USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 70
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Mr. Borgman was married near Somerville, Tennessee, June 14, 1893, to Miss Mollie Harris, daughter of Thomas C. Harris, a represen-
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tative of an old Tennessee family. Mrs. Borgman was born March 25, 1867, and she and Mr. Borgman have two children, -Herman, aged thir- teen, and Lola, aged five. Mr. Borgman is one who finds abundant pleas- ure in his fraternal relations, which extend to the Benevolent and Pro- teetive Order of Elks: the Woodmen of the World; the lumbermen's order-the Hoo Hoos: and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which last he is past noble grand. He is a member of the board of election commissioners of Craighead eounty. His publie spirit is of the sort which leads him to support all causes likely to result in the advance- ment of the general interests.
ISAAC J. MORRIS, of Mountain Home, represents one of the leading mercantile enterprises of Baxter county ; was reared in the environment in which he now moves : and as a business man has evolved a mammoth concern for a rural, yet ambitious and enterprising community. In this role he has proved a valuable factor in the growth of the section and his success has been of that wholesome sort which has contributed to that of the general public. Mr. Morris is a native Southerner, his birth having oe- curred in Hardin county, Tennessee, July 25, 1872. His elders brought him to Arkansas when he was about five years of age and he has spent all the years subsequent in Mountain Home. His father was the late Will- iam H. Morris, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1842. He was a soldier of the Union army. serving as a member of the Sixteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Army of the Potomac, and his military career in- cluded the whole Civil war period. He was wounded at the Battle of Stony River and during the remainder of the war he acted as hospital steward and was in the railway mail service of the government. He was mustered out at Nashville, Tennessee, and afterward remained in the state, being married in Hardin county to Prudence Frazier, daughter of Thomas Frazier, formerly of North Carolina. This worthy woman journeyed on to the Undiscovered Country in 1882, survived by the following children : Isaac J., of this notice: Thomas Edgar, born November 30, 1876, and associated with his brother in buisness in Mountain Home; Mrs. B. E. Messey, of Comanche, Oklahoma, and W. S. Morris, of the same place.
The greater part of the active life of William H. Morris was passed as a merchant and he blazed the way for the entry of his sons into the commercial field. He was a man of ample education and other qualifica- tions for a successful career and as a man of strong individuality and pur- pose, was an influential factor in the community. He gave hand and heart to the men and measures of the Republican party, but was without in- clination for public service. He was active in matters pertaining to the perpetuation of the Grand Army of the Republic, taking no small amount of pleasure in the renewal of old associations with the comrades of other days, and he was an officer of his home post. His father's name was Robert Morris.
Isaac J. Morris was educated in the schools of Mountain Home and from his youth was familiarized with the various aspects of a mercantile career. Early in his 'teens he became a clerk in his father's business and at the age of eighteen established a household of his own by his marriage. About the time he attained his majority he established himself independ- ently in business, opening a small grocery store. He made a change and engaged in the implement business, selling on commission, but cannot truthfully be said to have made a fabulous fortune, for the owner of the goods took the long end of the profits. He drifted into hardware selling in addition, and prospered, becoming able not only to take the profits him- self, but to discount his bills. At first full of energy and empty of purse,
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his energy soon filled his purse and he branched out until the establish- ment over which he presides has come to be a great retail implement and hardware house and a local jobbing concern as well. Notwithstanding the fact that he is a dozen miles from a railroad he handles more implements than any other store in northern Arkansas. They come in car load lots and he sells them in like quantities. His business is growing at a phenom- enal rate. which astounds even himself. For instance he made liberal estimates in advance of his hardware sales during 1911, and before the first half of the year had passed he had sold tive times as much as his estimate for the entire year. A part of this is due to his great energy and enter- prise, a part to the rapid development of the country, and he meets condi- tions as rapidly as wire and rail can do the work.
On March 15, 1890, Mr. Morris was appointed postmaster of Moun- tain Ilome to succeed O. A. Eatman, and his services have proved so satis- factory that he has filled the position ever since, office and store occupying the same building. He is a Republican in politics ; is known to the leaders of his party in Arkansas; is an enthusiastic attendant at state republican conventions ; and has served his county as party secretary for a number of years.
Mr. Morris established a happy life companionship when on Septem- ber 14, 1890. he was united in marriage to Miss Lilly Brooks, a daughter of Daniel Brooks, a merchant of Mountain Home and from Audrain coun- ty, Missouri. Mr. Brooks married Martha Skinner and his demise oc- curred after the removal of himself and wife to the state of Oregon. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Morris are Robin, Frank and Doris. A splendid new residence built in 1910, serves the family as its commodious and hand- come abiding-place. The head of the house is Past Noble Grand of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a Modern and a Columbian Wood- man, a member of the Fraternal Home and of the Methodist Episcopal church.
DR. LEON MOONEY. One of the prominent and popular citizens of this section of the state is Dr. Leon Mooney, who is sheriff of Baxter county and indigenous to the soil. He was born at Mountain Home, December 12, 1876, and is a son of the late Hon. Jesse Mooney, one of the county's early lawyers and in his day a potent and influential factor in the leading citizen- ship of the section. As a settler he was of the pioneer period, coming out from his native Tennessee as early as 1837, when a youth of nineteen years He was born in 1818: received the advantages of a college education ; pre- pared himself for the law and followed the profession during his life. He was active in Democratic politics and served as sheriff of Marion county some time about the period of the Civil war. All the influences of environ- ment and personal conviction served to make him a Confederate and soon after his enlistment he became captain of a company in General Price's army. llis military career was varied and thrilling, among its principal events being his incarceration by the Federals, and when the affair at Ap- pomattox brought the terrible conflict to an end he was still a military prisoner on Johnson's Island in Lake Erie. He continued in politics after the war and represented Baxter county in the lower house of the state legislature. His early home in Arkansas was in the vicinity of Flippin, but he had located at Mountain Home previous to the Civil war. He married his second wife, the subjeet's mother, in Baxter county, her maiden name having heen Olivia Williams. This worthy lady survives and is the mother of Jesse Jr., of McCloud, Oklahoma ; Belle, wife of W. S. Reno, of Baxter county; Emma, wife of S. B. Suggs, residing in this county; Eugene : Dr. Leon, of this review ; Lorena of Mountain Home; and Anna,
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wife of W. A. Messick. Engene, mentioned above, served Baxter county as sheriff and was accidentally killed at Holdenville, Oklahoma, by the dis- charge of his pistol, while bringing a prisoner back to Arkansas in 1906. The Mooney family, as the name indicates, is of Irish origin. Hon. Jesse Mooney was a son of Jacob Mooney, who was born in Erin and settled in Tennessee upon coming to the United States. Among his several children were Tobias and Jacob, who reared families in Marion county, Arkansas ; and a daughter, Mrs. Polly A. Brown, who passed her life in Douglass county, Missouri.
Leon Mooney passed his childhood at Mountain Home and received his education in the public schools. Before he attained his majority he went to the Indian Territory and engaged as a clerk in various mercantile es- tablishments for some nine years. Returning home he took up the study of medicine and was graduated from the College of Physicians & Surgeons at Little Rock in 1906. IIe opened his office in Mountain Home and had practiced but a few months when his brother met his untimely death and the subject was appointed to fill the vacant office. He was elected to the office upon his own merits in 1908 and was re-elected in 1910. Among the few sensational episodes in his administration of office was his arrest of John Roberts after a fight in which both officer and prisoner were shot : and the dealing with the strike situation of the Iron Mountain Railroad at Cotter in 1910. when riots were quelled and peace was preserved with difli- culty between the strikers and the strike-breakers. The John Roberts, men- tioned above. was wanted for the murder of Obediah Kosinger, resisted ar- rest, and though acquitted of the murder, was convicted of assault upon an officer and sent to prison. Dr. Mooney gives hand and heart to the men and measures of the Democratic party and takes pleasure in his fraternal relations which extend to Oddfellowship in which he is Past Noble Grand. and to the Modern Woodmen.
In March, 1902. Dr. Mooney was united in marriage to Miss Laura Martin, who died two years later, leaving a son, Eugene. On August ?, 1909, he contracted a second union, Miss Effie E. Baker becoming his wife and the mistress of his household. She is a daughter of Jay W. Baker, of Baker Brothers, prominent merchants of Mountain Home, and the scion of a pioneer family of Baxter county.
WALTER E. LAYTON, of Yellville, represents a family which has distinguished itself during the past half century in the domain of agricul- ture and domestic commerce in Marion county. He is of the third genera- tion of the family in the Traveler state, for it was founded here by Dr. Angustus S. Layton. his grandfather, who settled in Arkansas in the '60s and established the Layton saw mills along the north line of the state and operated them until the outbreak of the Civil war. The Laytons came out of South Carolina to identify themselves with the west and are of Scotch lineage. John and Elizabeth Layton. grandparents of Augustus S., lived in Spartanburg county of the Palmetto state before they came to Missouri and the head of the house was a soldier in the war of 1812. Some thirty-five years after that conflict they came to Greene county, Missouri, and sub- sequently removed to Christian county, that state, passing away in Ozark previous to the war between the states.
Dr. Augustus S. Layton was one of the several children of John and Elizabeth Layton and was born in Spartanburg county. He was liberally educated there and after his marriage he removed to Coffeyville, Mississippi. In the '40s he settled in Greene county, Missouri, and having prepared him- self for the medical profession in the east, he engaged in practice, suhso- quently going to Forsyth. Taney county. The opening of the Civil war
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interrupted his career and he became a refugee to a locality of greater seeur- ity for his family while the issue which disrupted the states was fought out. He was not a soldier himself, but he gave several sons to the Con- federaey and his financial interests suffered much from neglect and de- struction by barbarous hands during that trying period. He brought his family back to Yellville when peace was restored and rehabilitated his mill, operating it in conjunction with his son for a time and then returning to medicine as the final aet in the drama of life. In his varied relations to his community he was a leader, but, although an influential Demoerat, he was without ambition for public office and was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
The children of Dr. and Mrs. Layton were Leonidas, who served in the Confederate army and died in 1871; Lyeurgus, who was killed in the carly part of the war; Amanda, who married a Mr. Massey : Elizabeth, who died in 1869 in Greene county, Missouri, as the wife of R. Jeffries; An- gustus S., father of the subjeet; Ellen, wife of Dr. Hart; George W .; Sadie, who married J. B. Wilson, of Yellville; and Austin, who resided in Leslie, Arkansas.
Augustus S. Layton was born in Greene county, Missouri, in 1843 and spent his childhood and youth there and in Taney eonnty, getting his eduea- tion in such schools as were provided at that time. At the beginning of the war he enlisted in the Confederate army as a member of Company I, Fourth Missouri Regiment, the same being attached to General Priee's army and participating in the battles of Elkhorn, Wilson Creek, Corinth, Holly Springs, Tuka. Baker's Creek, or Raymond, and in the siege and battle of Vicksburg. in which the subject was taken prisoner and paroled. When he returned home from service his parents had disappeared and it was some time before located them in their retreat. When he again turned his attention to business the young man resumed the lumber business, bringing to renewed activity the old saw-mill and rehabilitating to a degree the family fortunes as a manufacturer of lumber in association with his brother Leonidas. In 1869 he decided to add to his knowledge of books by a course in Clark's Academy at Berryville, Arkansas, and he attended school for a time. Returning home he eame to Yellville and entered the store of his brother, L. S. Layton, as a clerk, subsequently opening a store for himself. From then until 1890, when he gave his attention largely to the brokerage business, he formed partnerships with W. C. MeBee and J. S. C'ordrey. at different times and his entry into brokerage led him ultimately into banking.
In 1892 Mr. Layton established the Bank of Yellville, the same having a paid-up capital of twenty-five thousand dollars. He owned all the stoek himself and he directed it as well as other important interests until his demise, which occurred April 5, 1903. He was an active Democrat and a member of the Masonie fraternity. In 1871 he married Miss Missouri Wilson and the issue of their union are Mrs. J. C. Berry and Mrs. V. L. Walton, of Yellville, the latter being secretary of the Layton department store of this place: Mrs. Frank Pace, of Little Rock; Walter E., of this review ; b. H. and Willie, all partners in the immense mereantile and bank- ing interests of the A. S. Layton estate.
Walter E. Layton is one of the rising young men of Yell county and is a native of this city. his birth having oeeurred in Yellville, April 21, 1880. lle received his preliminary education in the Yellville sehools, in- eluding their higher department and he also spent a year as a student in Hendrix College. Ile had the privilege of beginning business with his father and gained an insight into the best and most advanced eommereial methods under his father's enlightened tutelage. Following this he engaged
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in the mercantile business in association with his brother, Lea H., and subsequently purchased his brother's interest and conducted the business alone until 1892. After the death of the father the heirs took charge of the varied family interests and made Walter president of both the depart- ment store and the Bank of Yellville, which positions he has occupied with' entire success ever since that time-1908. He was actively engaged in the bank as assistant cashier before he became the head of the institution. The family estate comprises extensive farming interests and the Laytons own a large area of Marion county lands.
On February 11, 1903, Mr. Layton established a happy household, his chosen lady being Miss Neville Cavert, daughter of Frank Cavert, of Hume, Missouri, and Augustus and "Jack" Layton are the issue of this union. Fraternally Mr. Layton is a Master Mason and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and politically he gives allegiance to the Democratie pariv.
JACOB P. MAGNESS. The owner of a fine farm, and a stockholder in two of the leading industrial plants of Newark, a saw-mill and a cotton-gin, Jacob P. Magness is actively associated with the development and promo- tion of the agricultural and business prosperity of Independence county, and is numbered among the more enterprising and progressive men of his community. A native of Newark, he was horn October 22, 1863, and was here reared and educated.
His father, Benjamin Magness, was born, in 1821, in Rutherford coun- ty, North Carolina, where he spent the earlier part of his life, growing to manhood on an old-time plantation. In 1858 he migrated to Arkansas, locating in Newark, where he reared his large family of children. He was twice married. His first wife, whose maiden name was Adaline Sweasy, died in Newark, Arkansas. She bore him the following children: Robert and Alonzo, both of whom died near Newark, leaving families; Mrs. Elmina McFarland, living in Rutherford county, North Carolina; George W., of Searey, Arkansas ; E. J., of Newark ; Sudie, who died in Rutherford county, North Carolina, was the wife of W. B. Palmer; and Jacob P., the subject of this sketch. Benjamin Magness married, second. Barbara Clark, and to them ten children were born; namely: Martha, wife of Frank Milton, of Newark : John M., late of Newark, was the Democratic nominee for sheriff of Independence county in 1910, and died before the election, leaving a family ; William, engaged in business in Newark : Amanda, wife of J. W. Fetzer, of Newark; Julia, wife of John Adams, of Newark; Benjamin and Hugh, members of the Newark Gin and Saw-mill Com- pany : Gertie, wife of H. D. Eller, of Newark; Bonnie, wife of William McDonald : and Leona, wife of Walter Murphy, of Batesville, Arkansas.
Brought up amid the activities of rural life, Jacob P. Magness ob- tained his early education in the country schools near Newark, and seem- ingly had reached his highest ambition when he was installed as teacher in a district school. One term in that position was sufficient for him, and he sought a clerkship in a Newark mercantile establishment. Two years later. having acquired a good knowledge of the business, he established himself as a merchant, in Newark, and for nine years was senior member of the firm of Magness & Johnson, retiring to take the office of tax assessor of Independence county, to which he had been elected. In that, his first political venture, Mr. Magness went before the people as a sound Democrat, and won the assessorship against an interesting competition, but two years later was re-elected to the same office without party opposition.
In 1904 Mr. Magness joined five of his brothers in the erection of the Newark Cotton Gin, and in company with three of his brothers built the saw mill in which he has since been interested. The saw mill turns out a
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large amount of wagon and buggy stock each year, and some car stuff, the two plants forming the more important manufacturing industries of this part of Independence county. From a cotton gin employe working for fifteen dollars a month, Mr. Magness has arisen, through his own enter- prise and thrift, to one of the most prosperous business men of his com- munity in addition to his manufacturing and farming interests having made profitable investments in Newark property. He has demonstrated his faith in his native town by the erection. not only of one of its leading business blocks. hut of several tenant honses.
Mr. Magness married, November 28, 1888, Belle Johnson, a native of Independence county, and an adopted daughter of John Johnson, their marriage having been solemnized in Oil Trough bottom. Of the eight chil- dren that have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Magness, four are living, name- lv: Walter, Jewell, Annie and Medrith. Mr. Magness belongs to no fraternal organization save for the protection which the Woodmen of the World gives his family.
LESTER A. BLACK. Few young men of the years of Lester A. Black have attained to as high a degree of substantial success as a merehant. and his general identification with the industrial life of the community is of a progressive order. Mr. Black has the distinction of being probably the heaviest cotton buyer in southeastern Arkansas, and it is to such as he that the state is indebted for her recent amazing growth. He is bound to Arkansas county by the particular tie of birth within its borders, his eves having first opened to the light of day July 14, 1879, on a farm located near the town of Dewitt. His father. P. M. Black, was of the agricultural and mereantile stock upon which the material prosperity of the community is founded, and he also gave service of an efficient character in the capacity of sheriff. serving from 1888 to 1894. His demise occurred in 1907. The mother was, previous to her marriage, Carrie E. Stilwell, and the subjeet was the younger in a family of two children, the other member of the family being Hattie.
Mr. Black had the advantage of a good educational preparation for life. supplementing his public school training with attendance at the State University at Fayetteville, Arkansas. When only fifteen years of age he began his business career, his father furnishing him with money to buy cat- tle, and even at that carly age he showed unmistakable evidence of com- mercial and executive ability. for the experiment proved successful. He remained in this business for two years. He then entered his father's general store as a clerk, but was so faithful in little things that he was given more and more to do, and in 1901. upon the retirement of his father. he purchased the business, and has ever since eondneted it with remarkable suceess. Mr. Black's interests are by no means limited to his mercantile pursuits, for he owns and operates two rice farms and a lumber business. In addition he holds the office of vice-president of the Commercial Bank of Dewitt. and is a direetor in the Dewitt Rice Mill Company. Thus he can speak "as one having anthority" on agri- cultural. industrial. commercial and financial questions of the great state of Arkansas.
Mr. Black is not one in whom the social proclivities have been sub- merged by business, but he takes great pleasure in his fraternal relations, which extend to the ancient and august Masonic order.
On January 31, 1907. Mr. Black laid the foundation of a home of hi- own by his marriage to Miss Mary Boone. of Dewitt, daughter of Oliver Boone, of Crockett's Bluff, Arkansas. Their nion has been blessed by the birth of two daughters, Hattie Boone and an infant unnamed.
Rt_ Black
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WILLIAM T. MOORE, M. D., the efficient postmaster of Leslie for sev- eral years, has been an Arkansan since the second year of his age, so that, although he is only thirty-five, he legitimately falls in the class of Scarcy county pioneers. John A. Moore, the father of the postmaster, was born in 1854, but was separated from his parents as so early an age as to make information concerning his family and ancestry very uncertain. He was reared in Benton county, Arkansas; made his home with an uncle during boyhood and acquired an imperfect education in the country schools. While still a young man he drifted to St. Francis county, Missouri, where he married Miss Amanda C. Hunt, who bore him the following: William T., of this notice; Alvin L. and John E., of Gilbert, Arkansas; Martha M., who died as the wife of E. R. Ferguson and left a daughter; Charles F., of Fairview, Missouri; Jessie W., Minnie F. and Everett G., all of Gilbert. Dr. Moore has two uncles on his father's side-William S. and Jeremiah ; the former reared a family in Searcy county and died at Boliver, Missouri, and the latter is a resident of St. Joe, Arkansas.
William T. Moore was born in St. Francis county, Missouri, and in the following year was brought with other members of the family to a farm homestead near Gilbert, that county, where he was reared and re- ceived his early education. The academy at Valley Springs, Boone county, then fitted him for the profession of teaching, which he followed for some four years. Having decided to eventually enter the medical profession, he read text books with that end in view, and also took lectures in the medical department of the University of Arkansas, Little Rock. Before complet- ing his course, he was licensed to practice and began active professional work at Leslie ; he was so engaged when, on July 1, 1907, he was appointed postmaster as the successor of Charles A. Watts. He is a Republican and an active fraternalist, being a Master Mason, an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias.
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