A history of Texas and Texans, Part 65

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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Judge John Crook, who led the family into the Texan frontier, survived the period of the Civil war and filled local office here. He was twice married. By his first wife, whose maiden name was Stell, his children were as follows: Jere S .; Lewis, who died in Lamar county; Mollie, wife of W. H. Hancock, of Paris, Texas; Mrs. George Provine, of Paris; Mack, at one time sheriff of Lamar county, is deceased; John T., a farmer near Paris; and Mrs. Susie Kirk, of Kansas City, Missouri.

Jere S. Crook also has been twice married. His chil- dren are by bis second wife, who was formerly Mrs. Mary Jennings. She is a daughter of William Yates. By her first husband, Robert Jennings, her children are: Mrs. Bedford, deceased; Mrs. George T. Coleman, of Paris, Texas. Her children by Mr. Crook are: Mrs. Ed. T. Smith, of New York; John W., city engineer of Paris; Charles O., a farmer of Lamar county; Dr. Wal- ter J., the immediate subject of this sketeb; Stella, wife of John Shultze, of Cooper; Marvin B., of Paris, and Mary, wife of Fred Wynne of Conlin, Texas.

Walter Jennings Crook was born May 11, 1874, and grew up in the community known to the family for many years. He was educated chiefly under the direc- tion of Gowdy and Downey, who conducted splendid schools. After finishing his academic work in Paris, he began preparing himself for his profession by a course of study in medicine in the offices of Doctor Bedford, his brother-in-law, and Doctor Hooks, an able physician of Paris. He matriculated in the University of Texas, and graduated from the medical department, at Galveston, in May, 1896. Immediately after his graduation he estab- lished himself in the practice of his profession at Coop-

$1 Painter

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er, where he has since remained. And since his residence here he has taken hospital work in Chicago, thus fitting himself for greater efficiency in the local field of surgery. His alma mater at Galveston has also furnished him op- portunity to do special work, and he is identified with the local, State, and North Texas medical societies, and these connections entitle him to membership in the na- tional association. He is a member of the Association of American Railway Surgeons, and is local surgeon of the Texas Midland Railway Company. He does the offi- cial examining for various insurance companies, includ- ing the Southwestern and Southland Life insurance com- panies of Dallas; the Sam Houston Life, the Aetna, the Hartford, the Pacific Mutual Life, the Kansas City Life, the Great Southern Life, the Equitable of San Antonio, the San Antonio Life, the Fort Worth Life, the Wichita Southern Life, the Reliance Life, the Federal Life, the Union Central Life, etc. And in addition he holds the office of County Health Officer.

Dr. Crook has proved himself a man of business ability as well as of professional skill. He is vice president and a director of the Farmers State Bank of Cooper, and is a stockholder of the Delta National Bauk.

November 18, 1896, Doctor Crook and Miss Tennie C. Wilson were united in marriage at Allen, Collin county, Texas, and they are the parents of two sons: W. Wilson and J. Hobson. J. Wilson Crook won first prize for an essay on Robert E. Lee, in competition as one of the grade pupils of the Cooper schools. Mrs. Crook is a daughter of Joseph S. Wilson and wife, nee Hobson, and one of a family of ten children.

Doctor Crook's family are Methodists and he is, fra- ternally, identified with the Woodmen and the Masons.

DAVID LUTHER PAINTER. The active life of this en- terprising man was connected with the most important period in the development of Gainesville, from 1873 to September 23, 1911, and is linked with the construc- tion of some of the most important of those publie works which stimulated the city's growth and were the bases of its commercial supremacy. A friend of education, morality and good citizenship, a philanthrop- ist whose charities will never be known, a public-spir- ited citizen who placed the interests of his community above his private ambitions, his career and activities entitle his name to be remembered with sentiments of profound veneration among the founders and builders of the city's greatness.

David Luther Painter was born at Martinsburg, Vir- ginia, in 1831. His paternal grandfather was a Revo- lutionary soldier, a native of England, and an early settler of Virginia, where he was one of the first voters of Berkeley county (now West Virginia.) The parents of Mr. Painter were Virginia farming people, and had a family of five children, of whom two still survive: Joseph, living at Asheville, North Carolina, and the youngest, living at Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, in former years a newspaper man and now living retired at the age of eighty-eight years. David L. Painter was reared on his father's farm near Martinsburg, Virginia, and there received his education in the common schools. On attaining his majority, he left the parental roof and went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he secured a position with a car manufacturing concern. He continued with this firm until 1873, in which year he came to Texas and settled in Gainesville. This was prior to the advent of the railroads, but here he established himself in the lumber business, although it was necessary that he haul his product from Dennison. This modest business, started with a small capital, and only the determination and ambition of its proprietor to encourage the thought of its success, grew steadily as the years passed, and eventually assumed gigantic proportions. The man- agement of this great enterprise left him with but little leisure to devote to other channels of trade, but be managed withal to find time to devote to charity and

the social amenities. He was in his business relations a man of absolute integrity, but conservative and cautious in his actions and reticent in his habits; especially was he modest in speaking of his own affairs or himself. His habits were simple and domestic; he was a great lover of home, and his bearing was affable and kindly. He had a charitable regard for others, and it was his rule never to speak of a person except to speak well of him. In his continual, unostentatious charities he helped men to help themselves and the full extent of these benevolences will probably never be known. To his own family connections and friends he was ever generous. A lover of outdoor life, he was a large owner of ranch- ing properties, but did not give these his personal atten- tion. He was never a politician, nor did he take an especially active part in public affairs, but he had an intimate knowledge of the history of nearly every man of importance in the country, and was a personal friend of a number of national figures, among them Senator Bailey, who was his neighbor for years. One of Mr. Painter's gifts to the City of Gainesville consisted of the beautiful trees in City Park, which he himself planted and of which he took care until they had grown large enough to contend with the inclemencies of the weather. Although a member of no church, he helped to build nearly every church structure in the city, as well as the first and succeeding public schools. At the time of his death he was serving as a member of the board of school trustees. He was a Democrat of the old school, but ever respected the rights and opinions of others, and his friends were found among all political parties. About ten years prior to his death, which oc- curred September 23, 1911, he retired from business activities, although he continued to hold an interest in the Lindsey National Bank, of which he was a director, and the Waples-Painter Lumber Company, which is still in existence and one of the largest industries of its kind in this section, and in which his widow retains a con- trolling interest.

On December 12, 1873, Mr. Painter was married to Mrs. Frances (Clark) Elliott, who was born in Missis- sippi, daughter of Col. William T. Clark, a Mississippi planter who came to Texas in 1858 and engaged in stock raising, which he followed up to the time of his death in 1897. There were seven children in Mr. Clark's fam- ily: Frances, who married Mr. Painter; Mary, who be- came the wife of R. H. Hoffman, of Denton, Texas; Pattie, deceased, who was the wife of Jesse Chinn, of Denton; Luther T., a well-known stockman and banker of Quana, Texas; W. O., a ranch owner and stockman of Graham, Texas; Eugene W., who is a resident of Ari- zona; Sidney J., a stockman and banker of Childress county, Texas.

Frances Clark was married (first) to Dr. M. A. Elliott, a native of Tennessee, who graduated from medical college in his native state and then came to Texas, where he followed his profession up to the time of his death, in February, 1870. There were two chil- dren born to this union: Imogene, who is now de- ceased, and Pearl, who is the widow of W. H. Stafford, of Supulpa, Oklahoma. Mr. Stafford was the owner of a cotton compress and his widow is now continuing the business with marked success. She has one daughter.

Three children were born to the union of Mr. and Mrs. Painter: Fay, who is the wife of L. D. Turner, of Gainesville, and has one son, David; Gladys, who is single and lives at home with her mother; and one child who died in infancy. Mrs. Painter, who is a lady of many accomplishments and who has numerous friends in church and social circles of Gainesville, resides in her comfortable residence at No. 312 West California street.

HAYWOOD B. LAIN, M. D., is dean of the medical pro- fession of Delta county, Texas. It was in 1868 that he began practice here, and for twenty-two years he trav-

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eled over the country embraced within its borders and ministered to the frontier settlers dotted here and there, while maintaining his residence at Charleston, then the chief town of the county.

Doctor Lain first came into Texas during the progress of the Civil war, refugecing from the dangers of invasion by Federal troops, menacing the State of Arkansas, from which he fled. He had come into the West in 1857, reaching his destination in Madison county, Arkansas, April 7th of that year. He was reared within a few miles of the Tennessee river in Perry county, and he journeyed down that stream to Paducah, Kentucky, thence to Cairo, Illinois, and down to the mouth of the Arkansas river by packet and continued his trip by river to Little Rock. A private conveyance carried him from there to Huntsville, where his uncle, Samuel Sheppard, and other friends from his home county had preceded him.

Doctor Lain was born in Perry county, Tennessee, Oc- tober 1, 1835. His father, Armstead D. Lain, was a small planter of that county, where he was born in 1813. He subsequently moved into Decatur county and there passed away about 1870. He was aligned, politically, with the Whigs, as was his father-in-law, and possessed the ordinary educational and other qualifications for citi- zenship. His father was Armstead Lain, a native of Virginia, who came to Tennessee from North Carolina. He was a planter in Wilson county, and died there. Armstead Lain, Jr., married Louisa, daughter of William and Janie (Price) Sheppard, the latter being of Welsh descent. Mrs. Lain was born January 8, 1815. She came to Texas after the death of her husband, and died at Cooper, as Mrs. Whitwell, in November. 1896. Her children were Haywood B., the subject of this sketch; William, who died while a soldier in the Confederate army; Martha, who married and settled in Arkansas and died there; Mrs. Lucy Simmons, of Lamar county, Texas; Samuel, of Sanger, Texas; Douglas, who still resides in Tennessee, and Susan, who was the wife of Charles Harris and who died at Cooper, Texas.

In the matter of longevity this family of Lains has made a record. Back in Tennessee, where the climatic conditions contribute to the development of tall and sinewy men and fair and vigorous women, an uncle and an aunt of Doctor Lain carried their burden of years beyond the century and yielded to the "inevitable" with mental faculties in full activity. Joseph Lain, the uncle, passed beyond his hundredth milestone, and his sister, Miss Ada, reached 109, and passed out in the cedar hills near Lebanon, after having witnessed the greatest era of progress in the history of the modern world.

Haywood B. Lain's youth was passed not unlike that of other sons of small planters in Tennessee, and his schooling was not finished until after his removal to Arkansas. His time was divided, when he grew up, among several vocations, clerking and other work such as was found in the little mountain town of Huntsville, and he began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. J. P. Humphrey of Ozark. When the war of the Re- bellion came on he was fully prepared for defending the old customs of the South and seemed anxious to array himself in military garb in defense of the State. His company was commanded by Captain Walker and his regiment by Colonel Carroll, both of Franklin county, Arkansas. Military enthusiasm had been stimulated by a sort of free hand in Confederate sentiment, soldiering largely without the enemy's interference for a time and watching new troops in civilian garb and sportsmen's equipment passing by Ozark in boat loads en route to Fort Smith. Colonel Carroll took his regiment beyond the limits of the State and added his force to that facing General Lyon's army near Springfield, Missouri, and in the summer of 1862 the battle of Wilson's Creek was fought, in which our subject was active and where, as he expressed it, he "saw the elephant" and secured all the honors of war necessary to satisfy his craving for a military life. The results of that battle left the Union

forces in command of the situation and an invasion of Arkansas felt to be a sure and early event. As a move to avoid further exposing himself as a target for Yan- kee bullets and as a means of saving the personal prop- erty of his uncle Sheppard, the young soldier took charge of a caravan of stock and drove them to Texas, reaching Lamar county near the close of the year 1862. Return- ing to Arkansas, he found his relative ready to transfer his residence to a more southern community, and the Sheppard family and all its portable effects formed the second company, which Doctor Lain accompanied to the Lone Star state. They reached their destination early in 1863 and stopped in the vicinity of one of the Sulphur Rivers. Here the coming physician and future man-of- affairs combined the practice of medicine and the cattle industry until the re-establishment of peace.

While Doctor Lain had only begun the preparation for his professional work, laid the foundation as it were, yet he was qualified to diagnose and prescribe, and he answered with his assistance whenever called upon. All the while he kept up his medical studies and he yearned for a diploma from some college of medicine. Accord- ingly, in 1867, he went back to Tennessee and entered the university of Nashville, where he completed the med- ical course the following year. Then, in possession of the coveted diploma. he returned to Texas and resumed his place in the saddle in front of his pill bags, at this time establishing his home at Charleston, then in Hop- kins county, where he continued to reside the next twenty- two years. During this time his practice extended far be- yond the present limits of the county, and his faithful "Dobyn " carried him over distances and through weath- er that would put a modern automobile out of commis- sion. He passed over the site of Cooper before the town was ever dreamed of and he had business or professional relations with nearly all of Delta county's inhabitants prior to 1880. The opportunity being ever present, he engaged in trading, grazing and farming from the early years of his residence, and his contribution to the im- provements of rural and urban Delta has been continu- ous. He has made farms out of the "hog wallows, " has enclosed pastures, built homes for tenants, and out of his multifarious transactions in real estate in the country a thousand acres of land is still in his name.

Doctor Lain has been a positive factor in the affairs of Cooper from its early history. He moved to the place in 1885, when it contained about 500 inhabitants, and for some years was one of the druggists of the town as well as a practicing physician. He erected the second brick business house here, has built several others since, and his contribution to the residence district of Cooper has been important and conspicuous. His own home, a splendid and commodious house, has added materially to the permanence of the county seat town and the sev- eral smaller homes built by him have served to swell the number of domiciles needed in a growing community.

With the prospect of securing a railroad for Cooper, Doctor Lain was named, with James Patteson, Doctor Blackwell, T. T. Garrard and others, as a committee to secure the right-of-way through Delta county for the Texas Midland Railroad and the construction of the road followed the completion of their work in 1896. He has been president of the First National Bank of Cooper for twenty years, and is one of the directors of the Protestant M. P. Church, which he joined at Charleston, Texas. In national politics he is a Republican, but in local political affairs he acts as an independent. His first vote was given in support of the whigs.

November 9, 1864, Doctor Lain married at Charleston, Texas, Miss Elizabeth Conditt, daughter of William and Jane (Brown) Conditt, who came to Texas from Ken- tucky. Mrs. Lain passed away in 1885, leaving three children: Dr. Albert S., of Cooper, who died in Sep- tember, 1898; Paul H., who lives at Cooper, and Louisa Jane, born March 21, 1874, died November 23, 1895. For his second wife, Doctor Lain married Miss Mary

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Hunt, daughter of Benjamin F. and Martha (Baker) Hunt, who came hither from Missouri. Of the Hunt family, only one other member survives-John Hunt of Hopkins county, Texas. The children of this second marriage are Nellie, Floyd, Waldrow, Claud, Ralph and Haywood.

As a Mason, Doctor Lain also has a record. He is believed to be the oldest member of the Masonie Order in Delta county and he helped organize the lodge in Charleston soon after he took up his residence there. Il'e also helped to organize, and has presided over, a number of lodges in the county.

HENRY L. LEBERMAN. One of the leaders in thought and action in Olney, Texas, is Henry L. Leberman, a wealthy stock man, banker and citizen of this place. All his life, practically, has been devoted to stock- raising, for before he entered into the business on his own responsibility, he was associated with his father who was in the same line of enterprise, and who also was a successful man. Mr. Leberman was born on October 10, 1863, at Nokomis, Illinois, a son of John A. and Bertha Mary (Heck) Leberman, both natives of Germany. They came to America aud settled in St. Louis, where they were married, and later settled in Christian county, Illinois, but still later again removing to St. Louis, Missouri. It was not until 1874 that they identified themselves with Texas as settlers in Tarrant county, where the father was engaged as a stockman. He died in Young county, on January 3, 1913, aged seventy- nine years, and the mother died on March 9, 1911, aged sixty-nine. They were the parents of seven children, and of that number the subject was the second born.

Henry L. Leberman was fairly well educated in the schools of Missouri and Illinois, and he finished his schooling in St. Louis. He accompanied the family to Texas, and when he launched ont for himself, it was to engage in the cattle business. In 1880 he came to Young county, and he is still largely occupied with his cattle interests hereabout, although he has identified himself with other activities that take some of his tinie and attention.

In 1905 he acquired an interest in the First National Bank of Olney, among the most prosperous institutions of its kind in the county, and he served as president of the bank from 1906 to 1910, and is again holding the office of president after an interval of non-service.

Mr. Leberman is one who has taken a distinctive interest in matters of educational import, and is giving valuable service as president of the local school board, where he has served since 1901. In that time many valuable additions to the curriculum have come into usage, and it is his aim to bring the system to a status that will compare favorably in efficiency with other school systems of larger cities. Mr. Leberman is a Democrat and a Mason of the Royal Arch degree. He also has membership in the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Pythias. His church affiliations are with the Christian denomination.

In December, 1893, at Graham, Texas, Mr. Leberman was married to Miss Eleanor Perkins, a daughter of J. W. Perkins and wife, old pioneers to this county who are now deceased. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Leberman, as follows: Marietta, born in 1894; Henry Louis, born September 17, 1896; and Eleanor Leberman, born in 1898.

Mr. Leherman takes his proper place among the lead- ers in citizenship of the city and county, and performis his full share of civic service, sharing to the uttermost the burdens of civie responsibility.

DR. GEORGE B. HAMILTON. One of the promising young medical men of this district and one who is fast advancing in professional importance is Dr. George B. Hamilton, of Olney, Young county, where he has been engaged in practice since his graduation from the Uni-

versity of Fort Worth in 1908. Dr. Hamilton is a product of the Lone Star state, born in Red River county in September, 1878, and he is a son of N. W. and Tennie (Smith) Hamilton, born respectively in Texas and Tennessee.

N. W. Hamilton is a well known cotton ginner and machine man, and he still makes his home in Red River county at the age of sixty-five, where he has passed his entire life, and where he has gained no little promi- nence in his business. The mother, who came to Texas as a young girl, met and married her husband in Texas, and here also she gained her education. She is now in her sixtieth year, and the mother of eight children, of which goodly number George B. of this review was the first born.

In his boyhood George B. Hamilton attended the schools of Red River county, then entering the Uni- versity of Nashville and spending three years more in the medical department of Fort Worth University. He was graduated with his. degree of M. D. in 1908, and began the practice of his profession in Olney, where he has since been engaged, and where he has experienced a pleasing degree of success. He is a member of the State Medical Society, and the Wichita Falls County and the Young County Medical Societies, in all of which he is one who takes an active and interested part.

Dr. Hamilton is a Democrat in his political faith, but makes no especial demonstration of his adherence, be- yond the demands of good citizenship. In the Masonie order he has reached the Royal Areh degree, and in the matter of churchly relations, is a Presbyterian. He is unmarried.

OLIN C. HARRISON. As the owner and publisher of one of the most important newspapers in this section of Texas, Olin C. Harrison, of Seymour, occupies a position of importance in the town and surrounding country. People are strongly influenced by the printed word, often unconsciously and sometimes against their will. When they have faith and confidence in the editor of their favorite sheet, he is in a position of great power and responsibility. This is the case with Mr. Harrison. He is a broad-minded, sincere man, with high standards of thinking and acting and his influence over his readers is always toward better things, in civic, political and social life. That he has a large circulation for his paper is a thing upon which the people of Seymour are to be congratulated as well as Mr. Harrison.

Olin C. Harrison was born in McLennan county, Texas, on the 3rd of October, 1881. His father was Wesley Harrison, who was a native of Arkansas. As a young man he came to Texas where he took up farming as a means of livelihood. This was his occupation during his comparatively short life, for he died at the age of forty-five years. He died in 1899 and is buried in Sey- mour. His wife was Miss Martha Moore and she was born in Mississippi, later coming to Texas where she and Mr. Harrison were married. She now resides in Seymour and is an active member of the Baptist church, as was her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Harrison had seven children, all boys and of these sons, Olin C. Harrison was the fourth in order of birth. All of these sons, with one exception, live in Seymour. The other son is located in Hereford, Texas.

Olin C. Harrison has spent his entire life in Texas. He received his elementary education from the public schools, attending both grammar and high schools. He then entered Baylor University from which he was graduated in 1904. He then taught school for a year, but school teaching did not appeal to him and so he accepted a position in a bank at Canyon, Texas. He worked there for nearly a year and then bought the Baylor County Banner. Since taking charge of this paper he has increased the circulation greatly. He has also enlarged the plant, and publishes a paper so alto- gether desirable in the way the news is handled, in the

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 65

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