USA > Texas > A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas, Volume I > Part 60
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ness of Fest & Company, of which his son, William Fest, is now the man- aging partner.
Henry Fest, having passed the period of boyhood and of educational discipline, devoted several years to the stock business, from which he retired in 1876. About that time he established a butcher shop in San Antonio, which he conducted successfully until about 1899. In 1905 he opened a grocery and feed business in the corner building on his home place at the corner of South Flores and Simon streets. This is a small enterprise which affords him occupation, for indolence and idleness are utterly foreign to his nature, and he could not content himself without some business pursuit. His capital, however, is mostly invested in prop- erty, for from time to time he has purchased realty and is today the owner of considerable valuable real estate in San Antonio.
Mr. Fest was married to Miss Bertha Fisher, who was born and reared in the vicinity of San Antonio, her parents having come from Ger- many to the United States and settled in New Braunfels. Mr. and Mrs. Fest now have two children, Clara L. and Bessie C. In affairs pertain- ing to the city and its political progress and substantial development Mr. Fest has been deeply and actively interested and has represented the first ward in the city council from 1889 until 1891. Long a resident of this part of the state, he is a typical citizen of San Antonio and of Texas, where progress has been consecutive and successful accomplishment has been the reward of persistent, earnest effort and well-directed invest- ments. Mr. Fest has a wide acquaintance in this city and section of the state and well deserves mention in this volume.
HON. ANDREW J. BELL, attorney at law at San Antonio, was born in Leon county, Texas, in 1867, and is a representative of one of the pioneer families of the state, for when Texas was still a part of Mexico his grandparents took up their abode within its borders. They became members of the Austin colony and settled in what was then Austin coun- ty, together with the York, Pettus, Scott, Kleburg, Dotson and other fam- ilies, who were prominent in that colony. Three uncles of our subject, Jack, James and Granville Bell, all older than his father, Frank M. Bell, were Texas soldiers in the battle of San Jacinto, whereby Texan independence was won. Later in life James Bell was killed by the Indians on the Escondido river, in what is now Karnes county. He was the father of John and James Bell, of Cuero, Texas.
Captain Frank M. Bell, who was born in Tennessee, was brought by his parents to Texas in 1832 when but a young child. Here he was reared amid the wild scenes of the frontier and early in 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate service in Madison county, Texas, being one of two hundred and fifty picked men who were selected for cavalry duty. These troops were dismounted, however, on reaching Shreveport, Louisiana, and were assigned to duty in Dashler's Brigade, Cleburne's Division, Hardee's Corps, Army of the Tennessee. As such Captain Bell served with distinction and gallantry throughout the war, being in many hotly contested sessions of the strife and participating in many of the great his- toric battles. His first important engagement was at Arkansas Post, whence, crossing to a point east of the Mississippi river, he fought in the battles of Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Ringgold and Resaca, where
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they met Sherman on the march to the sea : at New Hope Church, where Captain Bell was wounded, Jonesboro, Franklin, Nashville and Benton- ville, N. C., which brought his services up to the close of the war. At Arkansas Post he was promoted to first lieutenant, after which he received a commission as captain and commanded Company K. of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Twenty-fifth Regiment, and Company C of the Twenty- fourth Regiment, which were consolidated until after the battle of Ring- gold. He then commanded two companies together and at the battle of Franklin on account of the decimation of officers he commanded two regi- ments with the rank of colonel. When the war closed there were only thirteen left of the original two hundred and fifty. Captain Bell command- ing, that left Madison county. Although a brave, gallant and efficient soldier, Captain Bell was a man of very modest disposition, speaking little of his achievments, although they are well remembered by his friends and comrades of the army. When hostilities had ceased he settled down at the old homestead in Leon county, where he remained until his death on the 6th of December, 1902. His widow, who bore the maiden name of Nancy J. Dotson, and who is still living in Madison county near her original home, was born in Austin county, Texas, her parents having been pioneer members of the Austin colony.
Reared in his parents' home, Andrew J. Bell supplemented his more specifically literary education by the study of law under private tutelage at Bellville, Austin county, where he was admitted to the bar in 1891. He then returned to Leon county, where he had been reared but after a year there passed, removed to Karnes county, which remained his home for several years. He was recognized there as a lawyer of prominence with a large practice and also extensive business interests. He wielded a wide influence in public affairs, and in 1896 was elected to represent what was then the ninety-second district, comprising the counties of Karnes, Wilson, Atascosa and Live Oak, in the legislature. That was the twenty-fifth session of the general assembly, and Mr. Bell figured prominently therein, serving as a member of judiciary committee No. I, the committee on internal improvements and others.
In that session he took a prominent part in opposing the fellow servant bill, which was the most prominent measure before the law-makers of that session. Since then Mr. Bell has from time to time taken a promi- nent part in Austin in promoting legislative measures of importance to the growth and development of Southwestern Texas, his services being especially effective in the discharge of what was known as the Southern Pacific consolidation bill. which brought about the extension of the San Antonio & Gulf Shore Railroad from Stockdale to Cuero, an enterprise that has greatly accelerated the development of the country along that line. Mr. Bell has in other ways been actively interested in promoting the growth of Southwestern Texas, having organized the First National Bank at Pleasanton, Atascosa county-an institution that was greatly needed, also the State Bank at Kennedy in Karnes county, a very strong private institution of thirty thousand dollars' capital stock. In October, 1905. Mr. Bell removed to San Antonio to make his permanent home and has a law office in the Moore Building. He has secured a large and distinctively representative clientage, considering the length of his residence here, but
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this was only to be expected because of the fact that his reputation was wide spread and he had many acquaintances in San Antonio.
In June, 1902, Mr. Bell was married at San Marcos, Texas, to Miss Blanche Browne, a daughter of the late Judge L. H. Browne, of that city, one of Texas' most distinguished and successful lawyers. He prac- ticed in Southwestern Texas for a quarter of a century and made the remarkable record of having never lost a case during that period. The cases which he guarded were largely important ones, only being con- nected with the big land and cattle litigation of those days and also including some of the notable criminal cases. At different times he served as special trial judge in the district and supreme courts and dur- ing Governor Hogg's second administration he was tendered a judgeship of the court of civil appeals to fill a vacancy but declined to serve, pre- ferring his private practice and interests. For a long number of years his home was at Helena, then the county seat of Karnes county, but in the early '8os he removed to San Marcos, where he died in 1903. He was a native of Arkansas and came from a long line of worthy ancestors, originating in England. It should also be said of Judge Browne that he took a prominent part in some of the notable political campaigns of Texas and was especially effective as a campaign orator through his eloquent and forceful speech, his brilliant, intellectual attainments and his logical deductions.
THAD T. ADAMS, engaged in the practice of law in San Antonio, was born at Water Valley, Mississippi, in 1863, his parents being Colonel John B. and Mary ( Hale) Adams. The father was born in Kentucky but was married when a young man to Miss Mary Hale in Yalobusha county, Mississippi, where they began their domestic life, Colonel Adams there spending his remaining days. As a Confederate soldier he fought all through the war in the states, the first important battle in which he participated being the battle of Shiloh. He was connected with the army under General Albert Sidney Johnston and participated in all the fight- ing under General Johnston in his retreat before Sherman on the march to the sea. He was a member of the Fifteenth Mississippi Regiment, enlisting originally as a private but by the time the war closed he had achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. In private life he was a railroad conductor and afterward became a successful planter in Yalobusha county, and subsequently engaged in merchandising in Water Valley, continuing his residence there up to the time of his demise, which occurred in 1895. His wife, who is also deceased, was born in Yalo- busha county, her father having been the first white settler there, while the family was one of prominence. A brother of Mrs. Adams was killed at the battle of Resaca, Georgia.
Thad T. Adams acquired his education as a student in the free schools at Water Valley (established under the Peabody fund), and at the Military University of Tennessee, in Knoxville, where he studied in 1879, 1880 and 1881.
Early Street Car System.
In the last year he came to Texas. locating at San Antonio and began earning his living as a driver on one of the old mule street cars, which
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furnished the transportation facilities for the city at that time. San Antonio was then under the Belknap administration and there were only two car lines in the city, the one extending from the I. & G. N. depot to the G. H. & S. A. depot, and the other from San Pedro Springs to south Alamo street. Not long afterward, however, Mr. Adams secured a position as clerk and secretary for Mr. Van Name, the purchasing agent of the I. & G. N. Railroad, which was then being built south from San Antonio. When a brief period had elapsed, however, Mr. Adams went west with a construction outfit on the South- ern Pacific Railroad, which was then being built westward through Texas to El Paso, and remained in the construction train service until the road was completed. He then returned to San Antonio, whence he went to Gonzales county, where he carried on farming for a year. On the expira- tion of that period he went to Wharton and was deputy sheriff of the county for a time. Later he re-entered the railroad service, becoming a conductor on the Southern Pacific Railroad out of Houston, while later he was transferred to the San Antonio division and returned to this city to make his home. He ran a train for the Southern Pacific until 1898, and on 25th of March of that year he had the misfortune to lose a leg in an accident and this made it necessary that he retire from rail- road service.
Mr. Adams then embarked in the livery business in San Antonio but after a short time he sold out and took up the study of law in the office and under the direction of Summerlin, Walling & Norton, with which firm he continued for nearly two years, while in 1900 he was admitted to the bar. In the fall of that year he was elected justice of the peace, was re-elected in 1902 and 1904, and at this writing, in June. 1906, is a candidate for nomination before the Democratic party for county attorney.
Mr. Adams is an efficient official and a very popular man, who is greatly admired for the courage and stalwart purpose which he displayed in overcoming obstacles and in meeting the handicap which was placed upon him through the accident he sustained in the railroad service. Hc is a member of the Odd Fellows' society, the Woodmen camp, the Improved Order of Red Men and a number of other fraternal and social organizations and also belongs to the Baptist church.
Mr. Adams' first wife, to whom he was married while living in Wharton county, was Miss Lulu Whitten, of that county, who died in 1895. By this union there were born two children, Katie Lee and John B. In 1900 Mr. Adams was married to Miss Rovie Chew, a daughter of Dr. T. R. Chew, now deceased, one of the old-time descendants of San Antonio.
J. ANTONIO CHAVEZ is now living retired in San Antonio, his native city, where he was born on the 13th of February, 1827. He has now passed the seventy-ninth milestone on life's journey and is therefore one of the oldest native sons of San Antonio, his connection with the city antedating that of almost any other resident. As the years have gone by he has witnessed many changes in this part of the country as the work of development and improvement has been carried forward, bring- ing about a wonderful transformation as the great prairie lands have
J. a. Chaves
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been reclaimed from the open range and converted into stock ranches and productive farms with here and there thriving towns and villages or more pretentious cities.
Mr. Chavez was a son of Ygnacio and Maria Leonardo (Monts) Chavez. The father was born in San Antonio early in the nineteenth century and died in this city during the cholera epidemic of 1849. He was a prominent character of his day, served as a local judge and was an extensive land owner. He also rendered valuable service in the military organization formed to suppress the Indian uprisings and quell the various desperadoes among the white men who infested the region at that early day. His birth place and home was on what is now the Main Plaza of San antonio. His wife lived to a very advanced age and died at the J. M. Chavez home in this city. Her birthplace was on North Flores street.
In July, 1841, when a youth of fourteen years, J. Antonio Chavez was one of a party of four boys who were taken by Bishop Odin of the Roman Catholic diocese of San Antonio to Perryville, Missouri, to be educated in St. Vincent's College there. They made the trip from San Antonio to Houston by horseback and thence to Galveston and New Orleans, whence they proceeded up the Mississippi river to St. Genevieve and from there to their destination. St. Vincent's College was later removed to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and Mr. Chavez' education was finished there, spending about seven years altogether in college. After returning to San Antonio he went into Mexico for a time and later came back to this city, where he turned his attention to teaching in a school for children that had been established here by one of his former teachers in St. Vincent's. Gradually, however, he concentrated his attention more and more largely upon farming and the stock business, which he has made his chief occupation in life. Investing in land from time to time, his property holdings comprise a little more than eight hundred acres, through which the Aransas Pass Railroad now extends. The ranch is located about ten miles southeast of San Antonio in Bexar county and is devoted to general farming purposes, being now occupied and operated by tenants. Mr. Chavez having retired from active life some years ago. He now makes his home at No. 229 Obraje street in San Antonio. He was practical and enterprising in his business affairs, carefully directing his labors along lines that led to success and now in the evening of life is possessed of a handsome competence.
In early manhood Mr. Chavez wedded Miss Gertrudis Rivas, who died in 1893. To them had.been born two sons and three daughters : Richard H., Fred, Adela, Gertrudis and Ella.
When quite a young man Mr. Chavez was elected county commis- sioner of Bexar county and in 1866, during the administration of J. W. Throckmorton as governor of the state, he was elected to represent his district in the legislature. He was again chosen county commissioner at the time Judge Wurzbach was on the bench and he was deputy sheriff under sheriff John Crawford. He has thus been active in public affairs and at all times his efforts have been actuated by a public-spirited devo- tion to the general good. He represents one of the oldest families of San .
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Antonio and Bexar county, and as a pioneer settler is numbered among the honored citizens of San Antonio.
HENRY ARNOLD, of San Antonio, who has retired from military service, was born in Ohio county, Kentucky, December 2, 1846, a son of John H. and Altha J. (Iler) Arnold. The father was born in Kentucky and died in that state, the greater part of his life having been devoted to general agricultural pursuits. His wife, also a native of the Blue Grass state, passed away in 1905, at an advanced age, while on a visit to her sons in Deadwood, South Dakota.
Henry Arnold was reared on a farm in his native county and when only fourteen years of age enlisted for service in the Union army. He is certainly one of the youngest soldiers now living, who enlisted at the beginning of the war. He joined Company H, Seventeenth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, which was attached to the Third Brigade, Third Division, Fourth Army Corps of the Army of the Cumberland. He participated in many of the great historic battles of the Civil war, in- cluding the engagements at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Chickamauga, the siege of Chattanooga, the entire Atlanta campaign including the siege and capture of the city and the battles of Franklin and Nashville. He was thus an active factor in many decisive movements of the war con- tributing to the result, which finally crowned the Union arms. On the 23d of January, 1865, Mr. Arnold was mustered out of service but immediately re-enlisted in what was known as the Middle Green River Batallion in command of Major Long of the Kentucky State Troops but also under United States officers. This command was organized to drive the guerillas out of Kentucky. Mr. Arnold was first sergeant of his company in this batallion and was continuously engaged in this service until the close of the war.
Mr. Arnold is a man of typical military appearance, being tall, straight and soldierly. His military instincts were probably inherited to some extent. His great-grandfather was captain of a company in the Washington army in the Revolutionary war, and the grandfather, then a young boy, was a drummer in the same company. In April, 1866, he joined the regular United States army, being assigned to the Eighteenth United States Infantry of the Third Batallion and with this organization went out west for regular service. At Fort Bridger, Wyoming, he was made first sergeant of Company E in 1869. In 1870 he became con- nected with the Eighth Cavalry at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, and at the time of his discharge from that organization in 1875 he was sergeant- major of his regiment. Immediately, however, he re-enlisted and for the following four years was commissary sergeant with the army in the western part of Texas, at Fort Stockton, and for a year thereafter he held a similar position at Fort Bliss near El Paso, retiring permanently from the army in 1880.
While in the Thirty-sixth Infantry engaged in volunteer service in Wyoming and Utah Mr. Arnold's company was military escort to protect from Indian attacks O'Neill's party of surveyors engaged in extending the lines of the Union Pacific Railroad. Thus for many years he was on the frontier in the Indian warfare and in other service typical of those days in the west. In 1865 he crossed the Missouri river with his face
Albert D Much
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turned toward the setting sun and since that time has never been east of the Mississippi.
Mr. Arnold was married at Fort Stockton, Texas, to Miss Mary Steinle, who was born at Castroville, Medina county, Texas, her parents having come to this state from their native place, the French province of Alsace, with the Castro colony in 1845, locating at Castroville. Mr. and Mrs. Arnold have two sons: Charles H., who is engaged in the real-estate business ; and Martin J., a prominent young lawyer who was graduated from the law department of the University of Texas in the class of 1902 and is now a member of the law firm of Bertrand & Arnold, of San Antonio.
Mr. Arnold has been a citizen of San Antonio since 1890, and has a wide and favorable acquaintance in the city. He is adjutant of E. O. C. Ord Post, G. A. R., a position which he has held for several years.
E. H. ELMENDORF, M. D., engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in San Antonio, his native city, was born in 1877, and was reared and educated here. He is a son of the late Hon. Henry Elmendorf, one of the most distinguished citizen of this part of the state. He spent eight years as a student in the German-English school and in the San Antonio high school, and when his more specifically literary education had been acquired he took up the study of medicine in Galveston, in the medical department of the University of Texas, from which he was graduated in the class of 1899. Since that time he has been one of the prominent practitioners of this city and his patronage is constantly in- creasing in volume and importance, as he has demonstrated his ability to successfully cope with the complex problems that continually confront the physician, practicing along modern scientific lines. Since completing his course in Galveston he has pursued two general post-graduate courses in the New York Polyclinic, giving special attention to operative surgery, and in that department of his practice he is most able and successful. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations, and thus keeps in touch with the advanced thought of the profession, its modern resources of investigation and the knowledge gained through the experience of fellow practitioners.
ALBERT V. HUTH, filling the position of county assessor, was born in San Antonio, July 19, 1873, his parents being Louis and Lena (Hiener) Huth. The father was born at Castroville, Medina county, and was a son of Louis Huth, Sr., a native of the French Alsace. He came from that country to Texas in 1844 as one of the representatives of the Alsatians in the founding of the Castro's colony of Castroville in Medina county. As the years passed he successfully conducted mercantile inter- ests, first at Castroville and later at San Antonio, to which city the busi- ness was removed. His death occurred in San Antonio in 1892, and thus passed from the scene of earthly activities one who had figured prominently in business and pioneer life. He exerted an effective and beneficial influence in public affairs and was not unknown in political circles, being in earlier years district clerk of Medina county and later though holding no office, exerting considerable influence over public thought and action.
His son, Louis Huth, Jr., was reared in the mercantile business and
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for several years was associated with his father in such enterprises in San Antonio under the firm name of L. Huth & Son, beginning in 1872. This firm owned and controlled one of the most prominent establishments of the city in its line, dealing in hardware, seeds, and selling both to the wholesale and retail trades. The store was located on Market street, which in those days was the principal business thoroughfare of the city. Louis Huth, Jr., also became prominent in public life in Bexar county, and for ten years served as county assessor, proving a most capable official. He died at his home in San Antonio, where his widow yet re- sides. She was the daughter of William Hiener, a pioneer business man of this city, who is well remembered as an undertaker.
Albert V. Huth was reared in San Antonio, largely acquiring his education in the old German-English school on South Alamo street, and in the San Antonio high school. Entering business life, his first position was bookkeeper and stenographer for C. H. Bond & Company, cotton merchants at Cuero, Texas. In 1891 he entered the county assessor's office as clerk under his father, and about the time he became of age he was appointed one of the deputies in office, while later he became chief deputy county assessor under his father. After the father's retirement Albert V. Huth continued as chief deputy in the office under the four years' administration of John Wilkins, Jr., so continuing until 1904, when he became a candidate for office and was elected at the regular election in November of that year. Through his education, experience and well known ability he is particularly well qualified for the responsible position of assessor in a county of great wealth like Bexar. The work of the office is conducted on thoroughly business principles and Mr. Huth is uniformly regarded as a competent and trustworthy official.
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