A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 36

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968

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occasions barely escaped with his life. His in- stinctive sense of honor, his certain resentment. of insult, his wonderful physical ability, and his passionate fondness for fun and frolic made him a favored personage in eastern Texas and a lead- er of his party. The "Shelby" war was finally settled by President Houston sending a body of two thousand troops into that part of the state, and thereby bringing about an agreement among the leaders and principal men on both sides, by which peace was to a very considerable ex- tent restored.

Shelby county sent two companies to the Mex- ican war, and in one of these was E. M. Dag- gett, who became a second lieutenant. When this enlistment expired, he re-enlisted, this time as· first lieutenant, and was early promoted to a cap- taincy and attached to Col. Hays' noted regiment of Texas Rangers. In this command Captain Daggett was no less a favorite than before. His indomitable courage and energy rendered him a most valuable officer, especially in the character of service he was engaged in. His men had the utmost confidence in his judgment and skill, and would willingly follow him wherever he was disposed to lead. Capt. Daggett and his men were frequently engaged, and made many very narrow escapes. On one of his scouts he cap- tured Gen. Valentia, second in command to Gen. Santa Anna ; and at another time captured San- ta Anna's coat, cap and epaulettes, and came near capturing the general himself. He was of- fered $1,000 for the captured articles, but re- fused and turned them over to Col. Jack Hays, who afterward, on request of superior officers, returned them to Santa Anna.

In the year 1849 Captain Daggett came to Western Texas (as it was then) and located some lands for himself and friends, and almost every year afterward made trips into this coun- try, and finally moved his family to Fort Worth in 1854, where he at once entered upon the prom- inent connection with affairs already mentioned in the preceding chapter. On other pages, also, has been told the part he took in building the first railroad to Fort Worth. He donated nine- ty-six acres of the three hundred and twenty on which the track and depot are now located, this of itself being a most generous gift. Moreover,

whenever the railroad company was assailed, from whatever quarter, it always found a friend in Captain Daggett. He wielded his influence and spent his money freely to advance the interests of the company, in a legitimate way, and at all times and in all ways. He was one of the few men of Fort Worth who fully and unmistaka- bly comprehended the exact condition and neces- sities of the company, and the true interests of the town and county in connection therewith. Until his death the name of Captain Daggett was al- ways among the first mentioned when the bene- factors of Fort Worth were named, and in the -promotion of great enterprises his influence was a requisite and, when obtained, practically a guarantee of success.

Captain Daggett was married in Indiana in 1834 to Pheniba Strauss, who became the mother of Ephraim B. His second wife was Mrs. Caro- line Adams (nee Norris).

CAPTAIN B. B. PADDOCK. The spirit of the Horatian verse, "Sweet and proper it is to die for one's own country," still actuates men to pa- triotic sacrifice as it has done for thousands of years, only in modern times "to do" has been substituted for "to die," and the sum of life's achievements in the 'civil and industrial depart- ments of the world's activities rightly receives more consideration than the pomp and circum- stance of war. The keynote of Captain Pad- dock's life is loyalty. He was patriotic when, a boy in years, he entered the service of his adopted southland. But the devotion of the soldier, brief though brilliant, pales before the continued, steady, consistent and effective enthusiasm of the public spirited citizen. For the past thirty odd years of life Captain Paddock has given his serv- ices to the upbuilding and highest welfare of Fort Worth and North Texas. His loyalty has never wavered, though he has seen his city in the valley of despair as well as on the mountain of prosperity. Moreover, his ardor has been in- fectious, he has been a leader in all the important movements of the past thirty years which have added prestige and permanent advantage to Fort Worth. Unselfish enthusiasm for his city, arest- less and ardent energy to undertake something

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for its further good, justifiable pride in the achievements of the past-these are the qualities, so it seems to the writer of this brief memoir, which are the basis for the truest estimate of Captain Paddock's life in its influence and actual bearing upon the history of Fort Worth and North Texas.

Captain Paddock has had a long and eventful career. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1844, a son of Boardman Paddock, he was in the following year taken by his parents to Wisconsin, where he was reared to the age of sixteen. He went south to Mississippi in 1861, and at the outbreak of the Civil War enlisted at Yazoo City in Gen- eral Wirt Adams' cavalry regiment. Bravery and gallantry in active service procured this boy in years, in 1862, the rank of captain, and as such he had the distinction of being the youngest commis- sioned officer in the Confederate army. His mili- tary experience was of the most dangerous and thrilling. As commander of a scouting company, and with the rank of chief of scouts for General Adams, under whom he served throughout the war, his service took him into Alabama, east Tennessee and east Louisiana, besides in Missis- sippi, the Yazoo valley being the scene of his most dangerous and daring exploits. The capture by him and his company, in 1864, of a federal gun- boat on the Yazoo river has recently been made the subject of an interesting article in the Phila- delphia Public Ledger. When first appointed chief of scouts his company consisted of forty- eight picked men, but he afterward recruited this to one hundred and ten. And notwithstand- ing the fact that this troop was in every engage- ment of its regiment and a number of pitched bat- tles, not a man had blood drawn throughout the time of actual hostilities, although several of the men were killed in a battle which took place in Alabama in the latter part of April, 1865, before the combatants of either side were apprised of Lee's surrender and the end of the war. In the course of his army career Captain Paddock had five horses shot from under him, and after one engagement his clothes showed twenty-seven holes punctured by bullets. He and his men came to have the reputation of wearing charmed

lives, and this feeling prompted them to unusual deeds of daring and bravery. This troop was the last under fire east of the Mississippi, and Captain Paddock has in his office safe at Fort Worth what he believes to have been the last Con- federate flag to be swung to the breeze in battle.

Captain Paddock located at Fayette, Mississip- pi, after the war, and there studied and later en- gaged in the practice of law, being admitted to the bar at that place. While there also he was married in 1867 to Miss Emmie Harper. He rose rapidly in his profession and continued in active practice at Fayette until 1872, in which year he came to Fort Worth. At that time Fort Worth was a frontier town, on the northwest edge. of the rapidly advancing wave of settlement. There was practically no law business here at the time, and he therefore went into the newspaper busi- ness, which he continued until 1882. He founded the Fort Worth Democrat which later merged into the Fort Worth Gasette, of which he was managing editor for about two years.

Next, as receiving and paying teller, he was for about two years connected with the First Na- tional Bank, of which Captain M. B. Loyd is president. He resigned this position in order to identify himself with the promotion and construc- tion of the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Rail- road, which has been one of the most important factors in the substantial development of com- mercial and industrial North Texas. Captain Paddock is still a director and stockholder in this road, which is now part of the great Frisco system. During its early career he was president of the road for nearly five years. Since retiring from active direction of the affairs of this road he has been engaged in the business of bonds, stocks and investment securities, and is president of the well known Paddock-Gray Company of Fort Worth.

Captain Paddock and the late Peter Smith, it is said, have done more for the permanent pros- perity of Fort Worth than any other two citizens. Captain Paddock has enthusiastically taken the lead in every movement for improving and devel- oping his beloved city, and has probably made more public speeches and written more articles

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booming the actual and potential resources of CAPT. M. B. LOYD, president of the First Fort Worth than any other man now living here. National Bank of Fort Worth, has lived in this In this and similar endeavors he has wrought in -. calculable good for Fort Worth and the sur- rounding country. In his own business enter- prises he has been uniformly successful, and has not a failure recorded against him.

Captain Paddock was elected mayor of Fort Worth in 1892, and served successively for eight years, being elected four times. He was one of the organizers of the Fort Worth board of trade, and is at the present writing its secretary, which office he has held for three years. He has like- wise been prominent in social and fraternal cir -. cles in the city, being a member of several clubs and fraternities, and is a high-degree Mason, be- ing a Knight Templar and a Shriner.

NOTE-This memoir was prepared by a friend, and the publishers assume the responsibility of its appearance in this volume.

In January, 1881, when a committee was ap- pointed to settle the question of right of way for the Texas & Pacific and the Missouri Pacific railroads, the personnel of that committee was very representative of the public-spirited men who were doing most for the city of Fort Worth at that period of rapid growth. This committee contained the following: H. C. Holloway, W. A. Huffman, J. P. Smith, William Darter, J. F. Cooper, W. J. Boaz, K. M. Van Zandt, C. M. Peak, F. W. Ball, W. H. Taylor, J. C. Terrell, M. B. Loyd, B. C. Evans. This was a typical group of Fort Worth citizens twenty-five years ago, to whom the city might confidently entrust its welfare. The fading wreaths of memory and the records of history are the only tokens by which we may know most of these men, for both their work and their lives belong to the past; Maj. Van Zandt, Capt. Terrell and Capt. Loyd have not yet ceased their efforts for the up- building of Fort Worth and have lived to see Fort Worth a center for eleven railroads instead of the two lines that intersected here in 1881.

city and vicinity since 1858, having come here from the blue grass regions of old Kentucky. He came here to engage in the cattle business, with the definite intention of making a compe- ; tence and then returning to the more settled states. He came, he was successful in business, but North Texas proved so attractive to him, was so rich in undeveloped resources, presented such. a field for energetic and enterprising business men, that he has never been able to carry out his original intention, and for forty-seven years has been closely identified with this section of the state.

. Not long after he came, the Indians began their long series of hostilities on the frontier, the Civil war came on, and Mr. Loyd was drawn into the Ranger service, where as captain of a company under Col. McCord he ranged the frontier about Fort Belknap and did his share in protecting the exposed settlements of North Texas from the scalping knife of the Indian.

In 1873, when Fort Worth was bustling in an- ticipation of the building of the railroad, Capt. Loyd established a private bank in one room of the building on the south side of the public square, the other half of which had long been the office of J. C. Terrell. His connection with this institution lasted only about a year. In 1877 he established the First National Bank, which is the oldest banking house under one name in Fort Worth, having a paid-up capital of three hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars and two million and a half dollars on deposit. As president of this institution, Capt. Loyd has given it most of his business attention and has maintained its stability for nearly thirty years.

Captain Loyd has been identified with and has contributed liberally to the enterprises which have meant most for Fort Worth's prosperity. His name figures often in connection with the efforts put forth by the citizens to make Fort Worth a railroad center, and the establishment of the stockyards, which is to be ranked next in importance to the building of the railroads, also received his support.

CHAPTER VIII.

BUILDING OF TOWNS AND DEVELOPMENT OF COUNTRY.

To understand the beginning of things has been the labor of philosophers, historians and scientists for hundreds of years. In ancient Gre- cian custom, the first question of the host, after the stranger guest had refreshed himself, was "Whence come you?" That is yet a natural and not impertinent query which every stranger with- in the gates must answer. By that token we hope, not merely to satisfy curiosity, but to es- tablish some basis of relation from which we may proceed to business or pleasure in our subsequent intercourse. This curiosity respecting strangers is extended to society at large, to institutions, to all the results of human enterprise, not to men- tion the scientific phase of the same, which mani- fests itself in inquiries into the origin of nature itself. Thus, it is fundamental that we desire to ascertain the first steps in the development of any country, the causes that induced its settle- ment and the manner in which its centers of population, its institutions and its economic re- sources were developed.

In the history of any country, some general characteristics may be stated as true of almost every community, and it is well to bear them in mind in considering the progress of civilization over West Texas.

It is not long after a country puts on an ap- pearance of advancing civilization that centers of manufacture and of industrial and commer- cial life begin to be formed. It is natural that the store, the postoffice, the church and the school be located near the sawmill or the grist mill to which the settlers frequently resort. Those who are engaged in mechanical, industrial or com- mercial pursuits have their houses near their place of business. There the preacher, the teach-

er and the doctor reside. Others, attracted to the spot by the advantages to be derived from society, make their homes there if they can do so. Hence there come to be centers of civiliza- tion or hamlets and villages, some of which, according to the law of the survival of the fit- test, become towns and cities; while others disappear, leaving only a few vestiges of their . former life and activity. The surrounding coun- try settling up so steadily reminds one of the star dust of which worlds are said to be formed, and these centers of civilization remind one of the nuclei which are said to grow into worlds and go whirling through their orbits. Or, these villages and towns are like the ganglionic cen- ters of the nervous system. The rapidity of North Texas settlement in 1875-76 was so re- markable that every issue of the local papers of Fort Worth during that time describes the trains of emigrants, with their household goods loaded on wagons drawn by horses or oxen, passing through the town en route to the new country of the west, where they knew homesteads were to be had on as liberal terms as settlers on a rich soil ever subscribed to. This flood- tide of homeseekers came despite the fact that no agencies under state or private enterprise ex- isted to direct the immigration to this country. The state of Texas had not seen fit to establish a bureau of immigration, and the constitution of 1876, notwithstanding the opposition of the press, prohibited the establishment of such a bureau mainly on the ground that it was a source of ex- travagance. Those who came to find homes in Texas during those years, before the great railroads and other corporations inaugurated a system of advertising and offering material in-

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ducements to home-seekers, did so mainly be- cause this was a new country where they hoped to find better conditions than those under which . they had been living. As an example of one of, the causes which will induce immigration, may be mentioned the great grasshopper plague which devastated the middle west in 1875; many of the people who came to Texas in the fall of that. year were sufferers from that pest. This wave of homeseekers, passing through the compact and organized communities, spread over the thinly settled portions, taking up lands that had not yet been selected or else going beyond the fron- tier and making homes in the domain of the hunters' and cattlemen's paradise. Thus the settlements progressed, and after the manner just described, the people grouped themselves togeth- er in towns and in due time organized them- selves under the institutions of social order which result naturally from the American character.

the course of travel to such an extent that regu- lar roads are not only desirable but absolutely necessary. Heretofore the traveler could start in almost any direction and it was only necessary for him to know the general direction of his route and he could find the road across the prairie or could cross without any definite trail. The case is altogether different now. The numer- ous fences across some of the most frequented roads are becoming serious obstacles in the way of travel, and the county court should at once proceed to lay out highways." So, we may date the beginning of the road system of this part of the state from the middle seventies.

The old frontier line of counties that we have so often referred to in the course of our narra- tive-namely, Clay, Jack, Palo Pinto and Parker counties-about 1875 entered upon a career of permanent development that soon placed these .counties inland as concerns the position of the western line of settlement.

One of the first duties that confronts a civil community is to provide for highways of com- Weatherford, the county seat of Parker, whose citizens were inspired with the same hopes of railroad connection with the outer world as were the people of Fort Worth, was the foremost town by 1877 was credited with two thousand popula- tion. "Weatherford is a much larger and decid- edly more prosperous and delightful place than we were prepared to see," comments a visitor to that place in June, 1875. "The town occupies a very elevated position on high hills, and its business, church and educational institutions are fully in keeping with the high enterprise of the citizens." Some of the men whose civic and business energy was behind the progress that this town made during the seventies were Judge A. J. Hood, mentioned elsewhere, Capt. Ball, Hon. I. Patrick Valentine ; the district attorney was S. W. T. Lanham, a progressive young lawyer at the time, and now governor of Texas. Weather- ford has been the home of many well known men. And their spirit of enterprise was of the same sort with that of the people of Fort Worth ; for when they saw that there was no immediate prospect of the T. & P. being extended from Fort Worth to the west, they followed the ex- ample of their more fortunate rival and formed the Parker County Construction Company to munication. But the conditions under which North Texas was settled caused some interesting variations in road making from the methods . that are followed in many other parts of the. on the frontier during the early seventies and country. The first settlers of this region sel- dom fenced any of their land, unless they built a rail fence around a small garden plot or some patch of ground which it was necessary to inclose in order to raise a crop. The country was open in all directions, and it was many years after the Black Land belt began to be settled before fences became so numerous as to be obstructions. In the more western country, where timber was scarce, and before wire fencing was introduced, fences were even less noticeable, and the range cattlemen were not accustomed to such obstruc- tions until the progress of events and the inven- tion of wire fences forced them to it. There- fore there was no necessity that the county gov- ernments of North Texas should give attention to the laying out of highways until the counties had progressed to a considerable degree of de- velopment. It was not until 1874, indeed, when the people of Tarrant county found themselves under the necessity of opening public roads. To quote from a county paper, "The scores of farms being opened in every direction are obstructing

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build the line between the two cities. It was in January, 1879, when the grading was begun, and by May, 1879, half the work was completed. Col. M. S. Hall was the principal contractor. The enterprise resulted as happily for Weather- ford as the similar one had for Fort Worth, and by the winter of 1879-80 trains were running into Weatherford. But Weatherford was not destined to remain long as the western terminus, and this fact, coupled with the growth and pres- tige that Fort Worth had already gained, did not give Weatherford a chance to become the me- tropolis of Northwest Texas.

Palo Pinto county has always been a center for cattlemen, its abundant water supply and its rugged surface affording excellent winter quar- ters for the live stock. In the seventies there was one village-Palo Pinto-which was the county seat and aspired to be a station on the Texas & Pacific railroad when that should be extended. In 1876 the business directory of the town showed six dry-goods stores, several saloons, two black- smith shops, one wood shop, six lawyers, five physicians, two schools, a Masonic hall. Its subsequent history illustrates very well the truth of the generalizations made at the beginning of this chapter, that towns are like persons with the same vicissitudes to their careers. The rail- road never came to Palo Pinto, and its population of some five hundred must be content with the distinction of having the court house and being the legal center of the county. In the same year we learn that immigration is being more and more directed to this county, and that cotton and wheat crops are being raised on some of the country hitherto given up to cattle range, but the principal trading is still done at Fort Worth. The only postoffice in the county at the time be- side Palo Pinto was Grand Ranche, in the south part of the county, the office being located in Joel T. Beardon's house on Palo Pinto creek. In January, 1877, there was no store or other busi- ness enterprise at this place, but being situated in the center of a vast arable district, it was not long before a number of people grouped them- selves around this postal center, a store was put up, there was a school with good attendance, a Baptist church held regular services, and thus

again we see illustrated the gregarious and so- cial character of mankind.

By the latter part of 1876 Wise county claimed a population of fifteen thousand, and although without railroads its development was substantial and rapid. Decatur, the county seat, had a popu- lation of 1,500, in 1878, and its citizens were en- thusiastic in advocating the building of a rail- road through the county. Aurora, whose origin has been elsewhere referred to, had grown to five hundred population, with a dozen business houses, and a two-story school building. The town of Chico was started in 1878.

In the summer of 1876 Jack county was re- ceiving little immigration, farmers were com- plaining of lack of market, and the industrial development was perhaps slower than that of some of the surrounding counties. Jacksboro, the county seat, as one of the military towns of North Texas had enjoyed somewhat of a boom and about this time was suffering from the re- action. "Jacksboro," says a correspondent from there in 1876, "has improved but little for several years. The location of one of the military posts here in 1867 had the effect to add materially to the town's importance as a trading post for the frontier settlers, but since the cessation of In- dian troubles the troops have nearly all been withdrawn, resulting in a perceptible decrease in prosperity. Col. Woods is here in command of the skeletons of three companies of the Eleventh In- fantry, which are barely enough to do post duty and preserve the government property." Other interesting items about the town are found under date of February, 1877 :- "A big busi- ness was transacted here during the military days, but the trade is now supplied from the permanent settlers. The older buildings in the place are constructed of upright pickets, plastered with clay, and surrounded with stock- ades built in the same way. The first settler is still here, T. W. Williams, a brother of 'Blue Jeans' Williams, present governor of Indiana. H. H. McConnell, the mayor, is also proprietor of the Southern Hotel and drug store, while D. C. Brown is the leading merchant of the place. Capt. Thomas Ball, senator from the district, is a lawyer here." By the latter part of 1879

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 36

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1906 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co. Number of Pages: 968

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 968