A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 88

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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Being paroled Mr. Pickens went into camp at Demopolis, Alabama, and after being ex- changed immediately after the battle of Chick- amauga he was with Moore's Brigade and was ordered to the Army of the Tennessee under command of General Braxton Bragg, then in camp at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, and was placed in General Frank Cheat- ham's Division of Hardee's Corps. While he was in the parole camp at Demopolis, Alabama, he received his commission as captain of Com- pany G, Fortieth Alabama Regiment, to take rank from May, 1863. He was engaged in the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. During the winter of 1863-4, General Alpheus Baker was assigned to the command of Moore's Brigade, vice Moore transferred, and the brigade was attached to General Stewart's Division. Mr. Pickens participated therewith in all of the engagements in the Georgia cam- paign under General Joe Johnson and General Hood. Near Atlanta, Georgia, he was detached and assigned to duty as inspector general on the staff of Brigadier-General J. T. Holtzclaw, that brigade being a part of General H. C. Clayton's Division of Hood's Corps, afterward Stewart's Corps and with which Captain Pickens remained until the end of the war. He was in all of the engagements of the brigade throughout the re- mainder of the Georgia campaign and also with it in Hood's Tennessee campaign during the winter of 1864-5, General Holtzclaw's brigade being ordered to Mobile, Alabama, to assist in the defense of that city. Captain Pickens was in the brigade during the siege of Spanish Fort, across the bay from Mobile and was the last to leave the fort on the night of April 8, 1865, hav- ing been instructed by the general to remain and see that all got away. He visited this place for the first time after this date in 1903, accom- panied by his wife and his brother A. C., during

the period of the reunion of the Confederate veterans held in New Orleans in that year. He was with the last troops that evacuated Mobile in 1865, having acted as inspector as well as adjutant general of the brigade during a portion of the time and finally was included in the sur- render of the troops east of the Mississippi river by General Richard Taylor to General Canby, on the Ioth of May, 1865. His parole was signed by General R. L. Gibson, C. S. A., and Brigadier-General A. Andrews, U. S. A., com- missioned for that purpose.

After the close of the war Captain Pickens re- turned to his home and found that the ravages of war had wrought destruction. He first turned his attention to his plantation, plowing and planting as much cotton as he could for the re- mainder of the season. In June of that year a party offered him a loan of two thousand dollars if he would go into business and he opened a drug store in Eutaw on the Ist of July, 1865, conducting it during the remainder of that year and the next year, at the same time managing the plantation belonging to his father's estate. He made sufficient money to pay off the loan and had a little sum left to his credit. In June, 1868, he left home and started for California by way of New York and while there he attended the first Democratic national convention held after the war. He sailed from that port July 9, 1868, by way of Panama and reached San Fran- cisco at daylight on Sunday, August 3, after which he proceeded up the San Juaquin valley and engaged in wheat raising in Mercedes county. The following year he removed to Fresno county, in what was called the Alabama settlement, and there engaged in the sheep busi- ness, but in 1875 he sold out and returned to San Francisco, where he accepted a position as deputy in the office of the county clerk, remain- ing there for two and a half years. He next went into a stock broker's office, where he con- tinued until 1882, when he left California for Texas, bringing with him two thousand sheep. He arrived in Abilene during the latter part of June and sold this flock of sheep at five dollars and seventy-five cents per head. Finding there was a market for them he made another trip to California in the latter part of August, securing

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another flock which he took down on Bluff creek in the southwest portion of Taylor county. There he carried on the sheep business until April, 1886, when he removed to Abilene and became deputy in the office of the county and district clerks, acting in that capacity until 1891. During this time, in 1888-9, he purchased the abstract business, in which he continued to the time of his death.

Captain Pickens was married on the 12th of November, 1890, to Mrs. Eva Brigham, nee Polk, then a resident of Abilene, and a native of Tennessee. Captain Pickens is one of Abilene's representative citizens. He is a man who has a wide and varied experience and in the service of his country, in the Civil war, he took a prom- inent part and was an active figure in all the dif- ferent phases of army life, proving himself a valiant soldier, a good disciplinarian and an ex- cellent officer. He endeared himself to the hearts of his comrades and the experiences of those trying days of camp life and of battle will linger long in their memories. The captain was a genial, pleasant gentleman and in all business relations he was honest, painstaking and relia- ble. He was a prominent Knight Templar Mason, having in 1905 been promoted to the office of Grand Standard Bearer of the Grand Commandery of Texas, and was Eminent Com- mander of Abeline Commandery No. 27, for sev- eral years. He was with the Grand Command- ery of Texas, as Grand Sword Bearer, at the triennial reunion, held at San Francisco, Califor- nia, in 1904. He died at Mineral Wells, Texas, May 13, 1905.

JAMES M. HEFLEY. During the closing year of the Civil war decade the subject of this review, then under twenty years of age, first became identified with Jack county. He entered the employ of the government at Fort Richard- son, and the months which he labored for "Uncle Sam" were passed largely in putting up hay and taking care of forage for the stock upon the military reservation. While connected thus with the Fort and, later, while freighting across the county from the east, he gained a knowledge of the untamed and untaken lands of the creek

valley where, when he was ready to establish "himself in a permanent location, he purchased land and inaugurated his substantial career in Jack county.

It was in 1876 that Mr. Hefley settled one mile north of Vineyard and bought the Judge Charson settlement, which he cultivated, and upon which he resided for nineteen years. He was limitedly financed when he came hither, having a few hundred dollars, the savings of several years at various occupations, beginning with his experience at Fort Richardson, but he paid for his farm and undertook its cultivation with his team and the few implements which he could gather together. Selling this tract he pur- chased four hundred and twenty acres on the Kirkendall and Eubank's Surveys, three and one-half miles west of Vineyard, and here we find him located today.

Farming in Jack county has brought to our subject the material prosperity he enjoys. When we say "farming" we include the possession of the few cattle and horses necessary to every in- telligently and successfully managed place, but the cultivation of the soil has been depended upon for substantial return and its yield has suf- ficed to bring a position of financial indepen- dence to its owner.

Prior to his advent to Jack county to settle Mr. Hefley had spent a few years as freighter from the pine mills of East Texas, hauling lum- ber, with his ox team, to Palo Pinto, Weather- ford, Springtown and Jacksboro. He crossed and recrossed this region until every portion of it was as familiar to him as his own door-yard, as he devoted the first part of his manhood to gaining the first rung of the ladder in his long climb toward a condition of independence. Prior to attaining his majority he made a trip to Kansas and remained on the range and farm with his employer between the Verdigris river and Big Caney in the Cherokee Nation and when his freighting career closed he was asked to join a cow drive to the market at Abilene; he accepted, and again threaded the untamed country of the red man and passed by and over the unclaimed "Sunflower" frontier, des-

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HISTORY OF. NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

tined to be a veritable garden spot in less than ten years from that date. He remained with Mr. Chadle, of Parker county, on this drive for a year, and returned to the south along the rich valleys of the Neosho, visiting the old towns of Kansas and acquainting himself with the true geography of the now famous gas and oil fields of the United States.

James M. Hefley was born in Tippah county, Mississippi, May 31, 1850, and was a son of John Hefley, who brought his young family to Parker county, Texas, in 1855, and settled among the wild conditions of that frontier locality. In that early day the red man had almost unlimited and undisputed sway over Northwest Texas, and among the innumerable killings credited to them was an uncle of our subject, John Montgomery, one of the pioneers of Parker county. Mr. Hef- ley, Sr., was in the Ranger service for a number of years, his command being Ward's company and Berry's regiment of Texas troops. John Hefley left Parker county after a residence of fifteen years, and moved into Wise county, where he passed away in 1870, at sixty-two years of age. His birth occurred in Tennessee, and he was married twice in Mississippi, his first wife having been Atlanta Caraway, who died leaving three children, viz .: James M., Wil- liam, and Mary, wife of George Walker, of Wise county, Texas. For his second wife John Hef- ley married Jane Cuthbert, who bore him: Josephine, wife of Isaac Wendley, of Wise county; Sarah E., deceased wife of Joseph Fer- guson ; Elizabeth; Nancy A .; Alice, who mar- ried Daniel Hinred, of Panhandle, Texas; Ella, widow of Payton Hunt, of Oklahoma; Georgian. who married John Payne and died in Wise county ; Isabel, wife of James Payne, of the Chickasaw Nation, and John, also of the Chicka- saw country, and Columbus, of Texas.

James M. Hefley came to maturity where there were no schools and as a consequence ac- quired little mental training during his boyhood days. In some manner he learned to read and write, and do something toward mathematical computations, but actual contact with business men and affairs in the course of his life has given

him his chief and practical knowledge of things. He has been busy all his life and has manifested little interest in things beyond his own bailiwick. While he entertains political views and believes strongly that political parties wield a power for good or for evil in our land, he has taken no ac- tive interest in their workings beyond the ex- pression of an opinion and the casting of his ballot. For years he was a Democrat, but the administration of Mr. Cleveland from 1892 to 1896 surfeited him with Democracy and he joined issues with the Populists, and in 1904 cast his ballot for Mr. Watson. He believes in the Sacred Book and ascribes to it all the good and all the wisdom of the world, yet he is uncon- verted. While he enjoys social intercourse and the company of friends, and confesses the incom- pleteness of a home without a woman he has never married, and is passing his evening of life in solitude.

CHARLES HARDCASTLE. Active for many years with the promotion of the substantial interests of Bridgeport and for two years super- intendent of its public schools, Charles Hard- castle has, it will be seen, been one of the fig- ures prominent in the urban and rural develop- ment of the Rock Island portion of Wise coun- ty. The townsite company of Bridgeport, com- posed chiefly of Decatur citizens and of offi- cials of the Rock Island Railroad Company, brought Mr. Hardcastle on to the scene upon the laying-out of the town as its agent, and with the sale of its holdings and the handling of its other interests he was occupied until its purposes were accomplished, when personal matters arose to claim his attention and have since occupied his time.

Mr. Hardcastle has been identified with the west for many years and western manners and customs have transformed him into a western man. Indeed his nativity can fairly be said to have been western, for he was born in Macon county, Illinois, at a date when that country was still considered new. His natal day was June 4, 1857, and his origin from among the honorable folk of Decatur, his native town.

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS. 527

His father, William Hardcastle, was a mer- chant in that city and died at forty-six years of . age. The latter became identified with Macon county early and was married there to Maria Daniel, of Virginia birth.

As is well known to genealogists, Hardcastle is a prominent English name. Edward Hard- castle was one of three male representatives of the family who emigrated from the mother country and established themselves on Ameri- can soil, Edward being the grandfather of our subject.

William Hardcastle left issue: Charles, Samuel who died at Marion, Kansas, unmar- ried; Anna; and Julia, who resides with her brother in Bridgeport and is assistant post- master of the town.

While Charles Hardcastle's father was a merchant he also had farming interests and it was in the country that our subject was chiefly brought up. Good schools did the work of his elementary education and he finished his education in college and in the Wherrell Nor- mal at Paola, Kansas. When his education was completed he engaged systematically in teaching school. He followed the profession some years and concluded his school work in the Sunflower state at Lincolnville. His friends secured him the appointment as postmaster of Marion, Kansas, which position he left, after six years of tenure, to engage in the real estate business. He was so engaged at Marion when arranged with by the Bridgeport Townsite Company to handle their business in their new and embryonic Texas town.

June 24, 1884, occurred the marriage of Mr. Hardcastle. His wife was Miss Elizabeth Yost, a daughter of Benedict Yost and Eliza- beth (Benson) Yost, of Washington, D. C. Mr. Yost was born in Prince George county, Mary- land, in 1816, and was one of the pioneer Re- publicans of his native state. He was appointed to the public service just after the war and served in the custom house in Baltimore many years and was transferred to Washington, D. C., and there concluded his government work at an advanced age, dying in September, 1884.

His wife was a lady of English ancestry and . was born in Queen Ann county, Maryland, and died in Washington, D. C., in September, 1883. They were the parents of the following chil- dren: Emma, who married Charles Harvey and died in Maryland in 1904; Robert, who died in Washington, D. C .; Amelia, who resides in the District of Columbia; Dallas, of Marion county, Kansas ; Amos, of Washington, D. C., and John of the same city ; Frank, who passed away in Portland, Oregon; William, of the District, and Mrs. Hardcastle, whose birth oc- curred in the District, December 6, 1857.

Mrs .. Hardcastle was liberally educated in the public schools of the capital city and in 1883 came west to Marion county, Kansas, where she met her husband, and was married to him the following year. She was occupied with her domestic duties wholly until induced to apply for the postoffice at Bridgeport, under Mr. McKinley's administration, was appointed and succeeded Mr. Cleveland's appointee, Mr. Alexander Lowry, in October, 1897. She was reappointed in 1901 and is nearing the close of the eighth year of her incumbency of the office.

Having been reared in the political atmos- phere of Washington and the daughter of a war Republican whose happiness was the most complete only after a sweeping victory of his party, and one who might be called after the political epithet coined by Mr. Cleveland-an offensive partisan, Mrs. Hardcastle drank deep draughts from the Republican fountain and the trend of her thought was along political lines. She became known in her neighborhood circle for her radical views and for her outspoken and unswerving Republicanism, and it was but natural for a Republican administration to re- ward her allegiance to party and compliment her personal fitness by appointment to the po- sition she asked. Her influence and the influ- ence of recent past political history have uni- fied the political sentiment of the Hardcastle household, for whereas the husband was rocked in the cradle of Democracy and es- poused its traditions and superstitions he is

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now marching in the Republican column and singing the music which the harmony of Re- publican conditions has written on the pages of modern time.

As a result of their marriage six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hardcastle, viz .: Carrie, who finished her education in the Marion, Kansas, high school, is the wife of Wooten Winton and resides at Burleson, Texas; Miss Helen is a graduate of the Bridge- port schools, class of 1904, and is a teacher in the public schools; Emma graduated with the class of 1905, Bridgeport; and Dallas, Frank and Robert are pupils in the grades of the Bridgeport schools.

WILLIAM T. RUMAGE. The Rumages are of English origin and their American his- tory dates from an early period, the family pos- sibly being founded here upon the heels of the Revolutionary war. When the grand- father of our subject was born is not definitely known, nor when he settled in Tennessee, but as early as 1807 he was living in Maury coun- ty, for it was that year his son Samuel, our subject's father, was born. Whatever its pio- neer origin, its personnel was made up of rug- ged farmers who aided in the primitive work of development of that rich portion of Tennessee.

Samuel Rumage was an illiterate, endowed by nature with a penchant for successful busi- ness, and his substantial achievements marked him as one of the county's successful farmers before he left Tennessee. He lived in both Maury and Fayette counties and emigrated from the latter in 1856 when he took up his residence in Independence county, Arkansas. He resumed his occupation there and was in uninterrupted pursuit of it till the first year of the rebellion when, holding sentiments in opposition to the Confederate regime, he refugeed to Phelps county, Missouri, and re- mained till August, 1865. He passed the re- maining years of his life in Arkansas, dying in 1872. While he was a Democrat from the date of his first vote up to the rupture between the north and south, he displayed loyalty to the

flag of the Union and deserted his home rather than his country when the test finally came. In later life he was a Republican and his children all inherited his belief.

Mr. Rumage married Miss Nancy Lambreth, who passed away in 1897. Their children comprise Mary, wife of W. C. Gifford, of Ar- kansas; Benjamin, who died in the Union army ; Martha who passed away in Arkansas, in 1867, as Mrs. Carnes Tire; Sarah E., who married James Nelson, of Sharp county, Ar- kansas, and William T., of this sketch. Mrs. Rumage's first husband was a Johnson and by this marriage a daughter, Betsy, was born. The latter married R. L. Buckalew and died in Arkansas in 1885.

William T. Rumage reached his majority in Independence county, Arkansas. He was born in Maury county, Tennessee, December 2, 1847, and remained with his parents until after his majority, acquiring such education as was possible in the rural schools of the period dur- ing and just before the war. In 1886 he came to Texas and passed two years in Grimes county where he owned a farm. On coming into Jack county, in 1888, he located on Beaver creek and the next year he exchanged this farm for the nucleus of the one upon which he now resides.

When he was first married Mr. Rumage's circumstances were such as to demand the se- verest economy and the first year he passed with his bride was "in a nigger kitchen" while he "cropped one half for the other." While his beginning was most humble his energy was "many horse" and he never let daylight waste during the season of work. He had made some progress when he sought the Lone Star state strictly as a farmer, but here he added cattle, as his circumstances would justify, and this diver- sion has been a helpful adjunct to his remark- ably successful career here. He owns eighteen hundred acres of land in Jack county on the waters of West Fork and is one of the leading grain raisers of the county. He manifests a pardonable pride in the fact that hard work has done so much for him, and to his posterity

Thos Trammell

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he has transmitted liberally of the same suc- cess-winning traits. His wife has borne with good cheer all the domestic burdens allotted to man's truest companion and much credit is due her for the family achievements.

January 31, 1879, Mr. Rumage married Mar- garet, a daughter of Rev. J. M. McCoy, form- erly from Maury county, Tennessee, where Mrs. Rumage was born in 1859. The issue of their union are: James A., whose home joins his father's, married Miss Josie McCormick; William T. Jr., married Miss Sallie Count and has issue, Luer, Elsie, Effie, Lottie, Elmer and Blanche; Eunice, wife of W. J. McNear, is the mother of Elbert and Clyde; Mollie married James Hyatt, of Lawton, Oklahoma; Bertie E., wife of Aubert Green, of Jack county; and Roy Elbert, the last, remains at home.

Mr. Rumage, although vastly outclassed by numbers, is a factor in politics in his county. He believes in showing his Republican colors and in fighting with a handful as if he expected to win. He has no personal ambition to gratify and makes no enemies to punish. He is a Methodist.

HON. THOMAS TRAMMELL. In the life record of Hon. Thomas Trammell we have a notable example of the old adage "It is poverty that makes the world rich." His life is also an exemplification of the maxim of Epicharmus, the Greek philosopher, who said, "Earn thy re- ward : the Gods give naught to sloth." Without special family or pecuniary advantages to aid him in his youth Thomas Trammell has made steady and consecutive progress undeterred by obstacles and difficulties that he has met until he stands today among the successful and prom- inent citizens of western Texas, being a leading representative of the cattle industry and also connected with banking interests in this part of the state. He likewise has extensive railroad possessions and has been the promoter of rail- road transportation in this part of the state.

Philip Trammell, father of Thomas Trammell, was born in Arkansas, near the town of Van Buren, and in early life was left an orphan, so that he had to win his own way in the world.

He grew to manhood in that locality, and after attaining his majority was married there to Miss Ruanna Stevenson, who was also a native of Arkansas. He came to Texas with his family in 1852 and settled in Navarro county, then a new country, in which he was engaged in the cattle business. He drove cattle from Navarro county to the mouth of the Red river and thence shipped them by boat to New Orleans. There were no railroads in operation in those days, and the travel was along the trails whereby all commodities of the country were transported to and from market. When the Civil war was inaugurated Philip Trammell was too old to en- ter the service, being more than forty-five years of age, but realizing the importance of lending his assistance to the Confederacy in whatever way he could he entered the militia service in Texas known as the Home Guard for the pro- tection of the property and families of those who had gone to the front. The Indians committed many depredations and a rough element of the white race also infested the country, taking ad- vantage of conditions in order to gain unlawfully what really belonged to others.

When the war closed in 1865 Philip Trammell took a herd of cattle to Louisiana, but while at Alexandria was taken ill and was unable to pro- ceed farther on the journey. His son Thomas was then summoned and went to his relief, tak- ing the cattle on to New Orleans, where he sold them. He then brought his father back to his home, but he never recovered and passed away on the last day of December, 1865. His widow lived to a good old age and died in 1903, at the home of her son F. P. Trammell in Hemphill county, Texas. She was the mother of nine chil- dren, five sons and four daughters. Those of the family who still survive are: Dennis, who is living in Stonewall county, Texas, near the Fisher county line; Frank P., of Hemphill county; Phillip, who is living in Oklahoma near the Texas boundary line; Thomas, of Sweet- water, Texas; Martha, the wife of J. J. New- man of Fisher county, this state; Elizabeth, who is the widow of J. A. Tankersley, and is also living in Fisher county; and Prudie, the wife of G. W. McLain, who resides near Rush Springs, Indian Territory.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 88

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