A history of Texas and Texans, Part 10

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 906

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Captain Schramm was married to Miss Antonia von Benner, daughter of Adolph von Benner, who came to New Braunfels, Texas, as chief of commissary with the founder, Prince Solms-Braunfels. Seven children have been born to Captain and Mrs. Schramm: Gilbert Ernest, a talented singer, graduate of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, later a professor of voice culture in that noted institution, and now the leader of his profession in Texas; Milton, who is connected with the Southwestern Telephone Company of San Antonio; Harold, who is secretary of the Equitable Life Insurance Company of this city; Darwin, who is connected with the Southwest- ern Telephone Company; Texas, attorney-at-law in San Antonio; Hertha, who married Albert Hohrath, pub- lisher and editor of the Texas Staats-Zeitung, and Miss Tonny, at home with her father.

JAMES EVERETT MCASHAN. Besides his well-known position as a Texas banker, being vice-president and

cashier of the South Texas Commercial National Bank of Houston, Mr. McAshan was president of the Houston Clearing House in 1911-13, was vice president twice for Texas of the American Bankers Association, is president of the M. P. Oil Company, president of the Rice Land Lumber Company, a director of the Houston Hotel Asso- ciation and of the Houston Printing Company, and is trustee and vice president of the William M. Rice Insti- tute for Advancement of Literature, Science and Art.

Mr. MeAshan, who is remotely descended from Scot- tish covenanters and French Huguenots, was born in Fayette county, Texas, October 20, 1857. His father, Samuel Maurice MeAshan, was an early settler in Texas, arriving in 1844, before the annexation to the United States and while Texas was a republic. His wife, Martha Rebecca Eanes, came to the state about the same time. They were both natives of Virginia, but did not meet until after they came to Texas. Both were consisteut members of the Methodist church, and their elegant home in Houston during the early days was often offered. for the entertainment of the bishops and other promi- nent dignitaries of the church while at Houston. They were among the best known citizens and social factors in Houston of the past generation, and personally com- bined the finest integrity of character with agreeable manners, and the fine culture of educated people.

James Everett McAshan received his education largely in private schools in Houston and elsewhere, and has been practically all of his active career of more than forty years identified with banking. He began as a clerk in 1872, and has been continuously at the same line of business ever since. He was for a number of years with the private banking house of T. W. House, then went with the South Texas National Bank at its organization in 1890, and later with the succeeding or- ganization, known as the South Texas Commercial Na- tional Bank, in which he holds the office of vice president, cashier and director. His standing among Texas bank- ers is well indicated by his election as president of the Texas Bankers Association for 1902-03.

Mr. MeAshan is a Democrat in his political views, and for a short time served as a member of the board of liquidation of the city of Houston. Although a practical business man, he is in many respects a student, has a wide and interesting range of knowledge such as would hardly be expected of a successful banker. To many he is known as an orator and after-dinner speaker, has done much work as a writer and lecturer on religious and secular subjects, and particularly as a lecturer and as an often-consulted authority on banking. Mr. Me- Ashan belongs to the Z. Z. Club, the Houston Country Club, the Texas Historical Society, the National Geo- graphical Society, and the American Forestry Associa- tion. Since 1876 he has been a steward and one of the active working members of the First Methodist Church of Houston.

Mr. MeAshan was married October 20, 1880, at Hunts- ville, Texas, to Miss Lizzie Smith. Mrs. McAshan her- self has an interesting family history, and belongs to one of the best known households of the South. Her parents were Dr. Hildreth H. and Mary Brent Hoke Smith, formerly from North Carolina. Mrs. McAshan is a sister of the Georgian statesman, Senator Hoke Smith, and another of her brothers is Burton Smith, one of the ablest lawyers of the South. Her father, Dr. Smith, a graduate of Bowdoin College of Maine, was a great scholar and one of the ablest educators of his time. His name properly has a permanent place in the history of the city of Houston, as the founder of the public schools in that city. Mrs. McAshan's maternal uncle, Robert F. Hoke, was the youngest general in the Con- federate army. Mrs. McAshan in 1878 graduated from the Packer Collegiate Institute of Brooklyn, New York. To their marriage were born the following children: Samuel Maurice, who married Aline Harris; Mary Brent, the wife of Dr. J. P. Gibbs; Hoke Smith MeAshan; Hil- dreth Nabors, who married Alline Rhode; James Everett,

Sincerely Km Van Zandt

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Jr., who married Laurie Ward; Robert Burton, and Vir- ginia, who died in 1894.

ROBERT EMMETT SWINNEY. One of the old residents of Chambers county, and representing both on his father's and mother's side two of the pioneer families in southern Texas, Robert Emmett Swinney is an old cattleman and merchant, and at the present time is hon- ored with two important public offices, that of post- master at Anahuac, and as county treasurer of Chambers county.

Robert Emmett Swinney was born at Wallisville, the old county seat of Chambers county, in 1857. His parents were Newton and Julia (Wallis) Swinney, both now deceased. His father, who was born and reared at Atlanta, Georgia, came with his widowed mother and her family to Texas about 1834 or 1835. Their settle- ment was at Moss' Bluff in Liberty county, just north of what is now the Chambers county line. . Grand- mother Swinney brought a number of slaves to Georgia, and her farming and other business affairs were man- aged by her older son, John Swinney. From that time, still within the period of Mexican rule, until the present, the Swinney family has had large and substantial in- terests in business and affairs in this part of the state. Newton Swinney lived a long period of years at Wallis- ville. Julia Wallis, the mother of the Anahuac post- master, was a daughter of E. H. R. Wallis, a native of Louisiana, and among the very earliest American pio- neers of Texas. He settled in Liberty county during the early twenties, and his name has long had a secure place in the geography and commercial history of the state as founder of the town of Wallisville, which be- came the county seat of Chambers county when that county was formed out of Liberty county.

It was at Wallisville that Robert Emmett Swinney was reared, and most of his education was obtained at Rockport. His early interests were identified with stock raising and farming, and later he engaged in business at Anahuac, in which old community his home has been more or less continuously since about 1888. In 1894 he was first appointed postmaster at Anahuac, and has given efficient and satisfactory service to the public ever since. About ten years previous to his first appoint- ment he had also served a short time as postmaster. In 1907 Mr. Swinney was appointed county treasurer of Chambers county, and was regularly elected in 1908, again in 1910, and by reelection in 1912 still holds that official honor.

Mr. Swinney married Miss Mattie J. Perrin, who was born and reared at Montgomery, Alabama. They are the parents of one daughter, May, wife of G. F. Mitchell, a merchant of Anahuac.

CHARLES C. HIGHSMITH. This well-known Houston lawyer, who has practiced in that city since 1904, and who came from Bastrop, is the son of an old settler of Bastrop county, and a venerable lawyer, who was a member of the Texas bar for the extraordinary period of fifty-nine years. Mr. Highsmith, aside from his work as a lawyer, has interested himself in one of the most important social and benevolent movements of this century, in behalf of what are known as delinquent boys, and belongs to the national organization of workers in that field, and as a member of the Texas legislature was joint author of what is known as the Delinquent Boys' Bill, one of the most important social statutes now written in the laws of Texas.

Charles C. Highsmith was born at Bastrop, Texas, in 1867, a son of Captain William Andrew and Lelia (Dab- ney) Highsmith. His father, who was born in Missouri, came to Texas in 1853, being one of the early settlers at Bastrop. He married in that locality, and in a few years became very prominent in local affairs. During the Civil War he was a member of Green's Brigade. Following the war he took up the practice of law at Bastrop, and at the time of his death in December, 1912,

was one of the oldest residents and lawyers in that sec- tion of the state, having lived at Bastrop for nearly sixty years. Among other honors he served as the first county clerk of Bastrop county, after the Civil War. He was retired from active practice during his later years. The mother, who came of a Virginia family, is still living.

The early education of Charles C. Highsmith was a product of local schools, and he subsequently was a student in the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, and took his law course in the University of Texas, where he graduated LL. B. in 1887. His ex- perience as a lawyer covers a full quarter of a century, and at its beginning he was associated with Wash Jones in Bastrop. For four years he was county attorney of Bastrop county. Since 1904 he has had a larger field for his professional efforts in the city of Houston. Mr. Highsmith has his offices in the Prince Theatre Building.

He represented Harris county in the thirty-first and thirty-second legislature, from 1908 to 1912, and while in the house was chairman of the Judiciary Districts Committee, member of Judiciary Committee No. 1, Crim- inal Jurisprudence Committee, Cities and Towns Com- mittee, and various others. As already stated, he assisted in the preparation of and introduced and secured the passage of the "Juvenile Training School Bill," more popularly known as the Delinquent Boys' Act. Mr. Highsmith has taken the York degrees in Masonry, being a member of the Lodge, Chapter and Commandery, and also belongs to Ben Hur Temple, Mystic Shrine. His other affiliations are with the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and others. In 1899 occurred his mar- riage to Miss Nora V. Olive, daughter of Ira W. Olive of Lexington, Nebraska. They have no children, and their home is at 2504 Hamilton street.

KHLEBER M. VAN ZANDT. The close of the great struggle between the North and the South found many of the best citizens of the Southwest in decidedly straitened circumstances. Men who had fought valiantly throughout the four years of the terrible warfare returned to their homes to find that the hardest battles were still before them, the cruel, grinding battles that must be won before they could place themselves in the positions which they had left to go forth and fight for the "Lost Cause." Many were broken in health and fortune, but few in spirit, and among the leading men in every activ- ity in Texas today are found those who were compelled to start life anew during the dark period that followed the close of actual hostilities. At the cessation of the war there came to Fort Worth from Marshall, Texas, a young lawyer, Khleber M. Van Zandt, who had deported himself so gallantly during his military service as to win the rank of major. Today the humble lawyer is the directing head of one of the largest financial institutions of Texas, is prominently identified with the commercial . and industrial enterprises of wide scope, and is firmly established as a man whose influence is felt in every walk of life. His career is an excellent illustration of what was accomplished by those who retained their cour- age in spite of all misfortunes and disappointments- who were large enough to rise above the discouragements that had been theirs.

Khleber M. Van Zandt, president of the Fort Worth National Bank, was born in Franklin county, Tennessee, November 7, 1836, and is a son of Isaac and Frances Cooke (Lipscomb) Van Zandt. Before he was three years of age he was brought by his parents to Marshall, Texas, and his early education was secured in private schools at that place, this being supplemented by attend- ance at Franklin College, Nashville, Tennessee. On his graduation from that institution, he returned to Mar- shall, where he began the study of law in the office of J. M. Clough, and after his admission to the bar, in 1858, formed a partnership with Mr. Clough, under the

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firm style of Clough & Van Zandt. This association proved of mutual benefit, and the firm was rapidly gain- ing recognition as one of the leading law firms of its section when war was declared, and the partners imme- diately gave up their private interests that they might offer themselves to the cause of the South. Mr. Clough was made lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh Texas Infan- try, while Mr. Van Zandt was elected captain of Com- pany D in that regiment and the former law partners fought side by side until the battle of Fort Donelson, Tennessee, February 15, 1862, when Mr. Clough met a sol- dier's death. On the surrender of the fort to General Grant Captain Van Zandt was captured with the Con- federate troops. On the following day when the chief aide of the Union general visited the camp the captain applied for the privilege of having Colonel Clough's body carried to Clarksville, Tennessee, to be buried where it could be later disinterred and removed to his Texas home. This request was very graciously granted by the Federal commander, to the gratification of Colonel Clough's regiment. On his release Captain Van Zandt rejoined his regiment, with which he continued to serve bravely to the close of the war, subsequently being pro- moted to the rank of major for meritorious service.

After Appomattox had closed the events of the war, Major Van Zandt, impoverished in health and pocket, returned to his home in Marshall, but soon decided that the associations were such that it would be advisable to move farther west, and, pulling up stakes and pack- ing his belongings into an ox-wagon, he started on a journey which culminated in his arrival, three weeks later, at Fort Worth, to which city he had been advised to make his way by a former college chum whom he had met on the way. Opening a small general mer- chandise establishment, he followed that line of busi- ness, and soon found himself on the way to recuperating his lost fortunes. In 1874 he embarked upon his career as a financier, becoming a partner in the private bank of Tidball, Van Zandt & Company, which, ten years later, became the Fort Worth National Bank, now one of the oldest and most substantial institutions in the State. For nearly thirty years he has continued to direct its policies, and at this time it is capitalized at $500,000, with surplus and undivided profits of $875,000. A list of its officers, all well known in banking circles of the Southwest, follows: K. M. Van Zandt, president; N. Harding, R. L. Ellison, vice-presidents; Elmo Sledd, cashier, and R. E. Harding, E. B. Van Zandt and W. M. Massie, assistant cashiers. While he has devoted the greater part of his time and attention to banking mat- ters, Mr. Van Zandt has been interested also in various other enterprises, being president of the K. M. Van Zandt Land Company, and a director in the Fort Worth Life Insurance Company and numerous other extensive business concerns. He built and operated the first street railway in Fort Worth, which was sold some ten years ago to the North Texas Traction Company. Essen- tially a business man, he has not cared for the struggles of the political arena, but in 1873 was indneed to make the campaign for legislative honors. He was subse- quently elected, and for one term represented the coun- ties of Dallas, Collin and Tarrant in the State Legis- lature, then returning to his activities in the fields of business and finance. Ever taking pride in the accom- plishments of his adopted city, he has identified himself with all movements that have insured its progress and welfare, and his support has been withheld from no meas- ure which has promised the advancement of morality, education or good citizenship.

Few men either in Fort Worth or in the State of Texas stand so high not only as a financier and business man, but as a citizen and leader in all important inter- ests as Mr. Van Zandt. Mr. Van Zandt has the quiet manner of the man who accomplishes much and is always confident of his individual resources, and needs no bluster to effect his purposes. Every day he may be

found in his office in the Fort Worth National Bank and his door is open to all who have legitimate calls upon his time and attention. He is named among a small group of men still surviving who did great things for Fort Worth in the early days, and his influence is as effective at the present time as it was thirty-five or forty years ago, when Fort Worth was a village waiting on its hills for the advent of the railroad.

HON. THOMAS H. BALL. Among successful law firms in south Texas, none enjoyed a better and more valu- able practice than that of Andrews, Ball & Streetman, of Houston, with offices in the Union National Bank Building. The second member of this firm was Thomas H. Ball, who, has recently retired therefrom and who has been for twenty-five years a member of the Texas bar, has served eight years in Congress from his home district, and in many ways has been not only a suc- cessful lawyer, but an important factor in public affairs.

Thomas Henry Ball was born at Huntsville, Texas, January 14, 1859, and all his family relationship con- nect him with some of the best people in the south. His parents were Thomas Henry and M. O. (Spivey) Ball. The father, a minister of the Methodist Epis- eopal church south, was born in Virginia, came to Texas about 1855, located at Huntsville as president of the Andrew Female Methodist College, and died there in 1859. The mother was born in Alabama, and she and her husband were married in Texas.

Thomas H. Ball grew up at Huntsville, was edu- cated in private schools, and later at Austin College, which at that time was still located in Huntsville. His early career was one of hard work as a farmer and as a merchant up to 1884. His publie career began with his election to the office of mayor of Huntsville, a po- sition he filled for three terms, serving from 1882 to 1888. In the meantime he had attended law courses at the University of Virginia, and was admitted to the bar in 1888. Mr. Ball practiced at Huntsville until 1902, and since then had his home in Houston.

For twelve years he served as chairman of the Dem- ocratie Executive Committee of Walker county, and has been a delegate to every state democratic convention since 1886, and was a delegate to the democratic na- tional conventions in 1892 and 1896 and delegate at large in 1900, 1904, and 1912. In 1896 the first Texas district elected him to congress, and he sat in the House of Representatives from the first district up to 1900 and thereafter represented the eighth Texas district until 1905. He was a member of the Fifty- Sixth, Fifty-Seventh, Fifty-Eighth, and Fifty-Ninth Congresses, and among the most important commit- tees on which he did service were those of rivers and harbors and on the revision of the laws. Mr. Ball is a director of the Union National Bank of Houston, a director of the W. T. Carter Lumber Company, of the Southern Drug Company, and is vice president of the Bankers Trust Company. Mr. Ball did a very impor- tant work as chairman of the state-wide Prohibition campaign committee during 1911. He is a steward in the Methodist church of Houston. His home is at 2004 Travis Street, and he has a wife and three chil- dren. In 1882 he married Minnie Fisher Thomason, daughter of Dr. J. A. Thomason of Huntsville, who was a physician and also a prominent planter in that part of the state. The two daughters and one son are: Minnie F. Ball, David Ball, and Rebecca Ball.

JACOB A. HERRING. The recent appointment of Jacob A. Herring as United States Marshal for the Southern District of Texas has brought into the federal service one of the most capable business men and experienced managers of public affairs in the state. Mr. Herring has had a long and active career, has been a banker, a farmer, superintendent of the State Penitentiary

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system, and those who are best acquainted with his work say that in every post of responsibility he has acquitted himself with credit and with an efficiency that makes a certainty to the value of his service in his present position.

Jacob A. Herring was born in Cass county, Texas, November 21, 1863, spent his early life there on a farm, and secured an education from the public schools. Until he was grown, he lived on the home place, and from the age of sixteen had actively con- tributed to the management and work of the old farm and to the support of his widowed mother. At the age of twenty he was married and began life for him- self, and continued as a farmer in that section of the state until 1892.

Mr. Herring in that year became sergeant in the penitentiary department of Texas in Fort Bend county, and continued that line of work until March, 1899. That was followed by his removal to Madison county and the beginning of his extensive operations as a farmer and stock raiser near Midway. After some seven or eight years he was again called from his du- ties as a farmer and business man in January, 1907, when he was appointed superintendent of the state prison system by Gov. Thomas M. Campbell as suc- cessor to Searey Baker. In the performance of those onerous responsibilities he spent four years, with resi- dence at Huntsville, and then returned to Madison- ville, and had his home and looked after his business interests there until, in 1913, he came to Houston, to liis office as United States Marshal in the Federal building of that city.

It was during Mr. Herring's superintendency of the penitentiary system that Texas accomplished many re- forms in the management of its convicts and undertook to abolish the lease system. In the four years of his superintendeney fourteen thousand acres of land were bought and paid for to be used in connection with the conviet labor of the institution, approximately two hun- dred eighty-five thousand dollars being paid for that land. Thirty-one and a half miles of railroad were built from Rusk to Palestine, thirteen miles from Brazoria through to the Clements plantation, owned by the state, and also seven and a half miles of railroad from Anchor to Ramsay Farm, which plantation also belongs to the state. Besides those improvements, many new buildings were erected and sufficient live stock was bought to stock up all the plantations. When Mr. Herring left his office as superintendent, the books of that institution showed fifty-one thousand dollars balance cash and altogether seventy thousand dollars in cash assets, and the only debts outside of current bills were the one hundred thousand dollars due the state school fund for money used in building the Rusk-Palestine railroad.

During his residence at Madisonville and vicinity Captain Herring has acquired a large importance in busi- ness affairs. He was president of the First National Bank of Madisonville, having assisted in the organiza- tion and incorporation of that bank, with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars. He was president of the Cot- ton Oil Mill and Fertilizer Company, in the same town, and president of the company that organized and in- stalled the waterworks. He was a member of the firm of Turner, Herring & Barton, at Midway, engaged in general merchandise trade, and is still senior member of the firm of J. A. Herring & Company, extensively en- gaged in stock farming in Madison county. Of his large agricultural interests, he has twenty-five hundred acres under cultivation, and almost all of that land has been improved by his own work and supervision.

Captain Herring's first political service was in Cass county, where he was deputy sheriff for several years. Subsequently, during the Hogg and Culbertson adminis- trations, he was sergeant of the Harlem plantation four years, and this experience led to his further promotion in managing the prison system of Texas. Captain Her-

ring 's polities might be described as progressive, prohi- bition, Tom-Ball Democratic, and he was one of the original Wilson men in the state. He has attended all the state conventions since the time of Governor Ross. Fraternally, he is prominent in Masonry, and also be- longs to both orders of Woodmen. His Lodge and Chapter affiliations with Masonry are at Madisonville; he belongs to Trinity Commandery No. 29 at Hunts- ville, and the Elmina Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Galveston.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 10

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960 Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society Number of Pages: 906

Author: Johnson, Francis White, 1799-1884; Barker, Eugene Campbell, 1874-1956, ed; Winkler, Ernest William, 1875-1960
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, American Historical Society
Number of Pages: 906