USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 7
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lishing himself as a general merchant at Harris, among the friends of his childhood days. In 1905, desirous of enlarging his field of operations, Mr. Fletcher purchased the entire stoek of William Massey, one of the leading dry goods and shoe dealers of Springdale, and has since carried on a thriv- ing trade, his business being extensive and profitable. He has acquired con- siderable property, owning his business house and his pleasant residence on Johnson street.
On October 10, 1874, Mr. Fletcher was united in marriage with Har- riet J. Wiliford, a daughter of James Wiliford, who came to Arkansas from Alabama. She passed to the life beyond in 1898, leaving three daughters, namely: Elizabeth, wife of Monroe Sammons, of Springdale; Lydia, de- ceased, was the wife of John Roberts; and Belle, wife of Howard Mullins, of Saint Louis, Missouri. Mr. Fletcher married, December 10, 1899, Mrs. Ella (Grimes) Folk, a widow with one child, Lynn Folk. Mrs. Fletcher was born near Fayetteville, Arkansas, being a daughter of James Grimes, who migrated from Tennessee to Washington county, Arkansas.
Politically Mr. Fletcher is a Democrat, both by training and by incli- nation, and religiously he belongs to the Baptist church. Fraternally he is a member of all the junior Masonic organizations and is a Knight Templar.
WILLIAM C. ROBERTS. Occupying a prominent position among the substantial and respected citizens of Benton county is William C. Roberts, who is serving ably and efficiently as postmaster at Rogers. A son of the late William C. Roberts, Sr., he was born in Fayetteville, Washington county, Arkansas, May 18, 1850. He is of pioneer descent, his grandfather, Henry Gregg, having migrated from eastern Tennessee to Arkansas while it was yet under territorial government. He settled at Fayetteville when its present site was marked by a single house, and when Washington county included all of northwestern Arkansas, an area from which ten counties have since been carved.
William C. Roberts, Sr., was born in eastern Tennessee in 1825, and died in Hillsboro, Texas, in 1895. He came with his father-in-law, Henry Gregg, to Arkansas in pioneer days, and with them endured the privations and hardships of frontier life. During the Civil war he served as captain of a Texas company of soldiers in the Confederate army, and his two older sons gave their lives in defense of the Southern cause. He married Caroline Gregg, daughter of Henry Gregg, a pioneer settler of Washington county, Arkansas. She died in 1855, leaving five children, namely: John H. and George W., both of whom were killed while serving in the Confederate army ; Mary J., who married W. H. Hurt, and died in Hillsboro, Texas ; Sarah D., wife of Samuel Ilill, of Helena, Oklahoma ; and William C., with whom this sketch is chiefly concerned.
William C. Roberts was reared in the humble home of his parents, and acquired his education in the common schools of ante-bellum days, supply- ing the funds to defray his ordinary expenses by working nights and morn- ings. He was a pupil of J. M. Johnson, afterward colonel of a regiment in the Union army, and from him, doubtless, imbibed the Union sentiments that led him to join the Federal forces during the Civil war, notwithstand- ing the fact that his father was an officer and two of his brothers privates in the opposing army. Enlisting in Company K, First Arkansas Volunteer Infantry, Mr. Roberts served under his former preceptor, Colonel J. M. Johnson, in the Western Department of the Union army, seventh A. C. He took an active part in the engagements at Camden and Jenkins Ferry, and in various skirmishes, receiving slight wounds on the field of battle, and on Angust 10. 1865, was honorably discharged from the service at Fort
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Smith. He was only thirteen years, three months and ten days old when he enlisted in the army.
While in the army Mr. Roberts maintained his sisters upon his army pay, and on coming out of service proceeded to put the finishing touches to his limited education. As a stanch Republican, he soon became associated with local polities, and served for four years as deputy sheriff under Jacob Yoes, of Washington county, and was subsequently deputy county clerk under George W. MI. Reed, of the same county, for a like period of time. Going then to Albany, New York, Mr. Roberts was graduated from the Albany Law School with the class of 1872, and for a number of years there- after was engaged in the practice of his profession in Fayetteville, being associated with his uncle, Judge Lafayette Gregg. Going from there to Madison county, he resumed his profession, and again entered the political arena. His health becoming impaired, he abandoned his practice and ac- cepted a position in the United States Internal Revenue service, in which he remained until relieved by a Cleveland appointee, being excused on the grounds of "O. P.," offensive partisanship, an excuse invented by President Cleveland to get rid of Republican office holders without infringing the Civil Service regulations.
Returning to his profession. Mr. Roberts resided in Madison county several years longer, and was there decidedly active in local affairs. He was popular with both parties, and in 1893, with the aid of Democratic votes, he was elected to the State Legislature, and re-elected to the same position in 1895. While a member of that body he secured the passage of his share of the bills which he introduced, and was the author of a law passed allowing parties in garnishment proceedings to hold funds in the hands of parties owing the garnisheed when the suit was brought until the outcome of said suit could be determined. Although remaining true to his party in matters coming before the Legislature, he kept elear of partisan legislation. Coming to Rogers in 1898, Mr. Roberts soon be- came identified with the leading interests of the place, and in 1906, sup- ported by the endorsement of the Republican committees of his township. county and state, he was appointed postmaster at Rogers by President Roosevelt, and at the expiration of his term of four years was reappointed to the same position by President Taft.
Mr. Roberts married in July, 1873, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Nar- cissa Naylor, daughter of Robert F. Naylor, who was at that time register of the. United States land office. having gone there from Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania, although he was a resident of Indiana when Mrs. Roberts was born. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts are the parents of four children, namely : Virgil, general agent of the Louisiana Cotton Oil Company at New Or- leans : Minnie, wife of Dan C. Cowling. of Rogers; Charles F., of Little Rock, a postal clerk ; and Ethel, general delivery clerk at Rogers.
Taking an active part in the affairs of the Grand Army of the Re- publie, Mr. Rogers was elected commander of the state of Arkansas in 1896, and since his retirement from that office has been named to fill posi- tions of importance upon the statis of state commanders, and is now judge advocate general of the Arkansas Grand Army of the Republic. JIe has served on all the political committees of the Republican party, local and state. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows; is a Knight Templar Mason, belonging to Bethany Commandery, No. 16, of Bentonville, and is a member of the lodge of Elks at Rogers, Arkansas.
JAMES AUGUSTIN CAMERON BLACKBURN. For many years insep- arably identified with the upbuilding and growing prosperity of Rogers,
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Benton county, James A. C. Blackburn is honored with a citizenship that stands among the idcals required for the establishment of a community characterized for its intelligence, morality and the elements of business success. The descendant of a pioneer family of note, he represents, also, the brave, courageous men who blazed their way into the county and founded the first communities which brought civilization to the Ozarks. A native of Benton county, he was born in the vicinity of War Eagle Mills, August 22, 1841, a son of Sylvanus Blackburn.
Sylvanus Blackburn was born in middle Tennessee in 1809, and there grew to man's estate. Coming to Arkansas in 1832, he brought with him his parents, Jo and Rachel Blackburn, both of whom spent their remaining years here, passing away in 1840. Locating in Benton county, near the place which, with the creek, was named in honor of the old chief of the Cherokee Indians, "War Eagle," Sylvanus Blackburn improved a home- stead and engaged in farming and stock raising. and dealing. In 1855 he built a grist mill and a saw mill at War Eagle, and there made lumber and sash for building purposes, his plant being the first of the kind in Benton county. His first home, a typical two-story log house, which he erected in 1844, is still standing, even to sashes, which were made by the hand of Beech Robinson, a pioneer mechanic of the county, are in a splen- did state of preservation.
Having been a slave owner and a capable business man, he acquired considerable property before the war, and when that struggle came on he took his negroes South in hopes of saving them, and buried a large sum of gold about his premises, while his sons entered the Confederate service. He saved his gold, but lost his slaves and much other chattel property. He subsequently began life anew, but his ambition was curbed by the devastation of war, and he contented himself as a simple farmer during the remainder of his days, passing away in 1890, at a venerable age. He was a man of strong religious faith and practice, and a preacher in the Free Will Baptist church. A man of unquestioned integrity, he per- formed his obligations to the very letter, and was very strict in requiring others to observe the same relation toward himself. He married Catherine Brewer, who was born in middle Tennessee and died at a good old age in Benton county, Arkansas, in 1890. Of the nine children born of their union, James A. C., the subject of this sketch, and Rachel are the only survivors, the subject being the sixth child in succession of birth. The names of the others in order of birth are as follows: Joseph; Ambrose ; Rachel, who married J. W. Burks; William; Newton; Louisa, who mar- ried Samuel Burks; Zimri J .; and Margaret A., who died when young.
Brought up under the difficult conditions of frontier life, James A. C. Blackburn labored hard to obtain an education, walking two miles each way to attend the short terms of a subscription school, paying a monthly tuition fee of two dollars for the privilege. Scarce had he taken his place in the affairs of men when the Civil war broke out. Joining Company I, Colonel Ras Sterman's Batallion of Cavalry, he went to the front under command of General Cabell, and subsequently was at different times spe- cial conrier for the "Old Tiger" of the Confederacy. He served through- out the conflict in the Trans-Mississippi Department, without wounds or untoward incident, and when the struggle was over the command was dis- banded at Saline.
Mr. Blackburn then began life for himself as a farmer at War Eagle, but in the fall of 1867 he made a change of occupation, embarking in mer- cantile pursuits at Van Winkle Mills. In 1823 he rebuilt the War Eagle Mills, and added their operation to his mercantile transactions, managing both industries until 1884. Selling out both interests in that year, he suc-
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ceeded Peter Van Winkle in the lumber business at Van Winkle Mills, three miles north of War Eagle Mills. In 1890 he transferred his resi- dence and his operations to Rogers, and here continued in the lumber business until January 1, 1895, when he retired from active commercial pursuits, the care and disposal of the vast traets of land which he had acquired during the preceding years demanding his full attention.
Since coming to Rogers Mr. Blackburn has been one of the extensive and prominent builders of the town, in the matter of erection having ex- ceeded any two other town builders of the place. He built the first house on the present town site, using it for a time for the storage of his sashes and doors, and is the owner of much city property of value, including four of the leading hotels.
While taking an active part in the affairs of his city, Mr. Blackburn has permitted his name to be used and his service to be given politically. He was elected to the State Senate in 1895, and again in 1897, rendering appreciated service each term. While a member of that body he secured the repeal of the "three mile limit" law, which repeal made it possible to establish at Rogers a distillery for the manufacture of brandy, thus giving a market for the culls from the apple-grower's orchards, a matter meaning much to that industry in and about Rogers.
In Benton county, Arkansas, January 25, 1868, Mr. Blackburn mar- ried Ellen Van Winkle, a daughter of Peter Van Winkle, a pioneer settler of this county. She died in 1884, leaving three children, namely: Carrie, wife of E. J. Kruse, of Rogers ; Mand, deceased, was the wife of Dr. Huff; and Laura, wife of Charles A. Miller, of Rogers. Mr. Blackburn married, April 1, 1886, Mrs. Belle Harris, a daughter of C. Petross, who was born in Mississippi, of French ancestry. Mrs. Blackburn has two children by her first marriage, namely: Urie D. Harris, assistant cashier of the First National Bank of Fayetteville, Arkansas; and Lee M. Harris, of Rogers.
Fraternally Mr. Blackburn is a member of the minor Masonic organ- ization, of Rogers, and belongs to Bethany Commandery, No. 16, K. T., of Bentonville. He is not identified with any religious institution, but he is a practical helper in the dispensation of charity, and wise and gen- erous in the aiding of people who deserve a helping hand.
JUDGE MILLARD BERRY. Progress and enterprise are two words in- delibly associated with the character and achievements of Judge Millard Berry, of Springdale, and any new and growing community is fortunate, indeed, to have a man of such fine initiative and persistence in its midst. Judge Berry has been prominently identified with affairs in Washington county since 1883, at which time he was a refugee, as someone has expressed it, from the cotton fields near Dallas, Texas. After preparing himself for the law at Washington, Indiana, where he was reared, he had made the' mistake of believing that there was a fortune awaiting him in the Lone Star state as a grower of cotton. Accordingly he went thither as a young man of twenty-three and spent four futile years in a battle with low prices and other adverse conditions before he was ready to seek another vocation in life. Fortunately he was still young; "experience is a providence," ac- cording to the poet ; and his subsequent success has been more than com- pensation.
When he came to Springdale, Arkansas, Judge Berry found a few cottages gathered about the railroad station, but he was to be the wit- ness of remarkable growth and development and the somewhat sleepy and aimless community has become a thriving, up-to-date one, the subject having done his share in the admirable metamorphosis. For a few years he represented the Caldwell Manufacturing Company of Leavenworth,
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Kansas, as their salesman of vehicles and implements, traveling over the district of which Springdale is the centre, and when be abandoned this occupation he took up the abstract and title business, in which he is still engaged. During the passage of years he has entered other fields of activ- ity and has measured capacities with other promoters and business men in the county. He engaged in the telephone business here in 1896, and such possibilities rapidly developed as to urge him into a broader field, and accordingly he organized the North Arkansas Telephone Company and was for many years its president. This company has a capital of a hun- dred thousand dollars and was chartered in 1898. It built toll lines and exchanges in Benton, Washington, Madison and Crawford counties and has developed an extensive and important system of communication.
For many years Judge Berry was secretary and manager of the Spring- dale Canning Company, an enterprise which was of more consequence to the people of this locality than any other of its day. He was a member of a small coterie of Springdale citizens to build the Odd Fellows' block, one of the best and most conspicuous blocks of the city.
The birth of Judge Berry occurred in Daviess county, Indiana, Octo- ber 19, 1856. His father, Walter E. Berry, was born in Hart county, Kentucky, in 1828, and went to Daviess county as a boy with his father, Beverly Berry, who died near Washington just before the Civil war. Wal- ter E. Berry married Angeline, a daughter of a Mr. Cross, a Kentuckian and a farmer. Beverly Berry was born in Virginia and his wife's maiden name was Evans.
Walter E. Berry passed his life quietly and was ambitious only to rear and educate his son, who was his only child, and to provide for the comfort of the little circle he called his own. He followed to Arkansas when his son established himself in Springdale, and he died here in 1903. He was a Democrat in politics, but took little interest beyond his right as a voter.
Millard Berry was educated in the public schools and seminary at Washington, Indiana, and read law with Judge James W. Ogden, of that place. He was admitted to the bar before Judge Mallott in 1837 and subsequently became a partner in the law with Judge Ogden. His legal work was cut short by his ill-starred ambition to become a cotton baron in the Southwest, when he located at Garland, Texas, on a cotton farm, and remained from 1879 until his entry into Springdale.
Judge Berry's connection with polities was rather unimportant until such time as he became a candidate for office himself. His first publie service was as mayor of Springdale and as justice of peace and then he went up higher, having been very faithful in those duties. He had not been within the borders of more than six of the thirty and more town- ships of Washington county when he decided to seek the nomination for the county judgeship and his opponent was seeking only his second term. Notwithstanding this disparity in advantage he won the nomination and then the election in 1900 and succeeded County Judge R. O. Hanna. Two years later he was chosen to succeed himslf and after that term was suc- ceeded by W. E. Williams.
His administration of the county judge's office was characterized by sound business methods and the achievement of many things working to the advantage of the county. He brought about the building of the first steel bridge across White river in Washington county; agitated the erec- tion of a new court house and devised a method to secure it withont bur- dening the taxpayers with a bonded debt. His ideas were taken up by the levy board and adopted and a sinking fund was created and increased from year to year, so that the building was erected with the serip of the
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county, the last of which will be paid off in 1912. He found the road building affairs of the county in a chaotic state and he purchased new equipment and placed a competent foreman in charge of it and many miles of permanent road were built during his term. He conceived the idea of placing the county farm upon a self-sustaining basis by planting an orchard, which promised to become in time creative of an income sufficient to defray the eurrent expenses of the farm, with a possible surplus fund for the county treasury. Had his plans been furthered by his sneeessors the orchard would now be of commercial value and an asset in the in- ventory of the county's property.
On August 6, 1879, Judge Berry was married in Washington, In- diana, Miss Ida MeHolland, a daughter of Thaddeus MeHolland, of Portland, Oregon, becoming his wife. Mrs. Berry's mother's maiden name was Miss Josie Sleeper and she ( Mrs. Berry ) was the eldest of three children, her brother being William McHolland of Portland, Oregon, and her sister Mrs. Laura Swain, of Jacksonville, Florida. Judge and Mrs. Berry are the parents of several children. Thaddeus is associated with his father, and his wife was Miss Annie Graves: Ethel is the wife of Glenn VanHorn, of Springdale ; Walter is a plumber and machinist here; Helen is the wife of Dr. Charles A. McQuaid, of Springdale; Hazel, Marian and Josephine complete the family.
Judge Berry is a loyal member of the time-honored Masonie order, and is past master of the Blue Lodge of Springdale. He is also past noble grand of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mrs. Berry is an active member of the "Star" and has been a representative to the Grand Lodge of Arkansas.
JOHN C. ENGLAND. Although John C. England now maintains his home and professional headquarters in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, he was formerly a prominent and influential resident of Little Rock, where he resided for a long number of years and where he gained distinctive prestige in connection with legal and railroad interests. He platted out the town of England in Lonoke county and is the owner of a fine planta- tion of some two thousand acres in that county. He has been identified with a number of different projects in Arkansas since early youth and it seems that he has always possessed an "open sesame" to unlock the doors of success in every enterprise that he has undertaken. In connection with his legal work he has been a constant agitator and worker for the general welfare and reform both in administration and in state, eounty and municipal improvements.
A native of Arkansas, John C. England was born at old Brownsville, formerly the eonnty seat of Prairie county, the date of his nativity being the 18th of January, 1850. He is a son of William H. and Lauriva (nee Boyette) England, who came to Arkansas from Attala county, Mississippi, in the year 1849. The father was engaged in the mercantile business in Mississippi, but after his removal to Arkansas was elected clerk of the Cir- euit Court, which position he held for a number of years and until his death, in 1860, The mother survived her honored husband by a number of years, her death having occurred in 1900, at the venerable age of seventy-five years. Mr. and Mrs. England were the parents of seven ehil- dren, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth in order of birth. On other pages of this work appears a sketch dedicated to the career of Joseph E. England, president of the England National Bank of Little Rock and a brother of John C. England.
John C. England was a child of but ten years of age at the time of his father's death and he was thus reared to maturity without parental care
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and guidance. He received his rudimentary educational training in the school at old Brownsville and in the schools of Hickory Plains. After reaching years of maturity he decided upon the profession of the law as his life work and with that object in view began his legal studies in the office of Gantt & Bronangh, at Brownsville, later pursuing a course of study in the law office of the same firm after removal had been made to Devall's Bluff. Mr. England was admitted to the bar of Arkansas at Devall's Bluff, then the county seat of Prairie county, in the year 1871, and he immediately was admitted to partnership by his preceptors, the firm name being changed to that of Gantt, Bronaugh & England. Later he removed to Lonoke, the newly established county seat of the county of the same name. He succeeded in building up a large and representative elientage at Lonoke, where he continued to reside until 1887, at which time he estab- lished his home at Little Rock. He removed to the capital city of the state in order to accept the position of attorney for the Cotton Belt Rail- way Company and in addition to his duties as such he was a law partner of General W. E. Atkinson, attorney general of Arkansas, a large business being controlled under the firm name of Atkinson & England. In 1889 Mr. England was honored with appointment as private secretary to Gover- nor Eagle, serving in that capacity for a period of two years. Besides being attorney for the Cotton Belt Railway, Mr. England was right-of- way agent for that company in Arkansas, and as such he secured the right of way for the Altheimer branch of that road, the same extending from Little Rock to Altheimer, where it connected with the main line. In this connection he laid off and established the town of England, in Lonoke county, which has since become the largest and most important town on the branch in question. Mr. England held the first sale of lots in this town on the 30th of January, 1889, soon after the road was com- pleted ; it was named in his honor. Mr. England still owns valuable prop- erty interests at England and in the surrounding country, part of his holdings being a fine plantation of two thousand acres near the town of England. In 1895, however, Mr. England severed his connections in Little Rock and removed to the city of St. Louis, Missouri, where he has since been engaged in the practice of his profession and where he has won precedence as one of the most skilled and versatile trial lawyers in that section of the state. His business headquarters are maintained at 1124 Central National Bank Building.
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