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 52

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 52
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 52
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 52
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 52
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 52
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 52

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With the war, both the practice and the membership of the bar changed greatly, so that there is now no ante-bellum practi- tioner in the county. O. C. Kirven began practice after the war, and he is the oldest attorney of the present bar. A. G. Ander- son began next. J. P. and L. C. Cooper, C. H. Graves, B. H. and B. S. Gardner were other early arrivals. The present bar, all of Fairfield, embraces O. C. Kirven, A. G. Anderson, W. R. Boyd, J. R. and G. A. Bell, W. M. White, Lloyd Johnson, Ma- rion Edwards, J. A. Tucker, H. B. Davis, T. H. Bonner, and J. D. Childs.

Judge A. G. Anderson, County Judge of

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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.

Freestone county, was a son of James and Elizabeth (Noland) Anderson. The father was a native of Kentucky, but spent the most of his life in Mississippi, dying in Hinds county, that State, in 1849. He was a man of diversified pursuits and varied accomplishments, being planter, carpenter, blacksmith, shoemaker, and al- though never following it possessing a good knowledge of the profession of medi- cine. The inother of our subject was the daughter of William Noland, and was a native of Mississippi. His parents were married in Rankin county, in that State.

After the death of Mr. Anderson, Mrs. Anderson came to this State and settled in Freestone county with her children, and there she died in 1855. The children of this union were: Mary, who became the wife of William Colton; Sarah Ann, who was married to Jesse Holcomb; John Q .; Susan, who was married to Jesse Weaver; James I .; Fannie, who was married to Isaac Steen; Asa G. and his twin brother Jesse C. were the seventh birth in the fam- ily; Zachariah J .; Emma E., who was inar- ried to R. F. Chandler; and William. Of the sons, all except the youngest, William, were in the late war, and all were wounded except J. C. and John Q. John was in the frontier service; Asa G. and Zachariah J. were in Company G, Seventh Texas regi- ment, and James and Jesse C. were in Company H, Randall's regiment ..

Asa G. Anderson, of whom this sketch is written, was born in Raymond, Hinds county, Mississippi, March 20, 1838. He was reared in that vicinity and lived there until he came with his mother to Texas. He was aged eleven when his father died,

and three years later, in 1852, his mother took her large family of eleven children, and moved to Texas, settling in Freestone county. His educational advantages were thus limited, but he received the best within reach. In 1857 he apprenticed himself to H. P. Davis to learn the cabi- net-maker trade, continuing until he had mastered it and was ready to enter it as a pursuit when the Civil war broke out. He then abandonded all thought of anything except entering the Confederate service, which he did in October 1861, enlisting in Company G, Seventh Texas Regiment, and saw his first service at Fort Donelson, in February, 1862. There both he and his brother Zachariah were captured and taken to Camp Douglas, Chicago, where they were held until the fall of 1863, when they were exchanged at Vicksburg, each having had a spell of sickness in the meantime.

After exchange, our subject went to Ray- mond and there was in an engagement with his regiment against Grant, and at that place he was wounded and his brother Zachariah was shot in six different places. Shortly after this our subject obtained a furlough and returned home, but remained only a short time and then rejoined his command at Dalton, Georgia, and was in the remainder of the Atlanta campaign, and was severely wounded before Atlanta, July 22, 1864, on account of which he was compelled to quit the service. This last wound was in the left shoulder and from it he lost five inches of the bone of his left arın. For a time he was at Griffin, Geor- gia, and then went to Jackson, Mississippi, and appeared before the examining board, obtained his retired papers and then spent

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several months in Mississippi among rela- tives, being unable on account of his wound to return to his home in Texas. He en- dured great pain during this time, having to submit to a second operation, when the balance of the arm bone was taken out to the elbow, -- in all eleven inches. How- ever, he finally recovered sufficiently by the spring of 1866 to return home to Texas, and did so in April of that year.

The friends of onr subject at Fairfield had previously written to him and had ob- tained his consent to the use of his name as a candidate for County Clerk of Free- stone county, and on his return he entered actively into the race for that office. On his formally announcing himself for the position, the three candidates who were ont for the office at that time withdrew and gave him a clear field. He was elected without opposition and held the office until removal under reconstruction measures. When the Federal authorities were dis- placed, the offices of county and district clerk were consolidated under the new constitution, and our subject was elected to the new office, defeating Judge N. L. Womack, a Democrat, and Sam Morehead, a bitter Republican, and he was elected to the same office four years without opposition ; but, the constitution being changed and the two offices again separated, he did not hold it but two years, making R. F. Chanler, who lost his leg in the Confederate army, his deputy four years; and the second termn, while the two offices were united, he made T. W. Sims his deputy, who lost his arm in the Confederate army, making six years that he held the office while the two were united. Then the offices were again sep-

arated and he was elected District Clerk, holding that office for two years. In the meantime he read law, and at the expira- tion of his term of office as District Clerk he was licensed to practice. He was shortly afterward elected Justice of the Peace, which office he held two years, and was then elected County Attorney, there being no District Attorney at that time, and he held the office for two years. During this time he sent thirty-three men to the peniten- tiary on charges of felony, besides securing conviction in many cases where the charges were of less gravity. In all this time he never had but two indictments quashed.

Judge Anderson declined to run for County Attorney again, but later became a candidate for County Judge, and sustained two defeats while a candidate for this office, but was elected upon his putting his name before the people for the third time, in 1890, and is now holding that office. He has made a good officer, giving good satis- faction. Among the notable acts of Ins administration has been the building of the new courthouse. He was an advocate of the measure and engineered the business through, and now Freestone has one of the neatest and most compact little conrt- houses in the State for the money, $23,- 120.40 being its cost.

Since entering upon the law the Judge has confined himself to his law practice as a profession, and to his official duties while holding office. Our subject was married May 11, 1869, to Miss Fannie Noland, a daughter of H. H. Noland, an old citizen of Fairfield, his wife being a native of Mississippi, but reared principally in Free- stone connty in this State. He has three

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children: Arthur Lee, Ina Louton, the wife of W. B. Moses, and Willie Davis.

Since he reached years of maturity, the Judge has been a Democrat. As long as there was a lodge in Fairfield, he was an Odd Fellow, and now is a member of the Knights of Honor. He and all of his family are members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and he is a man much re- spected through the county which he has so faithfully served for so many years.

W. A. Cobb, Collector of Freestone county and an old citizen of the same, was a son of James A. and Maria Cobb. The father was a native of Georgiaand a repre- sentative of the distinguished Cobb family of that State. The mother was a daughter of Jolin Pillow and a native of Virginia. The parents were married in Giles county, Tennessee, and in that county our subject was born, February 17, 1829, and is the third in a family of eight children, only two of whom are now living, these being the subject, and Mary A., the wife of J. W. Tacker, of Freestone county. Two brothers, Wilson A. and Mack, were killed in the Confederate service in the late war.

Our subject was reared in his native county, growing up on a farm, and mar- ried in that county September 16, 1847, Arry Ann Edmonson, a daughter of Thomas and Martha Edmonson. Mrs. Cobb was a native of North Carolina, but was reared in Tennessee, to which State her parents moved when she was young. In 1851, in company with R. F. Buchannan and George R. Beaver of Giles county, Mr. Cobb came to Texas and settled il Freestone county, taking up his residence

on the farm of Mrs. Catherine Williams, near Cotton Gin.

A year or two later Mr. Buchannan re- turned to Tennessee, Beaver moved on west to Paio Pinto county, where he after- ward became a wealthy man, and Mr. Cobb recided on the farm of Mrs. Williams for three years. At the end of this time he purchased 320 acres of land on Cedar creek in the southwest part of Freestone county, on which he settled and improved. After a residence there of four years he sold and bought another tract,consisting of 213 acres in the George Lamb survey, south of his first purchase, and moved to this place and improved it. All of this was open country and without any improvement whatever. He resided here and engaged in farming until the opening of the war, and then entered the Confederate service, enlisting in February, 1862, in Company H, Twenty-eighth Texas Cavalry. On the organization of his company he was elected Second Lieutenant, was subsequently pro- moted to be First Lieutenant, and during the greater part of the war commanded his company. He served in the Trans-Mis- sissippi department and was in most of the campaigns and engagements in Arkansas and Louisiana, notably those following the expeditions of Steele and Banks into these States. He was actively in the service from the date of his enlistment until the surrender, and was discharged at Hemp- stead, Texas, in May, 1865, and immedi- ately returned home, where he took up his pursuits on the farm and followed them uninterruptedly until 1882.

At the date above mentioned our sub- ject was elected Collector of Freestone

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connty, which office he has since held by re-election. At an earlier date, as far back as 1858, Mr. Cobb was elected Justice of the Peace and CountyCommissioner, which offices he held at the opening of the war. He was re-elected to the office of Com- missioner in 1866 and held that office until he was removed under reconstruction measures. Being elected Justice again in 1873, he held that office until 1880, when he was elected Collector, having served as Justice in all sixteen years in the county.

Although Mr. Cobb has thus had much to do with the law, it has always been as an official administrator of it not as a party litigant. He never instituted but one suit against any one himself,and was never sued but once, and that was as a snit in which he confessed judgment, etc., as soon as noti- fied of its being filed. He was never nnder arrest in his life either by civil or military authority. His life has been a blameless one in this respect and a very correct one in other respects. No criticism has ever been made either upon his private or pub- lic record, he being spoken of in terms only of highest praise.

Mr. Cobb was married, as above stated, in Tennessee, four years prior to his removal to Texas. There were two children in the family, when they came to this State, and seven have been born since, the names of the children being: Ellen, who now is the widow of Joseph Betts and resides in Freestone county; Cap, a farmer of this county; Mary, who is the wife of Charles Archer of this county; Lafayette Monroe, a farmer of this county; Martha was the wife of Willing Radford, but is now de- ceased; Emma J., who is the wife of John

L. Lambert; and Parmelia, who was the wife of Sidney Jones, but is now deceased; Nora, who became the wife of J. P. Archer; and Della who is yet at home with her parents.

Mr. Cobb and family are members of the Christian Church, and he has for more than thirty years been a member of the Masonic fraternity.

THE LATE CIVIL WAR.

In 1859 Freestone county had a popula- tion of 6,017, with 2,961 slaves. Her vote was 702. Of this 89 votes were cast at Fairfield, which had a population of 472, with 177 slaves. Of course by 1861 these figures were increased, especially the slave figures, for refugees came in rapidly, until Freestone is said to have been the fifth county in slaves and cotton together. Certainly her slave wealth alone eclipsed all the counties considered in this volume. Some of the largest slave-owners were Frank Bradley, the Bonners, Dr. Moore, the Robinsons, Dr. Owens, the Strouds, Olivers, Blains, and others. Her slave wealth alone rose considerably above $1,- 000,000, even in 1855.

So much ability and wealth were bound to result in some pretty vigorous action, and it is not surprising to learn that the presidential vote went alinost solid for Breckenridge. There was little need of spokesmen for his cause, but such as were needed was forthcoming in the persons of General Gregg, W. C. Wilson, W. L. Moody, John Manning, Colonel Johnson, and a few others. Indeed Mr. Moody was so vigorous that he was called "the Fair- field Yancey," and planter John Manning

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even wanted to reopen the slave trade. Vigor was so considerably shown that there were Freestone soldiers in the field before the vote on secession was taken.

There was one vote cast against secession, however, by a strong supporter of General Houston and the Union party, who stood out with vigor, single and alone. This was Dr. Moore. Otherwise it is thought the entire county went for secession.

The companies then began rapidly to form, with the "Fairfield Yancey," Cap- tain Moody, taking the first infantry com- pany, and Captain A. M. Maddox the first cavalry company. Judge Anderson was lieutenant in Moody's company, which went to Tennessee; Maddox's company re- mained in the Trans-Mississippi depart- ment. Captain W. C. Wilson then took a company to Tennessee, of which his first lieutenant, Captain J. Watson, soon became head. Then came Captain W. M. Peck's company, Captain J. C. Means', of which Mr. Cobb was lieutenant, and again Cap- tain L. D. Bradley's, and lastly a company of quite young fellows under Captain Joseph Davis.

Of course there were others who went out in scattered companies. General Gregg went out as a private in Moody's company, and soon became colonel, and finally gen- eral, the most notable advance of the Free- stone recruits. Captain Moody became colonel of his own regiment, the Seventh Texas.

It is estimated that Freestone furnished probably 1,000 men, aud only about 300 lived to get back. Moody's company suf- fered such loss that only twenty-six lived to see the end, and but few are now left of

these. Bradley's company suffered badly, especially in the siege of Vicksburg. Wat- son's company was also fearfully torn up. Peck's also came in for large losses, in Louisiana and Arkansas.

So many refugees had come in, from Louisiana especially, that when the soldiers returned the store-rooms about the square at Fairfield were filled with families. Most of them went back, but lots of negroes were left.

One incident of the return has given Freestone some fame, and like all such in- cidents the versions of it are numerous, and, it may be added, varied. The version here given is that given by County Com- missioner Dunagan, who had his leg shot off in the action at Val Verde, with which the incident is connected. Captain W. B. Waldrom's company was the immediate command that took a Federal battery of four pieces, two of brass and two of steel. The two steel pieces were turned over to Captain Nettles, whose little body of men determined to not surrender, but come back and visit Freestone and then go to old Mexico. After arriving at Freestone they decided to remain, and buried the field pieces. These were lying in the ground, it is said, until Cleveland's first election, at which time they were taken up and used for celebration, one being placed in the court-yard at Fairfield, where it now does campaign dnty, and the other taken to Oakwoods, Leon county, where Captain Waldrom lives.

The returned soldiers began county re- organization again, but no sooner were the officers elected than they were removed by the military government which was to

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effect the civil reconstruction of the State. New elections were ordered and carried out in the presence of bayonets, with the voters in single file marching to the polls, white voters alternating with colored ones in the long line. There were only two elections of this kind, and each one took four days. Reconstruction finally got itself over, however, and that without any riots; and now a quarter of a century has passed and the busy industries of a new generation gives no evidence of such a past, except the sight of an old man here and there, with crutches or the stump of a leg or arm. The old veterans are rapidly growing fewer, and in recent years they have banded together to renew the old ties and memories of camp life. This organi- zation is the United Confederate Veterans of Freestone county.

TOWNS AND RAILROADS.

As the Trinity river, the old-time town4 maker, is on one side of Freestone county, and the Houston & Texas Central Railway, the modern town-maker, is on the other side, and the county seat midway between them, there will be no difficulty in seeing that the towns first began in the east and then swung over to the west, with a cor- responding influence on the seat of justice in the center.

It has already been seen that while this territory was still a part of Limestone, the town of Troy sprang up near the Trinity river about 1846-'47. About two years later, probably 1849, its inland counter- part arose about a prominent old gin, and bore the name Cotton Gin, probably the oldest town, of which there is still a con-

siderable village remaining, many of whose houses are old-time veterans. But these were the days of Limestone's jurisdiction.

FAIRFIELD.

In 1851 the new connty's seat of justice was located, and Fairfield began. On No- vember 17, 1851, the first new post office was established there under the new connty, with Dunbar Bragg as the first postmaster. As the '50s moved on a village was estab- lished at Butler by the Mannings, Gills, Mobleys, Waldroms, and others, and these constituted the ante-bellum places of any appreciable size. The decade had but about half passed, in 1856, when there were seven post offices in the county; these were Troy, Cotton Gin, Fairfield, Butler, Avant, Flowerdale and Keechi, of which names but three are now used. Of course Fair- field ontstripped them all before the decade closed, and became one of the best known places in Texas. It is true it did not re- quire a very great population, as popula- tions go now, to make a famous frontier town. The population of the entire county in 1859 was but 6,017, considerably less than half of what it is now, and nearly half of this slaves-the unusually large number of 2,961, by far the largest in any of these counties. The voting strength of the whole connty was but 702, so that as well known a place as Fairfield, the me- tropolis of the county, was at that time, it had but 472 inhabitants, 177 being slaves, and its voting strength but 89. But that was large for those days, for Waco itself had but 749 and only 155 votes, and Bel- ton's figures fell even below Fairfield's, for Bell county's capital had but 305, with but

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60 votes. These small voting numbers, however, represented a good deal more power than they do now, for behind each, especially in Freestone county, was a large slave wealth. Besides, those were the days of great plantations rather than towns, and a town usually meant a centering place for great planters in whom there was great in- fluence and power.

By 1870 the county had gained some- thing over 2,000 and registered a popu- lation of 8,139, but this meant a county increase rather than an enlargement of towns. At that time, with the ruin that surrounded them on every hand, and the indications of a new and superior line of transportation to be opened to the West outside of its borders, it is doubtful if it was generally thought that by the time another score of years had passed the county would have doubled its population, but that is what it was destined to do. This doubling was not going to show itself in towns, however, as in Anderson county, but largely in the county itself; for its best and only real town had already dropped down below its figures of 1859, and, while the connty was doubling was destined to scarcely more than recover its old num- bers with a mere dozen or so additional.

The new Houston & Texas Central Rail- way was destined to overturn all the new plans for rejuvenating Fairfield which oh- tained from the close of the war up to 1871. Its track was laid np through Limestone county and allowed to cut a meager course of 4.4 miles across Freestone's western corner. First the new town of Mexia drew largely from it; then not many years after- ward Colonel Wortham undertook to plant

a railway point inside of the Freestone lines, so that Freestone should have her own railway outlet, and it met with greater success then could have been expected, so near as it was to Mexia. But the year 1872 found another railway, on another side, doing its share to draw across her southern boundary snch town-builders as that part of the county might have. This was the International Railway in Leon county.

What were the results at the end of the '70s? These: that she had added nearly 7,000 to the county's population, but that her largest town, Fairfield, had fallen in numbers to only 358, and that her new railway town of Wortham had risen right under the eaves of Mexia, so to speak, to a population of 245, and these were the only places large enough to be quoted in the census of 1880.

What were the results at the close of the '80s? These: that, where in . 1880 the county's population was 14,921, the year 1890 showed that there was scarcely more of an increase in the entire county than 1,000, making a total population of 15,- 987; that Fairfield had increased from 358 to 499, say 500; that Wortham has risen from 245 to 401, approximately doubled; that the little village of Sunshine had two or three stores; that Cotton Gin, Luna and Brewer had become villages, of appreciable size; and that Bonner, Butler, Dew, Mills, Young, and Steward's Mill boasted a popu- lation of village proportion; and that there were these eleven post offices, with Fair- field and Wortham large enough to receive separate quotation in the census of that year. Indeed it looked as if the '80s had

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made their entire contribution to the towns and villages, and certainly the last several years have shown a quiet but steady and solid development in these places, more particularly in Fairfield and Wortham. The reaction, though not striking, has be- gun, and now the turning from wooden buildings to brick in these places are a cer- tain indication of it; and it will be more marked when Freestone gets a cross-line railway, which she undoubtedly will get before many years. Of course this increase in all the places that has been the result of the years since 1890 has been considerable, but there is no way of stating it except by estimates, and those are as variable as the persons who make them. One estimate, from an official whose office usually indi- cates careful judgment, gives the entire town population of the county at 1,900- nearly 2,000, out of the county's approxi- mate 16,000, a proportion of 1 to 8. This is a smaller town proportion than usual, but it is large for a practically non-railway county, which is rarely other than rural as opposed to urban. This estimate makes Cotton Gin the third place in size, in its half-way position on the main road to Mexia, the depot for Fairfield, and Brewer and Luna next in size, the one toward Groesbeck, and the other on the way to Jewett.

Before turning to a more detailed notice of the two towns qnoted in the census of 1890, it will be well to note the general distribution of population over the county and its relation to the towns. The most populous precinct in 1890 was No. 1, con- taining Fairfield, having 3,452 as against 3,010 in the previous census. The next in

size is precinct No. 6, with 2,858, a little less than its figures of 1880, which were 2,975. A close third is the Wortham pre- cinct, that is, No. 5, containing 2,811, a gain over its 1880 population, which was 2,105. Precinct No. 2, with 2,312 is the only other above 2,000, and this had but 1,947 in 1880. Two other precincts range above 1,000, No. 3, with 1,523 as against its larger figures of 2,084 in 1880, and No. 8, with 1,486 as a gain on the 1,379 of 1880. Two precincts have less than 1,000, No. 4, with 931 against 897 of '80 and No. 7 with 614 against 524 of ten years before, in both cases the smallest precinct.

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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