A history of Texas and Texans, Part 104

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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The mother of James B. Gibson was Celestine (Banta) Gibson, and she traces her ancestry back over a period of three hundred years. Her forebears came to New Jersey from Amsterdam and the banks of the Zuyder Zee, and these sturdy Hollanders were among the first settlers of the new colony to the south of New York. When this part of the country became pretty well set- tled up, some of the family emigrated to Kentucky, making the long journey on horseback and on foot, set- tling near Boonesborough, over one hundred years ago. Later they made their way into Indiana and there set- tled near Bloomington. Mrs. Gibson, mother of J. B. Gibson, was born in Indiana, at Bloomington, and she remembers very well how as a child of eleven years she walked beside the oxen drawing the heavily loaded emi- grant wagons in which her mother and father were moving their household goods to Texas. They had their milch cows and all their property that was movable and the journey was a perilous one. Upon their arrival Mr. Banta took up six hundred and forty acres of land in Fannin county, and here they settled. It was in the days when Indian uprisings were frequent and the Banta family endured many of the trials and dangers that their ancestors had suffered in the days when civi- lization was blazing the trail across the Alleghany mountains. Mrs. Gibson comes of a family that has given a number of prominent men to this country, among whom may be mentioned an uncle, David Banta, who became dean of the law department of the University of Indiana. Mrs. Gibson is living today in Reeves county, Texas, and although aged eighty-two is as bright and courageous as she was in the early days which she remembers so well.

James B. Gibson was born in Burnet county, Texas, on the 23rd of December, 1857. He was the oldest of

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the four children of his parents, the other three being Roxie, who is the widow of James Sharpless and is now postmistress of Lagoona, Texas; Conn Gibson, who was two years younger than James Gibson, was a railway contractor and was shot to death at Carlsbad, New Mexico, in 1894; Mary Louise Gibson died at the age of nineteen years. James Gibson received his education in the common schools of south Texas and since means for an education were limited, both on account of the scarcity of money and the lack of good schools, he went to work at the age of sixteen. His first pay was earned as a cowboy and at this early age he drove cattle across the state of Texas and into Kansas. He then went to farming in Kerr county, Texas, in which he was engaged for about three years. The old military spirit which had inspired the father now began to show in the son and he joined the frontier battalion, becoming a member of Company C, which was under the command of Captain G. W. Arrington, and was stationed at old Fort Griffith, in Shackelford county. In 1878 the company was trans- ferred to the headwaters of the Brazos river in Blanco canyon, where there was plenty of active work. James Gibson was promoted over the heads of older companions to the rank of second sergeant, both for bravery and efficiency. He did frontier duty for three years and during this time endured untold hardships, such as going without water for forty-eight hours and without very much in the shape of food for three days, during which he and his companions were pursuing ludians who were on the warpath. In 1886 he resigned from the command and returned to his home and mother.

They now sold their home in Gillespie county and removed to Pecos, in Reeves county. For two years Mr. Gibson was engaged in ranching and stock raising across the border near Seven Rivers, New Mexico. In the fall of 1888 he was elected to the office of county and district clerk of Reeves county, and his services in this office were so satisfactory that he was re-elected for seven terms, serving fourteen years in the office. During this time he took up the study of law and in 1890 was admitted to the bar.

Now begins a new phase in the life of Mr. Gibson. He was elected to the office of attorney for Reeves county and served for two terms. He has been prac- ticing law since that time, giving part of his time, however, to his ranching interests. He is a member of the firm of Gibson & Wilson, and they have one of the best practices in the county. He purchased his present ranch iu 1892, in partnership with his brother-in-law, George Mansfield, and they engaged in stock raising on a large scale in Reeves county. This partnership con- tinned for six years and then Mr. Gibson sold his inter- ests for the sum of seventy thousand dollars. He int- vested this money in real estate in Pecos, owning both residences and business blocks, his own home, which is worth about ten thousand dollars, being his property. Mr. Gibson was elected mayor of Pecos in April, 1912, and is filling this office to the satisfaction of the citizens of Pecos.

In 1894 Mr. Gibson was married to Miss Ney Mans- field, who was born in the southern part of Texas, and is a daughter of George T. and Amalda (Mckinney) Mansfield. No children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gibson, but they have adopted little five-year-old Leo Ney McDaniel, and it is their chief desire to bring her up and educate her as though she were their own child.

WILLIAM A. BATES, M. D. Since establishing him- self as a physician in the Purdon community of Nevarro county Dr. Bates has been one of the men of most service to the community, not only professionally but through his kindly helpfulness and ready enthusiasm for all that mean uplift and advancement. Dr. Bates is a real pioneer of the west, has spent many years in Texas, and his experiences led him throughout the north- Vol. IV-22

west during the years when that country was fiercely contested by the Indian tribes. His home has been in Navarro county since 1887, and the previous year was spent in Breckinridge, Texas, where he did his first med- ical practice in this state.

Dr. Bates came to Texas from Arizona, where for two years he was a physician at Quijotoa. Previous to his Arizona residence he had been in California, working as a prospector and looking out for a permanent loca- tion. Iu Montana he had spent several years, going out in 1876 and finally reaching Miles City in 1879, and was in different parts of that country until 1882, when he went to Fort Benton and crossed iuto the Canadian northwest, following up the Saskatchewan river, and in that vicinity first did prospecting as a part of his pro- fession. He was with an expedition of some twenty persons, and altogether spent two years on the Canadian side. From there he moved to California, thence to Arizona, and finally to Texas.

Before going to Montana Dr. Bates spent a year in the mining region of Deadwood, Dakota, and was with some of the freighting outfit from Cheyenne, Bismarck and Fort Pierre on the Missouri river. This account brings Dr. Bates back to his first residence in Texas, where he spent a portion of his early manhood. He had gone north from Sherman, Texas, passing through Indian Territory and Kansas over the old Chisholm trail with a number of cattle men. At Ogalalla, Kansas, he parted company with the cattle men, and continued his journey with a freightiug outfit of a dozen persons to Deadwood, passing through Cheyenne. On this journey while in the Spearfish locality of Dakota he met a hay- maker who was cutting grass with his Winchester rifle strapped to his machine. At that time the Sioux In- dians, with Sitting Bull at their head, were on the war path. Mr. Bates went back and forth between shipping points of the Missouri river and Deadwood with various trade outfits, and as a physician had a great deal of professional practice along the way, since there were very few resident physicians in that country. At Fort Meade he saw the old Dun horse with thirteen bullet wounds in the body that escaped from the Custer battle- field on the Big Horn river. He also was acquainted with Johnny Bruerierre, a half breed Sioux scout, the only man who made his escape from that horrible mas- sacre. Although the red men were still on the war path while Dr. Bates was in the northwest, he never had personal encounter with the followers of old "Rain in the Face," "Gaul, " and "Yellow Dog," the big chiefs of the tribe under Sitting Bull.

Dr. Bates had first come to Texas in 1870, and worked as a cowboy in different parts of northern Texas until he started on his trip to the north. He was born in White county, near Sparta, Tennessee, April 17, 1852. From the age of three until sixteen he had lived in Arkansas, "water bound,"' to use his own words, in Sharpe county. His early education came from the country schools of Arkansas, and he was of school age while the Civil war was in progress. His father was Dr. James H. Bates, who died soon after the war at his home some twenty miles north of Pocahontas, near old Walnut Hill. The senior Dr. Bates was a native of Georgia, and had married in Tennessee Louisa Johnson, who died in Arkansas. Their children were: Madison, who lives in Arkansas; Mary A., who married Henry Smith of Arkansas; Dr. William A .; Sam H., of Arkan- sas; Thomas and Eugene, who both live in the old home locality of Arkansas. Dr. Bates is the only one living in Texas.

It was while in Montana that Dr. Bates took up the study of medicine, and practiced without a license, a course which was then legal and professional in that new and frontier community. During 1876 he spent a few months in the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis, and received a license to practice in Texas from the Brownwood Medical board. During 1898 he was a stu-

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dent in the Fort Worth Medical College. On locating in Navarro county Dr. Bates practiced on a certificate from the State of Texas. Professionally his career has been extremely successful. He has a natural talent for surgery, and has acquired a reputation as a cancer spe- cialist and has performed many successful operations. In obstetrical cases his fame is widespread, and his services have been employed by two generations of moth- ers in this community.

When Dr. Bates came to Purdon there were only two stores and only a few homes on the south side of the railroad. His part has been a valuable factor in the upbuilding of the business section of the town, where he for some years had a general mercantile and drug store. Since 1902 he has served as postmaster of Purdon, and a part of his success has also come from his work as a practical farmer since 1900. He takes both pleasure and profit from the raising of thoroughbred Duroc hogs, having obtained the nucleus of his stock from the herd at Morgan and the Belcher ranch at Whiteright.

Dr. Bates was married at Quijotoa, Arizona, Decem- ber 16, 1885, to Miss Hattie I. Jones. Her father, Leon- ard Jones, came from Ohio and lived at Tombstone, Arizona. Leonard Jones married Rebecca Lawrence. Their children besides Mrs. Bates were Ed T. of Tucson, Arizona, and Phebe, wife of Will Pierce, also of Tucson. The children of Dr. and Mrs. Bates are: Alva May, the wife of J. A. Mitchell of Purdon; and Winifred, wife of D. E. Dickson, of Dawson, Texas, who has a daughter Betsy Jane.

Dr. Bates affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and has passed all the chairs of his lodge at Corsicana. His church is the Presbyterian. So far as known Dr. Bates is the founder and active spirit in the maintenance of the only small girls' singing elass in the United States. Though not a musician himself, his enthusiasm and management have brought his class to a high standard of proficiency, so that it has won prizes over other advanced singing classes in the county. His work in this direction is only one of the many kindly and disinterested services for which his community has good reason to he grateful for the presence of this pioneer and excellent doctor.

DR. ROBERT FLETCHER WEATHERSBEE, M. D. There are few active Texas physicians who combine the ex- perience of the pioneer doctor with the modern ac- tivities of the profession in a more interesting manner than Dr. Weathersbee, who for nearly fifty years has been identified with medical prac- tice in this state, and since 1883 has held a high place both as a physician and citizen at Bedias in Grimes county. When he located in Bedias more than thirty years ago the place had only three small stores, and was thirty miles from a railroad. All the physicians with whom he consulted and associated in those early days have since passed away, and he is now the dean and veteran of his profession in that part of Texas, and although venerable in years still has the confidence and esteem of a large practice and is as proficient as many younger men.

Dr. Robert Fletcher Weathersbee was born in Martin county, North Carolina, June 19, 1839, and before tak- ing up the successive stages of his own interesting career it would be well to refer briefly to his family. His grandfather was Thomas Weathersbee, and it is an un- usual distinction that Dr. Weathersbee had only one grandfather on both maternal and paternal sides. Thomas Weathersbee was born also in North Carolina and died there between sixty-five and seventy years of age. He married Sarah Hyman, and of their sixteen children all grew up and reared families, and their posterity is now scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Canadian line to the Gulf of Mexico. The men of the family have devoted themselves to farming, and since the war practically none of them have appeared

prominently in political affairs. The father of Dr. Weathersbee was John T. Weathersbee, a farmer, who was born in Martin county, North Carolina, in 1818, and in 1844 moved to Mississippi and spent his remain- ing years as a prosperous farmer and planter at Canton in that state, where he died in 1849. He was brought up on a plantation of slave-holders, and never became identified with public affairs. He was a Methodist in religion. John T. Weathersbee married his cousin, Rosalie F. A. Weathersbee, a daughter of grandfather Thomas Weathershee already mentioned. She died at Bedias, Texas, in 1885, and Dr. Weathersbee is the only son and child.

Dr. Weathersbee was five years of age when his par- ents moved to Canton, Mississippi, in the fall of 1844, and he there grew to man's estate. His literary educa- tion was acquired in that vicinity, and he began the study of medicine at Camden, Mississippi, under Dr. T. L. Cotton. Subsequently his preparation was advanced by a course of lectures in the Kentucky School of Medi- cine at Louisville, and he was graduated in 1860 from the New Orleans School of Medicine, an institution which became extinct during the war. After a brief practice in Lawrence county, Mississippi, Dr. Weathershee re- sponded to the call of patriotism and entered the Con- federate army as a private soldier in Company G of the Eighteenth Mississippi Infantry under Captain Me- Willie and Colonel Burt. The regiment was attached to General Barksdale's Brigade in MeLaw's Division of the Virginia army. It reached Virginia in time to take part in the first great battle of Manassas, and also fought at Leesburg. Soon after the latter engage- ment Dr. Weathersbee was discharged on account of ill health, returned home, and having recuperated rejoined the army, but this time in the cavalry wing. He was in Company G of Colonel Wirt Adams' Regiment, and thereafter fought with the Tennessee army in the great campaigns of Alabama and Georgia and Tennessee. His most arduous experience was in the Atlantic cam- paign, which began at Lookout Mountain and engaged him in almost constant fighting for a hundred days, in- cluding the battles at Resaca, New Hope Church, Dalton, Peach Tree Creek, and both the heavy engagements be- fore Atlanta. After the fall of Atlanta his command was sent back under General Hood into Tennessee, and there took part in two of the severest struggles of the entire war, at Franklin and Nashville. Following the latter battle Dr. Weathersbee was placed on detached service with his company as an escort to General Loring, and then rejoined his regiment. His command was disbanded in Alabama in the midst of the woods and received its parole from General Canby.

Dr. Weathersbee did not remain in Mississippi long after the war, and in 1866 came to Texas and settled near Woodville in Tyler county. He practiced his pro- fession there and at Cold Springs in San Jacinto county until 1883, when he moved to Bedias, and has since given his services as a capable and faithful family physician to a large number of people in the northern part of Grimes county. His profession has been his sole vocation and ambition, and through it he has ful- filled his destiny and done much for the cause of humanity.

Dr. Weathersbee was married near Cold Springs, Texas, in 1869, to Miss Fannie Stocking, daughter of Rev. E. A. Stocking, who came from Mobile, Alabama. Mrs. Weathersbee died at Bedias in 1900 and the seven chil- dren of their marriage are briefly mentioned as follows: Mrs. Cora Bishop, of Bedias; Walter E., of Del Rio, Texas; Mrs. Pearl McIntyre of Navasota; Robert Eugene L., of Bedias; Mrs. Vera Moore of Sayers, Texas; Lamar of Electra, Texas; Mrs. Ethel Bullard, of Madison county. In 1908 Dr. Weathersbee married at Bedias Mrs. Ella Merrett, a daughter of Col. Richard H. Har- rison, one of the pioneers in this section of Texas. She is a sister of two well known physicians of Bryan, and

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the Harrison family lineage and history will be found in a sketch of one of these physicians. Mrs. Weathers- bee has two children: Mrs. Hattie Speer, of Louisville, Texas; and Percy Merrett of Bedias.

Dr. Weathersbee has fraternity relations with Hanni- bal Boone Camp of the United Confederate Veterans, and at one time was surgeon of the camp and is one of the few surviving members who still respond to roll call. He is also active in Masonry, having affiliation with the Jerusalem, No. 3, the Lodge, Chapter and Council and the Eastern Star, and is a Past Master of Bedias Lodge, No. 651. In religion he is a Methodist, has served his church as trustee, and to his community of Bedias besides his work in his profession has con- tributed service as a trustee of the public school.

DR. BEV HARRISON. How the enterprise of one man stimulates and upbuilds the economic and commercial resources of a community is well illustrated in the case of Dr. Bev Harrison, who formerly practiced medicine but is now engaged in farming and stock raising and other activities at Bedias in Grimes county.

Born in Grimes county in 1874, Dr. Harrison is still living on the same farm where he grew up and got his education. After attending the local schools he followed his ambition to enter medicine by beginning the study of that science in 1895 in Nashville University in Ten- nessee, and was graduated in medicine there in 1897. For two years he practiced at Stone City in Brazos county, spent one year in the city of Bryan, and then returned to his old home locality in Grimes county and was actively engaged in practice for seven years, when he abandoned his profession to take up his more im- portant interests as a farmer and stock raiser. Mr. Harrison is now one of the largest feeders of cattle in Grimes county, and the importance of Bedias as a market is largely influenced by the forty or more carloads of cattle which every season are shipped out of this section as a result of his enterprise. In his business relation he is associated with M. M. Hall under the firm name of Harrison & Hall. Not alone in creating a market at Bedias has he been influential, but has performed much important work in creating permanent resources along agricultural lines. Dr. Harrison has a thousand acres under cultivation in this section, and gives empolyment to twenty-five families, who produce cotton as a chief crop. Due to his management and his capital some eight hundred acres of timberland has been cleared up, and he has constructed and provided fifteen houses for his tenants. His farms lie between Madisonville and Bedias Roads and the Iola and North Zulch Roads.

Dr. Bev Harrison was the youngest child of the late Richard Harrison, who settled in Grimes county in 1854, coming from Tennessee. He brought his little family of wife and children across the country in a wagon from Davidson county. He was a native of Virginia, but grew up in Tennessee and married there Miss Lucy Bishop, a daughter of Edmund Bishop. Edmund Bishop, who died just before his widow and children emigrated to Texas, was born in Lunenburg county, Virginia, about 1776, had a very limited education, served from Virginia as a soldier in the war of 1812, and left his home state in 1835 to locate in Tennessee. He married Miss Sallie Bowers, a daughter of Giles Bowers of Lunenburg county. Their children were: Elvira, who died near Bedias as Mrs. George Harrison; George T., who died in Ten- nessee; Caroline E., who married Atlas Phillips and died in Northern Mississippi; Lucy G., who is the widow of R. H. Harrison and lives at Bedias; Benjamin F., a farmer near Bedias; Sarah C., who was four times married and is now Mrs. Frank Ellington of Belton, Texas. Edmund Bishop was a son of Edmund Bishop, Sr., who was born in Ireland and came to America before the Revolutionary war. His children were Jerry, who moved to Georgia and died there; Joseph, who came

to Texas in 1836; and Edmund, the grandfather of Dr. Harrison.

Richard Harrison after his marriage and removal from Tennessee located in Grimes county at a place within view of his son, Dr. Harrison's present place. He was about two miles from what was then known as Bedias store now the town of Bedias. There Richard Harrison reared his family of ten children, all but one of whom grew up, and became a stock man and farmer and one of the large property owners in that section. He was never active in politics, and confined his par- ticipation to voting. During the war he proved a faith- ful and efficient soldier of the Confederacy, and attained the rank of colonel before leaving the army. He was identified with no church, and had only one fraternal relation, that of the Odd Fellows.

Dr. Harrison among other interests is a stockholder and director in the Bedias Hardware Company, and is president of the Citizens Bank (unincorporated) of Bedias, which has a capital stock of fifteen thousand dollars. Business has proved his forte and the means by which he contributes his benefits to the community. He votes the Democratic ticket, but has attended few political meetings in his time. He is a member of the Masonic lodge at Bedias, the Royal Arch Chapter at Madisonville, No. 242, and the Trinity Commandery, No. 19, K. T., at Huntsville. He is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias at Navasota. Dr. Harrison was mar- ried in his home locality, December 8, 1901, to Miss Zula Isbell. She is one of the seven children of Samuel A. and Martha (Upchurch) Isbell, who came to Texas from Rome, Georgia. The six children of the Isbell family who reached maturity are named as follows: Tilman, who died unmarried; Mrs. Harrison, who was born November 14, 1881; Aaron, a farmer in the vicinity of Bedias; Kieffer, of Jones county, Texas; May, wife of Edgar Allen of Mexia; and Fred of Bedias. Dr. Harrison and wife have two children: Lucy Loree and Willie Ionne.

AUBREY RODGERS. In the flourishing little community of Rockdale Aubrey Rodgers has a place of usefulness and of distinction as a man who in a few years has built up a fine business in the tinning, roofing and plumbing line, and is also now serving as fire marshal. A worker in sheet metal, Mr. Rodgers probably has no superior in his part of the state, and by his thorough competence in his trade, by business methods that have commended his work to the public, though he started in life without re- sources, he is now at the head of a good and growing concern.

Aubrey Rodgers was born at Farmington in Grayson county, Texas, January 10, 1871. His father, Albert W. Rodgers, born in Arkansas in 1836, held a commission as captain in the Confederate army under General Ca- bell, was for many years a minister of the Presbyterian church, and now lives at Sulphur Springs. The mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Bush, was born in Virginia in 1843. Her father, Michael G. Bush, born in Virginia in 1802, after nine years of residence in Illinois came to Texas in 1854, bringing his wife and four chil- dren, three daughters and one son. Michael G. Bush was one of the ablest pioneers of Northern Texas, and a man whose leadership was evident in many ways. He owned the first machine for the cutting of grain or grass and drawn by horse power. By profession he was a surveyor, and in that capacity laid off the first town site at Sherman, and was also employed with the en- gineering corps of the Houston and Texas Central Rail- way and did much surveying and engineering supervision for that road. Albert W. Rodgers and wife had five children: Aubrey, Anna, Maggie, Minnie and Lillian.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 104

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