"The Province and the States"

L. B. Barry The Province and the States Weston Arthur Goodspeed, LL.B. Editor-in-Chief L. B. Barry, of Fort Smith, sheriff of Sebastian county, was born in Mississippi in 1854. He continued to reside in his native state until he was sixteen years of age, when he accompanied his parents to Sebastian county and has since made that vicinity his home. Mr. Barry attended the private schools of Sebastian county and at a tender age started in the battle of life. The years of his young manhood were directed to manual labor, and he attributes much of his success to the strenuous days when he earned his bread according to the biblical injunction. Mr. Barry is a splendid example of the self-made man, and has always been very popular in his community. For six years he served as constable of Fort Smith district and discharged the arduous duties of this position with zeal and ability. In the fall of 1902 he was elected sheriff of Sebastian county, one of the most important offices in the gift of the people, and on October 31, 1902, took active charge of his office for a two-year term. Mr. Barry is identified with many of the secret orders and affiliates with the Woodmen, Red Men, Turners and several others. He is a member of the Baptist church. He was married at Fort Smith to Mary Elizabeth Kelly, a native of that city. They have seven children, nearly all of whom are students of the splendid schools of Fort Smith. Mr. Barry is a good and substantial citizen, a faithful and conscientious officer, and is well known and liked all over the county. William Joseph Echols The Province and the States Weston Arthur Goodspeed, LL.B. Editor-in-Chief William Joseph Echols II, of Fort Smith, Ark., a prominent business man and head of W. J. Echols & Co., wholesale grocers, was born near Senatobia, Miss., August 3, 1872. His father, the late William Joseph Echols I, a native of Mississippi and for many years a prominent merchant of that state, removed to Fort Smith, Ark., in 1881, and immediately began the wholesale grocery business under the firm name of Echols & Johnson. This was an exceedingly prosperous concern and in 1885 the name became W. J. Echols & Co., and since that period this name has become a synonym for progress, honesty and absolute fairness. Mr. Echols I was a man of great personal energy, tireless in his efforts to advance the interests of his section and better the conditions of his home city. He was the pioneer among the large wholesale dealers of Fort Smith and to him is chiefly due the prestige this city enjoys as a wholesale center. Mr. Echols I organized the Merchants' Bank of Fort Smith, and was president, director and principal stockholder of this sterling institution up to his death. He was one of the founders and vice-president of the Williams Echols Dry Goods Company, one of the largest concerns of this kind in the South. He married Miss Elizabeth Carter, a native of North Carolina, but residing in Mississippi at the time of their marriage. Mr. Echols died in New York City on March 21, 1897. His wife died at Fort Smith on May 14, 1925. They had three children, the oldest William Joseph Echols, II. William J. Echols II, the present, is the only son of the late W. J. Echols I, and received his rudimentary education in the public schools of Fort Smith and later matriculated at the University of Virginia. He began his business career in the wholesale grocery house of his father and upon the death of the latter assumed active charge of this immense business and has displayed much executive ability in his management of its complex affairs. This is the largest wholesale grocery firm in Arkansas, their business extending over several states and requiring a large corps of traveling salesmen. Mr. Echols II has numerous other interests of importance, holding the position of president and director of the Merchants' Bank of Fort Smith, vice-president of the Williams-Echols Dry Goods Company, vice-president of Fort Smith Commercial college, and is a director of Fort Smith Commercial club. He was married at Fort Smith, July 12, 1902, to Miss Fannie Johnson Sandcls. Elizabeth Bliss Echols, oldest child of William Joseph Echols, II, and Fannie Johnson Sandels Echols, was born on August 22, 1903, and was named for her grandmother, who had been named by her mother for Mrs. W.W.S. Bliss, daughter of Zachary Taylor (who had been stationed at Fort Smith before the Mexican War). She married William Fadjo Cravens, father of Katherine Elizabaeth Cravens (born November 17, 1936) and William Fadjo Cravens, Jr. born January 28, 1929. The second child of William Joseph Echols, II and his wife Fannie was William Joseph Echols, III (born January 21, 1905, at Fort Smith), who married Julia Albers in 1930. Their two children, both born at Fort Smith, are: Julia Albers Echols (born February 28, 1931) and William Joseph Echols, IV (born January 8, 1935) John Henry Rogers The Province and the States Weston Arthur Goodspeed, LL.B. Editor-in-Chief John Henry Rogers, of Fort Smith, Ark., is judge of the United States district court for the Western district of Arkansas and was born near Roxobel, Bertie county, N. C, October 9, 1845. In 1852 he removed to Madison county, Miss., and here continued his studies begun in North Carolina and obtained a knowledge of the subjects afforded by the curricula of these schools, delving superficially into Latin and Greek. At the beginning of the Civil war, acting as drill master, he instructed the students of his school in military tactics and during 1861-62 was a member of a company of home guards, composed of old men and boys, and here also served as drill master. On March 10, 1862, when only sixteen years of age, he was mustered into the Confederate service as a private in Company H, Ninth Mississippi volunteers, and followed its fortunes until they surrendered at Greensboro, N. C. May 1, 1865. He was promoted by special order, on May 10, 1864, to be first lieutenant of Company F, Ninth Mississippi regiment, Sharp's brigade, Hill's division, Lee's corps, for gallant conduct on the field at Franklin, Tenn., and served as such until the close of the war. Walking back to his father's home, a distance of one thousand one hundred miles, he resumed his interrupted studies and in the fall of 1865 entered Center college, Danville, Ky., where he remained until February, 1867. He then entered the University of Mississippi at Oxford and was graduated in the class of 1868. While a student he began the study of law and was admitted to the bar in the summer of 1868 at Canton, Miss. He taught school and continued to study law until January, 1869, when he removed to Fort Smith, Ark., and began the practice of his chosen profession. On invitation he accepted desk room in the office of Judge William Walker, one of the oldest and most eminent lawyers of Arkansas, and in 1871 became his partner. This relationship continued until 1874, being dissolved by mutual consent, and then Judge Rogers practiced alone until 1877 when the Twelfth judicial circuit having been created, he was elected, on April 20, 1877, its first judge and two years later re-elected. He resigned this position in May, 1882, and in November of the same year was elected a member of the Forty-eighth congress, and re-elected to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth and Fifty-first. He declined a renomination for the office, deciding to devote his attention to his private affairs and the education of his children. Judge Rogers now formed a partnership with James F. Read, of Fort Smith, who had been his partner prior to Judge Rogers' congressional career. He was a member of the Democratic state convention of 1892, drafted the state platform of that year, was made chairman of the delegation to the Democratic national convention and cast the vote of Arkansas for Cleveland. He served many years as president of the hoard of education of Fort Smith, secured a grant of two hundred fifty acres of land from the government as a trust fund for these schools and has been an important factor in bringing these institutions up to their present standard. Upon the death of Hon. I. C Parker, in the fall of 1896, he was appointed his successor by President Cleveland and since that time has filled this office, that of United States district judge, for the Western district of Arkansas. On October 9, 1873. be was married to Mary Gray, only daughter of Dr. Theodore and Elizabeth (Gray) Dunlap of Danville, Ky. She is of distinguished ancestry, both of England and America. They bore six children. Judge Rogers is universally conceded to be the strongest man in his section of Arkansas and is one of the South's foremost jurists. His record in congress was a brilliant one and his bold, determined stand against the methods of the speaker resulted in much good to his party and section. Styles T. Rowe The Province and the States Weston Arthur Goodspeed, LL.B. Editor-in-Chief Styles T. Rowe, of Greenwood, Ark., judge of the Twelfth judicial circuit of Arkansas, was born at Troy, Ala.. May 28, 1861. His father, Rev. Daniel Rowe, was a native of Georgia and well known as a missionary Baptist preacher in the states of Georgia and Alabama. Rev. Doctor Rowe removed to Arkansas in 1872, settled in Sebastian county, and resided there until his death in 1876. Judge Rowe's mother was Margaret A. Taylor, a native of Georgia, descended from Gen. Zacharv Taylor and a relative of Alexander H. Stephens, and now resides at Greenwood. Styles T. Rowe attended the public schools of Alabama and Arkansas, receiving a good academic education, in addition to the valuable training received from his father and mother, both of whom were well lettered and cultured, and the refined atmosphere of his home added much to his sum of knowledge. Judge Rowe read law with Judge C B. Neal, of Greenwood, and was admitted to the bar October 22, 1882. At the same time his older brother, Robert A. Rowe, was admitted to practice, and thby formed a partnership under the firm name of Rowe & Rowe. This firm very successfully continued until Judge Rowe was nominated for the circuit bench, to which office he was elected by a handsome vote, and assumed the duties of this office on October 31, 1898. To this honorable position he was re-elected by a pleased constituency and began a new term of four years on October 31, 1902. This is one of the largest and most important courts of the state, and Judge Rowe has presided over it with ability, dignity and justice. He is a member of the Fort Smith Bar association and of the Arkansas Bar association. Judge Rowe is one of the most prominent secret order men of the state, being a master and Royal Arch Mason, and deputy grand master of Free and Accepted Masons of Arkansas: member of Eastern Star, Odd Fellows, Knights of Honor, Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Elks. In matters religious he is a strong Methodist and is a consistent member of this denomination. He served as deputy circuit clerk of the Twelfth circuit for a short time subsequent to his admission to the bar. Judge Rowe was married in Sebastian county, Ark., April 23, 1884, to Emma C Patton, a native of Arkansas, and their union has been blessed with four bright and interesting children: Prentiss E.. Rosa Emma, Styles P. and Rupert H, all students of Arkansas schools. Reverend John Sandels The Province and the States Weston Arthur Goodspeed, LL.B. Editor-in-Chief The Reverend John Sandels, an Episcopal minister, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, on April 21, 1810. The exact date he came to the United States is unknown, but by the 1830s he was teaching Greek at Kenyon College in Ohio. On November 11, 1846, he married Catherine Mary Hines (born January 15, 1824), and during the late 1850s he moved his family to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he was Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Then in 1860 he became first Rector of St. John’s Parish at Fort Smith. During the Civil War the family refugeed in Louisiana, then returned to Fort Smith afterward. The Reverend Sandels died on October 15, 1874, his wife on April 12, 1897, at Fort Smith. One of their children, Monti Hines Sandels (born August 13, 1851, at Williamsport, Tennessee), married Bettie Bliss Johnson, daughter of Charles B. and Margaret Amanda Rector Johnson, of Fort Smith, on October 9, 1879. Monti Hines Sandels was an attorney, elected an Associate justice of the Arkansas supreme Court in 1888, took office in 1889, and died on November 12, 1890. His wife, born September 26, 1854, died on November 19, 1889. Their oldest child, Fannie Johnson Sandels (born September 22, 1881, at Fort Smith), married William Joseph Echols, II on July 29, 1902, at Fort Smith. Echols (born August 3, 1872, at Senatobia Mississippi) had come to fort Smith with his family in 1881. He was the son of William Joseph Echols, founder in 1882 of Merchants Bank (now Merchants National Bank. (below added by lr) Aug 1, 1902 Fort Smith Times Record names mentioned: Sandels, Echols, Vaulx, Robertson, Miller, Johnson George Sengel 1882-1949 The Province and the States Weston Arthur Goodspeed, LL.B. Editor-in-Chief George Sengel, of Fort Smith. Ark., a prominent merchant and state senator from the Twenty-eighth senatorial district, was born at Brumath, France, November 11, 1852. He accompanied his parents to Fort Smith, in 1856, and attended the common schools of that period, receiving only such education as they afforded. When fifteen years old he entered the hardware business with J. C. Atkinson, starting at the very bottom, and has devoted all his energies and labors to this line of commercial industry, until July 1, 1903, when he retired from commercial life and transferred his business to his brother Edward, and his son George. In 1876 he became the partner of W. N. Avers, and started the firm of Ayres & Company, withdrawing from this firm in 1879, when he organized the firm of Sengel & Schulte, hardware merchants, and in T888 bought the interest of Mr. Schulte and organized the Sengel Hardware Company, with himself at its head. They did a large and successful business throughout this entire section. He has been a factor in the upbuilding of Fort Smith as well as the entire state, and devoted much of his time and means for this purpose. When the commercial league of Fort Smith was organized, he was chosen its first president, serving from 1896 to 1899. It was an organization which accomplished much for the city and was a recognized commercial body throughout the entire state. In 1898 the business men of the state assembled at Little Rock to organize the Arkansas board of trade. It was the largest and most notable assemblage which ever occurred in the state, being composed of Arkansas' most prominent business men. Mr. Sengel was elected the first president of this organization, and made it a live institution whose influence was felt in all sections of the commonwealth. He was sent as a delegate from Arkansas to the commercial congress which convened in New Orleans, and has been a member of that organization ever since, being a member of the executive committee. He was the author of the resolution presented to the commercial congress in St. Louis, asking the elimination of the tariff question from the platforms of the political parties in the United States, and referring it to a commission. He was sent by the commercial league of Fort Smith as a member of a state committee in 1898 to use his efforts to get an increased appropriation for the Arkansas river. Mr. Sengel was selected by this committee to make the principal address on rivers and harbors, and in doing so, presented an array of statistical matter that was a great surprise to the members, thus becoming the direct means of securing an additional appropriation of one hundred thousand dollars. He was a member of the city- council for two years and a member of the board of public affairs for two years. In 1900 he was elected state senator from the Twenty-eighth district for a four year term, and took a prominent stand in both sessions in behalf of the state. He was a member of Gov. W. M. Fishback's staff and accompanied him to the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893; and was also a member of the staff of Gov. Dan. W. Jones with the rank of colonel. He was appointed by Governor Jones, a delegate from the state 0$ Arkansas to the initial meeting in St. Louis, to take steps to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase. After it was determined to hold a World's Fair, he addressed that body in a beautiful and patriotic speech, naming the official colors of the exposition, which were adopted amid cheers. This speech is herein included. "Mr. Chairman: This convention has now determined to hold a grand exposition celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase and we have also selected the place to hold the exposition. The next question should be the selection of the colors of this great undertaking. History tells us and our own experience has taught us that upon the birth of a nation or the launching of any great enterprise-, the first act after its advent is to adopt an emblem, a flag,or colors agreeable to the framers of the undertaking. Ii is therefore meet and proper that we should select the official colors of this exposition. I have in my mind and which I will present, colors upon which we can all unite, colors that art dear to every American heart, colors that will receive the unqualified endorsement of every American citizen, colors that we of the South once endeavored to trample under foot, but which today are as dear to every Southern heart as is the love of a mother for her offspring, as dear to the states of our own southland as they are to the states of the frozen North; and when the president of the United States asked for volunteers to defend our own country, and to battle for a down-trodden people, the boys of the South were first to respond, and shoulder to shoulder they stood with the boys of the North charging up the hill at San Juan to the tune of Yankee Doodle and under the folds of Old Glory. I take special pride in presenting the colors, as I wish the South to have the honor of naming them, and then to me personally it will be a pleasant distinction, for the colors that I will name will blend with the colors of that nation, whose great Napoleon made the Louisiana Purchase a possibility, the tri-colors of France with our own red, white and blue. I was born in Sunny France, but this great unconquerable land of America is the home of my adoption. I love her people, her traditions and her government, and her Flag that today commands the respect and admiration of the whole world, and woe to them who would assail it. The women of America wil1 watch with anxious looks the taste displayed by the gathering in selecting the colors; the colors that I will propose, will, I am sure, meet their approval, for we do not wish to antagonize the ladies. We will need them to make this great event a success, and we can't do without them. God bless them. Therefore, Mr. President, it is my privilege and pleasure to move you, sir, that the official colors of the Louisiana Purchase celebration be red, white and blue." He is a Knight Templar, past eminent commander of Jacques De Molay Commandery, and past master of Belie Point Lodge Masons No. 20. He is past exalted ruler of the Elks of Fort Smith, and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen: and is a member of the First Presbyterian church. In retiring from commercial life, Mr. Sengel turned his attention to another field of work, and originated Hie Suburban Railroad Company of Fort Smith, of which he was elected president. After disposing of this splendid piece of development to the Gould interests, who have since built the road, thus directly causing the substantial growth of Fort Smith. He organized the Sengel Development Company of which he is president. He also organized the Fort Smith & Northern Railroad, of which he is president, and which will be a great feeder for Fort Smith. He is also a heavy stockholder and director of the Fort Smith Fight & Transfer Company of Fort Smith, including the street car lines, and gas and electric light plants of Fort Smith. He built the first electric light plant in the city in 1885, and has been connected with this industry ever since. Mr. Sengel was married at Fort Smith, December 3, 1878, to Marv C Kirchherr, whose father died when she was an infant. Her mother having married Mr. A. Haglin, and her name being taken from her middle name, she was best known by her friends as Xannie Haglin. They have seven children; the eldest daughter, Miss Ethel, is a graduate of the Fort Smith high school and Belmont college, Nashville, Tenn. She was elected queen of the Fort Smith carnival during the visit of Admiral Schley in the fall of 1902, by one of the most splendid votes recorded in Arkansas, and ruled as queen on this occasion with much grace. His other children are: George, Jerome, Early, Marguerite, Beaufort, and Randolph.