A history of Texas and Texans, Part 140

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 140

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).

Judge Wade maintains fraternal relations with vari- ous organizations, including the M. W. of A., the K. of P., and B. P. O. E., and the A. F. & A. M. His re- ligious creed is that of the Methodist church, of which he is a worthy member.

Mrs. Henry M. Wade was formerly Miss Lulu Mickey. She was born and reared in Kaufman county, Texas, and is the mother of seven children, namely: Robert N., Reese D., Mart, Joe C., Oscar C., Carrie, and Nona A.

ROBERT E. MYERS, M. D. Since the year 1893 Dr. Myers has been in active practice at the town of Kemp, an able physician and surgeon. Of well trained and ex- perienced ability, Dr. Myers has done his work well in that community, and both as a citizen and a doctor stands high in Kaufman county. His family has lived in central and western Texas from a period before the Civil war, and its various members have been ranch- ers, farmers, millers, and merchants, and otherwise iden- tified with those activities which are most important in maintaining the general welfare of any locality.

Robert E. Myers was born at Lancaster, Texas, July 12, 1867, a son of Jasper C. Myers. The father died at Golston Ranch, now Big Springs, Texas, in May, 1875, when about forty-three years of age. He was one of the earliest ranchers to locate in the vicinity of what is now the thriving city of Big Springs, having gone there before the war, and he ranched with head- quarters at the old Golston Ranch at Buffalo Gap. Dur- ing the war he was in the employ of the Confederate government, driving beef cattle to Shreveport, for the army of the south. Jasper C. Myers, who came to Texas when a young man, married at Palo Pinto, Texas, Miss Allen, whose father, Anderson Allen, ran a grist mill at Palo Pinto during the war times. Anderson Allen was a native of Tennessee, and first moved to Missouri and later to Texas. He had two sons and one of them served with the Texas rangers against the In- dians during the Civil War. Anderson Allen died at Fort Worth, at the age of eighty-one, and is buried at Old Birdsville, once the county seat of Tarrant county. Shortly after his marriage Jasper C. Myers established his home at Lancaster, and his home was the chief resi- dence and place of hospitality, an open house, where friends and strangers were entertained with equal hos- pitality and whence emanated many influences and prac- tical charities in the community. In that home Mrs. Jasper C. Myers died in 1888, and it was in the vicinity of the old homestead that her children started their careers. The children were: Robert E .; Thomas C., who was killed in a railroad wreck on the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad near Denton, and Miss Emma Myers, a teacher of music in Fort Worth.

Dr. Robert E. Mvers engaged in business as a mature youth with such education as Lancaster provided for its young people, and began his work as a clerk for the well known townsman Rena P. Henry, who was then a local merchant. When Mr. Henry retired from business, Mr. Myers entered the firm of Gibson, Lyon, and Com-

pany, and afterwards was with N. B. Johnson. After several years he left the trade to take up the medical study, entering the medical department of the University of Nashville, Tennessee, where he was graduated M. D. in 1893. In the same year he opened his office at Kemp, where he attended his first patient, and where he soon attained recognition as a skillful and reliable doctor. Dr. Myers belongs to the different medical societies, the Kaufman County and the State Societies, the Amer- ican Medical Association. At different times since the beginning of practice he has attended school for brief periods, pursuing special courses and thus keeping in touch with the advance in science and medicine.

Dr. Myers in politics is a Democrat, and was pioneer in the Wilson cause at Kemp. When the campaign started he advocated the New Jersey educator as the ablest statesman on the Democratic side, and his per- sonal influence had much to do with the practical sup- port later accorded the new president of the United States.

In Kaufman county, in November, 1906, Dr. Myers married Miss Edna Jackson, a daughter of C. Q. Jack- son of Kemp. The village was named by J. C. Watkins in honor of his wife, Kempy, a near relative of Mrs. Myers. Mr. C. Q. Jackson was an early settler in Kauf- man county, was a trader, and now resides at Austwell, Texas. The only child of Dr. Myers and wife is Mary Emmett Myers.

JAMES M. STILL, M. D. The family to which Dr. Still, of Kemp, belongs, has been notable for its promi- nent relations and activities in the profession of medi- cine and the ministry, and has numerous representatives in Kaufuian county, and other sections of Texas. The settlement of the Stills in Texas dates back to about the close of the Civil war, and previous to that time the family had been prominent in Tennessee and Arkan- sas, and physicians and ministers of the name are known in many sections of the union.

Dr. James M. Still, who was born at Palestine, Texas, March S, 1869, is a son of the venerable retired physi- cian, Dr. Abraham J. Still of Kemp. The family record goes back to the great grandfather Still, who enlisted from Virginia, his home colony, and was an officer during the Revolutionary war. This American soldier married a Miss Lidy, and among their children were: Dr. An- drew, grandfather of Dr. James M .; Rev. Abraham Still, a physician and a Methodist preacher, who spent his life in Tennessee and Kansas, dying in the latter state; James and Dr. Isaac, who both died in Tennessee; Dr. Henry, who died in Arkansas; Keziah, who married first a Phelps, and later a Rodgers, and died in Tennessee.

Dr. Andrew Still, the grandfather, was born in Vir- ginia, and moved across the mountains into Tennessee, where he was among the early settlers. He studied medi- cine, and was long a successful physician. He married Miss Sallie Bryant, who died in 1833. Her people belong to the pioneer farmers of Tennessee. Dr. Andrew Still and wife were the parents of: George, who died in Tennessee, as did his sister Martha, who never mar- ried; Mary, who married John Greenway. and spent her life in Tennessee; Dr. Abraham J., and Elizabeth, who died in Kaufman county, Texas, as Mrs. Roger Gibson.

Abraham Jefferson Still, father of James M. Still, came out from Henderson county, Tennessee, and located at Palestine, Texas, in 1868. He was born in Decatur county, Tennessee, July 30, 1829, and was left without parents when a lad of fourteen. He secured education as the neighborhood schools afforded, and at the age of eighteen went to Henderson county, Tennessee. Fol- lowing the family inclination and practice, he decided on medicine as a calling, and at nineteen moved to Marion, Arkansas, to study under his uncle, Dr. Isaac Still. Subsequently he took lectures in the Memphis Medical College, graduating in 1857. His first office and

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practice were in the country clientage in the county of his birth, and he maintained an extensive country client- age during his residence in Tennessee. During the war between the states, Dr. Still was in the employ of the Confederate Government as assistant surgeon under Dr. West at Columbus, Mississippi, for a short time, until failing health caused him to abandon the work and return home. He was one of the most vigorous advo- cates of the southern cause, and his attitude alienated many of his old friends during the war, and he subse- quently suffered disfranchisement by the Federal govern- ment. On moving to Texas he took up practice at Palestine, where he lived until 1870, when he made his final move and settled on a farm at Kemp. This farm was subsequently selected as the site of the new town, and is now largely covered by the homes and business houses of the village. At what was known as the "Old town," he opened a store and engaged in merchandis- ing, at the same time continuing his medical practice until 1889. Dr. A. J. Still joined the first medical so- ciety organized in Kaufman county, and since early manhood has been a member of the Baptist church, and a Democrat in politics. He was filled with the spirit of opposition to military and carpet-bag rules in Texas, when he first came to the state and although denied suffrage for a few years he aided in the movement which eventually placed the reins of local and state govern- nient in the hands of Texas people.

Abraham Jefferson Still was married in Decatur county, Tennessee, December 17, 1859, to Miss Mar- garet Graves. Her father was a professional account- ant, whose birthplace was South Carolina, and who married a Miss Mackey, of Virginia. Their children are: Eugene, an accountant of Dallas; Mrs. E. W. Mason of Brazoria county, Texas; Dr. Benjamin F., a graduate of the Osteopathic Medical Schools founded and maintained by Dr. Still, a relative, at Kirksville, Mis- souri, and now a resident of Elizabeth, New Jersey ; George, who is a traveling salesman in Texas; Dr. James M .; Arthur Jefferson; Reagan, who is with the Independ- ent Telephone Company at Tyler, and Mrs. Eldred Thompson, wife of a minister at Roanoke, Texas. Arthur Jefferson Still, named in the above list of children, was born on the townsite of Kemp, January 14, 1872, was educated in the local public schools, lived on the farm until he was nineteen years of age, then clerked for W. A. Boggs, in Kaufman, and later for Mr. Stewart, in Kemp, and became a bookkeeper in the Mason Bank, at Kemp. When the bank failed he engaged in the real estate and loan business, and has since built up a large clientele. He also represents the Texas Life Insurance Company as an agent for the loaning of their funds, and the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company of Boston, and the Union Central of Cincinnati. Arthur Jefferson Still married in Dallas in June, 1905, Miss Bessie, a daughter of Stephen Moore, and they have no children.

Dr. James M. Still received a country training, and has many reasons to be grateful to the surroundings and influence of his youth in addition to the vigorous phys- ical manhood which he obtained as a boy on a farm. From the country schools he went to Baylor University at Waco for two years. He read medicine two years under his father and attended his first lectures in the Memphis Hospital Medical College. From there he went to "Marion Sims, " the ancient and honorable old school of medicine in St. Louis and graduated from there in 1992. For three years Dr. Still practiced at Noble, Oklahoma, after which he returned to the scenes of his childhood and has given this community his presence and his skill since that time.

In 1905 he took a post-graduate course in the Chicago Polyclinic. He affiliates with the county and state so- cieties. Dr. Still has no record in politics except as a voter with the majority party.

Dr. Still was married in Kaufman county, December

29, IS92, to Miss Mary Moore, a daughter of C. C. Moore, a former commissioner of the county, and an ex-Confederate soldier, who settled here from Mississippi. Dr. Still and wife have children: Miss Virginia, a stu- dent in the Milford School for Girls, and Miss Maurine. Dr. Still is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and is a Master Mason in Lodge No. 528 at Kemp.

ALBERT A. BLASINGAME, M. D. Manager of the Barnett Drug Company at Kemp, Dr. Blasingame has been in business at this point for over ten years, and has now practically given up his medical practice. For many years he was well known as a physician in Kauf- man and Van Zandt counties, and represents a family which has been identified with this section of Texas for sixty years or more.

Dr. Blasingame was born in Kaufman county, August 16, 1866, a son of Silas A. Blasingame, and a grandson of Wade B. Blasingame. The grandfather brought his family to Van Zandt county, Texas, in IS52, lived there as a farmer for many years, and died in 1891, when about eighty years of age. He fought Indians in the Florida Indian war of the thirties, and though too old to serve as a soldier in the Civil war sent two of his sons to the aid of the Confederacy, one of them being lost during the war. Wade Blasingame was born in Tennessee, and married Mahala Smith, who now sur- vives at the age of ninety years. They were both active members of the Baptist church for many years. Their children were: Elizabeth, who married Rev. William Thompson, a pioneer minister of Texas, and both being now deceased; Thomas, who died in the Confederate army; Silas A., father of Dr. Blasingame; Horace, who died in Hunt county with a family, and Jess, a farmer in Van Zandt county.

Silas Blasingame, who now resides on the farm which he settled in 1869, near Wills Point, was born in Ten- nessee in 1841, and was about eleven years of age when the family moved to Van Zandt county, Texas. Soon after reaching manhood he entered the war between the states as a Confederate soldier, did his duty bravely and well in the cause of the south, and then returned home to resume his regular vocation as a farmer. He married Martha Norman. Her father was Alexander Norman, who married a Miss Hill, and both came to Texas from Tennessee, and were old and honored settlers of Van Zandt county. To the marriage of Silas A. Blasingame and wife were born: Dr. Albert A., of Kemp; Mrs. Sallie Dotson, of Van Zandt county; Henry, who died in young manhood; Mrs. Josie Pamphlin of Van Zandt county; Finis, a farmer near Wills Point; George, a farmer and stockman of Van Zandt county, and Mrs. Della Nichols, of Van Zandt county.

Albert A. Blasingame remained with his parents until he was eighteen years old and in the meantime acquired a substantial common school education. For one term he was engaged in teaching school, and then took up the drug business in Kemp as a member of the firm of Nunnelee & Blasingame for two years. His ambition was directed towards a profession, and he prepared for that vocation by study in the Memphis Hospital Medical College, where he was graduated M. D. in 1885. He began practice in the country near his birthplace, sub- sequently moved to Chisholm, where he practiced six years, and in 1902 removed to Kemp, where he engaged in the drug business and gradually abandoned his prac- tice. Mr. Blasingame now owns most of the stock in the Barnett Drug Company, a popular institution whose history spans many years of this town. By close atten- tion to business he has built up a large trade and is one of the most progressive and successful merchants in the city.

On June 12, 1892, Dr. Blasingame married in Kauf- man county, Miss Amy Rice, a daughter of Captain John Rice, a farmer and pioneer Texan, and a soldier of the Confederacy. Captain Rice married Mrs. Lou Staf-

MRS. MARTHA HI. INGERTON

DA Ingerton

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ford, and had two sons and one daughter. The children of Dr. and Mrs. Blasingame are Jerome, Leota and Annie. Dr. Blasingame is a member of the Christian church, and in politics follows the family principles of the Democracy. He affiliated with the Blue Lodge of Masonry.

WILLIAM H. INGERTON. One of the oldest stock raisers and ranchers of the Panhandle country, Mr. Ingertou has been prominent at Amarillo and vicinity for a num- ber of years, and besides the importance of his industrial activities has been a leader in the organization and de- velopment of several of the Panhandle planters, and in every way is a man of large public spirit and of broad and influential activities.

There are few of the old time Amarillo citizens who do not possess an affectionate remembrance for Mr. In- gerton's mother. She was one of the remarkable women in this section of the state, served as postmaster at Amarillo for a number of years, and for a much longer period had been a school teacher and many of the prom- inent men of the present time were her pupils and give her credit for many of the influences and kindly help- fulness which started them on their careers.

William H. Ingerton was born in Columbus, Ohio, May 7, 1865, and was the only child of William H. and Martha Hannah (Sargent ) Ingerton. Both parents were natives of Ohio. The father in his young manhood gained the rank of captain in the United States Army and became lieutenant colonel of the Thirteenth Tennes- see Cavalry during the Civil war in which he served from the beginning to the end. Near the close of the war at Knoxville, Tenn., he met a tragic death and was twenty- eight years of age at the time. Mrs. Ingerton, who was married at Urbana, Ohio, in 1864, after the death of her husband engaged in teaching, as a means to sup- port herself and her only child. In 1872 she came to Texas, and for seventeen years, up to 1889, was engaged in teaching. She was a woman of excellent education, a graduate of Holbrook College, and on coming to Texas she began teaching in Waco, subsequently in Marlin, later at Denison, Sherman, Midland, and Sulphur Springs. She was principal of the Elmo school at Elmo and was assistant principal of the Normal school in Sulphur Springs. About 1889 she was appointed postmaster at Amarillo, and held that office and administered its serv- ice most efficiently for six years and four months up to the time of her death, which occurred in Amarillo, when she was sixty-six years of age.

William H. Ingerton owes much to his mother's in- fluence and training and was given excellent advantages despite the handicaps imposed upon his mother in pro- viding for the livelihood of both of them. He was edu- cated in the public schools of Denison and Sherman to the age of fifteen, and subsequently was sent to the State Normal school at Salina, Kansas, during the pe- riod which his mother was postmaster at Amarillo. His first work after leaving school was with the firm of Gunther & Munson, surveyors, and was employed in va- rious capacities by this firm in different parts of the state. He then became a cowboy, and rode the range for ten years, in western Texas, and thus laid the foun- dation for his successful career as a stockman. At the end of that time he gathered a bunch of cattle and began business on his own account. His success in this field is a matter of common knowledge to nearly all the resi- dents of the Panhandle. At the present time he owns and operates a ranch of two thousand acres and also holds a large amount of leased pasture lands in Hutch- inson county. He runs upwards of a thousand head of cattle and other live stock, and is one of the large ship- pers from this section. During his early career he served for a time as assistant postmaster under his mother and succeeded J. M. Kendred as postmaster.

Mr. Ingerton has the distinction of having been the first county judge of Hutchinson county, serving two

years in that important administrative office, during which time he practically organized and set in operation the machinery of the county. He was one of the or- ganizers of not only that county but also of Potter county, and was the presiding officer at the time of the organization of Potter county. In politics he is a Re- publican, and has always interested himself in political affairs. For nine years he served in the Texas National Guards and attained the rank of captain in Troop B of the First Cavalry Regiment, T. N. G. His church is the Episcopal. Mr. Ingerton was married in Amarillo Jan- uary 10, 1894, to Miss Ida Wheatley, whose father was Dr. T. A. Wheatley, her mother's maiden name having been Rager. Her father and family were among the old timers in this section of Texas. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ingerton, and they are ac- counted for as follows: Enid, who is a graduate of the high school at Amarillo, class of 1913; Sheridan; Wil- liam H., Jr .; Adelene and Madalene, twins; Ida Lola; Mary; Gillen. All the children were born in Amarillo.

JESSE F. COLLINS. In the flourishing little commer- cial center of Kemp, in Kaufman county, Mr. Collins has for a quarter of a century been closely identified with mercantile enterprise, and in later years has also taken part in local banking. He now has a position of prominence in a locality where he grew up as a hare- foot boy.

Jesse F. Collins was born in Mississippi, May 12, 1866, and was a child when brought to Kaufman county. His father was James T. Collins, who was born in Cul- peper, Virginia, had a limited education in the old field schools, early in youth went to Mississippi, and for many years resided in Pontotoc and Calhoun coun- ties. He was reared on a tobacco plantation in the Old Dominion, and from Mississippi went out as a private soldier in the Confederacy. He lived the uneventful but nseful career of a farmer, and spent his last years in Kaufman county near Kemp, where he died in 1883. James T. Collins was married in Mississippi to Miss Martha Collins, a daughter of Jesse Collins, but they were not kin. Jesse Collins was a slave holder, and was an Alabaman by birth. The children of James T. Col- lins and wife numbered sixteen, of whom the follow- ing grew up: Kate, who resides in Mississippi, and mar- ried George Young; Mary A., wife of C. C. Moore of Kemp; Lewis D., James B., and John D., who live in and about Kemp; Fred B., of Mississippi; Jesse F., and Virgil A., of Waco, in the employ of a railroad there. James T. Collins was a man full of years when he came to Texas, and entered upon the work of making a farm and rearing his family. He went through his work and accepted the results of his efforts without shout or murmur, mingled with his neighbors as one of them, belonged to no church or fraternity, and cast his ballot in political contests as a Democrat. His wife died in 1902, and both lie in the cemetery at Kemp.

Jesse F. Collins grew to man's estate on the farm a mile north of Kemp, and a commercial course in Lawrence's business college of Dallas was added to his country school work. He began life in the commercial world as a clerk for W. C. Mason & Son, in 1888, and learned the business of merchandising during the four years he was in this employ. In 1892 he associated him- self with his brother, John D., and engaged in business as J. D. Collins and brother. The firm bought the building now housing the Guaranty State Bank of Kemp, and in 1895 the senior Collins retired and Mr. B. Reason- over entered the firm, which became Collins & Reason- over. This was continued for one year, when J. D. Collins again entered the firm, buying out Mr. Rea- sonover, and Collins Brothers continued together until 1904, when the senior member again retired. Since then the firm has been conducted under the style of J. F. Col- lins. In 1907 Mr. Collins left his old business location and bought lot No. 2 in block C, one of the attractive

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brick blocks of the vigorous little town. Mr. Collins became a stockholder in the Guaranty State Bank of Kaufman within a few months after its organization, and has been vice president since 1910. His home in block No. 99 on Eleventh Street was erected under his super- vision and marks the substantial character of the man and suggests his permanent and abiding faith in the little town where he has lived for many years. Mr. Collins' public service has been rendered to his town in the capacity of city secretary, and as a member of the board of education.

Mr. Collins is secretary of Lodge No. 528, A. F. & A. M., is a Knight of Pythias, and is a steward in the Methodist church. He does his political work quietly, as a member of the majority party of Texas, and be- fore the advent of the primary system often attended the local conventions. At Gatesville, Texas, March 6, 1893, Mr. Collins married Miss Addie Washburn, a daughter of R. H. Washburn, a jeweler of that place and a former Confederate soldier. Mr. Washburn was born in Tennessee, and married Miss Nannie Reed. and their children were Lucy, now Mrs. Dan P. Quesenberry of Waco; Mrs. Collins; John, of Gatesville; Eli, who is associated with Mr. Collins in business at Kemp; Erin, wife of Fred Kaler, of Center Point, Texas; and Florine, Mrs. Ralph Lombard of Corpus Christi. Mr. and Mrs. Collins have children: R. H., aged eighteen; Leslie, aged sixteen, and Thelma, aged fourteen.

THOMAS PEYTON LUKER. Each year witnesses remark- able progress in the science of agriculture, for scientific farming has been developed to such a degree that it has been brought to the front among the honored call- ings and is regarded as one that demands careful prep- aration and that returns sure and generous compensation. To understand the aroused and continued interest in agricultural achievement, the work of such progressive farmers as Thomas Peyton Luker, of Henderson county, minst be taken into consideration. Mr. Luker has re- sided in Henderson county since his birth, and is a son of Alabama settlers of Texas of the year 1847. His father was Judge Joshua B. Luker, who came to Texas with the widow Holland's family and pre-empted land six miles north of Athens, several years before the county seat acquired the importance of a town. He resided on his half-section of land and occupied him- self with its development into a farm until his death in 1860. He was county judge during the fifties and had a hand in the organization of Athens. Joshua B. Luker married in Van Zandt county, Texas, in 1851, Miss Julia A. MeWilliams, a daughter of Watson McWilliams, her residence now being at Stockard, only a few miles from where she spent her honeymoon. She was born in Ala- bama in 1836 and came to Texas with her parents about the time her husband migrated to the Lone Star State. Judge Luker spent his life in Texas without the presence of any of his brothers or sisters and it has been only in recent years that several of his nieces and nephews have come into the state and settled in Comanche county. The children born to the late Judge Joshua B. and Julia A. (MeWilliams) Luker were as follows: Lizzie, who became the wife of Jo Cox, and died near the old homestead in Henderson county, being the mother of several children: Sarah, who became the wife of Jeff Killingsworth, a residnet of Eustace, Texas: Thomas Peyton, of this review; Mary C., who passed away a maiden, and James M., who is engaged in the mercan- tile business at Athens, Texas.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 140

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