A history of Texas and Texans, Part 39

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 39

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).

On January 4, 1899, Mr. Kendall was married in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, to Miss Florence Rives, the daughter of R. F. and Virginia (Pollard) Rives, the father a well known planter of that region. Mrs. Rives was a native of Virginia and the mother of four children. The children of Rev. and Mrs. Kendall are three in num- ber. Robert Rives, the first born, died in infancy, while Ben Gray and William W. Kendall survive.

A. H. GEE. Few bankers of North Texas have been so long in the executive duties of their positions and have a more interesting career of progressive rise from lowly beginnings to commercial prestige and power than A. H. Gee, president of Pilot Point National Bank.

Born December 25, 1849, in Huntington, Carroll county, Tennessee, the youngest in a family of fourteen children of J. H. and Ann W. (Hamkin) Gee, A. H. Gee is of Scotch-Irish stock, and of a family which has lived in Texas for fifty-five years. His father came from Virginia and his mother was a native of Maryland. The father located in West Tennessee when a young man, was a surveyor by profession, served as one of the early county clerks of his locality, and was so long honored by his fellow citizens that his term as county clerk continued

for nearly thirty years. Early in his youth he was a member of General Jackson's staff in the war of 1812, and was present at the battle of New Orleans concluding that second struggle between the United States and Great Britain. Subsequently he furnished six sons for service in the Confederate army. The father moved to Texas in 1859, locating at Greenville, and thereafter lived retired. His death occurred about 1883 when at the good age of eighty-six years, and his wife passed away in the same year, but seventy-five years of age. Of their fourteen children there were ten sons and four daughters, and five are now living. Besides the Pilot Point banker, J. M. Gee and R. B. Gee live retired in Greenville; Mrs. I. N. Harrison, a widow, lives in Oklahoma City; and Mrs. Maggie G. Scott, wife of W. M. Scott, who is in the ginning business at Sherman.

A. H. Gee had a limited education in private schools at Greenville, Texas, being about ten years of age when the family came to this state. His opportunities as a youth were somewhat limited, but he is the type of man who succeeds in spite of handicaps and limitations. When sixteen years of age he was a clerk in a store, and at the age of twenty-one moved to Jefferson and found employment in the wholesale store of Wright & Clark. Early in 1872 Mr. Gee identified himself with the little locality of Pilot Point, and set up a dry goods store, which was continued with substantial results for twelve years. On January 1, 1884, Mr. Gee became one of the interested principals in the Pilot Point Bank, and served as its cashier until July, 1892. At the latter date the bank took. out a national charter, and since that time Mr. Gee has been president. The vice-president is A. P. Crasgrove; the cashier is J. A. L. MeFarland. One special distinction of this bank is that since it took out a national charter more than twenty years ago there bas not been a single change in its official managment, and there is perhaps no other national bank in Texas which has a similar record.

Politically Mr. Gee is a Democrat, voting and working for the good of his community and the welfare of his state. Fraternally his affiliations are with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights and Ladies of Honor, the Knights of the Maccabees, and he belongs to the Pilot Point Commer- cial Club.

On March 28, 1872, at Pilot Point, Mr. Gee married Miss Nettie Harrison, a daughter of W. R. Harrison, a merchant and prominent business man of that section for a number of years, but now deceased. Of the seven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Gee, three are now living, two sons and a daughter, as follows: H. W. Gee, with the Southwestern Surety Insurance Company at Denni- son, and assistant treasurer of that corporation; W. L. Gee with the International Fire Insurance Company at Fort Worth; and Mrs. Vera Hellings, wife of J. M. Hellings, assistant cashier of the Interstate National Bank of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Gee by more than forty years' residence in Pilot Point is one of the veteran business men, and through his own substantial activities and influence has contributed in numerous ways to the advancement and solid welfare of the community.

HARVIN COOPER MOORE, M. D. A member of the medical profession of Houston since 1902, Dr. Harvin Cooper Moore has attained high distinction in the ranks of his calling as a specialist in skin and genito-urinary diseases. A true son of the Southwest and a descendant of distinguished Texans, he has passed his entire career within the confines of the Lone Star State, where the family has been widely and favorably known in various lines of endeavor for more than half a century. Dr. Moore was born at Crockett, Houston county, Texas, March 19, 1875, and is a son of Harvin W. and Georgia (Cooper) Moore. His father, a native of Alabama, came to Texas about 1860 and located at Crockett, where he entered upon the practice of law. Shortly after the

Harne Accor, a.m. M.N.

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close of the war between the North and the South, he was appointed district attorney of Houston county, a position he continued to hold for a number of years. His death occurred in February, 1912, when his com- munity lost one of its best citizens and ablest attorneys. Harvin W. Moore married Miss Georgia Cooper, who was born in Georgia, a daughter of Leroy W. Cooper, who brought his family to Texas about 1855 and here became prominent in politics. He was a member of the Republican national committee, and, although a resident of a district which had a strong Democratic plurality, was repeatedly sent to the State Senate. Mrs. Moore still survives her husband and makes her home at Crockett.

Harvin Cooper Moore secured his early education in the public schools of Crockett, this being supplemented by attendance at the Southwestern University, where he was graduated in 1895, with the degree of Master of Arts. He then entered upon the study of medicine and, after some preparation, became a student in the medical department of Tulane University. On receiving his degree and diploma from that noted institution, in 1898, he began practice at Hallettsville, Lavaca county, Texas, where he continued four years, and in 1902 came to Houston and began a general practice. In 1906 the Doctor spent some time in post-graduate work in New York and Chicago, and since his return has specialized in skin and genito-urinary diseases, along which line he has won recognition and distinction. In this connection he is dermatologist and urologist to the Baptist Sani- tarium of Houston, and is also lecturer on skin diseases to the Nurses' Training School. In 1912 he was presi- dent of the Harris County Medical Society, and still holds membership therein, as he does in the South Texas Medical Association, the Texas State Medical Associa- tion, the Southwestern Medical Association, the South- ern Medical Society and the American Medical Associa- tion. He is also connected with the Alpha Kappa Kappa medical fraternity and the Knights of Pythias. He main- tains well-appointed offices at No. 912 Union National Bank Building.

On December 23, 1902, Dr. Moore was married to Miss Mabel Peters, daughter of Walter H. and Eliza- beth Peters, of Beeville, Texas. To this union there has been horn one son: Harvin Cooper, Jr. The modern family home is located at No. 1314 Fairview avenue.

JAMES HARVEY ROBERTSON. Until his death on March 2, 1912, one of the most eminent attorneys of Texas was the late James H. Robertson. For upwards of forty years he practiced law in this state, and long occu- pied a large sphere of usefulness and honor. In the Texas bar few men were better known or more highly appreciated for their services.

The Robertson family of which he was a rerpesenta- tive held a particularly distinguished position in Ten- nessee history, in which state they were pioneers, among the founders of the Commonwealth. It was in the state of Tennessee that the late James H. Robertson was born, and came from there to Texas during the seventies. He started practice with his brother John W. Robertson of Austin, who had gained the rank of Colonel in the Confederate army and was one of Austin's prominent lawyers and one of the city's early mayors. James H. Robertson after a brief practice at Austin moved to Round Rock, where he opened an office for the general practice at law. Early in the eighties he moved to Austin, and soon gained a prominent position in the law. He was elected District Attorney and Governor Hogg then appointed him Judge of the District court. After several years on the bench he resigned and went into partnership with former Governor Hogg, and their firm was one of the strongest in the capital city uutil it was dissolved about 1902. Mr. Robertson then con- tinned iu practice alone until his death on March 2, 1912.

The late Mr. Robertson handled a great many import-

ant cases in the courts, and among other interests in- trusted to his charge was the management of the famous case in defense of H. Clay Pierce. He served as a member of the Thirtieth, Thirty-first and Thirty-second legislatures, and his name will continue to be long asso- ciated with important legislation of Texas during his membership in the legislature. He was the author of the Robertson Insurance Law, which required all life insurance companies doing business in Texas to invest in this state seventy-five per cent of the reserve set aside for the payment of policies of insurance written in Texas. That was one of the pioneer laws of its time in the United States, and has been considered one of the most beneficent acts of legislation passed within recent years for the safeguarding of Texas resources. He was also author of the Anti-Lobby Bill. The late Judge Robertson married Miss Susie Marsh Townsend, who was born in Austin. They became the parents of six children, four of whom are now living, namely: John B. Robertson; Warren T., now retired from the practice of law; Mrs. Zeno C. Ross, of Fort Worth, Texas; and Margaret Robertson. Judge Robertsou was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

John B. Robertson, son of the late Judge Robertson, and a successful young attorney with offices in the Little- field building at Austin, was born in that city July 14, 1882. He was educated in the public schools of the city, and in 1906 received his degree of LL. B. from the University of Texas. He at once took up practice, and has done much to win a distinctive place in the profession. He married Miss Julia M. Young, of Austin, Texas, and resides at 1500 West Sixth street.

BENJAMIN F. ROUNTREE. Another of the native citi- zens of this community who has fallen into line with the recent developments in the peach industry in this dis- triet is Benjamin F. Rountree, today one of the big producers in Franklin county of the famous Elberta peach. Thirty-five acres of one-time cotton land today represents his interest in growing fruit, and the success that was denied him while he directed his endeavors to other departments of agriculture has been his abundantly in recent years.

Benjamin F. Rountree was horn near Mount Vernon, on May 1, 1866, and is a son of Wiley B. Rountree, con- cerning whom further mention is made elsewhere in this historical and biographical work, so that further ex- pression concerning the parentage of Mr. Rountree is not an essential feature of this sketch. In the country schools of Mount Vernon and vicinity Mr. Rountree re- ceived his early training in book lore, and he grew to manhood in close acquaintance with the duties of farm life, to which station he had been born. Upon reaching manhood, he felt an inclination to travel about some he- fore he settled down definitely, and he spent a few sea- sons in rambling here and there, getting his bearings and learning something about the country. In Jefferson County, Arkansas, for two seasons he was employed as a clerk in a country store, and later was occupied as station agent at Linwood on the Iron Mountain Railway. With his return to Mount Vernon, he turned his attention to the farm again, continuing there until the autumn of 1891, when he went to Wise county, Texas, then on to Abilene, and finally to Jones county, Texas, in the latter place spending several months in the employ of his uncle, engaged in the prosaic task of grubhing mesquite. Here he eventually engaged in farming for himself and for five years he remained in that locality. It was while there that he married, and the serious business of his life actually began, his career as a home builder seeing its inception at that time.

Conditions then in West Texas, were, as now, unsuited to satisfactory general farming, and Mr. Rountree soon brought his family back to Franklin county and located at Purley, where his efforts were given to common farm-

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ing until the fall of 1902, when he purchased a small place adjoining Mount Vernon and known as the Ruther- ford Farm. He entered with a right good will into the work of rejuvenating the old place and converting it into a live proposition as a fruit farm, planting a small orchard of Elberta peach trees, a crop that was then being exploited in Franklin county, and which gave promise of being a highly successful experiment. Mr. Rountree was among the first to test out the new idea, and he nursed his orchard anxiously but hopefully through the years of cultivation, pruning and worming, until a commercial orchard stood at his hand, ready and willing to bear luxuriantly each season. Encouraged by his experience, Mr. Rountree began adding to his orchard, until today he has thirty-five acres in bearing, and is continually adding to his operations in the peach in- dustry.

On July 3, 1892, Mr. Rountree married Miss Dollie Long, a daughter of the pioneer Jamies Long, who came to Texas from McNairy county, Tennessee, in 1845, and starting his career with the birth of the new com- monwealth. Mr. Long was born in 1820, sad was a man with a fair education, who devoted his life to the farming industry. He settled in the Purley locality, then a part of Titus county, and during the Rebellion served as a soldier in Walker's Division of Confederate Troops, in Colonel Waterhouse's regiment. He was a comrade of Wiley B. Rountree, the father of the subject, and with that honored veteran, participated in many activities of the Civil war. James Long was a son of Ned Long and his wife, Mary (O'Neal) Long, both having numer- ous relatives in and about Henderson, Tennessee. The issue of Ned Long and his wife were James; Polly, the wife of Robert Junell, who died in Hopkins county, Texas; William, killed in an accident in Hunt county, Texas, leaving a family; Dorcas married Dr. A. M. Wom- mack, and died in Erath county, Texas, and Robert passed away unmarried. The father died in Wood county, Texas, at an advanced age, as did also the mother.

James Long married in young manhood, and his death occurred in 1901, his wife having preceded him some years before. He was a member of the Primitive Bap- tist church and a stanch Democrat all his life. Their children were as follows: Sarah, who died unmarried; Jennie married J. D. Templeton and died in Franklin county; Warren passed away here in 1913, leaving a family; Robert lives at Commerce, Texas, and Silas at Purley; Thomas was killed in Franklin county; Dollie married Mr. Rountree; Lula is the wife of J. J. Nance and lives in Cleburne, Texas; and Parker is a resident of Franklin county, Texas.

Mrs. Rountree was educated in the country schools, in the schools of Mount Vernon and in the State Normal at Huntsville, graduating there in 1886. She became a teacher in the common schools before graduation and followed it subsequently for a few years. She gave up the work with her marriage, and thereafter devoted her- self to the care of her home and growing family, care- fully watching over their progress in an educational way, but in 1912 she was again induced to take up graded work in the Mount Vernon schools, and has thus once more identified herself with educational work of the community, in which she has gained a splendid popularity and proven most unmistakably her fitness for that phase of work. Mr. and Mrs. Rountree have three children. Mary is a graduate of the Mount Vernon high school class of 1911. She has taught in the public schools since then, and is now adding to her musical training in preparation for the work of instructor in that branch, to which she has given a deal of attention all her life. Lucile completed her high school course in 1912, took a diploma in music, and is well equipped for service in that work. Linnie Scott is still attending high school.

The family are members of the Christian church, and Mr. Rountree has fraternal relations with the Woodmen

of the World and the Southern Woodmen. He is a Democrat, stanch and firm in his political convictions, but has never offered himself for office.

CYRUS B. LUCAS. There are few citizens of South- west Texas with so many important relations with the commercial and other substantial interests as Cyrus B. Lucas. Berclair in Goliad county owes more to Mr. Lucas' town-building and business enterprise than to any other one citizen. In recent years Mr. Lucas has also maintained a residence at San Antonio, where he is also known as one of the men of large means and high financial connections.

The basis of his prosperity was laid in the cattle in- dustry, and among Texas stockmen he is one of the most prominent. For a number of years he was a member of the executive committee of the Texas Cattle Raising Association.

He has several good cattle ranches in this part of the State: Fair Oaks Ranch, near Berclair, lies about half in Goliad and half in Bee County and con- sists of between fifty-eight and sixty thousand acres; Buena Vista Ranch which embraces seventeen thousand acres of land in Live Oak County and fronts the Nueces river for several miles, and the St. Charles Ranch which contains about fifty-six thousand acres of laud in Aran- sas County and Refugio County. He runs ten to twelve thousand head of Hereford cattle on these ranches and his cattle usually bring the top price in the market.

While a veteran cattleman, Mr. Lucas has followed the modern trend in that business, and through his in- dividual enterprise has done a great deal for the develop- ment of agriculture in Southern Texas. His farm, which comprises a portion of the Fair Oaks Ranch, consists of four thousand acres, and adjoins the limits of the town of Berelair. His main crop is cotton, although corn and other staples of that locality receive attention. The farm is regarded as one of the model places in Goliad county, and represents a great deal of money invested by Mr. Lucas and is one of the most profitable enter- prises. In its operation are employed the very best practices of modern agricultural science, and Mr. Lucas is one of the men who understand how to make farming pay.

And although Mr. Lucas is not the original founder of the town of Berclair, he is now at the head of its leading institutions. He built and owns the finest cotton gin in South Texas, operated under the name of the Ber- clair Gin Company. The Berclair State Bank was also organized principally with his capital, and he is its president. He also established and is president of the Berclair Mercantile Company, the largest store of the town. In various other directions his influence has been instrumental in laying the foundation of a thriving com- munity. Berclair is in Goliad county, close to the line of Bee county. Mr. Lucas is First Vice President of the Commercial National Bank of Beeville and also a di- rector of the State Bank & Trust Company of San An- tonio, and has various other interests in that city.

Though practically a lifelong resident of Texas, Cyrus B. Lucas is of Canadian birth, and of Trish and English parentage. He was born November 14th, 1856, at Strat- ford, Ontario, Canada, and his parents Richard M. and Louisa (Winter) Lucas, were both of English descent. His mother was born and reared in London, England. His father was born in Dublin, Ireland, and is a descend- ant of the Mount Lucas branch of the several members of the Lucas family who emigrated to Ireland from England in the early part of the 17th Century. His parents were married in London, and soon after their marriage they emigrated to America, settled in Western Ontario, and during the decade of the fifties came to the Southwest, locating in Goliad, Texas, and spent the rest of their lives in this state.

Mr. Lucas grew up in Goliad county, and his father's ranch, with which his boyhood associations are indenti-

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fied, was located on Blanco Creek, five miles below the present town of Berclair. For a man whose youth was spent in the sixties and seventies, Mr. Lucas had more than ordinary schooling, and for his early education is principally indebted to Concrete College in DeWitt county, which at that time was under the direction of Professor John V. E. Covey, one of the most noted edu- cators of his day in the state.

Although the Lucas family consider Berclair their real home, their fine residence on Lexington avenue in San Antonio is where they spend much of their time. Be- fore her marriage Mrs. Lucas was Miss Lizzie Scott, who was born aud reared in Goliad county, and is related to some of the most prominent pioneer families in that sec- tion of the state. Her parents were J. J. and Ruth (Greenwood) Scott. The grandfather, Noah Scott, a native of Virginia, was a member of Austin's original colony, settling in Texas when it was a province of Mex- ico, and his children were born in the Texas Republic. The first settlement of the Scotts was near Bellville in Austin county, but they subsequently became early set- tlers in DeWitt county, still later moved to Bee county, and after his marriage J. J. Scott located in Goliad county. On her father's mother's side Mrs. Lucas is a great-granddaughter of Thomas York, a Virginian, who was one of the first settlers in DeWitt county and was the founder of Yorktown in that county. The Green- woods were also early settlers of the state, first locating at old Nacogdoches in the days of the Texas Republic. Mrs. Lucas received most of her education in Professor A. A. Brook's Academy in Goliad, a high-class educa- tional institution which prepared many Texans for worthy lives. Mr. and Mrs. Lucas are the parents of two children: Richard Pryor Lucas and Miss Lena Claire Lucas.

BRUCE C. WALLACE, M. D., who has been practicing medicine at LaRue, Texas, since 1892, is the senior phy- sician of the southern end of Henderson county. He was reared in the Bethel community of Anderson county, where his parents made their permanent settlement on coming to Texas in 1870. His father, Col. George P. Wallace, died as tax collector of Anderson county in 1887, and is buried in the Bethel Cemetery. He was born in Perry county, Alabama, in 1829, and was ten years of age when he went to Mississippi while his father, Jones Wallace, who was a slaver and planter along the line of the Yokahockany river, at Kosciusko, Attala county, and died there in 1851, when aged about fifty years. Jones Wallace was an Alabaman of Scotch ancestry, and married a Miss Pierson, who passed away. about the time that he died, their children being: Wil- liam J., who was a Confederate soldier of General Lee's army, came to Texas with Colonel Wallace, spent his life as a farmer, and died at LaRue, leaving no family ; Martha, who died in Mississippi as the wife of Willis Wingo; Mary, who married William McMillen, and died in Texas; Col. George P .. Virgil H., who was a Confed- erate soldier and spent his life in Attala county, Mis- sissippi; Samuel, who was killed in battle as a Con. federate soldier during the Civil War; John, who died in the same service; and Emily, who married O. T. Stephens, and died in Mississippi. William J. Wallace was lientenant in his company, and belonged to Gen. A. P. Hill's Corps.

Col. George P. Wallace was educated in the country school and was using slave labor as a planter when the Civil War broke across the country in all its fury. In 1862 he enlisted for service in the Confederate army, and was commissioned Lieut. Col. of the Fortieth Mis- sissippi Infantry, his regiment being added to the army under General Pemberton, about Vicksburg. He took part in the engagements preliminary to the siege and was paroled at the surrender of that city to General Grant. Immediately after the surrender he was pro- moted to the rank of Colonel and took his regiment to Vol. IV-9

Johuston's army and participated in the defense of Atlanta aud in the 100 days of fighting of the Atlanta campaigu. At the battle of Peach Tree Creek he lost his left arm, and after spending some weeks in the hos- pital was taken by the wife of Capt. Henry Lamar to her home and cared for until sufficiently recovered to return to his home. Colonel Wallace was practically a bankrupt when peace was declared in 1865. He felt the financial ruin of the family keenly and decided upon taking up his residence in a new country to begin life over. Accordingly, he made the trip to Texas by rail and water and purchased what land his finances would permit, combining the industry of his body and mind and the virtue of his citizenship to the Bethel neighborhood. His farm of several hundred acres was worked with free black labor, to which condition he seemed to adapt himself readily. He proved his sym- pathy for the ex-slave by providing him with the neces- sities of life from his plantation commissary, and requir- ing the negro to repay him in labor whenever he should need the work. At such a time he would ride about the neighborhood after supper, summoning help, and the next morning his yard would be filled with "free negroes" waiting for breakfast to start the day's business. He was wont to carry a hoe while overseeing the "hoe hands" and cut an occasional weed as a sort of accom- paniment to the darky hoe. It was but natural that Col. Wallace should become active in politics. Having com- manded men in time of strife, he could be trusted to do so in times of peace. He was a Democrat, and was his party's candidate for tax collector of Anderson county in 1880, and was elected to that office, following which he moved to Palestine with his family, just hav- ing gotten nicely started with his duties when he was stricken by death. Colonel Wallace was a Royal Arch Mason, and ever took an active interest in the work of that fraternal order, while his religions connection was with the Methodist church. In 1849, Colonel Wallace was married to Miss Mary A. Hodge, a daughter of Rev. Robert H. Hodge, whose career is mentioned fully on another page of this work. Mrs. Wallace died March 21, 1906, having been the mother of the following chil- dren: Eugene, who died in Mississippi at the age of nineteen years; Robert J., a resident of Palestine, Texas; Ella, who died when a young girl; Laura B., who married H. E. Nash, and died in LaRue, Texas; Isa M., who died unmarried; Roena, who also died single; Georgia, who married S. L. Love, and died in Oklahoma ; Lela B., who died in Anderson county, Texas, as Mrs. F. S. Jackson; Betty V., who died at the age of sixteen years; and Bruce C., of this review.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 39

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