USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 65
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
153%
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
again taken prisoner, was carried to Ohio, and exchanged after nearly a year's imprisonment. He stood the hardships of prison life like a true soldier and never lost confidence in the cause for which he was fighting.
The war over, Judge Barrow returned to his home in Hampton, in October, 1865, and resumed the practice of law. In June, 1866, he mar- ried in Calhoun county, Mrs. M. Jennie McColloch, widow of his pre- ceptor in the law, Hon. Joseph B. McColloch. She was born in Sumpter distriet, South Carolina, December 6, 1838, the daughter of Judge Elijah Frink Strong, a native of Connecticut, who had married Sara Eleana Barrineau, daughter of Isaac Barrinean, a French Huguenot of Sonth Carolina. Mrs. Barrow had one child by her first husband, Sallie, who married Simeon Burke Smith and has three sons. By his marriage with Mrs. McColloch, Judge Barrow has four children, viz .: Zoe, married Prof. Elmo G. Harris, Dean of the School of Mines and Metallurgy at Rolla, Missouri, and they have four daughters: John, engaged in the practice of law in Little Roek, married Miss Katherine Braddock, and they had two sons, the elder dying in infaney and both were named for Judge Barrow; George, who is engaged in the hotel business at Hot Springs ; and Zilpah Jean, who married Dr. John G. Watkins, an eye, car and nose specialist, they having one daughter. Mrs. J. C. Barrow was a devout member of the Missionary Baptist faith. She died January 13, 1909.
Judge and Mrs. Barrow moved from Hampton, Calhoun county, to Monticello, Drew county in 1871, where the Judge practiced law and looked after his interests and stoek-raising on his plantation on Bayou Bartholo- mew. He continued the practice of his profession here for over a decade and gained a high reputation as a skilful advocate. Under the new con- stitution of 1874 he was nominated and elected by the Democratic party district attorney for the Tenth Judicial district, composed of six counties and was successfuliy re-elected four times afterwards without opposition before the people, but opposed by some of the best men in the district in the primary elections. In the three last elections the vote of the distriet was cast solidly for him. In the first election his majority was over two thou- sand in a total vote of ten thousand.
In 1883 Judge and Mrs. Barrow moved with their family of young children to Little Rock, taking up their residence at Fourth and Broad- way. Here Mrs. Barrow died and here Judge Barrow still resides with his daughter, Mrs. John G. Watkins and her husband. Judge Barrow held a commanding position in connection with the work of his profession in Little Rock, and was a prominent figure in connection with much im- portant litigation in the State and Federal Courts. In addition to his law practice, he has been successfully identified with the development of local real estate and in this connection he has contributed materially to the upbuilding of the city. He owns much property in Little Rock and is regarded as one of the good substantial citizens of the city. He has not practiced law since his son John (having graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor) returned home in June, 1890. Father and son occupy the same offices, but Judge Barrow attends to his loan and large real estate business, while his son, John, practices law.
Judge Barrow's characteristics are piety, self-reliance and energy ; he always wants to be on the right side before he moves. Starting out in life without inheritance, he has by perseverance and courage amassed a com- fortable fortune.
1538
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
CAMDEN'S PUBLIC LIBRARY. The public library movement for Ar- kansas practically began in Camden. When Rev. Howard M. Ingham and Mrs. Ingham came, in 1902, to St. John's Episcopal church and parish there was not a library open to the public in the state. Two cities had small subscription libraries-Little Rock and Helena- and some of the educational institutions had moderate libraries, but these latter were not open to the public.
In April, 1904, Mrs. Ingham proposed to the New Century Club, composed of about fifty ladies, the formation of a public library. The propositon met with but scant encouragement, but later, after a thorough outlining of carefully elaborated plans by the earnest advocate of the un- dertaking, the club somewhat hesitatingly gave its approval and so far stood sponsor for the plan as to send out a corps of young ladies to canvas for membership in the projected library association. This gave a start of about one hundred and forty persons who contributed two dollars and fifty cents each to a fund for the opening purchase of books. Shortly afterward a book reception was given at a prominent residence which yielded about two hundred and fifty volumes. From this time the library has gone on a wholly independent basis. October found the library established in a single upstairs room of a business block in a good location, the use of this room being donated by the owner, and for two years, being carefully nursed, the library grew. Rev. Mr. Ingham has been from the beginning the chair- man of the selecting and purchasing committee and he has constantly given much time and effort to making the library a success. Mrs. Ingham has been equally faithful, serving as head of the ways and means committee and supervising all the money raising efforts, which have been peculiarly successful.
By 1906 a fund of one thousand five hundred dollars was raised to buy an excellently located property on a prominent corner, where the library is now housed. It is a neat wooden building of the Grecian type, with Doric columns and is an ornament to the town, while its contents are a help to all the reading and study of the town. To Mr. Walter W. Brown much credit is due for the use, without expense, of the room first occupied, and for a gift of five hundred dollars toward the purchase of the property now occupied. The library has had no help whatever from outside the city except one small gift. The hook committee early completed a large list of desirable sets of books and after securing the lowest obtainable rates, the chairman of this committee canvassed the whole city for persons who would each pay for one or more sets which the library might buy. In each volume so purchased a special label was placed bearing the donor's name. In this way more than one thousand volumes of carefully selected books have been secured. Home and amateur entertainments, an annual tag- day, contributions of money and donations of books have been the main sources of enlargement. The library has today (July, 1911) nearly five thousand volumes upon its shelves and every one is of value. Among the gifts will occasionally be found a book of unsound or unwise teaching, but when found it is at once destroyed. The growth during the past year was nearly eight hundred volumes. The costs of management are very small, being simply insurance and a small sum for care of building and grounds. The librarians are a group of ladies who serve voluntarily. Each taking one or two days a month. This has been for a long time managed with much faithfulness by Miss Mary Puryear.
The aim is to make the library as helpful as possible, especially to students of all sorts. Free use is given to the public school pupils who are old enough to appreciate the privilege, to teachers and leaders, and especially to any who are unable to contribute. Those who can afford it
1539
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
pay one hundred dollars a year towards its maintenance. Special care has been given to provide books upon all matters pertaining to the home; such as health, cookery, hygiene, child study and child training; also to mis- sionary material for church and study classes, where more than a hundred volumes are in use ; also to southern literature, as books on the south and by southern writers, on which topics today this library is the richest in the state. A corner is given to the use of the United Daughters of the Con- federacy where are exhibited relies and memorials of the Civil war, and much special material has been provided for their use. State and local history is represented by everything that, so far, could be procured and much pains is taken to secure and care for all such matters. Mrs. A. A. Tufts has compiled and presented to the library two immense scrap-books of cuttings, photographs, letters, advertisements, dodgers and every sort of thing that will be of service to the local historian of the future. A large folio index has been prepared by Mr. Ingham by which anything in the library in book, magazine article, or essay on a given topic, may be quickly found. Files. of the prominent valuable magazines are kept and indexed. This library is at this writing the largest in the state that is open to the public. Little Rock and Fort Smith, with their Carnegie buildings, will, of course, shortly much surpass, but now this stands at the head. From Camden has gone ont influences which have helped in forming libraries at El Dorado, Prescott, Fordyce, and several other nearby towns.
WILLIAM C. ADAMSON. The world instinctively pays deference to the man whose success has been worthily achieved and whose prominence is not the less the result of an irreproachable life than of natural talents and acquired ability in the field of his chosen labor. Mr. Adamson occupies a position of distinction as a representative of the legal profession at Little Rock and the best evidence of his capability in the line of his chosen work is the large clientage which he controls. It is a well-known fact that a great percentage of those who enter business life meet with failure or only a limited measure of success. This is usually due to one or more of several causes- superficial preparation, lack of close application or an unwise choice in selecting a vocation for which one is not fitted. The reverse of all this has entered into the success and prominence which Mr. Adamson has gained. His equipment for the legal profession was unusually good and his present large and lucrative clientage is proof positive that he is an unusually good lawyer.
William C. Adamson was born at Willowdale, now Baucum, Pulaski county, Arkansas, the date of his nativity being February 11, 1873. He is a son of John S. and Bettie (Hendren) Adamson, the former of whom was born and reared in Arkansas and the latter of whom claimed the state of Alabama as the place of her nativity. The father was identified with the script business during his active mercantile career, and at the time of his death, in October. 1909, was a resident of Little Rock, which city had represented his home during practically his entire life. Mrs. John S. Adamson, who has attained to the venerable age of sixty-three years, is still living at Little Rock. She is a woman of unusual graciousness and sweet sympathy, and is deeply heloved by all who have come within the radiance of her cheerful smile and innate kindness. William Adamson, grandfather of him whose name forms the caption for this review, was born in Maryland, whence he immigrated to the territory of Arkansas, in the vear 1830. He was a valiant soldier in the Mexican war. John Adamson, father of William and great-grandfather of William C. Adamson, was a soldier in the war of 1812 and was with the American troops at Washing-
1540
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
tor at the time that city was sacked by the British soldiers and the na- tional capitol burned.
To the public schools of Little Rock Mr. Adamson, of this notice, is indebted for his preliminary educational training. As a young man he set his mind on the law as his life work and accordingly began to study for the legal profession under the able preceptorship of Blackwood & Williams, of Little Rock. He was admitted to the bar of the state in 1894 and in that year inaugurated the practice of law at Little Rock, where he has since resided and where he rapidly gained recognition as one of the ablest lawyers in the state. He has figured prominently in many important liti- gations in the state and federal courts, is counsel for a number of im- portant firms and corporations and is everywhere honored and admired for his high order of ability. He makes the cause of his client his own and each case he undertakes is prosecuted with persistency and tenacity of pur- pose which defies all just cause for defeat. In connection with his profes- sion he is affiliated with a number of representative bar organizations, and is an ex-vice-president of the Arkansas State Bar Association.
At Little Rock, on the 10th of June, 1902, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Adamson to Miss Calista Alma Holmes, a granddaughter of the late Major J. T. W. Tillar, who was one of the distinguished citizens of the state. She was born at Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and is a daughter of Win- field Holmes, of that place. Mr. and Mrs. Adamson have two children- William Tillar Adamson, who was born on the 23d of June. 1907, and John Winfield Adamson, born on the 26th of September, 1910.
In politics Mr. Adamson accords a stanch allegiance to the principles and policies promulgated by the Democratic party and he is ever on the alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all projects advanced for the good of the general welfare. In Scottish Rite Masonry he has attained to the thirty-second degree : is a valued member of Al Amin Temple, Ancient Arabie Order of the Nohles of the Mystic Shrine; and an honor of which he may well be proud is that he is Past Master of Western Star Lodge. No. 2. of Little Rock, this being one of the most notable Masonic lodges in the state. He is also affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. Mr. and Mrs. Adamson are popular in con- nection with the best social activities of Little Rock and they are every- where accorded the unqualified confidence and high regard of their fellow citizens.
MAX D. MILLER. A man of undoubted ability and energy, Max D. Miller, of Marianna, has risen to a position of unmistakable prominence in connection with the industrial, commercial and financial prosperity of this part of Lee county, the Miller Lumber Company, of which he is the moving spirit, being one of the more important business organizations of eastern Arkansas. Born at Paola. Kansas, November 13. 1874, he received a practical education in the public schools. A boy of unusual intelligence and capability. he began life for himself when but fourteen years old. and since that time has been actively identified with the development of the vast lumber interests of the south, beginning his labors in an humble ca- pacity, and steadily working his way upward to the top rung of the ladder of success.
In 1892 Mr. Miller acquired an interest in the L'Anguille Lumber Company. which was organized in Marianna, Lee county, in 1888, and he was elected secretary of the company. While he served in that capacity. the business was largely increased and extended through his vigorons ef- forts, its operations assuming importance. On February 1, 1909, the name of this firm was changed to the Miller Lumber Company. of which Mr.
1541
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
Miller is now the principal owner, vice-president, and general manager. being, in fact, the dominant force which keeps the concern in action. Possessing a remarkable aptitude for the business, and familiar with its every phase, Mr. Miller is keen and alert to take advantage of opportuni- ties, and handles the gigantic business of which he is the head with ability and wisdom. This firm has extensive yards, and handles immense amounts of valuable hardwood lumber each season, carrying on a substantial whole- sale and retail business.
Mr. Miller has financial interests of value, being president of the Bank of Marianna; vice-president of the Marianna Building and Loan Association : and ex-president of the Marianna Commercial Club. While he was serving in the latter capacity, the streets of Marianna were paved, and while he was chairman of the Sewer Commission the present excellent sewerage system, extending to the corporate limits of the town, was con- structed, and has proved of inestimable value to the town. Mr. Miller has always been a leader in the establishment of projects for advancing Mari- anna's welfare, and has individually done much for the place. As the value of his lumber interests has increased, in like proportion has the industrial prosperity of Marianna advanced. The original capital of the Miller Lum- ber Company. at its formation in 1888, was but twenty thousand dollars; this amount was increased in 1901 to one hundred thousand dollars ; and at the present time its capital and surplus amounts to two hundred and six thousand dollars, a tremendous inerease, worthy of special notice.
Mr. Miller married, in 1901, Mildred Wilson, of Wellsville, Missouri, and to them three children have been born, namely: Max D., Jr. ; Mildred ; and Nella Mav.
CHARLES H. BARHAM. Elected, and twice re-elected, sheriff of Lafay- ette county, Charles H. Barham, now serving his third term in that capac- ity, is ever ready to devote his time and attention to the interests of the people, and that his work is duly appreciated by the public is proved by his long tenure of office. A son of William Porter Barham, he was born, Octo- ber 26, 1854. in that part of Hempstead county that is now included within the limits of Nevada county, Arkansas.
His paternal grandfather. William Barham, a native of Kentucky, came from Henry county, Tennessee, to Ouachita county, Arkansas, in 1848, and for three years was the overseer of the famous old Leek planta- tion. In 1851 he bought a tract of land in Hempstead county, in the part that later was made into Nevada county, lying about twenty miles east of Washington, and was there engaged in agricultural pursuits the remainder of his life. He and Louis Nance, the maternal grandfather of Sheriff Barham, were leaders in the march of progress in those days. They helped hew the logs and ereet the first church built at Forrest Hill, and assisted in cutting the Washington and Camden road, while in various other ways they took a prominent part in the development of the new country in which they settled. Both William Barham and his wife, and Louis Nance and his wife, spent their closing years in Nevada county, and were buried in the same lot at Forrest Hill cemetery.
William Porter Barham was born, October 19. 1828, and in 1848 came with the family to Arkansas, where he assisted in the pioneer task of im- proving a homestead. At the breaking out of the Civil war he enlisted, and for two years served with Colonel Moore and D. W. Leer, who were purchasing agents of cattle for the War department. He then joined Monroe's Cavalry, and having been elected quartermaster served in that capacity until the close of the conflict. Subsequently turning his atten- tion to agricultural pursuits, he accumulated considerable property, at the
1542
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
time of his death, April 16, 1908, owning an entire section of land in Nevada county. He married Harriet Nance, who was born July 31, 1832, and died March 15, 1909. Her father, Louis Nance, referred to above, came from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Arkansas, in 1838, settling in Hempstead county, which was then in its primitive wildness, there having been but one house between his property and Camden. He purchased two thousand acres of land, which he improved with the help of slaves, and was from that time one of the foremost citizens of his community.
Educated in the subscription schools, and brought up on the home farm, Charles H. Barham continued in the occupation to which he was reared until 1880. He first entered the political arena in 1884, when he was made justice of the peace in Nevada county. Coming to Lewisville, Lafayette county, in 1887, he was first engaged in the saw mill business on the line of the Cotton Belt railway, and later estimated and bought timber for the Bodeaw Lumber Company, in Louisiana. In September, 1906, Mr. Barham was elected sheriff of Lafayette county, and has since served ably and satisfactorily in this position, having been twice re-elected to the same office.
Sheriff Barham married, September 3, 1873, Martha Ann Sparks, a (laughter of Rev. Nathan Sparks. a Presbyterian minister, who settled in Arkansas in 1848. The following children have been born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Barham, namely: Oscar Theodore, M. D., a graduate of the Arkansas University, is now a practicing physician in Lewisville: Carrie Jane, wife of Rev. Charles B. Wellborn, a Presbyterian minister, now serv- ing as l'nited States land commissioner at Chester, Montana; Erthula, for five years principal of the Stamps high school, is now the wife of Meek Wellborn, of Myrtistown, Louisiana : William Arvin, deceased; Joseph Edgar, deputy sheriff, married Eva, daughter of Thomas Wheeler, of Lew- isville : and Miss Jessic. William Barham, the second son of Sheriff and Mrs. Barham, was shot, August 3, 1905, by a negro murderer, who resisted capture. After being shot, he shot the negro, killing him instantly, and was then carried to his father's home, where his death occurred two days later.
CAPTAIN THOMAS BENTON STALLINGS is master of the United States snagboat "Quapaw" and has been identified with navigation on the White river for fully three decades. He located in Newport, Jackson county, Ar- kansas, when he first began steamboating and has maintained his home in this city for something like thirty years. He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on the 29th of November, 1845, and his boyhood and youth were passed in sonthwest Missouri and in Boone county, Arkansas, Captain Stallings is a son of John E. Stallings, who immigrated to the old Bear state from Wilkes eonntv, Georgia. in the year 1820. The father was born in 1286, a son of a Georgia planter. He was a faithful and gallant soldier in the war of 1812 and in that great naval conflict with Great Britain par- ticipated in many important battles marking the progress of the war, in- Inding that of New Orleans. As a business man his early life was devoted to general merchandising at Little Rock, whither he came in 1820. during the territorial days. From Little Rock he subsequently removed to Sili- more, on the White River, and there sold goods and conducted a keelboat husiness, he being one of the earliest traders along that river. Just prior to the war he removed to Carroll county, now Boone county, where he was a farmer until his death, in 1863.
John Edward Stallings married Minerva Tabor, near Holly Springs, Mississippi, while en route to Arkansas. She was summoned to the life eternal in Stone county, Missouri, and is buried at Galena. The children
1543
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
born to this union were: Mary Jane, who became the wife of Solomon Yoachum and who died at Lead Hill, Arkansas; Sarah M. married Daniel Coker and also passed away at Lead Hill; Viola became Mrs. William Throckmorton and she died at Ozark, Missouri; Evaline married James Glenn, at Ozark, Missouri, in 1863, and they had three children. Her hus- band was a soldier in the Union army, for whose services Mrs. Glenn now draws a pension, he having died in 1890. She still lives on their farm near Ozark; Captain Thomas B, is the immediate subject of this review ; Augustus J. is a resident of Springfield, Missouri; Georgeann married Jake Melton and makes her home in Ozark, Missouri.
Captain Stallings was reared to the invigorating discipline of farm life and his preliminary educational training consisted mostly of such instruction as his father, who was a well-informed man, was able to give him. In 1863, when not much more than a mere boy, he enlisted as a soklier in Company C, Sixteenth Missouri Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Jones. in the Union army, and he saw much active service in Missouri and Arkansas under General Sanborn. He was with the army that fol- lowed General Price on his raid into northern Missouri and partici- pated in some of the small engagements of that expedition, namely: New- tonia, Westport and Big Blue. Returning south, his regiment was sta- tioned at Springfield, Missouri, at the time of the close of the war and at. that place he received his honorable discharge and was mustered out of service. He had imbibed his sentiments of loyalty to the Union from a father whose last words, as he passed away, during the progress of the war, were: "Stand by the stars and stripes, my son."
For some five years following the establishment of peace, Captain Stallings was actively engaged in the grist-mill business at Lead Mill. Having acquired some experience at river traffic while running a keelboat, he coneeived the idea of building a steamboat to ply up and down the White river, and in fulfillment of this design he constructed the "Lady Boone" and subsequently the "Home," engaging for a time in traffic be- tween Forsythe, Missouri, and Jacksonport, Arkansas. He lost the "Home" by fire and at the end of eight years he dismantled the "Lady Boone," . eventually entering the service of the United States government as master and pilot, continuing as such to the present time, save for two years, which he passed on his farm in Jackson county. Long and varied experience in connection with river traffic has made Captain Stallings particularly fit. for his present position and his service to the government has ever been of the most satisfactory order.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.