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 54

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 54
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 54
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 54
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 54
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 54
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 54

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When Mr. Cooper and his wife were first married, Mrs. Cooper frequently made trips on horseback to McLennan, Hill and Ham- ilton counties, which she says did not tire her at all, as she could ride forty or fifty miles with ease a day, and would feel fresh

when night came. Their family consisted of three interesting children: Joseph B., born June 27, 1866, and was married Oe- tober 20, 1886, to Miss G. E. Du Boise, the daughter of John and Sarah (Palmer) Du- Boise, natives of Alabama, and Joseph B. and wife have two little ones : Zura C., born September 9, 1887; and George C., born April 8, 1892. James W., the second son of our subject, was born August 2, 1870, and is in business at Wortham. Emma C., the daughter, is the wife of W. J. Ward, and was born January 27, 1872; and one little daughter, named Julia, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ward.

Mr. Cooper was a man of prominence in the lodge of A. F. & A. M., Birdston Lodge, No. 333, and Mrs. Cooper is also a mem- ber of the ladies' department of the Ma- sonic order, namely, the Eastern Star.

Christopher Cooper was known as Kit Cooper, and at one time he was known as one of the most snccessful stockmen in the State. He drove the first herd of cattle into Ratoun mountains, New Mexico, that was taken across the plains, and passed fourteen days without water for his stock, and for five days his men had none. They survived by drinking the blood of the cat- tle, which they would kill as necessity required. At one time Mr. Cooper was accounted worth $500,000, and he put it all into a mercantile business at Weatherford, Texas, and lost it all. His wife died in 1870, and he married again in 1874, and with 100 head of horses and 500 head of cattle went to Colorado, and succeeded so well that he got to be worth $75,000.

T. A. Bounds & Bro., merchants of Wortham, Freestone county .- The former

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was born in Mississippi in 1844, a son of James H. and Margaret (Woolf) Bounds, natives of North Carolina and Alabama. The father came to Mississippi with his father, Thomas Bounds, in 1839, locating in Limestone county. The parents were married in Kemper county, Mississippi, and reared a family of ten children, name- ly: T. A., our subject; J. E., a resident of this State; Martha J., widow of John Longbotham; J. V., engaged in business with our subject; Sarah A., widow of William Anderson; Mary M., wife of J. P. Lindley, of Limestone county; Amanda A., wife of J. W. Mallard, of Wortham; John S., of Hillsboro, Texas; and T. W., a physician of this city. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bounds still reside in Limestone county, where the former is engaged in farming and stock-raising. He has been a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church for forty-five years a steadfast veteran in the cause of his Master.

T. A. Bounds was educated in the sub- scription schools of Mississippi. In March, 1863, he joined Company B, Second Mis- sissippi Cavalry, under Colonel McCarty, and participated in all the battles from the retreat from Jackson, Mississippi. He was one of the twenty-four men who had charge of the rear guard of Johnston's army; was engaged in conscript duty through Missis- sippi until General Sherman made his raid through to Meridian, Mississippi; took part in the battles of Rome, Atlanta and Jones- boro; then returned with Hood on his Tennessee raid; served in the battles of Franklin and Murfreesboro, which were his last engagements, except in covering the retreat of the army. Mr. Bounds was

one of the twenty men who set fire to the Richland bridge, near Pulaski, Tennessee, and was also one of six left to keep it burning. He was caught by the Yankees, and had considerable trouble in reaching his command, having lost his cartridge- box, but was carried about 300 yards on a friend's horse. He was afterward one of two men selected to hunt the Yankees.

Mr. Bounds surrendered at Montomery, Alabama, and was then engaged in farm- ing in Mississippi until 1865. In that year, in company with his father's family, he came to Texas. He purchased 100 acres of raw land, paying $4 per acre, in this county, and the first year resided in his smokehouse. He then erected a small dwelling, and has since added to his orig- inal purchase until he now owns 4,000 acres, with 1,200 acres under a fine state of cultivation. In 1874, in company with his father, he embarked in the mercantile business in Wortham, which was then the third dry-goods house of the city. In company with his brother he now carries a stock amounting to about $8,000, and does an annual business of $30,000. In ad- dition to this, Mr. Bounds also has about 1,000 head of cattle, and a fine grade of horses and mules.

He was married, in 1865, to Miss Mar- garet J. Clark, a native of Mississippi, and a daughter of Hugh and Laura (Henson) Clark. To this union have been born ten children, eight now living: Willis H., John T., Jesse V. and Allin H. (twins), Laura E., M. S., E. S. and R. G. The mother died in 1885, aged thirty-seven years, having been a member of the Meth- odist Protestant Church for many years.

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

In 1886 our subject was united in mar- riage with Miss R. V. Bledsoe, also a native of Mississippi and a daughter of George E. and Helen (Moore) Bledsoe. Mr. and Mrs. Bounds have three children: George P., W. O. and an infant. Both our subject and wife are members of the Methodist Protestant Church. Mr. Bounds arrived in this State with less than $50 in cash: from that he has amassed a fortune by his industry and energy, thus showing to the rising generation of men what can be accomplished by a little perseverance, coupled with steady habits. His success is entirely due to his own exertions, has been liberal to a fault, is the poor inan's friend, and is always willing to assist those who help themselves.

John J. Stubbs, a merchant, farmer and stock-raiser of Wortham, Freestone county, was born in Mississippi in 1847, the eldest child of P. L. and Caroline (Dunagan) Stubbs, natives of South Carolina. Our subject came to this State with his father when only three years of age, and received his education at the little town of Fairfield, Freestone county. At the age of eighteen years he joined Captain Oliver's company, Bradford's regiment, and was stationed for a short time at Galveston Island. He commenced life independent of his father at the age of twenty-two years, first farming on rented land two years, but at the age of twenty-four years purchased a farm in this county. In 1874, in company with his father, Mr. Stubbs embarked in the grocery and dry-goods business in this city, and now carries a stock of $8,000, doing an annual business of from $35,000 to $40,000. He employs

two salesmen besides himself and brother, Hiram. In addition to this, our subject also owns 4,500 acres of land, with 1,300 acres cultivated, has about 600 head of cattle of different classes, and is extensively engaged in the raising of mules and horses, jacks and jennets. He is one of the prin- cipalstockmen in this section of the country.

Mr. Stubbs' has twice been married, first in 1868 to Miss Amanda Robertson, of this county, and a daughter of William M. Robertson, a native of Tennessee. To this union was born five children, only two of whom now survive-Mary and Margaret, twins. The former is the wife of Charles E. Jones, of Houston, Texas, and the latter of George M. Barnes, of En- nis. The mother died in 1875, at the age of twenty-eight years, and in 1879 our sub- ject married Miss Mary E. Van Hook, a daughter of Solomon and Anna E. (Sallard) Van Hook, natives of North Carolina, and of German nativity. Mr. and Mrs. Stubbs have four children: Minnie, Lee, George D. and Nellie Ruth. The parents are members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, in which the father is a deacon. He is also senior warden of the A. F. & A. M., Longbotham Lodge, No. 428, and a member of the K. of H. In his political views he is a Democrat, and was appointed by Governor Richard Coke Cattle Inspec- tor, which position he held eight years. Mr. Stubbs is the architect of his own for- tune, commencing life as he did with comparatively little, and has amassed con- siderable property, in addition to the $10,- 000 which his present wife had at the time of marriage. He does the largest retail mercantile business in the city ; is one of

LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.

431

the best business men to be found in the county, is a leading member in society and the church, and takes an active interest in Sunday-school work.

BONNER

is an enterprising little village of Freestone county, where reside the following two gen- tlemen, along with others whose sketches may be found by the index.

William Edward Bonner, a merchant, farmer and stock-raiser of Freestone county, was born in Wilcox county, Alabama, in September, 1848, a son of Rev. T. J. and H. A. (Posey) Bonner, natives of Alabama and South Carolina. They were married in the latter State. The father received a classical education, having graduated at Erskin College, South Carolina, and at the age of twenty-one years engaged in minis- terial duties. He was a minister of the Associate Reformed Church, a branch of the Presbyterian Church, formerly known as the Seceder Church. During the first year he traveled principally through Georgia and Alabama, and in December, 1859, settled where our subject now lives, where he resided several years. Mr. Bonner was a local minister in this county, and his first charge was County Line Church, located on the line between Navarro and Freestone counties. He was the first minister of his faith in Freestone county, if not in several counties, and during his residence here was one of the most prominent men, both as a citizen and minister.' He took no active part in the late war, yet his sympa- thies were with his people, and, like all true Southern men, his property was cheerfully given to the cause. In July,

1891, he moved to Palestine, Anderson county, where, ou account of ill health, he has retired to private life. Mr. and Mrs. Bonner had seven children: Euphema A., widow of Dr. W. A. Campbell, of Pales- tine; Rosa, deceased; W. E., our subject; Harriet M., widow of W. R. Anderson, of Mexia; Margaret P., deceased, was the wife of J. J. Dunbar; Walter B., of this county; Carrie C., wife of B. H. Gardner, of Pales- tine; and James W., of Freestone county. Rev. Bonner served as County Treasurer for two terms, of two years each, and was a Democrat in his political views. The paternal grandfather of our subject, Will- iam Bonner, was a captain under Jackson in the Indian war of 1812, and his father came from Ireland and settled near Abbe- ville, South Carolina. William Bonner was of a high type of Christian manhood, distinguished in patriotism, charity and in the use of kind words. Beginning in= dependent life with no means, he at length accumulated considerable property; by hon- est and industrious efforts, besides educating his brothers and sisters. At the close of the late Civil war he turned loose a large number of slaves, among them the first negro he ever owned, "old Jo." All his slaves loved him. He lived as a widower a long time, with his widowed daughter, Mrs. Mary McCrery, his eldest child. The maternal grandfather died when Mrs. Bon- ner was small, leaving two children besides herself: J. W. and Margaret. His father, Jolin Calhoun, was of Scotch-Irish descent, and a captain in the Revolutionary war.

William E. Bonner received an ordinary education in the county schools, but in after life acquired a good business or practical

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

training. He commenced life for himself at the age of twenty years, a clerk in the dry-goods store of Colonel Wortham, re- ceiving 812 per month. In his twenty- third year, and in company with his father, he started a small business in this city; later formed a partnership with W. A. Simmons in the mercantile trade; and four years afterward purchased his part- ner's interest, since which he has continued alone. Mr. Bonner began life with but little property, and has accumulated what he now has by his own exertions. He owns 4,500 acres of land, witli 1,000 acres III- der a fine state of cultivation. He is also a large dealer in beef cattle, handling sev- eral hundred head yearly, besides having horses, mules and other stock. In addition to his other interests, he owns a steam cot- ton gin and gristmill. For several years he lias done a mercantile business amount- ing to $20,000 or $30,000 annually.

Our subject married, March 3, 1878, Miss Elizabeth B. Sessions, a native of this county, and a daughter of Gustavns A. and Martha (Carter) Sessions, a sketch of whom appears in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Bon- ner have had ten children, viz .: Lillian B., Mattie C., Joel A., William E., John S., George (deceased), Lonise A., Annie Z., and twins, Edwin P. and Fannie Kate. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bonner are members of the Missionary Baptist Church. Politic- ally, he is identified with the Democratic party.

M. H. Harriss, a merchant, farmer and stockman, of Freestone county, Texas, was born in Coosa county, Alabama, October 8, 1846, and was the youngest of ten children born to Braddock and Avie D. (Handley)

Harriss, natives of South Carolina, who were married in that State. After this ceremony the young couple removed to Georgia and from there to Alabama, at an early date, where Mr. Harriss became a merchant and farmer and served as County Treasurer of Coosa county for several years. He was the founder of the post office of Equality, of which he was postmaster for twenty years. He left Alabama in 1880, and came to this State, where he died, in the village of Wortham, in 1887, at the age of seventy-seven. The family is of Englishi descent. On the maternal side Mrs. Harriss was born in 1805, and her death occurred in Wortham, in 1892, at the age of eighty-seven years. Her father, Jarrett Handley, was in the Revolutionary war, and that family also was of English extraction, having come to this country in very early times. All of the children born to this family lived to maturity, namely: Stephen now resides in Hopkins county, Texas; Nancy is the widow of Clark Teakle, of Montague county; Louisa, widow of Robert Longbotham, of Wortham; Mis- souri, deceased, was the wife of Isaac F. Jackson; Indiana, deceased, was the wife of Joseph T. Blake; Louisiana T., deceased, was the second wife of Joseph T. Blake; Georgia is the wife of S. M. Hay- nie, of Handley, Texas; Virginia, deceased, was the wife of T. J. Chancillor, of Ala- bama; Dr. John T. Harriss, of Hillsboro, Texas, and our subject.

Our subject received a common-school education and at the age of sixteen com- menced life for himself, by joining Major Tom Hubbard's Battalion of Cavalry, of Montgomery, Alabama, but was called upon

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to partake in no regular engagements. He was in some serious skirmishes and almost all of his companions were captured at Lafayette, Alabama. He was paroled at Montgomery, Alabama, in May, 1865. He returned home and attended school for some time, but left it at the age of nine- teen and engaged in farming, which occu- pation he followed in connection with the mercantile business, which he followed un- til coming to this State, in 1873. He lo- cated at the place where he now resides, then known as Woodland, now as Bonner post office, and for four years he rented land; but in 1877 he purchased 155 acres, a portion of his present farm. This was slightly improved, and about this time he opened up his present mercantile business, in which he has been moderately success- ful, having a general trade, amounting to some $12,000 to $15,000 annually.

He now owns 1,365 acres of land, and 850 of it is under a fine state of cultiva- tion. It is partially prairie and timber, and on his ranch he handles some 200 head of cattle, of all sorts. He also raises splendid horses and mules, of which he has some eighty head, and is also breeding somne throughbred horses. Mr. Harriss has also bred some runners, short distance.

Mr. Harriss was married, in 1872, to Miss Kate Lennard, of Alabama, a dauglı- ter of Major John B. and Eliza (Townsand) Lennard, natives of South Carolina and Georgia, where Major Lennard was a planter. Major Lennard had four chil- dren by his last wife, namely: Tom, killed in the Confederate army; Kate, wife of our subject; Alice, wife of W. P. Oden, an attorney of Childersburg, Alabama, who

served for two terms as State Senator from that section; and Ellen, who is the wife of Albert Oden, of Childersburg, Alabama. Major Lennard has been married three times and the mother of Mrs. Harriss is by his last wife. He died at this place in 1870, having come to the State about 1865, and after his death his wife returned to Alabama, but after the marriage of our subject to her daughter she returned to this State with them, where she died in 1886. Mr. and Mrs. Harriss have had seven children, but only four are living, as follows: Jewell, Lennard, Katie May and Clifton. Mrs. Harriss is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and he is a member of K. of H., Mexia Lodge, and has been a life-long Democrat.

EDUCATIONAL.

Since there are so many things of com- mon proprietorship in the happenings of the career of the various parts of the mid- dle Trinity valley, it is especially appro- priate to consider the story embraced by this volume as all one in those particular features referred to, and treat them in one place, as the sketch of the county first in order, and have that suffice for the whole. This has been done for mnost features in the sketches of the counties of larger popu- lation, and all these sketches presuppose in the reader a perusal of all the others. No one can understand the history of Free- stone county without the history of all its surrounding counties, unless, possibly, Henderson be excepted; but these, even the history of its salines, gave Freestone her first settler and Indian trader.

This is also true of the various sketches

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

of the same county. All the sketches of any county are dependent on those that precede them. How little is the settle- ment understood without a knowledge of the geology and topography ! or again, how little are the stories of the courts and towns understood without the character of the settlement as a foundation for it! So it is with the educational events.

It is but natural, from what has been seen in the preceding chapter, to expect that, although there were small private schools in various neighborhoods of the county before the war, the chief school should be in Fairfield, and so it was. The young sons of the planters were more fre- quently sent abroad in other States to col- lege, but the daughters were generally provided with excellent colleges nearer home. So the later '50s saw a female col- lege in Fairfield under Professor Henry L. Graves, now deceased, but an able inan under whose presidency there was an at- tendance in 1859 of about 150 young la- dies. After the war this again arose as a male and female school of good reputation in the hands of Dr. W. B. Moore, under whose instruction many a young man of to-day gained his chief learning. The school was for about four years under the direction of the conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. Its property finally be- came involved in private litigation and the building was vacated about 1888-'89.

Of course the public schools had secured something of a footing before this, but it has only been recently that Fairfield has become an independent district and equipped herself with good buildings and teachers. She now has three teachers and

the work is at present under the principal- ship of Professor D. A. McAskill. The course is being constantly improved.

Wortham public schools, of course, have no such ancient past, so to speak, as Fair- field's have. These belong to the public- school era, although there have been pri- vate schools there .. Wortham was earlier in getting her schools on the new basis, and her building is one of the main feat. ures of the landscape. This has, like Fairfield, been late in making itself an in- dependent district. It now has a full force of three teachers, and the develop- ment of its course is under the superinten- dence of Professor L. F. Cooper. These two are the only independent districts in Freestone county.

Including these districts, the county has a total of 55 white and 48 colored schools, in which are 2,000 white pupils, and 2,043 in those of the colored districts,-a total school population of 4,043 for Freestone county. There is one of these districts- an old one too-that shows a force of teach- ers quite as large as the Fairfield and Wortham schools; this is Cotton Gin, which has a force of three teachers also, and is the only one of those under the juris- diction of the county judge which has that many. Under the judges' control are also a goodly number of schools requiring two teachers. There are ten of these dis- tricts, five of which are white and five be- long to the colored people. The white districts are Mount Zion, St. Elmo, Sun- shine, Brewer and Hopell; those under colored control are Tabernacle, Avant, Gib- son Chapel, Salem, and Rocky Branch. This makes a total, of all schools having more

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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.

than one teacher, of thirteen out of 103 schools. The rest all have one teacher each, although they vary greatly in attendance.

In the matter of buildings they are well supplied, but they are all of wood, and, as in many other counties, they are largely owned by the districts themselves. The number thus owned in Freestone is excep- tionally large, being all but about twenty- five. The buildings are estimated to ag- gregate a value of $5,000, with furniture to the amount of $2,000.

The public system first became really effective about 1875, but its growthi was very slow, although it was a real growth. Real hearty support with some degree of enthusiasm has been apparent only in the last few years, but it has come in consid- erable force now, and with plenty of indi- cations boding still better for the future. Financial support is voted with a tendency toward liberality that always means a great deal, and is indicative of the foundation on which future development in other lines shall rest. Probably in the last three or four years the greatest interest and effect- iveness has been manifested that has ever been shown before.

It would be useless to attempt to name all who have been effective in Freestone's educational movements both past and pres- ent, and no attempt will be made; such men, however, as the school officers and traders, and Captain W. M. Peck -- that promoter of all good things,-Judge A. G. Anderson, H. P. Davis. Judge T. W. Sims, Prof. Coleman (now of Anstin), J. P. Cooper, and others may serve as illustra- tive of a much larger number.

The normal and institute work and the

idea of connty supervision have not found the public recognition that they will in time to come, but the ground-work now being done in preliminary lines plainly indicate that these are but a matter of time, and not a long time at that.

RELIGIOUS.

The following from an old resident of Freestone county, in whose borders he lias lived for forty-two years, is a good illus- tration of the futility of most attempts to recover local religious history.

"The oldest churches in Freestone county," he writes, "are, first, the Oak Island church, near Cotton Gin, built abont 1850. All the oldest citizens are dead; I don't know who to recommend to you for information. This was an old- school Presbyterian Church. The next church was one near Bonner, a Missionary Baptist Church. All the old citizens are dead and gone."

This is also a good illustration of the care that must be exercised in what .little information can be gained. For instance, it is very probable that the old Presbyte- rian church building, near Cotton Gin, erected by the Pattons, Archibalds and others, was the first church edifice erected; and possibly the Baptist church referred to was the next building; but it is not probable that it was the first Baptist soci- ety, as Elder Z. N. Morrell's account of his own planting of Fairfield as the first society organized would indicate. Cotton Gin, and Butler too, however, were along with Fairfield the earliest Baptist organi- zations in the county. The Methodists had such representatives as Rev. "Andy "

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

Davis, and the Cumberland Presbyterians such an one as Rev. Reuben Sanders, as early as the Baptists and Presbyterians. Mr. Sanders' account of it in the religious sketch of Limestone county witnesses to this. There were others, too, in the various denominations mentioned, such as Rev. H. L. Graves, Rev. Philpot, Rev. Compton, Rev. Murray (at Cotton Gin), Rev. George Harrison, down about Avant, and even old Judge R. E. B. Baylor, on his judicial tours, made quite as excellent a Baptist preacher as he did a just judge.

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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