A history of Texas and Texans, Part 52

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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On November 10, 1904, Mr. Jones was united in marriage with Miss Marie L. Sinclair, daughter of F. P. Sinclair, whose family was of Louisiana French origin. Two children have been born to this union: Thetys J. and James Mason. James Mason Jones was born Novem- ber 1, 1912, and died November 26, 1913.

WILLIAM M. COLE, M. D. Among the active members of the medical profession in Longview, the subject of this review occupies an enviable position. He is a native of the Lone Star state, having been born at Ladonia, Fannin county, Texas, January 1, 1865, and is a son of James H. and Zerelda (Houston) Cole, the former one of the leading merchants of Ladonia. The origin of this branch of the Cole family was in County Cork, Ireland. Its American founder was Jacob Cole, the great-grandfather of Dr. William Cole, who came from the Emerald Isle while the government of the United States was still in its swaddling clothes and settled at Baltimore, Maryland. A razor which he brought with him from his native land and which has done service in the family through the succeeding generations, is now in the possession of Dr. Cole of Longview. A son, Jacob, who was born in 1799, ran away from home at the age of thirteen and made his way to the neighborhood of Danville, Kentucky, where he passed the remainder of his life, dying of cholera in 1853. He first married Miss Mary E. Hootsell of Danville, and James H. Cole was the only issue of this union. After the death of his first wife he married again, and to this second marriage was born a son, Andrew, who passed his entire life in the vicinity of Low's Station, Kentucky.

James H. Cole was born in Danville, Kentucky, in 1826. Opportunities for attending school were rather meager at that period and he obtained little more than the rudiments of an education in the local schools.

Being endowed with a strong native talent and an apti- tude for making application of his powers, he added to his limited education by observation and self-culture until he could associate with the best informed men without feeling in the least humiliated. History was a favorite subject with him and one in which he ex- celled many whose opportunities had been far better than his own. The community in which he lived benefited by his knowledge of history in the talks he made before publie schools and on sundry other occasions. Politically he was in harmony with the dominant party in the South, and served as the first mayor of his town, as well as rendering other municipal services in various capaci- ties. He was a soldier of two wars. In the war with Mexico he was a member of Colonel Cassius M. Clay's regiment, which served under General Zachary Taylor, and took part iu the battles of Monterey, Saltillo, Buena Vista and a number of minor engagements. At Buena Vista Mr. Cole was wounded, which ended his military service in that contest. An incident that occurred while he was engaged in the war with Mexico is worthy of more than passing mention. On one occasion he was captured by the enemy and condemned to be shot as a spy. Seven men were detailed to carry out the order and Mr. Cole happened to discover that the officer in command of the squad was a member of a secret brother- hood to which he himself belonged. At the first op- portunity he made this fact known, when it further developed that four of the seven members of the detail were also members of the same society. The com- mander then sent away the three members that were not "brothers" and one of those remaining was in- structed to conduct Mr. Cole to the American lines. The grave was then filled up and the officer then reported to his superiors that the duty had "been performed." In this way Mr. Cole's life was spared. When the Civil war broke ont in 1861 he enlisted in the Con- federate army until he was wounded in action near Memphis, Tennessee, which ended his military career and left him a cripple for life. He was a prominent mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, in which he attained to the thirty-second degree, and, being a student of the history and traditions of the order, he was frequently called upon to deliver addresses before Masonic bodies.

Before leaving his native state of Kentucky and coming to Texas in the year 1857, James H. Cole on August 21, 1849, married Miss Zerelda Houston, a daughter of Samuel Houston, who was a cousin of Gen- eral "Sam" Houston, the liberator of Texas, and whose name is still revered by her loyal sons. Mrs. Cole's father was a Virginian by birth and her mother was a daughter of Colonel Richard Lee, a member of that illustrious family of soldiers and patriots whose deeds of military daring and strategy adorn the pages of American history. She was born in 1843 and died at Ladonia, Texas, in 1876, her husband surviving her until March 10, 1908. Their four children are all living. Eugene G. is a merchant of Durant, Oklahoma; Alice is the wife of G. B. Yager of that city; Dr. William M .; and Virgil M. is a resident of Durant, Oklahoma.

Dr. William M. Cole came to Longview in 1886 and entered the offices of Dr. Stansberry as a student. After a thorough preparation under this able preceptor he matriculated in the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville and was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1891. Returning to Longview he began the practice of medicine here and from that time to the present he has devoted himself to his chosen calling, with the result that he has built up a lucrative practice and stands high in the estimation of the public and his brother practitioners. Notwithstanding the numerous calls upon him in his professional capacity he has found time to serve the city of Longview as councilman, and during his administration as mayor from 1906 to 1910 the city was placed upon a cash basis. He has shown his faith in the future of Longview by erecting some

William R. Newton MD-

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of the finest buildings and residences in the city. Realiz- ing the benefits that result from organization, Dr. Cole holds membership in the American Medical Association and the Texas State Medical Society. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has held the office of district deputy grand master.

On February 25, 1891, Dr. Cole was united in marriage with Miss Gay Keener, daughter of Bowland and Mary (Pogues) Keener and the only surviving child of the family. Her parents came to Longview from Rusk county, Texas. Dr. and Mrs. Cole have two children, Nelwyn, aged thirteen years, and Zerelda, aged ten.

WILLIAM R. NEWTON, M. D. The medical profession in Milam county has no stronger member than Dr. Newton of Cameron, who during the past fifteen years has built up a splendid reputation as a skillful physician and surgeon and enjoys a constantly growing prestige and influence throughout his home community and in the medical profession of that section of the state. His most important contribution to the medical and surgical facilities of Milam county has consisted in the erection of a splendid hospital at Cameron, an institution that is a credit to the community and the means of a com- petent and excellent service to a large surrounding territory.

Dr. Newton was born in Boone county, Arkansas, September 1, 1873, and is a son of the late Major George W. and Nannie (Brown) Newton. His mother, who was born in Pope county, Arkansas, in 1847, now lives in Cameron. The ten children of the family were: Jefferson D., Dixie, John H., William R., Mary E., George W., Mattie, Jimmie, Laura H. and Minnie.

Dr. Newton is a son of a distinguished Confederate soldier who spent his last years in Milam county, Texas, but whose career was chiefly identified with his home state of Arkansas. Major George W. Newton was born in Johnson county, Arkansas, in 1835, and died at the home of his son, Dr. Newton, in Buckholts, Texas, March 15, 1907. He was in Pope county, Arkansas, at the beginning of the Civil war, having returned from a prospecting trip to California. He enlisted as a pri- vate in Captain Thomas Lincoln's Company, Scotts squadron. For gallantry at the battle of Pea Ridge in March, 1862, he was promoted lieutenant and later made a captain. He did faithful service in Arkansas until after the battle of Elk Horn, and was then transferred to Brook's battalion to Mississippi. After a period of ill health he returned to the service as major in Jack- man's regiment in Shelby's division. He took part in General Price's famous raid through Missouri in 1864, marching over fifteen hundred miles in two months and engaging with the enemy about forty times. Again and again his bravery as a soldier was commended by his superior officers. Returning to Arkansas after the close of the war, he went home with the resolve to accept the fate of arms, but such were the conditions during the hateful period of reconstruction that he could not quietly sit by and witness the tyranny of carpet-bag rule, and to the outlaws and renegades who held the irresponsible and arbitrary civil power in his section of Arkansas he proved a leader whose name was a terror in the restora- tion of law and order. For many years after the war Major Newton operated a large plantation in Boone county, Arkansas, and was one of the most influential citizens of that locality. He was a minister of the Baptist church and for many years carried on his gospel work and took a leading part in establishing a seminary in his section of Arkansas. His life deserves long memory and two brief paragraphs from a tribute written by a friend at the time of his death deserves quotation at this point :

"He was always a positive force. His worth and influence were always felt, respected and valued. He was pre-eminently a man of peace, just, true, and the

soul of southern honor in all the duties and relations of life. Since the birth of southern chivalry there has uot answered to the call of duty, country, home and friends a nobler, truer, braver spirit, a more valiant, faithful and unselfish patriot.

"In life he was known and loved by an 'innumer- able company' of the good and true; now, that he is at rest, his devoutness as a Christian, his kindly and genial spirit as a neighbor and friend, his sterling worth as a citizen, and his distinguished valor as a soldier are to his life-long friends a cherished mem- ory, and to his surviving wife and children a heritage of which they may be proud."

Dr. William R. Newton grew up in Boone county, Arkansas, attended the public schools there, grad- uating from the high school in 1895. His studies were pursued at the Memphis Hospital Medical College in Memphis, Tennessee, until graduating M. D. in 1898. It has been his ambition to perfect himself for in- creasing duties and responsibilities of a successful prac- tice, and he has availed himself first of the advantages of the New York Polyclinic for post-graduate study in 1904, and then at the Chicago Policlinic in 1910. After two years of private practice at Russellville, Arkansas, Dr. Newton in 1900 established his office at Buek- holts in Milam county, Texas. His was a general prac- tice until recent years, when he has given more and more of his time to surgery and to hospital manage- ment. In 1911 be built a sanitarium in Buckholts, Texas, but it was burned down in the following year. In 1913 he began the erection of his splendid hospital at Cameron at a cost of more than sixty thousand dol- lars, including the price paid for the grounds. It was formally opened January 6, 1914. This hospital has one hundred beds, and in its facilities and in its serv- ice stands in the front rank of similar institutions throughout the southwest.

At Cameron on May 17, 1906, Dr. Newton married Matilda J. Mondrick, daughter of Joseph Mondrick of Cameron. They have two children: William Joseph and George W. Mrs. Newton's father is a retired merch- ant. Dr. Newton has affiliations with the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Wood- men of the World, and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and has relations with the medical socie- ties. His church is the Baptist, and he has taken an active part in the Democratic activities of his section, having been chairman of the county organization for four years. His diversious are in travel with his family, and in an occasional hunting and fishing trip.

Dr. Newton has important business interests, and his position as a business man is only second to his work as a physician and surgeon. Besides bis sanitarium at Cameron he owns a good residence, has two hun- dred and twenty acres of improved farm land in Milam county, a section of land in Midland county, and four hundred acres in Old Mexico. In 1907 Dr. Newton led in the organization of the Bnekholts State Bank and of the Buckholts Mercantile Company.

REV. T. J. OLIVER CURRAN. It was a seeming bit of ill fortune that sent Rev. T. J. Oliver Curran to Texas in the year 1910, when continued ill health caused him to locate in Terrell, Texas, in the hope of improving his condition, but he regards that circumstance today as one of the best things that has happened to him during his very active and busy career, for he is well pleased with Texas. He has been rector of St. Luke's Episcopal church in Denison for over two years, and is undeniably one of the most popular and highly esteemed men in the city.

A native son of Ireland, he was born in Lisburn on August 8, 1863, a son of James and Susanna Curran. His father was a noted artist of Ireland and a grandson of the well known John Phillpot Curran. He died in Lisburn when he was about sixty years of age, and

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the wife and mother died on May 1, 1892, in Chicago. They were the parents of three sons and two daughters, and of this family of five Rev. T. J. Oliver Curran is the youngest born.

Educated in private schools in Ireland and in Queens University at Belfast, up to the age of eighteen, young Curran came then to the States with his mother, and they located in Chicago. There he became interested in the insurance and real estate business and he was very successful. So much so, in fact, that it is highly probable that he would have achieved distinct success in that field had he chosen to remain so identified. But the natural inclination of the young man was toward the church, and so strong was this conviction that he turned his attention definitely to the study of theology in the Western Theological Seminary of Chicago, where for five years he was a close and careful student. He was graduated in 1905 with the degree of B. D. and was ordained to the ministry in Chicago by Bishop McLaren of that city.

The first ministerial work of the young cleric was that of a missionary in the Diocese of Chicago, and after a number of years there he experienced a physical breakdown that induced him to take up his abode in Wheeling, West Virginia. There his religious enthusiasm and his love of humanity combined to make of him one of the most potent forces for good in the factory districts that the city had known in many years, and he spent eight years of his life there in his work among the people of the mills and factories. These years were crowded big with experience and results, and it would be difficult to form any adequate estimate of the force and effect of the activities of the young minister in those years.

In West Virginia his health again broke down from the hardships of his work and he left that field and was under the care of specialists in Philadelphia for two years. While in that city he assisted the Rector of St. Andrew's church, Thirty-seventh and Barings streets. At the end of that time his medical advisers suggested that he try the Texas climate, and he accordingly located at Terrell. There he soon found himself fully recovered and in full possession of his former strength and vigor. Filled with renewed ambition he sought a wider field for his labors and the result was his removal to Denison, where he located on November 30, 1911. Here he has carried on his work in the city and has continued to enjoy the fullest physical health, so that he regards his removal to Texas as most fortunate.

Rev. Curran, in addition to his duties as rector of St. Luke's, is identified with considerable outside work among the people of Denison. He is a Democrat politi- cally and, unlike many clergymen, exercises his right of franchise unfailingly when opportunity presents itself.

His wife, who was Miss Laura Agnes Reed, is a daughter of the great pioneer, Stillman S. Reed of Mansfield, Ohio.

The family of Rev. T. J. Oliver Curran is one that has but few representatives in the States, and the nearest relative he claims this side of Ireland is John Phillpot Curran, Judge of the King's Bench, in Winnipeg, Canada. The family, however, is one that is well rep- resented on its native heath, and men of the name have been prominent in politics and in Irish art and letters through a number of generations.

JOSEPH H. McBROOM. One of the leading members of the El Paso bar, Mr. McBroom located in El Paso over ten years ago as semi-invalid, having been at- tracted to this western city as a place to restore a constitution which had long been failing. Thus he is both a representative of the health resources of this city and of its possibilities as a business center.

Joseph H. McBroom was born at Monticello, Illinois, January 30, 1871, and was a son of Lewis and Elizabeth McBroom. The family is of Scotch-Irish descent. His

father was for a number of years a substantial farmer in Piatt county, Illinois, and from there moved to Monti- cello. Joseph H. McBroom as a boy attended the Monti- cello high school, of which he is a graduate, and later graduated from Wabash College at Crawfordsville, Indiana, in June, 1897, taking the degree of Master of Arts. Admitted to the Indiana bar he began practice and remained for four years at Crawfordsville. Ill health compelled him to make a move to a different climate and as a result in September, 1902, he arrived in El Paso. Mr. McBroom is a vigorous specimen of physical manhood at the present time, and in the years since locating here has built up a fine practice in the better class of litigation.

During the Spanish-American war of 1898-99 Mr. McBroom was for six months with the One Hundred and Fifty-Eighth Indiana Volunteers. In politics he has been a Republican in principles and as a voter usually supporting the candidate, but during the last campaign in 1912 was allied with the Progressives. During 1908 he was president of the Taft-Sherman Club of El Paso. Fraternally he has membership in the Kappa Sigma College Fraternity and is a member and trustee of the Presbyterian church at El Paso.

At Newtown, Indiana, September 14, 1904, he married Miss Alice M. Parnell of Newtown, a daughter of Robert and Minerva Parnell. Their one child is a daughter named Marjorie Dell. It is superfluous to add that Mr. McBroom is an enthusiast regarding the climate and the business possibilities of El Paso and western Texas, and it is needless to say that such is his confidence in the place that he would live nowhere else.

JOSEPH M. LEWIS. Coming to America a boy of twelve years and starting out for himself only a year later, Mr. Lewis after a varied experience and the suc- cessful overcoming of many obstacles finally got into the theatrical and amusement business and is now known as one of the proprietors of the largest and finest theaters in El Paso and all west Texas, and is a very enterprising promotor of high class theatrical enter- tainment in this city.

Joseph M. Lewis was born at Odessa, Russia, May 21, 1879, being the third of eight children born to Morris and Anna Lewis, both natives of Russia. The family came to America in 1891, locating in Houston, Texas, where the father has ever since been connected with mer- chandising.

Joseph M. Lewis received his education in the schools of his native country and for a very brief time after coming to. America attended school. At the age of thirteen he began working in a store and continued in one place or another, getting experience more than capital up to the time he was eighteen. He then be- came interested in the decorating and advertising trade and was in that line until 1904. In the city of Dallas he established what has ever since been known in ad- vertising circles as the Lewis System, and it has been a very effective means of setting before the public the current business opportunities and attractions and amusements of the day. Mr. Lewis has been a resident of El Paso since February 6. 1911, and in this city established what is known as the Princess Theater. On October 26, 1911, he and Mr. V. B. Andrews opened to the public the Grecian Theater, which easily ranks as the finest theater building in El Paso, and one of the very best in the entire southwest. Both the Princess and the Grecian are owned by Messrs. Lewis & Andrews. The Grecian is located at the corner of El Paso and Overland streets. Mr. Lewis has other real estate hold- ings in El Paso and is regarded as one of the very suc- cessful citizens and one who has a public spirited at- titude toward all things for the betterment of the city.

He is a Democrat in politics, but has never sought any official honors. He is affiliated with the Benevolent and

Mr & Mrs James. G. Hudson

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Protective Order of Elks and belongs to the Moving Picture Exhibitors' League of Texas.

On January 27, 1902, at Fort Worth, he married Miss Jessie Griswell, daughter of Charles Griswell. Mrs. Lewis was born in Tennessee, but was reared in Texas. Their home is in the Virginia Apartments on North Oregon street.

ANTON CAMOZZE. As a business builder few men in El Paso have a record of such substantial prosperity as that of Anton Camozze, head of the largest ice cream manufacturing establishment in the southwest, and of the only exclusive concern of this kind in El Paso. Mr. Camozze came to this city a little more than ten years ago, after having suffered disastrous reverses during the panie years of the nineties. He had begun as a poor man on coming to America, many years ago, and by dint of industry and business talents of more than ordinary caliber, he had acquired what would be con- sidered a substantial fortune. Nearly all of this he lost in the panie years of the nineties and came to El Paso with what remained of his little fortune and began his fight all over again. He is now probably more prosperous than ever and has acquired a place of substantial in- fluence in his city.

Anton Camozze was born in Switzerland on May 28. 1859. His father was Matthew Camozze, a native of Switzerland, a coppersmith by trade, and a very promi- nent man in his canton and republic. He came to Amer- iea in 1870, but after five years returned to his beloved Switzerland, where he died in 1879, on April 19, at the age of fifty-six. He was a devout member of the Catholic church and took a very active part in political and civic matters in Switzerland. He served as mayor of Cozzo, also as treasurer of the town, and for a num- ber of years was treasurer of his church. His political thought was that of the radical republican faction. He was a man of determined and lofty character and carried the high respect of his fellow men to the end of his life. The maiden name of his wife was Josephine Galli; she was born in Switzerland and died at the age of twenty- seven years on June 11, 1859. There were four children in the family, of whom Anton was the youngest.

Educated in the schools of his native land, passing through the high school, he left home and school together at the age of sixteen and set out for America, where he arrived on May 9. 1876. From New York he came to St. Louis, where he found employment with the Cabanne Milk Company. A year later he entered the employment of the St. Louis Stamping Company, in which plant he learned the tinsmith's trade and fol- lowed that for a number of years. He remained in St. Louis from 1876 until the end of 1879, and in 1883 went out west and located in Denver. There he estab- lished himself in the confectionery and grocery busi- ness and gradually enlarged his stock and quarters and trade until he has made himself master of a very fine and profitable business. His home was in Denver from 1883 until 1900. Subsequent to the panie of 1893 he lost ahout $30,000. Beginning with a cash capital of $1.000 in Denver he has gradually got ahead until his resources were a comfortable amount, so that the disaster which came to him almost wiped out his lifetime ac- cumulations. With what remained of his capital he came to El Paso, where he arrived on November 11, 1900.

On May 1, 1901, Mr. Camozze established at the corner of Oregon and Franklin streets a wholesale and retail ice cream and confectionery business. This was the only exclusive factory for ice cream in El Paso, and owing to the fact that Mr. Camozze has kept his product up to the highest standard of quality and sanitary wholesomeness he has enioved a business with a tendency to increase in volume every year. He not only supplies a large part of the local trade, but ships his creams and ices throughout a large scope of territory of which El

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 52

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