Biography of S M Rutherford, Sebastian Co, AR ********************************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ********************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford, Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- page 1364 S. M. Rutherford, deputy sheriff of Sebastian County, Ark., is a graduate of Emory and Henry College, Virginia, having completed a classical course and taken the degree of A. B. from that institution in 1883. He graduated with the second honors of his class, and bears with him from his alma mater the “debater's medal.” Since leaving college he has been pursuing the study of law, and is now preparing to be admitted to the bar. In 1885 he was appointed deputy sheriff of Fort Smith District, of Sebastian County, and is still filling that position with a marked degree of success. He is a young man of brilliant attainments, and has the promise of a bright future before him. His birth occurred in Lewisville, La Fayette Co., Ark., in 1859, and he is a son of Robert B. and Sallie W. (Butler) Rutherford, grandson of Samuel M. and Eloise M. (Beall) Rutherford, and the great-grandson of W. B. Rutherford, who was born in Virginia, and moved to Tennessee about 1812, settling near Nashville, where he spent the remainder of his days. His son, Samuel M., was born in Virginia in 1797, and removed to Tennessee with his father, and in 1814 enlisted in the War of 1812, being with Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and after the close of that war remained in New Orleans until 1817. He then sailed up the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers until he reached a point about four miles above where Fort Gibson is now situated, where he established a trading post among the Osage Indians, and remained two years. He was the first sheriff of Clark County, being appointed September 1, 1819, and served until 1823. He then moved to Phillips County, and acted as clerk of the circuit court from 1823 to 1825, and from that date up to 1830 was sheriff of Pulaski County. He was treasurer of the Territory of Arkansas for three years, but previous to that time had represented Pulaski County in the Legislature. From 1836 to 1840 he was register of the land office at Little Rock, and at the latter date was elected presidential elector on the Van Buren ticket. In the spring of 1846 he was appointed to what was then the western superintendency of Indian affairs, by President Polk, which position he filled until the summer of 1849. He was the first representative from Sebastian County to the State Legislature (in 1851), and was county and probate judge of Sebastian County from 1854 to 1856. The following year he was appointed by President Buchanan as agent for the Seminole Indians, and held this position until the breaking out of the late Civil War, in 1861. He then retired from public life, and died on his farm in 1867 at the age of seventy years, having lived a long, useful and prosperous life. His son, Robert B. Rutherford, was born at Little Rock, Ark., and was reared in Pulaski and Sebastian Counties. He graduated from Arkansas College, at Fayetteville, in 1854, after which he became a disciple of Blackstone, and practiced his profession in LaFayette County from 1857 to 1867. At the latter date he returned to Fort Smith, where he was elected justice of the peace in 1874, and afterward served as county and probate judge two terms, commencing the duties of the office in 1878. From 1882 until 1886 he served as judge of the Twelfth Judicial District, and since that time has been engaged in the practice of law. His wife was born in South Carolina in 1837, and became the mother of seven children: Samuel M., whose name heads this sketch; William B., attorney at law and civil engineer; R. B.; Raymond P.; Jane G., wife of William B, Smith; Emmala Elise and Ethelende Butler. The mother is a daughter of Dr. William Butler, of South Carolina, who represented that State in the United States Congress in 1844, and a niece of the late Senator A. P. Butler, also a niece of the late Gov. P. M. Butler, who was colonel of the Palmetto regiment of South Carolina volunteers, and was killed in the Mexican War. She is a sister of Gen. M. C. Butler, the present United States Senator from South Carolina. [p.1364] Her parents were of English-Irish descent, and she is a worthy descendant of illustrious ancestors. Mrs. Rutherford is also a niece of Commodores Oliver and Matthew C. Perry, her mother being their sister.