USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 69
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Mr. Menard takes pleasure in his fraternal relations, which extend to the Woodmen of the World and the Knights and Ladies of Honor.
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He is one of the zealous members of the Methodist church, in which he has served as Sunday school superintendent for the past four years.
In 1905 Mr. Menard inaugurated a congenial life companionship by his union with Miss Mary Nicholson, a native of Dewitt, and they have one daughter, Ellen Nicholson Menard.
CHARLES S. SCOTT. One of the best known planters and highly respected citizens of this part of the state is Charles S. Scott, of Osceola, who has been a resident of Mississippi county since the year 1889. At the time of his arrival within its precinets he was a youth of eighteen years with little educational equipment, no influence or personal pull and no capital other than his habits of industry and desire to achieve success. He came from Spartanburg county, South Carolina, where he was born July 21, 1870. His father, Benjamin F. Scott, was born in the same county in 1829 and was a representative of an old family in that part of the South. He passed the early years of his life as a loco- motive engineer, being engaged in this occupation during the Civil war period, and being so necessary in that capacity that he was not called upon for military service in the army of the Confederacy. After the war he abandoned railroad work and engaged in agriculture. He proved a useful citizen and lived to a good old age, his demise occurring in 1910. He married Susan E. Mitchell, who was born in Spartanburg county, and this estimable lady still survives. Their children were as follows : John H., who died near the family home after attaining to mature years; Thomas, who still resides in his native county ; Charles S., the subject; and Mitchell, who left a family at the time of his death.
Charles S. Scott obtained little education, the common schools suf- ficing for his training, and other duties making impossible his attendance more than two or three months out of the twelve. He assumed the re- sponsibility of his own career when he came out to Arkansas, joining his brother John, who had preceded him. Mr. Scott at once identified himself with the agricultural interests of the state, very modestly, it is true, for he began as a farmi hand, and followed this by the arrange- ment known as sharing crops. He thus gained a thorough knowledge of agriculture in all its departments and after a time began independent farming on a lease. Fourteen years ago he leased the Witherspoon plantation-an advantageously disposed tract of three hundred and seventy aeres, and has since continued to be its landlord. Upon its fertile acres he cultivates cotton, corn and alfalfa and employs a large force of laborers. He is a scientific agriculturist and brings his acres to the highest point of productiveness, managing so cleverly that the resources of the soil are never depleted, hut constantly renewed. In addition to agricultural matters Mr. Scott is engaged in merchandise as a member of the Luxora Drug Company.
The subject was reared upon the articles of faith of the Democratic party as a member of a staunch Democratie household, but his influence is wielded merely as a voter and in support of competent men for public office.
Mr. Scott was married in Mississippi county, August 8. 1895, the lady to become his wife being Miss Lura G. Hayes, whose father was at one time sheriff of the county. Mrs. Scott was born near Luxora in the year 1877. They share their comfortable home with the following sons and daughters: Roena. Lillian, Frank, Harry, Mildred and Evelyn.
The head of the house is pleasantly identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
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JOIN A. BOWEN. Noteworthy among the highly respected and valued residents of Luxora is Jolm A. Bowen, who has lived for a score or more of years, during which time he has been identified with various interests, and is now carrying on general farming with both pleasure and profit. A son of John H. Bowen, he was born in Shelby county, Tennessee, November 27, 1858, of Virginian ancestry.
Ilis paternal grandfather, Arthur Mack Bowen, resided in Vir- ginia for some time after his marriage. Migrating then to Tennessee, he settled with his family in Clarksville, but later removed to Panola county, Mississippi, where, just before the breaking out of the Civil war, he died. He reared five sons, as follows: Richard, who died at Chulahoma. Mississippi, in 1889, was very active and prominent in the Masonic order, having been grand lecturer of Mississippi, and grand master of the Masonic body of that state; W. P., who died in Mississippi, leaving a family ; Jerome, a soldier in the Confederate army, was killed at Opelika, Alabama: R. T., who likewise served in the Confederate army, died a bachelor; and John H .. the father of John A.
John H. Bowen was born in Abingdon, Virginia, but was brought up in Clarksville, Tennessee, where his parents moved when he was a boy. At eighteen years of age he went to Memphis, where he subse- quently embarked in business as a merchant; although he did not enter the Confederate army he supported the eanse of the South during the Civil war. He became active in polities and being elected tax colleetor on the Republican ticket served in that capacity a number of years. In 1870 he moved with his family to De Soto county, Mississippi, where his death occurred, in 1872. He married first Mary C. Armour, a daughter of William Armour, of Jackson, Tennessee. She died in 1862, leaving three children, as follows: William A., of Memphis, Tennessee, a railroad man; Arthur MeM .. of Memphis: and John A., the special subject of this sketeh. He married for his second wife, a widow with children, Mrs. Henrietta Polk Avery, and their only child, Henrietta W., is now the wife of L. W. Bedford, of Memphis, Tennessee.
His parents moving to De Soto eounty, Mississippi. when he was a hoy of twelve years, Jolm A. Bowen there received a limited education in the distriet schools, and ere reaching his majority was busily em- ployed as an agriculturist. Abandoning farming in 1884, he was for four years, under the superintendence of his brother, in the employ of the old Memphis and Little Roek Railroad Company, at Little Rock. Coming to Luxora, Arkansas, in 1888, Mr. Bowen was for three years a elerk in the store of his step-brother. N. L. Avery, and the ensuing three years was superintendent of the Southern Iron Company, in Ten- nessee. Returning then to Luxora. Arkansas, Mr. Bowen was steward and timekeeper for the government for one season, and was subsequently here engaged in mercantile pursuits for ten years, being head of the firm of Jolin A. Bowen & Company. He was then appointed postmaster of the town by the Roosevelt administration. although he was not a partisan of the president, and held the office two years. Sinee that time Mr. Bowen has devoted his attention to farming, being also identified to some extent with the milling and lumber business interests of this section of the eounty.
On November 26, 1889, Mr. Bowen was united in marriage with Lena W. Williams, a daughter of James H. Williams. Her grandfather, Joseph Williams, for many years a prominent citizen of Nashville, Ten- nessee, was one of the pioneer settlers of Gallatin pike, and subsequently beeame one of the more wealthy, slave-holding planters of his eom- munity. He married a Miss Horne, a famous Tennessee belle, and a
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matron of the Martha Washington type She bore him eleven children, and passed away at a comparatively early age. One of the early set- tlers of Luxora, Arkansas, James H. Williams became an extensive land owner, and from the farm which he cleared a portion of the Luxora townsite was platted. He was three times married. By his first wife he had four children. By his second wife, whose maiden name was Nellie Heath, he had three children, namely : Lena W., now Mrs. Bowen; Henry E., and Edward H. Mr. Williams married third a Miss Dunklin. and their only child, Maggie Williams, resides in Osceola, Arkansas. Mr. Williams has been called to his eternal home.
Mr. and Mrs. Bowen have one child, Perey Warner Bowen, born in 1900. Affiliated in polities with the Democratic party, Mr. Bowen has served as councilman in Luxora. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, and religiously he belongs to the Methodist Epis- copal church.
CLARENCE L. MOORE, JR., is the cashier of the Citizens Bank of Osceola and it is largely due to his discrimination and well directed ad- ministrative dealing that this institution has become one of the most substantial and popular banking houses of the state. He is a native son of the state, his birth having occurred in Mississippi county, December 28, 1867. His father, Clarence L. Moore, Sr., came to the state in ante- bellum days as a young man to aid a widowed sister in the care of a plantation and became a farmer himself. He came from Lowndes coun- ty, Mississippi, in which state he was born in the '30s. He was the son of parents in easy financial circumstances and was well educated, having been graduated from the university of his state and being one of a large family of children. His father was of English birth and the name of the mother previous to her marriage was Carey.
Clarence L. Moore, Sr., remained in Arkansas throughout the period of the Civil war without taking an active part in the military service of the South. He was friendly to the cause for which the South fonght and lent encouragement to his neighbors while there remained hope of success. After the restoration of peace he became the first county judge and served in the office eight years. It is. needless to say that he was Democratic in his political faith. He maintained his residence here until 1909, when he returned to Columbus, Mississippi, in whose vicinity he had passed his childhood and youth and where he and his wife have re- tired from the cares of business.
In the '60s Mr. Moore married Miss Lney Cooke, a daughter of Stephen Cooke, a Virginian, who came to Arkansas from Kentucky, after having resided in the latter state for a number of years. Mrs. Moore was born in Paris, Kentucky, and was a child when her parents came into Mississippi county. The children of their union are as follows : Clarence L., Jr., of Osceola ; Miss Elise, of Columbus, Mississippi ; Emma, wife of R. B. Nolan, county and probate clerk of Mississippi county ; Dudley G., a farmer residing near Blytheville, Arkansas; and Stephen C., also of that place.
The youth of Clarence L. Moore, Jr., was that of the usual lad of country birth and rural surroundings. He did not adopt the agricultural vocation as his own, however, and after obtaining his education in the common schools he began life in a clerical capacity in office work. He has followed this for the most part, although engaged in merchandise for a short time. In 1907 he entered the Mississippi County Bank at Blytheville as assistant cashier, and remained with the institution until
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James Reith
alex Mkeith
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January 1, 1908, in which year he was elected cashier of the Citizens Bank of Osceola.
The Citizens Bank of Osceola was established in October, 1902, and had among its promoters some of the most successful business men of the town. Among them were F. B. Hale, G. R. Brickey, W. J. Driver, W. H. Pullen and Sam Bowen, with F. B. Hale as the first president of the institution. It was capitalized at twenty-five thousand dollars and in 1911 has a surplus of twelve thousand dollars. Its present officers are J. W. Rhodes, president; W. J. Driver, vice-president, and C. L. Moore, cashier.
While public-spirited and alive to the best interests of the com- munity, Mr. Moore has taken little interest in politics beyond the exer- cise of his suffrage as a Democrat. During the tenure of office of J. W. Rhodes as circuit clerk, a period of four years, Mr. Moore was deputy clerk and served alternately in Blytheville and Oscola.
Mr. Moore established a happy married life when, on December 28, 1906, he was united in marriage in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to Miss Marie Nichol, daughter of Captain J. W. Nichol. They have no chil- dren. Mr. Moore was reared in a Christian home and under Episco- palian influence and the home life of the wife was spiritually influenced by the Christian church. The subject is an extremely popular Knight of Pythias and holds pleasant fraternal relations with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
ALEXANDER M. KEITH, a capitalist of Little Rock, Arkansas, is a native of St. Louis and a son of James and Elizabeth (Wheeler) Keith. James Keith was a pioneer business man of Little Rock, a charter mem- ber of the Board of Trade, a large property owner and a prominent factor in many ways identified with the growth and development of this city, where he remained active up to the time of his death, September 3, 1908, at a ripe old age. He was born December 3, 1818, at Crockenshaw, in Ar- gylshire, Scotland, a descendant of the Keith clan of Highlands. At the age of eighteen he went to London and engaged in the dry-goods business. Soon thereafter he and his brother, Matthew Keith, came to America and were associated together in business affairs in Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Minneapolis and St. Louis. From the last named city Matthew went to California during the gold excitement, James joined the Federal army, and was in the Missis- sippi Valley campaign. From Vicksburg he came with General Steele's army to Little Rock in 1863, and at the close of the war he established his permanent home in this city. He entered actively into its business affairs, acquiring large property interests, which at the time of his death were estimated to be worth half a million dollars. He had also retained large interests in St. Louis, including a directorship in the Boatmen's
Bank, one of the greatest banking institutions of the country, of which he was one of the organizers and a director from the date of its founding. Living in good health and activity until the age of ninety, Mr. Keith was a fine type of the strong and sturdy Scotchman, possessed of a splendid physical and mental equipment and of unwaivering moral fibre. He is affectionately remembered by all who knew him both in business and social life. He was a charter member of the Little Rock Board of Trade, and at the time of his death its oldest member. For years has was a stanch member of the Presbyterian church. At his death he left one son, Alexander M. Keith, and two step children, Mrs. Mary A. Pierce and Miss Amelia Wheeler.
Alexander M. Keith was reared and educated at Little Rock. Besides his large ownership in real estate he is variously interested as a capitalist
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in banking and other enterprises of importance. His wife is Cordelia (Catherina ) Keith, and they have five children : James, Alexander M., Jr., Janet, Mary Pierce and Delerena.
AUGUSTUS O. BURTON is conspicuously identified with the progress and welfare of Blytheville and is generally recognized as one of the foremost developers of the city. He is now engaged in dealing in real estate and has been very active in promoting the community of Leach- ville, a wide area of which he owns. Mr. Burton was born on a farm near Newport, Arkansas, July 17, 1873. His father, Thomas J. Burton, was born at Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1848, and some time prior to the elose of the Civil war, despite his youth, he became a soldier in the Confederate army service. Soon after the termination of hostilities he came to Arkansas quite without capital and located in Jackson county, where he engaged as a farm hand and in this manner got his start in life. He eventually became a merchant at Bowen's Ridge and made a great success in this line of endeavor. He subsequently invested largely in real estate and is now devoting himself to its management and culti- vation, having severed his connection with the mercantile business. The elder gentleman married Miss Clara Blackwood and the subject is the only issue of the union.
Augustus O. Burton attended school until his nineteenth year, se- curing his education in the common and high schools, and his first oe- eupation was as a delivery clerk in a retail grocery store. Proving faith- ful and efficient in small things, he was given more and more to do and subsequently became a salesman in the store-only three months after entering it, in fact-and in six months he was advanced to the position of bookkeeper. After two years' connection with this concern, Mr. Bur- ton resigned to accept a position as buyer and salesman in another grocery and hardware house and he remained with it for five years. He then engaged in business for himself at Osceola as a retail grocer. Three years later he disposed of his business and founded a wholesale grocery house there, to which was given the title The Burton Wholesale Grocery Company. Two years later he organized the Arkansas Wholesale Grocery Company at Blytheville and merged with the latter company his Osceola house. The new concern was one of importance, with a fifty thousand dollar capital, and of this Mr. Burton was made vice-president and gen- cral manager, and remained in these capacities during his three years with the firm.
Later Mr. Burton severed his eonection with commercial affairs and engaged in the real estate business and for a time dealt largely in farm lands. Subsequently he bought the town of Leachville, together with four thousand adjacent acres, and this is developing into a splendid farming community. Leachville, the pivotal point in his domain, is a new place in Mississippi county, has three railroads, is adjacent to a vast area of virgin hardwood forest and seems ideal for the making of a manufacturing center. Mr. Burton has manifested fine talents as the industrial overlord of this section and among other things is offering inducements to factories for the manufacture of staves, hoops, baskets, handles and other wood products, to loeate in this most advantageous locality, and from present indications there is every reason to believe that a busy industrial and commercial mart will soon build up near this town. Mr. Burton's Blytheville interests are also considerable and he has spent no small amount of money in the city's substantial im- provement. He is a successful man. He has done things and has made his imprint upon many enterprises. Nor are his ambitions merely per-
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sonal, for he takes a great and genuine pride in the remarkable progress and development of this part of the state of Arkansas. While ever keeping in touch with current events, Mr. Burton is not in politics, having no desire for the honors and emoluments of office. He is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church and his fraternal affiliations are with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
Mr. Burton laid the foundation of a happy life companionship when, in January, 1900, he was united in marriage to Miss Joe Bert Mayo, daughter of a prominent contractor and builder. This union has been blessed by the birth of two sons, Augustus O., Jr., and James Mayo. The family residence is maintained at 800 Holly street and is the center of a gracious hospitality.
OSCAR D. SANBORN. Among Blytheville's most useful citizens and Uncle Sam's faithful and efficient servants stands Oscar D. Sanborn, postmaster. There is, indeed, nothing of public import in Blytheville and the surrounding country in which he is not helpfully interested and in his residence here of less than a decade he has become widely and favorably known. Mr. Sanborn, who came to this state from Puxico. Missouri, in 1892, was born in Washington, Iowa, January 17, 1874, and was reared in Audubon county, that state. His father, Arthur L. Sanborn, was born in New Hampshire in 1843 and upon the outbreak of the Civil war enlisted from that state and served throughout the entire period of the great conflict between the states. He came west soon after the war and embarked in the mercantile field, opening a store in Audubon county, Iowa. In 1893 he came to Missouri and resumed business at Puxico, where he died in 1898. He was a Republican and served as postmaster of Audubon, Iowa. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and found great pleasure in his relations with the time-honored order in which all meet on a level and station forms no obstacle to comradeship. The subject's father married Miss Mary Cam- eron in Washington county, Iowa. She was born in Nova Scotia and resides now in Beulah, Wyoming, where she has a sister, Mrs. Jan Gunn. Another sister, Mrs. Kate Paul, resides in Quincy, Illinois., and a broth- er, John Cameron, lives near Audubon, Iowa. Postmaster Sanborn is one of a family of four children, the other members being: Viola Dutt, of Beulah, Wyoming; Arthur C., of Jonesboro, Arkansas; and Mabel, who married W. E. Matthews, of Beulah, Wyoming.
Mr. O. D. Sanborn, the immediate subject of this brief review, re- ceived his education in the free schools and at an early age had an opportunity of proving himself useful in various capacities in his fath- er's store. After his father's demise he assumed full charge of the store at Puxico, Missouri, until 1902, when he came into Arkansas and took charge of the Southern Mercantile Company's store at Dell. He conducted this business until the fall of 1905, when he removed to Blytheville and in less than a year he became postmaster of the little city, his appointment to the office in which has has given such entire satisfaction being in January, 1906, during the administration of Presi- dent Roosevelt. He succeeded to the office of J. H. Edwards. Mr. San- born was re-appointed January 25, 1910, to serve another four year term.
Mr. Sanborn established a happy life companionship when, in July. 1900, he was married in Puxico, Missouri, to Miss Katie Swallows, a native of the state of Illinois. Mrs. Sanborn came to Missouri when a child and was reared in the home of her sister, Mrs. J. D. Shumate, of
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Bloomfield, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Sanborn hold an enviable place in popular confidence and esteem.
Mr. Sanborn stands high in Masonry, belonging to the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery and exemplifying in himself the principles of moral and social justice and brotherly love, which since fable-en- vironed ages have been the fundamentals of this organization. He also is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America.
JOHN A. BORGMAN. Both popular and prominent throughout Craighead county is John A. Borgman, who is connected with live en- terprises and contributes in definite manner to their success, while at the same time being a citizen of high principles. Mr. Borgman is secre- tary and treasurer of the Jonesboro Heading Company and is junior member of the hardwood lumber company of Borgman & Son, the latter concern being one of the older industries of Craighead county, estab- lished some twenty years ago.
The subject and his father, Francis J. Borgman, of Jonesboro, came to Arkansas from Vigo county, Indiana, where the latter had located previous to the Civil war, and he was several years engaged in the hard- wood lumber business along the Wabash river. He was a native of West Virginia, having been born in that state in the '40s and he was reared amid rural surroundings. He was just entering man's estate when the great question, which had so long been clamoring for solution, brooked no longer delay and the flower of American manhood was called to the field of battle. The elder Mr. Borgman enlisted in an Indiana regiment and served from beginning to end without accident or wound. His command was a part of General Sherman's army.
Mr. Borgman Sr. engaged in the manufacture of lumber near Terre Haute, Indiana, and when the forests along the Wabash river gave evi- dence of giving out, he sought virgin hardwood fields in Arkansas and transferred his operations here. At Herman, he erected a mill which is still yielding a heavy annual output of lumber, after a score of years in which it has been continually levied upon. In 1909, the company engaged in the heading business in Jonesville, with a mill capacity of two thousand sets daily.
In Vigo county, Indiana, Francis J. Borgman, was united in mar- riage to Frances Jane Beauchamp, her father being an Indiana pioneer and a soldier in General Harrison's army in 1811 and a participant in the battle of Tippecanoe. Twin sons were born to this union, one dying at the age of eighteen years and the other being the subject of the sketch. Both Mr. Borgman and his son are stanch Republicans, although the former has taken little part in publie life.
Mr. John A. Borgman was born near Terre Haute, Indiana, Decem- ber 6, 1866; was educated in the common schools and the Terre Haute business College, and began life in his father's mill in Indiana. He learned milling in all its departments, from the minutest details to the most important, seven years of his career in the industry being passed as an engineer. His firm has always been a large employer of labor and as such he has contributed in most definite fashion to the settlement and consequent development of the timber belt of Arkansas. The Borgman factories operate for domestic consumption and their product finds its way into eastern markets through their Chicago and New York eor- respondents.
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