A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 56

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

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" The Hon. Sil Stark spent the days of his boy- hood and youth upon a farm, receiving his early education in the township schools, and prepared for his profession in the law department of the Indiana State University at Bloomington, which in those days held a leading place among the schools of the country, being next in rank to Ann Arbor. Remaining on the old home farm until twenty-seven years of age he then, in 1876, came to Texas, first taking up his abode at Mc- Kinney, the county seat of Collin county, where the following nine months were spent, during which time he studied in the office of Col. Malt- by, now deceased, a prominent lawyer and com- missioner of the court of civil appeals. There he also completed the preparation for the profes- sion which he had chosen for his life work, and was admitted to the bar at Dallas in December, 1876. In January, following, he came to Jacks- boro and enrolled his name among its legal prac- titioners, and in those days Jacksboro was an entirely different place from what it now appears, it being then a prominent headquarters for the cowboys and cattlemen of northwestern Texas, and as such exhibited the lively and picturesque characteristics of western towns in the early days. It also had the distinction of being the greatest gambling town in the western part of the state. In 1878 Mr. Stark was elected at- torney of Jack county, receiving a re-election to. that position in 1880, for two terms, and in No- vember, 1904, was made the county judge. Many other positions of honor and distinction have also been bestowed upon him, and he has the honor of being the first mayor of Jacksboro after its organization as a city, serving under the new charter of 1900, and was re-elected for a second term in 1901. He has been local attorney for the Chicago, Rock Island & Gulf Railroad since its completion to Jacksboro in 1897.

Before leaving his home in Indiana Judge- Stark was united in marriage to Miss S. A.

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South, and they have five children,-Mrs. Lena' president from 1820 to 1828, was instrumental in L. Denman, Anna E., Oma, Hattie and Vester. The family reside in a beautiful home in the western part of the town, commanding a fine view of the city and surrounding country. Since twelve years of age Judge Stark has been a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in his fraternal relations he is a member of the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Honor and the Knights of Pythias.

CAPT. JAMES A. H. HOSACK. Although for many years engaged in a business life of varied and successful activity, and, by reason of his success in the real estate business, a man who has effected wonderful results in the upbuilding and improvement of western Texas, still, as every one of his acquaintances would concede, the greatest interest in the life of Captain Hosack lies, not in his business career, but in his charm- ing personality and versatile character. Himself a man of affairs and a man of the world, wherein he has wrought out a creditable degree of mater- ial success, he also unites in himself the refine- ments and inherited characteristics of more than a century of distinguished ancestors, and it is to such phases of his history that one is attracted more than to his accomplishments, large as they may be.

Born in New York City in 1833, he was a son of Hamilton and Fannie (Pritchard) Hosack. His father, also a native of New York City, be- came a pioneer steamboatman on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, running from Cincinnati to New Orleans, and while captain of a steamboat died from yellow fever at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1837. Dr. Alexander Hosack, Captain Hosack's grandfather, was born in New York City and became a well known physician there. His brother was the distinguished physician and scientist, Dr. David Hosack, who was a friend of Alexander Hamilton's and the latter's surgeon on the field of duel between him and Aaron Burr. One of New York's most famous physicians in the early part of last century, Dr. David Hosack impressed his name and influence on many insti- tutions and affairs. He was one of the founders of the New York Historical Society, and its

founding a Botanical society, was prominent in various scientific, literary and humanitarian undertakings, and was professor in a medical col- lege. He was associated with some of the great men of that day in promoting the welfare of his city, state and nation, and it was remarked of him by a prominent man of New York that "Clinton, Hosack and Hobart are the tripod on which our city stands." He was born at 44 Frankfort street, New York, and his father, Alexander Hosack, a native of England, had come to America as a young officer in the British army, thus establish- ing the family on American soil.

Of another class of talent was Captain Hosack's mother. A native of England, Fannie Pritchard, who became a distinguished actress and one of the talented women of her time, learned her art from her mother in England, where in the twenties, before coming to America, she appeared on the stage: In this country she became associated in plays with Junius Brutus Booth, Edwin Forrest, and made a name and reputation second to none of the women players of her time. Her health giving way in 1840, she sought recuperation in Texas, bringing with her the first theatrical troupe ever introduced into the Republic. She decided to make her home at Clarksville, where, her health constantly failing, she died in 1842 and was buried there. Fannie Pritchard was a daughter of Mrs. Pritchard (maiden name Hannah Vaughan) whose name has an enduring place in the history of the acted drama. She was noted both in tragedy and comedy, and was Mrs. Siddons' greatest prede- cessor in the characters of Lady Macbeth and Queen Katharine, and, as did also Mrs. Sid- dons, had the unusual honor of burial in the poets' corner of Westminster Abbey, where there is a tablet to her memory bearing a beau- tiful inscription written by Whitehead, then poet laureate. She died at Bath in August, 1768.

Of these distinguished ancestors, both paternal and maternal, Captain Hosack has many valuable and interesting tokens, portraits and other me- mentoes, and talks instructively of the work and character of those men and women. He himself

Capt & H HoraK

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almost grew up in the actor's profession, and from very early boyhood took suitable parts in his mother's company. He accompanied her to Texas in 1840, and after her death his educa- tional training was placed in the hands of Rev. J. W. P. Mckenzie, at the latter's school near Clarksville. From Clarksville he went to Mar- shall, this state, where he began his independent career in connection with the mercantile business. From there he moved to Jefferson, Texas, where" in 1858 he was elected sheriff of Marion county, and by succeeding elections served continuously in that office for twenty-three years. Although oppossing secession, he offered to enlist when the war actually came, but instead was requested to remain at Jefferson in the capacity of sheriff, act- ing as custodian and friend to the families during the war and acting for the Confederate govern- ment and other important interests, all of which he attended to in the most businesslike manner. In one of his later campaigns for sheriff he re- ceived every vote polled in the county. His rec- ord as sheriff was marked by an efficiency such as to make his period of service a lasting stand- ard for judgment. He never let a man get away from him, never failed to make an arrest, never had a personal difficulty, performed all the requirements of his office, and finally re- signed in order to be relieved of his official burdens.

About coincident with the time of his resigning official cares he took up the business of making auction and special sales of lands and town lots. A peculiar fitness led him into this career, his pleasing elocutionary power's being inherited, probably, from his stage ancestors, and as a pub- lic speaker he has the force and eloquence and courtly manner which give him prestige and success wherever he pursues his vocation. In this business he was located at San Antonio, later at Houston, at Fort Worth, Dallas, and, since the latter nineties, has made his home and business headquarters at Cleburne. Up to the time of the present writing he had conducted one hundred and forty-seven public sales of town lots, farm and ranch property, and on one occasion he sold one hundred and forty-eight thousand dollars' worth of property in two days. Through the

success of these sales he has developed sections of Texas that people declared were not worth any- thing at all-such places for instance as the now flourishing cities of Abilene, Wichita Falls, and others. He was the first man in Texas effec- tively to advocate the diversification of crops, and for years has been an energetic and successful promoter of the agricultural and industrial de- velopment of Texas.

Mr. Hosack has five children: Mrs. W. F. Simmons, of Houston; Mrs. Annie W. White, of Coleman ; Mrs. Georgia F. Price, of Houston ; James H. Hosack, of New Orleans; and Clop- ton U. Hosack.

JUDGE MARSHALL M. HANKINS is numbered among the honored pioneers who aided in laying the foundation upon which to erect the superstructure of Hardeman county's present prosperity and progress. Through its period of early development he was an important factor in the improvement and advancement of this sec- tion of the state, and has been connected with the broader interests which have had to do with the welfare of the commonwealth. He was born in Barry county, Missouri, in 1861, a son of Thomas and Martha (Ray) Hankins, both of whom were natives of Tennessee, but emigrated to Barry county, and there both died. The father was a miller by occupation.

During his boyhood days Marshall M. Hankins left his parents' home, and in 1878 came to Texas, first locating in Cooke county. After studying law in its county seat, Gainesville, principally in the office of Worthington & Lewis, he was admitted to the bar in that city in 1885, and in the same year came to Hardeman county. The county of Hardeman, however, had been organized early in the year 1885, and as settlers were beginning to arrive Mr. Hankins soon entered into a suc- cessful law practice. There being no railroads at that time west of Harrold, the lawyers were obliged to make long trips by stage, buggy or wagon to distant county seats to attend courts, such as in Jones, Haskell and Knox counties. His name is inscribed high on the roll of the county's records of jurisprudence, for his abili- ty as a lawyer has won him marked success. In

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February, 1890, the election was held which de- cided that the county seat should be changed from Margaret to Quanah, and in the following November Mr. Hankins was elected county judge, to which high office he was re-elected in 1894, serving in all six years. By act of the leg- islature on March 3, 1891, Hardeman county was divided, Foard county being formed from its southern part. In 1901 Judge Hankins was ap- pointed one of the Live Stock Sanitary Com- missioners of Texas, which had charge of the quarantine laws of the state and various other matters affecting the welfare of the cattle indus- try of this state, which position he still holds. He is also the owner of a valuable ranch in Hardeman county southwest of Quanah, in addi- tion to his town place.

Judge Hankins was united in marriage to Miss Mary Roberts, a daughter of Judge J. C. Rob- erts of Crowell, and they have five children, --- Vera, Roten, Stayton, Mary and Winnie. The Judge has long been accorded a prominent posi- tion at the Texas bar and in political circles, and with the public-spirited citizens of the com- munity he is numbered among the first.

MOSES W. HAYS is a foremost cattleman and business man of the northeastern Panhandle country, and is also one of the oldest residents in this part of the state. During the quarter of a century in which he has known the Panhan- dle all the agricultural development and indus- trial changes have taken place there, for through all the ages during which Northwest Texas had been a portion of the new world continent its resources and its landscape features had never experienced such development and mutation as they have during the short time of white men's occupation and exploitation of this region. Mr. Hays has accordingly witnessed all the important history of this section of the state, and is one of the few men whose lot has been permanently cast with the Panhandle since 1877.

Born in Warren county, Kentucky, in 1853, at the age of two years Mr. Hays was taken by his parents, W. M. and Sarah (Phillips) Hays, both native Kentuckians, to Jackson county, Missouri, about twenty-five miles east of Kansas City, and

later the family became pioneer settlers of Col- orado, in which state the parents spent the re- mainder of their lives.

Mr. Hays became identified with the cattle in- dustry in boyhood and it has formed his principal and most profitable pursuit throughout his active career. In 1871 he left the family home in Col- orado and went west, spending five years in Ne- vada and California, during most of which time he was a cowboy. From the Pacific slope he came east to Texas. With his brother-in-law, Joe Morgan, he drove a bunch of Mexican cat- tle from Corpus Christi, Texas, on the gulf, to the open range in the Panhandle country. This was in 1877, and as he has lived in this part of the state ever since, it makes him one of the old- timers as there are only a few now living here who were in the Panhandle as early as that. Up to 1902 his ranching operations were carried on mostly in Hemphill county, where for a number of years he had the noted old Springer ranch, His present ranch lies in the southeastern part of Lipscomb county, where he owns about thirty- five hundred acres of land, his residence and ranch headquarters being three miles south of Higgins. He has highly improved his place, until it is now one of the prettiest ranches and homes in the Panhandle, known of many for its typical western ranch hospitality as well as for the progressive and enterprising methods of opera- tion which are everywhere in evidence. Mr. Hays has been uniformly successful in the cattle busi- ness and has attained a most satisfactory degree of prosperity. He is one of the three owners comprising the Higgins Hardware Company, which conducts the leading hardware store of Lipscomb county. In numerous other affairs of public and business nature Mr. Hays has exerted his influence, and he is a man of recognized abili- ty and integrity in whatever he undertakes.

Mr. Hays' wife is Mrs. Lou (Turner) Hays, a native of Mills county, Iowa, and they have one daughter, Miss Florita Bonita Hays.

ALLEN MITCHELL BEVILLE, mayor of Clarendon, has been a progressive and enterpris- ing resident and business man of this place al- most from the inception of the town, and dur-

MR. AND MRS. SOLON A. LOVING

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

ing the past fifteen years has engaged in a num- ber of its important activities. Mr. Beville is a successful newspaper man, one of the few who have ridden the editorial Pegasus with gratify- ing success, both as to material returns and in what has been accomplished for the welfare of his reading constituency. A man of wide di- versity of interests, of large executive and busi- ness ability, and eminently public-spirited, he has played a useful part in affairs and has always been a worthy and esteemed member of society.

Born near Homer, in Claiborne parish, Louis- iana, October 23, 1862, he was the posthumous child of Thomas W. Beville, who, a native of Alabama and for some years a successful plan- ter in Claiborne parish, had enlisted in the Con- federate army and after being in a few skirm- ishes sickened and died in 1862, two months be- fore his son was born. On his father's side Mr. Beville is a descendant of French ancestors, the three original brothers of the name having come to America as partisans and followers of the great La Fayette during the Revolution, after which they returned to France, but came back to this country again and settled in Virginia, their descendants, however, scattering through- out the states of the south. Mr. Beville's mother, Mary A. (Harper) Beville, comes from the Harper's Ferry family of Harpers. Her father, Thomas Harper, came to Alabama and founded the town of Harpersville, where she was born. She is now living at her home in Sulphur Springs, Texas.

Mr. Beville moved his mother to Sulphur Springs, Hopkins county, Texas, in 1870, and he received his early education there and at Dallas. But his practical, enduring and substantial lit- erary training was obtained in a newspaper office, where he learned the manifold details of the busi- ness. He was employed on the old Dallas Herald in 1882 and 1883, and also kept books for a time. Returning to Sulphur Springs, he was in mercan- tile work for a few years, and in 1889, two years after the founding of the town, he came to Clar- endon. Here he began writing fire insurance, dealing in land, etc., until Cleveland's second ad- ministration, when he was appointed and held the office of postmaster for four years. Early in 1900

he established the Clarendon News, which he con- ducted successfully as editor and publisher for a little over four years, selling out the plant in the summer of 1904. He is one of the few men who have made good money out of a country news- paper, and he always maintained a first class, ably edited journal. Mr. Beville is now vice president of the Citizens' Bank of Clarendon, and also still carries on the fire insurance department of the business which he established in 1889. In April, 1904, he was elected mayor of Clarendon, and is giving his fellow citizens a capable, business-like administration of affairs.

Mr. Beville has been prominently identified with the work of the Methodist denomination ever since taking up his residence in Clarendon. He has been steward and trustee of the church, and for fifteen years has served as the efficient superintendent of the Sunday school. He helped organize and establish Clarendon College, a Meth- odist institution, in 1897, and is one of its trustees and has rendered good service in building it up to its present prosperity. His most valuable work as a citizen has been his earnest efforts toward mak- ing Clarendon an ideal residence city, with first class social, educational and religious advantages. Mr. Beville is prominent in local Masonic circles. He assisted to organize Blue Lodge, No. 700, and is a Royal Arch Mason, belonging to Clarendon Chapter No. 216.

Mr. Beville was married at Sulphur Springs, this state, to Miss Etta Kimberlin. This home has been blessed with four children, Harwood, Allen M., Jr., Etta and Laura Elizabeth.

SOLON A. LOVING. We of the twentieth century can scarcely realize the conditions the pioneers found when they made their way into Texas, finding broad prairies unclaimed and un- settled. The greatest menace to civilization was the Indians, who were treacherous and were fre- quently upon the warpath. They committed great depredations upon the stock and other possessions of the settlers and did not hesitate to take life to carry their ends. Mr. Loving, 2 resident of the state since 1845, is familiar with all of the hardships, dangers and privations which fall to the lot of the early pioneers and he

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has taken an important and helpful part in the work of development and progress in Montague county, where he now makes his home. He was born in Alabama July 2, 1825, and has therefore passed the eightieth milestone on life's journey. His parents were Miggison and Nancy (Phillips) Loving, both of whom were natives of Virginia. The paternal grandparents were William and Betsey (Fortune) Loving. who were born in Livingston, Nelson county, Virginia, and were of English descent. They spent their entire lives in the old Dominion and the grandfather was a cooper by trade, follow- ing that occupation for many years. He had no aspirations for office, but was never neglectful of any duty that devolved upon him, and his genuine worth gained him the esteem and confi- dence of his fellow men. In his family were the following named: Miggison, John, William and Nicholas, all of whom retained their resi- dence in Virginia; Mrs. Malinda Joblin; Mrs. Betsey Hamlet ; Mrs. Cynthia Kidd; Mrs. Nan- cy Buchanan; Mary; Lucy, and others whose names are forgotten.

Miggison Loving, father of Solon A. Loving, was born in Virginia and was reared to farm pursuits. In 1818, when a young man, he emi- grated to Alabama and was there married in 1822. He afterward located upon a farm, which he cultivated for several years, and then turned his attention to merchandising. During the first three years he met with a fair measure of suc- cess, but believing that he would have still bet- ter business opportunities in Texas, he disposed of his business interests in Alabama, and in 1846 came to this state, settling first in Cass county, where he engaged in farming for one year. On the expiration of that period he once more turned his attention to merchandising, estab- lishing a store in Dangerfield, where he also re- mained for three years. He then again devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits, purchasing a tract of land on which he carried on farming up to the time of his death in the year 1866. He was a leading farmer and slave owner of his community and was prominent and influential in public life. He became a stanch advocate of the Democracy and represented his district in

the state legislature, where he gave earnest con- sideration to every question which came up for settlement. He was likewise a consistent mem- ber of the Presbyterian church and at all times his life was actuated by honorable and manly principles and by devotion to the general good. His wife survived him for only a few months, passing away in February, 1867. She was a daughter of Joshua Phillips, also a native of Virginia and a representative of one of the hon- ored pioneer families of that state. In his fam- ily were the following children: Mrs. Nancy Loving, Mrs. Betsey Griffin, Mrs. Frances Bailey, Mrs. Mary Pruitt and Zachariah, an overseer and farmer of Mississippi. To Mr. and Mrs. Loving were born ten children, namely : Solon A .; William, an attorney-at-law ; R. C., a farmer and stockman.of Texas; James K. P., an agriculturist; John J., who died in child- hood; Mrs. Margaret Hodges; Mrs. Angeline Bailey ; Mrs. Mary Crowder; Mrs. Lucy For- sythe and Mrs. Virginia Strickland.

Solon A. Loving was reared in Alabama, and in 1844, when nineteen years of age, left home, going to Mississippi, where he remained for five months. In April, 1845, however, he arrived in Texas, settling in Cass county, where he was employed as a farm hand, and in 1846 he returned to Mississippi, where he was married. In 1849 he again came to Texas, establishing his home in Cass county, where he rented land for a year. On the expiration of that period he re- moved to Titus county, where he bought a farm, continuing its cultivation and improve- ment until 1856. At that time he had got to- gether a good bunch of cattle, and he removed to Palo Pinto county, where he remained until 1860. In the meantime the treachery of the In- dians was increasing and he found the condition of affairs so bad in Palo Pinto county that he had to move his family back to eastern Texas. He then took his cattle back to Montague coun- ty, where the Indian annoyance continued and even life was a hazardous thing in that country. None but brave men could remain in the coun- try, but Mr. Loving determined not to be run off by the Indians. The red men were constant- ly stealing horses and murdering the stockmen

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and it seemed that they grew worse year by year, so that it was almost impossible for a white settler to cross the country. Many were killed and their bodies were badly mutilated. Mr. Loving often found many corpses on the prairies and assisted in burying the dead. They also had many skirmishes with the Indians ; the engagement continued at one place for four days. The cattle and stockmen were losing so heavily that they banded together for protec- tion and four hundred men made a raid upon the Indians. They encountered a still greater number who were armed with government guns and a battle ensued, continuing four days, dur- ing which time a number were killed on both sides, among the more prominent being John R. Bailey, commander of the white forces. On various occasions when the white men started in pursuit they would recover their stock, but frequently the Indians would get away with large bunches of cattle. Mr. Loving was the first white man that ever went through this cross timber with stock. He visited the country with a view of ranching cattle here and first es- tablished himself in business at Victoria Peak, later called Queen's Peak, at which place he made his headquarters for twenty years.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 56

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