A history of Texas and Texans, Part 130

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 130

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C. C. MOORE. The citizenship of Kaufman county has for a long period of years been enriched by the pres- ence of C. C. Moore and his family. Mr. Moore, who now lives retired at the town of Kemp, bore a valiant part in the war between the states, while his father gave up his life during the Mexican war of the for- . ties. Mr. Moore has lived in Kaufman county for forty-five years, and has reared about him a sub- stantial prosperity and has long been one of the most influential citizens.

C. C. Moore was born in Calhoun county, Alabama, August 30, 1844, a son of Robert and Martha (Maroney) Moore. Both parents were born in North Carolina, and the father was a farmer who established a home in Alabama, and went out from that state as a volun- teer in the army during the war against Mexico, was stricken with disease and sent to a hospital in Galves- ton, where he died either in 1847 or 1848. Surviving

Jos. B. Lynch B shop of Dallas

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him were his widow and a family of seven children, of whom C. C. Moore was the youngest. The mother her- self died in 1853, when the youngest son was only nine years of age. The father was a Democrat and both parents were Baptists.

Until he was fifteen years of age Mr. Moore remained in Alabama and attended common schools, but in 1860 went to Pontotoc county, now Union county, Missis- sippi, and was employed in farming activities until about the middle period of the great war. In August, 1863, he volunteered for the service of the South in Company C of the Second Alabama Cavalry. This regi- ment was under the command of Brigadier General Fer- guson, who is one of the two living Brigadier Gener- als of the Confederate army. The commander of the regiment was Colonel Earle, an Alabama man who en- listed as a captain of an Alabama company during the Mexican war, and that company had as a private Robert Moore, the father of C. C. Moore. Though C. C. Moore was a resident of Mississippi during the war, when he enlisted he went out with an Alabama company and the regiment of which Earle was colonel. In 1864 he was transferred to Company A of the Twelfth Missis- sippi, under Colonel Inge, but Brigadier General Fergu- son still commanded the brigade. At Tuscaloosa, Ala- bama, in May, 1865, Mr. Moore was taken a prisoner, and soon afterwards paroled. The principal engage- ments in which he fought were many of the battles of the Atlanta campaign and he was afterwards in Georgia and the Carolinas at Salisbury, Colliersville, and many minor engagements, but went through the service with- out a wound.

When hostilities were concluded between the North and South, he took up farming in Mississippi for about four years, and in the fall of 1869 came to Kaufman county, Texas. A poor man, he made the best of his opportunities and resources, and was engaged in farnı- ing on rented land until about 1888. In the meantime he had done a great deal of work as a carpenter, which was his regular trade and after 1888 for three years did a regular business as a carpenter and builder. In 1892 Mr. Moore was elected commissioner and justice of the peace at Kemp, and held the commissioner's office for six years. The office of justice of the peace is still his, and his service has been continuous with the ex- ception of about eighteen months during the years 1898-99. In 1910 Mr. Moore assisted his son, C. C. Moore, Jr., in getting established in the grocery trade at Kemp, and gave his advice and assistance with the enterprise for about a year and a half.

On December 3, 1867, in Union county, Mississippi, Mr. Moore married Mary Ann Collins, who was the fifth in a family of eight living children born to Tie and Martha (Collins) Collins, the former a native of Vir- ginia and the latter of North Carolina. Mrs. Moore was born in New Albany, Mississippi, and had her edu- cation in that locality. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Moore are briefly mentioned as follows: J. E. Moore, who was born in Mississippi October 11, 1868, is promi- nent as a banker and business man, being president of the First National Bank of Kemp, of which he was one of the organizers; by his marriage to Miss Mollie Rogers he is the father of five children: Forrest. Jesse Egbert, Richard, Annie Mae and Mary Bess. Eddie, who was the second child, died in infancy. Mae, the third, born in Kaufman county, Texas, is the wife of Dr. J. M. Still, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this publication. E. C. Moore, who was born in Kaufman county, is manager for the Walker-Smith Grocery Com- pany at San Angelo, Texas, married Miss Minnie Nash, daughter of a Methodist minister, and they have two girls, Frances and Mildred. C. C. Moore, Jr., above mentioned, was born in Kanfman county and at the present time has charge of the grocery department of the firm of Haynie Bros. Grocery and Dry Goods store ; he married Miss Jodie Shaw, and has two children, Joe

Crosby and Shaw. Della, the sixth of the children, is a native of Kaufman county, and the wife of O. C. French, in the insurance business at Fort Worth, and has one daughter, Maedell. Furman, the youngest, also born in Kaufman county, is now serving as assist- ant postmaster at Kemp. Mr. and Mrs. Moore are both regular members of the Methodist church, his politics is Democratie, and his fraternal relations are with the Masonic Order and the Knights and Ladies of Honor.

RT. REV. JOSEPH PATRICK LYNCH, D. D., Catholic Bishop of the diocese of Dallas, and North Texas. Bishop Lynch is one of the youngest Catholic Bishops in America, and succeeded the late Bishop Dunne as head of the diocese of Dallas because of his approved efficiency and capability such as made him the logical choice for the episcopal office. It was at the request and direct efforts of the priesthood in North Texas that the ap- pointment of Father Lynch to the vacant See of Dallas was advised, and it was in response to this general desire of the clergy that the church gave him the distinction of this appointment.

Joseph Patrick Lynch was born in Berrien county, Michigan, November 16, 1872, one of the children in the family of John V. and Veronica J. (Betham) Lynch. He was graduated in 1891 from St. Charles' College, at Ellicott City, Maryland, and in 1895 from St. Mary's Seminary at Baltimore. His studies in theology were continued at the Kenrick Seminary at St. Louis where he was graduated in 1900 and was ordained to the priest- hood on June the 9th of the same year.

He began his active career in the sacred ministry as associate Rector of the Cathedral at Dallas, where he labored with zeal and success during the years of 1900 and 1902. In the following year he was appointed the Rector of St. Stephen's church, Weatherford, Texas, and during his incumbency here he was untiring in extending the activities of the parish, and built a church that is a monument to Catholicity in North Texas.

From 1900 to 1907 he held the position of Procurator Fiscalis of the Dallas diocese. In 1909 be built St. Rita's church, Handley.

He also founded and built St. Edward's church, school and rectory at Dallas.

These works and others stamped him as one of the ablest administrators and exeentives in the diocese. On June 19, 1910, Bishop Dunne appointed his his Vicar Gen- eral, and on the death of this prelate, he was appointed the administrator of the diocese of Dallas, "Sede Va- cante." It was through the position where he held the practical direction of the fiscal and religious affairs of the diocese that he came by a natural progress to the office of Bishop. The priests of North Texas expressed their preference and through the proper channels con- veyed their desires to Pope Pius X who appointed him on June the 18th, 1911, as Bishop Dunne's successor.

He was consecrated in the magnificent Cathedral at Dallas on July the 12th, 1911, by Archbishop Blenk of New Orleans, assisted by the Bishops of Galveston and Little Rock, in the presence of twelve other Bishops, over a hundred priests, and a throng of people crowding the Cathedral and overflowing into the streets. The cere- mony was reported in the prints of the day as the most splendid and gorgeous religious pageantry ever wit- nessed in Texas.

The episcopal residence is at 4846 Swiss avenue, Dallas, Texas.

JOHN WOOTEN. The thirty-five years' service of the Wooten family in the office of county and district clerk of Chambers county is a record which has seldom been equalled in the annals of county officials in this state, and the long continuance in this important posi- tion has been accompanied by faithful and intelligent service in behalf of the people. The office is now ably administered by John Wooten, a son of the original

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clerk, at whose death the administration was transferred first to his widow, and then to the present incumbent. The family is one of the pioneers of Chambers county.

John Wooten was born in the old county seat of Wallisville, October 7, 1885, a son of John R. and Lot- tie H. (Kilgore) Wooten. His father was born in Flor- ida and his mother in Texas: The father on coming to Texas was engaged in farming and saw milling, and subsequently entered upon his work as deputy county and district clerk of Chambers county, and in 1878 was appointed to the office as chief, and by successive re-

election filled that honored post until his death on July 16, 1903. The grandfather of John Wooten was also Damed John Wooten, and he was one of the pioneer settlers at Wallisville and an early merchant who sold goods throughout an extensive territory surrounding that locality. After the death of his first wife John R. Wooten married her sister, Emma Kilgore, and she now resides in San Antonio. By the first wife there were two sons and five daughters, and the present Mrs. Wooten has one child, a daughter.

Mr. John Wooten has spent practically all his life either in Wallisville, the old county seat, or the town of Anahuac, where the present seat of justice is lo- cated. Until he was fourteen years of age he attended the public schools, and his first occupation was in help- ing his father in the performance of his official duties. For two years he was his father's deputy. On the death of his father his step-mother was made head of the office, and held the position nominally from 1903 to 1906, although John Wooten performed practically all the duties. Mr. Wooten was deputy to his step- mother during that time, and in November, 1906, was regularly elected to the office, and has since continued by subsequent re-election to the present time.

On October 16, 1907, Mr. Wooten married Miss Bertha White, a daughter of James T. White III, one of the successful live stock men of Jefferson and Cham- bers counties.

JACOB H. SUBER. During a period of twenty-eight years the late Jacob Hardy Suber, Jr., was identified with the farming and stock raising interests of Brazos county, and throughout his life contributed to the de- velopment and progress of this part of Texas. He was a son of Jacob Hardy Suber, Sr., who accompanied him to Texas in 1878, both having come from New- berry District, South Carolina, where the father was born Angust 13, 1825, and the son October 21, 1853. The elder man died January 30, 1906, and the younger November 6 of the same year. The father of Jacob H. Suber, Sr., was Jacob Suber, who was born Sep- tember 11, 1793, and died April 16, 1852. He was of German descent or extraction, and married Catherine Souter, and both passed away in South Carolina. Their children who grew up were: Laura, who married Mr. Burley; Annie, who married Mr. Folk; David F., who died in South Carolina, and Jacob H.

Jacob Hardy Suber, Sr., acquired his education in the country schools, and grew up a farmer, giving his attention to agricultural pursuits throughout his career. He was a resident of South Carolina during the Civil War and gave service in some capacity to the Confederate canse. He married Miss Eugenia Gunter, who died in South Carolina, August 27, 1861, their children being: Lucy, who married C. P. Diekert and resides at Tifton. Georgia; Jacob Hardy, Jr .; Lilla, who married J. W. Hill, of Newberry, South Carolina ; and Edwin M., who died in 1903, at Athens, Georgia.

Jacob Hardy, Jr., was brought up in the country of Newberry District, South Carolina, where he acquired a country school education and passed his boyhood and youth in assisting his father in the work of the farm. He was married there December 18, 1873, and five years later came to Texas, the family coming by rail to Bryan and making its permanent location near the Agricul-

tural and Mechanical College. Mr. Suber first pur- chased a small tract, with modest improvements, and in addition to his farm work accepted whatever hon- orable employment presented itself, including the haul- ing of wood and supplying the college with its annual consumption of fuel. He cleared up many acres of the timber land around the college, and as the years passed acquired a large area of land in the county, becoming one of the most extensive farmers of his section. He was a man of affluence and erected houses all over his cleared land, providing labor for numerous hands on the farm. In the cattle business he devoted his time to growing the common beef stock and bought, sold, fed and shipped stock to the market toward the end of his career.

Mr. Suber always evidenced himself as a man favor- able to education in every form. He was made a mem- ber of the board of managers of the old Texas Wom- en's College, now the Baptist Academy, at Bryan, and was on the board from the inception of the school for several years. For a short time he served as constable of his precinct, and his public services were character- ized by the utmost integrity and devotion to duty. In local matters he exerted his influence in favor of good morals in polities. He was a Prohibitionist in prac- tice and principle and was a consistent member of the Baptist church, while his fraternal affiliations were with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Knights of Honor.

Mr. Suber married Leila Richards, a daughter of Berry and Elizabeth (Kitchens) Richards, the latter a daughter of John Kitchens. Of the Richards, children, Lula married James L. Henderson, of Center Point, Arkansas; Leila married Mr. Suber; and John Berry is a resident of Newberry District, South Carolina. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Suber were: Eugene Hardy, of Brownwood, Texas; Elizabeth, who was edu- cated at Bryan and at Mary Nash College at Sherman, and is now a popular school teacher of Bryan; Leila, who is the wife of R. B. Adams, of Oakwood, Texas; Miss Corrie, who attended Mary Nash College, Sherman ; Jacob H., who was killed by contact with an electric light wire at college, December 14, 1913, and left a widow of six months, who was formerly Miss Annie McMillan; John Richards, of Dallas, Texas; Miss Bertie, who graduated from Sam Houston Normal school, class of 1914, and is now engaged in teaching; and Lawrence Sullivan, Thomas Goodwin and Milton Parker, all resid- ing at home.

WILLIAM R. SANDERS. This representative merchant and progressive citizen of Bryan, the judicial center of Brazos county, has been a resident of the Lone Star State for nearly forty years. He has been engaged in business at Bryan since 1896, and for the preceding decade he had been a merchant at Iola, Grimes county. The three years immediately prior to this found him as one of the successful farmers in the vicinity of Anderson, the county seat of Grimes county, and his entire active business career has been marked by cir- cumspection, energy and integrity of purpose, so that he has at all times commanded the respect and confi- dence of his fellow men.

William Reuben Sanders was born in the state of Georgia, on the 7th of March, 1850, and from the age of five years until he had attained to years of maturity he was a resident of Bihb county, that state, where he was reared under the invigorating discipline of the farm. The disrupted conditions in Georgia incidental to the Civil war caused him to find his educational oppor- tunities during his early youth somewhat limited, as the schools suffered from the same conditions that affected the state in general. In Bibb county his mar- riage was solemnized and there he devoted his atten- tion to agricultural pursuits until the time of his re- moval to Texas, the while he assumed the virtual care

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of his brothers and sisters after the death of the hon- ored parents.

In 1876 Mr. Sanders set forth for Texas, in company with his immediate family, and Navasota was the orig- inal destination. His financial resources at the time were limited, and during the first three years of his residence in the state he farmed on rented land, in Grimes county, as already noted. At the expiration of this period he engaged in the general merchandise business at Iola, where he built up, by effective service and fair dealings, a prosperons enterprise. After the lapse of ten years he sold his business to one of his brothers and removed to Bryan, where he became associated in the purchase of the general merchandise business of the firm of Mer- ritt Brothers. In the earlier years of his operations here the business was conducted under the title of Sanders Brothers & Company, and the enterprise is now carried forward under the firm name of Sanders Brothers, his brother James B. being his valued associate. Mr. Sanders has been distinctly aggressive and enterprising in his business activities and his success has been pronounced, as is shown by the fact that he is a stockholder in each of the two wholesale mercantile houses of Bryan-a director of the Lawrence Wholesale Grocery Company, his brother James being a member of the directorate of the First State Bank & Trust Company of Bryan. Mr. Sanders has shown a loyal interest in all that touches the general wellbeing of his attractive home city, espe- cially in popular educational facilities. He has been a most zealous member of the local board of education, of which he has been president since 1910. His political allegiance is given insistently to the Democratic party, . and both he and his wife hold membership in the Bap- tist church.

John Hilliard Sanders, father of him whose name introduces this review, was a native of North Carolina and was a lad of about eight years at the time of the family removal to Bibb county, Georgia, his father, Wil- liam Sanders, having there passed the remainder of his life and having been sixty-two years of age at the time of his death, about the year 1954. The maiden name of the wife of William Sanders was Barnes and she was of English lineage. Of their children Mark continned his residence in Georgia until death, and he reared his fam- ily in Crawford county, where he died and where a num- ber of his descendants are still to be found; Mattie, daughter of William Sanders, became the wife of John Sharp and was a resident of Crawford county, Georgia, at the time of her demise; and James Hilliard Sanders was the other child who attained to maturity.

James Hilliard Sanders wedded Miss Lucinda Me- Michael, daughter of Reuben McMichael, a scion of staunch Scotch stock, as was also his wife, whose maiden name was Lawrence. James H. Sanders died in the year 1871 and his widow passed to the life eternal in 1874. Of their children the eldest is William Reuben, of this sketch : Emma is the wife of William Thomas, of Nava- sota, Texas; Ella, who became the wife of John H. Jewett, died in Georgia; John H. is a resident of Iola, this state; James B. is associated with his brother Wil- liam R. in business at Bryan, as has already been stated in this context; Maggie, who became the wife of Dr. Nowlin, died at Iola, Texas; and Adial Augustus main- tains his home at Iola.

In December, 1874, was solemnized the marriage of William R. Sanders to Miss Susie MeGehee, daughter of Dr. McGehee, of Griffinville, Georgia. Mrs. Sanders died at Iola, Texas, in 1886, and is survived by three children-William Olin, Waldine and Adaline, all resi- dents of Bryan. In April, 1889, Mr. Sanders wedded Miss Lizzie Burnett, whose father was a gallant soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war and who came to Texas from Louisiana, having become a successful agri- culturist in the Lone Star state. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders have four children-J. E. Claire and Earl N., who are connected with their father's mercantile business, the

former in the capacity of bookkeeper; and Lillie Fay and Harold D., who remain at the parental home. J. E. Claire Sanders, the eldest son, married Miss Doris Locke.

JOHN E. ASTIN. This well known citizen and repre- sentative business man of Bryan, Brazos county, is an- other of the native sons of Texas who has accounted well to himself and to the state in the matter of large and worthy achievement, and he is a scion of one of the old and honored families of the Lone Star commonwealth, his father having been the late James H. Astin, and his brother, Hon. J. Robert Astin, at present a member of the state senate, being individually represented in this history, the sketch of his career giving further data con- cerning the family.

John Ethelbert Astin has been a resident of Bryan during the major part of his active career and is identi- fied with a number of the most important business en- terprises of this attractive little city. He was one of the organizers of the Lawrence Grocery Company, which is here engaged in the wholesale grocery business, and is president of this corporation at the present time, be- sides which he is a director of the City National Bank of Bryan and a stockholder in the Parker-Astin Hard- ware Company, which here conducts a business of both wholesale and retail ramifications. He was reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and continued to be ac- tively concerned with agricultural operations in his native state until 1913, when he sold his landed estate, the same being in Brazos county. He is known and hon- ored as one of the progressive citizens and representative business men of Brazos county and is well entitled to recognition in this history of his native state.

Mr. Astin was born on a farm near Mumford, Robert- son county, Texas, on the 16th of October, 1872, and his earlier educational advantages included those afforded by the excellent public schools of Bryan. These were supplemented by his attending the Hill Business Col- lege, in the city of Dallas, and the celebrated Eastman Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York. At the age of twenty years he instituted his independent operations as an agriculturist, and in this connection his energy and progressive policies brought to him definite success, though, as previously stated, he has maintained his home at Bryan during the major part of his active career and has here been closely concerned with leading busi- ness enterprises.

Reared in the faith of the Democratic party, Mr. Astin has been uncompromising in his allegiance to the same and he has given active service in behalf of its cause. His father was a distinguished representative of the party in Texas, and was likewise a gallant soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war. John E. Astin himself was a delegate to the Democratie state convention of Texas in 1906, as was he also to that of 1910. He and his wife are communicants of the Protestant Episcopal church and he is affiliated with the Bryan lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

At Brenham, Washington county, Texas, on the 9th of April, 1907, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Astin to Miss Mollie White Harrison, daughter of the late Henry K. Harrison, who was a representative of Washington county as a soldier of the Confederacy and who was president of the Washington County State Bank at the time of his death, which occurred March 11, 1914. He came to Texas from Alabama and was a sterling pioneer of the Lone Star state, his age at the time of death having been sixty-eight years. His wife, whose maiden name was Juliette Shepherd, preceded him to the life beyond, her death occurring January 26, 1910. They are survived by three sons and five daugh- ters. Mr. and Mrs. Astin are popular and representa- tive figures in the leading social activities of their home city.

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THOS. M. CUNNINGHAM. Among the important fac- tors in the development of Roberts county, Texas, and classed among its wealthy and influential citizens, none are deserving of more honorable mention than Thomas M. Cunningham, president of the Bank of Miami. Mr. Cunningham is to all purposes a Texan, for, although not born here, he has spent almost his entire life within the borders of the Lone Star State, has been reared and educated here, and has been a witness to and a partici- pant in the wonderful growth and development which haye marked it during the last several decades. Mr. Cunningham was born in North Eastern Alabama. Feb- ruary 11, 1859, and is a son of William J. and Tilitha (Baxter) Cunningham, natives of Eastern Tennessee and Alabama, respectively, and both members of well- known and highly respected families. His father, almost from boyhood, was a prominent planter and farmer, and up to the time of the outbreak of war between the North and the South worked his vast cotton fields with slave labor. Like thousands of others of his fellow- southerners, the elose of the war found him stripped of his fortune, a martyr to the great Lost Cause, and he decided to locate in a new country and there endeavor to rehabilitate his fortunes. The bitterness and pre- judices engendered by the great struggle made it un- desirable for him to cross the Mason and Dixon line, and accordingly he set his face toward Texas, and after a long and tedious journey, the greater part of it over- land, arrived in Hamilton county, in September, 1869. Here be found many neighbors from his old home, who like himself had lost everything, and being a elever mechanic he took up the occupation of carpenter and assisted in building many of the homes necessary to accommodate the emigrants. Subsequently he moved to Johnston county, and there he continued to reside during the remainder of his life, his death occurring in his forty-ninth year, in 1880, at Cleburne, where his re- mains now repose. He was married in Alabama to Tilitha Baxter, who was born October 20, 1835, in that State, and reared, educated and married there, and she survives her husband and is now making her home with her daughter at Miami.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 130

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