My Genealogy Hound

Dr. Richard H. L. Rutherford, physician, Hollywood, Ark. Archibald Hamilton Ruther- ford, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Smith County, Tenn., on the 14th of November, 1811, and died in Grant County, Ark., on the 9th of December, 1888, at the age of seventy-seven years and twenty-five days. He came of sturdy Scotch ancestry, whose emigration to this country was prior to the Revolutionary War. The family settled in Goochland County, Va., in 1747, and a number of its members still reside around the ancestral home in the Old Dominion. In 1805 his father, William B. Rutherford, moved with his family to Smith County, Tenn., and there he received his final summons. He died in 1825. His wife, whose maiden name was Margaret M. Parrish, survived him a number of years and died in 1854, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. Archibald H. Rutherford was reared to the arduous duties of the farm, and received such educational advantages as the schools of that day afforded. In 1831 he came to Arkansas, whither his brother Samuel had preceded him in the year 1817, resided a year in Little Rock, and then moved to Clark County, where he lived for seven years. While there he engaged in merchandising, and at the same time studied law. In 1833 he was elected county judge of Clark County, and in 1835 he was elected clerk of the circuit court, and reelected to the same office in 1836. One year later he was elected a member of the Legislature of the State, to fill an unexpired term, and was reelected in 1838 and again in 1840. He was admitted to the bar in 1838 and in 1841 was appointed deputy clerk of the United States court at Little Rock, which position he held until 1845. Mr. Rutherford was one of the Democratic leaders, and the Democratic organ for the State was the Arkansas Banner. He was selected by his party to control it, and he edited it with marked ability and force during 1845 and 1846. In 1847 he went with his brother, S. M. Rutherford, superintendent of Indian affairs, Southwestern Territory, to the Territory, and remained there until the fall of 1849, when he returned to Fort Smith, Ark., where he engaged in the practice of law with Ben. T. Duval until 1855. In December of the previous year he was elected treasurer of the State of Arkansas, which position he held until 1857. In 1850 he was appointed by Gov. Conway, superintendent and instructor of the State penitentiary; also private secretary to the governor, and during a portion of the latter's term he was also acting secretary of the State. In 1859 he was appointed clerk of the district and circuit courts of the United States for the Eastern District of Arkansas, which office he resigned in 1860. He was a State's Democrat of the Calhoun school, and warmly and ably advocated the election of Breckinridge to the presidency in the memorable contest preceding the war. At this time he was engaged in writing for the Arkansas True Democrat, a paper in which he had an interest, and at that time the ablest and most influential journal in the Southwest, outside of New Orleans, and which had an immense circulation. He took a firm and decided stand for Southern rights and State sovereignty, and was an inveterate foe of Northern aggression. In 1861he was appointed Confederate States receiver for the Eastern District of Arkansas, an office of great responsibility and trust, which he held until the death of the Confederacy. During the war he removed his family to Texas, but remained himself the greater portion of the time in Arkansas in discharge of his duties as a public functionary. He has two sons in the Confederate army, one a surgeon and the other a member of the celebrated "Woodruff's Battery." After the war he had little to do with politics in an active way, but gave his attention principally to farming. He was twice married; his first wife died in 1838, leaving two children, both of whom are now living: Dr. R. H. L. Rutherford (subject of this sketch) and Mrs. M. E. Rowland, of Alexander, Ark. His second marriage was to Miss Mary Lewis, who died in November, 1854, leaving four children, two of whom are living: E. P. Rutherford, of Clarksville, Tex., and C. L., who was residing with his father at the time of the latter's death. The character of Mr. Rutherford was above reproach, and he was a man who would "feel a stain upon his personal honor like a wound." His whole life was an exemplification of the purest and most exalted principles. He was faithful to every trust, and devotion to duty was his watchword. He lived and died a sincere and active member of the Christian Church, with which he had been connected for fifty-four years. He was a good man, in the fullest, sense of the word, a kind father, a loving husband and a true friend. Dr. R. H. L. Rutherford, the subject of this sketch was reared and trained by that good man, his father, and it is but natural that he should inherit some of the predominant characteristics of that gentleman. He was born in Clark County, Ark., on the 30th of April, 1838, and in 1874 was married to Miss Mary E. Stell, a native of Pike County, Ark., born on the 30th of April, 1858, and the daughter of Armstrong A. and Emily Wingfield Stell. To the Doctor and wife were born five children, four now living: Charles H., William C., Verna L. and Stell. Dr. Rutherford received his scholastic training during a three years' course at that well-known and justly famous site of learning, "The Cumberland University of Lebanon, Tennessee," "The St. Andrews," a superior Catholic college located where he then lived at Fort Smith, Ark. (which city, although on the Indian Nation's border line, was then one of the most prosperous and promising, as it is now one of the greater of the principal cities in Arkansas), and he concluded the laying of his general literary foundation, upon which was to be builded his future achievements, in the collegiate department of "The Arkansas College," of Fayetteville, Ark., under the splendid tutelage of Prof. Robert Graham, its then president (who was pronouncedly one amongst the most erudite, progressive and successful educators, whose labors ever shed luster upon and gave caste to any Southern academy of learning), graduating at that college in 1856. Thus grounded, and thus superbly equipped as a scholar, the natural bent of mind and the studious habits of our subject impelled him, when in the eighteenth year of his age, to select as a field for his future achievements the profession of medicine, and after four years of unremitting application in the effort to explore in all of their ramifications the occult minutiae of "the healing art," when he had attended in 1859 and 1860 the lectures and courses at the Medical College of Nashville, Tenn., he then obtained, with distinction, his deserved diploma from that unsurpassed temple of Galenic wisdom. Thence returning to his "native heath," his abilities as a physician and surgeon, as well as his energies as a man, were at once called into play, and a large well-paying practice for one of his age and experience forthwith followed, as surely and as naturally as effect follows the cause, for he was a born doctor, and the true physician, like the real poet, can not be made unless there be underlying native aptitude. As indicative of the proficiency in his profession which Dr. Rutherford had attained at the time of the commencement of the late war, which immediately followed the early manipulation by him of the "scalpel." it might be mentioned here, that when in 1862 from headquarters of the National Southern Government, an order emanated for the establishment of "medical boards" in all the Southern States, to be composed of the ablest, most eminent doctors in all that profession, whose duty it should be, thoroughly and rigidly to examine (and license such as were found qualified only) all surgeons throughout the Southern States, whilst hundreds compelled to undergo such examinations, which were as rigid, exhaustive and merciless as medical knowledge and professional pride and duty could Formulate —while hundreds at the hands of that "State Board of Examining Physicians," of which in Arkansas the eminent Dr. P. O. Hooper, at Little Rock, was the capable president, utterly failed to meet its approval, and very many supposed capable practitioners were peremptorily denied the right to ply their vocation, Dr. Rutherford then, not only easily withstood this crucial ordeal, but with honors, was assigned to an exalted and a most responsible position in the hospital department of the Confederate army, which position throughout the entire war he maintained uninterruptedly, with great advantage to the country, and indeed, with such unqualified approval by the Government, that there can be no doubt, he could, without effort on his part to do so, have retained the position permanently in the regular army, had Southern arms triumphed in that struggle. At the disintegration of the Confederate forces, the Doctor returned to his native State; and, continuing as he has since done in the active practice of his learned profession, is now known to be, and is confessedly one of the most eminent and successful physicians in this section of country. In connection with his practice, the Doctor is also engaged in farming, owning as he does, some 200 acres of good land, of which about forty acres are under cultivation, nor should we fail to mention, before concluding this sketch, that the Doctor inherited from his talented father the happy faculty of expressing his thoughts with ease and elegance in written composition; and he has frequently contributed to numerous journals in his locality entertaining and instructive articles on the various subjects which from time to time have claimed his attention and engaged his thought. Although seemingly unconscious of the fact, it is nevertheless true, that he is a most agreeable writer, and upon occasion can wield a trenchant and caustic pen, his command of language being especially ample and noticeable, and his style forceful. Mrs.Rutherford is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In politics the Doctor is "a chip off of the old block," also, and while not a member of any church, his stanch and rigid ideas of strict morality, and his natural amiableness of disposition, as common repute has it of him, justifies us in concluding this article with the assertion that he is at heart, a good man.