A history of Texas and Texans, Part 110

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 110

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J. WED DAVIS has been connected worthily with the city of Teague since its incipient stages of exist- ence, coming to the place in a day when the Teague townsite was nothing more than a cottonfield, in striking contrast to its present day appearance of metropolitanism with its sturdy lines of briek build- ings lending dignity and solidity to the streets. Mr. Davis came here first from Elgin, in Bastrop county, this state, where he went as a settler from Ripley, Mis- sissippi, in 1883. He is a son of John Davis, only son of another of the same name, who was a Revolutionary soldier, and was discharged at Cowpens, South Caro- lina, after the war. It is worthy of mention that the field on which that battle was waged was a part of Grandfather Byars' land, and it was there that General Lord Cornwallis lost his watch, which was subsequently found and turned over to the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. John Davis, grandfather of the sub- jeet, was born in Pennsylvania, and he died at Spartans- burg, South Carolina, his only child being John, father of J. Wed Davis of this review.

John Davis 2d was born in South Carolina, and he died in Hopkinsville, Mississippi. He was educated in mechanical engineering and was a recognized authority on that subject. He was largely engaged in excavation work on a large scale, changing the courses of streams and other allied engineering tasks that require skilled men in their performance. Mr. Davis and his two eld- est sons entered the first company that was organized in Spartanburg county, and stayed in the service through the entire war, up to the surrender of General Lee. He took part in the heavy fighting of the Army of Northern Virginia and was in the engineering de- partment. He passed through the war without being once wounded or captured, but one of his sons was a prisoner in a northern prison at Elmira, New York, for many months. After the war Mr. Davis returned to his profession, and he met his death while engaged in «hanging the course of a river in Mississippi.

Mr. Davis married Miss Elmira Byars, a daughter of Earl Byars, a German farmer and stockman of South Carolina. The wife and mother died in 1898, and it should be stated here that she was his second wife, he having first married a Miss Jones, who became the mother of nine children, here mentioned briefly as follows: Lawson B., of North Carolina; Marshall T., of Elgin, Texas; Letha; Mildred, who married J. B.

Greenway, of Hamlin, Texas; John A., of Elgin, Texas; Martha, who married M. T. Humphries and died at Elgin; Benjamin F., who died at Elgin in 1899, leaving a family; Sarah, of Monroe, Louisiana. The children of the second marriage are J. Wed of this review; James P., who died in St. Louis, Missouri, leaving a family, and Mary, who married T. L. Potts and died in Teague in 1910.

J. Wed Davis had only a common school education, and when he first started out independently he did so in connection with the Calcasieu Lumber Company, remaining with that concern for fourteen years. When he withdrew from that firm he came direct to Teague, finding it in the state that is mentioned in the opening paragraph. He came here in association with the South Texas Lumber Company, originally the Teague Lumber Company, and he started the first lumber yard the place knew. He was manager of the yard for four years, after which he engaged in the real estate, loans and investment business, under the firm name of J. Wed Davis & Company. Mr. Davis was connected with the real estate business both as a broker and dealer, and his chief work has been as a broker in farm lands. He placed more than a hundred new families in the Teague district in two years, and it should be stated that he built the first home that was erected in the city. He has been largely identified with the actual building of Teague, for he was con- nected prominently with the building of ten of its brick store structures. He is the owner of a large quantity of farm lands, and he has been especially active in disposing of land to desirable settlers and getting them started in the community.

Mr. Davis served as president of the Commercial Club of Teague for six years, and he was postmaster of the city for five years. He had his appointment from Theodore Roosevelt as president and has identi- fied himself actively with Republican polities, for though he comes of a stanch old Democrat family, he has absorbed his political principles from his business associations with Republicans. He has served on many occasions as a delegate to state conventions and to congressional and other conventions as well.

Mr. Davis is a Mason with Blue Lodge and Royal Arch associations, and was secretary of Elgin Lodge for many years. He is also a Pythian Knight and has been Chancellor Commander in the local lodge for several years. He is a Baptist and a member of a number of insurance orders of fraternal nature.

The first marriage of Mr. Davis took place in IS85, when in November Miss Elizabeth Standfield became his wife. She was a daughter of C. W. Standfield, of Alabama, and when she died she left two children. J. Melvin is associated with his father in business and is married to Lucile Anderson, and Modene married John Mosbauh, of Teague. The second marriage took place in 1899, when Miss Lulu Brown, of Lee county, became Mrs. Davis. The children of this second mar- riage are Carl, Hubert, Mary Frances, Garland, Mar- garet, J. Wed, Jr., and Lula Brown. Garland Davis, it should be said, was the first male child born in Teague.

DR. WILLIAM P. KELLY. A practicing physician in Tennessee and Texas for many years, Dr. William P. Kelly retired from active practice in 1912, and is now filling the office of city recorder. In addition to that, he is identified with the real estate business and operates on a large scale in this section of the state. He is one of the best known men in Clay county, Texas, and numbers his friends by the score, among those who have known him both in his professional and his private capacity, as well as a business man of ability in later years.

Born in Lawrence county, Tennessee, on January 17, 1849, Dr. William P. Kelly is the son of John J. and

W.R. Grane

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Susan Kelly, both of whom passed their lives in the state of Tennessee and are there buried. He gained his early education in the schools of Lawrence county, Tennessee, and when he had finished the high school course of his home town he entered the Nashville Uni- versity, and there his medical training was secured. He engaged in medical practice in his native state upon his graduation, and until 1893 he continued there, in that year coming to Texas and locating in Ellis county. For ten years he practiced successfully in Ellis county, and then moved to Clay county, where he has maintained a continuous residence ever since.

In 1912 Dr. Kelly virtually retired from medical practice and became city recorder of Petrolia, and he gives but little attention to medical affairs. Though he disclaims to be in practice, there are times when the demands of old friends are so insistent as to over- come his decisions, and he goes forth to serve as in former years. His attention, however, is chiefly con- fined to his office and to the real estate business, in which he has been successful and prosperous. He has extensive property interests in the state and especially in and about Electra, and is known for one of the financially independent men of the county. A citizen of the first order, no more public-spirited man could be found in the community than Dr. Kelly. He is concerned about the future of Petrolia and does all that can be done for the advancement of the best in- terests of the place by a man in his position. He will be found at the forefront of every movement designed to further the best interests of his home city, and any assistance he can lend in such causes is always forth- coming at the right time.

Dr. Kelly has membership iu the Cumberland Presby- terian church of Petrolia, and he is a Mason, with Blue Lodge and Chapter affiliations. He is worshipful master of Petrolia Lodge No. 592, A. F. & A. M., also High Priest of Henrietta Chapter 161, R. A. M., Hen- rietta, Texas, and is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Few men have a greater fond- ness for out-of-door life than has Dr. Kelly, and his chiefest pleasures are to be found in the pursuit of sports of that nature.

Twice has the doctor been married. He was first married at Port Gibson, Mississippi, to Miss Olive O. Thompson, of that place. She died in 1897, and is buried in Ellis county, this state, then the home of the family. She was a member of the Baptist church and a devout Christian woman of the most worthy char- acter, and she left a son and a daughter. William P., Jr., the eldest of the two, is married and makes his home in Electra, Texas, and Olive Louise is also mar- ried, the wife of Ira C. James. She lives at Reserve, Louisiana.

The second marriage of Dr. Kelly took place in Fort Worth, Texas, on April 5, 1905, when Miss Tina Quarles became his wife. She is a daughter of J. R. Quarles of Fort Worth, a well known resident of that city, and she was one of the prominent and popular young women of the place.

Dr. Kelly and his wife enjoy a leading position in social circles of the city, and they have a host of good friends in the city and county, who know them for their many excellent qualities of heart and mind. They have taken a prominent place in public affairs since they established a home in Petrolia, and have contributed their full quota to the upbuilding of the city along lines of civic and moral growth and pros- perity.

WILLIAM R. CRANE. Five consecutive terms of service in any office, of whatever nature, indicates undeniably a measure of efficiency and popularity on the part of the man who is thus distinguished and gives him a high place in his community. William R. Crane has won that distinction as sheriff of Kaufman county. He began

his first administration with a condition existing that was most alarming in a community of this nature, and his careful analysis of the manifold elements entering into the development of such a state of affairs as here was dominant, and the remedy be applied for the bring- ing about of normal conditions, have marked him broadly as a public servant whose capacities and abilities might not well be overlooked by his community. It is gratify- ing to note that the public he served so well saw fit to restore him to his office at each succeeding biennial elec- tion, and he is now in the tenth consecutive year of his service as sheriff of the county.

Mr. Crane, it may be said, is all but a native Texan, for he was brought to Kaufman county by his parents as an infant of two years. His birth occurred in Tippah county, Mississippi, on March 6, 1867, and he is the son of Calvert and Susan (Nelms) Crane, both in DeKalb county, Alabama, and Tippah county, Mississippi, re- spectively. Concerning the paternal ancestry of Mr. Crane, it should be said here that Calvert Crane was one of the four sons of Isaiah Crane, the others being Wil- burn, Reuben and Shrell. But little is known definitely of the grandfather of the subject beyond the brief fact here stated. Calvert, the third son of his parents, mar- ried Susan Nelms, who was a daughter of William Nelms of Tippah county, Mississippi. On coming to Texas, in December, 1869, Calvert Crane settled in the northern part of the county, where his family was reared, and he continued to be engaged in agricultural activities until death claimed him, in 1884. In addition to his farm work, Mr. Crane was a local preacher of the Meth- odist church. Though of a slender education, he was a constant student, and, being early converted to the doc- trines of Methodism, he was ordained to preach at the age of twenty-seven years, just at the close of the Civil war. He served during the period of warfare as a sol- dier of the Confederacy, was captured, and escaped from federal prison just in time to save himself from a con- tinned incarceration on Johnson's Island, in Lake Erie. Mr. Crane's ministerial duties were mainly performed in the rural communities and were carried on largely in connection with his work as a farmer. His religions ex- ample in citizenship was a most worthy one and one that never failed to impress observers with a knowledge of his splendid integrity and wholesome sincerity, while the influence that his life shed abroad was always a credit to him and an undeniable benefit to his community. His children were five in number, and are here named in the order of their birth: Elzert is a farmer of Kaufman county ; William R., of this review; Mollie, the wife of Lee Hall and now deceased; Mattie, the wife of Leon Fry of Wills Point, Texas; and Lela, who married B. M. Coon of Kaufman, Texas.

William R. Crane was denied in his yonth the pleas- ures and advantages of an education, and he had passed his mapority before he learned aught beyond the work of the home farm. At the age when other young men were finishing their education he began to acquaint him- self with the first rudiments of book learning-a fact which in itself tells more of the innate character of the man than could a more wordy eulogy ever hope to con- vey. In 1894 Mr. Crane was appointed a deputy sheriff by Sheriff Keller for the Elmo community, and he per- formed the duties of that office in conjunction with his farm work, as well as serving later as constable of his precinct. He resigned from the latter office in the fall of 1897 to accept the superintendency of the connty farm, and he continued successfully at the head of that institution until 1904, when he voluntarily relinquished the post and moved back to the farm. In the same year he entered the race for the office of county sheriff, enter- ing the list against a most formidable array of well- known and popular candidates for the place. His elec- tion followed, and he succeeded F. W. Henderson as sheriff of Kaufman county.

As has been intimated in a previous paragraph, Mr.

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Crane's new office was no sinecure and held out no promise of that nature to candidates for its duties. A survey of conditions in which he found the courts at the first sitting of that judicial body convinced the new in- cumbent of the sheriff's office that a remedy was needed to reduce crime in Kaufman county and that a general cleaning-up process was next in order of performance. There were seventy-eight felony cases listed on the docket, of which more than seventeen were murder charges. At the first term of District court seventeen special venires were summoned to try these cases, a con- dition that meant the quartering of a body of several hundred men at the county seat, to be maintained at a large expense while their jury service was being per- formed. Mr. Crane discovered, through the attorneys for that army of prisoners and by observation, that the illicit sale of intoxicants entered largely into the pro- duction of this unhealthy state of affairs in the county. The saloon had departed from the limits of Kaufman county before Mr. Crane took office, but its devotees and hangers-on were still present and everywhere exerting their unwholesome influences about the so-called "frosty joints" which were permitted under the law to do busi- ness. "Frosty" in itself was deemed a harmless bever- age, but its close kinship to lager beer created a situa- tion that was decidedly delicate for a mere peace officer to cope with and still abide within the domain of his au- thority. "Frosty" was kept in stock by these places, but beer and other intoxicants were sold to the fre- quenters of the places under the name of the more inno- cent beverage, and the effect, on the whole, was even more harmful than had been that of the open saloon. Men drank "frosty, " so-called, and under the influences of its fumes committed crimes for which the county was put to the expense of prosecuting them. "Frosty" paid no revenues to the county and thus bore no part in the enormous expenses of the court when dealing with the criminal. So it came about that Sheriff Crane decided to make his fight on this seemingly innocent drink, and he did it with so much success that he rid the county of the "frosty joints" during his first term, reducing the cap- ital offenses fifty percent and cutting the court expenses for the term just in half. During the ten years of his incumbency he is known to have saved the county, as court expenses, a net sum of forty thousand dollars as a result of his activity.

As might well be expected, Mr. Crane has, because of his well-waged war upon lawbreakers and that ilk, earned the ill will of an element of citizenship that manifests its unfairness and displays its anger by opposing him stead- fastly at each opposing election. But, notwithstanding the merit of the man who is usually chosen to enter the lists against him, Mr. Crane usually comes out of the fray with a majority of about two to oue proof posi- tive that Kaufman county knows where her best interests lie and when they are best protected. In all the years he has been in office Mr. Crane has been a member of the Sheriff's Association of Texas. In 1912 he was elected vice president of the association, at Fort Worth, and was elected president of the association the succeeding vear, which position he now holds. His effort to make Kaufman county a clean and wholesome rural community bas cost him infinitely more than the fees of the office have aggregated while the work was being actively pushed, and a remembrance of this fact is uppermost in the minds of the voters of the county when they are called upon to choose a sheriff from time to time. Mr. Crane is one of those plain, quiet, but earnest and withal vigorous men whose sense of right and justice is erer uppermost, and he does what he believes to be the part of duty and justice, and nothing more. He has never struck a man or had trouble with any one during the whole of his life. His popularity is one of the most apparent things in the county, when political matters are uppermost, and so long as he evinces a desire to be sheriff

of Kaufman county there is little doubt but the voters of the county will give him little opposition, and none that will be effective against him.

On December 27, 1894, Mr. Crane was married in Kaufman county to Miss Jennie Russell, a daughter of J. O. Russell and Mattie (Stewart) Russell, both natives of Mississippi, where they spent their lives in the farm- ing industry. Mrs. Crane is one of the six children of her parents, they being here named in the order of their birth, as follows: Mrs. Mollie Hill of Oklahoma; James, who died in 1901; Mrs. Crane, who was born in 1875; Charles, of Wichita Falls, Texas; John, of Haskell, Texas; and Naomi, the wife of Ben Jones, of Kaufman county. To Mr. and Mrs. Crane were born six girls- twin daughters whom they have named Arrah and Aerah, and Bertie, Guylia, Elsie and Jonnie. Mrs. Crane is a member of the Baptist church, while Mr. Crane adheres to the church of which his father was a minister. They are pleasantly situated in Kaufman and enjoy the friend- ship and esteem of a wide circle of friends throughout the county.

DR. I. DAVID RUSSELL. As the leading physician of Petrolia, Texas, Dr. I. David Russell, who has been engaged in practice here since 1907, is especially de- serving of some mention in a historical and biograph- ical work of this order. Dr. Russell proved himself one who had the courage of his convictions, and even after he had learned a trade and worked at it for some years with good success, he decided that the medical field was his proper sphere, and took action accordingly. His excellent success in the five or six years of his active practice have amply proven that he was well fitted for that profession, and that his decision was a most excellent one and one that will doubtless be of great benefit to humanity, as indeed it has already proven.

Born in Sulphur Springs, Texas, on March 14, 1875, David Russell is the son of Isham and Mary (Gibson) Russell, both natives of Alabama, and concerning whom brief mention is here made as follows: Isham Russell came to Texas from Alabama while yet a boy, and he was a man who was prominent in public life for many years, holding many political and other of- fices, and being generally known for a faithful official and an excellent and worthy character. He was a vet- eran of the Civil war, having served throughout as a Confederate soldier, and he was for twenty years post- master in Winsboro, Texas. He was a devout Christian gentleman, a member of the Methodist church, and a prominent Mason. He died in 1911, aged eighty years, and is buried in Wood county, Texas. His wife, whom he married after he came to Texas, was also a member of the Methodist church, and a woman of a most esti- mable and lovable character. She died in 1898, when she was about sixty years old, and is buried beside her husband. They were the parents of seven children, and of that number Dr. Russell of this review was the fourth child and the youngest son.

Up to the age of eighteen years I. David Russell attended the public schools of Winsboro, Texas. He then took a position in a jewelry store in his home town, and he continued in the work in the jewelry repairing department for about six years, coming out as a full-fledged jeweler and watchmaker. He soon after engaged in the drug business, which he followed with success for about four years, and he then took up the study of medicine, entering Baylor University at Dallas, and he was graduated from the medical depart- ment in 1902 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine.

He went to Edgewood to initiate the practice of his new profession, continuing there until 1907, when he came to Petrolia and here established himself in gen- eral practice. His progress here as in Edgewood has been excellent, and Dr. Russell is known for the lead- ing physician of the town today. He is a member of

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the Wichita County Medical Society, the State Med- ical Society and the Panhandle District Medical So- ciety, and he is now serving as city health physician of Petrolia, his record for service in that office being an excellent one thus far.

Dr. Russell is a Democrat, but not active in politics, and he is a member of the Methodist church of Pe- trolia. His fraternal affiliatious are with the Masonic order and the Woodmen of the World.

In 1899 Dr. Russell was married in Canton, Texas, to Jessie Matthews, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J. L. Matthews, of Canton. Mrs. Russell died in 1911, at the age of thirty-four years, leaving three children- Cleo, Marie and Lorenz.

JOHN E. HOOPER. A residence covering a period of thirty-three years, during which time he has been ideu- tified with the material growth and prosperity of Colo- rado, has given John E. Hooper, cashier of the City National Bank, marked prestige among the citizens of this thriving Texas community. His activities have contributed in no small manner to the prominence of the city as the commercial and financial center of Mitchell county, and he has also impressed his influ- ence upon the public and social life of the city, where, with other earnest and zealous men, he has striven for the advance of education, civic betterment and good citizenship. Mr. Hooper was born at Rome, Georgia, May 28, 1857, and is a son of Benjamin F. and Amelia A. Hooper.

The Hooper family has furnished to this country dis- tinguished citizens in every walk of life. A direct ancestor of the subject of this review, William Hooper, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independ- ence. The family at one time owned large plantations in the South and many slaves, but, like many others, went down with the Lost Cause, and during the Recon- struction period its members sought new homes in various sections of the country. Benjamin F. Hooper, father of John E. Hooper, owned large estates in Florida and Georgia, which he operated with slave labor. At the outbreak of hostilities between the South and the North, he cast his fortunes with the Confederacy, and because of his prominence in his community was chosen a member of the board of ex- aminers for the Southern army, as in regard to physical ability. Well known in religious circles, for fifteen years he was clerk of the Bush Arbor Baptist church, and was ever active iu its work. In his death, which occurred in 1871, his community lost one of its most valued and valuable citizeus. His wife died in 1863.

The fourth in order of birth of the eight children of his parents, John E. Hooper completed his educational training at Hearne Academy, Cave Spring, Floyd county, Georgia, and at the age of eighteen years turned his face toward Texas. He first settled on a ranch in Brown county, now Mills county, and con- tinued to be engaged in cattle raising and shipping stock until 1881, in which year he came to Colorado. He entered commercial life as a clerk in a grocery store and was subsequently promoted to bookkeeper, a posi- tion which he was filling at the time of his election, in November, 1884, to the office of county and district clerk, a capacity in which he continued fourteen con- secutive years. In 1898 he received the nomination and was subsequently elected county judge of Mitchell county, and gave his attention to the duties of that office for one two-year term. Mr. Hooper's entry into financial life occurred in 1900, when he became one of the organizers of the City National Bank of Colorado, and since that time has continued to act in the capac- ity of cashier of that institution. He is widely known in banking circles, and the high reputation which he bears in his community has served in no small degree to popularize the coffers of the bank which he repre- sents. Fraternally Mr. Hooper is associated with the

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 110

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