A history of Texas and Texans, Part 129

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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Arthur V. Smith received his education chiefly at Thornton, in Limestone county. At the age of nine- teen he began learning the printer's trade in an office in that county, and in 1909 came to Cameron and spent five years with the Milam County Enterprise. In 1913 he acquired an interest and was made manager of the Cameron Herald, and his aggressive policy and hard work has placed this newspaper on a sound financial basis and has made it one of the best mediums of news and advertising in Milam county.

Mr. Smith is a Democrat and has no particular church affiliations. He affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Wood- men of the World. At Cameron on Christmas Day of 1909 he married Sallie Stone, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Stone, of Thorndale, Texas. They have one child, Elva Lois. This daughter in May, 1913, at the baby show held in Cameron, was awarded the first prize for beauty for children between two and four years of age, and this honor is naturally one of which the parents are proud.

JOHN R. YOUNG. A Cameron merchant and business man whose success has been much greater than the brevity of his years, John R. Young is proprietor of the Red Cross drug store and has many interests which identify him permanently with that community.

John R. Young was born near Brenham, in Washing- ton county, Texas, April 6, 1886. His father, Dr. Ed- win R. Young, who was born in Louisiana in IS47 and was brought to Texas when nine years of age, has had a long and successful career as a physician and now lives in Brenham. The mother, whose maiden name was Willie Jameson, was born in Talladega county, Alabama, in 1854. There are four children and, be- sides John R., their names are: Stella Knolle, who lives at Seguin; Ernest, whose home is in Jacksboro, Texas, and Robert, who lives at Brenham, in Washington county.

John R. Young was educated at first in the Webb School at Belle Buckle, Tennessee, and at the Barnes Sebool at Montgomery, Alabama, graduating in 1899. In 1905 he was graduated Ph. G. from the pharmacy department of the University of Texas. That gave him a profession which he followed as prescription clerk at various points in Texas until 1913. In that year Mr. Young established the Red Cross drug store in Cameron, opening for business on the Ist of June, and has since built up a large trade and has made his store headquarters for the public in that town. Mr. Young is also a stockholder in the Cameron Herald.

He is a steward in the Methodist church, and in poli- ties is a Democrat. At Jacksboro, Texas, on Novem- ber 9, 1903, Mr. Young married Esther Cabbler, whose

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home was originally in Kansas. They are the parents of one child, Lucile.

CAPTAIN DANIEL MCDOWELL SHORT. The late Cap- tain Short, whose death occurred at Center, in Shelby county, Texas, on April 8, 1902, was a distinguished Texan, one of the strong characters of his day and generation, and his death made a chronicle marked with regret by people throughout the state. After leaving his native commonwealth of Delaware, Captain Short was a citizen of three successive governments-the Texas Republic, the Confederacy and again of the United States, and he fought valiantly as a soldier in two wars.

Captain Daniel M. Short was born at Smyrna, Dela- ware, December 14, 1819. At an early age he lost his parents, but received a liberal education, according to the standards of his time. Coming to Texas in 1842, he first located at Marshall in Harrison county, but later went to Sabinetown in Sabine county, where he pursued the study of the law and was admitted to the bar in 1845, at Milam, Sabine county. He had made the acquaintance of and became a lifelong friend of O. M. Roberts, one of the great men of the state, becoming afterward governor of Texas, and Senator of the United States, besides being Colonel of three regiments in the Confederate States Army. Theirs was a deep and gen- uine friendship that lasted all their lives, more than half a century, and was reciprocally advantageous. Cap- tain Short became a partner in law practice with Mr. Roberts in 1846 at Shelbyville, which was then the county seat of Shelby county. At the breaking out of the Mexican war he received from President Polk, through Congressman David S. Kaufman, in whose office he had studied law at Sabinetown, a lieutenant's commission in the United States army. He was attached to the Twelfth United States Infantry, and served in General Scott's army throughout the war, being presumably in command of his company in all the battles of the campaign. Returning to Shelbyville, he resumed the practice of law, and soon became a prominent figure in state politics. He was a delegate to all the state and congressional conventions in the decade preceding the Civil war and for twenty years afterward. He had deep convictions on political and economic questions, and belonged to the school of the strict Constructionists of the Federal Constitution as applied to the rights of the States. He was an active associate with his friends, O. M. Roberts, James Pinckney Henderson, and other patriots holding similar political views, in leading the opposition in Texas to Sam Houston and his followers on the issues of annexation of Texas and later of se- cession. In 1859 Captain Short was elected and served as a member of the famous eight legislature, whose roster contained the names of some of the most dis- tinguished men that Texas has produced, men who were leaders in shaping the destiny of the state. It was this body which elected Louis T. Wigfall United States Senator over Sam Houston, a fact in which Captain Short took much pride and was entitled to much credit. He was also elected and served as a member of the famous secession convention at Austin, his old law part- ner, O. M. Roberts, being its president. From Austin, when the work of the convention was completed, he hurried back to Shelby county, raised and became cap- tain of the first company raised in the county, Company E, which was assigned to duty in the Third Regiment of Cavalry, commanded by Colonel Greer, and in the brigade commanded by General Hogg. This company unfurled the first Confederate flag in east Texas, and a finer or better equipped body of men the sun never shone on. That flag was made by Captain Short's mother-in-law, Mrs. Melita Ballard Ratliff, the Captain having mar- ried her daughter, Miss Evaline Ballard. During the remainder of the war Captain Short served with distinc- tion in the Trans-Mississippi Department. In 1866, he was elected a member of the Eleventh legislature, which

elected O. M. Roberts United States Senator over John Hancock, who had renegaded to the North during the war. Later he again served in the legislature, in 1873. This legislature was acclaimed "the deliverer of the people," as indeed it was. From 1866 to 1892 Captain Short was chairman of the Democratic Executive Com- mittee of his district and county, and continued a lead- ing and powerful influence in state politics until 1896. From 1878 until 1886 he also served as inspector of the state penitentiaries, receiving the appointment from Governor O. M. Roberts, for twenty years his law part- ner. His withdrawal from active membership in the party was the result of the Chicago platform adopted in that year, he opposing the so-called free silver plank. In the ensuing election he failed for the first time in a long and strenuous political life to cast his vote for the nominees of the Democratic party.

In 1886 Captain Short formed the law partnership of D. M. Short & Sons, consisting of himself and two sons, Hugh B. and Carroll B. Short. The latter son is since deceased. Captain Short remained in the practice of the law, in an advisory capacity, almost to the time of his death, which occurred April 8, 1902. From Shelby- ville, the old county seat of Shelby county, when he lost by fire most of his books and papers as well as his home, he moved, in 1876, to Center, the new seat of justice, and made his home there during the remainder of his life.

Throughout his career, a conspicuous figure and a prominent participant in many stirring publie dramas, he carried no arms, had no personal encounters, and was immensely respected by all the people with whom he became intimately associated without having his veracity impeached or his integrity questioned even by his bitter- est enemy.

HON. HUGH B. SHORT. For a period of more than seventy years members of the Short family have been prominent in east Texas, as soldiers, lawyers, statesmen and as vigorous, publie spirited citizens, always leaders in their respective communities.

The Hon. Hugh B. Short, the surviving son of Captain Daniel M. Short, and who has added to the distinction of the family in the field of law, was born at Shelbyville, Shelby county, Texas, April 24, 1856. His early school- ing was received in Shelby county, and his experience in public affairs began at an early age, when he became a page in the house of representatives at Austin. Through Congressman Herndon he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. After passing the required examination he started for West Point, but was compelled to return when attacked by a "white swelling." which has caused him to be lame ever since. Through a long invalidism he took up the study of law, pursuing it most of the time while in bed, and was admitted to the bar at Center in 1882. A few years later, he became an associate of his father, and since that time has been a very busy practitioner. handling a large business in both civil and criminal practice. His record places him in the front rank of east Texas attorneys, and since he took up the practice he has participated in at least one hundred trials of men charged with murder, and more than five hun- dred involving titles to land. Before beginning prac- tice and when only twenty-one years of age, Mr. Short was appointed clerk of the Circuit Court of Shelby county, and subsequently was elected without opposition, so that he served four years in that position. In 1884 he was appointed by Governor John Ireland district attor- ney, and filled out an unexpired term, with great credit to himself and much benefit to the state.

The home life of Mr. Short has been delightful and happy. Mrs. Short, who before her marriage was Miss Mattie Weatherred, was born in Sabine county, a daugh- ter of the late Senator W. W. Weatherred. Their five children are: Hoya B. Short, who is now a practicing

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lawyer and junior partner with his father; Miss Io Short, Miss Evaline Ballard Short, Wallace Weatherred Short and Daniel Maurice Short.

ERNEST M. BELK. The manager of the Cameron office of the South Western Telephone & Telegraph Company is a young man in years, but has demon- strated exceptional capacity for handling the duties of his technical and business office, and on the basis of what he has already accomplished has a fine career ahead of him.

Ernest M. Belk was born at Bartlett, in Williamson county, Texas, June 17, 18SS. His father, Lucian L. Belk, born in Alabama in 1867, was brought to Texas when fifteen years of age, the family settling in Wil- liamson county, and he has followed the business of machinist, in which he is still engaged. The maiden name of the mother was Emma B. Burk, and she was born at Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1869. Their three chil- dren are: Ernest, Mattie May and Bessie Lee.

Ernest M. Belk received his education in the public schools of Bartlett, graduating from the high school in 1906. That was followed by a business course in a commercial college at Waco, and after finishing in shorthand and typewriting in 1908, he became a clerk for the South Western Telephone and Telegraph Com- pany. From his duties as clerk, which he performed with an efficiency and fidelity that is one of his chief characteristics, he was promoted in 1913 to the man- agement of the Cameron office, and has introduced a great deal of system and promptness into that part of the great business of which he has supervision.

On April 20, 1912, at Cameron, Mr. Belk married Delia G. Aycock, daughter of Terrell W. Aycock, of Milam county. Mr. and Mrs. Belk are members of the Presbyterian church. He is a Democrat, and, in addi- tion to being a good business man, is a popular and publie spirited citizen. Outside the duties of his office as manager of the telephone company, he is a fancier and raiser of thoroughbred Rhode Island Red chickens, and keeps a flock of about one hundred of those fowls.

PORTER STEVENS. Among the public officials of Milam county who have given evidence of their general fitness for office within the gift of the people, Porter Stevens, county tax collector, has rendered distinctly helpful services. He has long been identified with public office in Milam county and has been the incumbent of his present office since 1910, his re-election in 1912 com- ing as recognition and appreciation of the able manner in which he discharged his duties during his first term, and at all times has stood high in the confidence and esteem of the people. Mr. Stevens is a native of Milam county, Texas, and was born March 14, 1861, a son of Silas R. and Margaret (Zellner) Stevens.

Silas R. Stevens was born in Tennessee and came to Texas in young manhood, settling in Milam county, where he resided until enlisting for service during the Civil war. His army experiences proved too much for his resistance, and he passed away in 1865. Mrs. Stevens was born in Milam county, Texas, and after the death of her first husband married B. F. Hasty, a farmer, who died in 1890, Mrs. Stevens passing away in 1886 at the age of forty-nine years. By her first union Mrs. Stevens was the mother of five children- W. Francis, Henry and Wesley A., who are deceased; Porter and Marion S.

Porter Stevens attended the public schools of Milam county, at Salem, until he reached the age of fifteen years, and then began farm work, being engaged therein until his twenty-second year. In 1884 he was elected constable of the first precinet, at Cameron, later became deputy sheriff of Milam county, a position which he held for two years, then held a like position for four years, and in 1892 went to Rockdale, where for six years he was engaged in the livery business with a fair meas-

ure of success. Following this he was constable of precinct No. 4 for four years, and for two years was a member of the board of county commissioners, and succeeding this returned to the farm, where he re- mained until 1907. In 1908 he again entered business as the proprietor of a meat market at Rockdale, and continued his operations until 1910, when he was elected tax collector of Milam county, an office to which he was re-elected in 1912. Mr. Stevens' entire public service has been characterized by strict atten- tion to duty and a conscientious performance of the services of his office, and the high esteem in which he is held was evidenced in 1913 when he was elected presi- dent of the Tax Collectors' Association of Texas, at the convention held at Fort Worth. Mr. Stevens is a stalwart Democrat and wields a wide influence in his county and is a leading factor in its councils.

On December 26, 18SS, Mr. Stevens was married to Miss Mattie P. Massy, who died November 18, 1890, the mother of one child, Milton P. Mr. Stevens was married December 28, 1893, to Miss Lulu Pickens, daughter of John F. Pickins, of Milam county, and three children have been horn to thein-Ada C., Elinor and Porter Z. Milton P. Stevens married Miss Abilene Hefly, daughter of J. H. Hefly, of Milam, and is clerk of the Santa Fe Railroad at Cameron. Ada C. Stevens is one of the popular school teachers of Milam county.

Mr. Stevens makes a hobby of his farming. He is widely known throughout this section and has nu- merous friends among men in all the leading political parties.

JAMES W. WOOSLEY. The Woosley family has been identified conspicuously with merchandising in Fannin and Grayson counties for a third of a century, and the business enterprise of its members has been a factor in the life of Whitewright, Trenton and Leonard dur- ing the period of greatest development in those places. Seldom does one family combine in itself more emi- nent qualities of business activity than that of Woosley. Foremost among the figures of this commercial house was the late James W. Woosley, whose career closed in death at Trenton on November 4, 1908. The chief facts in his individual life and in the record of his antecedents and of his descendants are told in suc- ceeding paragraphs.

James W. Woosley was born at Van Buren, Ar- kansas, September 3, 1858. His father was James B. Woosley, who was born in 1838 in the state of Mis- souri. The grandfather was Maj. James Woosley, who hore a commission from the Confederate government as a battalion commander. James B. Woosley was a lieutenant in his father's command. James B. Woos- ley during his earlier career followed farming and stock raising, and in 1882 Major James and James Woosley engaged in merchandising at Whitewright, Texas, under the name James Woosley & Son. These were respectively the grandfather and the father of the late James W. Woosley. For more than thirty years James B. Woosley has been one of the leading business men and civic factors of Whitewright. He married Elizabeth Matthews, and their children were as follows: James W .; Susie, who married John Lind- say and died in Whitewright; Gillam, whose address is unknown; Sarah, who married A. T. Phillips, a mem- ber of the firm of J. B. Woosley & Phillips at White- wright ; and Julia, who married J. J. Llewellyn and lives in Mount Pleasant, Texas.

James W. Woosley received his education in the public schools and subsequently attended college at Sulphur Springs, Texas, for two years. In 1864, when he was six years of age, the family had come to Texas, settling first in Cass county, where they lived about one year, and then moved to Emory, in Raines county. Reared on a farm, James W. Woosley engaged in that vocation for himself after his marriage and spent ten

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years as a tiller of the soil in Raines and Hopkins counties. In 1891 he was induced to enter mercantile life as a clerk for his father in Whitewright. He snb- sequently became a partner in the firm of J. B. Woos- ley & Son. His entry into the business gave the house new life, and its volume of trade and popularity ex- tended beyond the commercial limits of Whitewright and led to the establishment of the son in a busi- ness at Leonard. In 1898 he opened a hardware and implement house in the last named place, while main- taining his residence at Whitewright until 1905, when J. B. Woosley & Son sold out and the son moved to Trenton and opened a similar business as J. W. Woos- ley & Son, thus making an opportunity for his own son to engage in business. This store, chief of its kind at Trenton, and ranking with the leading stores of Fannin county, began business February 1, 1905, and was driven with all the force of a veritable engine of humanity until its machinery became clogged by dis- ease, but work was stopped only when the fires of energy refused longer to burn. Few men have been endowed with the qualities possessed by the late James W. Woosley, who was familiarly known by the name of "Louis," a nickname which, given him in boyhood, was associated with him throughout his life. He weighed 225 pounds, was possessed of a sunny dis- position, won the confidence and good will of all, made friends with children and chums with his own, and was a type of jolly good nature. His business enterprises were successful because he was a real mer- chant and a born business man. He had convictions, was nevertheless inoffensive in his expressions of opin- ion, and observed no practice of policy in local poli- ties. He was as forcibly against a bad man as be was for a good one who sought office, and, although a Democrat, he did not always lend bis aid to candi- dates of that persuasion. He bad no ability as a speaker, but talked freely and with earnestness. He was not a professor of religion, but admitted the good influence of the church. The estate left by him was a monument to his achievements and told in stronger terms than words of the genius of a man of small capital and who for many years was a borrower.

James W. Woosley married Emma Huffman, who was born in Hopkins county, Texas, in 1864, a dangh- tel of David M. and Louisa (Voss) Huffman. David M. Huffman, who was second in a family of seven children, three boys and four girls, was born in Ala- bama, in November, 1830, and died after a career as a farmer and slave-holding planter in 1868. In his early youth a horse had fallen on him and left him a cripple, but in spite of this handicap he gave good service as a Confederate soldier and was a guard at Tyler throughout the war. Louisa Voss, who was sixth in a family of six children, two boys and four girls, was born in Middle Tennessee in April, 1830, and died in 1888. Besides Mrs. James W. Woosley, the children of David Huffman and wife were as follows: George, who died in infancy; Mary, whose husband, F. H. Peoples, a farmer of Point, in Raines county, died, leaving her two children, whose names are Low and David S .; David Ora, who died in infancy; H. L., whose home is in Holdenville, Oklahoma, and whose first wife was Martha Hargroves, and second wife was Marietta Johnson, was the father of five children, and the three now living are Maud, Lawrence and Lester; and David M., Jr., who lives in Hope, Arkansas. The children of James W. Woosley and wife were as fol- lows: Clarence, whose individual career is sketched in the following paragraphs; James M., who died when about five years of age; Bettie Lou, who is the wife of W. R. Foster, a capitalist and retired farmer and a director of the First National Bank of Trenton; and bessie P., who is the wife of James Butler, engaged in farming near Krum, in Denton county.

Clarence Woosley, who is now manager of the busi-

ness of J. W. Woosley & Son at Trenton, and who is descended throngh three or four generations of suc- cessful merchants and business men, was born Decem- ber 6, 1883, at Point in Raines county, Texas. He was educated at Whitewright, in Grayson College, and grew up in the atmosphere of mercantile affairs. On becoming of age he was made a partner in the Trenton business, and became manager after his father's death, and in 1911 established a branch house at Leonard, in addition to which he exercises general supervision over the estate. In 1913 Clarence Woosley entered the field of banking as organizer of the Guaranty State Bank of Trenton, an institution with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars, with himself as presi- dent; AI H. Birdsong as cashier; and R. M. McCollom and W. R. Johns as vice presidents. Fraternally Mr. Woosley is master of Trenton Lodge of the Masonic order, and has sat in the Grand Lodge of the state.

On May 1, 1907, Mr. Woosley married Albertine Wilson, and they are the parents of three children: Bettie Lou, Louis Wilson and Evelyn W. Mrs. Wool- sey is a daughter of J. D. Wilson, a farmer and banker of Trenton. He was born at Hickman, Tennessee, Oc- tober 24, 1847, a son of Albert Gallatin Wilson, who died in 1851 at the age of thirty-five years. J. D. Wilson is a grandson of Adam Wilson and a great- grandson of William Wilson, whose brother, James Wil- son, was one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. The bodies of Adam and Albert G. Wilson both lie in the Vernon Cemetery at Hickman, Tennes- see. The wife of Albert G. Wilson was Miss Weems, a lineal descendant of the "Wemyss" of Wemyss Castle in Scotland. After the death of her first husband she married Rev. W. A. Williams, who brought the family to Texas during the fifties. The three Wilson children were: Albertine, who died as Mrs. John Tate; James D. and Albert, of Weatherford, Texas. The children of the Williams marriage were: Belle, who married Sam Roberts; Susie, who married Eli Thomas; Robert, Bud and William.

James D. Wilson was brought up on a Texas farm, and acquired a liberal education. Though only fourteen years of age when the war broke out, he served in the Confederate Militia and in the regular military establishment of the Southern government under Gen- eral Gans and after the close of hostilities between the North and South took up school teaching, also drove oxen to a freighting wagon, crossed the plains in 1868 with a herd of cattle for the Colorado miners, and after his return engaged in farming. His career as a farmer was followed with work as a merchant in Trenton, and along both lines he prospered. Mr. Wil- son subsequently became the founder of the Wilson Planters Bank in Trenton, and is accounted one of the ablest financiers of his section. James D. Wilson mar- ried Elizabeth Harrison, a daughter of Andrew Har- rison of Georgia.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 129

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