USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 49
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. There were eight children in the family of L. H. Stephens and wife, John H. being the eldest, and the others were James T., Sarah, Alice, Cyn- thia, Elizabeth, Josephine and Fanny.
John H. Stephens received his literary and classical education in the schools of Mansfield and Fort Worth. He has the honor of being an alumnus of the old Mansfield College, receiving much of his thorough early training under its president, Professor John Collier, for many years a noted Texas educator. Mansfield College, though not now in existence, has the honor of be- ing the alma mater of three of the present con- gressmen from Texas.
Mr. Stephens received his legal education at another noted institution-Cumberland Universi- ty, at Lebanon, Tennessee, where he graduated in 1872. In the fall of the same year he located at Montague, the county seat of Montague coun- ty, which was then an entirely new country and on the frontier and about as far as the wave of civilization had reached into northwest Texas. As a pioneer he grew up with that section of the country and built up a very successful law prac- tice. In 1888 and 1890 he was elected to the state senate, serving during the twenty-first and twen- ty-second sessions. His most important work was on the public lands committee, and he was a member of the committee that framed the pres- ent railroad commission bill.
Mr. Stephens moved to Vernon in 1892 and began the practice of law there, where he has made his home ever since. For several years he and Judge Sterling Huff have been law partners, with office in the court house at Vernon, but he
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has now practically given up practice in order to of railroads and other corporations who had de- signs on their acquisition. The secretary had pro- posed to sell the pine lands of the territory to the corporated lumber interests, but in a speech be- fore the house on February 4, 1904, Congressman devote all his time and energy to the wants and needs of his constituents. He has been a national representative of the thirteenth congressional dis- trict since 1896, and has been a member of the fifty-fifth, fifty-sixth, fifty-seventh and fifty- . Stephens turned the searchlight of public atten- eighth congresses. The only contest he has had .'tion upon the proposed order, and a measure was for the nomination was in his first campaign in 1896, since when the Democratic conventions have endorsed him at each succeeding election, and as the Democratic party is the whole thing in this state he has represented the sovereign people for nearly ten years. at once passed restricting the sale of this land to not more than a section and a half to any one firm or corporation. Similarly, the department ,was about to sell in unlimited quantities the coal land of the territory, and this move likewise was blocked by the ever alert member from Texas. Furthermore, he was instrumental in preventing the interior department in expunging from the citizenship rolls of Indian Territory the names of a large number of worthy intermarried whites who had lived in the territory a number of years, engaged in developing its agricultural and other resources.
In congress his most important work and the one which has drawn most on his efforts has been as a member of the committee on Indian affairs. He is the leading Democrat on the committee, and as the representative of the minority party he has on several important occasions been brought into active conflict with the Republican secretary of the interior, with the Texan invaria- bly coming out victor. Mr. Stephens put through the bill opening up the Comanche and Kiowa In- dian reservations in Oklahoma territory, which now embraces three large counties. He now has pending in congress a bill providing that another large tract of land in Oklahoma be thrown open to white settlers. Other measures have been fathered by him in congress conferring ines- timable benefits upon the residents of Oklahoma and Indian Territory ; among others, to permit incorporated towns in Indian Territory to issue bonds for the purpose of building school houses and carrying on free public schools. Previous to the enactment of this law the white residents of the territory were without public school facili- ties, and the educational situation was becoming a distressing one. In the fifty-eighth congress he secured the passage of a law providing for the appointment of a board of examiners for admit- ting physicians to practice, similar to the Texas law, a much needed measure in Indian Terri- tory, and a like bill was passed for pharmacists.
Passing now to his acts in restraining unwise rules or administrative orders, it was through his efforts in congress and in opposition to the secre- tary of the interior that the public lands of In- dian Territory have been saved from the greed
To quote from a contemporary journal : "Con- gressman Stephens has introduced a bill to es- tablish courts of probate in the Indian Territory. Mansfield's digest of the laws of Arkansas is to be adopted and put in force, as far as is pos- sible and practicable, if the bill is passed. The bill of the Vernon representative was sent to the judiciary committee and ordered printed. Mr. Stephens is to Indian Territory in the house what Mr. Bailey is to the territory in the senate. Both of them have their hands full with the wants and needs of their constituents north of Red river. But neither of them is heard to complain." It is an enviable reputation to be considered the "watch dog" of the public welfare of many thou- sands of people.
In Texas matters Mr. Stephens introduced and had passed a bill granting this state fifty thou- sand dollars as compensation in the Greer county claim, Greer being the county along the Red river forks that had always been claimed by Texas but was finally annexed to Oklahoma. He is also in- terested in the New Mexico-Texas boundary question, which has been a cause of some trouble and agitation for some time, and he now has a bill pending in congress providing for a just set- tlement of the difficulty. His efforts are being constantly expended in matters of legislation that
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will benefit his state and constituency, and he is a very earnest, sincere and conscientious man. His long experience in the halls of the national con- gress enables him to accomplish much where an untried man would fail, and his value to Texas and the nation thus increases every year. One of the acts of his early congressional career worthy of reference here was in providing for roadside mail boxes before the rural delivery service was established. Besides being connected with the committee on Indian affairs he is also on the committee of appropriations for the depart- ment of justice.
Mr. Stephens is fraternally a Mason and is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church. He was married at Mansfield, Texas, in 1873 to Miss Annie Chrisman, who was born in Missouri and came to this state with her parents, who are still living in Mansfield. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens have six children: Elma, wife of J. V. Town- send, of Vernon; May, wife of S. W. Smith, an architect of Fort Worth; Clara, Blanche, John A. and Fred C.
JOSHUA F. JOHNSON, head and founder of the Johnson Mercantile Company at Canadian, is the best representative that can be found of the mercantile interests of the northeastern cor- ner of the great Texas Panhandle. His business success has been large, almost monumental in fact, and the happiest part of the record is that he has won his prosperity by absolutely clean, straightforward and intelligent business meth- ods, and no good citizen could justly wish his career had been otherwise than it is. Mr. John- son is by no means of a close or insular nature as regards his material accumulations, but has dispensed of what he has and of his great energy and business sagacity for the permanent wel- fare of his community, aiding liberally many enterprises whose influence for good will be felt in the succeeding generations, and himself stand- ing for high ideals of citizenship and private life.
Mr. Johnson was born in Bedford county, Tennessee, in 1858. His parents, W. T. and An- nie (Jackson) Johnson, were natives of the same state and his mother died there, his father is
still living, having been a farmer in Bedford county. Receiving a country school education and being reared on a farm, at the age of sixteen years Mr. Johnson entered upon his career in commercial life by becoming a clerk in a store. Continuing and advancing in this line of pur- suits, he was an experienced and capable business man when, in 1887, he left home and established a grocery store in Kiowa, in southwestern Kan- sas, where he remained a year and a half. Then, following the southern Kansas line of the Santa Fe, which was just being built in a southwest- erly direction through the Texas Panhandle, he came to Lipscomb county, Texas, in the north- east corner of the Panhandle, and the first stick of wood put into any building of the new town of Higgins was in his store building. His busi- ness here prospered, and he soon had branches established at the towns of Canadian, Lipscomb, and, after the opening of Oklahoma territory in 1889, a branch at Woodward, that territory. When the town of Canadian began to show evi- dence that it was to be the leading city of that part of the Panhandle he moved his home there and built a fine residence, making the Canadian store the headquarters of his mercantile enter- prises. Later the stores at Higgins, Lipscomb and Woodward were discontinued, and other branches were established at Miami and Pampa, these three constituting the business of today. The Johnson Mercantile Company is incorporated, has a capital and surplus of eighty thousand dollars, and its financial integrity is unquestioned in every business circle of the state. Mr. John- son is its president and treasurer, his son, W. A. Johnson, is vice president and office manager, and his son-in-law, A. V. McQuiddy, is secre- tary. The store at Miami is reputed to be the finest in the Panhandle, and in each of the stores there is carried a big line of every kind of mer- chandise, including farm and ranching machin- ery. For many years the company carried on a banking business in Canadian, in connection with the store, for the benefit of its customers, but the banking department was discontinued in 1904.
Mr. Johnson has a splendid ranch of twenty- seven thousand acres in Hemphill county, the
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ranch headquarters being seven miles east of Canadian. Only high grades of cattle are han- dled on this piace. A portion of the land is also devoted to farming, and this has designedly be- come a prominent feature of the business, it be- ing Mr. Johnson's intention to make this a model - JUDGE WILLIAM J. JONES. The life history of Judge William Jefferson Jones is closely identified with the history of this section of the state, which has been his home for many years. He began his career here in the early pioneer epoch of the country, and throughout ranch and stock farm, illustrating the possibili- >the years which have since come and gone he ties and resources of this part of the country and thus proving of inestimable advantage in the permanent upbuilding of the Panhandle country. Mr. Johnson is now considered one of the wealthiest men in his section of the state, but as has been mentioned honesty and integrity have been the foundation principles on which all his success has been builded. His stores sell great quantities of goods throughout this region, and prosperity smiles more brightly on him each year. has been closely allied with its interests and upbuilding. He was born in Jones county, Georgia, on the 14th of December, 1849, a son of D. C. and S. E. (Wallace) Jones, the former a native of Georgia and the latter of South Caro- lina, but reared in the former state. In 1857 the family removed from Georgia to Wood coun- ty, Texas, where the father was engaged in farm- ing and saw-milling until his life's labors were ended in death, and there the mother also passed away.
Mr. Johnson has long been an active member of the Baptist church and has been interested in the various phases of its work. He is one of the board of trustees of the Canadian Acad- emy, and he is justly proud of the part he has taken in the building of this noble institution, whose beneficent and inspiring influence has al- ready begun to be exerted over the younger generation of the county. Work on the main academy building was begun in 1901, and the academy was opened for regular courses in 1904, and dormitories are to be erected in the near future. This school is a member of the Corre- lated Baptist Colleges of Texas, and its future is bright and potential of lasting good to all this section. In other ways Mr. Johnson has been a factor in making Canadian a city of the highest class, with the best of social, educational and church facilities.
Mr. Johnson was married in his native state of Tennessee to Miss Lizzie Winsett. Both their children are married, William A. being connect- ed with his father's business, and the daughter Alma being the wife of A. V. McQuiddy, also of the firm.
Mr. Johnson laid out the town of Glacier on his ranch and has upon it a thirty-two horse power traction engine with which he does his plowing.
William J. Jones was but eight years of age when he accompanied his parents on their re- moval to Wood county, and on the old home place there he was reared and remained until his marriage. Farming operations claimed his at- tention until the year 1876, when his fellow citi- zens elected him to the office of judge of Wood county, in the discharge of which duties he re- moved to Quitman, the county seat, and in that high official position he served three terms. In 1885 he came to northwestern Texas, purchasing land adjoining what is now the town of Quanah, in Hardeman county, the land at that time being unimproved was covered with wild antelope as thick as cattle. The election which provided for the organization of the county had been held De- cember 30, 1884, and the first meeting of the county commissioners, at which the county was regularly organized, was in January, 1885. Judge Jones came here as the representative of General Granville M. Dodge and associates, who were then building the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad northwest from Fort Worth, and who laid out and started the town of Quanah. Soon after his arrival he took up the matter of estab- lishing a postoffice in company with United States Senator S. B. Maxey, and through his aid this was accomplished in 1885. The first sale of town lots was not held, however, until
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December 1, 1886, of which Judge Jones had charge, and in the course of time as representa- tive of the owners sold all of the lots of the orig- inal townsite. The first passenger train came through on the new road March 1, 1887. Judge Jones continued his connection with these town- site operations for several years, and since his arrival here has been engaged in the real estate business and has been the means of bringing many people to Quanah and Hardeman county. During one term he served his city as mayor, and in November, 1902, was elected county judge of Hardeman county. In every position which in his eventful life he has been called upon to fill he has been highly successful. Few men have more devoted friends than he, and none excel him in unselfish devotion and unswerving fideli- ty to the worthy recipients of his confidence and friendship.
The marriage of Judge Jones was celebrated in Wood county, Texas, in 1876, when Miss Emma C. Lipscomb became his wife. She is a member of one of the prominent old Texas families, and was reared in Wood county. Six children have been born to this union,-Mrs. Olive Strong, William F., Barney Jarvis, Charles A., Mary and Ellis. Judge Jones is a member of the Baptist church.
JUDGE NEWTON F. LOCKE, prominent merchant of Miami county and county judge of Roberts county, holds a premier position among the pioneer citizens of the great Texas Panhandle. For over a quarter of a century he has been close- ly identified with the life and affairs of this sec- tion of the state, and his influence and prosperity have increased with the years. The industrial and commercial phases of the region have not alone felt the impetus of his energy and enter- prise, for he has almost from the first taken an active part in public affairs and has often been the incumbent of some important office.
Judge Locke has always lived in the sunny south, and though a man just in the prime of his years he has had a varied and earnestly active and useful career. He was born near Selma, in Dallas county, Alabama, January 13, 1853, being a son of William F. and Elizabeth (Brazeal) Locke.
His parents were both natives of Alabama, and his father lost his life while serving the cause of the south in the armies of the Confederacy.
Reared on a farm, Judge Locke spent the first twenty-one years of his life in his native state, and in 1874 came to Texas where for over thirty years he has centered his activities. His first location was in Dallas, where for a year he was employed in the mercantile firm of Leonard Brothers. He then moved to Jacksboro in Jack county and was in a store there for about a year. It will be remembered that the seventies were still a period of Indian trouble and depredation for the Texas frontier, along which at that time Jack and Young counties still lay, and these especially suf- fered from the ravages of the redskins. Accord- ingly the Texas Rangers, that famous body of state troops of whom Texas history will never cease to speak, were kept pretty busy, and Mr. Locke joined the organization under Lieutenant Hamilton. General John B. Jones being in com- mand of the battalion. For two years he was in the exciting and arduous service of the Rangers in the frontier counties from the Red river south- ward.
In the spring of 1879 Mr. Locke came out to Wheeler county, which was the first county to be organized in the Panhandle, and the organ- ization was effected that very year. He located at Mobeetie, the county seat. At that time all the counties north of the Red river in the Pan- handle were attached to. Wheeler for judicial purposes, and in the year of Mr. Locke's coming the nearest justice of the peace was at Henrietta in Clay county. In 1884, when the second reg- ular election after the organization of Wheeler county occurred, Mr. Locke was elected clerk of the county and district courts, and received three successive re-elections, so that he held the office for eight years. He remained a resident of Wheeler county until 1894, and early in that year came to Miami in Roberts county. After engag- ing in the mercantile business for a while he sold out, and was then on his ranch three years. In 1901 he bought back into the mercantile business, and has since been numbered among the enter- prising merchants of the town of Miami. His well known firm is the N. F. Locke and Son, his
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son, Newton, being the associate in the business. In Roberts county also Mr. Locke has been pub- licly active, having served one term as county treasurer, and in 1902 was elected to the office of county judge for a term of two years. He was re-elected in 1904.
A man of the highest character and standing, with a most creditable record in every enter- prise he has undertaken since he became a resi- dent of this section of the state, Mr. Locke is greatly esteemed by all who know him and has wielded his influence in the right direction for public progress and prosperity. Fraternally he is a Mason and Odd Fellow. In 1881 he was mar- ried in Young county to Miss Dora Barton, and they are the parents of four fine sons, named respectively, Claude, who is a merchant at Allan- reed, this state, Newton, William and Clarence.
GEORGE RADCLIFFE JOWELL, of Here- ford, one of the longest established and most influential citizens of Deaf Smith county and the Texas Panhandle, is a Texan of the purest water, for, while not a native son, he has lived under the Lone Star of the Republic, was attaining man- hood's growth during the first fifteen years of statehood, fought for Texas as a member of the Confederacy, and during the forty years since the war has been closely identified with the progressive and substantial upbuilding of all the interests of this vast commonwealth. Cherishing high ideals of citizenship, a friend of education and religion, pure and wholesome in his do- mestic relations, a man of incorruptible integrity and personal worth, he has made his influence felt for all that connotes progress and uplift in church, state and home.
His father, James Abercrombie, was an hon- ored Texas pioneer and useful citizen throughout his career. He was of the well known Aber- crombie family on his mother's side. Born in South Carolina, he lived for awhile in Marion county, Alabama, where he married Bertha Jowell, a native of Alabama and of another branch of the Jowell family. Leaving Marion county in 1844, after the birth of the son George Radcliffe, the parents came out to Texas during the days of the Republic, and the father first lo-
cated his family in Rusk county, where he lived ten years. From that county he enlisted for serv- ice in the Mexican war, and was a member of the famous ranger regiment of Jack Hays, a regi- ment that was in the forefront of all the battles on the way to the city of Mexico and made a reputation for bravery and efficiency that will never be dimmed as long as the annals of Texas are read. From Rusk county James A. Jowell emigrated in 1855 to what was later organized as. Palo Pinto county, which was then on the ex- -
treme western frontier, and there he went into the cattle business. He helped organize Palo Pinto county, was one of the first settlers of the town of Palo Pinto, and for a long number of years, until his death in 1886, was one of the county's best known citizens. His good wife survived him and passed away in 1894.
As mentioned above, Mr. Jowell was born while his parents resided in Marion county, Ala- bama, in 1840. Reared in Rusk and Palo Pinto counties, from his earliest youth to the present time he has been associated with the great cattle industry of Texas, and consequently is thoroughly familiar with the business in both its old-time and present aspects. His long career in the frontier districts and on the free ranges has brought him in contact, perhaps as much as any other living Texan, with the Indians during the predatory warfare which they maintained on the Texas borders from the earliest historical times until in very recent years. At his home in Hereford he has many interesting relics and trophies of his conflicts with the redskins, and he is himself a repository of anecdotes and reminiscences of experiences which throw much light on the early history of the state. His troubles with the In- dians were almost continuous from 1859 to 1875, with the exception of the Civil war period, when he was away fighting for the Confederate cause. As has been frequently shown elsewhere in this work, the natives were a more constant and fear- ful terror and did more permanent injury to the welfare and progress of the people in Texas than in any other state of the Union, and it was a long time before their power for harm was effectually and finally checked. The scattered remnants of the tribes of Wacos, Caddos, Comanches, as well
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as the terrible Apaches were a devilish host that never allowed the settlers rest from watchfulness and anxiety, and from their government reserves across the Red river and from the mountain fast- nesses on the west they sallied forth, in small bands, and carried pillage and terror to the hearts of all white inhabitants. Despite the fact that the United States government built a line of outposts from the Red to the Rio Grande, these places were never adequately garrisoned by regular soldiers, and the famous Texas Rangers, so efficient in actual conflict, could not be everywhere to guard life and property, so that, especially during the Civil war period, the settlers were compelled to keep their arms constantly at their sides, as did the Puritans of the colonial epoch, and be always on the alert and prepared to ward off the red foe from field and home. Cattle and horse stealing was the gravest offense of the Indians, and when the robbers were brought to bay by the settlers murder often resulted, and many whites, in the course of a year, were killed in this way. The In- dians would generally come, says Mr. Jowell, on a moonlight night, and, stealthily picking out the horses or cattle from a corral, make away with them, soon to be followed by the settler and what members of the family and neighbors as could join in the pursuit. Mr. Jowell's entire youth and young manhood were spent in this kind of life, and it is difficult for him to reckon up the number of times he has chased or been chased by the red bandits.
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