On the afternoon of Saturday, May 26, 1894, a young timberman
rode his horse a few miles from his home in Mayflower, Arkansas, to the Conway
farm of Peter Paul and Magdalena Loetscher where he intended to buy some of
their home-made wine. Both the timberman and a friend who traveled with him had
been drinking whiskey for a while. They told some friends that if Loetscher
didn’t sell them wine, “they would beat him up.”
Peter Paul was not around when the two men arrived. His
wife, Magdalena, refused to sell them wine because of the local prohibition
law. The timberman grabbed some containers of wine and Magdalena tried to stop him.
He picked up a nearby cotton hoe and hit her in the head with it, then he hacked
both of her arms. Hearing screams, husband Peter Paul, who was returning from a trip to town, ran to her defense, waving an old dragoon saber. Ignoring the
weapon, the young man battered him with the hoe; the last swing landed so hard it
broke into five pieces. The blows severely fractured Peter Paul’s skull;
smashed his ribs, causing a collapsed lung; and broke a bone in his left arm.[1]
As the Loetschers lay moaning on the ground, Joe Luke – the
woodsman with the hoe — grabbed some jugs of wine and left the farm. With his
companion, he sought out Conway’s Mayor William W. Martin to tell him that Loetscher
had illegally sold them wine. Hearing that, the mayor ordered the city Marshall
to haul Loetscher immediately to the Mayor’s Court. However, because Peter Paul
was so badly injured, the trial was delayed until Tuesday, May 30th,
when, according to a story in the Arkansas
Echo, the “half-dead man” was “dragged to court” and “he stood there with
his fractured skull, broken arms and badly bruised back asking for mercy.” He
got none. Mayor Wilson found Loetscher guilty of illegally selling wine, fining
him $200 and court costs. The author of the Echo story commented on the mayor’s action: “So justice will be measured when such
fanatics come to power.”[2]
The encounters of the Swiss vintner with the drunken
timberman and the mayor were described in the Arkansas Gazette, a Little Rock newspaper, on June 1, 1894, the Friday
after the trial:
P. P. Loetscher, who runs a wine
joint in the east part of town, was up again in the Mayor’s Court, and fined
$200 for selling wine….A timber man by name of Luke and J. P. Thompson went to
Loetscher’s and filled up on wine. Luke got into a difficulty with Loetscher
and he and family jumped on Luke, and Luke slashed them right and left with a
hoe, laying some of the household up for repairs. Thompson told of the big
fight, and our vigilant Mayor got wind of it, and he brought Loetscher in, and
found him guilty, and assessed fine with trimmings.
Three days after this story was published, on Monday, June
4, 1894, 49-year-old Loetscher died from his injuries. He left behind his wife,
who had emigrated from Switzerland with him, three young boys, and a daughter
in her twenties.
On June 5th, the day after Loetscher died, a story in the Arkansas Gazette had a tone that
differed greatly from the first one:
With a Hoe
Joe Luke Murders P. P. Loetscher in Conway – Luke Escapes
Special to the Gazette
Conway, June 4 -- P.P. Loetscher died this morning. The Coroner’s jury this evening found that he
died from wounds inflicted by a hoe in the hands of Joe Luke. A warrant will be
issued for Luke, charging him with manslaughter. Luke has left. Loetscher’s arm
was broken, his skull fractured and side bruised. He has been acting dementedly
and was thought to be suffering with delirium tremens.
A related story appeared in the Galveston Daily News (and other regional newspapers) on June 7th:
Little Rock, Ark – A special from
Conway, Ark. says that Joe Luke, a drunken character, while suffering from
delirium tremens Sunday attacked P. P. Loetscher, a prominent German farmer,
with a hoe inflicting wounds which resulted in death Monday morning. Luke
escaped.
As these stories note, Luke fled arrest, going to Texas
where he had spent some years during his childhood. After Arkansas’ governor,
in response to an outcry from German-speaking residents of the state, offered a
reward for Luke’s capture, the sheriff of Faulkner County, where Mayflower and
Conway are located, tracked him down and brought him back to Conway. The
sheriff later complained that the governor had not paid him the reward.
Prohibitionists and the
Murder of P.P. Loetscher
While the murder of P.P. Loetscher was the senseless act of
a drunken rowdy and the mayor’s abuse of the dying man was callus at best, they
were not random acts. Both were the culmination of actions by Conway-area prohibitionists,
especially the mayor, that had made life difficult for Loetscher (and other
vintners) by stopping the legal sale of alcoholic beverages in the city.
From this perspective, the murder grew out of the conflict
that had arisen between the immigrant winemaker and the prohibitionist mayor, who
was assisted by his allies. The conflict started with the enactment of a
“three-mile prohibition law” in Conway, and it was exacerbated by Mayor
Martin’s strict enforcement of it.
Arkansas’s three-mile law, permitted by state legislation
passed in 1871, was a back-door way for prohibitionists to stop the sale of
alcoholic beverages within cities when they were unable to get a county-wide
prohibition law. The law, when adopted locally, made the sale of liquor illegal
within three miles of a specified church or school. Strangely, the law was not an
ordinance approved by a city council, but – under the provisions of state law –
it went into effect for two years when a majority of citizens living within a three-mile
radius of a designated church or school signed a petition in favor of it and
presented it to the county court.
Prohibition sentiment was strong in Conway when in 1888 petitions
for a three-mile law were circulated there. The petition drive was led by Martin,
along with Rev. Edward A. Tabor, a Methodist pastor who exhibited the “zeal of
a crusader.” Their efforts were aided by women who supported prohibition: the Arkansas
Gazette reported on June 30, 1888 (p. 2):
“A vigorous campaign is being waged in Conway in favor of the three mile
prohibition law. The ladies are especially involved.”
The involvement of women in the prohibition drive is not
surprising. They were among the leaders of state and national prohibition
efforts. Their role was essential because, even though they were not yet allow
to vote in elections, they were counted among the adult residents of a
specified three-mile zone and they could sign the petition for a three-mile
prohibition.[3]
According to a pro-prohibition history
of Conway’s three-mile law, “The sheets of many of the documents [petitions] were
stained with tears that fell from the eyes of wives of drunken husbands, as
they tremblingly wrote their names.”[4]
The petition effort was predictably and strongly opposed by
the owners of bars and taverns in Conway and by others, including immigrants
such as Loetscher. The opponents sought, according to a pro-prohibition writer,
to stop people from signing the petition “by all the influences they could
summon and by intimidation.”
From all accounts, both sides were ferocious in their
positions, and hard feelings resulted. One newspaper article called the battle
over the three-mile-law “an unholy fight.”
An indication of the depth of emotion stirred by the issue was the murder of
John McCulloch, a Conway citizen who had once served as a city alderman, on the
night of September 1, 1890 in the Faulkner County Courthouse. McCulloch, who had
opposed prohibition, was shot by J.R. Williams, a “Prohi.” Less than a year
later, Williams also killed John’s brother, Sam McCulloch, shooting him in the
back on June 27, 1891, while he was running away. In both killings he claimed self-defense.[5]
When the “dry forces” thought they had enough signatures,
they filed the three-mile petitions with the Faulkner County Court. The
petitions were closely examined, with both pro- and anti-prohibition lawyers
challenging and defending every name on them. After hearing the evidence, the
court determined that the petitioners lacked the required number of signatures
to comprise a majority of adults in the designated area.
That ruling was challenged in the circuit court, and on
August 8, 1888, Circuit Judge Joseph W. Martin ruled that the petitions had the
signatures of a majority of adults in the affected area and ordered the county
court to prohibit for two years “the sale of intoxicating liquor within three
miles of the public schoolhouse in block 25 of the town of Conway.” He allowed
people with unexpired licenses to continue to sell liquor until their licenses
expired. Because the licenses were issued annually, all of them were expired on
December 31, 1888.[6]
According to a newspaper article describing this ruling,
“The courtroom was crowded during the trial and the bulge of revolvers could be
seen under many of the men’s coats. The victors were afraid to cheer lest a
bloody affray be started.”[7]
Although the circuit court ruling was challenged multiple
times in court, it was upheld and on January 1, 1889, Conway’s taverns were closed.
That year the Arkansas legislature strengthened prohibition in Conway by
passing legislation that made it unlawful to sell whisky within five miles of
the Conway Baptist Church. A newspaper article on that legislation observed
that the laws in place made Conway “dry as a bone.”[8]
The author of the Arkansas
Echo article describing Loetscher’s murder wrote that Loetscher was
affected by the three-mile law when Hendrix College, to a large extent due to
the efforts of Mayor Martin, decided to relocate in Conway and opened its
campus in September 1890. According to the Echo
author, when Hendrix opened, Loetscher could no longer sell wine at his farm
because it lay within three miles of the campus.[9] (It is not clear why the opening of Hendrix College, instead of
the original provisions of three-mile law, made it illegal for Loetscher to
operate his wine garden.)
Whatever triggered the three-mile law to stop Loetscher from
selling wine, it was a disaster for him and his family. Beginning in 1889 or
1890, this law meant that Loetscher could no longer do what he had been doing
for more than a decade to make a living: legally operating a “wine garden” on
his farm to sell the wine he made.
Under financial duress, Loetscher continued to sell wine to
feed his family, and the mayor had him arrested several times. According the Arkansas Echo, “Because without selling
his wine he could not feed his family with his farm income, he resisted
desperately. [Loetscher] was hounded like a beast. Spies were on the lookout
day and night. He was convicted every time he was accused, proof or no proof.
The mayor had no pangs of conscious in dealing with him.” In short, when
prohibition became law, Loetscher went from being a respected citizen to a
repeat lawbreaker.[10]
Because of the three-mile prohibition law and Mayor Martin’s
zealous enforcement of it, the Loetschers were in a difficult position when Joe
Luke arrived at their farm on May 26, 1894, demanding wine. They likely refused
to sell it to him because they feared Mayor Martin would find out and arrest
them again. This refusal enraged drunken Luke, leading to the murder. If
Loetscher could have legally sold Luke the wine he wanted, the murder perhaps
would have not occurred. While Luke was the murderer, Mayor Martin and the
other Conway prohibitionists who enacted and enforced the three-mile law
created the circumstances of the deed.
The Man Who Made Wine
When Peter Paul Loetscher arrived in Conway in 1871 (or soon
thereafter) with his wife and infant daughter, their main challenge was to
survive as they carved a new life out of the wilderness in which they had
chosen to live. Likely, planting a vineyard was not high on his list of things
to do to feed his family during his early years in Arkansas.
He had been born on March 13, 1845 in the Graubünden Canton
(the Arkansas Echo erroneously wrote
that he was born in Canton Appenzel), which is located in the Alps near the
borders with Italy, Austria, and Liechtenstein. His wife was Magdalena (Lena)
Luck who was born on December 8, 1844 in nearby Sankt Gallen, Switzerland. The
couple had married in 1868.
 |
Peter Paul Loetscher is the tall young man in the back standing behind his mother and father.
Source: Photo added by Andreas Heege to http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=101201665 |
We know something about Peter Paul’s life in Switzerland
thanks to Andreas Heege, an archaeologist who has researched pottery produced
in 18th and 19th century Switzerland. In his work, Heege wrote
about the St. Antönien Potters, also known as Lötscher Potters, a family
business that made household items for more than a century. Peter Paul came
from this family of potters.[11]
According to Heege’s research, Peter Paul Lötscher’s great-grandfather
Peter Lötscher (1750 – 1818) started the business making ceramic, glass, and
porcelain items in the early 1780s. It was located in St. Antönien in the
Graubünden Canton. In 1806, he passed the business on to Peter Paul’s
grandfather, Andreas Lötscher (1787 – 1852), who built a new workplace in
Ascharina near St. Antönien. After Andreas’ death, Peter Paul’s father,
Christian (1821-1880) took over the firm. Then in 1867, Peter Paul, at the age
of 22, began managing the business. Apparently he did not like the work, or
perhaps was not good at it. For whatever reason, he quit the business and
emigrated in 1871. After his departure, his father resumed management of the
firm. Following his death in 1880, Peter
Paul’s younger brother took over the business which closed in 1894.
Records accessed through Ancestry.com show that Peter Paul,
Lena, and their daughter Verena (who was less than a year old) traveled from
Bremen to New Orleans on the Hannover, a recently built 300 foot-long ship
sailed by the North German Lloyd line, arriving on April 1, 1871. They were
likely among the 700 or so third class passengers the ship accommodated. Peter
Paul was 26 years old at the time. On the passenger list, he listed his
occupation as “brick maker.”
Also aboard the Hannover was Peter Paul’s cousin, two years
older, identically named Peter Paul Lötscher (1842 – 1908). His cousin was
traveling with his wife Magartha (1843-1915?) and their children Johann (age
three) and Dorathia (less than a year old). After arriving in New Orleans, his
cousin continued with his family up the Mississippi River to Dubuque, Iowa. His
arrival there was assisted by relatives, Peter (1811-1886) and Margaretha Loetscher
(1815-1895), who had been living in Dubuque since 1851.[12]
The movements of Peter Paul and his family after their
arrival in New Orleans are unknown, so it is not certain exactly when they
arrived in the Conway area. Perhaps they also went to Dubuque before their
journey to Arkansas. Wherever they traveled after leaving New Orleans, it seems
likely they settled in the Conway area in 1871 or 1872.[13] It is a mystery why they
chose this remote location, instead of a place nearer his relatives.
According to the Echo,
Loetscher was one of the first German speakers to settle in the Conway area
which was then “in a primordial state.” Settling the land was hard work: “Amid
the many difficulties and hardships, he cultivated his land, but the worst
problem was that he was not conversant in English and there were no Germans to
be found in the vicinity.”[14]
Actually, at least one other German-speaking immigrant came
to the Conway area is 1871. According to the Arkansas Encyclopedia, Max Frauenthal (1836-1914) arrived in Conway
that year with a railroad construction crew. He stayed and started a mercantile
business with a store in the center of the city. His store, Frauenthal and
Schwarz, was open until 1952.[15]
The presence of the Peter Paul Loetscher in Conway is first
documented on a petition he signed, along with 30 other men, in 1875 to
incorporate a swath of land as the city of Conway. His signature shows that he
was a qualified voter living within the boundaries of the land to be
incorporated.[16]
Loetscher and Frauenthal were not the only German-speaking
settlers in the Conway area for long.[17] Others joined them in the latter years
of the 1870s. Near the end of the decade, the Holy Ghost Fathers and the
Benedictines cooperated with the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad to attract
German-speaking immigrants to the Arkansas River Valley. The Benedictines, headquartered
at St. Benedict’s, near Altus, offered
immigrants access to cheap land along the river from Clarksville to Ft. Smith.
The Holy Ghost Fathers had their headquarters first in Conway, then in
Morrilton; they offered cheap land along the Arkansas River from Little Rock to
Atkins.
As they started their mission in the Arkansas River Valley,
the Holy Ghost Fathers built in 1879 the St. Joseph Church in Conway (it is
still in existence). To assist with the development of the St. Joseph Society
as an immigrant community, a Holy Ghost Fathers priest, Joseph Strub, moved to
Conway to minister to Catholics living in the vicinity. He also assisted the
effort to attract more Catholic immigrants to the Arkansas River Valley by
writing a German-language guidebook, published in 1880. It emphasized the cheap
land made available by the railroad and the quality of life in the area.[18]
The recruitment of German-speaking immigrants had some
success in Faulkner County. In 1880, the census showed that 165 Faulkner County
residents had been born in Germany, Switzerland, or Austria. It counted 49
heads of households who were born in Germany (40), Switzerland (3), or Austria
(5).[19] In 1890, the number of German-,
Swiss- and Austrian-born residents of Faulkner County had increased to 223.[20]
The late 1870s and early 1880s wave of immigration into
Central Arkansas is described in detail by Jonathan James Wolf in an Arkansas Historical Quarterly article.[21] He
wrote about the recruitment of immigrants, the costs and challenges they faced
after arriving, and how they related to their English-speaking neighbors. He
noted that the difficulties of settling in a new land resulted in a high death
rate among immigrants. According to Wolf, of about 500 German-speaking
immigrants living in Morrilton in 1880, 46 died; another 49 died in 1881. He wrote
that about the same percentage of immigrants in Conway also died during these
years.[22]
It is clear from Wolfe’s research that the Germans who came
to the Arkansas River Valley in the late 1870s and early 1880s faced great
hardships. Fortunately for them, they were assisted by the Catholic Church and
their German-speaking neighbors to adapt to their new situation. In contrast,
when the Loetschers arrived in 1871 or 72, they had no such support as they
scratched out a farm in the new frontier.
Despite the lack of assistance, the Loetschers did well,
though they may have lost a child in the early 1880s. Peter Paul and Magdalena
had four children that grew into adulthood. The oldest, Verena (or Brena)
Lötscher (1869-1947) was born when Peter Paul and Lena were still living in
Switzerland. Three other children were born in Arkansas: Christian F. (1874 – 1935), John Andrew
(1882-1958), and Carle R. (1889 – 1931). Also, it appears that they had another
boy who died in childhood. According to the 1880 census, the Loetscher
household included a two-year old boy named George. He does not show up in
later records of family members. I have found no information about his fate.
Not long after the 1880 census was completed, Peter Paul
began to acquire land. According to U.S. General Land Office records, he
received an 80-acre homestead on July 20, 1881, bought another 40 acres on
August 25, 1882, and purchased another 80-acre homestead on May 5, 1883.
Apparently he made a decent living from his land.
No information can be found on when Loetscher started
growing grapes and making wine. In any case, he was among the first farmers in
the state to do so. According to the Arkansas
Encyclopedia, the earliest vintners in Arkansas included Johann Wiederkehr,
from Switzerland, and Jacob Post, from Germany, both of whom both produced
wines in Altus (Franklin County). Both started making their wines in about 1880.[23]
Apparently by 1888, several German-speaking farmers in
Central Arkansas were growing grapes and selling wine made from them. An
article in the Daily Arkansas Gazette
promoting life in Faulkner County mentioned grape growing and wine production:
Grape culture is receiving a great
deal of attention, the Concord and other varieties yield immense quantities of
wine (400 to 500 gallons per acre) and sells for $1 and upwards per gallon. The
German citizens (always thrifty and prosperous wherever they may be) are
developing this industry very rapidly.[24]
Not long after this article was published, after the sale of
locally made wine was prohibited within three miles of the Conway public school,
commercial wine making in Conway came to a quick end.
According to the Echo,
as more Germans settled in Conway in the 1870s and 1880s, Loetscher provided
them advice and help: “He was long valued as an authority on many things,
especially on the topic of wine making. He had established a splendid wine
garden and lived happily and contentedly in his own way with his family, until
the College was built here….”[25]
Although most of the newer German-speaking arrivals around
Conway were Catholics, likely the Loetschers were not. Direct evidence of what
church, if any, the family attended is lacking. However, genealogical information
shows that their relatives in Dubuque were Protestants.[26] While most non-Catholic
German-speaking immigrants were Lutherans, Conway did not get a Lutheran Church
until 1884 when a German Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized and a
sanctuary erected. Its initial membership was only twelve families. It is not
known if the Loetscher family was one of them.[27]
In politics, Peter Paul was a Republican – the party that
had been in power when he and his family had arrived in the Conway area in the
early 1870s. In 1886, he ran for Faulkner County coroner on the Republican
ticket, but lost the election with fewer votes (771) than the candidates of the
Democratic Party (1274 votes) and the Wheeler Party (863).[28]
In 1888, after about seventeen years in the United States,
it seemed that Loetscher’s decision to emigrate from Switzerland had paid off.
He and his wife had three young sons and a 20-year old daughter, owned 200
acres of productive land and a wine garden, and earned a decent living. That
happy situation came to an end in 1890 when the three-mile law went into
effect, a new prohibitionist mayor was elected, and a new college arrived.
The Methodist Who
Believed Wine Was Evil
Captain William Wyle Martin, the man who helped bring misery
into Loetscher’s life, is an unlikely villain in any story. He was a progressive
mayor with many accomplishments, a successful businessman, and a highly admired
philanthropist who was honored after his death by burial on the Hendrix College
campus. He also was a staunch Methodist, an ardent prohibitionist, and a
moralist who strictly exercised his mayoral powers guided by his beliefs.
Martin was born on February 20, 1835 in Bunker Hill,
Tennessee where his father owned a plantation. He was one of nine children in
the family. In 1848, he moved with his family to Van Buren County, in the
north-central part of Arkansas, where his father had bought a farm. In 1851,
the family moved again to a large farm in Conway County. That part of Conway
County was transferred to Faulkner County in 1873. His father was “a well-known
politician…and a man of considerable influence in the Democratic party.”[29]
 |
Captain William W Martin.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_Arkansas_Infantry_Regiment |
Soon after the Civil War started, Martin joined the Arkansas
10th Regiment of the Confederate Army. He was appointed to be a
third lieutenant in Company A of the Quitman Rifles. After the battle of
Shiloh, he was promoted to captain. He and his unit were captured at the fall
of Port Hudson in Louisiana in July 1863. According to one account of his life,
he returned to Arkansas when he escaped from his capture. Other accounts of his
life do not mention an escape, stating that he returned to Arkansas when the
war ended.[30]
Following the war, Martin settled in Springfield, Arkansas,
which was, at the time, the seat of the Conway County government. Springfield is
about a dozen miles north of Conway. After serving a couple of years as a
deputy sheriff of Conway County, Martin went into the mercantile business with
some partners; the store’s name was Martin and Vaughn.[31] The business continued to
operate, renamed W.W. Martin & Co in 1875, until 1885 when he moved to
Conway.
When Martin arrived in Conway his path had been paved, at
least to some extent, by his brother Jesse England Martin, who was eight years
younger than him. J.E. Martin had lived in Conway for a decade and had been
elected in 1875 as the first sheriff of Faulkner County. In 1876, he had been
elected to represent the county in the state legislature. He left that office
after one term to attend to his new mercantile business where he kept “a stock
of goods and supplies that would beggar description as to their variety.”[32]
He was elected again to the legislature in 1888 and served in that office for
many years.
 |
| From Daily Arkansas Gazette, March 21, 1888 |
Soon after his arrival in Conway, William Martin opened a
store, Martin and Harton, that sold general retail goods and brokered cotton
for nearby farmers. His store was housed in a building with two 25 ft. by 140-ft
floors.[33]
The 1888 Daily Arkansas Gazette
article that extolled life in Faulkner County commented favorably on Martin and
Harton’s business:
The leading merchants in town are
Martin and Harton, who do a general merchandise business of about $80,000
yearly and handle 2400 to 3000 bales of cotton. They are progressive, go-ahead
men of large ideas and money to back them up. They are foremost in all public
enterprises and do not hesitate to lend their aid to the immigrant cause.[34]
As Martin settled into his new home, he apparently found
many things he did not like about the city. According to Bill Lynch, writing in
the Arkansas Historical Quarterly:
When
Captain Martin arrived in Conway he found a dirty little country town whose
main attribute was six licensed saloons. There were no paved streets or
sidewalks…. From the time of its founding until the late 1880’s Conway was known
as a “tough town.” It was under control of the whisky element. The six saloons
in Conway had gambling in the back rooms. Captain Martin declared war
instantly.[35]
To improve the situation, Martin became active in civic
affairs. He was quickly elected to the city council and became a member of the
school board. In 1888, as described earlier, he joined a local pastor in an
effort to rid the city of its saloons. With its enactment in 1888, the three-mile
prohibition law forced saloons to shut down on January 1, 1889 and also put
wine-selling farmers such as Loetscher out of business.
In 1889 and 1890, Martin led an effort to induce a private
college, which had recently changed its name from Central Collegiate Institute
to Hendrix College, to relocate from Altus to Conway. The College had recently affiliated
with the Methodist Church and several towns were interested in hosting it. Martin
put together $72,000 in pledges to assist the college with its relocation. On
March 4, 1890, the Trustees of Hendrix College met to decide where the college
would relocate. On the 51st ballot, the Trustees selected Conway
over Arkadelphia and Searcy.[36]
 |
Mayor William W. Martin
Source: http://mv.ancestry.com/viewer/79497c5f-fd54-4a0a-ad5e-fafedd27dcd6/23987603/1585150923 |
According to the Arkansas
Gazette, Conway got Hendrix College because its offer was “the most
liberal.” The most zealous suitor was Martin “who gave the trustees to
understand that Conway had come to Little Rock to secure the college and if
money had a language and could talk, and if the trustees understood that
language and were willing to listen to the talk, he believed they would be
persuaded to look with favor on his town.”
The Gazette continued:
Mr. Martin contributed $13,000 to
the college, conditional upon its being located at Conway, and informed the
delegation if his town’s guarantee was not sufficient he was ready to make his
contribution $20,000. This was all he could do for the present, but after the
college had been located at Conway he promised to give it further assistance
and upon his death the trustees would find a clause in his will endowing the
institution with $100,000.[37]
Martin kept his promises, continuing his support of the
college during its difficult early years in Conway, providing money to pay its
yearly deficits until the institution got on its feet. Later he led fund-raising
efforts for Hendrix College and helped create an endowment. Over the years he
contributed about $75,000 in cash and assets to the college (his contributions,
adjusted for inflation, equaled the equivalent of about $2 million today). He served
for twenty years on Hendrix College’s Board of Trustees.[38]
Shortly after the meeting that netted Hendrix College for
Conway, Martin was elected mayor of the city which was still divided by the
fight over the three-mile law.[39] As
an adamant moralist, Martin used his executive and judicial powers to discourage
unbecoming behavior. For example, during his first term he shut down the local
billiard hall and refused to allow a circus to come to town because he did not
want students at the soon-to-open Hendrix College to be corrupted by these
questionable activities. Also, he was unyielding in enforcing the three-mile
prohibition law, levying heavy fines on people he convicted of illegally
selling alcoholic beverages.[40]
His use of mayoral powers did not sit well with some people
in Conway, and he was challenged when he first ran for re-election in 1891 in a
“heated” and “embittered” contest that generated intense emotions. Likely his
re-election fight was the final battle between pro- and anti- prohibition
forces over the future of the city. According to the Daily Arkansas Gazette:
[Martin’s] uniform rule of sitting
down on wrong and making all violators of the law, be they whosoever they may,
atone to the offended law, made him very unpopular with a certain element, and
in the same ratio popular with the opposition. So the main fight was for and
against Capt. Martin. So, after a hard day’s fight, of the 262 votes polled,
Capt. Martin received 153 and J.V. Mitchell 102….Capt. Martin’s friends regard
this as a great victory, and a move in the direction of building up our town
morally and educationally.[41]
With his opposition routed, Martin served as mayor for more
than a decade holding the office from 1890-1895, 1896-1899, 1900-1905. The
terms were interrupted, for example during the 1895-1896 term, when he stepped
aside to allow someone else to hold the office. Though popular with a firm majority
of Conway voters, he was not universally liked. On Christmas Eve, 1903, a
would-be assassin placed two sticks of dynamite outside the back of his store. While the
explosion damaged the back of the building and “showered him with glass and
debris, it caused no injuries or deaths.[42]
According to an admiring biographer, Martin was a
progressive mayor who took the lead in improving the city, donating his salary
to projects such as paving streets and sidewalks. While he was mayor, the city
of Conway purchased the local power and light plant company and made it a
municipal enterprise. Even after stepping down as mayor, he led the effort to
create a water and sewer system in the city.[43]
Martin was also an inexhaustible civic activist, joining and
often leading such organizations as the Young Men’s Christian Association,
various prohibitionists groups, and groups such as the Masons, the Cleveland
Club (1888), and the Bryan Club (1896). He was an energetic promoter of local
and state economic development and was active in a Civil War veterans group.[44]
Above all, Martin was a generous philanthropist. Not only
did he donate large sums to Hendrix College, he made liberal donations to other
organizations such as the Methodist church. In fact, when any good cause came
along, Martin was among the first in line to make his donation.
In 1910, five years after he had resigned as mayor and after
he had been defeated when he ran for county judge, Martin was elected to
represent Faulkner County in the Arkansas State Legislature. He was still in
the state legislature on November 1911 when he led a delegation of Arkansans
who were touring northern states to tout Arkansas as a good place to invest.
While in Canton, Ohio, he represented the delegation in a ceremony to place flowers
on the grave of ex-President William McKinley. The ceremony took place during a
snow storm. Shortly after the event, he developed pneumonia.[45] He
died on December 10, 1911.
Seven hundred people showed up at his funeral. The president
of Hendrix College, A.C. Miller, paid him warm tribute:
He was the most remarkable man that
I have ever known…With little early education he became, by reading and
experience, a man of wide and accurate information and liberal and progressive
views. In business he was the embodiment of honesty, in all the relations of
life the very incarnation of integrity. Nothing could turn him from the full
discharge of recognized duty. …With his start and business acumen he could have
accumulated a half million. He sacrificed business interests and gave so freely
that he died comparatively poor. He made money not for self, as he spent less
than the average clerk upon himself, but he laid tribute on material things for
the sake of his Master and transmuted corn and cotton into spiritual things….He
did not sell himself for lucre but lost himself in the service of others and
found himself in the lives of others…[46]
Among his many other tributes, George W. Donaghey, Arkansas’
governor (who had made his career in Conway and was a prohibitionist), called
him “Arkansas’ greatest philanthropist and private citizen.”[47] An obituary in the February 1912
issue of the Confederate Veterans
Magazine observed that “To the end of
his life he was a fighter; but the energy and courage and fidelity that held
him true as steel to a soldier’s duty during the war had since been directed to
the destruction of what he conceived to be wrong and the building up of what he
conceived to be right and good.”[48]
Martin was buried in Martinsville, a settlement built on and
around land that he and his brother Jesse owned near Cove Creek about 20 miles
north of Conway. However, in 1919, Hendrix officials decided that his final
resting place should be on the campus of Hendrix College, to which he had
contributed so much. With permission of the family, he was brought back to
Hendrix and buried “beneath a rugged Ozark boulder which symbolizes the
dignity, simplicity and unyielding strength of the man who lives under it.”[49]
In the end, the man whom the Arkansas Echo had deemed a ‘fanatic” and who had treated Peter Paul
Loetscher so unsympathetically as he lay dying had otherwise lived an enviable
life of service and generosity, leaving a lasting legacy in Conway and beyond. In
a 1999 review of Faulkner County’s past, the Log Cabin Democrat proclaimed Martin to be the fourth most
important person in the county’s history.[50]
The Man Who Killed
For Wine
The man who killed for wine was 27 year-old Joe (Joseph) Luke
who worked for one of the timber companies that was gobbling up forests in
Central Arkansas. The young man’s life likely resembled the lives of the
backwoodsman who made Arkansas famous from its early years as a rowdy,
dangerous, and uncivilized place. He was exactly the type of man that
prohibitionists most wanted to deprive of liquor.
Joseph N. Luke – named after his father and grandfather —
was born in December 1866. His father
was Joseph Reese Luke (1842 - 1925). His mother was Sara Margaret Pearson Luke
(1849 - 1885). Joseph Reese and Sara Margaret had married in 1866 and were
living in Alabama when their first son was born.
Joseph Reese Luke had been born in Tallapoosa, Alabama. His
parents had died when he was very young: his father Joseph D. Luke in 1845 and
his mother Mary Ann Carter in 1847.
After his mother’s death, young Joseph Reese Luke had gone to Panola,
Texas, to live with his mother’s relatives. The 1860 census showed him living
there with the family of Barney M. Carter.
 |
Confederate Soldier, Joseph Reese Luke, Father of the Killer
Source: http://mv.ancestry.com/viewer/578eb366-eb6a-4766-8dbc-3fb8089a9533/6996677/24008429814 |
When the Civil War came, Joseph Reese Luke, 19, joined the
Confederate Army, enlisting on February 2, 1862 in the 3rd Alabama
Cavalry Regiment in Coosa County, Alabama. After the war, he returned to
Alabama, but moved with his wife and infant sometime between December 1866 and
1868 to Arkansas. His first daughter, L. Mary, was born in 1868 in Conway County,
Arkansas. According to the 1870 census, the family, with two children, was living
in East York, Conway County. (This community was near Springfield, where W.W.
Martin and a partner had recently opened a mercantile store)
At some point in the 1870s, the Luke family moved to Panola,
Texas, where Joseph Reese had spent much of his childhood. They were living
there when the 1880 census was conducted. By then, Joseph and Sara Margaret had
five children: Joseph N (14), L Mary (12), Willie D (10), Ella E (5) and Alfred
(3).
Sometime between 1880 and 1885, the family moved back to
Arkansas. The family members were living in Arkansas on April 4th, 1885,
when Sara Margaret died. She was buried in the Pearson Cemetery, located in the
Wooster Community of Faulkner County.
In 1888, Joseph Reese Luke married Nancy Caroline Shewmake
(1858 – 1929) from Muddy Bayou in Faulkner County. They had three sons: Arthur
Clarence (1890-1974), Jessie Marvin Luke (1894 - ? ), and Ray Alexander Luke
(1894- 1974). When the second son, Jessie M. was born in 1894, the year of the
murder, the family was living in Mayflower.
After the murder, Joe Luke fled Arkansas and traveled to
Texas (where he had lived with his family a few years during his childhood). A
story in the Echo in early July
reported that the Conway County Sheriff, last name Wilson, had tracked Luke
down in Texas and arrested him near Decatur. Wilson brought Luke back to
Arkansas to stand trial for manslaughter.
I have found no records or newspaper stories showing that
Luke was prosecuted or served prison time for the manslaughter (the charge
leveled against him by the local grand jury). If Luke did serve time for his
attack on Loetscher, it was likely for a short term. According to the 1900
census, Joseph N Luke was living in Panola, Texas as a boarder with Charley and
Cynthia Carter (relatives of the family that raised his father) and their four
children. He was listed as a widower working as a farm laborer.
Joseph N. Luke does not appear in any subsequent census
lists.[52]
Likely, he was not alive in 1925 when his father, Joseph Reese, died. His father’s
will gave his estate to sons Arthur, Jesse, and Ray Luke, with a grant of $5
each to daughter Ella and daughters-in-law Sally, Leddie, and Lizzie Luke. It
contained no provisions his wife, who was still alive, or for his first-born
son, Joseph N.
From the newspaper stories about the killing and census
information and, we know just a few facts about the life of Joseph N Luke. The
census responses showed that he was poorly educated (no schooling, but could
read and write) and worked as a farm laborer in 1900 (and, perhaps, as a farmer
in 1910). The newspapers described him as a “woodsman” and a “drunk” who on May
26, 1894 was acting “dementedly” and was thought to be suffering from delirium
tremens. If these characterizations are true, Joseph Luke resembled many other
poorly educated, liquor-loving characters who made Arkansas a dangerous place
during the nineteenth century and who inspired prohibitionists in their efforts
to deny liquor to such people.
Conclusion
Joseph Luke’s lethal attack on Peter Paul Loetscher and Mayor
Martin’s apparent mistreatment of the dying Loetscher occurred within the
context of a bitter fight over the legality of liquor in Conway. The
prohibitionists wanted to keep liquor out of the hands of hard-edged ruffians,
like Joseph Luke, who could be characterized as “drunks.” In doing so, they did
not distinguish between bad characters downing hard liquor and other people,
especially German-speaking immigrants, for whom wine and beer were innocent
pleasures.
The success of the Conway prohibitionists had unintended
consequences. As it shut down the sale of hard liquors, it also deprived local
winemakers such as Loetscher of income important to their livelihoods. Also it
created a situation in which the Loetschers could not sell their home-made wine
to a crazed man who, when denied it, impulsively attacked them. In addition,
the prohibitionist’s hard-won victory apparently made a good man like Mayor
Martin insensitive to Loetscher’s suffering caused by loss of income from the
sale of wine and later by Luke’s vicious attack on him.
In the story of Loetscher’s murder, we have a man who was a
victim not only of a murderous attack, but also of a movement that took away
his livelihood. We have an alcohol-crazed young man who ruined his life by his
lethal attack on the victim. And we have an upstanding citizen who brought no
credit to himself when, in this case, he acted as the “enforcer of what was
right,” sparing no sympathy for a neighbor who lay dying before his court.
Footnotes:
[2] In the Arkansas Echo dispatch of June 10, 1894,
the author not only expressed anger at Loetscher’s murder, but also concern
that German-speaking immigrants were treated unfairly in the Conway area and
that prohibitionists were attacking their way of life. Note that the $200 fine
in 1894 is equivalent to about $5,000 in 2016.
A few days after the June 10th
article, another short article in the Echo
from the Conway correspondent mentioned the death of the editor of the Log Cabin Democrat, a Conway paper,
noting: “In Conway starb der Editor der Log
Cabin. Der Mann war einer der Fanatiker, die in den Eingewanderten geringen
Menschen sehen” (“In Conway the editor of the Log Cabin died. The man was one
of those fanatics who see immigrants as lesser people.” Arkansas
Echo, June 15, 1894, p5
[3] “Beginning
in the 1870s the Arkansas legislature enacted a series of liquor control laws,
the most important of which was the Three-Mile Law. This measure provided for
the prohibition of the sale of alcoholic beverages within a three-mile radius
of a church or public school, if a majority of the area inhabitants signed a
petition favoring such a ban. In 1884 the Three-Mile Law was used to eliminate
the sale of liquor in Mount Vernon, and a few years later was used by
anti-liquor forces in Conway who achieved a similar victory. The ‘dry’ cause in
Conway was led by Reverend Edward A. Tabor and a prohibitionist politician,
Captain William W. Martin. Joe Mosby. “Wet
vs Dry Battle Dates Back more than a Century.” Log Cabin Democrat, Sept. 12, 2008, accessed at http://thecabin.net/stories/091208/loc_0912080005.shtml#.Vv1NM_krKUk . This quote is from Faulkner, Its Land
and People, a book
published by the Faulkner County Historical Society. Three-mile laws became popular in
counties in which the county legislative body rejected proposals for
county-wide prohibition.
[4] This quote
is from an article by Frank E. Robins published in the Log Cabin Democrat on May 25, 1931; it was republished in the Faulkner County Facts & Fiddlings,
XXXIV (3-4), Fall-Winter, 1997, pp. 15-16.
[5] The enmity
between J.R. Williams and the McCullough brothers apparently was directly related
to the prohibition fight (Daily Arkansas
Gazette, Feb. 9, 1892). Newspaper accounts linked it to William’s service
as the foreman of a Grand Jury that apparently returned indictments of the
McCulloughs. After that, Williams said that he was threatened and feared for
his life. He was acquitted of all counts for killing John McCullough, but found
guilty of involuntary manslaughter for shooting Sam McCullough. After he was convicted
and sentenced to a year in prison, “one hundred and one of Conway’s prominent
citizens” assembled in Little Rock to ask Arkansas’ governor to pardon him.”
The group brought letters with petitions supporting a pardon signed by 2,467
“white voters” and by “1616 ladies” from Faulkner County. A letter from the
circuit court judge from the area spoke of the “desperate and lawless character
of the McCulloch boys.” According to a statement by a local attorney, E. A.
Bolton:
…for
years Conway has been controlled by an element who did not afford proper
protection to life and property. Ladies were not free from insult on the
streets, even on Sundays.
The
McCullough boys, Bob, Will, and Sam were leaders of an element which threatened
the very existence of all law and order in the town. The law and order party
composed of the best elements of the community, finally succeeded in getting
control, and were represented on the Grand Jury by J. R. Williams as foreman.
He dared to do his duty and indicted the law breakers. (Daily Arkansas Gazette, March 11, 1892)
As Williams was being brought
to Little Rock for the meeting with the governor, the third brother – Will –
attempted to shoot him. He was not charged with a crime but released with the
promise that he would leave the county and never return.
After Williams spent a month
in prison, Governor Eagle issued a pardon that released him. (Daily Arkansas Gazette, April 17, 1892)
See these articles: “Prohis and Anti-Prohis in Faulkner County,” Daily Arkansas Gazette, Feb. 9, 1892,
p. 6; “A Great Scene: One Hundred and One of Conway’s Prominent Citizens,” Daily Arkansas Gazette, March 11, 1892,
p.1; J.R. Williams, The Conway Man Convicted of Manslaughter Is Pardoned by
Gov. Eagle, Daily Arkansas Gazette,
April 17, 1892. “He is Acquitted: J.R. Williams Held Blameless for the Killing
of the McCullochs,” Daily Arkansas
Gazette, July 21, 1892.
[6] Frank
Robbins, p. 16. See footnote 4.
[7] Frank
Robbins, p. 16. See footnote 4.
[8] “Very Dry”,
Daily Arkansas Gazette, Feb.16,
1889, p. 4.
[9] It seems
strange that Loetscher’s farm – within the Conway city limits – was further
than three miles away from the “eight churches and five Sabbath schools”
located in Conway on January 1, 1889, when the law came into effect. [Arkansas Gazette, June 30, 1888, p. 2]
[10] Arkansas Echo, June
10, 1894, p. 1
[12] Both the
older Peter, who came earlier to Dubuque, and the younger Peter were born in
Graubunden Canton. The following year, another relative from Graubunden Canton,
Christian Loetscher (1850 – 1922) immigrated to the United States, settling in
Dubuque. Christian became a hugely successful inventor and businessman. He
founded Farley and Loetscher Manufacturing Company, incorporated in 1881, that
became the “nation’s largest sash and door manufacturing company.” See the Encyclopedia of Dubuque at this link: http://www.encyclopediadubuque.org/index.php?title=LOETSCHER,_Christian
[13] In 1871
and 1872, the land in and around the future city of Conway was located in
Conway County. It was transferred to the newly created Faulkner County in 1873.
[14] Arkansas Echo, June 10, 1894, p. 1
Also see. Carolyn Gray LeMaster,
1994. A Corner of the Tapestry: A History of the Jewish Experience in Arkansas,
1820s-1990. University of Arkansas Press.
[17] The first
Catholic family to arrive in the Conway area, not long after Faulkner County
was organized in 1873, was the Jacob Schichtl family. By 1876 the Schichtl
family was joined by other Catholic families – Jacob Erbach, Edward Lachowsky,
Joseph Schneider, John Weber, V. Wurtzelbach and H. Rappel. See http://www.sjparish.org/History
[18] The Guiding Star for the St. Joseph Colony:
A Guide Book for Catholic Emigrants to the Arkansas River Valley. 1880
(translated and published in 1997 by the Faulkner County Historical Society). In
German, the title is Leitstern zur St.
Joseph’s Colonie (under Leitung der Vaeter von hl. Geist) im Westen des Staates
Arkansas. Ein praktischer Wegweiser und treuer Fueher fuer Katholische
Auswanderer.
[19] Included
in the 49 households with a German-speaking head was the Loetscher family. Peter Paul and Magnalena were living in the
Cadron Township of Faulkner County with their daughter Brena (10) and sons
Christian (6) and George (2). The two sons were listed as having been born in
Arkansas. The Loetscher family was living with two brothers who had recently
arrived from Germany, William Risse (23) and Barney Risse (26). (The Cadron
township is a large one that includes all of Conway and more area outside the
city.)
[20] Wolfe,
Jonathan James. 1966. “Background of German Immigration: Chapter V, Beginning
Life in the New Land.” Arkansas
Historical Quarterly, XXV(4), Winter, p. 377. The number of German speakers
was greater than 223, because many these European-born residents had children
born in the United States. (Faulkner Co:
Its Land and People, chapter 2).
[21] James
Jonathan Wolf. 1966. “Background of German Immigration: Chapter V, Beginning
Life in the New Land.” Arkansas
Historical Quarterly, XXV(4), Winter, pp. 354-385.
[22] A
Central-Arkansas drought in 1880-81 contributed to the high mortality of
recently arrived immigrants during those years.
[24] “Faulkner
County: Resources and Attractions of One of the Best Communities in Arkansas.” Daily Arkansas Gazette. March 21, 1888,
p. 5.
Loetscher was not on the list of Faulkner County taxpayers in 1873, so he likely was renting land during the first years he was there. Earliest Taxpayers of Faulkner Co. Arkansas, April 12, 1873. Complied by Joe R. Goss.
[25] Arkansas Echo, June
10, 1894, p. 1
[26] Furthermore,
neither Peter Paul nor his wife were buried in Conway’s St. Joseph Catholic
Church cemetery, which was likely had they been Catholics.
[28] Daily Arkansas Gazette. Sept 11, 1886, p. 1
[30] According
to the obituary in the February 12, 1912 issue of Confederate Veterans, Martin escaped his capture. See this link: http://www.confederatevets.com/documents/martin_ar_cv_02_12_ob.shtml . The obituary in the Arkansas Gazette did not mention such
an escape: “Capt W W Martin Dies at Conway”, Arkansas Gazette, December 11, 1911, p. 5
[31] “Springfield was incorporated in 1858 with S. S. Ford Mayor…
After the war, the first firms to resume business were Hawkins & Co., Cargile
& Moses, and N. W. Moore. Mr. Moore also erected a good hotel in 1867,
which was the leading hotel till the removal of the county seat. W. W. Martin
soon became associated with Mr. Vaughan under the firm name of
Martin & Vaughan. Mr. Martin started with but the smallest capital, and during
the location of his business here, made a fortune. This firm was the first to
start the credit business, which for a long time after seemed to be the only
way that business could be transacted.” Biographical and Historical Memoirs
of Western Arkansas. Goodspeed Publishers, 1891.
http://files.usgwarchives.net/ar/conway/history/goodspeeds.txt
[32] J.E.
Martin bio, see note 29
[33] See Bill Lynch.
1952. “Captain William W. Martin.” Arkansas
Historical Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring, 1952), pp. 41-55. This description is from page
44: As in Springfield, “Mr. Martin was most
liberal and accommodating with the farmers who bought on credit. He furnished
every help and encouragement possible, often taking great risks in order to
favor the farmer and help him. Often when mortgages became due Captain Martin
would just ‘forget’ to foreclose so as to give the farmer another chance to pay
off the mortgage. This naturally made him popular among the farmers and working
men.”
[34] “Faulkner
County: Resources and Attractions of One of the Best Communities in Arkansas.” Daily
Arkansas Gazette. March 21, 1888, p. 5. See note 24.
[35] Lynch, AHQ, p. 43 (see note 33)
[37] The quotation
is from Daily Arkansas Gazette,
March 23, 1890. Also see the Daily
Arkansas Gazette, March 18, 1890, for information on the competition among
towns for Hendrix College.
[38] Lynch, AHQ, p. 52 (see note 33)
[39] “Conway’s
Compromise.” Daily Arkansas Gazette.
April 3, 1890.
[40] Daily Arkansas Gazette, Sept 7, 1890 p. 1.
[41] “Late
Election Returns,” Daily Arkansas Gazette,
April 10, 1891.
[42] Bob
Meriwether. “Two ‘Forgotten’ Tribulations of Capt. W.W. Martin,” Faulkner County Facts & Fiddlings,
XXXIV(1-2), 1992, pp. 9-10.
[43] Lynch, AHQ, p. 48 (see note 33)
[44] Martin
was elected delegate to the state Cleveland Club meeting (Daily Arkansas Gazette, July 29, 1888). He helped organize and was
elected president of the Bryan Club (Daily
Arkansas Gazette, July 18, 1896).
[45] Lynch,
pp. 41, 54 (see note 33)
[46] “The Late
W. W. Martin,” Arkansas Gazette, Dec
20, 1911
[47] George W
Donaghey, “Arkansas’ Greatest Philanthropist and Private Citizen,” Hendrix College Bulletin, Vol. II, no
1. January 1915, p. 3.
[48] Confederate Veterans Magazine, Feb. 1912 (see note 30)
[49] Lynch, AHQ, p. 55.
[51] The evidence that Joseph N. Luke was “Joe Luke,” the killer,
is circumstantial, but strong: (1) the
1880 census showed no family by the name of “Luke” living in Faulkner County, but
in 1885 the family of Joseph Luke was living in Faulkner County when Joe Luke’s
mother died, (2) the Luke family was living in Mayflower in 1894, and (3) an
article about the murder stated Joe Luke was a young man who lived in
Mayflower.
[52] A “Joseph
R Luke” was living with his wife in Oklahoma in 1910, according to the census
conducted that year. Like Joseph N Luke, he was born in 1866 and had parents
who both had been born in Alabama. The man was a farmer, working rented land.
All of the details of the Joseph R Luke correspond with those of Joseph N Luke,
except the middle initial.
Sources Consulted:
Condray, Kathleen. 2015.
Arkansas’s Bloody German-Language Newspaper War of 1892. Arkansas Historical Quarterly. LXXIV (4), Winter, pp. 327-351.
Durning, Dan. 2013. Misfortune
Befalls a German Vintner in Conway, 1894.
July 18, Eclecticatbest.com
Blog entry.
Johnson, Ben. 2005. John Barleycorn Must Die. Fayetteville:
University of Arkansas Press.
LeMaster, Carolyn Gray. 1994. A Corner of the Tapestry: A History of the
Jewish Experience in Arkansas, 1820s-1990. University of Arkansas Press.
Meriwether, Bob. 1992. Two
‘Forgotten’ Tribulations of Capt. W.W. Martin. Faulkner County Facts & Fiddlings, XXXIV(1-2), pp. 9-10.
Robbing, Frank E. 1931.
“Conway Goes “Dry” (1888). Conway County
Democrat, May 24. Reprinted in Faulkner
Facts & Fiddlings. XXXIX (1-2),
1997, pp. 15-16.
Strub, Joseph (Translated by
Kenneth C. Barnes). 1997. The Guiding
Star for the St. Joseph Colony: A Guide Book for Catholic Emigrants to the
Arkansas River Valley. Oldbuck Press, Conway, Arkansas. (Orginally
published in German in 1880 titled Leitstern
zur St. Joseph’s Colonie (under Leitung der Väter von hl. Geist) im Westen des
Staates Arkansas. Ein praktischer Wegweiser und treuer Führer für Katholische
Auswanderer)
Wolfe, Jonathan James. 1966.
Background of German Immigration: Chapter V, Beginning Life in the New Land. Arkansas Historical Quarterly, XXV(4),
pp. 354-385.
(Public records were accessed
through searches of ancestry.com)
*****************
Appendix: Genealogical
Information
Peter Paul Loetscher. March 13, 1845 – June 4, 1894. Buried: Oak Grove Cemetery (Conway).
Magdalena “Lena” Luck L.
Dec 8, 1844 – Feb 8, 1897. Buried: Oak Grove Cemetery (Conway)
Franie (Varena, Brena) Loetscher Rou. Oct. 27, 1869 –
January 17, 1947. Married Peter Rou
(born in Switzerland), Buried: Primrose United Methodist Cemetery, Pulaski Co,
Arkansas.
Christian F. Loetscher. Nov 12, 1874 – August 19, 1935. Buried:
Colorado Springs, Co.
Carle R Loetscher. Dec 3, 1889 – June 18, 1931. Buried:
Saint Boniface Church Cemetery, New Dixie (Perry County), Arkansas
Joseph Reese Luke. Oct. 13, 1842 – Feb. 7, 1925. Buried:
Marcus Hill Cemetery, Enola (Faulkner Co.)
