, who died in Starkey county, New York, at the age of twenty-eight years, leaving his son. Stephen S., as his only heir. With reference to its settlement in America the Reeder family is an old Colonial one, and its loyalty to the canse of independence was tested by the furnishing of patriot soldiers for the army of the Revolution. Stephen S. Reeder married Miss Emma R. Fulkerson, who is a daughter of Jacob V. Fulkerson and whose ancestry was of Holland Dutch extraction, the original progenitor of the name in America having been a pioneer settler in New York. Mr. Reeder was summoned to the life eternal in 1888, and his widow, who survives him, now maintains her home at Asher, Oklahoma. To Mr. and Mrs. Stephen S. Reeder were born the following children: Mrs. O. S. Buckley, of Lancaster, California : Mrs. H. G. Campbell and Dr. H. M. Reeder, of Asher, Oklahoma: Lyman F .. the immediate subject of this review : and Walter F., of Booneville, Missouri. The Fulkerson family, members of which have achieved prominence in the western states, were formerly of Virginia and of southern sentiment in regard to questions involved in the Civil war. Four of Mrs. Stephen S. Reeder's brothers were valiant and faithful soldiers in the Confederate army.
On the 3rd of January, 1906, was solemnized the marriage of Lyman F. Reeder to Miss Daisy Reed, the ceremony having been performed at Batesville. Mrs. Reeder is a daughter of the pioneer settler and ex- merchant of Batesville, I. N. Reed. To this union has been born one son, Lyman F. Reeder, Jr., the date of his birth being the 17th of March, 1908.
Lyman F. Reeder, as was his father, is an uncompromising advocate of the cause of the Democratic party, in the local councils of which he has long been an active factor. He served as mayor of Batesville for two terms, from 1904 to 1908, and it was during his regime that the movement for concrete wałks took definite shape. At that time, too, the public sewer question was effectively agitated and the city stock law was passed. He proved a most able and popular administrator of the municipal affairs of the city and he has contributed in generous measure to all matters affecting the civic and material welfare of this section of Arkansas. He is a member of the Arkansas Bar Association and is likewise connected with the Eighth Chancery District Association, of which he is secretary and treasurer. In the time-honored Masonic order he is a valued and appreciative member of the Batesville Lodge, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, and his religions faith is in harmony with the tenets of the Presbyterian church.
ALBERT SIMS, of Batesville, is the financial secretary of the Odd Fellows Orphans' Home located here. On both the paternal and the maternal side he comes of pioneer families, the Sims family having been founded here in 1855 and that of the Egners, his mother's people, even prior to that date. Both have been earnest and valuable citizens of the county and engaged chiefly in agricultural pursuits.
Mr. Sims is a native of the state of Arkansas, his birth having oc- curred near Jamestown. a country village somewhat southeast of Bates- ville, October 3, 1879. Robert C. Sims, the father, is still occupying the farm which was settled in 1855 by his father. Johnson L. Sims, who came hither from Abbeville district, South Carolina, and passed away
1358
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
about the period of the Civil war. His five sons grew up around the old home, and when the war of the rebellion eame they all enrolled in defense of the flag of the Confederaey, three of them falling in battle. The family comprised Mary, who married Captain Cullins, a Confed- erate soldier; Robert C., of Jamestown; Louisa, who married first J. W. Baker and seeond, D. J. Odle: LaFayette, Oliver and Jaek, all of whom fell victims of Federal arms.
Robert Sims was born in the year 1845 and was almost without educational privileges while growing to young manhood. His youth was passed in the troublous days preceding the Civil war and when it be- came a matter of open warfare between the two faetions he enlisted in the Confederate serviee under General Cabel, in General Priee's army, in the Trans-Mississippi department. He married Sarah F. Egner, whose father, William Egner, was born in Henry county, Ken- tucky. The Egner family was orginally German, Benjamin and Joseph Egner, hrothers, being the founders of the Arkansas braneh. The former was the father of William Egner and was one of the pioneers in sub- duing the soil, elearing the woods and blazing the way of civilization generally. Joseph Egner was a pioneer merehant of Batesville and a politieian of the Demoeratie party, and in all the matters tending toward the advancement of the community he was active, one of the additions to the city being named for him. Through his political activities he eame in course of time to be a member of the state legislature, and while he was at the capital his brother Ben visited Little Roek, driving the one hundred miles with an ox team, the common mode of travel for eoun- try folk at that day. As Ben came down the main street in his primitive eonveyanee. Joe in his elegant attire of broadeloth and "stove-pipe" hat, the approved statesman outfit, saw him, but pretended to be entire- ly oblivious, not caring to recognize his shabby relative before the ad- miring throng which surrounded him. Ben also discovered Joe in' his diplomatie disguise and waving his arms inquired with great audible- ness, "Joe, ain't yon goin' to speak to your Brother Ben ?"
William Egner married a young woman named Powell and Mrs. Robert C. Sims was one of their family of eleven children. They became the parents of the following good citizens, the greater part of whom elect- ed to make Arkansas their home: Sallie, wife of L. D. Bounds, of Sa- binal, Texas; William J., who married Lilly Briggs, of Honey Grove, Texas, and died at Texarkana without issue: Henry is superintendent of the city schools at Stephenville, Texas: Dr. John A., of Stigler, Okla- homa; Mrs. V. E. Durren, of Hot Springs, Arkansas; Albert, the im- mediate subject of this review : Charles E., who died unmarried at Sabi- nal. Texas, in 1907; Effie, who became the wife of Albert Goodwin and resides at Hot Springs, Arkansas; Miss Mary, of Jamestown, Arkan- sas: Miss Esther, a trained nurse of Ft. Smith, Arkansas: and D. Odle and Frank, youths upon the home farm.
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.