USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 52
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Avery H. Thomas, who is carrying on the work of his father in connection with the cotton gin industry in Arkansas, was born at Spring- field, Arkansas, on the 3rd of September, 1872. He early availed him- self of the advantages afforded in the public schools of Little Rock and in choosing a profession he turned to engineering. He qualified for his life work in the mannal training department of Washington University, at St. Louis, Missouri, in which excellent institution he was a student for three years. In 1890 he returned to Little Rock, where for many years he was closely and intimately associated with his father as as- sistant and as a draftsman and mechanical engineer in working out the latter's plans, and so continued until the death of the father, since which time he has been engaged in various lines of enterprise. Mr. Thomas is an independent in his political convictions and he has contributed in generous measure to all projects advanced for the general welfare of this section of the fine old Bear state. As a citizen his loyalty and publie spirit are always in evidence and he holds a secure place in the high regard of his fellow men.
At Little Rock, Arkansas, on the 26th of December, 1895, was cele- brated the marriage of Mr. Thomas to Miss Mattie Marshall, who was
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born and reared at Oxford, Mississippi, and was was summoned to eternal rest in 1902. She is survived by one daughter, Olivia Thomas.
FELIX S. BAKER. Few names are more familiar or more favorably known in this section of the state than that of Felix S. Baker, a resi- dent of Eureka Springs and an ante-bellum settler of Arkansas, in which state he has passed his life as a farmer, merehant and public official. He is a native son of the Old Dominion, his birth having occurred in Smith county, that state, May 23, 1842. He is a son of Andrew Baker, a North Carolina native, born near the line between that state and Vir- ginia in 1817. He removed to Arkansas in the course of his career and died in Harrison, that state, in 1900. The grandfather was John Baker, a slave-owning planter of North Carolina, whose other children were C'alvin Baker, who drifted westward to California and reared his fam- ily in San Francisco, where he passed his last days; Mrs. Byrd Smith and Mrs. Calvin Greer, both of whom made their homes in Grayson county, Virginia. The two aunts of the subject are deceased, as well as the uncle.
Andrew Baker left Virginia in 1860 and drove by wagon to Ar- kansas, setting stakes when he came to Newton county. In 1840 he mar- ried Mary Hash, and all of his children were born in Virginia. His wife was a danghter of William Hash, who lived in Grayson county, Virginia, and answered to the dual calling of miller and farmer. Mrs. Baker passed away in Harrison, Arkansas, in 1898, the mother of Felix S., of this notice: Hannah, who married a Mr. Pugh and makes her home in Joplin, Missouri; Levi, of Marion county, Arkansas; Virginia L., who became the wife of W. H. Cecil and concluded her days in Harrison, Arkansas; and William, of Oregon.
Andrew Baker gave his energies mainly to agrienlture. He was a man of opinions, who gave thought to the issues of the day, and he had aequired a good education. Up to the time of the Civil war he was a supporter of the Union cause, but with the secession of Virginia and of Arkansas-his native state and that of his residenee at the time of the conflict-he permitted "allegiance to his people" to control his political aets and he joined the Confederate army, becoming a lieu- tenant in Colonel Mitehell's regiment of Arkansas infantry. He was in General Price's army and went on the raid into Missouri, but sub- sequently was detailed to raise a company in Newton county in sup- port of the losing cause. When the strife was concluded he returned to his farm and his family and lived an nneventful life in and about Harrison, Arkansas, until the close of his career, and there he and his wife are buried.
Felix S. Baker received his education in Virginia and was mar- ried the year he reached Arkansas. Although he was a youth only abont eighteen years of age he set up his own domestic establishment upon a farm near Bluff Springs, Arkansas. In 1863 he enlisted in the Second Arkansas Cavalry, Union troops, under Colonel Phelps, and served chiefly in the recruiting service throughout the remainder of the war. In taking this step for the Union he was carrying out the prin- eiples advocated by his father prior to the war and was imitating the course of the people of his own mother and of his wife. He knew nothing of polities, but he had thought a great deal and had read much anti-slavery literature and had threshed things ont for himself and he- lieved loyalty to his flag to be his first duty. He could not. feeling as he did, conscientiously aid or abet in the movement of secession.
After the war Mr. Baker engaged in mercantile business in Jasper,
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Arkansas, and continued in this field for eight years. At the end of that time he removed to Harrison, where again mercantile pursuits claimed his attention and where he also engaged in milling. In 1889 he closed out both interests and took the position of receiver of the United States land office at Harrison, his appointment to that important post having been received in that year. Some idea of his political al- legiance can be gleaned from the fact that the Cleveland administra- tion relieved him of his trust, but President MeKinley reappointed him, and he continued in the office for several months after the succession of President Roosevelt.
Upon retiring from the office, to which he had brought capabilities of the highest order, Mr. Baker removed to Eureka Springs and here found varied interests, being engaged in botlı the mercantile and real estate and insurance business. Of recent years he has found suffi- ciently engrossing the Arkansas property interests of himself and his wife, chief among these being a stock farm and ranch of several thou- sand acres located in Drew county.
In September, 1860, Mr. Baker married his first wife, Mary Har- rison, daughter of W. R. Harrison, a prominent lawyer of Newton county, who died at Jasper. Mrs. Baker died in Harrison, Arkansas, in 1889, leaving the following three children: Mary, wife of S. P. Elzy, of Harrison ; James, of that city ; and William W., of Fort Smith, Arkansas, a traveling salesman for a Chicago paper house. On July 23. 1899, Mr. Baker married Levina J. Morrison, who lived only two years and died without issue. On January 25, 1902, he married Per- melia J. Ray, who passed away in 1904, without issue. In November, 1906, Mr. Baker married Jennie L. Wadsworth, widow of the late well- known citizen of Eureka Springs, W. S. Wadsworth. Mrs. Baker's maiden name was Jennie L. Loftes, and she is a daughter of a Mr. Loftes of Illinois.
As seen from his record, Mr. Baker is a Republican, and he has ever been one of the most loyal and enthusiastic of the standard bear- ers of "the Grand Old Party." He has been a valuable public servant. and besides his long term in the land office service he has been mayor of Harrison, Arkansas, and alderman of Eureka Springs. He is an active, devoted and well-versed Mason, being indeed one of the most prominent of the state. He served two years as master of the Blue Lodge, twelve years as high priest of the Chapter at Harrison, is a past eminent commander of the Commandery and a member of the Eastern Star. He is a past grand master of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and a member of the Rebekahs, of which order his wife is past president of the state of Arkansas. Mrs. Baker is a member of the Eastern Star and of the Ladies of the Maccabees.
DR. ALBERT BYRON BISHOP. A man of literary tastes and scholarly attainments, Dr. Albert B. Bishop, of Ashdown, has attained promi- lence not only as an able and skillful physician, but for the active and intelligent part he has taken in the upbuilding and growth of his adopted town. A son of Hon. Harmon Bishop, he was born near Min- eral Springs, Howard county, Arkansas, coming from old Virginian stock.
A native of Brunswick county, Virginia, Hon. Harmon Bishop mi- grated when a young man to Salisbury, Tennessee, where he wooed and won for his bride Miss Mary K. Williams. Coming to Arkansas with his family in 1846, he located in that part of Hempstead county that was afterwards set off as Howard county, buying a tract of land near
Vol. III-23
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Mineral Springs. He acquired prestige as a man of influence and abil- ity and represented Hempstead county in the state legislature in ante- bellum days. Although restricted by reason of his age from enlisting for service during the Civil war, he recruited a regiment of home guards in his county. His last years of life were spent at Lockesburg, Sevier county, his death occurring there in 1897. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop became the parents of twelve children, six of whom are living: Solon B., of Shultz, Oklahoma; Polk, of Jackson, Tennessee; Mrs. Virginia Nelson, of Bingen, Arkansas; Mrs. Eva Briggs, of Little Rock, Arkan- sas: Frank P., of Nashville, Arkansas; and the subject of this sketch.
Receiving his rudimentary education in the schools of Nashville, Arkansas, and at Mineral Springs, Albert B. Bishop, as natural to a man of his mental calibre, ehose a professional life and, going to Saint Louis, was graduated from the Missouri Medical College with the class of 1887. Beginning the practice of medicine at Mineral Springs, Dr. Bishop remained there until 1892, when he removed to Loekesburg, Sevier county, where for five years in addition to his professional duties he edited and published the Sevier County Democrat. In 1897 located at Ashdown, where he has met with success as a physician and has taken an active part in advaneing material interests of the plaee. He ereeted and is the owner of the Bishop Block, a two-story, double front, briek building, with stores on the ground floor, while the upstairs rooms are used as offices. The Doetor is a man of upright, Christian prinei- ples and a valued member of the Missionary church.
Dr. Bishop married Ella MeCrary, a daughter of Dr. E. W. Me- Crary, a prominent pioneer physician and citizen of southwestern Ar- kansas, who served during the Civil war as a surgeon in the Confeder- ate army. The Doetor and Mrs. Bishop are the parents of three ehil- dren, namely: Addie, county abstracter; William W., deputy sheriff of Little River eounty ; and Claude Albert, manager of the Texas Whole- sale Produce Company.
JOE E. Cook. The son of a distinguished member of the Arkansas bar and himself a lawyer of note, Joe E. Cook is a representative citi- zen of Texarkana and a man of much prominence in the community. Ile was born in 1861 in Ouachita eounty, Arkansas, a son of John and Cornelia (Christopher) Cook. His paternal grandfather, Tom Cook, eame with his family from Alabama to Arkansas in 1846, loeating near Faleon, Nevada eonnty. He was likewise a lawyer by profession and became active in public affairs, serving as sheriff of Nevada county.
Born in Alabama, John Cook came with his parents to Arkansas, and when ready to start upon his active career entered the legal pro- fession, for which he was amply fitted by study and training. His patriotie ardor led him to enlist in the Confederate army, in which he fought bravely until the elose of the war. Subsequently resuming his profession, he became one of the most noted attorneys of southern Arkansas and one of the best known and most highly esteemed, his immense praetice taking him to the various eounties of his eirenit in the southern part of the state. Talented and accomplished, he pos- sessed rare and peenliar gifts, his characteristics having been quiekness of perecption, a seemingly intuitive knowledge of the principles in- volved in any ease and a wonderful comprehension of details, render- ing him one of the strong and powerful advocates of his day. He was a resident of Lewisville, Lafayette county, until 1877, when he removed with his family to Texarkana, where he continued in active practice until his death, in 1881, his abilities and high character placing him
IS Ewall
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among the leading lawyers of Miller county. His widow, a native of Virginia, is still a resident of Texarkana.
Inheriting in some degree the legal talent and love of justice that characterized his honored father, Joe E. Cook began the study of law with his father and was afterwards a student in the law office of Bat- tle & Compton, in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1883 he was admitted to practice in the State Supreme Court and immediately after, in June of that year, opened an office in Texarkana, where he has met with eminent success, having built up an extensive and remunerative law practice. One of his brothers, J. N. Cook, is also a lawyer in Texark- ana and is ex-mayor of the city.
Mr. Cook married Mary Young, who was horn in Washington, D. C., and they are the parents of seven children, namely: Joe E., Jr .; Gilbert R., a cadet at West Point: James C., a cadet at the Annapolis Naval Academy; Philip, Cora, Margaret and Jessie.
JOSEPH S. EWALT. Conspicuous among the enterprising and ener- getie men who have been influential in advancing the fruit growing and farming interests of Northwest Arkansas and in populating this part of the state is Joseph S. Ewalt, of Springdale. As president of the J. S. Ewalt Realty Company he has taken an active part in the movement which has resulted in introducing new blood and fiber into the state, his work along this line qualifying him for one of the leaders of this new and valued citizenship.
The Ewalts. as the name suggests, are of German origin, the emi- grant aneestor of the family having immigrated to Pennsylvania from the Fatherland in early Colonial days. His descendants were farmers in that state for many generations. One of them, however, the grand- father of Mr. Ewalt, settled in Cynthiana, Kentucky, after his mar- riage, and there, in 1837, their son, Richard T. Ewalt, the father of Joseph S .. was horn.
Leaving home soon after attaining his majority, Richard T. Ewalt located in Lewis county, Missouri, where he was living when the Civil war was inaugurated. Enlisting in Price's army, he was an active par- ticipant in the struggle for the establishment of a Confederacy, taking part in the engagements at Prairie Grove, Arkansas, and Elkhorn, Ar- kansas, in 1862, and continuing as a private in the Trans-Mississippi Department until the war was over. Moving with his family to Kansas in 1873, he was actively engaged in mercantile pursuits at Great Bend for a quarter of a century and is still a resident of that city. He mar- ried Adaline Martin, a Virginian by birth and breeding, and of the ten children born of their union seven survive.
Joseph S. Ewalt, the third child in succession of birth of the pa- rental household, was born March 31, 1864, in Lewis county, Missouri. Attending the public sehools of Great Bend, Kansas, during his youth- ful days, he acquired a practical education. He hegan life for himself as a clerk, but in 1896 drifted into the real estate business, with whiel he was associated in his home town for seven years. In 1903 he came to Arkansas for the benefit of his health and soon resumed business as the promoter and president of the J. S. Ewalt Realty Company, an organization which has for its main object the introduction of a new citizenship into the agricultural regions of Northwest Arkansas. This venture has proven its value in the character and number of the new people who have located in the vicinity of Springdale. Kansas, Ne- braska, the Dakotas, Iowa, Michigan and Colorado have heen drawn upon for the material of the settlers in this region, and the results
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achieved for the country by their presence are marvelous. The im- proved condition of commercial and other business activities, the pro- gressive spirit pervading the atmosphere, and the modern betterments which mark the abiding places of the "strangers" all speak loudly in favor of the change which Realty Company methods have wrought.
A farmer and fruit man himself, Mr. Ewalt has an orehard of four hundred aeres near Springdale, and is likewise owner of a grist mill and of other city property. He has taken an advanced position among those who build houses and barns in the country, having erected more than a hundred sneh structures, besides which he has built many honses in Springdale. Mr Ewalt is popular as a citizen and has been honored with an election to the city council, being the first "stranger" to break into that body, the result of the razing of the old wall which seemed formerly to exclude all save the native population.
Mr. Ewalt married, at Great Bend. Kansas, November 24, 1886, Clara E. Diffenbacher, a daughter of Hon, Calvin F. Diffenbaeher, a lawyer and a noted Democratie politician of that state, he having moved there from Beardstown, Illinois, where the birth of Mrs. Ewalt oe- enrred April 7, 1866. Mr. and Mrs. Ewalt have six children, namely : Calvin R., of Great Bend, Kansas; Joseph S., Jr., of Springdale, Arkan- sas; Howard M. and Harry, twins: Clara E. ; and Harriet A.
WILLIAM H. CURTIS. As president of the Fountain City Lumber Company, William H. Curtis is closely identified with one of the fore- most industries of Siloam Springs. A man of good business qualifica- tions, keen and alert to take advantage of opportunities, he is an im- portant factor in advancing the lumber interests of Benton county and has here built up an extensive and remunerative trade. A native of North Carolina, he was born April 5, 1846, in Burke county, which was likewise the birthplace of his father, Robert Curtis. His paternal grand- father, William Curtis, a life-long resident of Burke county, North Carolina, was a planter by occupation, as the calling was voieed in former days, and on his large estate reared four sons, as follows: Will- iam, who died in California; J. Nelson, who spent his last years in Ben- tonville, Arkansas; Jason, who became a resident of California and there spent his remaining years; and Robert.
Robert Curtis, born in Burke county, North Carolina, in 1810, was there bred and edneated. In early manhood he moved to Arkansas, lo- eating in Bentonville, where he was an ante-bellum merchant, carrying on a substantial business. Although he performed no military service during the war, he furnished sons for the Confederate army, eheer- fully sending them forth to duty. After the close of the confliet he moved with his family to old Hico, where he and his son, William H., were in business for a number of years. He died in Bentonville, Ar- kansas, in 1882, having passed the allotted three seore and ten years of life. He was a member of the Masonie fraternity and belonged to the Methodist church, South. Robert Curtis married, in North Carolina, his second cousin, Emily Curtis, a daughter of Rev. Moses Curtis, a Methodist preacher. She died in Bentonville, Arkansas, in 1878, leav- ing seven children, namely: Joshna, who died in Dallas, Texas; Will- iam H., the special subject of this sketeh; Moses, whose death occurred in Moffattown. Texas; John, who died in Bentonville, Arkansas; Mol- lie, wife of George Greenwood, of Nashville, Tennessee; Sallie, wife of W. W. Reynolds, of Fort Smith ; and George, who died in Bell county, Texas.
Coming to Benton county, Arkansas, with his parents when but
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eight years of age, William H. Curtis may well be classed with the pioneers of this part of the state. Gleaning his early education in the schools of Bentonville, he enlisted when but a boy in the Confederate army, putting on the uniform of the gray and serving under Captain Jefferson in Colonel Ferguson's regiment, which was raised in Benton county. He fought his first battle almost within hailing distance of his home, at Elkhorn, and escaped wounds in that engagement and likewise in the battles at Poison Springs and at Prairie Grove, but in the engagement at Fayetteville he was less fortunate, having been hit in the thigh by a musket ball. Recovering soon from his wound, the brave boy was again with his eommand in the battle of Mansfield and during the other fights of the Louisiana campaign. As a member of Marmaduke's division, General Cabell's brigade, he was at Dardanelle, Arkansas, when the news of General Lee's surrender put an end to further military service, and the command was there disbanded.
At the age of nineteen years, with an army experience of three years in behalf of the Confederacy, William H. Curtis returned to the parental home and soon after learned the blacksmith's trade with his father, who owned a smithy for a time after settling in Bentonville. After six years at the anvil he began selling goods in Bentonville and was subsequently engaged in the mercantile business at Hico for several years, being in partnership with his father, as previously mentioned. Moving from there to the Indian Territory, Mr. Curtis sold good's at Carey's Ferry for three years, after which he embarked in the stock business in Delaware county, Oklahoma. Going then to the Snake Distriet of the territory, he remained there for a time. Selling out in 1891, Mr. Curtis located in Afton, becoming the pioneer lumberman of that scetion of the state. At the end of seventeen years, having been successful in his undertakings, he came to Siloam Springs, where he has sinee been prosperously engaged in the lumber business as chief partner in the Fountain City Lumber Company. Mr. Curtis is also a stockholder and a director of the Farmers' National Bank of Siloam Springs. Po- litically he is a Demoerat and fraternally he is a master Mason.
At Hieo, September 7, 1877, Mr. Curtis married Lula Gunter, a daughter of Caldeen C. Gunter, a pioneer settler of that place. Born Mareh 30, 1818, in eastern Tennessee, Caldeen C. Gunter was reared on the Alabama line of that commonwealth. About 1842 he came to Ar- kansas and as a farmer and stock raiser was very successful in accu- mulating property. In the conflict between the states he lost all of his wealth with the exception of his land. but his energetic activity stimu- lated him to a second effort, and he met with such success that at his death, which occurred at Siloam Springs March 27, 1898, he left a modest fortune. The Gunter family to which he belonged produced men which impressed their individuality upon Arkansas as citizens and men of affairs, one of his brothers, Colonel Thomas M. Gunter, having been a member of Congress from the Fayetteville district for six years and in other respects was a man of prominence and influence.
Caldeen C. Gunter married Naney Ward, a daughter of James Ward, a one-sixteenth Cherokee Indian, who, in the early forties, moved with his tribe from Georgia to the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory. Nine children were born of their union, namely: Ann Eliza, wife of B. G. Chandler, of Vinita, Oklahoma: Levina, wife of L. L. Duck- worth, of Delaware county, Oklahoma: Jennie, wife of Dr. B. F. Fort- ner. of Springfield, Missouri: John T., of Vinita, Oklahoma: Olivia, wife of D. M. Mars, also of Vinita : Lula, now Mrs. Curtis: Emma, who married Samuel Frazier, of Mayes county, Oklahoma: Nannie A., wife
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of J. S. Alfrey, of Siloam Springs; and Caldeen D., a well-known young business man of Siloam Springs. Mr. and Mrs. Curtis have no ehil- dren.
WILLIAM W. YORK, M. D. A representative citizen of Little River county and one of its leading physicians and surgeons, William W. York, M. D., has established a large and lucrative practice at Ashdown, which has been his home for six years. He was born in Coffeeville, Yalobusha county, Mississippi, and eame in 1885 to Nashville, Howard county, Arkansas, with his parents, William Daniel and Julia F. (Pen- kins) York, natives of Mississippi.
Having laid a substantial foundation for his future education by elose application to his books during his boyhood and youth, William W. York began the study of medieine in the University of Nashville, later entering the University of Tennessee and then the Memphis Hos- pital Medical College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1901. Dr. York was afterwards engaged in the practice of his pro- fession at Brownstown, Sevier county, until 1905, when he located at Ashdown, where he has since met with distinguished sueeess, acquiring distinction as one of the able and skillful physicians and surgeons of Little River county. Wide-awake and progressive, the Doctor keeps well informed in regard to the latest seientifie methods of treating dis- eases, in 1907 taking a post-graduate course at the Tulane Medical Col- lege in New Orleans. He is a member of the Little River County and of the Arkansas State Medical Societies and is now president of the County Board of Health.
Dr. York married Luey Owen Coulter, a daughter of Captain D. B. Coulter, a prominent citizen of White Cliffs. Her grandfather, James M. Coulter, eame from Mississippi to Arkansas in 1837, locating at Cen- ter Point, in what was then Sevier county, but is now embraced within the limits of Howard county. He married Brunetta Burton, a daughter of Pleasant H. Burton, who migrated to New Orleans in 1816 and from there eame, in 1825, to Arkansas, becoming a pioneer settler of Hemp- stead county. Dr. and Mrs. York have two children-Mary Burton York and William Daniel York.
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