A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 87

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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Langdon S. Spivey was limitedly educated in the rural schools, and as he grew was assigned an acre of land by his brother to cultivate, the proceeds of which were to supply him with school books and the like. He made the old home his own until after his marriage, but started his career in business at nineteen years of age. His first work was as a clerk in a gen- eral store in Dresden, where he served about seven months, when he withdrew to travel with an invalid brother over Texas in search of the latter's constitutional relief, but when the brother died our subject returned to the home farm and attended a private school one season, in Corsicana, and the following year he made a crop with his guardian brother. In the au- tumi he entered another general store in Dres- den for a short time, when, February 2, 1876, he married and began married life as a farmer on a portion of the family home. He remained there until 1881, when he engaged in the gro- cery business in Corsicana. A year later he exchanged this business for a farm and was identified with its cultivation until April, 1890, when he came to Clay county and established

a hardware and implement business in Bellevue.

The firm of which Mr. Spivey is the junior partner is styled Melton & Spivey and has ex- isted as such since its founding in 1890. As it has grown in extent and importance it has be- come identified with the cattle industry, and in 1896 they transferred this branch of the business to Foard county, where their ranch of some eight thousand acres is stocked with some twelve hundred head of stock and beef cattle. Their mercantile establishment is one of the largest of its character in Clay county and its presence here is one of the important factors in attracting trade to Bellevue.

Mr. Spivey married Leah, a daughter of W. B. Melton, who brought his family to Navarro county, Texas, from Searcy county, Arkansas. In this latter locality Mrs. Spivey was born in December, 1858. Mr. and Mrs. Spivey's mar- riage was productive of the following issue : Nora, wife of C. L. Ford, of Bellevue, with chil- dren Hugh and Robert; Mattie, Mrs. G. A. Richter, of Taylor, Texas, with children, Albert and Wilbur; Miss May, a graduate of the pub- lic schools, one year a student in Southwestern University at Georgetown and a graduate of the Scarritt Bible Training School, of Kansas City, is preparing for missionary work in Japan; Ruth, Hubert, James and Pascal complete the interesting family.

Mr. Spivey is prominent in local Odd Fellow- ship, having been a member of the grand lodge and the grand encampment. He is a Democrat, and, aided by his Christian companion, has brought their children up in the fear of the Mas- ter and as members of the Methodist church.

J. F. NEWMAN. In the careful conduct of extensive business interests Mr. Newman has attained wealth and is justly regarded as one of the most prominent, enterprising and suc- cessful business men of western Texas. So far as can be ascertained the Newman family came from Virginia. Moses Newman, the grand- father of J. F. Newman, was a native of Tenn- essee and in his family were seven sons and four daughters, all of whom were born in Mont-

Liti Newman

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

gomery county, Arkansas, where he had taken up his abode in early manhood. There he was married and reared his family, the lady of his choice being Miss Betsey Collier, a native of Arkansas. Of their children three are yet liv- ing: Martin, who resides in Sweetwater; Jeff, who makes his home in Fisher county, Texas; and Mrs. Polly Rushing, who is living in Nav- arro county, Texas.

Martin Newman was born in Montgomery, Arkansas, March 12, 1827, and when about twenty years of age was married there to Miss Elizabeth Polk, a relative of the prominent Polk family of Tennessee. Her father, James Polk, was a native of that state and was a distant rel- ative of James K. Polk, president of the United States. Martin Newman continued to make his home in Arkansas until 1850, when he removed to Texas, settling in Navarro county. There he lived for a number of years and in 1884 took up his abode in Nolan county, where he has made his home to the present time. Through- out his entire life he has engaged in farming and the stock business and his well conducted interests have brought to him a gratifying meas- ure of prosperity. His wife, who was born May 7, 1828, died in Nolan county, September 7, 1904, when seventy-six years of age. She had one son and one daughter who reached adult years : J. F. Newman, of this review, and Mary Jane, who was born November 16, 1855, in Navarro county, Texas, and is now the wife of Thomas Trammell, of Sweetwater, this state.

James Franklin Newman was born in Mont- gomery county, Arkansas, December 20, 1849, and was reared upon a farm. He had little op- portunity for acquiring an education and from his boyhood days has been dependent upon his Own resources. He early realized the value of industry and perseverance and those qualities have been the foundation upon which he has builded his splendid success. As the years have passed he has accumulated considerable wealth and made judicious investments in various ways. When a young man he started in the cattle business, in which he has continued up to the present time and he is now one of the large cat- tle dealers of western Texas. For the past few years he has given his attention to the raising

of fine stock and in addition to his splendid herd of cattle he also raises fine horses. He has ex- tensive landed possessions in the western part of the state, principally in Nolan and Fisher counties. His handsome residence in Sweet- water was erected in 1883 and here he has since made his home. In all his business undertak- ings he has been energetic and diligent, mani- festing keen discrimination and foresight, nor has his path been strewn with the wrecks of other men's fortunes.

On the 4th of September, 1873, Mr. Newman was united in marriage to Miss Josephine Rush- ing, who was born in Navarro county, Texas, October 12, 1858, and is a daughter of Calvin Rushing, a native of Tennessee and an early settler of Texas. In their family there are three sons : Alfred Thomas, born October 14, 1874; Harrtar Silas, born December 30, 1876; and Ira Moses, March 27, 1887.

Mr. Newman has taken considerable interest in political affairs, especially in the local work of the party. He was elected sheriff of Nolan county in 1890 and filled the office for six years. This has been his only public service as an office holder, though he is a champion of all progress- ive measures and has given hearty co-operation according to his time and means to various movements and plans for the public good. He came to Texas in 1879 and since that time ha's- been deeply interested in the work of upbuild- ing and improvement in this state. From early boyhood his life has been largely devoted to the cattle industry and he is perfectly familiar with .. all the intricate details of the business. His long rides upon the open range, the cow boy camp, . the round up and the riding of the lines have made him thoroughly familiar with the business and he has thus been enabled to conduct his in- terests with profit. His herds are among the finest in the country and aside from the raising of cattle he is probably engaged in the raising of blooded horses on a more extensive scale than any other man in this immediate country. Some of his horses are noted animals and have made records where they have been entered in all the large circuits of the country, including New York, Chicago, Saratoga and New Or- leans. He pays special attention to the breed-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

ing of fine stock and on his ranch may be seen some splendid specimens of the noble steed. Mr. Newman has made a reputation as a stock breeder that is known throughout the entire country. To say that he has risen unaided from comparative obscurity to rank among the wealthy men of Texas would seem trite to those familiar with his career, but it is but just to say in the history that will descend to future gener- ations that he has made a business record that any man might be proud to possess. Beginning at the bottom round of the ladder he has stead- ily climbed upward and has gained the confi- dence and respect of his business associates by reason of his promptness in the discharge of every obligation and his fidelity to every busi- ness trust. He stands today not only as one of the most successful, but also as one of the most respected representatives of the stock interests of this great state.

DAVID HODGES FOREMAN. The citi- zenship of Jack county has known David H. Foreman in the field of domestic commerce a dozen years and the county has known him as a citizen since 1883. First as farmer and then as merchant, the higher elements of man's na- ture have ever dominated him and it is as a rep- resentative of those who have helped to do things here that he finds a place in the ranks of progress in our achievement age.

Beginning with his origin we find Mr. Fore- man a native of Marshall county, Alabama, born February 7, 1854. James Foreman, his father, was a native of Morgan county, Alabama, lived a modest farmer there and in Marshall county and died in 1869 at forty-seven years of age. Grandfather Foreman migrated from North Carolina to Alabama, in which former state the family were pioneers and representatives of an old American family. James Foreman married Elizabeth Hodges a daughter of David and Lucinda (Johnson) Hodges, formerly of the state of Georgia. She died in 1880, the mother of William, who died in Jackson county, Arkan -. sas, as a farmer and left a family ; John, a Collin county, Texas, farmer ; David H., of this notice ;

James, who passed from earth in Sebastian county, Arkansas, as a tiller of the soil; Isaac, of Hill county, Texas; Mary, wife of H. E. Floyd, passed away in Sebastian county, Ar- kansas; and Benjamin, who conducts a farm in that county.

The farm furnished the playground for David H. Foreman when a child and with its affairs he remained associated until thirty-seven years of age. The schools of the country district knew him as a pupil at times and he began life for himself with a strong frame, a willing hand and a fairly trained mind. He left his native heath at past twenty-three and sought Texas with the intention of making his way by the labor of hands and took up farm work for wages in Kaufman county as an introduction to the Lone Star state. From a farm hand to cropping on the shares and from that to independent farm- ing mark the successive steps of his advance, and after five years spent in Kaufman county he came to Jack, in November, 1883, and bought a farm on Salt creek, ten miles southwest of Jacksboro. His farm embraced the settlements of Kizee and Myers and he remained on it some nine years and abandoned it for a mercantile career.

Coming to Jacksboro, in 1892, Mr. Foreman engaged in the grocery business, added dry goods later and took in J. E. Grisham as a part- ner for a time. Mr. Grisham retired and after some further experience with groceries Mr. Foreman closed it out and put in a stock of hardware, adding implements as an important branch of the business. From 1898 to the pres- ent his stock and business have kept pace with the progress of the times and it is now one of the important local marts of trade. The hard- ware line has experienced an annual growth and implements have moved with a slow and steady pace, save binders, on which line alone his per cent of increase for 1905 over any former year will reach seventy-five.

In November, 1879, Mr. Foreman married, and two pair of mules and a wagon and a little cash constituted the accumulation of himself and

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

wife on their advent to Jack county. When he entered on his mercantile life his store was. sit- uated near the northwest corner of the square and six hundred dollars was invested in gro- ceries as the nucleus of his first stock. Busi- ness alone has absorbed him, and his peculiar fitness for a commercial career has assured him a gratifying success. His wife was Mary J. Cotton, a daughter of Weaver and Mary (Yery) Cotton, from Georgia and Rusk county, Texas, respectively. Mr. Cotton was a farmer and moved into Kaufman county before the war, and there Mrs. Foreman was born in 1857. She died April 1, 1900, the mother of Eula, who died at eighteen years, in March, 1899; Anna, wife of H. S. Perkins, of Hamilton, Texas; William Lawton, of Pepperwood, California, and Eddie, a young lady at home, and Jessie, Katie, Mary and David Homer.

Mr. Foreman is a member of the Christian church and of the fraternal order Woodmen of the World.' In former years he took some ac- tive interest in politics and was a Democrat un- til Mr. Cleveland issued his famous free trade message, in 1887, when he broke with the party and joined issues with the party of reform and has affiliated with it since. In the olden time his father was a Whig, but the family espoused De- mocracy on the issues of the war and are largely identified with it still.

WILLIAM LA FAYETTE DAVIS. It is rarely the case where twenty years of industry yields one a fortune and places him in the cate- gory of financial independents, but when our attention is directed to a subject of that charac- ter we wonder how it was accomplished and are curious to know the methods employed in the achievement of such results. All who know Mr. Davis-and he has a wide acquaintance- know that the secret of his success dates from his childhood when he was taught the value of long hours of hard work, but to those who are strangers to him this article will outline, in brief, the elements which have led to his re- markable success.

William L. Davis came to Montague county

and settled on West Belknap creek in 1882. It is not essential to detail how he got the horse with which he can be said to have started his successful career, but it was honorably acquired '-for "Bill" Davis never owned anything that he did not pay "value received" for-and, as the nucleus of his farm, he contracted for a small tract of Jack county school land. His first home was a rude habitation but its wants were presided over by his mother, and her presence inspired her ambitious son to deeds of industrial hero- ism. He planted his crops and cultivated them and was at work while other men slept and made dollars while some men swapped stories and wore out their welcome, their credits and their knife-blades at the country store. He stocked his farm as fast as he could and expanded his domains with cheap grass land as fast as his cir- cumstances would warrant. "Four o'clock" called him out in the morning and the bed caught him again only after everything else had been attended to for the day. He was ambitious be- yond his strength, and in the twenty years of strenuous life in which he has made a modest fortune he has drained his body of its natural vigor and sapped his constitution to the danger mark. His judgment led him into speculative channels, and the land or the cattle that he bought with borrowed money always returned him fabulous results. He has been behind his affairs from the first day until now, shoving it steadily up hill until seventeen hundred and eighty acres of land, improved and stocked with two hundred and fifty head, represents the bulk of his substantial accumulations in the score of years recently closed.

William L. Davis was born in McMinn county, Tennessee, July 27, 1857. His father, Wilson Davis, was born in Knox county and owned a farm on the Cumberland river in Monroe county, where he reared his family and where he died in 1872. The latter was born in 1822, and made a success of life raising corn and hogs. He was a son of Benjamin Davis, a Virginian, who settled in Knox county, Tennessee, a pioneer, but who died in Monroe county. Wilson Davis married Elizabeth Akins, a daughter of William

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Akins, also from Virginia, and a Tennessee planter. The issue of this marriage were: Aus- tin G., Henry D., Sarah J., Mollie, Andrew J., William L., Mattie N. and Julia.

Our subject grew up on and seemed to thrive on farm work as a boy. The country schools provided him with a limited education and he was not separated from his mother until he was thirty years of age. The same year his father died the family came to Texas and made Gray -- son county their home until their advent to Montague in 1882. He was married at Buffalo Springs, Texas, December 3, 1887, his wife being Minnie A. Smith, a daughter of Samuel and Jane (Brown) Smith, of Missouri, both of whom now reside in Hobart, Oklahoma. Mrs. Davis is one of ten children and was born in Missouri, May 15, 1867. She is the mother of Ivy Pearl, Addie D., Rex Otis, Bruce D. and Van Lee.

While Mr. Davis has been laying up substance for a rainy day he has also been laying by a good name, for no man stands higher in his community than he. While he disclaims any ac- tive interest in politics, candidates for office are anxious for his support, and if a friend finds trouble and needs a helping hand Mr. Davis provides the hand.

THE NORTH TEXAS FEMALE COL- LEGE, one of the strong educational institu- tions of Texas, has been an important factor in winning for Sherman the reputation of being the "Athens of the Southwest." This is the old- est institution of the city and is presided over by Mrs. L. A. Kidd-Key, the wife of Bishop Joseph S. Key of the Methodist Episcopal church, who in the course of sixteen years has achieved phenomenal success in the upbuilding of the institution, which now has an enrollment of more than four hundred pupils, while its fac- ulty embraces twenty-five professors and teach- ers of the highest ability. The college is the property of North Texas Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and when Mrs. Key took charge it was reported to the conference that the college property had a val-

uation of fifteen thousand dollars but was bur- dened with a debt of eleven thousand dollars and that school work had for the time been sus- pended. Accepting the presidency of the insti- tution, Mrs. Key brought to her work great energy and tact and opened her first term with six teachers and between fifty and sixty pupils. With this great indebtedness the outlook was not very encouraging, but Mrs. Key knows no such word as fail. It was not long before the campus of six acres underwent a transforma- tion. The yard was graded, flowers were planted, walks were laid and the garden was utilized. Another progressive movement instituted by the president was an entertainment given to which the business men of the city were invited and before whom the needs of the college were urgently set forth. A ready and generous re- sponse was secured, and from that time the North Texas Female College has had a pros- perous career, until to-day the property is val- ued at seventy-five thousand dollars and is en- tirely free from indebtedness. Mrs. Key has also added ground of her own to the college campus and from her private funds has erected com- modious buildings, until there are now fifteen buildings in all, most of which are heated with furnace, lighted by electricity and provided with pure artesian water. In fact the equip- ments are modern in every appointment, while the teachers are people of superior ability in the line of their specialty and the course of instruc- tion is a high college curriculum, embracing mathematics, literature, languages and the sciences. The school has also a conservatory of music and art unequaled in the state and the finest masters have been brought from Europe. The various buildings and cottages which con- stitute the college property give a homelike feeling that could not possibly be secured if all the students were accommodated in one im- mense structure. Knowing the condition of the school as it was little more than a decade ago, its growth and advancement seems almost phenomenal. The extent, scope and efficiency of its work is such as places it on a par with any ladies' school in the country. Entering upon the work with far less than nothing, be-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

cause of the great indebtedness, Mrs. Key has developed an institution the financial strength, of which is equal to its intellectual force and ac- complishment. A contemporary publication has said : "Mrs. Lucy Kidd-Key is the incarna- tion of its enterprise, its progress, its success. To visit the college and observe her quiet man- ner you can scarcely realize what she has done and is doing. She is self-possessed, unobtru- sive, sweet-spirited, and as gentle as an angel; but she has a head full of ex- ecutive ability and a heart that warms to the interests and needs of every girl, and teacher, and employe under her direction. She is the president when it comes to running the business of the institution, but a veritable mother superior when it comes to giving sym- pathy and kindly attention to those under her care. Her patience is well nigh infinite. If she ever becomes disturbed or ruffled, no one but herself ever knows it. She is the woman for this line of work, and God is setting the seal of his approval upon the labor of her hands. She has achieved far beyond the work of ordinary mortals, she has built up a school that would be a credit to any city or any country ; she has given to Sherman a school that has helped to advertise the town in the most effective man- ner; she has built up a school that is daily proving a blessing to the young women of our country and is recognized as one of the lead- ing educational institutions of the Lone Star state and the south."

CAPTAIN JOHN HENDERSON PICK- ENS, who was honored and esteemed as a citi- zen of genuine worth, was a son of Joseph Pick- ens, who removed from South Carolina to Ala- bama about 1820, making his home in Selma, Marion and Eutaw, Greene county. He re- moved from the last mentioned place in 1843 and died there in 1853, at the age of sixty-three years. His father was General Andrew Pickens, of South Carolina, a hero of the Revolutionary war. Joseph Pickens was united in marriage to Caroline Henderson, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Henderson, of Maybinton, South Car- olina. Ten children were born of this marriage,

of whom five died in infancy, while three sons 'and two daughters reached adult age and are still living, with two exceptions.

John Henderson Pickens was born February I, 1842, in Marion, Greene county, Alabama, and pursued his early education in private schools in Eutaw, while subsequently he matriculated in the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa, in the fall of 1858. There he remained almost con- · tinuously until December, 1860, when he be- came ill with typhoid fever. He lay ill for sev- eral months and during that time the Civil war was inaugurated. About the time that he be- came convalescent the first company was organ- ized for service and was leaving for Fort Mor- gan, in Mobile Bay. In 1860 the University of Alabama was converted into a military institute and in 1861 Mr. Pickens returned to that insti- tution, where he received his training in military tactics. In the fall of the same year he was detailed and sent to Mobile to drill the different companies of A. 'Mckinstry's Alabama Regi- ment of Infantry, which had just been organized and was in camp at that place. Early in the year 1862 Mr. Pickens, being under required age, obtained consent of the governor of the state, of the faculty of the university and of his mother and joined the Fourth Alabama Regiment of Infantry, which has just been organized and was in camp at Mobile, under the command of Col- onel A. A. Coleman and was made drill ser- geant. About a month or six weeks later he was elected third lieutenant of Company G, and in July, 1862, was promoted to second lieuten- ant, while in December of that year, he was raised to the rank of first lieutenant of his com- pany. In January, 1863, he was detached and served as brigadier ordnance officer on the staff of Brigadier-General Alfred Cummings, in which brigade was the Fortieth Alabama Regi- ment. On the 21st of February, 1863, he made application to be removed from staff duty and be allowed to join his company with the Forti- eth Alabama Regiment, which had been ordered into active service at Vicksburg. The applica- tion being granted he rejoined the company above Vicksburg, at which time the company was encamped on Rolling Fork, in Isaquena county, Mississippi, under General Furgeson.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

The regiment afterward advanced up Deer creek and there checked and drove back the enemy's advance as they proceeded down the creek. The Confederate company was then ordered back in time to participate in the siege of Vicksburg and was detached to Moore's Brigade, Forney's Division, and was surrendered to General Pem- berton, on July 4, 1863.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 87

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