Pulaski-Jackson County ArArchives Biographies.....Remmel, Harmon L. 1852 - 
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Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

HON. HARMON L. REMMEL.

    Capability, resourcefulness and high ideals have made Harmon L. Remmel one
of the foremost financiers and business men of Arkansas and a recognized leader
in republican ranks in the state. His devotion to civic interests and the
progress and upbuilding of the commonwealth has been manifest in many tangible
ways. His success is that which brings intellectual liberty, making him a
citizen of the wider world of thought and knowledge. His plans and purposes have
ever found expression in practical methods for their achievement and that he
reaches his goal is perhaps best evidenced in the high positions which he
occupies as a citizen, as a political leader and as a banker.

    Those who know Mr. Remmel feel that prophetic vision must have influenced
the choice of his middle name, for they feel that it is a synonym of his entire
career. Harmon Liveright Remmel was born in Stratford, Fulton county, New York,
January 15, 1852, his parents being Godlove and Henrietta (Bever) Remmel, both
of whom were natives of Germany. The father was a manufacturer of Bruchhausen,
near Cologne, Prussia, but left that country at the time of the revolution of
1848 and sailed for the United States that he might enjoy the liberty and
freedom of the new world. He came to America to he an American citizen and not
to give a divided allegiance to the country, so that when the Civil war broke
out he gave three of his sons to the cause of the Union. He followed farming as
a life work and both he and his wife spent their remaining days in the Empire
state.

    Harmon L. Remmel, the only surviving son of the family, obtained his early
education in his native town and afterward studied in the Fairfield Seminary at
Fairfield, New York, subsequent to which time he took up the profession of
teaching, which he followed for a year in his native state. In 1871 he became a
resident of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and there engaged in business until 1874, when
he returned to New York and devoted his attention to the lumber trade in the
eastern metropolis. It was by reason of that line of business that he became
interested in the great lumber resources of Arkansas and eventually came to this
state to make his home in 1876. For a time he resided at Newport, Jackson
county, where he engaged extensively in the manufacture of lumber, being
associated for several years with his brother, Augustus C. Remmel, under the
firm style of Remmel Brothers, the partnership being maintained until 1883, when
the brother died in Newport.

    Harmon L. Remmel continued an active factor in the business life of Newport
for two decades and then in 1896 removed to Little Rock, where he has since made
his home. In the meantime he had contributed to the development of the former
city, doing much to upbuild its material interests and to further its civic
welfare and progress. He was twice elected a member of the village council and
for eight years served on the board of education, being chosen president of the
first school board formed at Newport. Since those early days Mr. Remmel has
never hesitated to manifest the keenest interest in public affairs and has
cooperated in many plans and projects which have been fruitful of splendid
results in the upbuilding of the commonwealth. At the same time he has conducted
important and extensive business interests, being particularly well known in
financial circles. For a considerable period he occupied the presidency of the
Mercantile Trust Company of Little Rock, retiring from that position in 1912,
while in 1914 he assisted in organizing the Bankers Trust Company of Little Rock
and has since been at the head of the corporation. In addition to his banking
interests Mr. Remmel has been state manager for Arkansas of the Mutual Life
Insurance Company of New York for twenty-six years.

    Mr. Remmel has been married twice.   On the 13th of March, 1878, he wedded
Laura Lee Stafford of Staunton, Virginia, member of one of the old and prominent
families of that state and a daughter of John Stafford, who was a soldier of the
Confederate army in the Civil war, as were his three sons. Mrs. Remmel died in
October, 1913, and in 1915 Mr. Remmel was married in Fort Covington, New York,
to Elizabeth I. Cameron, of a prominent family in that community. Prior to her
marriage she was a teacher of music in the Presbyterian College at Asheville,
North Carolina. Afterward for several years she was traveling secretary of the
Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, covering a number of states. Since her
marriage she has been deeply interested in the Young Women's Christian
Association work and at the close of the war she was chairman of the Assyrian
and Armenian Drive of Little Rock and Pulaski county, having over four hundred
women in her organization, and secured more than the quota of funds assigned to
her to raise. She was also active in the Jewish Relief Drive of 1918-19. They
have one son, Harmon L., born November 14, 1916. Mr. Remmel and his wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and manifest a helpful
interest in its work. They are also prominent in the social circles of the city
and the hospitality of their own home is greatly enjoyed hy their many friends.
Mr. Remmel has long manifested most appreciative interest in the Young Men's
Christian Association and has served as a director thereof for many years. He
belongs to the American Bankers Association and has been a member of the
executive council of the savings bank section. He was made a member of the state
capitol commission, which had in charge the erection of the state capitol building.

    A stanch republican since age conferred upon him the right of franchise, Mr.
Remmel has become a national figure in republican politics, not as an office
holder. for he has had no ambition to fill political positions, but as one who
has stood loyally back of the principles upon which the party is based. At times
he has consented to become a candidate for office, but this has been really as a
means of helping his party. In early manhood he was elected from Jackson county
to the state legislature. In 1884 he was nominated for congress hut was unable
to overcome the large normal democratic majority. It was two years after this
time, however, that he was elected to the general assembly, being one of the
first regularly elected republican members of the legislature following the
reconstruction period after the Civil war. In 1894 the republicans named him as
their candidate for governor, and while defeated by the Hon. James P. Clarke,
the latter, after becoming chief executive, manifested his appreciation of the
sterling qualities and distinctive abilities of his former opponent by naming
him as the only republican member of the state board of charities. When in 1896
Mr. Remmel again became candidate for governor he was defeated by Hon. Daniel W.
Jones and in 1900, when he was a third time a candidate, his successful opponent
was the Hon. Jeff Davis, although on each occasion Mr. Remmel received a vote
far in advance of that usually accorded the republican party. On the last
occasion of his candidacy his vote was about forty-eight per cent above that of
the republican candidate of two years before. It was by Governor George W.
Donaghey, also a democrat, that Mr. Remmel was made a member of the state
capitol commission, which completed the present magnificent statehouse. Mr.
Remmel served as collector of internal revenue during President McKinley's first
administration and President Roosevelt appointed him in 1906 to the office of
United States marshal for the eastern district of Arkansas. Upon the expiration
of his term in May, 1910, he was reappointed by President Taft. For fourteen
years Mr. Remmel was chairman of the republican state central committee and
wisely directed the activities of the party during state and national campaigns.
In 1916 Mr. Remmel was the republican nominee for the United States senate
against W. F. Kirby, who was elected. He made a most creditable race. In
January, 1921, he was reelected chairman of the state central committee. He was
a delegate-at-large to the national conventions which named Benjamin Harrison,
William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William H. Taft as presidential
candidates, and he also acted as a member of the notification committee which
officially carried the news of nomination to McKinley and Roosevelt. In the
national convention which made Taft the standard hearer of the party he served
as a member of the committee on resolutions. He was a delegate-at-large to the
republican national convention in 1920 and member of the sub-committee on
arrangements which prepared for the meeting of the national convention in
Chicago. He has done much effective and valuable service for Arkansas along many
lines of improvement and progress. While serving in the general assembly in 1887
he was made a member of the joint committee which formulated and carried out the
plan under which the long standing debt against the state, amounting to more
than one million dollars, was adjusted and paid, much to the relief and benefit
of the taxpayers of the commonwealth, and thereby upholding the integrity of the
state. In January, 1910, Mr. Remmel was made member of a committee, by
appointment of the governor, that visited the national capital and brought to
the attention of the proper federal authorities the matter of securing a federal
government appropriation for Arkansas whereby there would be met the expense of
a thorough survey of the wet and overflowed lands in the northeastern section of
the state, that the district might be rendered cultivatable and transformed into
a valuable agricultural region. In connection with this committee's work at
Washington a state drainage convention was held at Little Rock in February,
1910, Mr. Remmel acting as chairman oŁ the convention. He has long been one of
the foremost factors in the promotion of good roads and for one year served as
president of the Arkansas Good Roads and Drainage Association. While filling the
office of president of the Little Rock Board of Trade he did much to maintain
high civic ideals and to advance the various departments of practical work
undertaken by that body. On the 20th of May, 1921, he was nominated by President
Harding as collector of internal revenue for Arkansas to succeed Jack Walker.
Mr. Remmel was selected for the office at the recent meeting of the republican
state central committee, and according to arrangement with Mr. Walker he took
office at the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1, 1921. Since 1913 he has been
the member of the republican national committee from Arkansas.

    Mr. Remmel was a close personal friend of Presidents Harrison, McKinley,
Roosevelt and Taft. During the summer of 1918 President Taft visited the various
cantonments throughout the United States to inspire and instruct the young
soldiers in lessons of patriotism in their duty to their country before their
departure to the front. During his visits to Camp Pike he was entertained by Mr.
Remmel. After the death of Chief Justice White, Mr. Remmel probably was one of
the first men in the United States to wire President Harding, urging the
appointment of ex-President Taft as the successor of the chief justice. He
followed up his message by a personal visit to the president and was given the
assurance by him that Taft would be appointed. Governor Jones appointed Mr.
Remmel a colonel on his staff.

    There has been no period in the history of Arkansas when she has needed the
aid and support of her loyal sons that Mr. Remmel has not stood with the
foremost in promoting her interests and welfare; and when the nation needed his
aid he was found equally ready to the call of duty. He took a very helpful part
in all of the activities relating to the World war and became chairman of the
Four-Minute men of the state, perfecting an organization of one hundred and
seventy-five speakers in the different counties. He campaigned the state three
times in the interests of Liberty Loans and was the largest subscriber for
Liberty bonds of any man in Arkansas. He served on the committee that went to
Washington, D. C, to secure the location of Camp Pike and on another committee
to protest against Camp Pike being removed from the state and he served on the
State Council of Defense. In the summer of 1918 a plan was evolved to have each
farmer give a bushel of wheat, corn, cottonseed or other product for the benefit
of the United States and the allied countries. Colonel Remmel took up this
matter and went to Washington, where he secured the approval of President Wilson
and, returning to Little Rock, started operations. Products to the value of
forty thousand dollars were given by farmers by the time the armistice was
signed, at which time the work was dropped. Another official honor that has come
to Mr. Remmel has been the election to the presidency of the Arkansas Bankers
Association. In everything that he has attempted, quick discernment and the
faculty of separation of the important features of any subject from its
incidental or accidental circumstances have characterized his work. When he
presents any cause before an audience it is a dull mind that does not respond to
the touch of his thought, to the play of his fancy, to the force of his logic.
His business has ever balanced up with the principles of truth and honor, while
his public service has been of a most far-reaching and resultant character.
Anyone meeting Mr. Remmel face to face would know at once that he is an
individual embodying all the elements of what in this country we term a "square"
man—one in whom to have confidence, a dependable man in any relation and any
emergency. His quietude of deportment, his easy dignity, his frankness and
cordiality of address, with the total absence of anything sinister or anything
to conceal, foretoken a man who is ready to meet any obligation of life with the
confidence and courage that come of conscious personal ability, right conception
of things and an habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of human
activities.


Additional Comments:

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


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