J. N. & FRANK W. WARD One of the most extensive and important corporate interests of Arkansas is that conducted under the name of the Border City Ice & Cold Storage Company, of which J. N. and Frank W. Ward are respectively the manager and assistant ~ manager. This company operates thirteen different plants in the state and the Border City Ice Company and the Fort Smith Ice & Cold Storage Company have the largest ice plants in Arkansas. The founder and senior partner of the business is J. N. Ward, accounted one of the most alert, progressive and enterprising men of the southwest. The Border City Ice & Cold Storage Company, with its main plant and its various branches, constitutes a million-dollar concern and is conducted as a family partnership, eight members of the family being interested therein.. Its branches are located in various cities of Oklahoma and of Arkansas and the business has enjoyed a steady and substantial growth through the thirty-five years of its existence. The plant at Fort Smith, supplying practically all of the ice used in the city, has a one-hundred-ton daily capacity, and the Fort Smith Ice & Cold Storage Company has a plant with a capacity for forty thousand barrels of apples during the winter season. With the settlement and development of the territory adjacent to Fort Smith, and intact covering western Arkansas and Oklahoma, the need arose for many other ice plants to meet the public demand, until today the company is operating thirteen in all in various cities of the two states. J. N. Ward, the active manager of the business, has been associated with the undertaking for thirty-five years. while Frank W. Ward, the assistant manager, has been active in the enterprise for a quarter of a century. Prior to the time when they concentrated their efforts and attention upon ice manufacture they were extensively engaged in cattle raising, handling from five to ten thousand head of steers annually. After the organization and promotion of their ice business they attempted to give attention to both lines, but the development of their cattle trade and of their ice manufacturing interests made it impossible to manage both and forced the necessity of a choice of one or the other line. After due consideration they decided to abandon the cattle industry and devote themselves exclusively to the manufacture of ice. Their progress has been due to careful organization and to a recognition of opportunities for the enlargement of their business by the establishment of additional plants. Moreover, their interests have been of the greatest possible benefit to the communities in which they operate and each individual business is a monument to the well defined purpose and thoroughly organized efforts of its promoters. Frank W. Ward, assistant manager of the company, was born in Lavaca, Sebastian county, Arkansas, in 1875, his parents being Frank and Christine (Campbell) Ward, the latter now living at the advanced age of eighty years. The father came to Arkansas from Tennessee and followed farming in this state. He was a captain in the Confederate army and now lies buried in the national cemetery at Fort Smith. There were twelve children in the family, of whom five daughters and two sons are yet living. ‘ Frank W. Ward was married in 1902 to Miss Lulu Bell Moody, a daughter of Squire Moody of Monsana township, Sebastian county, and they have become parents of two children: Francis, seven years of age; and Lillian, who is a maiden of fourteen summers. Mr. Ward is well known in fraternal organizations, belonging to the Knights of the Maccabees, the Elks, the Eagles, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the T. P. A. He has been a lifelong resident of Arkansas and has achieved notable success, while his methods at all times have been such as would hear the closest investigation and scrutiny. Recognizing and utilizing the opportunities for legitimate advancement in the business world, he stands today among those who control large interests in the southwest and his efforts have ever been of a character which have contributed to public progress and prosperity as well as to individual success.