USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 58
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ing the post at Springfield, and it overtook Shelby's command at Hunts- ville, in Madison county, and on the Arkansas river. Although the enemy had gone into camp for the night at Buffalo creek, General Me- Niel ordered an assault-Colonel Hunt leading his regiment down the center-and all opposition was soon dissipated, the eamp was captured and further resistance from Shelby rendered useless. At the close of the war Colonel Hunt received his honorable discharge and was mus- tered out of service at Fayetteville.
The Colonel resumed civil life as a farmer. In the winter of 1868 he removed to his present home, now joining the city of Fayetteville. The residence is situated on a quarter section of land, onee the home of Governor Yell, the second governor of Arkansas. During the occupancy of it by his excellency the residence and law office were painted a snowy white and were referred to as "the wax halls." From this farm as his home Colonel Hunt has gone out to the various duties which have de- volved upon him in both publie and private life. During the period of reconstruction Colonel Hunt was chosen state senator from Washington and Benton counties and during the two sessions he was in the legis- lature several matters were passed upon and made into laws, which had an important bearing upon the peace and welfare of the state. A bill for the organization of the militia of the state was one of the measures which caused much feeling even among the Republicans, the same re- sulting in the formation of the Brooks-Clayton factions of the Repub- lican party, Governor Clayton favoring the militia organization move- ment and Brooks, who was a leading member of the lower honse, oppos- ing it with a memorable three days' speech. For some years after the war Arkansas was at fever heat politieally and soeially and many un- lawful aets were committed by the element but recently in rebellion. The office of the militia was to eurb and restrain by a show of foree those engaged in violations of the law. With the organization of the militia of the Ozark section of the state Colonel Hunt was appointed by Governor Clayton as brigadier general of the militia, but the troops were never called into service.
In the early '70s Colonel Hunt was appointed assessor of internal revenue for the Third district of Arkansas, relieving General John Ed- wards, and in this capacity he served for a period of four years, at the expiration of which he returned to his farm. His next public service was as postmaster of Fayetteville by appointment of President Harri- son. He was out of office during the administrations of President Cleve- land, but was reappointed to office by President MeKinley, under whose regime he served another four years. Sinee 1902 he has beenpied him- self with the affairs of his farm and other private interests.
During the ineipiency of the movement for the location of the Uni- versity of Arkansas at Fayetteville, in 1870, Colonel Hunt was placed in a position to do an important public service, although a private eiti- zen. When the matter of a bonus of one hundred and thirty thousand dollars was to be raised in order to meet the requirements of the authori- ties for locating the university at Fayetteville, a committee of six eiti- zens of Washington county was appointed, four Democrats and two Republicans, to canvass the county in favor of voting the bonds and thus win the school. This committee was comprised of Colonels Gunter, Pettigrew and Wilson and Judge Walker, for the Democrats, and Judge Gregg and Colonel Hunt for the Republicans. The work of this com- mittee was salient in greatly relieving the tension between partisans and resulted in the establishment of a more stable peace in the county.
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Fraternally Colonel Hunt is a member of the Masonic Blue Lodge and Chapter of Fayetteville, and his religious faith is in harmony with the teachings of the First Christian church, in which he holds membership. On the 29th of May. 1863, was solemnized the marriage of Colonel Hunt to Miss Matilda Campbell, a daughter of James Campbell, Mrs. Hunt was born in Arkansas and her death occurred on the 10th of Oeto- ber, 1868. She is survived by two daughters-Eleanor M., who is the wife of W. P. Moulden, of Fayetteville; and Virginia, who married W. T. Satterfield, of Little Rock. On the 16th of May, 1869. Colonel Hunt was a second time married, the lady of his choice being a cousin of his first wife, Margaret A. Simpson, who was reared in the home of her unele, James Campbell. Colonel and Mrs. Hunt became the parents of four children-Gertrude, wife of Augustus Cole, of Monett, Missouri : Marshall, who died young: Nellie, who married O. T. Knight, of Jones- boro, Arkansas: and Howard, of Chandler, Oklahoma, who married Eva Bryan.
WILLIAM THOMAS STAHL. Establishing his home in Siloam Springs nearly a score of years ago, William Thomas Stahl readily assimilated the hospitable customs and mannerisms of the people hereabout, having grown to manhood among Arkansas folks, elsewhere, and having passed his business life in the atmosphere of this state. He is conspicuously identified with various enterprises that are of benefit to the community, being president of the State Bank of Siloam Springs; secretary of the Siloam Springs Telephone Company; and connected with many other of the city's interests. A son of the late William P. Stahl, he was born July 26, 1862, in Chickasaw county, Mississippi, where his boyhood days were passed.
William P. Stahl was born in Alabama in 1836, and there learned the carpenter's trade. During the Civil war he was a soldier in the Con- federate army, and under command of General Lee fought in the Army of Northern Virginia. Wounded on the field of battle, he was for nine- teen months confined as a prisoner of war at Roek Island, Illinois, being held longer than was necessary because he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the United States, even when the war was over. Subse- quently resuming his trade, he spent the last years of his life in Desha county, Arkansas, his death'occurring there in 1888, nine years after his location in Arkansas. He was an uncompromising Democrat in poli- ties, and without other public record than that of a good citizen. He married Julia Harris, who was born sixty-eight years ago, and is now residing at Siloam Springs.
The only child of his parents, William Thomas Stahl attended the public schools when young, receiving an education which, although some- what limited in character, sufficed to enable him to seenre a position in the commercial life of Houston, Mississippi, when but seventeen years old. He was afterward similarly employed on a plantation at Red Fork, Arkansas, subsequently there forming a partnership with his father, and continuing a member of the firm of W. P. Stahl & Company until the death of his father. Closing out the store then, Mr. Stahl kept books at Red Fork, Desha county, Arkansas, two years. The following three years he managed a plantation at Altheimer, Arkansas, from there coming to Siloam Springs.
With but little capital when he located in Siloam Springs and de- pendent upon his own resources, Mr. Stahl worked for a while in a lum- ber yard, after which he engaged in mercantile pursuits. Subsequently entering upon an entirely new field of labor, he became a newspaper
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man, being for some time proprietor of the Herald. Selling out that plant he purchased the Siloam Springs telephone plant, of which he still owns the major portion of stock. By the purchase of the Siloam Springs Democrat, Mr. Stahl again became connected with newspaper work, but after a limited journalistie experience he sold the paper and became a mem- ber and the president of the Siloam Springs Publishing Company, which published the Free Press. In 1904 Mr. Stahl entered upon his banking ca- reer, becoming assistant cashier of the State Bank of Siloam Springs, of which he was made president in October, 1910.
In Red Fork, Arkansas, December 14, 1889, Mr. Stahl was united in marriage with Carrie Parrish, a daughter of Captain Oscar F. Parrish. Captain Parrish came to Arkansas from Kentucky and was for many years a merchant and a planter. He was well known in political circles, and was once a member of the Arkansas State Legislature. He served as captain of a company in the Confederate army. His last years were passed in Paris, Texas, where his death occurred in 1905, at the comparatively early age of sixty-five years. Captain Parrish married first Addie Felts, and by this marriage there are two children, who survive, Mrs. Stahl and Mrs. Amelia Lenox of Little Rock, Arkansas. He married for his second wife Miss Carrie Davis, and of this union there was one child, Oscar, of Paris, Texas. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stahl, namely, William W., Thomas P., Angie and Oscar A.
Mr. Stahl stands high in the business world and is now president of the Independent Telephone Association of Arkansas. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Pythias and to the Knights of the Maccabees. As record keeper for eight years of Siloam Springs Tent, K. O. T. M., not a member disappeared from the rolls of the society, and for this efficient work he was granted a certificate which entitled him to admission to the Supreme Tent for life. Religiously his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South.
WILLIAM V. TOMPKINS. The thriving and attractive little city of Prescott, judicial center of Nevada county, has as one of its representative citizens William V. Tompkins, who is one of the leading members of the bar of the county and who has the distinction also of being a native son of Arkansas.
Mr. Tompkins was born at West Point, White county, this state, on the 16th of December, 1861, and is a son of William T. and Mary E. (Hope) Tompkins, the former of whom was born in Virginia. a scion of an old and honored family of that historic commonwealth, and the latter of whom was born in the state of Tennessee. William T. Tompkins was one of the sterling pioneers and influential citizens of White county, Arkansas, where he took up his residence in 1850. Signally loyal to the Confederacy when the Civil war was precipitated, he sacrificed his life in its cause. He served as lieutenant of his company in an Arkansas volunteer regiment and was killed in the battle of Helena, this state. His wife still survives him and maintains her home in Prescott. Of their children one son is living.
He whose name initiates this review received the major portion of his early educational discipline in the public schools of Clinton, the county seat of Van Buren county, and after leaving school he prosecuted the study of law under effective preceptorship. He was admitted to the bar at Mar- shall. the judicial center of Searcy county, on the 14th of February, 1883, and in the following April he established his permanent home at Prescott, the capital of Nevada county, where he has been successfully engaged in the work of his profession during the intervening period of more than a quarter of a century. He has gained precedence as one of the essentially
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representative members of the bar of his native state and has appeared in connection with a large number of litigated causes in both the state and federal courts of Arkansas. He is attorney for the St. Louis, Iron Moun- tain & Southern Railroad and his general clientage is of large and represen- tative order. He is junior member of the law firm of McRae & Tompkins, in which his honored coadjutor is Ilon. Thomas C. McRae, of whom indi- vidual mention is made on other pages of this publication.
Mr. Tompkins has ever given an unqualified allegiance to the Demo- cratic party and has been an effective exponent of its principles and policies, besides which he has manifested his intrinsic civic loyalty and public spirit by lending his influence and co-operation in the promotion and support of such measures as have tended to conserve the material and social welfare and advancement of his home town and county. During the four years of President Cleveland's second administration Mr. Tompkins held the office of commissioner for the Missoula land district in the state of Montana, and in this position he had charge of the classifying of the Northern Pacific Railroad land grants in western Montana. His executive duties de- manded his presence in Montana during the summer seasons for the four years of his incumbency of this office. He is president of the Arkansas State Bar Association, is identified with various social organizations, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church.
At Clinton, in Van Buren county, Arkansas, in the year 1884, was sol- emnized the marriage of Mr. Tompkins to Miss Helen Poe, who was born and reared at that place, where her father, the late W. T. Poe, was an early settler. Mr. and Mrs. Tompkins have two children, Mary E., who is now the wife of Dr. A. S. Buchanan, of Prescott, Arkansas, and Charles H., who is now a student in the University of Arkansas.
COLONEL DAVID M. CLOUD. Whatever else may be said of the legal fraternity it cannot be denied that members of the bar have been more prominent actors in public affairs than any other class of the commu- nity. This is but the natural result of causes which are prima facie. The ability and training which qualify a man to practice law successfully also qualify him in many respects for duties which lie outside the strict path of his profession and which touch the general interests of society. One of Saline county's most eminent lawyers is Colonel David M. Cloud, in every way one of the representative and public-spirited citizens. He is a native son of Benton and for many years has been prominent in local affairs.
Colonel Cloud was born in 1848, the son of Madison M. and Louisa (Haynes) Cloud. On both the paternal and maternal sides lie springs from Southern families of much excellence. His father, who died at his home in Benton in 1859, was born in Tennessee and came to Arkansas from Meigs county, that state, arriving at Benton, Saline county, in 1844. Ben- ton was his home for the fifteen years which remained to him before his death. He was a farm owner and tanner and he achieved prosperity and success in his career, although it suffered an untimely termination, and he is well remembered by many of the pioneer citizens of Saline county. Colonel Cloud's mother is still living. She was born in Georgia in 1832 and came with her parents to Saline county in the early forties, here inceting and becoming the wife of Madison M. Cloud.
Colonel Cloud passed his boyhood days in the manner usual to the sons of Southern gentlemen, particularly of the agricultural class. He re- ceived his educational discipline in the private schools and at the Benton Academy, but the serenity of his youth was somewhat disturbed by the threatening Civil war. The nation was going down into the "Valley of Decision." The question which had been debated on thousands of platforms,
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which had been discussed in countless publications, which, thundered from innumerable pulpits, had caused in their congregations the bitter strife and dissention to which only cases of conscience can give rise, was every- where pressing for solution. And not merely in the various channels of publicity was it alive and clamorous. About every fireside in the land, in the conversation of friends and neighbors, and, deeper still, in the secret of millions of human hearts, the battle of opinion was waging ; and all men felt and saw with more or less elcarness that a crisis was near at hand.
Colonel Cloud was a lad whose years numbered scarcely thirteen at the beginning of the conflict, but he was stirred as only the very young can be. HIe deplored the youthfulness which prevented his at once becoming a sol- dier, and at the age of fifteen (in 1863), when stress of circumstances had made the rules for admission to the ranks less rigid, he joined the Con- federate army as a member of Crawford's Cavalry, Company N, under Cap- tain H. H. Beavers. This was organized at Benton and was engaged in service in the Trans-Mississippi Department, in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. The time spent in the service is the only period of any duration which Colonel Cloud has spent away from his native Benton.
After the war he exchanged his musket for the implements of eivie life and later, when he concluded to adopt the law as a life work, he attacked his Blackstone as he would have done a hostile entrenchment. It was in 1884 that he was admitted to the bar and since that time he has been one of the successful lawyers of the Saline county bar, with a practice extending to the higher courts of the state and to the Federal courts. Careful in ar- ranging and preparing his cases, he has never been at a loss for forcible and appropriate argument to sustain his position and he has met in the arena of the courtroom and in public debate men of note and high achieve- ment and has seldom been worsted in the combat. He served two terms as prosecuting attorney of the Seventh Judicial Circuit and also was elected and served one term as state senator from the Ninth. Senatorial district. For several different terms he presided over the civic destinies of Benton in the capacity of mayor and gave to the city most efficient service. At the present time he holds the office of city attorney. He is prominent and popu- lar in lodge circles, being a Royal Arch Mason and having become a mem- ber of the ancient and august order with Magnolia lodge, at Little Rock, in 1872. He is adjutant of David O. Dodd Camp, No. 325, United Confed- erate Veterans, and with the comrades of other days finds pleasure in re- newing old sympathies and recalling past experiences. He is a deacon in the Baptist church, and gives able assistance to the good causes promulgated by the church body.
Colonel Cloud has been twice married. Ilis first wife was Martha Chastain, daughter of Benjamin Chastain, and their union was celebrated at Benton on the 17th of day of April, 18:0. She was the mother of Colonel Cloud's six oldest children, viz .: Charles M., Benjamin, Myrtle, Bernice Crawford, and Dixie. Another child of this marriage was Leon Cloud, deceased, who died in 1906. He was a soldier in the First Arkansas Regi- ment in the Spanish-American war. Mrs. Cloud was summoned to the life beyond at Benton September 13, 1899. On the 20th day of August, 1905, Colonel Cloud was united in wedlock to Dora Ard, daughter of James Ard, born in Grant county and reared in Saline county. They have two chil- dren, Lillie and Helen.
TOM WILLIAMS, of Siloam Springs, is the senior member of the law firm of Williams & Williams and has been a resident of the state and city since 1895. His connection with this professional field has brought him a wide acquaintance and in the course of his career he has had an opportun-
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ity to render public service as well as private, which opportunity he has well improved. Mr. Williams was born in Johnson county, Missouri, February 22, 1867, growing up and receiving his preliminary education in the town of Humphreys, and subsequently attending Edinburg College. His father was Finis Rector Williams, who died in Jasper county, Missouri, in 1875, at the age of forty-five years, and who was a native of Jefferson county, that state. His father, who was of South Carolina, moved to Missouri and was called to the "Great Beyond" when a comparatively young man.
Finis R. Williams married Susan McMahan, a daughter of one of the early settlers of Saline county, Missouri. Mrs. Williams, who was born in 1832, resides in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. The children of her union with Mr. Williams are Mrs. E. Walker, of Siloam Springs and the subject of this review.
Tom Williams began life as a settler of the Kansas frontier. He en- tered a claim in Morton county, that state, in 1888 and eventually proved up his entry and secured his title. A tried and true Republican, his educa- tion and training commended him to the commissioners of Morton county when in need of a county clerk to fill a vacancy, and he was appointed to the office. He served out the term and, as Oklahoma was then being settled, he joined the throng of immigrants to the new agricultural Eldorado and lo- cated in Kingfisher. Shortly previous he had become a licensed attorney and began his legal career there. It was while in Kansas that Mr. Williams had come to the decision to study law and he prepared for its practice in Richfield, reading law in an office. He was admitted to practice in 1902, before the celebrated judge, Theodosius Botkin, whose conduct of judicial affairs in southwestern Kansas is well known, to say the least.
When he became a resident of Benton county, Arkansas, Mr. Williams was under thirty years of age. He formed no alliance for the practice of Jaw, preferring to win his clients upon his own merits and to be respon- sible to no one for his failures, to be under obligation to no one for a division of the honors or profits of the firm. Notwithstanding his politics he has been chosen city attorney of Siloam frequently by a Democratic council.
Mr. Williams was married in Humphreys, Missouri, August 17, 1887, Mis, Mabel Moddrell, a daughter of James Steele Moddrell, becoming his wife. To this union several sons and daughters have been born. The eldest son, Glenn, was educated in the public schools of Siloam Springs, read law with his father and in order that he might engage in law practice before he was of age, had the legislature of Arkansas remove his minority disability, upon which he was admitted to the bar. He immediately associated him- self with his father, the firm being known as Williams & Williams. In 1910, when twenty-two years of age, he was united in marriage to Miss Jennie Carr. The second son of Mr. Williams is Rector, a student of the University Medical College of Kansas City, Missouri, while Fay, Catherine and Jack complete the family.
Mr. Williams is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, a past master of the Blue Lodge of Masons at Siloam Springs and a past eminent conunander of Commandery No. 15, of this place. Ile and his family are Methodists with the exception of Glenn Williams, who is a member of the Christian church.
HUGH BASHAM. Honored and respected in every class of society, Judge Hugh Basham has for some time been a leader in thought and action in the public life of Arkansas and his name is inscribed high on the roll of its prominent and brilliant lawyers, his honorable and straightforward career adding luster to the history of the state. Faithfulness to duty and strict adherence to a fixed purpose in life will do more to advance a man's
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interests than wealth or adventitious circumstances. The successful men of the day are they who have planned their own advancement and have ac- complished it in spite of many obstacles and with a certainty that could have been attained only through their own efforts. This class of men has a worthy representative in Hugh Basham, who is a resident of Clarksville, Arkansas, and who is now serving his second term as circuit judge of the Fifth judicial circuit of the state.
Judge Hugh Basham was born on the old Basham homestead, located six miles north of Clarksville, Arkansas, the date of his nativity being the 25th of July, 1855. He is a son of Olinver and Martha (Patrick) Basham and he is descended from old Colonial stock, a number of his ancestors, who traced their lineage back to staunch Scotch extraction, having been valiant soldiers in the War of the Revolution. Olinver Basham was born in Tazewell county, Virginia, where he passed his boyhood and youth, coming to Arkansas about the year 1839, three years after the admission of the state to the Union. He located in Johnson county on a fine old Southern plantation and a few years later he was united in marriage to Miss Martha Patrick, a daughter of John W. Patrick, who served in the legislature of Arkansas when this commonwealth was still a territory. The mother was born in 1825 and she is still living, at the venerable age of eighty-six years, her present home being on the old Basham estate in Johnson county. A native of Alabama, she was brought by her parents to Arkansas in 1828, at which time she was a child of but three years of age. She is a woman of wonderfully sweet personality and the passage of years has only served to mellow the radiance emanating from her kindly heart. As a youth Olinver Basham was devoted to the interests of the south and when the dark cloud of civil war cast its gloom over the country he gave evidence of ardent sympathy with the southern cause by enlisting immediately as a soldier in the Confederate army. As the war progressed he participated in a number of the most memorable engagements and finally met with death at the battle of Pilot Knob, Missouri, in General Price's raid into that state, his demise having occurred on the 6th of September, 1864. As a young man he had served in the Mexican war. Of the nine children born to Mr. and Mrs. Olinver Basham seven are living at the present time-George L. Basham, a prominent lawyer at Little Rock, to whom a sketch is dedicated on other pages of this history; Frank P. Basham, of Lone Pine, Arkansas; Dr. Olinver Basham, of Lone Pine; Dr. John P. Basham, of Argenta; Hannah, who is now Mrs. A. S. MeKennon and who resides at MeAlester, Okla- homa, and Dilla, who is the wife of C. O. Kimball, of Little Rock; and Hugh.
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