A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 47

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 47

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JUDGE STERLING G. CARTER, stock farmer and real estate man at Miami, Roberts county, is one of the best posted and widely ex- perienced men on the history and affairs of this section of the state, having been closely identi- fied with the Panhandle in all its various aspects for over twenty years. Though now just in the prime of his energies and his years, he has passed through a large and prosperous career, and his sphere of usefulness has not been restricted to any one department of endeavor.

A fine example of the energetic and enterprising southerner, he was born in Warren county, Georgia, November 15, 1851, and his entire life has been spent south of Mason and Dixon's line. His parents were Wiley and Sarah (Rivers) Carter. His father, also a native of Warren county, in the early fifties moved to Sumter county, Georgia, and there continued his activity as an extensive cotton planter and slave owner until his death, in 1864. The mother was also born and died in Georgia.

The well remembered plantation in Sumter county was the scene of Judge Carter's early rear- ing, and from the time he was able to interest himself in serious pursuits he became identified with the cotton business. When he was twenty- one years old he married Miss Mary H. Cheves, and a short time later, in 1873, they transferred their home from Georgia to the Lone Star state, where it was their intention to go to housekeep- ing and establish a home. Locating first at Bluff Springs (now Bluffdale) in Erath county, Mr. Carter, in partnership with Captain Freeman (firm name Freeman and Carter ) was in the mer- cantile business for three years. In the meantime he had been getting a bunch of cattle together and gradually worked into the cattle business in Stephens county. His next choice of activity was the contracting business, which the building of railroads through this section of the state offered him. He received a grading contract on the Texas and Pacific Railroad, which was then building west from Fort Worth, and in that work he followed the road until it reached Dead Man's Cut, on the far edge of the plains. On returning to Fort Worth he met Morgan Jones, who was then building the Fort Worth and Denver Rail- road from Fort Worth in a northwesterly direc- tion to Denver, and who gave Mr. Carter a grad- ing contract on that road. When Wichita Falls was reached there was a lull in the construction work, and Mr. Carter then contracted with the Franklin Land and Cattle Company to construct earthwork water tanks on that company's ex- tensive pastures in the Texas Panhandle. During the eighteen months of his engagement in this work he was in Roberts, Hutchinson, Carson and Gray counties, having come up here in 1883, and has ever since been identified with the famous Panhandle district. When he had completed the water tanks he started the cattle business on his own account, becoming a successful cattleman in the Panhandle. He began his operations on twenty-four sections of land, but gradually de- creased this vast domain, as he wished to go into stock farming and raise thoroughbred stock. His present homestead which is located in Roberts county two miles east of Miami consists of two sections. He has a number of registered thor-

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oughbred Red Polled cattle, and has made a specialty of crossing these with other thorough- breds, such as Herefords and Shorthorns, as well as "scrub" cattle. Judge Carter is also known as one of the most enterprising and progressive men in this section of the state in experimenting with and growing various farm crops, for the purpose of demonstrating what a good country surrounds Miami for general stock-farming, and his efforts along this line have been of great value to all lines of industry and the general prosperity and wel- fare of the state. Experience has made him a most ardent exponent of the growing, in this part of the state, of the non-saccharine sorghum crop, Kaffir corn, milo maize, and other forms of rough feed stuff. In an essentially treeless and barren country he has contributed lasting value by the raising of many forest trees, black locust, catalpa, etc., from the seed; he grows every variety of shrubbery, has a fine vineyard with thirteen varie- ties of grapes, raises strawberries, blackberries, gooseberries, currants, the finest of vegetables, and splendid rose bushes and other flowers-all making beautiful home surroundings and also demonstrating in unmistakable way the adapt- ability of this country to all purposes of a purely agricultural region.

While the interests cited in the foregoing par- agraph have occupied most of Judge Carter's time and attention, he has likewise devoted some of his efforts to public affairs and has several years been honored by public office in Roberts county. He was first a special constable; in 1892 was elected county treasurer, and continued to serve in this capacity for six years. Previous to this, in 1890, he was appointed sheriff and tax collector, and in all these positions he performed his duties with substantial benefit to the county and state. He held the office of sheriff for two years. In 1898 he was elected county judge, and by re-election in 1900 held this office for four years. His official record has thus been a long and honorable one. In addition to the manage- ment of his stock farm, he has a real estate business in town, the firm being S. G. Carter and Company, his partner being Jerome Harris, and they carry on a very profitable general real estate business.

By his first wife Judge Carter had three chil- dren ; namely, William S., Mrs. Bena H. Kinney, wife of J. E. Kinney, a Miami attorney, and Hugh G. After the death of his first wife he married her sister, Miss Loua E. Cheves, and they are the parents of one little girl, Musa B.

JOHN A. MEAD, one of the old-timers of the Panhandle country, with a broad range of ex- perience and activity in that section of the state, is one of the leading ranchers in the vicinity of Miami, in Roberts county, and is also in public service as county and district clerk of the county. He is a fine type of the rugged, energetic and progressive Texan, possessed of the initiative and enterprise which are so necessary to the ac- complishment of large affairs in such a country as this, and his career has been exceedingly cred- itable to himself and of value to his fellow citi- zens and state.

Mr. Mead is of northern birth and training, having been born in Lapeer county, Michigan, November 5, 1866. His father, Edgar L. Mead, was a Vermonter by birth and of Irish parentage. He came to Michigan in boyhood, and was a farmer and lumberman nearly all his life. About 1870 he moved his family and affairs westward to the state of Kansas, and after sojourning a time in Dickinson and then in McPherson coun- ties he went to Meade county, in the southwestern corner of the state. From there it was an easy passage over into the Texas Panhandle, and he accomplished this removal in 1885, becoming one of the very early settlers in the north part of the Panhandle, in Ochiltree county. He located where the town of Ochiltree has since sprung up, and continued to make that his abode and center of activity until his death, which occurred in 1903. It is recorded that he and his family were the first settlers in what was called the "North Flat," and he there put up the first lumber house, hauling the lumber for that purpose from Dodge City, Kansas, a distance of one hundred and fifty-six miles. He was a successful cattleman and had large interests in Ochiltree county. Ed- gar L. Mead's wife was Sarah F. Maxon, who was born in Michigan of Scotch parentage, and

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she is still living, with her home in Day county, Oklahoma.

Educated for the most part in central Kansas, Mr. Mead early became connected with the seri- ous affairs and occupations of life. His coming to Ochiltree county in 1885 with his father makes him one of the old-timers of the Pan- handle, for it was some years after that before civilization had made much of an impress upon this great country. From this long connection he is a thoroughgoing plainsman, and has all the sturdy characteristics so marked in the foremost men of affairs in the west. He was associated with his father until he was about of age, and he gradually got into the cattle business on his own account. Until 1894 he had his home and his in- terests in Ochiltree county, but in that year moved to his ranch in Roberts county, on the Canadian river, about thirty miles northwest of Miami. His prettily situated and well improved and valuable ranch contains about ten sections of land, and by its general cultivation and the rais- ing of excellent grades of cattle, the Red Polled being his favorite stock, he has attained a high degree of material and industrial prosperity.

A public-spirited citizen, Mr. Mead has in many ways manifested his interest in the civic life of his part of the state. While living in Och- iltree county he was elected sheriff in 1890 and by re-election in 1892 served two terms. In 1902 he was elected to the office of county and district clerk for Roberts county, and in 1904 was a can- didate for re-election to this office. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons and the Knights of Pythias.

Mr. Mead married, in Roberts county, Miss Celia White, and they have children, Earl, Clyde, and Loyd, deceased.

JUDGE LON D. MARRS, ex-county judge of Potter county and a well known lawyer of Am- arillo, has been identified with city and county for the past fifteen years, and in such a way as to place him among the leaders of opinion and ac- tion. His record in public office has been par- ticularly creditable, and he was retained by the will of the people in some important office con- nected with the administration of county af-

fairs for many years after his arrival in the then new town of Amarillo. A well grounded lawyer, an able executive, impartial and broad-minded in the performance of judicial duties, and of defi- nite and positive convictions as to those things which best conserve the welfare of fellow citi- zens, Judge Marrs has been able to impress his influence permanently upon the growth and prog- ress of Potter county, and the development of its resources and its worthy enterprises have never been arrested by any advertent action of his.

. Born in 1867 in Logan county, Kentucky, where his parents, Josephus and Pauline (Chick) Marrs, are still living and where his father, a native of Kentucky, has long been a prominent farmer, his mother being a native of Virginia, Judge Marrs spent his early days on the home farm, learning industry and thrifty habits along with the other lessons of youth. He received a good classical education in Auburn Seminary at Auburn, Logan county, Kentucky, and in 1889 graduated in the law department of Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee. For the year following he was engaged in practice at Auburn, Kentucky, and in 1890 he came to Amarillo, which has been his home ever since, and he has seen the town grow from a small western settle- ment to the busy commercial city of the present.

At the first election after his arrival in Potter county, in the fall of 1890, he was elected county attorney, and served as such continuously from 1890 to 1896, in which latter year he was elected county judge, and by subsequent election was chosen to be the incumbent of that important ju- dicial and administrative office for eight years. He has thus been in public office ever since com- ing here. Judge Marrs has the happy faculty of gaining true and permanent popularity, yet with- out for a moment losing his independence of judgment or opinion or impairing his judicial fair-mindedness and definite convictions, and his fellow citizens have again and again manifested their confidence in him as a proper incumbent of public office, for even before coming to Texas, and while a very young man, he filled various official positions in Logan county, Kentucky. As the county judge of Potter county he became recognized as sans peur et sans reproche, and his

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record may well be a model of efficiency. In Tex- as, more than in other states, the office of county judge is a particularly important one, inasmuch as the county judge, being the directing head of the board of county commissioners, has under his control all such public improvements as roads, public buildings, bridges, etc., and in the newer counties like Potter the county judge is also su- perintendent of public instruction. It is the rec- ord of Judge Marrs that he has used his power equally as a check upon extravagance-which often runs riot in newly organized counties-and as an instrument for the promotion of permanent progress and consistently rapid improvement. During his regime the county has been placed upon a cash basis, scrip being now maintained at par, and by careful husbanding of resources the county has been brought from debts and put in position to make some notable public improve- ments, one of the first to be the erection of a court house and jail that now, and will forever, bear his name inscribed on marble. These mat- ters are all of vital interest to the entire county, and it is by such efficiency, economy and public- spirited endeavors that he has deservedly won the esteem and support of his fellow citizens in the county.

Judge Marrs has been likewise very successful as a lawyer, and as a financier and successful business man has but few equals, as shown by his success in his own personal affairs.

Judge Marrs owns a nice stock ranch east of Amarillo. Having been reared on a farm he has never lost his interest in agriculture and stock- raising. Fraternally he affiliates with the Elks, Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows.

JUDGE NATHAN C. MARTIN, pioneer rancher and business man of Potter county, Tex- as, having come to Amarillo when there was hardly anything there to justify the name of town and when the greensward of the main streets was not yet worn off by the traffic of a center of commercial activity, is now, as a man of some sixty years of life, enjoying the culmi- nation and ripe fruitage of a career of singular usefulness and energy.

Born at Sandyville, Tuscarawas county, Ohio,

on January 20, 1843, he was a son of Reverend Samuel and Martha (McGrew) Martin. His father, a native of Pennsylvania, was one of the early pioneers of Ohio, accompanying his parents thither. A Methodist minister, in the service of his church he filled various pulpits of the de- nomination throughout northern Ohio. He died in 1848, at Sandyville, and within six weeks his good wife had also passed away.

Thus bereft of his parents at the age of five years, the son Nathan was taken by his grand- mother and reared on her farm in Tuscarawas county, remaining with that good woman until he was twenty-eight years old. In his nineteenth year, in September, 1862, he enlisted in Company G, Eighty-sixth Ohio Infantry, and later enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Ohio, and served until his honorable discharge on March 5, 1864, as first sergeant of Company B. He was attached to the Army of the Ohio, and his service was mostly in West Virginia, Kentucky, east Tennessee and southwestern Vir- ginia, largely in the mountain regions of that sec- tion of the country, where there were a great many small battles and skirmishes between de- tached portions of the opposing armies.

At the conclusion of the Civil war Mr. Martin moved with his grandmother to Clay county, Indiana, where, besides working on the farm, he studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Bowl- ing Green, then the county seat of Clay county, early in 1872. Also in Clay county he married Miss Clara S. Ward, and in 1873, the year fol- lowing his admission to the bar, they moved to Litchfield, Meeker county, Minnesota, where he established himself in the law and real estate business. That section of the great state of Min- nesota was then very new and undeveloped, and, identifying himself closely with the affairs of his community, Mr. Martin attained a constantly increasing business, which brought him a large degree of prosperity. While there he built a nice home in Litchfield and brought about many excel- lent improvements. He attained prominence in his profession, and was elected judge of the pro- bate court of Meeker county, entering on his term January I, 1877, and was re-elected alto- gether four times, serving nine years in succes-

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sion. He was also elected commander of Frank Daggett Post, G. A. R., at Litchfield, and, in that capacity, brought about the construction of the G. A. R. building at that place, a pretty structure distinguished as the only exclusive G. A. R. build- ing in the state. Although it is customary to elect a commander in the G. A. R. posts for one term only, the post at Litchfield, through appreciation for Judge Martin's efforts in having their build- ing constructed, elected him again three times, so that he served four successive terms.

It was in the month of April, 1889, an early date in the history of the great Panhandle of Texas, when Judge Martin permanently identi- fied himself with the town of Amarillo and the county of Potter. As remarked above, the grass was still green in the streets, and the surround- ing country had every aspect of a pioneer com- munity. He filed on a section of school land adjoining the town site and this has ever since remained his homestead. This is one of the most eligible sites in the neighborhood for a residence, his home being located on a slight elevation over- looking the city and surrounding country, and as Amarillo has grown and expanded his land has become very valuable property. During the first years of his residence here, although making his home on his farm, he conducted a general real estate and insurance business in Amarillo, during most of the time in partnership with J. M. Russell, under the name of Martin & Rus- sell, they both having come here from Minnesota about the same time.

But Judge Martin is emphatically a farmer and an agricultural pioneer of Potter county. He began his operations along this line when the fu- ture of agriculture in the Panhandle was very uncertain and at the best experimental. There was hardly a-windmill in the vicinity at that early day, although that class of power is now one of the commonest features of the Panhandle land- scape. Judge Martin began giving his serious attention to the development of his fine landed property in 1901, in which year he discontinued his business interests in town. He has a nice bearing orchard, consisting mostly of peaches, but including other fruits such as apples, cherries, etc. He is quite fond of and has been highly

successful in growing trees-a very beneficent work in this treeless country. He has recently set, out five thousand forest trees, such as black locust, ash, mulberry, etc. He also makes fine crops of wheat, some Indian corn, as well as the rough feed stuff so successful in this country, as -Kaffir corn, milo maize, sorghum. It was Judge Martin who first introduced Kaffir corn into this vicinity and this is now grown more extensively than any other crop in this part of the state. His growing of Kaffir corn came about through receiving some of the seed from the agricultural department at Washington. From this experi- ment came about almost a revolution in the crop culture of the Panhandle. The dairy business is also an important department of industry on the Martin farm.

At various times during his life of varied ac- tivity Judge Martin has been in the newspaper business. He established three weekly pub- lications, namely : the Clay county Enterprise, at Knightsville, Indiana, and the Litchfield Inde- pendent, at Litchfield, Minnesota, both of which are still being published; and the Real Republic, at Amarillo. While his original political beliefs were Republican, Judge Martin has of late years been more or less closely identified with the re- form movement in American policies, and, though not active in a political sense, he is now aligned with the Socialist party.

Judge Martin lost his wife at Litchfield, only a short time before he came to this state, and his children, seven in number, have all been reared on the Amarillo homestead, their names being as follows: Mrs. Myrtle Wheeler, Mrs. Daisy Currie, Mrs. May Broadwell, Belle, Emma, now Mrs. Henry Hall, Nathan Finley, and Edward Clay.

GEORGE A. F. PARKER, president of the Western National Bank at Hereford, is a well known business man throughout the Panhandle country and has had a varied and most success- ful business career, beginning before he was of age. Railroad service, lumber dealing, banking, ranching and other enterprises have occupied his energies, and in them all he has proved his broad business capacity and executive force and sagac-

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ity. Mr. Parker is a man of broad-gauge char- acter, and outside of his effective control of mate- rial affairs he has kept his mind open to many other influences, especially to the cause of re- ligion, for which he has accomplished much dur- ing the settlement of this new Panhandle coun- try. Wherever he is known he is held in the highest regard, and is a sound, able and forceful citizen and Christian gentleman.

Mr. Parker is a Missourian by birth and early rearing, having been born in Shelby county, November 6, 1861. His parents were Judge George and Emrette (Faulkner) Parker, both people of many excellences of heart and mind and of worthy moral and religious character. Judge Parker was a native of Maryland, and set- tled in Shelby county, Missouri, in 1849. He made his start there on a farm which remained his home, although not his continuous place of residence, for half a century, until his death in 1899. He was a man of large interests gener- ally. Besides farming he gave his attention to contracting, and also owned a large mill and lumber yard. For a number of years he was judge of the county court of Shelby county. He was a very prominent and devoted Methodist, and was acquainted and associated with many of the leaders and bishops of the church. He was one of the organizers of Central College, at Fayette, Missouri, the leading Methodist in- stitution of that state, having been established before the war, and in his capacity as contrac- tor he erected the buildings of the college.

Mr. Parker's mother was a native of Ulster county, New York, and she is still living, mak- ing her home with her son Hon. Edwin B. Par- ker, a prominent railroad attorney at Houston, Texas. She is a college graduate and a lady of great refinement and education, and for a number of years was a teacher in the female de- partment of Central College. She is a sister of the late Captain A. Faulkner, of Houston, Texas, who was a prominent railroad man of this state and for many years the general passenger and ticket agent of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, and also at one time held a similar position with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas road.

When Mr. Parker was twelve years old he was sent east to get his schooling at Newburgh on the Hudson, where he received an excellent educa- tion. He came to Texas when eighteen years old, in 1879, and made his entrance into active life as an employe in the passenger departments of different railroads centering at Houston and at Dallas, his principal service being with the Houston and Texas Central. For some time he was joint ticket agent at Houston for the H. & T. C., the I. & G. N., and the Southern Pacific roads. In 1881 he became a clerk in the eigh- teenth session of the Texas state senate at Austin, through the influence of Hon. Barnett Gibbs.

. In 1888 Mr. Parker left the railroad service and became connected with the M. T. Jones Lumber Company, one of the largest and most noted lumber firms in the south. He became interested with them in a lumber mill which they built at Orange, Texas, conducted under the name of Orange Lumber Company. In 1888 Mr. Parker arrived in the Panhandle and located at Amarillo as the western manager of the M. T. Jones Lumber Company. After starting a branch business at Amarillo he established lim- ber yards for the company at a number of points along the then new Fort Worth and Denver Rail- road, northwest of Fort Worth. Amarillo was then just getting well started into activity, its subsequent growth and prosperity having been rapid. As a resident of Amarillo Mr. Parker took an active part in getting church facilities there. He took the responsibility upon himself of raising money and building a church edifice, not only doing effective work in gaining contri- butions from others but also contributing liber- ally of his own means. Further, through his acquaintance with Bishop Hendrix, the venera- ble Methodist divine, he got an appropriation of five hundred dollars from the church extension society for the erection of the Methodist church at Amarillo, which was the first house of worship to be built there, and also said to be the first on the high plains of Texas.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 47

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