A history of Texas and Texans, Part 105

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

USA > Texas > A history of Texas and Texans > Part 105

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Aubrey Rodgers grew up in Grayson county, graduated from the high school at Farmington in 1888, and for three terms was a student in the Fort Worth University. His early experiences were as a cowboy, and he spent

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three years on the great cattle ranges of Western Texas. Choosing a more stable occupation, he learned the trade of tinner, and worked as a journeyman at various locali- ties, and under different employers until 1908. That year Mr. Rodgers opened a shop at Rockdale, in Milam county, and now supplies his tinning and roofing service to a large territory surrounding that town.

At Norman, Oklahoma, in 1899, Mr. Rodgers married Willie May Lyster, daughter of A. J. Lyster, of Childress, Texas. They are the parents of three children: Fred- erick Lyster, King Abbott, and Aubrey Lund. Mr. Rodgers has a good residence at Rockdale, and is one of the popular and public-spirited citizens. He is a Demo- crat in polities, is serving as fire marshal, and is elder of the Rockdale Presbyterian church. His fraternities are the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of the Maccabees.

JAMES W. MCCARVER, M. D. It is only stating a fact to say that the medical profession as a class have always been alert in their vigilance and energetic in their practical efforts to improve the human welfare. While medical practice has been largely a matter of individual service, there has never been lacking those physicians, who, while best with particular cases, have also stood on watch over community wholesomeness, and when the enemy of disease has swarmed over the gates, have de- voted themselves to the battle with all the zeal of old- time military heroes. There are today hundreds of con- scientious doctors, who, placing the interests of the whole ahove their immediate material concerns, are ren- dering invaluable service as leaders and workers in the public health movement.

In Brownwood and Brown county, the services of Dr. McCarver have been directed not only to attending a large private practice, but also the public health, and he has a record in that field which is distinctly creditable. For eight years he served as health officer of Brown county, and it was largely due to his practical advice and efforts that the city of Brownwood in 1912 won the first prize as the cleanest city under ten thousand population in Texas. The contest, which was statewide, was inau- gurated and much of its work carried on among the school children. Dr. McCarver did much to stimulate the zeal of all the children in Brown county over the motto " Clean and Keep Clean, " and led the work through all its phases during the period of the contest. Largely due to his activities, the Brown county schools in 1910 adopted the individual drinking cup, and in 1912 seventy sanitary toilets were installed in the different schools throughout the county.

Dr. MeCarver is a physician who is well entitled to his degree of doctor of medicine, and might properly be given a degree as an operating surgeon, if such a de- gree were in common use. He is well equipped and has been specially trained in surgery, and both as a physician and surgeon has made a fine record during his career. James W. McCarver was born January 3, 1870, in Coryell, Coryell county, Texas. He was the oldest of ten chil- dren, five sons and five daughters of Joseph W. and Ella (Chambers) McCarver. The parents originally came from Mississippi, and the father moved from that state to Arkansas, where he was a volunteer in the Confederate army under General Price, serving through- out the war, and participating in a number of important engagements. After the war he returned home, agam took up farming and stock raising, and in 1870 came to Texas and located in Coryell county. There he was en- gaged in farming and raising stock, and now he and his wife live retired at Gatesville. Dr. MeCarver is de- scended from a family of Scotland, and three brothers including his great-grandfather came to America many years ago, locating in the southern states, where the family has since been well known. The doctor's father,

and other members of the family, were planters and slave holders before the war.

Dr. McCarver grew up in Coryell county, attending the schools of Coryell City. His education was excellent both in literary courses and in medicine. After attend- ing the Sam Houston Normal School at Huntsville, he entered the University of Texas, where he was graduated M. D. in 1898. For three years he practiced in his home town, and in 1901-02 was house surgeon at St. Mary's Infirmary in Galveston. He then took a post- graduate course in surgical pathology, diseases of women, and general surgery, in the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore. Since 1904, Dr. MeCarver has been in practice at Brownwood, and has filled an im- portant place in the beneficent activities of this city.

Dr. McCarver recently secured the grounds, and with the hest structures of the kind in the country as his models, made plans and specifications for the building of a private sanitarium in Brownwood. With its comple- tion the doctor cares for his patients in one of the finest and best equipped sanitariums in the state, sup- plied with operating rooms and with accommodations for twenty-five patients in private rooms, besides his gen- eral ward. His facilities are now unexcelled for car- rying on his work both in the surgical and general field of medicine.

Dr. MeCarver is a director in the Coggan National Bank of Brownwood. In politics he is a Democrat, and is affiliated with the Masonic Order. His church is the Presbyterian, and he is now serving as one of the elders in that society. On December 29, 1898, at Coryell City, he married Miss Willie G. Sadler. She is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Sadler of Coryell, her father, now deceased, having been a farmer and stockman.

HARBERSON HUDSON. One of the oldest merchants at Rockdale is Harberson Hudson, who has been identified with the grocery trade in that locality for the past twenty years. He is one of the most capable merchants of Milam county, has made a thorough study of his work, meets the demands of the popular desires along his line, and is one of the men who, successful themselves, have stood for general advancement and improvement in this community.

Harberson Hudson was born in the state of Maryland October 20, 1865, a son of Major and May (Murry) Hudson. His father, who was horn in Maryland in 1827, was a farmer by occupation, and on moving to Texas in 1867 settled at Caldwell in Burleson county. His death occurred in 1882. The mother, who was born in Mary- land in 1828, died in 1904. The six children were: Annie K., deceased; John Sidney, who lives in San An- gelo; Thomas L., deceased; Lizzie, now Mrs. W. D. Wells, of Rockdale; Harberson; and Lon.

Harberson Hudson grew up in Burleson county, at- tended the public schools there and also the schools of Rockdale until sixteen years of age. His first experience in mercantile life was as clerk in a grocery store at Rockdale. By 1894, with his accumulated earnings and experience, he and his brother Lon started an independ- ent business under the firm name of H. & L. Hudson, Grocers. Their store has long been recognized as the center of reliable merchandise, and as a going concern. The business now represents a better value than the stock and fixtures of other concerns in this county.

Mr. Hudson is a Democrat in politics, and is an active member of the Methodist church, having resigned the office of steward in 1909. He owns, besides his dwelling house, a half interest in one hundred acres of improved farm lands in Milam county. For his recreation he oc- casionally goes on a fishing trip, but his business and home and family are the objects of his chief care and attention.

At Rockdale, on November 7, 1894, Mr. Hudson mar- ried Della Elholm, daughter of John Elholm. They are the parents of two children: Lon and Agnes. Lon mar-

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ried Gladys Walker and lives in Dallas, where he is cashier for a large real estate company of that city. The daughter Agnes is a talented musician, was educated in that line, and is now a teacher of music at Sharpe, in Milam county.

RICHARD H. HARRISON, M. D. The Harrison family has a large representation in Texas, and Dr. Richard Henry Harrison located at Bryan in 1896, and has since been prominent not only in his profession but also in public affairs.

Richard Henry Harrison was born at Bedias, Grimes county, Texas, October 16, 1869. His father was Colonel Richard H. Harrison, a pioneer settler, and a man widely known in Grimes county. Grandfather Harrison, who had a family of fifteen children, and who died in Ten- nessee, was one of three brothers, all of whom came from Ireland to the United States. One of these was a law- yer, one a minister, while Grandfather Harrison com- bined the occupations of farming and teaching. Among his children were the following: Barney; Philip; Mont; John; Joseph; Colonel R. H .; Catherine, who married and spent her life in Arkansas; Bettie Duncan; and a Mrs. McKeever.

Colonel Richard H. Harrison came to Texas from Nash- ville, Tennessee, about 1850. The journey was made by wagon in company with a party of emigrants, and he settled at Bedias, in Grimes county, where for a number of years he was successful as a farmer and stock raiser. At the time of his coming to Texas he was a young mar- ried man, and he and his wife established their first home in the woods. By the work of his slaves and his own close personal supervision he improved a fine farm and gradually got into the stock business on a large scale, owning cattle by the thousands, hogs by the hun- dreds, which ran wild and pastured in the woods, and a great many horses. The output of his farm and ranch was driven to market across the country in the days he- fore railroads and shipping points were generously dis- tributed over Texas. In a publie way he served in the office of justice of the peace, and as postmaster at Bedias. However, he was not active in politics. During the war he was appointed colonel and served with that rank in Texas, and at the close of the war had to give up his slaves and had also lost much hy other necessary sac- rifices.

Colonel Harrison married Miss Lucy Bishop, whose father, George Bishop, spent his life in Tennessee as a planter. Mrs. Harrison is now living at Bedias at a good old age. Her children are briefly mentioned as follows: Donie, who married Sam MeWhorter and died at Pankey, Texas. Ned, who died at Bedias and left a family ; Tobe, who died in the same locality leaving chil- dren; Emma, who married Thomas Spell, of Bryan; Ella, wife of Dr. Weathersbee, of Bedias; Mrs. Luey MeDougald, of Bryan; Willie, who married R. E. L. Up- church and died at Bedias; Dr. R. H .; and Beverly, of Bedias.

Dr. Harrison grew up in his native locality, had his father's plantation as the scene of his early associations, and his education was acquired partly in the local schools, and partly in the Agricultural and Mechanical College. Until he reached his majority he followed farming, and at the age of twenty-two took up the study of medicine in the University of Nashville. That insti- tution graduated him in 1896 as doctor of medicine, and he at once located in Bryan for practice. His interest in the profession, and his ambition to reach the highest possible degree of success therein has kept him a constant student, and he has taken post-graduate work in the New Orleans Polyclinic, the Chicago Polyelinie, and the New York Polyclinic. He is a member of the County Med- ical Society, and the Texas State Medical Society. Dr. Harrison also has a record as a publie spirited citizen. In 1898 he was elected mayor of Bryan, and remained in the office five years, resigning it for what he considered

a position offering still greater opportunity to serve the community as city health officer. While mayor many notable improvements were made in the city, including the surfacing of Main street with clay and rocks, the building of the Carnegie Library, and also the West Side publie school building. Dr. Harrison is known as one of the county's active men in Democratie polities. He affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World, and the Loyal Order of Moose in a fra- ternal way. In May, 1895, he was married in Robertson county to Mrs. Jennie Bethel, whose father was Sam Evetts, a farmer of Benchley, Texas. Dr. Harrison and wife have three children: Henry and Lucy, twins, and Samuel Evetts.

DR. WILLIAM P. HARRISON, M. D., one of the fore- most professional and business men of Teague, is a na- tive of Grimes county, Texas, and is a son of Bernard Harrison, who settled in the vicinity of Bedias, as a pioneer, prior to the Civil war period. Dr. Harrison was a Virginian, and was a young man at the time of his advent into Texas. He was born in Grimes county, about 1830, and he died at his farm near Bedias, Texas, in 1895. He spent his life as a farmer and stock man, becoming an extensive land owner in the county, and proving himself a successful business man. He left a good-sized estate when he died.

Bernard Harrison was a soldier in the Civil war, and he had his first military experience as a member of Terry's Rangers, prior to the outbreak of the war. He later was enlisted regularly as a Confederate soldier, though still as a member of the well-known Terry organ- ization, and he saw considerable active service. He was never one to take an unduly active part in politics, though he supported Democratie policies, and he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In his business activities Bernard Harrison was successful and prosper- ous and he accumulated something like five thousand acres of land. His farm alone embraced five hundred acres, all of which was cleared and under the plow. His presence in that locality worked a decided improvement in what was originally a wilderness, and the Bedias community owed much to his aggressive and progressive methods. He married Miss Margaret Plaster, a daugh- ter of William Plaster, who was a Tennessee settler coming to Texas prior to the birth of his daughter. Mr. Plaster was one of the first white settlers of Grimes county, and he was a merchant of Bedias, presumably the first one in the place.

Dr. Harrison of this review is one of a family of eleven children, nine of whom yet survive, and three of them are members of the medical profession. He is the youngest of the family. He was born on October 12, 1880, and he passed his boyhood in the Bedias com- munity to the age of fifteen years, when he went to the A. & M. College at Bryan, and there acquired his higher education. He finished the agricultural course there, and was graduated in 1899. He began his career in business as a traveling salesman for an advertising house out of Chicago, and for a year he was occupied in that manner. Then, in 1900, he took up the study of medicine in the medical department of the University of Texas, and in 1904 was graduated with the M. D. de- gree. His class standing won for him an internship in the John Sealey Hospital in Galveston, and he spent a year there.

About this time yellow fever broke out and hecame epidemie in New Orleans, and Dr. Harrison entered the quarantine service of the state of Texas, with station at Galveston. His assignment was that of quarantine in- spector and with the quelling of the epidemie he left the service. He then took up professional work with the MeCabe & Steen Construction Company, as a con- tract surgeon, and he served with them for three months.

In the fall of 1907 Dr. Harrison came to Teague and established himself in practice. He has been division

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surgeon for the T. & B. V. Railway since the establish- ment of the division here, and he is county health offi- cer of Freestone county, as well as being a commissioned officer of the medical corps of the Texas National Guard, by appointment of Governor Colquitt, under date of June 10, 1913.

As to his business connections in Teague, it may be said that the Doctor is a stockholder in the Farmers' and Merchants' Bank of Teague and of the Teague Building Company.

Dr. Harrison was married in Teague on February 2, 1910, to Miss Grace Setzer, a daughter of Mrs. H. B. Setzer, who came to Texas from North Carolina, where Mrs. Harrison was born. Mrs. Setzer in maidenhood was Miss Helen Jones, and she has borne her husband two sons and two daughters. Dr. and Mrs. Harrison are without issue. The Doctor is a Mason, with Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery affiliations, and he is also an Elk and a Pythian Knight. He has been a delegate to the State Democratie Conventions on several occasions, that constituting his only political service.

JOHN BARTOW REESE. The oldest lumber dealer of Kerens and a resident of that little Navarro county city since 1893, John B. Reese well deserves his general reputation through that community as a keen and suc- cessful business man, who has also at various times iden- tified himself in a public spirited manner with the im- provements and progress of his community.

Mr. Reese came to Texas in 1873 with his father, Lucian Larken Reese, who is now living at the age of eighty-four in Kosse. The Reese family has lived in different states of the South a number of generations. Grandfather Cuthbert Reese was a farmer at Hillsboro, Georgia, where he died before the war. He was a slave holder. His children were: Joseph; Gus, Bettie, who married Washington Holland; Lou, who married Gip Connell; Lucian L .; and William. Of these Lucian and Bettie both moved to Texas.

Lucian Larken Reese was born in Jasper county, Geor- gia, and for his time received a liberal education and took up his career as a teacher. On moving from Geor- gia to Texas he made the trip by water to New Orleans and to Galveston, and followed up the line of the Houston and Texas Central Railway as far as Kosse, which was about the limit of that road's construction at that time. With his equipment as an educator, he resumed teaching in Limestone county, and eventually engaged in farm- ing. During the war he served for a time as a Con- federate soldier, and with that exception his life has been led along quiet and honorable lines. He is one of the older members of the Masonic Order at Kosse, and also affiliates with the Baptist church. In Georgia, Lucien L. Reese married Nancy Ann MeKissiek, daughter of John McKissick and of an old family in that state. Mrs. Reese died at Kosse in February, 1907, at the age of sixty-seven. Their children were: Amelia, of Kosse; John B .; Minnie, wife of C. W. Brown of Bremond, where she died; Montella, of Edna, Texas; and Isaac of Lott.

John Bartow Reese, who was born in Georgia, July 27, 1861, was twelve years old when he accompanied his father to Texas. His education was continued in the country schools about Kosse, and when he started for himself it was in the vocation of farmer. With some experience in the lumber trade, in 1893, he established a lumber yard in Kerens in partnership with J. L. Mark- ham, and the firm of Markham & Reese has steadily con- tinued and prospered there to the present time, the senior member being a resident of Kosse. For a num- ber of years this was the only lumber retail establish- ment at Kosse. Mr. Reese has concentrated his atten- tion to the lumber business, although he owns consider- able land in the vicinity of Kerens, but that is worked by tenants and he gives it little of his time or atten- tion. During the past twenty years more than half the

lumber used in the construction of the town of Kerens has come from the Markham & Reese yards.

In public affairs he has served on the board of alder- men and is now one of the school trustees. While in the council he aided in upbuilding and improving the town, in grading the streets, and in laying a proper basis for permanent improvement. The new school house at Kerens was built when Mr. Reese was treasurer of the school board. In politics he has manifested little interest in party affairs and has attended no political convention. He is one of the Deacons of the Missionary Baptist church of Kerens, is superintendent of the Sunday school, and his only fraternal connection is with the Woodmen of the World, in which he is a charter member.

On June 10, 1886, in Limestone county Mr. Reese married Miss Carrie Brown. Her father, Capt. J. P. Brown, who came from Georgia to Texas before the war, went out from this state for service in the Confed- erate army, was a substantial farmer, and was twice elected a member of the Texas legislature. Captain Brown by his first marriage had the following chil- dren: Gip, John, Irvin, William and Jimmie, the last the wife of Frank Bratton. Mrs. Reeses was one of the two children by the second marriage of Capt. Brown. Mr. and Mrs. Reese have the following family: Cresidus, wife of Roland Mays, of Kerens; Lucian Larken, who died at the age of seventeen; Irene; Annie; Carrie; Johnnie B .; and Charles Erin. 1

ABNER LUTHER LEWIS. Although one of the younger members of the Grayson county bar, Abner Luther Lewis is in the enjoyment of a distinctively representative clientage which has connected him with much of the important litigation tried in the courts of this district. Locating in the practice of his profession at Denison in 1910, the favorable opinion passed upon him at that time has in no degree been modified, but, on the con- trary, has been strengthened with the passing years as he has demonstrated his ability to cope with the intri- cate problems of the law. Mr. Lewis is a native son of Texas and of Grayson county, having been born at Pilot Grove, December 18, 1886, a son of Gyton and Jennie (Jackson) Lewis. Both parents are natives of Grayson county, where the father was for some years engaged in agricultural pursuits, but at this time reside in Kimble county, where they continue to follow the till- ing of the soil. Two children were in their family: Abner Luther, of this review; and Archie L., who is successfully engaged in the bakery business at Denison.

The early education of Abner Luther Lewis was se- cured in the public schools of Denison, but the family finances were such that after he had passed the eighth grade he was forced to lay aside his books and begin to work to assist in the support of his parents. He had early cherished an ambition, however, to enter the law, and with this goal in view, while working days in the transportation department of the offices of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad, at Denison, began to study nights with such good results that he was able to secure the honors of his class when he graduated from high school. After eight years of day work and night study, with such money as he had been able to save from his earnings, he became a student in the University of Texas, and there spent two years, proving himself a most excellent and resceptive scholar. Upon leaving that institution he took up the study of his chosen voca- tion in the offices of John T. Suggs, under whose precep- torship he made rapid progress, and January 4, 1910, was admitted to the bar. He at once entered practice in Denison, and here has continued to maintain his field of endeavor. He is now recognized as one of the rising members of the bar, a lawyer strong and logical in argu- ment, forceful in the presentation of his cause, with a ready command of language, and analytical reasoning and clear deduction which prove an influencing force in

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his arguments. His practice has grown steadily, and he has been eagerly sought in a number of cases of more than ordinary importance. Mr. Lewis is a Democrat and has always voted in support of his party and his friends, but his own public service has been limited to a short term as assistant county attorney of Grayson county, an office from which he resigned. Fraternally he is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Moose, the Voerwarts, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the Woodmen of the World, and of the last- named has served as council commander for four years. He is also identified with the business life of the city as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and has done much to advance the moral tone of the community by his connection with the Young Men's Christian Association and the Methodist Episcopal church. His offices are located at Nos. 312 and 314 Security Building.

On January 26, 1905, Mr. Lewis was married (first) to Miss Lillian Campbell, who died November 27, 1905. His second marriage occurred to Miss Clara Jackson on March 11, 1913, and to them was born on December 21, 1913, a son, Abner Luther Lewis, Jr. When he can spare time from his large practice and other interests. Mr. Lewis enjoys taking trips to neighboring cities, but he has not yet found the community which he would ex- change for Denison, in the continued prosperity of which city he is firmly convinced. Both he and his wife are well known in social circles of the city, and their numer- ous friends always find a gracious welcome at the re- fined Lewis home, located at No. 317 North Scullin avenue.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 105

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