USA > Texas > A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas, Volume II > Part 6
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Mr. Hagy was married in San Antonio to Miss Mabel Laughter, who was born in Lavaca county, Texas. They have three daughters,
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Stella, Marian and Winnifred. Mr. Hagy is a member of the West End Methodist church. He has little time for outside interests, giving his attention in undivided manner to his business affairs. In the early years of his residence in San Antonio the salary which he received was small and the position he occupied was insignificant, but like many other brainy, energetic young men who came to this city in the day of small things and have since left their impress upon the magnificent develop- ment of the metropolis of the southwest, he did not wait for a specially brilliant opening. Indeed he could not wait and his natural industry would not have permitted him to do so even if his financial circumstances had been such as to make it possible. His mental and physical activity- the only capital that he brought with him into the new west-combined with his poverty to make immediate employment a necessity. At that time he showed conspicuously the traits of character which have made his life successful. He performed all the duties that devolved upon him, however humble and however small the recompense might be, conscien- tiously and industriously. As the years passed his strict integrity, busi- ness conservatism and judgment have always been so uniformly recog- nized that he has enjoyed public confidence to an enviable degree and naturally this has brought him such a lucrative patronage that, through times of general prosperity and general adversity alike, he has witnessed a steady increase in his business until it is one of the most flourishing in its line in the city of San Antonio. At the last State Builders' Ex- change convention held at Beaumont Mr. Hagy was elected president, also delegate to the organization of the National Exchanges to be held at Scranton, Penn .; January 15, 1907.
NATHAN UNDERWOOD, a stockman of San Antonio, was born in Jen- nings county, Indiana, June 26, 1844, and is a son of Julius and Myra (Hall) Underwood, both of whom were natives of Kentucky but died in Jennings county, Indiana. Colby Underwood, of Kentucky, a great- uncle of our subject, settled in Jefferson county, Indiana, near Madison in 1806 and Julius Underwood, who was then a child, with his father and other members of the Underwood family, made their way to the same locality in the same year. Later in life Julius Underwood removed to the adjoining county of Jennings. The Underwoods were a well known family of pioneer settlers closely connected with the early history of both Jefferson and Jennings counties.
Nathan Underwood was reared to farm life and remained under the parental roof until 1861, when, at the outbreak of the Civil war, he succeeded in enlisting although only seventeen years of age. He became a member of Company C, Thirty-seventh Indiana Infantry, in which he served his full term of four years in the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Virginia. He was in all the great historic battles of the Tennessee campaign-Murfreesboro, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Resaca and the entire Atlanta campaign in the sum- mer of 1864. Following this military movement he was with the army in Virginia and participated in the battle of the Wilderness and in other fighting there. When the war ended he was engaged in provost guard duty in the city of Washington. He had previously gone to Cin- cinnati and joined the Veteran Corps under Hancock when his first
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army enlistment of three years had expired and it was with the Veteran Corps that his last year in the army was spent. He was a good soldier, for he was lithe, active and healthful, and adapted himself easily to all the hardships and changing conditions that army life involves.
When the war was over Mr. Underwood returned to his home and soon afterward went to the west. For several years he was on the fron- tier, mostly engaged in the stock business. He went to Kansas, Wy- oming, Colorado, New Mexico and western Texas, and his life in this state dates from about 1870. He established a ranch in New Mexico and drove two herds of cattle there from Texas. He spent much time on the open ranges of this state and had more than one encounter with the Indians, who were frequently very troublesome, making raids upon the herds. About 1876 Mr. Underwood located in San Antonio, although he continued for some years in the cattle business on the western range. For several years past he has confined his attention to the raising of horses and is particularly well known throughout the country for his polo horses, which are raised and trained on the Polo ranch in Bexar county, closely adjacent to the city limits of San Antonio on the north- west. His polo horses found great favor and readily sold among the wealthy people who are owners of the polo grounds and buy these horses for use on the polo fields. In the interests of this business he makes regular trips to the east, particularly New York and Boston.
Mr. Underwood was married in this city to Miss Mary S. Robb, and they have six children, Georgia, Bee, Rob, Harry, John and Arthur Underwood. Mr. Underwood is ex-commander of E. O. C. Ord Post, G. A. R., and has also been senior vice commander of the Department of Texas of the Grand Army. In politics he is a Republican and two or three times has been honored by having his name placed on the county Republican ticket.
A. J. MOORE, owner of the long distance telephone system at San Antonio, was born at Gonzales, Texas, his parents being W. J. and M. B. Moore, who were natives of Virginia and Alabama respectively. The father became a pioneer settler of Texas, where he arrived in the early '40s and took a prominent part as a pioneer and soldier in the events which shaped the early history of the Lone Star state. He was a sol- dier in both the Mexican and Civil wars and also did active duty in some of the Indian campaigns which resulted in the final subjugation of the red men, making Texas a region as safe and secure as any country where before life was hazardous because of the depredations and atroci- ties of the red race. His home was in Gonzales, but he died in 1903, at the home of his son, S. H. Moore, at Luling in Caldwell county.
Mr. A. J. Moore was reared in Gonzales, and, entering mercantile life. became a prominent and wealthy merchant of that city, being prin- cipally connected with the harness and saddlery trade, in which he was engaged for twenty-five years. Always interested in the signs of the times and in everything pertaining to the welfare and progress of his community, he recognized the possibilities for the development of the telephone business in Southwestern Texas, and in 1897, associated with Mr. Davitt of Belmont, Gonzales county, he originated and constructed
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Telephones.
the first long distance line in that part of the country. In 1898, having disposed of his mercantile interests, he removed his headquarters to San Antonio and has since gradually extended his system of local and long distance lines until he now has about eight hundred miles of tele- phone lines, which mileage is being increased every month by the de- mand for new lines in the territory to which his business has already extended. These lines are for the most part along the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad from Fredericksburg and Kerrville through San Antonio to Kennedy, Cuero, Beeville, Alice and various others of the growing towns and communities of this section of the state. The present rapid growth, agriculturally, of this section, resulting from the division of the great ranches among the small farmers and their occupa- tion by enterprising farmers who are cultivating and improving the property, makes great possibilities for the development of the rural telephone industry, of the possibilities of which Mr. Moore is cognizant and of which he is taking advantage. His business is conducted under the name of the Eureka Telephone Company. He is, however, the sole owner and manager of the entire business. His lines connect with the Southern Telegraph & Telephone Company's lines of the Bell system and his headquarters are in that company's offices in San Antonio. In this direction he has done an important public service. It is said that the two most valuable elements in the development and upbuilding of a community are the means of rapid transportation and rapid communi- cation and that the real founders and promoters of a city or district are the men who provide facilities of that character. In this connection therefore Mr. Moore has done an important public service and at the same time developed a business interest which is proving a gratifying source of income.
Mr. Moore was married to Miss Alice S. Kelso, a native of Dewitt county, Texas, and they have a son, Dr. T. A. Moore, who is one of the prominent physicians of San Antonio. Mr. Moore has recently built and now occupies one of the finest residences in San Antonio on Laurel Heights.
CHARLES S. BRODBENT, a well known real estate operator of San Antonio, was born in the village of Morgantown, Berks county, Penn- sylvania, of the marriage of Joseph and Adelaide (Foster) Brodbent. The family is of English lineage and the father was for many years a woolen manufacturer of Berks county. He lived to the advanced age of more than eighty years, making his home in Berks county through- out his entire life, but died in Del Rio, Texas, while on a visit to his son Charles at that place. His wife passed away many years before at the Brodbent home in Berks county.
Charles S. Brodbent was reared in the quaint old village of Mor- gantown, which to this day remains without a railroad. It is one of those quiet little centers of civilization where the tide of emigration sweeps by without altering the even tenor of way for the inhabitants. When seventeen years of age Mr. Brodbent, ambitious to secure better advantages than he might obtain in his native village, started westward,
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wishing to secure employment that would enable him to make his way through college. He lived in Ohio for about two years and then went to Prairie City, McDonough county, Illinois, becoming a student in the academy there with the intention of further preparing himself for en- tering college. He had been in school for only a brief period, however, when the great demand for soldiers during the last years of the Civil war led him to abandon his ideas of pursuing a college course and enlist for service in defense of the Union. In 1864, therefore, he joined the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry , and was largely engaged in duty in western Tennessee. The most important battle in which he participated was the engagement at Memphis at the time of Forrest's raid on that city.
Following the close of the war and his return to civic life Mr. Brodbent pursued a course of study in Eastman's Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, after which he returned to Pennsylvania, be- coming the private secretary for Dr. Hartman, of Millersville, Pennsyl- vania. He was still greatly desirous of seeking his fortune in the west and with that end in view he returned to Prairie City, where he met an old friend who likewise desired to go west. Together they made their way to Kansas, settling first in Jefferson county, whence in 1870 they removed to Sumner county, Mr. Brodbent being one of the first per- manent white settlers of what was then a frontier district in Kansas. Settlers attempted to raise a crop of wheat there in 1870 but the crop proved a failure. This is somewhat interesting from the fact that Sum- ner county in 1902 raised more wheat than any other district of similar size in the world.
Although he did not prove a success as a wheat raiser Mr. Brodbent made more progress in political circles and became recognized as a leader in local and state politics. He was a member of the board of state commissioners under the governorship of Thomas A. Osborne, which board had under its control the state penitentiary, the state asy- lums for the insane and in fact all of the public institutions of the state. His tours of investigation with the board brought him into close touch with all the prominent characters of Kansas at that day and gained him acquaintance with many persons, then members of the state legislature and otherwise leaders in public life, who subsequently became very pron- inent in state and national affairs. Mr. Brodbent resigned the position of county clerk of Sumner county in 1875 to come to Texas. He made the journey in that year with the excursion of the Kansas Editorial Association, having fellowship with that organization through having been correspondent for the Missouri Republican and later of the Globe Democrat of St. Louis, Missouri.
Mr. Brodbent's health had become somewhat impaired, and for that reason he took up outdoor life, going into the sheep business, herding his sheep along the Rio Grande border in Maverick, Kinney and Val Verde counties, making his home and his headquarters at Del Rio, the county seat of Val Verde. Those were the days when the Indian and the des- peradoes of the white race were occasioning great trouble to stockmen in Southwestern Texas, but Mr. Brodbent never had any trouble with this class, keeping his own counsel and living always within the princi-
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ples of law and justice. King Fisher, the notorious outlaw, frequently stopped at the headquarters of Mr. Brodbent's ranch, but never gave the least trouble either in the way of making away with the stock or intimi- dating the herdsmen.
After coming to Texas, Mr. Brodbent also retained an active interest in politics, and notwithstanding the fact of living in a country that is almost unanimously Democratic he was elected and served for some years as county commissioner and as county judge of Val Verde county. He was also postmaster of Del Rio for five years under the Harrison administration. While still retaining his traditional allegiance to the Republican party, he does not consider himself bound by party ties and casts an independent local ballot. In 1900 he removed to San Antonio, having disposed of his sheep and other business interests in the Rio Grande country and since then has made his home in this city. He has become recognized here as a well known and progressive business man, being a member of the real estate firm of Brodbent & Heinen, with offices in the Alamo Insurance Building. This firm has negotiated many important realty transfers and has handled much valuable property, and its clientage is now large and its business profitable.
Mr. Brodbent was married in 1884 to Miss Cordelia Fisk, a daugh- ter of Captain James N. Fisk of San Antonio, who died in 1875. He was a prominent citizen of Southwestern Texas and was a Union soldier of rank and distinction in the Civil war. He espoused the Union cause, going to Brownsville, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, which was then in possession of the Federal troops. There he enlisted and was made a captain, giving unfaltering allegiance to the cause of the Federal gov- ernment throughout the period of hostilities. After the war he re- turned to San Antonio and was elected sheriff. He bore the reputation of being one of the most fearless men in the country and never faltered in the performance of any duty of a public, private or military nature. His wife was a daughter of the noted Deaf Smith, of Texas history. Mrs. Brodbent was for many years a prominent and greatly beloved teacher in the public schools of this city, and her death, which occurred in August, 1900, was the occasion of deep regret in a large circle of warm friends. She was a woman of fine literary talent, and one of the pro- ductions from her pen which created widespread interest was a magazine article on the Pastores of Mexico, being a description of the Mexican Passion Play. To Mr. and Mrs. Brodbent were born these children : Simona, Adelaide, Josie, Charles, Foster, Smith and Cordelia. Foster died in infancy.
Whatever success Mr. Brodbent has achieved is the direct result of his own labors and enterprise. He started out with no capital or special advantages to make his own way in the world, and it has been through the utilization of opportunity, by diligence and perseverance, that he has worked his way upward, while his personal popularity is indi- cated by the fact that although a Republican he has filled office in a strong Democratic district. His loyalty to duty stands as an unques- tioned fact in his career, and no trust reposed in him has ever been betraved.
GENERAL JOHN L. BULLIS, a retired army officer living at San
A Balde- Savelli M. 2.
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Antonio, Texas, was born in the state of New York, April 17, 1841, and was one of the youngest volunteers of the Civil war. He enlisted on the 8th of August, 1862, in the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth New York Infantry Volunteers, when twenty-one years of age. He proved a most loyal soldier and was rapidly promoted in the volunteer service until on the 18th of August, 1864, he was made captain of the One Hundred and Eighteenth U. S. Infantry. When the war was over he joined the regular army as a member of the Forty-first Infantry and in November, 1869. he was transferred to the Twenty-fourth Infantry, in which organization he remained for a long period. In June, 1873. he became first lieutenant ; in April, 1886, was commissioned captain; in January, 1897, became major; and in April, 1905, brigadier general. In the same month he retired, at which time he was acting as chief paymaster at Fort Sam Houston.
The .military record of General Bullis is a matter of history and as is well known is closely associated with the Indian warfare of the southwest. For a long time he was on detached duty as officer in charge of the famous Seminole scouts along the Rio Grande. His experiences were those common to military life on the frontier, where the soldier is often placed in most hazardous positions on account of the treachery of the red men. Throughout his entire career General Bullis has maintained an unassailable reputation for military honor as well as valor and skill in the management of the troops under his control. He was married in San Antonio to Miss Josephine Withers. Three children have been born to them: Lydia L., Anita D., and Octavia M. Since his retirement from army life General Bullis has built a beautiful residence in San Antonio, which he intends to make his permanent home.
P. BALDE-SARELLI, M. D., physician and surgeon of San Antonio, has attained a position of distinction as one of the prominent and learned members of the medical fraternity in this part of the state. He was born in Tyrol, Austria, and received most excellent educational privileges. including a university course. He was graduated in medicine and surgery at Barnes Medical College, in St. Louis, Missouri, in the class of 1898, and since that time has practiced his profession in. San Antonio. His success is the natural result of his aptitude and capacity for research as a student and his ready adaptability of the principles of the profession to the needs of his patients. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations and is making continuous and satis- factory progress in his profession.
JOHN T. WILSON, president of the West End Lumber Company. to whom is due the development of one of the largest and most prosper- ous business enterprises of this character in Southwest Texas, is also deserving of more than passing mention from the fact that he has been connected with the company known as Home Builders, who have been largely instrumental in enabling many men to become property owners upon the installment plan. Thus his business has been of direct and permanent benefit to the community as well as a source of personal profit. and San Antonio justly classes him among her representative and valued citizens. Mr. Wilson was born at Blackshear, Georgia, in 1859,
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a son of Captain John T. Wilson, who was a Confederate officer during the Civil war. Losing both his parents in early life, Mr. Wilson of this review started out to earn his own living when but a lad. In his boy- hood days he worked at farm labor. He came to Texas in 1878, first locating at Navasota and engaged in farming in Grimes county. He was then but nineteen years of age. In 1882 he removed to Sabinal, Uvalde county, and became connected with the business interests which contributed to the development and growth of that city. He did con- siderable work in railroad building in those days, turning his hand to any kind of a job that offered, and finally learning telegraphy. He was appointed station agent and telegraph operator at Sabinal, in Uvalde county, which position he held for several years. In connection with this he did some farming at Sabinal and still owns a farm there, together with a lumberyard, which he established before any houses were erected in that town. Seeking a still broader field of labor Mr. Wilson came to San Antonio in 1897 and has made his home here continuously since. In the meantime he was married in Uvalde county, to Miss Susie Low- rance, and to them have been born five children: Susie Lorena, Ethel May, John T., Margaret Dorothy and Ellis M.
Following his removal to San Antonio Mr. Wilson began business as a dealer in machinery and wind mills, and in 1899, sold out and purchased a half interest in the West End Lumber Company on North Flores street. This business had been established in 1886, but had been allowed to run down until it was doing little more than paying actual expenses. In 1901, the West End Lumber Company was in- corporated with Mr. Wilson as president. He brought to bear in its conduct a keen discernment, sound judgment and an unfaltering pur- pose, and the result is seen in the success which has since been enjoyed. The yards have been removed to a much more advantageous and com- modious location at Leal and North Salado streets, where a little over a block of ground is occupied with the stock and buildings of the company. Mr. Wilson has built up the business until it is now one of the largest and most prosperous in Southwest Texas. His company is known particularly as "The Home Builders," from the fact that they build homes on the installment plan for people who are unable to pay cash, and in this way he has been the means of promoting thrift and the property owning spirit, and adding scores of new and beautiful houses to the city that perhaps otherwise would not have been erected. . He was the originator of this idea in San Antonio and has carried for- ward the work to the benefit of the company and many patrons.
JOHN F. RIPPS, seed and paint merchant of San Antonio, his native city, was born July 16th, 1858, and is a representative of one of the prominent old-time families of German origin in this city. His father, Michael Ripps, was born in Baden in 1821, and in 1852, came to the United States, locating in San Antonio, and established his home on what is now South Laredo street, just north of where the Union stock- vards are located. In subsequent years he removed to Lavaca street, where he died in 1893. Prior to the war he worked as a clerk in the stores of well known merchants-Grenet, Guilbeau and Nat Lewis. In later life he engaged in the dairy business, having a nice farm at his
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home place on South Laredo street. The Ripps family has figured prominently in the early history of San Antonio. George and Jacob Ripps, brothers of Michael Ripps, were well known characters and the latter died on the Texas coast in early manhood, never having become a resident of this city, but George Ripps resided here for many years and passed away in San Antonio. He left five children: Henry C., Adolph, Mary, Paulina and Minna. Two sisters of Michael Ripps are residents of San Antonio-Mrs. Marguente Zallmanzig and Mrs. Lena Hammer. The mother of our subject was prior to her marriage Miss Catharine Hauser, of German birth, and in 1853 came from the city of Mulhausen in Alsace to San Antonio, where she died in 1902, after a residence here of nearly a half century.
In the family of Michael and Catharine Ripps were five sons : Emil Ripps, who has been an employe at the United States arsenal in San Antonio for twenty-four years ; Michael J., Antone J. and S. Joseph, the last named being a treasurer in the postal department at Washing- ton, D. C., for the past fourteen years.
John F. Ripps, the other member of the family, was reared in San Antonio and educated at St. Mary's College. Having a strong desire to travel and see the United States, he left home at the age of seventeen years and for several years traveled in the northern and east- ern states, working at various occupations in several of the cities from New York westward. Returning to his home, he secured a position in one of the city departments, where he remained for a short time and then became an employe in the furniture department of Saul Wolfsohn's store. Later he went to the New York furniture store and was after- ward employed in the old seed store of Louis Huth on Market street. For nearly ten years he remained in the Huth establishment and in 1890 he established his own business, which he has conducted successfully since at the southeast corner of Market and Yturri streets. This is a wholesale and retail business in seeds, paints, oils, etc., and is one of the best known establishments of its kind in Southwest Texas.
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