Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs, Part 80

Author: Hempstead, Fay, 1847-1934
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publiching company
Number of Pages: 754

USA > Arkansas > Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs > Part 80

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and the Globe Surety Company of Kansas City, Missouri. Besides the above preferments Arnold, Raines & Company are local agents for the Niagara Fire Insurance Company, of New York, and the National Union Insurance Company, of Pittsburg. The foregoing amply indicates the prestige maintained by the company and it will suffice to say here that the concern is in a most flourishing condition.

Aside from his interests in the insurance business Mr. Arnold is an active participant in other financial institutions of important order in his home city. He is a director of the State National Bank and also of the Mercantile Trust Company, Clark & Gay Manufacturing Com- pany, treasurer of the Beach Abstract Company and president of the Mercantile Building & Loan Association. In partnership with Mr. L. B. Leigh he is owner of about thirty-five hundred acres of land in Pulaski county, of which extensive estate five hundred acres are under a high de- gree of cultivation for general agricultural purposes. In his real estate activities Mr. Arnold has bought and sold thousands of acres of valuable timber lands in various sections of the state.

In politics Mr. Arnold accords a stanch allegiance to the cause of the Republican party, and has ever been an influential factor in the promo- tion of all measures projected for the good of the community. In a fraternal way he is an appreciative member of the time-honored Ma- sonic fraternity, and both he and his wife hold membership in the Second Presbyterian church.

At Defiance, Ohio, on the first day of September, 1896, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Arnold to Miss Kate Dotterer, who was born and reared at Defiance, where her father was a farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold have two children, John and Ruth, who were born respectively in the years 1899 and 1904.

WILLIAM F. EATMAN. The gentleman whose name inaugurates this review is the incumbent of the various clerkships of Baxter county and is one of three men who have filled the office since the organization of the county. Ile represents one of the fine, old families of Baxter county, although not of remote advent to the state, and his birth occurred in Greene county, Alabama, September 28, 1868. Two years later his father, the late Clem A. Eatman brought his family and settled at Mountain Home where he passed his remaining years.

Clem A. Eatman was born in North Carolina in 1841 and was reared upon the farm, his home being strongly Southern in atmosphere. When the long lowering Civil war clond broke in all its fury, he enlisted as a Confederate soldier and on the battle field served the canse which from the depths of his heart he believed to be right. He took an active part in Democratie politics; was a Christian gentleman, of great compassion to- wards the less fortunate; and an officer of the Presbyterian church. His wife, who was Miss Jane Jordan, of Alabama, passed away at Mountain llome, Arkansas, in 1905, thus ending a devoted life companionship, he passing on to join her in the Great Beyond in November, 1908. Clem A. Eatman was elected the first circuit, county and probate clerk of Baxter county, in 1874, and filled the office for fourteen years, being succeeded hy R. M. Hancock in 1888. While not in office, he followed the occupation of farmer and stockman and left a modest estate as the result of his bnsi- ness efforts. Glaneing at the record of the history of the Eatman family, one finds Redden Eatman to have been the father of Clem 1. Eatman. He was a North Carolina farmer and Clem A. and Curtis, of Greene county, Alabama, seem to be the only known ones of his six children.

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Eight children were the issue of the marriage of Clem A. and Jane (Jordan) Eatman, only three of whom survive at the present time, namely : William F., of this review ; Miss Fannie of Mountain Home ; and Cora, wife of S. J. MeMahan, of Batesville, Arkansas.

William F. Eatman has passed his life adjacent to the influences of Mountain Home. As a youth he was educated in the common schools of Baxter and Crawford counties and began the real affairs of life as a clerk in a store in Mountain Home. After eight years as a wage earner in a mercantile establishment he was appointed sheriff of Baxter county, to fill a vacancy created by the death of Samuel Livingston, and he served under these circumstances from 1893 until the election of 1894, when he was chosen to the several clerkships of the county. During his tenure of office as sheriff, the notorious Carter-Newton gang of murderers and rob- bers were put to rout by the volunteer citizenship of the county under his command-this being the most sensational, as well as the most note- worthy occurrence of his term. Taking the clerk's office in 1894 Mr. Eatman succeeded R. M. Hancock and has entered upon his eighth term, exceeding therefore, the tenure of his worthy father in the same office, and being elected without opposition from either party in 1910.

Mr. Eatman's business interests are varied and somewhat extensive in Baxter county, and he is identified with the chief monetary institutions, being a stockholder of the People's Bank, of Mountain Home, and presi- dent of the Bank of Cotter. His enthusiasms in farming and stock- raising are such that he has come to be appreciated as a positive promoter of pedigreed cattle and hogs, blooded animals being a part and parcel of his farm.

In the month of November, 1892, Mr. Eatman was united in Moun- tain Home to Miss Mattie Pemberton, daughter of William Pemberton, of Versailles, Missouri, and two children-Neill and Geneva-are the issue of the union. Mr. Eatman is Past Master of the Mountain Home lodge of Masons, belongs to the Chapter and has represented his lodge in the Arkansas Grand Lodge. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the latter order is Past Noble Grand. He has been city treasurer of Mountain Home for sixteen years and is the present city recorder.

VIRGIL LYNN PASCOE, M. D. A skillful and successful physician of Newark, Virgil Lynn Pascoe, M. D., is a man of culture and talent, and by reason, not only of his professional merit and worth, but through his genial manner and kindly courtesy, has won the confidence and esteem of the people. A son of the late John C. Pascoe, he was born in Independ- ence county, near Newark, April 2, 1871, and grew to manhood on the home farm.

William Pascoe, the Doctor's grandfather, was born and educated in England. Coming when a young man to the United States, he followed the trade of a book-binder in Charleston, Missouri, for many years. When well advanced in age, he came to Arkansas, and spent his last years in the country, not far from Newark. He married, in Charleston, Jane Sibley, and they became the parents of five children, as follows: John C .; Will- iam; Fannie, wife of W. W. Keer, once president of the Arkansas Board of Pharmacy, and now a resident of California; Edward, who died in Newark ; and Kate, who married James Graham, and subsequently died in Batesville.

Born in Charleston, Missouri, in 1843, John C. Pascoe was a beard- less youth when Civil war was declared. His spirit of patriotism being aroused, he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in a Missouri regi-

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ment, and served gallantly under both General Marmaduke and General Price He was both wounded and captured, but escaped from the Federals at Jacksonport and was again in active service until the close of the con- flict. Coming to Arkansas he located near Newark, where he subsequently spent his closing years, passing away in 1897. He was quite successful in his agricultural labors, and while living in Newark was prominent in public affairs, serving as justice of the peace, and holding the office of mayor. He married Nancy Magness, a daughter of the late William Mag- ness, a pioneer farmer of Independence county, and of their children, three reached years of maturity, namely: Walter; Virgil L., the subject of this sketch ; and Addie, deceased, who married W. T. Brown, of Little Rock.

Brought up on the home farm, Virgil L. Pascoe obtained his elemen- tary education in the common schools. Scholarly in his tastes and ambi- tions, he began the study of medicine at the age of twenty years, reading in the office of Dr. A. A. Magness. When fitted for college, he entered the Medical Department of Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tennessee, from which he was graduated with the class of 1893. Beginning the prac- tice of his profession in Elmo, Independence county, Dr. Pascoe remained there four years, meeting with much success. Locating then in Newark, he has since added to the reputation he had previously gained as an in- telligent and capable physician. In the meantime he has added to his efficiency by reading and study, and has taken a course at the Post Grad- nate School in Chicago. He is a member of the Independence County Medical Society ; of the Arkansas State Medical Society ; and of the Amer- ican Medical Association.

The Doctor is interested in the business affairs of Newark, being proprietor, with Dr. Poe, of the Newark Drug Company, a successful mercantile firm. He has erected a fine home in the residential part of the city, thus adding his mite toward the beautifying and improvement of Newark. Following in the footsteps of his honored father, the Doctor is a sound supporter of the principles of the Democratic party, voting at the primaries, and in other campaigns of the county, and has served as a member of the County Central Committee. Fraternally he is a Mason, belonging to the Blue Lodge, which he has represented at the Grand Lodge of the State, and to the Chapter. He is likewise a member of the Wood- men of the World, and of the Knights and Ladies of Security.

Dr. Pascoe married, in Newark, Arkansas, March 8, 1893, Mrs. Jennie (Williams) Magness, a daughter of A. A. Williams, M. D., who came to Arkansas from Maine, and was engaged in the practice of medicine in this section of the Union prior to the Civil war. The Doctor and Mrs. Pascoe are the parents of six children, namely: Van, Virl. Virgil L., Jr .. Velma, John and Byron.

CHARLES II. HIBLER has been truthfully referred to as "the Father of Sulphur Springs," yet this distinctive phrase, illustrative though it may be, gives little of the real measure of the man. To have been the one to initiate the movement which converted this lovely spot into a town of surpassing beauty, modernity and convenience, is a matter for more than congratulation, and a glance at the personality of its founder cannot be other than of interest. The transformation from a cornfield and a meadow to a park with spring and lake and shade and sunshine, marks, in a word, the difference between Sulphur Springs now and then, and he to foresee how charming a village might be set in a landscape so poetic was the hard of Benton county, for to that title also may Mr. Hibler, if he so desire. lay claim.

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Mr. Hibler first saw the spot he loves to call home in 1884. It was then a farm lying between the hills, the property of the heirs of Z. M. Whinery, and the possibilities of the spot as a resort so possessed him that he induced his father to buy the ground. The first move of import- ance in the direction of town-building was to bring about the building of a railroad to connect it with the outer world. Without going into the minutiae of the deals and various entanglements incident to the building of the road and its influence upon the growth of the town, the facts of the building of the railroad are presented below.

Matthias Splitlog, the Wyandotte Indian at Wyandotte, Kansas, took the initiative in the building of the Port Arthur Route. It was com- pleted to Joplin about the time Mr. Hibler became the owner of the Sulphur Springs townsite and he and Thomas A. Marshall made overtures to the company to build down to Sulphur Springs. For a third interest in the townsite the company agreed to run the line down that far, changing a route they had already adopted, thereby, and in course of time operations were begun and the road was completed to the Springs in 1891. Thus the way was splendidly paved to the exploiting of the mineral springs and the subsequent development of Mr. Hibler's idea for a resort in the hills of northwestern Arkansas.

For many years he was the most active man on the townsite. He was not one to sit idly by and wait for something to develop or to watch others tugging away at something when he could help, so, as some one has put it, "he polished up the base of the pearl of the Ozarks, and retired eventually to the enjoyment of the near accomplishment of his dream." When the suit between the railroad company under the Stillwell regime and Mr. Stephenson, the former president of the road, over the ownership of the "one-third" interest was settled, Mr. Hibler and his relatives and Mr. Stephenson disposed of all the unsold lots and abutting property to E. B. Guthrie and subsequently it reverted to Kilberg & Guthrie, and thus was introduced into the community an interest and an influence which marked a renewed activity in town-building and brought about the construction of the Kilberg hotel and sanatorium and other substantial structures which make the sparkle in this municipal gem, Sulphur Springs.

Charles H. Hibler was born in Henry county, Missouri, January 24, 1854. His father, William M. Hibler, was born in St. Louis in 1818, passed his life as a successful farmer, the scenes of his agricultural opera- tions being variously in Missouri, Texas, and Arkansas, and as was quite 'natural he was a man of Southern feeling and sentiment. Some of his forbears lived in Lexington, Kentucky, and his distant antecedents were German on the paternal side. William M. Hibler married Anna Louisa Rand, a daughter of John Rand, a business man and an Englishman, who joined the ranks of the "forty-niners" to California, and in that state died of cholera. Mrs. Hibler passed away in 1866 and is buried at Fort Smith, and her husband about 1893, and his remains are interred at Sulphur Springs. They were the parents of three sons, namely: L. A. deceased ; Charles H., and John M. of Galena, Kansas.

Charles H. Hibler lived with his parents in Ft. Smith until eleven years of age and then accompanied them to Joplin, Missouri, where he reached manhood and entered active life. He was educated in the common schools and then entered a printing office, which experience, it is main- tained by members of the craft, is as good as a liberal education. He first learned and engaged in the mechanical work and then became a reporter, the paper with which he was connected being the Joplin News. He sub- sequently abandoned this career and embarked in the merchandise busi- ness in Joplin, where the firm of Charles H. Hibler, wholesale and retail

Vol. III-35

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grocers, became widely known. He retired from that business just before he became enamoured of the hills and dales of Sulphur Springs and has lived here for twenty-six years.

Mr. Hibler was married in Bentonville, Arkansas, August 10, 1882, his chosen lady being Mrs. Euphemie Louise ( Moffett) White, a daughter of Levi Moffett and his wife, Antoinette Chauvin Roff, a French woman whose home was in St. Louis, Missouri. Her life was most interesting, and a short review of the same is appended at the close of Mr. Hibler's biography. Mrs. Hibler was educated and cultured and of splendid busi- ness and social attainments, and there are two children of her first mar- riage, namely: Mrs. Maud Stephenson of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Hon. Edward J. White of Kansas City, Missouri, the noted legal authority and law compiler. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Hibler was blessed by the birth of a daughter, Mimi, who was educated in the Sacred Heart Convent in St. Louis and is her father's companion. Mrs. Hibler passed away April 6, 1896.

Mr. Hibler did not cease his efforts for the substantial improvement of Sulphur Springs until he had done a large and conspicuous share towards it himself. The Hibler block rose at his command and forms the nucleus around which the business community of the little city has gathered, and therein its owner makes his home and entertains his friends. Since his retirement from active affairs he has had time to foster his natural literary talents and his efforts in both prose and verse have won him complimentary mention from literary critics. He has the prime essential of genius of writing from the heart and his themes comprise scenes and occurrences in the life of Sulphur Springs. A strong vein of humor permeates most of his productions. His "Down in Arkansas," or the tale of the Hill Billy's, has passed through two editions and is a striking presentation of life among the native citizenship in Arkansas in a day by no means remotely past. "Back from Reno," is a magazine article, picturing the evils of divorce "while you wait," and is written in a strong, fascinating style, a characteristic which obtains throughout and which is winning Mr. Hibler prestige with publishers of magazines. Being independent in means he responds to the fires of genius only when they burn away the extraneous matter and reveal the song or story of real merit which edifies and captivates the throng, with little concern to the matter of material compensation.

The ensuing stanzas, entitled "Declining an Invitation" are in char- acteristic style.

I have your invitation and in answer beg to say

I've plan'd to leave your city ere another holiday,

And that, as for the party, the banquet and the ball,

'Twould seem of grave importance that I hence forgoe them all; For I'm in debt and, doubtless, to pull my projects through, Shall have to shun society another year or two.

So may as well unbosom-in other words, be plain And tell you that an overcoat as yet I have to gain, And that, due in part or wholly, to accident or fate, My "duds are in the wash," and my dress-suit's out of date. And, as for shoes and hosiery, shirts and underwear, My very feet, my ankles, and my back alike are bare.

In brief, my goods and chattels, and my all but empty purse, Like everything in life with me, have gone from bad to worse Till all I hold as owner, as I blushingly confess,

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Could now be sent to you through the mails for thirty cents, I guess. And yet I owe the tailor and the laundress each a sum

That even here reminds me that "the worst is yet to come."

Now, "tariff for protection," and the price-increasing "trust," Have so raised the cost of living that, "work or starve I must." So tell your guests that rather-far rather than be seen In company, in my old clothes, and with a purse so lean, I'll take to trade, as plumber, and by working to excess, Despite the "robber tariff," may hide my nakedness.

Aye, with union-labor prices, and plumbing in demand, I'll mock the hated "combine," and the tariff may be damn'd,

For, plumber-like, I'll prosper, and despite that "living's high," Will spin about this country in an "auto," by and by.

And if it suits my purpose, my pleasure and my pride, I'll take a trip to Europe, and a princess for my bride.

Much pleasure is taken in adding hereto a word concerning the life of Mrs. Hibler's mother, and the grandmother of Mimi Hibler, which biography will be greatly treasured by her descendants. Antoinette Chauvin was born in St. Louis county, Missouri, October 22, 1815. She was descended from old French Catholic stock, her ancestors being among the early settlers of St. Louis. She was the fifth daughter of Jacques Chauvin, Jr., and Marie Louise La Landre and granddaughter of Jacques (James) Chauvin who commanded the French port at Kaskaskia, Illinois, in 1774. Her early childhood was passed at her father's home in St. Louis county, and her earlier education was under the supervision of her grandfather, who had, in recognition of services at Fort Chartres, received from Gov- ernor Delassus in 1779 a concession of a large tract of land in the west- ern part of the country opposite St. Charles. To this place he had re- tired and in his declining years established and taught a private school for the benefit of his grandchildren, the studies being conducted in French. Antoinette Chauvin afterward attended the Sacred Heart Convent in Florissant, which had been established about the year 1819, and later a private school for young ladies in St. Louis conducted by a Mr. Shepherd. All the daughters of Jacques Chauvin were celebrated for their beauty and their social and domestic accomplishments. Antoinette was one of the prettiest and most amiable, and was always a favorite .- In 1833, at the age of eighteen, she married John L. Roff, a young Kentuckian, and they resided in St. Louis for a few years. In 1837, there being much talk of a new country, afterward Iowa territory, being opened up, Mr. Roff went to investigate. Becoming interested he embarked in business at Augusta, Des Moines county, and the following year, 1838, removed there with his wife and three children. Mr. Roff died in August of the same year, his wife managing the business, until in 1840, she married Levi Moffett, a prominent citizen and pioneer of Des Moines county. He had brought a colony consisting of several families to this country in 1835, together with provisions, machinery, etc., from the east, and he established the town of Augusta. He bought several hundred acres of land from the government, and built the first flouring mill in that part of the Mississippi valley. He also put up business houses, carding mills, and put in a ferry to operate on the river. Mr. Moffett was a widower with six children at the time of his marriage with Antoinette Chauvin Roff and by her mar- riage with him she had six children, Euphemie Louise, who became Mrs. Edward C. White of St. Louis, and afterward Mrs. Charles H. Hibler of Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, being the second child of this union. Thus

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Mrs. Moffett was the mother of nine children, and the stepmother of six. Nature had endowed her with beanty, a sweet and gentle manner, a cheer- ful and even lively and fun-loving disposition, and that she had ability, tact and courage is proven by the successful management of her large family. She loved the beautiful in life and was passionately fond of flowers, roses being her favorites. The grounds of their home, built by Mr. Moffett in 1840, were beautifully laid out and charmingly adorned with flowers, shrubs, and trees brought there by much labor and expense from St. Louis, and the place was so attractive that the public stage running between Burlington and Keokuk would frequently be stopped that the passengers might enjoy the refreshing sight of so much cultiva- tion and beauty in that new and primitive country. In 1851 a terrible flood destroyed much of the loveliness of the grounds, which were never entirely restored.

In 1849 Mr. Moffett and his two older sons went to California, being nine months on the way. During their absence of two years or more Mrs. Moffett managed with ability their various business enterprises. In 1857 Mrs. Moffett was again left a widow by the death of her husband on March 31st of that year. For many years she and her oldest step-son, Joseph Moffett, carried on the milling business, selling the business only a few years before her death. She had witnessed many changes in the country and many improvements. The old ferry became a thing of the past, Mrs. Moffett giving the right of way for the bridge which now spans the river at Angnsta. She donated a lot and contributed toward the build- ing of a Catholic chapel in her town, and helped to maintain it as long as she lived. Having seen so much of pioneer life her reminiscences were always interesting, and she had entertained at her hospitable board many celebrities of those days, Gen. A. C. Dodge, Gen. Jones, and others whose names are interwoven with Iowa's early history were her warm personal friends. She continued to reside at Augusta, keeping up the old hospitality and good cheer at the old home for nearly fifty years. A part of the last year of her life was spent at the home of a danghter at Burlington, but she returned to Augusta a few days before her death which occurred January 28, 1888.

Of her it might truthfully be said, she was "One who in traveling life's common way, Glads every heart and brightens every eye ; One in whose wake the beaten track appears A little greener where her feet have trod."

JAMES B. REEVES. It is one of the principal functions of this publication to accord recognition to those representative business men who have aided in the advancement of this part of Arkansas to a posi- tion of rapidly increasing prestige in the industrial world and who are contributing at the present time to its commercial prosperity. Based upon such premises there is definite propriety in according considera- tion to the progressive and public spirited citizen whose name heads this article and who is the prime mover in the establishment of the fruit canning industry which has proved of such importance as a produce and labor market in the community. He is also entitled to considera- tion as the leading contractor and builder of Green Forest and many of the best edifiees of which the town can boast are due to his ineeption. Mr. Reeves is a native of the state of Arkansas, his birth having occurred near Huntsville, Madison county, May 12, 1867, and his residence here covers a period of forty-one years. His father, James E. Reeves, came to the state the year previous to his birth from Parker county, Texas,

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Historical review of Arkansas : its commerce, industry and modern affairs, Part 80

Author: Hempstead, Fay, 1847-1934 Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publiching company Number of Pages: 754

Author: Hempstead, Fay, 1847-1934
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publiching company
Number of Pages: 754