A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 39

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

USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 39

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While too young to enter the regular army during the Civil War, the son William Wes- ley satisfied as far as possible his military ambitions by joining the Home Guards, state militia, in which he did duty for about a year. He received his education at Shiloh Academy in

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Paris, Texas, and at the academy at Gilmer in Upshur county. In 1869 he engaged in the real estate business at Gainesville with his father . Settling on the land in its virgin state and the firm of Howeth & Son, and having con -. commencing its improvement, he built thereon tinued in that line ever since, is now one of. one of the largest log cabins in Texas, bought the oldest real estate men in this part of the . cattle, and in a short time had a prosperous cattle and farming business in operation. But

state and represents much of the oldest and most substantial interests of the county. He has . ere he had had time to long continue his labors valuable farming interests in the county, and " death claimed him, passing away in 1883. His wife died in Kentucky when her son Walter was a young child. She was born in Clark county, Kentucky.

has identified himself very closely with the for- ward movement in all matters affecting the general welfare of city and county. He is an ex- mayor of Gainesville.

Mr. Howeth married, at Gainesville in 1885, Miss Kate Carpenter, and they have two chil- dren, Jackson D. and Woodfin Grady.

WALTER PRESTON STEWART is num- bered among the leading business men of Jacks- boro, where he is extensively engaged in a real estate and financial business, and is a large land owner in the county. He was born in Kentucky, between Frankfort and Louisville, his parents being Malcolm G. and Gertrude (Reynolds) Stewart. The family is of Scotch ancestry. The extensive land interests of W. P. Stewart in Texas are inherited from the large holdings established in Jack county by his grandfather, Willis T. Stewart, a prominent business man of Louisville, Kentucky, and one of the members of the old Texan Emigration & Land Company organized in the early '50's to make extensive purchases of land and estab- lish colonies in Texas. It was the successor of the Peters Colony, well known to old pioneers, which was proprietor of a large tract of land in western Texas. It was also in the '50's that Willis T. Stewart acquired as his interest in the company the large body of land in Jack county, deeded him by the state of Texas, a portion of which now belongs to Walter P. Stewart. The former never lived in this state, but continued in business in Louisville until his death, in 1860. He, however, made several trips here, and at his death left nearly sixty thousand acres of these lands. The property which belonged to him in Jack county lay idle for many years, but in 1874 Malcolm G. Stew-

art, a native of Louisville, came from Kentucky to take charge of and improve the same.

. In the schools of Kentucky Walter Preston Stewart received his literary training, attend- ing for five years the Kentucky high school at Frankfort, and after coming to this state entered upon a business course in Prof. Prewitt's Busi- ness College at Fort Worth. In 1878 he came to Jack county and with his brother, Willis T. Stewart, took charge of the Stewart lands after their father's death, their business being con- ducted under the name of Stewart Brothers. The postoffice and settlement of Gertrudes, established about 1878 on their land, grew out 'of the development work of this firm, and there they conducted a general mercantile business for several years. Later, however, Willis T. Stewart became cashier of the First National Bank at Graham, Texas, and still later was cashier of the Beckham National Bank at the same place, holding the latter position until his death. Since 1898 Walter P. Stewart has made his home in Jacksboro, where he is conducting an extensive business in real estate, loans, in- surance and collections. The Stewart land is now located in what has been for many years known as Lost Valley. At the present time it consists of twenty-five thousand acres, and em- braces some of the richest and most productive soil in Texas. From a scenic standpoint Lost Valley is beautiful and picturesque, making it an ideal place for homes, its location being a little north of west of Jacksboro, the nearest corner of the valley being twelve miles from the town. It is well supplied with an abun- dance of good, pure well water at a depth of from sixteen to one hundred and twenty feet, the latter in most cases fine artesian water,

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

while nearly the entire section is underlaid with a vein of as good coal as this state produces. An important branch of Mr. Stewart's business now consists of selling the Lost Valley land in small tracts to desirable farmers, the richness of the soil being a sufficient guarantee of suc- cess. The placing of this land on the market will result in giving Jack county a greater agricultural development than it has ever before known. In addition to the lands men- tioned he also has extensive pastures north- west of town, on which he has some fine full- blooded and registered cattle, his specialty be- ing shorthorns. The Stewarts have been breed- ing fine cattle for more than twenty years, much of which is obtained from the fine stock farms of Lafayette county, Missouri.

After disposing of his business at Gertrudes and previous to locating in Jacksboro, Mr. Stewart resided at Waco for about a year, and was there married to Miss Frances Graham, a niece of Colonel E. S. Graham, who, with Mr. G. A. Graham, founded the town of Graham, the county seat of Young county. She was born at Waco, Texas, the family having come to this state from Kentucky, and by her mar- riage she has become the mother of three children,-Gertrude, Edwin and Walter Pres- ton, Jr.

JUDGE JAMES M. LINDSAY. In 1857 there arrived in Gainesville, after a long and hard horseback ride from Tennessee through Arkansas, a young graduate of law, scarcely twenty-two years old, who at once proceeded to open up a law office in a little frame house lo- cated near the first court house that Cooke county possessed, and therewith entered upon a career which after fifty years justifies the writer in speaking of Judge Lindsay as not only one of the very oldest living settlers of Gaines- ville, but also as one of its most prominent and honored citizens.

When young Lindsay came to this town it had possibly two or three hundred inhabitants, but was in all respects a typical pioneer com- munity, situated on the northern frontier of Texas, with nothing to the north except the

wild Indians of the Nation and the howling wilderness. Indeed, the proximity of the town to the Indian Territory, the trouble coming from the Kiowa and Comanche tribes, which lay to the northwest, placed life and property in jeopardy for many years, especially during the period of the war and continuing up to 1873 or 74. Judge Lindsay states that fully a hundred persons became a sacrifice to Indian warfare in the vicinity of Gainesville during these years. He recalls another very interest- ing fact, and one almost forgotten in the era of modern civilization, that Gainesville in those early days was a station on the old mail line of stages that the government had established on the southern route from St. Louis to San Francisco. It was in such a community that Judge Lindsay began the practice of law and commenced a successful career.

He was born in Wilson county, Tennessee, a son of Rev. Louis and Jane R. (McFarland) Lindsay. His father, a native of Sumner county, Tennessee, was a prominent educator and minister of the Missionary Baptist church, and devoted practically all his life to those vo- cations, his death occurring in Wilson county in 1877. The mother was also born and reared in Tennessee, and died in Wilson county.

It was under the tutelage of his revered father that Judge Lindsay received most of his early education, and he pursued his law studies at the Lebanon (Tennessee) Law School, the oldest institution of its kind in the south and the training ground of many famous men. It was only a few weeks after his gradua- tion from that school when he set out for the scene of his future career at Gainesville. He soon made his mark here and early took a prominent part in public affairs. His practice of law was interrupted in 1862 when he enlisted in Company A. Fitzhugh's Regiment, in the Trans-Mississippi department, and his mili- tary service was mainly in Arkansas and Louisiana. Mr. Lindsay fought at the noted battle of Mansfield, where the Banks expedi- tion was effectually checked, and at the battle of Pleasant Hill, on the following day, he was captured by the enemy. Being exchanged in

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

a few days, he continued with the army until the close of the war in 1865, and then returned to his profession at Gainesville.

In public affairs Judge Lindsay has served ' county, which produces. each year for the his state and fellow citizens in many im- portant capacities. His first noteworthy ser- vice was as a member of the eighth assembly of the Texas legislature in 1861, at which time , lesser sources of wealth. Intimately identi- he was the youngest member of the body, and fied as a co-operating and supporting factor with this vast prosperity are the financial in- stitutions of the county, and of these the Lindsay National is one of the strongest, in its past financial record, its resources, and in the integrity of its president and his associates. Judge Lindsay also has large landed interests, is owner of the well known Lindsay hotel in Gainesville, is president of the gas company, and in many other ways identified with the most important activities of his city. As presi- dent of the school board ever since its creation, he has led in the movements of educational progress and is largely responsible for the fine school system which the people of Gainesville reckon among the chief advantages of the city. Judge Lindsay is a member of the church of which his father was a minister, the Mission- ary Baptist. as a representative of his constituency had to take part in the momentous deliberations which attended the problems of secession and the obligations following in the train 'of the war. Yet more important in its relation to the welfare of the state was the constitutional convention of 1866, in which he was also a delegate. This convention, presided over by Governor Jack Hamilton, the appointee of President Johnson, submitted a constitution to the people that was ratified by them. But in the next year there followed the wholesale deposition from office, enforced by federal military, of Gov. Throckmorton, all the state and legislative officials, and, in many cases, the county officials, these arbitrary proceed- ings being the beginning of the trying times known as the reconstruction period. In 1874, his ability and ripe judgment having proved him worthy of conspicuous honors, the gov- ernor appointed him judge of the district court of the large district which then embraced Cooke, Grayson, Wise, Montague, and other counties to the west. (At that time district judgeships were filled by appointment.) April 5, 1874, Judge Lindsay organized the first dis- trict court in Clay county. After serving on the district bench about three years, he re- sumed his private practice and devoted his energies thereto continuously until he left the law to engage in financial and business enter- prises.

On the expiration in 1902 of the charter of the Gainesville National Bank, which had been established in 1882, the Lindsay National Bank was organized to succeed the former in- stitution, and Judge Lindsay has since held the office of president. This bank is one of the most substantial and flourishing in this

part of the state, has large and well secured capital, and its increasing deposits reflect the business and industrial prosperity of Cooke world's consumption about eight hundred thousand dollars' worth of cotton and a mil- lion dollars' worth of wheat, besides its many

Judge Lindsay married in Gainesville Miss Tennie Bonner. Mrs. Lindsay was born and reared in this state, her parents having come here from Wilson county, Tennessee. There are two children of the marriage, a son, Louis, and a daughter, Jimmie T.

CORWIN F. DOAN, farmer, merchant, and for many years the most prominent leader in affairs at Doans and for many miles of terri- tory in that vicinity, has had a career in busi- ness and public life in North Texas which marks him out as a most forceful and successful character. His enterprising ambition led him to this country long before its agricultural pos- sibilities had been given any attention and even before the big cattle rangers had thor- oughly established themselves. The town of Doans, in the northern part of Wilbarger county, is the oldest settlement within many miles and for a long time was the foremost

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one, until the railroads passed it fo one side and diminished its commercial importance. Mr. Doan besides being the founder and energizing spirit of this well known trading post has also exerted his influence in many other ways, and has long been a factor of stability and worth in his county. He is a public-spirited citizen, and his community may be congratulated that he has yet many years of life before him in which to continue his work in the different af- fairs of life. ١

He is a native Ohioan, having been born in Wilmington, Clinton county, in 1848. He be- longs to a distinguished family, and his an- cestry contains some noteworthy names. Bishop Doan, of New York, is of the same stock. The original family seat was in Ches- hire, England, whence there came to America in the year 1629 Deacon John Doan, who landed at Plymouth and proceeded to identify himself closely with the religious and social life of New England. But the branch of which Mr. C. F. Doan is a continuation became con- nected with the more southerly colonies, par- ticularly North Carolina. There is an interest- ing family coat of arms, bearing the inscrip- tion, "Crux mihi Lux"-"The Cross is my Light." North Carolina was the birthplace of Mr. Doan's grandfther, Jonathan Doan, who settled in Clinton county, Ohio, in 1798, among the pioneers of the Buckeye state.

Clinton county, Ohio, has been the scene of the achievements of the Doan family for over a century, and for something over eighty years has been the home and birthplace of General Azariah W. Doan, a distinguished legist, sol- dier and citizen, whose son is the Wilbarger county business man. General Doan's worthy career extends back to ante-bellum days, when as a lawyer at Wilmington he was the partner of Hon. Frank Corwin, a brother of Governor Tom Corwin. Upon the breaking out of the Civil war Azariah Doan received a commission as first lieutenant in the Twelfth Ohio Infan- try, in which he served during his three months' enlistment. He was next an officer of the Seventy-ninth Ohio, and through rapid promo- tions reached the rank of brigadier general,

after commanding his regiment for more than two years. He was in Hooker's Corps, the Army of the Tennessee, and took part in the fighting preceding and during the siege and fall of Atlanta, thence went with Sherman's army to the sea, up through the Carolinas, and ended with the grand review of the victorious army at Washington. When the war was over he resumed his law practice at Wilmington, and although he is now more than eighty years of age he still devotes himself with much of his old-time zeal and energy to the law in that place. He was judge of the court of common pleas for fifteen years, and was also a member of the state legislature from Clinton county. He is a man of great public spirit and public usefulness, and is held in the highest esteem throughout his county. The wife of General Doan was Miss Amanda Stratton, of a Virginia family, and she died during the '50s.

Although General Doan has from early man- hood followed the profession of law, he also during the first part of his career owned and operated a farm in Clinton county, and it was on this farm that the son Corwin F. was reared and grew to manhood. He received a good common school education, and as all his facul- ties and ambitions tended toward commercial life he went into mercantile business on his own account at Wilmington when he was eighteen years old. He continued his enter- prise there until he was about twenty-six years old. In 1874 he embraced an opportunity to come to Fort Sill. Indian Territory (now in Oklahoma), and start in business as an Indian trader. This was a very prosperous venture, although it was also attended with great per- sonal danger, and the year 1874 is remembered by all old-time southwesterners as an especially bloody one in the Indian warfare about Fort Sill. Mr. Doan was in business there a little more than three years. On October 10, 1878, he located in the northern part of Wilbarger county, Texas, within a mile of the Red river, and established there a large trading post. This trade center received the name of Doans, and has been the home of Mr. Doan ever since. He was the first merchant in Wilbarger county and

MR. AND MRS. JOSEPH H. BARWISE

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

a pioneer in every sense of the word. Twenty- five years ago not only was there no farming in progress in this portion of the state, but even the cattle business was in its infancy. For these reasons the trading post of Doans was during the first few years a commercial oasis in a vast desert, furnishing supplies to the com- paratively few inhabitants and to the transients on their way from one place to another in the southwest. But soon after the establishment of this trading post quite a settlement grew up about it, and in 1879 the postoffice of Doans was established, being given this name by the post- office department. Then in the early '8os this country began to boom, a farming population was gradually displacing the cattlemen, and by 1885 Doans rejoiced in nearly three hundred inhabitants. That was the high tide of pros- perity. The Fort Worth & Denver Railroad was building across northwest Texas, but con- trary to expectations went to the south of Doans. The wave of population followed in the wake of the iron horse and left Doans stranded for the time being, and Vernon became the boom town instead of Mr. Doan's settlement.

Mr. Doan had his store in a large double building, and the firm of C. F. Doan & Com- pany did a flourishing business. With the opening up of the town of Vernon the firm established a branch store there, and the trade of the two houses extended in a radius of seventy miles around, requiring many freight- ing teams to handle it, in fact, when the busi- ness was at its height, enough teams and wagons could not be procured. Staple supplies of bacon, flour, etc., were bought in carload lots, and Doans became the headquarters for the large outfitting expeditions of the trail and for the increasing cattle industry of north and northwest Texas. After 1888 there was a marked decrease in the prosperity of Doans and in the business of C. F. Doan & Company, on ac- count of the lack of railroad facilities, and from that time Mr. Doan began to devote his atten- tion to farming, which has since been his prin- cipal industry. However, he still continues a small general store at Doans in connection with the postoffice, both of which are in charge

of his daughter, Mrs. Bertha Ross. Mr. Doan, on first settling at his present locality, had se- cured several hundred acres of fine farming land, and he now owns twelve hundred acres in the fertile Red river valley. Most of this he rents, retaining about two hundred acres for his own farming purposes, on which his prin- cipal crops are corn and cotton. He has also been more or less engaged in the cattle busi- ness since settling here.

Mr. Doan has been and is a man of great prominence and influence in his community and in Wilbarger county from its earliest organiza- tion. He was postmaster of Doans for nine years, and for many years has been justice of the peace and is still serving as such.

Mr. Doan was married at Wilmington, Ohio, in 1871 to Miss Lida E. Whinnery, who was born and reared in Clinton county, Ohio. Be- sides the daughter Mrs. Bertha Ross, men- tioned above, they have a daughter, Miss Mabel, and a son, Leo, died in 1892.

JUDGE JOSEPH H. BARWISE, SR., might well be termed the father of the town of Wichita Falls and of Wichita county, for he was one of the first to recognize the eligible location now occupied by the town and was one of the organizers of the county, having lived in this vicinity for over twenty-five years. He is justly regarded among the men of mark in this part of the state, and without consider- ing material circumstances, the life that he has lived and the character he has built up are his finest rewards and his noblest achievements during his lifetime of seventy-five years. In his individual affairs he has made and lost large sums, but the results of his enterprise and good business judgment are to be seen and will al- ways be in evidence in the city of Wichita Falls and the surrounding country.

This well known capitalist and farmer and business promoter of Wichita Falls was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, in November, 1829, being a son of Thomas H. and Julia (Collins) Barwise. His father was born in Brooklyn, New York, but in childhood accompanied his parents in their emigration across the Alleghanies and

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down the Ohio river to Cincinnati, where he came to maturity. About 1841 he went to St. Charles county, Missouri, and became a suc- cessful farmer there, his home being twenty- one miles from St. Louis, between the Mis- souri and Mississippi rivers, where he lived and died at the advanced age of eighty-six, in the year 1887, having been born in 1801. His wife was a native of Connecticut, and she had also at an early day followed the trail across the Alleghanies to Cincinnati, where she was mar- ried to her husband. She died in 1863, aged sixty-two.

Mr. Joseph H. Barwise grew up in the St. Charles county home, and, choosing farming for his life work, on arriving at manhood he went into that line of work on his own account. . He came out to Texas in 1876 and was located at Dallas for three years. In 1877 for the pur- pose of prospecting the country he made a wagon trip into northwest Texas, along the Red river valley in particular, and on this journey crossed the Wichita river at the place where the city of Wichita Falls was afterward located. At that time he noted the favorable location for a home and town in this place, and he kept the situation in mind after his return to Dallas. Two years later, in 1879, he accord- ingly brought his family and established a home near where may now be seen the principal edi- fices of Wichita Falls. At that time there was just one little cabin as the germ of a settlement, and Mr. Barwise has been a witness of the town from its state of nonentity to its now flourish- ing condition. As settlers came in he was active in promoting the incorporation of town and county, and he, with the co-operation of Judge Seely, got up the petition for the organi- zation of the county of Wichita, this being ef- fected in the year 1882. One hundred and fifty names were required to be affixed to this peti- tion, and so few were the inhabitants of the county at the time that in order to give the re- quired length to the list the names of several dead men were entered. Soon after the county was organized Mr. Barwise was appointed county judge, and after serving out the ap- pointment of one year was regularly elected to

the office, and re-elected, serving in all seven years. He had previously made some study of law and been admitted to the bar, but he prac- ticed almost none at all since his tastes and in- clinations all led in other directions. He de- voted himself most assiduously to building up the new town and was and has always been generous of his means, his time and his efforts in making this a city of prominence in North Texas. He spent and lost a fortune in erecting substantial buildings and industries. He do- nated half the value of his property interests toward the bonus to get the Fort Worth & Denver road to the city in 1882. During the hard times after 1893 he was compelled to sacrifice nearly all he had, but it remains to his lasting credit that his own losses never caused the loss of a cent to any of his associates. Mr. Barwise is by nature and early training a man of sturdy character and is strict and honorable in all the relations of life, and the high regard and esteem which are accorded his later years by his fellow townsmen and friends must be the source of a great deal of pleasure to him. While in the office of county judge he author- ized the building of the iron bridges through- out the county, and these structures have ever since remained among the county's best im- provements.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 39

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