USA > Texas > A Twentieth century history of southwest Texas, Volume II > Part 9
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Dr. Barker married Miss Mollie F. Barnes, of Harrison county. Texas, and their union has been blessed by two children, Ida V. and William L., Jr. The Doctor is a member of the West Texas Medical Association, of the State Medical Association, of which he was chairman of the section on medicine, materia medica and therapeutics, and of the American Medical Association. He was for many years an active and prominent Free Mason, having been past master and D. D. G. M. of the twenty-fifth Masonic district of Texas. Notwithstanding his busy medical career Dr. Barker has always taken quite an active part in politics and has been a delegate to almost every convention since the one which nominated Richard Coke for governor. He was a delegate to the Chicago convention which nominated W. J. Bryan, being a representative from the thirteenth congressional district. On the 14th of February. 1898, he was elected to the city council of San Antonio, and served as alderman for six years or three terms, and was a candidate for mayor of San
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Antonio before the Democratic primaries in April, 1904, where he was defeated by only ninety-nine votes. Dr. Barker is a man of fine physique and address, genial and frank and is deservedly popular.
WILLIAM MEIER, M. D., a farmer and physician of Bexar county, whose postoffice is San Antonio, was born at Magdeburg, Prussia, in 1840. He came to America with his parents in 1854, when a youth of fourteen years, the family locating on a farm near Elgin, Illinois, where they remained for about ten years. Dr. Meier was reared to agricultural pursuits, but was interested mostly, in getting an education and spent much of his time in school. He prepared for the ministry of the German Evangelical denomination in the collegiate institute of that church, gradu- ating in the same. He was admitted to the ministry in 1870 and was assigned for duty as minister in the conference comprising the states of Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas. He thus spent several years in the last two, being largely engaged in missionary work. He further qualified himself for these duties by taking a full course in medicine during the years of 1880, 1881 and 1882 in the Northwestern Medical College at St. Joseph, Missouri, from which institution he was graduated in the last mentioned year. Since that time he has combined the practice of medi- cine with his ministerial labors and duties.
In 1883 Dr. Meier was sent to Texas by the missionary board of the Evangelical church to organize congregations of that denomination in this state, to the work of which he applied himself with his accustomed energy, vigor and continuously optimistic spirit. With high ideals, he labored zealously to accomplish his purpose, making his headquarters in San Antonio, whence he traveled all over the state wherever he recog- nized opportunities for organization. His particular work of credit at that time was the upbuilding of the German Evangelical church in San Antonio, his labors being crowned with splendid results, including the erection of the church building at the corner of Chestnut and Burnet streets. Of this church he became pastor. Subsequently he was appointed presiding elder of the denomination for the state of Texas, which posi- tion he acceptably filled for several years.
In 1886 Dr. Meier purchased what was the beginning of his present fine farm, lying eight and a half miles south of San Antonio on the Montez road. For some years he rented the land, but when his sons became old enough to take care of the property he placed it in their charge, while he gave his attention exclusively to church work until about 1894, when he took up his abode upon the farm, since which time he has given his personal attention. He still remains in regular standing as a minister of the church, however, subject to call, but remaining without an assignment as a minister or other official. He still devotes consider- able time to the practice of medicine, especially among his old friends, who frequently come to him for a distance of thirty miles on professional business. Dr. Meier's farm is a model of its kind, known all over the southwest. It has been given constant and expert care and attention and consequently is in a high state of cultivation. He has had unvary- ing success from the start, beginning with nothing, but todav has a valu- able property improved with modern equipments and yielding excellent returns. From the standpoint of location the Meier farm is one of the
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best in Texas, lying as it does between the San Antonio river on the west and the Salado creek on the cast. It comprises about four hundred and seventy acres of rich and valuable land, on which he raises the finest corn, cotton, sugar cane, water melons, vegetables and berries of all kinds and fruits, including peaches, pears, plums and apples. The farm is also noted for the excellence of its dairy products, particularly butter made from the milk of a fine herd of Jerseys. He also raises high grade poultry, making a specialty of the White Leghorn variety. Dr. Meier has a very comfortable home lighted with twenty-eight acetylene gas lights. His place is irrigated from the San Juan ditch and he is president of the association whichi controls that ditch. Dr. Meier is also president of the Bexar County Farmers' Institute, which was organized in 1904 and is doing much good for the farmers of this county through the interchange of experiences and demonstrations. It is composed of an enthusiastic body of men and has had direct bearing upon the welfare and prosperity of the agricultural class.
Dr. Meier was married in Nebraska to Miss Christiana Dashner and they have four children: Mrs. Anna Arnold, Henry, Gideon and Melton Meier. His life work has been characterized by devotion to those inter- ests which benefit mankind and even in his business career, aside from his labors in the church, his work has been an element in general pros- perity and growth. He is well known in Bexar county, commanding the unqualified confidence and esteem of all with whom he has been associated.
DR. GIDEON LEE ROBERTS, engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in San Antonio, was born in Buncombe county, North Caro- lina, in 1840, and is a son of the Rev. B. McCord and Dolly F. (Rogers) Roberts. The father was born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in 1810, and lived for many years in Buncombe county, but in 1840 removed with his family to Springfield, Missouri, and during the remainder of his life was a resident of Greene and Christian counties in that state. He was a minister of the Missionary Baptist church of more than local note and during the latter years of his life was a teacher in a theological seminary. A man of much erudition, a deep student and logical thinker. he also possessed eloquence and convincing oratorical powers. He held powerful sway over his audiences and for many years throughout south- western Missouri his name was a household word in connection with the preaching of the gospel, while his influence caused religious awakening in thousands of homes. He was a man of fine personal appearance and large build, and these qualities, added to his intellectual attainments. made his a very attractive personality. He is well remembered as the founder of the first Baptist church that was erected in Springfield and became widely recognized as a distinguished divine in that state. He died in 1883, while his wife, who was a native of Jefferson county, Tennessee, passed away in Springfield in 1851.
Dr. Roberts has had an adventurous and interesting life. Before the outbreak of the Civil war he had made considerable progress in the study of medicine. After hostilities had begun, however, he temporarily discontinued his studies and raised a troop of cavalry in southeast Mis- souri for the Confederate service. He was made captain of his company. which was placed in service in Missouri under General Price. For more
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than two years he and his men were continuously in strenuous conflict in the war in southeastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas, where ground was bitterly contested. His activity in capturing Federal soldiers, mainly officers, made him much sought by the enemy, and he was finally captured and sentenced to be shot, July 3, 1863. He managed to make his escape July 4. 1863. He then continued with Price's army east of the Mississippi river, was captured again in East Tennessee and taken to various prisons, but was finally exchanged after leaving Fort Dela- ware and resumed service in the field. He was in active campaigning in Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and the Caro- linas. During part of his service he was on the staff of General Brown, whose operations were carried on mainly at Charleston, South Carolina, and vicinity. Dr. Roberts was with his command at Charlotte, North Carolina, when the war closed. During his active service he sustained several severe bullet wounds, some of which yet cause him suffering.
Soon after the cessation of hostilities the Doctor came to Texas, and, having continued his medical studies, he began the practice of medi- cine at Weston. Collin county. Later he attended the Eclectic Medical College of St. Louis, where he was graduated with the class of 1867. From Weston he removed to Cooper, in Delta county, where he was suc- cessfully engaged in the practice of medicine for nearly eighteen years. He also practiced at Sherman, Texas, for about three years, and in 1896 he located in San Antonio, which has since been his home. Dr. Roberts has now almost retired from practice. For many years he made a specialty of gynecology, in which branch he achieved great success. As a specialist in female diseases he is widely known throughout Texas and the southwest among the profession and the laity.
Dr. Roberts was married to Miss Emma Laura Duke, and they have three children : James McCord, Ernest Braxten and William L. Roberts. The Doctor is a Mason and is connected with the United Confederate Veterans of the Department of Texas, in which for several years he has been chief surgeon with the rank of major. He is a man of naturally strong intellectual force and his attainments as a member of one of the learned professions have given him a place in the foremost rank of the medical fraternity. He has been a resident of Texas for about forty years and throughout the entire period has been connected with the practice of medicine and surgery.
JOSEPH BROUSSARD. One of the most prominent of San Antonio's business men is Joseph Broussard, who is extensively engaged in the buying and selling of Texas cattle. He was born at St. Mary Parish, Patterson, Louisiana, a son of J. B. N. and Amelvena (Degre) Brous- sard. The paternal grandfather, Nicola Broussard, was a native of Canada, but of French parentage, and he settled in St. Mary parish in the early part of the nineteenth century and established the cattle and butcher business, which has ever since been carried on at Patterson by the Broussard family, from generation to generation, and is now con- ducted there by the son of the above named Joseph. Nicola Broussard supplied meat to Jackson's army in the campaign against the British around New Orleans in the war of 1812. Both Mr. and Mrs. J. B. N. Broussard lived and died in Patterson, La.
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Joseph Broussard was reared and educated in the place of his nativity, and in the course of time took charge of the butcher and slaugh- tering business established by his grandfather, succeeding his father and becoming one of the prominent business men of that place. He also engaged to some extent in sugar planting in St. Mary parish. As many as twenty years ago he began to handle Texas cattle, and after establish- ing his home in San Antonio, in February, 1906, he continued the busi- ness and is numbered among the city's leading men. At the time of the removal of the family to San Antonio the older children remained in Patterson, where the name of Broussard is so well known and honored.
Mr. Broussard's first wife, who is deceased, was Miss Eulalie Boudreaux of St. Mary's parish, and they became the parents of seven children: Lillie Victoria, Terzile, Della, Cornelia, R. Edward, Blanche and Genevieve. Mr. Broussard subsequently married L. F. Ilsley, the daughter of the late Judge Ilsley of New Orleans. He was of English lineage and was a prominent lawyer of Louisiana, also serving as a judge of the supreme court of that state. Three children have been born of this union, Antoinette, Mae and Joseph.
CELESTIN VILLEMAIN, city collector of San Antonio, was born in Bellefourd, France, in 1843. His parents, Michael and Catharine Ville- main, were also natives of France and came to Texas in 1853, settling in Bexar county, where they established a farm and stock ranch on the Medina river. Mr. Villemain also turned his attention to freighting with ox teams between San Antonio and the coast (Port Lavaca), in which business he continued with success for several years. In 1870 Michael Villemain removed to San Antonio, where he resided until his death in 1886, having for a year survived his wife, who passed away in 1885.
Celestin Villemain came to Bexar county when only ten years of age, and therefore was practically reared in San Antonio. From early boyhood he worked with his father in the freighting business, first with ox teams, while later they operated sixteen big mule team wagons in the freighting business. During the period of the Civil war he was mostly occupied in hauling cotton for the Confederate government. After the war, in 1867, he established himself in business in San Antonio as a general merchant and continued in that line for thirty-four years with unvarying success, his store being on West Commerce street, at the corner of Santa Rosa avenue, where Chapa's drug store is now located. About the time he discontinued the mercantile business he located on a large cattle ranch with irrigated farm in connection, which he had estab- lished south of San Antonio at the Third Mission. Recently, how- ever, he sold his cattle and farming interests, and his real estate interests are now all in the city, where he owns some valuable property, having made judicious investment of his capital in real estate.
In the spring of 1905 Mr. Villemain was elected city collector of San Antonio, with the Mayor Callaghan administration, and is now filling that position in capable and efficient manner. He is interested in matters of public progress and improvement, and his efforts in behalf of political welfare and general advancement in San Antonio have been effective and far-reaching.
le Villemain
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Mr. Villemain was married at Castroville, in Medina county, Texas, to Miss Jennie Kruts, and they have five children: Celestin, Jr., Frank, Lizzie, Josie and Addie Villemain.
CAPTAIN AUGUST H. KIEFFER, assistant city marshal at San Antonio, was born at Castroville, Medina county, Texas, in August, 1862. His parents, Blasius and Adeline ( Halberdie) Kieffer, were natives of the province of Alsace, France, and came to Texas as members of Castro's Alsatian colony in 1846, being among those who were pioneers in settling the famous colony of Castroville in Medina county, about twenty-five miles west of San Antonio. Mrs. Kieffer died during the cholera epi- demic of 1866. Mr. Kieffer was a successful business man and for several years conducted a brewery at Castroville, where he died in 1883.
Captain Kieffer remained with his father until about thirteen years of age, when he went to Del Rio, in Val Verde county. He had several years' experience as a cowboy during the earlier days of the cattle busi- ness, when the range was open and there were no wire fences to show individual ownership or to prevent the stockman from herding his cattle wherever he desired. In 1887 and 1888 Captain Kieffer engaged in business at Del Rio. In the fall of the succeeding year he was a candi- date for sheriff of Val Verde county and was elected. In the spring of 1903 he came to San Antonio, where he has since made his home, and he acted as a police officer under the Elmendorf and under the Hicks ad- ministrations. He was afterward deputy under Sheriff John Tobin, and later was appointed first assistant city marshal under the Campbell administration, while in the spring of 1905 he was reappointed to the position under the Callaghan administration.
Captain Kieffer has been peculiarly successful in politics, due to his sterling qualities, his methods, which neither seek nor require dis- guise, and his well-known efficiency as an officer. His fidelity and capa- bility have been the elements that have enabled him to hold office under different and strongly opposed administrations.
Captain Kieffer was married at D'Hanis, in Medina county, Texas, to Miss Christina Wipff, a daughter of the late Joseph Wipff, who was also an Alsatian and one of the original settlers of the county and D'Hanis more than fifty years ago. He was a prominent and well-known citizen of that community through a long period, and died there in 1899. Both the Wipff and Kieffer families experienced all of the hardships incident to life on the frontier when Indians were frequently on the warpath, when wild animals were quite numerous, and when their re- moteness from all railroads rendered the existence a hard one. To Mr. and Mrs. Kieffer were born six children, Mattie C., Arthur Gerhardt, Edwin Joseph, Marshall J., Russell John and Charlotte Annie. The Cap- tain has throughout his life been a resident of Texas and has therefore been a witness of much of its growth and development, sharing in the work of public progress as opportunity has offered and his resources have permitted.
LEON LECOMTE. An extensive owner of real estate in and near the city of San Antonio, Leon LeComte also represents one of the pioneer and influential families in the formative period of Texas history. He is of French parentage, born in France in the year 1837, and when five
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years of age came with his parents to Texas, the family at once locating in San Antonio. His father, Ange Seraphin LeComte, became a promi- nent land owner and trader in lands, and was one of the influential and wealthy citizens of the city's early days, his death occurring in June, 1868. The mother died of cholera in 1849, and after her death the father joined her family name to his and signed it LeComte De Watine.
Leon LeComte has a vivid recollection of his boyhood days in San Antonio, the Indian raids and all the other phases of frontier life, it being an unusual circumstance that within the span of one existence should be embraced the progress of a city from the primitive pioneer con- ditions to the luxurious appointments of today. Leon obtained his edu- cation principally at St. Mary's College, and since young manhood has been interested in various business affairs. He has been particularly engaged in real estate transactions, being the owner of city property, farming lands and live stock. He has a fine farm of about eighteen hundred acres on the Medina river. fourteen miles south of the city, but lives at his home on the Corpus Christi road just within the city limits.
Mr. LeComte was married at Losoya Medina, Bexar county, to Miss Octavie Toudouze, who represents another old and prominent French family. They have become the parents of seven children so that some of the best and most substantial phases of the history of San Antonio will be fittingly perpetuated in the generations which have followed Leon LeComte.
SAM HARRISON. Born in San Antonio in 1866, Sam Harrison is one of the energetic and enterprising citizens of early middle age who is closely identified with its commercial and industrial interests. His parents, Judge Thomas S. and Nancy C. (Black) Harrison, were among the old and leading pioneers of Southwest Texas, and his maternal rela- tives are factors of a still earlier date in the pioner history of the state.
The father is one of the most noted of the old-time lawyers and citizens who assisted in the foundation of the state as a commonwealth of vast possibilities and is the oldest living member of the Bexar county bar. In 1855 he came to San Antonio from his Kentucky home, and has resided in the vicinity ever since, his residence being at Bexar post- office, fifteen miles south of the city. He is now retired from the prac- tice of his profession, of which he was long a distinguished representa- tive, both of the bar and bench.
As stated, the mother of Sam Harrison, who also is living, repre- sents a still older family of Southwest Texas. Her brother, Captain Gus Black of Spofford, Kinney county, is a famous cattleman of the old regime, and has had a life of thrilling adventure as a pioneer stockman and Indian fighter. In the earlier days the headquarters of the old Black ranch were on the Medina river, in the county by that name, but Captain Black's residence is now on his ranch twenty-five miles from Spofford, Kinney county.
Sam Harrison was reared and educated in San Antonio, although in his younger days he spent much of his time on the Black ranch with his uncle. Although still comparatively a young man, by these youthful experiences he has become thoroughly familiar with the varied and picturesque phases of the history of Southwest Texas. For several years
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past, however, he has abandoned the life of the plains and engaged in commercial pursuits, being now manager in San Antonio for the Werk- heiser-Polk Mills Company, flour manufacturers, of Temple, Texas. His residence of a lifetime in San Antonio, his wide acquaintance, popu- larity, energy and executive ability, make him a peculiarly valuable man for the position.
Sam Harrison's wife, formerly Miss Bettie Jasper, is a native of Southwest Texas, and their union occurred in San Antonio. Mrs. Har- rison's mother, a Kentucky woman, has the distinction of having founded the village of Somerset, Atascosa county, Texas, naming it after her birthplace in the Blue Grass state.
D. A. WATSON, M. D. During the period which marks Dr. Watson's professional career he has met with gratifying success, and though his residence in Schertz dates back but a few years he has won the good will and patronage of the citizens of the place. He was born in Goliad county, Texas, in 1862, his parents being Wiley and Elizabeth ( Holt) Watson. The father, who was a native of Tennessee, came to the Lone Star state about 1860, taking up his abode in Goliad county and his death occurred during his son's early childhood, but the wife and mother survived until 1902, when she joined her husband in the home beyond.
Dr. Watson was reared on a farm, and beginning with his early boy- hood days he earned his own living and secured for himself a good education, having graduated at the Texas Christian University at Waco. During the following ten years he taught school in central Texas, prin- cipally in Lampasas, Burnet and Williamson counties, where he is well remembered as a most efficient and successful teacher. His professional studies were begun in the medical department of Sewanee University, and he later graduated in the medical department of Fort Worth Uni- versity in 1902. Between sessions, however, he had practiced medicine in Burnet county, and in 1904 he located at his present home, Schertz, Guadalupe county, a rich and prosperous community, where he is suc- cessfully engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery, while in addition he has also established a large general drug store.
Dr. Watson married Miss Eugenia Hughes of Lampasas county, who before her marriage was a teacher in the schools of that county, and they have a little son, Eugene Watson. The Doctor is a member of the Guadalupe County, the State and the American Medical associa- tions.
JAMES T. MATTHEWS, long connected with the undertaking and furniture business in Texas, and now a resident of San Antonio and owner of valuable oil lands at Sour Lake, Hardin county, is a North Carolinian, born at New Bern, Craven county, in 1837. His parents were Matthew and Jane E. (Richardson) Matthews, and they were both natives of the state of his birth. James T. was reared in the town of New Bern, where his father was an undertaker and embalmer, the boy not only learning this dual profession but the trade of cabinet making. At the opening of the Civil war he enlisted in Company C, state troops, of which he was elected first lieutenant, and as such gave his services to the Confederacy, chiefly in the vicinity of his native town. During the first part of the war New Bern was captured and held for a long time by the Vol. II. 5
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Federal troops, and one of the dangerous duties devolving upon him was to keep the people of the town in communication with the distant Confederate forces. For that purpose he was obliged to circumvent the Federal lines, which was arduous in the extreme.
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