A history of Texas and Texans, Part 97

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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Addison Yancey Gunter married Miss Betty Ligon, daughter of Dr. Samuel Seth Ligon and Ealinor (Dun- can) Ligon. Dr. Ligon, a native of Richmond, Virginia, emigrated first to Clay county, Missouri. He had made the trip across the plains in 1849, acquiring a consider- able fortune in the gold mines of California. He moved his family and slaves to Sivills Bend, Texas, in 1859, where he lived all during the war, regardless of Indian raids, having thrown a stockade around his house. He had four children, namely, Mary, James, and Rosa, all deceased, and Betty. (Elizabeth), the widow of Addison Gunter. Two daughters were born to Mr. and Mrs. Gunter-Lillian and Rosa, the wife of Isham Beasley, of Gainesville, Texas, and the mother of one son, Isham Jackson Beasley.

William Washington Gunter was twice married. His first wife was Miss Rosamond Geer, a native of Georgia. They had six children-Julian, Nat, and Margeret, and three that died in infancy. Julian Gunter now lives in Sivills Bend. At one time he was one of the foremost cattle men of his district. He married Miss Valeria Fitch, of Sherman, and has three children-Lucille, the wite of Adrian Melton, of Chickasa, Oklahoma; Gladys, wife of Ira Jonson, of Minco, Oklahoma, and Nat, the only son. W. W. Gunters' second son Nat, now deceased, was a well-known lawyer of Sherman, Texas, and Mar- geret, the third child, also deceased, was married to Clarence Stewart, of Grapevine, Texas. In 1868, W. W. Gunter married Miss Rosa Ligon, who bore him four children and died in 1880. She was a sister to Betty Ligon, the wife of his brother, A. Y. Gunter. Her eldest son, Horace Gunter, married Lillian Neal and their four children are Horace, Jr., Samuel, Jr., Phillip, and Edna. The second son of W. W. Gunter's second marriage, Samuel Ligon Gunter, married Mabel Giddens, who has borne him two sons-William Washington, Jr., and Ad- dison Yancey, Jr. Mabel Gunter, the only daughter of

W. W. Gunter and Rosa Ligon Gunter, married R. M. Field, of Gainesville, Texas, and has one child, Josephine.

Addison Yancey Gunter died in August, 1894, greatly beloved by all who knew him. William Washington Gunter died in June, 1911, having witnessed in his long life most of the changes that go to make up our present- day civilization. The families of both A. Y. and W. W. Gunter have been identified with Cooke county and her upbuilding since 1866, having held continuous residence there since that date.

JOHN HUNTER THOMPSON. A seeming chance led John Hunter Thompson to abandon the profession for which he had fitted himself and in which he has already ac- complished a considerable in the way of publie achieve- ment, and to identify himself with the life insurance business, which resulted not long after in his organiza- tion of the Guarantee Life Insurance Company, of which he is vice president and general manager. This com- pany, organized as recently as 1906, is today admitted to be one of the greatest life insurance concerns in the Southwest, and is rapidly forging ahead to take its proper place among the foremost insurance institutions of the country.

John Hunter Thompson, organizer and founder of the company of which he is today vice president and gen- eral manager, was born at Nelsonville, Texas, on Octo- ber 22, 1872, and is the son of Dr. Robert W. and Vir- ginia (Mintou) Thompson. The father was born in Dallas county, Alabama, in IS42, and with his parents came to Texas in 1848, settling in Austin county, where he was reared and established in life. He came to be a prominent physician of his city and county, and in addition to his professional attainments, gained a high place in state politics, serving at one time in the state legislature from Austin county. Dr. Thompson is still living in Houston, though retired from professional and public life. The mother of the subject was born in Austin county and comes of a well-known Texas family. Her grandparents were among the earliest settlers of the state, coming hence from Virginia iu the days before Texas came to be a Republic.

John Hunter Thompson was educated in the grade schools of Belleville and in the high school of that place, receiving his training there under the direction of Pro- fessor Trenckmann, well knewn in educational cireles of these parts at that time. He then attended the Agri- cultural and Mechanical College and his law course he took at the University of Texas. In 1899, Mr. Thomp- son was admitted to the bar of the state, and soon thereafter he was appointed county attorney of Austin county, to fill an unexpired term. After one year of service he was duly elected for the regular two-year term, and he thus served three successive years iu the office, from 1899 to 1902. Following his retirement from that office, Mr. Thompson resumed the practice of law, but his health began to fail to such an extent that he deemed it unwise to confine himself to an office, the result being that he took up life insurance soliciting as a means of getting out into the open and ridding himself of the injurious effects of too close confinement to an office. It was this experience that opened his eyes to the latent possibilities offered by the insurance world, and he was not long in formulating plans for the fur- therance of his new ideas. In 1906 he moved to Houston, and there he was instrumental in bringing about the organization of the Guarantee Life Insurance Company of Texas, becoming upon its organization vice president and general manager of the new concern, and afterwards acquiring a controlling interest in the stock of the com- pany. In that year the business was incorporated with a capital and surplus of $125,000. Today (1913) it has assets of more than $1,000,000, with over $20,000,000 of insurance in force, a most remarkable record for a company so young as this one. The concern is doing a constantly increasing business in the states of Texas,

TEXAS AND TEXANS

1907

Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama, and is ever widen- ing the scope of its operations.

Mr. Thompson is prominent in social and fraternal circles, having membership in the Houston Club, the Houston Country Club, and the Thalian Club, of Houston, while he is a member of the Masonic order of long stand- ing, his affiliations in that order being with Belleville Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Belleville Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Brenham Commandery, Knights Templar, and El Mina Temple, Ancient Arabie Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

On December 20, 1899, Mr. Thompson was married to Miss Tummie Faires, daughter of R. O. Faires, of Fre- donia, Texas. Mr. Faires was a lieutenant in the Con- federate army under Captain Killough, whose daughter, Miss Eliza Killough, he married. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Thompson-Fairy, John Hunter, Jr., and Robert Faires. The family residence is located at 3804 Main street.

WALTER C. MOORE, president of the Hardy Oil Com- pany, has an office at Houston, Texas, but maintains his residence at San Antonio. Mr. Moore's activities have touched various lines of endeavor, and many important Texas enterprises have received his support. To him belongs the distinction of fathering the rice industry in this state. A detailed account of his identity with this one industry alone would fill a volume. As in a work of this character only generalities can be dealt in, the biographical record of Mr. Moore can be presented only in succinct form.

Walter C. Moore was born in Harris county, Texas, October 8, 1857, son of Pleasant and Kezia A. (O'Hara) Moore.

Pleasant Moore was born in Virginia, a representative of a family whose residence in the Old Dominion dates well back into the seventeenth century. The paternal great-grandfather of Walter C. served under General Washington in the Braddock campaign of the French and Indian war. In 1849, Pleasant Moore came to Texas and settled in Harris county, on the Buffalo Bayou, where he was a farmer and stock man and where he was also for a time engaged in contraeting and building. During the war between the states he served in the Confederate army, with the commissary department, and was materially useful to the cause by operating grist mills and by providing fuel and other necessaries for the support of the armies in the field. He died in 1902.

Kezia A. (O'Hara) Moore was born in Ohio. Her grandfather, Francis O'Hara, was a Revolutionary sol- dier under General Washington and was of that number who spent the winter at Valley Forge. She was also related to Theodore O'Hara, the poet, and to Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. It was in 1850 that she came to Texas, and her marriage to Pleasant Moore took place on the plantation of Jonathan T. D. Walters, south of Richmond, on the Brazos River, in Fort Bend county.

Walter C. Moore attended school in Harris county until he was fourteen years of age, after which his education was carried forward in the broad and practical school of experience. At fourteen he entered the em- ploy of the Western Union Telegraph Company, at first as a messenger boy, afterwards as a delivery clerk, and still later as cashier, and he remained in their service for a period of five years. Then he accepted a position offered by the Texas & New Orleans Railroad Company. From 1878 to 1881 he was operator and station agent at Dayton, Texas, and this service was followed by a year in the same capacity at Liberty, Texas, and three months as train dispatcher at San Antonio for the G. H. & S. A. R. R., and a year for the same company at Spofford Junction, Texas. In 1883 he entered the em- ploy of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad Com- pany and became agent and operator at Valley Mills,

Texas, where he remained until 1890. From 1890 to 1892 he was relief agent for the Texas & New Orleans Railroad Company, and while serving in this capacity his duties frequently called him to Southwestern Louisi- ana and gave him opportunities of observing and com- paring industrial and agricultural conditions in differ- ent sections of the Southwest. At that time rice culture was in its infancy in Southwestern Louisiana, and had not extended beyond the Sabine River. Mr. Moore real- ized that the lands of Southeast and Southern Texas were as well adapted for this crop as those in the adjoin- ing state, and he was the first to make this fact the basis of practical business enterprise. Up to this time the prairies of Southeast Texas had been almost entirely unprofitable, and were considered worthless from a stand- point of productive enterprise. Mr. Moore not only saw the opportunity for introducing the cultivation of rice in Texas, but also he fathered the industry in this state. His first move in this direction was his contribution of articles on the subject to the newspapers of Houston and Galveston, and to the Farm and Ranch and other agricultural papers, urging the introduction of rice growing. It was some years, however, before he was successful in interesting capital in the undertaking. In the meantime, in 1892, he left the railroad service and engaged in the real estate business in Houston, where he was better able to promote the plans which he had formed for the development of the rice fields. A few small rice farms were started in Southeast Texas, but nothing on an important scale was attempted. In 1895 and 1896, under the direction of Col. C. C. Gibbs, land commissioner of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, he made two trips through the North and West in the interest of the new industry. He distributed literature on rice culture and supplied the emigrant agencies throughout the Middle and Western states with sev- eral hundred bundles of rice grown in Louisiana and Texas. The efforts he put forth to induce Houston and Galveston capital to purchase large areas of cheap land, irrigate it and place it under rice cultivation, were un- successful, but he did succeed to a certain extent in interesting Northern capital. The Trinity Rice, Land and Irrigation Company was organized and incorporated, with a capital stock of $250,000, and the company pur- chased 15,000 acres of land for development. Mr. Moore was vice president of this organization. Also he was vice president of the Hill-Brown Irrigation Company, which was organized soon afterwards, with a capital stock of $45,000 and which purchased 6,000 acres. A later organization was the Moore-Cortes Canal Com- pany, whose capital of $250,000 was subscribed largely in Houston. This company, of which Mr. Moore was president, hought 17,000 acres of land on the Colorado River. The Texas Rice Development Company was formed with a capital of $250,000 to purchase 22,000 acres in Metagorda county, and in this company also Mr. Moore was a prime factor, being its vice president. And he assisted in locating the Raywood canal, in Liberty county. Individually and in connection with the above named organizations, he has assisted in the disposal of over half a million acres of land, a large part of which has since been brought into a high state of cultivation. The first pamphlet on rice cultivation ever issued in Southern Texas was prepared by Mr. Moore, in 1893, and his subsequent writings on the sub- ject have been more extensive than those of any other one person, and have found a place in a wide range of publications. In 1903, Mr. Moore founded the town of Palacios, in Metagorda county, on the Texas Rice De- velopment Company's property. The Moore.Cortes Canal Company entered into a contest with the Southern Pa- cific Railroad Company to extend its line from Van Vleck to Markham, and in order to get its further ex- tension to Palacios, Mr. Moore gave his personal note for $24.000 to secure said extension. Palacios at this writ-

1908

TEXAS AND TEXANS

ing has about 2,500 population and the adjacent country is well settled and prosperous.

In recent years Mr. Moore disposed of practically all of his interests in the rice industry, and since 1905 has been concerned principally with the development of the oil industry. He is president of the Hardy Oil Com- pany of Houston, and has holdings iu other fields and companies. He is also vice president of "Clifton by the Sea" Townsite Company of Houston, and president of the Terry Oil Company, a prospecting and develop- ing organization.

Fraternally, Mr. Moore is identified with various or- ganizations, including the San Antonio Lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Ruthven Commandery No. 2, K. T .; El Mina Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., and is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason. He belongs to Houston Lodge No. 151, B. P. O. E., and to the Houston County Club, the Travis Club of San Antonio, and the San Antonio Country Club.

Mr. Moore was married in 1886, and he and his wife are the parents of four children-Perryman S., Annie Bess, Lydia B., and Christie E. Mrs. Moore, formerly Miss Emma Perryman, is a daughter of Col. W. W. Perryman, an ex-Confederate officer, now a resi- dent of Liberty, Texas, and a relative of Colonel Travis and Mr. Bowie and Mr. Bonham of Alamo fame. Their residence in San Antonio is 217 East Elmira street.

CAPT. JOHN H. MCCAULEY. For many years the late Capt. John H. MeCauley, who died July 5, 1909, was a business man and citizen of distinction in Wichita Falls and vicinity. He had earned his title by gallant service in the Confederate army and from the close of the war until his death was closely attentive to business and the varied responsibilities of a long and successful career. He left a family of worthy sons and daughters to per- petuate his memory and continue the influence of his character, and Mrs. MeCauley is now one of the highly esteemed residents of Wichita Falls.

The late Capt. John H. MeCauley was born in North Carolina in March, 1837, and was therefore more than three-score and ten years of age at the time of his death. When he was a child the family moved to Texas, locating at Henderson, in Rusk county, where his parents were among the very early settlers, his father being a well-to-do farmer. Captain MeCauley grew up in that locality, had only an ordinary education such as was afforded to Texas boys of that time, and had reached manhood and was already a worker and self-supporting citizen when the war between the states broke out. He made a record of efficient service in the Confederate army and won the rank of captain in the Tenth Texas Cavalry, a dismounted cavalry regiment. After the war he applied himself to different lines of business and for many years was regarded as an expert mineralogist. However, the lumber business was his principal voca- tion for many years, and it was in that line that he won his greatest success. Captain MeCauley located at Wichita Falls during the early '80s, when that now flourishing city was a mere village. There he engaged in the lumber business with his brother-in-law, Captain Mc Donald, who is now United States Marshal and a resi- dent of Dallas.

Captain McCauley married M. T. MeDonald, a daugh- ter of C'apt. E. R. and Eunice (Durham) MeDonald. 'Their marriage was celebrated at Henderson, in Rush county, on December 8. 1870. Mrs. McCanley is of an old and prominent Texas family, and on both sides is descended from distinguished Southern lineage. Her father was a captain in the Confederate army and was killed in the battle at Corinth, Mississippi. He was born in Winston county, Mississippi, where the MeDonalds wore prominent, and Mrs. McCauley's mother was a na- tte of Kemp county, Mississippi, and died November 16, 1585, at Wichita Falls. To Mr. and Mrs. McCauley were born the following children: Willie, born February

9, 1873, and died in 1911; Eula May, born August 4, 1874, and is the wife of A. R. Duke, of Wichita Falls; John Henry, born September 9, 1878, and died in April, 1912; Dot, born December 13, 1881, and is the wife of Frank Collier, a well-known clothing merchant of Wichita Falls; Don, born July 30, 1887, in the drug business at Mineral Wells, was married September 30, 1913, to Miss Idell Brannon, of Sweetwater, Texas. Mrs. Me- Cauley resides in the beautiful home in the best resi- dential section of Wichita Falls, at 904 Bluff street, and her surroundings are those of a generous prosperity, supplied by the successful business endeavor of her late husband. She is also the owner of considerable town property. The late Captain MeCauley was affiliated with the Masonie Order and, while always ready to serve his community, and a man of influence among his fellows, he never sought notoriety, filled no publie office and was entirely content with the substantial achievement of the business man, the home-maker and the public spirited citizen.

BEN CAMPBELL. The present mayor of the city of Houston is a lawyer, not a politician, and for thirty years has been identified with his profession in many distinctive and successful capacities. He is senior member of the well known firm of Campbell, Soufield, Sewall & Myer, whose offices are in the First National Bank Building at Houston.

Ben Campbell was born in Alabama in 1858 and is a descendant of the Scotch Campbells. His parents were Dr. Farquhar and Gabriela (Singleton) Campbell. The Campbells were first settled in North Carolina, whence they removed to Alabama, and in 1859 the parents came to Texas, settling at old Waverly, in Walker county, where the father continued practicing his profession of medicine until his death.

Ben Campbell attained a country school education at the beginning and spent his early days at home on the farm, following the occupation of country life until he was twenty-two years of age. He then began reading law in the office of Abercrombie & Randolph at Hunts- ville, Texas. In 1882 he was admitted to the bar. From that time until 1893 he was engaged in the practice of law at Huntsville, where he enjoyed a large clientage. His first public distinction came in 1884, when he was elected county attorney of Walker county, serving one term of two years. In 1886 he was elected district at- torney of the old Twelfth Judicial District, which com- prised the counties of Walker, Grimes, Madison, Leon and Trinity. The duties of this office held him for two terms from 1886 to 1890. At the conclusion of the dis- triet attorneyship he entered a partnership with Thomas H. Ball under the firm name of Campbell & Ball, and that firm remained among the list of lawyers at Hunts- ville until 1893.

On moving to Houston in 1893, Mr. Campbell became associated with Joseph C. Hutcheson and W. G. Sears, thus composing the firm of Hutcheson, Campbell & Sears. Subsequently Mr. Sears retired, and Sterling Myer took his place. Several years later Mr. Myer also with- drew, and at that time Joseph C. Hutcheson, Jr., en- tered the firm, which was known as Hutcheson, Camp- bell & Hutcheson. This title remained unbroken until January 1, 1909, at which time Mr. Campbell withdrew and formed a new alliance with Cleveland, Sewall & Sowell Myer under the firm name of Campbell, Sewall & Myer. In 1913 some changes were made in this firm, when Leon Soufield was taken in as partner. This was after Mr. Campbell had received the nomination for mayor, and at which time the title was changed to Camp- bell, Soufield, Sewall & Myer.

As a lawyer and as a man, Mr. Campbell has always heen one of the most highly esteemed citizens of Houston. A representative body of the local citizenship chose him as the most appropriate man for the office of mayor, and when his name was presented to the general voters

ICH Ph Cauley

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1909

at the primary election in March, 1913, he received the nomination for mayor by a large majority of votes. In April, 1913, he was elected mayor of Houston and took office April 21, 1913.

Mr. Campbell is affiliated with Forest Lodge No. 19, A. F. & A. M., at Huntsville; Huntsville Chapter, R. A. M .; Trinity Commandery, Knights Templar, and El Minar Temple of the Mystic Shrine, at Galveston. He has no connection with the social clubs, and outside of his profession and the performance of his duties as a publie official he devotes his time and leisure to his home. Mr. Campbell was married at Huntsville in 1882 to Miss Ella Smither, daughter of W. B. Bowles Smither, her father having been prominent in the political affairs of that county. Grandfather Robert Smither was one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Walker county during his generation. Mr. Campbell and wife are the parents of six children, named Ben S., Farquhar, Ella Smither, Robert Bowles, Wilbourn, and Sue Alice. The family reside at 1012 Crawford street, in Houston.

JESSE M. HILL, M. D. In the ranks of the medical profession of west Texas are to be found some of the most skilled and learned men of the calling in the state -men who have devoted themselves, their time, energy, and lives to the preservation of public health and the al- leviation of the ills of mankind. The physician of today faces entirely different conditions from those which con- fronted the medical practitioner of several decades ago, both as to training and practice, and when the modern doctor has finished the exceptionally rigid course of study he is often better fitted for his profession than the old- time physician was after many years of practice. One of this modern class of physicians and in every respect the leader of his profession in Crowell, is Dr. Jesse M. Hill, whose home and professional activities have been at Crowell since 1902, and whose skill has won him the best practice in his community.

Dr. Hill was born in Calhoun, Georgia, April 13, 1877, and was the only child of Horace and Nancy Adelia (Fite) Hill, both of whom were natives of Georgia. About 1885 the family moved to Texas, where the father was a farmer, but died soon afterwards, and is buried in Dallas county. He was a devout Christian and a worker in the Baptist church. The mother, who still lives in Crowell, is also active in the work of the Baptist denomination. After the death of her first husband she married Mr. George Crowell, founder of the town of Crowell, who died in 1910. In the Crowell family are four sons and one daughter as follows: Marion Fite, Grover, Robert Clifton, Benjamin and Mabel. Mr. Crow- ell was born in Georgia, and was a pioneer of west Texas, following stock farming in Ford county, and becoming the founder of the town which bears his name.

Dr. Hill was seven or eight years of age when his par- ents moved to Texas, and the education in the public schools begun in Georgia was continued in Texas, until he was ready to take up the practical affairs of life on his own account. He entered the University at Nash- ville, Tennessee, in 1900; attended the University of Tennessee one year, and then graduated from the At- lanta College of Physicians and Surgeons at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1902, where he was a student for one year. Establishing himself in practice in Cole at the same year, he rapidly gained the confidence of the people, and for several years has had his choice of the practice in this locality.

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A history of Texas and Texans, Part 97

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