A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 57

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 57

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In 1862 Mr. Loving entered the Confederate service, volunteering in Colonel Whitfield's Cavalry, which was assigned to the western de- partment. He served mostly in Arkansas and Mississippi and at Corinth was taken ill, after which he was transferred to the hospital. The wagon in which he was taken turned over and Mr. Loving's jaw was broken and otherwise he was badly injured, but eventually he reached the hospital at Okalona, Mississippi, where he re- mained for three months. His eyesight became badly impaired and two years had passed be- fore it was again in normal condition. Think- ing, however, that he was again able to resume his place in the ranks he returned to his com- mand, but his condition did not permit of active service and he was sent to his home. Almost two years had passed before he was able to do any work.

Mr. Loving had employed a herder before he entered the army, and after his retirement he

remained with his family in eastern Texas, while his man managed his cattle interests. Once or twice a year, however, Mr. Loving vis- ited the ranch and took out the beef cattle from the herd, which he would drive to the east. In 1880, however, he retired from ranching and purchased seven hundred acres of land. He at 'once began to improve his farm, upon which he settled, and was there engaged in raising some stock in addition to the cultivation of the crops best adapted to soil and climate. This ranch was not far from Nocona and he contin- ued in its active improvement until 1891, when he purchased a small tract of land adjoining the town and built thereon a commodious resi- dence, which he yet occupies, enjoying here the fruits of his former toil. He has erected some stone business blocks in the town and has big property interests here, while his competence is sufficient to enable him to retire from further business cares save the supervision of his in- vestments.

Mr. Loving was united in marriage to Miss Catherine A. Stevens, who was born in Ala- bama April 14, 1828. She is a lady of culture and has been a devoted wife and mother. Her parents were Joseph G. and Salina (Pruitt) Stevens, the mother born in Tennessee and the father born in the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and was of Irish descent. The father was a farmer, who removed from that state to Mississippi, where he became a prominent planter and slave owner. He served for two years in the Confederate army, and both he and his wife died in Mississippi, his death occurring in 1864, while his wife passed away in 1870 at the home of her daughter. In the Pruitt family were four children, Valentine, M. W., Mrs. Sa- lina Stevens and Elhannan. The mother had previously been marrie.1, her first husband be- ing a twin brother of her second husband, and both were soldiers of the Revolutionary war. The children of the first union are William, John, Mrs. Betsey Brock and Mrs. Nancy Yar- nell. The mother was an earnest Christian woman, belonging to the Presbyterian church.

In the Stevens family were ten children: Mrs. Margaret Williams ; E. D., who died in Missis-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

sippi; Mrs. Catherine A. Loving; Ulrika, now Mrs. Thompson ; Mrs. Mary F. DeLand; Salina G., the wife of Dr. McCreight; Isaac, who died in childhood; Joseph R., a farmer and stock- man; John, who died in the army, and Horace M., a farmer.

Mr. and Mrs. Loving have become the pa- rents of six children: Mrs. Malissa Reynolds ; James M., a stock farmer; William C., who died in childhood; Martha J., who died in child- hood; Fannie A., who married a Mr. Gray and after his death became Mrs. Bush; and Chap- man D., a cattleman.

Mrs. Loving, also identified with pioneer experiences, can relate many interesting inci- dents of early life in Palo Pinto county. She lived there at a time when it required great bravery to face the conditions that then existed. Often heroic measures had to be adopted in or- der to save life and property. The men were looking after their stock on the ranches so that the women and children were left alone. There was a fort a few miles away, and at one time the alarm went through the settlement that the Indians were coming. Soon all were on the move toward the fort. Upon the ranch where Mrs. Loving was then residing there were three men, a negro, two women and five chil- dren. There were only three horses available, and one of these was supposed not to carry double, but the necessity overcame the fear of the unruly horse and soon all of the people were on their way to the fort, riding the three animals. Soon after they had crossed a. slough, which it was difficult to traverse, Mrs. Loving's horse scented the Indians, and for a short time confusion held sway among the little party, but they managed to arrive at the fort in safety.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Loving are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and in his political views he is a stalwart Demo- crat. He has ever been recognized as a man of unfaltering fidelity to whatever he believes to be right, and neither fear nor favor can swerve him in support of a course which his judgment and conscience deems a proper measure.

GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS GRAHAM. The venerable and worthy subject of this biographical notice was one of the pioneers of Young county and one of the founders of its county seat. His citizenship here covers more than a third of a century and with the various civil and social affairs of the town and county he has borne a modest and unassuming part. After life's activities have passed we find him, in his declining years, surrounded by the comforts of a hospitable but lonely home and fixed in the regard of his community.

The name of Graham has been indelibly fixed upon the history of Young county and upon the hearts of its citizenship. The present revere it for the personality of its worthy founders and the future will honor it for the memories clustering about it. It was established in Young county in the fall of 1871 when the subject of this sketch came hither to cast his fortunes and his all with the future and the frontier of the great, unde- veloped Northwest. Mr. Graham was a Ken- tucky immigrant to Texas, having migrated from Mead county where he grew up and began life. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, June 17, 1836, and was a son of Gen. Robert Graham, commander-in-chief of the Kentucky militia dur- ing Gen. La Fayette's visit to the United States and upon the occasion of his entertainment by the state of Daniel Boone. The latter and his poster- ity made the name famous in Louisville, Gra- hamton and Rockhaven, in Kentucky, and in sev- eral localities of the state of Texas.

The founder of this now historic family was John Graham and Ann (Wallace) Graham, his wife, who emigrated from Ireland-where they were born-and became settlers of Pennsylvania about the period of the American Revolution. In that state they both died, the former July 4, 1793, and the latter December 20, 1819, then eighty-two years of age. Their children were: John, who died at Vine Grove, Kentucky; Robert, who died at Rockhaven, Kentucky, August 20, 1862; Mrs. Mary Wonderly, who passed her life at Dayton, Ohio; Hugh, who died at Red Lion, Ohio; James W., who made a fortune in Louisville and died there; Mrs. Mary McClure, of Red Lion,

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Ohio; William, of Rockhaven, Kentucky, and Moses, who passed away in Louisville.

Robert Graham was born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, April 4, 1791, and enlisted at Lan- caster as a private-afterward corporal-in Capt. Richard Crain's company, First Regiment of Pennsylvania Militia, for the war of 1812 to 14. He fought in the battle of Fort Henry on the Chesapeake bay and was on the battlefield the night Francis Scott Key wrote the "Star Spangled Banner," and stood over the corpse of the British Gen. Ross who was there slain. He was discharged from the service at Baltimore, Maryland, and immediately turned his attention to preparation for civil life.

From the army he went to New York City and studied architecture for perhaps three years and then-1817-located in Louisville, Kentucky, where he became a prominent figure in business and social life. It was his plans that the old Gault House was modeled after and he took sec- ond prize in a competitive test for plans for the Jefferson county court house. Being of a mili- tary turn and bearing he was drawn into connec- tion with the militia service of the state and his epaulettes and Damascus blade are heirlooms in the possession of his son in Graham.

Having acquired considerable wealth, for his day, he left Louisville in 1837 and established a cotton factory at what was named Grahampton, in Meade county, and he prospered in this ven- ture and operated the business until 1847, when he located in Rockhaven and established a mer- cantile business as Robert Graham and Sons. His sons, Francis and Edwin S .- both of whom be- came Texas settlers-were members of the firm and made the initial start of their lives there. Here he remained in active business until his death and was, as ever elsewhere, a leading spirit of his town.

The family into which Robert Graham married was that of Winchell, and Roxanna, a daughter of John Winchell, became his wife July 24, 1820. John Winchell married Rachel Avery and left Dutchess county, New York, in the spring of 1809 and died September 14, 1811, at fifty-one years old, opposite Cloverport, Kentucky, and his wife died at the same place in 1815. Mrs. Gra-

ham was born November 24, 1799, and died in Louisville, March 20, 1886. The issue of their union were: John W., who died in infancy ; Mary A., who died in Louisville in 1896, was the wife of John H. Thomas; Robert W., who died November 7, 1881; Wallace A., who passed away in childhood; William U., who died single 'in 1849; Edwin S., mentioned elsewhere in this work; Francis H., who pioneered to Texas and died in Waco in October, 1866, leaving four daughters; Gustavus A., our subject; Ellen L., who died in Louisville, March 6, 1902; and Alice R., Mrs. Col. T. B. Fairleigh, of Louis- ville, Kentucky.

Gustavus A. Graham obtained a limited edu- cation in the towns of Grahamton and Rock- haven, where he grew up. He began life as a farmer and continued it as such, in the main, till his advent to Texas. In sentiment he was strict- ly and positively Southern during the events lead- ing up to the war, and, while he was not officially connected with the Confederate armies, he acted as a spy for it and passed and repassed the Fed- eral lines without once being intercepted.

Journeying to Texas Mr. Graham brought his family down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans and over the gulf to Galveston and by rail to Corsicana, and by stage to Weatherford and to the Salt Works where Graham was later located. The salt industry with which he was connected, as a partner with his brother, existed for something like two years and Mr. Graham's next permanent active connection was with the farm. In 1874, he moved to Hampton Heights, overlooking Graham from the west, and upon this promontory he has since made his home. His farm of three hundred acres is an undulating one covered with forest and fruit trees and is the one desirable of all for an ideal country home.

Upon the organization of Young county Mr. Graham was made its first surveyor. He was associated with his late brother Edwin S. Graham in the laying-out and founding of the town of Graham and was postmaster of the place when the salary was only $13.00 a year.

November 20, 1859, Mr. Graham married Miss Edmonia Woolfolk, a daughter of Willis Wool- folk, of Kentucky. This union has produced the

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

following issue, viz: Rosena G., wife of Rev. John R. Nelson, of Dallas, Texas; Carrie G., widow of Willis T. Stewart, of Fort Worth; Belle L., who married H. J. Martin, of Dallas ; Robert W., of Brush, Colorado; Frank E. and Henry B., of Jacksboro; Miss Sue May, of Dallas, and Edmond H., of Graham.

Until recent years Mr. Graham's political views coincided with the majority party of his state, but the changes in political issues and platforms of the past ten years have caused him to seek a new political home and he has found it in the Republican party. He cast two ballots for Mr. McKinley and gave Mr. Roosevelt conscientious support in 1904.

JUDGE TRUMAN H. CONNER, chief jus- tice of the court of civil appeals for the second supreme judicial district of Texas, located at Fort Worth, is a jurist of broad and long ex- perience at the bar and on the bench. He is a true Texan product, not by birth but by rearing since infancy and by identification with the life of the state during all his active career. Self-achievement and success by hard and con- stant effort are the honorable attributes of his history. With early ambitions looking to a broad legal career, his early life was spent on a farm, and in its work, and by diligence early and late, his educational attainments were made the very best. Since taking his place in his chosen profession he has advanced steadily to a reputation as a foremost lawyer as counsel and before the jury, and as a judge with breadth and impartiality of judgment and competence in all departments of jurisprudence.

He was born at Peru, Indiana, but while in infancy was brought by his parents to Texas. His parents were both southerners by birth, spirit and education, his father, Samuel S. Con- ner, being an immediate descendant of the Conners of Culpeper county, Virginia, and his mother, Margaretta (Holman) Conner, being a Kentuckian in blood. The paternal ancestry is of cavalier stock. Great-grandfather Conner founded the family in Virginia, where he had a land grant from the crown. On the maternal side is numbered the late Congressman W. S.

Holman, the "watchdog of the treasury." Judge Conner's mother was daughter of a man prom- inent in his day in the affairs of Indiana, being among other things United States land com- missioner under President Jackson. The Judge's Democracy springs from pure and un- polluted sources, there being several genera- tions of Democrats on both sides, and he him- self takes pride in being known for his uncom- promising allegiance to the party and political principles of the great Jefferson and Jackson.

His parents engaged in farming after their arrival in Texas, and lived in different places, seeking the best possible location. His father continued agricultural pursuits till his death. He was a well known-man, and when he passed away was one of the oldest Masons in the state. Truman H. spent most of his life as a farm boy and student in Ellis county, and was reared to hard work on a farm in a new country, where a great deal of experimenting had to be done before certain crops could be raised, and there was work to be done from morning till night. He had an ambition to become a well educated man and a lawyer, and it was by saving money earned through farm work that he was enabled to go through college. He received his literary and classical education in the common schools and at Marvin College, in' Ellis county. His legal education was obtained both in college and from private preceptors, among the latter being Judge Rainey and Judge Ferris. He completed his legal training in the law depart- ment of Trinity University. After graduation he had the benefit of practicing, at different times, with Senator Devenport and Judge Cal- houn, and his entire period of preparation for the profession was spent under the inspiration of the brightest legal minds of Texas.

When it came time for him to seek a perma- nent location he disregarded several excellent openings at Dallas and other places and decided to go further west, where he might be identi- fied from the first with the institutions and early growth of a community. He accordingly located in Eastland, Eastland county, and it was there, during his years of successful prac- tice, that he made his reputation for first-class

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

legal ability, and because of his hard and con- stant work and devotion and through love of his profession built up a large and profitable practice. In July, 1887, Governor Ross ap- pointed him district judge for the forty-second judicial district. He served in that position un- til the election of 1898, when he was chosen chief justice of the court of civil appeals for the second supreme judicial district, which com- prises a part of Northern Texas, nearly all of Western Texas and all of the Panhandle coun- try, the sessions of the court being held at Fort Worth. Judge Conner has labored hard to excel in his life work, and has succeeded to his own gratification and the pleasure of his friends. Besides being a judge and lawyer of fine train- ing and native ability, he also has a great hold on the affections of the people, which is an- other source of his power and influence. All ages and classes throughout the limits of his sphere of influence and acquaintance are drawn to him by his inborn courtesy and noble quali- ties of heart and mind, and in many ways pay him the honor which he has so well merited. In affairs of citizenship his influence is always felt for the best welfare of the sovereign communi- ty and people. He is a consistent member of the First Methodist Episcopal church, South, in Fort Worth.

Judge Conner was married in Eastland coun- ty to Miss Sallie Jones, who was born in Cooke county, the daughter of a Confederate soldier and a descendant of General Francis Marion, the famous Revolutionary leader from South Carolina. Judge and Mrs. Conner have seven children : Maggie, Annie, George, Miss Fran- ces Marion, Truman H., Rube and Elsie.

THOMAS ASA MOUNTS. The venerable Texas pioneer and subject of this article is a distinguished citizen of Clay county and long a resident in the Lone Star state. Few men now living within its borders have been Texans for sixty-two years, and fewer there are whose lives have spanned an era of such unprecedent- ed growth and development as has occurred in this commonwealth since its admission into the union of states. After having witnessed the set-

tling up of several of the counties of East Texas and been a spectator of many of the events in- cident to their settlement and development, he sought the open and uncrowded prairies of Clay county in which to pass the final years of his life.

"Thomas A. Mounts was born in Greene county, Illinois, January 2, 1827. Jesse Mounts. his father, was of French stock and settled in Illinois in 1831. His French ancestor settled in the state of Maryland, from which point his de- scendants drifted south into the border states of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Jesse Mounts was a southern emigrant to Illinois and he was identified with the early agricultural in- terests of Greene and Macoupin counties for ten years. He was a leading citizen of Greene county, as is evidenced by his selection as a commissioner of the county. In 1841 he took his family into Andrew county, Missouri, and was,,of course, a pioneer settler there. Having acquired a liking for frontier life and having ad- vised himself of the social conditions then exist- ing in the Republic of Texas, he decided to cast his lot with it and, in 1843, brought his family to his new location. He stopped first in Lamar county, but was granted land by the Texan Emigration and Land Company in what was known as the Peters Colony, and a year later located on the south line of Collin county. He resided also in Dallas county, for he served as one of its county commissioners prior to the war. He was a farmer wherever he lived, and he died in Collin county in 1866 at sixty-six years of age. He was a soldier in the Black Hawk Indian war, enlisting from Illinois, which furnished him his sole military experience, He was married in Greene county, Illinois, to Nan- cy Harris, who died in Texas.

The issue of Jesse and Nancy Mounts were : Rebecca, who died in Collin county as Mrs. J. W. Perkins, leaving a family ; John, who died at Winniwood, Indian Territory, without issue ; Elizabeth; Mrs. Geo. Fisher, who died in Mc- Lennan county, leaving children ; Thomas A., our subject; Eliza J., who married Pleasant Witt and died in the insane asylum at Austin, leaving a son; and George, who died at Vera

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Cruz, Mexico, while a United States soldier in the war with Mexico.

Thomas A. Mounts was sixteen years of age when he first saw Texas, then a republic only seven years of age. Being a frontier youth, his education was of the pick-up kind, and reading, writing and a little ciphering was all he was able to obtain. He was married first in Denton county at twenty years of age to Evaline Har- mison, a daughter of Peter Harmison, a settler there from Arkansas. His wife died in Grayson county ten years later, whither they had moved in 1852. Mr. Mounts had lived in Lamar, Collin and Dallas counties while under his father's roof, and his home in Grayson for ten years was fourteen miles south of Sherman, but in 1862 he removed to near Cleburne, in Johnson coun- ty, and remained there three years, when he returned to Collin county and was a farmer near Van Alstyne until 1880, when he took up his location in Clay.

By his union with Evaline Harmison Mr. Mounts was the father of Serena, who married W. E. McWhorter, who resides in Howard county, Texas, and has eleven children; Ann, wife of Taylor Creager, of Vernon, with five children ; Josephine, Mrs. S. W. Mahar, of Van Alstyne, with three children; Rebecca, who died in Collin county as Mrs. John Gill, with- out issue; Martha E., of Denver, Col., wife of Gideon Bryan, with one child. In 1859 Mr. Mounts married his second wife, who was Susan, a daughter of Alexander and Betsy Car- ruth, from Tennessee. Mrs. Mounts was born

JOHN L. CUNNINGHAM. Prominent in 1835 and died in Clay county, Texas, Sep- ` among the energetic, far-seeing and successful tember 16, 1904. Her children were: Angeline, wife of Eb Mckinney, of Vernon, with two children; Bettie, Mrs. O. O. Smythe, of Mar- low, Indian Territory, with three children; Thomas F., of Hale county, Texas; Maud E., wife of John D. Orton, of Bellevue, with chil- dren ; Mary S. and John D., Jr., and Kate V., wife of Samuel Kelley, of Vernon, with two children comprising their household.

In 1846 Mr. Mounts enlisted and was mus- tered in at Matamoras, Mexico, in the Second Texas Infantry, United States troops, for three months' service in the Mexican war. His colo-zen is well deserved. He was born in Chero-

nel in command was George T. Wood and Cap- tain E. M. Weller commanded his company. Following the battle of Monterey, in which he participated, he was mustered out, owing to the expiration of his enlistment, and he returned home to his former rural life. During the Civil war he belonged to a company of the Home Guard, but was never called into the field for active duty.

In the matter of politics the Mounts have supported Democratic principles in state and national affairs, but in the settlement of county matters our subject has never failed to prefer the man to the party, and a good man, in whatever party, never failed of his confidence and sup- port. He is a Master Mason, having joined the order in 1863.

When Mr. Mounts located in Clay county he purchased the W. F. Short place, les than two miles east of Bellevue, where, until his wife's death, his home was made. The loss of his com- panion broke up his home and the happiest days of his future will come to him as he visits among his children and grandchildren in Texas and the Indian Territory. Although seventy- eight years of age, he appears hale and vigor- ous, and his large frame and strong, smoothly shaven face give him a somewhat striking per- sonality. As the years have lengthened out and old age has crept upon him he has become viv- idly conscious that his life has spanned an era incomparably the greatest of our national life.

business men of Western Texas, is John L. Cunningham. His life history most happily il- lustrates what may be done by faithful and con- tinued effort in carrying out an honest purpose. Integrity, activity, and energy have been the crowning points of his success and his connec- tion with various business enterprises has been of decided advantage to this part of the state, promoting its material welfare in no un- certain manner. He is now successfully en- gaged in the banking business at Palo Pinto and his prominence as a business man and citi-

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

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kee county, Alabama, September 27, 1858, his parents being Louis and Charlotte (Campbell.) Cunningham. His father was a native of Rowan county, North Carolina, and was reared in Alabama. He made farming his occupation and in the early settlement of Alabama he served as sheriff of Cherokee county for nine years. He took part in the war against the Creek Indians in that state and in 1868 he re- moved to Cherokee county, Texas, where his death occurred. His wife, who was born in Lafayette county, Alabama, now lives in her pleasant home in Jacksonville, Cherokee coun- ty, Texas.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 57

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