GENTRY -- Arthur Tallman (1866-1924) was honored by the Gentry Chamber of Commerce at its annual awards banquet with the lifetime achievement award for his service and contributions to the city of Gentry and the surrounding communities during the 25 or more years he promoted the city and kept its citizens informed of news and events as the editor and publisher of the Gentry Journal-Advance.
Arthur I. Tallman was indeed an important figure in Gentry's history and did much to promote the new town in western Benton County in its early years. He owned and published the Gentry Journal-Advance from 1897 until 1921 when Tallman sold the newspaper to M.V. Crockett and his wife. After spending time in Hot Springs to regain his health, Tallman returned to work at the Journal-Advance and died at the press on Jan. 10, 1924, according to his published obituary.
"Since his return to Gentry, he has worked in the JA office," his published obituary states, "and was assisting with the press work of last week's edition, when he fell -- fell to rise no more. Thus he died 'in the harness,' in the work of his chosen profession. The wheels of the press stopped, and in a few brief minutes after falling, the soul of this noble, Christian man, this kind and loving husband and brother, this loyal friend, took its flight to the realms of bliss."
The Gentry Journal began in 1894 when a newspaper man by the name of John Hann, owner and operator of the Waunetta Breeze in Waunetta, Neb., came to the then-forming town of Gentry and set up the town's first newspaper, the Gentry Journal, leaving it in the hands of his brother-in-law, Edwin Baker, to operate. The newspaper was sold in 1895 to D.L. Kost and Joe G. Bennett.
In 1895, Arthur Tallman started publishing a city newspaper in Decatur called the "Decatur Advance." In 1897 Tallman bought half interest in the Gentry Journal and, along with Joe G. Bennett (manager) and M.G. Bennett (publisher), he became an owner and publisher of the Gentry Journal-Advance, published each Friday in Gentry.
M.G. Bennett, in the May 21, 1897, issue of the newspaper explains: "Arthur Tallman, formerly editor of the Decatur Advance, has recently bought a half interest in the Gentry Journal and, this week, the paper comes out under the hyphenated name of Journal-Advance. Thus, by union, neither paper is dead, but doubly strengthened. By the combination of brains, type and circulation we will be prepared to give our kind readers a more newsy and interesting paper in every particular. We thank them for their liberal patronage in the past and hope to merit a continuance of the same in the future."
Tallman wrote: "The Journal-Advance extends the glad hand to Decatur, both collectively and individually, whenever she wants to shake. It will print the news of Decatur and continue to be her friend. During my sojourn of nearly two years in the little city, I have been treated with the utmost kindness, for which I am grateful, and if the same is extended to me by the good people of Gentry, I shall be happy."
And Gentry must have treated Tallman well. He continued to publish the Journal-Advance in Gentry for 24 years, much of that time as the sole owner and publisher, and then came back and worked at the newspaper for a time before his death. Tallman published Gentry's weekly paper and promoted Gentry and its businesses to the area for about 25 years. His paper carried advertisements of Gentry businesses, as well as news from Gentry, Decatur, Springtown, Highfill, Cherokee City and other surrounding communities, some no longer on the map.
He was outspoken in regard to the virtues of Gentry (known as Orchard for a time because of the once-thriving fruit orchards) and of Gentry businesses and was also critical of neighboring Siloam Springs, never hesitating to point out in the pages of the Journal-Advance the shortcomings of our neighbors to the south. He chronicled Gentry's history as the fruit-growing capital of the world and also the demise of the fruit-growing industry.
Copies of his newspapers which still exist are invaluable records of Gentry's history and can still be accessed through the Arkansas History Commission, at the Gentry Public Library and online at http://gentrycourierjournal.newspaperarchive.com and other sites.
Arthur Tallman was born in Illinois on Feb. 16, 1866, to Isaac Holland Tallman and Elizabeth Silverthorne Evans and in 1880 lived with his father, Isaac, and older brother and sister, Walton H. (b. 1852) and Alice Tallman (b. 1859), on a farm in Rooks County, Kansas (north of Hays, Kan.), an area in northwestern Kansas settled in the late 1870s and early 1880s. His mother and other four brothers and sisters (Gabriel Evans Tallman - 1849-1866); Ellen Tallman (1853-1884) and Albert Tallman (1856-unknown) were not listed on the census. Alice married Frank Shutts in April of 1880 and remained in Rooks County, Kansas.
How he came to northwest Arkansas is unclear, but Tallamn is listed as living on Main Street and then Fourth Street in Gentry, together with his wife Catherine and brother Walton in the 1910 and 1920 census. His father Isaac, and Arthur C. Ashbrook (age 16), are listed as members of his household in 1900.
Arthur and Catherine had an adopted daughter named Katherine who was born in Germany in 1911. She was listed as a 9-year-old adopted daughter on the 1920 census.
Arthur, his wife Catherine, and his father Isaac are buried in the Gentry cemetery. Catherine was buried in 1956, so some may still remember her.
General News on 03/02/2016