USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 53
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CONNELLY HARRINGTON. With a determination and ability enabling him to cope with the most strenuous demands made upon his talents and energies and with an integrity that never swerves from the true line of duty, Connelly Harrington has won for himself a commanding position in the business world, being now president of one of the lead- ing mercantile concerns of Benton county and cashier of the Farmers' National Bank of Siloam Springs. A son of the late Richard N. Har- rington, he was born December 14, 1864, in Platte City, Missouri.
The descendant of a family that migrated in early times from North Carolina to Tennessee and thence to Missouri, Richard N. Har- rington was born and bred in the last named state. When war be- tween the states was declared he was made captain of a company he- longing to General Price's army, which was assigned to the Trans- Mississippi department of the Confederate government, and in that capacity took part in various battles, inelnding that at Pea Ridge. On leaving the army he turned his attention to journalism, and for many years was widely known as editor and proprietor of the Dearborn Demo- crat, of Dearborn, Missouri. He was a man of much influence, and at his death, which occurred in 1900. when but sixty years of age, Dear- horn lost one of her most esteemed and respected citizens. His wife,
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whose maiden name was Laura Johnson, still resides in Dearborn, Mis- souri. She has two children, Connelly, and William P. Harrington, of Dearborn.
A produet of the central west, the education and training of Con- nelly Harrington has been with western institutions and people. He re- ceived his preliminary education in Platte City, attending the common schools and the old Platte City College, after which he studied law and was admitted to the bar. As a boy he had worked his way through a printer's establishment, mastering the printer's trade, but instead of becoming a professional man after his admission to the bar Mr. Har- rington was seized with the wanderlust and, following his trade, set type in nearly every city of size west of the Mississippi river. Subse- quently, however, he praetieed law for a time in Hailey, Idaho. Re- turning then to his native town, Mr. Harrington renewed his ac- quaintanee with the paste-pot in the office of the Platte City Landmark, with which he was connected for a while, afterward being editor of the Plattsburg Jeffersonian, his last venture in the newspaper world.
While yet a resident of Missouri, Mr. Harrington assisted in or- ganizing the "Benton County Hardware Company," a mercantile con- cern formed to do business in Benton county, Arkansas. This com- pany is capitalized at two hundred thousand dollars and has business houses in three places, Bentonville, Siloam Springs and Rogers. Each store is a separate company within the parent eoneern, and Mr. Har- rington is president of the main corporation and the manager of the Siloam Springs house. Under the careful and efficient management of its able president this coneern, with an annual volume of business amounting to half a million dollars, is one of the chief organizations of its kind in Benton county and one of the large enterprises of Arkansas.
Ever on the alert for business opportunities for himself and his associates, Mr. Harrington, in June, 1895, aided in organizing "The Farmers' Bank," which was established under charter of the state with a capital of fifteen thousand dollars, Mr. Harrington being made cashier of the institution. On September 26, 1910, this bank was converted into a national bank, its capital being increased to fifty thousand dollars, and it now has a surplus of ten thousand dollars. Mr. Harrington still retains its cashiership, while Mr. R. J. Alfrey is assistant eashier, with Edwin MeCulloch as vice-president.
A man of versatile talent, Mr. Harrington has many and diversi- fied interests, being extensively and snecessfully identified with the agri- cultural and fruit growing industry of the state. He has also furnished capital for the erection of business houses in Siloam Springs, and has been a generous contributor from his private purse towards laudable enterprises that appealed to the public spirit of the place.
Nursed in a Democratie household, Mr. Harrington has tenaciously elung to the principles in which he was reared, and is a leading member of his party. Representing the First ward of Siloam Springs on the City Board of Aldermen, he has proved "a true friend at court" of the municipality. and has rendered service such as only a successful business man can give. Fraternally he is a thirty-second degree Mason by both the York rite and the Seottish rite. He is a member and a past eminent commander of Siloam Springs Commandery, No. 15, and is a member of the Albert Pike Consistory and of Pine Bluff Shrine. He is likewise a Knight of Pythias, and as one of the leading members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows has served as grand marshal of the Arkansas Grand Lodge.
On April 28, 1892. Mr. Tarrington married, in Plattsburg, Missouri.
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Miss Minnie Kemper, a danghter of Valentine Kemper and sister of Lee P. Kemper, of whom a brief sketch is presented elsewhere in this volume.
ASA CREED GRACIE. Having measured his own ability and hewn his way straight to the line thus marked ont. Asa Creed Gracie early fitted himself for the legal profession and now occupies a place of promi- nence among the able and skillful lawyers of Little Rock, Arkansas. A son of J. M. Gracie, he was born October 2, 1881. at New Gascony, Jefferson county, Arkansas. His paternal grandfather, John B. Gracie, was born and bred in Ireland. Immigrating to America in the early forties, he settled in Jefferson county, Arkansas, where he subsequently engaged in cotton planting. He there married Ann Elizabeth Taylor, who was of pioneer descent. Her father, Creed Taylor, was one of the earlier settlers of Arkansas, coming to this state from Kentucky about 1800, and obtaining a large section of the famous Auvergne grant, a concession from the French government. lle was a very conspienous figure in the earliest annals of Arkansas, before it assumed territorial garb and for many years thereafter.
J. M. Gracie was born and reared in New Gascony, Arkansas, and for many years has been known far and wide as one of the most ex- tensive and successful cotton planters in Arkansas, owning and operat- ing three plantations. His plantation at New Gascony comprises twelve thousand five hundred acres of land: the Gracie plantation in Rob Roy contains thirty-five hundred acres : while at Hannaberry, Jefferson conn- ty. he has nine thousand acres of very rich and productive land, that plantation. mayhap, being the most profitable of the three. He is a man of large affairs, and in addition to his extensive agricultural in- terests as a cotton grower is one of the financial pillars of the state. In 1893 he established his residence at Little Rock, at the spacious and beautiful Gracie home on East Sixth street, retaining, however, his headquarters and former residence at New Gascony. He married Sallie E. Mckenzie, a danghter of Asa MeKenzie, another pioneer settler of Arkansas, coming from Virginia to Jefferson county at any early day. She died at the Gracie home in Little Rock December 21, 1910. The ancestors of the present family of Gracies were the founders and for many years the only settlers of New Gascony, where they built one of first Catholic churches erected in Arkansas. They were active and faithful members in the Roman Catholic church.
Laying a firm foundation for his future education in the public schools of Little Rock, Asa Creed Gracie subsequently attended the Little Rock Academy for a time. He subsequently studied law at Georgetown College, Washington, D. C., there receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1901, the degree of Master of Arts in 1902, and that of Bachelor of Laws in 1904. In the latter year Mr. Gracie was ad- mitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia. Returning to Little Rock two years later he established himself at Little Rock on the first day of November, and his since been here sue- cessfully engaged in the practice of his profession, having achieved an assured position among the leading members of the bar.
THOMAS C. MCARTHUR. The subject of this sketch is a leading merchant of Siloam Springs and he has spent the last eighteen years as a resident there. Ilis identification with the state of Arkansas, how- ever, has been of much longer duration, for he came here soon after the Civil war and into the west about two years after discarding a soldier's
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uniform. Until he located in Siloam his career was of a somewhat migratory character and he earned his livelihood by various kinds of employment. True to the Scoteh blood that courses in his veins he has demonstrated his worth as a eitizen, his thrift as a business man, and his loyalty to that section of earth he is pleased to call home.
Mr. MeArthur was born in Heard county, Georgia, August 6, 1847. His early years were passed in Franklin, the county seat, and behind his desk in the school room he and his classmates were pondering upon the great questions which confronted the South quite as much as the pages of their textbooks. In fact, he was only a school hoy when he enlisted in the Confederate service, joining Company D of the Second Mississippi Cavalry of General Forrest's command. He was in the Atlanta campaign, and following this was with General Hood's army in the battle of Franklin. His service was practically finished with the battle of Columbia, Tennessee, completing a campaign of sixty-three days, with forty-five of them within the sound of whistling bullets. He was at Enfanla, Alabama, when the surrender of Lee's army terminated the war.
Upon resuming the pursuits of peace Mr. MeArthur added to his stock of book-learning with another year of school and then became a clerk in a Franklin store. A year later he came to the west, locating at Jefferson, Texas, where his employment for the greater part of two years consisted in bookkeeping. In 1869 he came into Arkansas and devoted himself for some years to teaching school. His first pedagogical experience was at Rocky Comfort, where he taught the first term of school held after the war. He next taught in Columbia county and then removed to Louisiana, where he taught and at the same time fol- lowed agriculture, pursuing this double ealling for four years. He then returned to Arkansas, teaching two years at Prescott and farming there for a similar period. At this juneture Mrs. McArthur's health compelled him to seek some salubrious spot for her improvement, and consequently the ensuing two years were spent at Eureka Springs. Im- mediately following that, in 1885, he came to Benton county and spent the time until 1892 mainly as a farmer and with indifferent success.
In 1892 Mr. MeArthur began his career as a business man in Siloam Springs. He was without capital. but he had some eredit, and with fifty borrowed dollars he embarked in the poultry business. Out of the success of this venture came the means with which he established hin- self in the seed and grain business. Following this he engaged in the undertaking business and subsequently added furniture, which combina- tion of commercial enterprises marks him as among the leading business men of Siloam Springs. As a town-builder he has contributed his share and more by the erection of two brick stores, in which his seed and undertaking businesses are situated.
In politics Mr. MeArthur takes only the interest of the intelligent voter, giving his suffrage to the support of Democratic interests. Fra- ternally he is a member of the Masonic order, being a Master Mason.
Thomas C. MeArthur is a son of James McArthur, who migrated from his native Scotland in 1825 as a lad of sixteen, having been born and reared in the vicinity of Glasgow. After coming to the United States he learned mill-wrighting and became a contractor in the plac- ing of machinery in cotton mills throughout the South. While so en- gaged he died in Richmond, Virginia, in 1854, and his remains are in- terred in Holly Wood cemetery there. His wife was Harriet C. Mabry, who died in Georgia in 1884. at sixty-five years of age. The children
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of their union were Mrs. Mary A. Gaines, of Carrollton, Georgia, and Thomas C., the subject of this sketeh.
Mr. MeArthur was married in Franklin, Georgia, October 16, 1866, his ehosen lady being Miss Anna H. Glover, daughter of Wiley Glover, a farmer and one of the prominent men of his locality. Mrs. MeArthur was born September 22, 1847. Their union has been blessed by the birth of a son, Joseph C., now of Pueblo, Colorado.
SAMUEL L. KAY. Conspieuous among the intelligent and able busi- ness men who have been a power for good in advancing the agricultural prosperity of Arkansas and developing its natural resources is Samuel L. Kay, a progressive and representative citizen of Little Roek. As a planter he has made a close study of the soil, of the elimatie conditions, of the productions, and is considered an authority on Arkansas lands and crops and especially well fitted for the position which he now holds as traveling land agent for the Saint Louis, Iron Mountain and South- ern Railroad Company.
A native of Ohio, he was born on a farm in Highland county March 26, 1858, but was reared and educated in Livingston county, Illinois, where his parents located when he was a child. Growing to manhood on the parental homestead, he became familiar with the art and seience of agriculture while young, acquiring a practical knowledge and experience that has since been of inestimable value to him. Seized with the wanderlust in 1886, Mr. Kay went to western Kansas, locating in Wallace county. He prizes as an interesting document a commission issued to him in 1889 as first eounty elerk of Wallaee eounty, and signed by Governor John A. Martin, it being the last commission of the kind ever issned by a governor of Kansas.
Coming to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1897, Mr. Kay was appointed to a position in the land department of the Saint Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway, with which he has since been actively connected. Under Colonel G. A. A. Deane, the railway company's land eommis- sioner, he has had general charge of the correspondenee resulting from the advertising of the Arkansas lands remaining from the original lands granted to that company in the early seventies, and has prosecuted the duties of his position with vigor and sueeess.
In 1900 Mr. Kay, with characteristie enterprise and forethought, founded the Arkansas Homestead, a high-elass agricultural paper which he conducted successfully ten years, through its eolumins bringing to the notice of the publie the value of Arkansas as an agricultural state. This publication was a paying investment from the start, but in 1910, on account of the press of other duties. he disposed of the paper.
Mr. Kay is now president of the Homestead Planting Company, which owns and controls seven thousand aeres of land lying in Pulaski and Saline counties, adjoining the town of Wrightsville. This com- pany built and maintains its own levee and is in a prosperons condition. Mr. Kay is also a director of the Woodson Levee Distriet, a state en- terprise, and is one of the directorate of the Mercantile Trust Company of Little Rock.
Mr. Kay married, in 1891, at Wilton, Museatine county, Iowa, Miss Nellie Gabriel.
CHARLES E. ROSENBAUM. The subject of this sketeh is a native of St. Louis and was educated in the schools of that city, where he began his commercial career and remained a resident of the city until his removal to Little Rock with his family carly in the year 1883. since which he has main-
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tained his residence here. The enterprise which he started and which bears his name, the C. E. Rosenbaum Machinery Company, began its career shortly after Mr. Rosenbaum came to Little Rock, and from very small be- ginnings it has grown to be one of the largest and most important factors in the machinery and mill supply business throughout the southwest. The company not only bears his name, but Mr. Rosenbaum virtually owns its entire stock and has always been active in the management of the business, insisting always that everyone connected with the company should never lose sight of the fact that a business built on honor should be maintained in the same manner. While the strife and turmoil incident to ceaseless com- petition and strenuous efforts in commercial affairs sometimes make it hard to maintain a high commercial standard, Mr. Rosenbaum is convinced that it is only through honest methods, fair dealings and consistent application, together with a thorough knowledge of the business, that this high standard can be reached and maintained. It is largely through the constant and close attention to these important details that he has succeeded commer- cially to the extent his business interests now enjoy.
Personally Mr. Rosenbaum in the Masonic fraternity has received some distinetion of note in a historical sketch of this character. His ex- eentive ability. coupled with his thorough earnestness in all that he under- takes, is perhaps responsible for more honors in this line than come to the average man of affairs in the commercial world. For some years he has been the treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Arkansas, and at this writing is the grand junior deacon of the Grand Lodge. He served for years as a member of the Board of Control of the Masonic Temple, owned by the Grand Lodge, and it was largely through his efforts and the plans proposed by him that provision for the payment of its indebtedness was made. He was president of the board of trustees of the Masonic Orphans' Home of this state and under his guidance the beautiful Masonic Home was built and furnished.
The following extract, taken from an address delivered at the last meeting of the Grand Lodge of Masons by a member of the board of trus- tees, will illustrate somewhat the value placed on Mr. Rosenbaum's ability in connection with this great Masonie work.
"It has been a pleasure to be identified with this work and to watch its progress. It has been my pleasure to see a magnificent site selected ; to see the foundations laid and the walls go up and the buildings take shape and finally stand complete in all their strength and beanty; to see a hard- headed, practical, earnest, honest business man (C. E. Rosenbaum, and I am not saying it to flatter him) entrusted with $7,500 and given carte blanche to furnish the home according to his own good judgment; to see these furnishings provided-nothing faney or gaudy, but substantial and servieable, from the smallest to the greatest, all complete-and the struc- ture turned over with all its belongings to the Grand Lodge after a total expenditure of $75,000.00 without a whisper about graft or rake-off, with- out a breath of scandal such as would doubtless have rent the air had this sum of money been turned over to the politicians to spend."
Mr. Rosenbaum is also justly proud of a Christmas greeting which was sent to him from the Masonie Orphans' Home on Christmas, 1910, he having undertaken the pleasurable task of providing a happy Christmas for the employes and children in the home. The greeting which follows was sent by telegraph, and among all the messages of similar nature re- ceived by him this is the most highly prized by the recipient :
"Superintendent, Matron, Employes and Inmates of Masonie Orphans' Home send greetings to you. Your generous solicitude has made the day brighter, the world fairer and many hearts beat faster. May the com-
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panionship of dear ones there, and the good will of friends far away, bring happiness to your heart in full measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over."
The Grand Commandery Knights elected Mr. Rosenbaum grand com- mander of the Grand Commandery of Arkansas in 1892, and in the Grand Encampment of the United States of America he at one time held one of the appointive offices and at present is serving on one of its most important committees. In Scottish Rite Masonry he perhaps has won more distinc- tion than in other bodies of Masonry, because of the deep interest mani- fested in the upbuilding of this system of Masonry in Arkansas and throughout the southwest. Albert Pike Consistory, the beantiful building belonging to the Scottish Rite bodies of this state and located on Eighth and Scott streets, Little Rock, is in a measure a monument to Mr. Rosen- baum's energy, zeal and devotion to a eanse, as it was largely through his efforts that the building was designed, erected and every indebtedness paid in such a limited period of time that it set a new standard in matters of this kind. His ability has also been recognized in the Supreme Council of Scottish Rite Masonry for the southern jurisdiction (which is the mother supreme council of the world) in his election as Treasurer General, which is not only a life position, but means the custodianship of the large balances and securities owned by the Supreme Council. He is also a life member of the Council of Administration of the Supreme Council and he has al- ways held the confidence and esteem of his fellow members in the Supreme Council as well as in a large circle of distinguished Masons to a marked degree.
Mr. Rosenbaum's father died when he was a mere youth, thus forcing him through changed conditions to begin a commercial career very early in life. His mother is still living and at this writing is eighty-three years old and in the best of health, the result of a vigorous constitution coupled with freedom from many of the ills incident to the lives of most people.
Mr. Rosenbaum was married in 1877 to Ida M. Havlin, both of whom were at the time residents of St. Louis. Mrs. Rosenbaum was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of James G. Blaine, and the fam- ily residences were almost adjoining. One child blessed the union of the lives of this couple, a daughter, May, who was reared and educated in Little Rock, and a few years ago became the wife of G. W. Harris, formerly a resident of Little Rock but now president of the Harris & Ewing Com- pany, of Washington, D. C., the leading photographers of that city and among the leaders in the United States. Mr. Harris is president of the National Association of Photographers of America. Mr. and Mrs. Harris have one ehild living-Martha, who is in her fourth year-the youngest, Pauline, having passed away in August, 1910, and been laid away in the family burial ground in Oakland cemetery, Little Rock. The home life of the Rosenbaum household is all that could be desired, for they are blessed with many friends whose kindly thought and affection mean so much in the general summing up of human life, and that coupled with the ever ready and generous hospitality of Mrs. Rosenbaum has made entertainment at their home an experience of delightful pleasure.
JOHN W. WEBSTER, M. D. The personnel of the medieal fraternity of Benton county is honored by the presence of John W. Webster, M. D., whose residence and active practice of his profession in this eounty began at Siloam Springs ten years and more ago. His identity with the state of Arkansas, however, dates from the year 1882, when he settled as a physician and surgeon in Washington county, retaining his residence and practice in Cineinnati until his success demanded a broader field
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of action, when he came to his present location. A son of Dr. Samuel Webster, he was born December 20, 1847, in Peoria, Illinois, coming, it is thought, of Scotch ancestry on the paternal side.
Dr. Samuel Webster was a native of Virginia, his birth having occurred in Botetourt county, Virginia, in February, 1812. Turning his attention when young to the study of medicine, he was one of the first graduates of the Jefferson Medical College, at Philadelphia. He met with much snecess as a practitioner, for many years being located at Fincastle, Virginia. where he spent his last days, dying in 1887. He married Miss Frances Fields, a daughter of John Fields, whose ancestors were among the pioneer settlers of the Old Dominion state. Of the children born of their union two, only, grew to mature life, namely : Vashni, who disappeared several years ago, his abode being still unknown to his brother; and John W., the subject of this sketch. It is not unseemly here to say that the lives of this branch of the Web- ster family were closely allied by the circumstances of birth and en- vironment with the South, and upon the issues of the Civil war, with the exception of the escapade of the subject of this review, its sym- pathies were with the Confederacy.
Ere reaching his fifteenth year John W. Webster was sent by his parents to New Virginia, Iowa, to join friends from old Virginia and there attend college. The young man, however, who had decided opin- ions of his own, had other plans, and these he immediately put in action by enlisting, in Angust, 1862. at Davenport, Iowa, in the Federal army. His regiment, the Thirty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, commanded by Colonel H. J. B. Cummins, was sent to the front at Corinth, Mis- sissippi. On April 26, 1863, at Town Creek, Alabama, young Webster was wounded during a skirmish with the enemy. Recovering his health he marched with Sherman's army to the sea and took part in the dividing of the Confederacy as the victorious columns of the Federal commander passed through the Carolinas, and, at Greensboro, North Carolina, re- ceived the surrender of Johnston's forces, which practically terminated the war. Continuing with his regiment, Mr. Webster went to Wash- ington, D. C., where, on June 5, 1865, he was mustered out of service. The self-same day he enlisted in Hancock's Reserves, recruited for the purpose of driving Maximilian ont of Mexico, but the vexing situation of that country was solved by diplomacy, and the "Reserves" were used in the ordnance department of the United States in gathering up arms over the battlefields of the South. Transferred to the Fourth Cavalry of the regular service in March, 1866, Mr. Webster served chiefly in the ordnance department until 1880. During the years 1874 and 1875 he was stationed in Chicago, Illinois, and there he took up the study of medicine, making his initial preparation for his future profession. The regiment was subsequently stationed in the west. in 1880, when he was discharged from the army, heing located at Fort Stanton, New Mexico.
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