USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I > Part 60
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117
While a child on the old Virginia plantation Judge Wallace was in the sound and fury of the great Civil war, which raged long and fiercely in his vicinity, and the scenes of war and the constant agitation made the first great impres- sions upon his young mind. He was reared on a plantation, and his elementary education was received at Locust Dale Academy in Madison county. He studied for his profession in the law department of the University of Virginia, where he was graduated in 1883. He at once came to Texas, and after being located for a short time at Paris he came, in the latter part of 1884, up into the Panhandle and established
359
HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.
himself for practice at Tascosa, in Oldham county. In that year there were only two little houses in what is now Potter county, and the entire Panhandle was a great stretch of range country. Indeed, there were only three organ-, ized counties in the Panhandle at that time, namely, Oldham, Wheeler and Donley. Tas- cosa, as the county seat of Oldham, was then a typical western town, full of hope and promise of future greatness, and was frequently enliv- ened by the escapades of cowboys and "bad men." The principal industry being cattle ranging, there was a freshness, an independence and a spirit of abandon which with the subse- quent advance of civilization has been some- what mollified, and men look back twenty years as if into another age.
It was in such a country that Judge Wallace began his practice and two years after he lo- cated in Tascosa he was elected county judge. His jurisdiction covered a large extent of unor- ganized country which was attached to Oldham county for legal purposes. After four years of service as county judge he was elected judge of the district court for the forty-seventh judicial district, which then composed sixteen Panhandle counties. He remained on the district bench continuously for twelve years, and became one of the best known jurists in this part of the state. Since retiring from the judgeship he has resumed private practice, and he has been uni- formly successful, having a clientage · repre- senting some of the best business interests of Northwest Texas. His home has been in Ama- rillo since 1888, so that he is almost a charter member of that municipality. He has always taken an active interest in politics, and is one of the leaders of the Democratic party.
In 1901 Judge Wallace returned to his old home district in Stafford county, Virginia, and was there married to Miss Alice Belle Moncure, a native of that state and a daughter of Pow- hatan and Dorathea (Ashby) Moncure, and a niece of Gen. Ashby of the famous Black Horse Cavalry, who was killed in the valley of the Shen- andoah, while serving under Gen. Stonewall Jack- son. They are popular and esteemed members of Amarillo society, and count their friends by hundreds in Northwest Texas.
DR. THOMAS FLIPPIN BURNETT, phy- sician and surgeon of Seymour, Baylor county, came to this then new settlement of Texas March 25, 1884, when there were only one hun- dred and fifty souls in the place, and for the subsequent twenty years he has remained and prospered professionally, socially, and financially. He is a sincere and devoted member of the med- ical profession, was finely equipped and exper- ienced at the time of his location here, and ·while attaining to influence and power as a prac- titioner he has also been a public-spirited, whole- souled and beneficent factor in the community, which has been the better for his citizenship and manhood.
Dr. Burnett was born in Bedford county, Virginia, January 23, 1856, and when about a year old was brought to middle Tennessee, Smith county, by his parents, John Henry and Mary Don (Flippin) Burnett. His father had been born and reared in Bedford county and had lived there until his removal to Tennessee, where he lived for many years engaged in farm- ing and trading, and is now a resident of Tip- tonville, that state. Dr. Burnett's mother was born and reared in Smith county, Tennessee, and her death occurred in 1890.
Dr. Burnett passed his youth and received his literary education in Smith county, Tennes- see, and on attaining majority turned his seri- ous thought and endeavor to preparing for the medical profession. He took courses in the med- ical department of the Vanderbilt University at Nashville, where he was graduated with the de- gree of M. D. February 25, 1882. In the spring of the same year he opened his first practice in St. Francis, Clay county, Arkansas, and two years later came to Seymour, which has been the scene of his very successful work ever since. His practice is not confined to the town but extends for many miles over the surrounding country, and throughout all this region he en- joys a very large acquaintance and is esteemed highly both as a physician and a man. He has been a witness to most of the development that has transformed this country into a stable agri- cultural community. For about five years he owned and operated a farm in Baylor county. He is a member of the county and state medical
360
HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.
societies and of the American Medical Asso- ciation, and fraternally is a Mason. His partner in practice is Dr. C. F. Johnson, the firm being Burnett & Johnson.
Dr. Burnett was married in Tennessee to Miss Mary Etta Glover, who was born October 7, 1866, and reared in Obion county, Tennessee, her father being Dr. Charles Powell Glover. Dr. and Mrs. Burnett have five children : Powell Glover, Cora Don, Jesse G. K., Milus Moody, and Thomas Flippin, Jr.
BEN N. FERGUSON, farmer and stockman, near Iowa Park, and county commissioner of Wichita county, has that degree of substan- tiality and solidity as a citizen and man of affairs which is always evidenced in such a title as "Uncle Ben Ferguson," under which caption he would be known to three-fourths of the cit- izens of Wichita county. He is a type of the true North Texan-able and energetic in all practical material affairs, hearty and western in manner, and with a sturdiness of character and a wholesome nature so commingled from the good qualities of humanity that he grows richer and nobler with the coming and going years.
He is a native of Carroll county, Mississippi, where he was born in 1838, from good southern parents, J. H. and Lucinda (Lee) Ferguson. His father was born in Virginia, was an early settler in Carroll county, Mississippi, and died before the war in Arkansas, whither he had moved in 1855. He was a machinist by trade. He came of a good family, his mother being a cousin of Andrew Jackson. His wife, who died in Mississippi, was a relative of the General R. E. Lee family.
Mr. Ferguson was reared partly in Missis- sippi and partly in Arkansas, and when he started out in young manhood it was as a plan- tation overseer in Ashley county, Arkansas, where his father's home was. He was a true patriotic son of the south, and on the outbreak of the war he enlisted at Monticello, Arkansas, in 1862, in Company L, Munroe's regiment, General Cabell's brigade, and served in the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confed-
erate army, being engaged west of the river until the close of the war in 1865. He was at the battles of Prairie Grove, Fayetteville, Cane Hill, and other of the fierce fights that took place in Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas.
Mr. Ferguson came to Texas in 1870, and at his first location at Waco he worked at the carpenter's trade. In 1875 he went upon a farm in Bell county, and in 1888 he moved up to North Texas in Wichita county and located on his present beautiful ranch six miles south of Iowa Park, which town was just laid out in the year of his arrival. At present Mr. Ferguson owns about sixteen hundred acres of the fertile Wichita valley land, and as a farmer and stock- man he has been highly successful and is now a man of affluence. Enterprise and resource- fulness are prominent characteristics of the men who have been successful in this portion of the state, and Mr. Ferguson is a past master at his business and thoroughly deserves his prosperity. With agriculture and stock-raising his principal occupations, he has not neglected the civic welfare of the community in which he makes his home, and as county commissioner he represents District No. 3 of Wichita county. He is also a director of the First National Bank of Iowa Park, of which his son William R. is cashier. He fraternizes with the local Masonic lodge, and has religious association with the Christian church.
Mr. Ferguson was married, in 1861, to Miss Susan Elizabeth Myers, a native of Mississippi, and they have four children : William R., Nora, Lillie and Pearl.
JUDGE ROBERT E. HENDRY is one of the distinguished and influential citizens of Palo Pinto county, residing at Mineral Wells, where he has been a promoter of many leading busi- ness interests, at one time a leading member of the bar, who at length retired from that field of professional service and has been instrumental in conducting varied business interests which have proved of direct benefit to his locality as well as a source of income to himself. He is now the president of the Crazy Well Water Company.
Judge Hendry is a native of Harris county,
ROBERT E. HENDRY
361
HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.
Georgia, born in 1847, and his parents are Robert
Hendry became extensively engaged in real Lee and Mary Walker (Evans) Hendry. His . estate operations as the successor of E. C. Baker. father was born and reared in Morgan county, Georgia, and spent his entire life in that state. He was a tanner and saddler by occupation, but in addition to following those pursuits he engaged quite extensively in farming. The Hendry fam- ily is of Scotch lineage and traces its ancestry back to Robert Bruce, while in America the Hendrys are related to the Robert E. Lee family which also sprung from Scotch lineage.
Judge Hendry spent his boyhood days upon the home farm in the state of his nativity and on the sixteenth anniversary of his birth he enlisted in the Confederate army, becoming a member of Company F, Fifth Georgia Reserves. This regi- ment did not belong to the regulars but was com- posed of state troops or militia, especially fostered by Joe Brown, who took great pride in the or- ganization of the service of this command, not- withstanding the fact that they were not sanc- tioned by President Jefferson Davis. Judge Hendry served altogether in Georgia, his duty being principally about Sherman's camp at At- lanta and the march to the sea.
Following the close of the war Judge Hendry returned to his home and completed his educa- tion. For twenty years thereafter he was con- nected with the work of education as a teacher first in Georgia and afterward in Texas, re- moving to the latter state in 1876. He located in Troup, Smith county, and subsequently lived at Rusk and Jacksonville, in Cherokee county. In 1884 he was elected to the Texas legislature in Cherokee county and at the same time was admitted to the bar under Judge Booty. In 1885 he came to Mineral Wells, where he has since made his home. Here he opened a law office and in 1886 he was elected county judge of Palo Pinto county. His course on the bench was highly creditable, being in harmony with his career as a man and a lawyer-distinguished by unfaltering fidelity to duty and the masterful grasp of every question which presented itself for solution. His decisions were strictly fair and impartial and his professional services were of value to the county. At a later day Judge
His business cereer in Mineral Wells has been a varied one and in everything that he has under- taken he has displayed marked energy, enter- prise and public spirit which are yet numbered antong his chief characteristics. He probably de- votes more hours each day to work than any other business man in Mineral Wells. He established and for two years conducted a first class . weekly newspaper- the Mineral Wells Graphic. He had had previous journalistic experience, having established and published The Standard at Rusk several years before.
About 1895 Judge Hendry became the owner of the Crazy Well, which is the most noted of the mineral wells that have brought this city into prominence as a health resort. In this con- nection he is now engaged in supplying the water to the retail trade at the local pavilion and also conducting a wholesale business, shipping the water to all parts of the country. This is one of the main business enterprises of Mineral Wells and has been developed through the efforts and business sagacity of Judge Hendry. The Crazy Well was bored in 1881 and the water soon gained a reputation for its peculiar medicinal properties that have from year to year under the severe test of actual use gained in popular favor not only with the general public but with the medical profession as well, until the water is now prescribed in the treatment of many of the ailments that afflict the human family. The well came by its peculiar name through the fact that a case of hysterical mania was relieved by the use of the water and the public gave it the name of the Crazy Well. The patient had been adjudged insane by the courts and was brought to Mineral Wells where she was given the water treatment and her mind was perfectly restored. This well is now the property of the Crazy Well Water Company, of which Judge Hendry is president, and the popularity of the well is due in a large measure to his personal efforts. A few years ago a large pavilion was erected for the accommodation of guests and each season patrons are furnished with musical enter-
362
HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.
tainment here. Polite attendants are always on hand and annually large numbers of people come to Mineral Wells to take the cure. Some of the most remarkable cures known to the medical pro- fession have been effected by these waters and the shipping of the water has grown to an im- portant business, being sent by express into all sections of the country. The waters obtained in this locality do not come from springs as many believe, but are found at the depth of from one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy- five feet and must be brought to the top by pumps. The Crazy Well Water Company at considerable expense had a large well dug at the bottom of which is a reservoir large enough to afford an inex- haustible supply for drinking and shipping pur- poses. The pumps are worked by an electric motor. The business having grown to extensive proportions, now returns to Judge Hendry, its chief director, a very gratifying income.
Judge Robert E. Hendry married Miss Anna E. Hightower, who was born and reared in Georgia. They have a delightful home in Min- eral Wells which is now shared by two of their grandchildren. Judge Hendry has figured to some extent in public affairs. While living in Stewart county, Georgia, he was elected in 1874 to the office of county surveyor. That was at the darkest hour of the reconstruction period, when the negroes through their force of numbers and newly won political rights were gaining political predominance in many communities of the south and it was through Judge Hendry's untiring ef- forts and strong influence that the Democratic county ticket was successful. Since coming to Mineral Wells Judge Hendry not only served upon the bench but has also been mayor of the city and his administration was public-spirited, practical and progressive. He is a member of the Methodist church, the Masonic fraternity, and the Commercial Club and his affiliation indicates much of the character of the man, whose life has been actuated by honorable purpose, by the faith- ful performance of his duty to his fellow man, and by principles which in every land and clime command respect and confidence.
JUDGE JO. A. P. DICKSON, prominent lawyer at Seymour, Baylor county, and for many years closely identified with the public affairs of that county and the country to the west of it, his official career culminating in his selection to the district judgeship of the fiftieth judicial district, was born in Boone county, Arkansas, November 8, 1858.
His parents were Dr. Robert Temple and Henrietta (Fancher) Dickson, and on both sides there is a long line of distinguished an- cestors. The Judge's paternal grandfather was a cousin of Thomas Hart Benton, the famous Missouri senator, and his paternal grand- mother, Charlotte (Temple) Dickson, was also of distinguished family. A number of the an- cestors were connected with Revolutionary times and affairs, and the family also sent soldiers to the war of 1812. One of the notable military ancestors was the Judge's grand-uncle, General Joseph E. Dickson, for whom Dickson county, Tennessee, was named.
Judge Dickson's father was a native of Ten- nessee, and lived in Boone county, Arkansas, until 1865, and then came to Hood county, Texas, where he died in 1867. He served throughout the war as a Confederate volunteer from Boone county. His wife, also a native of Tennessee, came to Boone county, Arkansas, when a child, and they were married there. She is now living at the home of Judge Dickson in Seymour.
To the age of five years Judge Dickson lived in Boone county, Arkansas, and in Hood county, Texas. In 1868 he went to Carroll county, Ar- kansas, to work for his uncle, Hon. James P. Fancher, a prominent citizen of that state, who has since served as a member of the Arkansas legislature and during the Cleveland admin- istration held a prominent federal position. Young Dickson remained on his uncle's fine stock farm in Carroll county for seven years, and during this time gained lots of valuable experience in the cattle business. He then re- turned to Hood county, Texas, with his mother, and he later went to Tarrant county. His knowledge of and experience in the western
363
HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.
part of Texas began as early as 1877, when he left his home in Tarrant county and came out to Dickens county. Here he engaged in shipping buffalo hides to Fort Worth, an occupation which of itself shows how primitive and un-
Judge Dickson was married at Seymour to settled was this part of the country at that year. . Miss Cora Lee Donnell, whose father, L. A. In 1877 Dickens county was still so far west "Donnell, is one of the prominent old-timers of Seymour, having located there in 1879, and is a highly esteemed citizen. Mr. and Mrs. Dick- son have five children, Ruth, Anne, Henrietta,
that there were no cattle there whatever, and it was not till the following year that the first cattlemen brought their herds to the free range. Ever since that time Judge Dickson has been a . Donnell and Jo-Lee.
"westerner" in the sense that he has a large acquaintance and friendship among all the pio- neers and old-timers of West Texas.
Judge Dickson has been a resident of Sey- mour since February 26, 1883, and during the past two decades he has witnessed a phenome- nal growth and development in this part of the state. He received an appointment as deputy sheriff and tax collector of Baylor county, at a time when there were seventeen unorganized counties lying west of Baylor and attached to. that county for judicial purposes. His duties therefore often called him out upon long horse- back trips even to the western edge of the state on the New Mexico line. Seymour was the legal and commercial headquarters for a large strip of this western country, and enjoyed a big trade. While engaged in these duties and dur- ing all the time that he could spare for the pur- pose, he studied law at Seymour under exper- ienced practitioners, and after passing the re- quired examinations was admitted to the bar at Seymour in 1893. Following his long official experience as deputy sheriff and tax collector he was elected county attorney, and later dis- trict attorney for the fiftieth judicial district, which comprised thirteen counties lying west of Baylor. In 1901 he was appointed district judge for this district, serving one term, and in 1904, was again a candidate for the same office.
Judge Dickson is one of the energetic and ac- tive Democrats of his district, and is a very popular man throughout a large section of West Texas, where he has been a familiar and influential figure for many years. He is ex- chairman of the Democratic executive com- mittee of the thirteenth congressional district,
and is noted for his ability as an effective cam- paign manager. He is affiliated with a number of the secret orders, including the Knights of Pythias, the Woodmen, I. O. O. F.
BENJAMIN R. McCONNELL, the well known fine stock breeder, cattleman and busi- ness man of Jacksboro, was born in Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, in 1864, a son of Captain H. H. and Jeannette D. (Conner) McConnell, the former of whom was also a native of Penn- sylvania. He offered his services to his coun- try during the war of the rebellion, serving throughout the entire struggle in the northern army, and at its close, in 1865, came to Jack county, Texas, as quartermaster in the regular army, and assisted in establishing Fort Rich- ardson, the government post located here for the purpose of protecting settlers against the Indians. Fort Richardson was built at Jacks- boro, and the ruins of many of its buildings are still standing at the south edge of the town. After a time, however, Captain McConnell left the army and embarked in business in Jacks- boro, that city remaining his home until his death, which occurred in 1895. He was a man of exceptional literary attainments and won fame as a writer, his mind being exceptionally fine for recalling historical facts. Among other productions which he wrote was a history of the Indian raids and interesting events in north- western Texas, entitled, "Five Years a Cavalry- man," and although this work is not largely known on account of its limited circulation, it is said by those who have read it to be a his- tory of remarkable accuracy and interest. Cap- tain McConnell himself took an active part in driving out the Indians and other bad charac- ters and in making Jack and surrounding coun- ties a safe place of abode. In Jacksboro's early days it was frequently terrified by being "shot
364
HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.
up" by rough characters, and to get rid of these the town was organized, Captain McConnell be- ing placed at the head of government, and he with Marshal "Bill" Gilson succeeded in exter- minating this element from the town and sur- rounding country. Mrs. McConnell was also born in Pennsylvania, and in 1872 came with her family to join her husband in Texas, he hav- ing located here in 1865. She is the present postmistress of Jacksboro, having been ap- pointed to that position in 1898, but her son Benjamin has active charge of the detail work of the office.
Benjamin R. McConnell received his early education at Add-Ran college at Thorp's Springs, this being supplemented by a commer- cial course in Eastman's Business college, Poughkeepsie, New York. After his graduation from the last named institution he began the study of law in Poughkeepsie, in the office of Herrick & Losee, prominent attorneys for the New York Central Railroad, the Vassar estate, etc., and returning to Jacksboro was admitted to the bar in 1896, while in the same year he was elected county and district attorney. After serving one term, however, he abandoned his law practice, as he had become interested in the cattle industry and wished to devote his time to that business. He is now the owner of about four thousand acres of land, lying near Jacksboro, and this is nearly all devoted to pasturage for fine stock, in the breeding and raising of which he has won a high degree of success. He is now making a specialty of red polled cattle, having become interested with J. C. Murray, a prominent breeder of Maquoketa, Iowa, and secretary of the National Red Polled Cattle Breeders' Association, in bringing regis- tered red polled cattle to Mr. McConnell's ranch in Jack county. This breed of cattle has since attracted the attention of other well known stockmen in Texas, and in 1901 they organized the Texas Red Polled Cattle Breed- ers' Association, of which Mr. McConnell is the secretary. He is the owner of one of the larg- est herds of registered cattle in Texas, and in addition to his stock business he also has charge of the postoffice, as mentioned above, and is
president of the Jacksboro Stone Company, a new enterprise in this city, established early in 1905, and they are now erecting a first class stone crushing plant in this city. He is also a member of the company which owns the ice plant.
Mr. McConnell was united in marriage to Miss Lou Hensley, and they have three chil- dren-Benjamin R., Jr., Nettie and Chattie. He is a prominent member of the Masonic frater- nity, being past commander and past high priest of the chapter, and is a Knight Templar, belonging to Godfrey Commandery, No. 37, of Jacksboro.
CAPTAIN GEORGE SPILLER, the well known land man, abstracter and county sur- veyor of Jacks county, was born in Nelson county, Virginia, ·in December, 1845, his par- ents being James M. and Caroline (Kyle) Spill- er. The father was also a native of Virginia, born in Buckingham county, the family being an old established one in that state. He was a successful man of affairs, and for many years was a contractor on the James river and Kana- wha canal. Both he and his wife, the latter be- ing of an old Botetourt county family, died in the Old Dominion State of Virginia.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.