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 72

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 72
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 72
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 72
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 72
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 72
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 72

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Both of them were good people, members of the Baptist Church, and much respected in the community. They had a family of four children, as follows: Mary, who mar- ried J. A. Thompson, now is living in Texas on a farm in Franklin county; our - subject; Julia, who married Mr. Michel- borough in eastern Texas, and died after her husband in her twenty-ninth year; and James, who enlisted in General Sib- ley's command, and went first to Arizona, but returned in the fall of 1862, and while serving in the army in Louisiana was killed in the battle of Camp Bisleu. But two of the family are now living.

Our subject was reared by his widowed mother, and as he was the second oldest, and the oldest son, he was obliged to assist in the rearing of the others. His educa- tional advantages were very limited, and he is a true type of a self-made man. In 1858 he came to Texas, and first located in Rusk county. At that time he had a family of two children. After coming into tlie State he engaged as overseer, and was so employed at the outbreak of the war. In 1862 our subject enlisted in Company G, Eighteenth Texas Infantry, under Colonel Ochiltree, and served two years as a pri- vate soldier, when he was detailed to over- see a farm in Rusk county, which belonged to a widow, the products of which, after the support of the widow, were used for the army.

After the close of the war our subject came to Henderson county, where he re- mained one year, then went to Navarro county, in March, 1867. Here he rented land for two years, and then bought a tract of raw land which was covered with high

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

wild grass. Here he immediately began making improvements, and now has 250 acres, mostly under fencing, and 150 under cultivation. Here he has erected good buildings, and his crops are cotton, corn, oats and millet, and makes his own home supplies. He also raises some horses, mules and cattle, but does not attend to the farming himself, renting principally.

In 1887, our subject represented his county in the Twentieth State Legislature. He has been President of the Farmers' Alliance, being elected on general princi- ples, as he is very popular. There was a struggle on the nomination, as he was running against two strong men. He has filled all of the minor offices to the satis- faction of his constituents. He is a lead- ing Alliance man, and has represented the Grange at various conventions, but con- tinues a strong Democrat and desires no third party. He is a popular member of the Masonic fraternity, and has served as Master of Dresden Lodge, No. 218, and has represented the Grand lodge.

Mr. Gill was married in 1854, in Ala- bama, to Miss Rebecca Nabours, a daugh- ter of John and Winna Nabours, farmers of Alabama, who died in that State. By this union our subject became the father of four children, as follows: Marietta, the wife of E. P. Garner, a farmer of Navarro county; Laura A., the wife of Joe. Wood- ard, a farmer of Navarro county; Fanny, the wife of Joe. L. Cox, a farmer of Na- varro, once a railroad engineer; and James L., now in the Alliance store in Corsicana. Mrs. Gill was born February 15, 1835.

One of the leading principles of the suc- cessful life of our subject has been the

prompt pay-as-you-go plan. He believes that if the farmers of Texas would adopt his plan of doing withont when there is no money in the treasury, there would be more prosperity among the farmning community. He has made his own way in the world, and looks back with pride over a career of honest endeavor and unabating industry. He, his wife, and three of their children are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Mr. Gill, while a member of the Legis- lature, was a strong advocate of the Rail- road Commission bill, which was not passed by the Twenty-second Legislature. He was a very efficient member, and was a great favorite among his co-laborers, as well as his constituents.

LPHONSO H. CHANDLER, one of the earliest settlers of Henderson county, was born in Georgia, in 1826, and was the son of Zaclı. and Saralı (Eck- les) Chandler, natives of Virginia and Georgia respectively. They were married in Georgia, and there Mr. Chandler car- ried on his business of farming. Grand- father John Chandler was a native of Vir- ginia, and the family had come to that State in early days. The Eckles family were not so prominent, and the records of them cannot be so easily traced, although it is known that grandfather Eckles died in Illinois, whither he had moved at the early settlement of that State. The Chandler family was a large one, John, the grand- father, rearing a family of fifteen children, and Zachary, who died in Georgia in 1835, reared a family of seventeen, thirteen of

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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.

whom lived to be grown. The names of this family are as follows: David, de- ceased; Elizabetlı, deceased, wife of John Freeman ; Martha married James Freeman ; Jefferson, deceased; Nomia married Nicks; Orpha married Anderson Nicks; Jemima married Peter Lantern; James and William, deceased; Reuben T. lives in California; Nancy married L. B. Whithorn; Hassell, deceased; and A. H. our subject. Mrs. Chandler died in 1858.

Our subject was educated in the common schools of Georgia and was reared to farnı life. He came to Texas in 1859, and set- tled on land on which he now resides, then known as the Simon Weiss league of land. Mr. Chandler first purchased 500 acres of this land, it having small improvements at that time, and for it he paid $3.00 per acre. He has added to the first purchase and now owns a tract of 800 acres, within twelve miles of the city of Tyler, with 250 acres under a fine state of cultivation. He has also other tracts through the State.

In 1863 he joined Company C, of A. W. Terrell's regiment, and was in Colonel Stone's battalion in the battles of Mans- field, Pleasant Hill and Yellow Bayou, besides other engagements and skirmishes with the enemy, and was in the army which pursued Banks through Louisiana. He was at Natchitoches at the time of the surrender, but the command in which our subject was concerned disbanded at Black Jack Grove in Hopkins county. Upon his return home he found that his assets amounted to $7.50 in gold, with quite a collection of Confederate money. His ne- groes had gone, but he had some stock jeft and provisions enough to last some time.

He sensibly concluded that the most expeditious plan for the upbuilding of his fortunes would be by tilling the soil, and this he immediately began, and set about it with the help of hired freedmen, and con- tinned every year with growing success until 1872. He then opened a store on luis farm three quarters of a mile from the present village of Chandler. The store was the conventional country store and the place was made a postoffice under the name of Stillwater, and here he did business un- til 1880, when the Cotton Belt railway was built through this part of the country. At that time Mr. Chandler secured the depot and crected the first business house on the place.

This railway honored Mr. Chandler by erecting for him a lasting memorial by nam- ing the thriving little village, which imme- diately grew up here, after his name. In this place our subject has taken a great in- terest outside of any pecuniary interest that he may liave. In 1882 he was dam- aged by fire in his stock of goods and liis house, losing $4,000 in stock besides a house, and he had but $1,600 insurance on all. After this Mr. Chandler erected a two- story brick building, with a resident por- tion up stairs. This building is 70 x 50 in dimension with a brick partition wall, thus giving two store rooms. Mr. Chandler carries a general stock of goods, consisting of dry goods, clothing, boots, shoes and groceries. He now does mostly a cash business, having tried for many years a credit business and realizing that the bet- ter way was to demand cash.

Mr. Chandler was married in 1846 to Miss Mary A. Brooks, of Georgia, a daugh-

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO,

HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

ter of Jolin and Annie (Watts) Brooks, who were early settlers of Georgia, where they died. They had a family of fifteen children: twelve lived to maturity. Will- iam resides near Cottonwood Springs in Texas; Jane married A. J. Wilson and inoved to Rusk county, Texas; Hanna Rilla married A. J. Walston and moved to Leon county. These were all who came to Texas. Henry went to Arkansas and died in that State, but the rest all passed away in Georgia.

To Mr. and Mrs. Chandler seven chil- dren were born, as follows: Coresus, wife of J. W. Duty of Henrietta, Clay county, Texas; John J., of Young county, Texas; Laura, wife of W. B. Kirby of Kaufman; Alice, wife of R. T. McFarlan; R. H. Chandler of this place; and the other two died young. Mr. Chandler is a mem- ber of the Masonic order, being a demitted member. He is a well known resident, universally respected.

EV. BEN GREEN, a successful farm- er, an old settler and a well-known preacher in his part of Navarro coun- ty, Texas, is the subject of this sketch. He first came to Texas in 1868, and located in Navarro county on July 17. He first rented land and raised a crop, but then moved to Hopkins county, and there bought the right of a homesteader. After making some improvements he sold the claim and again returned to Navarro county, and there bonght a fifty-acre tract of land on payments, and in July of that same year he became involved in some difficulties which

resulted in his leaving the neighborhood and going to Arkansas. After this trouble was settled he returned and went to work, paying for his land, improving it and re- maining there nine years.

In October, 1872, Mr. Green became converted and put aside those ways which could cause him to offend others, and soon after traded his farm for another and larger one, where he lived two years, and then sold out and removed into north Arkansas.

In 1874 he obtained a license to exhort, and after locating in Arkansas he bought a farm and worked it awhile, and also preached as occasion seemed to demand. During the eighteen months of his resi- dence there he lost his wife, and then he returned to the old neighborhood in Na- varro county, married again, sold out in Arkansas, and settled down in the old county. At first he bought a small tract of raw land, improved it and then traded it for the farm on which he now lives. To this he has added until he now owns 400 acres well improved, and 250 in a good state of cultivation. He with his sons cultivates about 100 acres, but the rest he rents.

After becoming converted to the Method- ist faith he preached and prayed for eight years, and was then expelled for preaching holiness, and for four years he lived out- side the church, but rejoined the old church and remained two years, and then joined the Missionary Baptists, and in 1887 he was ordained a minister, and has preached for them ever since, although he does not take a charge, but goes where he can do the most good, and is what is known as an evangelist preacher, every Sunday going

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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.

where the Spirit directs him, giving his services free, sometimes preaching to the Indians. He was reared without religious instruction, near a distillery, where he re- ceived no good examples, education or teaching in the direction in which lie should go.

When our subject came to Texas he had a wife, a yoke of oxen, and $75 in money. He found here a wild country filled with wicked, unscrupulous people, and he confesses that he was equal to any of them until the time of his conversion, joining them in whisky-drinking, tobacco- using, and could swear longer and louder than any of the others. When he was mercifully converted those habits left him, and have never been again taken up. He now lives at peace with God and mankind on his beautiful farm, where all of the home supplies are made in the greatest abun- dance.

Mr. Green was born in DeKalb county, Alabama, July 22, 1846, and in 1854 moved to Walker county, in the same State, and. there grew to manhood. He remained with his father until 1862, when he entered the army, enlisting in Company F, First Alabama Cavalry, under Longstreet, and remained eighteen months; but at the bat- tle of Kingston, where his company was whipped, he left his command and joined the Federals, and took the oatlı at Knox- ville, Tennessee, and was started north. At Mt. Vernon, Indiana, he engaged as a laborer, and his first employment was stacking wheat, and the next spring he was sent by his employer to Illinois and worked for him on a farm for two years, and then the war closed, when he returned to his

father in Alabama. During his service in the army he was in seven hard-fought battles, but he was never wounded or hurt in any way. He remained with his parents until 1868, and then all came to Texas together; but before leaving Alabama he married.

Our subject is the son of Caleb and Nancy (Bryant) Green, of Georgia, the former a large and influential farmer and distiller, until the opening of the war. After coming to Texas he bought a 200- acre farm, and lived there the remainder of his life, dying in 1872. His wife yet sur- vives him, and lives at the old liome in Hempstead, now about seventy-two years of age. Ten children were born to the above, four sons served in the war, two were in the Federal army and two were in the Con- federate, all of them returning home after the war and all coming to Texas except two, who died in Alabama before the fam- ily came away. Our subject was the second child; three areliving in Navarro county,- his brother, C. P., a farmer, and sister, Nancy, wife of Charles Wood, a farmer of this county.

The first marriage of our subject was to Miss Amanda Sandlin, daughter of Daniel Sandlin, of Alabama, and by this marriage six children were reared: Ida; Robert, a Navarro county farmer; Erastus, Daniel, Nanny and Nellie. In 1883 Mrs. Green died, and in November of this year our subject married Miss Nancy Reeves, a daughter of Noah Reeves, of South Carolina, who was a deacon in the Baptist Church, and by occupation a farmer. He died in Mississippi in 1868, and his widow and family moved to Texas in 1872, first locating on the Trinity river, but later

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

moving to Navarro county, where Mrs. Reeves died, in 1882. Mr. and Mrs. Green have no children. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, but has never taken any interest in politics, having never cast a vote.

G. DAMON .- It is rarely the case that one expects to find much ro- mance in the lives of successful busi- ness men, especially as it is known that the elements that enter into, and lead them step by step through, the circuitous paths of toil, and oftentimes deprivation, toward the attainment of financial success, are plain, hard common sense, energy, perseverance and determination to succeed in spite of obstacles that may impede their progress; and yet, to go over the life of the subject of this sketch, one cannot fail to detect the elements of romance under- lying it, and to feel that one is perusing a work of fiction rather than the career of a practical man of business.

Henry G. Damon was born in Tallahas- . see, Florida, February 13, 1846, where he received his early training, his educa- tion being the best procurable in the schools of that place and time. In May, 1861, at the age of fifteen, he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in Company D, Second Florida Regiment. After two months' service in Florida his regiment was ordered to Virginia, where it was placed first under Magruder and later under Joseph E. Johnston, and took part in the campaigns into l'ennsylvania and Virginia of that date. Mr. Damon was with it in the engagements at Williamsburg,

Seven Pines, the seven days' fight on the peninsula against McClellan, Second Ma- nassas and Antietam. At the expiration of the term of his enlistment, being under age, he returned home and remained till February, 1864, when he enlisted in Con- pany D, Second Kentucky Cavalry, under General John Morgan. He was witlı Morgan on his last raid into Kentucky, and it was while on this raid, and during the time of his capture and sojourn in the North, that he met with some of his most thrilling experiences. He was taken pris- oner the 12th of June, 1864, at Cynthiana, Kentucky, in the last battle fought by Morgan on Kentucky soil, and became an inmate of Rock Island prison, which was located on an island between the towns of Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illi- nois, being perhaps the strongest prison in the West. It was a large, rectangular pen, covering about twenty-five acres, and con- taining 120 barracks, each having berths for the accommodation of 120 men. A fence twelve feet high surrounded the prison yard. Inside, and fifteen feet from the fence, was a ditch from three to ten feet deep, dug down to solid rock, to prevent the prisoners from tunneling. The ditch was the dead line. Prisoners were commanded not to get in it or to cross it, on penalty of being shot. Guards paced the fence at short intervals and overlooked the yard. For further security, the yard was illuminated every night by large kerosene lamps with reflectors, which were placed against the fence. Notwith- standing the risk that these and other precautions involved, he, at great peril of his life, succeeded one night in getting

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LIMESTONE, FREESTONE AND LEON COUNTIES.

to the fence, though in the glare of one of the large lights, and dug his way out !

Two days afterward he was in Chicago, where he had the good fortune to meet with Mrs. Morris, who sent him to Mar- shall, Illinois, where he found some of his old comrades. A few days afterward, while in company with Captain John S. Castleman, one of Morgan's men, and Lieutenant Munford, an officer in a Ten- nessee regiment, he was arrested at Sulli- van, a small town on the Wabash, and, with them, was lodged in prison at In- dianapolis. In the course of the next three weeks the authorities had ferreted out the plans of Castleman, and he and Munford were placed in close confine- ment; while Mr. Damon, being simply an escaped prisoner, was placed with the prisoners at Camp Morton, a prison closely resembling the one from which he had escaped. Soon after his admission to this prison he, with a comrade, made an attempt to escape. They were caught, and punished, by being made to mark time with their hands tied behind their · backs, from 9 o'clock at night until 12 o'clock the next day, and Mr. Damon, as instigator, was sentenced to solitary con- finement for two weeks.

On the next Monday after his release from solitary confinement (November 14, 1864), he received the intelligence that an attempt to escape was being planned, and, quickly joining the party, was once more seeking his liberty. In a work entitled Southern Historical Society Papers, we find this thrilling account of his second escape from this prison, which is given verbatim:

"As I was sitting in my bunk getting ready to turn in, one of the men came in and said, ' Damon, I just saw a crowd with ladders running across the yard to- ward No. 4. I reckon they are going to make a charge.' I instantly jumped to the ground, and calling out, 'Come on, boys,' started toward the door. I stopped when I got there and turned around. Not a man had stirred. 'Are you not coming?' said I. Some one answered, ' No use; it's been tried before. You will all get killed.' There was no time to waste in trying to persnade them. I turned and ran toward No. 4. No. 4 was a large barrack on the north side of the prison, abont ten feet from the ditch. The crowd, as if to nerve themselves for the desperate effort, had made a tempo- rary halt behind it. There seemed to be about sixty men. A few in front, with ladders in their hands, were crying ont, ' Come on, boys,' but holding back, whilst those behind, in most determined tones, yelled, ' Go ahead, boys.' It was natural for the front rank to hesitate. They were to catch the fire, and it seemed certain death to the foremost. All this I took in before I got there. I said to myself, ' They only want some one to lead them, and I will do it!' That honor, however, was not reserved for me. I was within ten steps of the front, when the whole crowd, as if actuated by one impulse, rushed forward. Into the ditch we went, regardless of the volley fired at us, and up on the other side. There, planting our ladders against the fence, we almost flew over. After firing one volley, which seemed to miss us all, as no one fell, the

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HISTORY OF NAVARRO, HENDERSON, ANDERSON,

guard scattered. When the foremost man reached the top only one sentinel was left, and he appeared to be too frightened to run. The whole prisonful could have gone out at that gap.

" Ontside we all scattered. A cornfield was to be traversed, and beyond that was timber. On reaching that I turned ob- liqnely to the left, ran in that direction a few minutes, then made another left turn, and soon came to a road some distance west of the prison. The pursuit would naturally be on the north side. I had 110 fear of being arrested, for I wore a nice snit of citizen's clothing generously given me by a comrade at Marshall. Moreover, I was small for my age, and could easily have passed for a boy of fifteen. All that night and the next day I walked on the railroad leading to Terre Haute, my desti- nation being Marshall, Illinois, ninety miles west from Indianapolis, where I arrived Thursday night."

Receiving some kind assistance from a family of Southern sympathizers, who kept him two weeks, he was enabled to reach Boone county, Kentucky, where he found a squad, which, nnder Captain Wain- wright, one of the Duke's officers, was about to start for West Virginia. Join- ing them, he in December crossed the line, and early in January rejoined his brigade.

At the termination of hostilities Mr. Damon, still only a boy, returned to his former home and entered a mercantile house in the capacity of clerk, and sub- sequently engaged in the same capacity in his father's store. In 1872 he, with his brother, opened a dry-goods store in

Tallahassee, and in November of the same year was burned out. Gathering together the remnant of his small fortune he started for Texas, locating in Corsicana, then a sınall town, where he opened a dry-goods store in the spring of 1873, which proved a failure, owing to the presence of yellow fever in the South, and the impossibility of obtaining goods for several months after they had been ordered. The failure of Jay Cooke, which caused a marked de- pression in business, and consequent hard times, made the year 1873 memorable for many financial disasters and failures in business. Mr. Damon, being unable to meet his obligations, for the reasons above given, made an assignment to his credi- tors. The assets were sufficient to pay forty-five cents on the dollar. It is a note- worthy fact that years afterward, when prosperity came, lie paid his creditors the balance due them, amounting to $6,000, in full, although the debts were barred by limitation.

At the age of twenty-eight, having again to make a fresh start in life, lie studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Austin, . Texas. Armed with his sheep-skin he removed to Decatur, then a town of only 300 inhabitants, and opened a law office. Decatur was the county seat of Wise county, and had five lawyers already lo- cated; five others came in and settled within six weeks. Abont this time the gold fever was at its height in the Black Hills country, and, disgusted with poverty, having only $25 left, and seeing no chance to succeed in a so sparsely settled country, with ten lawyers to combat for what little business there was, he

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AND LEON COUNTIES.

LIMESTONE, FREESTONE

started for Wyoming Territory. His

money giving out at Fort Scott, Kansas, he walked to Kansas City and from there

to Kearney, Nebraska, disdaining to " beat his way." At Kearney he learned that the Government had prohibited any one occupying the mining region, on ac- count of the lands belonging to the Indians.

He remained at Kearney for some time, working at whatever he could find to do, and saving all lie earned outside of his actual living expenses, until he had suffi-

cient money to take him to Kansas City,

where he was able to borrow enough to

return him to Corsicana, Texas. There he taught school for a few months, which was not very remunerative in those days. and failing to secure other employment he joined the rangers and for five months as- sisted in guarding the frontier, after which,

in the fall of 1876, he returned to Corsi- cana, where he obtained a sitnation as bookkeeper, employing his evenings and leisure time in reading law. In January, 1876, he again resumed the practice of law, in which he was moderately successful.

In the year 1880 he married Miss Maggie Rogers, the accomplished daugh- ter of Colonel William P. and Martha (Halbert) Rogers, who fell at the head of his regiment at the battle of Corinth in 1862, and who was buried with military honors by General Rosecrans. They had by this union three children: Gordon, Nellie and Willie. His law practice con- tinued to improve until the summer of 1881, when a severe attack of sickness visited him, which was prolonged over a period of five months. Not having a law partner the business he had built up nec-

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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