A history of Texas and Texans, Part 21

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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Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The children of George Whitehead Kenley and wife were: Carrol H .; Samuel F., of Mertzon, Texas, who married Donna Womack; Richard Oscar, of Los Angeles, a former partner in law with Mr. Minton, and who married Leona Womack; Fannie, who married Dr. New- ton MeLendon of Groveton; Minnie, who married C. D. Poe of Groveton; Jonie, wife of John Clark of Houston county ; Lucy, who married R. E. Minton ; David Crockett, chief engineer of the Dihall Lumber Company; Polk, a teacher at Buna, in Jasper county. The father of these children, George Whitehead Kenley, died November 6, 1905. He was a member of the Christian church, a Mason, and a man of useful life and influence in his community. He moved to Groveton in 1903, and in that. town educated his younger children.

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THOMAS JEFFERSON NORTH. Although a resident of the state of Texas for a few years only, Judge Thomas Jefferson North has won a name and friends for him- . self. He is one of the most successful attorneys iu Sey- monr, Texas, aud since he has been elected county judge he has proved as successful on the bench as he was at the bar. Judge North is one of the younger members of the legal fraternity in this section and he is looked upon by the more experienced lawyers as a man with a brilliant future before him, for he not only has natural ability and a fine education, but he is also painstaking and industrious.

Judge North was born in Bell county, Kentucky, on the 21st of June, 1877. He went to school in his native state and after completing the course offered by the public schools he taught school in order to earn the funds to continue his education. He received his collegiate course at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, and after leaving college he located in Stan- ford, Kentucky, where he began the practice of law. After a year in this locality he came to Texas, arriving in the latter state in August, 1905. He first located in Fannin county. After practicing his profession here for a few months he came to Seymour and established an office here. This was in 1906 and in July of the same year, so favorably were the people of this county im- pressed with his personality and his work, he was nomi- nated and elected county attorney. After serving for six years in this office he was elected county judge. This took place in the fall of 1912 and he is at pres- ent filling this office.

In polities Judge North is a member of the Democratie party and takes an active interest in the affairs of his party, being one of the leaders in this section. He is a member of the Christian church and is active in church work, being at present an elder and a teacher in the Sunday school. In the fraternal world Judge North is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen of the World, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Rebeccas.

On the 23d of December, 1909, Judge North was mar- ried to Miss Naney Naomi Stevenson, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Stevenson, of Lexington, Kentucky.

Judge North has become as true a lover of Texas as any of her native sons. He takes an active part in every movement which tends to the betterment of con- ditions in Seymour and to the improvement of the state in general. He says that it seems to him that the climatie conditions, the thrifty class of people who form the majority of the citizens, and the varied busi- ness opportunities will make Texas one of the best states in the Union. In his opinion Texas has greater oppor- tunities and more resources than any other section of the United States.

STEPHEN J. TREADWELL. After a long service as tax collector of Angelina county Mr. Treadwell is now busied with his varied property interests at Lufkin, and to some extent is a farmer in this vicinity. Mr. Treadwell comes of an old family of east Texas, and three genera- tions of the name have heen actively identified with the professional and commercial and military activities of the Lone Star state.

Stephen J. Treadwell was born at Retrieve in Angelina county, Texas, October 6, 1861, and grew up at the vil- lage of Huntington, being educated largely in the country schools. His father, Richard LeRoy Treadwell, died while on duty at Tyler, in 1862. as one of Captain Anderson's company of Confederate soldiers. At that time he was twenty-six years of age. Born in Cherokee county, Alabama, he came to Texas in 1856, with his father, Stephen Treadwell, who settled near Huntington in Angelina county. Grandfather Stephen Treadwell was born in Georgia in 1810, got a fair education, and after the war taught school for some time near Hunt- ington. His death occurred there in 1892. He was a Democrat, and quite active in local affairs. From 1872

to 1876 he served in the office of county clerk. His church was the Baptist, and he was a close observer of church rules and took pains to criticise the brethren who violated their pledge to the church. He used no stimulants or narcoties, and prided himself on these virtues. Stephen Treadwell first married Miss Faith Jordan, who died in Alabama. Her children were: Richard LeRoy; Martha, who married Frank Neyland, and lives in Angelina county; Mary, who married Frank Higginbotham, and died in Angelina county ; Clementine, Mrs. J. M. Brashear, died in this county ; Catherine, Mrs. I. N. Fortenberry; Joseph, of Angelina county; and John, who died in Ellis county, Texas. For his second wife Stephen Treadwell married Sallie Williams, who bore him the following children: Frances, who died at Tahlequah, Oklahoma, as the wife of J. A. Thompson, a Cherokee Indian; Dr. W. B. Treadwell, of Lufkin; and T. J. Treadwell of Burke.

Richard LeRoy Treadwell spent his brief life as a farmer in Angelina county, where he married Sarah E. Morgan, a daughter of Jack Morgan, who came from Cherokee county, Alabama, though a Georgian by birth, and located in Texas in 1855. His death occurred in Red River county of this state in 1873. Mrs. Sarah Treadwell was born in Cherokee county, Alabama, in 1842. Richard and Sarah Treadwell had only two children, the elder being Stephen J. and the younger Mary, wife of I. D. Clark, of Burke.

Stephen J. Treadwell finished a five-year period of teaching at Burke in Angelina county, and then took up merchandising in that village, a vocation which he fol- lowed for ten years and thus laid the basis for his material prosperity.

While living at Burke the citizens honored him with election to the office of justice of the peace and county commissioner, and he served the county in that capacity for abont two years. In 1900 came his election as tax collector. Up to that time the duties of tax collector had been performed as a joint office, and Mr. Treadwell was the first to be elected to the distinctive office of tax collector. His service was in the highest degree ereditable, and efficient, and no better proof of this is to be found than the fact that he was reelected and kept in office ten years. At the present time he is occupied only with his property interests in Lufkin and in supervision of his farming.

His political affiliations have always been with the dominant party, and he has occasionally attended judicial, congressional or state conventions on the delegations from Angelina county. He was a Hogg partisan in the his- toric convention of 1892, when the convention was dis- rupted and two Democratie candidates were placed before the people for the office of governor.

In Lufkin, September 6, 1885, was solemnized the marriage of Stephen J. Treadwell and Miss Mollie Robb, a daughter of E. L. Robb, and a sister of Judge E. B. Robb, who has rendered much and valuable public service to Angelina county. Three daughters comprise the family of Mr. and Mrs. Treadwell, namely: Eda is a graduate of the School of Industrial Arts at Denton, with the class of 1909, and has since taught in the city schools of Lufkin; Eula, who graduated from the Hunts- ville Normal School in 1911, is the wife of Kenneth Hoskins, of Lufkin; Josephine graduated from the Sam Houston Normal in 1912 and is now a teacher at Diboll, Texas. Mr. Treadwell is a past master of the Homer Blue Lodge of Masons, and has been a representative to the Grand Lodge on several occasions. He is also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias.

EUGENE W. COPLEY. A successful business man, formerly one of the leading lumber dealers of Dallas. Mr. Copley in recent years has become best known as a practical scientist, a noted collector of wild animals, a taxidermist, and as proprietor of the popular Jungle- land, an institution which is probably known to every citizen of Dallas and has a reputation thronghout the

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territory of which Dallas is the metropolis. Mr. Copley has been a lover and devoted student of the animal king- dom since he was a boy and after attaining to reasonable degree of success in business, permitted himself the happy privilege of giving all his attention to the scientific bent of his nature.

Born in 1878 in Missouri, Mr. Copley 's parents, John M. and Corie M. (Billington) Copley, came to Texas in 1880, locating at Denton, in Denton county, where the father was a lawyer for many years. Reared in Denton county, Engene W. Copley attended the public schools and manifested strong inclinations for the life outdoors. It was his disposition to find his most stimulating lessons in the life of the field and woods rather than in the dry hooks of the schoolroom. These tastes led him to take up the study of taxidermy, and it was his privilege to study under Professor William T. Hornaday, then a resident of Oklahoma City, but now distinguished as one of the greatest naturalists of America and director of the Bronx Park Zoological Gardens of New York City. Professor Hornaday was also one of the originators of the National Museum at Washington, D. C.

In 1903 Mr. Copley moved from Denton to Dallas, and in 1906 founded the Groves-Copley Lumber Company, of which he was vice-president and manager. The yards of this establishment were at Tenth and Lancaster Streets in Oak Cliff. In March, 1909, Mr. Copley retired from the business, after a successful career in which he had developed the company to large proportions and during which time he had erected a number of fine residences in Dallas and Oak Cliff.

In the meantime he had been busy, so far as business allowed, in gathering a splendid collection of birds, fish and reptiles and all manner of wild animals, as the nucleus for his musenm. Beginning with his studies under Professor Hornaday he had become an expert taxidermist and on retiring from business he founded a museum at Dallas for the benefit of the public. This museum was first located in Oak Cliff, but subsequently has been moved to Elm Street in Dallas. The Copley collection is without donbt the largest of its kind in the south, and comprises not only live wild animals, but also large numbers of mounted specimens, including hundreds of wild animals, birds, fish and reptiles. Mr. Copley maintains four traveling shows, which travel throughout the south and comprise mostly the trained wild animals which he has gathered together. These traveling collec- tions are used principally for educational purposes, being useful to the schools in demonstrating their natural history work.

Mr. Copley was married in 1902 to Miss Mand Evelyn Connor, a daughter of John A. Connor of Dallas. Their two children are Evelyn Eugenia and Helen. The Copley residence is at 3061% N. Akard Street.

JOHN SHERWOOD FANNIN. Though established in the practice of law in Dallas but a comparatively brief time, it has been the good fortune of John Sherwood Fannin to secure more than ordinary prominence and position in his profession, and his name is well established in profes- sional circles in the Dallas County Bar, as well as in adjoining counties and North Texas, as the result of his activities thus far. He has conducted practice in Dallas since 1909, both independently and with partners, and is now a member of the firm of Fannin & Young- blood, located in the Wilson Building, this city. .

Born in Chatfield, Navarro county, Texas, on April 2, 1876, Mr. Fannin is a son of D. H. and ,Victoria (Adams) Fannin, of Alabama. He received his education in the public schools, his high school course being followed by attendance at the Southern University at Huntington, Tennessee, and also later at the Terrell University, Terrell, Texas. Mr. Fannin also taught school four school years in Alabama, beginning at the early age of sixteen. and continuing until the age of twenty, when he returned to Texas, and in 1899 he located at Dallas, establishing himself in the offices of Coke & Coke, attorneys of this

city, and under their guidance resumed his study of law, supplementing his work there with eighteen months' attendance at the Dallas Law School. Mr. Fannin did not actively engage in the practice of law until on March 30, 1909, when he was admitted to the bar, and about November 1, 1911, he established the firm of Fannin, Underwood & Youngblood, but about Angust, 1912, Mr. Underwood withdrew and the firm became Fannin & Youngblood and has conducted one of the most success- ful partnerships known to the city. Mr. Fannin has handled some of the big cases in this county, as well as some in adjoining counties, since he became established in the profession, and in 1912 was leading counsel for the defense in the noted murder trial of the State vs. Bob Davis. This case attracted wide attention in the state because of prominence of the principals and was especially interesting to Dallas people. In February, 1908, Mr. Fannin was married to Miss Belle Brunson, the daughter of H. D. Brunson, of Alabama, and they have one child, a boy born January 9, 1909.

It may be said here that the Fannins are a noted Texas family, and men of the same name have held many city and state political positions. D. H. Fannin, the father of the Dallas lawyer, fought in all the principal battles of the Civil War, such as Gettysburg, Nashville, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and was a member of Hood's Texas Brigade.

J. H. PICKRELL. In the development and upbuilding of an important financial and fiduciary institution which was the first of its kind in the state of Texas, Mr. Pickrell has been the dominating force and he has wit- nessed the upbuilding of a substantial and constantly expanding business on the part of the corporation of which he is vice-president and general manager and which was organized in the face of strong opposition on the part of those identified with institutions with which it might possibly come into competition, as well as by others who were skeptical concerning the demand for or legitimacy of its functions. It has been a source of great satisfaction to Mr. Pickrell to prove to such opponents, through means of practical and unequivocal demonstration, that the Dallas Title & Guarantee Com- pany has fully justified his determined confidence and faith and become a greatly valued acquisition to the financial and general business enterprise of northern Texas, as well as one of the important concerns of the thriving commercial and industrial city in which its head- quarters are maintained. He is one of the most pro- gressive and public-spirited citizens of Dallas, is a representative member of the bar of this section of the state, and has gained impregnable vantage-ground in popular confidence and esteem. In every respect is he specially entitled to specific recognition in this History of Texas and Texans.

J. H. Pickrell, vice-president and manager of the Dallas Title & Guarantee Company, which has well appointed offices at 1101 Main street, claims the fine old state of South Carolina as the place of his nativity and is a scion of staunch southern stock. He was born in Pickens county, South Carolina, in 1866, and is a son of William R. and Ella (MeMaster) Pickrell, both of whom were likewise natives of that commonwealth and representatives of families that were there founded in an early day. In 1869 William R. Pickrell came with his family to Texas and numbered himself among the pioneers of Wise county, where he engaged in farming and stock-growing and contributed his due quota to civic and industrial development and progress.

The public schools of Decatur, judicial center of Wise county, Texas, afforded J. H. Pickrell his early educa- tional advantages, and he is thoroughly and insistently a Texan in spirit and breeding, as he was a child of but three years at the time of the family immigration to the Lone Star state. That he made good use of his seholastie opportunities is shown by the fact that when

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but eighteen years of age he gave effective service as tem- porary principal of the Decatur high school, in which he himself had been graduated a short time previously. In pursuance of higher academic studies he entered Mansfield College, at Mansfield, Tarrant county, where he was a student during the regime of Professor John Collier as executive head of the institution. In further- ance of his educational work he finally was matriculated in the normal university, at Lebanon, Ohio, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1887 and from which he received the degrees of Bachelor of Sci- ence and Civil Engineer. Having in the meanwhile deter- mined to enter the legal profession, he availed himself of the advantages of the law department of the Uni- versity of Texas, at Austin, as well as of effective priv- ate preceptorship, and in 1890 he proved himself eligible for and was admitted to the Texas bar, at Decatur, the capital of his home county.

In 1893 Mr. Pickrell established his residence in the city of Dallas, where he became identified with the representative law firm of Leake, Henry & Reeves. Early in his professional career he began to give special attention to real-estate law, and in this field of prac- tice he gained wide experience and definite precedence. His activities along this line led to his promotion of a business enterprise for which he discerned a definite necessity, and in 1902 he effected the organization and incorporation of the North Texas Land Title Company, of which he became vice-president and general man- ager. Through careful, discriminating and legitimate means he made this corporation a medium for important functions, in the identification, verifying and guarantee- ing of land titles throughout the various counties in the northern part of the state, and since the consolidation of the business with that of the Dallas Title & Guarantee Company, in August, 1906, the functions of the concern have been still further vitalized and expanded, the while he has continued to serve with marked ability as vice- president and general manager of the consolidated in- stitution, which is one of the largest and most important of its kind in Texas, even as it was the first of the kind to be organized in the state. There has been an unqualified popular approval of its functions and man- agement and the enterprise has become one of far- reaching and benignant influence in connection with in- dustrial and business activities that form the basis of generic progress and prosperity in this section of the great state of Texas, the success which has attended its operations having most effectually silenced the ob- jections and skepticism which attended its projection and organization. Mr. Pickrell is also a member of the directorate of the Dallas Trust & Savings Bank, and other of the staunch institutions of the metropolis of northern Texas, and he is the owner of valuable realty in his home city and county, the while he has at all times stood foremost in the ranks of loyal and liberal citizens whose public spirit has been shown in definite action. He has largely withdrawn from the practice of his profession, owing to the exigent demands placed upon him by his other important interests. His political allegiance is given to the Democratic party, but he has manifested naught of predilection for the honors or emoluments of public office. Mr. Pickrell has not identi- fied himself with clubs or fraternal organizations, but he gained to himself a host of friends and is a popu- lar factor in the business and social life of Dallas, his attractive home being at the corner of St. John's drive and Lexington avenue, in the beautiful Highland Park district of Dallas.

HON. WILLIAM B. LEWIS. It is not a light function to describe justly or adequately the life of a man who has had an active and eminently busy career, and who has attained to a position of high relative distinction in the community in which his interests are located. Yet

biography finds its most complete justification in the tracing and recording of such a life history, for if his- tory teaches by example, the lessons inculcated by biog- raphy must be still more impressive. We see exhibited in the varieties of human character, under different cir- cumstances, something to instruct us in our duty, and to encourage our efforts, under every emergency. There is perhaps no concurrence of events which produce this effect more certainly, than the steps by which distinction has been acquired through the unaided efforts of youth- ful enterprise, as illustrated in the life of Hon. William B. Lewis, county judge of Hale county, and superin- tendent of public schools of Plainview, Texas,

Judge Lewis was born in Limestone county, Texas, March 20, 1876, and is a sou of Henry H. and Mary J. (George) Lewis. The paternal grandfather, Benja- min Lewis, was the founder of the family in America, coming from Ireland during the early part of the nine- teenth century and settling in Virginia, where he became a successful planter. Subsequently, he moved to Ala- bama and in 1854 came to Texas, where the remaining years of his life were spent. Henry H. Lewis was born in Alabama, and was still a youth when brought to Texas. Settling in Limestone county, he was reared on his father's ranch, being thoroughly trained in all matters which are desirable for the successful stockraiser and farmer to know. At the outbreak of the war be- tween the South and the North he enlisted in the Con- federate army, and as a private participated in a num- ber of fiercely contested engagements, among them Lookout Mountain, but was never wounded. Near the close of the war, however, he was taken prisoner, and on being exchanged returned to Texas and re-enlisted under Gen. Kirby Smith. On his return to the pursuits of peace he again took up agricultural work, in which he was engaged successfully until his death, in 1885, in Taylor county. In political matters he was a demo- crat, while his religious connection was with the Baptist church. His wife was born in Texas, the daughter of a pioneer Methodist minister of this State, and she still survives, being a resident of Abilene, Texas, and the mother of six children, of whom two are deceased, Wil- liam B. being the second oldest living and the third in order of birth.

During the entire period of his school days, William B. Lewis worked faithfully at various employments in order to pay for his tuition, and when he entered Buf- falo Gap College he was forced to ride horseback six- teen miles daily. While a student in this college, he took up the profession of teaching, in which he continued four years, in the meanwhile graduating with the de- gree of Bachelor of Arts, in 1897. He had prosecuted his law studies assiduously whenever the opportunity offered, and in 1899 was admitted to the bar, at once entering upon the practice of his profession at Abilene, where he continued to reside until 1909. In 1904 he was elected county attorney, a position in which he served efficiently until 1908, and in 1909, on coming to Plainview, at once interested himself in public and polit- ical matters, soon becoming known as an active worker in the ranks of the Democratic party. In the spring of 1912 he became his party's candidate for the county judgeship of Hale county, and was successful in the election which followed, being also chosen superintend- ent of schools. He still continues to hold these offices, and in the discharge of his official duties has shown him- self fair, impartial and conscientious, winning alike the respect of the members of the bar and the confi- dence of the general public. Although the greater part of his time is demanded by the duties of his office, he has outside interests, being a director in the Na- tional Temperance Life Insurance Company of Dallas, and having large holdings in cattle in Hale county. He is a member of the County Judges and District and County Clerks Associations, holds membership in the Chamber of Commerce, and attends the Baptist church.

MBJemica

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His fraternal connections are with the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Pretorians and the Knights of the Maccabees.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 21

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