USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 37
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In 1886, the year following Mr. Walker's arrival here, the railroad was completed into Runnels county, and on the 29th of June of that year the sale of town lots, the beginning of the town of Ballinger and which had been decided upon as the new county seat, was held. Mr. Walker had arranged to go into the drug business in the new town in partnership with Mr. H. N. Beakley, and previous to the date mentioned they had shipped in lumber from Coleman and erected a small frame building, but they were not allowed to locate it, however, until the day of the opening, the 29th of June. On that memorable day they located it at what is now the southwest corner of Hutchings avenue and Seventh street, and that was the first building in the new town. After a long and interesting career it is yet standing, though in a different location, in the eastern part of the city. A short time after establishing the store at its original loca- tion this firm moved to the northeast corner of Hutchings avenue and Eight street, the corner now occupied by the First National Bank building. Still later their location was changed to the north side of Hutchings avenue, between Eighth and Ninth streets, the site now occupied by the store of Van Pelt, Kirk and Mack, while subsequently it was again moved to the south side of Hutchings avenue between Seventh and Eighth streets, and finally back to its old original location on the southwest corner of Hutchings avenue and Seventh street.
Mr. Beakley retired from the business, which had been conducted under the firm name of Walker and Beakley, and J. J. Erwin then came into the firm, which was subsequently known as Walker and Erwin, and after Mr. Erwin's retirement from the business it was known as the E. D. Walker Drug Store. This well known drug business continued in active operation until 1905, and in that year Mr. Walker sold the busi- ness and organized the Ballinger State Bank and Trust Company, while in the following year of 1906 the beautiful new bank building for this company, one of the finest bank buildings in western Texas, was erected on the old corner, Hutchings avenue and Seventh street, the corner where Mr. Walker had originally started in business in Ballinger. This bank is having an exceptionally prosperous career. It has a capital stock of sixty thousand dollars and a strong clientage of patrons representing the best elements of citizenship in Runnels county. Mr. Walker is the cashier and manager of the bank and Charles S. Miller is the president. Through
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 357
long years of business dealings, based on the strictest honor and integrity, Mr. Walker has built up a name and reputation that are a very strong asset, and he is thoroughly identified with all the public-spirited move- ments of the city. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner, and a member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity. He is a member of the Ballinger Christian church, and has served as the superintendent of its Sunday school since about 1895.
He married, in Coleman, Miss Willie Gertrude Payton, her parents, who are now living in Fort Worth, having been old-time settlers of Cole- man. The six children in this family are: Alf, Edmund, Harold, Velma, Bill and Philip. The eldest son, Alf Walker, is in the United States navy, a member of the Pacific Squadron.
JACK McGREGOR took part in the founding of his home town of Ballinger on the 29th of June, 1886, and since that time he has been one of its most prominent business men. He was born at Stratford, Ontario, Canada, a son of the late Alexander McGregor, from Scotland, and a pupil of the University of Edinburg. On emigrating to Canada he located at Stratford, and came to Texas with his family in 1876, first stopping in San Saba county. In 1877 he came to Concho county and engaged in the stock business on the open range. He died in the city of Ballinger in 1898, a well known and highly respected man, and particularly weil known throughout the old cattle country of western Texas.
Jack McGregor, with his brothers, Duncan, Peter and Robert, was reared on the frontier and in the live stock business, and they put up the first wire fence in Concho county, it being of the old smooth wire, before barbed wire had come into use. Jack McGregor was for several years a member of the firm which composed the Western Mercantile Company, its secretary and treasurer, and that was the pioneer business of Ballinger, it having started with the town. At the organization of the Hall Hard- ware Company in 1901, Mr. McGregor became one of its members, and this company took over the hardware business founded the year the town was started, and it had for several years been conducted under the firm name of McAlpin and Company. 'Mr. Hall has since retired from the company and Mr. Tom Ward is now its president, Mr. McGregor being its secretary and treasurer. The Hali Hardware Company has one of the largest retail hardware, implement and vehicle houses in western Texas, and it is a thoroughly successful establishment. Its stores and ware- houses are on the same site upon which the original store was established in 1886, the south side of Hutchings avenue, between Eighth and Ninth streets. Mr. McGregor is intimately identified in every way as a public- spirited citizen in the continued growth and development of Ballinger and its trade territory. He is one of the directors of the First National Bank.
He married, in San Saba county, Miss Cordelia Fentress, a daughter of the late Dr. D. W. Fentress, a pioneer citizen of that county and a member of the famous Fentress family of Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs.
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McGregor have three children-Malcolm McGregor, Miss Armour Mc- Gregor and Alexander McGregor.
JUDGE JOHN I. GUION is one of the distinguished jurists practicing at the bar of Runnels county and one of the most honored of the pioneers and builders of Ballinger. Born at Jackson, Mississippi, January 4, 1854, he descends from Revolutionary ancestry, and he is a son of John I. Guion Sr., an intimate friend and law partner of S. S. Prentice, both of whom played an important part in the history of Mississippi during the stormy days of that state.
Judge Guion received his literary training at Cumberland University, in Lebanon, Tennessee, with its class of 1868-70, and he studied law under General F. J. Wharton, then attorney general of Mississippi. He was admitted to practice before the state supreme court in 1873. In 1875 he came to Texas, locating first at San Saba, the county seat of San Saba county, and in 1879 he located at Paint Rock, the seat of government of Concho county, but which at that time consisted of only two or three houses, and outside of that small collection there was not another house in Concho county. He opened the first law office in Paint Rock and in Concho county, and he resided there until 1886, the year of the comple- tion of the Santa Fe Railroad to Ballinger and the beginning of this city, established by the railroad townsite department, the lots being sold soon after the completion of the road to this point.
While yet in San Saba county, Judge Guion was elected and served for two years as the county judge, which gave him a distaste for office, having held none before or since. He is, however, a true and loyal Democrat, always working for the success of Democratic principles and always found on the side of the people. He is also a patriot in behalf of Ballinger and Runnels county's development and future welfare, as a public-spirited and progressive citizen never failing to do his share. He was attorney for the First National Bank for more than twenty years. His office is on the second floor of the old First National Bank building.
Judge Guion married, on the 4th of June, 1877, Miss Armour Fen- tress, from San Saba county, and five daughters and three sons have blessed their marriage union. The family worship in the Presbyterian church, and the judge is both an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias. The Guion home is on Eighth street, Ballinger.
LEE MADDOX represents one of the earliest of Runnels county's pio- neer families. Born in Grayson county, Texas, in 1867, he came here with his father in 1881, and he practically grew up on the Texas frontier and has witnessed the marvelous changes that have taken place in the character and development of the country. The Rev. W. S. Maddox is his father, and he was born in Hunt county, Texas, in 1840, and his father was Nicholas Maddox, one of the earliest of the Texas pioneers. He came to what is now Grayson county in 1830, while Texas was yet a part of Mexico. Nicholas Maddox raised a family of sixteen children.
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The Rev. W. S. Maddox lived in Grayson county until 1881, coming then to Runnels county and locating at old Runnels, the original county seat of the county, and which remained as such until the founding of its successor, Ballinger, on the 29th of June, 1886. Rev. Maddox has been a Baptist minister during a long number of years, and is yet active in the work of the ministry, and in addition and in company with his sons he carried on stock raising and farming in Runnels county for many years, the sons having been reared on the farm. Rev. Maddox now lives at Ovalla in Taylor county. All of his ten children are living, and they are Lee, Frank, Price, John F., Holmes, Dave, Charles, Mrs. Mary Stell, Mrs. Lillie Phillips and Mrs. Grace Henderson.
During the past fifteen years Lee Maddox has been prominent in the business circles of Ballinger, and for several years his principal voca- tion has been in connection with general fire insurance, in which he rep- resents locally a number of the leading companies. He is also financial agent on the handling of bonds, municipal securities, etc. He was for- merly for some time with the Hall Hardware Company, was later in the hardware business for himself, during a number of years was secretary of the Commercial Club, and he is enthusiastic on the question of public enterprise and improvement. He is a member of the Ballinger city coun- cil, having been selected for that duty particularly in connection with the solving of the municipal water works problem in Ballinger.
He married, in this city, Miss Josie B. Routh, daughter of Joseph Routh, another well known pioneer of Runnels county, and he originally owned the land upon which the city of Ballinger was built. A son, Lee, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Maddox.
WILLIAM L. ELLIS .- Although a young man, William L. Ellis has gained the reputation of being one of the largest individual cotton buyers in Ballinger. In 1908, the banner year for that crop, Ballinger made the highest record of any town in the cotton growing states in point of the number of bales brought in by wagon and sold, the total amounting to over fifty thousand bales for the year. Of this enormous crop, Mr. Ellis bought a large share. His business training and mental equipment are such as to make him an ideal factor in this vocation, involving as it does the possession of a cool head, good judgment and an unlimited amount of nerve. He has played an important part in the making of Ballinger a notable cotton market.
Mr. Ellis was born in Louisville, Winston county, Mississippi, in 1879, and when he was ten years old he came with his parents to Texas, the family locating at San Marcos in Hays county, and the son's educa- tion there including a course in the Lone Star Business College. In 1904 he came to Ballinger and embarked in the retail grocery business and prosecuted the same with success for two years, but the close confine- ment required by that business made it expedient for him to give it up, and it was then that he engaged in cotton buying. He married Miss
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Addie Thorp, of Austin, and their three children are Lucile, Jesse and Lynn.
JUDGE THOMAS T. CROSSON served his judicial district as an attorney for eight years, and as a lawyer he stands second to none in point of force and ability, practicing before the courts of western and central Texas, his personality and conscientiousness in all things commanding the profound respect of a wide circle of acquaintances. He was born at New- berry in South Carolina, the son of Judge J. M. Crosson, a lawyer, who came to Texas when his son Thomas was but two years old, the family spending their first two years in this state in Freestone county, from whence they moved to Livingston, the county seat of Polk county. Young Thomas studied law under his father and was admitted to the bar at Livingston in 1877. Judge J. M. Crosson in later years moved to his present home at Woodville, the county seat of Tyler county.
Judge Thomas T. Crosson came to Runnels county in 1886, and he was here at the time of the founding of the town of Ballinger on the 29th of June of the same year. He has lived here since those pioneer days. At the time of leaving Livingston he resigned the office of county judge of Polk county, and he had previously also served that county as its attorney. Since coming here he has served Runnels county as its judge for four years, and for eight years-four terms in all-he served this judicial district, comprising the counties of Runnels, Brown, Cole- man, McCulloch and Concho, as district attorney, and in that position he distinguished himself as an impartial prosecutor in the rigid enforcement of the law. As a Democrat, Judge Crosson has always been in hearty sympathy with the prevailing tenets of his party, and no man living has fought for them and the people more fearlessly and stubbornly. He be- lieves there should be no compromise with honest principles. He has in the past served as chairman of the Runnels County Democratic Execu- tive Committee, and no man in Central or Western Texas is more highly respected than he. He is a member of the firm of H. Zdaril and Com- pany, real estate and land dealers, with offices on the second floor of the Opera House building.
The Judge's wife is M. A. (Hill) Crosson, the daughter of Dr. John E. Hill of San Jacinto county, where the daughter was born. They have two children, Edwin H. and Helen J. Crosson.
DOUGALD A. CAMERON is mentioned with prominence among the early pioneer residents of Runnels county and among the old time stock- men of Central and Western Texas. He was born in Warren county, Mississippi, in 1850, and is of Scotch ancestry, his paternal grandfather having come from the Highlands of Scotland and settled in Mississippi. Dougald A. was reared in his native county of Warren, and came from there to Texas early in the year of 1874, stopping for a month or so in Fort Worth, at that time a very small and unattractive town, and he then came to Runnels county in company with Nat Guest, another of the
D. a. Cameroun. fr.
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pioneers of the county. They arrived at the Rich Coffey place, at the mouth of the Concho, on the 6th of April, 1874, and Mr. Cameron has been numbered among the citizens of Runnels county practically ever since those early days, although the county was not then organized. It is difficult for those of the present generation living as they do in a time when Run- nels county has developed into a thickly settled agricultural community, rich and resourceful, to realize what the conditions were when Mr. Cam- eron came, when all was an open country given over entirely for range purposes, with no permanent settlements and only an occasional cow camp.
His first work on coming to this frontier was with cattle, and for several years he was engaged with some of the big cow outfits that oper- ated on the great plains of western Texas. He showed such ability and trustworthiness with cattle that he was given many positions of responsi- bility. His principal employers were the Coggin Brothers and Tally Burnett, although he worked at times with other outfits, such as Tank- ersley's, Ike Mullins' and R. K. Wylie's, and in 1878, with his associates, he had charge of a herd of three thousand cattle which they brought from old Fort Sumner in New Mexico over the old Indian trail to the Yellowstone Canyon in the Panhandle, and from there to the Pease river, where they were delivered to the Matador Cattle Company. Mr. Cameron did this work for R. K. Wylie and the Coggin Brothers, who owned the cattle, and this was the first herd brought over the Fort Sumner trail by white men.
For several years past Mr. Cameron has made his home in Ballinger, retired from an active business life, but he has land and other interests in this city and in Runnels county. He has been a witness and an active par- ticipant in all the marvelous changes that have taken place in western Texas in recent years. He married in Warren county, Mississippi, Flora Hullum, a native of that county, and they have six children: Dougald, Stanley, Katie, Dorsey, Frank and John.
J. P. FLYNT is one of the most popular and efficient public officials of Runnels county, its present sheriff, elected on the 3d of November, 1908. He is a thorough Texan in all that the word implies, one of its native sons, and he is a man of many and stanch friends and honest con- victions. He was born at Kosse in Limestone county, on the 19th of April, 1878, but when he was a little lad of five years the family moved to McLennan county, and from there he came to Runnels county in 1896, first locating at Winters, but later spent two years at Wingate, and then returning to Winters he resided there until elected the sheriff of Runnels county. Both Mr. Flynt's parents were from Georgia, and they are living now at Winters, aged seventy-two and sixty-two years respectively, but of their nine children all have passed away with the exception of the Sheriff and his brother, W. F. Flynt, who is living at Wingate.
Although the Republican party is represented in Texas it is yet greatly in the minority, and the real political battles are fought within the ranks of the Democratic party. So in Texas the Democratic primaries
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are the most important and hardest fought elections. In the July primary of 1908 candidates for the office of sheriff were J. P. Flynt and R. P. Kirk, the latter the incumbent of that office for many years and an excep- tionally strong man with the people, but Mr. Flynt won the nomination by a majority of fourteen votes. He was regularly elected in the follow- ing November and later duly inducted into office. He is proving an efficient officer, capable and fearless in the discharge of his duties, strictly enforcing the law but at the same time granting all necessary leniencies in its discharge.
He married at Ballinger, May 14, 1899, Carrie Patterson, and their five children are Carrie, Marion, Frank, Jim and Joe. Mr. Flynt is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a member of the Missionary Baptist church.
MARRYATT C. SMITH has attained prestige and success in one of the highest professions of the land, that of the law, and he stands in the high- est rank of citizenship. Born at Dublin in Lawrence county, Georgia, March 7, 1847, he accompanied the family in 1852 on their removal to a plantation on Red Creek, a tributary of Red River, in Bossier Parish, northwestern Louisiana, eighteen miles east of Shreveport, and being planters they took with them their slaves. But in 1859 they left there and came to Texas, purchasing land and locating in the Brazos bottoms near Marlin in Falls county, where they engaged in cotton planting. Marryatt was the youngest of the six brothers of that family who served in the Confederate army in the war between the states. W. O. Smith, the eldest, was badly wounded in the battle of Opelousas, Louisiana, and although he returned home and was elected the first sheriff of Falls county follow- ing the reconstruction period, he died as the ultimate result of his wound in 1883. Marryatt C. Smith enlisted in January of 1864, when less than seventeen years of age, joining Company B, Waller's Battalion, General Tom Green's Brigade, and his services were entirely in the Trans-Missis- sippi department and principally in Louisiana, including the opposition to the Banks' campaign up the Red River. The battle of Yellow Bayou was the last serious engagement in which he participated.
Mr. Smith was educated mainly in old Baylor University at Inde- pendence, Washington county, and for the profession of the law his train- ing and preparation were of the highest order. He is a graduate of the Harvard Law School, in the class of 1871, and among the famous tutors there when he attended were Emory Washburn, the great authority on Real Property ; Theophilous Parsons, author of the work "Parsons on Contracts"; and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who has since become a member of the Supreme Court. Mr. Smith was admitted to the bar at Calvert, Texas, at the spring term of court, 1872, and he practiced his profession at Marlin until 1876, moving then to Brownwood, a successful field for his law practice until in 1886 he came to Ballinger, which had just been selected as the new county seat of Runnels county, and he was here on the opening day for the sale of town lots, June 29, 1886. Mr.
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Smith has resided in Ballinger since those early days, devoted exclusively to the practice of his profession, and he is regarded as one of the best authorities on the law in western Texas.
He married Dona A. Tanner, born at San Marcos, and their three children are Hermia, Marryatt and M. Clarence Smith.
EDWIN DAY, prominently known in the cotton industry and as the tax assessor of Runnels county, was born in Marshall county, Mississippi, in 1865, a son of T. P. Day, who came with his family to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1872, and he is still in business in that city, one of its best known pioneer citizens and business men. He was also one of the first jewelers of Fort Worth. The son Edwin was reared and educated in that city, and he lived there until coming to Ballinger in 1897. In that year he embarked in the cotton gin business in this city, establishing the third cotton gin to be built in Runnels county, and he took a prominent part in the development of the great cotton industry therein that culminated in 1908 with wagon receipts at Ballinger of over fifty thousand bales, the highest record of any town in the United States. Mr. Day sold his indi- vidual interests in the cotton gin, but he is still connected with the industry as manager of the local gin owned by N. A. Perry and Company at Brownwood.
In 1906 he was chosen as the tax assessor of Runnels county, and as it is an unwritten law of the Runnels County Democracy to give an official when his duties have been well performed a second term, Mr. Day had no opposition in the recent primary and was regularly elected on the 3d of November, 1908, and he is now serving his second term. A man of high honor and unquestioned integrity, he has made a most efficient officer, a strong champion of the full rendition law. He is one of Ballinger's most progressive and best citizens.
He married in Fort Worth Miss Hattie McCamant, daughter of Captain J. D. McCamant, a well known pioneer citizen. He was born in Grayson county, Virginia, and coming to Texas in 1855 he located in Hunt county. He remembers visiting Fort Worth as early as 1857, when it was a small and very insignificant outpost, the only store there at the time being owned by Julius Field. Captain McCamant served two terms as clerk of Hunt county before the war, and at the outbreak of the con- flict he joined McCulloch's Company of Texas Rangers and was in service on the frontier of Texas for protection against the Indians. After twelve months of this service he returned to Hunt county and organized the com- pany of which he was elected captain and reported for duty to General Albert Pike in the Indian Territory, and continued in service there during the remainder of the war. He lived in Fort Worth from about 1880 until 1885. In 1881 he made a trip to Jones county, and in 1885 moved there permanently, where he is now engaged in the mercantile business at Mc- Camant, the postoffice having been named in his honor.
Mr. and Mrs. Day have one child, Delia. The Day home is one of
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the beautiful residences of Ballinger, located on Broadway near the corner of Phillips street.
DR. WALTER WEBER FOWLER is one of the pioneer physicians of both Runnels and Concho counties, and he is well known in the professional life of this community. He was born in Pulaski, Tennessee, and he was reared and lived there until eighteen years of age, coming in the later seventies to Texas and to Spring Hill in Navarro county, where he was employed in the store of T. P. Sparks, now a prominent retired merchant of Waco. It was while employed in that store that he decided to take up the study of medicine, and entering the medical department of Vander- bilt University at Nashville, he graduated with its class of 1882, and at once began the practice of his chosen profession at Dawson in Navarro county, his field until 1885, and he then located at Paint Rock in Concho county, then on the western frontier. There Dr. Fowler experienced a pioneer physician's life, making the long drives to far distant cattle camps and ranches, and leaving there in 1892 he came to Ballinger, where he has ever since been actively engaged in the practice of medicine, now doing an exclusively family practice. He is a member of the County, State and American Medical Associations, and he stands in the front rank of his profession. As a citizen of Ballinger he has been identified with all the movements that make for a better town and community, and he is a former trustee of the Ballinger Independent school district.
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