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Submitted: 8/5/13 • Approved: 12/7/17 • Last Updated: 1/23/24 • R915147-G0-S3
Sept 14, 1851-Jan 31, 1921
Old Section
Christopher C. Hamby, attorney, Prescott, Ark. The subject of this sketch has been so prominently identified with the interests of Nevada County as to render him well and favorably known, whose integrity and honesty of purpose is unquestioned. He owes his nativity to Calhoun County, Miss., a son of Thomas J. and Nancy (Byars) Hamby, the former of whom died in 1874, and the latter, December, 1870. They were the parents of five children—two sons and three daughters. Two daughters died in infancy, and the other died October 9, 1889. One son, Thomas R., was a prominent lawyer of Little Rock, and died in 1885. The subject of this sketch attended school a few months before the war, but his education was somewhat limited as he had to shift for himself from boyhood. His father was in the Rebel army, and C. C., being the eldest son (then eleven years of age) did the plowing, while his mother and little brother did the hoeing necessary to make a corn crop each year during the last three years of the war. After the war he attended the neighborhood school for awhile, and at the age of nineteen years, he left the parental roof, by permission of parents, and was employed as a brakeman on a freight train on the Mississippi Central Railroad, at a salary of $60 per month, until he had saved enough money to enable him to attend school. He came to Arkansas in the fall of 1872, and made a crop with his uncle, Micajah Hamby, near Booneville, in Logan County, where he attended school during the winter of 1873-74. In the spring of 1874 he went to Calhoun County, Ark., and engaged in teaching school at Salem for three years, during which time he borrowed law books of Bearden & Bunn, at Camden, Ark., and studied law at night. He was admitted to the bar at Camden in May, 1876. In the year 1876-77 he taught school at Edinburg, and in October, 1878, he opened a law office, at Prescott, Ark., practicing alone until the fall of 1879, when he formed a partnership with J. M. Montgomery, which continued until January 1, 1886, in the fall of which year he removed to Texarkana. His wife died a few weeks later, and in the fall of 1887 he returned to Prescott, and has ever since been prominently identified with the affairs of the place. He is the present Senator of Hempstead and Nevada Counties, being the first Democrat elected to the Senate from this district since 1880, of which fact he has a right to feel proud. He takes an active interest in Masonry, being the present master of the lodge, and high priest of the Chapter in Prescott. He is a member of Du Gresclin Commandery No. 2, of Camden, Ark., and is grand orator for the present year of the Grand Lodge, F. & A. M., of Arkansas. He was admitted to practice in the State Supreme Court, October 10, 1881, and now has an extensive practice in both the Federal and State Courts. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Mr. Hamby has been married three times: First, November 25, 1875, to Miss Emma Frazier, who died in March, 1876. He next married Miss Bell Blake, in February, 1881, who died in 1886, and he then married Miss Bettie Wells, in September, 1887. Mr. Hamby has a nice family of interesting children, and is making ample provisions for their thorough education.
Contributed on 8/5/13
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Record #: 915147