Biographical and Pictorial History of Arkansas, Dedication & Preface

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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
BY JOHN HALLUM.
VOL. I.
ALBANY: WEED, PARSON'S AND COMPANY, PRINTERS.
1887.

Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven,
BY JOHN HALLUM, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.


DEDICATION.

This work originated in the affectionate solicitude of my wife to provide useful
and profitable entertainment for a restless nature when not engaged in the
active discharge of responsible duties. "Write the Bench and Bar, the History of
Arkansas, or a combination of both. Such a work or works would lead you through
an original, an untrodden field in our local literature, and would, furnish
useful employment and profitable entertainment for your talents. If you would
bring such a work up to the standard of your capacity, I am sure an appreciative
public would receive it favorably. I would appreciate a work brought to that
standard infinitely more than any pecuniary consideration could inspire."

Thus wrote the Sponsor to the Biographical and Pictorial History of Arkansas,
whose cultured eye has, with parental solicitude, scanned every page of the
manuscript, anxious to verify the kind prophecy, and to remove impediments to
its fruition; with what result, a critical, yet generous public will determine.

Then, to you, my devoted guardian, whose claims are first on my gratitude and
affectionate consideration, this work is dedicated as a testimonial of the high
estimation in which you are held by the
                                                 AUTHOR
  LONOKE, ARKANSAS, July 25, 1887.

PREFACE.

The author's original design was to confine this work to the bench and bar of
the State, but in the progress of its execution, it was found a difficult task
to divorce the history of individuals from that of the State, because as the
former made the latter, they are as intimately blended as the colors of the
rainbow, and as difficult to separate - hence the natural combination of both.
It was found a laborious and difficult task to gather from conflicting oral and
traditional sources, the major part of the material embodied in the biography of
the early settlers in the territory, who have passed away without leaving any
permanent record or written history. This is lamentably the case with many of
the ablest men who were determinate factors at an important epoch in our early
history.

To rescue this history from threatened oblivion, before it passed beyond the
reach of authentic record, has been a labor of love, inspired by a sense of
duty, long neglected by our citizens.

Many of the events related in the progress of the work, grew out of that
intemperate heat engendered by the formation and crystallization of political
parties during our territorial existence; and with the hour of their origin,
dates radical differences of opinion, colored by partisan birth, which has been
continued and handed down to the descendants of the actors; and it would be as
idle as visionary in the historian to expect to reconcile and please those who
embrace these opposite views. No such expectation has been indulged. The only
solicitude felt by the author, is to avoid partisan feeling, and to make the
nearest approach to truth.

Where criticism has been invited, it has to some extent been indulged in the
interest of history, without reference to the personal desires of the living,
where such desires would antagonize the austerity and simplicity of truth.

The limited history of a class of young men who have put on the toga virilis,
under flattering auspices to the State and society have been embraced for two
considerations, in opposition to the commonly received opinions of the public;
first, because they are the honorable representatives of a class on whom the
highest hopes and interests of society are now devolving; and secondly, because
this work is intended to touch the springs of inspiration in the young as well
as the aged, by examples from their own class. The author has always felt a deep
interest in this class of young men. The value of their example to noble youth
is inestimable. The example of the matured and finished character is always
valuable, but often not more so than that of the young man who is expanding and
crystallizing into noble, moral and intellectual proportions. The young man,
advancing on an upward plane with his "arrows pointed to the sun," will always
challenge the admiration of mankind, and impart a valuable lesson to his race.
The superficial critic, who has no capacity to peep beneath the surface of
things, nor to take in any other than a finished picture, will not be satisfied
with this division of the work, but charity will ascribe the failure to his
misfortune.

Another important consideration is found in the defense of the good name of the
State against the slanderous imputation of repudiation raised by her spoliators
and those claiming to hold obligations against the enfranchised people created
by them.

The artistic execution of the Portrait and Pictorial Department has been
limited, and denied that high art standard much desired by the author, not from
choice, but by financial considerations not easily overcome by an obscure and
impecunious author, essaying for the first time recognition in the guild of
letters.

This design finds sanction in that cultured art which is wedded to the
illustrated-literature of the day, and a desire to hand down to posterity, a
grand gallery of our local celebrities.

The scope marked out for this work embraces two more volumes to follow at
intervals of one year apart, if unforeseen contingencies do not prevent the
execution of the labor.

Many biographical sketches have been omitted from this volume for want of space,
and because the proportion of biography to history already exceeds the desired
limits.

The author has been greatly aided in collecting material for this work by the
Hon. Samuel W. Williams, whose long residence in Arkansas, love for this
character of literature, and tenacious memory, peculiarly fits him for such
valuable and kind offices. In a great number of instances he has pointed me to
sources of information when it was not within his immediate knowledge.

The author for the same reasons acknowledges the obligation under which he has
been placed by the Hon. William Walker of Fort Smith, the Hon. A. m. Wilson of
Fayetteville, the venerable John Peel of Bentonville, the Hon. Jesse Turner, the
For. Benjamin T. DuVal, Governor Elias N. Conway, General Albert Pike, the
venerable W. F. Pope, Governor Henry M. Rector, and Mrs. Elizabeth R. Wright,
the accomplished daughter of Governor Fulton, and to J. H. Van Hoose of
Fayetteville, Arkansas. These parties have been uniformly courteous, and have
rendered me much valuable aid in the collection of material.

And it would be an offense against letters to omit the acknowledgment of
valuable aid extended by my wife and constant companion - the foster-mother of
this undertaking-whose solicitude for the result far exceeds that of the
novitiate who responded to her solicitation to undertake the task of,
                                             AUTHOR.
  LONOKE, ARKANSAS July 28, 1887.