Nevada-Polk-Miller County ArArchives Biographies.....Duke, Sidney W. 
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 July 18, 2009, 10:45 am

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

SIDNEY W. DUKE.
    Sidney W. Duke, cashier of the First National Bank at Mena, was born in
Prescott, Arkansas, September 10, 1889. His grandfather, James W. Duke, was a
native of Georgia and served for four years in the Confederate army during the
Civil war. He was a farmer by occupation and spent his last days in Nevada
county, Arkansas. The grandfather in the maternal line was John W. Gann and he,
too, was born in Georgia, while at the present time he makes his home in Nevada
county, Arkansas, where he is extensively engaged in farming. He was one of the
standard bearers in the Confederate army during the period of hostilities
between the north and the south.

    T. H. Duke, the father of Sidney W. Duke, was born in Georgia and having
arrived at years of maturity wedded Eliza Gann, whose birth occurred near
Prescott, Arkansas, where they are still living. They became parents of six
children: Sidney W.; Myrtle, now the wife of J. D. Crosby, a contractor of Hope,
Arkansas; Fred, who is living in Mena; T. H., who is assistant cashier of the
First National Bank at Mena; Horace G., who is an insurance man at Fort Smith,
Arkansas; and Chipley Sterling, who is attending school in Prescott. The parents
are consistent members of the Baptist church and politically Mr. Duke is a
democrat. He went to Prescott with his parents soon after the Civil war and has
there resided to the present, now living retired from business, although for
many years he was connected with the lumber trade.

    Sidney W. Duke pursued his education in the Prescott high school, in the
University of Arkansas, which he attended for two years, and in the University
of Illinois, in which he was a student for a similar period. He started out to
provide for his own support by working for a contractor and builder of Little
Rock, with whom he remained for six months and later he engaged in the building
and loan business in Texarkana for an equal period. In September, 1912, he came
to Mena and secured the position of bookkeeper in the First National Bank. He
was promoted to the cashiership in 1917 and has occupied that position through
the intervening period, proving a courteous and obliging official and one who is
very popular with the patrons of the bank. He also has an insurance department
in the bank, of which he has charge and has gained a large clientage in that
connection. His business activities also extend to other corporations, for he is
the president of the Oden State Bank at Oden, Arkansas, a director oŁ the Bank
of Hatfield and secretary of the Duke Magruder Dry Goods Company at Mena.

    Mr. Duke votes with the democratic party and keeps thoroughly informed
concerning the vital questions and issues cf the day but does not seek office.
He belongs to the Baptist church and he is well known in fraternal circles,
being now exalted ruler of the Elks' Lodge, No. 781. He is also a Knight Templar
Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine and has filled the position of eminent
commander in Malta Commandery, No. 17, K. T., of Mena. He has membership in the
Kappa Sigma, a college fraternity, and he is ever most loyal to the interests
which be represents, whether of a public or private nature. He deserves much
credit for what he has accomplished, as he started out in the business world
empty-handed and has progressed by reason of his close application, his
thoroughness and persistency of purpose and his reliable methods in all of his
dealings. Today he is a well known figure in financial circles in western
Arkansas.


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


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