USA > Texas > A history of central and western Texas > Part 49
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In 1880 the population was 2,655 (41 negroes), and about one- fourth were of foreign birth or parentage, mostly Germans. The popu- lation in 1890 was 5,180; in 1900, 5,573. The taxable wealth of the county in 1870 was $216,025 ; in 1882, $1,214,598 (over half being live stock) ; in 1903, $2,444,635; and in 1909, $4,048,080.
In 1882 there were two flour mills and four cotton gins in the county, all driven by water power, there being a number of available water-power sites. The county has valuable minerals, undeveloped because of the lack of transportation. The local quarries have for years supplied most of the building material, so that houses and public buildings are mainly of stone construction.
Mason, the principal town, in 1900 had a population of 1,137. Other towns, with population over 100, in 1900 were: Fredonia, 173; Katemcy, 143; Loyal Valley, 194; Pontotoc, 196.
BEN HEY .- The name of Hey is as closely associated with the early life and history of Mason county as any other, and Ben Hey is numbered among its native sons, born here in 1872 to the marriage union of Wilson and Hannah (Korn) Hey. The late Wilson Hey died at his home in Mason on the 3d of November, 1908. He was one of the most promi- nent pioneer citizens of Mason county, and his long and useful life was filled with varied and interesting experiences. He was born in York- shire, England, in 1837, but he left home when a boy to become a sailor and eventually he located in America and learned the tailor's trade in Memphis, Tennessee. At the breaking out of the Civil war he enlisted in the Confederate service in Mississippi and served throughout the con- flict, mostly in Forrest's Cavalry. Following the close of the war he came to the western frontier of Texas, and for some years worked with the large cattle outfits, in the meantime making two or three trips to
446 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Arizona with large herds of cattle. On one of those trips, and while acting as foreman of the outfit, they were raided by a band of Indians, who ran off the entire herd of three thousand cattle.
Mr. Hey established his permanent home in Mason county in 1868, locating on Comanche creek a short distance east of the town of Mason. There he carried on a successful cattle ranching business for several years, and also conducted a tailoring business in Mason. But he is best remembered perhaps for his long service as an efficient public official in Mason county, his public service covering twenty years in all. Begin- ning in 1882 he served Mason county as deputy clerk under Ben Gooch for one term, and in 1884 he was elected the county and district clerk and served in that capacity continuously by successive re-elections until 1902, with the exception of seven years, five of which he was engaged in the cattle industry, and during one term he served as county judge. He then retired from office. In about the year of 1904 he moved to his beautiful home on the hill in the southern part of the town, the site of old Fort Mason, and the home commands a splendid view of the surrounding country. His widow survives him. She was, before marriage, Hannah Korn, born at San Antonio, and a member of a pioneer German family. She was reared on the frontier, their family home being on Red creek, in Kimble county, and the family were among the keenest sufferers from Indian depredations. One of Mr. Hey's brothers was captured by the redskins and held in captivity for four years.
When Ben Hey was about fourteen years old he began working in the county and district clerk's office for his father, and he has been con- nected with that office throughout the intervening years. In 1902 he was elected the county and district clerk to succeed his father, and he has been re-elected to the office in 1904. 1906 and 1908. He married Maud Kountz, and their three children are Dixie Fay, Mabel Bennie and Ruth Katharine.
FRITZ HOERSTER .- One of the earliest of the pioneers of Mason county is Fritz Hoerster, a former stockman. He was born in Prussia in 1841, and coming to America with his parents in 1846 they located in Fredericksburg, Texas, and were members of the German colony which founded that city. In about 1856 the family moved to Mason county, and they located and lived for a number of years on a ranch on Willow creek, their residence there covering the period of the Civil war and the worst of the Indian troubles. Fritz Hoerster served in the Confederate army throughout the Civil war period, he having enlisted at Fredericks- burg in the First Texas Cavalry, and he served in both Texas and Louisiana. After the close of the war he returned home, and in time purchased and improved a splendid ranch on the Llano river, about three miles above Castell, in the eastern part of Mason county. His home and the center of his activities were at that ranch until he moved to Mason in 1906, selling his ranch and cattle interests in that year and retiring from an active business life.
Mr. Hoerster married Hannah Leifeste, born in Germany, but she was brought by her parents when an infant to the German settlement in Llano county, Texas. Their four children are Amelia, Ida, Hulda and Charlie.
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
JACOB SCHUESSLER, of Mason, is a wealthy farmer and stockman and his name is enrolled among the earliest of the pioneers of Mason county. He was born at Bonfeld, in the province of Würtemberg, Germany, in 1840. John Adam Schuessler, his father, brought the family to America in 1845, they forming a part of the German emigration at that time, and landing at Indianola, Texas, Mr. Schuessler and his family remained there a short time and then came by way of New Braunfels to Fredericks- burg, in Gillespie county. From there they moved to Cherry Springs, in the same county, establishing their home about twenty-eight miles southeast of the present town of Mason. They were the first settlers at that point, and they built the first house there, giving it the name of Cherry Springs. In 1859 they moved to what has ever since remained the Schuessler home, the land joining Mason on the southeast, but their location took place long before the town of Mason was founded.
It was at the homestead there that Jacob Schuessler grew to man- hood's estate and built his ranch and farm. His property in former years consisted of about twelve hundred acres, and comprised one of the richest agricultural properties in this section of the state. He has always han- dled more or less cattle, but in later years he has gone more extensively into profitable farming, particularly in the raising of cotton. The Schuessler place joins the town of Mason on the east and southeast, and in 1878 he built his present beautiful residence there. He is a citizen of substantial resources, and he has been very successful in his business affairs.
Mr. Schuessler passed through all the vicissitudes and dangers inci- dent to the pioneer life on the frontier of Texas, and perhaps the most prominent of those hardships were the tragic Indian raids, which for many years were a terror to the frontier. During the war he served as a member of the Minute Men who guarded the frontier from the Indians and rendered valuable service in that connection, and he participated not only in the warfare against the Indians but that also waged against the "bad men" and cattle thieves.
Mr. Schuessler married, in Mason county in 1859, Miss Katherine Hick, who died on the 23d of January, 1897. There are seven children in his family: Will, Gustave, Charles, Mrs. Nannie Smith, Mrs. Lou Broad, Carrie and Mary. He is a member of the Lutheran church of Mason.
JOHN LEMBURG SR. is enrolled among the early pioneers of Mason county, and he is prominently connected with its business life as the vice president of the German-American National Bank. He was born in Ger- many in 1838, and coming to the United States in 1859 he located in Mason county, Texas, and he has since been one of its honored residents. As a pioneer on the Texas frontier, Mr. Lemburg has been a participant in the varied events that have contributed to the present stage of develop- ment of the county, beginning with its early years of hardships and its long period of danger from the raids of the Indians. He took part in the frontier protection service during war times. He located originally a mile northwest of the present town of Mason, but during many years past he has been living in the town and has been honored by election to important public offices, including those of sheriff, tax collector and assessor. He is the vice president of the German-American National
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HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Bank, but he has practically retired from an active business life. His sons are all now grown to mature years and are in business for them- seives, two-Ernest and John Jr .- comprising the mercantile firm of E. Lemburg and Brother. James, Arthur and Ed. Lemburg are all business men of Mason, and Will Lemburg is the cashier of the German-American National Bank. Charles Lemburg is living in San Francisco, California. The daughters in the family of John Lemburg Sr. are Teresa, Carrie, Nettie, Nellie and Sophia. His wife, before marriage, was Miss Sophia Danheim, of Mason.
WILL ELLEBRACHT is the son of a pioneer of Mason county, and he was born on his father's ranch twenty miles south of the city of Mason in 1867, a son of Fritz and Sophia (Hasse) Ellebracht, both yet living on the old homestead there. Fritz Ellebracht was born in Germany, and immigrating to the United States and to Texas in 1845, he established his home in Mason county, and is now numbered among the earliest of the county's pioneers. During the pioneer period he passed through all the privations and hardships incident to frontier life, including the start- ing of a ranch in a wilderness where neighbors were few and widely scattered, and the conflicts with the Indians, of which Mr. Ellebracht seems to have had entirely his share. He is remembered by the older residents as one of the bravest and most fearless of those whose duty it was to protect the homes, property and lives of the settlers from the fearful ravages of the Comanches and Kiowas. The son can also recall to mind some of those fearful raids, and particularly the one in which the Indians stole six mules and a horse from the Ellebracht ranch.
Will Ellebracht while yet a youth left the ranch to learn the me- chanical trade, particularly that of milling. He became familiar with the making of flour under the best of training in the big Shriner mill at Kerrville. In 1901 he purchased the old corn mill and cotton gin at Mason, and he remodeled and enlarged these plants and put them in first class condition with the best of machinery. In 1905 he bought the electric light plant of the town, which had been allowed to run down into a very bad condition, and moving the plant from the northern part of the town to its present location in connection with the mill and gin, he remodeled it, installed new equipment and transformed it into a first class industry. In 1906 he sold a half interest in the three plants to seven of the leading business men of Mason county, and they, with Mr. Ellebracht, form the Mason Power and Ice Company, and about that same time the com- pany installed an ice factory of ten tons capacity and equipped it with the Wolf-Linda ice machinery. The combined plants, of which Mr. Elle- bracht is the manager, form the leading industries of the city.
Mr. Ellebracht's wife is Etta (Bell) Ellebracht, born in Masori county, and their two children are Irvin and Gladys.
MAX MARTIN was born on his father's ranch at Hedwig's Hill, on the Llano river, in Mason county, December 17, 1863, and this county has remained his home throughout life and he is now one of its repre- sentative citizens, a banker, ranch owner and a member of one of its honored pioneer families. His parents, Charles and Anna (Mebus) Martin, were both born in Germany, and the father came to America and to Texas in the late forties, stopping for a short time in San Antonio,
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and in 1850 he located at Hedwig's Hill. Mason county has since re- mained the home of the Martin family, and they still own their old place at Hedwig's Hill. Charles Martin died there in November of 1878, but he is yet survived by his widow, Mrs. Anna Martin, who is the president of the Commercial Bank.
Max Martin and his brother, Charles L. Martin, were reared at the family home at Hedwig's Hill, and the years of their maturity have been associated with ranching and the cattle business. Besides the Martin homestead, they own several valuable farms and ranches in Mason, Mc- Culloch and Menard counties. The Martin family have large resources and are among the financial bulwarks of Mason county, their prestige also forming the substantial backing of the Commercial Bank, a private unincorporated banking institution, which they established in July of 1901, at Mason, and of which Mrs. Anna Martin is the president, Charles L. Martin the vice president and Max Martin the cashier. This is num- bered among the substantial banking institutions of Mason county, and the Martins as bankers have won the confidence of the community.
Max Martin's wife, to whom he was married in Germany, bore the maiden name of Hedwig Mebus, and their three children are Kurt, Esther and Ruth. Mr. and Mrs. Charles L. Martin have six children: Walter, Rudolph, Seth, Albert, Paul and Annie.
JOHN W. GAMEL is one of the old time cattlemen of Central and Western Texas, and he is noted throughout the entire state as one of the best judges of cattle. He was born in Georgia in 1845, but in 1847 was brought by his parents to Texas, the family locating in Limestone county, later moving from there to Llano county, and in 1860 they came to Mason county and they were among the first to establish their home here. William Gamel, the father of John W., was a brave man, a typical fron- tiersman, and he took a prominent part with those intrepid spirits who withstood the untold hardships to subdue the wilderness and pave the way for the conveniences afforded the present residents of the Lone Star state. William Gamel died in the year of 1900. The greatest source of danger and hardship in those early years were from the Indians and their disastrous raids, and the Gamel family suffered greatly at the hands of the redskins, particularly so in the loss of their horses.
John W. Gamel was early inured to the hardships of pioneer life. He began working with cattle at an early age, and he continued on as a cattleman throughout all of his active life, only retiring from the voca- tion within the past few years. With his brother, J. G. Gamel, he oper- ated some large outfits in the days of the open range. His home has been principally in the town of Mason since 1865, and at that time it contained one store and four or five small picket houses. His present home is an attractive residence located in the eastern part of the town, near the site of old Fort Mason. Mr. Gamel was in the Confederate service from about the beginning of the war until January of 1865. joining first the famous First Texas Cavalry, a part of the command of General Ben McCulloch, and Mr. Gamel was stationed at Fort Chad- bourne under Captain Bill Tobin of San Antonio. He was mustered out of that organization at Fredericksburg in 1862, and then joined the Thirty-third Texas Cavalry, under Major Duffy. He was in service at
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Brownsville, Indianola and other points in Texas, and he took part in one of the expeditions into Indian Territory.
Mr. Gamel married first Kate Crosby, and she became the mother of three children, A. J., J. A. and J. C., but the two last named are deceased. He married for his second wife, Miss Alice Kettner, and she is the mother of four children, Effie, Nellie, Herbert and Jessie.
J. W. WHITE was born and reared in Gonzales county, Texas, born July 22, 1854, but since 1889 he has been identified with the interests of Mason county and he is now the president of the German-American National Bank and a leading cattleman and land owner. He began working with cattle at an early age in southwestern and western Texas. and he has been largely interested in the stock business all his life. He is a nephew of Major George Littlefield, of Austin, with whom he has been in partnership for a number of years in the cattle and land business, principally in Mason county. He has extensive landed interests here, and is one of the county's representative citizens. He organized the German-American National Bank of Mason in February, 1904, and is its president and active manager. The bank is capitalized at twenty-five thousand dollars, with surplus and profits amounting to ten thousand dollars, and it is one of the strongest banking institutions in Mason county.
Mr. White married Miss Cora Bridges, of Mason, February 4, 1891. They have six children living : Thomas J., Jennie D., Lula M., Mary E., Walton W. and J. W. Jr. One child, Charlie, died at the age of seven weeks.
DAVID DOOLE SR. is a well known frontiersman and soldier, a man of varied and interesting experiences and one of the early pioneers of Central and Western Texas. He was born at Belfast, in country Antrim, Ireland, November 25, 1832, and it was in the latter part of the year of 1837 that he was brought by his parents to America, the family locating in Pope county, Illinois, near the Ohio river. The father was a physician, and had followed the profession in Belfast.
David Doole, the son, received a good educational training, and in 1854 he joined the United States Army, becoming a member of Com- pany F, Sixth United States Infantry, commanded by Brevet Major L. A. Armistead, who was later killed at Gettysburg. Mr. Doole became the first sergeant of his company. In 1857-8 he took part in the Utah expe- dition against the Mormons under Albert Sidney Johnston, who later became a Confederate general, and from Utah Mr. Doole's command went into California and participated in military service in various por- tions of that state, from San Francisco to San Diego and across the desert to Fort Mojave. Resigning from the service in the latter part of 1859, Mr. Doole went to San Francisco and engaged in business, and on the 15th of August, 1861, he joined Company A, First Infantry of California Volunteers, for service in the Civil war, being later transferred to the regular army and becoming a member of Company D, Second Battalion, Seventeenth Infantry. With that command he came east and served in various sections of the south, including the siege of Petersburg. Soon after the close of hostilities in 1865, his regiment became part of Merritt's Division which came to the Rio Grande border and awed the Maximilian forces from further operations in Mexico, his regiment being afterward
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ordered to Maine and from there back to Texas, where they worked in co-operation with Generals Sheridan and Haintzalman's forces stationed at San Antonio, where General Griffin was department commander. On leaving the army service at Centerville, in Leon county, Mr. Doole was appointed by Colonel Lee as superintendent of the National Cemetery in San Antonio, and subsequently was appointed post sutler for the troops stationed at Fort Mason, in Mason county, his duties in that position beginning in 1868, and Mason has ever since been his home. In this period Mr. Doole has gained the reputation of being one of the oldest pioneers of the community.
Following the abandoning of Fort Mason in 1869, he engaged in the mercantile business in the little village of Mason, which had begun to spring up in the vicinity of the old fort, and he continued successfully in business there during a long number of years, being assisted during the latter period by his sons. But in 1909 he gradually disposed of his mer- cantile interests and retired from an active business life. In every fea- ture of life, business, social or otherwise, that enters into the building of a town, Mr. Doole has taken a leading part, and in every respect he has been one of the bulwarks of Mason. He is past commander of Hol- comb Post, G. A. R., and is a Royal Arch Mason and a past master of McCulloch Lodge, No. 273, and served for twenty-six years as D. D. G. M. of the Grand Lodge of Texas.
He married, on the 2d of July, 1869, Lucy A. Thompson, a native daughter of Texas, and they have five children living: David Doole Jr., the postmaster of Brady, president of the Texas Postmasters' Association and a prominent citizen ; Dr. Paul Doole, a practicing physician at Fre- donia, Texas; H. M. Doole, a business man of Brady ; and Mrs. Bernice Finley and Katie Doole. Two are deceased, John S., who died aged thirty-four years, and one who died in infancy.
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