A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 44

Author:
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 954

USA > Texas > Henderson County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 44
USA > Texas > Freestone County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 44
USA > Texas > Leon County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 44
USA > Texas > Anderson County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 44
USA > Texas > Limestone County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 44
USA > Texas > Navarro County > A memorial and biographical history of Navarro, Henderson, Anderson, Limestone, Freestone and Leon counties, Texas from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its prospects; also biographical mention of many of the pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 44

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Limestone lias its social and commercial co-operative societies too. The Limestone County Fair Association, of which J. W.

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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.

Stuart, of Groesbeck, is president, was or- ganized in 1892 and has just conducted a successful fair on its new grounds near the county seat.

THE COURTS.

In her judicial life Limestone county has some eventful experiences, although the practice of her district court has been characterized by more than usual mildness, a feature that is largely due to the concilia- tory disposition of her two most prominent attorneys, who have wisely sought to pre- vent useless litigation. Few counties have liad two so prominent and wise legal careers so long continued-alnost coinci- dent with the county's own career-as Limestone has had in those of Judge D. M. Prendergast, now of Mexia, and Ma- jor L. J. Farrar, of Groesbeck. Judge Prendergast is the oldest living lawyer of the county, and was only preceded at old Springfield's founding by Attorney Sam. Perry, who is now dead. J. H. Mc- Cutcheon, also now deceased, followed, and only preceded Major Farrar. John E. Thornton, now of Austin, was here also, and H. D. and A. D. Prender- gast practiced some. A Mr. Sorrel did some also, and Stephens and Jones. The others came since the war-Mr. Burrows, deceased, W. H. Frisbie, W. A. Kincaid, Jos. B. and James Kimbell, L. B. Cobb, W. H. Jackson, Kennedy & Bradly, of Groesbeck; Doyle & Gibson, of Mexia; and Mr. Durham, of Thornton.

But the two old legal veterans still re- inain and in active life. Judge Prender- gast lias been the only district judge fur-

nished by his own county, and his sense of fairness, as that also of his veteran com- panion, led to the settlement of a vast amount of Robertson colony and land titles between 1848 and 1860, so that there has been little land litigation since, and that merely over uncertain boundaries incident to prairie surveys, where there are few or no natural features to mark them. This was due largely to the fact that an examina- tion of the titles of the eleven-leaguers gave evidence that they would succeed, and the clients were advised to settle the mat- ter by compromise, and this was done in most cases, giving Limestone unusual free- dom from defective titles at an early date. So there is no striking legal figlits over land to chronicle in the annals of her legal contests, as there is in some of her sister counties.

Neither has her criminal practice been very marked by legal fighting that involved much public attention. About the only murder case of any interest that came up before the war was that of Wise K. Cook, who killed a man in a drinking bout at old Springfield, where he was visiting rela- tives about 1859; but he was acquitted.

Another, acquitted for a similar charge, was still more curiously interesting, but it happened about ten years later, about 1867 -'68. A man named Quinby was charged with hanging a man about three miles west of Mexia, for being a general thief, as it was said. Although he afterward confessed that he did do it, and for the good of the community, as he believed, the evidence brought before the court could not prove the charge and his ac- quittal resulted.

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

The only case of legal execution that ever happened in the county was for that most intolerable of crimes, the raping of a young girl, done by a negro near Groesbeck abont 1875 or 1876.

About a year or so later another murder came up, in which one - Eubanks was charged with killing a man, but as it was satisfactorily shown that Eubanks believed he was acting in self-defense, thinking the other party was armed, he was acquitted.

The last case of this kind of much inter- 'est was in 1885, in which'Lije McCnllough, a negro, killed another negro, of whom he was afraid as a sort of bully, who, it was said, was liable to take his life at any time. This happened about three miles from Mexia, and McCnllough was sentenced to State prison for life. The bullying char- acter of the victim, however, was a suffi- ciently extennating circumstance to se- cure his pardon after four years' confine- ment.

If these two lines of practice have been inild and uneventful, the relations of the members of the bench, however, have, in at least one case, been of an interest alnost, if not quite, second only to that of the Parker Fort massacre itself. Of course this has nothing to do with Judge R. E. B. Baylor, Judge Henry J. Jewett, Judge John Gregg or James C. Walker, bnt it begins with the election of the successor of Judge Walker, after the war's close. This election seemed to result in the choice of Hon. C. M. Winkler, of Corsicana, but the friends of his rival, R. S. Gonld, claimed to have found an error in the footings of the election returns, and Judge Winkler re- signed after a few sessions. Judge Gould,

however, was removed by General Grainger, and Judge F. P. Wood, of Washington county, was appointed. It is the record of the conrt he held that just missed destruc- tion in one of the numerous conrthonse fires so lavishly indulged in by the upper Na- vasota country.

The earliest preserved record of the district court of Limestone is that of 1870. "Be it remembered that on Monday, the twenty-eighth (28th) day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy, it being the time ap- pointed by law, there was begun and hold- en in the town of Springfield, at the courthouse in and for the county of Lime- stone, a term of the honorable District Court: Present and presiding the Hon. F. P.Wood, judge of the thirty-fifth judicial district in and for the State of Texas, and S. C. Upshaw, district attorney in and for the thirty-fifth judicial district in and for the State of Texas. John B. Vallanding- ham, clerk of the district court, and Pey- ton Parker, sheriff, both of said county of Limestone;" then follow the proceedings, which are of no particular interest to this sketch. All records preceding this were destroyed by fire.

Judge J. W. Oliver soon succeeded Judge Wood and a congressional election soon occured which was bitterly contested and mixed with all the evils of the worst phases of the reconstruction period. The trouble was precipitated on Saturday, Sep- tember 30, 1871, in Groesbeck, which was then the terminus of the Houston & Texas Central Railway, by an attempt to arrest an auctioneer named D. C. Applewhite, who was pursued and shot; whereupon the ex-

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citement became so great that the mayor called upon the people to organize and two of the police were arrested themselve, and quiet restored just in time to prevent a serious riot. Judge Oliver deemed this circumstance a ground for calling on Gov- ernor Davis to establish martial law in Limestone and Freestone counties. This was done and an effort made to levy a tax to support a military court, whereupon the people began preparing articles of im- peachment against the judge, which in- duced him to resign. He was succeeded by Judge Blanton, who died in office.

Quiet was by this time restored and one of Limestone's own citizens was appointed to the bench in 1873; this was Judge D. M. Prendergast. Since that the career of the court has passed uneventfully under the successive judgeships of Hons. L. D. Bradley, S. R. Frost and the present in- cumbent, Judge Rufus Hardy.

We conclude this chapter with a sketch of a prominent resident of Groesbeck, as follows:

R. M. Love, a resident of Groesbeck, Texas, and formerly sheriff, is of Scotch extraction on the paternal side and of Irish on his mother's side of the family. The Loves came to America during the reign of " Bloody " Mary, being Protestants, and they settled in Virginia. The great-grand- father of our subject served in the war of the Revolution and after the close of the struggle moved from Virginia to Ken- tucky, where Joseph Love, the grandfather of our subject was born. The great-grand- father later moved to the vicinity of Nash- ville, Tennessee, where the grandfather was reared. In the early history of Robertson

county, Tennessee, frequent mention is made of the Loves, the Whites and the Wilsons all of whom were prominent in that State.

Joseph Love married in the vicinity of Nashville and lived there a number of years prior to his removal to Texas in 1839. His sons had preceded him to this State, he having previously paid two visits to it and took up his residence here in 1839, settling first on the Brazos river and later in Robertson county, and passed the closing years of his life among his children in Robertson county, Limestone, Freestone and Navarro counties. He had five sons who were distinguished men in the early history of the State, these being, James M., who settled at Tehuacana Hills in Lime- stone county; William, who settled near Richland in Navarro county; David and Andrew C., who settled in Freestone county; and Gilbert H., who settled in Robertson county. There were also two daughters who were, Elizabeth, who mar- ried L. B. Prendergast and now resides in Limestone county, and Mary D., who mar- ried a Mr. Webb and died in Tennessee before the removal of the family to Texas. There were two sons also, John W. and Joseph B., who died in Tennessee before the family came to this State. The sons and daughters were all born in middle Tennessee, and all but one were grown when the family left there. The five sons already mentioned as having taken a promi- nent part in the making of Texas history were mainly distinguished for their serv- ices as Indian fighters and frontiersmen, some of them serving in the war with Mexico for independence in 1836. David took part in the battle of San Jacinto.

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

James M. Love, the father of our snb- ject, and one of the five sons mentioned, was born in Williamson county, Tennessee, in 1805, was reared there and married Theresa Eveline Braden, of Irish extrac- tion and a Virginian by birtlı, Mrs. Love being a native of Madison county, Tennes- see. James M. came to Texas in 1836 and settled in Robertson county, at the town of old Franklin, where he resided until 1848, engaged the most of the time in his trade of blacksmithing. In 1848 he removed to Limestone county and set- tled at Tehuacana Hills, being one of the first settlers at that place, and there he re- sided until the date of his death, which occurred December 21, 1876. While re- siding in Tennessee he was the Sheriff of Madison county, and was made Sheriff of Robertson county in this State, and later of Limestone county. He was engaged in the latter county in farming and stock- raising, at which he met with fair success. He was a highly respected citizen, a zeal- ous member of the Masonic fraternity, and for a number of years a prominent member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. His wife died at the old home- stead, at the age of sixty-four years, No- vember 26, 1871. She was a member of the same religious body as her husband. They had a family of eleven children, of whom our subject is the youngest but one, and the full list being as follows: Joseph, deceased; Cyrus, deceased; Martha, the wife of David Smith, deceased; Mary Elizabeth was the wife of John Karner, deceased; Margaret Jane was the wife of L. J. Crowly, deceased; James A., de- ceased; Samuel Braden, living on the old

homestead in Tehnacana Hills; John, de- ceased; Theresa Eveline, the widow of D. W. Crowmarthy, residing now in Floyd county, Texas; onr subject; and Tennessee A., the wife of C. F. Ramsay, of Floyd county.

Robert M. was born in the town of Franklin, Robertson county, Texas, Janu- ary 11, 1847. He was an infant when his father moved to Limestone county, and was reared on the old home place at Te- huacana Hills. He was educated in the common schools of the time, and in the fall of 1862 lie entered the Confederate army, at the age of seventeen years. He enlisted in Company G, commanded by Captain James Wilson, Sixtlı Texas Cav- alry, under Colonel Pete Ross, and served in the Army of the Tennessee, beginning his service at Rome, Georgia, from which point he took part in the remainder of the engagements of the Georgia campaign down to Atlanta, and after the reorganiza- tion of the army under Hood before At- lanta he was with that General on the campaign into Tennessee, being in active service until the surrender. He received his discharge in May, 1865, at Corinthi, Mississippi, where he remained for a year, going also into Tennessee, and returned to Texas in the spring of 1866. He then be- gan farming, and so continned until 1872, and from that date to 1876 he was Deputy Sheriff of Limestone county under his brother, Jolmn W. In November, 1884, he was elected Sheriff, to which office he was re-elected four times. He has served as president of the Texas Sheriff Associa- tion five years, and is probably one of the most popular sheriffs the State has ever

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had. He is a fearless and faithful public official, and a most efficient officer.

Our subject was married in Hickman county, Kentucky, January 12, 1870, to Miss Lucy T. Morgan, a native of that connty, who was born December 10, 1848, and was a daughter of James F. Morgan, a prominent physician of the same place. To this union have been born the follow- ing children: W. Emma, wife of E. Haw- kin; James M., Joseph Cyrus, Robert M., Jr., John W., Lucy B., Calla, Ruth and Esther.

In 1871 Mr. Love became a Mason, and has been a zealous member of the order ever since. He is a member of the Knights of Honor, Knights of Pyth- ias, and of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In this connection he has been an Elder for the past twenty-five years. The family name is known over the State, and there is none more highly respected than our subject, as its representative.

THE GREAT WAR.

The evils of the days of reconstruction in Limestone county were not confined to the incidents in relation to the district judge and his martial law alone. There were other events connected with the freed negroes that were far more bloody; but before turning in detail to them it will be best to review Limestone's action in the Confederate service.

As early as 1853 a paper was started in old Springfield, the county seat and center of all public interest, and this was known as the " Pioneer." It was edited by J. L. Caldwell when the war came on, and it freely advocated secession as the exponent

of public sentiment throughout the county. There was a conservative Houston element at the time of the presidential election, that stood with General Houston and the Union party, but these covered probably not more than one-tenth, as it has been estimated by prominent citizens. At least nine-tenths of the vote went for Breckenridge.

The population of 1859 was 4,043, of which 953 were slaves, and the vote but 721.

The most conspicnous leaders were Judge John Gregg of Freestone, Judge Prender- gast of Springfield, and Captain Aycock of Marlin. Otherwise there was but little speaking or leading, as there was no neces- sity for it, except in organizing companies. The first company organized was by Cap- tain L. J. Farrar, with First Lieutenant W. P. Brown, but this was finally dis- banded and Captain Farrar and some others went into General Parsons' regiment, in which Mr. Farrar gained his title of Major, the only Limestone officer that rose above the rank of Captain. The most of this company went East, and were otherwise distributed.

The first to go from the county as a company was that raised by Captain D. M. Prendergast, the judge of later years. This went East. Then came that of Cap- tain B. R. Tyus, which also went East. The next two were in the West, one was that of Captain McGee, of which his lieu- tenant W. P. Brown became captain, and the other was one raised about the Kosse region by Captain J. P. Brown. Altogether it has been estimated by several of those who went that abont three-fourths of the voting strengthi went from the county.

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

The losses of these companies were very evenly distributed, as it has been estimated.

When the war closed and the soldiers returned to resume civil life the negroes were freed and one of the earliest move- ments of reconstruction was the establish- ment of a freedmen's bureau over this territory, with headquarters in Freestone, where there was the bulk of the negroes and with which county Limestone had been and still was closely identified. In 1867 the officer in charge of this was a man named Culver, whose headquarters were at Cotton Gin. A dispute arose be- tween a negro and a white inan named Stuart near Springfield and Culver came over to settle it. In the altercation that ensued Culver shot at Stuart and hit the latter's wife, not injuring her much, how- ever, but again shot Stnart in the shoulder, when Stuart succeeded in killing both Cul- ver and his colored sergeant. This occurred abont two and a half miles from Spring- field, the county seat. The body of Culver was brought to the courthouse. The ne- groes became wildly excited and called for the revenge of Culver's death; large num- bers of them assembled and laid siege to Springfield for several days, but it was finally settled without any fighting.

This was not the end of the race conflict, however, and early in the '70s, some time after the burning of the courthouse, an attempt was made by the (white) deputy sheriff to arrest a negro who was charged with being the incendiary, whereupon the . deputy was killed. This set aflame a fierce race riot and large numbers of negroes were killed. This seemed to end the race difficulties, at least as far as anything vio-

lent was concerned. The negroes did not leave old Springfield, as the whites did when the county seat went to Groesbeck, and the people went both there and to Mexia.

The railway and an increased population have solved all these difficulties, and all that remains of war is the society of old veterans whose county organization of United Confederate Veterans is presided over by Captain C. L. Watson.

But the entrance of a younger genera- tion into affairs and the busy interests of the older one in agriculture, commerce and her growing railway towns make even the memory of those days dim and indistinct, . as any one can testify who tries to gather up its remembrance for preservation in a · more reliable memory of ink and paper. " Oh, I haven't thought of those things for so long," -- says the old citizen, " this busy life of railways, newspapers, and cities leaves no time for that."

TOWNS.

Nothing is more deceptive to the aver- age judgment of men than the number of individuals in any sort of a collection of people.

There is something in the make-up of an aggregation of individuals that nine cases ont of ten make them seem many-fold larger than they really number. One rea- son for this must be that an aggregation of men have immensely more power in thein than the same number individually, so in estimating their number we think of the power and measure the numbers accord- ingly. Another reason is that nothing so impresses us as a collection of our own

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kind, and not least among the reasons is the effect of our desire to see it as large as possible-a reason that often affects the most honest judgment. As an experiment in this line, a young man once attended a meeting of city news boys and girls, which the papers were accustomed to describe as having an attendence of 2,000 or 2,500 of the little gamins. Indeed, this very meeting was so described the next day. An actual count was made by four different persons, while they were all in line, each person counting independently, and when notes were compared none of the counters varied a half dozen from 600! Those counting were astonished as any one else; so they went among the crowd of specta- tors getting estimates, and among scores of estimates nearly all were from 1,000 to 3,000! Although the census of 1890, like all human efforts, was imperfect, yet it was as reliable as any census that was ever made, as has been admitted by General Francis A. Walker, who had charge of the census of 1880. The objections to it have come almost altogether from cities and towns- a feature that tends to throw large sus- picion on the basis of the objection, for the world never saw a decade of greater effort by each to " boom " his respective town than the great railway decade of the '80s. Then, too, the common estimate of a town has been that which includes the surround- ing settlement, while census counting in- cludes only that inside corporate limits. Then again, growth is so constant and rapid that the place may increase consider- ably between the time of counting and the time of publication.

Then again, if history is worth anything

it must be accurate-based on something generally accepted as the most nearly ac- curate at least, that there is accessible, and mere estimates are not of that nature usually. Still more, if old places have waited nearly forty years to have their his- tory written, certainly younger towns should wait decades enough to become of such a size that the census gives them a separate notice from the population of the precinct.

Limestone, however, has more towns of sufficient size to receive separate mention by the last census than any other county in the scope of this volume's consideration. This is due to the fact that she is a county of small towns rather than an urban county like Anderson, that is, a county whose one city so overshadows and absorbs town building tendencies that it remains prac- tically the only real town in the county. Of course, the urban county gives a more complex social and commercial develop- ment, but on the other hand the county of small towns has larger independence and simplicity of life: that, in itself, is no small thing, by any means. These four towns are Mexia, which the census gave as 1,674 in population; Groesbeck, quoted with 663 inhabitants; Kosse, a close third with 647 people; and Thornton, the smallest of the four, with 466, -all due to the Houston & Texas Central Railway. There are other settlements much smaller, the most notable one being Tehuacana, which has been such a historic point, rather than place, and now is an educational town whose existence and success is due to her fine Cumberland Presbyterian University, and whose inhab- itants are almost entirely people connected with either the institution or the denomi-

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

nation that supports it. This place, how- ever, receives sufficient attention in both the chapters on settlement and that on schools.

Besides these five larger places, there are eleven other settlements sufficiently dense to have a post office, making sixteen post offices in all in the county. These eleven are: Armour, Billington, Farrar, Frosa, Hancock, Hornhill, Kirk, Oletha, Person- ville, Prairie Grove and Prairie Hill.

In order to get a clearer idea of the dis- tribution of Limestone's population-a fact always determining largely the location of a county's towns-let a glance be taken at the precincts, which are eight in number. The largest one in population is of course the one containing Mexia with its 1,674 in- habitants; this is No. 4, with 5,472, which is the largest, when compared with others, even with the town populations of both subtracted. The next precinct in popula- tion is No. 1, containing Groesbeck's 663 people; this has 3,844. These two are the only ones rising above 3,000. There are three others that rise above 2,000; the largest of these is No. 8, including Thorn- ton's 466 inhabitants, making a total of 2,846 in the precinct; then comes No. 5 with Kosse's 647, giving 2,531; and finally No. 2, with 2,277 people. The three other precincts have less than 2,000; No. 3 has 1,836; No. 7 has 1,550, and No. 6 has 1,316. This covers the total (21,678) in- habitants of the county. Of this amonnt probably 4,000 are in towns and villages, counting those given by the census and allowing 550 for all others, which would be fairly liberal. This would leave about 17,678 for the country, making the ratio

abont 4 to 18, or 1 to 42, in favor of the country. This makes a healthy and strong agricultural showing for Limestone county, and indicates why she has four vigorous towns, that stand abont the depots of the Houston & Texas Central Railway, as it cents a diagonal course across her bounds, and carries to market all her prodnce.

But the chief feature in the town build- ing of Limestone county, is that'her towns are post-bellum railway products alinost without exception. This has already been alluded to in previons chapters, which show how the advent of the railway and the cultivation of the black, waxy soil were the real sources of not only town- building but country development, and were almost contemporaneons after the war.

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Author: Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 954

Author:
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 954