USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 33
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
1881 the county had three cotton gins, six or seven flour mills, a sawmill, and other minor industries. Numerous schools and churches had been established, and there were five centers of settlement-Brownwood, Wil- liams' Ranch, Clio, Byrd's Store and Zephyr.
The population of the county in 1880 was 8,414 (114 negroes) ; in 1890, 11,421 ; in 1900, 16,019 (206 negroes). The value of the county's taxable property in 1881 was $1,565,213; in 1903. $5.226,275; and in 1909, $11,752,045.
The first railroad in the county was the G. C. & S. F., which was completed in 1886. In July, 1891, Brownwood became the terminus of the Fort Worth & Rio Grande, which has since been extended through the county.
In 1890 Brownwood had a population of 2,176 and was the only town of any size in the county. Its population in 1900 was 3,965. This is one of the progressive small cities of West Texas, with several large mer- cantile and other business enterprises, and in recent years civic energy has been concentrated in promoting the general welfare and improve- ment of the town. Other towns, with population in 1900, are: Blanket, 304; Bango, 136; May, 324; Zephyr, 229.
In the last ten years Brown county has received a large immigra- tion of settlers, especially from the north central states, and its lands are largely occupied as farms, although live stock is still a large item of pro- ductive wealth.
B. E. HURLBUT is a native son of the east, born in Cortland county, New York, August 22, 1858, but the greater part of his life has been spent in Texas, and for a number of years he has been one of the most influential business men and citizens of Brownwood. On coming to Texas in 1876 he located first in Dallas and spent three years there, and the following three years were spent at Corsicana. From there in 1883 he moved to Lampasas, where he was engaged in the hardware business for about three and a half years, and at the close of that period, in 1887, he came to Brownwood and embarked in the hardware business here. He built the stone building now known as the Jackson Hughs block, and has the distinction of having been the first man in the city to place a traveling salesman on the road. This was in the year 1885, and he continued his jobbing department with his wholesale and retail trade for about twenty years, or until he sold his interests to the Jackson Hughs Company in Jan- mary of 1907.
On the Ist of January, 1907, Mr. Hurlbut organized the American Bank and Trust Company with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, and he was made the president of the bank, but in March of 1909 he sold his banking interest to the Citizens National Bank, retaining the trust and real estate department, and they handle loans exclusively on real estate. In October of 1908 Mr. Hurlbut was elected the vice-president of the Brownwood Commercial Club, but owing to the president's death in the following December, he was obliged to assume the duties of that office
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and is still its incumbent through his election to the presidency in October, 1909. He has fraternal relations with Brownwood Lodge of Masons, and is a member of the Christian church.
SAMUEL R. COGGIN .- Steadfast, loyal and sincere in all the relations of life, the late Samuel Richardson Coggin, who died at his beautiful home in Brownwood, Brown county, Texas, on the Ist of October, 1910, left the priceless heritage of worthy thoughts and worthy deeds to the great commonwealth in whose development and upbuilding he was a prominent and influential factor. He stood as a distinguished type of the world's noble army of productive and constructive workers. He gave the best of an essentially strong and loyal nature to the promotion of the civic and material interests of the community in which he lived; his life course was guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity and honor, and now that he has passed to the "land of the leal" his mem- ory is revered by all who knew the man and had appreciation of his ster- ling attributes of character. In entering record concerning his career re- course is taken to an appreciative memorial issued for private distribution soon after his death, and in the context only such paraphrase is made as to render the statements consistent with the province of this publication.
Samuel Richardson Coggin was born in Davidson county, North Carolina, on the 23d of February, 1831, and was a son of Levi and Frankie (Lambeth) Coggin, the former of whom was of Irish and the latter of English lineage. The parents were born and reared in Leverson county, North Carolina, where their marriage was solemnized. In 1836 the family removed to Tennessee, where they remained about a year, at the expira- tion of which time they went to Mississippi and located about three miles distant from Holly Springs, Marshall county, where Samuel H. Coggin was reared to maturity. He was one of a family of nine children, of whom only two are now living, Simon L. and Mrs. Elizabeth Taber, both of whom reside in Brownwood, Texas.
The educational advantages of Mr. Coggin were limited to the com- mon schools of Marshall county, Mississippi, and in 1851, in company with his brother. Moses J. Coggin, he came to Texas and numbered him- self among its pioneers. He first stopped near Rusk, in the eastern part of the state, where he and his brother purchased a small stock of cattle with their meager savings of a few hundred dollars, and while their herd was increasing they engaged in freighting between Houston and Bell county, afterward removing their herd to Bell county. From that section they came to Brown county and settled at the old town of Brownwood, a few miles down the bayou from the present town of the same name. This change of location was made in 1857 and the country was then on the extreme frontier. Soon after reaching Brownwood Samuel R. Cog- gin and his brother Moses J., with a few other pioneers, about ten families in number, attempted to organize the county, but failure attended the effort, and not until the citizenship was reinforced, in that and the succeeding year, did they succeed in effecting the organization of the
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county. In the fall of 1858 the Coggin brothers acquired large and valu- able real estate holdings in Coleman county, on Home creek, where, in spite of the hardships of pioneer life in the west, and the depredations of the Indians, their herds continued to grow, with the result that the young men prospered.
When the call of their country came to them to fight for the southern cause, property interests were sacrificed to duty, and Samuel R. Coggin, after enlisting, was assigned to duty in Arkansas, the brothers leaving their cattle and other property in the care of others. After two years of hard service in the army of Arkansas Mr. Coggin's health, which had never been robust from the time of his attaining maturity, gave way under the strain of army life in the marshes and swamps of that state, and, against his wishes, he was mustered out of service. He then re- turned to Texas, where, in many hand-to-hand conflicts with marauding Comanche and Kiowa Indians, he literally fought his way to success in the most desperate and prolonged struggles in the frontier annals of America, the conflict not ending until 1875, when the Indians finally ceased their depredations.
In 1868 the Coggin brothers became associated in the cattle and real estate business with W. C. Parks, of Brownwood, under the firm name of Coggin & Parks, the partnership continuing for many years and being one of both business and historic interest, characterized by more than the usual reverses and misfortunes attending pioneer ranching in a country surrounded by hostile, marauding and treacherous Indians. But through their indomitable energy, their untiring efforts, their brave determination and their great courage in meeting and overcoming every obstacle, there was more of success than failure, and a modest fortune steadily grew to magnificent proportions, while the firm assisted their associates in making an enviable civilization for themselves and for posterity. Before his death Samuel R. Coggin saw the country for which he fought so hard and which he loved so devotedly grow into one of the ideal spots of creation, and in this realization he reaped the largest measure of satisfaction.
A comprehensive sketch of the life of Mr. Coggin from the time he came to Brown county, in 1875, would be a history of the pioneer days of this country and would be as thrilling a narrative as is found in the pages of history, characterized, as it would be, by deprivations and hardships, by disasters and dangers, by struggles and reverses, by deadly encounters with dreaded Indians, by constant contests with dare-devil adventurers, who were at times even worse than the Indians, and crowned at last by the fullest realization of early hopes and expectations, by the transforma- tion of the country from a rough wilderness into a land of peaceful, quiet, contented and happy homemakers. The part taken by him in this great change is historic and is but characteristic of the great, self-sacrificing heart of the man whose service for his country was always made primary to his own interests.
From 1875 to 1881 the firm of which Mr. Coggin was a member was engaged in the cattle and real estate business, their operations covering a
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number of counties and sections of the state, and being unusually success- ful, the while they were attended with less difficulties than in the earlier days.
It was in 1881 that the Coggin Brothers organized their first bank, which was conducted under the title of Coggin Brothers & Company. From this private institution, under various changes in the personnel of other stockholders and also in title, was eventually developed the Coggin National Bank of Brownwood, of which staunch and important financial institution Samuel R. Coggin was president from the time of its organiza- tion until his death. As a banker he was noted for the philanthropic way in which he handled the assets of the institution, ever having in mind the management of the bank in the way that would make it the most useful and serviceable to the masses of the people-a business philanthropy in time of need and a business enterprise and bulwark in time of prosperity. While he was cautious and prudent in business he never turned a deaf ear to the man who really needed and merited aid, and there are thousands in this country who stand ready to testify that he gave them a helping hand when it was most needed, and thus assisted them to success. No more notable instance of this could be given than to refer to the drouth of 1886-7, when the country was parched and bare, when many were with- out even the necessities of life and would have been forced to leave the country, abandon their possessions and lose all, but for the timely help of Mr. Coggin and his associates, and a few others, who placed the welfare of their neighbors above their own gain and who aided them without any hope of reward beyond the satisfaction of having performed a duty to mankind.
Up to the time of his death Mr. Coggin was actively engaged in look- ing after his business affairs-his banking, his cattle, his ranch and farm- ing interests, and his real estate holdings in Brownwood and elsewhere in Brown and other counties of the state. While his health had not been good since the Civil war, and though he was many times at death's door, his mind was ever alert and active, and whenever he was able to leave his home he was about his many business affairs.
Mr. Coggin was for many years a devoted member of the Cumber- land Presbyterian church and one of the largest contributors to the church work. When he was able to go out at all he was never too weary to devote his time, his energies and his mind to the church, and his purse strings were ever unloosed to its calls. He was also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was much interested in every enterprise of this fraternal order. While he never heralded his philan- thropies from the housetops, no deserving person or worthy enterprise ever appealed to him in vain. The town in which he lived, and to which he gave so much of his thought, is indebted to him for many things. The colleges received large gifts of lands and money from him; Coggin park, a large, beautiful and valuable park place, is a donation from him and his wife to the city ; he was the largest contributor to secure the Car- negie library for Brownwood; his donations for railway subsidy funds
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were generous and princely ; he aided all church enterprises of the town and many in the country ; he helped many boys and girls in their efforts to secure educations,-in fact, in a thousand ways that can not here be enumerated, he showed his love for and his interest in his fellow men and his country.
Above all, perhaps, the life of Mr. Coggin is to the young an example worthy of admiration and emulation. His struggles and his triumphs, his steadfast adherence to integrity of purpose, his abiding faith in the ac- complishment of all honorable aims, his broad human sympathy and toler- ance, and his many other noble traits of character all furnish rich food for thought and will ever be treasured in memory by the generations that recall his life. He lived to a good old age, to see the maturity of most of his cherished plans, and he died the death that he would perhaps most have preferred. He retired to a night of sweet, undisturbed sleep, and he awoke at early morn on that shore where there is surcease from strug- gle, from sorrow, from pain; where all is bliss and joy and peace and rest.
While there can be no wish to lift the gracions and sacred veil that protected a home life of the most ideal type, there is marked propriety in offering brief statement concerning his marriage and the mutual love and sympathy which held him and his devoted wife together as if with "hoops of steel." On the 3d of January, 1884, was solemnized the mar- riage of Mr. Coggin to Mrs. Martha (Lightfoot) Smith, who was born and reared in Johnson county, Texas, and who is a daughter of the late B. B. Lightfoot, one of the most prominent and influential citizens of Johnson county, Texas. From the time of their marriage, of which no children were born, Mr. Goggin and his wife were not only most loving companions but they were also comrades in the true sense of the word, their devotion to each other being most tender. They were inseparable, and through many night watches the good wife remained at his bedside, ministering to his every need and nursing him back to health and strength. They lived happily and comfortably, though unostentatiously, in one of the most attractive homes in the state, and the same was always open for the comfort, the pleasure and the enjoyment of their many friends. By her wifely sympathy, her unerring judgment and her hearty co- operation in his plans, Mrs. Coggin was a never failing inspiration to her husband, and her resourcefulness removed from him in his later years many of the cares with which he would otherwise have been burdened. The board of directors of the Coggin National Bank (which has just moved into its fine new quarters ) paid a merited tribute to the business sagacity of Mrs. Coggin as well as a just recognition to her husband's long and worthy service by tending her the position of president. Mrs. Coggin reluctantly agreed to accept and serve the unexpired term on con- dition that she would be required to discharge the duties of president of the bank no longer than the first meeting of the board in January.
In conclusion is entered an extract from the obituary notice that appeared in the Brownwood Daily Bulletin on the morning of the death
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
of Mr. Coggin, and the words well merit perpetuation in this connection : "He was a good man in every sense of the word, a man of discerning judgment, practical and sensible in all matters, quiet, unassuming and unostentatious in manner, and a true friend to every worthy man and deserving enterprise. He was of the type of pioneers who have left their impress for good upon this country and to whom this and subsequent generations are indebted largely for the fine type of citizenship to be found here. In the comforts of our surroundings we hardly realize how much we owe to men like this,-men who sacrificed much, endured much, suffered much, but whose reward in the world to come will certainly be proportioned to their work here." Concerning Mr. Coggin and his wife the same article offers the following statement: "The devotion of the couple to each other was almost sublime, and they were both lovers and associates in all things until death's relentless separation."
COLEMAN COUNTY
In the summer of 1856 Major Van Dorn of the United States army established Camp Colorado on Jim Ned creek, in what is now Coleman county. Some remains of the stone and wooden buildings of this post still exist. Major Van Dorn had a detachment of the Second Cavalry there for two or three years. In 1860, before the Civil war, Capt. E. K. Smith commanded there. The presence of this garrison attracted a few settlers, though they made no permanent improvements. J. E. McCord, later a banker and prominent citizen of Coleman City, was lieutenant of a Ranger company that was posted on Home creek during 1860. Camp Colorado was abandoned after the war.
February 1, 1858, the legislature defined the boundaries of a num- ber of counties, among them Coleman, named in honor of Robert M. Coleman, a figure in the Texas revolution. But nearly twenty years passed before the county was sufficiently settled to maintain a county gov- ernment. In 1875 a county government was organized, and in the fall of 1876 Coleman, the county seat, was laid off. A quotation from an account written in 1877 reads : On a site that in 1873 had been barren of any vestige of human habitation, the beautiful plateau being the haunt of the buffalo more often than of domestic animals, was in the latter part of 18% the growing little village of Coleman City, whose first house had been completed scarcely two months before and which now contained twenty-seven first-class buildings, with merchants, lawyers, building con- tractors, good school, hotel, and half a mile from town the U. S. tele- graph line. A year later Coleman had a population of four hundred and was incorporated.
Beginning in 1875 this county soon became one of the favorite cen- ters of the range stock industry. The county was one immense pasture, and excepting the tradesmen at the county seat and one or two other places, the population consisted almost entirely of the cattlemen and their "outfits." About 1880 the farmer class made some advance into this re-
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gion, especially when it is known that the Santa Fe Railroad would be built. But in 1882 it was estimated that not over four thousand acres had been touched by the plow, while the live stock at that time numbered about 9,000 horses and mules, 40,000 cattle and 85,000 sheep and other stock.
At the census of 1870 the population of the county was 347; in 1880, 3,603 (35 negroes) ; in 1890, 6,112; in 1900, 10,077 (90 negroes). In 1882 the taxable values were $1,733,603, live stock being assessed at $723,768 ; in 1903, $5,611,513; and in 1909, $12,259,645.
In March, 1886, what was then known as the main line of the G. C. & S. F. Railroad reached Coleman, and was extended on through the county the same year. A tap line was built to reach Coleman City, it being the policy of early railroad building to avoid towns which did not offer attract- ive subsidies, and Coleman City is one of the number of such cases in Texas. However, this tap line has since become the starting point of the "Coleman cut-off" of the Santa Fe, now building northwest to Texico.
Coleman City, which had a population of 906 in 1890 and 1.362 in 1900, has been developed both commercially and as a place of residence in recent years. It has the improvements and advantages of the progressive West Texas towns, and is the center of a large volume of trade. Other towns are: Santa Anna, situated at the base of Santa Anna mountain; Talpa; Trickham, one of the oldest settlements; Rockwood, in the coal- mining district ; Glencove ; Burkett.
LITTLETON E. COLLINS is the president of the First National Bank of Coleman, which is the oldest bank in Coleman county. It was estab- lished in 1886, and has been continuously successful in business from that time to the present. Its business methods are universally commended as honest and straightforward, and they are based on long years of experi- ence in the banking business in Coleman county. The capital stock of the First National is one hundred thousand dollars, with surplus and profits of'one hundred and ten thousand dollars. Mr. Collins, its active president, is one of Coleman's most energetic and enterprising citizens, and he has been a potent influence in the city's recent rapid growth and expansion. He has been a member of the board of school trustees for several years, and is the board's present treasurer.
Born near LaGrange in Troup county, Georgia, February 11, 1855, he was brought in the same year by his parents to Texas, the family locat- ing in Upshur county. His father was a Confederate soldier. Littleton E. Collins was reared in Upshur county, and leaving home in 1875 he stopped for a few months in Bell county, and in July of 1876 came to Coleman. The town had been laid out and entered upon its career as the county seat of the newly organized county of Coleman in that month. In 1878 Mr. Collins embarked in the drug business, and the business is still continued by his successor, Mr. Coulson, who had worked for him in the store. Retiring from this mercantile venture in 1892, Mr. Collins
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entered the First National Bank, first as its assistant cashier and later, in 1903, as its president.
He is president of the Coleman Compress Company and the Coleman Cotton Oil Company. He has since coming to Coleman been one of its foremost men in the upbuilding of its various enterprises.
He married Miss Cora Payton, from DeWitt county, and their seven children are Mrs. Florence Pitman, Nanie, Milton, Nelle, Littleton E. Jr., Harry and Mary Sue. In 1906 he built his magnificent residence, one of the show places of the city of Coleman and one of the most beautiful homes in western Texas. Mr. Coleman is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows fraternities and of the Baptist church.
FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF COLEMAN .- There is no one factor which so well determines and designates the status and stability of a community as the extent and character of its banking institutions, and in this respect the thriving city of Coleman, the judicial center and metropolis of the county of the same name, has in the First National Bank an institution of established reputation, ample capital and conservative management, the while it is reinforced by the enlistment of the capitalistic and executive support of citizens of the highest and most representative character. Its large resources, admirably conserved, make it a distinctive power in the financial affairs of this section of the state, and it is but consonant that in this publication be given a brief record concerning the same.
The First National Bank of Coleman was organized in 1886, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, and the personnel of the original execu- tive corps was as here noted: J. D. Davidson, president ; W. C. Dibrell, vice-president; J. B. Coleman, cashier ; and J. D. Cummings, assistant cashier. Besides these administrative officers the directorate at the time of incorporation included R. H. Overall, J. E. McCord and E. T. Petty.
In 1890, to met the increased demands placed on the institution, its capital stock was increased to seventy-five thousand dollars, and at this time Mr. Cummings resigned his positions of director and assistant cash- ier, being succeeded in the latter office by Littleton E. Collins, and James P. Ledbetter succeeding him in the position of director. Later W. C. Dibrell succeeded Mr. Davidson as president and Richard H. Overall be- came vice-president. In 1892, when Mr. Dibrell declined farther service as president of the bank, he was succeeded by James B. Coleman, and at this time also Littleton E. Collins was chosen cashier, a position of which he continued incumbent until 1902, when upon Mr. Coleman's resignation of the presidency Mr. Collins became his successor in this chief executive office, of which he has since continued the efficient and popular incumbent, and at the same time time John H. Babington was elected cashier, an office which he held until 1910.
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