A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 107

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

USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II > Part 107

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In November, 1894, Judge Thomas was mar- ried to Miss Josie Treadwell, a native of Louis- iana but at that time a resident of Anson. They have a family of four children: Owen, Fannie, John and Edwin. The judge has been a mem- ber of the Knights of Pythias fraternity for two years and he likewise belongs to the Cumber- land Presbyterian church. He is an earnest and discriminating student of everything pertaning to legal matters and during his service on the bench he has decided many important cases, his decisions being generally regarded as just and showing great care and investigation from every point of view.

WILLIAM ENOS SHERRILL, a prominent hardware merchant of Haskell, Texas, was born in Ofahoma, Leake county, Mississippi, August 29, 1868. His ancestral history will be found on another page of this work introductory to the sketch of his brother, Richard Ellis Sherrill.

At the time the Sherrill home was transferred from Mississippi to Texas, William E. was in his infancy. He attended school at Seguin, Guadalupe county, and at Milford, Ellis county, and later was a student at the Southwestern Presbyterian University at Clarksville, Tennes- see, and the Westminster College at Fulton, Missouri, of which last named institution he is a graduate. When he started out in a business life it was with his brothers Charles R. and Richard E., of the firm of Sherrill Brothers,

hardware dealers, at Taylor, Texas. He came into the establishment at Haskell in 1890, and the firm style was changed to Sherrill Brothers & Company, which name is retained to the present time, and which now figures as one of the oldest and most enterprising firms of Has- kell, where they have been located since 1890.

April 12, 1897, Mr. Sherrill married Miss Effie Maydelle De France, daughter of Abraham and Mattie De France, early settlers of Haskell. Their family consists of two children, namely: Lena Maydelle, born March 17, 1898, and Will- iam Brevard, born October 28, 1900. Follow- ing in the footsteps of his honored father, Mr. Sherrill in early manhood identified himself with the Presbyterian church, of which he has been a constant member for the past fifteen years. He is a member of the following frater- nal organizations: K. of P., I. O. O. F., K. O. T. M., W. O. W., A. F. & A. M., also R. A. M. and K. T., and last, but not least, the Concaten-

WILLIAM G. HUDSON. It is the province of this personal sketch to relate in brief the career of a most worthy citizen of Wise county, who, since the year 1884, has been connected with the religious as well as the agricultural work of the county and has established himself, through his exalted character and genuine per- sonal worth, ineradicably in the hearts of the cit- izenship of a wide locality. In the person of William G. Hudson we have a gentleman whose rural achievements mark him as an intelligent farmer and whose spiritual work has led to the awakening of souls surcharged with sin and their regeneration for the world to come. In his dual capacity as a minister-farmer he goes about his work with a determination to effect results, to which his financial and social stand- ing in his community amply testify.

Before his advent to Wise county and his lo- cating one mile east of Bridgeport Mr. Hudson passed six years in Johnson county, Texas, and prior to that as many years in Tarrant county, in both of which he followed farming, the voca- tion he acquired in youth. He came to the state from Cherokee county, Alabama, in 1872, having grown up there from his birth, April 17, 1842.

About the year 1832 the family was founded in Alabama by William B. Hudson and his fath- er, father and grandfather, respectively, of our subject, and they were emigrants from Ten- nessee. Both passed their remaining vears in Alabama and were identified with the work of building up country homes and in promoting

MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM G. HUDSON

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

1 the spirit of domestic progress which lay prac- tically dormant in that day and time. The grandfather was a mill man as well as a farmer, and tradition tells of his claim to English antece- dents, but does not fix the place. nor the date. He married a Miss McClure, a lady of Irish blood, and their eight children were: Thomas, Robert, John, William, Eliza, who married Will- iam Hegler; Sallie, wife of Richard Milner ; Jane, who died unmarried; and Mary, wife of John Snyder.

William B. Hudson was born in Tennessee, - in 1804, had mill and farming interests, like his father, and owned a tanyard too. He had a good business mind but possessed only a fair education and left an estate at his death in 1857. He married Mary McClure, who died in 1844, the mother of Sylvester M., of Arkansas; Robert L., who was killed as a Confederate sol- dier ; Holbert, who died at twenty-four years ; Mary, who passed away unmarried; William G., of this article; and Rebecca, who became the wife of Job Lawler of Talladega county, Alabama, both deceased. William B. Hudson married Priscilla Loftus for his second wife and five other children were added to his household, viz: Allen and Leonidas, deceased; Oliver and Samuel, farmers of Wise county, and Fannie, wife of Frank McMinn, of Cherokee county, Texas.

The rustic schools of the fifties had to do with the limited education William G. Hudson se- cured and when his father died he made his boyhood home with John Hudson, an uncle. He was a tall and ungainly youth when secession caused the war between the states and was busy with the commonplace affairs of the farm, but he responded to the call to arms early and en- listed in Company C, Seventh Alabama Infantry, for twelve months and was mustered out at Corinth, Mississippi when his enlistment expired. . He rejoined the army, entering the Nineteenth Alabama for three years and remained till the breakup occurred. He took part in the Mur -. freesboro and Chickamauga battles and in many minor engagements and in May, 1864, while at Cassville, Georgia, was captured and shipped to Rock Island, Illinois, and kept in a Federal military prison until the end of the war. He reached home in June of 1865 and resumed the work of the farm.

After the war our subject started life at the bottom of the ladder and began slowly to climb. When he came to Texas he had little more than enough to defray his expense hither by wagon. He brought with him a wife and plenty of home- spun clothes, made by the wife after the war,

and when they had fairly settled in Tarrant coun- ty and ready to resume the burdens of life fifteen cents in money was all they had. They were hardly more than renters until they settled in Wise county and here Mr. Hudson bought a hundred acres of land, with two small cabins, and took possession of his first permanent home. All hands began the task of clearing the farm, wife and children, too, and many was the time that the family wash went on the line before the industrious wife took up her station "in the new ground" and encouraged the little folks to hold fast. In time ample fields were opened out and the modern cottage took the place of the pioneer cabin and the children married off and father and mother were again alone.

February 18, 1865, Mr. Hudson married Miss Mary E. High, a daughter of John W. High and Catherine (Taylor) High. Mr. High was orig- inally from North Carolina, of Dutch and English descent, but Mrs. Hudson was born in Cherokee county, Alabama, June 15, 1845. Of their chil- dren; Martha died in Comanche county, Texas, as the wife of Andrew Morrison; Juda married Frank Hudson and died in Hunt county, Texas ; Sarah married John A. Matthews, of Huntsville, Alabama; William P., died aged twenty-four years, a farmer; Nancy married William Mit- chell and died in Hunt county, Texas, and Emma died there as the wife of "Bud" Lida; Amanda, wife of James McLaren, of Huntsville, Alabama ; Maggie became Mrs. John Roberts and passed away in Brown county, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. High came to Texas in 1873 and the former died in Comanche county, while the latter resided in Hunt county when she died. John W. High's father was T. Whitehead High, who married Juda Walker, a native of North Carolina and daughter of very wealthy parents. John W. High's brothers and sisters: Nancy Cobb, Felix, Jane Taylor, Narcissus Cobb, William P., Sarah E., Cynthia Ann Farr, Rebecca, Perry, Jacob, Van Buren. Catherine (Taylor) High was daughter of Charles and Elizabeth Taylor, whose children were: James, Mary, Susanna, John, Elizabeth, Catherine, Ann, William, Nancy Jane.

Mr. and Mrs. Hudson's family comprise one child that died at birth; Rebecca C., died aged sixteen months; William E., died ten weeks old ; Samuel L., died aged twenty-two months; John S., died aged eight months; Oliver L., of Indian Territory, who married Olivia Couch and has children, J. Granville, Thomas H. and Ed W .; Ida, wife of J. H. Greer, of Wise county, has issue, John Elbe.t; Edra; and Versia B., who married Minnie M. Barnett, is the father of

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Mary A., John William, Herman O. and Robert J .; Wilda, wife of Joseph Blewitt, of Wise county, has a daughter, Dera O.

While Mr. Hudson's parents were of the Cum- berland Presbyterian faith, in the fall of 1865 he joined the Missionary Baptists and grew in in- terest and enthusiasm in the work of the church. For the past quarter of a century he has been qualified to preach and for some twenty years he has done the work of a regular charge. In his limited sphere he has been a busy man and those who have come under his spiritual guidance and influence know and appreciate him for his real worth.

JOSEPH KNIGHT GAULT, M. D. In passing in review the worthy subject of this brief article it is fitting to honor him with the title of a profession with which he was closely and successfully identified in Texas for a num- ber of years and in which his distinction as a citizen was gained. For nearly thirty years Texas has known him as one of her sons and whether in the practice of medicine or in the pursuit of business, his patrons and his associ- ates alike testify enthusiastically and without reserve to his loyalty as a citizen, his fidelity as a friend, to his reliability as neighbor and to his integrity as a man. To know him is to be- come his friend, and to win his friendship is to share in the beneficent influence of his manly virtues.

During our centennial year Dr. Gault located at LaGrange, in Fayette county, Texas, a young physician, fresh from his studies and in the vim and vigor of young manhood. With his natural endowments, with his professional attainments, and with the prestige of his Alma Mater, his equipment for his work of the future was com- plete and he entered upon his practice with no misgivings as to his success. He was identified with the community of LaGrange until 1885 when he established himself in the new village of Bellevue, where he continued his professional pursuits until 1890, when, having acquired busi- ness interests demanding much of his time, he withdrew from active practice and has since giv- en himself over to business affairs.

Having purchased a small ranch of one thou- sand acres, Dr. Gault fenced and stocked it and it, together with farming, occupied his time until 1961, when a son assumed active oversight of it and he directed his attention to other matters. In 1902 he acquired control of the livery busi- ness in Bellevue and this he has qualified to a second son to conduct, with the result that he, in 1904, established a furniture and undertaking

business in the little town, which will eventually fall to the conduct of his third and youngest son, with the father having a general supervision over all.

Joseph K. Gault was born in Louisville, Ken- tucky, July 2, 1853, and was reared and educated in the public schools of that city. His father, Joseph Gault, was one of the old-time lumber and planing-mill men of the city, having been engaged in the business until his death in 1902. His long residence in that metropolis and his connection with some of its important industries and its municipal affairs made him widely known, and although his early mental training was sadly neglected, experience brought him a wealth of business knowledge and laid the groundwork of the accumulation of a modest fortune. Viewed from the standpoint of his early advantages and environment, Joseph Gault was a remarkable man. He was born in Ire- land in 1814, was brought to the United States in 1815 by his parents who settled in Maryland where they soon died, leaving children: John, George, James, Joseph and Barbara. John and Joseph passed their lives in Kentucky and George and James died in New Orleans. All became "river men" and Joseph became a pilot on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, between Cin- cinnati and New Orleans. Barbara became the wife of a Mr. Whan.

Joseph Gault left the river service and en- gaged in the retail lumber trade in Louisville, and, in time, established a planing-mill and sash and door factory in connection with it. He was drawn into the politics of the city, when his business capacity and sound judgment had been demonstrated, and as a Democrat was elected alderman in the Eleventh ward, being frequently re-elected and serving as such for sixteen years. He was married in New Orleans to Mary Ellen, a daughter of Henry Shaw, whose other children were: Debbie, Rebecca and Lewis, all deceased, Mary Ellen dying March 12, 1860. Dr. Joseph K. and George Gault were the issue of this marriage, the latter dying, without heirs, at the age of forty-eight. For his second wife Joseph Gault married Mary Nuttell, whose children were: Miss Mary, of Louisville, and Margaret, wife of John Dickens, of that city.

Dr. J. K. Gault grew up about his father's lumber yard and factory and at maturity began a course of medical reading with Dr. A. Given, of Louisville. When properly equipped he en- tered the University Medical College of that city and completed his course with the graduat- ing class of 1876. He engaged temporarily in

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

the practice in his old home and then came to the Lone Star state and identified himself with La Grange.

In Fayette county, Texas, October 10, 1878, Dr. Gault married Miss Kate B. Manton, a daughter of a Mexican war veteran, Edwin B. Manton, a Texas settler of 1832 and a native of Rhode Island. Mr. Manton was in the.war for Texas independence and was one of seventeen men of the one hundred and seventy captured at the Dawson massacre that escaped death. He passed his last years in Fayette county as a. farmer. He married a Miss Robb, whose father was a member of the Austin colony, the first Texas judge, and at whose home the first term of court in the Republic of Texas was held. The judge built a mill on Robb's Prairie and was granted a league and labour of land there- for. Mrs. Gault is one of four children, viz .: Andrew, of Ryan, Indian Territory; Kate, Mrs. Gault; Annie, wife of H. B. Richards, of La- Grange, and John, who died in Bellevue, Texas, leaving five children.

Dr. and Mrs. Gault's children are: Joseph Manton, a farmer and married to Fannie Nich- ols, with children: Mary and Nellie; Bernard Timmons, liveryman and merchant, of Bellevue, and George Elmer, a pupil of the public schools.

In Clay county politics Dr. Gault has been a factor for many years and he is well known for his convictions on the vital questions of the times. Democracy was his political cradle and its precepts guide his footsteps today. In No- vember, 1902, he was chosen county commis- sioner for the Fourth district and in 1904 he was elected to succeed himself. In his sphere as a public official he exercises that same care and consideration common in his private business and his acts are so governed to benefit the many, thereby meeting the popular demand and winning popular accord. He is a member of the subordinate and encampment in the I. O. O. F. and is a charitable, generous and liberal gentle- man without suspicion of guilt.

CHARLES D. LONG, county and district clerk of Haskell county, Texas, was born near Statesville, Iredell county, North Carolina, Jan- uary 15, 1862. The Longs are of Engish origin. William Long, the grandfather of Charles D., moved from Virginia to North Carolina, where he operated a large plantation and owned many slaves, and where he spent the rest of his life. He died in that state in the spring of 1884, at the age of ninety-six years. His second wife was a Robinson, a native of North Carolina. The ma-

ternal grandmother was an aunt of Adli H. Stephenson, ex-vice-president of the United States. She married John Neill. Thomas S. Long, son of William and father of Charles D., was born in Catawba county, North Carolina. He was the owner of Long's Ferry on the Ca- tawba river, a few miles above what was known as Old Bealty's Ford. Like his father, he became the owner of a large number of slaves, and he ran the ferry in connection with farming opera- tions. At the age of twenty-one he married in Iredell county, Miss Rosana Camilla Neill, a native of the same county and a daughter of John Neill. The Neills were of Scotch origin and were early settlers of North Carolina. Both John Neill and William Long were saddlers by trade and worked at the same when young men,. making their start in life in that way. In. Thomas S. Long's family were ten children, the- eldest and the youngest being daughters. Most. of them are still living and are widely scattered: J. W. C. Long resides in Statesville, North Caro- lina, of which town he is postmaster; Mrs. Mol- lie J. Blackwelder, Hickory, Catawba county, North Carolina; T. W. Long, M. D., Newton, North Carolina; A. P. Long, Chamberlin, South Dakota, where he is engaged in the cattle busi- ness; C. D. Long, the subject of this sketch; Andrew T. Long, a First Lieutenant in the United States navy, at present on the cruiser Dolphin ; Frank J. Long, general manager of a large carriage factory at Birmingham, Alabama ; L. S. Long, deceased, formerly a resident of Haskell, Texas ; and Gretta N. Long, of Catawba. county, North Carolina. The parents of this family died in 1884, the father at the age of fifty-two and the mother at fifty-four years.

Charles D. Long was reared a farmer boy .. When he was about twelve years old the family moved across the Catawba river into Catawba county, near a little town of the same name. He received his early education in a log school house and later for a time attended Rutherford College in Burk county, North Carolina. At the age of twenty he came to Texas, landing in Jan- uary, 1883, at Abilene, then a new town com- posed largely of tents. From there he came to, what was then known as the L. I. L. ranch, owned by M. O. Lynn, on the Double Moun- tain Fork of the Brazos river, in what is now Haskell county. There young Long procured work on the ranch at twenty-five dollars a month. Among the cow boys there at the time were Polk Berryhill, the "boss" of the ranch; Bob and Frank Wilfong, John Lynch, John. Humphires, M. S. Shook, Bud and Charlie Jow-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

ell, Luke Lynn and a number of others, usually twenty-five to forty men. Mr. Long remained with Mr. Lynn that year and later bought a bunch of cattle. Afterward leaving the cattle with others on the ranch, he made a trip into New Mexico in company with Pat Saunders, with a herd of cattle owned by Saunders, with Jack Bess as "trail boss," there being in the party thirteen all told. On his return to Texas Mr. Long resumed work on the Lynn ranch and remained there as long as he was in the cattle business. During this time he saved his wages and invested the same in cattle, accumulating a bunch of two hundred head, which he sold in the spring of 1886 before quitting the L. I. L. ranch.

In the meantime, on the 13th day of January, 1885, Haskell county was organized. Mr. Long assisted in the organization and at the election in 1888 he was chosen clerk. The first mail route established here was from Albany to Has- kell, with two deliveries a week. This was in 1884. In the winter of 1886-7 a daily line was established from Haskell to Anson and con- nected them with the line over to Abilene, while the Albany-Haskell route was discontinued. Mr. Long, on the establishing of this daily line, drove the stage from Haskell to Anson, and made the round trip every day for twelve months. At the end of this time he was elected county and dis- trict clerk of Haskell county. He served two years, from November, 1888. At the following election he was again a candidate, but was de- feated by J. L. Jones by six votes. After this Mr. Long was engaged as assistant bookkeeper in the state treasurer's office at Austin, where he remained until, in 1893, under President Cleve- land, he received the appointment of postmaster at Haskell. Under McKinley's administration he was succeeded by Captain B. H. Dodson and was retained as his deputy. On leaving the post office Mr. Long engaged in farming on land of his own on Wild Horse Prairie, which he called "Lone Hackberry" from a tree of that name on it and which is still standing, it being the only natural growth tree on that prairie. In Novem- ber, 1900, he was again elected to the office of county and district clerk, the position he now fills.

It is shown by the above that Mr. Long has been in close touch with the affairs of Haskell county since before it was a county, and in social as well as business circles he has figured promi- nently. He was made a Mason at Haskell in March, 1889, and has since advanced through the various degrees of the order up to and in-

cluding the Mystic Shrine. Also he belongs to the Odd Fellows, having filled every chair in the subordinate lodge of that order, and he is a Knight of Pythias and a Woodman of the World. Since 1893 he has been identified with the Meth- odist Church.

Mr. Long was married in Haskell, September I, 1886, to Miss Addie Rogers, a native of Tar- rant county, Texas. At the same time and place were married their most intimate friends, W. B. Anthony, now receiver in the Land Office at Austin, and Miss Mollie J. Hills, the ceremonies being performed by J. H. Wiseman, a young Methodist preacher who has since become prom- inent as a minister in western Texas. The cause of the double wedding was the four contracting parties did their courting in the same room and asked for their wives' hands in marriage at the same time and place. The minister made a joint marriage ; all parties standing up before him at the same time. Mr. and Mrs. Long have had six children, three sons and three daughters, namely: Werther B., Charles Buford, Roger Neill (deceased), Effie N., Burnice A. and Mary. They also have an adopted child, Brevard S., a son of Mr. Long's deceased brother, L. S. Long, whose wife died shortly after his death, and they took him into their home when he was eighteen months old.

JASPER NEWTON ELLIS, the subject of this sketch, an old-time citizen of Haskell, Tex- as, who has been an active business man for a number of years, is a native of Mississippi, born in Chickasaw county, October 29, 1852. The Ellis family is of English origin. The grand- father of Jasper N. came to this country from England and settled in North Carolina, where he reared his family of five sons and one daughter. His son Edwin, when a young man, went from North Caro- lina to Mississippi and settled in Chicka- saw county, where he lived the quiet life of a farmer for many years, being there at the time of the Civil war but on account of his advanced age not taking an active part in the war. He was twice married. By his first wife he had seven children, four sons and three daughters, of whom four are still living. For his second wife he wedded Mrs. Margaret Means Smith, daugh- ter of William and Nancy Archibald, the for- mer of Irish and the latter of Scotch descent. By this marriage Mr. Ellis had four sons, of whom two are living: Jasper N., whose name introduces this sketch, and Wylie R. Ellis, a res- ident of the Indian Territory. In the year 1870

535

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Edwin Ellis came with his family to Texas and settled in Fannin county, where he spent the closing years of his life, and died July 28, 1875. His widow survived him until July 2, 1892, when her death occurred in Haskell.

Jasper N. Ellis was reared on his father's farm in Mississippi up to the age of seventeen years. His education was limited, owing to the fact that his father was a poor man and somewhat afflicted physically. As soon as Jasper was able to be of help on the farm he remained at home from school and worked, and afterward the du- ties of managing the place devolved upon him. He did this up to the time of his father's death. After coming to Texas, his father bought land, which they improved and placed under cultiva- tion, the management and care of the same fall- ing largely to the lot of the son. Soon after his father's death he married and bought and opened up a farm in Hunt county, where he lived till 1889. Then he moved to Haskell, hav- ing previously sold his farm. Here he has been variously occupied. He was in the grocery bus- iness four years, up to 1895, after which he clerked two years for the hardware firm of Sher- rill Brothers & Company. In the fall of 1897 he opened a meat market, which he has since con- ducted, with his usual enterprise and success.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 107

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