A history of Texas and Texans, Part 86

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 lawyer Judge Jenkins in a few years gained first rank not only at Brownwood but over the entire surrounding district. His practice extended to all the adjoining counties, and in two special fields he prob- ably had no peer in that part of the state. His early knowledge of surveying naturally brought about a de- cided specialization of his practice in boundary cases, and for many years he has been a recognized authority on boundary law and facts. He also gained prominence as a lawyer of special skill and snecess in defending boundary and homicide cases, and his practice also in- eluded important civil litigation in every branch of the civil law.

In 1907 Judge Jenkins was elected a member of the Thirtieth Legislature, and was re-elected in 1909, repre- senting the Brown county district. In the thirtieth legislature he introduced a number of bills covering judicial reform, among which might be mentioned a bill "Requiring pleadings to be verified and abolishing the general denial," and also a bill to "Abolish the degree of murder and creating it one offense instead of three offenses." He also introduced a bill "Creating

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a Legislative Commission," which failed of passage, although at the present time seven states have a similar statute, and eventually Texas is sure to adopt such a plan. The purpose of the bill was to create a com- mission, whose office and records should serve as a leg- islative reference bureau, with a permanent and also elastic file of data and statistics which should be at the service of members of the legislature in preparing bills, while the commission itself should pass upon all bills offered, irrespective of whether the legislature was in session or not, and report as to the constitutionality, the general scope and purpose, and feasibility of any eur- rent piece of legislation.

Judge Jenkins in March 1910 resigned from the thirty-first legislature to accept an appointment given by Governor Campbell to fill a vacancy as associate judge in the court of Civil Appeals for the third Su- preme Judicial District. In the following November he stood as a candidate and was elected for the unexpired term, of four years.

Judge Jenkins is one of the prominent members of the Odd Fellows in the state of Texas, and has been identified with the order since 1880. He is Past Noble Grand of the lodge, a member of the Rebekahs, is Past Presiding Officer of his Encampment, a mem- ber of the Cantonment, and has been a delegate to the State Grand Lodge of the order. He is also affiliated with the Woodmen of the World, an order he joined about twenty years ago, and belongs to the Woodmen's Circle. Judge Jenkins is an honorary member of the Austin Press Club, and belongs to the Texas Historical Association.

In September, 1873, Judge Jenkins married Miss Annie E. Smith, a daughter of John W. and Sarah A. Smith, of Colorado, but who were among the pioneer settlers of Dallas county. Mrs. Jenkins was a schoolmate of Judge Jenkins at Dallas. Her death occurred in 1909, and their three children are as follows: Willie, who is the wife of E. J. Miller, a lawyer of Brownwood; Annie May, wife of J. A. Johnson, of Brownwood; and Roberta J., who married B. L. Shropshire, of Brown- wood. Judge Jenkins while in Austin has his residence at 204 East Tenth street.

HOWELL W. RUNNELS. In the spring of 1912 Mr. Ruu- nels was elected to the office of mayor of the progres- sive and thriving little city of Texarkana, Bowie county, and not only has his administration been marked by lib- eral policies and careful use of his executive functions but also by such decisive popular approval as to make sure beyond all peradventure that there can be in his case no possible application of the scriptural aphorism that "a prophet is not without honor save in his own country," for he is a native son of Bowie county and has ever maintained his home within its borders. Mayor Runnels is one of the loyal and influential citizens of the county, where he is the owner of the fine old home- stead plantation on which he was born, and he is a scion of a family whose name has been prominently and worthily linked with the annals of Texas since the days when it was an independent republic. Thus there are many points which render specially consistent the definite recognition accorded to him in this history of his native commonwealth.

Howell W. Runnels was born on the old homestead now owned by him and situated twelve miles northwest of Texarkana, Bowie county, and the date of his nativity was January 1, 1867. The fifth child and second son in a family of fourteen children, he is now the only one living, and in his generation he is effectively carrying forward the industrial enterprises and civic activities that were ably instituted by his honored father. He is a son of Howell W. and Martha C. B. (Adams) Runnels, both natives of the state of Mississippi and the latter a rep- resentative of the Adams family of Georgia that has given two presidents to the United States and that has

been one of great prominence in the annals of American history. In 1840 Howell W. Runnels, Sr., in company with his brothers Hardin R., Edmond S., and Hiram A., came from Madison county, Mississippi, to the south- western frontier and first settled on the Brazos river, in Southern Texas, but they shortly afterward came to the northeastern part of the republic and established permanent homes in Bowie county, where they had in- stituted successful operations in the development of the agricultural resources of the district by the time of the admission of Texas to the Union, in 1845. One of the four brothers, Hardin R., who was familiarly and widely known as "Dick" Runnels, became specially prominent and influential in political and other civic activities in this part of the state, and finally he had the distinction of being elected governor of Texas, an office of which he was the efficient and popular incumbent for consecu- tive terms of one year each. Runnels county was named in his honor and he was in a true sense one of the distinguished men of his time in the Lone Star common- wealth. It may be noted that Hon. Hiram Runnels, an uncle of the Texas governor of the name, had served as governor of Mississippi, and that Colonel Harmond Runnels, a great-uncle and a prominent citizen of Georgia, was a gallant patriot soldier and officer in the Continen- tal line in the war of the Revolution. The ancestral his tory, in both direct and collateral lines, is one of which the mayor of Texarkana, Texas, may well be proud.

Howell W. Runnels maintained his home near the old town of Boston, judicial center of Bowie county, until 1876, when he removed with his family to Tex- arkana, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in 1897, bis cherished and devoted wife being summoned to eternal rest in his 73d year, and both having held membership in the Baptist church. Howell W. Runnels, Sr., was a man of strong individuality, broad and well fortified views and much business ability. He was a prominent factor in the social and industrial de- velopment and upbuilding of Bowie county, was one of the best known and most highly honored citizens of the county and was inflexible in his adherency to the Demo- cratie party. He was a member of Legislature of 1857. At the time of the Civil war he did all in his power to support the cause of the Confederacy and thus showed his loyalty to the South, under whose benignant in- fluence he had been reared.

Howell W. Runnels, Jr., now the only surviving mem- bers of the immediate family, was a lad of about eight years at the time of the family removal from the old homestead plantation to Texarkana, where he duly availed himself of the advantages of the public schools, after which he continued his studies in the Texas Agricultural & Mechanical College, at Bryan. He has never wavered- in his allegiance to the great basic industries of agricul- ture and stock-growing, and still gives his active and appreciative supervision to his old homestead plantation, which is doubly endeared to him through the gracious memories and associations of the past. This property is equipped with the best of permanent improvements, comprises 2,200 acres, seven hundred under cultivation and, as previously noted, twelve miles northwest of Tex- arkana. In addition to his successful enterprise in this connection Mr. Runnels is also engaged in the timber business, in which his operations have been somewhat extensive.

For a number of years Mr. Runnels has been a de- cisively influential figure in the local councils of the Democratic party and has shown deep interest in public affairs. He never consented to become a candidate for public office until 1908, when he was elected city assessor and collector, a dual office of which he continued the efficient and acceptable incumbent for four years. He was almost immediately called to the highest office in the gift of the people of his home city, as in April, 1912, he was elected mayor of Texarkana, by an overwhelming ma- jority over all opposition. This was an emphatic testi-

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mony to his personal popularity and to the confidence re- posed in him by the voters of the city. His policy as chief executive of the municipal government has been at once progressive and duly conservative, and he has bent every energy and thought to the furtherance of wise admin- istration of all departments of the municipal govern- ment, as well as to insistently advocating measures and enterprises of progressive order, especially in the expanding of the scheme of permanent publie improve- ments. His regime has met with approval and com- mendation and within the same Texarkana has been prospered along both civic and material lines.

Iu the time-honored Masonic fraternity Mayor Run- nels has received the ancient-craft, capitular and chiv- alric degrees, his affiliation being with Clarkesville Com- mandery, Knights Templar of same place, where he also holds membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, the Improved Order of Red Men, and the fraternal Order of Eagles.

On the 18th of April, 1894, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Runnels to Miss Katharine M. Neely, who was born in the state of Mississippi, and who has proved a most popular acquisition in the representative social activities. Mr. and Mrs. Runnels have six chil- dren, Howell R., Jack N., Martha Octavia, George Eliz- abeth, Hardin Richard, and Patsy Darden.

MAJOR GEORGE W. LITTLEFIELD. The founder and president of the American National Bank of Austin is one of the honored veterans of the great war between the states. His gallantry as a fighting member of the famous Terry's Rangers earned him the rank and title by which he has been familiarly known to a large por- tion of Texas people for nearly fifty years. Among the cattlemen of the southwest Major Littlefield has also long held a conspicuous position, and a great variety of experience and incidents as well as financial achieve- ment and success have characterized his career.

Though born in Panola county, Mississippi, June 21, 1842, Major Littlefield's home has been in Texas for nearly sixty-five years. His parents, Fleming and Mildred M. (Satterwhite) Littlefield, natives respectively of Tennessee and Georgia, in 1850 settled at Gonzales, Texas, where the father was a cotton planter and mer- chant until his death in 1853. The mother died in June 1880.

George W. Littlefield had a few years of public school training, and subsequently attended the Baylor College while it was located at Independence, Texas, and also at Gonzales College. With the outbreak of the war in 1861 his services were enlisted as Second Sergeant in Company I of the Eighth Texas Cavalry, better known as Terry 's Rangers. In January 1862 came his pro- motion as second lieutenant of his company, and in May 1862, following the great battle of Shiloh, he was made captain. He continued in active service during the great campaign between the northern and southern armies in Tennessee and northern Mississippi during the years 1862-63, and after the battle of Chickamauga in the lat- ter year was made acting major of his regiment. On December 26, 1863, on the battlefield of Mossy Creek in eastern Tennessee, a portion of a shell cut his left hip, making a wound eleven inches in length and dis- abling him from further service. While he was lying on the battlefield, Brigadier-General Thomas Harrison and Colonel Patrick Christian rode up, and General Harrison, on seeing Captain Littlefield lying wounded, exclaimed: "I promote him to the rank of major for gallantry on the field." The wound kept Major Littlefield in his bed for four months, and he had to use crutches until 1867. Resigning his command in 1564, he was unable to get back to Texas for nearly a year, and after the war turned his attention to farming.

With the rapid development of the live stock in- dustry after the war, Major Littlefield became one of its most prominent operators. Since 1871 his investments

and enterprise have extended to a large part of the dis- triet in west Texas and New Mexico, where he has owned outright or held under lease many thousands of acres, and has been one of the most extensive cattle raisers. At one time seventy thousand head of cattle roaming over the range were marked with his brand, and forty and fifty thousand acres of land were owned or con- trolled by him. In the seventies and eighties probably most of his cattle were taken from the west Texas ranges over the old cattle trail through the Indian ter- ritory into Kansas, and from 1887 his ranch head- quarters were in west Texas, with operations through Mason, Menard and Kimball counties. He had pre- viously become interested in a large cattle ranch in New Mexico. In 1901 Major Littlefield bought upwards of three hundred thousand acres of land in Hotkley and Lamb counties in the Panhandle, from the Farwell in- terests of Chicago. This land, bought at two dollars an acre, has since risen to five or six times that value. At the same time he retains his large land and cattle interests in New Mexico, and has owned a large amount of irrigated farm land near Roswell. His Hereford cattle ranch in that vicinity has long been a feature and one of the most valuable properties of its kind in the southwest, Major Littlefield having refused the sum of three hundred thousand dollars for the land and its improvements.

In 1890 Major Littlefield organized the American National Bank of Austin with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, which has since increased to three hundred thousand dollars, with a surplus of six hundred thousand dollars. He has been president of this strong financial institution since its organization. He built one of Austin's finest business blocks, the Littlefield building, has served as president of the Central Bank and Trust Company of Austin, is a director of the South- western Life Insurance Company of Texas, a director of the Pierce-Fordyce Oil Company of Texas, and has numerous other financial and business relations with the . state.

Probably every visitor at Austin has admired the splendid statue on the Capitol grounds constituting a monument to Terry's Rangers. This monument was erected in 1907 and Major Littlefield was chairman of the monumental committee and personally paid the greater part of the expense of having the bronze figures executed and placed in its present commanding posi- tion. Major Littlefield has long been closely identified with the affairs of the United Veterans of the Con- federacy. Since 1910 he has served as a regent of the University of Texas, is a Master Mason and also af- filiated with the Royal Arch and Knights Templar de- grees. His social relations are with the Austin Club, the Austin Country Club, and the University Club. Major Littlefield on January 14, 1863, married Miss Alice P. Tiller, a stepdaughter of W. Harral of Hous- ton, Texas. Mrs. Littlefield was born in Mississippi, and her parents came from Virginia. The Littlefield home is at 300 West Twenty-fourth street, Austin.

FRANK TAYLOR RAMSEY. It has long been a way of praising the work of the agriculturist to say that he has made two stalks of wheat grow where only one grew before. But in proportion as a perennially fruitful tree is more valuable than the stalk of wheat, so must a still greater tribute be paid as an adequate reward for the man who introduces an orchard where before was an unproductive waste, and who by his knowledge and skill in horticulture increases the fruitfulness of a country by the perfection of new varieties of fruit and those more adaptable to local conditions. In this field has been the distinction of Frank T. Ramsey of Austin, and Ramsey's Austin Nursery has for twenty years been one of the thriving industries of that locality.

It was in 1858 that his father, Alexander M. Ramsey, set out an orchard in Burnet county, which was the

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first one of any size or importance in the county, and was one of the pioneer undertakings in the growing of orchard fruits in western Texas. In Burnet county Frank T. Ramsey was born June 15, 1861. His father and mother, A. M. Ramsey and Ellen Taylor, were born and married in western Pennsylvania. They moved to Burnet county in 1860, but had bought a farm there in 1858, and had sent peach seed for an orchard from Mis- sissippi, which state had been their home for eight years. The sheep business was the principal occupa- tion of A. M. Ramsey for some years, combined with general farming, but hard winters and absence from home while engaged in scout service against the Comanche Indians, and the natural consequences of war left him in a poor condition financially when the war was over. A. M. Ramsey died in 1895, and his wife passed away in 1890.

Frank T. Ramsey received a common education in the country schools. When sixteen years old he became a partner with his father in the nursery which had been established by the latter in 1975, and so continued until his father's death at Austin, the nursery having been moved to the capital city in 1894 in order to secure better transportation facilities. Mr. F. T. Ramsey was married in IS84 to Miss Belle Sinclair, and another reason for his moving to Austin was to better educate his children, four of whom subsequently enjoyed the advantages of the university. After the nursery busi- ness was established in Austin it grew enormously, and Mr. Ramsey was the mainspring of its development until 1908, when his son, John Murray Ramsey, became a partner in it.

Their location was on the south margin of the range of peaches of the Persian strain and on the north margin of the south China strain, so they had to test and grow a larger list of peaches than is usually nec- essary. Besides the conditions imposed by local climate, Mr. Ramsey possesses a love for securing and testing any new varieties of fruits that promise to be valuable, and it is said that he could from memory name and describe probably five hundred varieties of peaches and three hundred of plums.

He has the reputation of having secured and budded more varieties of pecans, English or Persian walnuts, American persimmons, Chinese and Japanese jujubes, and various other fruits than any one in the United States or in the world.

Mr. Ramsey thought out and discovered many new methods in handling, growing and planting of trees of all kinds. He had a natural love for the hardy wild shrubs and flowers of West Texas, and has collected, tested and introduced many of them; and accidental hybrids, and crosses, and new seedlings in the nursery gave him some valuable and beautiful new trees, among which is a pyramidal tree that looks like a pyramidal cypress, but came from a seed of an arborvitæ, which he calls Gracegreen Hybrid, and another that he calls Beauty Green that came from seed of a horizontal cypress and has the outlines of its mother tree, but in its foliage shows it has arborvitæ blood.

Mr. Ramsey is a member of the noted Ramsey family, widely known not only in Texas but elsewhere in the United States, and its members have been prominent in the various walks of life for generations. The au- thentic history of the Ramsey family commences with the invasion of England by the Norman Conquerer, A. D. 1066. The common ancestor was an officer in the army of William, and participated in the decisive battle of Hastings, and from this family all the present Ram- seys and Ramsays of the British Empire and America are descended. At the same date the Stewart family appears in history, and the Stewarts and Ramseys have been closely related, having intermarried for many gen- erations. Some of the family came over in the May- flower, from whom probably came many of the name in New England. Toward the close of the seventeenth

and the beginning of the eighteenth century quite a number of the family came to Pennsylvania. These sought religious freedom and were at variance with the established church. They were known as Seceders and Covenanters, and the two sects afterwards uniting then were known as the United Presbyterians. A few years later these were followed by quite a number of Ramseys as exiles after the defeat of the Stewart pre- tender at the battle of Culloden. These Ramseys, with the banished Stewarts, landed together in Pennsylvania about the middle of the eighteenth century. From these families probably descended the majority of the Ram- seys in the United States today. From Pennsylvania the families went south and west and founded the numer- ous families to which the greater number of the Ram- seys belong. As to religion most of the Ramseys in the north are Presbyterians and in the South all sects are represented. The Ramsey and Ramsay families have organized the Ramsaey Family Association of Texas, and the Ramsaey Family Association of the United States, and Mr. Frank T. Ramsey has participated in the annual meetings, and a portion of his address at one of these family conventions in which he spoke of the tendencies of inheritance deserves a brief quotation : "But we inherit the traits and desires of a hundred generations of forefathers and foremothers. Seven hun- dred years ago unselfishness was hardly understood. A certain percent or ratio of our minds are influenced by those generations. The tendencies we inherit are closely related to instinct. Psychologists may keep on saying that only animals have instincts, but I notice the average American boy wants to go West if his mother did before him, just as naturally as the little duck goes into the water. The more generations a trait or quality has passed through, the harder it is or the longer it takes to change it. The Indian mother of fifty genera- tions of black eyes does not often raise a family of blue- eyed children. Future generations will inherit our traits and desires whether they end in fruition or disappoint- ment. May we, of this generation, in our hearts, abhor all things that do not enhance the mind of the citizen. May those of the future generations treasure this say- ing in their hearts. This, truly, is labor and sacrifice without hope of reward; the kind that brings tenfold reward, perfect happiness."

Incidentally Mr. Ramsey is a lover of beautiful lan- guage and occasionally writes an article outside of horticultural subjects of interest and sometimes with a strain of exquisite humor. The late Elizabeth Ney, the maker of statues of Stephen F. Austin and Sam Hous- ton that stand in the corridor of the Texas capital and in the Hall of Fame at Washington, was passionately fond of the flag of the Republic of Texas. When she had executed these commissions, the ladies of Austin, led by Mrs. A. C. Goeth and Mrs. Johanna Runge, of Austin and Galveston, presented her a large silk flag and had Mr. Ramsey write the presentation, which was read by his daughter, Jessie (now Mrs. R. V. Murray), and is said to be the only occasion on which Miss Ney was ever known to have shed tears.

The lines as they appeared in the Austin Statesman at the time are given below. Mr. Ramsey's innate love of schools and learning made him place on a par with the Declaration of Independence the resolutions adopted by the pioneer settlers of Texas when refused the public free schools by the Mexican government, in which ap- peared this sentence: "Any government that fails to provide free schools for the education of the children of its citizens is unworthy of the loyalty of those citi- zeus, and will sooner or later fall in decay." Hence the expression "for principles grander than ever before."

"We, daughters of Texas, love Texas and Texans, And the chief of our joys is to honor the men Who laid down their lives on Liberty's altar,

Let the story be told again and again,

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For principles grander than ever before Declared or defended by freemen or king;

For right and for Texas their weapons they bore --- The best of our songs for them we will sing.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 86

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