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 45

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 45
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 45
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 45
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 45
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 45
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 45

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The only town worthy of note before the railway's arrival was the county seat, Springfield, now noteven numbered among the post offices; but its story has been 80 fully told in connection with the movement of the county seats, that it need not be re- peated here. Suffice to say that its demise began with the establishment of Groes- beck, to which the most of the town moved bodily and instanter.

The Houston & Texas Central, the great pioneer of Texas railways from the coast to the interior, made the transformation. This road now has in the county 34.3 miles of track, which the assessment rolls quote at $405,780. Of course the Cot- ton Belt Railway has a mile and a fraction in the northwest corner, and furnishes an outlet for a limited territory in that part of the county, but the bulk of it through- out the county goes to the Central road, which draws also abont two-thirds of the

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AND LEON COUNTIES.

LIMESTONE, FREESTONE

trade of Freestone county. This latter element is the real cause of the prosperity of Limestone's metropolis-Mexia. This railway was begun in ante-bellum days, but the war crippled it and stopped every- thing else, for that matter. A paper in a neighboring county tells of its struggles in moving onward to the central prairies. " The Central's trade alone," says the writer of March, 1868, " has extended it from Hempstead to its present terminus. Prior to that it was constructed principally by the indomitable energy of Paul Bremond, aided by liberal contributions of planters on the Brazos and all the upper country between the Brazos and Trinity rivers. Many of the notes of men in this county paid for grading and ties below Hempstead. The road was subsequently sold out for debt. and purchased by its present mana- ger, W. J. Hutchins, Esq., who generously proffered to reinstate the original stock- holders, upon payment to the treasurer of ten per cent. on amount of their respective stocks. Many availed themselves of this privilege and everything went on harmo- niously. The progress of the war, however, set the road back at least ten years, but since the 'break up' it has undergone thorough repairs and has been in running order for some time to Bryan, with a con- tract out for an additional thirty miles, and considerable of the grading done.

"No one who has not witnessed the oper- ations of this road can have the least idea of the immense amount of cotton that has been transported on the road since the ter- mination of the war. Very frequently the cars would be behind its transportation for more than two months. The revenue from

this freight alone was almost incredible, and was sufficient of itself to support and extend the road for some time. But, alas ! unfortunately for the road, and the country also, this freight is fast falling off. Plant- ers and farmers, owing to the heavy taxa- tion upon cotton, and the destruction of the labor that produced it, have almost aban- doned its culture; the sagacious stock- holders and managers of the Central road are aware of this, and are now determined to reach the wheat region as soon as possi- ble to compensate for the loss of cotton freights." This was March, 1868, it must be remembered, and is colored by the gloom that the political situation cast over men's minds, but it gives the main facts. It was pushed during that year and 1869 to Calvert and Bremond. Late in 1869 it came into Limestone, and 1870 saw it ter- minate at a point where a new town was created, called, after the chief civil engineer of the road, Kosse. Then after a few months it pushed its way to another point farther north, where another town was built and named in honor of a director -- Groesbeeck, or Groesbeck, as it is gener- ally spelled. Here it stayed until, in 1871, it was pushed through to Corsicana, and midway another town was laid out, to bear the name of a Mexican general,-Mexia, -- who owned the land on which it was lo- cated, and by whom some of its site was donated. Mexia was not a terminus, how- ever, as the other two were, and conse- quently did not have the striking booms with which a railway terminns is always accompanied. The terminus periods of Kosse and Groesbeck were characterized by all the influx of what may be called

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

" portable terminus merchants," who moved as the terminus moved, eager to supply the great trade that gravitated to it for scores and scores of miles in all directions. This brought a motley and mixed population along with it, so that in both places, while the terminus feature lasted, they were cities, -overgrown and unwieldy to be sure, but cities nevertheless. In most cases the sur- plus population distributed itself along the route as the road advanced. Motley as much of it seemed at the time, it was also mixed in large proportion with men of en- terprising mold, many of whom are now prominent commercial and social leaders in these places. They were young men in 1870-'71, while now a score of years have made them conservative, settled citizens, and frequently leaders. As soon as the terminus feature was removed from Kosse and Groesbeck they became small towns of a size fitted to supply the country back of them, while Mexia, being nearer to Free- stone territory, rose gradually to the posi- tion of the county's metropolis.

With this general and comprehensive view of Limestone's leading towns, a more par- ticular account may be given of each in the order of size according to census quo- tations, although it must be understood in every case that the three years that have elapsed since 1890 began have added ma- terially to the population of each one. While considering this, it will be well to remember that the first post office estab- lished in Limestone county after its organi- zation was that of Alta Springs, which had for its first postmaster De Witt C. Vary, who received his appointment the 22d of May, 1846. This was the earliest appoint-

ment in any of these six counties, except that of Melton, in Navarro, which was on the same date. Ten years later there were but four others besides this, namely, Springfield, Tehnacana Springs, Pierson- ville (Personville?), and Mount Vernon, all but the last of which still exist. Forty- six years later there are sixteenl.

MEXIA,

as lias been said, is Limestone's metropolis. It was not so, however, until recent years. General Mexia, of Mexico, owned minch of the land about the site decided npon by the Central railroad people for a new town, and as the general gave land for the site it was decided to let it bear his name. The name causes many a tougne to trip up in pronouncing it, as does the name of the famons German poet Goethe, and for the same reason, namely, that a letter has a different enunciation in the two nations. In Mexia's case the Mexican "x" is pro- nounced like the Scotch "ch" in " loch," a sound to which it is hard for an Amer- ican mouth to conform itself. The accent is on the second sylable-Me-xi-a, and sounds as if spelled Me-ché-a, giving the Scotch guttural sound to the "ch." The new orthography of Mexicans uses the "j" for the "x" where it is so sounded, thus giving the town the name Mejia, which would be pronounced with a sound more like "he," as Me-hé-a. This last is the pronounciation it usually gets from the surrounding country, although the rest of the United States gives it a straight English "x," with the accent as follows: Mex'-ia. It was laid out in 1871, in a plat some- what regular in form about the depot

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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.

grounds. The first house was built on the corner of Commerce and Sherman streets, on the site of the present Phillips store, by Simmons, Foster & Love. Following this came a hotel, erected by Mrs. Smith, on the present site of the cotton office, where it was later on burned. Other build- ings sprang up rapidly on Commerce street and erected by John J. Kerley, L. Daniels, H. C. Wayland and others. These earliest buildings were of wood, and in 1873 Kamsler & Brothers began the movement of replacing with brick, which has gone on so steadily that Mexia gives a stranger the impression of a brick-built place. The gradual pace of growth, as opposed to the boom pace, was taken by Mexia at a very early period, and is still kept up. Her business has clung well to Commerce street until its development necessitated its ex- tension off on Sherman, Main, and some- what on other streets. The chief business is on blocks 23, 24, 55, 56 and 57, and these are well in brick. Residences started out east first, and north, then to the south, and finally toward the west in more recent years. One addition has been made oll the south and east.

The town has good cotton gins, and covers a large field of cotton production, shipping from 25,000 to 28,000 bales per year. This is Freestone's main trading point. Its population in the last three years has risen considerably above the 1,674 of 1890.

Its corporation began abont 1872, with J. C. Yarbro as the first mayor. He has been succeeded by W. J. Gibbs and W. E. Doyle, the latter of whom has served the remarkably long period of a dozen years.

One of the principal works undertaken by the city government, aside from its schools, which will be considered in the appropriate chapter, is the establishment of water- works. These were put in abont 1888, and cost in the region of $20,000. It embraces an artificial lake of twenty-five acres, a stand-pipe of 86,000 gallons capacity, and duplex pump of a daily capacity of 750,000 gallons. There are sixteen hydrants and five miles of inains. A fire department, well-equipped, is, of course, the fitting counter-part of this system. This is com- posed of two companies, one, a hose com- pany of twenty-five men, and the other a hook and ladder of like size. These are supplied with two hose carts, a ladder truck and a thousand feet of hose. The chief of the department is S. P. Denning, with P. S. Parks and L. Kolin as foremen, respect- ively of the hose and the ladder compa- nies. The first chief of the new depart- ment was G. B. Shipman. Of course, there had been old companies before that.

The financial strength of Mexia is well indicated by two. banks, one is the First National Bank of Mexia, and the other the private bank of Prendergast, Smith & Com- pany.

In its newspaper press Mexia has been well and fully supplied from the first. Its pioneer has been the vigorous Ledger, which was founded in 1869, in Fairfield, by Captain Jacob Willis Fishiburn, now deceased. When, in 1871, Mexia began to absorb so much of Fairfield, the people called for the Ledger to come too, and it responded in 1872. Since 1891 it has been owned by James O. Jones.

It was not until the past half decade

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

that the old paper gained some new rivals, but when they did come they came in force. First came the Democrat, as a rival of similar political views; then came the or- gan of the Alliance movement, bearing the naine The Herald-Echo; and recently an- other vigorons arrival began to carve itself a place under the name of The Banner, and, what speaks well for Mexia, they are all doing well.

The fraternity and mutual-aid spirit is expressed with rather more vigor than usual. Of course, the old-time Masons and the Odd Fellows are expected; but there are several others. There are the Knights of Pythias, the American Legion of Honor, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights of Honor, the Knights and Ladies of Honor, and finally an excellent military society, bearing the title the Minute Men of Mexia, which be- gan recently under Captain Smith.

Sketches of a few of the citizens of Mexia may be given here, while others are given elsewhere, according to convenience; and all may be found by the index.

M. W. Kemp, M. D., a retired physician and surgeon, of Mexia, was born in Cobb county, Georgia, November 23, 1832. His parents moved to Alabama in 1836, settling in what was then Benton, but since has been changed into Cleburne county, where he was reared. He was brought up on a farmn, educated in the country schools, and began reading medi- cine in 1856, under Dr. H. C. Ghent, then of Chulafinnee, Alabama, but now of Bel- ton, Texas. Our subject took his first course of lectures at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and left there in the spring of 1859, and

settled to practice as a first-course student in Wedowee, Randolph county, and was there when the war broke out. He entered the Confederate army in July, 1861, en- listing in Company D, Thirteenth Alabama Regiment, and became First Lieutenant. He served subsequently as Surgeon and As- sistant Surgeon of this regiment, but was not regularly commissioned as such. He was with the army of Virginia, and was present and did duty in all the campaigns and engagements that his regiment took part in, froin the time it became part of that army until the battle of Gettysburg, except the seven days' fight around Rich- mond. He was wounded at Gettysburg, captured and taken to Johnston's Island, where he was held in imprisonment until March, 1865. He was on his way to be exchanged when the surrender took place, and lie was discharged at Fort Delaware, May, 1865. After this he returned home to Randolph county, Alabama, in July, 1865, and resnmed the practice of medi- cine at Chulafinnee, where he remained nn- til 1868, when he came to Texas and settled in Springfield, Limestone connty. In the winter of 1868-'69 he attended lectures at Tulane University, New Orleans, receiving his diploma in the spring of the latter year. He took up practice at Springfield, where he followed it until 1872. At that time he removed to Mexia, then recently started, and began the drug business, keeping up his practice for a few years, but finally gave it up and a year or so ago he also sold out his drug store. Since that time he lias not beeu actively engaged in any professional or business pursuits. He has accumulated considerable means and is now living in

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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.

· retirement. While in the profession of medicine he gave his attention energetic- ally to it and met with a fair degree of success. He was a member of the various medical associations within his reach, which he attended, to the success of which he contributed his share. Dr. Kemp has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for many years and also a member of the K. of H., and the Knights and Ladies of Honor. He has served as Alderman of the town of Mexia and takes an active interest in all matters of public consequence.

The Doctor was married, in Limestone county, in 1872, to Mary I. Mackenzie, a daughter of Dr. R. D. Mackenzie, she being a native of Summit, Alabama.

Dr. Kemp is a son of James and Winnie Kemp. His father was born in South Carolina and went to Georgia and married, moved thence to Alabama in 1836, where he died in 1887, at the age of eighty-four years. The Doctor's inother bore tlie maiden name of Winnie Lott, and was a daughter of Mark Lott. She was born in Georgia and died in Alabama in 1864, at the age of sixty-five. The Doctor is one. of ten children, and his sisters and brothers are as follows: Mary, wife of John W. Powell, of Randolph county, Alabama; Moses, a farmer, resides on the old home- stead, in Randolph county, Alabama; John E. died of typhoid fever at Richmond, Virginia, just after the fight at Seven Pines: lie was in the Confederate army; Nancy R., wife of J. I. Burgess, of Cle- burne county, Alabama; Mark W., subject; James H. is a dentist of Edwardsville, Cleburne county, Alabama; Solomon A. lives in Clay county, Alabama; Meredith

was killed in the Confederate army at Gettysburg in 1863; Thomas, who was killed in the same fight; the youngest one, Berry J., died at Stanton, Virginia, while on his way home on a sick furlough, of measles, which disease was contracted in the Confederate service.

M. Herring, a merchant of Mexia, Limestone county, is a son of Stephen and Margaret (Ray) Herring. The father was a native of Pendleton district, South Carolina, but was reared as a planter in Alabama. He died in Tuscaloosa county, that State, in 1854, aged sixty years. The mother, a native of Alabama, died in the. same county in 1872. Both were mem- bers of the Baptist Church.

Mr. Herring, one in a family of seven children, was born in Tuscaloosa county, Alabama, in 1833, and was educated in the common and select schools at Green Pond, that county. He received his in- structions from Dr. Merriweather, an ex- cellent and at that time somewhat dis- tinguished educator. After leaving school he began teaching, and followed that occu- pation twelve years in his native county. At the opening of the war he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in April, 1861, in the First Alabama Battery, and, begin- ning at Shiloh, was in active service until the close of the war. He participated in the engagements in Mississippi, then in the campaign into Kentucky and Tennes- see, in all the battles of the Georgia cam- paign with Hood on the return into Ten- lessee, and finally surrendered at Greens- boro, North Carolina, as a sergeant. In November, 1866, Mr. Herring came to Texas, settling near Springfield, Limestone

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

county. Six months later he bought a farm four miles southeast of Mexia, where he took up his permanent residence and engaged in agricultural pursuits. After a year it became known that he had been engaged in teaching in Alabama, and lie was prevailed on to resume school-room work. In 1868 he engaged to teach a school at Prairie Grove, beginning in Feb- ruary, that year, with an attendance of twenty scholars. The schools of the com- munity had heretofore been running about two or three months in the year, and each school had its own book and each book differed from every other, necessitating as many classes as there were scholars. Mr. Herring sent out regular invitations to the parents to visit the schools, for the purpose of instructing them in their duties and awakening an enthusiasm on the subject of education. The interest once started continued, and in time our subject built up a good school, having had seventy scholars at the end of the first term. He taught three and a half years, at the end of which time he had 140 scholars enrolled. A new building was erected, two assistants were employed, and he gave an impetns to education which is still doing good. Dur- ing this time Mr. Herring also carried on his farming operations, and after giving up the school devoted his entire time to that industry. In 1884 he came to Mexia and entered the mercantile business, which he has ever since followed. He now stands high in mercantile reports, and is a most excellent citizen.

Mr. Herring was married in January, 1866, to Miss Lizzie Robertson, a native of Tuscaloosa county, Alabama, and a

daughter of John and Elizabeth Robertson, also of that county. Our subject and wife have four children: Ernest, John S., Lola and Prudie. Mr. Herring takes an active interest in everything relating to the good of his county, has been a Mason since twenty-one years of age, and the family are members of the Baptist Church.

J. A. Arvin, the veteran photographier of Mexia, Limestone county, Texas, settled there about November 1, 1873. He was a native of Lunenburg county, Virginia, born in 1838, and was a descendant of an old family of that State. He is the son of John Arvin aud Catherine Johns, both of whom were natives of the same place. He was of Irish descent on his father's side, three brothers having come to this country at an early day and founded the family ou this side of the water. Their names were John, Jamison and William. The latter settled in Virginia and was the grandfa- ther of our subject, while John and Jami- son went into Henderson county, Ken- tucky. The family descended from these three and is widely scattered. Our sub- ject's parents belonged to a farming com- . munity, and were a plain, unpretentious people, and both were members of the Christian Church. The mother died in her native county in 1856, at the age of forty, and the father lived and died in the same place, in 1892, aged eighty-three. They had eight children, of whom our subject was the fourth. The eldest was a daughter named Margaret, who married Leonard Crymes, and resides in Lunen- burg county, Virginia; Martha Frances died at the age of eighteen; Lucy married Peter Sturdevant and died at Mason, Ten-

LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.

363

nessee, in 1887, of yellow fever; Samuel Thomas belonged to the Confederate serv- ice and was killed at Riclı Mountain, Vir- ginia, in one of the first engagements of the late war; Lankton served in the Con- federate army during the late war, came to Texas in 1867 and died in the western part of the State; Robert died in Arkansas, un- married; Annette is the wife of Buck Crymes and is now living in Lnnenburg county, Virginia.

Our subject grew up on a farm and en- tered the Confederate army September, 1862, in Company H, Ninth Virginia In- fantry, Stewart's Brigade, Pickett's Divis- ion, Longstreet's Corps. He served in all the campaigns and engagements on up to the close of the war, was never wounded and but once captured, at Farmville, Vir- ginia, but was held for only a short time. When he left the army he was financially a bankrupt, so in 1867 he went to Texas and rustled for two years. In 1869 he learned the photographers' trade at Waco, and im- mediately engaged in it as a means of live- lihood. He followed it as an itinerant all over central Texas until 1873, when, about November 1 of that year, he located at Mexia, which had just then been started, on the newly completed line of the Hous- ton & Texas Central Railroad. He there. built a small shanty on Main street, in the rear of which Nussbaum's store now stands, and went to work. At that time there were only about 200 persons in the town, two residences and six business houses. Four years later he removed to the place now occupied by him on North Main street. He has been steadily engaged in making pictures for the past twenty years,

and has turned ont thousands, drawing for his patronage from the counties of Lime- stone, Freestone and Navarro. He does good work, enjoys an excellent reputation as an artist and has a liberal patronage.

Our subject was married May, 1879, to Miss Sallie Womack, a daughter of Judge Noland Womack, of Freestone. This lady is a native of Freestone county, her par- ents being early settlers of same. Mr. and Mrs. Arvin have five children, namely : Catherine Jane, Cecil, Noland, Leslie and Hubert Earl. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and his wife is a member of the Baptist Church. Mr. Arvin has belonged to the Masonic fraternity since 1870, and is also a member of the Knights of Honor. He is an excellent citizen, affable gentleman and good work- man.

M. L. McDonald, one of the substantial and influential men of Limestone county, was born in Madison county, Mississippi, in 1838, a son of David S. McDonald, who was born in Mississippi in 1812. He was a mechanic by trade, and was some- what of a public man, having held the office of county commissioner in Missis- sippi a number of years, and prior to the outbreak of the Civil war was a member of the secession convention of his State. He died in November, 1888. Mr. Mc- Donald married Mary Powell, a native of North Carolina, and they had the follow- ing children: M. L., our subject; Thomas, deceased; Harmon, deceased; Sarah, Mary, David and Lizzie. The McDonald family came originally from South Carolina, and belong to the Scotch Highlanders.

M. L., the subject of this sketch, learned

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

the carpenter's trade in early youth, and in 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate army, Sixth Mississippi Regiment, under Colonel Thornton, in the Army of Tennes- see. He participated in the battle of Shiloh, Atlanta campaign, siege of Vicks- burg, was paroled and rejoined the army at Demopolis, Alabama, and took part in the defense of Atlanta. Our subject was elected Third Lieutenant of the Sixth Mississippi Regiment, but in 1862 he joined Wood's cavalry regiment, Adam's Brigade, surrendered to General Canby, and then returned to Mississippi. In 1870 Mr. McDonald came to Groesbeck, Texas, twelve months later removed to Corsicana, and in 1872 came to Limestone connty, locating in Mexia. He pursued carpentering six years, and during that time erected many of the best houses in the city, among which may be men- tioned those belonging to William Kamsh- lers, Vickers, Jolin Griffith and Charles Green. Being a wheelwright, he engaged in wagon-making, and soon afterward bought out the gentleman doing the iron works, since which time he has conducted the business with good results. When Mr. McDonald arrived in this city $30 was all the cash he could produce, and this he had saved from his labors in Corsicana. He is now engaged in the carriage, black- smith and livery business. The factory has grown from a mere cross-road estab- lishment to a business employing several men, and is located in a large two-story brick building. They do $6,000 worth of work annually. During the winter months Mr. McDonald furnishes the city with coal.

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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