Conspicuous among the intelligent and able business men who have been a power for good in advancing the agricultural prosperity of Arkansas and developing its natural resources is Samuel L Kay, a progressive and representative citizen of Little Rock. As a planter, he has made a close study of the soil, of the climatic conditions, of the productions, and is considered an authority on Arkansas lands and crops, and especially well fitted, for the position which he now holds as traveling land agent for the St. Louis Iron Mountain & Southern Railroad Company.

A native of Ohio, he was born on a farm in Highland County on 26 Mar 1858, but was reared and educated in Livingston County, Illinois, where his parents located when he was a child. Growing to manhood on the parental homestead, he became familiar with the art and science of agriculture while young, requiring a practical knowledge and experience that has since been of inestimable value to him. Seized with wanderlust in 1886, Mr Kay went to western Kansas, locating in Wallace County. He prizes a commission issued to him, in 1889, as first county clerk of Wallace County, and signed by Gov John A Martin, it being the last commission of the kind ever issued by a governor of Kansas.
Coming to Little Rock in 1897, Mr Kay was appointed to a position in the land department of the St Louis Iron Mountain and Southern Railway with which he has since been actively connected.

In 1900, Mr Kay, with characteristic enterprise, and forethought, founded the Arkansas Homestead, a high-class agricultural paper which he conducted successfully for ten years, through its columns bringing to the notice of the public the value of Arkansas as an agricultural state. This publication was a paying investment from the start, but in 1910 on account of other duties, he disposed of the paper.
Mr Kay is now president of the Homestead Planting Company, which owns and controls seven thousand acres of land lying in Pulaski and Saline counties, adjoining the town of Wrightsville. This company built and maintains it own levee and is in a prosperous condition. Mr Kay is also a director of the Woodson Levee District, a state enterprise, and is one of the directorate of the Mercantile Trust Company of Little Rock.

Mr Kay married Miss Nellie Gabriel on October 14, 1891 in Linn Co, IA.
(Historical Review of Arkansas, Vol III)

1900 U.S. Census
5th Ward Little Rock
Big Rock Township
Pulaski County, Arkansas
Age: 42
Date of Birth: March 1858
Place of Birth: Ohio
Father's Place of Birth: Kentucky
Mother's Place of Birth: Ohio
Occupation: Land Agent

1910 U.S. Census
7th Ward Little Rock
Big Rock Township
Pulaski County, Arkansas
Age: 52
Place of Birth: Ohio
Father's Place of Birth: Kentucky
Mother's Place of Birth: Ohio
Occupation: Land Agent Rail Road Co.