A history of Texas and Texans, Part 126

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 126

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In his civic connection with Kaufman, Mr. Clark is an active member of the Commercial Club and it may also be stated that he served as chief of the local fire department for five years, giving an excellent service to the community in his official capacity. Fraternally he is Past Chancellor of Lodge No. 110 of Kaufman Knights of Pythias and he is also Deputy Grand Chan- cellor of the state. He helped to institute the Order of Red Men at this point and was chosen Grand Sachem of the order at that time. His churchly relations are with the Presbyterian church.

In April, 1899, Mr. Clark was married in Kaufman to Miss Della Ayers, a daughter of W. R. Ayers, who was a merchant here and an early Texan. Mrs. Clark is one of the three daughters of her parents, the others being Mrs. Mollie MeDowell and Mrs. Lula Petty, both of Dallas. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have two daughters, Ruth and Lorilie. The family home is situated on Houston street, where the handsomest residences of the city are to be found, and the various members are pop- ular and prominent in the best circles of the city. Mr. Clark is one of those genial and wholesouled men who are always found to be most popular and he still retains a lingering fondness for the great American game of baseball, in which he would undoubtedly have won many honors had he continued in it.

LANGSTON JAMES GOREE, D. D. S. The period im- mediately following the close of the war between the South and the North, in Grimes county, was prolific in pioneers. There were first pioneers in settlement, all of whom but the most sturdy have passed away. Next came pioneers in trade, and then those who had established reputations in the professional field. The minister and lawyer came first, and close behind them followed the doctor; then came the practitioners in spe- cial lines, seeking for patronage and a livelihood. The late Dr. Langston James Goree II was a pioneer in dentistry in Grimes county, coming to this section in 1867 and being located here until his death in Novem- ber, 1888.

The Goree family is of French-Huguenot extraction, and for some years was well known in Alabama, Lang- ston J. Goree I, the father of Doctor Goree II, being a farmer of Marion, that state, and where the mother was a teacher in Judson College. She was the second wife of Dr. Langston, and they were the parents of the following children: Maj. Thomas, who died at Galveston, Texas, leaving a son and a daughter, and who served sixteen years as warden of the Texas Penitentiary and made an excellent record as such; Robert, who resides at Knox City, Texas; Ed. K., of Huntsville, Texas; Pleas- ant K., of Midway, Texas; Mrs. Hugh Hayes, of Mid- way; and Langston James.

Dr. Langston James Goree II was born at Marion, Alabama, and was but a child when he accompanied his parents to near Midway, Madison county, Texas, where his father spent his remaining years as an agriculturist. From Midway he went to Walker county, and thence to Waco, Texas, where he enlisted in Company H, Fifth Regiment, Texas Volunteer Infantry, Colonel Hood's regiment, and served in that officer's brigade in the

Army of Northern Virginia. He took part in the battles of Manassas, Gaines Mill, Sharpsburg, Gettysburg, Wilderness and Appomattox, and was wounded at second Manassas, losing two fingers of his left hand. He was an active man at heart in Confederate veterans' meet- ings as long as he lived, and was a member of Hood's Texas Brigade Association, a social organization of the old veterans who wore the gray.

Immediately after the close of the Civil War, Doctor Goree started to prepare himself for his chosen calling. He had formerly secured a common school education, and he now went to Baltimore, Maryland, where he graduated from college and received his degree. At that time he returned to Texas and located at Huntsville, but moved from there to Waco and from the latter place to Navasota in 1867. This city continued to be his home until the time of his death, twenty-one years later. It had been an opportune time for the young professional man to enter business in this growing coun- try. Dentistry had not yet fallen into the hands of spe- cialists. The nicer operations for preserving the teeth and replacing those lost or decayed, by artificial means, were quite unknown in the region. Doctor Goree's patronage in Navasota was not merely a local one, for the reputation that he had acquired for skill and dex- terity brought patients from all the surrounding coun- try to obtain the treatment that was not yet accessible near their country homes. He became regarded as a master of his profession, and, not content with the knowl- edge which his early study had given, he kept his eyes open to the progress of the art and adopted every im- provement that the advancement of dentistry introduced. He was a member of the State Dental Association of Texas, and devoted himself whole-heartedly to his call- ing, not being interested in business nor industrial af- fairs. In politics he was a Democrat, and was also known as one of the most zealous and earnest prohibi- tionists in the state. He belonged to no church, but was a Knight of Honor ..

Doctor Goree was married at New Waverly, Texas, to Miss Fannie Wood, who was born in 1850, in Walker county, Texas, and there educated, and died in May, 1911. She was a daughter of Green M. Wood, a farmer who came to Texas from Montgomery, Alabama. Doctor and Mrs. Goree were the parents of the following chil- dren: Dr. Langston James, of Navasota; Robert B., of Orange, Texas; Edwin, who died single; Eloise, who died in childhood; Sue Willie, of Denver, Colorado, who mar- ried C. W. Seay; Mary, who died as Mrs. John Prine, without issue; and Fannie B., the wife of Will Thomas, of Navasota.

Dr. Langston James Goree III, of Navasota, a lead- ing member of the dental profession, was born Decem- ber 9, 1873, grew up in this city, and received his early educational training here. He next attended the Agri- cultural and Mechanical College at Bryan and received his professional education in Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, from which institution he was grad- uated in February, 1895. He at once established hin- self in practice at Navasota, and has continued therein to the present time, commanding a goodly share of the city's representative practice and enjoying prestige among his professional brethren. He belongs to the Texas State Dental Society. Doctor Goree is connected religiously with the Methodist church, and belongs to the board of stewards. As one of the developers of Navasota, he erected his own handsome home, as well as the Goree business honse, where he now has his office. His fraternal connections include membership in the Woodmen of the World, in which he is past consul; the Knights of the Maccabees, in which he is past chan- cellor commander, and the Knights of Pythias.

Doctor Goree was married in Navasota, in March, 1897, to Miss Anna Trotter, a daughter of Marion L. Trotter, a teacher in the public schools and an ex- Confederate soldier, who married Anna Gooch. Mrs.

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Goree is one of three children. Two sons have been born to Doctor and Mrs. Goree, namely : Langston James IV aud Robert Tillman.

HUGH HAMILL WILSON. The Wilson family of Grimes county has been conspicuous for the useful service and activities of its members and has occupied an honored place in citizenship for fully sixty years. It was founded by the late Hugh Hamill Wilson, who lived in Grimes county from 1855 until his recent death. In the second generation as sons of this honored business man and citizen, are several men in the professions, including Dr. Walter T. Wilson, one of the most prominent physi- cians of Grimes county.

The late Hugh Hamill Wilson was born in Belfast, Ireland, January 9, 1838. His father, John Hamill Wilson, was a ship-supply contractor in Ireland, and had several vessels engaged in the trans-Atlantic trade, and it was on one of these boats of his father that Hugh H. Wilson gained his first experience on the sea, in the meantime attending school and partly finishing the course of the high school in Belfast. He had made several voy- ages and when a lad of fifteen and on his third trip to the United States landed from the boat at New York and went to New Orleans. At New Orleans news came to him of his father's business failure. From there he proceeded to Houston, Texas, and then learned of the completeness of the misfortunes which had overtaken his father, involving even the sacrifice of the old home to the interests of his creditors. Thus deprived of his father's resources, Hugh H. Wilson went to Anderson, . Texas, and found work as a typesetter in a printing office, and continued that occupation until the outbreak of the war. Mr. Wilson enlisted in Company D in one of the regiments comprising Walker's Division, and was commissioned a lieutenant of his company. In the Trans- Mississippi Department, during the campaign following Banks' invasion of Texas, he had a prominent part in the battle at Mansfield. He received the surrender of a Federal colonel who had been surrounded by Confed- erates and refused to surrender to anyone not of his own rank. Mr. Wilson, who was barefooted and whose trousers were worn off almost to his knees, declared him- self to be Colonel Wilson, and succeeded in imposing this bluff on the Federal officer and after receiving his sword kept it almost to the time of his death. He was himself wounded in that engagement, but soon recov- ered and continued in the war until the end, being mus- tered out at Hempstead.

Following the war Mr. Wilson began business life as a merchant at Anderson, and became associated with his brother, John H., under the name of J. H. Wilson & Company. Soon afterwards the town of Navasota was established at the terminus of the Houston & Texas Central Railway, and he was one of the pioneers on the ground at the beginning of that now flourishing city. The firm had a large trade over an extensive territory about Navasota, and continued to prosper until meeting misfortunes during the '70s, when Mr. Wilson turned his stock over to his ereditors and gave notes for the balance of his liabilities, and eventually cleared off every incumbrance to his financial integrity. In 1871 Hugh H. Wilson engaged in the warehouse business at Nava- sota, and that was his chief line of enterprise until his death. After a long and successful career of more than forty years at Navasota he died after fulfillng the best ideals of a worthy business career on December 24, 1913. Besides his warehouse business he was identified with fire insurance and other minor enterprises.

His political career was also an important fact in the community where he lived, and in 1878 he was elected city alderman, and was subsequently city tax assessor and collector for many years. Early in life he joined the Masonie Order, in Anderson Lodge, No. 3, before the war, and subsequently affiliated with the Royal Arch Chapter, and for twenty-five years was secretary of

Navasota Lodge of Masons. About 1873 he became iden- tified with the Presbyterian church, and was deacon of the Navasota church and at one time declined the posi- tion of elder.

At Anderson on December 13, 1866, about the be- ginning of his independent business career, Hugh Hamill Wilson married Miss Maggie O. Martin. She belonged to one of the oldest families of Grimes county, and her relationship by blood included the noted name of Travis and of other Texas patriots. The children of Hugh H. Wilson and wife were as follows: Arthur H. of Nava- sota; Dr. Walter T .; H. Baylor of Dallas; Dr. Hugh M. of Navasota; Miss Carrie, the oldest daughter and living in Navasota; Miss Margaret, of Navasota; Mrs. Ethel Jones, wife of Milton Jones of Navasota.

The late Hugh H. Wilson was a man of remarkable intellectual faculties, and it is not out of place to refer briefly to some of his interests and avocations. He pos- sessed a wonderful memory, was a persistent searcher after truth along historical and scientific lines, and as a reader of history he had followed the fortunes of nearly every section of the civilized world, especially the dynas- ties of Europe. He had a ready acquaintance through the pages of history with all the notable men of Europe. History of wars was especially his forte, and having participated in the Civil war of the United States and from his individual experience having stored his mind with the stories from the lips of his comrades and the pens of chroniclers for fifty years, he was regarded as an almost infallible authority on every important inci- dent of war times. He was a student of Mexican af- fairs, and had a close knowledge of the real situations in that country at a time when most Americans dwelt in ignorance and unconcern about the barbarities perpe- trated under the name of a civilized government. It was no uncommon thing for the late Mr. Wilson to become so absorbed in his reading as to forget to go to bed, and to be aroused by the family in the morning and apparently awake with a start and inquire "is it morn- ing?"

Dr. Walter T. Wilson, son of the late Hugh H. Wil- son, has made a worthy record as a physician and is one of the leading business men of Navasota. He was born in that city October 12, 1871, was educated in the publie schools and began the study of medicine when a lad of only fifteen years under the direction of Dr. A. R. Kilpatrick of Navasota. He was employed in the office of several different physicians in the city and had many unusual opportunities to acquire a practical knowledge before he went away to school. Dr. Wilson graduated in 1891 from the Memphis Hospital Medical College and after a year's work as an interne in the City Hospital of Memphis returned to Texas and prac- ticed at Edna until 1893. That year marked his return to his home town, and for the past twenty years he has enjoyed a practice and a prestige as a physician and sur- geon second to none in that vicinity. A man of alleged intellectual interests similar to his father's, Dr. Wilson has pursued post-graduate work in nine courses at the New York Polyelinie and one course in Chicago. He is active in organized professional affairs as a member of the County and State Medical societies and the American Medical Association. Dr. Wilson is also phy- sician and surgeon to the Houston & Texas Central Rail- way at Navasota, the Mexia cut-off, the main line of the International and Great Northern, and Madisonville branch, and also to the Santa Fe Railroad. For eight years he served as city physician of Navasota, finally resigning his office, and during his residence at Edna was county physician in Jackson county.

Dr. Wilson is well known in business affairs at Nava- sota, having organized and having since held the office of president of the Planters' Cotton Oil Company of that city, and is a stockholder in several local banks and other financial enterprises. He is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Presbyterian church,

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but outside of his profession, home and business, has little part in political or fraternal affairs. He belongs to the American Geographical Society, and has great interest in Texas pioneer history.

Dr. Wilson was married December, 1897, to Miss Stella Ogilvy at Palestine, Texas. Her parents were Thomas C. and Ada (Horlock) Ogilvy, who had four daugh- ters. Thomas C. Ogilvy was a compress man and came to Texas from Alyth, Scotland. The children of Dr. and Mrs. Wilson are: Walter O., Charles O., and Walter Travis.

STEPHEN J. WALKER. As a builder of material pros- perity and a promoter of individual success few citizens have a record that compare favorably with that of Stephen J. Walker of Navasota, who has lived in Texas since 1870, when he came to this state from Jefferson county, Florida. Mr. Walker is a man of self-attain- ments, began at the bottom, was a worker for wages and at almost anything he could find to do during his first years in Texas, and by his industry and applied ability has gained recognition as one of the successful men in his part of the state.

Stephen J. Walker was born in Jefferson county, Florida, April 4, 1847. He grew up on a plantation. His father, David Walker, was born in Barnwell Dis- triet, South Carolina, March 23, 1919, had a fair edu- cation, spent his career as a farmer and planter. Grand- father Joel Walker, who died in Florida before Stephen J., his grandson, was born, moved his family to Florida in 1833. His children were: Jesse, James, Berry, David, Joel and Jane, all of whom died in Florida and left large families. The daughter Jane married Stephen Lightsey. David Walker died during the war, and was a Confederate soldier serving in the same company as his son Stephen. He married Miss Caroline Goodman, whose father, Rev. Jesse Goodman, was a Baptist preacher who lived in Lowndes county, Georgia, until moving to Florida, and his daughter Caroline was born in Georgia. Caroline Walker followed her son Stephen to Texas after an interval of about two years, and died at Navasota in 1886. Only three of her eight children reached maturity, the oldest being Stephen J. Emma married William Farquahr and lives in Navasota; and Rosa, who married Robert Moore, died in Navasota and left a family of seven children.

Stephen J. Walker had an exceedingly limited edu- cation. This was due largely to the fact that the war came on when he was about fourteen years of age, and the years which most boys spend in school were devoted by him to the service of the South. The family were all ardent upholders of the Confederacy, and al- though he was too young for life as a soldier, he en- listed in November, 1861, for three months. He was in an independent company which did guard duty on the coast at St. Marks, and his captain was William J. Bailey. His time expired in February, 1862, and he was out of the service until 1864, when he re-entered as orderly sergeant in Company F of the First Regiment of Florida Reserves under Captain Barwick and Colonel J. J. Daniels. This regiment was engaged chiefly in guard duty in the eastern part of Florida, and was at Madison, Florida, guarding prisoners when the war ended.

Mr. Walker was still a young man of only eighteen years when the war closed, and he resumed civil life as a farmer. He had been brought up under the institu- tion of slavery, when all the heavy labor was per- formed by black men, and it was not easy to adapt himself at once to the new economic situation. When nearly twenty-three years of age he decided to come to Texas, and on February 14, 1870, left home, making the trip by a Havana steamer from St. Marks to New Orleans, thence proceeding by rail as far as Morgan City, and thence by boat to Galveston. He was alone, had no capital, and was master of no trade except such

as a man of intelligence and with capable hands could perform. He finally arrived in Navasota, and used his trunk to insure his payment of lodging and board at the hotel until he could establish a foothold. For a time he did what work he could find in the town, and then drifted into a lumber camp in Montgomery county. After a year he found employment at logging and cou- tinued to be profitably identified with the lumber busi- ness for about four years. He next moved to Wash- ington county, spent ten years as a farmer in that section, and from there on December 31, 1883, came to Navasota aud was employed a year as a clerk for J. M. Shaw & Company in a cotton warehouse. He continued in the same business as a partner of J. W, Rodes under the style Rodes & Walker for four years, and after that the firm was known for seven years as Rodes, Owen & Company. This house did a large general mercantile, implement, and warehouse business, and when the part- nership was dissolved Mr. Walker took the warehouse and has continued in that line ever since. In the mean- time he had also once more resumed extensive activities as a farmer, and now owns a splendid estate of five hundred acres on Spring Creek, and through his cultiva- tion of corn and cotton erops gives employment to about eleven families.

His part in public affairs has not been without benefit to his community, and while serving as alderman for two different terms the schoolhouse and city hall were constructed. He is a Democrat, and his only fraternal affiliation is with the Knights of the Maccabees. He ·was brought up in the faith of the Baptist church. Mr. Walker was married in Washington county, Texas, on January 17, 1872, to Miss Josephine Farquhar, whose father, James L. Farquhar, was a Mississippiau, who became a pioneer of Texas. Mrs. Walker died April 20, 1892. Her two children were: Annie, who is the wife of Dr. Lewis of Navasota, and has two children, Jessie and Thaddeus; and Miss Ruby Walker, who is unmarried. On March 28, 1893, Mr. Walker married for his second wife Mrs. Mary Bassett, of Anderson. Her father was Dr. G. M. Patrick, one of the foremost men of influence and pioneers of Grimes county. Mrs. Walker died without children March 16, 1910.

HAL J. PALMER, M. D. This energetic gentleman, who, at the age of seventy-eight years, with the vigor- ous step and active mind of a man of sixty, still attends to the details of his large professional interests, and keeps himself abreast in knowledge and sympathy of the new generation amongst whom he survives, first came to Texas iu 1857 and has been identified with the medical fraternity of this state in the main since that time. Now, in a hale old age, he is enjoying the fruits of a busy and well-ordered life and sharing the wonderful progress which has been made in this phenomenal com- monwealth, almost under his own eyes.

Dr. Palmer was born September 20, 1836, and comes of a Southern family and of secession sympathy, and his father, John Palmer, who still survives at the age of one hundred and one years, is "fighting the Civil war yet." The latter was born in the city of Richmond, Virginia, in September, 1813, and is a college graduate and a member of the Eclectic school of medicine. He went to Kentucky from his native state when a boy, and after spending some years at Danville went to Bowling Green, where he married Miss Hannah Curry, the daughter of a big planter of that county. Later he moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and then to Montgom- ery, in that state, and has since made that his home. His only child is Dr. Palmer of this review.

Hal J. Palmer took up medicine first in New York City, as a studeut under the preceptorship of Dr. John Sneed, right across the street from the Little Church Around the Corner, Plymouth, and there began the practice under his preceptor when he was a lad of but sixteen years. His first medical education was in the

Hetstren, Flana

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Regular school and he practiced Allopathy for twenty years, then taking Homeopathy at the Hahnemann Medi- cal College, Chicago, and graduated there in 1869. Sub- sequently he attended a course of lectures in the medical department of the University of Missouri, in 1872, and annually for years took post-graduate work in different institutions both of the North and the South. He began his career as a specialist right after the Civil war, trav- eling extensively through the Sontheru states, treating cancers and chronic diseases of women and children. His special studies have been chronic diseases and dis- eases of females, especially those of the genital organs. After the death of Dr. Sneed, Dr. Palmer returned to the South and to Texas, iu 1860, and located in Burleson county, where he was located at the time of the ont- break of the Civil war. He at once enlisted as an as- sistant physician and surgeon with Hood's Brigade, serving under Chief Surgeon Cantrell in and about Gal- veston, where he was present at the capture of that city by the Federal troops. Following the close of hostili- ties, he hegan a tour of medical practice which took him to Little Rock, Arkansas, thence to Fort Smith and out into the Choctaw Nation, and practiced among the Indians at Muskogee. He went then to New Or- leans, and subsequently practiced at different points in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas until 1870, when he returned to Texas. At that time he established him- self at Tanglewood, Burleson county, and he has since practiced at Houston and Galveston, at different points in Harris county, and in Johnson county, and has spent many years at points in Grimes county. During a por- tion of his long career he has been interested in in- firmary work at Brenham with Dr. H. C. Weeks, and in a private sanitarium at Plantersville. He is now estab- lished in another at Navasota, and has been eminently successful in his work. He has had no time for politics. His step is still lively, and his energy youthful, his am- bition still active and his love for his profession as con- suming as in the early years of his practice. He has firmly established himself in the confidence and esteem of the people of his community, and his professional standing is equally high.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 126

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