A history of Texas and Texans, Part 106

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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GEORGE WASHINGTON SPEED. The careers of few Tex- ans have more marks of real business accomplishment and achievement over obstacles than this well-known farmer and banker of Kerens. He grew up under condi- tions which made the obtaining of an education difficult, was a soldier during the close of the war between the states, lived for a number of years in close intimacy with hardship and poverty, and finally moved out to Texas to begin life anew.

It was iu 1876 that Mr. Speed settled in Navarro county. His first home was on Mill Creek, north of Blooming Grove, where he began with exceedingly lim- ited resources and bought a small and scarcely improved tract of land on time. When he arrived he owned one mule, and his wife and four children had come out from Mississippi on a wagon owned by his brother. It was a journey of six weeks, and the trip had the usual spice of little incidents to break its monotony.

It was from Covington county, Mississippi, near Wil- liamsburg, that Mr. Speed set out when he determined to seek a new home in Texas. He was born there April 11, 1846, and grew up in that locality. The time which would have proved most valuable in securing an educa- tion was spent in the army. He enlisted in 1864 in Stubbs' battalion of Woods' Brigade in the Confederate army, aud was a river guard on the Mississippi river he- tween Natchez and Yazoo city. There was no fighting of any consequence, and after the surrender of Lee his command was disbanded. He then returned home and assisted his father in farming. After the war he man- aged by hard efforts to acquire a year of schooling, and that proved exceedingly valuable to him later in life.

Ou December 1, 1869, he was married, and began housekeeping ou a poor little farm from which he man- aged to drag the living until he left that state. When he moved away he left both the farm and the furniture of the little cabin which stood upon it. His total re- sources on leaving Mississippi amounted to about two hundred dollars, and on arriving in Navarro county he paid all the money he had, twenty dollars, toward the purchase of the little Mill Creek farm. With his single mule he managed to make two crops, and from the second one paid the six hundred and fifty dollars which still incumbered the land, and then bought a

team. After four years on his first place, he made a purchase and a trade and acquired a farm on Black Hills, nearer to and northwest of Corsicana. That was the scene of his activities for twenty-three years, and his activities there laid the basis for his business pros- perity. When he sold out he was the owner of seven hundred and seven acres, well improved and in a fine state of cultivation. His first purchase had been two hundred and thirty-six acres, and the rest of it he had added from time to time. It was by concentration of effort that he prospered, and though a popular citizen and frequently urged to go into local politics, he de- clined until his prosperity was securely laid aud he could afford the leisure for public effort.

Mr. Speed has been a resident of Kerens since 1899, and in 1901 sold out his lands at Black Hills and invested extensively in land about Kerens. The land in Elm Flat was cheap at that time, and some of his purchases were secured at less than five dollars an acre while for others he paid as high as twenty dollars an acre. All the land which he bought was improved and brought up to cultivation, and for some time he was one of the ac- tive farmers in this vicinity. Out of the various pur- chases made Mr. Speed still owns more than a thousand acres, and over half of this amount has come under cultivation through his own efforts or under his direc- tion. Throughout his career in Texas he has been more or less engaged in the stock business, and in later years has done a great deal of feeding and has handled im- proved grades of cattle and horses. He has also helped local business enterprise by subscribing stock for two cotton gins. On the organization of the First State Bank of Kerens Mr. Speed was one of the large stock holders, became second president, now vice president and a director. Fraternally his relations are with the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows and the Fraternal Union, and his church is the Baptist.

Mr. Speed married Miss Elizabeth Burkhalter, daugh- ter of Joshua Burkhalter, a Mississippi farmer whose wife was Martha Harvey, and they were the parents of ten children, six of whom grew up. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Speed are: Martiu L., a real estate dealer and farmer at Beasley; John B., of San Jose, California; Lillie, widow of Joseph Lindsey of Kerens; Maggie, who married W. D. Arnett of Kerens; Martha, wife of J. C. Spurger of Kerens; Joseph and Joshua, twin sons, both of whom live in Kerens; Josephine, who married Thomas Stockton of Kerens; Elmo, who died a young man after his marriage to Miss Stockton; Geor- gie, wife of W. Bain of Kerens; Charles C., of Kerens; Essie, wife of E. C. Bain; Elijah B .; and Trudie May. Mr. Speed has become the father of seventeen chil- dren, and thirteen of them are still living. While his business career has been one of increasing prosperity, he should also be honored not less for his value to the community as the father of a large and useful family.

Brief reference should also be made to the earlier generation of his family. The Speeds were Scotch-Irish and early settlers in America, and all were loyal ad berents of the cause of the colonies during the Revolu- tion and several male members served as soldiers in that war. Grandfather William Speed moved from South Carolina to Mississippi, and was a planter. He married a Miss Lawrence, and their children were: James Monroe; Benjamin; two by the name of William, one being W. L., and the other W. W .; Mrs. Craig; and Mrs. John Jolly. James Monroe Speed, father of the Kerens business man, was born in the Anderson district of South Carolina in May, 1808, and died in December, 1887, in Covington county, Mississippi. His life was spent as a farmer, he owned slaves before the war, and favored the secession of the South. Four of his sons went out and wore the gray as Confederate soldiers. Those of his children who grew up were: William; James; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Bigland; George W .; Joseph; Benjamin; John; Martin Luther; Martha,

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who married William Keys; Josephine, who married Warren Knight; and Meshack. Of these children, Ben- jamin and George W. both became permanent residents of Texas.

Though in his earlier years Mr. Speed declined par- ticipation in politics, he has proved a most useful mem- ber of the community at Kerens. He served four years as alderman, and for a similar period was a member of the council. When first in the council the streets were graded and plank sidewalks built, although at the time he urged the building of cement walks as cheaper and more durable article. Since he returned to the board this improvement has been carried out. He is one of the substantial advocates and supporters of the movement for instituting waterworks, and that proposition was sub- mitted to the voters of that community in 1914, and car- ried. In his relation to the schools Mr. Speed has served as a trustee, while at the Black Hills he served his dis- triet almost continuously, and in Kerens was a member of the board of education two years. Having been un- fortunate in his own educational experiences, he under- stands what the loss of proper schooling means to men and women, and has exerted his efforts not only in be- half of his own children but of all those in the com- munity where he lives. At different times he has been a worker in the local conventions of the Democratic party, and was a Wilson supporter in 1912. During the construction of the Baptist church at Kerens he was a member of the building committee, and has always given liberally of means to anything of consequence in his locality. He took up the cause of good roads, and while a worker in this direction has never found it convenient to attend the various conventions and meet- ings called to consider that proposition and other com- mercial causes. It should be stated that while Mr. Speed has been distinguished by his ability as a con- struetive business man, he has never tried to keep every dollar, and has used his means wisely and publie spir- itedly.

COL. WILLIAM H. MARTIN. A citizen who will be re- membered by members of the older generation as a prominent banker, business man and journalist of Brown- wood, Texas, was the late Col. William H. Martin, whose death in 1886 removed from this section one whose influence was ever for good and whose useful and industrious life may serve as an example worthy of emulation by the youth of today. Of Scotch- Irish and Holland Dutch descent, he was born at Fulton, Missouri, where the family was well known, in June, 1833, and was a son of William R. and Margaret (Wright) Martin.

William R. Martin was a native Missourian, and for many years was the owner of a large plantation in the vicinity of Martinsburg, which town was named in his honor. Prior to the war between the South and the North he was the owner of large numbers of slaves, and was considered one of the substantial men of his com- munity, where he died in 1873. After the death of his first wife he was again married, and his second wife fol- lowed him to the grave a few years after his demise.

William H. Martin was the second child born to his father's first marriage, and grew up in his native local- ity, receiving his early education in the public schools and subsequently studying law under the preceptorship of ex-Governor Hardin, of Missouri, who was then a promi- nent attorney of Mexico, that state. Shortly after the outbreak of the Civil war, Mr. Martin took about forty slaves to Alabama for safety, and while there joined the Confederate army under Gen. Sterling Price, was subsequently captured by the Union troops, and upon his exchange secured his honorable discharge on account of ill health, and was never able to again go to the front. On his return to private life he took up the practice of his profession at Martinsburg, where he was also engaged in the drug business, but in 1877 came to

Texas and at once located in Brownwood, where he be- came the editor and publisher of the Brown County Banner, a publication which he continued successfully for some years. He was also engaged in the drug busi- ness until about 1878, when he assisted in the organiza- tion of the bank of Coggin Brothers, this subsequently being succeeded by the firm of Coggin, Ford & Martin, bankers, with which he was connected as cashier up to the time of his death. He was widely known in Texas banking eireles, and had the utmost confidence of his as- sociates, who depended upon his judgment and fore- sight in matters of importance. Ever a stanch Demo- crat, he was active in his support of the party's prin- ciples, although he never sought office on his own ac- count. He was a popular member of the Masonic order, and his religious connection was with the Baptist church and ever lived up to its teachings. His funeral was conducted by Rev. John D. Robnett, pastor of the Brownwood Baptist church, and was largely attended by his hosts of friends and acquaintances, who gathered to do honor to the memory of one who had ever proved himself a worthy citizen, an honorable man of business and a loyal and generous friend. His remains were interred in Greenleaf Cemetery.

On November 4, 1864, Colonel Martin was married at Martinsburg, Missouri, to Mrs. Martha A. Powell, whose father was a retired farmer and slave holder of Martins- burg, Missouri, where his death occurred in 1884. By her former marriage, Mrs. Martin had two children. Mary Lewis ("Dollie") Powell married Rev. John D. Robnett, a Baptist minister, and the founder of Howard Payne College, of Brownwood, a Baptist college for girls and boys, in which young ministers are given free tui- tion. Four children were born to them: John D. Rob- nett, a paymaster in the United States Navy, living at Washington, D. C .; James Robnett, who entered the ministry of the Baptist church, and after a short pas- torate at Amarillo, Texas, entered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, at Louisville, Kentucky, where he died in 1901, leaving a widow and two children; Ausy Hamilton Robnett, a physician and surgeon of the United States Navy; and E. H., an electrician at Bal- timore. James Powell, the son born to Mrs. Martin's first marriage, died at the age of eleven years.

Three children were born to Colonel and Mrs. Martin: Adine Lee, who was married December 23, 1886, to William Muse, an attorney and credit man for the John V. Farwell Company, wholesale dry goods mer- chants at Chicago, Illinois; James Powell, born May 17, 1868, who is married and is a stockman and contractor of Brownwood; and George Clarence, who died at the age of seven months. Mrs. Martin, a lady of culture and refinement, survives her husband and resides in a com- fortable modern home at Brownwood, in which city she is widely known in social circles and in charitable work.

WILLIAM BOONE CHEATHAM. Many years have passed since William Boone Cheatham settled in Edgewood and engaged in real estate activities, in which he has been moderately prosperous and successful. Coming here in 1884, as a young man, he engaged in ranching and stock raising, but his native thrift and business acumen soon prompted him to do some speculating in land values. Buying small tracts of land at a time when the prices ranged from $1.50 to $3.00 an acre for the best land, he entered, with the swelling tide of immigration and set- tlement, into the real estate business in genuine ear- nest, and he has since continued in that enterprise. He is the owner of some very fine farming lands, which, under the guidance and care of his tenants, yield him a handsome income, and all things considered, is regarded as one of the most independent men of the county.

Born Marsh 21, 1856, in Titus county, Texas, William Boone Cheatham is a son of Edward Cheatham, who was born near Nashville, Tennessee, in 1811. He was given a good education and in his young manhood mar-

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ried Miss Martha Skinner, a daughter of Livingston Skin- ner. She died in 1856, leaving children as follows: George R., who spent his life in Morris county, and when he died, left a family there; Thomas H., who died in Van Zandt county in 1910; James, who died in Morris county, leaving one daughter; Sallie, who mar- ried J. B. Lilly and resides at Keuefick, Okla .; Emma, living at Whitesboro, Texas, the wife of B. T. Hays; and William Boone Cheatham of this review.

Edward Cheatham, it should be said in further de- lineation of the life of that worthy Texan, came to this state in 1838 and stopped at Crockett, from which point he soon joined a surveying party engaged in locating lands along the old Cherokee trail, as far west as the Trinity river in the vicinity of Dallas. They were in a wild and unsettled country and at Grand Saline Prairie they tried conclusions with the Indians, coming off vic- torious and without fatalities, but in their next encounter with them at the Forks of the Trinity river, where they made camp, they were not so fortunate, losing one man to the skill of the enemy. The party was engaged in locating headrights, and Edward Cheatham located for himself a fine tract of land, which he sold late in life. He lived in Titus county, near Daingerfield, until 1866, when he moved to Upshur county and located in the vicinity of Coffeyville, where he passed away in 1897. He was a Methodist, and a quiet man, retiring in man- ner, but determined in purpose, and he was well known in the communities where he maintained his residence.

William Boone Cheatham was a boy of ten years when his father moved to Upshur county and near Coffey- ville he was reared gaining his education in the country schools. He engaged in active farming when he became of age and continued therein in that enterprise until the early nineties, when he abandoned the industry for the purpose of further devoting himself to real estate ac- tivities, in which he had become interested. He came to this locality in about 1884, settling on a farm, at a time when farm lands were at the lowest ebb. He soon began to indulge in a mild form of speculation in these lands, and began to buy more and more widely, giving up farming entirely. He has repeatedly sold much of the land adjacent to Edgewood, and he has furthermore carried on a sort of home-making process by bringing under cultivation wild lands, building houses upon them and selling them. He has witnessed the sale of farm lands in these parts at prices as low as $1.50 the acre, and has likewise seen the same lands climb in value to $100 an acre. He has encouraged in various ways the entry of new blood into the county, as well as the in- crease of the acreage under cultivation, and his work has been a most telling one in the business of settling the county and promoting agricultural activities. He is an acknowledged authority upon the adaptability of the soils here to the various crops, having all his days, even since he abandoned active farming, maintained an active interest in the more practical aspects of the subject.

Mr. Cheatham's connection with politics has been of a desultory nature, rather than otherwise, including his attendance at a few conventions of Democrats bent upon naming candidates for public office, and he has met other delegates in state convention work, notably when Mr. Colquitt was nominated for Governor of Texas. He is not especially active in the party ranks, however, and has never shown any inclination to get into polities on his own account. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of the Knights and Ladies of Honor, while his churchly relations are maintained as a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

In December, 1878, Mr. Cheatham was married in Upshur county, Texas, to Miss Amanda Campbell, a daughter of George Campbell, a well known merchant and farmer who came to Texas from Mississippi, his native state, and settled in Upshur county. There Mrs. Chatham was born in 1861, and she has borne her hus-

band one child, Mabel Cheatham, the wife of C. L. Beard, of Edgewood, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Beard have had four children: Oma, Glenn, Douglas, who is de- ceased, and Bonnie.

The Cheatham family is one of excellent standing in their home community, and they have a large circle of friends in and about the county, where they have long been known. As one who has wielded a most excellent influence in the matter of promoting the development of the county, Mr. Cheatham's place is everywhere acknowl- edged.

DENNY EDMUND WALSHE. No less for his publie serv- ice in Grand Saline than for his business accomplish- ments is Denny Edmund Walshe known and esteemed in these parts. He has spent nineteen years as a resi- dent of this city, and as postmaster since 1897 he has filled an important position in the public life of the place. He has for a great many years been identified with the salt industry, becoming first associated with that enterprise as a young man just assuming the re- sponsibility of his own career, and he has risen to a position of some importance in that line of work.

A native of New York City, Denny Edmund Walshe was born there on October 21, 1865, and he is the son of Capt. John P. and Mary Ann (Gerton) Walshe. Cap- tain Walshe, it should be stated, passed almost his en- tire life in the army service, and he died on duty near Dayton, Ohio, on June 29, 1891, and there is buried. He was born in county Mayo, Ireland, in 1821, and was a man of considerable education, coming of a fine old Irish family that contributed a number of the name to American citizenship. John P. Walshe was the advance guard of the family in that respect, and he reached these shores in the early fifties. He was engaged in business activities in New York City when the Civil war broke out, and he promptly enlisted for service, serving in the Army of the Potomac as a member of the Eighth Cavalry. He passed through the long civil conflict, coming out of the army as a commissioned officer, and a short time after his discharge he applied for admission to the Reg- ular Army service as a lieutenant of cavalry. He gave his remaining years of life to the army service, moving to Texas in 1871 and establishing his family at Fort Griffin, where for some years the wife and mother con- ducted an inn or tavern. With his command under Gen- eral Terry Lieutenant Walshe served at various points in the United States and was in the Big Horn country in 1876 when the Custer Massacre took place.

Lieutenant Walshe was married in Liverpool, England, in 1851, and when he came to America as an emigrant, he brought his young wife with him. She was a daugh- ter of Martin and Mary Ann ( Walshe) Gerton, of Lan- cashire, and she died in Colorado City, Texas, in 1890, when she was sixty years of age. She had actually moved her Fort Griffin hotel to Colorado City. The hotel which was leased by Mrs. Walshe, was moved from Fort Griffin to Colorado City in the following manner: It was taken apart and sectionalized and numbered, board by board and spile by spile, and carried by wagon from Fort Griffin to Albany, a distance of sixteen miles, from there to Cisco by rail and from there to Colorado City by rail, where it was erected and conducted by our sub- ject's mother for a short period. It was known as the " Planters Hotel," and it was in this old plains hostelry that Denny Walshe gained his first notions of business methods. Twelve children were born to Captain Walshe and his industrious and thrifty wife. Only four of that number reached years of maturity, Thos. A., who died at the age of sixteen years; Denny Edmund; Josephine, the wife of J. A. Clarey, of Fort Worth; and Mary A., the wife of Frank Tierney, of Dallas.

Denny E. Walshe grew up in Fort Griffin and in Colo- rado City, both in Texas, the family having moved to the latter place in 1883. He gained his education in a sort of high school maintained by voluntary contribu-

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tions from the army contingent of the fort. As a young man he aided in the construction of the salt works in Colorado City in 1885, and it is worthy of mention that this plant made the first vat of steam-refined salt in Texas. In this service he made the acquaintance of the Salt City people of Grand Saline, a matter that subse- quently affected his entire career. For several years the young man was employed as a peace officer in Colorado City, being chosen in the office of City Deputy Marshal and serving two terms, later serving as constable and still later as deputy United States Marshal of the West- ern District of Texas.

After a service of some eight years as an officer of the law he resigned and entered the merchandise business as a clerk for the firm of Waldo & Wells, hardware merchants of Colorado City. He was made the manager of a branch store they opened in Pond Creek, Oklahoma, while he was connected with the house, and in 1894 he went to Fort Worth to engage in service with the Voss- Brooks Construction Company, building an electrie line out to the Polytechnic School. Later he became city collector for the Fort Worth Lumber Company, filling the position for a year.

It was at this juncture that he was called to Grand Saline by his former Colorado City employers in the salt industry, and he took with them a position as as- sistant superintendent of their plant, which he filled for seven years. The superintendent of the plant was Mr. Wilderspin, an uncle of Mrs. Walshe, whose connection with the salt industry at this point extended over a long period, and who was most important as a factor in the upbuilding of the industry. While Mr. Walshe served his company effectively, he also administered the affairs of the local postoffice as postmaster during such time as the office was maintained as a fourth class office. When the office was raised to a third class, he resigned from his position with the salt company and assumed active charge of the postoffice, its new status being such as to demand all his time in the supervision of its affairs. Mr. Walshe's experience in the cattle industry was as a range rider or on the trail, and he also had an interest at one time in a few hundred head of cattle and horses.

As Mr. Walshe continued a resident here he developed a wholesome interest in the Republican politics of the county, and has for some years been a factor in the ac- tivities of the party. He has represented his county in various Republican conventions, including senatorial and congressional, and was chairman pro tem of the con- gressional convention at Tyler, in 1908. His first presi- dential commission as postmaster came from Roosevelt 's hand, as did his second one, and on August 16, 1912, he was commissioned by President Taft for a term of four years. All the rural mail service has developed here under his regime and six routes distribute mail from this office. In recent time the increased work of the of- fice has necessitated the addition of two clerks, in addi- tion to the postmaster, who gives all his time to the duties of his office.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 106

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