USA > Texas > A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas, Volume II > Part 46
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In 1899 Judge Conway was elected commander of J. C. G. Key Camp No. 156. United Confederate Veterans, of Gonzales, and has been re-elected each year since that time. He is also a member of Gonzales Lodge No. 30, A. F. & A. M., which he joined in 1869, and he has been a Royal Arch Mason of Gonzales chapter since 1870. Throughout a1- most his entire life he has been closely identified with the interests of
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this city and state, standing as a leading representative of that profes- sion which best conserves the rights and liberties of the people, and as a private citizen as well being known as a champion of progressive meas- ures and substantial development.
JUDGE W. B. GREEN, occupying the bench of the county court of Gonzales county, is one of the strong and able representatives of the bar of Southwestern Texas, largely regarded as an ideal follower of his calling. He was born in this county November 20, 1868. His father came from Mississippi and his mother from North Carolina, arriving about 1866 soon after the close of the Civil war. The father, Dr. J. K. P. Green, is now living at Rancho, Gonzales county, and is rail- way surgeon for the new road, the Gulf Shore extension of the Southern Pacific. He served in the Confederate army with Forrest's cavalry throughout the war.
Judge Green acquired his early education in the public schools and afterward took up the study of medicine, to which he devoted two years' time. Believing, however, that he would find other professional labor more congenial, he began reading law and continued the study alone until he had largely mastered the principles of jurisprudence and was admitted to the bar in 1900. In 1902 he removed to Gonzales, where he entered upon active practice, securing a large clientage which was indic- ative of his skill in handling intricate and important cases. In 1903 he was elected justice of the peace to fill out an unexpired term and was re-elected in 1904 and 1905. In July, 1906, he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for the office of county judge and was elected, so that he is now serving upon the bench. He brought to his duties excellent qualifications both as a man and lawyer and his decisions have been largely models of judicial soundness. Fraternally he is connected with the Woodmen of the World and the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
CHARLES F. CLARK, filling the office of county clerk of Gonzales county, was born in Calloway county, Missouri, in October, 1862. His father, William G. Clark, was a native of Virginia and for a number of years resided in Missouri. The subject of this review acquired his early education in that state. He came to Texas in 1884, locating first at Fort Worth, and in 1894 he came to Gonzales county. He was first employed in the county assessor's and county clerk's office and for three years he engaged in teaching school in this county. In 1901 he was appointed deputy in the clerk's office under J. V. Depoyster, and entered upon the duties of the office well equipped for the position for he had occupied a clerical position in the office in 1894, 1895 and 1896 under County Clerk J. M. Gunn. In August, 1904, Mr. Clark was appointed to the office of county clerk and in November following was elected to that position for a two years' term. In July, 1906, he again received the nomination and was once more chosen to the office. Throughout the greater part of his residence in this county he was connected with the public service in one official capacity or another, and in all relations ha's been found trustworthy and reliable, discharging his duties with prompt- ness and fidelity.
Mr. Clark is a member of the Woodmen of the World and of the Knights of Pythias lodge of Gonzales, and in fraternal as well as po-
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litical and business relations has commanded the esteem and confidence of those with whom he has been associated.
F. A. SCHLICK, of Gonzales, who as a member of the general assem- bly of Texas has left the impress of his individuality upon state legisla- tion and upon various measures and movements which have proved di- rectly beneficial to the commonwealth at large, came to America in 1846, landing at Galveston on Christmas day after a voyage of eleven weeks. He accompanied his father and the family when they left their home in Germany and sought a location in the new world. Two years later he went to St. Louis, Misouri, where he remained for three years. He then again came to Texas and located in Washington county. He was there residing at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war and in response to the country's call for troops he enlisted in the Confederate army as a member of Company G. Fourth Texas Cavalry. The troops started out as a part of General Sibley's brigade, which was organized at San An- tonio, went to New Mexico and later to Louisiana. at which point Gen- eral Green was put in charge of the brigade. Mr. Schlick was in Louisi- ana at the time of the close of hostilities. Throughout the entire war he served as second lieutenant of Company G and was a brave and loyal soldier.
For about fifteen years after the war Mr. Schlick continued a resi- dent of Washington county and then removed to Fayette county, where he resided until 1897. He then came to Gonzales county, where he has since made his home. He is engaged in farming here, having two hun- dred and fifty acres of rich and productive land under cultivation about four miles south of Gonzales.
Mr. Schlick is prominent and influential in public affairs and has made an excellent record as one who has well deserved the trust and confidence reposed in him by his fellow townsmen. In 1896 he was elected to the twenty-fifth legislature from Fayette county and in 1902 was chosen to represent Gonzales county in the twenty-eighth general as- sembly. While a member of the house he championed the passage of the Pasteur Hospital bill. General W. P. Hardemann was the author, and introduced the bill creating the Pasteur Hospital, the first one in America of its kind owned and operated by a state. In the twenty-fifth legislature he was one of the committee to investigate the work of con- victs of the state engaged in farm labor, and recommended that the state purchase more farm land, which was done under Governor Sayers' ad- ministration. In all of his public service he has been actuated by prac- tical methods while working for the best interests of the state at large and he has fearlessly advocated whatever cause or course he has be- lieved to be right. He has thus made an untarnished record and is rec- ognized as one of the strong, able and trustworthy political leaders of Texas. Fraternally he is connected with J. C. G. Key camp of Con- federate Veterans at Gonzales.
JUDGE THOMAS HARRISON SPOONER, who was for a considerable period recognized as one of the prominent members of the bar, has in more recent years confined his attention to commercial interests and is now stockholder, manager. treasurer and secretary of the Gonzales Water Works Company, and is likewise similarly connected with the Citizens'
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Electric Light Company. He is also a stockholder and manager in the Gonzales Ice Refrigerating Company, and his business interests are care- fully and evenly managed.
Judge Spooner has been a resident of Texas since the 23d of Sep- tember, 1865, at which date he arrived in Galveston. He was born in Macon, Mississippi, in 1849. His father, H. N. Spooner, was a native of Charlottesville, Virginia, born March 9, 1800, and in the Old Do- minion he wedded Miss S. M. Harrison, who was born in that state in 1810, being a relative of President Harrison. They were married in Virginia and removed to Mississippi in 1830. In 1865 they came to Texas, settling at Gonzales, in December of that year. The father was a farmer by occupation but did not engage in active business after his removal to the Lone Star state. He died in Gonzales March 20, 1871, and was survived by his wife for a number of years, her death occurring January 15, 1884.
On coming to Texas, Judge Spooner continued his education in Soule University, at Chappel Hill, Texas, where he spent one year. He then joined his parents in Gonzales, where he also attended school until January 9, 1869. Two days later he became a law student in the office of Miller & Sayre, lawyers and bankers, acting also as bookkeeper for the firm. In June, 1871, he was admitted to the bar, after successfully passing the required examination and was then made district clerk for Gonzales county, holding that office for three years. In 1874 he began private practice, continuing therein until November, 1884, with good success, a liberal clientage being accorded him in recognition of his ability to ably handle intricate law problems and to win success in involved judicial proceedings. At a later date he was elected district attorney for the twenty-fifth judicial district, comprising Gonzales, Lavaca, Colo- rado and Guadalupe and Wilson counties. He filled the position for eight years, being elected for four consecutive terms, and in 1892 he was called to the bench, being chosen district judge, in which capacity he served for four years. He then resumed the private practice of law, in which he continued until 1898. He was then appointed penitentiary inspector under Governor Sayers and acted in that capacity for four years. In 1902 he became identified with the Gonzales Water Works, purchasing a controlling interest and has since acted as manager, treasurer and sec- retary. In 1905 he also obtained a controlling interest in the Citizens' Electric Light plant and is now manager, treasurer and secretary of that company. He was also instrumental in organizing the Gonzales Ice & Refrigerating Company in 1907. In his business he displays an aptitude for successful management and a keen perception of oppor- tunities, which he improves with discretion and ability, winning well merited success.
On the 12th of January, 1876, in Lavaca county, Judge Spooner was united in marriage to Miss Mollie E. Allen, who was born in 1856 in Bastrop county, Texas. They have seven children: Mattie Bell, the wife of J. S. Lewis a rancher of New Mexico; Ella M., at home ; Mollie, a student in the University of Texas ; Tom, a young lady at home ; Mil- ler Sayre, also under the parental roof; Ruth; and Thomas Harrison. Judge Spooner belongs to Gonzales Lodge No, 38, I. O. O. F., in which
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he has filled all of the chairs and is a past orator of the grand lodge. He has a wide and favorable acquaintance throughout this part of the state and his official, legal and business records have been alike credit- able and beneficial in promoting the interests of the county as well as individual success.
JOSEPH COTULLA, the oldest living pioneer settler of LaSalle county, and at one time the largest landowner of the county, makes his home on a farm of eighteen hundred acres less than two miles from the town of Cotulla, which place was named in his honor. Mr. Cotulla was born in Prussian Poland, March 19th, 1844. In 1856 he emigrated to America with his mother, his father having died during the child- hood of his son. They arrived in Galveston in December of the latter year, while in January, 1857, they made their way to Atascosa county, Texas, where lived an aunt of Mr. Cotulla, Mrs. Josephine Schwartz, who had settled in Texas in 1854. The mother passed away in Atascosa county in 1905, having reached the extreme old age of eighty-five years.
Founder of Cotulla.
Joseph Cotulla continued his residence in Atascosa county, being located twelve miles north of Pleasanton, until 1868, when he took up his abode in what is now known as LaSalle county, a short distance from the town of Cotulla. He purchased large tracts of land in this county and at one time was the largest landowner of this section of the state, his land being located where the town of Cotulla now stands, this place having been named in honor of Mr. Cotulla. The town was laid out on his land about the time of the building of the railroad through this section of the state in 1881. Mr. Cotulla was the first man to cultivate his land and plant crops, this being in 1875, for the land up to this time had been used as an open range for the raising of cattle. He has always been engaged in farming and stock-raising interests, in which he has been very successful and still retains his home on his eighteen-hundred- acre ranch, having disposed of a large amount of land lying along the railroad near Cotulla. He has not only been an interested witness but an active participant in the progress and development that has here taken place since he first located in the state, for as a boy he took his place with the older settlers and aided in ridding the country of the rough element which then infested this district and making it a place of law and order.
Mr. Cotulla gave his services to the government during the period of the Civil war, joining the Federal troops at Brownsville, Texas, and be- coming a member of the noted First Texas Cavalry of the Federal Army. Going to New Orleans he served throughout the period of hostilities, his service being mostly through Louisiana.
Mr. Cotulla was married in Atascosa county to Miss Mary Reder, and their family numbers nine children, namely: Caroline, Edward, Louisa, Simon, Mary, Joseph, William, Emma and John. The eldest daughter is now serving as postmistress of Cotulla. £ Mr. Cotulla was county commissioner of LaSalle county for six years, in which office he gave entire satisfaction to the general public.
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GEORGE COPP. The man who enters a new country and through intelligence, foresight and experiment discovers the adaptability of that section to the raising of crops hitherto unknown, and then gives practical illustration of his theories, is a benefactor to the region he works in, for he opens up new fields of endeavor, provides employment for the inhabitants and creates a new source of wealth, which in time becomes an important factor in the growth and development of the favored section. If Mr. George Copp, of Cotulla, had done nothing more for his town and county than to discover the value of irrigation to the growth of the product of the truck garden, it would be sufficient, but he has done far more than this and largely through his efforts has this portion of the great state of Texas become renowned for its mam- moth yields of onions and other agricultural products.
Mr. Copp is a native of England and he came to the United States in 1865, first locating in Iowa and Nebraska. He first come to Texas in 1870 and since 1871 has lived in LaSalle and Duvall counties, where he has done much for the locality and where he has become one of the wealthiest and most representative citizens of Cotulla. Mr. Copp is
Pioneer Onion Grower.
especially well known as having been the pioneer onion grower of this section of the state, this industry, as is generally known having now become a great one, hundreds of carloads being raised and shipped out each year in the territory between San Antonio and Laredo and the Gulf coast. It was in 1896 that Mr. Copp shipped his first carload of onions and this was undoubtedly the first carload of this product ever shipped out of the state. These onions were grown by irrigation from the Nue- ces river, on his original homestead place less than a half mile from Co- tulla, LaSalle county. He was likewise the first one in this section to utilize irrigation from the Nueces river for the purpose of truck grow- ing, and since his first success in this direction he has had many imitators. To demonstrate the enhanced values which this application of irrigation to crop growing has brought to the property in this region it is only necessary to state that within the past two or three years Mr. Copp has sold a lot of his land here for $150 per acre which originally cost him only $I per acre, and there is prospect that these values will shortly go still higher. All this has been brought about by irrigation, thorough and modern methods of cultivation and the introduction of highly productive and profitable crops like the onion. Our subject still retains a part of his original irrigated lands on the river near Cotulla, although he has given up farming in person and lives in town, where his time is fullv occupied in overseeing his lands and other business enterprises, which are quite extensive. It is owing to the pioneer efforts of Mr. Copp and others that will make this a thickly settled country within a few years.
Mr. Copp has not only been highly successful in a business way. but he also stands very high in the regard of his fellow citizens and he has been chosen several times to positions of public trust and responsi- bility. He has held the position of county commissioner and is at present justice of the peace in Cotulla. His wife was Miss Jessie Spence, who
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was reared in Nueces county and they have five interesting children, Alicia, Emma, George, Jessie N. and William.
The Onion Industry in LaSalle County.
Concerning Mr. Copp's connection with one of the most important industries about Cotulla, and other recent developments in this county, the "Mascot" magazine recently contained an article written by Margaret Olive Jordan.
To one who once knew a country productive only of long horned cattle, mes- quite brush, cacti and rattle-snakes, to return to it after an absence of a few years and find its lands shorn of its thorny unsightliness, and view in its stead stretches of beautiful farms and pretty homes, is a contrast that can scarcely be imagined. Such was the experience of the writer regarding her former home, Cotulla, Texas.
How well we remember the time when cattle alone occupied the minds of La Salle county's people-and it was well, for at that time cattle were the coun- try's greatest profit. Not that the prices of cattle have decreased so much in this section, but that something else has been discovered of still more value, namely the Bermuda onion.
In 1895 Mr. T. C. Nye who then owned a large stock ranch just five miles east of Cotulla, was the first in that vicinity to conceive the idea of growing the Bermuda onion, and as an experiment, planted a small patch which he irrigated by aid of a windmill. His experiment met with encouraging results. Mr. Nye had solved the secret of wealth for La Salle county. He decided then and there that he would rather raise onions than cattle, so he sold his ranch and cattle interests and bought a large irrigated farm near Laredo, in Webb county, and is now one of the largest and most successful onion growers in the state.
Mr. George Copp, another La Salle county stockman, was the next to experi- ment in onion raising there, and the following year-1896-opened up a small farm on the Nueces river and in the spring of '97 shipped the first car lots of Bermuda onions ever shipped from the state. Mr. Copp continued raising onions on a small scale until 1901, when Mr. J. Seefeld, a commission man of Milwaukee came down to buy his crop, became interested and bought 40 acres along the river at $25.00 per acre.
Mr. Copp continued to sell small tracts to different parties which were opened up and put in onions. Mr. Seefeld afterwards put in 200 acres, and now has the largest irrigated farm on the river. In 1904 the acreage was increased and a record-breaking crop was produced. Four million pounds of onions were shipped over the I. & G. N. Railroad from Cotulla and high prices prevailed. Last year wet weather during harvesting damaged crops, but most of Cotulla growers sold on contract and came out with nearly $100.00 per acre.
The season just closed has been a very prosperous one and credit is due to Mr. Roy Campbell, sales agent for the Association, for the splendid manner in which he distributed the crop, getting good prices. This season there were about 300 acres in onions along the Nueces; the average yield is 18,000 pounds per acre. The cost of producing an acre of onions is about $50.00. They brought an average price of about one and one-quarter cents per pound this year.
Soil along the Nueces is very fertile and land on which onions are grown for seven successive years without fertilizer produced 28,000 pounds per acre last year. This was an exceptionally fine field however. No fertilizer except cowpeas has ever been used. The onion crop distributes considerable money. The seed cost about $12.00 per acre; and the labor bill until the cron is harvested from $35.00 to $40.00. So it is seen that 300 acres of onions will furnish work for a large number of men. Principally Mexicans are worked, they getting fifty to seventy-five cents per day.
Onion seed here are planted about the first of October, in beds. In De- cember they are transplanted in rows of fourteen inches apart with sets of every three inches. The Texas Bermuda onion excels the onion from the Bermuda Islands and it has been stated bv the sales agent for the Southern Truck Grow- ers' Association, that the 1906 crop produced in the Nueces valley near Cotulla, .
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was of better quality and sold for more money on the market, than onions from any other point in 'texas.
These omons are distributed everywhere from New York to San Francisco and from Kentucky to Canada. Irrigated farms now skirt the Nueces tor ten miles each way from Cotulla. Much other truck is raised but onions predominate.
Cotulla.
The town of Cotulla has a population between six and seven hundred. Is situated eighty-seven miles south of the beautiful and historic old city of San Antonio, on the International & Great Northern Railroad, and sixty-eight miles north of the Gate City-Laredo. It has a splendid public school, four churches, several dry goods and grocery stores, large furniture stores, two well equipped hotels, a bank building that would be a credit to a town of much larger size, a large drug store, whose proprietor is Mr. Lewis Gaddis, and a live, clean news- paper-The Cotulla Record, owned and edited by Mr. C. E. Manley, a gentleman thoroughly awake to the interests of his town and county. The county is also in possession of the long distance telephone, which adds to the pleasure and busi- ness interests of its people.
DR. JOE W. HARGUS. The life of a physician is not generally sup- posed to be made up of wild and stirring adventures, with a spice of romantic episode occasionally thrown in to relieve the strenuousness of the pace, but rather is a staid and even career, devoted to the relieving of distressed humanity and without exciting experiences. But the career of Dr. Joe F. Hargus, of Cotulla, has thus far been an exception to the general rule and his experience affords sufficient material for a dozen novels and many border dramas. Not that these experiences have been of his own making, but rather as belonging to other people who have called upon him to relieve them from bodily injuries received in the warfare for which the state of Texas was noted in her earlier history.
Joe W. Hargus was born near Potosi, Washington county, Mo., in August of 1853, his parents being Dr. T. J. and Margaret A. (Crowder) Hargus. His paternal ancestors were prominent in early Kentucky annals, his great-grandfather being at one time owner of the original site of Hopkinsville, Ky., although his paternal grandfather came into Missouri in the early days. Our subject's father, T. J. Har- gus, became a physician, a profession in which he won renown, and it is recalled that he was one of the first medical men, more than a half century ago, to contend that consumption was an infectious and easily communicable disease, a theory that has only comparatively recently been . generally accepted. Dr. T. J. Hargus was one of the residents of the middle west who became infected with the gold craze in 1849 and he made the journey to California at that time. Later, however, he re- turned to Missouri, in 1852, and came to Texas in 1854 where he died in 1857.
Our subject's mother, who is still living and a resident of Young county, Texas, bore the maiden name of Margaret A. Crowder, and she is a cousin of the noted Confederate raider, John Morgan.
In 1854 Joe W. Hargus accompanied his parents to Texas, where they settled in Caldwell county, about three miles west of Lockhart. In 1860 his mother married a Mr. Farmer, and the family moved to Cass county, Missouri, in 1866. Here our subject remained until 1872, when, being determined upon the medical profession, he went to Cincinnati to
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attend a medical school. He went from there to St. Louis to continue his studies in this profession and graduated in the American Medical College of that city in 1875. He remained in St. Louis, studying and practicing under the direction of his preceptor until the early part of 1876, when he came to Texas, stopping at the ranch of his uncle, J. R. Hargus, in the southern part of LaSalle county, about ten miles from old Fort Ewell. He was then a young man, with a desire more for adventure and to build up his health than at once to settle down to the serious practice of his pro- fession. At any rate, he had no thought of beginning his practice in such a crude, wild country as this was at that time, and he had brought along no surgical instruments or physician's outfit from St. Louis. But the fates decreed otherwise, for only a few days after his arrival in the new coun- try, it having become known that he was a physician, he was most urg- ently called upon to attend a Mexican who had been shot and stabbed in several places, in one of the shooting scrapes which were so common here at that time. The young doctor responded to the call and sewed up the wounds of the injured man with a common sewing needle and a thread waxed with beeswax, besides administering such other treatment as he was able to give under the circumstances, he being sadly handi- capped by the entire lack of any proper facilities. The man had been wounded in a manner supposed to be fatal, and the physician had no idea of his recovery, so his surprise can well be imagined when after the lapse of a few days he learned that the patient was up and walking about and with every sign of speedy recovery. And thus Dr. Hargus' reputation was made, for the news quickly spread and his fame as a physician went far and wide. And thus, almost against his will, was he compelled to engage regularly in medical practice in this section, a pursuit which he has followed, with but slight interruption, to this day.
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