USA > Arkansas > Pulaski County > Little Rock > The annals of Christ church parish of Little Rock, Arkansas, from A. D. 1839 to A. D. 1899 > Part 3
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on the north side of the new Church placed by his widow "in loving memory of Gordon N. Peay." There are two figures, Christ and St. John, holding a chalice with a serpent in it. The eup with the serpent is designed to illustrate the sacred legend that poison was once offered to Christ in a cup, from which He expelled the venom in the form of a serpent, by mak- ing the sign of the cross. The children of Colonel Gordon N. Peay and Susan Crease, his wife, were: Jane (Mrs. W. W. Morrison), Mary (Mrs. W. Booker Worthen), John, deceased, Sue, deceased, Nicholas, married Leicester Horni- brook, Elizabeth (Mrs. Antoine Bohlinger), Gordon Neil, married Zilla Cole, and Caroline.
9. Laura Crease. Married Major John W. Lewis, of Virginia. Their children are Laura Lewis (Mrs. Tighlman Howard Bunch), and Sue Peay Lewis, unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. Bunch have one son, T. H. Bunch, Jr.
A. D. 1897. Miss Sophia Crease has been a powerful factor in most of the philanthropic work of the parish. In the Arkansas Gazette of date May 2, 1897, appeared, as quoted here, a brief sketch of the "Jane Kellogg Home," more frequently called "The Old Ladies' Home," which is under the supervision of a Board of Gentlemen Managers and Lady Guardians, representing every Christian denomination in the city, of which board Miss Crease is the secretary.
JANE KELLOGG HOME.
AN INSTITUTION OF LOVE AND MERCY-REPORT OF MISS CREASE, THE SECRETARY.
The following very interesting annual report was filed on Friday last by Miss Sophia Crease, secretary of the Board of Guardians :
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To the Board of Managers and Lady Guardians :
I must confess to a feeling of timidity, or, I should say, a full sense of incapacity, in appearing before you in the role of reporter. I am most assuredly cognizant of the "still small voice," which tells of more good I might have done, than the little amount accomplished, had it not been for the well- known stumbling block, "pleasure before duty." The big "I" and little "you" fighting for the mastery resulting, as full many a time and oft it does to vulnerable humanity, in favor of the big I.
Craving your leniency for the rather egotistical prelude to this report, I will say : "The Jane Kellogg Home" is now in its fifteenth year. From a venture east upon the waves of public opinion and. Little Rock charity in the year 1883, it has grown until now the State at large recognizes it as an institution of love and merey, which a Divine Providence seems truly to have smiled upon, so wonderful has been its support. It is true, there have been times when a very small exchequer would present itself to your view to carry on the home's necessary existence, yet, through the over-shadowing clouds, there has ever penetrated the sunshine of "help in the time of need," imbuing the trusting heart with a full sense of relief in the Father's watchful care.
The past year seems to have glided onward not unlike its predecessors. We have much to be thankful for, and but little to complain of. The health of the household has on an average been most excellent, especially when considering the advanced age of most of the inmates. There has been one admission into the home and one death. Of course, the regu- lar monthly report of the secretary embraces each month's happenings, and is duly inseribed upon the record. The main- tenance of the home during the year has been accomplished pretty much in the usual way. The annual donation week, which cuts quite a large figure in the running of the home, was well cared for by the generous-hearted ones of our city, and the guardians felt very grateful for the liberal responses given to their appeal. The renting of rooms in the building,
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donations of various kinds, with the very material help afforded by the board of managers-the institution presents a homelike and comfortable condition. The present matron, Mrs. Emory, has been with us for two years past, and we have no cause of complaint regarding her supervision of the house- hold affairs .* We deem her faithful in the discharge of her duties, and sympathetic in regard to the old ladies' wants, thereby establishing the peace of the home.
In June last the board of guardians convened for its an- nual election of officers. Mrs. R. A. Edgerton was duly elected president, Mrs. James Pollock, first vice president ; Mrs. E. Longley, second vice president; Miss Crease, secre- tary, and Mrs. E. A. Van Etten, who has for so long and faith- fully served the board, re-elected treasurer. Our board has been pleasantly augmented during the present year by the board of managers placing thereon Mrs. Pauline Reichardt, Mrs. B. J. Brown, Mrs. D. L. Gray, Mrs. John Moore, Mrs. P. K. Roots, and Mrs. C. M. Taylor. The board has ever been a most harmonious one, as certainly it should be, in this work of charity, and surely there is no greater charity than the care of the old and helpless. There are now in the home those who will very shortly cross the "silent river," having long since passed their three score and ten years. A refuge in the time of trouble has the institution been to them, and that it may continue to be a haven of rest for the unfortunate and wayworn pilgrims, surely should be the wish of each Christian heart.
I cannot close this report without mention of the home's good and kind physician, Dr. Christian, who, from its organi- zation, has been the ever faithful friend, answering promptly calls at all hours, sympathizing and administering to the sick, withont money and without price, proving indeed the "Good Samaritan" to the "Jane Kellogg Home."
A. S. CREASE, Secretary Board of Guardians.
*Mrs. Elizabeth Upham Reeve is her efficient successor.
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In the southeast corner of the new Church may be seen a stained glass window, bearing the inscription, "In loving memory of John and Jane P. Crease," which represents Zacharias bearing the child, "who was to be the prophet of the highest," to the temple for circumcision, with Elizabeth ac- companying him. Among the numerous posterity of John and Jane Crease this custom of taking the children to be "baptized in Christ" has been religiously preserved, and the blessing of God has followed them.
LAMBERT REARDON, SR.
A. D. 1841-1860. Mr. Lambert Reardon, Sr., was a member of the first Vestry of Christ Church. In May, 1841, he made the contract with Messrs. Robins and Wassell for building the first Church, which Mr. Crease desired to be named "Christ Church," after the Church of his former devo- tion in Alexandria, Va. Mr. Reardon was a man of large experience. He was born in Virginia and married Ann Jef- frey, a native of Wilmington, Del. He came to Little Rock in 1836 and lived with his family in 1837 on West Markham street, on the summit of a hill, where his home, a commodious brick building, was seated. A deep dell or wooded ravine separated this hill from Broadway on the east. It was a favorite walk in 1849 for young people to descend into the valley and elimb to the opposite eminence for a visit to the widow Reardon, whose fine, intelligent countenance and portly figure would have arrested attention anywhere. The ravine was filled up and bridged and a street railway track now lies across it, all of which has ruthlessly shorn the locality of its natural beauty and charm, while the little stream at the bottom that once made musie slipping over the stones, is hushed into silence like many who once passed over it. Bishop Polk and
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Bishop Otey were entertained by Mr. and Mrs. Reardon at this home, whose children and grand children were baptized and confirmed by those holy apostles. Mr. Reardon died November 10, 1849. His widow survived him eleven years and died in 1860. The residence became the property of Colonel Gordon N. Peay, whose children were brought up there and is still the residence of his widow. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Lambert Reardon, Sr., were :
1. Helen Reardon who married Wm. C. Scott, in Mary- land. He was district attorney for the Western District of Arkansas in 1846. Mr. and Mrs. Scott had one daughter, Blanche, who became the wife of Captain Sokolski, United States Army. She was the first person baptized in the first Episcopal Church, and was when a woman, a brilliant musician.
2. Lavinia Reardon, who married William B. Wait. They had Lambert, William, Herbert, and Charles Edmund. Only the last mentioned survived the parents. Charles E. Wait married first Miss Leila Beasley; had one daughter, Fanny, and second, Miss Hattie Morrilton, of Virginia, and had one son, Charles Edmund, Jr.
3. Lambert Jeffrey Reardon who married Priscilla Avlett Buckner and had Simeon Buckner, who died unmar- ried; Anne Lavinia, who married Patrick Raleigh, broker and real estate agent, and had nine sons, of whom seven sur- vive-Richard, Lambert, Edwin, Frederick, Joseph, Robert, and James ; Lambert Walter, who died unmarried, and Lallie, who married Dr. James A. Dibrell, a distinguished physician and surgeon of Little Rock, and had two sons who survive her-John Raleigh and James Lambert.
4. John E. Reardon who died unmarried. He was for a long time bookseller and stationer on northeast corner of
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Scott and Markham streets. He was highly esteemed, espe- cially in musical circles, where he, with his guitar, was in constant requisition.
LAMBERT JEFFREY REARDON.
A. D. 1837-1847. Lambert Jeffrey Reardon, son of Lambert Reardon, was also a member of the first Vestry of the Church, in the building of which his father had had so prominent a position. He was a man of marked ability and culture, for a long while editor of the Arkansas Banner, and was mayor of the city, 1845-1847. In social life he was a man of elegant manners and graceful as a conversationalist. He married Priscilla Aylett Buckner, who was, and has always been, a model of refinement and amiability. Her parents were Captain Simeon Buckner, of Kentucky, who married his cousin, Nancy Watson, of Virginia. "In 1837 Captain Simeon Buckner received a commission from the government to remove the Florida Indians from Vicksburg to Fort Gibson. He bought six or eight steamboats or their transportation and finished his work in about a year, making a small fortune out of it. In the fall of 1837 he removed with his family to Little Rock, where they remained until 1839, when he went to Clark County and purchased the Richwoods plantation, near Arkadelphia, one of the richest of the State. His son, William Perry Buckner, who had remained at school in Kentucky, came to Arkansas in 1838 and attended school in Springfield, Hempstead County, boarding with ex-Governor Garland's mother. He then went to Alexandria, Va .. and while there attending the university was appointed to the navy from AArkansas, and served on the Marion, the Bain- bridge, the Macedonian, the historic Constitution and other ships. He was the first midshipman over appointed from
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Arkansas. He went through the war a member of the Federal navy, and in 1866, after twenty-six years' active service in the navy of the United States, was placed on the retired list- died July 10, 1869. Wife and one son died soon after; one son, William, still living." Captain Buckner, in his Pacific cruises, has unconsciously become a connecting link between the Manila of 1845 and the Manila of 1898. The log book kept by him when a midshipman supplies an interesting description, quoted here from a copy in Arkansas Democrat of date May 19, 1898 :
FROM AN OLD LOG BOOK.
DESCRIPTION OF A NOTED PLACE AND PEOPLE BY A MIDSHIP- MAN ON THE CONSTITUTION-PROPHECY OF FIFTY
YEARS AGO THAT THE ENSLAVED POPULACE WOULD SOMETIME RISE IN REBELLION.
[Arkansas Democrat, May 19, 1898.]
The historic man-o'-war, Constitution, which bore an active and valiant part in the early naval warfare of our coun- try, visited the city Manila over fifty years ago on a peaceful mission, in command of Captain John Percival. The log of its Pacific cruise records that the ship entered Manila Bay September 12, 1845, and that the Spanish captain of the port visited the ship, also a French officer from the French frigate Sabine ; saluted the Spanish flag with twenty-one guns, which was returned by the fort on shore.
The log book of that cruise was kept by Midshipman W. P. Buckner, and is now a precious relic in the possession of Mrs. Priscilla A. Reardon, one of Little Rock's oldest and inost esteemed residents, and a sister of Midshipman Buckner.
From the log is taken the following interesting descrip- tion of the bay and city of Manila, which will be especially interesting now on account of the great victory won there but recently by AAmerican arms :
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"The city of Manila is situated on the southwest side of the island of Luzon or Luconia. It is said to contain about 90,000 inhabitants, most of whom are Indians and half-breeds. The city is built on an extensive flat and is surrounded by rice fields. The European city is on the south side of the river, and is walled in with a strong wall and encompassed on every side by a ditch about forty feet wide. The walls have many
embrasures already filled with guns. No doubt many more are stored away in the arsenals. A river about 200 yards wide runs through the town; it has been walled up on each side for many miles-a beautiful and well built bridge crosses the river about one mile from its mouth. The European city is well built and elean. Its houses are usually about two stories high, and are built of either stone or briek. The city is full of churches. Some of them have a very old look, and one or two were truly splendid, or rather grand, inside.
stranger would be (as I was) surprised at the number of priests who meet him in the streets. 'T is said ( and not much doubt of it either) that they are the smartest and most influ- ential men in the place. They certainly are very polite men, and have a sort of bon-vivant look about them that speaks of something else but spiritual food. The town north of the river is not walled. It is very well built and is the business
part of Manila. The streets are quite regular. The town is ent up in two or three directions by wide canals. These canals were no doubt dug to facilitate commerce, and also for defense. They are all crossed in many places by excellent stone bridges.
"There are many Chinese in Manila. They all keep little shops or stores in the principal streets. The eigar man- ufactories are well worth seeing. There are employed in Manila under one roof upwards of 7,000 girls-it is a beauti- ful sight-all busy, but still they find enough time to smile on a young stranger, to say 'Buenos dias, senor,' to a young man, or 'Muchas gracias' to a compliment. Some of these girls are quite beautiful, and speak so softly that I for one delighted to listen to their voices. The Manila cheroots are nearly as good as the Havana segars. Some persons like them
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better. For my part I had rather smoke a cheroot made by the pretty Manila girls than the Havana made by African negroes, though the Havana may be the best.
"Manila Bay is surrounded by high mountains. Many of them appear to be the craters of volcanoes. Shocks of earthquakes are sometimes felt in Manila. The bay is quite open and almost entirely free from dangers. There is good anchorage about three miles from the town, on muddy bottom. It does not require a pilot to enter the bay. Near the city are estensive fields of rice. The roads are in fine order and the views pretty and pleasant. Part of the Indian town is built of bamboo. The Indians appear to be a very ingen- icus race. They weave a kind of cloth from the fibers of the pineapple which is much finer than any silk. Everyone in Manila is a Christian. The Spaniards establish their religion as they conquer. The sword is of great use to some nations, for it is only by the sword that they can be civilized. The sword has converted more nations to a religion than persuasion. But still, though these people have been con- verted by force, anyone can see the improvement of their country. 'T is said the population has doubled itself several times since the conquest. I have heard a great many per- sons speak against the Catholics for their intrigues with sav- age nations, but in this instance I must say that, though they have enslaved the country, yet they have enriched it. I believe that this slavery of the people will break forth one day so that they will enjoy a free and perfect liberty, and by being civilized they will know how to appreciate it. There are in Manila about 3,000 troops, mostly natives. Manila is ex- tremely well fortified and could make a stout defense if stont hearts held it. But the Spaniards now have a saying that it takes a Spaniard to build, a Frenchman to take, and an Eng- lishman to keep their forts. 'The ditch is nearly filled up on the south side of the town. The ruins of the wall would enable a storming party to cross it. 'T is said, though, that
a golden key would unlock all the gates of Manila. There are two long moles built out into the sea ; on one of them is a lighthouse ; the other has a battery of long brass guns. Of
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an evening it is a pretty sight on the paphao. All the pretty Spanish girls can be seen about sundown there in their valantes. The band of the garrison (a splendid one) usually attends; in fact, from 4 p. m. till 10 at night is the stirring time of day, when everybody wishes to see and be seen.
"Manila city was founded in 1640. About fifteen miles above the city is a lake thirty miles across. It is sur- rounded by high mountains and bordered with Indian villages. The dress of the Indian girls is about half savage, half civi- lized. The skirts are worn loose from the body, and some- times rather low for our modest notions. The men dress much like the Europeans. They wear hats, while the women never wear anything more than a handkerchief or veil over their heads. The island of Luzon is about 360 miles long. It is a rich and fertile island, producing for exportation to- bacco, segars, hemp, sugar and rice."
Simeon Buckner, of Kentucky, native of Virginia, father of Captain Buckner, U. S. N., married Miss Nancy Watson, of Virginia, and had three children :
1. Priscilla Aylett who married Lambert Jeffrey Reardon.
2. Wm. Perry Buckner, U. S. N., who married Miss Mary Mezziek, of Maryland. Their children were Mezzick Aylett, Joseph, and William ; the last only survives.
3. Josephine Preston Buckner, who married Robert Clements and had one daughter, Irene Rebecca, who survived the mother but three months.
The next most distinguished member of this band of Christian pioneers was
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JARED NEWTON CAUSINE,
who was one of the most pious and devoted churchmen on the list of members of Christ Church. He was a native of Leonardtown, St. Mary County, Md., and there married Eleanor Douglas Marshall, and afterwards moved to Arkan- sas. They had fifteen children, of whom five only reached maturity, viz: John, Jane P., William, and Mary Susan Causine.
John Causine, a lawyer, on his return to Maryland, after a visit to his family at Little Rock, died at Cairo, Ill., from a stroke of apoplexy. He was a man of brilliant attainments and the pride of his widowed mother. The news of his deathi put a period to her life. The remains were brought back to Little Rock and mother and son were buried in one grave at Mount Holly Cemetery. He was never married.
Jane P. Causine married at Leonardtown, Md., Luke E. Barber, of Charles County, Md.
William Causine died unmarried.
Mary Susan Causine married Robert Clements in 1862, and had four children, of whom two survive, John Causine Clements and Jenny Barber Clements.
A. D. 1836. Mr. Jared Newton Causine and Mr. Luke E. Barber came with their families to Arkansas in 1836, the year of its admission into the Union, and settled on a farm in Jefferson County, near Pine Bluff. This farm was after- wards sold to Mr. G. M. D. Cantrell, a banker of Nashville, Tenn., and brother of Dr. W. A. Cantrell, of Little Rock.
A. D. 1838-1886. Luke E. Barber, the son-in-law of Mr. Causine, had practiced law in Maryland, was a member of the Arkansas State Legislature from Jefferson County in
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1838, and moved to Little Rock in 1841, bringing a number of slaves with him. In 1845 he was appointed clerk of the Supreme Court of Arkansas, which position he held until his death (with the exception of one interval, when N. W. Cox held the office), on June 13, 1886, being 80 years of age. He was a Mason of high degree, and was buried from Christ Church Chapel by the Order of Knights Templars. Dr. T. C. Tupper, Rector of Christ Church, who had preached his fare- well sermon to the congregation from the text John xv. 12: "Love one another," had left for Leavenworth, Kan., his new point of service. He was telegraphed to return and officiated at the burial. He, also a Mason, entered the Church, leading the funeral procession with a crosier or staff of Masonic im- port. On his breast was a large scarlet Maltese cross and an under robe of azure was just visible down the front line of his white surplice. The Knights Templars, the members of the Supreme Court, and the Church Vestry supplied pall bearers from their several orders. After the pall, followed a body of Knights Templars and Masons, then the family, then the members of the bar, all of whom occupied the transepts, the nave being filled with citizens. Dr. Tupper made some appropriate remarks and the procession followed the remains of this good man to his grave. A window of stained glass in the northwest end of the new Church, representing the Good Samaritan, friend to the man who fell among thieves, was placed to his memory by his widow. Nothing could more faithfully illustrate his character.
A. D. 1897. Mrs. Jane P. Barber, his widow, survived him eleven years. She had always been the spiritual prop and stay of her family. Trained in piety from childhood, she had flourished under the approving smile of her Maker- "first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in
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the ear,"-and when the angel Death thrust in his sickle, the harvest was ripe. A childless wife, she was yet a "Mother in Israel" to the little ones of the flock. Sunday after Sun- day, for years, she was the only female teacher in the Sunday school ; godmother to a score of children, and the adopted mother of one, Mott Webb, whose tragic murder at the age of 16, almost killed her with grief. The silver cross which adorned the chancel of the old Church was the memorial of the unfortunate youth. Her slight figure and placid face, which became more and more serene as deafness gradually closed the outward portals of life, and shut up her thoughts with the triune God, never failed to be seen in her pew, until actual weakness prevented, although she could not hear the preacher's voice or a sound of the organ near her. She was a mistress such as all slaves would delight to serve, who rejoiced with them when they were manumitted. She was a friend,
whom it is a privilege to bemoan. She was a marvel of gen- tleness in her family intercourse, in which her slightest wish was law. She died December 2, 1897, and was buried from the new Church by the Rector, Rev. John Gass, in Mount Holly Cemetery, aged 83 years, nearly the whole of which had been spent in the service of God and the Church. She left request that her name should never be taken off the roll of the Ladies' Aid Society, to which she bequeathed a fund for the annual dues.
A. D. 1833-1891. Mrs. Sarah Ann Ally, a cherished friend of Mrs. Barber, and a devout member of the Church in Little Rock, was confirmed in St. Paul's Chapel, Nashville, Tenn., by Rt. Rev. James H. Otey, on May 12, 1850, just after her marriage. She was the daughter of John and Mary Woodhead, and was born in the city of New York, August 18, 1833. The family moved to New Orleans, La.,
-4-
443272
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by sea, in 1839; left New Orleans in 1841, and went to Nashville, Tenn., where the father died in 1849. Sarah Ann Woodhead was married at Nashville, Tenn., to R. C. Ally in 1850. They had eight children. Granville and Maggie, the two elder, were born in Nashville, Tenn., the other six are natives of Little Rock. Mr. and Mrs. Ally and the widow Woodhead came to Little Rock in 1860, where the mother died in 1862. Mrs. Ally has been heard to say that the first persons to call on her in Little Rock were Mrs. Jane Barber, Mrs. Louisa Brown, and Dr. William A. Cantrell. She was a constant member of the Ladies' Aid Society, and at her death, December 29, 1891, resolutions of respect and regret were drawn up by a committee appointed for the purpose.
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