USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 48
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In those "early" days of Mr. Parker's identi- fication with the Texas Panhandle his business interests covered a territory of two hundred miles in extent. He has made his home in the
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Panhandle ever since 1888 with the exception of the three years from 1896 to 1899 when he was president of the First National Bank at Meridian, Texas. While a resident of Amarillo he assisted in the organization of the First Na- tional Bank, was chairman of the building com- mittee that put up the bank building, and was on the first board of directors.
In 1900 Mr. Parker went to live on his ranch near Claude, in Armstrong county, and was there two years. In the meantime he had become con- nected with the firm of Smith, Walker and Com- pany, the well known Panhandle merchants and bankers, and when that firm opened its branch bank at Hereford in June, 1902, Mr. Parker assumed charge of it and transferred his resi- dence to this town, which has since remained his home. The bank for a time was conducted under the name of Smith, Walker and Company, Bankers, the firm members being J. L. Smith, J. A. Walker, B. C. D. Bynum and G. A. F. Parker, all able and well known business men. July 1, 1903, the Hereford bank was nationalized with a capital stock of $50,000, and called the Western National Bank, of which Mr. Parker has since been president. This institution has a large and growing patronage, and is known for its sound financial policy and conservative management. As its president Mr. Parker de- votes most of his business energies to its con- duct, and his successful direction of its affairs may well be a gratification both to himself and his friends. In addition to other interests, he and W. A. Ritter are the owners of a fine ranch of three thousand acres in Hardeman county, and he takes pride in making this a profitable enter- prise, showing up to good advantage the re- sources and fertility of this part of the state. Besides raising some fine cattle and feedstuffs for stock, he has made some fine cotton crops, and is a thorough believer in the availability of Northwest Texas as a cotton belt.
Mr. Parker has fraternal affiliations with the Odd Fellows, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist church. He was married at Belton, Texas, June 1I, 1903, to Miss Mary L. Wilson, of that place. Their home is blessed with one daughter, Annie Fitzhugh Parker.
JUDGE BENJAMIN M. BAKER, district judge of the thirty-first judicial district and for many years a resident of the town of Canadian, is highly representative of the best interests of the bar and bench of Texas. A practical lawyer, one who made his way to the top in his profession -by earnest endeavor and personal application, possessed of the thoroughly judicial mind, and capable in every direction in which he has turned his energies, Judge Baker has made a most en- viable record in his section of the state, and the esteem and confidence which the people cherish for. him have been again and again manifested by his selection for positions of great trust and responsibility.
Judge Baker is a true son of the south, and possessed of its best characteristics and tenden- cies. Born at Girard, Alabama, in 1851, he was a son of the Hon. Benjamin H. and Eliza (Greer) Baker. His father, a native of Georgia, but who from early boyhood had lived in Ala- bama, where he died in 1864, was a prominent lawyer at Crawford, and before the war was a member of the state senate for many years. He stumped East Alabama against Yancey- and he is remembered as the only man who ever did so. He was at the height of his career during the stirring ante-bellum days, and he took a lead- ing part in separating Alabama from the federal union, being a member of the Alabama seces- sion convention, and was also prominent in the proceedings at Montgomery when the represen- tative congress from the seceded states formed the provisional government for the Confederacy. He went into the army as lieutenant-colonel of the Sixth Alabama Regiment, and was dis- charged in 1862 on account of ill health. Judge Baker's mother, also a native of Georgia, died in Columbus, that state, in 1898.
Judge Baker well remembers many of the inci- dents, the fervor of political discussion and the martial preparation which took place during his boyhood days leading up to and during the course of the Civil war, and before he was ten years old he was with his father when the latter attended the secession convention at Montgom- ery. On account of the unsettled conditions of those days, his education could not but be sadly
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neglected as far as regular attendance at -day school was concerned. But he was almost reared in his father's law office, and having a natural liking for the profession he was not long in quali- fying and getting into practice. In 1869 he came to Texas and became a student in a law office at Carthage, Panola county, where he was admit- ted to the bar in 1871, being at that time a little under twenty-one years old. He remained at Carthage and engaged in practice until 1882, and then for the following four years was in charge of the educational department of the state at Austin, the state capital. He organized the present public school system, and was appointed the first state superintendent by the Governor and subsequently elected for a second term by the people. Since 1887 he has been identified with the Panhandle country. At the time of his arrival Wheeler was the only county within a great scope of country which had been organ- ized, and at Mobeetie, the county seat, he was located for the first month or two. In June, 1887, he came to Hemphill county, and in the month following his arrival he helped organize the county and at the same time establish the county seat of Canadian. This has been his home and center of interests ever since, and no citizen has been more closely identified with the best welfare of county and town than Judge Baker. After practicing law in Canadian for the first two and a half years he was elected judge of the thirty-first district, in which posi- tion he has served continuously ever since, having been elected four times. The thirty-first judicial district embraces nine counties, Lipscomb, Och- iltree, Hansford, Hemphill, Roberts, Hutchinson, Wheeler, Gray and Carson. He was in his early days a representative in legislature representing Panola, Rusk and Shelby counties in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth legislatures, and was chairman of the Committee on Penitentiaries in sixteenth and chairman of the Committee on Finance in the seventeenth.
Judge Baker was married at Carthage to Miss Emily Hull, who was born in North Carolina but was reared in Texas. They have three daughters, all married, namely: Mrs. Anna Daniels, Mrs. Maud Johnson, and Mrs. Nellie
Willis. Mrs. Baker is a member of the Metho- dist church, and the Judge is affiliated with the blue lodge and chapter of the Masonic fraternity.
JUDGE COLEMAN G. WITHERSPOON, prominent lawyer and member of the firm of Witherspoon and Gough at Hereford, a firm which has done more for the development and upbuilding of this city and the surrounding coun- try than any other one agency, has spent the past fifteen years of his career in this extreme part of the Panhandle and has been a foremost figure in the political, legal and business circles throughout the entire period in which Deaf Smith county has been an organized entity of Texas. Recognized now as one of the most capable law- yers in the Panhandle country, he has worked hard and earnestly to deserve this reputation, and has always been progressive, an indefatigable student, conscientiously devoted to his profes- sion, and a man of the highest integrity in all the relations of life.
A native of Ellis county, Texas, where he was born December 24, 1856, he was the son of Wil- liam A. and Anna E. (Garvin) Witherspoon. His father, a native of Newton county, Missouri, came to this state with his parents when he was nine years old, the family residence being estab- lished where Midlothian now stands, in Ellis county. William Witherspoon lived there until 1890, when he came out to Deaf Smith county and settled in the center of the county at La Plata, where during the remaining years of his life he developed one of the finest ranches of northwestern Texas. He set out and cultivated to a flourishing condition a nice orchard and a splendid grove of walnut trees, innovations which were a revelation of the possibilities of the plains country and added no little weight to the argu- ments which have since made this country high- ly favored by prospective settlers. The father has passed away since he located in the Panhan- dle, and the valuable Witherspoon ranch at La Plata is now under the management of one of his sons, Hugh Witherspoon. Judge Wither- spoon's mother died in Ellis county during the progress of the Civil war.
Reared on the farm in Ellis county, where he
JOE W., SON OF W. POINDEXTER
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spent the first twenty-two years of his life, he was educated partly there and partly away from home surroundings. In Johnson county he taught school for ten years, and in the mean- time applied himself to the study of law. He has always been ambitious in his legal pursuits, and long after he had been admitted to the bar and was well established in practice he went down to the State University at Austin and took the course in the law department, from which he was graduated in 1898. Previous to this, in 1889, he had come out to the Panhandle country, and has ever since been a resident of Deaf Smith county, and it was from here that he went to the university. Before locating in Deaf Smith he had been admitted to the bar, and was therefore well prepared to practice law as soon as he ar- rived in the Panhandle. Upon the organization of Deaf Smith as a county he was elected the first county and district clerk, and he served as such for three terms. He served, by election, as county attorney for one term, and was county judge one term. For two years he taught school at La Plata.
When the Pocos Valley Railroad was built through the southeast corner of Deaf Smith county and the town of Hereford was started, Judge Witherspoon at once moved from La Plata to the latter place, where, however, there was as yet only a site and no houses. . He opened his office in a tent, and for a time represented a large land company which had extensive in- terests in the vicinity. In May, 1899, he became the law partner of Judge L. Gough, whose per- sonal history appears elsewhere in this work, and the firm name has since become Witherspoon and Gough. It is the leading law firm of this portion of the state, and it has been interested, either actively or by lending its influence, in every enterprise which has tended to promote the growth and welfare of Deaf Smith county and this part of the state. Judge Witherspoon has personally been very active in the affairs of Hereford. He is the owner of a fine ranch of five thousand acres in the county. He affiliates with the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Py- thias, and he and his wife are Presbyterians.
Judge Witherspoon was married in Johnson
county of this state to Miss Fannie A. Jackson, and they have two children, William Claude and Bertha.
JUDGE WILLIAM POINDEXTER, prom- inent as a practitioner of law at Cleburne and also widely known in political and fraternal cir- cles, was born at Paris, Texas, on the 2nd of January, 1854. He is descended from an old Virginian family. His paternal grandfather, Rev. James Poindexter, was a Baptist minister, who was born in Virginia in colonial days and at the outbreak of the Revolutionary war espoused the cause of the colonists, serving under General Washington and being present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He married a Miss Kraft and in their family were eight children : Thomas C., John, George, William, Sam, El- bert, Sarah and Martha.
Thomas C. Poindexter, the eldest of this fami- ly, was born in Sullivan county, Tennessee, Au- gust 17, 1816, and in his native state was mar- ried to Miss Nancy White, a daughter of Ben- jamin F. White, a Baptist minister. The wed- ding was celebrated in 1839 and in 1844 they came to Texas, settling in that portion of the state known as Denton county; but the Indians proved such a menace to life and property, espe- cially to stock-raising interests, that they re- moved to Paris, Lamar county, in 1846 and for about seventeen years were residents of that locality. The year 1863 witnessed their arrival in Johnson county, settling near Alvarado, where Thomas Poindexter continued to make his home until his death. In early life he had learned carpentering and cabinet making and followed those trades in connection with his stock-raising interests until 1861, when he turned his attention to farming. His economy, industry and well directed labor proved the basis of his success. With his family he was generous and the poor and needy found in him a friend. In all of his business dealings he was strictly honorable, his word being as good as any bond that was ever solemnized by signature or seal. For almost a half century he held membership in the Ma- sonic fraternity and for thirty-five years was identified with the Cumberland Presbyterian
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church. His life was indeed upright and honora- ble at all times and he not only labored for his own welfare but also contributed in substantial measure to the improvement and progress of the state. As a pioneer settler he bore the hardships, trials and dangers of frontier life when the safe- ty of the settlers was continually menaced. He voted for and was a witness to the organization of the government under Henderson, there being only nine thousand five hundred fifty-eight votes cast in that election. The entire population of the state was but one hundred thirty-six thou- sand at that time and there was not a railroad or telegraph line within its boundaries. He lived to see a remarkable change in all this, for the lands were reclaimed for the purposes of civiliza- tion and the various modern improvements known to the older east were introduced. He passed away April 29, 1889, and his wife, who survived him for several years, died on the old Poindexter farm at Alvarado in 1897. In their family were eight children.
William Poindexter, the seventh in order of birth, spent a portion of his youth in Lamar coun- ty, but came with his parents to Johnson county in 1863. His preliminary education was acquired in the common schools near Alvarado and he re- ceived ample training in farm life. He continued his literary studies in the college at Mansfield, Tarrant county, Texas, from which institution he was graduated in June, 1873, when, desiring to prepare for the bar, he went to Kentucky and entered upon the study of law at Edmonton, Metcalf county, under the direction of his broth- er-in-law, Judge R. B. Dohoney. In 1874 he was admitted to the bar, but desiring still broader knowledge to fit him for his chosen calling he entered the law department of the Cumberland University of Lebanon, Tennessee, from which he was graduated in 1875. He then returned to Texas and located for practice in Cleburne. After a brief period he joined Colonel Amzi Bradshaw of Waxahachie in the establishment of the firm of Brawshaw & Poindexter, having charge of the interests of the firm in Johnson county. This relation was maintained until 1880, when he formed a partnership with Judge S. C. Padelford that lasted for twenty years, being
dissolved in 1900. This was one of the strongest law firms of Texas, noted throughout the state. Judge Poindexter's practice has connected him with a large part of the important litigation tried in the courts of Johnson county for a third of a century. He has won for himself very favorable criticism for the careful and systematic methods which he has followed. He has remarkable powers of concentration and application and his retentive mind has often excited the surprise of his professional colleagues. As an orator he stands high, especially in the discussion of legal matters before the court, where his comprehen- sive knowledge of the law is manifest and his ap- plication of legal principles demonstrates the wide range of his professional acquirements. The utmost care and precision characterize his prep- aration of a case and have made him one of the most successful attorneys in Cleburne. In no instance has his reading ever been confined to the limitations of the question at issue. It has gone beyond that and compassed every contingency and provided not alone for the expected but for the unexpected, which happens in the courts quite as frequently as out of them. His logical grasp of facts and principles and of the law applicable to them has been another potent element in his success and to his persever- ance and indomitable energy he owes his ad- vancement as well as to his keen and brilliant mind.
In the line of his profession Mr. Poindexter has been called to official service, having been elected district judge in 1898 and serving for four years on the bench of the eighteenth judicial dis- trict, comprising at that time Hill, Johnson and Bosque counties. He was a prominent candidate for the Democratic nomination for congress in 1902 and again in 1904 and for many years he has been a leading, effective and influential campaign speaker in Texas.
Judge Poindexter has extensive city property interests in Cleburne, having erected several busi- ness houses here besides his beautiful home on North Main street. Until recent years he also owned a fine ranch in Johnson county and he now owns a cattle ranch in Shackelford county.
On the 9th of September, 1879, Judge Poin-
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dexter was united in marriage to Miss Mary Chambers, who died in July, 1897. She was a daughter of Colonel B. J. Chambers, the real founder and promoter of Cleburne. By this mar- riage there is one surviving child, a daughter, Harriet. The other children of the union have-
dexter, who was a young man of great promise and fine attainments and died at Austin, Texas, while a student in the state university, December 15, 1901. He was at that time eighteen years of age, having been born at Cleburne, February 21, 1883. He was graduated in the spring of 1900 at Cleburne high school, winning the state university scholarship, and in the fall of the same year he entered the university, matriculating for the bachelor of arts degree. That he was very popular with his fellow students is shown by the fact that he was the treasurer of his class and an officer in one of the Greek letter fraternities. He was also a devoted member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and of the Young Men's Christian Association, being an active worker in each. At the funeral services at Austin following his death the president of the university faculty and the pastor of the church of which he was a member paid high tribute to the deceased, saying that he was one of the most prominent and prom- ising students of the institution and the one whose loss was felt the most. A young man of highest character with splendid physical and men- tal equipment, it seemed that a brilliant future awaited him. He possessed laudable ambition guided by an unswerving loyalty to the right, and his mental development was equaled by his moral progress. His loss came as a great blow to his family and to his many friends throughout the state. For his second wife Judge Poindexter has chosen Melissa Smith, a daughter of Dr. Louis Smith, a prominent old-time citizen of Alvarado. After the death of Mrs. Poindexter's mother Dr. Smith married Miss Lightfoot and subsequent to his death she became the wife of S. R. Corgan, a prominent banker and cattleman of Brownwood.
Mrs. Poindexter was reared by her two step- parents and is a graduate of Daniel Baker College at Brownwood and also of the North Texas Fe-
male College at Sherman. She is an accom- plished musician and vocalist and a lady of super- ior culture and natural refinement.
Judge Poindexter has attained high rank in Masonry and is past eminent commander of the local commandery. He has been grand orator passed away, including Joseph William Poin- >of the grand lodge of Texas and delivered the oration at the laying of the corner stone of the Masonic Temple at Waco, also at the dedication of the building. He is a man of fine personal appearance, over six feet in height and well proportioned. He has a clear, resonant voice. well modulated, which adds greatly to his effec- tiveness as an orator. With strong mental per- ceptions, he has trained his mind to act quickly and readily and his keen insight is manifest in his ready mastery of every question, political or otherwise, that is presented to him for solution. He has won distinction at the bar and on the bench and is today one of the strongest repre- sentatives of the legal fraternity in Texas. 1
HON. JOHN H. STEPHENS, congressman from the thirteenth district of Texas, is a citizen of Vernon and a lawyer by profession and has been a resident of North Texas for the past thirty years. John H. Stephens is not alone a man and a citizen, but is an influence and a potent and energizing force in his own town, his state and the nation. Individual success came to him some years ago, but his career as a whole will be judged and valued for what he has accomplished in behalf of the public weal in the nation's house of representatives and in his own state. Some of the most important acts of governmental admin- istration during the last few years have been effected with the co-operation of Congressman Stephens. In every large nation, however demo- cratic may be its government, the working of the executive forces will often show inequalities if not actual malfeasance, and only by the eternal and critical vigilance of public spirited and inter- ested men can justice to all be subserved. Con- gressman Stephens has been a power at the na- tional capital not only in thus regulating inequable administration, but also in initiating measures whose result has been for the general welfare of
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large portions of the southwest and particularly for that nondescript section known as Indian Ter- ritory.
Mr. Stephens represents a family whose con- nection with the Lone Star state has been both long and important. He was himself born in Shelby county of this state while the Mexican war was in progress, on December 22, 1847. Genealogically the Stephens family has a. long line in America, whither its first members came originally from England and settled in Virginia, and from that state various descendants crossed the mountains and found their abode in Ten- nessee.
The great-grandfather of our Texas congress- man, Josiah Stephens by name, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and his son, who was a Tennesseean, served under General Jackson dur- ing the war of 1812.
L. H. Stephens, the father of Congressman Stephens, was born in Perry county, Tennessee, and came from there to Texas in 1844, casting in his lot with the early settlers of Shelby county. He moved to Tarrant county in 1855, settling near Mansfield, where he became a very prominent farmer and stock-raiser. He was very successful and gave personal attention to his farming in- terests until 1889, when he moved to Fort Worth and made his home two years, and then, on ac- count of the failing health of himself and wife, he went to Amarillo, where he spent his last years and died in 1902, in his eightieth year. He served as county commissioner of Tarrant county. While at Mansfield he enlisted in the Confederate army and served throughout the war. Two of his brothers also were in the southern army.
In 1846 L. H. Stephens was married to Miss Caroline Truitt, who was born in Rowan county, North Carolina, and when a child came with her parents to Texas, where she was mar- ried. She died in January, 1904, aged eighty years. Her father, James Truitt, had come to Texas in 1830, before the revolution, and he was an influential citizen during the troublous years before the republic was formed, and later was a member of congress in the Texas republic. After Texas was admitted to the Union he served in the state senate, as did also his son, Colonel Al-
fred Truitt. Three of his sons took part in the war with Mexico, and also in the war of the Regulators and Moderators during the forties. Previous to coming to Texas James Truitt had been sheriff of Rowan county, North Carolina, and was an officer detailed by the government to help transport the Cherokee Indians to the Indian Territory. He was in public life a great many years. The Truitts were nearly all prominent in their respective spheres, three of the brothers serving in the Civil war, and the Colonel Truitt mentioned above was major of his regiment at the capture of Santa Anna.
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