A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 10

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: 972

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

hood ; Eliza A., the wife of C. Bambarger ; Fran- cis M., who in early life was a merchant and af- terward became a land owner of Hill county, Texas; Hamilton, a minister of the Christian church ; Richard and Price W., who were twins and remained partners in farming and stock- raising interests until the death of the former in 1887; John M., a farmer; Sarah R., the wife of J. Burnett; Clarinda, who married D. Cun- ningham, a merchant of St. Jo, Texas; Andrew J., a farmer ; Ambrose A., a railroad man, also having business interests at Gainesville ; and Col- umbus, a stockman. Both Francis M. and Ham- ilton Brooks served throughout the Civil War with the Confederate army.

Price W. Brooks remained under the parental roof until near the close of the Civil War, when he entered military service as a member of the state militia and was thus engaged in Texas until the close of hostilities. He then returned home and cared for his father and the farm until 1876, when he and his twin brother, Richard, embarked in the stock business in Den- ton county, Texas. where they purchased land and carried on general farming and stock-rais- ing. They bought, run and shipped cattle, being thus engaged until the death of Richard Brooks, which occurred in 1887. They had been quite successful and had become well established in business. Price W. Brooks then settled up the affairs of the firm. At that time the range was free and he removed his stock to Montague county, locating at Belleville, where he remained for more than two years. In 1890 he took up his abode in the vicinity of the village of Lucky, where he first purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land, on which he built a house. There he located and placed some of the land under cultivation. Later he extended the boundaries of his place by additional purchase until he now owns six hundred and forty acres of valuable land, of which one hundred and eighty acres is devoted to the raising of the crops best adapted to the soil and climate. He also continues to handle stock and in his work is meeting with a creditable measure of prosperity, owing to his practical and progressive methods.

In February, 1876, Mr. Brooks was united in marriage to Miss Arminta Gray, who was born in Texas and is a daughter of John Gray, a farmer of Grayson county, who served through- out the war in the Confederate army. Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church and in their family were seven children : Mrs. Lou Kennedy ; Maggie, the wife of R. P. Brooks ; Arminta, who became the wife of Price W. Brooks ; Scott, Cham and Willie, all of whom fol-

low farming ; and Babe, who became Mrs. Gray. To Mr.and Mrs. Price Brooks was born a daugh- ter, Maud L., who is now the wife of L. Russom. In February, 1898, Mr. Brooks was again mar- ried, his second union being with Miss Sarah M. Pogue, who was born in Grayson county, Texas, and is a daughter of Nelson Pogue, a farmer and blacksmith, who located in that county at an early epoch in its development. He too was a member of the Confederate army and served until the close of hostilities, after which he devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits up to the time of his death, which occurred in Grayson county. Both he and his wife were members of the Baptist church. In their family were four children : William, a school teacher and farmer ; Sarah M., now Mrs. Brooks ; Mrs. Alice Bridges ; and George W., a stock farmer. To Mr. and Mrs. Brooks have been born five children: El- mer D., Jessie, Price, Earl and Nellie, all at. home.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Brooks hold membership in the Christian church and are interested in its work, doing all in their power for the extension of its influence and the development of its vari- ou's activities. Mr. Brooks is also an exemplary member of the Masonic fraternity. He carefully conducts his business interests and without tak- ing advantage of the necessities of his fellow men in any trade transaction he has steadily worked his way upward until he is now ac- counted one of the substantial agriculturists of Montague county, having valuable farm property which is the visible evidence of his life of thrift and energy.

WILLIAM A. STEWART, member of the real estate firm of Crank and Stewart at Cleburne, is one of the best known citizens of Johnson county, both on account of his personal and business relations and especially because of his long and efficient record in public office.

Mr. Stewart, who was born in Carroll county, Tennessee, came to Texas in young manhood and in 1876 located in Johnson county. Up to 1882 he was successfully engaged in farming six miles south of Cleburne, and in that year moved to Cleburne. In the same year he was elected con- stable of the precinct, and honored that position by his services for some time. For a number of years he was employed in the Santa Fe rail- road service, and in every capacity in which he has served himself or others he has been known for his energy, loyalty to duty, and strict integrity. In 1894 he was elected sheriff of Johnson county, and his fellow citizens, recognizing his eminent fitness and the value of his services in that posi-

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

tion. retained him in the office by re-election in 1896 and also in 1898. During his six years' incumbency of the shrievalty he was known as a thoroughly competent and brave officer, dis- charging his duties fearlessly, and enforcing the law without question or bias. Among the relics of his official career which he retains is the cele- brated hangman's rope with which he executed three criminals while he was sheriff, and which has been used in the hanging of fourteen other criminals in various parts of Texas, the rope being loaned by Mr. Stewart to the sheriffs for the purpose. Certain very definite proportions and qualities distinguish a perfect hangman's rope from the ordinary article, and this particu- lar rope was made by hand by a German rope- maker in St. Louis, on an express order from Mr. Stewart; it is thirty feet long, of hemp and oiled, and is unusually strong and heavy. Mr. Stewart's career in public office covers fourteen years altogether, and is noteworthy both by its length and efficiency.

On retiring from the sheriff's office Mr. Stew- art resumed farming on Buffalo creek, three and a half miles south of Cleburne, but on January 1, 1905, returned to town and established himself in the real estate business in partnership with R. H. Crank, ex-county clerk. They attend to a very satisfactory business in real estate, rents and loans, and insurance.

Mr. Stewart is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and has fraternal affiliations with the Woodmen of the World. By his mar- riage to Mary E. Cannon he has four children : Mrs Eva Ellen Pollard, whose husband is super- intendent of the county farm ; Charles L., Annie Belle and Katharine.

JUDGE WILLIAM H. PECKHAM, a mem- ber of the Fort Worth bar, comes of an ancestry honorable and distinguished and his lines of life have been cast in harmony therewith. He was born in Albany, New York, during a visit of his mother to the Peckham family of that place, al- though the parents were residents of New York City. Judge Peckham is a cousin of Wheeler H. and Rufus W. Peckham and a member of the noted Peckham family that has furnished a num- ber of distinguished lawyers to New York. His father, George W. Peckham, himself prominent in the profession in New York City, was a brother and law partner of Judge Rufus W. Peckham, who was the father of Hon. Wheeler II. Peck- ham, one of the ablest legists in the United States and of the present Judge Rufus W. Peckham, a justice of the U'nited States supreme court ap- pointed by President Cleveland in 1895. The

elder Rufus W. Peckham was judge of the court of appeals of the state of New York. The orig- inal American ancestors came from Peckham Rye, England, and joined the Rhode Island col- ony in 1649, after which they were associated for many years with the history of that state. George W. Peckham and his brother, Rufus W. Peckham, became residents of New York City in 1820, since which time they and their families have been associated with the legal profession in the eastern metropolis and with the supreme court of the Empire state at Albany.

Judge Peckham's mother was Mary (Watson) Peckham, also a representative of an old Rhode Island family that was established in New York City about 1820. She was likewise a cousin of Commodore Perry.

Before the Civil war George W. Peckham be- came largely interested in timber and other lands in Wisconsin and for that reason gave up his residence and practice in New York and removed with his family to Milwaukee, so that Judge Peckham of this review supplemented his early educational privileges in New York city by study in Milwaukee, where he also began preparation for the bar as a student in the office and under the direction of Matt Carpenter, a distinguished lawyer of that place. Prior to this time, how- ever, he had had some military experience, hav- ing enlisted at Milwaukee for service in the Union army as a member of Company A, Thirty- eighth Wisconsin Infantry, which was attached to the Army of the Potomac in the Ninth Army Corps. He was in all of the prominent battles in Virginia, including the Wilderness, Spottsyl- vania, Cold Harbor and Ream's Station and was also connected with the blowing up of the mines in front of Petersburg and other movements of the army. Near the close of the war he was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant and was transferred to the Forty-fourth Wisconsin In- fantry, after which he participated in the battle of Nashville, the last hotly contested engagement in which he took part. In his early army life he had many pleasant associations with such young men as Arthur MacArthur and Charles King, who have since become generals in the regular army.

After devoting some time to the mastery of the principles of jurisprudence Judge Peckham was admitted to the bar at Milwaukee in 1870 and continued his practice there until 1874, when he came to Texas. He spent a short time in Fort Worth and then went further west, locating at Throckmorton, where he practiced law and resided for about twenty years. In 1894 he came to Fort Worth, where he has since made

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

his home and followed his profession, gaining here a distinctively representative clientage.

Judge Peckham was married in Texas to Miss Palestine Timmons, and they have six children, the eldest son being George W. Peckham, who is engaged in the real estate and loan business with his father under the firm style of George W. Peckham & Company, but Judge Peckham's chief business has been the law, in which he has gained creditable distinction and success.

JOHN G. CRUMP, M. D. The medical profession has an able representative at Saint Jo, Texas, in the subject of this sketch, Dr. John G. Crump, who has been identified with Mon- tague county since its early settlement.

Dr. Crump was born in Bedford county, Vir- ginia, December 19, 1839; was reared on a farm, receiving his elementary education in the subscrip- tion schools near his home, later attending Cedar Bluff and Lakeland academies, after which he taught school three terms in Arkansas. While teaching he took up the study of medicine, hav- ing for his preceptor Dr. J. C. Bradford, with whom he was associated for five years, as stu- dent and assistant. In 1870 he came to Texas and located at Head of Elm, near which the town of Saint Jo was platted three years later, where he began the practice of his profession and has continued successfully. In 1880, feeling a need of further preparation for his life work, he took a course of lectures in the Texas Medical College at Galveston, and in 1881, '82 and '83 he attended lectures in the University of Louisi- ana at New Orleans, where he graduated with honor. Also at different times he has taken post-graduate courses at the Chicago Polytech- nic School of Physicians, and thus has kept him- self in the advance line of his profession. At the time of his location in Montague county Dr. Crump and Dr. J. A. Gordon were the only physicians in a radius of many miles and his practice soon extended over a wide stretch of country, reaching into Clay county and over into the Indian Territory. It was not unusual for him to ride seventy-five miles to attend a patient. His long practice here has gained him a very wide acquaintance. Indeed, few men, if any, in Mon- tague county are better known than he, and none are more highly respected. For thirteen years he .has been surgeon for the M. K. & T. Railroad Co., and is medical examiner for a number of insurance companies.

Dr. Crump, like most Southern men of his age, has a record as a Confederate soldier. He had moved with his parents to Arkansas in 1858, and was in that state at the opening of the war

of the rebellion. Enlisting in Company D, First Arkansas Cavalry, which was assigned to the Trans-Mississippi Department of the Confederate army, and later to the Army of the Tennessee, young Crump took part in many of the hardest fights of the war. He was captured at Black River, Mississippi, and was taken to Fort Dela- ware and later to Fort Lookout, where he re- mained seven months, after which he was ex- changed in December, 1863, at City Point and joined his command at Camden, Arkansas, with which he continued until the close of the war, June, 1865. During that time he received several slight wounds and once had some ribs broken, but was never laid off. It was after the close of the war that he taught school and took 11p the study of medicine.

In 1878 Dr. Crump married Miss Carrie L. Perkins, a native of Virginia, and a daughter of Hezekiah Perkins, who had moved from Vir- ginia to Texas some years previous to that time and was engaged in farming here. This happy union was severed by the death of Mrs. Crump, June 19, 1879. She left no children. August 6, 1880, Dr. Crump married Miss Florence E. Ir- win, a native of Peoria county, Illinois, born in 1861, daughter of Samuel and Sarah A. (Mil- ler (Irwin, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of North Carolina. The Irwin family moved to Texas in 1872, but Mr. Irwin returned to Illinois in 1876 and died there in 1881. Subse- quently Mrs. Irwin came back to Texas and made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Crump, and died here December 23, 1899. They were worthy members of the Methodist church. Dr. and Mrs. Crump have six children, namely: John T. and Earl F., engaged in farming; Liz- zie, Henry I., Carrie F. and Joe B., at home.

The Crump family worship at .the Presbyte- rian church, of which both the doctor and his wife are members. He is also a member of nu- merous fraternal organizations. In the I. O. O. F. he has filled all the chairs, and for six years has been identified with the Knights of Pythias. He has membership in the State Medical Associa- tion and the North Texas and Montague County societies.

Dr. Crump is a son of Beverly and Frances M. (Gray) Crump, and grandson of George and Mary Crump, all natives of Virginia, both the Crump and the Gray families ranking with the "first families" of the "Old Dominion." Beverly Crump was the youngest of seven children, the names of the others in order of birth being Mrs. Sarah Bramlitt; Susan W., unmarried, died at the age of eighty years; John G., who was a prominent lawyer ; Abner, who died in Arkansas

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

at the age of ninety-seven years ; William W., a Missouri farmer and stockman; and Rhoda, un- married, died at the age of ninety-five years. In the Gray family were three children: Salina S., who died unmarried, Frances M., and Mrs. Elizabeth Wiggington. Beverly Crump moved with his family to Arkansas in 1858 and died on his farm there four years later, in 1862. His wife survived him until 1872. They were the parents of ten children, namely: Henry M., who died while serving in the Confederate army ; Phoebe, who died at the age of two years ; John (Y., the immediate subject of this review ; Napo- leon B., who was accidentally killed ; George A., an Arkansas farmer; Mrs. Mary S. Cantrell ; Mrs. Josephine S. Jenkins; Rebecca; Mrs. Susan W. Bacon ; and Rhoda V., wife of Dr. L. Kirby, of Arkansas.

J. W. BUTLER. A worthy example of what can be achieved in North Texas by perseverance and tireless industry is seen in the person of the subject of this brief sketch whose life record until recent years was one of few successes and many reverses. An adopted son of the Lone Star state, he has demonstrated to native and stranger alike that his mission here was to do something for his community while he was doing something for himself. That he is in the midst of the real- ization of his ambition his evidence and that of his friends amply testify.

Mr. Butler is the proprietor of the cotton gin at Charlie, Texas, and as such and as a harvester and thresher of grain and manufacturer of na- tive lumber, is the most widely known man of the great bend between the Wichita and Red rivers. Hle came to Texas enfeebled in health and in purse and both have experienced the phys- real and financial rejuvenation which follows a residence in this section and a serious dip into its industrial affairs.

Pike county, Illinois, was the birthplace of Mr. Butler and his natal day was January 13, 1858. He grew up on his father's, Levi Butler's, farmi and obtained his education in the country school. The family went to that county about 1838 from Wisconsin, but the father was born in the state of New York. The latter married Lou- isa Wilson, reared a large family and died in Morgan county, Ilinois, in 1892, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife was a daughter of Joseph Wilson, born in Lancashire, England. Mrs. Butler died in 1803 at fifty-eight years of age. The children of this worthy couple were : Parvin, of Comanche county, Oklahoma ; Joseph, of Miller, Missouri : J. W., of this notice : Ellen, wife of I. D. Elidge. of Valley City, Illinois;

Emma, of Chicago, Illinois : Louise, who mar- ried Richard Windsor, of Valley City, Illinois ; Anna, now Mrs. Frank Ellis, of Valley City; and Maggie, wife of J. D. McCarthy, of Maples, Illinois.

On the approach of man's estate J. W. But- ler began the serious side of life. His early em- ployment was with the Wabash Railway Com- pany, at day labor, and later being with the De- troit Bridge and Iron Works. Deciding to be- come a farmer he went in debt for his first horse. For eight years he was a renter of land and with his small accumulations he engaged in the im- plement business. His experience as a merchant was a sad one, for it lost him "his all." He came to Texas in 1890 in the employ of a windmill concern and while at Sherman was forced, by exorbitant expense bills, to leave the road and seek other fields. With eighteen dollars as his capital he left for Clay county, not knowing, of course, whether he "would sink or swim." He went to work at tank and windmill building for farmers and ranchers and in 1893, three years after his advent to the state, put in a wheat crop on the shares. This experiment proved a de- cided success and he repeated it but that crop of wheat has never "come up." He continued to farm by proxy following his trade in the meantime, till 1897, when he was aided to a threshing outfit by his neighbor, Robert Sawdon, and a successful business at this work was the result. The work of the farm, the threshing of grain, the making of lumber and the business of the gin have occupied his time the past few years. He has worn out several reapers and one threshing outfit, and is one of a few men whose experience with machinery has not encompassed his financial ruin. For one who has-likewise his wife-suffered from an enfeebled constitu- tion, until the climate of Texas brought relief and strength, he has wrought successfully and well in Texas. In 1896 his wife's confinement in a sanitarium cost him a thousand dollars and in IGOI eight hundred dollars more was the price of her treatment in a like institution in San An- tonio.

In 1903, Mr. Butler bought up the old gin at Charlie and replaced it with an entirely new one of latest improvement and pattern. It was erected at a cost of three thousand dollars and has a capacity of twenty-five bales a day. The season of 1903 he ginned one hundred and seven- ty-seven bales, and in 1904 nine hundred and for- ty-five bales and his place of business is the real- ly important one in the little village. He owns a small farm of one hundred fifty-six acres and

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

rents much other land for the planting of a large acreage to crops.

Mr. Butler married November 1, 1882, Emma L., a daughter of David Pyle, formerly from Cincinnati, Ohio, but early settlers in Illinois. One child, Virgil, born July 3, 1886, is the issue of their marriage.

AUGUST H. BEVERING is the owner of three thousand acres of land, constituting one of the best ranches of his section of Texas, and he not only deserves mention as a most enterprising and representative business man, but also be- cause of the part he has taken in improving the grade of cattle raiscd in the state. Prices are ad- vanced through these means and the entire state profits thereby.

Mr. Bevering, whose home is at Charlie, Tex- as, was born in Lee county, Iowa, in 1855, his parents being Charles L. and Minnie (Ham- mond) Bevering, both of whom were natives of Germany. Crossing the Atlantic to America, they established their home in Lee county, Iowa, among its early settlers, and there the mother of our subject is still living, but the father died there in 1885, aged sixty years.

In the place of his nativity August H. Bever- ing was reared until he had attained the age of eighteen years, when he went to St. Louis, Mis- souri. In the fall of 1873 he came to Texas, lo- cating first at Austin and afterward at San An- tonio, where he became connected with the cattle industry, with which he has since been identified. He began work as a cowboy and drove cattle all over the plains of this great state. In the winter of 1877 he came to Clay county and became asso- ciated with W. B. Worsham at Henrietta, the county seat. Mr. Worsham is a prominent bank- er and leading cattleman of this portion of the state. In 1878 Mr. Bevering went to Wilbarger county and broke the first furrow of land within its borders. In fact, he has been connected with pioneer experiences through northwestern Texas and he assisted in building the rock house at Groesbeck creek, where the town of Quanah now stands. His attention, however, has largely been given to the raising of cattle, and in this he has been very successful. After his marriage he settled in Clay county and has since made his home at Charlie, where he has extensive cattle and farming interests. He has continuously de- veloped his business along modern lines and is at present successfully conducting a ranch cover- ing three thousand acres. It is located in the northern part of Clay county, near the Red river, and upon it he has many hundred head of cattle. He gives special attention to improving the grade

of his cattle, and now has fine stock, which finds a ready sale upon the market.

In the fall of 1882 was celebrated the marriage of August H. Bevering and Miss Nellie A. Hook- er, a native of Delaware county, Iowa, and a daughter of B. F. Hooker, one of the prominent early settlers of Clay county, who has been an active factor in its development and substantial upbuilding. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Bevering have been born seven children, who are yet living : Minnie, William, Frank, John, Merrill, Sadie and Ed. Keen and clear-headed, always busy, al- ways careful and conservative in financial mat- ters, moving slowly but surely in every transac- tion, he had few superiors in the steady progress which invariably reaches the objective point. He has met reverses and obstacles, but the story of his achievement in spite of this should inspire all young men who read this record with a truer es- timate of the value and sure rewards of charac- ter and labor.

WILLIAM B. HARRISON, president of the State National Bank and city treasurer of Fort Worth, Texas, is a man of fine business ability, with a capacity for financial enterprises which was manifested at the beginning of his career, and for about twenty-five years has been prom- inently identified with public and business mat- ters in North Texas.

He is a native son of Lone Star state, and his birth occurred in Red River county, in 1857. His parents were William M. and Elizabeth ( Epper- son) Harrison, both of whom are now deceased. His mother was a native of Tennessee. His father was born in Kentucky, but moved to Mis- souri, and came to Texas with his family about 1875, settling in Red River coun- ty. In the ante-bellum days he rose to prominence as a planter and farmer, owning a large estate, which, however, he sacrificed during the rebel- lion. He was a valiant Confederate soldier and served as a quartermaster officer in the brigade of General Samuel Bell Moxey. After the war he practically began his career over again, and with the moncy he had realized from his plan- tation he went into the wholesale grocery business at Jefferson, Texas. Here again he was successful. He later organized the second national bank within the state of Texas, known as the National Bank of Jefferson, at Jefferson, and of which he continued as presi- dent until 1884. He organized and promoted the building of the East Line and Red River Railroad, running from Jefferson to Mckinney, Texas, and was president of the road until it was sold to the Goulds. In 1884 he came to Fort

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 10

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: 972

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: 972