USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 75
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The birthplace of Mr. Rutherford was near Fayetteville, Washington county, the Rutherford family having been identified with Arkansas for a long time. Mr. Rutherford resided at Fayetteville until he was twenty years old, where he received his preliminary education, which was supple- mented by a course of study in the State University of Arkansas. He was one of Arkansas' native sons, therefore, and was most loyal to his state, rejoicing in its natural resources, its remarkable recent growth and advancement and its manifold attraction for tourist and homeseeker.
One of his most conspicuous earlier business ventures was the con- struction, under contract, of a part of the St. Louis & San Francisco Rail- road from Monet, Missouri, south through Arkansas, and his admirable fulfillment of the important duties entrusted to him early heralded him as one for whom snecess was written in the stars. His identification with Pine Bluff dates from the year 1885, when he located here and organized the O. D. Peck Company, which was so known until 1889, when its style was changed to the Bluff City Lumber Company, and Mr. Rutherford became its president. His interests in this field continually grew in scope and importance and he later associated himself with Charles LaDuc, a pioneer huummber man, in this region in the ownership and operation of extensive timber lands at Clio, Arkansas. He eventually bought Mr. LaDuc's interest in the enterprise and closed it out to the Bluff City Lum- ber Company, thus consolidating his interests under a single management. The company owns and operates another plant at Kearney, Kansas. It was in 1901 that Mr. Rutherford organized the Citizens' Light and Tran- sit Company of which he was president.
SAMUEL B. ADAMS. This well known and highly honored citizen of Little Rock has been long and prominently identified with its busi- ness and civic interests and is a member of a family whose name has
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been linked with the history of Arkansas during the entire period of its statehood-a family that has given to the state citizens of marked distinetion.
Samuel B. Adams was born in the city of Little Rock on the 27th of January, 1849. and is a son of Major John D. and Catherine ( Yeiser ) Adams. Major Adams was born in Dickson county, Tennessee, on the 23rd of June, 1827, and was a son of Samuel and Rebecca (May) Adams, the former of whom was born in Halifax county, Virginia, in 1805, his parents having moved from the Old Dominion state to Ilum- phrey county, Tennessee, about 1810, and they later removed to Diek- son county, that state. Samuel Adams was reared to maturity in Ten- nessee, and in 1824, in Diekson county, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Rebecca May, of that county. In the spring of 1835 he migrated with his family to Arkansas and located in Johnson county, where he engaged in planting, this being the year prior to the admission of the state to the Union. He became one of the prominent and influential citizens of that section of the state and was elected to represent his district in the State Senate, of which he was chosen president. By virtue of this office he became. on the 29th of April, 1844, governor of Arkansas, upon the resignation of Governor Yell. He continued as chief exeentive of the commonwealth until the 9th of the following November, and in 1846 he was elected state treasurer. Upon assuming the duties of this office he removed with his family to Little Rock, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred on the 27th of February, 1850, though he died while on a visit to his fine plantation on the Saline river. in Saline eounty. After the death of his first wife he married, in 1842, Mrs. Catherine A. Fagan, of Little Rock, who was the mother of General James F. Fagan, a distinguished officer of the Con- federate serviee in the war between the states.
Major John D. Adams was a lad of about eight years of age at the time of the family removal to Arkansas, and here he was reared to maturity, securing such edueational advantages as were afforded in the schools of the locality and period. At the outbreak of the Mexican war, in 1846, he enlisted as a private in Captain George W. Patrick's com- pany of Colone! Yell's regiment of cavalry, and he was made orderly sergeant of his company when but eighteen years of age. He made a record for distinguished gallantry in the war with Mexico, taking part in a number of engagements, including the memorable battle of Buena Vista, in which he was severely wounded. From 1847 to 1850 he was incumbent of the office of private secretary to Governor Drew, and in 1852 he turned his attention to steam-boating on the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers, eventually becoming one of the most potent factors in connection with navigation on these rivers and one of the most ex- tensive steamboat owners in the South. He also engaged in the mer- eantile business in Little Rock, and after the war he became one of the most influential representatives of the cotton business in the state, own- ing large and well improved plantations on the river below Little Rock. During the war he was chief quartermaster, with the rank of major. under Generals Hindman and Holmes, and in this office his superior business acumen and executive ability enabled him to be of great service in collecting and furnishing supplies to the Trans-Mississippi depart- ment of the Confederate army. In later years Major Adams became fiseal agent for the state of Arkansas and identified himself with vari- ous business enterprises of broad seope and importanee. He became the owner of the Arkansas Gazette and was one of the organizers and the leading stockholder of the Little Rock Gas Company. He was a man
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of broad capacity for the handling of affairs of importance, was es- sentially progressive and public-spirited and did much to further the development and upbuilding of his home city and state. ever being ready to give his influence and aid in the promotion of all worthy enterprises and measures. Ile was a man of most genial and companionable qual- ities, stanneh in his friendships and imbued with deep human sympathy so that he gained to himself the inviolable respect and confidence of all with whom he came in contact. In his attractive home he extended the most lavish hospitality and exemplified the fine social traits of the old regime, while in the sacred precinets of his home his generons attri- butes of character were manifested in the highest form, as he was a devoted husband and father. Major Adams died at his home in Little Rock on the 7th of December, 1892, and the community manifested a uniform sense of personal loss and bereavement. His cherished and de- voted wife survived him by a number of years and was summoned to the life eternal on the 7th of July, 1909. Both were zealons members of the Episcopal church, and Major Adams was a staunch Democrat in his political proclivities, the while he was identified with various civic and fraternal organizations of representative character. He was a man of impregnable integrity and honor and his name has an enduring place on the roll of the sterling citizens who have aided in the social and material upbuilding of the great commonwealth of Arkansas. Major Adams is survived by two sons, Samuel B. and Dean.
Samuel B. Adams, whose name initiates this review. passed his boy- hood days in Little Rock and after due preliminary discipline he became a student in the historic Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, where he was pursuing his studies at the time of the inception of the Civil war. He has the distinction of having become .a soldier of the Con- federacy with the Virginia Military Institute Cadets, which became a part of what was known as the New Market Corps, and with this com- mand he took part in the battle of New Market in May. 1864. The valiant young soldier continued in the service of the Confederacy until the close of the war and made a splendid record for faithful and effi- cient service as a soldier. After Breckinridge's Valley campaign he was sent by his guardian, Robert W. Johnson, to the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the following Jannary received appointment as lieutenant on the staff of General James F. Fagan, but was unable to join the command and surrendered with oth- ers in North Carolina. He joined his father in New Orleans in 1865.
In 1868 he returned to Little Rock, where he has since maintained his home and where he has been concerned with various business enter- prises of important order. For ten years he was joint agent in Little Rock for the various railroads entering this city and for thirty years he was a member of the insurance firm of Adams & Boyle, one of the lead- ing concerns of this kind in the state and one that built up a large and important business. He is at the present time president of the Mescal Mining Company, which is developing a copper and gold property near Jerome, Arizona. Though he has never been an aspirant for publie office Mr. Adams is arrayed as a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Demo- cratic party and his civie attitude has at all times been characterized by liberality and public-spirit, the while he is well upholding the prestige of the honored name which he bears.
He is a member of the Masonic order, belonging to the Arkansas Consistory, Hugh de Payns Commandery and Al Amin Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Board of Trade and is a member of the Episcopal church.
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Mr. Adams has been thriee married and by his second wife, who was Miss Sallie Haney, of Youngstown, Ohio, he has three children living: Catherine, wife of F. C. MeCain, of Muskogee, Oklahoma; Irene, wife of J. L. Witz, of Stanton, Virginia; and Ella, wife of Felix Tachoir, Jr., of Houston, Texas. His third wife was Miss Margaret Denison, of Little Rock, who died in 1902.
Dean Adams, the younger son of Major John D. and Catherine (Yeiser) Adams, parents of the subject, is now the senior member of the well known mercantile firm of Adams & Griffy, of Little Rock, and for a number of years he has been an influential factor in eonneetion with commercial and industrial enterprises. He has large plantation interests and was at one time the principal owner of the Arkansas Ga- zette, of which he assumed control when it was a losing property and made of it a modern newspaper of large circulation and influence. He also rebuilt and put on a paying basis the Little Rock Gas Works, after having mastered the seienee of gas engineering.
JOHN S. KELLY. For the past twelve years Judge John S. Kelly has been a prominent and influential citizen of Mena, Polk county, Arkansas, where he is most successfully engaged in the real estate business as a mem- ber of the firm of Dennis, Kelly & Stratton, dealers in city and farming property. Judge Kelly is now assistant adjutant general, with the rank of major on the staff of General J. F. Smith, commander of the Arkansas Division of the United Confederate Veterans. He was a loyal and faithfnl soldier in the Army of the Confederacy during the entire period of the ('ivil war and in the same won distinction for meretorious service. He is decidedly public-spirited in his civic attitude and since his arrival in Mena, in 1898, he has figured prommently in many important movements projected for general progress and development.
A native son of the fine old state of Missouri, Judge Kelly was born in Newton county, whence removal was made by his parents to Henry county when he was a mere child. He was reared to maturity in Henry county. Missouri, and his early educational training consisted of such advantages as were afforded in the public schools of that place. He is the son of J. M. and Mary Isbell Kelly, both of whom are deceased, and the date of his birth was the 24th of May, 1842. At the time of the incep- tion of the Civil war. Judge Kelly was an ardent sympathizer with the cause of the secessionists and he immediately enlisted as a soldier in the Confederate army at Windsor, the county seat of Henry county, Missouri. He became a member of Wood's Battalion, Marmaduke's Division, and during most of the war was in Price's army in Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri, participating in practically all the engagements of that famous organization.
With the close of the war and the re-establishment of peace through- out the turbulent South, Judge Kelly returned to Henry county, where, for about thirty years, he was successfully engaged in general merchandis- ing at Windsor. Ile was honored by his fellow citizens at Windsor with election to the office of county judge of Henry county, in which position he served with distinction for a number of years. He decided the various cases which came under his jurisdiction so fairly and so disinterestedly that very few of them were over appealed. In 1898, however, he severed the ties which bound him to Windsor and removed to Mena, Polk county, Arkansas, where he has since resided and where he is recognized as a husi- ness man of decided ability and as a citizen of the utmost loyalty. Here he is a member of the well known real-estate firm of Dennis, Kelly &
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Stratton, which concern is also interested in the loan and insurance business.
At Windsor, Missouri, in the year 1868, was solemnized the marriage of Judge Kelly to Miss Susannah Spencer, who was born and reared in Boone county, Missouri, and who is a daughter of Perry Spencer, who was long identified with the agricultural interests of Boone county. To this union have been born two children-Lida, who is now the wife of Myron Stratton and who maintains her home at Mena, Arkansas; and J. Spencer Kelly, who is engaged in the lumber business and who resides at Estancia, New Mexico.
Judge Kelly has ever manifested a deep and sineere interest in his old comrades in arms and signifies the same by membership in the United Confederate Veterans, in which he is assistant adjutant general, with the rank of major, on the staff of General J. F. Smith, commander of the Arkansas Division. He is also affiliated with various other fraternal and social organizations of a local nature and in their religious faith he and his family are devont members of the Methodist church, to which they con- tribute most liberally of their time and means. In politics he is aligned as a stalwart supporter of the principles and policies promulgated by the Democratic party, and while he has never been a seeker of politieal prefer- ment of any deseription he gives freely of his aid and influence in support of all measures and enterprises advanced for the good of the general wel- fare. He is popular amongst his fellow men and as result of his exemplary life he is held in high esteem by all with whom he has come in contaet.
Any sketch of the life history of this genial old soldier would be incomplete that did not mention his labor of love as park commissioner when he worked valiantly for the organization of the resources and the subsequent improvement of the beautiful park in the home town of Mena. He is also celebrated for his steadfast presistency as a fisherman, who never tires, bite or no bite, and who places in the scale of real enjoyment a good fish story above an "all around" excellent dinner.
HON. HEARTSILL RAGON. It has been given to few men of the years of the Hon. Heartsill Ragon, of Clarksville, to achieve such prominence and high standing as a lawyer and legislator. As representative of John- son county in the state legislature of Arkansas, he displayed an unselfish devotion to the best interests of his constituents, which won for him the confidence and high regard of all and is in marked contrast to the ambition for self-aggrandizement which characterizes too many modern politieians.
Heartsill Ragon is a scion of well-known southern families and is a native of the state which he has chosen as the seene of his promising eareer. His birth occurred near Dublin, Logan county, in 1884, his parents being Alfred Jackson and Anna ( Heartsill) Ragon. The father, who was born in Tennessee, was a Confederate soldier in the war between the states, and his identification with the state of Arkansas dates from only a few years subsequent to the termination of the great confliet-sometime in the late '60s. He located on a farm at Morrison Bluff in Logan county and there resided for a score of years, engaged in the great basic industry of agriculture, his demise in 1889, ending a useful and worthy life. The mother, who was born in Georgia, survives and makes her home in Clarks- ville. There are two other sons in the family,-A. N. and W. A. Ragon, cashier and assistant cashier respectively of the First National Bank of Clarksville.
Like so many young Americans destined to prominence and suceess, Ileartsill Ragon was reared upon the farm and there resided until the age of fifteen years, assisting with good will in the manifoldl tasks to be
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encountered in the cultivation of a large tract of land. Left fatherless at the age of five years he learned the lessons of independence earlier than many lads, a circumstance which has no doubt proved of distinct advantage to him. He received his earlier education in the public schools and sub- sequently attended a trio of well-known educational institutions, namely, Cumberland College at Clarksville; the State University at Fayetteville; and the law department of Washington & Lee University at Lexington, from which latter he was graduated with the class of 1908.
Almost immediately after finishing his preparation in the law, Mr. Ragon began the practice of his chosen profession at Clarksville and he is a member of the eminently successful law firm of Patterson & Ragon, of which George O. Patterson is the senior member. In 1910 he was elected to represent Johnson county in the state legislature and in the session beginning in January, 1911, he made a splendid record as a law maker of ability aud usefulness. Notwithstanding the fact of his youth and that it was his first term in the legislature, he was given important places on committees and took a prominent part in constructive legislation. He was chairman of the committee on coal mines, a member of the judiciary committee and a member of various other committees. He took especial interest in legislation affecting the welfare of the agricultural interests of the state. He prepared and introduced the bill providing for a corres- pondence course in agriculture at the State University, this measure being defeated by one vote. He. has also taken a prominent part in proposed legislation for good roads and lent his assistance to the measure which proposed to build a macadam road from Little Rock to Fort Smith. He took a general interest in other useful measures and in every way proved himself the right man for the place. It is a matter of hope with all think- ing citizens that the career of a young man of such abilities and altruistic ideas shall by no means be brief and doubtless many years of public life lie before him. He is devoted to the interests of his party and holds him- self ready to do anything, to go anywhere, in the interests of its men and measures.
Mr. Ragon's fraternal affiliations extend to the Knights of Pythias and he is a member of the Presbyterian church of Clarksville. He is unmarried.
DR. HARLAN H. SMITH, surgeon of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad, at Calico Rock, is well entitled to representation in this volume devoted to Arkansas' leading citizens, for marked precedence both as a man and a physician. He is still of the younger generation, his birth having occurred near this little metropolis of Izard county, May 16, 1881. He is a son of David H. Smith, of Calico Rock, whose active life was spent as an agriculturist and who came from Polk county, Missouri, to Izard county, just after the war of the Rebellion. He was a very young man at the time, his birth having occurred in 1846. Hon. Byrd Smith, founder of the family in Arkansas, was the father of David H. Smith, and was well known among the public men of the northern Arkansas sec- tion because of his participation in political affairs. He took a prominent part in Democratic politics and was a competitor for the congressional nomination at one time. He had two sons, David H. and Benjamin B., the latter being a resident of the state of Washington. During the settle- ment of the issues of the Civil war, David H. Smith was not regularly. enlisted in the Confederate service, but he lent some aid to the cause as a citizen. He married Miss Maria Benbrook and settled down to the routine of farm work when a young man. He continued as an exponent of the agricultural industry until the waning of life's vigors, when he established
Vol. III-33
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his home in Calico Rock, his trading point, and is here passing the even- ing of life, secure in the possession of a wide circle of friends. His estimable wife and devoted life companion passed away in December, 1907, the mother of a number of fine citizens, as follows: Benjamin B., of Okmulgee, Oklahoma; Mary, wife of R. F. Wood, of Calico Rock; Dr. IIarlan H., of this review ; and Nora, wife of S. F. MeNeill, manager of a large lumber concern at Creswell, Arkansas.
Dr. Harlan H. Smith was reared upon the farm and received his education in the country school and in Barren Fork College. Having chosen medicine for his profession, he read for a few months under his subsequent partner, Dr. Roe, and then attended the medieal department of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, completing the course in 1906. He established himself in Calieo Rock and beeame a member of the firm of Roe & Smith, which partnership was dissolved by the removal of Dr. Roe from the county in 1910. That year Dr. Smith took his first post graduate work in the Kansas Post Graduate School of Medicine and came back to his patrons and friends a most capable and well equipped practitioner.
The professional connections of Dr. Smith extend to the county and state societies and to the Tri-County Medieal Society as well as to the American Medical Association. His honors have already been considerable and among them was his election to the secretaryship of that branch of the state society devoted to the diseases of children. For some time, as already noted, he has been local surgeon of the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Rail- road Company for points available to Calico Roek. While a Democrat in politieal conviction, his professional duties are such that he has little time to devote to the cause. He was elected county coroner in September, 1910, and has given great faithfulness and efficiency to the duties of the office. Dr. Smith finds one of his principal interests in his Masonie affiliations. He is a member of the Blue Lodge and the Chapter and in 1910 sat in the Grand Lodge of the state as a delegate from the Calico Roek lodge. His fraternal connections are by no means limited to the time-honored Masonie order, but he is also an Odd Fellow; a member of both Woodmen orders; and a Knight of Pythias. In the matter of religious faith he is allied with the Methodist Episcopal church. Dr. Smith is unmarried.
PHENTON C. SHERRILL is the present incumbent of the office of county judge of Izard county and he is also successfully identified with the agricultural interests of the section. His residence is temporarily maintained at Calico Roek, for the better performance of the duties of his office, but he still retains his country homestead. Judge Sherill was born near Cushman, Independence county, Arkansas, November 17, 1866, and there received his publie school education and came to mature years. Reared amid rural surroundings and having tasted the wholesome, in- dependent life of the exponent of the great basie industry, when it came to choosing a life vocation he followed in the footsteps of his ancestors and began his career behind the plow, like a modern Cineinnatus. How- ever, his attention was drawn toward the lumber and milling business in Izard county before he had spent many years as a tiller of the soil and accordingly he eame hither and engaged in the business mentioned near Newburg. IIis firm was known as Sherrill & Company and for ten years their saw-mill whirred industrionsly in the county in which it was numbered among the live enterprises. At the end of the decade Mr. Sher- rill disposed of his milling interests and resumed farming, devoting the greater share of his attention to the staple products of corn and eotton.
Judge Sherrill is the scion of one of the pioneer families of Independ-
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enee county, Arkansas. His father, Franklin C. Sherrill, was born in North Carolina in 1820; eame to the Travelers' state when a child, and lived and died in Independence county. He married Mary E. Ford, who died in 1901, nineteen years subsequent to his own demise. Their children were Judge Phenton C. of this notice; Robert, of Melbourne, Arkansas; Alex- ander, a farmer of Izard county; and Robert Chester.
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