USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 67
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Mr. Wolf is a Democrat by heritage as well as by personal conviction, and from his earliest voting days he has enthusiactically subscribed to the articles of faith for which the party stands sponsor. His services as county treasurer have covered a decade and have proved of the most satisfactory character. He was first elected in 1898. succeeding Jay W. Baker : was then succeeded by Mr. Baker : and subsequently came into office again, being elected in 1910 for his fifth term of two years. Another interest of im- portance is his identification with the directorate of that substantial mone- tary institution, the Peoples Bank of Mountain Home.
Mr. Wolf belongs to a pioneer family of northern Arkansas. His father, Charles Wolf, was born in the year 1830, in what is now Baxter county and was then a part of Izard county. and his demise occurred in May, 1863. The object's grandfather was Michael Wolf, brother of Major Wolf. in many ways one of Baxter county's most influential citizens, and a brother also of John and Dow Wolf. whose descendants have assisted in peopling and developing Baxter county.
The subject's father married Martha C'link-cale, whose father came to the Travelers' Stato from Johnson county, Missouri. The mother was born in 1830 and died in 1897 and their children were Ed, who spent his life on the farm in Baxter county and left a family at his death in 1894: Jeanette, who married A. S. Jenkins, now of Cotter, Arkansas: Alexander A .. of this notice: and Leecy, wife of James Taylor, of Joplin, Missouri. April 5. 1890, Mr. Wolf was married in Baxter county. his chosen lady being Miss Lou Horton, daughter of Dr. M. W. Horton, and the children of their union are Wyatt, a student of the University of Arkansas ; Edna : Kate: Ed: Charlie: and Lucile. Their home is a happy and at- tractive spot : the abode of high ideals and the center of hospitality. Mr. Wolf is a member of no order. but is a Methodist and is steward and one of the trustees of the Mountain Home church.
WILLIAM CHARLESWORTH is proprietor of the William Charlesworth TIandle Company, of Fayetteville, and he has been identified with the lumber and timber business in Arkansas for fully a decade. He was born at Portsmouth. Ohio, on the 8th of May. 1859, and when he had attained
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to the age of ten years his parents removed to Missouri, settling first in Jackson and later in Cass county. The father was an agriculturist by vo- cation and upon the home farm the young William grew up, there aequir- ing the elements of a common school education. At an early age he began to assist his father in the work and management of the farm and he con- tinued as an adjunct to the parental domicile until 1880 when he came to Arkansas. H. R. Charlesworth, father of William, was born near the city of London, England, the date of his birth being May 13, 1820. He made his first trip to the I'nited States in 1839 and came to this country for permanent settlement in 1843, at which time he located in Ohio. His father also came to America from England. He was descended from Dan- ish ancestry, his forefathers having come to England at an early day as ribbon weavers, in which line of enterprise they were expert workmen. The name, which was originally Karlsword, was anglicised to Charlesworth. James Charlesworth, a half-brother of the father of him whose name initiates this review, was born and reared in the state of Ohio, where he passed his entire life. H. R. Charlesworth was thrice married, his first union having been to Mrs. Lindslay. To this marriage was born one daughter, Hattie F., who married a Mr. Beckwith, a Federal soldier. After the death of her husband Mrs. Beckwith became a popular and success- ful teacher in the public schools at Ravenna, Ohio. She has a son and they both reside in California. After the death of his first wife Mr. H. R. Charlesworth married Miss Almyra Sweten, whose parents were born in New York. Mr. and Mrs. Charlesworth became the parents of three children, namely .- James F., of Fayetteville: William, the immediate sub- ject of this review ; and Harry, a resident of Sheldon, Missouri. Mrs. II. R. Charlesworth was summoned to eternal rest, in 1876, and her husband. who long survived her, died at Favettville, Arkansas, on the 3d of April. 1909, aged eighty-nine years.
William Charlesworth came to Arkansas in 1880, at which time he was about twenty-one years of age. His first work in this state was as a clerk in a store at Winslow and after leaving that place he went on the road for McDaniel Brothers, as inspector and shipping clerk in the tie and lumber business in Washington county. He was in the employ of the latter concern for a period of five years, at the expiration of which he formed a partnership and engaged in the grocery, wholesale lumber and post business as a member of the firm of Charlesworth & Youn, with business head- quarters at St. Paul, Madison county. Arkansas. He subsequently engaged in the general merchandise business at that place and when he had gathered together considerable capital he came to Favetteville, in 1902, to engage in the hardwood lumber business, establishing the firm known as the Will- iam Charlesworth Hardwood Lumber Company. In 1906 he became inter- ested in the lumber and mill business here and in that year he constructed his handle factory, which he named the William Charlesworth Handle Company. The plant has a capacity of one hundred dozen handles daily. with power enough to double the amount, and it is growing to be one of the important industries of Fayetteville. Mr. Charlesworth is a stock- holder in the Dutton Mereantile Company at St. Paul and is vice-president of the bank at St. Paul. He is also a stockholder in the Arkansas National Bank at Fayetteville. Arkansas.
On the 7th of July. 1884, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Charles- worth to Miss Calonia A. Yoes, the ceremony having been performed at Carthage, Missouri. Mrs. Charlesworth is a daughter of James R. Yoes, whose ancestry is of German extraction. She was born in Moniteau county. Missouri, on the 16th of February, 1867. Nine children were born to this union, of whom five are living as follows: Claud C., who was educated
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in the University of Arkansas, is now employed at the William Charles- worth Handle factory at Fayetteville ; and Darwin, James R., Vesta Merle and Yvonna are all attending the public schools of this city.
Mr. Charlesworth is past master of the St. Paul Blue Lodge, No. 293, Free & Accepted Masons, from which he was dlemitted to Washington Lodge, No. 1, at Fayetteville. He is also a member of Far West Chapter, No. 1. Royal Arch Masons : and Dannahy Council, No. 19, Royal & Select Mas- ters. Politically he endorses the cause of the Republican party and as a citizen he has done much to advance the general welfare of the community in which he has elected to maintain his home. He and his wife are devout members of the Presbyterian church, in whose charitable work they have been active factors. The success which Mr. Charlesworth has attained in life is due entirely to his own efforts and merits. The possession of ad- vantages is no guarantee whatever for business advancement, which comes only through hard labor, integrity and ability. These qualities Mr. Charles- worth possesses to an eminent degree and he is faithful to every charge committed to his care. Throughout his whole life whatever his hand finds to do. whether in business or civil life, or in any other sphere. he does with all his might and with a deep sense of conscientious obligation.
MAJOR ROBERT BRUCE KEATING. MeCrory, Woodruff county. fur- ishes its quota of fine citizens to the state and prominent among them is Major Robert Bruce Keating, a young man notable for several rea- sons. As cashier of the Farmers & Merchants Bank he has manifested business and financial ability ; he is mayor of MeCrory and is giving the town a public-spirited. progressive and elean administration; he is an officer in the Arkansas National Guard, and he is a veteran of the Span- ish-American war, having served throughout that struggle in a Mis- sissippi regiment.
Major Keating was born at Johnsonville, Mississippi. in 1874, of Irish extraction. When he was a young boy, his father, the late W. J. Keating, came with the family to Arkansas and the subject was reared in this state. He attended school at Newport and was a student in the old Little Rock University, later attending Tulane University in New Orleans and Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Possessing a patriotism which was more than a mere rhetorical expression, at the beginning of the Spanish-American war Major Keating enlisted from his native state, Mississippi, becoming a member of a company raised at Tunica, that state. He has marked military proclivities and abilities and he has be- longed to the Arkansas National Guard since 1903, in which year he was made captain of a company. At the present time he is major of the battalion comprising the companies located at Blytheville, Black Rock, Piggot and Heber Springs.
Major Keating's identification with MeCrory, Woodruff county, Ar- kansas. dates from Jannary. 1899, the place having been his home throughout the ensuing twelve years. When he first arrived it was a small village and he has grown up with it to its present importance as one of the most modern and thriving little cities of its size in Arkansas, possessing buildings and publie improvements worthy a much larger town. After coming here Major Keating was for several years a gen- eral bookkeeper for E. T. Wherry and Colonel John Shearer, merchants of MeCrory. He is now the cashier of the Farmers & Merchants Bank, of which he was one of the founders. It was established in January, 1910, with a capital stock of fifteen thousand dollars, and its home is the beautiful new building erected for that purpose. Clayton Hailey is president and J. C. MeCrory vice-president.
WGarland Street
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Major Keating chose for his life partner Miss Ruth Shearer, daugh- ter of the pioneer citizen, Colonel John Shearer, a merchant of MeCrory. Colonel Shearer was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1836, and came with his parents to America in 1841, locating first at Montreal, Canada, and in 1856 taking up his residence in the state of New York. He is a self-made man, beginning life as a driver on the Erie canal, while a citizen of the Empire state. He came to Arkansas in 1859, and located in Jackson county. In May, 1861, he enlisted in the Jackson Light Artillery, a body of state troops, composed of one hundred and sixty men. This battery was present at the battle of Shiloh, at the close of which it became a part of the regular Confederate forces. Mr. Shearer bears a gallant military record and is by no means one to "laugh at sears" because he "never felt a wound." In fact, he was in active service throughout the entire war and was wounded five times seriously, once in the foot by a cannon ball, at the battle of Mobile. Since the war Colonel Shearer has been engaged in mercantile pursuits and he is one of the pioneer merchants of MeCrory, in which he established his store soon after the town was started. MeCrory came into being at the time of the completion of the Memphis division of the Iron Mountain Railroad, on which it is located. This prominent and highly respected citizen is lieutenant-colonel on the staff of General James F. Smith, com- manding the Department of Arkansas, United Confederate Veterans. He is one of the prominent Masons of the state, being a Knight Templar and a thirty-second degree Mason. Major and Mrs. Keating share their charming home with four promising sons and daughters, whose names are Elizabeth, Dorothy, John Bruce and Terrence.
WALTER GARLAND STREETT. For more than a score of years has Walter Garland Streett been engaged in the practice of law in Arkansas, and since 1899 he has been a valued member of the legal fraternity in Lake Village, Chicot county, this state. He is a native son of Lake Village, his birth having here occurred on the 1st of February, 1868. His father, William B. Streett, was born in the city of Baltimore, Mary- land, whence he came to Lake Village in 1857. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted as a private in the Confederate army, and at the close of that sanguinary struggle, through various promotions, he was major on the staff of General Hawthorne. He was a gallant and faithful soldier and participated in many of the important engagements marking the progress of the war. When peace had again heen established he returned to Lake Village, where he engaged in the practice of law and where he became a prominent attorney at a time when Chicot county possessed the strongest bar in the state with the exception of Little Rock. He rapidly gained recognition as an able and versatile trial lawyer and as a well fortified counselor. He married Julia Reid, of Madison Parish, Louisiana, during the strennous war days and they became the parents of three sons, of whom Walter G. and William R. are now living, Bruce, the third son, having been summoned to the life eternal in 1898. William B. Streett was a staunch advocate of the Democratic party in his political proclivities, and he and his wife were long devout members of the Catholic church. He died in 1899, and his wife is still living in Lake Village.
After completing the curriculum of the public schools of his native place, Walter Garland Street attended the Christian Brothers' College at Memphis, Tennessee, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1886, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Thereafter he pursued a two-year classical course in Georgetown College, at Georgetown, D. ('., and he then began to study law in his father's office at Lake Village. ITe
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was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the state in May, 1889, when twenty-one years of age, after which he was a law partner with his father until 1893, at which time he went to Pine Bluff, where he entered into a partnership alliance with General H. King White. The latter relation was severed only by the death of Mr. Streett's father in 1899, when he returned to Lake Village in order to care for his father's exten- sive interests, both in his profession and in the business world. He is now the next oldest member of the bar, in point of continuous practice, in Chicot county. In politics he is aligned as a stalwart in the ranks of the Democratic party, and in 1897 he was elected to represent Jefferson county in the state legislature. He has served as judge of Chicot county for one term, and in discharging the duties of this office he gave emi- nent satisfaction. He is assiduously devoted to the affairs and work of his profession, and in the same holds precedence as one of the leading practitioners in this section of the state. He is affiliated with various professional and fraternal organizations of important order, and his religious faith is in harmony with the tenets of the Catholic church, to whose charities and benevolences he has ever been a liberal contributor.
On the 23d of June. 1897, was solemnized the marriage of Judge . Streett to Miss Woodie Johnson, of Pine Bluff, a granddaughter of Major Hermon Carlton, one of the prominent old-time members of the bar of Chieot county. To Judge and Mrs. Streett have been born five children, whose names are here entered in respective order of birth-Bruce, Duval, William B., Patricia and Julia.
WILLIAM G. Bovic, a native of the state of Maryland, has made his home in Arkansas since 1904 and in Hot Springs since 1907. He is as thoroughly loyal to the interests of the section as a native son and in the comparatively short period of his residence here has secured for himself high prestige and approval. He is a member of the legal pro- fession and an able one, possessing an excellent legal equipment, in the ways of training and native ability. Almost at the beginning of his career in Garland county he was elected as representative to the state legislature and in the session of 1909 manifested gifts of statesmanship which will no doubt be ripened in the sun of future politieal prefer- ment.
Hon. Mr. Bonie was born at Roekville, Montgomery county, Mary- land, his parents being William Viers and Alice ( Almoney ) Bouic. His father is deceased, but his mother is still living at the old home in Mary- land. Old and prominent Maryland families are represented by both of his parents. The Bonies have made their residenee in Rockville for several generations and they hold high place in a state in which pride of birth and family is an important consideration. The subjeet's grand- father-Judge William Viers Bonie-was also a lawyer and a jurist of distinction, having served as Circuit judge of the Sixth Judicial Dis- triet of Maryland for over thirty years. His father was a lawyer and for several years was attorney for the Baltimore & Ohio railroad. His great-great-unele, Colonel William Viers, was an officer in the Revolu- tionary war. Returning to the present day, we find his maternal unele, Albert J. Almoney, to be a prominent Baltimore journalist and a leader in Democratie politics in Maryland. He comes distinetly of a family of lawyers, and his three brothers, like himself, have followed in the footsteps of their illustrious forbears and representatives of the pro- fession.
Mr. Bonie was reared in Rockville and received his early education in its excellent school. He studied law in Georgetown University at
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Washington, D. C., and was graduated from that renowned institution with the class of 1897, in that same year beginning his practice amid the scenes with which he was most familiar-his native place, Rockville. Seven years later he made a radical change by his removal to Arkansas, the year of his identification with the new state being 1904, and since that time he has been actively and successfully engaged in the practice of his profession. On coming to Arkansas he first located at Sheridan in Grant county, but as before stated in 1907 removed to Hot Springs where he has ever since resided. Since his earliest voting days he has been ardently devoted to the policies and principles of the Democratic party and his elevation to the legislature by that party in 1908 was in- deed appropriate. He took an important part in the session beginning in January, 1909, being chairman of the important committee on circuit courts and a member of several other committees.
Mr. Bouie became a recruit to the ranks of the Benedicts when he married Miss Margaret W. Wilbourne. They play an important part in the social life of Hot Springs and are popular as well as helpful members of the community.
JACOB MI. CARTER. A native son of Arkansas who has honored this commonwealth by his able services as a lawyer and jurist is Judge Jacob Monroe Carter, of Texarkana. who has presided with much of distinc- tion on the bench of the Circuit Court of the Eighth Judicial District since 1906 and who is known and honored as a representative member of the bar of the state and as a citizen of sterling character and utmost loyalty.
Judge Carter was born on a farm six miles from Murfreesboro, Pike county, Arkansas, his father being Henry W. Carter, who was born in North Carolina. The Carter family was founded in Arkansas in the pioneer days, when the grandfather of Judge Carter came to this state with his family in 1843, first locating at Lewisville, Lafayette county, whence he removed a few years later to Pike county, where he and his wife passed the residue of their lives. Henry W. Carter became one of the successful and representative agriculturists and stockgrowers of Pike county, assisted materially in the development and upbuilding of that section of the state, and he passed the closing years of his life in Pike county, where he died in 1906. at a venerable age. His wife is also de- ceased.
Judge Carter gained his preliminary educational discipline in the public schools of Pike and Hempstead counties, after which he continued his studies in the Arkansas Industrial University, at Fayetteville. He was later matriculated in Ouachita College. at Arkadelphia, this state, in which well ordered institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1889, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He had in the mean- while given close attention to the study of law and after his graduation he located in the city of Texarkana, judicial center of Miller county, where he continued his legal studies in the office and under the effective preceptorship of the firm of Scott & Jones. In November, 1890, he was duly admitted to the bar of his native state, and he forthwith instituted the active work of his profession in Texarkana, where he has since main- tained his home and where he has gained noteworthy precedence as a legist and jurist. In 1892 he was elected prosecuting attorney for the Eighth Judicial Circuit, and as a public prosecutor he made a most ex- cellent record, the appreciable result of which was that he was chosen as his own successor in the election of 1894, thus serving four consecu- tive years. After his retirement from this office Judge Carter resumed
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the active practice of his profession, and his reputation as an advocate had been so furthered by his service as prosecuting attorney that he gained in short order a large and representative clientele, in connection with which he was called upon to appear in much important litigation in both the state and federal courts.
In 1906 there came definite and well merited recognition of the character and professional ability of Judge Carter, since, in the autumn of that year, he was elected to the bench of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, an office of which he has since remained incumbent, by successive re- elections. On the bench he has shown not only a deep appreciation of the principles of equity and justice, as segregated from mere technicali- ties, but he has also shown the true judicial cast of mind and a pro- found and accurate knowledge of the minutiae of the science of juris- prudence, with the result that his rulings have been signally fair and impartial and that very few of his decisions have met with reversal by higher tribunals. His administration has also been marked by the rapid discharge of all business of the court, and few have shown more facility in the effective clearing of the calendar of the court each year. Fair- ness, discrimination and dignified courtesy have characterized the course of Judge Carter on the bench, and thus he has gained the uniform con- fidence and respect of the members of the bar and of the principals in the various canses that have been presented for his adjudication. He is one of the strong and resourceful representatives of the judiciary of his native state, and his fidelity to duty and to the exacting demands of his responsible office is on a parity with his recognized integrity of char- acter and professional ability.
Judge Carter has been marked for leadership in the councils of the Democratic party in Arkansas and is an effective advocate of its basic principles and policies, the while his attitude has ever been that of a liberal and public-spirited citizen. He has been active and influential in the political affairs of the state, and in 1900 was presidential elector on the ticket of his party. In the Masonic fraternity he has attained to the chivalrie degree, in which connection he is affiliated with the Knights Templars, besides which he holds membership in the Texarkana lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
In the city of Texarkana was solemnized the marriage of Judge Carter to Miss Nellie Estes, and they have four children, namely ; Ben- jamin Estes, Jacob Monroe, Jr., Jesse Hicks, and Nellie Maxey.
MICHAEL KIRST. A distinguished veteran of the Civil war and a public-spirited and influential citizen of Little Rock since the close of the war, Michael Kirst was born in Rhine, Prussia., in 1839. Michael Kirst passed his boyhood and early youth in his native land, where he received excellent educational training and where he continued to reside until seventeen years of age. He then decided to seek his fortune in the new world and accordingly severed the ties which bound him to home and Fatherland and set sail for America, landing in New York city in 1856, and proceeding thence to Wisconsin, where he located on a farm in Sheboygan county, then in the heart of the virgin forest. He began the irksome and ardnous process of reclaiming a farm from the wilder- ness, and in 1861, when the dark cloud of civil war obscured the national horizon, he made evident his loyalty to the land of his adoption by re- sponding immediately to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers and enlisted at Plymouth, Sheboygan county, in Company B. Twenty-sev- enth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. The history of his service is prac- tically that of his regiment, which took part in Kentucky, Tennessee
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