A history of Texas and Texans, Part 43

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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Mrs. Gable helped Mrs. Moore do the work about the house. In his efforts to secure a place on which to live he failed, as did his employer in finding a place for rent, and, about discouraged, was on the point of leaving the locality when Mr. Moore asked him one day if he were willing to take the "Allen Carroll place." Allen Car- roll was a negro in the last stages of consumption, and Mr. Gable hesitated for a time, but finally agreed, be- cause of his desperate situation, and accordingly moved into the little home after thoroughly scouring and scald- ing it. During the three years he lived there, Mr. Gable declares, he never enjoyed himself more in his life. Wild game was plentiful, turkey and deer abounded, and, as he loved sport with the gun, he lived chiefly on wild game while it lasted. He made money every year on that place, and subsequently moved on the ridge where Mr. Moore had lived, and spent two years there, then going to "high prairie" and buying a home of 129 acres, with a good house and barn-the best in the county at that time. He paid eighteen dollars an acre for this land, giving $1,000 down and notes for the balance, payable in one and two years. At the end of the time his land was paid for, and he owed no man, having found it no trouble to make money where there was an earnest will and domestic harmony. In the fall he piled up from forty to eighty bales of cotton from that place, and found himself becoming very independent, so purchased a tract of fifty acres, at twenty-five dollars an acre, spot cash, and in a few years purchased another fifty acres, adjoin- ing, at forty-two and one-half dollars an acre.

At that time Mr. Gable had reached a point where the education of his children became a matter of con- cern, and, as the facilities in this locality were very poor, he moved to Dawson and purchased the R. B. Maish residence for $1500 spot cash. He continued to farm ac- tively and to add to his holdings, and prospered all the way along the road. Mr. Gable is a Democrat, but has not bothered with politics and no secret order has troubled him with its wiles. He has built several cot- tages in Dawson, which contribute to his income. His religious connection is with the Methodist church, which he has supported generously.

Mr. Gable's children are as follows: George Warren of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, president of the State Normal School; Oscar R., a teacher in Wesley College, Green- ville, Texas; Ellis, superintendent of the schools of Forney, Texas; Maud, the wife of Felix Davis, a farmer near Dawson; May, the widow of Dr. Frank Smith of Dawson; Ethel, who married W. J. Rochelle of Corsicana, Texas; Miss Tina, an English teacher in the Devine (Texas) High School; James J. and Blanche, a junior at Southwestern. Mr. Gable's achievements have been many and notable, yet what he considers the best work of his life has been the education of his children, all of whom have been well fitted for the places in life which they have been called upon to fill, and all of whom are proving themselves worthy of their education and training. George Warren is a graduate of George- town and Chicago Universities and began teaching in the country. His graded school work was done at Groesbeck, Frost and Kerens, in Texas, and at Duncan and Checota, Oklahoma, where he was principal, fol- lowing which he was appointed to his present high posi- tion. Oscar is a graduate of Georgetown University, as is Ellis. Maud was a teacher for eight years before her marriage and received a thorough training. May was well educated and was a teacher of elocution for several years, Ethel was a teacher for five years prior to her marriage. Miss Tina is a graduate of Georgetown Uni- versity, James J. is a student of the class of 1915 in a medical college at Oklahoma City and Miss Blanche holds a state teacher's certificate.

GEORGE W. RATLIFF, chief clerk of the Railway Mail service, District No. 4, at Denison, Texas, has been

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connected with the mail service for a quarter of a cen- tury and his rise to his present position of authority has been steady and continued, a result of his ability, his energy and his faithful performance of duty. A native son of Texas, he was born in Washington county November 30, 1867, and is a son of George W. and Mary (MeClellan) Ratliff, the former of English descent and the latter of Scotch-Irish ancestry. There are many of the name located in different parts of Texas, whence a number of the family came at an early day, and all have held honorable positions in life and main- tained the high reputation of the family.

George W. Ratliff, Sr., was born in Mississippi, where he grew to manhood with but few educational a. vantages, although in his later years he remedied this oversight by study and observation and is known as a well-informed man on numerous subjects of importance. In 1859 he migrated to Texas, locating in Hays county, where he was residing at the time of the commence- ment of hostilities between the Southern and Northern states, and he immediately cast his fortunes with the Confederacy, enlisting in a Texas volunteer regiment. He served under Colonels Carter and Giddings at Bren- ham, Texas, and was among those detailed on the scout- ing line, subsequently participated in the raid through Louisiana after General .Banks, took part in a number of hotly contested battles and continued to serve until the close of the war. His regiment for a time was con- nected with the army of General Price. He proved himself a brave and gallant soldier and had an excellent military record, although his record as a business man bas been no less admirable. When he laid aside the musket for the implements of peace, he took up farm- ing and stock raising in Fayette and Coleman counties, Texas, and through industry and good management made a success of his operations. He is now living a retired life at his home in the city of Fort Worth. A man of strong mind and iron constitution. he is still active and alert at the age of eighty-two years, perfectly capable of attending to the duties of life. The mother, who was born in Tennessee, died in 1906. There were three sons in the family: George W., of this review; Charles C., in the Railway Mail Service at Texarkana and in charge of the Terminal R. P. O., and Samuel R., of El Paso, also in the Railway Mail Service and in the Ter- minal R. P. O. at that city.

After completing his preliminary educational train- ing in the public schools of Fayette county, George W. Ratliff spent one year in the University of Texas, and with this training embarked upon his career. His first employment was at clerical work for his father, for whom he kept a set of books, and subsequently he entered the employ of the Caleasien Lumber Company, at Austin, in a like capacity. For some time following this he was associated with the Breckenridge & Tinnin Lumber Mill, in Polk county, Texas, but in 1889 entered the Railway Mail Service at Fort Worth, and has continued to be identified with this branch of the government to the present time. In January, 1905, Mr. Ratliff came to Denison to take charge of District No. 4, which embraces North Texas and Eastern Oklahoma, there being 150 clerks necessary to handle the large mails of this section. A man of energy and enterprise, Mr. Ratliff has introduced a number of reforms into his department which have served to facilitate the work of mail handling and the service has no more trusted or faithful employe. In political matters he is a Democrat.

On February 23, 1893, Mr. Ratliff was united in mar- riage at Coleman, Texas, to Miss Nettie Wilson, whose father was a steamboat captain during the Civil war and lived in the city of Savannah, Georgia. After the close of that struggle he engaged in the grocery busi- ness at Savannah. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ratliff: George W., nineteen years of age, who is a bookkeeper in the National Bank of Denison,

and Miss Marion C., aged fifteen years, who is attending School. During his vacations Mr. Ratliff has done some traveling to the large cities of the West, but is content with the advantages and opportunities to be found in his home city of Denison, where his numerous friends are always sure of a welcome at his comfortable residence at No. 1015 West Morton street.

CICERO FRANKLIN HENDERSON, M. D., an active practi- tioner in Pittsburg, is a man in the full vigor of pro- fessional and physical manhood and is enjoying to the utmost those benefits arising from his social and pro- fessional standing. He was born near Cason, in Morris county, at a time when it was still known as Titus county, and when Snow Hill was a well known country place established by the pioneers of Ante-Bellum days. His natal day is May 8, 1865, and he is the son of John and Millie A. (Hayes) Henderson.

John Henderson accompanied his parents to Texas in 1844 and they settled at Snow Hill, where he spent his remaining years as a farmer on a modest scale. The Hendersons of this branch were not slave-holding people. They were not aggressive planters, but contented them- selves with comfortable lives and modest surroundings. John Henderson was born in Mississippi in 1825 and liis somewhat meager education was derived from the old field schools of that state. He was a son of Michael Henderson, who carried in his veins the stanch blood of Seot and the versatile temperament of the Celt. He died at Snow Hill some years prior to the opening of the war. His children were reared as farmers and they were as follows: John, the father of the subject; James, who died in Florida without family; Michael, who died in Comanche county, Texas, and left a family; Adeline, who married Allen Barefoot, and one other who married Young Box, and all three of the last named spent their lives in the vicinity of Snow Hill. John Henderson maintained himself and reared his family by the products of the soil and gave himself no concern about matters outside his own domain, save when the question of war between the states was being settled. He demonstrated a patriotic attitude for the old in- stitutions of the south and gave his service as a soldier in the ranks of the Confederate army. When the war was ended he accepted the results with what complacency he might muster and settled down to the work he had quitted to enter the service. He had little ever to do with polities, save to vote his sentiments as a Democrat, and he possessed no inclination or desire to mingle with his fellows as a leader of the public or a speaker in their midst, satisfying his mind and his spirit as a worshiper in the Missionary Baptist church. He was twice married and by his first wife had one son, James, who resides in Brown county, Texas, and a daughter, Mary, who married George Janes and died in Correll county, Texas. For his second wife Mr. Henderson married Millie A. Hayes, a daughter of Hugh Hayes, who came to Texas from Tennessee about the time when the Henderson family migrated hither. Mr. Hayes died in Titus county before war times and is buried near Snow Hill. Millie A. Henderson was born in Tennessee in October, 1838, and resides in the old neighborhood of Snow Hill. Her husband died on June 8, 1905, and their issue are as follows: Humphrey, a farmer and a mill and gin man of Cason, Texas; Tennie, the wife of D. Whittaker; Monroe, a resident of Mount Pleasant, Texas; Cicero F. of this review; Ida, the wife of Robert Montgomery of Cason, Texas, and Walter and R. L. Henderson also of Cason, Texas.

Cicero Franklin Henderson was a boy about the farm near Snow Hill during his minority years and was edu- cated in the country schools. He assisted one term in his locality and abandoned the work for what he thought would be a career in the liquor business at Cason, but soon after he began the preparation for his professional

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career under Dr. Evans at Cason. He took his first course of lectures in the Kentucky School of Medicine in Louisville and entered upon practice on a certificate at Lafayette, Upshur county, in 1895. He continued so until he returned to complete his medical studies in the Memphis Hospital College, from which he was graduated in 1900. He continued in practice in Upshur county until 1908, when he moved to Pittsburgh, and this has been the center of his professional activities since that time.

In 1911 Dr. Henderson took a post-graduate course in the Polyclinic of Tulane University in New Orleans and has in many ways kept up his studies so that he stands well to the forefront in his profession in these parts. He is a member of the County Medical Society and is now its acting secretary, while he served at one time as its president. He attends the annual meetings of the State Medical Association, of which he is a member, and in every way lives in the spirit of his profession. In addition to his regular duties as a prac- titioner Dr. Henderson is the official examiner for the New York Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Great Western Life Insurance Company of Kansas City and the Southwestern and Texas Life Insurance Companies at home, the Great Southern Life Insurance of Huston and the Amicable Life of Waco. He is a stockholder in the Amicable Life Insurance Company and in the Great Southern Life as well, and is financially interested as a stockholder in the First Guaranty State Bank of Pittsburg and the First National Bank, also a director of the Pittsburg National Bank.

Politically Dr. Henderson is a Democrat, although he is not one to take any active part in the political affairs of the community, and his churchly affiliations are with the Missionary Baptist denomination.

On October 22, 1885, Dr. Henderson was married in Titus county to Miss Ellen Mitchell, a daughter of Terrell Mitchell, whose children were as follows: John, William, Thomas, Charles, Ellen and Lee. The children born to Dr. and Mrs. Henderson are as follows: Bera, the wife of Lonuie Smith, and she has one daughter, Vastine; Jeffie, who married Perry Neeley and lives in Shreveport, Louisiana, and is the mother of one son, Luoris ; Guy Henderson, the youngest child of the Doctor and his wife, is a bookkeeper in the First National Bauk of Pittsburg.

The Doctor is a Master Mason, but is not especially active in his lodge affiliations. He is a citizen of the highest order, wide-awake and always up and doing and in him Pittsburg has a resident of whom she may well be proud.

WILLIAM ASHTON VINSON. As an active and prom- inent member in the firm of Lane, Wolters & Storey, attorneys, William Ashton Vinson plays a leading part in the legal activities of the city of Houston, his firm being one of the most impressive of its kind in the city. His identity with Houston was established in 1909, when he formed an association with his present firm, his pre- vious legal affiliation having been with Judge Wilkins, of the firm of Wilkins & Vinson, at Sherman, Texas, where he was located for something like ten years. Mr. Vinson's success in his profession has been in every way worthy of him, and he has shown himself to be ambitious as well as talented, though his modest and unassuming nature impels him to shun the limelight as much as is consistent with success in his career.

William Ashton Vinson was born at White Oak, South Carolina, on December 22, 1874, and is the son of John and Mary Elizabeth (Brice) Vinson, both natives of South Carolina, and people who came originally of French and Scottish ancestry. The family came to Texas in 1887, settling at Sherman, where the father identified himself with the mercantile business. He was a man who had served through the last year of the Civil war in the Confederacy, having been a student at

Charleston, South Carolina, when hostilities were started. His father is still living at Sherman, Texas, but his mother died in 1895.

A boy of thirteen years when he came with his family to Texas, William Ashton Vinson thus gained the major part of his education in the Lone Star State. He was graduated in 1896 from Austin College, at Sherman, after which he applied himself to the reading of law in the office of Judge W. W. Wilkins, at Sherman, and was duly admitted to the bar in 1898. He began the active practice of his profession as a partner of Judge Wilkins, who had so ably instructed him, and for ten years Wilkins & Vinson conducted a highly successful practice in Sherman. During that time Mr. Vinson was appointed to fill out the unexpired term of City Attor- ney, in which he served faithfully and efficiently, and it may be stated at this point that this is the sole political office he has ever held during his career thus far, having no penchant for public life, and entirely content to devote himself to his profession.

In 1909 Mr. Vinson came to Houston, and soon after became a member of the firm of Lane, Wolters & Storey, with whom he is yet associated. Aside from his pro- fession, Mr. Vinson is identified with the Continental Bank & Trust Company of Fort Worth, Texas, as a director, and is a director of the Texas Nursery Com- pany of Sherman, Texas. On March I, 1912, he was appointed by Mayor H. B. Rice to membership on the Carnegie Library Board of Houston, and one year later his appointment was re-confirmed by Mayor Ben Camp- bell. He has given splendid service to the library and the city in his capacity as a director.

Socially, Mr. Vinson has membership in the Houston Club, the Houston Country Club, and the Lumberman's Club of Houston, and in all of them he has made a wide circle of friends.

On December 19, 1900, Mr. Vinson was married to Miss Ethel Turner, the daughter of Judge Augustus C. Turner, of Sherman, Texas, who was long prominent in Grayson county politics and who was for many years district judge there. Two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Vinson-Virginia and Julia Elizabeth.

JOHN C. HUTCHISON, a pioneer resident of Queen City, Cass county, Texas, is entitled to the distinction of being foremost in developing the iron ore industry in this county. He belongs to the family of Hutchi- sons who pioneered in North Carolina and possesses to a marked degree that initiative which characterized his worthy ancestors.

Mr. Hutchison is a native of Tennessee. He was born in Tipton county, that state, in 1845, son of Charles Harris and Adeline (Thompson) Hutchison. Charles Harris Hutchison was born in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, a grandson of Captain William Hutchi- son, who owned the land upon which Charlotte, North Carolina, was built. Captain William Hutchinson was one of the promulgators of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, was captain of troops in the Con- tinental line in Revolutionary war and was a prominent figure in North Carolina history. Charles H. Hutchison lived in Mecklenburg county till after he was grown and soon after his marriage to Miss Adeline Thompson of that county he emigrated to Tipton county, Tennessee, where he lived till December, 1854, when he removed with his family to Cass county, Texas. They settled in the woods and opened up a farm seven miles east of Jefferson, in what was known as the "Bend" country and in what is now Marion county, which county was formed ont of Cass county. He and his wife lived in this place until 1878. From this home they moved to Queen City, Texas. The wife died in 1888 and the hus- band in 1898. They had seven children: James H., deceased ; Amand Kirkland, now living in Dallas, Texas; John C .; Sarah A. Mathews, deceased; Tennessee Har-

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well, deceased; Margaret A. Britton, now in Fort Worth; Charley Milton, now living in Atlanta, Texas.

At the time the Hutchison family came to Texas John C. was a lad of nine years. He was yet a youth in his early teens when the war of the Rebellion broke out, but before its close he tendered his services to the Southern cause and spent two years in the Con- federate army as a member of Company A, Nineteenth Texas (Waterhouse's) Regiment, Walker's Division, in the Trans-Mississippi Department. After the war he returned to his father's home and entered school im- mediately, going to W. S. Glass during the remainder of 1865. On January 1, 1866, he entered school at the Nance old school house, going to one J. N. Adams. In 1867 he went to school at Sulphur Springs, going to Uncle Jo Clark, one of the pioneer educators of East Texas, and returned to the farm for the next two years, 1868 and 1869. In 1870 he accepted a clerkship in a store at Jef- ferson, which at that time was one of the most important commercial cities of Texas. In 1871 he went to Linden, the county seat of Cass county, and established a grocery store. This grocery stock he soon disposed of and the following year turned his attention to drugs. That was the beginning of the drug business in which he and, later, his sons have since been engaged.

In 1874, upon the completion of the Texas & Pacific Railroad through Cass county he removed his business from Linden to Lanark, a station on the new road, and in 1876, when the station of Queen City was established, he removed his drug store to this place and had the distinction of being its pioneer merchant. With the growth and prosperity of his business grew the demand for "Hutchison's Magic Oil," a healing preparation of his own. On its own merits, and without advertising, the fame of this medicine spread until Mr. Hutchison de- cided to retire from retail drug business and devote his entire attention to the manufacture and sale of Magic Oil. As a result of this decision the Hutchison Medicine Company was organized of which Mr. Hutchi- son is president. His two sons, John C., Jr., and James E., are officers of the company and have active charge of the business, which in 1908 was removed from Queen City to Texarkana. Mr. Hutchison, however, continned to make his home in Queen City until November 1, 1913, at which date he and his wife moved to Texarkana and he again became actively engaged with the Hutchison Medicine Company. The company has a fine plant in a modern brick building at the corner of State and Thirteenth streets in Texarkana, from which it dis- tributes its product to the jobbing trade and where it is doing a constantly increasing business.

Since 1891 Mr. Hutchison has been a prominent factor in the development of the iron ore business in Cass county. That year he bought, from the receiver of the property, the famous Bowie Hill iron ore lands, five miles north of Queen City. This was the location of the old Sulphur Forks Iron Works, which had been established during the war by the Confederate States of Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, and operated for the benefit of the Confederate government, and for this reason is of historic interest. Mr. Hutchison has since sold a part of his interest in this property, but is still the owner of over one thousand acres, which is subject to future development. And this promises to be an im- portant industry in the State of Texas.

Referring to Mr. Hutchison's early identity with Queen City, it should be recorded that he opened up the first street in the town. And, as showing his enterprise and public spirit, it should be further recorded that in 1876 he operated a saw mill in the town, at considerable expense to himself, and sawed lumber free for every person who would build a house there and was not able to pay for it.

Mr. Hutchison was married February 22, 1872, to Miss Margaret C. Sharp of Marion county, Texas,

daughter of Jehu H. Sharp, a prominent citizen of that county, and they have five children living: Mrs. Annie Cabe of Stamps, Arkansas; Mrs. Maggie Allday of Atlanta, Texas; John C., Jr., of Texarkana; James E., also of Texarkana, and Mrs. Adine Ellington of Atlanta, Texas. The third child, Charley Harris, was taken to Heaven at two years of age.

Fraternally Mr. Hutchison is a Master Mason and religiously he is a Methodist. Last, but not least, he is politically a Democrat.

ROBERT MONROE WHITE. The residence of the White family has been continuous in south Texas, in the coun- try about Galveston Bay, and in Chambers county, since 1819. That was before the establishment of the first Austin colony. It was about the time Mexico won in- dependence from Spain. Up to that time American settlers had been strictly forbidden to enter Texas and find homes in territory. The population of what is now the Lone Star State was centered almost entirely about a few Mexican forts and towns, chiefly about San Antonio, and on the extreme east at Nacogdoches and Anahuac, Texas. These facts are mentioned to indicate how very early in the pioneer period was the settlement of the White family. Three or four generations have succeeded one another as prominent citizens, large land owners and cattle raisers, business men and public- spirited citizens, in what is now Chambers county, and among the prominent representatives of the name now living and active in affairs are Robert Monroe White and James T. White, two of the largest ranchers and land owners in the state of Texas.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 43

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