A history of Texas and Texans, Part 162

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

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A native of Wethersfield, Connectient, Cornelius Still- man, foreseeing the possible advantages in a newer coun- try, went as a young man to Ohio, locating in Cleveland, where he built up a large business as a wholesale grocery merchant. In 1852 he joined his father and brothers in Brownsville, Texas, and was here successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits for many years. When ready to retire from business life, he returned to the old Stillman home in New York City, where he resided until his death, in 1894. His wife, whose maiden name was Jane Robertson, was born in Connecticut, of Scotch ancestry.

As a boy and youth Robert Stillman attended school in Massachusetts, and later was a resident of New York City, where he was connected with the well-known importing house of Fairfield & Trask. Since 1883 he has resided in Brownsville, Texas, where he is managing the extensive interests of himself and the other members of the Stillman family, having charge of two very fine and very valuable cattle ranches lying in Cameron and Hidalgo counties, these forming the basis of his activities in the industrial and commercial world.

Mr. Stillman married Miss Kate Case, of New Jersey, and they have two sons, Lucius Stillman and Joel Still- man.

ALBERT G. JOYCE. one time postmaster of Dallas, is a member of one of the oldest families in the state of Texas. He was born in San Antonio, in 1872, and is a son of Rev. William J. and Laura ( Mitchell) Joyce, both of whom are living. The mother is a daughter of Asa Mitchell, who was among the first American settlers in Texas. He was a member of Austin's colony and was among the prominent pioneer American citizens of San Antonio, where he was a large property owner. His name is intimately interwoven with the early history of that city. Mrs. Joyce was born at Old Washington, Washington county, the first capital of Texas.

Albert G. Joyce was educated in Coronal Institute in San Marcos, where he was reared and spent his boyhood days. In 1891 he came to Dallas, and this city has since been his home. In the year 1893 he entered the Dallas postoffice as a elerk under Postmaster John S. Witwer.

Later he became assistant postmaster under W. M. C. Hill, who is elsewhere mentioned in this work, and he also served in a similar capacity under Mr. Hill's suc- cessor, Major William O'Leary. On the death of Major O'Leary, in May, 1903, Mr. Joyce became acting post- master, and served as such until he was succeeded by David A. Robinson on July 17, 1904. He was in the postoffice for twelve years of continuous service, and has been highly commended for the praiseworthy service he gave to the city in those years. Since 1904 Mr. Joyce has been in other lines of business in Dallas.

In Dallas, in 1900, he was married to Miss Nancy El- liott, of this citv, a daughter of James T. Elliott, a pio- neer citizen of Dallas.

L. L. LACEY, M. D. A Texas physician and surgeon whose practice extends over forty years, and whose life and services have placed him in the front ranks of the profession, is Dr. L. L. Lacey, whose earlier career was spent in Rusk county, who for some years was located at San Antonio, and for the past fifteen years has lived in the capital city of Texas-Austin. While enjoying a very extensive and profitable practice, Dr. Lacey has always been an originator and a progressive factor in his work, has done much to promote the welfare of the profession at large, and his influence for good has not been confined entirely within the technical limits of his vocation.

Born near Selma, Alabama, April 29, 1852, Dr. Lacey

is a son of Andrew Franklin and Margaret (Aiken) Lacey. His father, who was one of the early manufac- turers of cotton gins, came to Texas and settled in Rnsk county in December, 1852, when Dr. Lacey was seven months old. In that section of the state his father ac- quired large landed possessions, became an influential planter, and for several years filled the office of sheriff of Rusk county. The mother belonged to the prominent family of Aiken, for whom the town of Aiken in South Carolina was named. She is now living with her daugh- ter, Miss Luella Lacey, at San Antonio, Texas, and is ninety-four years of age. Andrew F. Lacey died in 1888 when seventy years of age.

The schools of Henderson, Texas, gave Dr. Lacey the foundation of his literary training, and immediately after his graduation with the degree Doctor of Medicine from the University of Virginia in 1874 he entered Belle- vne Hospital Medical College of New York City for post-graduate work. His general practice began at New Salem, in East Texas, and after six years his office was moved to Henderson, both places being in Rusk county. His patronage grew rapidly from the start, and extended over a large section of Rusk county. During his first year Dr. Lacey had a practice which netted him more than five thousand dollars, and for fifteen years he stood in the front of his profession at Henderson. For nine years after leaving Henderson Dr. Lacey practiced at San Antonio, and for the past fifteen years has had his home in Austin. His prominence in the profession caused him to be one of the first doctors appointed on the State Examining Board. He has membership in the American Medical Association, the District Medical Association, and all the local medical societies.

In 1874 Dr. Lacey married Miss Alice Meredith of Lawrenceville, Virginia, an accomplished young lady of an old and distinguished Virginia family. The last fif- teen years of her life were saddened by invalidism, and her death occurred at San Antonio in 1993. Dr. Lacey was devoted to his companion through all those years, and her death was the greatest sorrow of his life. Be- canse of the influence of her Christian character he was led to join the Methodist Episcopal church soon after their marriage, and subsequently persuaded twenty-fonr business men of Henderson to follow his example. In 1894 Dr. Lacey was united in marriage with Miss Forney L. Beaumont of Austin and one of the prominent church and club women and her home is the center of a gracious hospitality which is extended to a large social circle. She was the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. G. N. Beaumont. Dr. Beaumont was horn in Ohio, but was a southern sym- pathizer and served as surgeon in the Confederate Army and practiced his profession many years after the war, but for more than twenty years before his death was connected with the General Land Office of the state. Mrs. Beaumont's father is a member of the Lacey house- hold. To this marriage have been born four sons, Lewis, Bryan, George and Vernon, now being educated and growing up towards promising careers of usefulness.

Dr. Lacey is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. In 1878, with Dr. Swearingen and Dr. Man- ning, Dr. Lacey was one of the Texas physicians ap- pointed by the Howard Association to go to the relief of sufferers of the yellow fever plague at Memphis, Ten- nessee, and bravely risked his life in a service that was as hazardous as that of the army in time of war. Dr. Lacey has recently invented a sanitary mouthpiece for the telephone, which has been patented and is regarded by the scientific world as an invention certain to be of great service in preventing communicable diseases that may be placed to the present common mouthpiece, and it is the first successful invention of the kind ever made. Dr. Lacey has four brothers who are residents of Texas, namely: J. S. and Calvin, whose homes are in San An- tonio; Telephns, in Henderson, and Samuel Houston Lacey, of Dallas. Calvin and Telephus were both sol-

JAMarthy

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diers in the Confederate army, Calvin being with the army of Lee in Virginia. Dr. Lacey's home is at 2211 Speedway, and his office at 700 Congress avenue.

COL. PATRICK ANDREW MCCARTHY, civil engineer and builder of railroads and one of the best known men in Texas in engineering circles, was born in Champaign county, Illinois, on March 3, 1859. He is a son of Daniel and Catherine (Fitzgerald) MeCarthy, both natives of Ireland. The father was a railroad contractor, who was killed by lightning in 1876, when the subject was a young boy, and thus he was thrown upon his own resources at an age when other boys are being carefully looked after by solicitous parents.

Col. MeCarthy got a start toward his profession by working as a youth for the engineers who were engaged in building the old Indianapolis, Decatur & Western Railway across Illinois, and for several years he worked on railroad and bridge construction in Indiana, Illinois and Minnesota. He located in Lufkin, in Angelina county, in 1901, and this place he has since designated as his home. He has done much of the railroad engin- eering that has made Lufkin a notable railroad center in East Texas, particularly in the construction of the East- ern Texas, the Groveton, Lufkin & Northern and the Texas Southeastern Railroads. He was city engineer of Lufkin for six years, and the engineer of Lufkin's sewer system, consisting of nine miles of mains and laterals, with two aseptic tanks, which plant was completed in 1913. For two years Col. McCarthy was consulting en- gineer on new railroad work in Houston territory, and he has surveyed several projected lines thronghout Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico. For some time he has been engaged in the investigation of a very ex- tensive new trunk line project, aggregating about one thousand miles in length, for the Interstate Development Company, of which he is consulting engineer. He is also examining and consulting engineer for financial interests located in both London and Paris.

A man of immense popularity, he is known every- where as Col. MeCarthy, deriving his title through his connection with a semi-military organization in 1902.

Col. MeCarthy was married in Minnesota to Miss Mar- garet T. O'Donvan in 1884. and they have three sons and one daughter. Frank MeCarthy, the first-born son, now engineer for the Magnolia Oil Co., was formerly district engineer of the Texas & Pacific Railroad at Shreveport, Louisiana; Joe MeCarthy is construction engineer in interurban lines for Stone & Webster, and is now located at El Paso, Texas; George, the youngest son, is associated with his father at Lufkin, and will in time take his place among the engineers of the district, as his brothers have already done. The daughter, Agnes, makes her home with her parents.

R. T. CANON, M. D. The medical profession of east Texas has one of its ablest representatives in Dr. R. T. Canon of Lufkin. Dr. Canon is a man of broad expe- rience, widely traveled, and splendidly equipped profes- sionally, has acquired success and high standing in Lufkin and as a citizen is a loyal believer in the greatness and possibilities of his native state. One fact that makes his career of unusual interest is that he is the third phy- sician in as many successive generations of the Canon family, and all of these have practiced in Texas.

His grandfather, Dr. John Canon, not only practiced medicine, but preached the gospel as a Methodist minis- ter, and died in Polk county, Texas, at the veneralble age of eighty years. He married a Miss Weining, and their children were: Val C., of Plainview, Texas; Dr. John J .; Robert, who died during the Civil war; and Edward, who resides in Polk county.

Dr. R. T. Canon is a son of Dr. John J. Canon, who settled in Polk county, Texas, in 1858, coming from Florida, where he spent his childhood, and was married. He was born in Georgia in 1834, was educated largely

in the city of Macon, took his courses in medicine at At- lanta, and began practice in Florida. On coming to Texas he settled at Big Springs, in Polk county, and was in practice there until 1872, when he moved to Moscow, and spent the remaining years of his active career there His death occurred in Lufkin in 1910. Dr. John J. Canon was in the Confederate army, and at the close of his service held the rank of lieutenant colonel. At Vicks- burg he was wounded, and was again marked for Yankee bullets during the Mansfield campaign. His affiliation as a veteran of the war was with the Ike Turner Camp at Moscow. He lived a purely professional life, as a citizen voted the Democratie ticket, and was a man of religious convictions and a Methodist. Ontside of his work as a physician, perhaps his chief social interest was in the Masonic fraternity, and he served as district deputy grand master of the order, and also belonged to the Kuights Templar Commandery. He married Mary Schmidt, a daughter of Patrick Schmidt, and his widow still survives. Their children are: A. S., a merchant at Calvert; Dr. R. T .; Mary, wife of J. W. Leggett, of Moscow; Benjamin M., of Minden, Louisiana; Dr. M. B., of Jacksonville, Texas; and Mrs. Nellie Victory, of Keltys, Texas.

Dr. R. T. Canon got his literary education in the high school at Moscow, and studied medicine in Galveston, and later in the Jefferson Medical College at Philadel- phia, one of the oldest and most distinguished medical schools in America. His graduation at Jefferson came in 1893, and possessing his degree of M. D. he began practice in Moscow, which city remained his residence until 1908. In that year he came to Lufkin, after tak- ing a post-graduate course in the Chicago Polyclinic, and a course in surgery at the Mayo Hospital in Rochester. Minnesota. The doctor has identified himself with local medical society work, wherever he has practiced, and has been honored with the office of president and secre- tary in the societies of both counties. On March 13, 1895, Dr. Canon married in Moscow, Miss Ruby, a daughter of J. H. Johnson, of Long View, Texas. Her brothers and sisters are: J. P. and J. R. Johnson, of Staples, Louisiana; Pearl, who married Dr. M. B. Canon, of Jacksonville, Texas; Mrs. Addie Vickery, of Grove- ton; Miss Fannie and A. T. Johnson, of Long View, Texas; and Mrs. James Goodman, of Woodville, Texas. Dr. and Mrs. Canon have the following children: Otis. Maurine, and Mildred. Outside of his practice as a physician, Dr. Canon's public service has been in the capacity of trustee of the Lufkin public schools. The new thirty-eight thousand dollar high school, completed in 1913, stands as a monnment to the public spirit of Lufkin, as well as to the taste and business acumen of the board of education, one of whose members is Dr. Canon. He has taken degrees in both the Scottish and York Rites of Masonry, belongs to the Galveston Con- sistory, and was Grand Visitor for a time and is past master and past high-priest of Blue Lodge and Chapter respectively at Moscow and Lufkin.

ALFRED H. EASTERLING, M. D. Worthy ambition and definite purpose have characterized the career of Dr. Easterling and have resulted in making him a physician and surgeon of broad and accurate scientific knowledge and a practitioner whose success is on a parity with his recognized ability, the while his genial and kindly nature has further fortified him in popular confidence and es- teem. He is one of the representative members of his profession in Athens, the judicial center of Henderson county, where he has resided since he was twenty years of age and where his status is such as to render most consonant his recognition in this publication. He is a broad-minded, liberal and public spirited citizen, and is thoroughly appreciative of and loyal to the state of his adoption.

Dr. Easterling was born in Walker county, Georgia, on the 9th of August, 1865, a son of James M. and Georgia

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(Reid) Easterling, both of whom passed the closing years of their lives in Athens, Texas, where the former died in 1886, at the age of seventy-six years, and where the latter was summoned to eternal rest in 1910, at the venerable age of eighty-five years. Mrs. Easterling, a woman of most gracious and gentle personality, was born in Whitfield county, Georgia, and was a daughter of Alfred B. Reid, a prominent and substantial citizen of that state. Mrs. Easterling came to Athens when the native timber was being removed of its present county court house, she having been one of the first white women to become a resident of the now thriving and at- tractive little city which is the judicial center of the county. She was twice wedded, her first husband hav- ing been Cyrus B. Meredith, who was a resident of Hen- derson county at the time of his death. The children of this union were: A. W. Meredith, who is a promi- nent banker and man of affairs of Willis Point, in Van Zandt county, where he was a county official for many years; James T. Meredith, who was a resident of Athens, this state, at the time of his death; and Mrs. Palmyra Graham, of Athens, Texas. James McQueen and Georgia (Reid) Easterling, who were married in 1860, became the parents of two children, of whom the elder is Dr. Easterling, of this review, and the younger, Eula Lee, who is the wife of John A. Murchison, of Athens.

James McQueen Easterling, the father of the Doctor, was born at Monroe, Watson county, Georgia, his father having been one of the most extensive planters and influ- ential citizens of that section of the state. He was a son of Henry Easterling, who was born in Georgia, of Irish lineage, and whose wife was of Scotch ancestry, her maiden name having been McQueen. Henry Easter- ling died shortly before the inception of the Civil war, and his will made a careful provision of the distribu- tion of his estate, which included a large number of negro slaves. Of his several children nearly all remained in Georgia until their death. James McQueen Easterling become one of the substantial and representative planters of Walker county, Georgia, and was the owner of a con- siderable number of slaves within the period of the patriarchal old regime of the South. As may well be sup- posed, he was vitally loyal to the cause of the Confed- eracy when the Civil war was precipitated on the na- tion, and he was commissioned captain of his company in a Georgia regiment that was commanded by Colonel Culbertson and that was assigned to duty with the Army of the Tennessee. He participated in the great At- lanta campaign and lived up to the full tension of the great conflict, though he was signally favored in that he was never captured or wounded. He was a man of strong mentality and impregnable integrity of character, was well fortified in his views, but had no predilection for the turmoil of practical politics, though he gave un- qualified allegiance to the Democratic party, whose every presidential candidate he supported from the time of Polk to that of Cleveland, save during the period of re- construction in the South, when he, in common with other citizens, was disfranchised. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and was a citizen who ever com- manded the high regard of all who knew him. He came to Texas in 1884 and passed the closing years of his life in Henderson county, as previously noted. He was twice married, and the mother of his son Alfred H. was his second wife. Of the children of the first union two sons, Edward and Archibald H., were valiant soldiers in a Georgia regiment in the Civil war, and both sacri- ficed their lives in the cause of the Confederacy. While with the Army of Northern Virginia they were captured by Federal forces in Maryland, where the younger brother received a fatal shot in the head. Rather than leave his wounded brother, Edward Easterling submitted to capture, and he was imprisoned at Funktown, Mary- land, where he literally died of starvation, both he and his brother having been buried at that place, honored martyrs to the cause to which their loyalty was of the

highest type. Of the daughters of the first marriage, Mrs. Mary Little died in Hardeman county, Tennessee; Mrs. Addie Little is a resident of Walker county, Geor- gia; Mrs. Sallie Jones resides at Wolfe City, Hunt county, Texas; and Mrs. Hunda MeDinald maintains her home in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. There is also a brother, Joel C. Easterling, a resident of Mt. Vernon, Texas.

Dr. Easterling was reared to maturity on the old homestead plantation in Walker county, Georgia, where he waxed strong in mind and body, but where his early educational advantages were confined to the somewhat ineffective country schools of the period following the close of the Civil war. He was thus far behind other members of his class in the matter of specifie scholarship when he entered the old Joseph E. Brown University at Dalton, Georgia. The president of this institution bad appreciation of the ambition and restricted opportunities of the young student, and gave him full latitude for ap- plication and scholastic advancement. The ambition and close application of the Doctor at this time are indi- cated by the fact that at the close of his first year in college he was found to have compassed fully and ef- fectually the work of both the Freshman and Sopho- more years.

Dr. Easterling was twenty years of age at the time of the family removal to Texas, and for a time he was em- ployed in a dry goods establishment at Athens, where he was later identified with other lines of business activ- ity, though he early formed a definite ambition to enter the profession in which he has attained to marked suc- cess and prestige. In consonance with his ambition he was finally matriculated in the medical department of Tulane University, in the city of New Orleans, and in this admirable institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1897. After thus securing his coveted degree of Doctor of Medicine he established an office at Athens, and here his novitiate was of short duration, as he proved himself admirably fortified for the exacting work of his profession, and his personal popularity further augmented his success, with the result that he has long controlled a large and representative general practice, besides which he is known and honored as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Henderson county. He is an influential member of the Henderson county Medical Society, oż which he served as president and of which he is now secretary and treasurer, and he is also actively identified with the Texas State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.

Loyal and progressive as a citizen and vitally inter- ested in all that touches the social and material welfare of the community, Dr. Easterling is unwavering in his support of the generic cause of the Democratic party, and in the furtherance of social welfare he is implaca- ble in his opposition to the liquor traffic and its dele- terious influences. He affiliates with the Masonic frater- nity, the Knights of Pythias and the Order of the Aztecs, in which last mentioned he is supreme medical director of the state organization, the headquarters of which are maintained in the city of Fort Worth. Both he and his wife are popular factors in the leading social activities of Athens.

At Cuero, Dewitt county, Texas, on the 12th of Feb- ruary, 1902, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Easter- ling to Miss Mitchell M. Wofford, whose father, John T. Wofford, a native of Wharton county, this state, is a citizen of distinctive prominence and influence in Dewitt county. Dr. and Mrs. Easterling have two children, Mar- garet and James McQueen.

WILLIAM BENJAMIN WYNNE. For more than thirty- five years William Benjamin Wynne has been an active member of the Wills Point bar, and by his learning, in- dustry, ability and character has held a high rank in his profession, while he is no less valued in the community as a liberal minded and enterprising citizen. A distin-

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guished Texas family is represented in his person, and the Wynnes have been prominent in law, military affairs and in business in Texas since the family was established here by William Benjamin Wynne, Sr., in 1841. The senior Wynne came to the state from Jackson county, Tennessee, in an ox wagon, bringing his family with him. He was born in Jackson county in 1816, was reared there, and his education came from the country schools of his home community, where his father, whose name was also William Benjamin, was a slaveholder and merchant. There were five sons in the family of grandfather Wynne, namely : James H., Robert H., B. J., Thomas L. and William Benjamin. Of these, James H. and William B. came to Texas, the others remaining in their native state.

William Benjamin Wynne, Sr., on coming to Texas, settled at Old Belleview, in Rusk county, a community later known as Pyrtle, but he located his headright, or government land, in San Angustine county, although he never occupied it. In 1879 he moved from Rusk county to Van Zandt county, and died at Wills Point on March 4, 1904. His active career was devoted to agriculture, and before the war he acquired much slave property. In church matters he was a Methodist and quite prominent, a diligent student of the Bible and of sacred history, while in polities he was first a Whig and later a Demo- erat. A secessionist, three of his sons shared in his convictions and gave service in the Civil war as soldiers of the Confederacy. William B. Wynne, Sr., married Miss Mary E. Moore, a daughter of James Harrison and Mary E. (Harrison) Moore. She died April 3, 1858, the mother of Colonel Richard Wynne, distinguished as a Texas lawyer, soldier and politician, who was super- intendent of the Confederate Soldiers' Home at Austin when he died in 1913. Colonel Wynne was a gallant soldier, and during the war was with Proctor's Brigade. James Harrison Wynne, the second son, served four years in the Confederate gray with General Thompson's Bri- gade, and a member of the same organization was Dev- ereau S. Wynne, who is now a farmer in Kaufman county. Thomas L. Wynne, fourth of the family, died in Palo Pinto county. The next in order of the children is the lawyer, William Benjamin. Mary A. married W. A. Williams and lives in Greenville, and Dionitia E. mar- ried J. R. Frisby, of Dallas. The father of these chil- dren subsequently married a second wife.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 162

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