A history of Texas and Texans, Part 135

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 135

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

On February 10, 1883, Mr. Garrett was married in Henderson county to Miss Pauline Roberson, a daughter of Robert G. Roberson, a farmer from Alabama. Their children are: John R., a bookkeeper for his father, who first attended the public school of Athens, later a bnsi- ness college at Tyler, and who by his marriage to Miss Mary Spencer has a son, John Spencer; Nell is the wife of J. O. Roberts, of Corsicana, Texas; Ellen is the wife of Martin Forrester, of Athens; Miss Maud is the youngest child. Mr. Garrett has a comfortable home in Athens, having erected it himself a few years ago.

WILLIAM DURANT SCOTT, M. D. Now a retired physi- eian and an honored citizen of Atbens, Dr. William D. Scott is one of the few medical men still surviving from a practice which identified them with Texas during the war times and later. Doetor Seott is a fine type of the old time physician. Like many of the doctors of the early days, he served his fellowmen with the best re- sources of his generation and of a fine character. He never had a college training, but that was not consid- ered necessary when he started practice, and for many weary years he rode about on horseback, with his saddle- bag and his apothecary shop ready for every emergency. He rendered kindly, capable service to the community, and is gratefully remembered by hundreds of the old families whom he attended during bis active profes- sional career.

This family is one of the most numerous in American biographical annals, and dates its founding during the colonial period of South Carolina. The great-grand- father of Doctor Scott settled as an Irish emigrant, but at a date which cannot now be accurately ascer- tained. The members of the family were lovers of lib- erty, and the old pioneer settlers took a very positive stand in this attitude toward the question which sep- arated the colonies from Great Britain. Thus the Seott family was early marked for vengeance by the Tories, who did so much to hinder the cause of liberty and in- dependence. At the beginning of the Revolutionary war Great-Grandfather Seott and his son Robert were re- garded as leaders in their community in the cause of the Revolution, and on this account soon had the active enmity of "Big John" Garrett and bis Tory band. One day as the Scotts were going to mill with a bag of eorn, they saw dust rising abead of them as from horsemen, and were soon apprised of the approach of Garrett and his followers. The son was commanded to hide himself in the brush, while the father remained in the road, thinking his advanced years would save him from vio- lence at the hands of Garrett. When the band rode up, Garrett struck the venerable patriot on the head with a dragoon saber. Mr. Scott fell from bis horse with a piece of his skull lifted from his brain, and thus hav- ing dispatched another enemy of King George, as he believed, Garrett rode on. The younger Scott then came forth from his eoneealment and lifted his father upon his horse, tied him fast, took him to a doctor, who dressed the wound, and within a few months the old man was as sound as before. Many incidents might be told of the family experiences during the war. Their home was frequently robbed of bed quilts, as they were

hung out in the yard, and after the war the good house- mother saw many of her own quilts gracing the beds of Tory families in the neighborhood. At auother time Robert Scott lived for four days without drink or meat, save one snail and a bit of bacon which he picked up on the road during one of his trying marches.

Some time after the cowardly assault upon the older Scott, the news came that Garrett and a number of his friends were having a revel at a Tory home about a mile from the Scotts. A group of patriots were hastily summoned, their flintlocks put in readiness, and with the Scotts as their leaders they proceeded to the Tory home. Robert Scott, after reconnoitering, discovered that the Tories were seated at a table with Garrett as master of ceremonies. The patriots then surrounded the house, and by a vigorous assault exterminated the entire hand, excepting only one, and Scott, Sr., killed the man, Garrett himself. All the Tories were buried in the same spot, and many years later William F. Scott, while visiting the scenes of his ancestor's home, saw the place of burial. Robert Scott later entered the Revolu- tionary army and came out of the service with a bayonet wound in his shin, given him by a British horseman as they matched skill in defense in rough and tumbling fighting of that day.

Robert Seott married some time during the war, and early in the following century moved out to Mississippi, where he became a large planter and slave owner, where his death occurred. Among his children were: John, who became a banker in Mississippi; Robert, who spent his life in that state; one who moved out to Texas and died in this state; William Finney, next to be men- tioned; Washington, who died in Mississippi; and also a daughter who lived and died in Mississippi.

William Finney Scott was born in Abbeville district, in South Carolina, in 1788. In the primitive manner of the old time, he was educated with very little, if any, knowledge of books and letters, but with skill in all the accomplishments of the American manhood of that time. He was a high-spirited young man, loved his drink, was a "shoulder-slapper" at gatherings of the country, and loved to match a fight and see the sport. With the weight of middle years he softened down in character and conduct and became one of the most orderly and peace-loving citizens. However, he always continued to love the excitement of a political campaign, and was on the Democratic side in the campaign of 1840, when Gen- eral Harrison was placed in the presidency by the Whigs.

William F. Scott left Mississippi during the decades of the twenties and moved to Obion county, Tennessee. Some years later his father died and he returned to Mississippi for a portion of the family estate. Outside of land there was practically no wealth, except the negro slaves, and as he had no desire for that kind of property, be returned home almost empty-handed. In 1845 he ae- complished anotber western stage of emigration, and es- tablished himself in New Madrid county, Missouri, and in the following year moved to Stoddard county, in the same state. In 1847 he brought bis family down to Texas, settling in Lamar county, where he remained a prospering farmer until late in life. He then went to Athens, and died at the home of his son, William D. Scott, in 1865. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Hawkins, died in 1852. Their children were: Lucinda, who married Rev. Joseph Edwards, who died at Paris. Texas, after which his widow moved to Arkansas and died; Travis, who died in Henderson county, Texas; Rayburn, who died in Texas; Tilford, who died in Co- manche county, Texas; Ashley, who died wbile a Federal prisoner during the Civil war; Robert, who died in Tyler, Texas, in 1853; William Durant, the subject of this sketch, and Joseph R., who died iu Stoddard county, Missouri.

Dr. William Durant Scott was born near Troy, Obion county, Tennessee, in 1831. He was a boy of sixteen years when the family reached Tyler, Texas, and there

2030

TEXAS AND TEXANS

he arrived at manhood. His education was supplied by the common schools of several different localities, and in Tyler he took up the study of ""Physie"' under Doctor Lindsay. According to the understanding of such things and the standards of medical education, it was believed that a knowledge of the effect of certain com- mon drugs on the system, and a practical skill in ob- stetrics, made up the training and equipment of a doctor. Dr. Scott accordingly began practice in Henderson county, his home being located ten miles east of Athens, and he remained there until February 1, 1865. He was one of a very limited number of medical men in all that part of the state, Doctor Mabry being the only doctor in Athens at the time of the outbreak of the war. Pro- fessional work as performed fifty or sixty years ago in this western country was largely carried on in the saddle. The old pill bags made a veritable traveling apothecary, and the doctor almost never wrote a prescription for a pharmacist to fill, but compounded his medicine and boluses on the spot.

During the war Doctor Scott arranged to go to the front, and had already equipped himself with a mount, when he was prevailed upon to remain and attend to the needs of his community, while Doctor Mabry went out and satisfied himself by duty as a soldier. Thus the country would not be left entirely without the services of a physician. During this delay Doctor Scott dis- covered that sons of slave-holding planters were staying out of the army because of legal exemptions for slaves, and Doctor Scott accordingly determined not to expose his life to the dangers of bullets for a cause in which he had no personal grievance, and as a result he never did take up arms. For a few years after the war Doctor Scott carried on merchandising at Athens. That, to- gether with his medical work, constituted his business activities through a long period of years. He never as- pired to office, though he cast his vote regularly with the Democrats, and has always been a lay member of the Methodist church. Though an octogenarian, Doctor Scott is still vigorous and a hale and hearty old man, with a long and interesting retrospect over the decades extending clear back to the fifties.

In 1860 Mr. William D. Scott was married in Hen- derson county to Fannie Morrison. She was a daughter of Rev. Henry B. Morrison, of Alabama, where Mrs. Scott was born. She died in 1872, leaving two children -Mrs. Florence Barron, of Athens, and Dr. Walter Scott, of Athens. In December, 1880, Dr. Scott mar- ried Mrs. Amanda Warren, a widow of Doctor Warren, of Athens. She died in 1888 without children.

Walter Scott, who has followed in the footsteps of his father, is one of the leading physicians of Athens, was born in his home town February 27, 1868. After his education in the public schools at Athens and Tyler, he started out as a business man, first as a clerk, spend- ing a few years with C. T. Scott & Company. He then attended medical schools and was graduated M. D. from the Kentucky School of Medicine, at Louisville, in 1890. During the following six years he practiced at Tyler, and then continued in Athens, until his health obliged him to abandon professional activities. After that he was in the drug business as a member of the W. T. Green Drug Company, until his recent retirement.

Dr. Walter Scott was married in Benham, Texas, in 1892, to Miss Emma Wilson, a daughter of D. A. Wil- son, a mechanic, who came to Texas from Kentucky. Doctor and Mrs. Scott have one son, William Finney, born in 1897. Doctor Scott is a past master of Lodge No. 165, A. F. & A. M., and is affiliated with the Royal Arch Chapter and the Commandery at Athens. His

church is the Methodist.

JOHN R. CALLAGHAN, deceased. From the early set- tlement of Panhandle, Texas, to the present time the name of Callaghan has been familiar to its residents, and Callaghan enterprise and public spirit-that of both

father and son-have been prime factors in pushing for- ward the development of the town.

John R. Callaghan was born in West Virginia, the son of slave-holding parents with large plantation in- terests. The fortunes of war, however, left them im- poverished, but he remained on the home plantation until 1885, at which time he migrated with his family to Kansas, and the next five years he spent in farming in Kansas, at Kiowa, Barber county, and from farming he turned his attention to railroading. He came to Texas, in 1890, as an employe of the Santa Fe Rail- road Company, and established his home at Panhandle, where he spent the rest of his life. After coming here he continued in railroad work for two years, as super- intendent of construction. Carson county was at that time but sparsely settled, but the railroad brought in more people, and soon Mr. Callaghan saw the need of a hotel at Panhandle. Accordingly he erected the Cal- laghan Hotel, the first hostelry opened to the traveling public in the town. This hotel he conducted for a period of thirteen years. In the meantime, in 1892, he estab- lished the J. R. Callaghan Mercantile Co., which he conducted, in connection with operating the hotel, until his death. He died August 26, 1903, at the age of fifty-one years. As a business man he was successful. He accumulated a comfortable fortune, his possessions including both farming and town property. Politically, he was a Democrat, but he never sought or filled office. He had no time for office holding; his own business affairs occupied his whole attention. His religious creed was that of the M. E. Church South.

Bettie J. (Morton) Callaghan, Mr. Callaghan's wife, also a native of West Virginia, died at Panhandle in 1908, at the age of fifty-six years. She had accompanied · him to Texas, and shared with him the privations of frontier life and the later success he achieved through his efforts here. They were the parents of two children : Canterbery F. and Asbery A.

Canterbery F. Callaghan was born in 1872, and died in 1890, shortly after the removal of the family to Panhandle. He had been educated at Kiowa, Kansas. and was a railroad man, in the employ of the Santa Fe. He met with accidental death while in train service, at Wellington, Kansas, and is buried at Kiowa, that State.

Asbery A. Callaghan, the only survivor of the family, was born at Craigsville, West Virginia, November 16, 1878. He was educated in the Polytechnic College at Fort Worth, Texas, where he graduated in 1897 from the Commercial Department; and he took a four years' course in the Literary Department of Fort Worth Univer- sity. On his return home from the university he became associated in business with his father, and at his father's death succeeded him in the interests above outlined. On first entering the mercantile business, young Cal- laghan assumed the responsibility of its management, and has conducted it ever since, for a period of twenty- one years. The Callaghan general store is the oldest mercantile establishment in the town. Mr. Callaghan is a stockholder and director in the Panhandle Bank, he owns about two-thirds of the city's business property, and he has two farms, four hundred and eighty acres in extent.

During his college days, Mr. Callaghan was corporal and afterward captain of the College Guards Infantry Co., and throughout his business life as well as in college work he has taken the initiative. He helped to organize the Panhandle Commercial Club and was its first sec- retary, serving one term. He served four terms, eight years in all, as County Treasurer of Carson county, and at the end of his last term openly declined to be a candi- date for re-election, announcing the fact through the columns of the Panhandle Herald. This announcement was received with much regret by the people of the county. Mr. Callaghan has always harmonized with the Democratic party and has taken an active part in polities ever since he became a voter. He helped to

Ostry alealleghan.

2031

TEXAS AND TEXANS

organize the Carson County Democratic Committee, and since its organization has been its secretary. As the representative of this committee, he met Governor Col- quitt on the train en route to Snyder from Post City, Texas, on May 2, 1912, and gave him an invitation to deliver an address at Panhandle. May 13, the Governor addressed at Panhandle the largest assembly ever gath- ered in the entire Panhandle section.

Mr. Callaghan is associated with the church in which he was reared, and is one of its trustees, and he has membership in the fraternal organizations of the I. O. O. F. and W. O. W.

Mr. Callaghan's favorite playmate in the primary school days is now his wife. This was Miss Louie A. Henson, daughter of Col. A. L. Henson of Jocksboro, Texas, Sergeant of the Texas Rangers, Sheriff of Car- son county, and for many years a prominent stock man in the Panhandle. They were married June 5, 1901, in the M. E. church at Panhandle, by the Rev. Henry R. Coleman, and are the parents of two children: Lillian, born October 30, 1903, and Pauline, May 23, 1906, both natives of Panhandle.

THOMAS H. BARRON. In the little city of Athens and the country surrounding, Thomas H. Barron is a man who has succeeded as a man of affairs, a farmer, mer- chant, and freighter, and is now retired from active par- ticipation in those concerns which for many years made up the business of his life. He is an example of the self-made man in the matter of his achievements, and without an inventory of his resources it would be only a guess to estimate just how fortunate he has been. His career has been one not only prosperous from his indi- vidual standpoint, but has been useful in service and in many ways to his community, and he has long stood as a leader in Henderson county affairs.

Thomas H. Barron was born in Marion, Perry county, Alabama, October 14, 1857. When two years old he came to Texas with his father, Joseph J. Barron, who located in Houston county. Joseph J. Barron was born in Alabama in 1832. There is evidence that a portion of the ancestral stock was Spanish, since Thomas Barron, the grandfather, is believed to have been a son of peo- ple who were originally subjects of the King of Spain. Thomas Barron was married in Alabama to a Miss Jameson, a sister of Henry, Bobb and Jack Jameson, of Perry county. The children in the grandfather's family were: Robert, Joseph J., Thomas, Elias, Alfred, Kittie, and Puss, who married a Mr. Wells, and Eunice, who married William Hinton.

Joseph J. Barron married Eliza Nelms, of Perry county, Alabama. It was in Perry county that Gen. Sam Houston married his last wife, a wedding cere- mony which Mrs. Barron attended, as a guest. Mr. J. J. Barron died in Houston county, Texas, in 1868, and his widow survived him many years, until 1906, when she was seventy-two years of age. They had come to Texas in 1859, by wagon, and along with their family and houshold possessions also brought a number of slaves. Mr. Barron during the war joined the Con- federate army and was in the Trans-Mississippi De- partment, under Gen. Tom Green, and was present when that gallant Confederate leader lost his life by a can- non shot in the Red River campaign. The children of Joseph J. and Eliza Barron were: Mollie, who married John McClellan and died in Comanche county, Okla- homa; Thomas H .; Fannie, wife of Wimburn Jones, of Marlow, Oklahoma; Sallie, who married Albert Ellis of Oklahoma; Joseph J., of Houston county, Texas; Cornelia, wife of Burrell MeClendon, of Duncan, Okla- homa, and Young Barron, of Lee county, Texas. Thomas H. Barron grew up in a humble home. He was only eleven years old when his father died. As the oldest son he had to get out and hustle, not only for himself, but to support his mother and younger sister. The fam- ily estate was so small that he never claimed any of it

when he reached the age of twenty-one. At the same time his educational advantages were necessarily meager, and his attendance at school was almost negligible. During the decade of the seventies, when he was still young, he came to Henderson county and found work as a clerk in Athens, with Dr. Scott. Subsequently he worked a few years for J. H. Gerrall. As his monthly salary was sufficient to only pay a little more than his current expenses and enable him to lay by a few dollars at the end of the year, he soon gave up his occupation and started out independently. He managed to acquire a home and then traded the property for a farm west of Athens, giving his notes for the balance. That move was the opening wedge in his successful career. He proved by actual experience that he was a first class farmer, he soon had his land paid for, and, by trading in stock and energetic management of all his interests, increased his wealth rapidly from year to year. He was soon listed among the independent and substantial men of Henderson county. His credit was always maintained at gilt edge, and as he always met his responsibilities on the moment, it was never difficult to secure the funds to help him through his deals. Finally he turned over the management of the farm to negro labor and moved to Athens, where he engaged in merchandising. He sold groceries, was associated as one of the firm of Wofford and Barron, and later conducted a hardware business of his own. He carried on a general line of trading in Athens property and in farm lands, and did a good deal toward the improvement and development of farms near the county seat. In Athens he acquired some of the business houses, and his farms still form a material source of his income.

His success in business seems to have encouraged Mr. Barron to study political questions and political condi- tions, and he thus formed a growing interest in economic affairs. He has always voted the Democratic ticket, but is not in harmony with his party on some of the vital questions of the day. He favors a tariff on raw ma- terial for revenue, and believes in the encouragement of home industry on the farm and elsewhere by the im- position of proper tariff rates. His idea was repre- sented by the candidacy of Mr. Harmon for president in 1912, rather than by those who he considers of more populistie tendencies. His study of politics and his reputation as a man of splendid judgment in business finally brought him into the field for the legislature, and he was elected a member of the twenty-third assembly. He was placed on the committee on military affairs, farming and stock raising and federal relations. His chief service was in heading off vicious legislation and the enactment of laws tending to burden the state with- out a corresponding benefit. He introduced a bill mak- ing it a penitentiary offense for a mortgagor to run off personal property on which he had borrowed money. That measure was defeated. He also opposed the ap- propriation of public money for the transportation of militia to points of disturbance where railroad interests needed guarding, believing the railroads should bear that expense, since the service was for their benefit.

In December, 1880, Mr. Barron was married in Athens to Miss Florence Scott, daughter of the venerable Dr. William D. Scott, whose career is given space elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Barron was born in 1865. Their children are: Horace S., born in 1884, and now cashier of the State Bank at Chandler, and one of the promising young business men of this section, and Helen Barron, who was born in 1903.

ARTHUR MAULDIN. A young citizen and business man of exceptional prominence and enterprise at Kemp is Arthur Mauldin, cashier of the Farmers' Guaranty State Bank. Mr. Mauldin's first business experience was in banking, and, having quickly demonstrated his ability in the minor grades of the service, was given larger and larger responsibilities, and soon took the initiative in

2032

TEXAS AND TEXANS

organizing and conducting financial institutions in sev- eral localities of central and western Texas. He has also taken much fterest in matters of local citizenship, and is one of the most intelligent workers for the sub- stantial prosperity of his home city of Kemp.

Arthur Mauldin was born at Commerce, Texas, August 25, 1883, a son of C. S. Mauldin and a grandson of Payne Mauldin. Grandfather Mauldin died in Hunt county, Texas, and among his children were: C. S. Mauldin; D. C. Mauldin, of Fort Worth; West, of El Paso, and Mrs. J. A. Hodge, of Sulphur Springs, Texas.

C. S. Mauldin, who is a cotton buyer at Greenville, came to Texas in 1878, from Atlanta, Georgia. He was born at Marietta, Georgia, in 1857, grew up and was educated at Atlanta, and also attended school at Honey Grove, Texas, where the family located on coming to this state. He began his career as a laborer on a ranch, subsequently became an independent farmer, but his principal business career had been in connection with cotton business. He was directed to that through his election as a cotton weigher at Commerce. His four years of service in that capacity so familiarized him with cotton grading and sampling as to render him a valuable man for cotton brokers. He was employed by P. E. Henson & Company, of Paris, for a time, then by Bush, Witherspoon & Company as a buyer, and then by J. L. Goldman, of Dallas. For the past several years he has followed the business independently as a specu- lator at Greenville. Mr. C. S. Mauldin married Miss Elizabeth Lewis, a daughter of Mrs. Faraby Lewis. Mrs. Mauldin died at Greenville in 1912, and her chil- dren are Arthur and Miss Mary Mauldin, the latter being a teacher in Hopkins county, Texas.

Arthur Mauldin attended the east Texas normal school at Commerce, where he took a commercial course. With that preparation he became a bookkeeper in the First National Bank of Commerce, and his experience there lasted for more than two years. Thoroughly fa- miliar with all the departments of banking, he then organized the Chilton Bank, of which he was cashier two years. From Chilton he went to Frankston, Texas, where he was cashier of the First State Bank for a year, and in 1909 came to Kemp and organized the Farmers' Guaranty State Bank, of which he was chosen cashier. In 1913, Mr. Mauldin organized the Citizens Bank of Scurry, Texas, and is vice president of that institution. His associate in the organization of the bank at Chilton was Judge Riddel, the well known financier of Dallas. The same metropolitan influence en- tered into the forming of the state bank in Kemp and the Citizens Bank at Seurry, Judge Riddle being presi- dent of both institutions. The Kemp bank has a capi- tal of twenty-five thousand dollars, and its earnings to the 1st of July, 1913, were approximately ten thou- sand dollars, with dividends of forty-five hundred dol- lars paid in cash.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of Texas and Texans, Part 135

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