USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 46
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FRANK M. RICHARDS .- As a pioneer citizen and stockman, Frank McDonald Richards has taken a prominent part in the development of Brady and of McCulloch county, and he is a wealthy, substantial citizen. His name has become prominent in this section of the state as a pioneer, as a stockman and as the president of the Brady National Bank. He was born in Grayson county, Texas, December 20, 1855, and he was reared and educated there, growing up in the cattle business, but in 1876 he came out to McCulloch county, one of the first to establish a home here. He located on Corn creek, about twenty-one miles northeast of Brady, and from his headquarters there he handled cattle over the old range, but with the coming of the wire fence he enclosed his pastures in this county and his large cattle business gradually developed into the modern features of this great industry, with smaller pastures and a grading of the stock. His present ranch lies about eight miles east of Brady, and con- sists of eighty-five hundred acres, equipped with every improvement for carrying on the cattle business, and it is one of the finest properties of its kind in McCulloch county. Mr. Richards is a breeder of fine stock, his bulls being all registered Herefords and his cows are all of the highest grades. In 1907 he began the breeding of registered Hereford cattle in connection with his other live stock business.
His wife, to whom he was married in Brown county, Texas, is Sidney (Smiley) Richards. She was born in Missouri, but reared in Grayson county, Texas. The Richards home is a beautiful place on the hill in the southern part of Brady.
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
ELIAS EDWARD WILLOUGHBY, a wealthy stockman and farmer, has been one of McCulloch county's chief factors in opening its lands for farming purposes, and he has won special prominence in the raising of cotton. Born in Laclede county, Missouri, in 1853, he in 1869 came with his older brother, W. G., to Texas, locating in Tarrant county. Their home was in the northern part of the county, where the town of Keller, 011 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, stands, and Elias E. Wil- loughby was the founder of that town, and he named it in honor of L. L. Keller, at that time division superintendent of the railroad. He started the town about the time the road was built through to Fort Worth.
Mr. Willoughby continued his residence in Tarrant county until 1883, and he came then to McCulloch county, bringing some cattle with him for the purpose of going into the cattle business here, and that small herd proved the nucleus of what subsequently became one of the largest cattle outfits in this section of the state. He located his headquarters at the head of Little Brady creek, about twelve miles east of the town of Brady, and he still owns this place where he originally located. It forms a part of his extensive land interests, which amount to about six thousand acres of rich farming land in this section of the county. This is known as the Rochelle country, the little village of Rochelle having grown up in its midst. Mr. Willoughby continued with great success in the cattle busi- ness for many years. When he first came here the country was open range, and with the wire fence era he leased and controlled large pastures in McCulloch county and operated his cattle business on the large pas- tures until the land became more and more valuable for agricultural pur- poses, much too valuable to hold it in large pastures. Keeping fully in touch with the progress of the times, he began to grade his cattle, doing more feeding and concentrating the business on a less amount of land until it developed into the modern stock raising that has been the potent factor in making this section of the state notable for its fine live stock. For breeding purposes he keeps only the finest grade of Herefords, and his live stock business is unusually successful.
Mr. Willoughby is one of only a few of the old time stockmen who have in later years taken up agriculture on a large scale. He is one of the largest cotton farmers in McCulloch county. In 1908 he raised six hundred bales of cotton on a thousand acres of land. He was also the first cotton raiser in the county, and his pioneer efforts in this great in- dustry have led to the present development of the county in this one par- ticular, making it to stand among the first of the counties in cotton pro- duction in Texas. He believes this crop to be particularly adapted to the soil of this county and to be its main source of wealth, and he encourages intelligent cotton growing in every way. Through his industry and fore- sight in this direction, Mr. Willoughby's lands have greatly increased in value, and some of his old lands that he originally bought as low as a dollar an acre have sold in small and selected tracts within the past year for as high as a hundred dollars an acre. Besides the farming lands men- tioned above, he also owns good farms in other parts of the county. His first home after coming here he built from lumber that he hauled by ox teams from Lampasas. At that time there were not probably fifty acres in cultivation in the entire county. During the past several years he has made his home in Brady, and he has a beautiful residence on the hill in
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the southern part of the town. He is a director of the Brady Nationai Bank. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Mr. Willoughby married, in Tarrant county, Lola Brownfield, born in Missouri, and their seven children are : Paul, Mrs. Nina White, James O., Roy, Hayde, Edward and Ray. Paul Willoughby, the eldest son, learned the cattle business under his father, and he is now a prominent cattleman, operating several large ranches in western and southwestern Texas. The second son, James O., is also interested in the cattle business. The Wil- loughbys are one of the most prominent families of McCulloch county.
WILLIAM R. RICE is one of McCulloch county's early pioneers and prominent business men. He was born at Somerville, in Morgan county, Alabama, in 1849, and his father was a merchant there. A short time before the breaking out of the war the son went to New York City to stay with his uncle, John W. Rice, a merchant there, and to go to school. He was in that city at the time hostilities were opened, and a short time afterward started to Charleston, South Carolina, to visit another uncle, Andrew Cunningham, reaching there by a roundabout way. He was on Morris Island in Charleston harbor when Battery Wagner was taken and the arsenal captured, and shortly after this his uncle sent him to Spartan- burg, South Carolina, to resume his studies, but thrilled with the spirit of adventure and the excitement of war he soon left school and enlisted. in the Cenfederate service under the command of the noted raider, John Morgan. He was assigned to duty with the Seventh Kentucky Cavalry, a part of Morgan's command, and after the latter's death Mr. Rice served under his successor, General Basil Duke, and was in North Carolina with these troops at the close of the war. An interesting feature of his military career was when he was one of the escort selected from General Duke's troops that met President Jefferson Davis at a railroad station in North Carolina, following his escape from Richmond, and conducted him west- ward through northern Georgia, their intention being to give him safe escort and escape to Texas. But these plans were changed by Mr. Davis himself, and he was shortly afterward captured.
In 1865, following the close of the war, Mr. Rice came to Texas and located on a ranch about three miles north of Fort Worth. Fort Worth was then only a small frontier settlement, and he recalls to mind many interesting incidents connected with the early days of that city and the prominent characters who were the pioneer builders of the place. He lived in the Fort Worth neighborhood at intervals for nearly ten years. successfully engaged in the cattle business, in the meantime making occa- sional trips hunting cows and prospecting on what was then the far fron- tier. These trips brought him to the region of Coleman, McCulloch and San Saba counties, and often were fraught with adventure, particularly in connection with the Indian raids which were at their worst in those days. Leaving Tarrant county he was located for some time in San Saba county, and in 1875 located permanently in McCulloch county, which has since been his home. He took part in the organization of the county in 1876, and was one of the voters in the first county election. He now owns the splendid ranch where he carries on his general farming operations, located seven miles west of Brady, and he also has other farms in the county. During the past several years he has been engaged in the mercantile busi- ness in Brady, but he has retired from the active management of this
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business, and he owns the large business block on the west side of the court house square.
Mr. Rice's life as a youthful soldier and later as a frontier cattleman in Texas is replete with interesting incident and reminiscences of inter- esting characters.
WILLIAM D. CROTHERS is a pioneer citizen and banker of Brady. McCulloch county. He was born at Jeffersonville, Indiana, and he re- ceived a part of his education and the most of his business training at Evansville, Indiana, which was his home until he was eighteen years of age. In 1882 he came to Texas and went into the cattle business in Mc- Culloch county, and he continued the conduct of a ranch here for five years, selling his cattle interests then and locating temporarily in Brown- wood, where during the following five years he was connected with the First National Bank. Returning then to Brady he in 1894 established the private banking house of W. D. Crothers, and after six years of uninter- rupted success Mr. F. W. Henderson came into the firm, business after- ward being connected under the name of Crothers and Henderson, and when G. R. White subsequently bought Mr. Henderson's interest the firm name became Crothers and White. On the 11th of March, 1907, it be- came a national bank, assuming the name of the Commercial National Bank, with Mr. Crothers as cashier and Mr. White president. The bank has a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, with surplus and profits of over forty thousand dollars, and the stock of the Commercial National is owned by some of the most progressive business men, farmers and stockmen of the country surrounding Brady, their individual responsi- bilities being over six million dollars. The bank is one of the financial bulwarks of this section.
Mr. Crothers through all these years has been thoroughly identified with the growth and development of McCulloch county, and upon the incorporation of Brady as a city in 1906 he was elected its first mayor and served in that capacity for one year. He laid out and is the owner of Crothers' Addition in the northern part of the city, and there his own home is located. He is largely interested in the various enterprises and the various development projects of Brady and of McCulloch county, an influ- ential and progressive citizen and a representative business man. He married Miss Nannie C. French and they have five children : Marie, Mrs. Victoria White, Chase, William F. and Minnie J.
WILLIAM P. DOTY has engraved his name on the pages of the history of the Lone Star state as one of its pioneer surveyors. Although born at Westfield, in Tioga county, Pennsylvania, he was educated in the University of Iowa at Iowa City, and it was there that he also learned surveying and civil engineering. Coming from Iowa City to Texas in 1870, he began work on the original survey of the old International Rail- road between Hearne and Texarkana, being later transferred to the survey of the Texas and Pacific west of Fort Worth. He was connected with the first survey of that project, which ran through Fort Griffin, in Shackel- ford county, but this survey was afterward abandoned and the road built through the tier of counties south of Shackelford.
Mr. Doty came to McCulloch county in 1874, and he thus became one of the county's earliest pioneers, and his life here covers the period of
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its organization in 1875 and the election of its first officers in the same year. Mr. Doty signed the original petition for the county's organization and voted for these first officers, and he then helped to lay off the town of Brady, selected as the county seat. In 1880 he was elected the county judge, and in 1896 he was made the surveyor of the county and has been returned to that office at every succeeding election. During the early years of his residence in this county Mr. Doty embarked in the sheep business on quite an extensive scale, and he made money as a sheepman until the panic and the great depression in prices of sheep forced him out of the business. His ranch, known as the Bear Creek ranch, was located seven miles southwest of Brady, and it was there, on the 17th of January, 1878, that his partner, Simeon Palmer, was killed by the Indians, this brutal tragedy having been the last they committed. Mr. Doty's experi- ence as a surveyor and as a pioneer and frontiersman has been a most interesting one. In 1909, in association with his son-in-law, Mr. James R. Stone, he laid off and placed on the market their new addition to the city of Brady, known as the Doty-Stone Addition, a beautiful elevation in the southern part of the town and consisting of about fourteen acres divided into fifty-five building lots.
Mr. Doty had the misfortune to lose his wife by death on July 3, 1908. She was, before marriage, Florence A. Boudinot, and their mar- riage was celebrated in Kentucky, her native state. There is one daughter of this union, Mrs. Mabel Stone.
HON. JOHN BEASLEY was one of the earliest pioneers of what is now McCulloch county, his life's history having touched the early, formative period of this section and formed an integral part in that indissoluble chain which linked those days with later day progress and prosperity. He came here in 1861 and located four and a half miles northeast of the present town of Mercury, on the Colorado river, and the old homestead there is yet the property of the Beasley family, and there also the Hon. John Beasley passed away in death on the 28th of April, 1883, at the age of seventy-one years. He was born in Stoddard county, Missouri, and even before coming to Texas he was a prominent character in his home county, representing it in the Missouri legislature of 1853.
His advent into McCulloch county antedated its organization fifteen years or more. It was set apart as a separate organization in 1876, and Mr. Beasley was elected its first judge and served one term in that high office. With his family he lived here through the long period of hard- ships incidental to life on the Texas frontier, chief among which was the danger from the terrible Indian raids which were a regular event and a constant menace to life and property on this frontier from the close of the war up to the middle seventies. The Hon. John Beasley was a grand character in every way, as a citizen, as a husband and as a father. His widow, Mary (Guess) Beasley, died in 1901. There are nine children, namely : J. N. Beasley, William Beasley, A. J. Beasley, J. R. Beasley, Toni T. Beasley, J. M. Beasley, Mrs. Julia Dufflemyre, Mrs. Victoria White and Mrs. Amanda Penn. Three of the sons-J. R., Tom J. and J. M. Beasley -are members of the firm of Cox and Beasley Brothers, general mer- chants and bankers at Mercury, the bank being conducted under the name of the Bank of Mercury. They are also interested in many other enter- prises, chief among which is the cattle industry. They are successful busi-
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ness men, as well as men of prominence and influence in McCulloch county.
J. W. EMBRY is a builder and contractor living at Brady. He was born in Arkansas, but came when a child with his parents to Texas, the family locating in Ellis county, and he was reared there and learned his trade of carpentering and building, a vocation that has continued his main pursuit through life. He enlisted, in Ellis county, in Company H, Twelfth Texas Cavalry, Parson's Brigade, and as a member of that organization he served throughout the war between the north and the south in the Trans-Mississippi Department. His army services were mostly in Arkansas and Louisiana and included the battles of the Red River campaign. On leaving Ellis county, Mr. Embry lived for thirty years at Decatur, in Wise county, but during that time his business often took him to other parts of the state and he enjoyed a wide acquaintance through all the country from Ellis county north to the Red river, be- coming particularly familiar with the pioneer character of that section. Early in the year of 1904 he located at Brady. The town had begun to build rapidly at that time, following the completion of the Frisco railroad to Brady, and Mr. Embry took a prominent part in this early building, erecting perhaps more of its structures than any other contractor. In 1907 he was elected the mayor of Brady, but after about a year's service in that capacity he resigned, finding that his official duties interfered seriously with his private interests. He was also appointed the super- intendent of the Brady Water and Light Company, but at the same time he has continued in his business as a contractor and builder.
Mr. Embry's wife is Margaret (Fields) Embry, born in Kentucky, but reared in Ellis county, where they were married in 1867. They have four children-Otis, J. B., N. B. and Fannie Embry.
T. L. SANSOM, the present sheriff of McCulloch county, represents a family prominent in various sections of Texas, and he is a nephew of Robert Sansom, one of the early settlers of Johnson county and prac- tically the founder of the town of Alvarado, surrounding which the Sansom family have owned extensive landed interests for many years. Robert Sansom was the father of Marion Sansom, a capitalist and prominent citizen of Fort Worth.
T. L. Sansom was born and reared in Gonzales county. Locating in Llano in 1884, he remained there until 1891, and in that year took up his residence at Mercury, in McCulloch county, where he has ever since resided. He has a splendid farm adjoining the town on the east, and has for many years been a prominent and successful farmer. During six years he served as a county commissioner from precinct No. 4, repre- senting the business interests of the county with fidelity and ability. In 1906 he was elected the county's sheriff and was re-elected to the office in 1908. His administration as the sheriff of McCulloch county has been notable for efficiency in ridding the county of undesirable characters, putting a stop to law breaking of all kinds, and in instituting a clean government, and it has given the greatest of satisfaction to the people.
Mr. Sansom married Lena Alexander, and their eight children are: Leslie C., Leonard, Modena, Floyd, Myrtle, Leo, Elden and Marian. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
William . N. Spiller
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
WILLIAM W. SPILLER represents one of the earliest pioneer families of central Texas, and his birth occurred in McCulloch county in 1870, his parents being Meredith and Martha A. (Courtney) Spiller. Mere- dith Spiller, born in Louisiana, came to Texas before the war, and during that struggle he supplied cattle for and drove them to the Con- federate army. As early as 1866 he located permanently in the south- eastern part of McCulloch county, and there several of his sons are still in the ranching and cattle business. The town of Voca is the center of the Spiller neighborhood. Forrest Spiller, a cousin of Meredith, was killed by the Indians on the Colorado river in Coleman county in the early years of the sixties. Meredith Spiller became one of the pros- perous and substantial citizens of McCulloch county, but in the later years of his life he returned to his old home in Louisiana, and he died there in 1897.
William W. Spiller was born on the frontier and he was reared amidst frontier surroundings and the hardships of the Indian depreda- tions. In his early life he became associated with the cattle business, and he still owns his ranch near Voca. But in 1909 he moved to Brady, establishing his home in the southern part of the city, and here he pur- chased, platted and placed on the market Spiller's Addition, a tract of one hundred and forty-five valuable building lots, comprising one of the best residence sections of the city.
Mrs. Spiller was, before marriage, Ollie Armor, also born in Mc- Culloch county, and the two children which have blessed their marriage union are Lola and Zola.
FRANCIS M. NEWMAN .- One of McCulloch county's most distin- guished lawyers is Francis Marion Newman, a resident of Brady. He was born in Washington, the historic county of Texas, in 1860. His father was Joel Newman, and his grandfather was Jonathan Newman, who came from the Carolinas in 1825, when Texas formed a part of Mexico. Thus it will be seen that the family is as purely Texan as can be found. The mother of Mr. Newman was born in Tennessee, but she came with her parents to the Lone Star state in the early years of its history.
Francis M. Newman was born and reared in Washington county, and he graduated from old Baylor University at Independence in 1885. He studied law in the office of C. L. Breedlove at Brenham, Judge Breed- love being one of the prominent lawyers of that city, and Brenham was in those days noted for the strong character of its bar, numbering as it did some of the brightest men in the legal profession in Texas. Mr. Newman was admitted to the bar in 1887, and in that same year he came to Brady and established himself in a law practice. He has lived here since that time and has continued as the city's most prominent lawyer, his clientage representing the substantial business interests of the city and county, and he is thoroughly identified with the community's promi- nent affairs and movements of progress.
Mrs. Newman, before marriage, was Miss Laura Sheridan, of Brady, but a native of Indiana. Their two children are Pearl and Francis S.
CALVIN C. BUMGUARDNER .- Among the most prominent business men of Brady and of McCulloch county is numbered Calvin C. Bum-
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guardner, a merchant and stockman, and he has been one of the active spirits in the building up of Brady. He was born in the northern part of North Carolina, adjoining the Virginia state line; but when he was only a month old his parents moved to Wythe county, Virginia, his home until he was thirteen, and from there they moved to Marshall county in middle Tennessee.
Calvin C. Bumguardner came to Texas in 1873, and he located in Tarrant county, eighteen miles east of the then small town of Fort Worth. He freighted for a time, and he hauled the first two self-binders into Fort Worth from Dallas, the railroad not reaching the former city until 1876. Mr. Bumgardner recalls to mind that what are now highly valuable business lots near the court house sold in those days for twenty- five dollars each. After one year in Tarrant county he moved to Ham- ilton county, where he lived on a farm for about nine years, and then embarked in the livery business, thus continuing for one year. He then engaged in the mercantile business in Hamilton, which he continued for six years. In 1891 he located in Brady, McCulloch county, which was at that time a very small town, and he started a ranch and dairy about two miles southeast, becoming in time quite extensively interested in the live stock business, raising cattle, horses and mules, and he carried on a prosperous trade. For several years past he has lived in the town, and in 1904 he established the local electric light and water works plant, con- tinuing at the head of those industries for four years, selling them in 1908 to a local corporation. He also promoted the organization of the company that built the Syndicate Block, and he is the owner of the Queen Hotel building. After retiring from the ownership of the electric light and water plant Mr. Bumguardner established a stock barn at Brady, handling mules principally, and in connection therewith he also main- tains feed and grain stores. All of his business enterprises have been uniformly successful, and he still owns his ranch property near Brady, a valuable tract of about twenty-three hundred acres.
Mr. Bumguardner married first, Mary Ann Hardison, born and reared in Tennessee, and she died in Hamilton county, Texas. A daugh- ter, Mrs. Mary Eliza Wade, was born of that union. His present wife was Alice White, born in Alabama. They were married in Hamilton county, and their eight children are: Mrs. Lona Belle Colston, Mrs. Maud Elizabeth Lindsay, Charles E., Josephins, William C., Autrey, Ella Maypearl and Gordon Bumguardner.
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