A history of Texas and Texans, Part 41

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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As a business man and employer Mr. Keating came into direct personal relations with his subordinates and the estimation in which he was held was well evidenced when he retired from the management of the Keating Implement house. His old employes, some of whom had been under him for almost thirty years, presented him with a handsome silver loving cup as a token of their admiration. Mr. Keating is a widely knowu, public- spirited citizen, and for many years has been a foremost figure in the growth and development of Dallas as the commercial metropolis of the southwest. He took an active part in the Dallas Fair, was vice-president of the association and in 1904 became president. That was a critical year in the association's history, but with his own financial backing established the Fair on such a secure basis that during the following year it returned & profit, and has ever since been one of the great institu- tions of the southwest. In Dallas he is especially well known for his long years of unselfish work and financial aid in connection with the Trinity river navigation pro- ject. With Commodore Duncau and T. W. Griffiths he was the leading spirit in the operations of the Trinity River Navigation Company, organized in 1891 to pro- mote the improvement of that stream as a waterway. He was honored as president of the company year after year until it was no longer necessary to keep up such an organization by reason of the United States govern- mient having taken active charge of the improvement. Through the efforts of this organization the plan re- ceived approval from Congress in 1902, and since that time about a million dollars has been appropriated for the deepening and canalization of the Trinity river channel. When this work is finished it will convert the Trinity river into a canal throughout a distance of five hundred miles from Dallas to the Gulf, so as to afford water transportation to cities lying along that stream giving them the advantage of lower rates, due to the possession of a navigable water course.

In 1877 at Kankakee, Illinois, Mr. Keating married Miss Nellie C. Joy. Their son, William, died in Colorado in 1908, at the age of twenty-two, and the two living children are: Cecil Phillips and Miss Eliza C. Mr. Keating was married in 1914 to Mrs. Ruth Evelyn Shaw, of Covington, Kentucky, widow of Judge William McD. Shaw, and devotes his time to his real estate and other investments and in traveling.

HORACE G. JOHNSTON. Through his long official con- nection with the American Well & Prospecting Company of Corsicana, Mr. Johnston has been a very prominent factor in the oil regions of the southwest, particularly in Texas. He is president and general manager of the company, which is one of the largest concerns of the kind in the world, and its connections and operations are world-wide, Corsicana being only the business head- quarters for operations which extend to different sections of this country, and to practically all the continents of the world. Horace G. Johnston has been a resident of Texas since 1891. In that year he went to Marlin to drill the deep well for artesian water which uncovered the hot-water area of that section, and which has brought fame to Marlin as a bathing resort. When the company's work was finished at Marlin, Mr. Johnston moved his tools to Corsicana, and drilled the deep well at the State Orphans' Home, and later a well for the city. It was at that time that signs of oil were discovered that led to the company's prospecting for oil, and soon afterwards oil was discovered in paying quantities, re- sulting in the opening up of the great Corsicana oil and gas fields. In the work of development about Corsicana, the American Well and Prospecting Company took not only the leading part, but for a number of years has been a very important factor. It has sent its drills into the oil sands at various points in the territory about Corsi- cana, and its operations are still extensive in that vi- cinity.

The American Well & Prospecting Company, of which Mr. Johnston is president and manager, was organized in Kansas in 1886 at which time Mr. Johnston associated himself with Mr. Akin and others, all of whom are yet members of the firm. As a result of their oil discoveries uear Corsicana, the company decided to establish a plant in Corsicana for the manufacturing of deep-well tools, supplies, and other paraphernalia used in oil well operation. In 1896 the company opened a small factory employing a half dozen men, and with the gradual in- crease of successive years, this factory is now one of the largest local industries, with one hundred men on its payroll, and with a shop and storage house in Bartles- ville, Oklahoma, another at Los Angeles, and one at Houston, Texas. They also maintain an agency at Lon- don, England, one at Baku, Russia, and their goods go abroad to every territory where oil has been found, to Japan, Russia, the Balkan country, to South America, to Mexico, and elsewhere. The annual business of the firm is about six hundred thousand dollars a year.

Mr. Johnston got into the drilling business without premeditation in Kansas in 1886. He was in central Kansas when the salt beds were discovered there, and soon afterwards became one of the organizers of the American Well and Prospecting Company, which drilled at Hutchinson, Kingman, Ellsworth, Lyons and Little River, their developments covering a period of five years, and including the gas fields about Paoli and Cherryvale.

Mr. Johnston had prepared for his profession as an engineer in the Greensburg Seminary in Ohio, and while in his native state he assisted in the building of a road from Canton to Beech City. He went to Kansas in 1882 as a civil engineer to do railroad construction work, and had charge of construction for a part of the Mis- souri Pacific System from Salina west. While he was connected with that work, twenty miles of track were built in sixty days, and that was considered one of the remarkable feats of railway construction in that early time.

Horace G. Johnston was born near Akron, Summit county, Ohio, April 15, 1851. His early years were spent on a farm. His father, Alexander Johnston, settled in Summit county in 1814, when a boy of six years, the grandparents having immigrated from Center county, Pennsylvania, becoming among the first to locate in that section of Western Reserve of Ohio. Alexander John- ston belonged to a family of colonial settlers in Penn- sylvania, and the first ancestors came from the north of Ireland. Alexander Johnston was educated much better than the average young men of his time, and became a pioneer teacher in Summit county. Among his pupils was the father of Mrs. Thomas A. Edison. After some years of teaching Alexander Johnston took up farming, and early in life had an official career. In politics he was first a Whig, and was the first man elected to the office of recorder of Summit county. Later he represented his county in the lower branch of the legislature. For many years he was a factor in politics in that part of Ohio. His death occurred in 1896, after surviving his wife some years. He married Lavinia Thursby, a daughter of William Thursby, who had come to Ohio, frou Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The children of Alex- ander Johnson and wife were: Horace G .; Isaac N., of Pasadena, California; and Miss Anna M., who occupies the old homestead near Akron.

In Navarro county, Texas, in December, 1901, Horace G. Johnston married Miss Genevieve Chancey, a daugh- ter of Thomas Chancey of East Texas. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Johnston are Anna Ellen, born in 1904; Elliott Alexander, born in 1906; and Horace G., Jr. Mr. Johnston has membership in the American Society of Civil Engineers, and in politics is a Republican.

WILLIAM D. HAYNIE. It was the fortune of the late William D. Haynie to possess the power of accumulating wealth and managing large resources with almost invari-

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able success. His genius in this sphere was accompanied by corresponding attributes of public spirit and worthy influence. During his lifetime he was recognized as a philanthropist, but his widow by her benefactions has enriched the usefulness of several important religious and educational institutions of the state.

For many years the late William D. Haynie was a prominent factor in the industrial and financial affairs of Navarro county, and died at his home in Rice, Octo- ber 14, 1906. He had come to this locality before the building of the Houston & Texas Central Railway, and from 1867 until his death was active in the affairs of the community.

William D. Haynie was born in Tipton county, Ten- nessee, April 29, 1837, and came to Texas as a pioneer with his father, George Haynie, in 1847. The family settled at Tehuacana Hills, where his father died about 1856. William D. Haynie became an active factor in the management of the estate, and grew up on the fron- tier, as a boy mingling with the Indians who came and went and maintained friendly relations with the early settlers. His hardy training and experiences gave him a vigorous constitution and a zest for practical business life. It was with little education except such as was supplied by country schools and he subsequently profited by observation and reading. He was still a young man when the war between the states broke out. From 1860 to 1862 he had been a merchant with a small store at the Cotton Gin, in partnership with Mr. Joseph Lynn. In 1861 another store was opened at Chatfield, but Mr. Haynie closed out when the call to arms became too urgent to resist. On March 18, 1862, he joined a com- pany in Colonel Bates' regiment, and himself took a squad of thirty men to Galveston for organization. He was made a first lieutenant of his company, and after considerable service around Velasco as a coast guard he entered the commissary department and continued in Louisiana and Texas until the end of the war.

His return to civil life found him without resources, and like many others he established himself as a stock man. Few of the old-time cattlemen in that section of the state prospered so steadily as the late William D. Haynie. He had a faculty of making everything he touched prosper, and while enriching himself he did not neglect his fellow men and his community. As the popu- lation of the country multiplied and the demand for farm land increased he foresaw the time when the open range stock industry must move on, and prepared to get out of the business. He sold his cattle to the Matador Cattle Company, and turned his attention to the real estate and loan business and to banking at Corsicana. He aided in promoting the Corsicana National Bank and was one of its officers at the time of his death. Asso- ciated with others he organized the Corsicana Building & Loan Association, a concern which went into voluntary liquidation before his death. The late Mr. Haynie was a man of extraordinary business sense and never in- dulged in speculation, making investments where the se- curity was unquestioned and accumulating an estate regarded as princely by those who knew his history from the close of the war.

Mr. Haynie was an ardent Democrat and his activity extended to the attendance upon every state convention after reconstruction days, though he never sought politi- cal honors for himself. At the age of twenty-one he had affiliated with the Masonic Order and kept in good standing all his life. He was a firm Christian, and filled some office in the Methodist Church South during most of his mature life. Physically he was a man six feet two inches high and weighed over two hundred pounds. He was deliberate in his movements and in his speech, and his personality was somewhat distinguished.

On February 7, 1860, at the country home of I. B. Sessions, Mr. Haynie married Miss Viola E. Sessions. Her father had come to Texas in 1846 and to Navarro county in 1847. Mrs. Haynie was born on the line of

Chickasaw and Choctaw counties in Mississippi, April 18, 1844, and as a child when she came to Texas grew up within five miles of the town of Rice. Her education was finished in Dr. N. P. Modrell's school in Corsicana. Her married life was devoted to her husband and to her neighbors and religious affairs. She and Mr. Haynie never had any children, and they gave their time and means to the welfare of others. Mrs. Haynie has been one of the benefactors of higher education in Texas, and contributed substantial amounts to various colleges from time to time. Her chief interests centered in the South- ern Methodist University of Dallas, to which she donated twenty-five thousand dollars for the endowment of a school of theology. She gave more than two-thirds of the money for the building of the new Haynie Memorial Methodist Church, South, of Rice, which was constructed at a cost of twenty-two thousand dollars. The various institutions to which she has contributed are the South- western University of Georgetown, the Texas Women's College of Fort Worth, the Old Preachers' Home at Georgetown, now called the Haynie Home, the Virginia K. Johnson Home for the Rescue of Delinquent Girls in Dallas, and to the Corsicana Young Men's Christian As- sociation.

WALTER OWEN WASHINGTON. The technical profes- sions have grown in importance in proportion to the development and complexity of modern industrialism, and have consequently drawn into their ranks some of the ablest young men now found in professional and business affairs. It is as Civil Engineer that Walter Owen Washington is best known; and during the past ten years has been concerned with much important work, at first chiefly in railway engineering, and latterly in independent practice throughout Southwest Texas, with main offices at San Antonio, with a definite reputation as an irrigation engineer. Mr. Washington represents one of the older families of Texas, and one which in earlier generations contributed soldiers, planters, busi- ness men and able citizens to the state.

Walter Owen Washington was born near Austin, Texas, September 24, 1883, and his parents, Thomas Pratt and Ella J. (Maxwell), are still living in that city. His father was born in Travis county, of which Austin is the county seat, in 1856. Grandfather Thomas Pratt Washington, Sr., who was one of the pioneer settlers of Travis county, locating there in the early forties, was a colonel in the local militia during the Mexican war. This Texas pioneer was a native of Vir- ginia, and after a few years' residence in Alabama, where he married, came to Texas. Colonel Thomas P. Washington's grandfather was Henry Washington, a brother of Colonel William Washington, who gained his title during the Revolutionary war, and whose family in a still earlier generation produced the ancestors from which George Washington sprang. Ella J. Maxwell is a daughter of the late Dr. A. C. Maxwell, of Abingdon, Virginia, who was a surgeon in charge of the Southwest Department of Virginia in the Confederate army during the war between the states. The old Washington plan- tation, about twelve miles below Austin, is one of the oldest homesteads in Travis county, and a place of much local historic interest.

Mr. W. O. Washington began life with the distinct advantage of a good family heritage and also with a good liberal education. From the public schools of Travis county he entered the University of Texas at Austin, spent four years there, and was graduated with the degree of Civil Engineer in the class of 1904. His first experience was in general and railroad engineering in both the United States and Mexico, and for some time he was one of the engineering staff with the Harriman railroad lines in Old Mexico. In 1910 Mr. Washington established an independent practice as engineer at San Antonio, and is a member of the well-known firm of Whiteaker & Washington, with offices in the Moore build-

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ing. Their practice is of a general nature, and their services have been largely employed and their reputation is chiefly based upon their skill and success in Irriga- tion and Highway Engineering works. As an indication of Mr. Washington's standing in his profession it should be noted that he is an Associate Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. This honor is extended only to those who have a recognized degree of proficiency in the profession. He is a member of the National Geo- graphic Society, is a York Rite Mason, a member of Ben Hur Temple of A. A. O. Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and takes an active interest as member of several other organizations, civic, professional, and religious.

In 1910 Mr. Washington married Miss Bernice Haskell of Greenville, Texas. Mrs. Washington was also a stu- dent of the University of Texas. Their children are Elizabeth Emma, born December 5, 1911, and Walter Owen, born January 24, 1914.

JOHN BURROW HAYNIE. One of the men whose talent for finance and administrative business has been de- veloped to unusual success is John Burrow Haynie of Rice, who has been a factor in the business of that place since 1875. After locatiug there he soon became inter- ested in merchandising and other features of its busi- ness affairs.

Mr. Haynie moved to Rice from a farm at Eureka in Navarro county, where he had settled about the time he reached manhood. He was a child of seven years when he accompanied his father to Texas in 1847 and settled at Tehuacana Hills. At that time Navarro county was on the frontier, and Indians still roamed over its hills and prairies. In that vicinity, as one of the pio- neers, his father, George W. Haynie, did some farming and was a stock raiser until he died about 1856, past fifty years of age. George W. Haynie was born in Tipton county, Tennessee, had about the educational advantages of the average pioneer, and brought his family to Texas in wagons. With the rest of his equipment he brought a few negroes, and during his brief stay in this state was a man of industry. George W. Haynie married Sidney Lynn, who died at Eureka when past sixty years of age. Their children were: Lewis B., who was a merchant and farmer and land man and died at Rice leaving a family; William D., who died at Rice, an ex- Confederate soldier, a farmer and stock man; Amanda, who married Mr. Robert Tyus and died at Pine Bluff, Arkansas; John B .; and Mary Jane, widow of George Mayo of Kerens.

John B. Haynie came to man's estate with a fair education and with an experience as a soldier in the great war between the states. In March, 1862, he had entered the Confederate army in Captain Melton's Com- pany of Bates' regiment, and was a guard along the Gulf coast. Most of the time he and his men were sta- tioned at Velasco, and was frequently shelled by the enemy, and he saw more or less of the turmoil of war until its end. His company disbanded at Velasco, but at the time Mr. Haynie was at home on detailed service. After the war he took up civil life as a modest farmer and stock man. His prosperity has been won from a starting point at zero, and hard work was the factor that counted most in his early life. He bought his first land during the war at Eureka with Confederate money, and continued to prosper in that vicinity until his re- moval to Rice. About Rice he acquired a large amount of land. and a great deal of this has been brought under cultivation with crops of both grain and cotton. At the present time his ownership extends to several valuable farms in the Rice community. Altogether his efforts have brought under cultivation about nine hundred acres, and on his farms and in Rice he has erected twenty houses. His agricultural interests give employment to about twenty persons.

Farming has not been his sole vocation. Mr. Haynie engaged in merchandising after coming to Rice, built

a cotton gin and operated it for several years, and fin- ally disposed of these interests. About eight years ago he engaged in banking, and is now president of the First State Bank and was one of its active managers for some time. He is also interested in the lumber business.

Mr. Haynie has not taken an active part in politics, is a Democrat, and while originally he did not favor Wilson is very much pleased with the president's success. A member of no fraternity, he has his religious connec- tions with the Cumberland Presbyterian church. On November 14, 1861, Mr. Haynie married Miss Mary A. Jones, a daughter of J. C. Jones, a northern man who came to Texas from Arkansas, was a farmer and exten- sive stock man, and died at Eureka, where he had settled during the decade of the forties. Mrs. Haynie was born in Arkansas in August, 1843, and died February 15, 1914. Their children are: Mary Elizabeth, who married R. S. Clark of Rice and has the following children: Balfour ; Mary B., wife of A. Y. Brown of Rice; Man- ford; Ruth, who married Mr. Cash; Cora; and John. The second child of Mr. Haynie is Jodie, wife of Dr. Hugh Sloan of Rice. The youngest child is Viola, wife of John T. Fortson of Rice.

MITCHELL S. CLAYTON. A native son of Navarro county, Mr. Clayton has here served as county sheriff and is now county statistician, with residence and official headquarters in the city of Corsicana. He has been identified with the agricultural and stock industries of the state. He is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Texas, has well upheld the honors of the name which he hears and is entitled to specific recogni- tion in this publication.

Mitchell Steele Clayton was born on a farm near the village of Kerens, Navarro county, Texas, on the 18th of September, 1854, and he is a son of Joseph A. and Amanda (Poole) Clayton, both of whom were born in Tennessee. Joseph A. Clayton first came to Texas in 1835, as a youth of seventeen years, and it was his to live up to the full tension of life on the frontier. He soon became a member of General Sam Houston's army, organized for the purpose of gaining independence to Texas, which became a republic as a result. As a private soldier he took part in the historic battle of San Jacinto, and for his services as a soldier he was given a grant of land, but when he made a permanent settlement it was not on this land but in the vicinity of the old town of Washington, about 1847. He did some service for the United States in the Mexican war, and also did much scouting in the early Indian service, besides working effectively with surveying parties during the formative period of statehood in Texas. He finally returned to Tennessee, where he wedded Amanda Poole, an orphan girl, and he then came again to Texas and located near old Washington, where they resided until 1852, when they settled near Kerens. Navarro county. Both died at Chatfield, this county, in the year 1873, the father passing away August 1, and the mother July 31. At the outbreak of the Civil war Joseph A. Clayton en- listed in the Confederate army in Texas. He was reared in Marshall county, Tennessee, and received but limited educational advantages in his youth. His alert mentality enabled him to overcome this early handicap and he became a man of broad information and mature judgment. He was a close student of the Bible and while not formally identified with any religious body his faith was in accord with the tenets of the Baptist church. He was both a Mason and an Odd Fellow and he assisted in the organization of some of the early lodges of these fraternities in Navarro county, including the first of the latter order in the county, the same having been established at Chatfield. Of the children the eldest was Ida C., who became the wife of James P. Fortson and who died at Rice, Navarro county; Mary E., who became the wife of William H. Bachman, died in Dallas county; Joseph H. and Hervey A. are still

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residents of Navarro county ; J. Roger is at Tamalipas, Mexico, where he is a farmer by vocation; Dixie B. is the wife of James M. Read and they likewise reside at Tamalipas, Mexico; Jennie P. became the wife of Dr. Edward Brown, and her death occurred at Merkel, Texas; and Mitchell S., of this review, was the third in order of birth.

Mitchell S. Clayton was reared to adult age at Chat- field, Navarro county, where he availed himself of the advantages of the country schools. His father was en- gaged in the raising of sheep and horses and upon at- taining to his legal majority Mitchell S. turned his attention to the same line of industry, with which he continued to be identified until 1887, the sheep business until that time having been a profitable enterprise in Texas. With the curtailment of the open range profits naturally diminished, and Mr. Clayton found it expedi- ent to curtail his stock of sheep to a small limit, finally retiring entirely from the business. He passed a part of his early manhood in the cattle country of western Texas, where he remained from 1874 to 1878 and where he worked as a cowboy for representative cattle men of Denton, Cooke, Grayson and Clay counties. Upon his return to Navarro county he engaged in the sheep busi- ness, as already noted. Upon his retirement from this field of industry he engaged in farming, upon a part of the family estate, and he brought under effective culti- vation 150 acres of land, besides making additions to his estate, by the purchase of adjoining land, the im- provements made by him having been of excellent order. He remained on his farm until 1892, when he was elected peace officer of Precinct No. 2 and established his residence in the village of Chatfield, where he remained until his election to the office of sheriff, in 1908, when he removed to Corsicana, the judicial center of the county and his present place of abode. He served as constable for ten years, during which time and for a number of years thereafter he held also commission as deputy sheriff of the county. He was elected county sheriff in 1908 and re-elected in 1910, thus holding the office four years. His administration was efficient and acceptable and he retired from the shrievalty in Novem- ber, 1912. A few months later he was appointed cotton statistician for Navarro county, a position in which he is required by the government to keep an accurate record of the number of cotton baled ginned in the county, the amount of cotton consumed by the Corsicana cotton factory, stocks of cotton retained in warehouses, amount of seed crushed and statistics concerning production in the various cotton-seed oil mills of his distriet, and other incidental data, ten gin reports being made by him to the census bureau in Washington between September and March of each year.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 41

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