USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 48
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
whom are living: Samuel Emmett, Mrs. Eula B. Urquhart, George R., James P., Margaret C., John H. and Sherman Grady Kelly.
GEORGE ABSALOM WALTERS has for more than twenty years been one of the leaders of the bar of central Texas, and at the same time has labored for the benefit of San Saba, the city which has been so long his home and with whose interests he has been thoroughly identified. He is known prominently and well as a lawyer, real estate dealer, writer of abstracts, as the president of the San Saba Chamber of Commerce and as a progressive citizen. He is the son of G. W. Walters, who was born in Hamilton county, Tennessee, and came with his family to Austin, Texas, in 1880, but later moved from that city to San Marcos and from there came to San Saba in 1884. G. W. Walters and his wife are yet residents of this city, and the father and son are associated together in business.
George Absalom Walters received his educational training mainly in Coronal Institute at San Marcos, and taking up educational work he taught in the North Texas Female College at Sherman and for one year in Belle Plaine College. In the meantime he had studied law, and in 1887 was admitted to the bar at San Saba, and not long afterward was elected the attorney of San Saba county and served in the office for six years. Mr. Walters is a successful lawyer, and has a large law library that is noted for its practical working value. He is also engaged quite ex- tensively in the real estate and abstract business, having a complete set of abstract records that are of increasing importance with the present rapid development of San Saba county. He is one of the city's most progressive and enterprising citizens, and the president of its Chamber of Commerce, an organization which took the lead in the preliminaries leading up to the securing of the Santa Fe Railroad for San Saba. The construction work on this road was begun late in the year of 1909. He is a member of the Methodist church and of the Masonic, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias fraternities.
Mr. and Mrs. Walters have six children: George Clayton. Fairy Belle, John Harris, George A., Minnie Elizabeth and Clarence M.
DR. GEORGE P. HOLMAN, a retired physician, capitalist and pioneer, has the honor of having been the first member of the medical profession to register for practice in San Saba. Born in Fluvanna county, Virginia, May 13, 1848, he was a student in the famous Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, and from that noted institution he in 1863, at the age of fifteen, went into the Confederate army, being a member of a Corps of Cadets, and he remained in service in a battalion under General Ewall on the north line of Richmond. After his return from the war he studied in the University of Virginia, and the medical course which he began in that institution was completed in the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons (now Columbia University) with the class of 1872.
Dr. Holman's first practice was in Montgomery county, Virginia, where he remained until 1874, coming in that year to San Saba, Texas. He was the only physician here for some time, and his frontier practice involved long horseback rides to distant ranch headquarters and cow camps. Going to California in 1886 he spent a few years in the Golden state, and since returning to San Saba has gradually retired from the
Mails allison.
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
active practice of medicine. He has a beautiful home here, as well as valuable property interests in and adjoining the city, his real estate inter- ests bringing him handsome returns.
Dr. Holman married Miss Mary Ward, born in Austin, a daughter of the late T. W. Ward, the pioneer merchant and banker of San Saba. They have five children : A. P., Mary, Virginia, George and Ward. The two daughters are members of the Catholic sisterhood.
JOHN H. MARTIN .- During a residence of many years in San Saba, John H. Martin has gained recognition as a leading financier. He is both a retired farmer and banker, a large land and property owner and a representative pioneer citizen. He was born near Petersburg, in Din- widdie county, Virginia, in 1851, and his early home was in the midst of some of the most devastating military operations of the Civil war center- ing around Petersburg and Richmond. W. N. Martin, his father, was a Confederate soldier throughout that war. The son is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. He came to Texas in 1875, locating in Jackson county, and from there came to San Saba in 1877. For some years he was engaged largely in the land business, locating stockmen on favorable surveys in western Texas, and he now has valuable land and property interests in San Saba and vicinity, his own beautiful and spacious home being in the western part of the city. Mr. Martin served as the president of the First National Bank for two years, withdrawing from the office in February, 1909.
He married Miss Lucy Wildbahn, and their five children are W. A., J. E., Kate, Wildbahn and Anna.
MATT F. ALLISON .- Among the most loyal of San Saba's citizens are numbered its native sons. From childhood they have been interested in its welfare, and are now devoting the best years of their manhood to its progress and advancement. This number includes Matt F. Allison, a lawyer of distinction and a son of one of the most notable characters in the history of the bench and bar of San Saba county, Judge William M. Allison, who is now living in the city of Georgetown. He was born near Knoxville, Tennessee, and was reared amid the devastating scenes of warfare in eastern Tennessee during the Civil war, his father serving in the Confederate army. Judge Allison studied law and was admitted to the bar at Knoxville, and in 1876 he came as one of the pioneer law- yers to San Saba. He served with efficiency and distinction as judge of the Thirty-third judicial district from 1890 to 1898, a period including some notable criminal litigation and one requiring firmness and courage on the part of the court. But both at the bench and bar Judge Allison acquitted himself always with splendid credit. and he established a repu- tation that brought him a place of high standing in his profession. . In 1909, for the purpose of affording better educational advantages to his younger children, he moved to Georgetown, where he is a law partner of A. S. Fisher. Judge Allison married, in his early life, Louisa Freestone, born in Lampasas county, but a member of a noted pioneer family of San Saba county. Her grandfather was the first sheriff elected at the organi- zation of the county in 1856.
Matt F. Allison, born in San Saba in 1879, studied in the South- western University at Georgetown, and received his law training princi-
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
pally under the efficient preceptorship of his father in this city. He was admitted to the bar here in 1905, and during the years of 1907-8 served San Saba county as its attorney. He married, in this city, Miss Mattie Sanderson, a daughter of the Dr. W. S. Sanderson, whose history is given elsewhere in this work. The three children of this union are Edith S., Amanda L. and Anna G.
HUGH MILLER .- Among the public officials of San Saba county is recorded the name of Hugh Miller, its present efficient sheriff. He was born in Hays county, January 6, 1862, but he grew to mature years in San Saba county, and his ranch adjoins the old home place of his father. The late Hugh Miller Sr., his father, was born in Missouri and came in 1850 to Texas, locating at old Weberville, in Bastrop county. In 1874 he came with his family to San Saba county, establishing his home on the old Colorado river. ten miles north of the city of San Saba, which was his home until death, in December of 1906. He was a Confederate soldier of the Civil war and one of the greatly respected pioneer citizens of San Saba county. Sarah (Mayes) Miller, his widow, is yet living. She was born in the state of Missouri, but was married in Texas.
At the time of his election to the office of sheriff in 1906, Hugh Miller Jr. came to reside in San Saba, and his administration of the affairs of the office of sheriff and tax collector was so efficient and satis- factory to his constituents that he was re-elected in 1908. He is a mem- ber of the fraternal order of Masons, Odd Fellows and Woodmen. His wife was, before marriage, Emma Huffstutler, and she was born and reared in Lampasas county, Texas. They have five children, Pearl, Zenobia, Agnes, Richard and Annie. Another child, Acie, died May 15, 1908, in her fourteenth year.
JAMES M. KUYKENDALL is a prominent ranch owner and a member of one of the oldest pioneer families of San Saba county. M. H. Kuy- kendall, his father, born in Tennessee and reared in Mississippi, came to Rusk county, Texas, about the year of 1850, moving from there to Bell county in 1855, and in 1857 he located permanently in San Saba county, settling on Cherokee creek in the southern part of the county. It was on that home farm that his son James was reared, their home being about a mile from the small settlement of Cherokee. W. J. Kuykendall, a brother of M. H., located on a ranch in that community in 1857, and he still resides there. He was formerly a commissioner of San Saba county.
James M. Kuykendall was born in Bell county, Texas, in 1856, to the marriage union of M. H. and Elizabeth (Dollahite) Kuykendall, and he has made his home in San Saba since the year of 1897. He owns a valuable ranch in the western part of the county. He married Laura Reeves, and their three children are Clay, Nilah and Reeves. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
JOHN R. POLK .- The life history of John R. Polk touches the pioneer epoch in the annals of San Saba county, where he has long been well and prominently known as a land owner and stock farmer. He was born in Caldwell county, Texas, in 1853, to the marriage union of Headley and Hettie E. (Sebastian ) Polk. Headley Polk, born in North Carolina
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
but reared in Tennessee, came to Texas in 1844, settling first in Bastrop county, but later moved from there with his family to the western part of Caldwell county, on the San Marcos river. There he developed a fine farm in a beautiful location, and his old homestead there is still in the possession of the family, the home of his daughters. Headley Polk died in the year of 1907, at the advanced age of ninety-four years. He was by trade a miller, but always owned a farm.
It was at the old Polk homestead in Caldwell county that John R. Polk attained to mature years, but in 1883 he left there and came to San Saba county, locating ten miles west of the county seat, on the San Saba river, a most favorable location for farming and stock raising. He still owns his property there, as well as other valuable land in the county, but he lives in the city, in a pleasant home in the western part, one of San Saba's highly esteemed citizens.
Mr. Polk married Kate Word, born in Guadalupe county, Texas, and they have five living children-Ivor May, Mrs. Katie Sloan, Annie Lee, Eupha C. and Lex D. Mr. and Mrs. Polk had the misfortune to lose by death their only son, Headley Word Polk, who died in January of 1904, at the age of eighteen years, one of the bright, strong and gifted sons of San Saba. He stood just upon the threshold of what promised to be a successful career when death claimed him, and his memory is cher- ished by his family, associates and acquaintances. Mr. Polk is a member of the Odd Fellows' fraternity. The family worship at the Cumberland Presbyterian church.
SAMUEL W. WALKER .- The name of Walker is perhaps as closely associated with the history of San Saba county from its early days to the· present as any other, and its many representatives have been influ- ential in its industrial life. The late H. F. Walker, born in Missouri, came with his family to this county in 1876, and he died here in 1906. Although the home of this family was in the county seat they have al- ways been engaged in the cattle business. Samuel W. Walker came to San Saba one year after the late H. F. Walker, his father, arriving in 1877, and his home is also in the city. He owns a large ranch on the San Saba river, about seventeen miles west of the county seat and lying contiguous to the proposed dam of the San Saba River Irrigation Com- pany. He also has a farm further down the river, east of the town, and in earlier years he served the county as one of its commissioners. He has two brothers, P. H. and W. W. Walker, also living in the city.
Samuel W. Walker was born in Saline county, Missouri. His wife, nee Mary L. Low, is a daughter of the late D. D. Low, the first perma- nent settler of San Saba county of whom there is any record. He located on the Colorado river, in the eastern edge of the county, in 1850, and also erected the first house in the county. He was therefore a pioneer of the pioneers, an integral part of the chain linking the formative period with latter-day progress. The eight children born to Mr. and Mrs. Walker are: N. C. Walker, the present attorney for San Saba county; S. H. Walker, a member of the mercantile firm of Carson and Walker; and Lucy, Stella, Corinne, Ada, Travis and Mary E. Walker. Mr. Walker is a Mason, having taken the degrees in Missouri just after becoming of age.
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
DR. RAYMOND ARTHUR LINDLEY is a prominent representative of the professional life of San Saba, a successful dentist, and he is also one of the enterprising young business men of the town. He was born at Brown- wood, this state, in 1880, a son of Simon and Isabel (Son) Lindley. Simon Lindley, deceased, was a son of Dr. Lindley, one of the earliest pioneer settlers of McCulloch county, Texas, where he established the - well known Lindley ranch and was numbered among those sturdy and courageous pioneers who fought the Indians and made the country hab- itable for later settlement. His wife was a member of another of the pioneer families of that county, and it is recalled that her home was burned and the premises devastated by the redskins while she was visit- ing in San Saba. Simon Lindley spent the larger part of his life in McCulloch county, but he lived at Brownwood for some years prior to his death. His wife is still living. Her mother, Mrs. Rhoda Son, was one of the first settlers of Brownwood.
Dr. Raymond A. Lindley was reared in the city of his birth and completed his educational training in Central University at Louisville, Kentucky. He studied dentistry in the Louisville Dental College, gradu- ating from that institution with its class of 1905, and he also took various special and post graduate courses in other dental colleges. He began practice in Brownwood, but in the fall of 1905 he located permanently in San Saba, and has since practiced in this city, a thoroughly equipped dentist. In February of 1909 he placed on sale the Lindley addition to San Saba, joining the town on the north. This tract of twenty-five acres, containing one hundred and thirty-four lots, is now splendidly im- proved, with graded streets bordered by three hundred cottonwood trees, and its lots were nearly all sold within three months after it was opened. Dr. Lindley has also purchased and placed on the market the Kirby addi- tion to the town of Lometa. He is a representative citizen and a promi- nent business man.
On March 28, 1910, he married Miss Mamie Flora Hagan, of San Saba.
EDWARD CAMPBELL .- The name of Edward Campbell is closely asso- ciated with the early life of San Saba county, and he also represents one of the pioneer families of southwestern and western Texas. He was born in Ireland in 1839, but during the winter of 1851-2 he came with his parents to America and to Texas, where their first home was in Guadalupe county. But about 1857 he left there for Atascosa county, being among the first to seek a home there. He engaged in the cattle business there until 1876. His headquarters were in the southern part of the county, and there the town of Campbellton, named in their honor, was eventually organized. This name has figured conspicuously with the early development of the Lone Star state, its representatives being public-spirited and progressive citizens. John P. Campbell, a cousin of the subject of this review, and who died in 1908, was during many years one of the most popular citizens of San Antonio, and served as its mayor for one term. Jourdan Campbell, a nephew of Mr. Campbell, still lives in Atascosa county, where he has become wealthy in the cattle and land business, and a new town in that county, Jourdanton, promoted by him and his associates, was named in his honor.
After spending about nineteen years in Atascosa county, Edward
Edward Campbelle Wife
R.l. Sloan
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL. AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Campbell came in 1876 to San Saba county, and here he has since lived. He brought cattle with him and located on San Saba river, about twenty miles above the county seat, and still owns a ranch there of about ten thousand acres, although he has disposed of his cattle interests and his home is in San Saba. He built the first brick house in this city, and has in many ways been identified with its growth and upbuilding. W. E. Campbell, his son, lives on his large San Saba county ranch, while an- other son, Peter Campbell, is a stockman and rancher at Voca in McCul- loch county. John F. Campbell is president of the First National Bank of San Saba. The two daughters of the family are Mrs. Mary Ada Moore and Mrs. Lillie Barker. Mr. Campbell's wife, Mary Jane Tom, is a member of the well known Tom family so prominent in the early history of Atascosa and Guadalupe counties.
JOHN R. CUNNINGHAM, a land owner and prominently engaged in the real estate business, was born in Talladega, Alabama, in 1856, a son of J. C. and Martha (McClellan) Cunningham, the mother, now deceased, being a daughter of General W. B. McClellan, of Confederate army fame. The father, now living in San Saba, was born in Jackson county, Georgia, and became a resident of San Saba in 1903. He had two brothers, however, who were connected with the earliest history of San Saba county in a peculiarly interesting way. They were older brothers, named H. M. and J. R. Cunningham, and while still young men they came to the Mexican province of Texas in 1833, fought under General Houston for Texan independence, and one of them was wounded at the battle of San Jacinto. H. M. and C. G. Cunningham were United States soldiers in the Mexican war. On account of their services in the Texas revolu- tion of 1836, H. M. and J. R. Cunningham were granted headrights of land, and in addition to acquiring their own headrights they also bought the headrights of various other Texas soldiers, and in locating their lands they came up the Colorado river and acquired large bodies of land in what is now San Saba county, as well as in adjoining counties. Mr. Cunningham of this review now owns a ranch four miles north of San Saba, that is a part of one of the tracts procured by his uncles in this way. It is known as the Ysabel Gautry League, and his sister, Mrs. Martha Turner, is now living on this league.
John R. Cunningham came from Talladega county, Alabama, to San Saba in 1886, and located on the ranch above mentioned, conducting it as a cattle ranch for several years, but more recently he has devoted a part of it to farming. He has lived in the city of San Saba since 1903. His first wife, now deceased, nee Mary A. Turner, was the mother of his five children: Mrs. F. F. Edwards, Emma Cunningham, Mrs. Lyde Petty, J. C. and Mary Ity Cunningham. The present Mrs. Cunningham was, before marriage, Miss Florence Edwards, and was born in California.
ROBERT C. SLOAN is one of the large land owners of San Saba county and a representative of one of its early pioneer families, a son of John E. and Nancy (Maxwell) Sloan. The father was born in Tennessee, and he is a brother of N. R. Sloan, whose history in this work contains much of the ancestral record of the Sloan family. John E. Sloan came to Texas with his family in 1850, their first home here being in Rusk county, moving from there to the western Texas frontier in 1855. A
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
short time after that John E. Sloan located in Menard county, which was his headquarters as a cattleman for many years, but his home is now in San Saba county, in the vicinity of Sloan postoffice, where the family have lived since coming here in 1855. His wife died in 1880. Many years have passed since the name of Sloan became associated with the history of this community, and its representatives are justly numbered among its honored pioneers and leading citizens.
Robert C. Sloan was born in Menard county, December 19, 1866, and he was reared in the stock business there and has since been very successful in that industry. During several years he conducted a cattle ranch in Arizona, making his headquarters at Globe, and through his experience and good management his operations thrived there. In 1906 he returned to his old home, locating in the town of San Saba, and he has made extensive and profitable investments in town property and in the rich agricultural lands of the county. He is now permanently located in the county seat of San Saba county.
Mr. Sloan married Daisy Oldfield, and their three children are Robert, John and Paul.
MASON COUNTY
Mason county was created by the act of January 22, 1858. The county seat was to be on or within two miles of the site of Fort Mason, provided the proprietor of the land donated one hundred acres for county purposes, otherwise the site was to be selected by vote. The town was to be called Mason. The first county officers were: John McSween, chief justice; G. W. Todd, county clerk ; Thomas Milligan, sheriff ; L. Burgdorf, assessor and collector ; W. C. Lewis, district clerk.
Fort Mason was one of the early forts established by the United States government after the annexation of Texas. It was just above the border of the German settlements, which were founded in the late '40s and '50s. Westward, in what is now Menard county, was the site of the ill-fated San Saba mission among the Apaches. Thus Fort Mason was for some years the frontier defense against the hostile tribes of West Texas. In 1857 Major George H. Thomas was in command there with a detachment of the Second Cavalry, and in 1860, before the out- break of the war, the commander was Major Farl Van Dorn-both of whom- became distinguished generals in the war, on opposite sides.
During the war most of the frontier posts were evacuated and Fort Mason was never reoccupied. The border defenses were ineffective, and for over ten years this and other counties were exposed to the raids of the savages. In the Texas Almanac for 1867 the representative from the district wrote the following description of Mason county :
"Fort Mason is situated on the divide between the Llano and San Saba rivers, about the center of the county. There are no troops in Fort Mason, but we have elected it the county seat of Mason county, and have a good stone court house, a blacksmith shop of stone, a trading house or store, and an excellent school, but no grocery. There are. I believe, twenty-six families within three-quarters of a mile of the post, and seventy-five bright, healthy, fresh-looking children, large enough to attend school. There is church service by a German preacher once a month in this neighborhood, but no regular meeting-house. The people
Prison Hey
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in this settlement and in the county generally are well disposed, orderly, and ambitious of accumulating property and educating their children; but they are very much disheartened at present by the great insecurity of life and property, and by the apparent impunity with which the most horrible crimes are committed by Indians and outlaws. There are, I think, not less than two hundred families in the county, half of whom are German. There are four excellent schools, besides some smaller ones, and not less than four hundred children to be educated. There are five places of worship in the county. The Germans are mostly Methodists. The Americans are of different persuasions. There is but little agri- culture in Menard, Kimball or Mason, but more in Mason than in either of the other counties. The people are generally devoted to stock grow- ing, because it is so much more profitable and so much less laborious in this county than farming. There are no mills in Mason county, nor manufactures, but some splendid sites for such, especially on Devil's river, James river and Mill creek, all of which empty into the Llano from the southwest."
As a result of these conditions, the population of the county in 1870 was only 678. Only 4,500 acres were in cultivation, and the corn and wheat raised, after supplying local demand, was marketed principally at the military posts to the west. There were several mills in the county in 1870, and four churches and four schools were maintained.
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