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 4
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JOHN WASSELL,
SENIOR WARDEN.
A. D. 1813-1895. As shown by the deed, recorded in the office of the circuit clerk at Little Rock, John Wassell and Abner S. Washburn were wardens of Christ Church in 1841. John Wassell was born in Kidderminster, Worcester County, England, February 10, 1813, and emigrated to Cineinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, alone, hoping there to join an unele. Failing in this, he apprenticed himself to a carpenter and soon attained to excellence in the trade. He obtained the contraet for a building in Grand Gulf, Miss., through advertising medium, and afterwards he secured in the same manner. the contract for building the Statehouse at Little Rock, Ark. In 1837 he married Miss Margaret Spotts, a resident of Louis- ville, Ky., though a native of Delaware, and brought his bride
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to the scene of his labor. They went to housekeeping in a portion of the State building, and remained there until it was finished. Since that time he was successively a house builder, a farmer, an editor, and a lawyer; one of the origi- nators of the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad; founder and first. president of the Deaf Mute Institute, to which he donated several scholarships; first president of the Home Water Company ; was appointed mayor of the city by Presi- dent Andrew Johnson, U. S. A., during the reconstruction, and was vice president of the First National Bank. In a word, Mr. Wassell was recognized by his fellow-citizens as a philanthropist as well as an expert financier. Back of these benevolent characteristics was the chief motive power -- his allegiance to the Church, from which his loyalty never waned. He was a liberal member of the first Vestry of Christ Epis- copal Church, contributing to the maintenance of the Church and the clergy, and so continued until the time of his death, July 29, 1881. When the first Church was burned he was greatly interested in the building of another on the same site. He donated the stone water table that surmounted the stone foundation. He died before it was finished, January 29, 1881, and was buried from the Chapel, built for temporary use on the lot adjoining. The Rev. T. C. Tupper, who was at that time in charge, officiated at his funeral. He was 68 years old when he died, and left a comfortable maintenance for his widow and children. Mrs. Wassell donated the costly stained glass window in the northeast corner of the new Church, to his memory. It represents the three Marys at the sepulchre seeking their Lord, and their interview with the angels. Mrs. Wassell was a faithful helpmeet and devoted Christian, tenderly beloved by her children and friends. In the south side of the chancel of the new Church,
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a Credence Table has been erected to her memory. It is made of beautifully carved brass, with an open circular center, filled with the mysterious monogram of the cross, being the initial Greek letters of the name of Christ (i. e., X for Ch. and P for r.) A cross of brass, encircled with a crown sur- mounts this monogram and a rim of brass encases a plane of walnut wood, on which the vessels of the Holy Eucharist rest during the Ante-Communion service. On this plane is a plate of brass inseribed with these words :
To the service of God, And in memory of our Mother, Margaret Wassell, Entered into rest September 6, 1895.
The children of John Wassell and Margaret Spotts, his wife, who survive them, are :
1. Rebecca E., wife of William M. Randolph, a prom- inent attorney of Memphis, Tenn.
2. Albert Wassell, who married Miss Leona MeAlmont, daughter of Dr. Corydon MeAlmont.
3. Samuel S. Wassell, who married Miss Elizabeth MeConaughey, daughter of J. W. McConaughey.
4. Herbert Wassell, unmarried.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Randolph are Mrs. Laura Randolph Norton; George Randolph, who married Miss Birdie Randolph, of New York; Edward Randolph, who mar- ried Miss Julia Balbach, of New York; Amy Randolph, un- married, and Wassell Randolph, student at Knoxville, Tenn.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Wassell are Ruth Helen, Corydon MeAlmont, and John Randolph.
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The children of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel S. Wassell are Francis Jolm, James Bracey (deceased), Samuel McCon- aughey, and Herbert Lynn, all minors.
NOTE-It has been in vain that the annalist has sought in various channels for accounts of Abner S. Washburn, who served as Junior Warden with Mr. John Was- sell. He removed from Little Rock at an early date and no record of him can be traced. Charles Rapley was a prominent citizen here, a large owner in real estate, but no answers were obtained to several letters of inquiry addressed to his children. Of Dr. J. P. Norman nothing has been obtained, except the inscription found on his wife's tomb, which still may be seen in the yard of the Peabody School. It is this: "Sarah H. Samuel, wife of J. P. Norman, born April 13, 1818; died August 28, 1840. She believed that her God would be merciful." Of D. Butler and William Prather no reliable information has been obtained.
HON. DANIEL RINGO.
A. D. 1828-1854. IIon. Daniel Ringo was Senior Warden of Christ Church in 1849, as shown by the record of the purchase of an additional lot, lying adjacent to the three already owned by the Church :
"Joshua F. Green and wife to Daniel Ringo and John Wassell, Wardens of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Dated May 1, 1849. Consideration, $250. Lot 1, block 29, city of Little Rock."
Daniel Ringo, a native of Kentucky, born in 1800, was identified with the history of Arkansas at an early date. He is mentioned in the archives of the State as clerk of the Ter- ritorial Legislature, which was in session in October, 1828, having been a resident of the county he represented, Clark, since 1825, where he was postmaster. Before that time, from 1820 to 1836, when Arkansas was admitted into the Union, he practiced law .* He was then elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and in 1849 was appointed United States District Judge, which position he held until the War of Seces- sion displaced the civil authorities. He married Miss Mary
*See Ilempstead's History of Arkansas.
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Cocke, of Kentucky. Her sister became the wife of Hon. Frederick W. Trapnall, who was the law partner of John W. Cocke (as well as brother-in-law). These gentlemen, also from Kentucky, were brilliant lights in the legal galaxy, and were regular attendants of the Episcopal Church. Judge Ringo was a grave, stately man, who had a lovely wife and several children. These were :
1. Robert, Watkins, or "Wat," as he was familiarly
called. He enlisted as a Confederate soldier and died in a hospital during the war.
2. Daniel, Jr., associated himself with a young man, John Newbern, in the first literary enterprise of the city. The Arkansas Magazine was issued by them in 1854, and lived a short while. Young Ringo exchanged the pen for the sword, was wounded in an engagement in Virginia and also died in a hospital.
3. Mary Frances, a beautiful young woman, on the eve of her nuptials with Mr. Harrison, died suddenly, and the broken hearted mother soon followed her. Judge Ringo sur- vived all these family shocks, but fell at last, like a well sea- soned oak, leaving two orphans, Frank and Lily (fourth and fifth). Frank also died not many years afterwards and Lily died unmarried in 1899, in San Antonio. The entire family has thus passed away.
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HON. FREDERICK W. TRAPNALL.
Hon. Frederick W. Trapnull, whose name is on the first list of Vestrymen of Christ Church, and who stands among the first in the list of distinguished lawyers of the Little Rock bar, married Miss Frances Cocke, the sister of his law partner, John W. Cocke. They owned and occupied the spacious, colonial brick residence, at the head of Commerce street, on Fifth, which then stood alone in the center of the block, sur- rounded by trees of native growth and sloping greensward. They had one daughter, Mary, who survived both her parents and died an orphan at 13 years of age. Ben. C. Trap- nall, brother of F. W. Trapnall, was unmarried. Philip Trapnall, younger brother of Frederick, became a junior partner of the firm of Trapnall & Cocke, and married Sallie, eldest daughter of Colonel Sandy Faulkner, who was the acknowledged beauty and belle of the city. Bettie, the second daughter, became the first wife of Major John C. Peay, who served in the Mexican War, as well as later in the Civil War as quartermaster. Mattie, the third daughter, married Mr. Buch- anan. The two oldest sons of Colonel Faulkner have passed away, as well as the children of his old age, Philip and Minnie. All have paid the debt of nature, and what once formed the most hospitable circle anywhere to be found, is remembered as a flash of brilliant sunshine, extinguished in gloom.
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JOHN HUTT.
A. D. 1835-1878. John Hutt, Judge of the City Court of Little Rock, in the then Territory of Arkansas, 1835, was a member of the first Vestry of the first Episcopal Church, and his name appears often on the list of subscribers to the building. He was elected treasurer of the State of Arkan- sas in 1838, and again in 1843. He was the son of William Spence Hutt, Sr., and Constance Eugenie Etienne Villard, his wife, who, with her family, had been exiled from Paris, France, at the time of the French Revolution. Judge Hutt and Peter T. Crutchfield, receiver of public moneys at Little Rock for many years, married sisters, Misses Harriet and Elizabeth Field, daughters of William Field. John Hutt, William and Andre were brothers. William Hutt married Elizabeth Findley and Andre Hutt married Francissa Gaines, widow of Benjamin Linebeaugh, and niece of Peter Crutch- field. Her two daughters by her first marriage were Ellen, who died in early womanhood, deeply lamented, and Laura. who married Captain Lucian B. Nash, now of Spokane, Wash. Her other children are the only persons left of the name of Hutt in Little Rock. These are William S. Hutt and Mollie, wife of Edward C. Newton. Her grand children, all bap- tized members of the Episcopal Church, are Edward Sevier, Andre Hutt, Frankie (Mrs. William Frederick Bracy) Mary Lizzie and Cornell Randolph. The accompanying tribute to Mrs. Elizabeth A. Crutchfield, died December 11, 1878, who was a devoted Church member, will be read with interest for her sake, as well as for that of the distinguished writer, Chief Justice Elbert Il. English, and the wife of his youth, Julia Fisher : 1
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TRIBUTE OF RESPECT.
MRS, ELIZABETH A. CRUTCHFIELD.
The justly merited tribute to the memory of the lamented Mrs. Savage, published a few days since, reminded me that no one had written an obituary of her contemporary, the most estimable lady whose name heads this article.
Elizabeth Ann Field first saw the light on the 29th of July, 1813, in Dinwiddie County, Va. She was of a good family, and a niece of General Winfield Scott, famous as a military commander in the American wars. Like the daugh- ters of all of the Virginians of means, she was well educated, and grew to womanhood accomplished and beautiful. Ir 1833, she came to Little Rock, then a small village, clustered about the point of rock which juts into the Arkansas river, and from which the town took its name. It was called by the early navigators of the river Little Rock to distinguish it from Big Rock, a mile or more above. Just below the point of rock, the early keel adventurers landed their trading boats and carried on a commerce with the Quapaw Indians, then monarchs of the forest and the game. In after years it became and is now known as the steamboat landing. There are but few persons living now who remember Miss Field when she first came to Little Rock, and she was for a time the belle of the village. She was one of its early roses. How many, alike beautiful in the spring time, summer and even autumn of life, like her have bloomed and faded! She intermarried with Peter Tinsley Crutchfield, Esquire, at the residence of Major Prior, Spring Hill, Hempstead County, in 1834. Major Prior, a Red River planter, and fine specimen of the old Virginia gentleman, was a friend and acquaintance of Miss Field and her parents, and invited her to be married at his house. Major Crutchfield, as he was afterward called, was then a young member of the territorial bar, and became ir after years a prominent lawyer here and on the eireuit. He, with Pike. Ashley, Ringo, Fowler. Walker, Royston and others, pioneer lawyers, strong men and learned in the old books (no Code fledglings) swam the bayous, and at night
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spread their blankets under the shelter of the oaks and read their destinies among the stars. Major Crutchfield filled several places of public trust, and was noted for his fidelity of character. He was receiver of public moneys for the United States for some years before, and at the time of the outburst of the Civil War between the States; and when armed soldiers went, under a military order, to seize the public moneys in his keeping, though a Southern man, he refused to surrender them, believing it to be his duty to preserve them, and he stood fearlessly guarding them until they were forced from him by superior numbers. He died not long after. Mrs. Crutch- field, at the time of the death of her husband, was well pre- served and a fine looking woman, but remained a widow, devoted to his memory, until her own sudden death, which occurred December 11, 1878, at the family homestead. She raised but one child, a daughter, now Mrs. Burrow. Many of the old citizens will remember the brilliant wedding of Miss Juliet Crutchfield, beautiful and accomplished like her mother, and General Napoleon B. Burrow, then the oily- tongued orator of Arkansas, and the peer of Yancey, of Ala- bama-now, having abandoned very much public life, he holds the plow as it turns to the sun the solemn soil.
remember the hospitality of the Crutchfield mansion. and the pleasant, graceful and lady-like manner in which its mistress presided. Now she has followed her husband to the tomb, and be it hoped to the better land, and others occupy the old homestead. My acquaintance commenced with Mrs. Crutch- field, at the point of rock, on a Sabbath morning early in June, 1844. The river was at its flood, the June rise upon the rain rise, and a group were there assembled looking at the great cottonwoods that had been rifted from the shores and were floating on the foaming tide. Mrs. Crutchfield was there, holding Juliet, a little girl, by the hand. The child cast a flower on the flood, and bade it take her compliments to the sca. The flower may never have reached the sea. but the group of spectators were on another stream, which has borne most of them to another, a deeper and a wider sea-a shoreless sca !
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Mary Melbourne, the canary-throated songstress, after- ward wife of Senator Borland, was there, and the strings of her harp have been for years broken and her sweet tones hushed in the silence of the tomb. Chief Justice Ringo and wife, Sam HI. Hempstead, a prominent lawyer, and wife; Charles P. Bertrand and Thomas D. Merrick, who were of the group, all sleep. One was among them (who need not be named) whose bright black eyes, bewitching face, and merry, ringing laugh, all who survive will remember, for none who knew can forget her. She rests near her friend and neighbor, Mrs. Crutchfield. Mrs. Dr. Adams (sister of William and Ebenezer Cummins) still lives and looks but little changed. She is one of the roses that defies the winters, and in this respect is like Mrs. Crutchfield, who was unusually well pre- served to the time of her death. John Karns and Dr. Dodge were of the group, and appear now about as they did then, and look like they might live as long as the Wandering Jew. So was Wm. B. Wait, then a mature man, and yet one of our most active and reliable business men.
Peace to the memory of our departed friend, Mrs. Crutchfield, and may roses bloom upon her tomb !
E. H. E.
JOHN ADAMSON, SR.
A. D. 1836-1876. John Adamson, Sr., mentioned in the list of first Vestry of Christ Church, married Rebecca Prather in Montgomery County, Md., and came to Arkansas in 1836. . He had served as an officer in the War of the Revo- lution. He died in Little Rock, Ark., July 10, 1861. Mention is made of him in the diaries of Bishop Otey.
William Adamson, son of John Adamson and Rebecca Prather, his wife, was born in Maryland, and came to Little Rock with his father in 1836, and married Louisa Petit, Sep- tember 16, 1851. He served in the Mexican War.
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John Adamson, son of William Adamson and Louisa Petit, his wife, was born in Little Rock, Ark., November 19, 1852, and married Bettie Hendren, of Pine Bluff, Ark., No- vember 2, 1871.
William Custis Adamson, son of John Adamson (2d) and Bettie Hendren, his wife, was born at Willowdale, Ark., February 11, 1873. Unmarried.
John Selden Adamson, son of John Adamson (2d) and Bettie Hendren, his wife, was born at Willowdale, Ark., January 17, 1876 .*
NICHOLAS PEAY.
A. D. 1829. Among the very earliest citizens of Little Rock was Nicholas Peay. He was one of eleven children. Two of his brothers are mentioned as members of the House of Commons from Rockingham County, in the General Assembly of North Carolina, George Peay, in the years 1793, 1794, and 1795, and John Peay in 1797. Nicholas Peay went to Kentucky and there married Miss Juliet Neill. From there he came to Arkansas with his family in 1825 and became proprietor of the first hotel in the city of Little Rock. Their children were eleven in number. Those who survived to adult age were:
1. Mary Peay, who married William F. Pope, relative and private secretary of Governor John Pope, who was the third governor of the Territory of Arkansas in 1829, and the brother-in-law of John Quincey Adams, president of United States ; Willaim F. Pope was the author of "Early Days in
*This closes the list of members of the first Vestry of Christ Church. Bishop Otey's diary will supply such information as may be lacking.
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Arkansas." The children of Mary Peay and Wm. F. Pope, five in number, all died in infancy.
2. Gordon Neill Peay, who married Sue Nelson Crease, sixth daughter of John H. and Jane Nelson Crease, had Jane Peay, who married W. W. Morrison. They had Gordon, William, Jane, Norman Crease, Caroline, Nelson, and Mary Morrison ; Mary Peay, who married W. B. Worthen, and had Sue, George, Elizabeth, Louisa, and Mary Worthen. Eliza- beth Peay married Antoine Bohlinger, and had Fred, Neill, Elizabeth, Laura Lewis, Mary Sue, and Caroline Bohlinger. Nicholas Peay married Leicester Hornibrook, and had James, Leicester, Elizabeth, and Nicholas Peay. Gordon N. Peay married Zilla Cole, and had Gordon and Helen Peay. Caroline Peyton Peay, unmarried.
3. John Coleman Peay, who married first, Bettie, second daughter of Colonel Sandy Faulkner, and last, Mar- garet Elizabetlı Reyburn, third daughter of Samuel W. Rey- burn. They had Reyburn, William, Ashley, Juliet Mildred (died in early womanhood), and John Coleman Peay. Major Peay died August 29, 1898, deeply lamented by relatives and friends.
4. William Nicholas Peay, who married Nannie Nantz, orphan niece of Mrs. Frederick W. Trapnall, and had one daughter, Katie. Both deceased, but the daughter survives.
5. Juliet Elizabeth Peay, who married first, Dr. Wil- liam Hammond, and had Fanny G. (Mrs. Jesse Blocker), Alice P., and William H. Hammond, and second, William Easley, and had one daughter, Sue C. (Mrs. Barclay), one grandson, Hugh. William Blocher is also a grandson.
6. Sophronia Peay, who married Dr. George Golder, deceased. Their children are Mary Alice Golder and Hen-
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rietta Viola Golder, who married June C. Browne, manager of Iron Mountain Telegraph Company.
The family of Mr. Samuel W. Reyburn were also devoted Church members of the first Church.
1. William Reyburn, the eldest son, married Mary Fisher, who was the sister of Julia Fisher, first wife of Chief Justice Elbert H. English. They had one son, Elbert Wood- ward, who died.
Mrs. Reyburn afterwards became the wife of J. V. Zim- merman, and had three children. Two are living-Mrs. Julia Reed and Jesse F. Zimmerman.
2. Joseph W. Reyburn married Arkansas Lawson. Their children are Mrs. Caroline (Reyburn) Dutton, Mrs. Frances (Reyburn) Van Etten, Miss Nellie Reyburn, and Samuel Woodward Reyburn.
3. Cordelia Wilder married William Scull. Children : Reyburn (deceased), Samuel Christian, Zoe de Villemont, William Biddle, and Melanie.
4. Mary Jane, or "Jamie," who married Dr. Benj. Scull, a distinguished musician, and for a long time organist of Christ Church. Their only daughter, Eleanor Therese, or "Nona," married William Joseph Dunklin. They had Jamie Barnes, Anderson, Prudilla, and Joseph Dibrell. Jamie Barnes married George Coit Davis, of Austin, Chicago, Ill. The 'only son of Dr. and Mrs. Benj. Scull is Miles Scull. unmarried.
5. Margaret Elizabeth, who married John Coleman Peay. Two younger sisters, Annie and Fanny Reyburn, died in early womanhood.
The surviving members of these families are steadfast in their devotion to the Church, and their names should, and will be, perpetuated in the annals of the Church.
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WILLIAM B. WAIT.
This name, so familiar to the members of the congrega- tion of Christ Church, as the guardian of her financial interest from the time of Bishop Otey's first visitation till very nearly the time of his death, must have full space here as a trusted Church official and highly esteemed citizen. From "T'he Encyclopedia of the New West," published by the United States Biographical Publishing Company, at Marshall, Texas, in 1881, is quoted the subjoined accurate sketch of Mr. Wait's life :
A. D. 1808. William B. Wait was born in Groton, Mass., January 10, 1808. His father, Levi Wait, a Scotch- man, a farmer, a Mason, and an eventempered kind of man, moved to Albany, N. Y., in 1817, and died there in 1822. Mr. Wait's mother was Elizabeth Jones, born at Acton, Mass. Her mother was married three times. First to Captain Isaac Davis, who was the first officer killed in the Revolution, near Concord Bridge, Mass., who is named in one of Webster's orations, delivered at Acton, on the occasion of the erection of the monument at that place.
A. D. 1881. Mr. Wait's mother raised eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the oldest, and six are living. (1881.) There has never been a stain or scandal heard of any one of these children, and there is not an office- holder among all the kith or kin.
A. D. 1824. Mr. Wait, leaving his home in Albany in 1824, went to Boston and remained five years, as a clerk, at $75 a year and his board, the first four years, and $100 for the last year, in a grocery store.
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A. D. 1829. In July, 1829, he left Boston and went to Cincinnati to better his prospects. HIe was in and about Cin- cinnati and Louisville two years, as a clerk in a store and on steaniboats. Up to this time he had saved no money. After reaching Cincinnati and paying his second week's board in advance, he had 123 cents left, and has never inherited any- thing since.
A. D. 1830-1843. On the 28th of December, 1830, he landed in Arkansas, and, being previously engaged, took the position of clerk in the store of Frederick Notrebe, a general trader at Arkansas Post. He remained with him till May, 1834, then went to Little Rock and went into business with Edward Dunn, under the firm name of Wait & Dunn, general traders. Mr. Dunn dying in 1836, Mr. Wait continued the business until 1838, when he went back to Arkansas Post, and went into business with Charles F. Notrebe, under the firm name of Notrebe & Wait, successors of Frederick Notrebe. He remained there till the fall of 1843, when (Mr. Notrebe having died in 1841) he brought the stock to Little Rock in September, 1843. From that time till 1854 he was actively engaged in selling goods, and all kinds of mercantile trans- actions.
A. D. 1854-1861. In February, 1854, he was burned out, and, from that time, went into the collection and exchange business, and so continued in that business until 1861, when the Civil War caused him to close up all business, as near as he could. During the war he remained in Little Rock with his family all the time, taking no part in it, except what is mentioned further on. Since the war Mr. Wait has been retired, doing no regular business, beyond taking care of his city and country real estate and other property. During the 'var his principal business was trying to take care of what he
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had. For about a year prior to General Steele's taking pos- session of Little Rock, he was acting for Edward Cross, deposi- tary of the Confederate States, and handled and paid out $33,000,000.
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