A history of Texas and Texans, Part 19

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 19

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On December 20, 1908, Dr. Bush was married at El Paso, Texas, to Miss Bertha Henderson, who was born at Atlanta, Georgia, daughter of John and Jane Hen- derson, the former of whom is deceased, and the latter a resident of El Paso. Dr. and Mrs. Bush have no children.

JOHN VALENTINE. Now residing at his home in Fort Stockton at the age of eighty years, John Valentine is one of the venerable pioneers of Texas. His experience in this state begins with his service in the United States army before the Civil war, he was a Confederate soldier, and for years drove stage on the great stage route be- tween San Antonio and El Paso. He is well known to all the old-timers, who were familiar with west Texas

before the railroad era, and in his present home town he is one of the popular and esteemed citizens.

John Valentine was born in Germany, February 14, 1833, had his education in the public schools of that country, and then learned the baker's trade. At the age of sixteen he left home and came to the United States settling in New York City, which remained his home for about seven years and during that time he worked at his trade. He then enlisted in 1857 in the army, and during the first three years of his service was in New Mexico, after which in 1859 he came to Texas. When the Civil war broke out he enlisted in the Con- federate army, went through the war as a soldier of the South, and was a participant in many campaigns and engagements and saw much hard service. He was wounded only once, and after the war be became a member of the San Antonio police force for about one year. He then took work as a stage driver on the mail route between San Antonio and El Paso, and drove the old mail coaches over the long trail of seven hundred miles day after day. After about a year he was made a station keeper for the stage line, being located at Leon- holes, for about three years, after which he came to Fort Stockton as one of the early settlers about this old military post and settlement. Since then he has fol- lowed various lines of occupation, and for more than thirty years has been janitor of the courthouse at Fort Stockton. In 1911 he retired from business and is now living quietly at his home.

Mr. Valentine was married in Austin, Texas, June 6, 1874 to Maggie Wilcox, daughter of O. W. Wilcox of Austin. Mrs. Valentine is one of the worthy Texas women and is the mother of a large family of sons and daughters, who do her credit for their careful training. The twelve children, five sons and seven daughters, are as follows: John W. and Thomas J., both deceased; Mary, wife of John Griffith; Edwin P., who is married; Maggie, wife of Thomas Pope; Lizzie, Alma, Maud, Ozwin W., all at home; Myrtle, wife of Peter Paul; and Sylvanus B. and Jewell Z., both at home. Mr. Valen- tine is a Catholic in religion and his wife belongs to the Christian church. He is a Democrat, but has taken no active part in political affairs.

HENRY CHANDLER CRIE. The publisher of the Lynn County News has been a Texan about as long as he can remember, knows the country and its people and the fundamental activities of the state through long and active experience, and in the newspaper field has built up a successful business and is a factor of no small influence in his home county.

Henry Chandler Crie was born at St. Louis, Missouri, December 15, 1868, a son of Edward H. and Carrie Isabell (Griswold) Crie. His father was born in Port- land, Maine, and his mother in Connecticut. After his marriage at Portland, the father came to Texas in 1877, and was followed by his wife and son in 1879. He first located at Fort Worth, where he was employed as a bookkeeper up to 1884, in which year he moved to John- son county, and had his home there until five years ago, when, after his wife's death, he moved to Tahoka, and now lives retired with his son Henry. From 1884 to 1900 he was engaged in the sheep business in Johnson county, and then was made postmaster at Godley, an office he held until his removal to Tahoka. During his earlier career, and while living in the state of Maine, he enlisted in the Seventeenth Regiment of Volunteer Infantry from that state, going out as a private, and at the end of four years service was mustered out as captain of Company I. He went into the army when seventeen years of age, and is one of the honored veterans of the great struggle between the north and south. Of his three children, one died in infancy.

Henry C. Crie got his early education in the common schools, being eleven years of age when he came to Texas. He was with his father in the wool business

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until thirty-three years of age, and on leaving the farm spent two years working at the carpenter's trade, at Floydada, and then moved to Tahoka, his present home. Here he bought the local printing plant, and at once established the Lynn County News, the first issue of which came from the press June 2, 1905. It is a well edited local newspaper, supplying a medium for business advertising and news and comment on all matters of local concern, and its influence is for the upholding of everything connected with the progress and improvement of the community.

Mr. Crie affiliates with the Masonic Order, with Tahoka Lodge No. 350, Knights of Pythias, with Tahoka Lodge No. 653, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also with the Rebekahs, with Camp No. 1306 of the Woodmen of the World. On June 12, 1890, Mr. Crie married Miss Mattie Julia Adair. The marriage cere- mony was held in Bethany Church in Johnson county. Her five children are: Julia Lincoln, born March 9, 1891; James Griswold, born October 9, 1893; Elizabeth Hard- ing, horn May 20, 1896; Isabelle Sidney, born December 16, 1898; and Richard H., born March 22, 1901. Mrs. Crie is a daughter of Rev. R. H. and Elizabeth (Harding) Adair. Her father, who came to Texas from Louisiana, was long a well known Methodist minister in Johnson county.

SAMUEL J. BROWN. Among the merchants of Amarillo is one who has succeeded against heavy odds, but hy years of hard work and the application of honest business methods Samuel J. Brown has attained success. Al- though he is now one of the city officials of Amarillo, and has served as secretary and treasurer for many years, yet it is as a merchant that he made his success, and it is in the mercantile line that most of his life as a business man has been spent. Mr. Brown is one of the most popular men connected with the city govern- ment, for the lesson which he learned as a merchant, that honest dealing is the only way to handle any business, has given the people of the city the greatest confidence in him and in his ability.

Samuel J. Brown is descended from the early Scotch- Irish settlers of the mountains of Virginia, that hardy race that settled in the ridges of the Alleghanies and along the Piedmont slope and during the Revolution formed the backbone of the fighting forces of the colonies. His father, Enoch I. Brown, was born in Virginia, and became a tailor by trade. He died in Virginia in 1865, at the age of fifty. He was a Whig previous to the war and after its close was a Democrat. In religious matters he was a stanch Baptist. He married Elizabeth Smith, who was also a native of Virginia and a descendant of a long line of Virginia ancestors. Among her ances- tors were the Calverts, a noted family in the early days of Virginia. Mrs. Brown died in the early fifties, leaving six children.

Samuel Brown was born in Rappahannock county, Virginia, on the 21st of July, 1848. He received his education in the schools of Virginia, attending until he was thirteen years of age. Then the Civil war effectually prevented any more schooling for a time, for school- masters had to take up the musket, and in many cases their pupils went with them to the front. Mr. Brown was among the youths who took up arms, and he was only thirteen years of age when he entered the service. He was inside the line scouting, etc., for two years in Mosby's territory, and was in the regular service under Mosby's command. After the war, at the age of seven- teen, Samuel Brown went to work, for his father's death left him an orphan. He first went into farming on a small scale in his native state, but after five years under the discouraging conditions which prevailed after the war he gave up agriculture and removed to Missouri, where he settled in Mexico. There he began as a clerk in a mercantile establishment, working for the small

sum of twenty-five dollars a month and his living expenses.

He spent two years in Mexico, but not finding any opportunity for advancement he, together with a friend, Jack Marshall, determined to try their fortunes else- where. In 1872 they set out on horseback for Texas. They made the entire journey in this way, and with the exception of the usual hardships to be encountered in such a wild country as Arkansas and Texas was at that time, they reached Grandbury, Texas, where they separated, with no adventures to recount. From Grand- bury he went to Jefferson, Texas, to join an old comrade and schoolmate, J. C. Millan, and here took a steamboat bound for New Orleans. From that point he went up the Mississippi to St. Louis and thence to Mexico. Again becoming a clerk, this time in the employ of Callaway Harrison & Company, he followed that line of work until the fall of 1873, and then the attractions of Texas once more looming large before his eyes he determined to return to the state.

He located in Bell county, at Howard, and engaged in clerking for Pendleton & Embree. His homesickness for Missouri did not come over him again, and since that time he has considered Texas the finest state in the Union. After eight years spent in the employ of this firm he went into partnership with a younger brother, and borrowing enough money to huy stock they estab- lished a general mercantile business. They continued in this occupation until 1891, with a fair amount of success, and in that year Mr. Brown sold his interests and in June of that year came to Amarillo, Texas, where he again engaged in mercantile pursuits. He thus con- tinued, with ever increasing success, until 1904, when his election as secretary and treasurer of the city forced him to give up his business in order to carry on the work of his office. He has filled this position with much success since that time, and to the entire satisfaction of the people.

Mr. Brown has always taken an active share in poli- ties and civic affairs wherever he has been. He is a member of the Democratic party, and an active party worker. He has served on the school board of Amarillo · and also as an alderman of the city. In fraternal affairs, too, he has taken a lively interest, and is a member of the Masons, belonging to the Chapter, the Commandery and the Council, and is a past eminent commander in the Commandery and is also treasurer. For twenty years or more he has been a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

Mr. Brown married Miss Pauline A. Moore in Bell county, Texas, in 1878. She is a native of this com- monwealth, born in Bell county, a daughter of the Hon. J. W. Moore, who was a very prominent member of the Bench of Bell county. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Brown. J. Kirby, the eldest, married Miss Orvill Berkley, a native of Texas, and they live in Amarillo. The other children are Daisy, Edna, May and Henry, all of whom were born in Texas.

LYNNE P. ATMAR. Among business men of east Texas few have accomplished more in so few years than Lynne P. Atmar of Groveton. Mr. Atmar, who is thirty-five years old, is president of the First National Bank, is an executive officer with several of the larger business and transportation corporations in his part of the state, and has a position in the business community which would be considered a handsome reward for almost a lifetime of patient and consecutive endeavor.

Lynne P. Atmar was born at Pennington, Texas, December 26, 1878. The first eighteen years of his life were spent in his native village, and while there he attended the high school and coming to Groveton began his business career as a drug clerk for John R. Collins. During the three and a half years spent in the Collins store, he learned pharmacy and became a skilled pre- scription clerk. He gave up the drug business in 1901

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to take the position of bookeeper with the Farmers & Merchants Bank, a private institution owned by Judge George W. Riddle of Dallas. Mr. Atmar soon proved his ability to Judge Riddle, was closely associated with that well known financier, and rapidly advanced from the position of a minor clerk to an executive official. The Farmers and Merchants Bank was nationalized as the First National Bank of Groveton on July 17, 1902, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. The first officers were: Judge Riddle, president; A. B. Ives, . vice president; L. R. Fife, cashier, and L. P. Atmar, assistant cashier. In September, 1903, Mr. Atmar was made cashier, and in 1906 became active vice president and cashier on the retirement of Mr. Ives. Mr. Atmar in 1908 was elected president, and the other officers were Hayne Nelms, vice president, and R. R. Robb, cashier. In 1908, after paying an annual dividend of ten per cent on the capital stock from the date of the charter, the surplus earnings were used to increase the capital to sixty-five thousand dollars. Since 1908, under the continued efficient management of Mr. Atmar, the bank has paid a twelve per cent dividend on the increased capital. In 1901 the deposits aggregated thirteen thousand dollars; at the present time, twelve years later, the average deposits are three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, while the bank has a surplus account of thirty-five thousand dollars and an undivided profit account of ten thousand dollars.

Besides his connection with the First National Bank of Groveton, Mr. Atmar helped Judge Riddle in promot- ing the Newton County Bank. He is vice president and treasurer of the Groveton, Lufkin and Northern Railway Company ; he is treasurer of the Groveton Light and Ice Company, and president of the Groveton Telephone Com- pany. He is also interested in agriculture, and has been the means of bringing under cultivation seven hundred acres of land adjacent to Groveton, and devotes his farm to the usual crops of this section. He has also erected several business houses in Groveton, and is closely identi- fied with all the affairs of that community. He is a member of the finance committee for the handling of county bonds for the erection of a new courthouse and also of the road district bonds for district No. 1 in Groveton precinct. Mr. Atmar is unmarried, and frater- nally is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and is a Baptist in church relations.

The father of the Groveton banker was the late Dr. Richard M. Atmar, who died at Groveton in 1898 at the age of sixty years. Dr. Atmar was a South Carolina man, grew up in that state, and in Mississippi, and came to his majority at Crockett, Texas. His literary education was liberal and he graduated in medicine from Tulane University. Throughout the war between the states he was in the Confederate service, was wounded in the battle of Valverde, New Mexico, and subsequently served with the surgical corps. He was in Col. D. A. Nunn's regi- ment, and throughout the war was in the Trans-Mississippi Department. All his active career was given to medicine, and his practice in Trinity county covers a period of thirty-five years. A Democrat, he was not active politi- cally, had no ambition for political position or public honor, and did his duty to the world through his practice as a physician. He was a member of the Baptist church and a Master Mason. Dr. Atmar was married in Hous- ton county, Texas, to Miss Laura Nelms, oldest daughter of Col. Thomas H. Nelms. Mrs. Atmar died March 22, 1895. The children were: Robert Nelms Atmar, of Westville, Texas, who is in charge of the West Lumber Company office at that place; Jessie, who married John R. Collins, and died at Groveton; Richard L., a dentist at Huntsville, Texas; Lynne P .; Dr. T. R. Atmar of Crockett; Miss Ninon, cashier of the Citizens Bank & Trust Company at Palacios, Texas; Mary, wife of W. C. Best, of Palacios; J. W., assistant cashier of the First

National Bank of Groveton, and Mrs. Laura Ellis of Lufkin.

BRYANT ALLEN PLATT. For a period of over thirty years Mr. Platt has been closely identified with those activities which constitute the business and civic life of a community, and which in the aggregate have made Texas one of the most progressive sections of the great Lone. Star State. Mr. Platt may well be termed one of the builders of his present home town of Groveton, since he was there when it was nothing more than a country, or rather a sawmill settlement, and has given his influ- ence and energy to every subsequent phase of its improvement. He has been identified with the commercial life of the town since November 1, 1889, when he gave up sawmilling, which had been his vocation for seven years, and started selling goods. Mr. Platt came to Trinity county, on October 3, 1882, as a young married man, and following the trade of sawyer. He had been at Beaumont, where he was foreman of the Centennial mill. He began his lumber career there with that mill, and went up from a common laborer, at a dollar and a quarter a day to a foremanship which paid him one hundred and forty-one dollars per month.

When he came to Groveton he became sawyer of the mill of the Trinity County Lumber Company. In that capacity he sawed all the flooring which went into the present State Capitol at Austin. The contract embraced about a million feet of "riff-sawed" lumber, and other special dimension stuff, used in the construction of the state house.

When Mr. Platt came to Groveton the settlement comprised the mill shed, commissary, two boarding houses and a saloon. The townsite was simply "on the map," and pine trees were occupying what is now the main street of the little city. Some years later when he went into business for himself, there were several good stores, and he now has the distinction of being the oldest merchant in point of continuous service, and the only one left of his competitors twenty-five years ago. He began doing business on the lot which his present store occupies, and his stock of goods was displayed in a two- story frame house. That was subsequently destroyed by fire, and its wooden successor shared the same fate. In 1902 he erected a permanent brick building, one hundred and ten by thirty feet, and has continued with more than ordinary success as a general merchant.

His work has not been confined entirely to the prosecu- tion of his private business affairs, and he has been equally a factor in promoting the town as a moral and prosperous center of population. He contributed to the building of all the churches to be found in Groveton, the school house, and has erected a number of residences. His own home is one of the best in Trinity county, and be owns a number of business places. Much of his surplus profits have gone into wild lands of Trinity county, and from year to year he has been opening up new farms. Several families now prospering have grati- tude to Mr. Platt for his encouragement in furnishing wire and other goods and stock at a time when these families needed just that amount of material capital in order to realize and to make effective their ambitious endeavors. Mr. Platt is vice president of the First Na- tional Bank of Groveton. For many years he has been one of the moral forces, as well as a business leader. A prohibitionist, he led the forces against whiskey, and brought about local option throughout Trinity county. As a boy he was brought up under Methodist influence, and still gives his support to that church. He has membership in none of the fraternal orders, and in politics is a Democrat.

Bryant Allen Platt was born in Miller county, Georgia, April 17, 1859. His father was Francis Marion Platt, whose original home was at Colquitt, Georgia, and who died in Groveton, Texas, in 1901, at the age of sixty- six years. Grandfather Platt married Piddie Mosely,

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and their eleven children were: Anthony; Mary, who married James Mock, and died in Georgia; Lucy, who married Richard Mock, and died in Georgia; Mrs. Toliver, of Georgia; James, who was killed while in the Confederate army; Nancy, who married a Mr. Bush of Georgia; Frances M .; Civility, who married Charles Jaines of Appalachicola, Florida; W. W., of Blakely, Georgia, and one that died unmarried.

Francis Marion Platt was born in Dooley county, Georgia, where all his active career was spent in mer- chandise. During the war between the states he was a Confederate soldier, and saw service from the beginning of the struggle to the end. He was of Scotch and Irish stock, the grandson of a native Irishman. Francis Marion Platt married Amelia B. Sheffield, a daughter of Bryant Allen Sheffield. She died in 1874 in Georgia, leaving two children: Bryant Allen, and Siddie S., wife of Dr. W. J. Stevenson of Groveton. Francis Marion Platt for his second wife married Caledonia Sheffield, whose children are Frank and Caledonia, the latter the wife of I. Friedman of Groveton. Mr. Platt for his third wife married Fredonia Singleton. The children by that union were: Hoyt, who died in Shreveport, Louisiana, with a family; Beatrice, who married Sam Stein of Blakeley, Georgia; Mittie, who married Harry Stein of Colquitt, Georgia; and Sherry L., of Groveton, Texas.

Mr. B. A. Allen grew up in Georgia, and received a common school education, chiefly from the old "blue back" spelling book. When he was eighteen years old he left home and came to Texas to find employment and to make a practical beginning of a career which had subsequently led him to the positions of success. He first stopped at Crockett, where he spent two years as a clerk in a store, and then went to Beaumont, and became a day laborer in the Centennial mill. From that point his career has already been traced. Mr. Platt was married April 23, 1882, in Beaumont to Miss Felicia Miguesse, daughter of Louis Miguesse, a Frenchman. That family originated in New Iberia Parish, in Louis- iana, where her father was a sugar planter and slave owner. Mrs. Platte died in 1884, leaving one son, John Arthur, born April 17, 1884. He was given a liberal education in the Peacock School for Boys, took the law course in the University of Texas, having won first honors at the Peacock Military School, and has been in the active practice of law since 1904. He married in October, 1913, Miss Maud Dudley, a daughter of J. E. Q. Dudley. On June 25, 1885, Mr. B. A. Platt married Miss Maggie Jones, a daughter of David Jones, who came from Great Britain and was a native of Wales. The children of the second marriage are: May, wife of E. C. Chinn of Groveton; Hazel, a teacher in the Grove- ton high school, and a graduate of the Southwestern University at Georgetown, Texas.

HON. ARTHUR B. DUNCAN. In 1884, when northwest Texas was still the paradise of range cattlemen, with no railroad to bring in the small farmer and settler, Arthur B. Duncan was one of the pioneers in that section of the state, and with his family was the first settler in Floyd county. He has been there now for thirty years, since the spring of 1884, and there is perhaps no citizen more widely known and honored in that vicinity. His place in the popular regard is probably best evidenced in his po- sition of county judge, with which he has been honored as often as he would accept.

Arthur B. Duncan is a native Texan, born in Hopkins county, August 12, 1862, the son of Dr. William B. and Elizabeth (Vaden) Duncan. The father, born in 1800, was a Virginian by birth, born in the town of Culpepper, the county seat of Culpepper county. He was a gradu- ate from the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia with the class of 1830, and was one of the old-time physicians. After graduating in medicine he came to Arkansas, where he practiced

for fifteen years. In 1845 he moved to Texas, locating in Hopkins county, where he again took up and con- tinued for many years the practice of medicine, and ren- dered many timely services in that capacity to the early settlers in that vicinity. He was one of the first reg- ular physicians in Hopkins county, and remained there in practice for a number of years. After being retired for some years, in 1869, he removed to Grayson county, where he died in 1874 at the age of seventy-four years. The mother, who was born in Tennessee, came with her parents to Texas in 1849, her family locating in Hop- kins county, where she was reared and educated and mar- ried. After the death of her husband in 1874, she went out to Hale county, where she was living at the time of her death in 1892, at the age of fifty-nine.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 19

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