A history of Texas and Texans, Part 166

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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his agricultural operations in the vicinity of Murchison, Henderson county, until 1886, when he removed with his family to Athens, the county seat, where he died in the following year, honored by all who knew him. He was a loyal supporter of the cause of the Confederacy during the Civil war, in which he served in the command of General Magruder, the greater part of the time being given to service in the quartermaster's department. While thus giving his aid in the support of southern arms Mr. LaRue acknowledged conversion to the Chris- tian faith and became a member of the Baptist church, of which his wife likewise was a devoted adherent. He was affiliated with the Masonie fraternity, and his life was guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and honor. As a young man he wedded Miss Mary F. Oliver, who was born in the state of Tennessee, and who survived him by several years. Concerning their children following brief data are available: Clara is the wife of General J. Eads, a prosperous agriculturist near Athens, Henderson county; Penine became the wife of William Rhodes and now is deceased; Joseph T., of this review, was the next in order of birth; Squire B. resides at ElCampo, Wharton county; Ella is the wife of James O. Denton, of Murchison, Henderson county; William J. died in the city of Galveston, in 1902; and Anna is the wife of John H. Towery, of Athens.

Joseph T. LaRue was reared to maturity on the old homestead, which was the place of his birth and in connection with which he gained his initial experience in the practical duties and responsibilities of life. After completing the curriculum of the rural school, he con- tinued his studies for a time in Hubbard College, at Overton, and later he attended the high school at Comanche. That he made good use of his scholastic oppor- tunities is shown by the fact that for two years he was a successful and popular teacher in the country schools of his native county, but in the light of events it cannot be regretted that he deflected his attention from the pedagogic profession to identify himself with practical business activities. At the age of twenty-two years Mr. LaRue established his residence in Athens, where he assumed a clerkship in a mercantile establishment. He continued in the employ of others for eight years and then engaged in business as a merchandise broker, in the handling of heavy groceries and farmers' supplies, cotton-gin products, etc. Mr. LaRue continued success- ful operations in this line actively about fifteen years and then turned his attention to other fields of business enterprise, in which his success has been of equally un- equivocal order. In 1902 he effected the organization of the Athens National Bank, which was incorporated with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. He has been a potent factor in the development and upbuilding of this substantial and popular financial institution of which he has been president since 1904, the other mem- bers of the official corps being as here noted: Dr. C. R. Johnson, vice-president; B. Sigler, cashier; and Isaac P. LaRue, assistant cashier. The bank now has a sur- plus of thirty-five thousand dollars, its undivided profits are five thousand dollars, and it has proved a beneficent ageney in conserving the civic and material welfare of Henderson county. Mr. LaRue is president also of the First State Bank of Murchison, which was organized in 1912, is secretary and treasurer of the Farmers' & Mer- chants' Gin Company of Athens, is a stockholder and director of The Citizens' Ice Co., and is president of the Athens Business Men's League, a well organized and representative commercial body with high civie ideals and progressive policies. Mr. LaRue is ever ready to give his influence and tangible co-operation in the support of measures and enterprises projected for the general good of his home city and county and has done much to fur- ther the material development and upbuilding of Athens, where he is the owner of much valuable realty and where, in 1912, he erected a row of attractive and substantial brick business places on the south side of the court-

house square. The town of LaRue, thirteen miles south- east from Athens, on the T. & N. O. R. R., was named for him.

In polities Mr. LaRue was reared in the faith of the Democratie party, and from the same has never per- mitted himself to be deflected. He served several years as a member of the city council of Athens and he is one of the leading men of affairs in Henderson county, with a circle of friends that is limited only by that of his ae- quaintances, as his sincerity, integrity and purpose and genial personality have gained and retained to him un- qualified popular confidence and esteem. He is affiliated with the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and both he and his wife hold membership in the Baptist church in their home city.

On the 16th of March, 1892, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. LaRue to Miss Stella Parsons, daughter of the late Dr. H. L. and Margaret (Richardson) Parsons, who were prominent pioneers of the village of Terrell, Kaufman county, Mrs. LaRue being said to have been the first white child born at that place. Dr. Parsons was a native of the state of New York, received from Yale University the degrees of both Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Medicine, and he long held prestige as one of the most distinguished and honored representa- tives of the medical profession in northern Texas; Mrs. LaRue is the elder of his two children, and the younger, Homer L. Parsons, is a representative citizen of Athens. Mr. and Mrs. LaRue have had the following children,- Eldred Bailey, Isaac Parsons, Margaret, Mary F., Jo- seph C., Frank E. and Stella. The eldest of the chil- dren was born in January, 1893, was graduated in the Athens high school, after which he was for two years a student in Baylor University, at Waco, and he is now engaged in the merchandise brokerage business under the firm name of LaRue & Borrou. Isaac P. LaRue is assistant cashier of the Athens National Bank, as above stated.

CHARLES S. TAYLOR. This early Texas pioneer had a very prominent part in the events which preceded and followed the establishment of Texas independence, and for reason of his public service, the fact that he was one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and for many other causes which will later appear, his life has a peculiar appropriateness in the biographical annals of Texas. The following article, briefly describ- ing his life and services, has been kindly prepared for this publication by his son, Lawrence Taylor, one of the venerable residents of Nacogdoches, in which city the family have had their home for nearly a century.

Speaking for himself to his family at Nacogdoches, which includes his sou Lawrence S., he said: "I was born in the city of London, England, and an orphan in the care of an unele with whom I could not agree; on becoming of age, and free to follow my own inclinations, drew from the bank there the money left me by my par- ents and came to the city of New York. Not being satis- fied there, I came to Natchitoches, Louisiana, there pur- chased a horse and took the king's highway from that place in the direction of Nacogdoches, Texas. A few miles out, the horse siekened and died. The remainder of the journey to Nacogdoches I walked, carrying my bundle across my shoulders, arriving there in good health and spirits and stayed there."

Colonel Horton, speaking through a newspaper article, said: "When the volunteer soldiers from San Augustine Municipality arrived near Nacogdoches they were joined by the young men of this place, including Charles S. Taylor, and together attacked the Spanish troops doing garrison duty and routed, driving them to the Angelina river in the direction of San Antonio, where they, four hundred strong, surrendered. This was in aid of Mex- ican independence against Spain. "

Charles S. Taylor met Mary Rouff, a daughter of John E. Rouff, an immigrant from Wnertemberg, Germany, at

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her sister 's home in Nacogdoches, the latter having mar- ried Hon. Adolphus Sterne. He married her and en- gaged in the mercantile trade, with Mr. Sterne as a partner, but quit that trade and with his wife went over and lived on Ayish bayou in or near the town of San Augustine. There he became an alcalde under the gov- ernment of Coahuila and Texas, and in all trials by jury and convictions had with the death penalty this alcalde had the sentence executed accordingly without delay.

Charles S. Taylor returned to Nacogdoches and was appointed under a decree of the legislature of the Mex- ican State of Coahuila and Texas a land commissioner to issue titles to the colonists, his official place of business being at Nacogdoches, and he collected from the colonists quite a sum of money, which he dispersed by direction of the Committee of Vigilance and Safety at Nacogdoches, and adjunct to the government of the Republic of Texas, and to the collectors appointed by the Consultation in 1835. His work in this department is now embodied in a printed pamphlet as collected and preserved by himself and copied verbatim by his son, Lawrence S. Taylor.

Charles S. Taylor with Sam Houston, Thomas J. Rusk and John S. Roberts represented the Municipality of Nacogdoches in the Constitutional Convention of 1836, and at Washington on the Brazos river signed the Decla- ration of the Indepedence of Texas.

Charles S. Taylor, with others from that place, joined General Houston's army and participated in the battle at San Jacinto. His wife and three children remained at Nacogdoches until Santa Anna's army reached the vi- cinity of San Jacinto battlefield, when she with her small children joined in the historical "Runaway Scrape" in 1836, and fled across the Sabine river into the State of Louisiana, U. S. A., where all her children died from the exposure and hardship of this flight for safety. She always remarked to her children born to her afterwards in a sad way: "I shall surely stay at home with you should another 'Runaway Scrape' occur hereafter."'

Charles S. Taylor was appointed by the Congress of the Republic of Texas as the first Chief Justice of Nacog- doches county, and in conjunction with county commis- sioners under a law then in force, settled by sale all land titles to lots within the old corporate limits under Mex- ican and Spanish law and claimed by the new govern- ment as vacant domain as the successor to those govern- ments. Now, we have a "Constitutional" or "Princi- pal" square, and a church (Catholic) square or plaza. On the front of the village church are dedications to the people at large, and are so recognized by the gov- ernment and the judicial tribunals of Texas as successors to the Mexican government.

Charles S. Taylor was appointed District Attorney for the district including his home county, Nacogdoches, and did good work in protecting the public domain of Texas from the numerous "land sharks" so-called at that time, as also from the other criminals large and small.

Charles S. Taylor was appointed by the State of Texas a commissioner to investigate and report the legal status of land grants on the border Rio Grande, and after his return from that border, he sent two of his sons, Charles Irion and Milam (named for Ben Milam) to that border as rangers in the service of the State of Texas, and they chased Indians there in 1860.

Charles S. Taylor was Chief Justice of Nacogdoches county during the war (Civil) and attended to that office with its many additional burdens by reason of the war.

Charles S. and Mary Taylor's sons, Charles I., Milam, Lawrence S., William and Adolphus, joined the Confed- erate army. William died in the service and was buried on the bank of the Atchafalaya river in Louisiana, Lawrence S. was wounded at the battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, and was reported at home as killed, but his father, Charles S. Taylor, came to the hospital at Mans- field and brought him home alive, and not badly hurt, only disabled in both legs. And now let me at this

time, January 15, 1914, draw the line distinguishing the Confederate soldiers from the Mexican soldier as relates to conduct and procedure with wounded and captured adversaries in war. Lawrence S., as stated, was wounded and disabled at Mansfield, and while waiting his turn for his wounds to be dressed, the captured Federals were marched quite near and this Confederate soldier ob- served a wounded Federal soldier by the blood flowing from his body, and called to him to fall out of the march- ing line and lie down beside him, and asked the surgeon to give this wounded man attention in his turn as he could wait and the other could not. Soon darkness came over the field and obliterated all but the groans of the wounded, and I never saw again this friend in distress, and I am not wrong in saying this was not a single in- stance of this kind, but was a general rule of conduct with Confederates under like circumstances. Our Cap- tain, H. C. Hancock, a northern born and reared man, lately from the north, was of this kind, and taught his soldiers mercy by his own example. This captain was killed at Mansfield and his soldier boys will remember him until called to join him, as we hope, not in hell, as Sherman would say as a preferable place to Texas, but in the shade and in a cool place.

In concluding this sketch I will say Charles S. Taylor named his son Milam to do honor to Ben Milam, the pa- triot who lost his life in battling for the independence of Texas. I, Lawrence S., also named a son Milam for the same reason, that the name Ben Milam be in this way remembered in our family. His mother (Mrs. Law- rence S. Taylor) was Harriet D. Irion, a daughter of Dr. Robert A. Irion, who was Secretary of State under Gen. Sam Houston, and Anna Raguet, the latter a pio- neer family previous to 1836. Some of the brothers and father took part in the early history of Texas, as also in the Confederacy, and as appropriate here, my son Robert Irion Taylor, joined the United States army in the late war with Spain, and thus obliterated in a measure the old Mason and Dixon line between the north and south. Now I am past seventy-two years, and have lived and learned that war is pretty near "hell" as General Sherman said, and do hope that our president, Woodrow Wilson, and Congress will not involve us in a war with Mexico at this time. I guarantee the truth of the facts stated herein .- L. S. Taylor, Nacogdoches, Texas, Jan- uary 15, 1914.

BOB RYAN MASON. Long familiarity with the cotton gin as a salesman of cotton gin machinery made it pos- sible for Bob Ryan Mason to engage in business on his own responsibility in that line of enterprise. In 1913 he organized the Texas Gin Company, and today, less than a year from the date of organization, the company oper- ates twelve gins in the state. The young firm is already well established and is enjoying a fine success, under the management and direction of Mr. Mason.

Bob Ryan Mason was born in Robinson county, Ten- nessee, on September 12, 1868, and is a son of Monroe O. and Melissa (Taylor) Mason, both born in Robinson county, Tennessee, in 1840. The father is a retired stockman and farmer and he now makes his home at Hopkinsville, Kentucky, while the mother died in 1898. They were the parents of nine children, named as fol- lows: Harlety O .; Joseph F .; Bob Ryan; Ruric; June L .; Musa; Hope; Dorcas aud Jessie G. Mason.

Bob Ryan Mason was educated in Robinson county, Tennessee, in the district schools, attending at such odd season as he found freedom from the work of the home farm, both in Tennessee and in Texas, after the family moved to this state in 1881. They settled in MeLennan county, and iu 1887 Mr. Mason came to Waco, where he secured employment as a traveling salesman in the im- plement business. He traveled in that capacity for five years and then changed his line to furniture, continuing as a salesman for another four years, when he reverted to machinery again and entered the service of the Inter-

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national Harvester Company. His next service was with the American Round Bale Gin Company, and he was with that concern for five years. He then, in 1903, became identified with the Continental Gin Company and con- tinued as traveling salesman for that firm until June, 1913, when he organized the Texas Gin Company, with a capital stock of $10,000. The firm is prospering and bids fair to become one of the leading establishments of its kind, already operating twelve gins in various cities of the state.

Mr. Mason is prominent and popular in Waco, where he has long been known, and he is identified with numer- ous fraternal and other societies that have furthered his popularity and extended an ever widening acquaintance from year to year. Among these are the United Com- mercial Travelers, with which he has been affiliated for the past twenty years; the Texas Travelers' Association, of which he is vice president; and the Young Men's Business League of Waco, one of the valuable and pro- gressive organizations of the city. He is particularly fond of hunting, and that sport constitutes his chief recreation. Generous of heart and mind, Mr. Mason finds a wholesome pleasure in extending timely aid to children and aged people who have need of friends, and he has brightened many a life by his timely assistance along these lines.

A Democrat, he has done good work for the party in the county, and his influence is a worthy one in political circles. He has never been an office seeker. He is a property holder in Waco and also owns property in other parts of the state.

Mr. Mason has been twice married. His first wife was Minne Lee Boyd, whom he married in 1894, and she died in 1909, leaving one child,-Herbert M. Mason. On November 26, 1912, he married Ida Clare Renfro, at Brownwood.

Herbert Mason is a student at Daniel Baker College in Brownwood.

Mr. and Mrs. Mason are members of the Presbyterian church, and he is an elder in the church.

AMOS MANSON CURTIS, M. D. One of the oldest active practitioners of medicine and surgery in McLennan county is Dr. Curtis, who attended his first patients and earned his first fees in that county nearly forty years ago. Dr. Curtis has throughont this time had a high standing in the local profession, and during the greater part of his practice gave his attention to a general eli- entage. A few years ago, however, in associating with Dr. Witte he established a sanitarium, the second of its kind in MeLennan county, and an institution which has done much to keep this section up to the best standards in facilities and methods of treating disease and injury, and the establishment has many times justified itself not only in the patronage insured to its proprietors, but also in its effective service to the general public. The sani- tarium contains fourteen rooms, three trained nurses are regularly employed, and this number is occasionally in- creased to meet the demand.

Dr. Curtis was born in Clay county, North Carolina, January 5, 1854. His father, Watson Curtis, who during his long career acquired prominence in his locality, was born in Buncombe county, North Carolina, in 1813, and died in 1898, at the age of eighty-five. He was a farmer by occupation, but after his removal to Clay county was elected treasurer and sheriff, and had a very important place in public affairs. The mother was Elizabeth Jones, who was born in North Carolina in 1822, and died in 1862. Her children were: Mary, Sarah, William J .; Columbus W., deceased; Amos M .; Julius; John, de- ceased; Martha and Lillie.

Dr. Curtis until he was eighteen years of age, attended school in Clay county, and then went across the moun- tains into East Tennessee and studied medicine for two years with Dr. L. W. Duncan at the town of Philadel- phia. After this study under a private preceptor, he

entered the Atlanta Medical College at Atlanta, Georgia, where he was graduated M. D. in 1875. Coming to Texas in the following year, Dr. Curtis established himself at Waco, and lived and prospered as a general physician and surgeon up to 1909, when he concentrated his attention to the sanitarium iu association with Dr. W. S. Witte. The building is located at Eighth and Washington streets, and is conducted under the firm name of Curtis & Witte.

Dr. Curtis has never married, and in the absorbing work of his profession, in extended travel, and in the many interests which come to a man of his ability and standing, has found sufficient reward and attraction to balance the joys of domestic life. He is a stockholder and director in the National City Bank of Waco, a stock- holder in the Waco Savings Association, a stockholder and medical director in the Texas Life Insurance Com- pany, affiliates with the Knights of Pythias, belongs to the McLennan County Medical Society, the Central Texas District Medical Society, the Texas State Medical Asso- ciation and the American Medical Association. For one year he served as County Physician, and in politics is a Progressive Democrat.

A. RANDOLPH WILSON. With the organization of the Amicable Life Insurance Company, of Waco, March 8, 1910, A. Randolph Wilson came to this city to accept the positions of secretary and assistant actuary, capaci- ties in which he had had wide and varied experience in the East. He has since continued among the business men of Waco, and has firmly established his right to be accounted one of the progressive and energetic men of this progressive and energetic city. Mr. Wilson is a native of Richmond, Virginia, born February 28, 1882, a son of George M. and Mary F. (Thweatt) Wilson. He is a direct descendant of Captain Francis Eppes, an immigrant to Virginia in 1625 from England, and Henry Randolph who immigrated to Virginia in 1643 from Northamptonshire, England.

George M. Wilson was born on the Brierfield planta- tion, in Amelia county, Virginia, January 13, 1842, and has spent his entire life in the Old Dominion state, where he is prominent in business circles as secretary and treas- urer of the Tidewater and Western Railway Company. He married May F. Thweatt, who was born on the Ep- pington plantation, in Chesterfield county, Virginia, in 1855, and she died at Richmond, Virginia, in 1908, the mother of six children, as follows: Minnie, who is now Mrs. J. G. Robert, of St. Louis, Missouri; Richard T., of Richmond, Virginia, secretary of the State Corpora- tion Commission; Georgia M., who is now the wife of W. T. Harris, of Richmond, Virginia; Florence E., who is the wife of LeRoy Roper, of Petersburg, Virginia; A. Randolph, of this review; and Edward L., of Waco, clerk of the Texas National Exchange Bank.

A. Randolph Wilson was granted excellent educational advantages in his youth, attending the public and high schools of Richmond, and then entering the Virginia Polytechnic School, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Sciences, in mechanical and electrical engineering. After completing his studies he entered the employ of the Virginia Passenger and Power Company, as switch and motor tester, and after one year went to New York with the Gray National Telautograph Company, as inspector, in 1904. When he resigned his position with that company, three years later, he had been advanced to the position of manager of the Cleveland (Ohio) office. His next connection was with the Life Insurance Company of Richmond, Virginia, where he re- mained in the actuary department for two years, and he then became secretary and actuary for the Eastern Life Association Company of Virginia, at Norfolk, for one year. On March 8, 1910, he accepted his present position with the Amicable Life Insurance Company when it was organized at Waco, and at this time he is a stockholder and director in the company. From the

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time of his youth Mr. Wilson has gradually progressed until he now stands as one of the directing heads of an enterprise which figures prominently in business circles throughout the Southwest, and he owes his advancement to the fact that he has thoroughly mastered every task devolving upon him, the readiness with which he has rec- ognized and grasped opportunities and to his adapta- tion of new conditions evolved in business life to the needs of the present day. He enjoys fishing and hunting, and has always taken a keen interest in mathematics, but aside from these diversions his business and his home keep him fully occupied, both of which bear testimony of his careful consideration. His home is located at No. 1919 Columbus street, in addition to which he is the owner of some valuable real estate in Waco. Mr. Wil- son is independent in his political views, and has had no desire to seek publie office.

On February 28, 1910, Mr. Wilson was married at Christianburg, Virginia, to Miss Gertrude H. Spindle, daughter of R. B. Spindle, of Christianburg, a whole- sale and retail grocery merchant. Two bright and in- teresting children have been born to this union: Gertrude H. and Mary R.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 166

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