A history of Texas and Texans, Part 150

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 150

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).

the twelve children in the family, DeWitt C. was the ninth.

As a boy he lived in Montague county and attended school in that vicinity, at Liberty Chapel, Montague county, and completed his education in the St. Joe high school of Montague county. At the age of nineteen he left home and started to make his own way. His first in- dependent undertaking was in the confectionery busi- ness near Wichita Falls, where during four and a half years he built up a good trade and made considerable money, at the end of which time he sold his business at a profit and then entered the employ of the Wichita Mill & Elevator Company, of which Mr. Frank Kell was proprietor. He continued for several years to work in the milling business, and after resigning engaged as a grain bnyer for E. R. and D. C. Cobb, who were whole- sale grain dealers. At the close of three years in that line of business he came out to Clarendon, where he es- tablished a real estate office and made the beginning of what has proved a very successful career as a real estate man. After six years at Clarendon he came to Amarillo and has since been in business in this city.

Mr. Priddy is an active worker in the Democratic in- terests. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Woodmen of the World in Amarillo. Mr. Priddy is an active member in the Polk Street Methodist church at Amarillo and was formerly secretary of the Chamber of Commerce.

At Claude, in Armstrong county, on April 25, 1903, Mr. Priddy married Miss Nancy Dora Rambow, a daughter of J. K. Rambow. Her father came to Texas and set- tled in Milam county more than half a century ago. The two sons of Mr. Priddy and wife are Horace Peyton Priddy, born at Clarendon, October 19, 1905, and DeWitt Clinton Priddy, Jr., born at Amarillo, April 5, 1912. Mr. Priddy, while gaining success for himself, has been noted for his helpfulness and charity to others who were struggling along in the harder roads of life. He is an enthusiastic advocate of Amarillo, which is destined to be at some time in the not far distant future one of the great cities of Texas.

DANIEL FARRINGTON BUCKMASTER. Among the former citizens of Dallas, Daniel Farrington Buckmaster was a resident from 1885 until his death in 1900, performed services of quiet usefulness as a worker, and left an honored name among his family and friends.

Daniel F. Buekmaster was born in New York city in 1826. His father was a native of Ireland and his mother was a French Canadian. He was one of seven sons, all of whom are now deceased. In his native city he started to learn his trade as brickmason, and when he had completed his apprenticeship he pursned his vo- cation as a journeyman in thirty-six different states of the Union. He was in the South during the fifties and entered the Confederate army during the war, serving four years as a wearer of the gray. After the war he located at Shreveport, Louisiana, and followed his trade there until 1885, when he moved to Dallas. He was still active in his work until a short time before his death. In politics he was a Democrat and was a member of the Catholic faith. He belonged to the Bricklayers' Union in Dallas.

Daniel Farrington Buckmaster was married in 1873 to Miss Elizabeth Murphy, a native of New York and a daughter of Mathew and Rose (Murphy) Murphy. Both her parents were born in Ireland. Mrs. Buckmaster, who still lives in Dallas, at her home at 4924 Bryan street, is the only one living of five children horn to her parents. She herself has been the mother of six children, namely : Daniel, who died in infancy; Rosa, the widow of Clinton Tucker, of Dallas, and the mother of one child, Lueva; Lawrence, a briekmason at Dallas and unmarried; Ger- trude, who is a stenographer, and she and her brother reside with their mother; Annie, also at home, and Stella, a teacher in the public schools.

2078

TEXAS AND TEXANS

JUDGE J. J. STOKER, a Confederate soldier in the war between the states, an educator of ability, serving his country in official capacity, always achieving success, and maintaining a high standard of citizenship, was born June 24, 1841, in Coosa county, Alabama. His father, Allen Stoker, was married to Harriet M. Myers in 1839, and J. J. was the oldest of six children, four sons and two daughters.

Judge Stoker is of Scotch-Irish-German descent. His great-grandfather, Robert Stoker, immigrated to America just after the Revolutionary war, settled in North Caro- lina, and had seven sons, from whom the Stokers are descended.

J. J. Stoker was educated at Wewoka Academy, in Coosa county, and in 1561 enlisted in Company I, Third Regiment, Alabama Infantry, Col. T. Lomax; was at Norfolk, Virginia, in Billy Mahone's Brigade, Huger's Division, until after the naval battle in Hampton Roads ; was at Drury's Bluff, below Richmond, when the Fed- eral fleet ascended the James River, in May, 1862; was at the battle of Seven Pines, where his regiment lost heavily, Colonel Lomax being killed.

After this battle the army was reorganized. His regiment was put in General Rhodes' Alabama Brigade, D. H. Hill's Division, and when Gen. Stonewall Jackson joined Gen. R. E. Lee in his attack on Gen. George B. McClellan, in front of Richmond, with General Jackson's corps, he was in the battles of Cold Harbor, White Oak Bottom and Malvern Hill, in the last of which he was wounded in the left wrist and permanently disabled from active service.

He was at home one year, and after the battle of Gettysburg was assigned to hospital service, but later detailed to guard Stanton River Bridge, on the Rich- mond & Danville Railroad, and when Wilson's cavalry attempted to raid and burn said bridge, he, with sixty others, withstood the assault and saved the bridge. A battalion was then sent to guard this bridge; he was relieved, and on October 19, 1864, retired from active service.

He then returned home, and, his father being a slave- holder, he took charge of the farm, and on April 4, 1865, was married to Emma Asenath Rawls, who died in 1871. They had three children, two of whom died, and one, Annie V., became a teacher of fine ability, now the wife of George Carmichael, president of the Citizens National Bank of Hillsboro, Texas.

At eight years of age he became a total abstainer from alcoholic liquors. A comrade said of him after the war: "I never knew him to use an oath, take a drink of whisky, play cards or gamble in any way, in the army." Being a total abstainer, it is easy for him to be a prohibitionist of the liquor traffic, local, state, nation, world-wide.

Judge Stoker is a Democrat, was a secessionist in 1860, but accepted the arbitrament of the sword as to the right of a state to secede from the Union, and with genuine patriotism and true Southern chivalry has de- voted himself to the upbuilding of his own beloved South- land, while not trying to tear down any other section of our great country.

In 1868 he accidentally shot off his wounded arm, and in the spring of 1569 came to Texas, arriving at Waco, and later went to Hill county. He taught school ten years and, while teaching, he strove earnestly to prepare his pupils for the duties of life by giving them proper instruction and inculcating the highest moral and true Christian principles, both by precept and example.

In 1878 he married Sarah E. Crook, a sister of Mrs. T. S. Wade, of Grandview. Iu 1880 he was elected dis- triet clerk of Hill county, Texas, and served six years. He then engaged in the abstract business for several years and in 1893 removed to Foard county, Texas, and engaged in farming, and in 1896 was elected county judge. The county had been organized six years and was $14,000 in deht. By rigid economy and good finan- ciering he started the county on the way to prosperity,

and in 1900 removed to Weatherford for the benefit of her splendid schools, having six daughters to educate. Five of these have graduated from the high school. The oldest, Clara May, now the wife of William Block, of Wynne, Arkansas, is a graduate in music; Sula is re- markally successful and popular as a teacher; Margaret is a graduate of South West Texas Normal, at San Marcus; Frances is a successful stenographer; Ruth and Esther, twins, are soon to graduate from Texas Faire- mont Seminary; the only son, James Allen, is in Los Angeles, California. They were all members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church until the union with the Presbyterian Church, of which they are all hearty supporters. They are all workers in the Sunday School and other institutions and departments of the church.

JAMES N. BARTHOLOW. A former newspaper man and editor who is well remembered in different sections of Texas, and who possessed more than ordinary ability in literary matters, James N. Bartholow followed his pro- fession in Dallas for a number of years, and died there about eighteen years ago.

He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1850, a son of Elijah and Mary (Given) Bartholow. His father was an attorney, and was also a jewelry importer, and at one time was associated with the firm of Tiffany, of New York City. Both parents are now deceased. The other children in the family were: John, deceased, and Fannie, widow of C. Dyer, of Williamsburg, Kansas.

James N. Bartholow grew up in his native state of Maryland and was educated for the law, but never prac- ticed the profession. He also studied medicine, but the pursuit of that was also not attractive, and so far as known he never had a case. All his tastes and inclina- tions were for literary work and for books, and it was this which led him into newspaper work. He came to Texas, and during his active career was identified with several journals as editor in different sections of the state, and was still writing and following his profession at the time of his death, in 1895. He was a Democrat in politics and belonged to the Episcopal church. His widow now owns business and residence property in Dallas and resides in a comfortable home at 1321 Canton street.

The late Mr. Bartholow was married in 1867 to Miss Mary A. Field, a native of Missouri and a daughter of James N. and Elizabeth ( Yancey) Field. Her father was a native of Virginia and her mother of Kentucky, and the former was a planter, a wholesale merchant and contractor, and possessed exceptional business ability and gained a modest and comfortable fortune. There were five children in the Field family, as follows: John W., deceased; Joel Y., deceased; Martha, wife of Wil- liam H. Sells, a custom house employe in San Francisco, California; Mrs. Bartholow, and Thomas, deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Bartholow had only one son, Yancy Bartholow, who was one of the foremost business men of Dallas. He was the originator of the Wholesale Texas Drug Company and is now president of the Southwestern Sun- dry Company, of Dallas. He is unmarried, is a man of large resources, and lives at home with his mother.

ALFRED M. NEWMAN, M. D. No character comes in closer or more earnest touch with frontier life than does the pioneer physician. His very presence at the bedside of the isolated homesteader is often a potion as powerful as his pills and his powders, and his sympathy and ad- vice are far reaching factors for good in the various phases of development of any new locality. Dr. Alfred M. Newman, of Canadian, Texas, belongs to this class of pioneer physicians. More than two decades ago he was the only doctor in a territory including nine coun- ties, and he has been in continuous and successful prac- tice here ever since. A review of his life is of interest in this connection, and, briefly, is as follows:

Alfred MI. Newman was born in Adams county, Ohio, August 29, 1861, and has in his veins a mixture of

2079

TEXAS AND TEXANS

Scotch-Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch blood, the former from the paternal side and the latter from the maternal. His father, John Newman, was born and lived and died in Ohio. His life was that of the successful farmer and bis age at death was that of seventy-one years. He passed away in 1885, and his good wife, Ann (Herd- man) Newman, in 1898. She was born in Ohio in 1819 and her age at death, therefore, was seventy-nine years. In their family were ten children, of whom Alfred M. is the youngest.

In the public schools Alfred M. Newman received his early training, and up to the time he was sixteen he worked on his father's farm when not attending school. Then for several years he alternated school teaching and attending college. He pursned a course of study at the National Normal University, Lebanon, Ohio, and at the Medical College of Ohio, Cincinnati. Following his graduation from the latter institution in 1884, he further prepared himself for his profession by taking special work under the guidance of one of the leading surgeons of Cincinnati. That same year, 1884, he entered upon the practice of medicine in Burden, Kanas, where he remained for nine years. In 1891 he came down into Texas and took up his residence in Hemphill county. Since that date Canadian has been his home and the surrounding country for many miles his field of practice. In the early days here he was the only physician in nine counties. For fifteen years he was physician and surgeon for the Santa Fe Railroad Company. He is a member of the District Medical and State Medical Soci- eties and the American Medical Association. The former organization covers the counties of Hemphill, Roberts, Liscomb, Ochiltree and Wheeler, and its members have honored Dr. Newman with the office of president. Also he served as president of the Canadian school board, filling the office four years, at all times showing a pro- gressive publie spirit. A local public utility put in opera- tion by him was the long distance telephone. He organ- ized the Canadian Long Distance Telephone Company, of which he was president and treasurer and his son seere- tary and manager. They built and equipped this con- cern and operated the line two and a half years, at the end of which time they sold out to the Bell Telephone Company. During his residence here Dr. Newman has acquired large real estate interests, his holdings includ- ing both farm and town property.

July 16, 1884, at Glenn Springs, Lewis county, Ken- tueky, Dr. Alfred M. Newman and Miss Zora E. Jones, a native of Kentucky and a daughter of S. S. and Mary Jones, were united in marriage, and they are the parents of two children, a son and daughter, O. Ross Newman and Miss Bertha May Newman.

O. Ross Newman was born at Burden, Kansas, Janu- ary 2, 1886. He is a graduate of Armour Institute of Technology and as an electrical engineer is connected with the Bell Telephone Company, having charge of twenty-seven counties in Kansas. He married Miss Mary Brooks, and is a resident of Wichita, Kansas. Miss Bertha May Newman is a native of Canadian, Texas, and was born May 8, 1892. She is a graduate of the Canadian High School, the Canadian Academy, Baylor University, and of the State University. She won a two-year scholarship from the academy which gave her entrance to the university. Miss Newman was married to C. C. Shaller on May 21, 1913. Mr. Shaller is a graduate of the legal department of the State Univer- sity of Texas.

B. F. CHERRY. Manager of the Weatherford Water, Light and Ice Company, and also head of a large drug company of the city, Mr. Cherry is an alert and enter- prising young business man, still in bis thirties, and has a record of accomplishment that might well be envied by many older men.

B. F. Cherry was born March 24, 1876, at Lawryville, Hardin county, Tennessee, a son of H. J. and Sarah E. (Alexander) Cherry. The Cherry family is of Scotch

descent and had numerous representations in the state of Tennessee, where most of them were planters and slave holders. Many of the name were Confederate sym- pathizers, and several served on the Confederate side in the war. H. J. Cherry, who is now living retired in Parker county at the age of seventy, was a courier for Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston in the battle of Shiloh and carried the news of his commander's fatal wound to General Beauregard. One of his brothers, W. H. Cherry, of Savannah, Tennessee, was a personal friend of Gen. U. S. Grant, and General Grant spent the night of April 5 in the home of W. H. Cherry just before the battle of Shiloh. Thus one brother was entertaining the Union commander, while another was in the army of the South and serving under General Johnston. Later this brother intereeded through General Grant for the release of H. J. Cherry, who was at the time a prisoner of war at Rock Island, Illinois. In 1895 the Cherry family moved from Tennessee to Weatherford, Texas, where the mother died in September, 1904. There were nine children in the family and the fifth in order of birth was B. F. Cherry.

His early education was in the Tennessee public schools, and for two years he was a student in Hardin College, at Savannah, Tennessee. While living in Ten- nessee he began his career as a school teacher, and on coming to Texas, at the beginning of young manhood, he found a place as clerk in a drug store. For more than seven years he has been independently identified with the drug business and is now president of the Sherry- Akard Drug Company of Weatherford. For the past three years Mr. Cherry has successfully managed the Weatherford plant for the supply of water, light and ice to the citizens of this community. The water supply of Weatherford is probably unexcelled by that of any Texas city. The source of supply is in the Trinity sands, at a depth of four hundred feet, and the plant has a capacity of furnishing three hundred thousand gallons per day. During the three years of Mr. Cherry 's man- agement the water plant has been maintained equal to the demands made upon it, and for the first time in twenty-five years there has been no shortage of water in Weatherford, notwithstanding some protracted spells of dry weather have occurred in this time.

Mr. Cherry in politics has always voted the Democratic ticket. His fraternal connections for sixteen years have been with Lone Star Lodge, No. 4, of the Knights of Pythias, and he also belongs to the Columbia Camp of Woodmen. He belongs to the Commercial Club and the Chamber of Commerce in Weatherford, is a steward in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and a very popu- lar citizen.

On October 25, 1900, at Weatherford, Mr. Cherry mar- ried a Miss Heiprin, a daughter of G. N. and Jennie Heiprin, both of whom were born in Texas. Mr. Heiprin is now engaged in the real estate business at Weather- ford, and was one of the first land surveyors in this part of the state. Both Mrs. Cherry's parents were reared in Parker county, and during their lifetime wit- nessed practically all the changes marking the develop- ment of this country from the pioneer period to the modern present. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Cherry was born, December 22, 1901, a son, George Franklin Cherry.

Mr. Cherry is an ardent advocate of the possibilities of Parker county and speaks with enthusiasm of many things that indicate the resources of this part of the country. The production of watermelons has given Parker county a well earned fame, and at the St. Louis Fair a few years ago ten melons were exhibited whose aggregate weight. was eleven hundred pounds. These melons are shipped to all parts of the United States and several carloads have been sent to Europe.

WILLIAM D. COWEN. As is usually the case with the leading business man of a place, William D. Cowen, who

2080

TEXAS AND TEXANS

occupies this position in Pecos, Texas, grew up in the hard school of experience and his early years were full of hard knocks. He started in life as a rancher, in the same way that hundreds of men have started, but he succeeded where many men have failed, through the qualities which he possessed of being able to work early and late and of possessing perseverance enough to cling to a thing until it was accomplished. He is now one of the most influential men in the whole of west Texas, influential not only on account of his wealth, but also on account of the strength and force of his personality.

William David Cowen was born on the 25th of July, 1851, in Gonzales county, Texas. His father, John Cowen, was a native of Ireland and his mother, Elizabeth (Nations) Cowen, was born in Mississippi. When a young man John Cowen emigrated from Ireland to this country, settling in South Carolina. He later moved to Mississippi and there in the fall of 1849 he was mar- ried to Elizabeth Nations. He came with his wife to Texas and they located in Gonzales county, near Belman, where they lived until 1852, when they moved to Fayette county. Here Mr. Cowen died in 1886. He spent all of his life as a rancher and stock raiser. Mrs. Cowen died in 1892, and of the seven children born of this union five grew to maturity. Of these Robert B. Cowen is a prominent farmer near San Marcos, Texas, and Willis Cowen is a teacher in San Marcos. William D. Cowen was the eldest of the children.

Owing to the fact that William Cowen was the eldest and that his father's family was large, he received only a limited education, attending the country schools in the winters and assisting his father or working on the neighboring ranches during the summers. When he was old enough to start out for himself he went into cattle raising on a very small scale in Fayette county. His herds grew and he later transferred them to Gonzales county, where he remained until 1883. Then he moved to Brewster county, and in 1884 came to Reeves county. During these eyars he had been continuously successful, everything that he had undertaken had turned out well, and this was not due to good luck, but to careful manage- ment and the use of good sense. In Reeves county he operated ou a large scale, owning a ranch of thirty thousand acres, and his herds had become immense. After making so fine a success of ranching, he turned to other fields, and is now the leader in all of the important busi- ness enterprises in Pecos.

Mr. Cowen became the president aud is the principal owner of the Pecos Valley Bank, in 1901. He is a promi- nent member of the Pecos Land Company and was one of the leaders in the movement which resulted in the growth and development of Pecos. He is president of the Pecos Valley and Southern Railroad Company and is one of the largest stockholders in this enterprise. Finan- cial enterprises have claimed the larger share of his time of late, and he organized the Bank of Barstow, at Barstow, Texas, and is vice president of the Toyah Citi- zens' Bank, at Toyah, Texas. He is actively interested in the welfare of these various institutions and spends much of his time looking after their affairs.

Mr. Cowen was married on the 3d of January, 1870, to Miss Josephine Darling, a native of Texas and the daugh- ter of Socrates Darling, who was one of the early pi- oneers of Texas, having settled here in 1834, and also being a veteran of the Mexican war. Mrs. Josephine Cowen died in 1889 and is buried in Toyah. Six chil- dren were born of this marriage, as follows: William Cowen is a prominent rancher of Culberson county, Texas; Lou married J. L. Duncan and lives in Jeff Davis county, Texas; John Cowen is a successful ranch owner of Reeves county; Frances is the wife of J. B. Pruett, a merchant of Pecos; Sidney Cowen is also successfully engaged in ranching in Reeves county, and Myrtle is the widow of Judge Ben C. Thomas and now makes her home with her father in Pecos. Mr. Cowen was mar- ried for the second time in 1891 to Lethia Porter Phil-

lips, the widow of John Phillips, Mrs. Cowen being a native of the state of, Missouri. One son, Marvin Cowen, has been born to this marriage, and he is at present a student in Baylor University, at Dallas, Texas. Mr. Cowen has taken especial care in seeing that all of his children received a fair education.

In speaking of the leading business man of a town, a picture always comes to mind of an arrogant, domineer- ing sort of a man, who considers himself not only the owner of the land and buildings of a town, but also of the people living therein, but one must draw a very different picture of William D. Cowen. He is a plain, simple business man, modest and of retiring disposition, prone to consider what he has accomplished in life as being possible of accomplishment by any man who works hard enough. He is highly respected and heartily liked by his fellow citizens, which is sufficient evidence that he does not stoop to take an unfair advantage of his in- fluence and power.

WALTER CARUTH. The history of settlement at Dallas and vicinity begins about the middle of the forties. A few years later, in 1852, the late Walter Caruth arrived in Dallas county and began a career of activity in busi- ness and as a good citizen, which continued with in- creasing esteem from his community until his death, which occurred at the old Caruth homestead near Dallas, February 3, 1897. The late Walter Caruth was one of the pioneer merchants of Dallas and had a store there for a great many years before the first railroad was built. He was a veteran of the late war and, though he never figured in political affairs, was always ready to help out any worthy cause, whether of civic or benevo- lent nature.

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 150

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