Faulkner-Union County ArArchives Biographies.....Donaghey, George W. 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ar/arfiles.html
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 June 2, 2009, 11:25 pm

Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

HON. GEORGE W. DONAGHEY.
    Hon. George W. Donaghey, on whom was conferred the highest honor within the
gifts of the people of Arkansas in his election to the governorship of the state
in 1908 and who by reelection was continued as the chief executive of the state
for four years, has in many other ways been associated with events which have
made history in this commonwealth. He is identified with many important
financial and commercial enterprises and with many projects looking to the
benefit and welfare of city and state. His birth occurred near Oakland post
office, Union parish, Louisiana, on the 1st of July, 1856. His parents moved
across the state line into Union county, Arkansas, when be was an infant and
there he remained until after he had attained the age of about seventeen years,
eventually establishing his home in Conway, Arkansas, in 1879, when a young man
of twenty-three years. Early in life he had learned the carpenter's trade, his
first position being that of a bench head in a cabinet shop. There is nothing
for which the American people have as great respect, as for the record of the
self-made man—one who rises through sheer merit and ability from comparative
obscurity to prominence, and this Governor Donaghey has done. He early realized
the eternal principle that industry wins and, moreover, he has exemplified in
his entire life that honesty is the best policy. The qualities of diligence and
industry, therefore, were among his marked characteristics from the time he made
his initial step in the business world. After working at the carpenter's trade
for some time he took up contracting and building on his own account and his
excellent workmanship, his fair dealing and his business sagacity soon led to
the development of a large patronage. As his financial resources increased he
made judicious investment in real estate, acquiring much valuable property,
including a number of well located business houses. He was the builder of
Hendrix College, which was his first large contract and later he was given the
contract for the erection at Fayetteville of the Washington county courthouse.
He was likewise the builder of the courthouse at Longview, Texas, and of the
Arkansas Insane Asylum, which he rebuilt after its partial destruction in the
tornado in 1894. He has had important contracts in many other sections of the
state, as well as in Oklahoma and in Texas, and gradually he advanced to a
foremost position in the ranks of contractors and builders in the southwest. As
the years have passed he has made large investments in business enterprises of
importance and is now the active vice president of the Bankers Trust Company of
Little Rock. He is also the vice president of the Faulkner County Bank at
Conway, Arkansas, and the vice president of the Beal-Burrow Wholesale Dry Goods
Company of Little Rock. He has just completed a building for this company and
likewise has recently completed the new Exchange National Bank building of the
capital city. He is the president of the Donaghey Real Estate & Construction
Company and is the chairman of the board of the Broadway Main street improvement
commissioners, which board is to erect two bridges over the Arkansas river. His
work has at all times been of a character that has contributed in marked measure
to the development and upbuilding of the state and he is justly accounted one of
the most valued and progressive men of Arkansas.

    On the 20th of September, 1883, Mr. Donaghey was married to Miss Louvenia
Wallace, and they have a legion of friends throughout the commonwealth. They
hold membership in the First Methodist Episcopal church, South, and Mr. Donaghey
is serving as chairman of its hoard of trustees, while at all times he is a
generous contributor to its support and does everything to promote the growth of
the church. He is a Scottish Rite Mason, is identified with the Knights of
Pythias and is a member of the Country Club. During the World war he served on
all bond drives and on the finance hoard, helped to locate Camp Pike and huilt
the aviation warehouse in Little Rock at a cost of one million dollars. His
political endorsement has always been given to the democratic party and the
first public office which be held was that of member of the first board of
capital commissioners. In the democratic primaries of 1908 he sought the
nomination for governor. It had come to he recognized that the man who could
secure the democratic nomination had practically won the election. Mr. Donaghey
was opposed by a strong faction in the party, but overcame all opposition and
was nominated by a large vote and won the election in the following September by
a splendid majority. In 1910 he was again the nominee of the party, carrying
every county in the state primary election, except two, and once more he was
elected to the office, first taking his seat as chief executive on the 14th of
January, 1909, and remaining at the head of the state government for a period of
four years. For several years prior to 1908 the new state capitol, then in
course of construction, had been the cause of frequent political dissension.
Donaghey's election is proof conclusive that the people had at last grown tired
of the agitation and that they wanted now to see the political end of the matter
settled for good and all. Donaghey promised, in the event of his election, to
complete the capitol and to give the state full value for every dollar expended
on it during his administration. On his record as a contractor and builder of
public buildings he was able to show evidence of his capacity to make good that
promise. Under his direction practically all of the interior construction that
was placed in the building by the former contractors, Caldwell and Drake, was
condemned as being unsafe, was torn out and later replaced by heavier and better
building materials. In two years this work had advanced far enough for the
legislature of 1911 to hold its session there. Governor Donaghey was reelected
in 1910. He continued, however, a member of the capitol commission until the
building was completed, in which position he served the state for a number of
years without compensation for his labor. To him must be given most of the
credit for the creation and integrity of construction of the capitol as it
stands today, pronounced by the hundreds who visit it each year a building of
magnificent proportions and ideal appointments. To one who has visited all the
principal capitals of Europe it is "one of the world's beautiful buildings" and
a "triumph of architecture." As one might have anticipated his administration
was businesslike and progressive. He avoided all useless expenditure of public
money and the equally useless retrenchments which block advancement and
improvement. He studied every phase of public life coming under his direction
and sought at all times to advance the welfare of the state, the indorsement of
his splendid service coming in his reelection. Notwithstanding all this he
considers the pursuits of private life as in themselves abundantly worthy of his
best efforts and is accomplishing much for the state's benefit as well as for
the upbuilding of his fortunes in the conduct of important commercial and
industrial interests with which he is identified. He is also a member of the
board of control of the state charitable institutions of Arkansas.


Additional Comments:

Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ar/faulkner/photos/bios/donaghey29bs.jpg

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ar/faulkner/bios/donaghey29bs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/arfiles/

File size: 8.2 Kb