USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 77
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
On December 31, 1901, Judge Williams became a recruit to the ranks of the Benedicts, his marriage to Miss E. Brady, being celebrated in Marion county on that date. Mrs. Williams is a daughter of J. W. Brady, an agriculturist who came to Arkansas from Georgia, not long after the Civil war. Lessie. Ora and Nellie are the issue of the union.
1618
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
Judge Williams is, as previously suggested, an enthusiastic lodge man and he discovers both diversion and profit in his fraternal relations. He is Vice-Grand of the Yellville Lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows; is a member of both Woodmen orders, holding the offices of clerk of the Woodmen of the World and Venerable Consul of the Modern Woodmen. He is a member of that important corporation, known as the Arkansas Guaranty Title & Trust Company and is an assistant secretary of the same in charge of the Yellville office.
He and his wife and family hold an assured place in popular con- fidence and esteem and are identified with the best interests of the com- munity.
EBEN W. KIMBALL. "Law as a science-that is, consisting of cer- tain principles well defined and universally admitted-has commanded the unqualified admiration of all who have perceived its excellence and importance in the conduet of human affairs. No language, however eloquent, no genius, however gifted, no eulogy, however magnificent, can transeend the limits of truth in giving expression to its value and beauty. Its clear recognition of the rights of man as an individual and of his relations to the state and to his fellow man, and of his duties and obli- gations as a member of organized society; its imperative command that one so regulate his own conduet that in using his own he may not injure others; the equal protection and opportunity extended those in every rank and all conditions of life-all these combine to elothe with majesty and crown with glory the principles of law." No bar more fully exem- plifies the foregoing statement, made by a prominent Chicago lawyer, than that of Little Rock, Arkansas, and as a member of this bar is Judge Eben Wallace Kimball, a man of profound thought and strong intellec- tual endowments, just in all litigation and well versed in the science of jurisprudence.
Judge Kimball was born at Rindge, Cheshire county, New Hamp- shire, on the 31st of Angust, 1828, and is a son of Ebenezer Dewing and Hannah (Wallace) Kimball, both of whom were representatives of stanch old families founded in New England in the Colonial epoch of our national history. The founder of the family in America was Henry Kimball, who, with his brother Richard, immigrated from Boston, Eng- land, to the new world in 1634, as a member of the Kimball and Cutting Expedition. The brothers settled in Massachusetts and a lineal descend- ant of Henry Kimball was Rev. Richard Kimball, a distinguished Methodist minister and the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah MeIntire, was a daughter of Samuel MeIntire, who emigrated from Dublin, Ireland, in the eighteenth century and settled in New Hampshire. Hannah ( Wallace) Kimball, mother of him whose name introduces this article, was a granddaughter of Captain Jonathan Dodge, whose ancestors came from Wales and settled in Sedgwick, Maine. Captain Dodge married Hannah Wallis, a daughter of Deacon Eleazer Wallis, whose father was a native of Scotland and a brother of Sir William Wallis, and who early settled at Beverly, Massachusetts. The name eventually became changed to the present form of "Wallace."
Judge Kimball was afforded excellent educational advantages in his youth, having supplemented his early training by academic study in the old Latin School at Salem, Massachusetts, the first free school in America. IIere he was one class ahead of Joseph H. Choate. Later he became a student in historie Harvard College. He did not graduate, for, on account of ill health, was compelled to abandon his studies. Later
Eventi Kimball.
1619
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
he began the study of law in the office of David Roberts, the well known author of "Roberts on Admiralty Law," at Salem. His natural recep- tivity, combined with marvelous retentive powers, made his progress rapid and he soon became skilled in the technicality and learning of the law, being admitted to practice at the bar of the state of Massachusetts in 1849. While very young appreciation of his marked ability and popularity were made manifest by his election to the state legislature. He built up a large and substantial practice in Massachusetts and there continued the work of his profession until 1864, when he removed to Indianapolis, Indiana, where he speedily gained prominence and secured a good share of practice with his distinguished contemporaries, Benjamin Harrison, Governor Hendricks and Governor MeDonald. He stumped the state with Oliver P. Morton in his famous race against Joseph E. McDonald for governor. In 1868 he was selected as a committee of one to entertain President Andrew Johnson on his visit to Indianapolis while making his famous "Swing Around the Circle." In 1872 Judge Kimball left Indiana for California, but stopping by accident in Kansas City, Missouri, he became impressed with the resources of that place, deferred his trip to California and there opened a law office in partner- ship with John K. Cravens. He immediately gained prominence at the bar and in politics and stumped western Missouri for the Republican tieket in the Grant and Greeley campaign, thus adding much to his repu- tation as a campaign orator. After a two years' residence in Kansas City he determined to seek a milder climate and in 1874 removed to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he soon identified himself with the leading interests of the city and state and became active in the promotion of worthy public measures. In 1887 he was made president of the Exposi- tion of the Resources of Arkansas, which created such widespread inter- est. Enthusiasm was thoroughly aroused and a few weeks later the largest convention of business men ever held in Arkansas was convened to take action along the line of developing the material resources of the state. In this connection he achieved much in the substantial advance- ment of the state. He was also a prime mover and a commissioner in the attempt to secure a national military post for Arkansas and in the movement to establish a city park, in both of which enterprises success was brought about largely through his intelligent efforts.
Judge Kimball is a thorough and scholarly lawyer, unsurpassed as a cross examiner, and as an advocate both logical and eloquent. His practice has been largely in the federal courts. Although he steadily declines all political preferment, he is a stanch adherent of the prin- ciples and policies of the Republican party. So just and conservative is he that among his friends and clients have been numbered many of the strongest Democrats of the state. He has ever been a deep student, keeping abreast with modern thought and science and at his attractive home he has a splendid library and an invaluable collection of pictures and other works of art. It is a noticeable fact among Judge Kimball's unlimited circle of friends and acquaintances that age has no dimming effect on his success and activity as a lawyer nor in the keen interest he manifests in current affairs. He still controls a large and lucrative practice and his business interests are of wide scope and importance. He enjoys a wide popularity and his presence at social functions is eagerly sought, as he is a good story teller, a brilliant conversationalist and an eloquent and humorous after-dinner speaker.
Judge Kimball has been twice married. In 1857 was solemnized his marriage to Mary Carlton, daughter of Nathaniel Stowers, of Salem, Massachusetts, who was summoned to eternal rest in 1880. They became
1620
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
the parents of two children, Marion, who is the wife of George B. Rose, of Little Rock, and Horace Kimball, a lawyer of Spokane, Washington. On the 31st of August, 1882, in Little Rock, Judge Kimball wedded Ada May Taylor, who is a daughter of William Wallace Taylor, of Middle- bury, Vermont. To this union were born two children, Marie, who is the wife of Mr. Edward P. Hawkins and resides at Connersville, In- diana, and Fletcher, president and manager of the Southwestern Electric Company and a resident of Little Rock.
BEN F. WILLIAMSON. One of the leading attorneys-at-law and pop- ular and valuable citizens of Mountain View is Ben F. Williamson, who was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, September 5, 1856. Before the Civil war his parents came west and established the family home in Carter county, Missouri, and here the father enlisted from the farm in the Confederate service and died in a hospital in St. Louis in 1863.
William Williamson, father of the subject, was born in North Carolina in 1828, the son of Wyatt Williamson, an extensive planter and slave owner. His forefathers were loyal American colonists, his grandfather. Hugh Williamson, having been one of the three delegates from North Carolina to the constitutional convention which framed and signed the United States constitution. Wyatt Williamson had several sons, but William only seems to have come into the country of the southwest. He married Molsie A. Cravens, who died in 1871, survived by four children, namely: Ben F., of this review ; Dr. Wyatt Williamson of Haskell, Texas; Mary E., wife of Alexander Lancaster, of Mountain View; and Sallie. widow of George C. Hinkle, ex-county and circuit judge of Stone county and ex-member of the state legislature.
With the demise of his mother, Ben F. Williamson was left the head of a family of four at the age of fifteen years. By farm work he made a scant livelihood for the younger children and provided himself with the essentials of an education. He was an eager student and even under such adverse circumstances he reached sufficient proficiency to become a teacher in the common schools and in this way to obtain the funds with which to attend the Collegiate Institute at Harrison, Arkansas, and to take a year in the State University at Fayetteville. He followed teaching twelve years and during that time studied law and was in due time admitted to the bar. It was in 1884 that Mr. Williamson was enrolled as a member of the bar of Arkansas, being admitted before Judge Powell, and for about four years to use his own expression, he "practiced law for fun" and made his living teaching school. In 1887 he entered the law seriously and dur- ing all of his legal career has been located at Mountain View.
Mr. Williamson first entered politics in 1878. when he was appointed county examiner and served two years. In 1880 he was elected to the lower house of the Arkansas legislature, being the youngest member of the assembly and becoming chairman of the committee of enrolled bills. In 1882 he was elected to the state senate for the district comprising In- dependence and Stone counties and was the youngest member of that body also, having been barely old enough to be eligible when his party called upon him for his service. In the senate he was a member of the judiciary and the appropriations committees and father of the Arkansas law which renders it possible for a defendant to testify in his own behalf in criminal cases. Since he first became a standard bearer of the party Mr. William- son has met the Democrats of the state in convention at Little Rock and has frequently served in a delegate capacity from Stone county. He was admitted to the supreme court of Arkansas soon after he hecame a member of the bar and he practices also in the Federal courts. He is connsel for
1621
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
the Ches Wymond Stave & Timber Company, of Stone county, and the H. D. Williams Cooperage Company, of Leslie, Arkansas, the largest hard- wood lumber concern in the United States.
On August 2, 1877, Mr. Williamson married in Independence county, Arkansas, Miss Emma B. Barnes, a daughter of Marion Barnes, of More- field, Arkansas, who came to Arkansas as an early settler from the state of Alabama. The children of this union are Hugh U., Bennie Belle, Fay, Zepha, and Leonidas Alton. Mr. Williamson and his admirable wife and family are socially popular and are allied with many good causes. The subject belongs to no church and to no fraternal order. He is a self made man of the best type and has found the school of adversity a good road for arrival at prosperous and useful citizenship.
ELLIOTT WILLIAMS is the scion of a pioneer family of Mississippi county ; was born within the sound of the noisy traffic of the Father of Waters; and occupies a portion of the state lying along the bank of the great water way of the United States and near the town of Luxora. Mr. Williams was born February 10, 1864, while General Forrest was assault- ing and capturing Fort Pillow from the Federals a few miles below, for those were troublous days in the United States and Mars must have been in the ascendant in his horoscope.
Mr. Williams' father, John W. Williams, had abandoned his legal profession a few years before and had taken up the wholesome pursuit of agriculture. He increased his holdings from time to time and in 1859 had purchased the forest area which still includes within its boundaries the Williams estate near Luxora. He had come to Arkansas in the early '50s and settled at Osceola where he practiced law. He was a man of brilliant education, having specialized in the departments of literature, law and engineering, and immediately after finishing his education he went to Texas to aid in the sectionizing of the Panhandle portion of the state, a task which required several years. When this was finished he returned east and practiced law in Nashville until his advent to Arkansas.
John W. Williams was born at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1822, and is a son of Judge William Williams, who held a judicial office in Davidson county for many years, passing from bench to bench of the several courts of the county in which the capital is situated. Judge Williams married Sallie Phillips, whose father brought his slaves out to Tennessee from North Carolina, becoming a wealthy planter near Nashville, and when he severed his associations with the old home some of the posterity of these servants accompanied him to Arkansas and were freed during the war by proclamation of the president. Judge Williams was a citizen of worth and influence in Mississippi county. His firm conviction of the right of states to sever their connection with the national government led him to give his support to the Confederacy and although physically unable for military duty, he helped his father-in-law to equip a company of troops from Mississippi county for that service. He married Miss Anna Fletcher, a daughter of Colonel Elliott Fletcher whose settlement in Arkansas an- tedated that of Mr. Williams and who came here from Fayetteville, Ten- nessee.
During the period of reconstruction Mr. Williams took an active part in what polities there was here for the citizens of the state to manipulate and after suffrage had been restored to Southern men of the late Con- federacy, he was sent to the state legislature several times as a Democrat from Mississippi county.
Colonel Fletcher was no less conspicuous as a citizen than his capable son-in-law. He had married into a distinguished family in Tennessee,
1622
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
Miss Frances Hickman, daughter of Dr. Hickman becoming his wife, and five children being born to them. The two sons joined the company equipped by their father and both met their deaths upon the battle field of Shiloh. The daughters were Mrs. Williams, who died in 1896; Susan, widow of Captain H. M. MeVeigh, of Dallas, Texas; and Miss Fannie Fletcher, who died at Osceola, Arkansas, in May, 1911.
The issue of Mr. and Mrs. Jolm W. Williams were Miss Susan Will- iams, of Nashville; Elliott, the subject of the review; and Miss Sallie Williams, the companion of her sister in Nashville. The father passed away in 1893. He was a strong believer in the policies and principles of the Democratic party as promulgated by Grover Cleveland and predicted the ultimate division of his party upon the financial issues.
Elliott Williams was born within two hundred miles of his present residence. His "infantile cradle" was a cabin with a dirt and stick chimney and as he passed through boyhood he was wont to shoot squirrels and turkeys out of the trees in sight .of the home, to wander through the dense forest to the river bank-then a mile from the Williams house, but now only four hundred yards away. When he finished his education in Professor A. L. Mims' school in Nashville, he engaged in farming and save for a few years spent in Memphis, Tennessee, he has lived upon his inheritance along the river and engaged in its operation. He is farming four hundred acres of land, devoting them to cotton, tame hay and grain and being landlord to a number of families of the common labor of the country.
On the 16th of December, 1896, Mr. Williams was united in marriage to Miss Mattie Rozell, daughter of Judge L. D. Rozell, a pioneer of Missis- sippi county, his present home on the Mill Bayou being the scene of Mrs. Williams' birth. Judge Rozell has been a conspicuous figure in the affairs of his county and has contributed to its industrial achievements, as well as to its political history. The subject and his wife share their picturesque and hospitable home with two daughters-the Misses Margaret and Elizabeth.
Mr. Williams joined the Masonic fraternity in Osceola and he ex- emplifies in himself the principles of moral and social justice and brotherly love. In his political views he is a Democrat, with a strong tendency to liberality in the selection of local officers.
THE H. D. WILLIAMS COOPERAGE COMPANY. An enterprise which has accomplished more than any other factor in fostering the growth and development of Searcy county and Leslie is the H. D. Williams Cooperage Company, which has forwarded to an incalculable degree the economic utilization of the state's timber resources. The Company, which was drawn here by the extensive timber area surrounding, has met with abund- ant prosperity and has given it, their operations giving employment to hundreds of men and in manifold ways contributing to the material pros- perity of this part of the state. The establishment of this great industrial coneern dates from the year 1907, and in the four years ensuing con- tinnal growth has been experienced, the ramifications of the business be- ing gigantic in scope and variety.
Before the construction of the White River railroad into Arkansas and before the extension of the Missouri & North Arkansas railroad from Harrison to Leslie, Arkansas, a vast arca of prime hardwood timber stood upon the mountain sides of the counties drained by the White River awaiting the arrival of railway facilities to make it commercially im- portant and to open up a new field of manufacturing endeavor. Realiz- ing that ample railway communication with this section was sure to
1623
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
come, H. D. Williams, of St. Louis, entered into negotiations for the purchase of large bodies of timber in the vicinity of Leslie, this embrac- ing one hundred and ten thousand acres. Following this, in 1907, he moved his factory, known as the H. D. Williams Cooperage Company, from Poplar Bluff, Missouri, to Leslie, then the terminus of the Missouri & North Arkansas railroad.
The admirable timber and market situation encouraged the cooper- age company to make plans for operating the largest plant of its kind in the world at this point and in the course of its operation some seventeen and a half miles of standard railroad for logging purposes have been constructed and three trains of cars are required to bring to the factory the sturdy white oak and the choice hickory which enter chiefly into the four thousand, five hundred daily packages of innumerable articles which find their way into the world's commerce from this Arkansas plant. The establishment of a factory in a new country always makes it particularly attractive to the immigrant laborer and inspires his con- fidence to make it his home and such a plant as the Williams company operate near Leslie has had a remarkable effect upon the settlement. Twelve hundred men and three hundred teams are required to carry on the daily business of the concern. Adjacent to the plant the company has erected some sixty houses for the exclusive use of their men, although an attempt has not been made to house all whose names appear upon the payroll.
The admirable manner in which the concern is operated furnishes in itself an eloquent treatise upon conservation. Economy of material is observed in the most scientific manner and every bolt, slab and tree- top that the forest yields is put to some use. Timber not suitable for staves is used for telephone or telepraph pins, brackets, cross-arms, wagon hubs and the like, or is converted into lumber for building purposes and is disposed of through the regular channels of trade. A saw-mill, adja- cent to the cooperage plant, works up materials into car, bridge and wagon stuff, of every description or into table stock for furniture. The hub factory uses timber too small for either staves or saw-mill work, and the waste material accumulated from the several departments is utilized in whatever way seems best suited. The company manufactures com- plete barrels and kegs, in capacity ranging from one gallon to one hun- dred and sixty gallons, and its own cars, sixty in number, take these barrels ready for use to every part of the United States and Mexico. Kegs go to the canning and packing districts and are filled with pickles ; kegs go to the packing houses and are filled with lard. Kegs are con- veyed in great numbers to the paint makers of the country and to many. other industrial concerns to receive their products for the commerce of the world. Barrels are especially designed for cotton seed oil, crude oil, and their bi-products, for whiskey, wine, brandy, and the like; and much stave work is exported to be set up upon arrival at its destination and comes back laden with the products of foreign countries.
The H. D. Williams Cooperage Company may well look with pride upon its accomplishments, for not only has it built up an immense in- dustry in Searcy county, Arkansas, but it has been the making of Leslie. This was a mere hamlet when the company came to it and the growth has been rapid, but of the most desirable sort, and it is now a thriving little city with brick business houses, substantial residences, the abode of progress. It is the abiding place of all the company's officers save the president and he maintains a house here.
The moving spirit of the company is H. D. Williams of St. Louis. Missouri. Mr. Williams is a native of New York, his birth having oc-
1621
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS
cured in 1858. He entered the cooperage business as a stave inspector for the Standard Oil Company of Cleveland, Ohio, and was promoted from time to time until he became superintendent of their barrel factory at Philadelphia. Severing this association he engaged in the cooperage husi- ness for himself in a very modest way in Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1886, he located at Poplar Bluff, Missouri, adjacent to a large region of good timber in southeastern Missouri. For twenty-one years he operated this plant and when the supply seemed almost exhausted, he turned his buyers toward Arkansas, where his baronial timber tract was gathered in and where his factory provides a market for vast quantities of hard- wood which come to Leslie from the small dealer and from the farmers of Searcy county. The personnel of the company is as follows: Mr. Williams, president; W. R. Foley, vice-president; Guy Bartley, secre- tary ; and Walter A. Blake, general superintendent. These four gentle- men resemble each other in that they are of progressive attitude and wide experience. All are affiliated with the Great Masonic fraternity and all have families.
Mr. Foley received his tutelage in the industry of which he is now such an important exponent under Mr. Williams. He is a native of Michi- gan and entered upon his career in the cooperage business at the early age of sixteen. Faithful and efficient in small things he has been given more and more to do. From a yard man he was promoted to the office and then to the secretaryship and since 1896 he has been vice-president and resident manager of the company. He supervised the construction of the Leslie plant and he speaks to the various foremen of the establishment through his capable superintendent, Mr. Blake.
Walter A. Blake entered the stave business at the age of ten years, which means that he has learned the trade in the old-fashioned way of beginning at the bottom. Ile was born in Indiana in 1860 and served an apprenticeship of five years in Indianapolis, coming to the Williams com- pany as a salesman in 1893. He spent some time in Texas, before being made foreman of a department in the Poplar Bluff factory. In 1902 he was made superintendent of the plant and came to Leslie with its removal here.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.