USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 45
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
Mr. Holland inaugurated a brilliant and useful publie career when in 1892 he was elected to the county judgeship. He was re-elected in 1894 and served in that capacity for four years. He was elected repre- sentative in the Legislature for Sebastian county in 1901, re-elected in 1903 and in 1905 he was elected state senator, representing the Twenty- eighth senatorial district, which is comprised of Sebastian county alone. He was re-elected state senator in 1907 and 1911, and is now serving his second consecutive term as state senator, the senatorial term including four years.
It is gratifying that the Hon. Mr. Holland's fine ideals and valuable services have been generally recognized and for several years he has been known as a capable, efficient and able representative of his con- stitneney at the state capital. In the present session of 1911 he is chair- man of the Judiciary Committee and has been a member of this com-
1400
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
mittee in both the House and the Senate since his advent in state politics in the session of 1901. During his career in the House and Senate he has introduced and had passed many important laws, many of them affecting the welfare of the laboring classes, a large part of his con- stitueney consisting of the coal mining population of Sebastian county. He was the author of the Employers' Liability Law, a beneficient meas- ure which was passed and is a part of the present state laws. He has had a number of important measures passed during the session of 1911, and, altogether, is an efficient, hard working legislator, his previous training enabling him to accomplish many things in which a less experi- eneed man would fail.
In his law practice Mr. Holland has achieved distinguished suc- cess, especially in his criminal practice in Sebastian county, in which he has made a noteworthy record. Since his admission to the bar he has never lost in his home court but one felony case, and that one he had reversed by the State Supreme Court. He possesses a most ex- cellent legal mind, which arrives quickly at the gist of a question, dis- covers the underlying principles of law, and enables him to state his conelusions in clear, terse English.
The Hon. Mr. Holland is identified with several strong monetary institutions, namely : the Sebastian County Bank at Greenwood, the Farmers' Bank at Greenwood, and the Night and Day Bank at Fort Smith. He has two sons-Chester Holland, a successful young lawyer who was his father's law partner for four years and who is now as- sistant prosecuting attorney of Sebastian county ; and W. C. Holland, who will graduate from the law department of Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, in June, 1911, after which event he will become his father's law partner. The mother of these sons was Mr. Holland's first wife, now deceased, whose maiden name was Queen L. MeMillan and to whom he was united in marriage in 1880. He was married in 1889 to Nannie Lipsey, a native of Arkansas.
Mr. Holland is affiliated with several organizations destined to pro- mote good fellowship, being a Royal Arch Mason, a Knight of Pythias and an Odd Fellow.
JAMES A. STALLCUP. A man of great enterprise and marked fertil- ity of resource, James A. Stalleup, of Hot Springs, has contributed his full quota in advancing the material interests of his home city and oc- cupies a position of prominence and influence in both legal and business circles. A native of Missouri, he was born in New Madrid county Decem- ber 12, 1877, and there gleaned his rudimentary knowledge of books. He subsequently attended Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee, and after his graduation from the law department of the Columbian University of Washington, D. C. (now George Washington University), was admitted in 1899 to the Missouri bar.
While engaged in the practice of his profession at Sikeston, Missouri, Mr. Stalleup was elected city attorney, but before the expiration of his term he resigned the office and established himself in Hot Springs, Ar- kansas. Since coming to this city he has met with a due meed of suc- cess, his industry, comprehensive knowledge of the law and wondrous skill in handling difficult cases of litigation winning him acknowledged success and gaining for him a large and exceptionally remunerative cli- entage. Mr. Stalleup is a man of great versatility of talent, and he is not only an attorney of much ability, but a keen, wide-awake business man, being at the head of the Garland County Abstract Company and of the real estate and insurance firm of Belding & Stallcup.
1401
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
In the founding of the Garland Power and Development Company Mr. Stallcup was one of the leading spirits. This company was organized in 1910, its aim being to generate electricity on an extensive scale by water power, its purpose being to build a series of three dams on the Ouachita river, above Hot Springs, to conserve and furnish water power for irrigating service. Contiguous to the upper of these three dams, it is proposed to build a gigantic reservoir, twelve miles square, the water of which shall be forty feet in depth, this to constitute the reserve supply of water for use during the dry periods. The project if carried out will cost about two and one-half million dollars, and will furnish sufficient electric power for all industrial and domestic purposes for the cities of Hot Springs, Little Rock, Pine Bluff and Benton. It is a project of immense importance to the future devolopment of Arkansas.
Mr. Stalleup married Dorothy Waters, the accomplished and charm- ing danghter of Mayor W. W. Waters, of whom a brief sketch may be found elsewhere in this work.
Mr. Stalleup was elected police judge in 1908, to fill out an unex- pired term, and in April, 1910, was elected to his present position as city attorney. Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.
DAVID A. CROCKETT. The present able and popular incumbent of the office of superintendent of schools of Garland county, Arkansas, is David A. Crockett, who has been a loyal and public-spirited citizen of this section of the state since 1900. Although not a native son of Arkansas. Mr. Crockett has passed fully two score years within its confines and during this entire period he has so conducted himself as to command the unalloyed confidence and esteem of his fellow men.
Born at Baldwin, Mississippi, on the 20th of October, 1870, David A. Crockett is a son of David M. and Mary (Snow) Crockett, both of whom are deceased. The parents were both born and reared in the state of Tennessee, whence they removed to Mississippi and subsequently emi- grated to Arkansas. Location was made in Pine Bluff in the early '70s and later the family home was established at Mount Ida, in Montgomery county. David M. Crockett was a nephew of the notable historic char- acter, Davy Crockett, who figured prominently in the Texan struggle for independence and who lost his life in the fall of the Alamo, at San An- tonio, Texas, in 1836. The father was identified with farming during the greater part of his active career and he was summoned to the life eternal in 1897, his cherished and devoted wife passing into the Great Beyond in 1898. Of their children four are now living, namely: David A. Crockett, the immediate subject of this review; J. R. Crockett, of Jackson, Tennessee; E. S. Crockett, of Black Springs, Arkansas; and John V. Crockett, a druggist at Hot Springs.
Professor Crockett, of this notice, was a child of but seven years of age at the time of his parents' removal to Arkansas. He was reared and received most of his education in Montgomery county, attending the Mount Ida Normal School. Immediately after leaving school he turned his attention to the pedagogic profession, securing his first school in 1893 and continuing to be engaged in that line of enterprise during the long intervening years to the present time. He taught in Montgomery county, Arkansas, and in Eastland county, Texas, until 1900, in which year he became a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of Garland county, Arkansas. In 1908 he was made principal of the Gar- land public school at Hot Springs, retaining that position until the fall of
Vol. 111-20
1402
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
1910, when he was elected county superintendent of schools of Garland county. He was elected under a new law which had just created the office and he assumed the responsibilities of that position on the 31st of October, 1910, being its first ineumbent. He is now superintendent of all the public schools of Garland connty, with the exception of those of Hot Springs, and in discharging the duties connected with his work he has proved himself a most capable officer and has come up to the highest expectations of the citizens who honored him with election. Under his able guidance the schools are gradually becoming systematized and the standard of efficiency is being raised in a remarkable degree.
In his politieal convictions Professor Crockett is aligned as a stalwart in the ranks of the Democratic party and while he has never manifested aught of ambition for public office other than that of which he is now incumbent, he has ever shown a deep and sincere interest in all matters advanced for progress and development. In a fraternal way he is affili- ated with the time-honored Masonic order and he is also connected with various other organizations of representative character. In his religious faith he is a devout member of the Methodist church and he is held in high esteem by his fellow men at Hot Springs.
WILLIAM H. MOORE. To William H. Moore has come the attainment of a distinguished position in connection with the great material indns- tries of the state. His life achievements worthily illustrate what may be attained by persistent and painstaking effort. He is a man of progressive ideas and unusual business ability, both of which qualities have figured prominently in the tremendous growth of the Valley Planing Mill, which is the largest and most important industrial plant at Hot Springs, Ar- kansas. Of this enterprising concern Mr. Moore is president.
A native of the fine old commonwealth of Virginia, William H. Moore was born in Patrick county, that state, the date of his nativity being the 28th of January, 1855. He is a son of Henry J. and Caroline (Moore) Moore, both of whom were born and reared in the Old Domin- ion, where the father was long identified with farming. Mr. and Mrs. Moore became the parents of fourteen children and of this number twelve are living in 1911. When a mere youth William H. Moore emi- grated to the state of Texas, in the western section of which he was engaged in the cattle business for a period of six years. In the mean- time he had learned the carpenter's trade and in 1888 he established his home at Hot Springs, Arkansas, where he was for some time identi- fied with the work of that trade. He has continued to maintain his home in this city during the long intervening years to the present time and during this period has been an important factor in connection with. the general progress and development. In the year 1895 lic helped establish and became a partner in a planing mill in this eity, the same being originally located on Valley street, where now stands the Plunkett-Jarrell Grocery Company's building. Subsequently the mill was removed to its present location at the corner of Grand Avenue and Valley street. In 1903 this constantly growing concern was incorporated with a capital stoek of one hundred thousand dollars and under the name of the Valley Planing Mill Company. The official corps of the company is as follows: William H. Moore, president and treasurer; M. L. Shoffner, vice-presi- dent; and Wayne H. Moore, secretary.
The Valley Planing Mill is a great industrial plant and its buildings and yards cover several acres of ground. In addition to the establishment at Hot Springs, the company owns and operates a saw-mill in Garland county, the same being situated some six miles north of Hot Springs.
1403
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
The plant at Hot Springs is equipped with the most modern and efficient machinery, and lumber and building material, for wholesale and retail trade, are manufactured. The company has on its pay roll from fifty to seventy-five men the year round and they are dealers in builders' hard- ware and builders' miscellaneous supplies, besides which they also con- duct a general store and commissary in connection with the city plant. In recent years the Valley Planing Mill Company has grown to immense proportions and one of its best assets is the sterling integrity and relia- bility of its officials.
In the year 1889 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Moore to Miss Carrie B. Hart, who was born and reared in Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Moore have two children, namely, Wayne H. and Ida Belle Moore, both of whom reside at home. The son is secretary of the Valley Planing Mill Company.
Needless to say Mr. Moore is one of the representative and substan- tial business men of Hot Springs and he has been particularly associated with the development of the lumber interests in this section of the state. He has a beautiful home at 906 Malvern avenue. In his political adher- ence he endorses the cause of the Republican party, in the local councils of which he is a zealous factor. While never an office seeker he has been prevailed upon to run for the office of city alderman and in 1909 he represented the second ward in the city council, having been elected on an independent ticket. In all the avenues of usefulness Mr. Moore has acquitted himself with honor and distinction and in the business world he is recognized as a man of his word and as one who is square and straightforward in all his dealings.
THOMAS Cox. A representative business man of Little Rock is Thomas Cox, of the Thomas Cox & Son Machinery Company, dealing in wholesale machinery and mill supplies, and a director of the State National Bank, the city's largest financial institution. One of the pioneer mer- chants of Dardanelle, Arkansas, he has exerted a potent influence in con- nection with the development and upbuilding of the place. In addition to his many claims to distinction among his fellow men is the fact that he served in the Union navy during the Civil war and he has ever given hand and heart to all measures which seemed likely to contribute to the best interests of the city.
Mr. Cox was born in Baltimore, Maryland, August 10, 1846, and was there reared and attended school. His school days were disturbed by the portentious omens of the coming great strife. He was a high-spirited, patriotic lad, but his tender years prevented his enlisting at the begin- ning of the war. Since, unfortunately, the trouble did not "blow over in sixty days," as the optimistic had predicted, he had his opportunity in the last half of the war, joining the United States navy. He was seven- teen at that time and he was placed on board the "Governor Bucking- ham," a merchant vessel that had been converted into a man-of-war, and he served on this vessel in the North Atlantic blockading squadron. He participated in the numerous and often thrilling and dangerous operations of this squadron, among these being the blockading of the mouth of the Cape Fear River and the bombardment of Fort Fisher, after which en- gagement the vessel was disabled in manœuvring by breaking her pro- pellor shaft and was sent to the Portsmouth navy yards for repairs. Young Cox received an honorable discharge from the naval service on May 18, 1865. He thereupon returned to his home in Baltimore and, having already served an apprenticeship at the carpenters' trade, he immediately resumed work in this field.
1404
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
Mr. Cox remained but a short time in Baltimore after the close of the war, for in November, 1865, he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he worked at his trade from that time until Angust, 1866. In that month he entered into a contract with Colonel Hood of Greenville, Mississippi, to rebuild various houses and building> upon the latter's plantation at that place, which he proceeded to do. Hle then went to New Orleans, and after a short stay in that city went to Galveston by boat, and from that city to Brenham, which town at that time was the northern terminus of the only railroad in Texas. After a short time spent in the vicinity of Waco he returned to New Orleans and went thence to Memphis, where he engaged in building and contracting. On account of his youth he was known as "the boy contractor." He arrived in Memphis in the month of January, 1867. and in September of that year he was stricken with yellow fever, which was then prevalent, and he remained ill until the following May. As soon as he had sufficiently regained his health he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he worked until 1869, and he then went back to Baltimore on a visit. After a pleasant season in which he renewed the old associations, both sad and gay, he returned to Lonis- ville, where he packed his tools and equipment and then started for Ar- kansas, reaching Dardanelle, Yell county, on the Arkansas river, Janu- ary 26. 1870. That town remained his home for the ensuing thirty-two years.
Of great and varied ability and, although still young at the time of his identification with Arkansas, having in perspective many notable achievements, he was by no means a novice when he established himself in business in Dardanelle. In addition to other interests he established the Dardanelle Planing Mills, which he operated in connection with his lumber yard. When the old Little Rock & Fort Smith Railroad was under process of construction Mr. Cox contracted and furnished the lumber for the depot buildings along that line and he also established a lumber yard at old Greenville (now Havana) in Yell county. The famous pon- toon bridge at Dardanelle was built and operated by him for thirteen years and in this connection he and his associates operated a steamboat on the Arkansas river.
In 1902 Mr. Cox came to the conclusion that Little Rock offered an advantageous situation for a machinery business and on July 18 of that year he became established in the same in Arkansas' capital city, which became his permanent home, his former place of business looking upon his removal as a distinct loss. As previously mentioned this business is incorporated under the name of the Thomas Cox & Son Machinery Com- pany, wholesale dealers in machinery and mill supplies. In the nine years since its arrival in the city the enterprise had experienced a steady and wholesome growth and it is accounted one of the most important commercial concerns of the place. Mr. Cox is a man of unimpeachable business methods and enjoys high standing in the community in which his interests are now centered and where he will doubtless make his per- manent home. His connection with the State National Bank of Little Rock, one of the most substantial and important of monetary institu- tions in the country, has already been noted.
Although Mr. Cox has not figured to any extent in public life since taking up his residence here, while in Dardanelle he acted as mayor of that city in the years 1891 and 1892 and was instrumental in bringing abont several much-needed reforms, his own stalwart good citizenship being of the utmost benefit in this high capacity in the light of an example. He was also president of the school board for four years.
Mr. Cox contracted a happy marriage when on November 1, 1870,
1405
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
he was united to Miss Annie G. Nunnally, who was born in that city. The seven sons and daughters who have blessed their union are as fol- lows: Mrs. Julia R. McConnell, Daniel Thomas C'ox, Joseph Gilroy Cox, Mrs. Edna Florence Hart, Mrs. Hertha Maud Conlee; Arthur Bentley Cox and Mrs. Bertha May Grace. Mr. and Mrs. Cox and their children are identified with the best social life of the city and are known both well and favorably.
The parents of the subject were John Hardenbrook and Elizabeth (Seccombe) Cox, both of whom were of English descent. The maternal grandfather was born in Plymouth, England, and came thence to America to claim his share of the much-vaunted opportunity to be encountered upon our shores. It is one of the strange circumstances of the Civil war that Mr. Cox's father was a Southern sympathizer and a quartermaster in the Confederate army.
WILLIAM M. PIPKIN. A native son of Polk county, Arkansas, and a scion of an old and prominent southern family, William Minor Pipkin is an efficient and successful lawyer at Mena, where he has resided since 1896. In view of the so-called wander lust, which is rapidly growing to animate all classes of American citizens to move restlessly about from place to place, it is indeed gratifying to find a man who has passed prac- tically his entire life in the county of his birth and who, by his upright career, commands the unalloyed esteem of those who have known him from the time of his infancy. Mr. Pipkin represented Polk county in the state legislature in the session of 1910-11 and during that period was honored with a place on various important committees and was a potent influence in securing to his district much important legislation.
William Minor Pipkin was born on a farm in Polk county, Arkansas, the date of his nativity being the 1st of April, 1820. He is a son of James L. and Emily (Barron) Pipkin, the former of whom was born in Yalo- busha county, Mississippi, and the latter of whom claimed Alabama as the place of her birth. The father was reared to adult age in his native place and he accompanied his father, Minor Pipkin, to Arkansas soon after the close of the war between the states. Location was made on a farm on the Mountain Fork river, about twelve miles from the present city of Mena. Minor Pipkin was a prominent and influential citizen during his residence in Arkansas and was at one time honored by his fellow men with election to the office of county treasurer, in discharging the duties of which office he acquitted himself with honor and distinction. James L. Pipkin died at his home in Mena in 1899, while serving as sheriff of Polk county. He had previously been twice elected to the position of county sheriff and in connection with the responsibilities of that office he had done a great deal to preserve law and order in this section of the state. His marriage was solemnized with Miss Emily Barrow, and they became the parents of one child, William M., of this review. The mother died when he was very young.
Reared to the invigorating discipline of the home farm, William Minor Pipkin waxed strong in mind and body and his early education consisted of such advantages as were offered in the district schools of Polk county. Subsequently he attended the University of Nashville, at Nashville, Tennessee, in the normal department of which excellent insti- tution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1895. For several vears thereafter he was engaged in the pedagogic profession and he was the first principal of the Mena public school after that town was founded. He pursued the study of law at Mena and was admitted to the bar of Arkansas in 1905. He immediately inaugurated the active practice of his
1406
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
profession, in connection with which he has built up a large and lucrative practice, being recognized as one of the leading attorneys in Polk county.
In his political convictions Mr. Pipkin is alligned as a stalwart sup- porter of the cause of the Democratic party, and during his residence in Mena he has been the efficient incumbent of several public offices of trust and responsibility. Shortly after his arrival in Mena he was county clerk for a period of four years and for six years he was county examiner. He has also served as chairman of the water works commission of Mena and was for a time a member of the school board. In 1910 he was further honored by his fellow citizens in that he was then elected to represent Polk county in the state legislature, in the 1911 session of which he served as chairman of the committee on education and as a member of the judi- ciary committee. Right in the prime of life Mr. Pipkin has a brilliant future hefore him and his exceptional ability along legal and political lines speaks well for the good he can accomplish in connection with the progress and development of the state. The Pipkin family has main- tained their home at Mena since the founding of this city in 1896. In addition to his other interests Mr. Pipkin is one of the directors of the Mena & Hot Springs Railroad Company, a project that has every pros- pect of being carried to a successful completion and one which will mean much to Mena and the development of its surrounding country.
In the year 1896 was recorded the marriage of Mr. Pipkin to Miss Jennie Compere, who was born at Charleston, Arkansas, a daughter of Rev. E. L. Compere, a representative Baptist minister. To this union have been born three children: Emily, Willie Mina, and Compere. Mr. and Mrs. Pipkin are devout members of the Baptist church, in the differ- ent departments of which they are most ardent workers, and they are popular and prominent factors in connection with the best social activi- ties of Mena, where they are much admired.
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.