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Springdale, AR Real Estate News

By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
William M. Freehan was born in 1929. He graduated from Saint John’s University in 1952. He served in the United States Army seeing action in Korea, he received the Combat Infantry Badge, Korean Service Medal, UN Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal. After his discharge, he joined the New York Fire Department (FDNY).He held every rank within the fire department, starting with Probationary Firefighter starting in 1959. Promoted to Lieutenant in 1964 and Chief of Department in 1991. He was the first firefighter to accomplish that. He briefly served as Acting Fire Commissioner, before a new Commissioner was appointed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. What you may not know about William is that he died in 2001, doing what he did best at the World Trade Center on 9-11-01. He was 71. ...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
William Farmer was born in Pratt, Kansas back in 1952. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 1975. While in college he worked in radio and TV. He worked as a stand-up comedian in Dallas, Texas before moving to Hollywood. There he found work as a voiceover several of which I’m sure you’ll recognize.He currently resides in San Fernando Valley, California.What you may not know about William is that since 1987 he is the voice of Goofy for Disney. He currently is the voice of Pluto and Horace Horsecollar. Other characters he has played include Yosemite Sam, Sylvester and Foghorn Leghorn to name a few.Your day is worthwhile when you make someone smile, so give the free gift of a smile today
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
David Grandlson Fairchild was born in Lansing, Michigan back in 1869. He graduated from the Kansas State College of Agriculture in 1888. He continued his studies at Iowa State, Rutgers and Oberlin College where he received his D.Sc. in 1915. After graduation, he worked for the US Department of Agriculture as a plant explorer. He was promoted to manager of the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction. In 1926, he built a home on an 8-acre parcel in Coconut Grove, Florida. He was a member of the board of regents at the University of Miami. In 1933, he was awarded the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. He died in 1954 he was 85.What you may not know about David is that he was responsible for the introduction of more than 200,00 exotic plants to the United States. He a...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Matilda Arabella Evans was born in Aiken, South Carolina back in 1872 to Anderson and Harriet. She received her education at the Schofield Industrial School after graduation she attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. After graduation, she taught school at the Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia.After just one year she continued her education at the Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia. She graduated in 1897, with a medical degree moving to Columbia, South Carolina to start her practice. Her practice was in obstetrics, gynecology and surgery. She helped in establishing the Taylor Lane Hospital in Columbia. She died in 1935.What you may not know about Matilda is that she was the first African-American woman licensed to practice medicine in South Carolina and the only black woman i...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
John Venn was born in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, England back in 1834 to Henry and Martha. His father was a rector for a local parish, being raised up in a strict atmosphere. He was educated at the Sir Roger Cholmeley’s School in London. In 1853, he enrolled at Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge. In 1857, he obtained his degree in mathematics.He followed in his father’s footsteps becoming an Anglican priest in 1859. By 1862, he returned to Cambridge where he lectured in moral science, teaching logic and probability. He once invented a machine to bowl cricket balls. It was so successful that it actually our bowled the top ranked player of the day four times in a row.In 1903, he was elected President of Gonville and Caius College until his death in 1923. What you may not know abo...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Salem Poor was born in Andover, Massachusetts back in 1747. He joined the Revolutionary Army in 1775. Serving under Captain Benjamin Ames he is best remembered for his action during the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775, where he is credited with mortally wounding the British Lieutenant Colonel James Abercrombie.For his gallantry, he was cited for heroism by Colonel William Prescott and another 14 officers. He was also at Valley Forge fighting in the Battle of White Plains. He married four times and had only one child Jonas. I could not find any information about Jonas after his birth. In 1975, Salem was honored with a stamp in the Contributions to the Cause series. Poor Street in Andover was named after him.What you may not know about Salem is that he was born into slavery, he bought his f...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
William Henry was born in Camberwell, England back in1887 to Edwin and Eliza. As a child, he stuttered and was bow-legged. He was educated at Enfield Grammar School. He continued his education at King’s College, London. He never graduated leaving for Canada where he worked as a farm laborer. He began to get small acting jobs gradually working his way with more acting jobs. Due to health problems, he did not enlist in WWI. He moved to Hollywood and worked in several silent films however, work was sporadic. In-between films he dug ditches or delivering construction plaster. He acted in eighty films before his big break in 1931, which propelled him to stardom. All in all, he was active for 60 years in the movie industry. He died in 1969 at 81. While you may have never heard of William Henr...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Franz Josef was born in Vienna back in 1886. In 1901, the family moved to Brno where he received his education graduating with an engineering degree in 1909. After graduation, he returned to Vienna working for AEG-Union as an electrical engineer. He joined the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troop as a marine engineer during WWI. In 1916, you could find him working for the Austrian Navy to supervise the production for aircraft engines. After the war, he was hired by an upcoming company to expand engines being built to use in automobiles and motorcycles. In 1933, under pressure from Gauleiter Wagner he joined the Nazi Party. He allowed his family to be treated by a Jewish family doctor which of course caught the attention of the local authorities. As the war progressed there...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
William Painter was born in Ireland to Edward and Louisa. BTW, this one is going to be short, so hang on here we go. When he was twenty he moved to the United States settling in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1865, he worked as a foreman at the Murrill & Keizer’s machine shop. At that time in our history he found his niche, in 1892 he founded his company that is still in operation to this day. The issue was that there was no universal neck for glass bottles. He patented 85 inventions, including the common bottle cap, the bottle opener, a machine for crowning bottles, a paper folding machine and a machine for detecting counterfeit currency to name a few. The company he founded in 1892, Crown Holdings, Inc. It is a Fortune 500 company. He died in 1906, until tomorrow when you open a cold one I h...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Robert Francis was born in Baltimore Maryland back in 1839 to Robert and Mary Jane. The family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts around 1850, where they opened a boarding house. In 1863, Robert Jr. was working in New York City as a marble cutter when he enlisted in the United States Navy. He served on the USS Wyoming seeing action at the Naval Battle of Shimonoseki.He transferred to the USS Housatonic which was sunk by a torpedo from the Confederate States Navy from the submarine H.L. Hunley. After the war, he finally moved to Boston Massachusetts where he went into business as a guitar manufacturer and music teacher. He invented a guitar called the “Euphonica” U.S. Patent # 338,727 in March of 1886. He composed a “National Funeral Hymn” dedicated to the Grand Army of the Republic. He r...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Frederick Anthony Picariello was born in Revere, Massachusetts back in 1936. At a young age, he joined the National Guard, took a job driving a truck, married and was a father. He now resides in Tarzana, California. Now for the rest of the story.During his spare time, he learned to play the guitar. Inspired by the music of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly and Little Richard he formed his own group, they were a hit in the Boston area. He became a regular on a local TV dance show. He did not gain real recognition that is until he met Dick Clark who was part-owner of Swan Records in Philadelphia. From that meeting the rest was history. Don’t recognize Fredrick Anthony Picariello, maybe you would know him by his stage name of Freddy Cannon. I’m dating myself but some of his records are true gold, let...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Where did they go #3.William Morgan was born in Culpepper, Colony of Virginia back in 1774. He worked as a bricklayer and stone cutter. He married Lucinda moving his family to York, Upper Canada where he operated a brewery. It was destroyed by a fire and he moved back to Rochester, New York.He claimed to be a Freemason however, those claims are disputed although he appears on the rolls for the doge in Rochester for a brief time. In any respect, he tried to visit other lodges and was turned away. This angered him so he decided to write a book exposing the Freemasons and revealing their secret degree work in detail. In 1826, he entered a carriage in Canandaigua to ride to Fort Niagara the next day, he never made it. In 1827, a badly decomposed body was found on the shores of Lake Ontario....
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Harry Burnett was born in York County, Pennsylvania back in 1879 to Aquilla and Annie.  In 1917, you could find him working on a dairy farm.  During his spare time, he began experimenting in his basement with some ingredients.  By 1923, he started his own company selling his assortment of inventions on consignment to retail stores.  His business was so successful by 1935, he had paid off all of his mortgages, including his factory.  With the start of World War II and the scarcity of materials he discontinued all of his product line except one.He died in 1956 at 76.  While you may not know Harry Burnett you surely know Harry Burnett Reese.  That one product he continued to produce was of course Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.  Now you know the rest of the story not bad, not bad at all.  Unti...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Ernest Leslie was born in Ipswich, England back in 1852.  In 1844 his father Frederick had patented artificial stone.  By the 1870, Ernest had moved to the United States where he was superintendent of the Pacific Stone Company in San Francisco.  In 1884, he received a patent number 305,226 for his invention.  His invention/improvement was highly criticized until 1902.  He had built the Pacific Coast Borax Refinery in Bayonne, NJ back in 1897.  The building went through a massive fire hot enough to melt brass.  His reinforced concrete frame was only slightly damaged, showing superiority to the standard steel and iron frame.  His invention of reinforced concrete also survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, essentially without damage while the conventional brick structures literally cr...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Fernand Petiot was born in Paris, France back in 1900.  I do not have any information on his parents other than they owned a boarding house, thus the backdrop for the rest of the story. When he was a child he worked in the kitchen until he was employed by The New York Bar in Paris.  He progressed through the ranks to bartender.  In 1925, he set a Paris beer-drinking contest where he drank a two-liter glass of beer in 46.5 seconds. In 1925, he moved to the United States where he worked at the New York City’s St. Regis Hotel as the head bartender until his retirement in 1966.  He died in 1975 at 74.  What you may not know about Fernand Petiot is that he claims to be the first bartender to make a Bloody Mary back in the early 1920’s.  the first one’s were simple tomato juice and vodka.  It...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Seth Pomeroy was born in Northampton, Massachusetts back in 1706 to Ebenezer and Sarah.  As he aged he became a mechanic and gunsmith, earning a reputation as one of the best gunsmiths in the colony.In 1745, you could find him at Fortress Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.   The French had spiked the guns captured, he used his knowledge of gunsmithing to recondition the weapons.  In 1755 then Lt. Colonel Pomeroy was second in command when they marched to New York to capture Crown Point.When the Revolutionary War started he was a senior office in the Massachusetts militia however, being near 70 he played a limited role.   During the Battle of Bunker Hill, he borrowed a horse from General Artemas Ward setting out for Charlestown.  There he found troops piled up because the narrow strip was under ...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Alexander Whitaker was born in Cambridge back in 1585 to William, sorry his mother’s name was not listed.  Anyway, on with the rest of the story.  He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge.  He traveled across the pond settling in Virginia in 1611.  He drowned while crossing the James River in 1617, he was 34. What you may not know about Alexander is that he was a popular religious leader.  He was responsible for the baptism and conversion of both settlers and natives.  One of his most famous sermons was Good News from Virginia (1613).  In that sermon he called the Native Americans as “servants of sinner while also referring to them as a very understanding generation.  Oh yeah, one more thing is was responsible for the baptism and conversion of Pocahontas at Henricus in 1613.  She t...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Oliver Hudson was born in Boston back in 1826.  He moved to Minnesota in 1849 where he became a farmer.  In 1864, he was working with  the United States Bureau of Agriculture.  Part of his job was to travel through the Eastern and Southern States looking at what effect the Civil War had on farming.  He built partnerships with the farmers for post war America.  In 1867 he helped building the groundwork for a new foundation for American agriculture.  The foundation was known as the Grange, where that name came from is still a mystery.  Anyway, on with the history lesson.  Part of the Grange foundation was experimenting with new crops, installing irrigation systems and the use of the first mechanical  reapers.His biggest challenge was the high rates charged by warehouses and railroads to t...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Schuyler Skaats was born in New York City, New York back in 1860 to James and Annie. He was educated at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School.  In 1883 he joined the United States Electric Lighting Company, leaving later to join the engineering staff of Thomas A. Edison.  His job there was the Pearl Street Station project.   He changed jobs several times working the the Herzog Teleseme Company, C & C Electric Motor Company and the Crocker-Wheeler Motor Company.  From 1888-1895 he was the expert consultant specialist of the Board of Electrical Control in New York.  In 1900, he purchased the library of Josiah Latimer Clark which contained the largest collection of rare electrical works in existence at the time.  He donated those to New York’s Engineering Societies Building and Engineers C...
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By James Dray
(Fathom Realty)
Lydia Barrington was born in Dublin, Ireland back in 1728 to John and Mary. In 1753 she married William and immigrated to Philadelphia so William could work as a tutor.  She worked as a midwife.  Lydia and William had 5 children that survived and 4 others that died in infancy. Lydia was not educated as her parents lacked the funds to send her to school however, what she lacked in book knowledge she made up for in commonsense. They were Quakers however, their oldest son Charles served with the 2nd Pennsylvania Regiment of the Continental Army.   With one of her children serving in the Army she was actually aware of the consequences should he be captured.  On September 26, 1777 General Howe, the next day Major John Andre the use of her home for General Howes staff. On December 2nd she was...
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