A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 92

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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DANIEL BAER has almost reached the eightieth milestone on life's journey and is an esteemed citizen of Grayson county, win- ning the friendly regard of many with whom he has come in contact. He was born in Ger- many in 1826, a son of Martin and Rosanna (Gunsching) Baer, who were likewise natives of the fatherland, the former there passing away at the advanced age of ninety-four years, while his wife had died previously. They were the parents of four sons and a daughter, of whom Daniel Baer was the second child and the only one who came to America. He re- mained a resident of his native country until thirty years of age, when in 1856 he crossed

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

the Atlantic. He had served as a soldier in the German army during the war between Prussia and Poland in 1847, being in active duty for five months. In his native country he learned the trade of milling and on reach- ing this country settled in the state of New York, whence he afterward removed to Mis- souri, where he remained for three years, being employed as a brakeman on the railroad. He came to Texas in 1871 and was employed by the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad Company in the construction department. In the latter part of that year he settled in the northern section of Grayson county, Texas, about five miles from Denison, and established a ferry on the Red river between the Chickasaw Na- tion and Texas, operated on the old time cable system. Mr. Baer has since conducted this ferry and receives the following rate: twenty- five cents for a team, twenty cents for a single horse and fifteen cents for a horse and man. He pays five hundred dollars per year to the Chickasaw Nation for the exclusive right to operate the ferry. He also owns three hundred and eighty-eight acres of land which he pur- chased when he came to the county and this he rents, it being devoted to the raising of cotton and corn. While working on the rail- road in Missouri as a brakeman he lost his right leg just below the knee through an ac- cident and has been thus somewhat handi- capped, but has made excellent success in his business.

Mr. Baer was married in Germany in 1848 to Miss Elizabeth Coldwald, a native of that country, and together they came to America. They are the parents of four children, of whom three are now living: Harrison, who married Almira Faner and has two children, Harrison and Mary; August, who married Ella Wide and has two children, Nalie and Leora; and Julius, who wedded Mary Gabbert. The wife and mother died in 1894, at the age of seventy- one years. In politics Mr. Baer is a Democrat. He has a very wide and favorable acquain- tance in this county and is highly esteemed for his manly principles and his devotion to right. He may truly be called a self-made man, for

he has been the architect and builder of his own fortunes and his life illustrates what may be accomplished by determined and earnest purpose in this country where effort is unham- pered by caste or class.

HON. H. G. McCONNELL. Among the representative men of western Texas is Judge McConnell, who has long been a resident of this portion of the state and has been closely identi- fied with its history. He is a native Texan, hav- ing been born in Crockett on the 26th of Novem- ber, 1865. His father, John McConnell, was a native of Ireland, and when a youth of about fourteen years came to America, arriving in Texas in 1845. He was the only member of his father's family that came to the new world and a number of his children are now living in this state. He settled in Crockett and in the early period of the state's development he began busi- ness as a blacksmith, which trade he followed until 1870. He afterward turned his attention to the hardware business and built up an excel- lent trade in Crockett, conducting the store with good success throughout his remaining days. He accumulated considerable property also and his business career was crowned with a gratify- ing measure of prosperity. He was twice mar- ried, first to a Miss Clark, by whom he had three children who reached mature years, while sev- eral died in infancy. His second marriage oc- curred in February, 1865, Miss Martha Ann Lovelady becoming his wife. The town of Love- lady in Houston county was located on her father's property. By the second marriage there were five children, of whom four are still living, three sons and one daughter. The two brothers of our subject are merchants and are conduct- ing the hardware business in Crockett founded by their father.

Henry Grattan McConnell, whose name intro- duces this record, was reared in the place of his nativity and passed through successive grades in the public schools until he had completed the high school course by graduation when eighteen years of age. Subsequently, in the fall of 1884, he entered the law department of the state uni- versity at Austin and was graduated with the class of 1886. He obtained a license to practice

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

the state law, which compelled all university graduates at that time to pass an examination before the courts in order to obtain their license. but in recent years this custom has been changed, and now a diploma from the state uni- versity is a certificate licensing one to practice in the Texas courts. Immediately after the com- pletion of his law course Judge McConnell came to Haskell county and locating in the town of Haskell entered upon the active practice of law, in which he has since been engaged, being con- nected with the most important litigation tried in the courts of his district either as counsel for the defense or prosecution. He is strong in argument, logical in his deductions, clear in his reasoning and forceful in his presentation of a case before court or jury. In 1890 he was elected county judge of Haskell county and filled the position for two years, during which period the present court house was erected, Judge McConnell taking the most active interest in its building.

In 1887 in Austin, Texas, Judge McConnell was married to Miss Nola Hill of Austin, Texas, a native of this state. They have five children, two sons and three daughters, who are yet liv- ing and lost one child in infancy. The judge has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1890, and has taken the various degrees (in- cluding the Knight Templar) and is likewise a member of the Mystic Shrine. For three years he has been affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. His attention, however, is chiefly given to his chosen profession and he is well versed in law and recognized as one of the best known and most competent lawyers of this part of the state. His legal practice embraces both civil and criminal cases and extends not only in his own but also into adjacent counties. He is a man of pleasing personality and a fine speaker, displaying special oratorical powers when ad- dressing a jury. His law library is considered one of the best in western Texas and represents an investment of more than two thousand dol- lars.

from the supreme court of Texas before he was CAPTAIN JOSEPH N. DIEHL. A career twenty-one years of age. This was according to ' teeming with interest, both as to accomplish- ments and experiences, is that of Captain Diehl, the well known stockman, real estate dealer and man of affairs at Fort Worth. Born in Tusca- rawas county, Ohio, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Neeley) Diehl, he traces his descent to ancestors who, of German nationality and members of that faith of simplicity known as the German Baptists (since the Dunkards), left their home in Heidelberg in 1729 and, as part of a colony of thirty-six families who were like- wise leaving the old country on account of re- ligious persecution, came to Philadelphia and founded the historic Germantown. Such was the paternal ancestry, while the mother, a native of Evans county, Pennsylvania, was of Scotch ancestry and an adherent of the beautiful Qua- ker faith. She was married in 1830, and died at Canal Dover, Ohio.

Joseph Diehl, the father, who was born at Frederick, Maryland, and, as mentioned, mar- ried in 1830, came to Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in 1831, in which county he started the first butcher shop and blacksmith shop at the village of New Philadelphia. Later he located at Canal Dover, in the same county, where his meat and stock-buying interests were expanded to em- brace a territory of one hundred surrounding miles, and he was the first drover in that part of the state. He built the first brick house at Canal Dover, and became a wealthy and prom- inent citizen, being throughout life a man of most scrupulous honor and sterling worth. His death occurred at his home in Canal Dover.

Joseph N. Diehl was in the midst of his edu- cational preparation when he was called to serve his. country at its greatest crisis. Enlisting at Massillon, March 22, 1862, in Company K, Sixty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for the three years' service, he joined the Army of the Potomac in Virginia, and his first prominent battle was at Cedar Mountain, August 9, 1862; was then in the battles of Port Republic, Cul- peper, second Bull Run, Antietam, and then, after a brief confinement at home on account of illness, joined the One Hundred and Sixty-first Ohio.

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under General Hunter in his famous raids in Shenandoah valley, and was with General Sher- idan at Harper's Ferry when the latter suc- ceeded Hunter. He received his honorable dis- charge from service on November 23, 1864.

On his return home he resumed his inter- rupted studies, in Oberlin College, and soon en- tered upon an active business career. Going to the busy oil regions of Pennsylvania, he con- ducted a feed store, grocery and general mer- cantile establishment at Smith's Ferry. In 1866 he came west, and after several months in business in Council Bluffs became a railroad contractor on the new railroads then being built across the plains, and was one of the contract- ors in the construction of the Union Pacific through Nebraska and Wyoming as far as Pro- montory, Utah. From contracting, in the spring of 1869, he went into the cattle business in Neosho county, Kansas, at that time owning the land on which the city of Chanute now stands. He then resumed contracting and as- sisted in the building of the Santa Fe as far as the Colorado line, and the M. K. & T. through the Indian Nation as far south as Denison, Texas. His acquaintance with Texas ripened into a deep regard which in 1872 decided him to make the state his permanent home. Fort Worth was then a very small village, consisting mainly of a few stores around the court house square, but his visit to the place convinced him of at least some of the great possibilities of its future development, and accordingly he picked it out for his home town. He engaged in busi- ness for a time in Dallas, but later returning to Fort Worth, where he became one of the first extensive buyers of hogs and cattle. From this he branched out and acquired an ice business, gradually extending the business to include fish, oysters, meats and general produce and was among the originators of the greatness of Fort Worth as a center to supply the country with food products. He shipped the first carload of ice to Fort Worth, and soon organized the Arc- tic Ice Company with thirty-six branch depots in various parts of the state. After continuing

his connection with these enterprises very suc- cessfully until 1881, he disposed of most of his interests and has since been engaged in a gen- eral way in trading in live stock, real estate, building, also representing interests of non-res- idents. He has concerned himself very benefi- cially with all movements for the welfare and promotion of material good of his city, and, a man of the most sterling integrity and progres- sive ideals in business and civic affairs, he has made an honorable record in all departments of a very busy life. He has one son, Joseph, who is a prosperous business man at Portland, Ore- gon.

Captain Diehl is a member of the Christian church, and has been affiliated with the Masonic order since 1866. He is past commander of Parmly Post No. 4, G. A. R., at Fort Worth. One of the influential and popular Republicans of Texas, he was chosen a delegate to the na- tional Republican convention which met at Phil- adelphia in June, 1900.

W. HOLDER FUQUA, president of the First National Bank at Amarillo, as a successful business man has not a peer in the Panhandle country. Forty years of age, and worth at a conservative estimate three-quarters of a mil- lion-such is a brief manner of expressing his career. But there is much to be said and under- stood between the lines of this statement. He began life as a poor boy, but blessed with an indomitable energy that was better than all cap- ital of material sort. He paid his own way through school, he worked at manual labor in the cotton fields, he taught school, he saved his money, he made investments with rare sagacity and embarked in enterprises which his energetic control brought to most fortunate culmination; he became interested in business houses, in fi- nancial affairs, continually rolling the ball larger with every turn-but also became a man of broad sympathies, eminently philanthropic and altruistic, forgetting not his own early struggles and free with assistance to the aspiring youth and to destitute old age; in short, has accom-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

plished unusual success in material affairs and has devoted his efforts and his fortune without reserve to the high cause of social service.

Mr. Fuqua was born on a plantation near Tu- pelo, Mississippi, in 1863. His parents were Rev. William M. and Elizabeth (Milam) Fu- qua. On the Fuqua side the family goes back to French Huguenot ancestry, who, driven from France by the religious persecution of the sev- enteenth century, found a retreat in the wilds of America. The Milam family in this country originated in South Carolina, and of this same stock came the famous Ben Milam, whose in- trepid part in early Texas history is detailed in the earlier portion of this work.

Mr. Fuqua's father was born at Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1812, being the son of a prominent tobacco planter at that place. When a young man, during the thirties, he made three succes- sive trips, on the same horse, to Pontotoc county, Mississippi, where he bought a large lot of the Choctaw Indian lands that were being offered for sale after the removal of the Choc- taws to Indian Territory. He soon located per- manently in Pontotoc county, where he became a wealthy cotton planter, with a large estate and numerous slaves, and was one of the most influ- ential citizens of the county. The Civil war ruined his business prospects, and in 1877 he moved his family to Ellis county, Texas, and. established a comfortable home near Ennis, where he died in 1893. During his later years he had devoted himself to the Baptist ministry, and for some years was a well known pulpit ora- tor. His wife survived him for several years, passing away at the home place in Ellis county in May, 1899. She was a native of South Car- olina.

Mr. Fuqua was reared on the plantation near Tupelo, and was about fourteen years old when he came with the others of the family to Texas in 1877. His literary education was finished at East Texas University at Tyler, and his busi- ness education in the commercial department of the same university, at Waco. He gained these advantages of education by working and paying his way, and that he had to trim his sails

very closely all the way through school is shown by the fact that on his graduation he had to borrow ten dollars to get home. This sum he repaid during the following summer by hoeing cotton. In the following year he began teach- ing in Ellis county, where he taught fully a thousand pupils, and was principal of a school five years. From his earliest boyhood he was unusually energetic, as is evident from his vig- orous taking hold of life's problems, and throughout his career as a school teacher he was employing his spare time in doing work on the outside. He at first did work for others in the field, and then embarked in cotton planting on his own account. As a planter he was very successful and reaped some rich rewards from his crops as also from his judicious investment of earnings, and by 1889, when twenty-six years old, he had a capital of fifteen thousand dollars.

Since then his career has been of varied and prosperous activity, and only a brief outline of his interests can be given. He identified him- self with Amarillo in 1889, which in that year contained only two or three buildings on the line of railroad which had just been completed. He established the first stage line from Amarillo south through the great plains country to Esta- cado, and in this enterprise he literally coined money. He also became one of the chief inter- ested parties in the First National Bank of Amarillo, established in 1889. He owned two livery stables in the town and owned the entire local coal business, which he controlled for some years. Throughout the period of his residence here he has owned cattle ranches and has large and valuable land holdings in different parts of the Panhandle, besides rich farming lands south of Fort Worth in Tarrant and Johnson counties. Besides his own bank at Amarillo he owns large blocks of stock in other banks in thriving towns of the Panhandle. Since its founding Amarillo has been a distributing center for a large sec- tion of the country and consequently a fine field for jobbing houses in various lines of merchan- dise, and Mr. Fuqua has extensive financial holdings in some of these concerns. It has been his steadfast policy when investing money

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

in such enterprises never to enter into partner- ship, identifying himself only with incorporated companies.

Mr. Fuqua was elected to the presidency of the First National Bank of Amarillo soon after it was established, but did not take active charge until 1896, when he gave up direct participation in his other business affairs in order to devote all his time to the bank. At the present time he is practically owner of this well known bank, his four co-directors having only nominal finan- cial interests so that the national regulations may be complied with. Mr. Fuqua's reputation in banking circles and his ability as a financier is known all over northwest Texas, and he is recognized as one of the most skilful men in the business. His bank, which is the oldest in Amarillo, has had a remarkable growth and has recently increased its capital and surplus to a quarter of a million dollars. With a short per- iod of continued increase in his prosperity Mr. Fuqua will be numbered among the millionaires of the country and his stability of character and genius for business administration make him a safeguard of northwest Texas progress and a source of continued power and benefit to all ma- terial and financial affairs in this part of the state.

But, only secondarily in importance to the careful directing of these business interests, his efforts go out into the fields of philanthropy and civic helpfulness. When he was in the coal bus- iness in Amarillo he instituted the policy of supplying every deserving poor family in town with coal free of cost and he keeps this up to the present time, the present leading coal dealer having standing orders to distribute coal to worthy persons at Mr. Fuqua's expense. Fur- thermore Mr. Fuqua has especial fellow feeling for young people endeavoring to gain an educa- tion, and he has assisted by personal encourage- ment and more substantial help a number to- ward the goal of their aspirations. Mr. Fuqua is a deacon in the Baptist church and a liberal supporter of the denomination and its work. He is a Knights Templar Mason, and popular in all social circles.

He was married at Ennis in 1885 to Miss Ella Chesnutt, and they have one son, Earl Fuqua.

SAMUEL MARION CRAIG. The beauti- ful grass-covered landscape of "Ten Mile," on the northern limit of Jack county, is dotted with substantial farm houses and covered with pre- tentious farms, conspicuous and prominent among which is that of Samuel M. Craig whose name introduces this brief sketch. To the com- munity of Jack county he added his presence in 1884 and to the neighborhood of Ten Mile Prai- rie he has devoted his efforts in agriculture and grazing since 1887. His career here was marked for its lack of pretense and with that modesty becoming the man of moderate means and the success which his efforts have attained places him among the independent and most substan- tial farmers of the county.

Inquiry for the origin of this family leads to the discovery of Adair county, Kentucky, as its home at the close of the century which brought us American independence, for there Thomas Craig, our subject's father, was born, was reared on his father's, Thomas Craig's, farm and mar- ried Sarah Merrill. In the early thirties he migrated to Illinois and established himself in Montgomery county, where as a farmer he built up a home and reared his family. In 1860 he joined his son Samuel for a journey to the Rocky mountains, starting from Johnson county, Kansas, and re-enforcing an overland train at Lawrence with their slow-plodding, double-ox team and threading their weary way over the Smoky Hill route to Denver without untoward incident or exciting event. They crossed the snowy range and dropped down into Georgia Gulch, where he died and was buried before the close of the year. His wife having passed away before he left Illinois, his surviving heirs were his children, viz .: John, who crossed the plains to California in 1850 and is now a resident of Nevada; Susan, of Burnett county, Texas, wife of James B. Lemons; James N. and Samuel M., of Jack county ; Thomas, who was killed in California; and Josiah, who died near Little Rock, Arkansas, in the Confederate army ;

7.b. Auxander.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Jesse, of Hale county, Texas, and Alfred, who was killed as a Federal soldier during the Civil. war.

Samuel M. Craig was born in Montgomery county, Illinois, June 10, 1839, and received a primitive log-schoolhouse and "Hoosier School- master" education while coming to manhood on his father's farm. His independent career be- gan when he drifted in Kansas in 1860 and finally found himself in the gold-bearing region of the Colorado mountains at the end of a trip across the "Great American Desert." He en- gaged in mining for two years and not finding this as profitable as labor on a ranch he came back to near Denver and hired by the month for the same time. He then bought oxen and took up freighting and hauled goods from Jules- burg, Nebraska, to Denver for three years. He went next into the stock business and handled cattle on the 'prairies tributary to the Denver market until he returned to his Illinois home in 1874.

While he remained in his native state he pur- sued his old vocation of a farmer and when he left there again it was to become a citizen of Texas. He spent a few years in East Texas, engaged in the cattle business in a small way and gradually came westward toward the open range, reaching Jack county in 1884. He and his brother James N. drove in a bunch of cattle and stopped on White's prairie on the line of Jack and Wise counties and remained there as a renter or leaser of land until 1887, when he sought out Ten Mile and bought five hundred acres just west of Newport, where he still re- sides.

His residence on Ten Mile and the constant and unremitting pursuit of his dual occupation of stock-farming marks an era of the greatest progress toward material independence in his business career. His estate embraces thirteen hundred and twenty-five acres, much of it un- der plow and the remainder stocked to suit con- ditions on the farm. His farm house stands conspicuously on an eminence commanding the whole valley and his environment is such as a

long life of industry and activity could wish in which to pass its relaxing and closing years.

In 1883 Mr. Craig married Amanda J. Elli- ott. Della Ota, an adopted daughter, is their only child. The family are Baptists and Mr. Craig is without political history, save as a voter at every general election.

FRANKLIN G. ALEXANDER. Probably the oldest living resident who was numbered among the first settlers of Haskell county is Franklin G. Alexander, the subject of this re- view, his life record being closely interwoven with the events that constitute the pioneer his- tory of this portion of the state. He comes of Irish ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Ho- ratio Gates Alexander, was a native of Ireland, born June 20, 1773, and when a young man he emigrated to the United States, where he was married on the 2nd of January, 1807, to a young lady that had recently come from Ireland and they afterward settled in Tennessee, probably in Williamson county. One of his sons, Hiram Alexander, the eldest of the family, remained in Tennessee, where he made his home up to the time of his death, while Horatio Alexander, the grandfather of our subject, and the other mem- bers of the family removed from Tennessee to Texas. Horatio Alexander settled at San Au- gustine, Texas, early in the '40s. There he made his home for some time and afterward removed to New Orleans, where his death occurred. In his family were four sons and two daughters.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume I, Part 92

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