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Charles Hillman Brough
Born: July 9, 1876, at Clinton, Mississippi
Died: December 26, 1935, at Washington, D.C.
Buried: Roselawn Memorial Park, Little Rock
Served: 1917-1921
Educator and orator Charles
H. Brough graduated from Mississippi
College in 1894 and earned a Ph.D.
degree in history, economics and jurisprudence
from John Hopkins University in 1898.
Brough taught European and American
history, economics, ethics, German,
and philosophy at. Mississippi College,
Hillman College, and the University
of Arkansas before entering politics
in 1913, briefly campaigning to replace
resigned governor Joe T. Robinson.
In 1915 he resigned from the University
of Arkansas and began to campaign in
earnest for the governorship, which
he won in he following year. Under
Brough’s leadership, progressive
reform reached its high point in Arkansas:
a state reformatory for women was founded,
a girl's industrial school was established,
and an illiteracy commission was created.
At Brough’s urging a compulsory
school-attendance law was enacted,
and the Legislature offered limited
financial aid to mothers with dependant
children, as well as medical care for
the needy. A law was passed allowing
women to vote in all primary elections,
and the Arkansas Corporation Commission
was created. Brough acted decisively
to restore order in the wake of the
Elaine race riots of 1919 and created
a state commission to promote inter-racial
harmony. After leaving office, he worked
as a Chautauqua lecturer, served as
director of the State Public Information
Bureau from 1925 to 1928, and chaired
the Virginia- District of Columbia
Boundary Commission from 1934 to 1935.
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Thomas Chipman McRae
Born: December 21, 1851, at Mount Holly, Arkansas
Died: June 2, 1929, at Prescott, Arkansas
Buried: De Ann Cemetery, Prescott
Served:1921-1925
Arkansas's 26th governor earned a law degree from the Washington and Lee University
in 1872 and was admitted to the Arkansas bar in 1873. He served in the Arkansas
House of Representatives from 1877 to 1879 and was a U.S. Representative from
Arkansas’s Third Congressional district from 1885 to 1903. From 1903
until 1920 McRae remained active in Democratic Party politics while immersing
himself in his law practice and banking. In 1917, McRae was a delegate to the
convention which drafted a new constitution for the state, ultimately rejected
by voters in 1918. In 1920, he reluctantly entered the gubernatorial race,
one of nine Democrats seeking the post. On November 2 he was elected Governor
and won a second term in 1922. During McRae’s first term the Legislature
blocked most of his initiatives, which included a severance tax for school
support, a state-directed highway construction plan, and a worker’s compensation
program. During his second term, however, McRae met with more success: a personal
income-tax law was adopted, as was a school-funding plan using revenues from
severance taxes and a new tobacco tax. A new highway construction program was
begun, one which reformed the corrupt practices of its predecessor. Other achievements
of the McRaue administration include the establishment of the State Tuberculosis
Sanitarium for Negroes and the creation of the office of State Geologist. After
leaving office, McRae returned to the law and banking.
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Thomas Jefferson Terral
Born: December 21, 1882, in Union Parish, Louisiana
Died: March 9, 1946, at Little Rock, Arkansas
Buried: Roselawn Memorial Park, Little Rock
Served: 1925-1927
Thomas J. Terral was
born Louisiana and attended the University
of Kentucky; in 1910 he earned a law
degree from the University of Arkansas.
Terral entered politics in 1911, serving
until 1915 as assistant secretary of
the Arkansas Senate. Terral was deputy
state superintendent of public instruction
from 1912 to 1916, except during the
periods in 1913 and 1915, when the
general assembly was in session. He
was elected secretary of state in 1916
and served until 1921. In 1920 Terral
ran for governor and lost, but with
a respectable showing; in 1924 he ran
again and won. During his term, 11
honorary commissions were abolished
and in their place was created a salaried
three-member board of charities and
corrections. The office of Commissioner
of Insurance and Revenue, and Arkansas's
first state park at Petit Jean Mountain
were established. Also during Terral's
administration, construction began
on a new state hospital in Little Rock,
and a constitutional amendment was
enacted that increased the number of
supreme court judges from five to seven..
He ran unsuccessfully for re-election
in 1926 and subsequently returned to
his law practice in Little Rock.
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John E. Martineau
Born: December 2, 1873, in Clay County, Missouri
Died: March 6, 1939, at Little Rock, Arkansas
Buried: Roselawn Memorial Park, Little Rock
Served: 1927-1928
Arkansas's 28th governor was born in
Missouri but graduated from the University
of Arkansas in 1896, briefly taught
school and then enrolled in the University’s
law school at Little Rock, from which
he graduated in 1899. In 1902 Martineau
was elected to the Arkansas House for
the first of two terms. He was appointed
chancellor of the First Chancery Court
in 1907 and served in that capacity
for twenty years, acquiring a reputation
for fairness and plain speaking. In
1924 Martineau campaigned unsuccessfully
for governor; in 1926 he was successful.
During his single term, the honorary
governing boards for state institutions
(dissolved under Terral‘s administration)
were restored, the Confederate Pensions
Board was created, and the Normal School
of the Ozarks was established. The
Tri-State Flood Commission was formed
by Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas
in response to the spring floods of
1927; Martineau was selected as its
president. The Martineau Road Plan
was his most lasting achievement. It
authorized state aid for highway construction
within city limits and bond issuance
for highway construction. On March
2, 1928, Martineau resigned from the
governor's office to accept the appointment
to the bench of the Federal District
Court of Eastern Arkansas, where he
served until his death.
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Harvey Parnell
Born: February 28, 1880, at Orlando, Arkansas
Died: January 16, 1936, at Little Rock, Arkansas
Buried: Roselawn Memorial Park, Little Rock
Served: 1928-1933
Harvey Parnell attended
Warren High School and worked variously
as a clerk, book-keeper, dry goods
merchant and farmer before entering
politics in 1919 when he began the
first of his two terms in the Arkansas
House of Representatives. Parnell also
served in the Arkansas Senate from
1923 to 1925 and was elected lieutenant
governor in 1926. On March 4, 1928,
Governor John E. Martineau resigned
from office to accept a federal judgeship
and Parnell assumed the duties of governor.
In 1928 he was elected governor in
his own right and was re-elected in
1930. During his tenure, the Henderson
State Teachers College in Arkadelphia
was established, and revenue was used
for programs to upgrade the state school
system and a state highway fund was
established well as the State Bureau
of Commerce and Industry, but a consultant-derived
plan for governmental reorganization
failed to win legislative support and
the Parnell administration was slow
to respond to the state’s Depression-induced
needs; by 1932, Parnell’s business-oriented
style and self-help recommendations
had few supporters in the Capitol or
without. After leaving office, Parnell
returned to his farming interests but
remained in public service: he spent
his remaining three years as an appraiser
for the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.
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