A history of Texas and Texans, Part 23

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 23

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).

Professor Moore was married in 1902 to Miss Lulu Barrows of Tyler, Texas. They became the parents of two children: Charlotte, now deceased, and Charles M., Jr. Prof. Moore and family reside at 3100 Cole Avenue in Dallas.

WILLIAM HENRY RUSSELL. Prominent among the members of the Deaf Smith county bar stands William Henry Russell, who by his attainments and achievements has become more or less a familiar figure in the courts of Northwestern Texas. He also is not unknown to official life, having for three successive terms served as county judge, and both as jurist and legist has ever maintained the dignity and high standing of the legal profession. At present he is a resident of Hereford, where he is in the enjoyment of a large and representa- tive practice, and where his widespread popularity indi- cates the universal esteem in which he is held. William Henry Russell is a Tennesseean, born at Dixon, October 18, 1878, a son of William and Louise Hortense (Wooten) Russell. His father, a native of Killarney, Ire- land, emigrated to America as a lad, and grew up in the Province of Ontario, Canada. At the age of twenty years he came to the United States and located at Dixon, Tennessee, where he identified himelf with the lumber business and became a wealthy and prominent operator. In 1883 he made removal to Texas, locating in Lamar county, where he continued to be engaged in business as a lumberman, also having large interests in this line in Arkansas and the (then) Indian Territory. He died at Dixon, Texas, in February, 1892, at the age of fifty-six

years. William Russell was married in Tennessee to Miss Louise Hortense Wooten, a native of the Big Bend State, and she still survives her husband and lives at . Paris, Texas, aged sixty-four years. Five children were born to them, William Henry being the fourth in order of birth.

William Henry Russell was five years of age when he accompanied his parents to Texas, and here he secured his preliminary educational training in the public schools of Paris, Texas, and a private school conducted by the well-known educator, Prof. Goudy. After some prepara- tion, he entered the law department of the State Univer- sity, at Austin, Texas, and was graduated therefrom in 1901, following which, for one year, he practiced at Austin. In 1902 he came to Hereford and opened offices, and two years later became the Democratic candidate for the office of county judge, to which he was subse- quently elected three times. He was known as a fair and impartial judge, wise in his decisions and firm in upholding the best traditions of the judicial office. Since his last term, Mr. Russell has been engaged in private practice, and has been connected with a number of complicated cases, in which his legal ability has brought him prominently into public notice. He is a valued member of the national, state and county bar associations, and is known as one of the men who have been active in forwarding the best interests of the profession in this part of the state. Fraternally, he is connected with the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Elks and the Woodmen of the World, and has passed all the chairs in his lodges. With his family, Mr. Russell attends the Christian church.

On March 1, 1905, Mr. Russell was united in marriage at Hereford with Miss Nora Alice Daniel, daughter of Mack Daniel, known as an early settler of Cook county, Texas. Her father is now deceased, but Mrs. Daniel still survives and makes her home at Hereford. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Russell: Artis Horace, born August 17, 1907; Jesse Miller, born March 15, 1909; and William Henry, Jr., born November 24, 1911, all at Hereford.

Mr. Russell is a self-made man, having relied upon his own resources since his college days when he paid for his own tuition by working in his spare time. His success in this part of Texas has led him to encourage others to settle here, confident that men of ambition and energy can find numerous opportunities to win position and independence.

WILLIAM H. DANA. Public-spirited and influential, the originator of the "eity beautiful" idea in Dallas, and a leading figure in preparing the city charter of Dallas in 1907, William H. Dana has accomplished a great work in the direction of affording enjoyment to the masses and developing their power to appreciate the beautiful ;. and through his efforts for civic reform and honest and efficient government has proved himself a citizen of wide usefulness. He was born, in 1863, at Rochester, New York, a son of John H. and Maria R. (Wiborn) Dana, both members of prominent New York families. His ancestors on the paternal side were among the founders of Rochester, New York, some of them having settled there ere the town was started. He belongs to the family which produced Charles A. Dana, founder and for thirty years editor of the New York Sun, and Richard Henry Dana, the noted poet and essayist, also James Dwight Dana, who was born at Utica, New York, February 12, 1813, and while yet a young man became an expert mineralogist and geologist. Graduating from Yale College, he was sent out, in 1838, as a scientific observer in the United States exploring expedition under Captain Wilkes, visiting the Antarctic and Pacific oceans, and making collections of mineralogical and geological specimens of great scientific value. He was for some time associate editor of the "American Journal of Science, "' and in 1846 became professor of natural history

Jan Dowall

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and geology in Yale. He gained a world-wide distinc- tion as a scientist, and published several works, among them being "A Manual of Mineralogy" and a "Text Book of Geology."

Brought up in his native city, William H. Dana was there educated. Since 1885 he has been a resident of Dallas, and during the time has been active in promoting its best and highest interests.

By heritage and cultivation Mr. Dana is a true lover of the beautiful in both art and nature. He was, and is, the original "city beautifier" of Dallas. Mayhap as a result of having been reared in such a beautiful city as Rochester is, he has always taken a deep interest in forestry, floriculture and landscape beautification, and he has made persistent and commendable efforts to liave his ideas carried out in his adopted city, with results that are already apparent, and will become more so as the years go on. For many years Mr. Dana lived on Bryan street in East Dallas, in a charming home, which, with its surroundings, comprised a noted beauty spot, calling forth words of admiration from all passers-by.

Although an enthusiast and an idealist, Mr. Dana is eminently practical in carrying out his ideas and projects. He is a business man well versed in civics, and believes in getting a dollar's worth of work for every dollar expended from the public treasury. In January, 1906, he brought about and was chairman of the public meet- ing that resulted in a number of streets in East Dallas heing paved, an improvement that was greatly needed, and which Mr. Dana had advocated, both in speeches and in letters to the local press, for several years. In 1911 the city employed George E. Kessler, an authority on city planning, to come to Dallas at a large salary and make suggestions for improving and beautifying the city. It is a singular and noteworthy fact, recalled by many of Mr. Dana's friends, that the Kessler recom- mendations, made in a voluminous report, followed almost identically the things that Mr. Dana had been urging upon Dallas for twenty years, withont any hope or expectation of reward to himself.

Mr. Dana originated the idea of having the city place the freight yards and terminals in the Trinity River bottom, also of having a $2,000,000 terminal station for all railroads near the river branch, which is now in process of construction. He made valuable suggestions for the planting and care of shade trees in the city, a subject upon which he could well qualify as an expert. Such things as the placing of flags and flag poles in the public parks and school grounds, the building of a fine boulevard around the city, the setting aside of public playgrounds and nurseries for the children, and of teach- ing the public the value of wholesome outdoor life among beautiful surroundings, have long been actively urged by Mr. Dana. His contributions to the local press on aesthetic forestry indicate a deep study and wide knowl- edge of this fascinating subject.

In addition to the artistic and aesthetic side of civil life. Mr. Dana has also taken a very active and prominent part in shaping the present city government of Dallas. As a member of the charter commission which drew up the present city charter, adopted in 1907, and under which Dallas came under the commission form of government, Mr. Dana gave up a great deal of his time, thought and activities in the preparation of that excellent document. On the other hand, when, in 1913, the movement was started to amend the 1907 charter by the insertion of 34 new amendments, Mr. Dana entered heart and soul into the campaign opposition to these proposed changes, deeming them inimical to the people's rights and feeling certain that they had been inspired by certain special interests and public service corporations selfishly for their own welfare.

Mr. Dana is a member of Grace Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He was married in Sherman, Texas, to Miss Florine R. Roberson, who was born, reared and educated in that city, being a graduate of Kidd-Key College.

JAMES STEWART. A noteworthy record in the public service of Texas is that of James Stewart of Fort Davis. Jeff Davis county was organized in May, 1887. In the first election of county officers James Stewart was chosen county and district clerk. From that time to this the citizens of the county have elected and re- tained him in office. He has served as county and distriet clerk continuously longer than anyone who has ever been elected to the office in the State of Texas, and throughout the greater part of this time he has never had any opposition to speak of in his candidacy for the office. While this record is not unique, it is nevertheless one case among a small number, and it is a high tribute to the individual popularity and ability of any citizen to so long and continuously enjoy the confi- dence of the people.

James Stewart, who is one of the honored pioneers of this west Texas county is a native of Ireland, born June 12, 1845. He was educated in the national schools of Ireland, and later studied for a time in the Christian Brothers College at Londonderry. When he was eigh- teen years old he entered the Civil Service in Ireland, and continued in that work until he resigned in order to come to America at the age of twenty-one. After spending a few months in the east, he came to Texas in 1867, and this state has been his home now for forty- seven years. During thirteen years of this time he fol- lowed railroading, was a stationary engineer, and in general machine work.

Then in February 1880 he came out to Fort Davis, which at that time was a post situated in the midst of a great unfenced range occupied only by the herds of a few cattlemen then operating in this country. For about three years he was engaged in the operation of a small steam flour mill, and then entered the general merchandise business, which he conducted for two years. After this, as already stated, in May, 1887, he assisted in the organization of the county, and was elected to the office of county and district clerk. For many years also he owned the leading hotel at Fort Davis which was conducted under his proprietorship, although Mrs. Stewart was the active manager and the real head of this popular establishment.

At Fort Davis on April 27, 1885, Mr. Stewart mar- ried Miss Marie A. Fink. Mrs. Stewart through her own career and that of her father is very intimately as- sociated with Old Fort Davis. Her father, Captain Theodore Fink, was an officer in the United States army, and was with the troops which first established Fort Davis on the western frontier of Texas before the Civil war. He subsequently returned to Michigan, and in that state organized the first Michigan regi- ment of Volunteers for service in the Civil war, but his death occurred in Detroit May 2, 1861, while the regi- ment was still in process of organization. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are the parents of one son and one daughter, named James Kenneth and Grace Frances. Mr. Stew- art was reared in the Catholic faith, and in politics is a Progressive Democrat and actively interested in local politics. He and his wife have a very attractive home at Fort Davis, and a source of great pleasure to Mr. Stewart is his beautiful garden, where he satisfies his love for flowers and plants, and spends much of his leisure time. He also possesses an excellent and well selected library, and is fond of books and all the good things of life. Besides his other interests he engages to a considerable extent in real estate business in Fort Davis.

MAT M. NEWELL. Among the old and honored families of Texas, few have been longer residents and none have horne the responsibilities of citizenship with greater usefulness than the Newell and Moore families, both of which are represented by Mr. Mat M. Newell, the present county clerk of Fort Bend County, and for many years a leading business man of Richmond.

Mr. Mat M. Newell was born in Richmond, his present

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home, Angust 11, 1869. His parents were John E. and Emma (Moore) Newell. By descent the family is the result of a mingling of English and Irish stock. Both parents were born in Texas, which fact indicates that the settlement here was during the pioneer epoch. The Moores were Alabama people, while the Newells came originally from North Carolina. John D. Newell, the paternal grandfather, served in the Texas-Mexican war. The parents had just two children, and besides the county clerk there is his brother, John D. Newell of Richmond.

Mr. Mat M. Newell engaged in the land and abstract business. The Fort Bend County Abstract Company was organized in 1897, of which be is secretary and general manager. This company has a complete abstract sketch of the county, and its office has been a medium for a large amount of real estate business, in the past fifteen years.

Mr. Newell has always been a loyal Democrat and one of the hard party fighters. In 1902 he was elected to the office of county clerk. He was again elected county clerk in 1910 and is now serving a second term.

In 1901 Mr. Newell married Miss Florence Blackman, who was originally from Alabama. Their two children are Emma Cecelia and Mathew Moore, Jr. Mrs. Newell, who is one of the cultured women of Richmond, is active in local social circles.

CAPTAIN JOHN G. YOUNG. Now living retired in Sher- man at the age of sixty-nine, Captain John G. Young, a son of one of the state's early Indian fighters and military leaders, has himself had a record of varied experience as a soldier, rancher and business man. He is now in the declining years of his life, and though be has suffered much from ill-bealth and impaired hearing, is still mentally alert and talks pleasingly and intelli- gently of his early life in this state. Except for the time spent in the Confederate army during the war, John G. Young has lived his entire life in Texas, and was born in Red River county, February 20, 1845.

His parents were Colonel William Cocke and Sophie Thomas Gleaves. The Young family was established in Texas by two brothers, Abraham and Dan Yonng, the latter being the father of Colonel W. C. Young. The family was of Holland-Dutch and French stock. Abraham Young in his day was quite a wealthy man, owning something like a hundred slaves and half of an entire county in Central Tennessee. Dan Young, while pos- sessed of independent means; was not so well-to-do as his brother. The ancestry of the Gleaves side of the family is also of interest. Sophie Thomas Gleaves was born in Davidson county, Middle Tennessee, about IS16, a daughter of Michael Gleaves, who was the first sheriff of Davidson county, the county seat of which is Nashville, the state capital. He was one of the first settlers of that county. Closely related were the various families, the Gleaves, Donaldson, Dean, Robinson, and Felix Mc- Kay. General Donaldson, who became a general in the Confederate army and was killed in Tennessee, married a Branch, and Colonel W. C.'s mother was also a Branch. President Andrew Jackson's wife was Sarah Donaldson, a cousin to Sophie Thomas Gleaves. In the Branch relationship there should be mentioned that member who was at one time governor of North Carolina and later a member of the United States senate, a son of whom was John O'Brien Branch, who also sat in the United States senate, and as a brigadier general under General Lee was killed at the battle of Antietam. Gov- ernor Colquitt, the present governor of Texas, has relationship with the Young family through his family connection with the Branches. A half brother of Col. W. C. Young was James Murray, whose daughter is the wife of former Senator J. W. Bailey of Texas. The Gleaves family were of Scotch and English stock. A brother of Sophie Thomas Gleaves was John E. Gleaves, at one time clerk of the chancery court of Nashville,

previons to the war, and who also held the same office during the period of hostilities and until his death.

Colonel William Cocke Young was born in Tennessee May 12, 1812, and came to Texas in 1834, locating in Red River county and engaging in the practice of law. He was one of the prominent men in that section of the state, served as sheriff of his connty two terms, and later as county attorney. Associated with Colonel Bous- land, he gained some fame as an Indian fighter in pioneer days through the Red River district, and at the outbreak of the Mexican war raised a regiment of volunteers of which be was commissioned colonel, with Bousland as next in command in the capacity of lieutenant colonel. Following the Mexican war Colonel Young resumed his law practice and in 1851 moved to Shawneetown in Grayson county. In 1857 he was appointed United States marshal of his district, holding the office for three years aud then resigning to take part in the war between the North and the South. He was one of many who were called into consultation with Jefferson Davis prior to the outbreak of hostilities, and on returning from his last visit with the president of the Confederacy raised the Eleventh Regiment of Texas Cavalry and went into active service. He led his regiment until failing health compelled him to resign and return home. During the unsettled conditions of society at the close of the war, Colonel Yonng met his death at the hands of a member of a nefarious society that existed in Northern Texas. One of his fellow citizens had been shot down, and the murder was traced to the work of this band of outlaws, and while Colonel Young was in search of the body of' the victim he himself was killed while near his home. One of Colonel Young's sons succeeded in tracing the murderer to his regiment in the Confederate army, demanded and received his surrender, took him to the spot where his father had been so foully killed, and there some of the colonel's own negroes quickly strung up and summarily exacted the penalty of death from the assassin.

Colonel W. C. Young was three times married. His first marriage was to Sophie Thomas Gleaves. Their children were: James D .; Sallie, who married Thomas W. Randolph; Mary A., wife of Joseph Crain; Nancy B., wife of Marion Adams; John G., of Sherman, and Sophie, who married R. T. Benge. Colonel Young after- wards married a Miss Hutchinson, and their two children were Dan and Frank. This third wife was Mrs. Ann Black, and their two children were Simpson M. and Margaret, who married J. B. Davenport.

The boyhood of John G. Young was spent in different localities in North Texas, and in 1858 his father settled in Cooke county. All the education he ever had so far as formal attendance at school was concerned was limited to eleven months. His own mother died when he was only four years of age. He lived at home with his father until 1861, and then, at the age of sixteen, enlisted for service in the Confederate army. He spent the first winter as a soldier in Arkansas, was then sent to Corinth, Mississippi, but soon afterwards on account of youth and ill health received a discharge. A year later he returned to the service in the same company. and con- tinned until the last gun had been fired. He was in the thick of the fray at Chickamauga, Murfreesboro and Franklin, and was in the campaigns about Atlanta, Nash- ville, Bentonville, Knoxville, Dalton. Resaca. New Hope Chureb, Greensboro, and a number of other less important engagements. In 1563, when General Longstreet ordered an advance upon Knoxville, Mr. Young was part of Tom Harrison's Brigade. As they advanced they came upon a Federal command which was taken by surprise, and on the following day Mr. Young, with Jim White and Ben Biggerstaff, went out on an independeut scout and captured a Federal soldier. Biggerstaff suggested that they make the captive run the gauntlet and not allow him to get back to bis command alive, but Mr. Young, though only in his eighteenth year, while his companions

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were mature men, took a vigorous stand in opposition to such barbarity, and made such a convincing and emphatic argument that the captive was set free. In support of his contention, he brought in the Gahen rule regard- ing the treatment of soldiers of a hostile force, and though he really did not understand the full contents of the rule, he advanced his views so successfully as to save the life of the prisoner. It is a matter of note that both Biggerstaff and White were later captured and spent twelve months in a Federal prison. Mr. Young throughout his career as a soldier made an excep- tionally efficient and creditable record, and was finally discharged with his regiment in 1865. While returning to Texas he aud his comrades encountered the party which had charge of the Confederate treasury, which was being moved in a lumber wagon to a place of safety. They offered their services as additional guard, but the offer was not accepted.

After his return to Texas Mr. Young found that his step-mother had married a second husband after his father's death, and being without a home he thence- forward hecame entirely dependent upon his own enter- prise. He traded a gold watch and chain for a horse and pony, traded that in turn for a mule, and used the proceeds of these trades in order to pay his board and attend school to supplement the lack of advantages of his earlier youth. During his early business career Mr. Young engaged in driving cattle from Cooke county to market, later went into stock raising on his own account, and that was his chief business until a few years ago, when he retired and settled in Sherman.

In 1871 Captain Young married Miss Georgie A. Manion, daughter of A. B. Manion, a Kentuckian who moved to Delaware Bend in Cooke county, Texas. and spent the rest of his life there. Mr. and Mrs. Young had six children, namely: Lally S., William C., Annie B., Sallie G., Mildred L. and Sidney J. On July 15, 1887, the mother of these children died, and on October 9, 1889, Captain Young married Mrs. Betty Randolph. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Thompson, and she was horn in Grayson county, Texas, September 7, 1847, a daughter of Judge J. G. Thompson, a prominent early pioneer of North Texas.

Soon after the death of his first wife Captain Young, in order to keep his little family together and to educate the children, moved to Dexter, though he retained what he humorously speaks of as his "grazing lot" of five hundred acres, and another small piece of one hundred and eighty acres, all of which under his management was brought to a high state of cultivation. From Dexter he finally moved to Sherman, where he has a comfortable and happy home, with many kind neighbors and staunch friends on all sides. The chief reason for his removal to Sherman was to help his daughter educate her children, these grandchildren being: Jaek Yonng Randolph, born in 1896; Elizabeth, born in 1897, and William E., born in 1901.

Captain Young has had a busy and eventful career, though since the war his life has been more or less serene. He has lived worthily in whatever community he has called his home, and there are none in Sherman today who have a wider circle of friends than has he.

PRESTON CONLEE. One of the pioneers of Texas before the Revolution, a soldier during the struggle between Texas and Mexico in 1835-36, one of the gallant army under Houston, who fought Santa Ana at San Jacinto and afterwards for many years prominent in public affairs in south central Texas, the late Preston Conlee in 1870 transferred his residence to Cooke county. and his family is now represented in Gainesville, where his widow and a daughter live.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 23

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