WHITE CO, AR - REV. ISOM P. LANGLEY - Bio


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SOURCE:  Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern 
Arkansas. Chicago:Goodspeed Publishers, 1890.
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Rev. Isom P. Langley, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Beebe, 
owes his nativity to Arkansas, and was born in Clark County, September 
2, 1851. His parents, Samuel S. and Mary J. (Browning) Langley, were 
natives of Arkansas and Alabama, respectively. Samuel S. Langley was 
born October 29, 1831, in Clark County, and is the son of Miles L. and 
Sally (Butler) Langley, natives of North Carolina, who came to 
Arkansas in 1818, and were married in this State in 1819. The maternal 
grandfather, Francis J. Browning, was a native of Georgia, and was 
born in 1800. His wife was a native of Alabama, and they were of 
English descent. The maternal ancestors were all finely educated, and 
figured as prominent men during their life. Francis J. Browning was a 
teacher and farmer, also a great and earnest worker in the Baptist 
Church, having served as a delegate to the first Baptist association 
that ever met south of the Arkansas River. This meeting was held at 
Spring Creek Church, near Benton, Saline County, August 12, 1835, and 
he was also one of the originators of Mount Bethel Church, six miles 
west of Arkadelphia, in 1835. At the time of his death, and for a 
number of years before it, he had been occupied as a teacher. He died 
in 1884, his wife having been called to her final home in 1879. Miles 
L. Langley died in 1831, and his wife in 1848. They were among the 
first settlers of Clark County, and endured all of the privations and 
[p.189] hardships incident to that time. To them a family of seven 
children were born: John (was in the Mexican War, also in California 
during the gold excitement, and is now a prosperous farmer of Clark 
County, Ark), Joseph (deceased, was a leading farmer of Clark County, 
where his family now live; his death occurred in 1882.), William 
(deceased, was a farmer, and lost his life by a tree falling on him, 
1864, and at the time a soldier in the Confederate army), Miles L. 
(deceased, a very prominent Baptist minister. He was a member of the 
State Constitutional Conventions of 1864 and 1868, and was a chaplain 
in the State Senate. He died December 27, 1888.), Isom P. (is a 
prosperous farmer of Clark County, Ark.), Jensey (deceased) and Samuel 
S. (the father of the subject of this memoir, who is still living, and 
is a prosperous farmer of Pike County, Ark. He served four years in 
the Confederate army as second lieutenant, and was prisoner of war for 
nineteen months at Johnson's Island. He was also captain, and was 
acting commander at Helena. He and his estimable wife are earnest 
workers of the Baptist Church, and he is a Master Mason of 
considerable note). Rev. Isom P. is the eldest in a family of 
thirteen, ten of whom are now living: Thomas (deceased), Porter 
(deceased), Mary C., Andrew V., Permelia G., Abi (deceased), Samuel 
S., Jr., Annie, infant not named, Sallie, Robert, Penn and Frank. Our 
subject was reared to farm life, and spent his school-days in the 
schools of his county, and later took up the study of physiology and 
phrenology, under the tutorship of Miles L. Langley, his paternal 
uncle, and a man of very fine attainments; at the same time, and under 
the same teacher, he studied the English language. At the age of 
twenty-two he began the study of law under Gen. H. W. McMillan, of 
Arkadelphia, and Judges M. P. Dobey and H. H. Coleman. He completed 
his law course, and was admitted to the bar in 1875, and practiced his 
profession at Arkadelphia and Hot Springs until 1885, when he was 
obliged to discontinue it on account of throat disease. He joined the 
Baptist Church at the age of sixteen years, was licensed to preach in 
1868, and ordained in 1869, since which time he has been engaged in 
the work of the ministry. He has filled the pulpits of Arkadelphia, 
Hot Springs, and that of the First Baptist Church of Little Bock, but 
a large share of his time has been devoted to churches where there was 
no regular pastorate. In 1880 he formed a partnership with Capt. J. W. 
and J. N. Miller, the firm name being Miller, Langley & Miller, 
editors of the Arkadelphia Signal, conducting the same with marked 
success until 1881. Mr. Langley then withdrew from the firm, and 
started the Arkansas Clipper, in 1882, a Greenback Labor paper, of 
which he was sole owner. This he published until 1883, then sold it 
and went to Hot Springs, and in company with a Mr. Allard founded and 
edited the Daily and Weekly Hot Springs News. In 1886 he became the 
editor of the Industrial Liberator, the official organ of the Knights 
of Labor, and made that paper a decided success, in the meantime 
having sold the Hot Springs News. He resigned his position in June, 
1886, and engaged in the insurance business. He also purchased a 
controlling interest in the National Wheel Enterprise, acting as its 
editor until December 17, 1888, when he retired from the newspaper 
business, and in doing so deprived the literary and newspaper world of 
one of its brightest lights. In 1885 Mr. Langley became a member of 
the Local Assembly 2419, K. of L., at Hot Springs, the first assembly 
ever organized in the State, acting at present as one of the national 
organizers of that order. He is a member of Union Lodge 31, A. W., and 
was a delegate to the State convention that met at Litchfield in 1886. 
While at that convention he was elected as one of the delegates to the 
National Wheel, which met at the same time and place, and was its 
acting secretary. It was at this assembly that he wrote the 
constitution for the National Wheel, and at this same meeting was 
elected National Lecturer, and in that capacity wrote the demands of 
the National Wheel that were adopted at McKinzie, Tenn., November, 
1887, and in all the conventions he has taken a very prominent part, 
and in behalf of the National Wheel made the response to Senator 
Walker's address of welcome at Meridian, Miss., December 5, 1888. That 
speech which elicited such favorable comment from the press, [p.190] 
was the crowning effort of his life, and placed him at the head of the 
list of deep thinkers and eloquent speakers in the labor ranks. On 
October 20, 1887, he became President of the Famous Life Association, 
of Little Rock, and served one year, managing its affairs with 
extraordinary ability. In 1886 he was nominated by a labor convention 
as a candidate for Congress against Judge J. H. Rogers, of the Fourth 
Congressional District, and polled more than twice the labor votes of 
his district. As a stump speaker he has no superior in the State. He 
has always figured prominently in schools, and was the secretary of 
the board that reorganized the splendid school system of Arkadelphia. 
Mr. Langley has done all kinds of work, from the hoeing of cotton to 
the highest calling man can perform, and is one of the best posted men 
in the State. In August, of 1870, he was married to Miss Martha A. 
Freeman, a native of Arkansas, and a daughter of Thomas J. Freeman. He 
was born in Little Bock, 1821, and settled in Clark County in 1840, 
where Mrs. Langley was born in 1851. To these parents have been born a 
family of five children, all living: Florence R., Charles E., Ada J., 
Katie and Lessie. Father, mother, and the three oldest children are 
members of the Baptist Church. Socially Mr. Langley affiliates with 
the I. O. O. F., and has filled all the offices of that order. He is a 
typical Arkansan, and perhaps is without his peer in public value in 
the State, considering his age.