A long legacy in the law

Little Rock’s Rose Firm goes back to 1820s

Last Wednesday I took time to celebrate the anniversary of the oldest law firm west of the Mississippi River, the Rose Firm of Little Rock. On Nov. 1, 1820, two prominent Arkansas lawyers, Territorial Secretary Robert Crittenden and the land speculator Chester Ashley signed a “partnership in the practice of law.” But it would be U.M. Rose who built the firm into a legal powerhouse which continues to this day.

Uriah Milton Rose was born March 5, 1834, to Nancy and Joseph Rose of Bradfordsville, Ky. Like so many other 19th century Arkansans, Rose was orphaned at an early age after his mother died in 1848 and his father, a physician, the following year. The teenager was able to find work as a store clerk and later as a farm hand. Rose was fortunate when he was taken under the wing of an attorney in Lebanon, Ky., who helped young Rose become a deputy county clerk.

In 1853, at the age of 19, Rose began classes at Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky. After only a six-month course of study, Rose received a law degree and began his lifelong practice of law.

Rose, who had married while studying law, relocated to Batesville, Ark., in the winter of 1853. The small Independence County seat of Batesville had come to Rose’s attention when he read some of C.F.M. Noland’s popular stories in the national Spirit of the Times magazine about life in northcentral Arkansas. The family prospered in Batesville, including having three sons.

In 1860 Gov. Elias N. Conway appointed the 26-yearold Rose to the position of chancery judge, a statewide position.

During the run-up to the Civil War, Rose opposed secession. However, once hostilities began, he joined the Southern cause. When Batesville was occupied in May 1862, Judge Rose was arrested as a Confederate office holder. Paroled, Rose and his family moved to Washington, Hempstead County, the Confederate capital after Little Rock fell in 1863. His physical frailties prevented service in the rebel army.

While living in Washington, Rose was delegated by the Confederate government to travel to Richmond, Va., the Confederate national capital, to make a record of every Arkansan who served in the Confederate forces. The journey was an eventful one, including crossing the blockaded Mississippi River in a canoe while leading his horse alongside.

While in Richmond, Rose met Confederate President Jefferson Davis, whom he described as appearing “unusually commanding” in his “becoming suit of gray, lighter in color than that of the Confederate regulation uniform.” Rose also met with the Confederate secretary of state, Judah P. Benjamin, with whom he developed an instant rapport.

Rose and his crew of young women transcriptionists finished their work as Christmas approached in 1864. The “very voluminous notes” were placed in a “very large box which I shipped to … Jackson, Mississippi.” Rose was advised that the records should stay in storage in a Confederate warehouse in Jackson due to the increased difficulty involved in crossing the Mississippi. That was a tragic decision because the records were lost when Union forces burned the warehouse during a surprise raid.

As soon as the guns fell silent in 1865, Rose moved his family to Little Rock. He joined the law firm of George C. Watkins, a former chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court and the former law partner of Chester Ashley. Ultimately, the practice became known as the Rose Firm, a name which continues today.

Though still a young man, Rose was considered for a U.S. Senate seat when the first post-Civil War legislature met in 1866. At one point, Rose received 37 votes, only 19 votes short of election. However, he was not popular among legislators from eastern and southern Arkansas, and another candidate was elected.

Rose supported Elisha Baxter during the Brooks-Baxter War of 1874, a conflict which essentially ended Reconstruction in Arkansas. Sent to Washington by the Baxter contingent to argue their cause before President U.S. Grant, Rose presented a strong case which convinced the president — who proceeded to recognize Baxter as the legitimate governor. Thus, Reconstruction died in Arkansas.

Rose was at the top of his form during the 1880s and 1890s. He played a crucial though losing role in the protracted debate over repudiating the state’s debts. The failure of the state’s first banks in the 1840s left the state with a debt of almost $2 million. Many more millions of dollars in bonds were issued by the Reconstruction government. The legislature refused to redeem the debt, and the ensuing debate split the ruling Democrats. Rose, along with U.S. Sen. Augustus H. Garland and many others, argued strongly again repudiation, but the public clamor was loud. Finally, in 1884, the repudiation forces were successful in passing a constitutional amendment which prohibited the legislature from paying either principal or interest on the contested bonds. This act destroyed Arkansas’ credit for years to come just as Rose predicted.

In August 1878 Rose journeyed to Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where he joined 75 other invited lawyers to establish the American Bar Association. Four years later, he invited 21 lawyers from across the state to meet in his office to form the Arkansas Bar Association.

Rose reached the pinnacle of his career in 1907 when President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him to a panel of three distinguished attorneys to represent the U.S. at the Second Hague Peace Conference.

Rose died in August 1913 after falling in his office. He was buried at Oakland Cemetery in Little Rock. Rose’s descendants have continued to contribute to the legal community in Arkansas, especially his grandson, the late George Rose Smith, a long-serving member of the state Supreme Court.

Rose’s prominence led the 1915 legislature to select him to represent Arkansas in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. The life-size bronze statue was the work of New York artist Frederic Wellington Ruckstull, who had earlier sculpted the Confederate Soldiers Monument on the state capitol grounds. ∂∂