USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 46
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WILLIAM B. OWEN. Among those who have been closely and influ- entially identified with the development and progress of Miller county and its metropolis, the city of Texarkana, is Hon. William B. Owen, and that his influence has transcended local limitation is shown in the fact that he rendered effective service as a member of the legislature during the general assemblies of 1907 and 1909 and that he is at the present time incumbent of the office of deputy state land commissioner. Ilis official duties require his presence in Little Rock, the capital city, during the major portion of the time but he still regards Texarkana as his home and here his various interests continue to be centered.
Mr. Owen was born on a farm in Lincoln county, Tennessee, on the 23d of February, 1867, and is a son of Oliver P. and Mary Ann (Rowell) Owen, who were representative of old and honored families of the South and who passed the closing years of their lives in Dallas, Texas. The major part of the father's active career was one of close and successful connec- tion with the great basic industry of agriculture. To the educational institutions of his native state William B. Owen is indebted for his early scholastic training, and in 1880, as a yonth of thirteen years, he accom- panied his parents on their removal to Texas. He was reared to manhood in Collin county, that state, and he continued to reside in Texas until 1894, when he established his home in Texarkana, which city has since continued his place of abode and the scene of his productive activities along business lines. He carly became an earnest worker in the ranks of the Democratic party and is one of its influential representatives in the southern part of the state. In 1907 he was elected to represent Miller county in the state legislature, and the estimate placed upon his services
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was shown in 1909, when he was chosen his own successor, having been elected by large majorities on each occasion. In the legislature he proved a most earnest and effective working member, both on the floor of the house and in the committee room. He was chairman of the com- mittee on charitable institutions and was particularly zealous in further- ing the interests of the various charitable institutions of the state. He was the author of a bill providing for the segregation of school taxes and though he ably and earnestly championed the measure it failed to pass the legislature. The object of the proposed law, whose provisions repre- sent the views of the leading members of the white population of the state, was to establish a separate and distinct fund for the education of negroes and to provide such elementary and practical methods of training as would best meet their peculiar needs and best qualify them for citizen- ship. General experience in the past has shown the consistency of this meas- ure and there can be but little doubt that the policy thus advanced and advo- cated by Mr. Owen will eventually become a law in the state. Ou November 1, 1910, Mr. Owen became deputy state land commissioner, under Land Commissioner Rueben G. Dye, and this office, which takes him temporarily to the capital city of the state, is one for which he is specially qualified, as for a number of years he has been actively engaged in the real estate business in Texarkana and has authoritative knowledge of land values in the various sections of the state. Through his operations in connec- tion with this important line of enterprise he has brought many desirable settlers into Miller county and other parts of southwestern Texas, and he is one of the most influential factors in the extensive operation of the Wade Colonization Company, of Texarkana, of which he is secretary.
On the 12th of October, 1886, Mr. Owen was united in marriage to Miss Tennie Wilcoxson, of Farmersville, Texas, and they have six chil- dren : Lela, Lola, Stonewall J., Dovie, Bessie and Wilma.
FRANK M. BLAISDELL. Talented and accomplished, Frank M. Blais- dell, of Little Rock, Arkansas, has utilized all opportunities for de- veloping his artistic taste and skill, and in following his professions of civil engineer and landscape arehitect is well known in various states of the Union, in the East, South and central West. A growing ap- preciation of the beautiful is everywhere noticeable, and a general awakening of the country to the great necessity of eity and village beautification through park systems, play grounds, school and baek-yard gardens, and utilization of unsightly vacant lots has arisen. To meet the demands for the accomplishment of the needed work men skilled in landscape gardening and architecture as well as in engineering are re- quired, and a wide field of action is being developed. The pioneer in this industry, the late Frederick Law Olmstead, has many followers, and nearly every city in the Union, large or small, has made some at- tempt to improve the condition of things, working toward a "city beau- tiful" in the near future. Mr. Blaisdell has already accomplished a great work in the many places in which he has been employed, espe- cially in the direction of affording enjoyment to the masses of people through his landseape work and developing their power to appreciate beauty in all its forms.
A native of Boston, Massachusetts, Frank M. Blaisdell received his preliminary training in civil engineering and architecture in that eity. For three years thereafter he was a student at the West Point Military Academy. He continued in the United States government service sev- eral years, one of his more important assignments having been that of engineer in charge of the Artesian Wells and Irrigation Inquiry in the
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arid region of the West. Mr. Blaisdell's headquarters, however, were at Washington, D. C., from which point he direeted the labor of drilling the first wells, a pioneer work which has proved a great boon to the desert regions of the western country, reclaiming immense traets of waste lands and rendering them productive.
After leaving the army Mr. Blaisdell followed his profession of landscape gardener for several years, being busily employed in the build- ing of pleasure parks and summer. gardens throughout the country, working under the auspices of the various electric railway companies in metropolitan cities. He was thus employed in the larger municipalities of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, one of his nota- ble achievements in the latter state having been the designing and build- ing of Ravinia Park in Chieago, one of the most beautiful and popular summer resorts on Lake Michigan ; another being Riverton Park, Port- land, Maine, which is the most noted pleasure park in the country.
Locating at Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 1905, Mr. Blaisdell was there for five years engaged in his professional labors, building for H. M. Byllesby & Company, who control the electric railway of that city, its beautiful electrie park, and also building the Country Club of Fort Smith and various other architectural and landscape works in that vi- cinity.
Early in the spring of 1911 he took up his permanent residence at Little Roek, and is devoting the greater part of his attention to land- scape architecture, although he maintains at his offices departments under competent heads for general engineering, surveying and building architecture. He is the architect in charge of the Agricultural College and grounds at Russellville, Arkansas. Mr. Blaisdell has completed work of importance since coming here, among other things having drawn the plans and carried out the scheme for the beautification for the new state eapitol building, being seleeted for the work by Governor Donaghey.
Mr. Blaisdell's father, General William Blaisdell, was a noted of- ficer of the United States army, who served with distinction and honor in three wars, the Seminole war in Florida, the Mexican war and the Civil war. Engaging in the Civil war under General Winfield Seott he was made a brigadier general and was known as the hero of Peters- burg, where, on June 23, 1864, he was killed in action. One of the forts which he captured with his command the morning he was killed has been preserved by the government and named in his honor-"Fort Blaisdell."
WALKER S. DANAHER. An able and popular member of the Arkan- sas bar, Walker S. Danaher is well versed in legal lore, and as junior member of the firm of Jones & Danaher is connected with one of the strongest law firms of Little Rock. A son of M. J. Danaher, he was born in 1882, in Ludington, Michigan, but has spent nearly all of his life at Little Rock.
A native of Pennsylvania. M. J. Danaher was bred and educated in Tennessee, where his parents settled when he was a boy. When but eigh- teen years of age he enlisted, at La Grange, Tennessee, in the Confederate army, becoming a private in the Thirteenth Tennessee Infantry. For gallant eonduct and fidelity to his duties he was promoted from rank to rank, and at the close of the war was major of his regiment. Re- turning then to Tennessee, he lived for a time in La Grange, and then removed to Ludington, Michigan, where he became conspicuously identi- fied with the lumber interests of that locality, for several years owning and operating a shingle mill in that city. The climate of Michigan
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proved too severe for him, and in 1883 he came South for the benefit of his health, locating at Little Rock, Arkansas. Embarking in Agricultu- ral pursuits, Mr. M. J. Danaher established a stoek farm in Lonoke county, Arkansas, and having imported some noted horses from Michigan made a specialty of raising fine horses, an industry which proved highly successful. He bought other land, becoming owner of the Argenta Stock Yards, a valuable estate. He became widely known throughout this sec- tion of the state, and was one of the prominent citizens of Little Rock and intimately associated with its interests until his death, which occurred at his home in Little Rock December 24, 1898. His wife, whose maiden name was Adelia P. Kennedy, was born in Mississippi, and is now a resi- dent of Little Rock.
Receiving his education in Little Rock and the University of Ar- kansas, Walker S. Danaher made a study of law after making up his mind to enter upon a professional career, and for a number of years prior to his admission to the bar, in 1907, was connected with law offices in this city. He is at present junior member of the firm of Jones & Danaher, being in partnership with ex-Governor Dan W. Jones. Two of his broth- ers, M. Danaher and Palmer Danaher, are also members of the legal pro- fession, being well-known lawyers of Pine Bluff. He has a younger brother, George S. Danaher, in the automobile business in Little Rock, and two sisters, May and Lulu Bab Danaher.
WILLIAM MELVIN RANKIN. As state agent of the Arkansas Humane Society, William Melvin Rankin, of Little Rock, is carrying on a humani- tarian work the scope of which is hard for the uninitiated to fully compre- hend, but which is of inestimable value to town and state as well as to countless individuals. Strong in his personality, he has never lacked the courage of his convictions, but the dominating elements of his character are a lively human sympathy and an abiding charity for all men, which have placed him among the foremost philanthropists of the day and made him a public benefactor as to example and influence as well as to results. He was born at Minden, Louisiana, a son of J. A. and Amanda (Lindsey) Rankin. When he was a lad of twelve years his father died, but his mother is still living, her home being at Haynesville, Louisiana.
After the death of his father, William Melvin Rankin went to Monti- cello, Arkansas, to make his home with an uncle, J. D. Rankin, a brother of Judge W. H. Rankin, a prominent citizen for many years of Little Rock, serving as justice of the peace for at least twenty years before his death, which occurred in 1910. Brought up and educated in Monti- cello, William M. Rankin remained there until 1893, when he settled at Lake Village, Chicot county, where he served as deputy sheriff four years and as manager and treasurer of the Lake Village Ice and Coal Company for eight years.
In 1905 Mr. Rankin moved to Little Rock, and for nearly a year thereafter was train auditor on the Rock Island Railroad. In 1906 he accepted his present responsible position as state manager for the Ar- kansas Humane Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Children, one of the leading philanthropie organizations of the South. This society is maintained through the generous subscriptions of leading citizens who are interested in this great work, it's officers being among the representative men and women of Little Rock. The organization has an agent in each of forty-two counties of the state, all of whom report to and are under the direction of Mr. Rankin, who is amply quali- fied for the position of superintendent by reason of his executive ability, his rare powers of discrimination and his sound judgment.
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Constant watchfulness on the part of all agents for cases of cruelty to animals is necessary, and the prosecution of the offenders is an im- portant part of their work. That branch of the work, however, pertain- ing to the prevention of cruelty to children is of supreme moment, and is worthy of especial commendation, having resulted in great good. In the year of 1910 the society found homes for forty-five children who were either abandoned or being abominably treated, besides doing a great deal of other work in preventing cruelty to children.
Another humane work in which Mr. Rankin is deeply interested is the prevention of cruelty to the county convicts of Pulaski county, their labor being farmed out to rock contractors, road builders, etc. These convicts, as Mr. Rankin found during his investigations, are subject to the most cruel, relentless and inhumane treatment, their deaths from beating, torture or starvation being not uncommon, a condition of things in this twentieth century of modern civilization rivalling in hor- rible details the abuses of prison life in England a hundred or more years ago, as depicted in the realistic novels of Charles Reade. In the abate- ment of these evils Mr. Rankin has been badly handicapped, but he is thoroughly aroused, and during the session of the 1911 Legislature set in motion legislation that will tend to give him aid in the way of securing legal action against the offenders. His labors have thus far been fruitful for the good of humanity, and are deserving of the hearty support and co-operation of every true man and woman in the state.
Mr. Rankin married, at Lake Village, Arkansas, Ruth Homer, and they have three children, Guendolyn, Myrtle and Helen.
MILTON B. ROSE. It is indeed appropriate that there should be re- corded within this volume devoted to representative Arkansas citizens something of the career of the gentleman whose name initiates this para- graph, a citizen eminent in many capacities,-lawyer, capitalist, student and traveler. Of highest prominence in the profession whose dignity and prestige he so stanchly upholds, he is one of Little Rock's largest land- holders, joint owner with his father of ten thousand acres of very rich and valuable valley land lying seventeen miles south of the city, and standing at the head of one of the most important industrial enterprises contributing to the commercial prestige of the community, the same be- ing also one of the most interesting and remarkable, namely the Chemi- cal Floor & Tile Company.
Milton B. Rose is a representative of one of the old and honored families of Little Rock, his father, D. F. Rose, being one of its most successful business men. As previously mentioned he is a very extensive land holder, and is organizer and president of the Rose Real Estate Com- pany, dividing his energies between that and the Chemical Floor & Tile Company, of which he is president, and his son, the subject, vice-president and attorney. It is speaking with all due conservatism to say that this is one of the greatest building and industrial plants in the United States, and the company has factories in the leading cities of the United States. The elder Mr. Rose is a native of Alsace-Loraine, his father having been a boot and shoe manufacturer in Germany. D. F. Rose married Miss Augusta Bott, of Little Rock. He and his wife became the parents of seven children, four of whom are living. Mr. D. F. Rose is a public spirited citizen, having ever given his heart and hand to the measures likely to result in the attainment of the greatest amount of good to the greatest number. Although he is noted throughout Little Rock as a man of affairs of unusual sagacity, yet he is in sympathy with all the finer
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things of life, is a scholar of broad attainments and an unusually fine lin- guist.
Milton B. Rose is bound to the beautiful capital city of Arkansas by many close and dear associations, among them the primary tie of birth within her borders. The date of his nativity was July 11, 1876, and here he passed his boyhood and early youth before he went farther afield to gain the liberal education which it is his happiness to possess. After finishing his public school education in his native eity he matriculated in the state university of Fayetteville, and subsequently entered the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, in which latter institution he was in due time graduated with the well-earned degree of Bachelor of Seience. He is a man of versatile abilities and has proved that he might have been successful in many fields of life. For some months after leaving the portals of the last named alma mater he taught Latin and Roman history in the Little Rock University, which is now extinct, and his pedagogieal talents were inneh lauded by those in authority. How- ever, he had no particular ambition to enter the educational field, but had natural inclinations in the direction of the law, and chose as his means of preparation the University of Arkansas, from whose law de- partment he was graduated in 1899. For the next three or four years he engaged in the real estate business in Little Rock and did not take up the serious practice of law in this eity until 1903, in which year he was admitted to practice in the United States Court. For about two years following he was engaged mostly as land title expert for an eastern syndi- cate on titles to zine and lead land in North Arkansas and during a part of the time was located in Jasper, Newton county. Since 1905 he has given the greater portion of his time to law practice in Little Rock, mak- ing a specialty of commercial law. He has a remarkable equipment-an extraordinary power of marshaling and presenting significant facts so as to bring conviction to the average mind, being a factor in the same. His interest and effieieney in the commercial branch of the profession has made appropriate his membership in that important organization, the Commercial Law League of America. He is also affiliated with those organizations calculated to work toward the unity and advancement of the profession, his name being written prominently upon the roster of the Little Rock Bar Association and the State Bar Association. For some years Mr. Rose has devoted much time during the summer months to travel and study and in this way has become associated with many of the country's notable characters, his culture and attainments being such as to make him a welcome member of any circle. As mentioned in preceding paragraphs Mr. Rose is vice-president and attorney of the Chemical Floor & Tile Company, one of the nation's most important concerns, which, now in its infancy, is likely in time to revolutionize the particular field which it affects. This company engages in the manufacture of the Roman Hygienie Floors and other building materials which are con- structed from substanees imported from Germany, and for the manufae- ture of which the company possesses the patents and exclusive rights in the United States. It is a remarkable material, believed to be similar to the texture of which the Egyptian pyramids were made. This statement is based upon the authority of a German chemist who seems to have re- discovered the process by which the ancient Romans made the tile floors which endured through the ages. The discoverer of the process, now a resident of Canada, whose works should lend authority to his words, says the pyramids were constructed of a stone-like substance made on the ground, and if he is right, a mystery, centuries old, has been solved.
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The first factory in the United States for making this wonderful product has been established in Little Rock, and the first floor constructed there- from to be laid in the United States is now doing service in the directors' room of the new eleven story State National Bank building at Fifth and Main streets.
The story of Mr. Rose's introduction to this substance and the man- ner in which he secured exclusive rights to manufacture and sell the product in the United States is interesting in the extreme. While on a vacation trip in Canada in the summer of 1909 Mr. Rose visited the ro- mantie city of Quebec, and while going through a large manufacturing plant with a party of sightseers he had his attention directed to a flooring material which the foreman pointed ont enthusiastically as having solved a troublesome problem for the concern. It had stopped the heat from the blast furnaces below which had made the rooms well-nigh unbearable to the girl operatives and after a year's time had neither cracked, expanded nor contracted under the strain of gigantic trip-hammers and the fieree heat of the furnaces. Mr. Rose, with the characteristic alertness of an American to business possibilities, immediately inquired more intimately about the flooring, sought out the chemist whom the foreman stated had compounded the material from which the floor had been laid in one night, it being ready for use the following morning. The result was that ne- gotiations were opened which have culminated in the establishment of a factory here.
The flooring material may be sawed like wood with an ordinary saw. It will neither ehip nor sliver. Serews and nails may be driven into it, yet it appears like stone and takes a high and beautiful polish. With it the most beautiful marble may be imitated. The material is known as the Roman Hygienie Floor. The principle is protected by patents, both granted and pending, and depends on the basification of two hostile oxides. This base precipitates the form of a powder, which is soluble in water and may be laid in a plastie state. Although of a consistency of mortar when laid, eight hours curing will make it as hard as granite. There is no cement in the composition, the partieles being of equal density, and there is no difference in possible wear. It differs from tile in that it takes on the density without the application of fire, and is dissimilar from ordinary mosaies in that it is laid in bulk and to the original floor with- out the sub-foundation of sand or cement. Indeed one of the chemicals used in the composition is so penetrating that when the material is laid on the floor, if the latter be wood, it binds the whole mass together to such an extent that the wood itself will split before a fracture can be made. The material bonds readily to cement, concrete and asphalt or metal foundation. Flooring, however, is but one of the construction ap- plications of this material. Being laid as before mentioned in its plastic state, and being of chemical euring in the process of solidification, it may be cast in any size and shape, from a lozenge to a floor of many thousand square feet, and may be of a thickness varying from three-eighths of an inch to that of the ordinary marble or granite slab. This makes it feasible for wainscoting, mural decorating or roofing, while gargoyles made from it are so light that the additional weight to the coping is imma- terial. The sanitary feature is one which is commending itself to the architects and builders who have investigated the process. Being abso- Intely water-proof and being laid plastic there need be no corners or edges and any room thus treated may be flushed with water as often as is necessary. Again any shade or tint of color or any combination of colors may be included in the composition and the marbling effect is perfect.
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GEORGE W. BELLAMY. A prominent and influential resident of Mammoth Spring, George W. Bellamy is widely known throughout the state as a member of the Board of State Railroad Commissioners. He was born in 1848 at Marianna, Jackson county, Florida, but from the age of two years was brought up on his father's cotton plantation in Bolivar county, Mississippi. During the Civil war his mother fled with her children to Alabama, becoming refugees, and while there George W. entered the military school of the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa, as a cadet. Although a mere youth, he went out of that school with other cadets to the field of battle, and as a part of the Alabama state troops took part in several of the closing engagements of the war. Five older brothers of his fought in the Confederate army.
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