USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 59
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Judge Basham, of this review, was reared to maturity on the old home- stead plantation near Clarksville and his preliminary educational training consisted of such advantages as were afforded in the schools of the locality and period. He was a lad of but nine years of age at the time of his father's death and thus was early bereft of parental care and guidance. His splendid mother, however, took the place of both parents and reared a family, the members of which rank among the most notable citizens of the state. As a young man the judge decided upon the profession of the law as his life work and in 1876 he began to read law in the office of Judge A. S. MeKennon, at Clarksville. Under the able preceptorship of that brilliant lawyer his progress was so rapid that he was admitted to the bar of the state in 1879. IIc immediately initiated the active practice of his profession at Clarksville, where he has since resided and where he has won prestige as one of the best attorneys and counselors in Johnson county. In 1890 he was elected judge of Johnson county and he served in that capacity for the ensuing eight years. In 1898 he resumed his private practice, which grew
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to be perhaps the largest in his county, and he did not give his attention to politics again until 1906. In that year he was honored by his fellow citizens with election to the office of circuit judge to preside over the Fifth judicial circuit, comprised of the counties of Johnson, Pope, Conway and Yell. So effective was his administration as circuit judge that he was re-elected for a second term, in 1910, without opposition. Judge Basham is a fine lawyer and is especially well qualified for the office of Judge. He is one of the most popular circuit court judges in the entire state and is universally esteemed by the legal fraternity of Arkansas, his fellow practitioners hold- ing him in the highest regard.
Judge Basham is affiliated with a number of professional organizations of representative character and he is also prominent in fraternal circles in Arkansas. In his religious faith he is a consistent member of the Clarks- ville Methodist Episcopal church, South, to whose philanthropical work he is a generous contributor. As a man he is thoroughly conscientious, of un- doubted integrity, affable and courteous in manner and the possessor of a host of devoted and admiring friends.
At Clarksville, in the year 1883, was celebrated the marriage of Judge Basham to Miss Emily Maffitt, who was born and reared in Johnson county and who is a daughter of Dr. and Emily (Cox) Maffitt, both of whom are now deceased. Judge and Mrs. Basham are the parents of one daughter, Martha Emily, whose hirth occurred on the 14th of December, 1894. The Basham home is recognized as a center of most gracious refinement and gen- erous hospitality and it has been the scene of many attractive social activi- ties.
WILLIAM G. AKERS. Now that time has softened the animosities and renewed the genuine fraternal spirit that existed before the stern conflict between the North and the South, it is interesting to record that Captain Akers is one of the popular and representative citizens of Little Rock. He is now chief deputy United States Marshal for the eastern district of Ar- kansas, has maintained his home in this state since the close of the war and is a citizen to whom is accorded the confidence and esteem that represent the metewand of genuine worth in character.
Captain Akers claims the old Buckeye state as the place of his na- tivity, as he was born in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 21st of August, 1841, and he is a son of James and Ann (Linton) Akers, the father a na- tive of Stratford, England, and the mother of Baltimore, Maryland. Both of them passed the closing years of their lives in Minnesota, where they established their home in the early pioneer days. The father devoted his attention to merchandising and milling during the greater part of his resi- dence in the state and he was an influential factor in connection with the industrial development of the state. Of their eight children, one son and one daughter are now living.
Captain Akers was about ten years of age at the time of his parents' removal to St. Paul, Minnesota, in the early '50s, and he was reared under the conditions and influences of the pioneer epoch in that now great and prosperous commonwealth, in the meantime receiving such educational ad- vantages as were afforded by the St. Louis University and the academy of River Falls, Wisconsin. When in attendance at the latter institution the guns at Fort Sumter announced the beginning of the four years struggle. He was twenty years of age at the inception of the Civil war and his youth- ful patriotism and loyalty were roused to definite action, as was shown by the fact that in September, 1861, at Fort Snelling, Minnesota, he enlisted as a private in Company E. Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. He pro- cceded with his regiment to the front and with his command participated Vol. III-26
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in active operations in Kentucky and Tennessee. He took part in the bat- tles of Shiloh, Fort Donelson and Murfreesboro, besides various minor en- gagements incident to the campaign in that seetion during the latter part of 1861 and in the spring of 1862. With other members of his regiment he was captured at the battle of Murfreesboro, on the 13th of July, 1862, by the Confederate forees under command of the gallant General Forrest. After receiving their paroles the eaptives of war were sent to Nashville, Tennessee, and thence to Benton Barracks, Missouri, to await exchange. Pending this dispensation the members of the regiment asked permission to return to Minnesota that they might assist in the work of subduing the Sioux Indians, against whom the Federal forces were compelled to wage severe warfare at this eritieal period. This request was courteously granted by the Confederate authorities and accordingly, for the ensuing three or four months, the Third Minnesota took an active part in the operations against the Indians. It will be recalled that the most notable tragedy of this Indian uprising was the historie massaere of New Ulm, Minnesota. The Third Minnesota did effective work, as it participated in a number of conflicts with the blood-thirsty Sioux, including the spirited battle of Wood Lake, on the 23rd of September, 1862. In the meantime the exchange of the members of the regiment had been effected, and in the autumn of 1862 they returned to the regular service in the South. Captain Akers served with his regiment throughout the seige of Vieksburg, and after the capitula- tion of that eity he accompanied his regiment to Arkansas, under command of General Steele. He passed through the various grades of promotion until he was elected captain of Company I in his original regiment. The Third Minnesota Infantry had the state house assigned to them for quarters and the guardianship of the supreme court library was assigned to Captain Akers, he being aeting adjutant of the regiment at that time. He continued in active service in Arkansas until the elose of the war and received his honorable discharge at Ft. Snelling, Minnesota, on the 10th of October, 1865.
During the period of his identifieation with military operations in Ar- kansas Captain Akers had become favorably impressed with the advantages and attractions of this state and he determined to establish his permanent home within its borders-a decision that he has never had eause to regret. In resuming the oeenpations of peace, which has victories "no less re- nowned than war," Captain Akers located at Jacksonport. Jackson county, and there turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. In 1868, the year that marked the re-admission of Arkansas to the Federal Union, he was eleeted county clerk of Jackson county, in which office he served one term, without resorting to the tacties of the professional politicians and "carpet- baggers" who gave so odious a reputation to the "reconstruction" period in many sections of the South. From Jackson county he removed to Clayton county in 1872, and of the latter county he was elected sheriff in 1873. The name of this county was later changed to Clay, which it bears at the present time. After serving as sheriff for a period of about three years, Captain Akers located in the village of Corning, Clay county, where he was engaged in the general merchandise business and also conducted suceessful lumber- ing operations until 1881. when he established his permanent home in Lit- tle Roek, where he engaged in manufacturing. In 1896 the Captain was appointed to a local position in the internal revenue service and in 1902 he received appointment to the office of chief deputy United States marshal for the eastern district of the state, under A. S. Fowler and later under H. [ .. Remmel, and has been in that position until the present time. He has given most effective service in this position and is most zealous in his efforts to maintain good government in the state that has so long represented his
BR. Davidson
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home and in whose welfare he maintains a lively interest. He is a stanch Republican in his political proclivities, is affiliated with McPherson Post, No. 1, Grand Army of the Republic, in his home city, and is one of the prominent and honored members of the order in the state, having served as commander of the Arkansas department of the Grand Army in 1891-2, and having shown abiding interest in his old comrades in arms, as well as in the gallant soldiers who served in the Confederate cause. He is a member also of the Missouri commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Le- gion of the United States.
On the 28th of August, 1865, was solemnized the marriage of Captain Akers to Miss Anna E. Morris, who was born at Elizabeth, Arkansas, and who is a daughter of the late William H. Morris, a resident and merchant of Elizabeth at the time of his death. Captain and Mrs. Akers have one son, William G., who is now engaged in the practice of law in Little Rock, Ar- kansas.
BENJAMIN R. DAVIDSON. Conspicuous among the foremost lawyers of Fayetteville, Washington county, Arkansas, is Benjamin R. David- son, who has gained distinction and success in his professional career, and as general attorney for the state of Arkansas of the Frisco Railroad is widely and favorably known. A man of. resources, skilful and well versed in the intricacies of the law, he has built up an extensive and valuable practice, and as a man and a citizen is held in high regard. A native of Illinois, he was born at Monmouth, Warren county, Febru- ary 28. 1847, a son of Elijah Davidson. His paternal grandfather was born in Alabama, and as a young man settled in Kentucky ere it was admitted to statehood, becoming the founder of the Davidson family in that part of the Union.
Elijah Davidson was horn at Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 1804, and in the schools of his native county obtained a fair education. Mi- grating to Warren county, Illinois, in 1832, he opened a store of general merchandise at Monmonth, and for a number of years carried on a sub- stantial business. During the latter part of his long life he came to Arkansas and spent his last days in Fayetteville, dying in 1881. He was a Democrat in politics, and a man of sterling worth and integrity, throughout his life keeping unsoiled his Scotch name and the honor of a prominent Colonial American family. He married Nancy Murphy, who was born in Kentucky, of Irish parents, in 1808, and died in Arkan- sas in 1896. Of the children of their union the following named grew to years of maturity : Mrs. Mary Lee, of Fayetteville; Julia, who mar- ried Rev. A. B. Murphy, died in Denver, Colorado : Mrs. Emma Higbee. of Independence, Missouri; P. F., a prosperous real estate dealer of Fayetteville; Benjamin R., the special subject of this brief biographical sketch ; and Mrs. Charles Harvey, who died at Van Buren, Arkansas, in the early seventies.
During the days of his boyhood and youth Benjamin R. Davidson lived for two years on a farm, thereby becoming familiar with the en- vironment of rural communities. Coming with his parents to Arkansas just prior to the breaking out of the Civil war, he was busily poring over his books in the schools of Fayetteville during that strenuons period of the country's history. He afterward continued his studies at the college in Abingdon, Illinois, for a time, and subsequently began life for himself in Fayetteville, Arkansas, working for two years at the ear- penter's bench and later as clerk in a store. While thus employed Mr. Davidson read law at night and made sneh rapid progress in his studies that at the end of a year he was able to finish his work as a day student
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in the office of Judge J. D. Walker, famous then and later as a lawyer and a jurist. In July, 1868, Mr. Davidson was admitted to the Arkansas bar, being personally examined by Judge E. D. Hamm. Immediately beginning the practice of his profession, he tried his first ease in Benton county before a justice's court. After practicing alone successfully for a number of years. Mr. Davidson formed a partnership with Colonel E. I. Stirman, and while he was vet a member of the firm of Stirman & Davidson, on December 8. 1876, he was admitted to practice before the Arkansas Supreme Court, Chief Justice English presiding. and Jus- tices Walker and Harrison on the bench.
Mr. Davidson's connection with the Frisco system began with the preliminary work of the road in the state, when he secured the right-of- way through the state, almost to Fort Smith. He was subsequently made local attorney for the company, and in 1892 was appointed to his present position as general attorney for the road in this state.
Notwithstanding his extensive corporation connection Mr. David- son's interest in public affairs of a political nature has been earnest and active. Born in the Democratie faith and roeked in a Democratic cradle, his espousal of his party's cause was all the stronger when he seized the elective franchise for himself. As a delegate at nominating eonven- tions he has helped make local officers, and has done a like service for some of the governors of Arkansas. Chosen as a delegate to the Demo- eratie National Convention in 1880. he assisted in starting the move- ment which nominated Haneoek. He was a delegate in 1884 to the eon- vention which nominated Cleveland as a presidential candidate, and was a participant in the Chicago convention of 1896, when the "Peerless Prince of the Platte" carried the entire convention away by his "erown of thorns and cross of gold" speech, winning for himself the nomination for the presideney. In that stirring campaign Mr. Davidson did as loyal service for his ticket as if the choice of the candidate had been his own. Mr. Davidson is interested in various enterprises, being a director of the Arkansas National Bank and likewise of the Ozark Wholesale Grocery Company of Fayetteville. He belongs to no fraternal order, but re- ligiously attends the Christian church.
Mr. Davidson married, June 18, 1876, in Washington county, Ar- kansas, Mrs. S. R. Trott. a daughter of Alfred Stirman and sister of his law partner, Colonel E. I. Stirman. Mr. and Mrs. Davidson have no children, but by her first marriage Mrs. Davidson has one daughter. Robbie, wife of .J. T. Stinson, of Sedalia, Missouri.
THOMAS M. WALDRIP, a resident of Batesville, and county and probate clerk of Independence county. is a factor in that particularly loval and sub- stantial citizenship which has justly been a source of pride io Arkansas. It cannot be other than gratifying to those to whom this section of the state is dear that so many of the native sons of the county have elected to remain within its boundaries and one of these is Mr. Waldrip, who in his citizenship and public service has proven himself a factor in the cause of progress and enlightenment.
Mr. Waldrip was born near Magness, March 20, 1872. His father was Joseph J. Waldrip, a farmer whose identification with this county dates from the year 1869. when he came, an emigrant, from Panola county, Mis- sissippi. Ile was born near Florence, Alabama, in 1840, and accompanied his parents to Panola county. Mississippi, some years previous to the out- break of the Civil war, in which he was destined to play an adventurous part. The grandfather. Thomas Waldrip. spent his life as a Mississippi planter and upon his great estate reared to nseful manhood and woman-
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hood a large family of children, namely : Perkins, deceased, James, Thomas, Joseph J., Mrs. Fannie Aldrich, deceased ; Mrs. Bevens, of Mississippi, de- ceased ; Mrs. Lou Aldridge, of Magness, Arkansas, deceased ; Mrs. Romie Keating, of McCrory, Arkansas, and Mrs. Adda Carpenter, who died in Panola county, Mississippi.
Joseph J. Waldrip was a young man about twenty-one years of age when the first guns were fired at Fort Sumter and he enlisted in the Con- federate army as a member of Hudson's Battery from Panola county, Mis- sissippi. He was not one who "laughs at sears, because he never felt a wound," for during the course of the great conflict between the states he eleven times felt the force of the enemy's bullets and bayonets. The great battles in which he participated were those of Shiloh, Corinth, Vieksburg, and Port Gibson and he was in numerous other engagements under the eom- mand of General Forrest, the latter part of the war. As previously men- tioned the date of the arrival of this gallant gentleman and good citizen within the borders of the Bear state was 1869. He secured agricultural lands near Magness, engaged in the great basie industry during his active life, and died upon the homestead npon which he had lavished love and labor, in the year 1894. He married in Independence county Miss Eliza- beth F. Magness, a daughter of Colonel Morgan Magness, the noted pioneer of the community about Newark and Magness and for whose family the town of Magness received its name. Mr. Magness eame to Arkansas in 1812 from North Carolina, was a successful planter along White river, and died in 1822, leaving a numerous posterity. Three sous and one daughter were born of the union of Joseph J. and Elizabeth Waldrip, namely: Thomas M., of Batesville ; William J., Joseph R., and Myrtle, deceased.
Thomas M. Waldrip was reared amid the scenes of his hirthplace and gained his schooling in the institutions provided by the state and in the State Normal College, at Florenee, Alabama. Early in life he became well grounded in the various departments of agriculture under the excellent tutelage of his father, and it proved sufficiently congenial to warrant his planning to make it his life work. Alas,
"The best laid schemes of mice and men Gang aft a-gley,"
and when an accidental gun-shot wonnd ultimately deprived him of his right limb, he found it necessary to seek other employment.
Beginning life anew, as it were, and with a fine courage and optimism which has ever distinguished him, Mr. Waldrip engaged in the mercantile business in Magness and sold goods until his election to a county office. He was nominated by the Demoeratie party in 1902 for county treasurer and in the fall received unmistakable mark of the confidence in which he was held by his fellow citizens in his election, two years later becoming his own successor. When his term of office expired he became agent at Magness for the Iron Mountain railroad and, after a year's interim, returned to the farm. In 1910, he announced himself a candidate for the county elerkship, received the nomination, and was elected the following September without opposition to succeed Albert Sims. He has proved his faithfulness and efficiency and has thus far given a most enlightened fulfillment to the duties of his office. He is interested in the Magness Gin and Milling Company and has other financial connections. He is unmarried. Mr. Waldrip is a popular and enthusiastie lodge man, holding membership in the Masonie order ; the Knights of Pythias; the Newport Herd of Elks; and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, of the latter organization being Past Noble Grand of Sulphur Rock Lodge No. 52, and having been sent as representa- tive to Grand Lodge.
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G. RAINEY WILLIAMS. The scion of one of the oldest and most dis- tinguished of American families, G. Rainey Williams by no means allows his honors to be those of the past, but stands as one of Little Rock's elev- erest and best-known business men, his field being that of insurance, for he holds the office of special agent for Arkansas of the Continental Insurance Company of New York. He has also been a journalist of note, having been connected with several publications as editor and proprietor. He is par- ticularly loyal to Arkansas and its interests and his family were among the pioneers.
Mr. Williams was born at Dardanelle, Yell county, Arkansas, on the 15th day of November, 1848. His parents were George and Rhoda Ann (Annis) Williams. The father was born at Campello, Massachusetts, of on old New England family, descended from Richard Williams, of Taunton, brother of Roger Williams, the famous colonist and apostle of religious toleration, and more remotely related to the Oliver Cromwell stock in Eng- land, according to the history compiled by Rev. Samuel Hopkins Emery, a minister of Taunton, and published in 1853 as "The Ministry of Taunton," with introduction by the Hon. Francis Baylies, minister to South America under President Andrew Jackson. George Williams came to Arkansas in the middle '30s, about the time it became a state, and he located in Little Rock, where he established himself in the mercantile business in partnership with T. D. Merrick. When he made his journey to the southwest-then an undertaking of no small difficulty-he started from Augusta, Maine, on a sailing vessel, went then to New Orleans and thence up the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers to Little Rock.
About 1840 the subject's father removed to Norristown, Pope county, and there engaged in the general merchandise business. Two years later he moved across the river to the present site of the city of Dardanelle, of which he was the founder, erecting the first building there and opening up the first store. He continued to live at Dardanelle, doing a prosperous mercantile business until the time of the war, when his health failed him and, the war causing business to come to a standstill, he went to Texas with his family, where they lived in Lamar county until 1865. Shortly after peace was declared Mr. Williams returned to Dardanelle, where his interests had so long been centered, but he lived only a short time, his demise occurring in the spring of 1866. He was married three times, his first wife having been Miss Angeline Haney, daughter of John Haney, of South Carolina. The eldest son of this marriage Reuel Williams-served four years in the Confederate army and died in 1876. The second wife was the subject's mother, and she was born in Orleans county, New York, and died in Dardanelle in 1852. To this union there was a second child, also a daughter, Sylvia B., who married John R. Wheatley, of Waxahachie, Texas. Mr. Williams was married a third time, his last wife being Mrs. Sarah Ann Davis, widow of Dr. Davis, of Dover, Arkansas. She was the mother of Hon. M. L. Davis, of the Arkansas State University Board.
Mr. Williams was a youth of tender years in the ominous period just preceding the Civil war. While the great conflict between the states was in progress he was a student at Shiloh College, Lamar county, Texas. While yet young he engaged in the newspaper business and became one of the well- known exponents of the Fourth Estate in Arkansas. He was for several years the editor and publisher of the Dardanelle Post, now the Post-Dis- patch, and upon severing his connection with that sheet he removed to Fort Smith and took charge of the Democrat, which has since become the Times-Democrat. His residence in Fort Smith included a period of about fourteen years and his identification with Little Rock dates from the year 1900, from which time he has made this city his home. For some years
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after coming to Little Rock he was connected with the local office of R. G. Dun & Company, but of late years has been engaged in the fire insurance business as special agent for Arkansas of the Continental Insurance Com- pany of New York. He holds high rank in business circles and is a man of unimpeachable citizenship, standing ever ready to give hand and heart to any measure likely to result in benefit to the whole body politic.
On the 21st day of December, 1871, Mr. Williams established an inde- pendent household, his chosen lady being Emma Cornelia Meyers, of Evans- ville, Indiana. Their union has been blessed by the birth of three children : George Williams, Mary E., wife of Cornelius F. Lynde, and Tom P. Wil- liams. Mr. and Mrs. Williams are identified with the best social life of the city and fulfill in their lives the fine traditions of their distinguished for- bears.
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