A history of Texas and Texans, Part 168

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 168

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With the restoration of peace, Horatio L. Tate re- sumed citizenship at his home in Smith county. Again he took up the study of medicine, and in the spring of 1869 he graduated from the New Orleans School of Medicine. When he began the practice of his profession it was in the neighborhood in which he had been reared, and here his professional work covered a period of thirty- seven years. He aided in the organization of the Smith County Medical Society and the Texas State Medical Society, and while in active practice he frequently read papeis at the meetings of these organizations.

Dr. Tate was a pioneer in the truck and fruit in- dustry of Smith county. His entry into that field and the success he attained caused him to relax his hold upon his professional work and devote himself exclusively to horticulture. He became one of the large growers of the county and familiarized himself with the scientific as well as the practical side of it. He identified himself with the Lindale Fruit Growers' Union and with such other movements as promised well for the outcome of the new and important venture. He was a contributor to the agricultural and horticultural press, made ad- dresses before East Texas meetings of fruit growers and otherwise exhibited his enthusiasm as a peach and berry man. The canning industry at Lindale followed closely upon the heels of the demonstration of this country as a fruit region, and Dr. Tate took stock in the Lindale Can-

ning Company and is one of the directors of it. Also he is a director of the State Guaranty Bank of Lindale.

In middle life, Dr. Tate was a part of the political machinery of his county. As a Democrat he was elected to the State Legislature for several terms, and he was the originator of the law establishing the reformatory for juvenile offenders, which institution was subsequently located at Gatesville. He was chairman of the committee of the lower house on penitentiaries and was a member of the committee on State Affairs and of the Public Lands committee.

Fraternally, the Doctor is a Mason; religiously, a Methodist, having been identified with the church for a period of over thirty-five years.

In June, 1861, Dr. Tate and Miss Mary E. Terry were united in marriage, in Smith county, and the children born to them are as follows: Rebecca, who died here as Mrs. W. T. Cannon; Ida, wife of F. M. Boyd, of Lin- dale; Lula, wife of John S. Ogburn, also of Lindale, and Horatio, wife of J. N. Perryman, of Emory, Texas. Mrs. Tate is a native of Texas and a daughter of John Terry, who came to this state from Mississippi a few years before her birth.

DAVID CULLEN MCNAIR represents a family which has been identified with eastern and central Texas since ante- bellum days. He has been a resident of Kaufman county since 1866, but was born in Madison county, Texas, De- cember 7, 1858. His father was John Roderick Me- Nair, who spent his career in Madison, Navarro and Kaufman counties, dying in the latter in 1874. The grandfather was John Roderick McNair, Sr., a teacher, lawyer and doctor, who came to Texas some years prior to the war and spent the remainder of his career in Mad- ison county, dying in Zultz's Store, Willow Hole Prairie, during the war. He practiced his profession at Madi- sonville, and was a man of undoubted influence in his community. He was a descendant of the Scotch Me- Nairs, who first settled in North Carolina, from which state branches of the family radiated in many direc- tions.

Dr. J. Roderick MeNair married Mary McDonald, who died in Madison county, the mother of thirteen children. Those to reach maturity were: Martha, who married William Shannon, of Bedias, Texas; Kate, who married George Fullerton, of Brazos county; Alexander, who lived in Navarro county; William T., who spent the most of his career in Madison county; Barbara, who first mar- ried a Mr. McDowell, secondly a Mr. Henry, and was a third time married; Effie, who became Mrs. James Henry and still resides in Brazos county; Belinda, who married Mat Burney, a lawyer and later city marshal of Uvalda, Texas; Susanna, Mrs. James Ford, of Hous- ton; Dodson, who died in Madison county. These chil- dren were all brought up in the old-school Presbyterian church.

Jobn Roderick MeNair, Jr., the father, was born in Mississippi, and was a nephew of Judge MeNair, of Smith county, that state. Although his father was a scholarly and accomplished citizen, the son acquired only limited education. Early in bis manhood he entered the war as a Confederate soldier, and his three younger brothers served the same cause. He left the army as an invalid after much service, and was at home when the crisis came and the Confederacy collapsed. Removing to Navarro county soon after the war, he remained there several years, raising mules, horses and cattle. A few years before his death he moved to Kaufman county, liv- ing at Baker's Prairie when he died. He was still a young man at the time of his death, and most of his years in Kanfman county were spent as a farmer. He was not a church member.

Some time before the war John Roderick McNair, Jr., married Miss Eliza J. Baker, a daughter of John Baker, a pioneer of Texas. He moved from Illinois to this state, first settling in Walker county, then in Baker's

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Prairie, where his daughter Eliza was born in 1839. John Baker reached Texas in time to take part in mili- tary raids against the Indians, and for his part therein received several grants of land. He married a Miss Neely, and their children were Joseph, John William, Mary, Emeline and Eliza J. Mary married a Mr. King and Emeline became the wife of William Langham. Mrs. MeNair is still living and is now Mrs. Eliza J. Hall. The children by her first marriage are: D. Cullen; Alex- ander and Sharp, both of whom died in childhood; George, of Alamoosa, Colorado; Baker D., of Kemp; and John C., a merchant of Kemp. The Hall children are Mrs. Doar Bonner, of Louisiana, and Walter Hall, of Rice, Texas.

D. Cullen MeNair acquired a little more than the rudi- ments of an education in the "Old Cedar Log School" at Kemp. His active business experience provided him the rest of his training for life. He learned more while teaching than as a student, and for ten years was one of the well qualified and successful teachers in Kauf- man county. His first term was taught at Shiloh and his last at Lone Elm. In 1896 he was elected the county clerk on the Democratic ticket, with which party he and his ancestors have long been identified. He succeeded Frank Gilmore in the office. Before the expiration of his term he bought the lumber yards in Kemp from J. T. Stewart, and handled all the building material, lumber, lime, cement, brick and paints distributed through this section. He also engaged in the coal trade, but on the 19th of January, 1914, he sold his interests to the Rock- well Brothers Company, of Houston, and at this time is not actively engaged in business. Brought up through youth to manhood on a farm, Mr. McNair has never for any length of time been completely divorced from his interests in stock raising. He is the owner of several tracts of land, devoted to erops, in Kaufman county. Politically he has always been a sturdy supporter of the Democratic party, but has not been interested in practical politics since he left the office of county clerk. He is an elder in the Presbyterian church, and has attended the Presbytery as a delegate during the past ten years.

At Van Alstyne, Texas, November 15, 1885, Mr. MeNair married Miss Dora Thornton, a daughter of George A. and Martha A. (Mathis) Thornton. Both her parents came from Mississippi. The Thornton children were: Martha, who married Benjamin Boyd; Georgie, who became Mrs. W. R. Cooper; Cassie, who married W. G. Baker; Jonnie, who married C. W. Wheeler; Bettie, who married David Shields; Dora, now Mrs. McNair; and Thomas N., of Wayne, Oklahoma. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. McNair are: One, the first-born, who died in infancy; Willie, wife of Louis A. Lonchard, of Oak Cliff, Dallas county; Paul T., the junior member of the firm of Moore & MeNair, haberdashers and gentlemen's furnishers at Kamp, and who married Miss Ruby Mayfield, of Sham- rock, Texas, March 11, 1914; another who died in in- fancy; and Lloyd, Connelley, Leslie, Lela, and John Roderick.

JAMES FRANKLIN NEWMAN. In a large territory about Sweetwater the name of James F. Newman sig- nifies all the best qualities of business success and of good citizenship. Mr. Newman is one of the veteran ranchers of west Texas. Like many others in that field, he started out with only an ability to ride a horse and to work long hours and endure the fatigue and hard- ships of the open range. Mr. Newman first began riding range over forty-five years ago, and has since attracted to himself great holdings of land, of farming and live stock interests, and varied relations with the business community in which he lived. Over the Royal road of hard labor he has won success, and at the same time has shown a commendable degree of publie spirit in his en- ployment of means which have come to him. Eighteen years ago Mr. Newman donated some land and a por- tion of a private race course at Sweetwater for the site

of the splendid new high school, one of the finest build- ings of its kind in Texas, and which is a credit both to the civic enterprise of Sweetwater and to the liberality of Mr. and Mrs. Newman. This is only one of many ways in which he has used his means to influence and improve his community.

James F. Newman comes of one of the old families of Tennessee, whose representatives are well known both in that state and in Arkansas. He was born December 20, 1849, in Montgomery, Arkansas, the son of Martin and Elizabeth (Polk) Newman of Arkansas. Martin Newman was a farmer and cattleman and in 1850 moved to Navarro county, Texas, where he continued as a rancher until his death on December 8, 1911, at the home of his son, James F. Newman. His wife was a daughter of James K. Polk, a near relative of the James K. Polk, the president of the United States from 1845 to 1849. The five children, two sons and three daughters, in the Newman family were as follows: Prudy Ann, J. F., Sare E., Mary J., and Moses Newman.

James F. Newman was about a year old when the family came to Texas. That part of his youth in which he would naturally have been busy with school attend- anee was passed during the troubled days of the Civil war, and his preparation for life was largely left to practical experience on the farm and on the cattle range. He early became an assistant to his father, and began riding a pony before he could mount from the ground. During the year his father fought as a Confederate sol- dier from the beginning to the end, and the son lived at home and helped keep up the work of the farm. About 1867 he went into the cattle business for himself, practically without any funds, and with only a small bunch of cattle. His early operations were in Navarro county, where grazing land was at that time free, and with his cattle he rode the range all over the country between Corsicana and Fisher counties. His attention was given to cattle, and he also raised horses and mules. As long as there was free grass he kept his headquarters in Navarro county, then in 1879 moved out to Fisher county, which was still an unspent range, and with the invasion of wire fences and the farmer settlers in that region he went still further west in 1882, and operated on the open range about Salt Lake in New Mexico. In 1899 Mr. Newman returned all his important interests to Texas, and in Fisher county bought fifty sections of land for ranching and farming. His operations for some years were so extensive as to require much land be- sides, and he leased large quantities of grazing pasture. Mr. Newman is known as one of the largest and most snecessful stockmen in Nolan county. His specialty in cattle are the Herefords, and he is one of the men who has witnessed the transition from the old times when the Texas long horn was a staple steer until now scarcely a specimen of that old range stock can be found in the entire commonwealth. Mr. Newman has himself been always a little bit in advance of most of his neighbors and associates in this business and that quality has been a large element in his success. In recent years he has combined agriculture with the pastoral industry and at the present time has about two thousand acres under cultivation, raising cotton and small grains of all de- scriptions. Mr. Newman owns a bank in Fisher county, known as the J. O. F. Newman and Sons, and he and his sons also operate a cotton seed oil mill in Sweetwater. In Sweetwater he is the owner of large quantities of real estate, and besides the private bank mentioned is a stock- holder in Sweetwater institutions. Mr. Newman has his fine home and ranch headquarters near Sweetwater, and for a number of years has gratified his tastes in fine horses, his stables containing some of the fastest and best stock in Texas. His own private race course ať- forded the necessary facilities for training, and he still takes much interest in his horses.

Mr. Newman, though essentially a business man, has not neglected his responsibilities to the public, and for

J. F" Newman

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six years served as sheriff of Nolan county, making a reputation for efficiency and personal bravery, at a time when the duties of the office required the services of cool and fearless men. In politics he is a Democrat, an active member of his party, and a worker for community wel- fare at every opportunity. Mr. Newman is a firm be- liever in the superiority of West Texas over the rest of the world, and for his own part says he would live no- where else.

On September 4, 1873, Mr. Newman married Miss Jo- sephine Rushing, a daughter of Calvin Rushing of Na- varro county. Her father was a farmer in Navarro county, served during the Civil war in the Confederate army, and died on September 25, 1912, at the old home in Navarro county. His wife died in 1893. Calvin Rushing and wife had four children, all of whom are living and married, except the oldest daughter. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Newman have been born three sons, as follows: Alfred T., born October 17, 1874; Harter S., born October 30, 1876; and Ira M. Newman, born March 27. 1887. Alfred T. Newman, the oldest son, married Miss Keith Fuque of Russellville of Ken- tucky, and their two children are Horace H. and Queen Elizabeth, aged respectively fourteen and eleven years.

JASON SOWELL. The vital loyalty which Mr. Sowell accords to Texas is based not only on deep appreciation of the advantages and attractions of the Lone Star com- monwealth, but also upon the fact that within its gra- cious borders he has maintained his home since his boy- hood days, his parents having come to the state about four years prior to the outbreak of the Civil war. Mr. Sewell is today numbered among the prominent and in- finential citizens of Kaufman county, where he has served in various public offices of distinctive trust, and he now resides in the attractive little city of Forney, near which is located his well-improved farm. Sterling char- acter, genial nature, high ideals and worthy achievement designate this popular citizen, and he is well entitled to specific recognition in this publication.

Mr. Sowell was born in Itawamba county, Mississippi, on the 9th of May, 1853, and is a scion of a family that was early founded in the southern part of our great na- tional domain, his lineage being traced back to stanch English origin. The paternal grandfather of Mr. Sowell passed his entire life in North Carolina, and his wife was before marriage a Miss Muse. Their family con- sinsted of four sons and three daughters, Dempsey, Qnimby, Jason and the Rev. A. M. K. Sowell, and Nancy, Manda and Elizabeth. Of these several children two became residents of Arkansas, Mrs. Sparks Ken- nedy, who died in Texarkana, that state, and Dempsey, who passed the closing years of his life in the city of Little Rock. Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy had children as fol- lows: Margaret, Gather, Ala, Mary, Gus, Lewis, Joe, Acia, William and Tom. This family settled near Tex- arkana about forty-five years ago. He whose name ini- tiates this article is a son of the Rev. A. M. K. and Mary (Moore) Sowell, and was the sixth in order of birth of their nine children, namely: Hamilton, a lum- berman and stock raiser in New Mexico; Mary, who died in Kaufman county, the wife of George Stratton; Sal- lie, who married Samuel Murphy and spent her life in Kaufman county; Dr. Connor B., of whom mention is made elsewhere in this publication; Alice, who married Dr. Stroud and passed the closing years of her life in Terrell, Texas; Thomas and Marion, both of whom died in Kaufman county; and Emory, who died as a soldier in the Confederate army while in service in the Civil war.

The Rev. A. M. K. Sowell was the head of one of the three families, the Sowells, the Sewells and the Carliles, who came from Mississippi and established homes in Texas in the year 1859, and the names of these families have been most prominently and worthily linked with the history of Kanfman county, this state. The Missis- sippi migrants to the Lone Star state came in company Vol. IV-35

and formed a more or less stately overland caravan as they made their way onward with teams and wagons and their varied household appurtenances. The father of Jason Sowell secured a tract of land along the line be- tween Kaufman and Dallas counties, and there engaged in the raising of live stock, with which line of industry he continued to be actively identified for many years, his stock in the early days being driven to either Jefferson or Shreveport, from which points it was shipped to the market at New Orleans. When in middle life Rev. Sowell began his zealous service as a local preacher of the Mis- sionary Baptist church, and he served as a missionary preacher in many parts of the Trinity river country, where his name and memory are held in lasting affection and honor. He was one of the early sheriffs of Kaufman county following the so-called reconstruction period after the close of the Civil war. He was born in North Caro- lina, and in his youth became a resident of Itawamba county, Mississippi, where he remained until his migra- tion to Texas. After many years of residence in Kanf- man county the Rev. Mr. Sowell removed to Mitchell county, and he is accredited with having raised the first bale of cotton grown in that county. He there contin- ned to reside until his death, at the venerable age of eighty eight years, and his cherished and devoted wife was summoned to the life eternal in 1903. She was a daughter of Joseph Moore and a Miss Dowd, and she had the following brothers and sisters: William, Cornelius, Hugh, Joseph, Henry, Patrick, Hyram, Wellington, Jane, Amelia, Sarah and Siba. Two of the sons of Rev. and Mrs. Sowell were valiant soldiers of the Confederacy in the Civil war: Hamilton H., who is now a resident of Lower Penasco, Chaves county, New Mexico, and Emory, who died at Little Rock, Arkansas, while in the service.

As previously stated, Jason Sowell was a lad of six years at the time of the family removal to Texas, and the period of his boyhood and yonth found him identified with his father's agricultural and stock-growing opera- tions in Kaufman and Dallas counties, the while he duly availed himself of the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period. His first definitely independ- ent effort as a "man of affairs" was made when he was about eighteen years of age and was in connection with grading work in Dallas county incidental to the construc- tion of the railway line from Marshall to Dallas. As a young man Mr. Sowell engaged in farming and stock raising in an independent way, and with these lines of industry he has been continuously identified in the imme- diate vicinity of the village of Forney during the long intervening years, but he has also found requisition for his services in connection with public offices of distinctive local trust and responsibility. He now owns a well- improved and valnable farm of two hundred and forty acres, to which he gives a general supervision, and since the autumn of 1912 he has maintained his residence in the neighboring town of Forney, where he owns an at- tractive home on Center street, the leading thoroughfare through the residence district of the town.

In politics Mr. Sowell has never wavered in his alle- giance to the cause of the Democratic party, and he has been a prominent figure in its councils in Kaufman county. In 1892 he was elected county assessor, and two years later was re-elected, so that he served four con- secutive years in this office, the affairs of which he ad- ministered with marked discrimination and efficiency. In 1900 he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners, and in this office he served eight years, with characteristic fidelity and efficiency. He manifested in this connection his abiding civic loyalty and progress- · iveness, and did all in his power to conserve the best in- terests of the county and its people. He assisted mate- rially in formulating the policies by which the county provided for the payment of the indebtedness incurred in the erection of the courthouse and jail, and within his regime was also instituted the county system of road grading and improving, which forms an important part

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in the budget of public expenses in the county each year. He is one of the best known and most highly esteemed citizens of his home county, is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, and both he and his wife hold mem- bership in the Baptist church.

In the year 1879 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Sowell to Miss Olive Jackson, who is a daughter of the late Thomas R. Jackson, who came from the state of Georgia and numbered himself among the pioneers of the Beaumont district of Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Sowell have five children: Myrtle, who remains at the parental home and is one of the popular figures in the social activ- ities of the community; Claude B., Roy H. and Thomas W., all of whom are in the employ of the Great Southern Life Insurance Company of Dallas; and Byron, who is attending Austin College at Sherman, Texas.

AUSTIN COLLEGE. Since its establishment in 1849 Aus- tin College has been so closely identified with the culture and general welfare of the state that no history of Texas could omit frequent reference to the institution. Many references in the course of this work have been made to Austin College, and it is here the intention to set down briefly an outline history of Austin College.

From the establishment of American settlement in Texas plans were cherished and efforts made from time to time to establish a school of higher learning under Presbyterian auspices, but the first enterprises, including the "University of Nacogdoches" and "The College of the West, " proved failures. It was with the organi- zatiou of the Presbytery of Brazos in 1840 that a basis of united action was finally agreed upon. However, owing to the unsettled condition of the country, nothing could be done at that time. By request of the citizens of Nacogdoches the Presbytery assumed control of an insti- tution founded in that town, and also appointed a com- mittee to select a location on the Guadalupe River for an institution to be known as ""The College of the West." Neither of these enterprises materialized, and the record is interesting only to show that the matter of education was prominent in the minds of Presbyterians at that early day.

The first significant action for the establishment of a college was taken at the meeting of the Presbytery in Washington, Texas, June 21, 1849. A committee was appointed to select a more central location for a college and the committee reported in October of the same year in favor of Huntsville. The college was named in honor of Stephen F. Austin, and another committee secured the signature of Governor Wood to the college charter on November 22, 1849. That old charter, with some amend- ments, is still operative.

The first board of trustees consisted of Daniel Baker, R. Smither, J. Hume, G. C. Red, H. Yoakum, J. Branch, Sam Houston, H. Wilson, J. C. Smith, A. J. Burke and J. W. Miller. They met and organized in Huntsville April 5, 1850, with Rev. Daniel Baker president of the board pro tem. Rev. Samuel Mckinney was elected the first president of the college and Rev. Daniel Baker finan- cial agent. Class work began immediately, as Dr. Me- Kinney was already teaching in Huntsville.

Presbyterianism in Texas at this time consisted of eighteen ministers, thirty-two churches and about five hundred communicants. Politically and socially the con- ditions that prevailed throughout the country were unfa- vorable to permanent institutional growth, and when the poverty of the people and the numerical weakness of the Presbyterian organization are taken into consideration, the success and survival of Austin College seems remark- able. The ministers who laid the foundation of the col- lege were pioneer missionaries of Presbyterianism, and were men of culture and college training, representing such institutions as Jefferson College in Pennsylvania. Princeton College in New Jersey, and other old schools. After a tour in the east the financial agent, Dr. Baker, seenred nearly one hundred thousand dollars for the new

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 168

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