USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 40
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Mr. Cordill has a wife and five children. Mrs. Cordill before her marriage was Miss Margaret F. Miller, a native of Franklin county, Texas. Their children are Edgar, Olie, Claudie, May and Quinnie Lee. Mr. Cordill is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Woodmen order.
ISAAC DAVID EDDINS, foreman of the car department of the T. & P. Railroad at Big Springs, is perhaps the only man connected with the con- struction of the railroad through Western Texas who still lives in Big Springs. He was here before there was a house on the site, the springs alone giving distinction to the locality. It was the presence of the springs, with their ample water supply, which caused this to be made a division point of the railroad.
Mr. Eddins has had a varied and interesting life. Born at Pineapple, Wilcox county, Alabama, January 28, 1846, he was a boy when the war
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broke out, and as such he joined the Seventh Alabama Cavalry, his offi- cers being Captain Scarborough, Colonel Hodson and Brigadier General Clanton, the regiment being attached to Forrest's cavalry. His service was in Florida, at Fort Morgan ( Mobile), Devil's River, in Mississippi, Tennessee and northern Alabama, and finally the close of the war found him at Columbus, Georgia.
At Montgomery, Alabama, he learned the trade of carriage and coach carpenter, and it is in this line of mechanical workmanship that he has attained his greatest skill and the success which is the reward of industry. He engaged his skill in railroad service at an early age. His first home in Texas was at Dallas, from which city he followed the progress of the Texas and Pacific Railroad westward. After the road was completed to Fort Worth in 1876, he was employed in the car shops there. The shops were located for a time at Weatherford, then again at Fort Worth, and he lived at both these points. When the extension of the railroad west from Weatherford began, Mr. Eddins was chosen by H. H. Sessions, then master car builder, as foreman of the floating repair gang which followed construction work and did all the repairing of construction cars, machin- ery, etc.
It was in this manner that he reached Big Springs early in 1881, before the springs which had long been a favorite camping ground of the cattle outfits had any permanent signs of settlement or improvement. He remained in charge of his crew until the road was completed beyond this point, and then, this having been selected as a division point and the shops being established here, he was given a permanent position at this point. He brought his family to Big Springs in September, 1881, and since then has lived here, has given faithful service to the railroad company, and has watched Big Springs grow from an oasis in the Staked Plains to a prosperous and flourishing city. He was the first justice of the peace to hold court in Howard county, this being in 1883, where Big Springs now stands. He is foreman of the car department in the shops, and besides having charge of all repairs and rebuilding of car equipment and ma- chinery, he and his force pick up the wrecks along the line of the Rio Grande division.
Mr. Eddins is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Honor. He has three children, all by his first wife, whose maiden name was Mary Spears. She was the mother of these children, Mrs. Minnie Hadlock, Roy and Hamp, and Charlie, Laura, Estalena and Olive, de- ceased. Hamp is a machinist on the battleship Tennessee. Roy, now living in Big Springs, was formerly ship's carpenter on the U. S. ship Marblehead. After the death of his first wife Mr. Eddins married Mrs. Bettie Brown, his present wife.
WILLIAM H. VAUGHAN, of Big Springs, is now a retired citizen of that town, but in his past life both here and elsewhere his career and experiences entitle him to much distinction. As one of the oldest living practical telegraphers in the United States, as a pioneer railroad man who was at the "springs" before the railroad came and established the station since called Big Springs, and as an active and public-spirited citi- zen, he commands the esteem and respect of all men.
He was born at Hanover, the seat of Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, in 1841. When he was ten years old he began to learn teleg-
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raphy, which was then a comparatively new art, and only a few in the whole country were skilled in it. He came west before the war and be- came a telegrapher for the Chicago and Alton Railroad at Wilmington, Will county, Illinois. That was his home for about twenty years. One of the events of the time which he recalls; and which is interesting as giving him a connection with the past which is now possessed only by a few men, was the debate between Lincoln and Douglas at Aurora, which he heard.
Perhaps no one is more familiar with the successive stages of rail- road building in North Texas than Mr. Vaughan. He became train- master at Houston for the Houston and Texas Central Railway in 1871. That road was then under construction towards Dallas, and he recalls when the first train was sent into Dallas. Soon afterward he engaged with the T. & P. Railroad, which was constructed between Dallas and Fort Worth in 1875 and 1876, and several years later was pushed on toward El Paso. He was with the advance guard of railroad men who arrived at Big Springs in 1880, nearly a year before the tracks were laid at this point. He has occupied various positions of responsibility with the transportation department of the railroad, including chief clerk to the superintendent, but since 1906 has been retired from active service. All the years he has manifested a keen interest in the progress of his home town, and in civic affairs has contributed his services whenever needed.
Mr. Vanghan was the founder of the Masonic order in its various branches in Big Springs. In proportion to its population, Big Springs perhaps leads all other Texas cities in the numerical strength of all the higher Masonic degrees, hence it was no small honor to have been chiefly responsible for the organization and institution of these various bodies. He is himself connected with the Royal Arch and Knights Templar de- grees and with the Mystic Shrine. He was the first worshipful master of Stake Plains lodge, No. 598, was the first high priest of the chapter, and the second eminent commander of the commandery, his son Frank having been the first commander.
Mr. Vaughan was married at Wilmington, Illinois, to Miss Mary A. Mitchell. She was born and reared there. They have four children, Mrs. Carrie Jones, Frank O., Walter M. and Mrs. Lulu Leeper.
DR. JOHN H. HURT settled at Big Springs in 1887, at a time when the surrounding country was still the frontier, and when the doctor who attended the ills of the country had to travel great distances and endure all the hardships which have been recounted so often in connection with the lives of pioneer physicians. He has gone over a hundred miles to visit a patient. Such experiences brought him in close contact and friend- ship with the cattlemen who were then the principal residents of this country, and he still retains the friendship of many old-time ranchmen, who have complete confidence in his professional skill and personal char- acter. In later years, with the settlement and development of the coun- try, his practice has assumed more of the character of that of the city doctor. He has been local surgeon for the Texas and Pacific Railway since 1895. He is a member of the State and the American Medical As- sociations.
Dr. Hurt was born in Warren county, Kentucky, near Bowling Green, in 1858. His ancestors had lived there for several generations, and he was reared and educated there in accordance with the best tradi-
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tions of the family. He was a student in old Warren College (now Ogden College), a notable institution of Kentucky. His professional education was obtained at Vanderbilt University. After his graduation from the medical department of that university with the class of 1880, he began practice in his home county, and continued there until he came to Big Springs in 1887.
Dr. Hurt's wife was formerly Miss Lillie Read, who was born in the same county of Kentucky. Her brothers, Charles D. and H. Clay Read, are successful and well known residents of Big Springs, having come here almost at the beginning of the town and have become wealthy through cattle and land investments. Dr. and Mrs. Hurt have four children : Mrs. Readie Thomas (wife of Dr. John B. Thomas, of Midland, Tex.) ; Miss Lillian, John Clifford and Harry. Dr. Hurt is a Royal Arch Mason.
DR. WILLIAM C. BARNETT .- The name Barnett is associated at Big Springs and in West Texas both with the profession of medicine and also prominently with state politics. Two physicians, father and son, have carried on their profession in Big Springs since the former located here in 1886. The late Dr. J. W. Barnett, who died, much lamented, at Big Springs January 23, 1903, was a notable character in public affairs for many years. He was born in Mississippi, was educated in medical col- leges in New Orleans and New York, and after practicing a few years in Arkansas came to Texas in 1867. From Grayson county, his first place of residence, he moved in 1869 to Weatherford, in Parker county, at a time when that town was on the frontier line of development in Western Texas. Raids by the Indians occurred in this county after he had estab- lished here as a physician. Through the following years a wide practice over a wide extent of country brought him into intimate association with the people, and it was on this account largely that he was drawn into the political affairs of the period. He was elected and served as a member of the state legislature from Parker county for three terms, and was also a member of the state constitutional convention in 1875. A man of inde- pendent thought and action, he fearlessly took up the cause of political reforms. He became a member of the Greenback party, and notwithstand- ing the power of the regular Democratic party his personal worth and popularity were sufficient to achieve his election on that party ticket to the state legislature. However, in his subsequent campaign for congress on the same ticket he was defeated by the late S. W. T. Lanham, who was governor of the state, 1905-06.
The late Dr. Barnett took part actively in all the pioneer movements leading to the development of West Texas. He rode on the first train that went into Weatherford on the completion of the T. & P. Railroad from Fort Worth westward to that point. In 1881 he moved from the county seat to a ranch on Bear Creek in Parker county, and in 1886 came to Big Springs, where he carried on a successful practice until his death. His wife, Virginia (Allen) Barnett, a native of Kentucky, is still living, a resident of Big Springs.
Dr. William C. Barnett, a son of the pioneer physician above men- tioned, and the present representative of the medical profession at Big Springs, was born at Weatherford in 1871. He was reared in Parker county and, after the age of fifteen, in Big Springs. His equipment for his profession was obtained mainly in the St. Louis College of Physicians
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and Surgeons. After graduating with the class of 1893, he began prac- tice at Big Springs. He has lived here during the period of greatest de- velopment of the town, and his practice and standing have increased cor- respondingly. In his general medical practice he has given no attention to surgery, but he has achieved success in the treatment of tubercular diseases, of which he began making special study and investigation in 1902.
Dr. Barnett has also had some experience in local politics, having served four years as treasurer of Howard county. His fraternal rela- tions are with the Masons and other orders. He has attained to the Knight Templar degrees in Masonry. His family consists of his wife and four children. Mrs. Barnett bore the maiden name of Johanna Anna Deering, a native of Cherry Springs, Gillespie county, Texas. Their children are: William C. Jr., Gill Alfred, Milburn L. and Elsie Jannette.
ANDREW C. WALKER is president and manager of the Howard County Abstract Company. He organized this company in 1906, and its business has been increasing rapidly every month. A few years ago there was practically no abstract business in Western Texas, but the influx of settlers and the breaking up of the large ranches into small farms have made the abstractor an important factor in the business life of each county.
Mr. Walker had special qualifications for the business. He may be reckoned as one of the pioneer citizens of Big Springs, having located here December 8, 1883, when the town was small and before the railroad had brought in many settlers to disturb the cattlemen that then controlled all this region. Howard county was organized in August, 1882, and in 1885 Mr. Walker was elected to the office of county clerk. He was a capable official and popular citizen, and by successive elections held this office until 1898. This official experience gave him a familiarity with county records and an acquaintance with conditions and persons that have served as valuable equipment in carrying on his present business.
After leaving the county clerk's office Mr. Walker spent several years on his ranch, about fifty miles south of Big Springs, and organized the abstract company after he had returned to make his permanent home in Big Springs. In the spring of 1909, Colonel C. C. Slaughter gave his company the contract for all the abstracting in connection with the sale of 260 sections of the great Slaughter ranch.
Andrew C. Walker was born at Greensboro, North Carolina, and came to Texas in 1883. He was married in this state, his wife before marriage being Miss Maud Lee. She was born in Jefferson county, Texas, but was reared in Dallas county. They are parents of two chil- dren, Alma and Andree. Mr. Walker is a Royal Arch Mason.
JUDGE L. A. DALE is county judge of Howard county. He was elected to this office in 1906, and was re-elected in 1908. As county judge he is administrative head of county affairs, and for this reason deserves much credit for the most important county undertaking in recent years. Reference is made to the building of the large and handsome Howard county court house, which was erected during the first term of Judge Dale, and was dedicated in 1908. Judge Dale is also, ex-officio, county superintendent of schools.
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Judge Dale was born in Stone county, Arkansas, was reared to man- hood at McMinnville, Warren county, Tennessee, studied law in the office of Judge Abercrombie at Opelika, Alabama, with correspondence law courses at the Chase Law School of Detroit, Michigan, and in 1897 was admitted to the bar at Opelika and began his professional practice there.
Five years later he established himself at Big Springs and in a short time attained a leading position as lawyer and citizen. Besides the busi- ness of his public office, he conducts a practice in the state and federal courts.
Judge Dale lives in a nice suburban home on a fourteen-acre tract ad- joining Big Springs on the east. He has a wife and five children. Her maiden name was Georgia McDaniel, and she was a native of Mississippi. The children are Audra May. Homer, Merle, Lillie and Cecil. Judge Dale affiliates with the Odd Fellows and is a member of the Christian church.
J. M. MUNDY, of Big Springs, is one of the pioneers of Western Texas. He left home when sixteen, in 1871, came to Texas and began working on the frontier on the old open cattle ranges. For ten years after that date the plains of Texas were covered with buffalo and the raiding of Indians continued. Fort McKavett, on the head waters of the San Saba in what is now Menard county, was one of the first locali- ties in which he began his cowboy experience. The fort was at that time an active military post, with a garrison of soldiers for protection against Indians. In subsequent years his work extended around the head waters of the Nueces and in different sections of western Texas.
This early career, as well as the success of his later business life, has given Mr. Mundy a large acquaintance and prominence in West Texas. and his name is known in many counties. He is a North Carolinian by birth, born at Denver, Lincoln county, in 1855. The family is an old one in that part of North Carolina and many of the name still live there.
After moving to Texas in 1871 and after the initial experiences on the range above noted, he became associated with M. B. Pulliam, now a wealthy resident of San Angelo, in the cattle business, and continued around the head waters of the Concho until 1880. At that time the Pulliam interests were moved west to the Pecos valley, and Mr. Mundy was engaged in business there until 1886. Returning to the western portion of Tom Green county, he then established for himself the well remembered High Lonesome Ranch, where for several years he had a large success in the raising of cattle and horses. In 1897, having ac- quired an interest in the R Bar ranch in Howard county, about six miles south of Big Springs, he sold his property in Tom Green county and has since made his residence in Big Springs. Soon after coming here he engaged in the general merchandise business, and has since dis- posed of all his ranch interests and devoted all his business efforts to the large store. When first established the business was a partnership, Mundy & Harnish, then for a time under the individual style of J. M. Mundy, and is now the well known firm of Mundy-Bryant-Jones Mer- cantile Company.
Mr. Mundy married Miss Sallie B. Jackson, and they are the par- ents of four children-Reta, Floyd, Louise and Minnie. Mrs. Mundy
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was born in McLennan county, her father, Gilbert Jackson, being a pioneer citizen of that county.
JOHNSTON J. HAIR is one of the county commissioners of Howard county and one of the most energetic and public-spirited citizens of Big Springs. He gives the same painstaking care and attention to the business of the county that he does to his own affairs, and as a member of the Big Springs Commercial Club is quick to turn everything possible to the advantage of his home town.
Mr. Hair was born and reared at Anderson in Grimes county, and he still retains an important part in the commercial activities of that city. After an education in the public schools, at Baylor University, and a special course in a business college, he began his career in mercantile affairs. The firm of Hair & Brown has been for many years one of the principal mercantile establishments of Anderson. It is under the direct management of Mr. Brown, a brother-in-law of Mr. Hair, who also returns to Anderson twice each year to look after his interests there.
Mr. Hair came to western Texas in 1899 on account of his health. At Big Springs he is proprietor of the Hair Addition, a subdivision of this thriving city. It is a quarter section of land adjoining the city ou the south. The land is in the nature of an almost perfectly level plateau, lying eighty feet above the business section proper, and affords the choicest locations for residences. The addition comprises five hundred and sixty lots, size fifty by one hundred and forty feet, with streets seventy-five feet wide and twenty-foot alleys. Some handsome resi- dences have already been erected there. Mr. Hair owns valuable agri- cultural lands in the Big Springs country. He is a director in the West Texas National Bank. He is a member of the Baptist church at Big Springs and affiliates with the Woodmen of the World and with the . Modern Praetorians.
Mr. Hair married Miss Mamie Brown, who was born and reared at Anderson. Their children are: Joe Fountaine, Johnston J. Jr., George Dudley, Marion, Clinton. J. F. and Henrietta (Johnston) Hair were the names of Mr. Hair's parents. His mother is still living. Her father was the late Rev. Jonas Johnston, a pioneer minister of the Baptist church and one of the early settlers of Grimes county. His birthplace was in North Carolina.
JAMES C. SMITH was one of the first permanent settlers in the vicin- ity of Big Springs after the coming of the railroad in 1881. With the opening of this avenue of civilization and commerce he moved out from McLennan county, where he had long been a successful farmer and stockraiser, and established a home a mile and a half north of Big Springs. on the estate which has long been known as the old Smith place. He developed this into one of the best and most productive ranches in the Big Springs country. He was among the first farmers of this vicinity to sink deep wells for water supply, this being now a char- acteristic of all this country. In all his improvements he was in ad- vance of his time. A few years ago he moved to town and now lives in a comfortable home on Scurry street.
Mr. Smith was born in Tishomingo county, Mississippi, in 1844. Vol. 1-25
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The family moved to a farm near Waco in 1852, and he spent most of his early life in that locality. From Waco he entered the Confederate army, about the beginning of the war, and remained in service till the close, being in the Trans-Mississippi department in the states of Arkansas, Indian Territory, Louisiana and Texas. He was at Hempstead, Texas, at the close of the war, and then returned home to engage in farming and stock raising.
Mr. Smith married Miss Angebel Farney, and they have become the parents of three children, namely: Amasa G .. James F. and Mrs. Mary A. Monk. Mrs. Smith is a native of Alabama. Mr. Smith affiliates with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a member of the Methodist church.
J. B. D. BOYDSTUN was the pioneer farmer of the Big Springs country. The efforts of an individual often set in motion activities that go on increasing through the generations. It is for this reason that the first to make the useful effort is honored with a place in history. Mr. Boydstun was the first to make a thorough trial of the principles of diversified farming in this part of western Texas, and his success stimulated the efforts which have since made this region productive of a varied agricultural wealth.
Mr. Boydstun's career forms an interesting chapter in the history of western Texas. Born in Woodford county, Illinois, and reared on a farm, then living for a few years, about war times, in Warren county, Kentucky, afterwards returning to his native state and living in Knox county until 1870; he then moved to Tarrant county, Texas, and subse- quently spent a few years in Dallas, Ellis and Brown counties. In 1880, when the extension of the Texas & Pacific Railroad was begun from Weatherford, he got employment in the construction work and followed the line in its progress across western Texas. His family accompanied him, and thus it was that he reached Big Springs on the day that the track was completed and the first train reached this point on June 6, 1881.
He remained at Big Springs and soon became identified in an im- portant way with the development of this country. Being experienced in surveying, in 1882 he was elected county surveyor of Howard county. Then the legislature created a district of eleven counties and his duties were extended over all this large region of western Texas. As a result of his work in this capacity he possesses an intimate knowledge of the topography and character of soil of an extensive region around Howard county.
But his most important achievement at Big Springs was as a farmer. West Texas was at that date the greatest range cattle country in the world, and the cattleman regarded it as his special domain, from which the humbler pursuits of husbandry would always be excluded. Further- more, the cattlemen as far as possible showed their dislike to the small farmer and often made the pursuit of his vocation inconvenient to say the least.
But the Texas & Pacific Railroad Company, having extended their line across the Staked Plains, had hopes that the plains country would at some day produce other and more valuable freight than cattle. As a consequence, Mr. Boydstun was given a commission, in 1882, by the railroad company, to establish an experimental farm adjoining Big
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Springs. He began raising millet and various kinds of grains, also garden vegetables, and made a beginning of fruit culture. He endeav- ored to prove that by dry farming, depending only on the average rain- fall, this country would produce a variety and quantity of crops that would support a great industrial population. He was successful, and his efforts became the models for a great number of farmers who sub- sequently came to western Texas and in recent years have developed a continuous chain of farms and modern ranches all along the line of the Texas & Pacific. During the early years he had to endure the opposi- tion of the range cattlemen, but since then the cattlemen have come to appreciate the real usefulness of his labors.
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