Rector died on August 12, 1899, in Little Rock and is buried in Mount Holly Cemetery. He was, in the sagacious judgment of William Minor Quesenbury, “a violent man who fights people.” Not only did his two years in office reflect this, but he also pistol-whipped his sons’ schoolteacher because the man had disciplined one of his children. Calling the man a “damned stinking Yankee,” he added, “You strike my son like I would a negro, you god damned miserable Yankee dog.” In retrospect, some would say his greatest moment came in defying Lincoln’s call for troops. But in unifying a largely frontier state for the first modern war, he proved to be seriously lacking.

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