A history of Texas and Texans, Part 147

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 147

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Reared under the conditions and influences of the pioneer days in Texas, Dr. Lewis Meriwether, whose name is a transposition of that of his distinguished ancestral kinsman, Captain Meriwether Lewis, waxed strong in mental and physical powers and gained an abiding appreciation of and love for nature through his "communion with her visible forms." He was accorded the advantages of the local schools and also received most valnable instruction from his father, both along academic and professional lines, and the admonition of his father had much to do with his adoption of the profession in which he has achieved much of success and precedence. In 1870, after most effective preliminary discipline under the able preceptorship of his father, Dr. Meriwether was matriculated in the medical depart- ment of Tulane University, in the city of New Orleans. in which institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1871 and from which he received his well

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earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. At the age of twenty-one years he initiated the active practice of his profession at Grapeland, Houston county, where he served his novitiate and continued to maintain his resi- dence until 1903, when he removed to Crockett, the judicial center of the county, where he has continued in active general practice during the long intervening years which have been filled with unwavering devotion to his exacting and humane vocation and by the attainment of unequivocal success. He has kept in close touch with the advances made in medical and surgical science and has had recourse to the best of its standard and period- ical literature, with the result that he avails himself at all times of the most approved remedial agents and the most advanced methods of surgical manipulations. His practice is of extensive and representative order and he is one of the leading representatives of his profession in eastern Texas, the while his success is the more grat- ifying to contemplate by reason of the fact that the stage of his activities has been the county which has represented his home from the days of his childhood, his high standing in popular confidence and esteem render- ing impossible any application in his case of the Serip- tural aphorism that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country."

Dr. Meriwether has ever stood exponent of most loyal and progressive citizenship and has noted with the greatest satisfaction the magnificent development and growth of his, native state. He is aligned as an uncom- promising supporter of the cause of the Democratic party and he has been a member of the Christian church from the time of attaining to his legal majority. He is identified with the Houston County Medical Society, the Texas State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He was raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in the lodge of Ancient Free & Accepted Masons at Grapeland, of which he is Past Master, and he is now affiliated with Lothrop Lodge, No. 21, of Crockett.

In 1875 Dr. Meriwether wedded Miss Jennie Murchi- son, daughter of Dr. William F. Murchison, who resided near Daly, Houston county, and she passed to the life eternal in 1877, being survived by two children-Carrie Dunlap, who is the wife of William Hart, of Austin, this state, and Minnie Jane, who is the wife of Robert Hamby, a representative real estate dealer of that city. In 1879 Dr. Meriwether was united in marriage to Miss Martha Champion, daughter of the late William A. Champion, who served as clerk of the district court of Houston county. She died in 1891 and is survived by one child, Ethel A .. who is the wife of William W. Waugh, of Duran, New Mexico. In 1883 was solemn- ized the marriage of Dr. Meriwether to Miss Fannie Keen, who was born and reared in Houston county and who is a daughter of the late Thomas J. Keen, an honored citizen of Daly, this county. The four children of this union all remain at the parental home and their names are here entered in respective order of birth: Lewis Keen, Willie Adelaide, Elwin and Yancy Daly. Mrs. Meriwether is a most popular figure in the social activities of her home city, is a devout member of the Baptist church and is a successful teacher of music in her home city, as she has received the best of cultiva- tion in the "divine art," for which her natural talent was of high order.

WILLIAM M. GARRETT, M. D. The entire professional career of Dr. William M. Garrett, a leading physician of Crandall, Texas, has been passed in Kaufman county, where he entered upon his career as a practitioner of Forney, in 1886. His antecedents on both sides were among, or compatriots of, those who laid the foundations for Texas greatness and bared their breasts to the dan- gers incident to military strife or to the savagery of the native tribes opposing the advance of civilization. Doctor Garrett's father was Julius N. Garrett, who was born at Greenville, South Carolina, and grew up in

North Carolina, whence his father moved when a young married man.

The paternal grandfather of Doctor Garrett was Mat- thew Garrett, whose father was an Irish immigrant to the Colony of South Carolina and subsequently joined the forces of the revolution and fought at Eutaw Springs and Cowpens, in which latter engagement he was wounded. He accompanied his children to North Caro- lina late in life and there passed away. Matthew Gar- rett was one of General Jackson's soldiers in the battle of Horseshoe Bend, where the backbone of the Cherokees was broken in 1814. He spent his life as a planter and died in North Carolina in 1868, when past ninety-eight years of age. He married a Miss Dill, and their children were: A. B., who died at Gatesville, Texas; Mrs. Hill; Mrs. Sarah Anthony; Julius; Mrs. Hight, and William, who left a family in North Carolina at the time of his death.

Julius N. Garrett was born in 1815, and in 1844 left Macon county, North Carolina, for Texas, going down the tributaries of the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio river, and down the Mississippi river to New Orleans, the pioneer route to this far western coun- try. He flat-hoated it to New Orleans and made his way through the interior of Louisiana to Nachitoches, Louisiana, crossing the Sabine at the old "Military Crossing." Settling in Shelby county, Texas, he was there married to Miss Mary Minerva Truit, whose Eng- lish ancestors spelled the name "Truitt." She was a daughter of Hon. James M. Truit, who came out of North Carolina in 1838 and entered actively and con- spicuously into the affairs of the Republic.

The history of the American Truits starts with three brothers, who left England for the American Colonies and settled among the people of the south, where they seem to have amalgamated and their blood was mixed with the new race of men who inspired the contest for liberty and equality and whose posterity fought the bat- tles of independence and laid the foundation for the first Republic of the New World. Col. J. M. Truit was born in Buncombe county, North Carolina, in 1790. De- veloping a strong mind in a strong body, he entered life with a liberal training, was elected sheriff of Buncombe county about 1830, and, therefore, brought with him a political experience to Texas. He served in the lower house of the Texas Congress and early in the history of statehood was elected to the Senate. He was a man of fire and spirit and his blood and that of his sons rose at the sound of military conflict. His family was mixed up in the East Texas feud known as the "Regulators" and the "Moderators," and Capt. A. M. Truit, one of his sons, was in command of a company of the "Moderators," which had for its object the regu- lation of the "Regulators, " and which put an end to the neighborhood disturbance.

Captain Truit was subsequently elected captain of a company and went to Mexico with one of the regiments under General Taylor, operating along the Rio Grande. In the battle of Monterey he distinguished himself by disobeying orders and was commended by the command- er-in-chief for his act, a fact hitherto unrecorded in the annals of that engagement. Being ordered to hold a certain position during that battle, Captain Truit saw it menaced by Mexican artillery, so threatened with destruction as to necessitate the capture of the battery or see his little command swept from the earth. He had no time to ask for other orders, so issued a com- mand for the capture of the deadly battery, which was accomplished with no casualties, and when the incident was reported to General Taylor, the latter invited him to his headquarters and apprised him of his conduct in the face of specific orders. This the honest Captain admitted and said he was ready for his punishment. To his surprise and gratification, General Taylor stated that he had only to commend him for his foresight and bravery and complimented him upon the particular serv-

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ice he rendered the army. His brother, J. H., who lives at Center, Texas, now in his eighty-sixth year, and An- drew J., who is deceased, were soldiers in that war, and all took part as Confederates in the war between the states, Captain Truit being a major, and dying in the service in 1863. The other children of Col. J. M. Truit besides the sons mentioned above and Mrs. Garrett were: Caroline, who became the mother of Congressman John H. Stephens, of Texas; Mrs. Clara Stephens, and Mrs. Cynthia Rushing, of Joaquim, Texas.

Julius Garrett passed an uneventful life as a farmer, and passed away in 1883, his wife having died ten years before. Their children were: Alfred M., of Logansport, Louisiana, died March 19, 1914; James A., who died unmarried at Center, Texas, in 1878; Dr. William M .; Julius T., who died in 1886, at Center, Texas, and left a family; Robert R., of Timpson, Texas; L. M., who served Shelby county, Texas, as sheriff, and died in 1898, with a family; John H., of Sego, Texas; Mrs. S. J. Harris, of Center; Mrs. Mary S. Fonville, also of Center; and Missouri M., wife of W. F. Price, of Nacogdoches, Texas.

William M. Garrett was born June 26, 1853, and came up in a home without the means to provide even the rudiments of an education, never learning the multiplica- tion table until he came of age. He possessed a robust physique, a desire to know, and an ambition far and away beyond what his father believed could ever be realized. He was born with industry oozing from every pore, and early learned how to be useful at choring and common labor, and having heard of young men passing through college with just such a capital as he possessed, felt sure that what was possible for them was not im- possible for him to accomplish. Accordingly, he en- tered school at Waco as a preparatory student of Baylor and made an arrangement to "work his way through school." He left home with sixty-five dollars, and the practice he secured while giving value for his tuition and board made him an expert at sweeping, wood-chop- ping and as a hostler and garden-maker. He made his grades with the class and passed his examinations with regularity, graduating in 1880 with the degree of Bach- elor of Arts. His commencement day filled the parental heart to overflowing, and the ease with which he had acquired a college education made him feel a pardon- able pride in himself.

Having finished his literary course, Doctor Garrett applied himself temporarily to teaching for two years while getting his bearings for a professional career. He chose medicine and read the subject with Dr. J. H. Rodgers, of Center, one year, and then entered the Uni- versity of Louisville, Kentucky. After two years of work he passed successfully the examination required for a certificate to practice and did his first work as a doctor . at Center, Texas. After a few months he re- turned to college and graduated in 1883. He opened an office in Overton, Texas, at that time and practiced for three years, and then came out to Forney, and was there located from 1886 to 1912, when he moved to Crandall. During his practice, Dr. Garrett has visited post-graduate schools for eleven courses, chiefly at Tulane Polyelinie, New Orleans, and has maintained himself in harmony with the Regular school by the society affilia- tions of the county and state. For forty years he has been a consistent member of the Baptist church.

On August 15, 1882, Doctor Garrett was married to Miss Laura V. Dodson, a daughter of John M. and Harriet J. (Doyle) Dodson. His wife died at Forney, Texas, July 3, 1901, without issue, and on September 16, 1903, Doctor Garrett was married to Miss Mary D. Reading, of Mineola, Texas. Six children have been born to Doctor and Mrs. Garrett: Mary L., a promis- ing and intellectual student and book-lover of the grades in the public schools; Eunice B .; William M., Jr .; Julius R .; Arthur R., who died January 19, 1914; and Alfred P., who was born February 23, 1914. Doctor

Garrett has been a Mason since 1885, when he joined the order at Overton, Texas, and is a member of Brook- lyn Lodge, at Forney. He has no record in politics save as he stands for Democracy unhampered by poli- ticians. He has neither held nor aspired to office.

GEORGE N. GIBBS. In the history of Kaufman county, the Gibbs family has figured conspicuously from the earliest days. It is of interest to know that James W. W. Gibbs, father of the above named, assisted in the erection of the first house in Kaufman, and his license to marry was one of the first issued after the organiza- tion of the county. George N. Gibbs, who represents the third generation of the family in this section of Texas, has for many years been prominent as a planter and business man, and is now cashier and active man- ager of the Citizens National Bank of Crandall.

The Gibbs family was settled on the bleak prairies of Kaufman county in the winter of 1846, when Stephen O. Gibbs, grandfather of George N., brought his wife and children to this locality. Stephen O. Gibbs, who became one of the early sheriffs of Kaufman county, was born in Tennessee, and afterwards left his native state and settled in the state of Mississippi. He married Lurana Wells, and about 1848 continued his journey toward the Rio Grande with a colony of Texas settlers con- prising forty-six families for the Mercer colony. All of these colonists, it is declared, returned to Mississippi, because of dissatisfaction with the conditions confront- ing the settlers. The history of the Mercer enterprise shows that there were many sound reasons for dissatis- faction, on every hand. Stephen O. Gibbs had attained prominence by service in the legislature of Mississippi. He made arrangements with the Texas authorities, on the basis of so much land for every settler, to bring a company of immigrants to the state. Stephen O. Gibbs and wife were the parents of: James W. W .; John G .; Newton; Donnie; Mrs. Sarah Hill of Kaufman, Texas, and Mrs. Frazier Hatch of the same city. Stephen O. Gibbs died at Jefferson, Texas, during the war.

James W. W. Gibbs, who was a stockman and success- ful farmer, was born in August, 1831, acquired only a meagre education, and on coming to Texas, in early youth, selected his half section of land, given him as a member of the Mercer colony, east of Kaufman. This tract he subsequently traded for land one mile west of Crandall townsite, where he continued to make his home and where his material achievements as a farmer and stockman were perfected. His thrift led him to the ac- cumulation of one thousand acres of land, which he distributed among his children, after having extended a life of effort in bringing the broad prairie into produc- tive fields, and dotting the landscape with modest homes for his industrious men in the field. During his earlier career he served as Confederate soldier, as a member of Captain Michaux's company of Texas cavalry. He participated in the battles of Mansfield, Pleasant Hill and Yellow Bayou, and went through the war without per- sonal injury or capture. The late James W. W. Gibbs assisted in promoting the Citizens National Bank of Crandall, which ranked twenty-ninth among National Banks with a capital of less than fifty thousand dol- lars. He was a director of the institution until his death. He expended no energy in politics, and yet was always esteemed a useful factor in his community. He was a Methodist. His death occurred in September, 1911, and his wife, who was born in December, 1831, died in 1909. James W. W. Gibbs was married during the fif- ties to Miss Mary Augusta Sawyer, a daughter of George Sawyer, a native of Northboro, Massachusetts. To this union were born: William N., a merchant of Crandall, Texas; Lucy, wife of John DeVlaming, of Kaufman, Texas; Stephen O., who died at the age of. twenty-four, and who married Julia Crandall, leaving no children; and George N., the youngest.

George N. Gibbs grew up on the farm where be was

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born n in 1866. He completed his schooling in the Ben Allen high school at Kaufman, and then continued with his father dealing in stock and farming until ten years after his marriage. Among his first services after leav- ing school he was engaged in teaching, his several terms being spent at Black Land, Crandall, Prairie, Chappell, and New Hope schools. He then engaged in farming, but left off his active work in that direction in Novem- ber, 1901, in order to become cashier of the Citizens National Bank. However, his interests in farming have not fallen off since he became a banker. He owns at the present time, six hundred and seventy acres of land, of which five hundred and seventy-five acres are under plow, and highly improved. He is a progressive farmer, and has done much to reclaim his land from the seasonal overflows. He has some two hundred acres protected with dam and levee, and the fertility of this is now subject to reliable and constant cropping.

The Citizens National Bank was organized in August, 1901, with a capital of twenty-five thousand dollars. 1ts officers have been: J. K. Brooks, president; J. A. Crawford, vice president, and George N. Gibbs cashier. The surplus and undivided profits are fifty-two thou- sand dollars, with furniture and fixtures of the bank charged off.

In January, 1889, occurred the marriage of Mr. Gibbs to Miss Lizzie Crawford, a daughter of J. A. Crawford. The one child horn to their marriage, Owen Crawford, died in childhood. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs are active church people, he a Methodist and his wife a Presbyterian.

WILLIAM FURNEAUX. Although nearly thirty years have passed since the labors of William Furneaux were cut short by death, the work which he founded and to which he gave the active years of his career is still being carried on, remaining a monument to his industry and business prowess. As an agent for foreign interests, he was most active in successfully guiding the affairs of large corporations, and his complete and rapid com- prehension of business propositions as they were pre- sented to him seemed to be intuitive and marked him as one of the able men of his time. Mr. Furneaux was a native of Devonshire, England, and was born in 1840, a son of John and Maria (Hamlyn) Furneaux. His father, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal faith, la- bored long in the service of his Master, and died in his native England. The mother survived and lived in Texas for many years, whence she had come some years after the arrival here of her son, William. She died on the ocean on her return trip to England and was buried at sea. There were five children in the family: Samuel, who was educated for the medical profession, but died when but twenty years of age; William; John, who still resides in England, where he is connected with a large woolen mill, and Eliza and Mary S., who are both deceased.

William Furneaux was eighteen years of age when he came to the United States, having at that time just completed his education in the English schools. Locat- ing in Dallas, Texas, he took up the vocation of farmer, subsequently engaged in stock-raising operations, and eventually began negotiations for foreign capitalists in handling and developing land. A shrewd understanding of men and their probable motives made him strikingly successful in his chosen field, and during his career he accumulated in the neighborhood of 4,000 acres of land. Throughout his life he was a man of marked liberality and publie spirit. He was ever looked to by his associates for counsel, leadership and guidance, and his word had a value above parchment or legal formalities. In his death, which occurred in 1884, his community lost a man who in no small degree had assisted in the development .of the great Southwest. He was a Demo- crat in his political views, but, white he took an active interest in publie matters as they affected his com- munity, he was no politician. His religious faith was

that of the Baptist church, and he ever lived according to its teachings. During the war between the South and the North he served as an enrolling officer.

Mr. Furneaux was married in Texas in 1861, to Miss Fannie Jackson, also a native of Devonshire, England, and a daughter of John and Mary (Amery) Jackson. Her father was a farmer and stock raiser in his native country, and on coming to the United States, in 1848, settled on land which he had purchased before leaving London, and which was located fifteen miles north of the present site of the city of Dallas, which place at that time boasted of one small store and a blacksmith shop. A man of more than ordinary business ability, Mr. Jackson was successful in his ventures, and succeeded in accumulating a handsome property and in becoming one of the leading stock raisers of his section. His death occurred in 1866. During the Civil War, all of his sons enlisted in the Confederate service, and all emerged therefrom with gallant records. His children were as follows: John, who is now deceased; William, deceased, who rose to the rank of captain in Colonel Darnell's regiment in the Confederate service; George, deceased; Frank, who was wounded while serving as a soldier, and now is the operator of the old homestead fifteen miles north of Dallas; Mary Ann, who is de- ceased; Fannie, who is now Mrs. Furneaux, and Susan, the wife of James H. Mathis, of Dallas, an active mem- ber of the Confederate Veterans of Texas.

To Mr. and Mrs. Furneaux there were born four chil- dren: Joseph H., of Dallas; William C .; Mary Maria, and John L.

Mrs. Furneaux, who still survives her husband, re- sides at No. 3905 Worth street, Dallas, and presides over her beautiful home with dignity and capable exe- cution.

JUDGE W. J. OXFORD. Judge of the twenty-ninth ju- dicial district of Texas, an office which he has capably administered for the past fourteen years, Judge Oxford represents the pioneer citizenship of Erath county, of which he is a native son, and has been a member of the bar at Stephenville upwards of twenty-eight years. As district judge he has tried all kinds of cases, both civil and criminal, and the Bench and Bar of Texas give him credit as one of the ablest trial judges in the state. While his record proves his successes as a judge and lawyer, it should also be mentioned that in personal character he represents some of the best ideals of Ameri- can manhood, has lived a life of exemplary sobriety and honor, and has guided his entire career on the prin- ciples which are the most fundamental and necessary to the continued physical and moral health whether of state or nation.

W. J. Oxford was born on a farm nine miles north- east of Stephenville, Erath county, May 11, 1861, and the first twenty-one years of his life were spent on a farm and ranch. His parents, Brink and Mary A. Oxford, were substantial farming people, and both con- sistent Christians, members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They were among the early settlers in what was at the time the western frontier of Texas, and they not only suffered the hardships common to all frontier communities, but also had to fight the Indians and struggle with the forces of both nature and man in order to maintain a home. Judge Oxford himself has a vivid recollection of dodging and hiding from Indians when they came in the vicinity of his father's home on raids for the purpose of stealing horses.

His early education was quite limited, owing to the dearth of schools in Erath county, and he took two years of study in the old Add-Ran University at Thorp Springs in Hood county. One source of his livelihood came from teaching country school two years, and he then took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar at Stephenville October 18, 1886. As a young man he was sober and industrious, and his life on the

Mrs R F decampbell. and Suene Campbell Grand daughter.

RF Campbell

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ranch and farm until he reached his majority was the means of hardy physical training which has proved ex- tremely useful in his busy professional career. In his earlier years Judge Oxford could ride a bucking bronco on the range along with the best of horsemen of that day, but along with his interest in outdoor life, which has never left him, he also combined a fondness for the reading of good books, and his practical work as a lawyer and judge has always been characterized by an exceptional intellectnal interest and breadth of culture.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 147

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