USA > Texas > A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas, Volume II > Part 2
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Dr. McDaniel was for four years local surgeon for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company in San Antonio but his time is now given in undivided manner to his private practice of medicine and surgery. He has been particularly successful in the treatment of diseases of children and obstetrics and these lines may be termed his specialty. He performed the first operation for appendicitis in San Antonio, in 1890, soon after coming to this state from the Bellevue Hospital College, where he had witnessed the first operations for that disease. In 1900 he spent six months in Europe in studying and traveling, pursuing a special course
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HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS
in study in the Berlin University and becoming familiar with the meth- ods of practice as followed by some of the most distinguished physicians and surgeons of the old world. He is a member of various medical societies, including the County, State and American Medical Associations and at one time was vice president of the Western Texas Medical Asso- ciation, which later became absorbed in the County and State Associa- tions.
Dr. McDaniel was married in Columbus, Texas, to Miss Leila Ervin, of a Mobile, Alabama, family, a niece of Judge W. S. Delaney, an ex- supreme judge of Texas. Dr. and Mrs. McDaniel have a son, Arthur Bee McDaniel. The world instinctively pays deference to the man whose success has been worthily achieved and whose prominence is not less the result of an irreproachable private life than of business qualifica- tions. Because of his strong and sterling personal traits and his pro- fessional skill Dr. McDaniel occupies a prominent position both pro- fessionally and socially in San Antonio, where he has made his home since 1890.
JOHN FLETCHER HINES, M. D., practicing medicine and surgery along scientific lines in San Antonio, was born while his parents were enroute from Mississippi to Texas, in 1851, his birth taking place on the steamboat Caddo on the Red River near the Arkansas and Texas boun- dary. His father was the Rev. J. F. Hines, who for a long number of years was a noted minister and missionary, first laboring in Mississippi and later in Texas subsequent to his arrival here in 1851. For twenty- five years he was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church and be- came one of the prominent circuit riders of that denomination in Mis- sissippi, while his brother, the Rev. William B. Hines, was perhaps the best known presiding elder of the denomination in Mississippi in early days. Another nephew, Dr. John H. Hines, became a physician of much more than local repute. The Hineses are a family of fine ancestry, being descended from some of the most prominent characters connected with the early settlement of the history of the south. The father of Dr. Hines was born in Alabama. Most of his life in the ministry prior to the removal to Texas was spent in Mississippi. As stated, he was for a quarter of a century identified with the Methodist denomination but withdrew therefrom in 1862, and became connected with the Baptist church, with which he thereafter affiliated. He was a most able pioneer worker in behalf of the church of Texas, traveling all over the western, southern and southwestern parts of the state both as a missionary and regular minister, and contributing in substantial measure to the moral development of various localities. He was one of the founders of the first Baptist church in San Antonio, and was actively engaged in found- ing and fostering religious work in various other towns and communi- ties. He was a very strong man in every way, physicially, mentally and morally, and was said to be the best exponent of religious doctrine in the south. He died at Houston in 1903. His widow, who is still living, was Amanda L. Hart, a daughter of the noted educator, G. S. Hart, who was parish superintendent of schools in Louisiana in the latter '40s, and whose splendid work as an educator throughout Louisiana and Texas gained him wide reputation. He came to the latter state
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in his later life and continued in educational work here. He was also noted as a literary man, both in poetry and prose, and his writings at- tracted much notice throughout the south, although he failed to have his books published before his death. He was, moreover, a man of most attractive and lovable character, who had a large circle of acquaintances and was greatly esteemed by all who knew him. On the Hart side Dr. Hines is also connected with well known ancestors.
Dr. Hines was reared and acquired his education in various com- munities in Western and Southern Texas, according to the changing lo- cations of a pioneer minister's home. His father was originally located at LaGrange in 1851 but later the family lived at Orange and other places. He attended school in Orange, Texas, and Louisiana and one of his most competent teachers of the early days was his grandfather Hart. His more specifically literary education was completed in the then well known academy at Helena in Karnes county-a splendid school in its day-wherein he pursued a course in Latin and the classics. He had decided upon the profession of medicine as a life work and at the early age of sixteen years began reading with that end in view under the direction of well known physicians. He did not take a degree, how- ever, until 1878, when he completed the course and was graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati. He has since then joined the regular schools and is a member of the American Medical Asso- ciation and its affiliated county and state societies in Texas. He first practiced in Karnes county, where a portion of his youth had been passed, and later in Bee county. He was located for some time at Lu- ling and subsequently at Floresville in the general practice of medicine, and in 1887 he established a permanent home in San Antonio, where he has successfully engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery al- though making to some extent a specialty of abdominal and related surgery, in which he has attained a high degree of proficiency.
Dr. Hines has been married twice. He first wedded Miss Gesine Mertz, a native of Bremen, Germany, who became his wife in 1871. She died in San Antonio in 1892, and in this city Dr. Hines was mar- ried to Virginia Rossy, well known as a former teacher in the private schools here. The family numbers six children of the first marriage, John Francis, Minnie, William Scudder, Daniel H., Mattie and Gesine. The eldest daughter is the wife of Albert Tolle. The younger daughters are both teachers, Miss Mattie Hines being now a teacher of Latin and German in the high school at Belton. She is remarkable for the stand- ard of her intellectual attainments, having won the degree of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts and she is known as one of the best teachers in the state, her intellectual ability being widely acknowledged by all who have had reason to become at all familiar with her work. She is now the wife of Professor Carl Hartman. Dr. Hines through native and acquired ability has gained distinction in his profession, of which he is yet a thorough, comprehensive and discriminating student, keep- ing abreast with the progress of the medical fraternity in its researches and investigations.
DAVID A. MEYER, filling the position of county commissioner of Bexar county and making his home in San Antonio, was born in Austin
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HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS
county, Texas, May 3, 1861. His parents, August and Mary Meyer, died during the early boyhood of their son David. They came from Germany at an early period in the settlement of Texas, being members of one of the colonies. The year of their arrival was 1848 and they settled in Austin county, where their remaining days were passed.
David A. Meyer was reared at San Felipe in Austin county and in his youth became thoroughly familiar with the cattle business, starting at an early age as a cowboy. For several years he continued to engage successfully in the cattle business on his own account in the rich country lying between the Brazos and Colorado rivers in Austin, Fort Bend and Colorado counties, running his cattle on the open range before the pastures began to be fenced in. He had large herds and his annual sales of cattle brought him a gratifying financial return. He made his home at San Felipe until 1898, when he removed to San Antonio, where he has since resided.
Mr. Meyer was married in New Ulm in Austin county, Texas, to Miss Louise Wangeman and they have two children, Mundena and Adele. While living in Austin county Mr. Meyer served as constable of his precinct for six years and in 1904 he was elected county commis- sioner of Bexar county, representing precinct No. 2 on the board of county commissioners. His home is at No. IIOI North Zarzamora street. In his business affairs he has carefully watched and improved opportunities, has been alert and enterprising and has gained a grati- fying measure of prosperity, while in his political service he has ren- dered valuable aid to his county, being actuated at all times by a public- spirited devotion to the general good.
MILAM M. FITZGERALD, of San Antonio, was born at Liberty, Lib- erty county, Texas, in 1843. His father, T. R. Fitzgerald, a native of Georgia, came to this state about 1836, locating in Liberty county, where he became well known as a planter and stockman, and his death occurred at his home in Liberty during the Civil war.
Milam M. Fitzgerald was early inured to the duties of a farmer and stockman, and at the early age of sixteen years, in 1861, enlisted for service in the Civil war, becoming a member of Company F, Fifth Texas Infantry, which became a part of Hood's Texas Brigade in the Army of Virginia. This company was recruited by Mr. Fitzgerald's uncle. Colonel King D. Bryan, who later in the war became a brigade com- mander. Mr. Fitzgerald has a splendid military record, having partici- pated in all the historic battles in Virginia, such as Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Lynchburg, Antietam, in the seven days bat- tle before Richmond, and also in the battle of Gettysburg, and toward the close of the struggle was in service some in Tennessee and Missis- sippi.
When the war had ended and the country no longer needed his services Mr. Fitzgerald returned to his home in Texas, and soon there- after became employed in the Commercial Express service on the old Texas and New Orleans Railroad running betwen Houston and Beau- mont. After this company sold to the Adams Express Company Mr. Fitzgerald went to Galveston to take a position in the crockery depart- ment of Burton & Company's store, but soon thereafter came to Gon-
B&.Kuiply.
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HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TEXAS
zales county to embark in the stock business, and for a long number of years he was one of the most prominent stockmen of Southern Texas. During eighteen years of that period he made regular trips over the trails with cattle to Kansas, and it is said that there is hardly any other one man who took as much stock to the northern markets as did he during those years, while at the same time these drives were fraught with much hardship and adventure, especially during the early seventies when the Indians were troublesome, and he had many encounters with them. In 1901 Mr. Fitzgerald took up his abode in San Antonio, which city has ever since continued as his home and where he has gained recognition among its leading business men. During the first five years of his residence here he served as deputy United States marshal under George L. Siebrecht, retiring from that position in the spring of 1906, and since that time he has held the position of custom officer at the Government bonded warehouse on Buena Vista street. He is a man of prominence, and is widely known as a native Texan, as a soldier, as a stockman and as a public official.
In Gonzales county, Texas, Mr. Fitzgerald was married to Miss Gussie Kokernot, of the well known family of that name, and they have four living children: Mrs. Maud Sturgis, Sam M. Fitzgerald, Mrs. Mattie Josephine Watts and David L.
BYRON F. KINGSLEY, M. D., a well known and able physician of San Antonio, making a specialty of gynecology, was born in Chautauqua county, New York, a son of Chester and Susan D. ( Mead) Kingsley. . The father was born at Fort Anne in eastern New York and for many years was a successful farmer in the rich agricultural region of Chau- tauqua county, whence he removed in the '6os to Michigan, where his last days were passed. His wife, who was born in Pennsylvania and died at the family home in Chautauqua county, was a descendant of General Mead of Revolutionary war fame and also a representative of the family who founded the city of Meadville, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Kingsley was reared in the county of his nativity and in Michi- gan, attending school in Coldwater, that state, while later he pursued his studies in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He was a stu- dent of medicine in the Detroit Medical College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1874 and in the same year he was also gradu- ated from Long Island Medical College at Brooklyn, New York. Im- mediately thereafter he established an office in St. Louis, Missouri, where he practiced for about a year, subsequent to which time he spent nearly two years in practice in Carrollton, Illinois, and during that period acted as county physician. Early in 1877 he came to San Antonio, where he opened an office for practice and in 1879 he was appointed to the posi- tion of acting assistant surgeon in the United States army for active service in the field. Dr. Kingsley was not attached to any one regiment. although most of his service was in connection with the Tenth Cavalry on the staff of the noted Indian fighter, General B. H. Grierson, for whom he was chief medical officer during the Apache Indian campaign.
Indian War Service.
It was in the latter '70s and in the early '8os that the Indians of Western Texas and New Mexico were making their last desperate stand,
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the last of the serious Indian fighting taking place during that period of a little over four years, during which time Dr. Kingsley was in the army. Soon after his appointment he was stationed at Camp Rice and subsequently at Fort Hancock, Fort Davis and Eagle Springs in the extreme western part of Texas and from that time until the autumn of 1882 he was with the army in the field in the Indian campaigns. He was with the troops when in 1881 the Apaches under Victorio and Geronimo made their last raid into Western Texas. On this raid it was estimated that the Apaches killed five hundred men in New Mexico, Western Texas and old Mexico before they surrendered, Geronimo being captured by General Lawton in New Mexico. During that year, 1881, the Tenth Cavalry, which Dr. Kingsley accompanied as surgeon, in its scouting for Indians, traveled over forty-four thousand miles in pursuit of the Indians, which fact General Sherman mentioned in his reports as representing hardships equal to anything on record in the history of the United States army.
About the Ist of November, 1882, Dr. Kingsley was transferred from Western Texas to Fort Lyon. Colorado, and later to Fort Gibson, Indian Territory, where he remained until July, 1883, when he returned to San Antonio, which has since been his permanent home. Here he has been constantly engaged in active practice for about twenty-three years and now bears the honor of being the oldest active practitioner in the city in years of continuous connection with the medical fraternity, Dr. Herff, Sr., having retired from active practice. Dr. Kingsley de- votes his attention to the general practice of medicine and surgery, but has been especially successful in female abdominal and gynecological diseases and surgery. He is a member of the Bexar County Medical Society and the State and American Medical Associations. He is also ex-president of the West Texas Medical Association, which was later absorbed in the Bexar County Society and ex-vice president of the Texas State Medical Association and president of the Humane Society of San Antonio. For nearly ten years he conducted the Kingslev Sanitarium in this city. He is now president of the board of United States pension examiners.
Dr. Kingsley was married in San Antonio to Miss Nellie Glen- non, a native of Chicago, and they have two children, Ralph Waldo and Glennon Mead Kingsley. They are prominent socially and their at- tractive home is the center of a cultured society circle.
W. A. KING, M. D., a practicing physician of San Antonio, whose specialty is in the line of skin, genito-urinary and rectal diseases and whose prominence in the profession is indicated by the fact that he is now president of the fifth district of Western Texas, was born in Al- bertsville, Marshall county, Alabama, in 1868, his parents being J. A. and Mary (Albert) King, who are now living in Austin, Texas. They came to this state in 1871, locating on what was then the frontier in San Saba county, where the Doctor's father engaged in the cattle busi- ness, continuing in such for several years, being one of the well known and prosperous men of the cattle country. The mother belongs to the Albert family, for whom Albertsville was named.
Dr. King spent his boyhood days in the cattle country, largely on
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the range himself, the King home being in San Saba, in San Saba county. He was educated in the local school and at Centenary College, at Lampasas, Texas. He first studied medicine in early youth under a private preceptor and before his graduation he passed an examination and was licensed to practice medicine, which he did at Floresville, Texas, in 1891. Subsequent to this time he studied in the medical department of Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, Tennessee, where he was gradu- ated in 1893, and later he pursued post-graduate courses in the Poly- clinic of New Orleans, while in 1895 he was again graduated from the University of Nashville and in the same year did post-graduate work in the New York Polyclinic. He has thus carefully prepared for his profession by thorough preparation and broad reading and by study and investigation has kept abreast of modern thought in the line of medical and surgical practice.
Dr. King on entering upon the work of his chosen profession gave his attention for some years to the general practice of medicine and sur- gery but from the first held to the plan of some day specializing in dis- eases of the skin and in diseases of the genito-urinary organs, which plan he has carried out since locating in San Antonio, so that his practice is now devoted exclusively to skin, genito-urinary and rectal diseases. He is considered by the profession generally in Southwestern Texas as ex- celling in this department of practice and by reason of his strict adher- ence to the highest ethical standards he receives the patronage of his professional brethren in his specialty. He is also on the staff of several hospitals of the city for the treatment of such diseases.
As indicating his standing in the profession Dr. King was elected and is serving as president of the Fifth District Medical Association. comprising from fifteen to twenty counties and which is a section of the Texas State Medical Association. For a long time he was secretary of the District Association and he is also a member of the County and American Medical Associations and a member of the board of council- men of the Bexar County Medical Society.
Dr. King was married in Gonzales, Texas, to Miss Myrtle Mont- gomery, of that city, and they have three children, Ruth, Elizabeth and Albert. The pre-eminence of San Antonio is due not only to the men of light and leading who controlled her affairs in early days but even more to those whom she is constantly attracting from other cities. In 1895 Dr. King removed to San Antonio, where he has since gained leadership. Those who knew him never doubted that his past achieve- ments would be surpassed in the larger field and already this has oc- curred, for he has a large business here and his patronage is richly merited because of his capability.
WILLIAM HOPE DAVIS, M. D., a capitalist and practicing physician of San Antonio and native of Batavia, New York, was a son of David and Harriet (Wilder) Davis. The father was born in Cattaraugus county, New York. and his mother, who was descended from Mayflower ancestry, was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. In the latter '40s they removed to Michigan, where they spent the remainder of their davs. Of their children Judge Davis is a prominent lawyer of St. Louis, Mis-
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souri, and another son is equally prominent in the profession of law at Saginaw, Michigan.
Dr. Davis did not remain long in Michigan but in his early man- hood went to Memphis, Tennessee, where he studied medicine under several of the eminent physicians of that city. In 1854 he entered upon practice in Texas, locating at Paris for that purpose, but before actually settling down there he became attracted to the pioneer life of the frontier and going west through Texas aided in establishing the old Butterfield overland stage route, a link in the through stage line from St. Louis to California. This took him past the various military posts in West Texas to El Paso through Southern Arizona to Southern California, and he built the first stockade at El Paso. The Doctor relates many interest- ing experiences which he had with the Indians and other features of frontier life in those days. He traveled all over Texas and became thor- oughly familiar with the state.
In 1860 Dr. Davis returned to the north and located for the prac- tice of medicine in Springfield, Illinois, where he remained until after the outbreak of the Civil war, when he enlisted in that city as a soldier of the Union army. Going south he engaged in the battle of Shiloh, where he was wounded by a shell, being thus disabled for further mili- tary service. He then returned to Springfield, where he resumed the practice of medicine and he further promoted his efficiency by study in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, where he was gradu- ated in the class of 1865. For many succeeding years during his resi- dence in Springfield Dr. Davis occupied a very prominent position in the Eclectic School of Medicine in Illinois and in the United States. He organized the Illinois State Society of Eclectics and helped to or- ganize the National Eclectic Medical Association, and for many years was secretary of this state association, and two years secretary of the national association. For a quarter of a century he was a valued con- tributor to eclectic medical literature prepared in form of articles writ- ten for Scudder's Journal of Cincinnati. He was also an occasional dele- gate and speaker at the meetings of the National Eclectic Medical As- sociation, and in 1893 he helped organize the International Congress of Eclectic Physicians for the World's Columbian Exposition, spending a year in promoting this work with the result that this congress was voted by all a splendid success.
During his residence in Springfield, Dr. Davis was very prominent in Democratic politics both in the city and state, and in the early '70s was a candidate for mayor of Springfield on the Democratic ticket. He was likewise recognized as a distinguished Mason of that city, hav- ing taken nearly all of the higher degrees, including that of Knight Templar, and he is likewise identified with the Odd Fellows society.
In recent years Dr. Davis has become affiliated with the regular school of medicine, and is a member of the American Medical Asso- ciation. He had retained landed interests in Texas from 1854, having always in view the purpose of taking up his residence in this state, which he regards as the coming great state of the Union, destined to be the wealthiest and most thickly populated. Accordingly, in 1903, he re- turned to Texas to live permanently, and located in San Antonio, Since
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his arrival here he has partially retired from the active practice of medi- cine although he still maintains an office in the Moore Building. He is devoting a large part of his time and financial resources to the develop- ment of land and real estate interests in San Antonio and in Southwest Texas. He has built for himself a beautiful home at No. 136 Mistletoe avenue, one of the finest residences on Laurel Heights in San Antonio. He has also erected eight other residences, mostly on Laurel Heights, for renting purposes, and continues to invest quite heavily in San An- tonio property. He has a fine piece of agricultural property in Dimmit county, having on it an artesian well that flows seventy-two thousand gallons of water an hour for irrigation purposes. Dr. Davis purchased
Town of Alfred.
the land, and promoted, developed and owns the town of Alfred and surrounding irrigated garden lands in Nueces county. Alfred was for- merly Driscoll, situated on the Aransas Pass railway in Nueces county. It is about ten miles north of the city of Alice ; about thirty miles due west of Corpus Christi; in the valley of Aquadulce ; about one hundred and forty miles south of San Antonio. The town has been recently laid out (surveyed) and platted. It is beautifully situated on an elevated piece of ground overlooking the surrounding country. It is underlaid with an abundance of water for irrigating and drinking purposes. It is surrounded by a good class of ranch men, farmers and gardeners. There are nearly fifty thousand acres in this proposition, and in the town of Alfred Dr. Davis donated the land for the public school, hotel and other public enterprises. He has invested much capital in these various enterprises and is now gathering the harvest in substantial financial returns.
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