A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 112

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 112

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In 1823 William Davenport was born near Americus, Georgia, and in 1839 he left his native heath in company with an older brother and settled in Prentiss county, Mississippi. Having come to mature years on the farm he adopted this calling for his life work when he established

his home in Mississippi. He had acquired a dis- trict school education, which, added to his native talents, equipped him well for sincere and influ- ential citizenship in active, vigorous life. His brother Robert, whom he accompanied from their native state, became an influential factor in the affairs of Prentiss county, having served it as sheriff both prior to and subsequent to the Civil war.

In his political relations to his county William Davenport was first a Whig and finally a Demo- crat and as a force in moulding political senti- ment he was a quiet yet positive one. He was an active member of the Methodist church and brought up his children conscious of a religious obligation to be performed. He married Elvira S. E. Arnold, who followed him to the grave near Paradise March 10, 1893, six years subse- quent to his demise. Two children only lived to be grown, viz .: John R., our subject, and Sallie E., wife of C. T. Thomas, of Sterling, Oklahoma.

John Robert Davenport was a pupil in the country schools and was approaching near his 'teens at the outbreak of the rebellion. He in- herited strong southern sentiments from his mother as well as his father, for she was a daugh- ter of Zack Arnold, a South Carolina slave holder, who removed to Mississippi when his daughter Elvira was a child. Procuring an edu- cation and learning to farm was the business of the time with our subject while he remained at home and when past twenty-one he abandoned the scenes of his boyhood and sought his for- tune on the grassy and untamed wilds of West Texas. He stopped at Aurora, in Wise county, and began work by the month on a farm. From wage-working to renting was the route he took to independence and he eventually be- came able to buy a farm. He located on and purchased the Brady homestead just south of Decatur in 1889, and this has since remained his home.

December II, 1878, Mr. Davenport married Emma F., a daughter of the late prominent pioneer Judge William W. Brady, who came to Wise county in 1855, served eighteen years as its county clerk and four years as county judge, and was, withal, a popular and deserving citi- zen. Mr. Brady came to Texas from Illinois, but was formerly from Indiana county, Penn- sylvania. He married Harriett R. Bryan, a Ten- nessee lady, reared eight children and passed away in 1889, at sixty-six years of age. Mrs. Davenport was born in Decatur, Texas, June

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

20, 1860, and is the mother of Hattie E .; Sallie, who married Will Young; Mary; Robert R .; William; J. B., and Fred Arnold.

In county politics John R. Davenport has for many years been a busy but quiet factor and he has almost invariably been found a delegate to conventions. In 1902 he was induced to be- come a candidate for county treasurer and was elected and two years later was chosen his own successor and his conduct of the office is noted for its clerical efficiency and a desire to serve and accommodate the patrons of the office.

As already stated, Mr. Davenport was brought up in the cradle of Methodism. From the old home church in the east he imbibed those prin- ciples of right which control the heart actions of all good citizens and when he founded a home in the new west a Christian spirit dominated it from the start. He holds his membership-as also does his wife-in the congregation at Sand Hill, the first church in the county, and has served the body in the capacity of steward.

GEORGE HARRISON HODGES. One of the representative farmers of Clay county whose dominions partly encircle the village of Vashti and whose advent to the county gave a substan- tial impetus to his community's business and social life is George H. Hodges, the worthy sub- ject of this review. While only a dozen years mark his citizenship here, his presence and his personal influence are as marked as though the cloak of the patriarchal pioneer covered his strong and active frame.

Although Clay county knew Mr. Hodges no earlier than 1893, Texas has known him since January, 1874, when he identified himself with Navarro county. Choctaw county, Mississippi, furnished him among her quota to the Lone Star state of that year and he came with sincere motives of carving out an honored future and, it might be, accumulating a modest fortune in a land where opportunities were literally hang- ing on every bush. A strong physique and a willing hand were his chief capital and to his industrial touch the natural elements and the soil itself responded with liberality, and the rough-hewing of his path portended the destiny that was surely his. Beginning life at the age of seventeen, he spent the years till his majority in the employ of an uncle, Dock Stewart, with whom he came to Texas and from whom he re- ceived, in wages, the nucleus of his real start in life.

Eight months a pupil in a rural school gave him a very crude finish for the world of affairs.

but he took counsel from experience and has condition in the present shows how success- fully he has met the problems of the past. He grew up with his maternal grandfather on a plan- tation and it was but natural that he should seek advantage on the farm in his western home. He settled near Purdon, in Navarro county, and, in 1876, he joined a brother in the purchase of a tract of black-waxy land which he occupied until 1881, when he turned his interest into cash an'd purchased a farm with a cotton gin and other im- provements on, and this he sold after his advent to Clay county. In 1890 he visited Clay and bought, or bargained for, his new home, but fear- ing he could not pay for it out of the soil he remained in the black land country till he paid for the farm and then transferred his residence hither. In the beginning here he purchased a gin, moved it to Vashti and operated it till 1901, when he bought another tract near town of three hundred and twenty acres and took possession of it, two miles north of the little village where he maintains his home. His material prosper- ity has enabled him to become the owner of six hundred and eighty acres, improved with tenement houses and everything necessary for its proper cultivation and care.

September 6, 1851, George H. Hodges was born in Choctaw county, Mississippi. His fath- er, Richard Hodges, settled there from Alabama when Choctaw county was new and died in the Confederate service in Mobile, in 1865. Rich- ard Hodges went to Missisippi when a boy and married there Eliza Jane Levor, who died in 1853 in Choctaw county, Mississippi. She was a daughter of Joseph Levor, an Alabama settler who died in 1867, some four years subsequent to the death of our subject's paternal grandfather, Richard Hodges.

The issue of Richard and Eliza Hodges were: Joseph, who went through the war as a Confed- erate soldier and in 1867 moved to Navarro county, Texas, where he still lives; William, who was in the Confederate army during the last year of the war and died soon after in Yalobusha county, Mississippi; John S., of Mills county, Texas, and George H., our subject.

In December, 1878, George H. Hodges mar- ried his first wife, Fannie Patterson, a daughter of Samuel Patterson, who settled in Navarro county from Newton county, Mississippi, where his daughter Fannie was born in October, 1860. In June, 1890, Mrs. Hodges passed away in Navarro, being the mother of Annie, wife of J. B. Wardworth, of Clay County, with issue, Ray, Wessie and Otto; Mattie, who married S. H.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Manning, of Clay county, has a daughter, Lotus ; Maggie, unmarried; Laura, now Mrs. James Honn, of Clay county, has a daughter, Jewel; Samuel is the youngest child. In January, 1891, Mr. Hodges married his present wife, nee Laura Patterson, orphaned in childhood and a cousin of his first wife. The result of this union has been five children, namely : Susie, Homer, Ray, Rue and Earl.

Mr. Hodges takes no active interest in poli- tics, but owns allegiance to Democracy, and in church affairs is a Methodist. His citizenship is of the sincere, loyal and progressive sort and he yields precedence to no man in his faith in Northern Texas and in the belief in its ultimate destiny.

JUDGE ALBERT STEVENSON, a member of the bar of Palo Pinto county, Texas, living at Mineral Wells, is a leading representative of his profession and is also a citizen of wide influence, doing much to mould public thought and opinion in his part of the state. He has fig- ured prominently in political circles and has been the promoter of important legislative measures that have proved of direct benefit to his con- stituency and the commonwealth at large.

Judge Stevenson was born near Bryson, Giles county, Tennessee, November 7, 1854, and is a son of the Rev. James C. and Margaret C. (Brown) Stevenson, both of whom are now de- ceased. His father was a native of Iredell coun- ty, North Carolina, and with his parents removed to Giles county, Tennessee, when four years of age. He became a Methodist minister and although his connection with the church caused various removals he lived the greater part of his life in Giles and adjoining counties, always maintaining a home in the former county. He was of Irish and English extraction, his ances- tors having first settled in Virginia, whence they afterward went to North Carolina. His father, the Rev. Elam Stevenson, was also a minister of the gospel, while his father, Captain Steven- son, commanded a company in the Revolution- ary war. To the same family belonged the Hon. Adlai Stevenson, of Blomington, Illinois, at one time vice-president of the United States. The mother of Judge Stevenson was a daughter of Duncan Brown, a noted Presbyterian layman of middle Tennessee, who was the father of Neil S. and John C. Brown, both of whom were gov- ernors of Tennessee. The Browns were of Scotch lineage.

Judge Stevenson was reared upon the home

plantation in Giles county, where he lived until almost twenty-one years of age. His early edu- cation acquired in the common schools was sup- plemented by study in Webb Brothers College at Culleoka, Maury county, Tennessee, and he afterward entered upon the study of law in a law office at Pulaski, Tennessee, his preliminary reading being followed by admission to the bar in 1878.

The year 1879 witnessed the arrival of Judge Stevenson in Texas. He located for practice in Weatherford, the county seat of Parker coun- ty, where he entered upon his profession in April, 1879. H was not long in securing a large client- age and in the course of time he demonstrated his ability to successfully handle important liti- gated interests and cope with the intricate prob- jems of jurisprudence. His ability is valuable in citizenship and his strong manly character led to his election for public honors. He was elected county attorney of Parker county in 1884, was re-elected in 1886, and in 1888 was chosen to represent his district in the twenty- first session of the Texas legislature. He was appointed a member of the committee of the state lands and other committees, and was, dur- ing a great part of the session, acting chairman of judiciary committee No. 2, and was chairman of the committee of Federal Relations. His experience as a prosecuting attorney had taught him that, in full justice to both the state and the defendant, in criminal cases, the defendant should be permitted to testify in his own behalf. Judge Stevenson considered it a relic of bar- barism that a man's lips should be closed when he was on trial for his life and liberty. He accordingly drafted a bill allowing the accused to testify, gave the bill to another member, Mr. Bishop, of Athens, Texas, who introduced it and through Judge Stevenson's efforts this bill was passed and became a law, permitting, for the first time in Texas, the defendant in criminal cases to testify in his own behalf. He also intro- duced perhaps the first anti-trust bill in Texas and was a member of the subcommittee that framed the first anti-trust bill passed in Texas.

Judge Stevenson's most important work in the twenty-first legislature, however, and the one for which he should be given most credit, was in connection with the famous railroad com- mission bill which attracted wide-spread atten- tion not only in Texas, but all over the coun- try. The assembly during that session had be- fore it what was known as the T. J. Brown Rail- road Commission Bill, which provided for the

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appointment of three commissioners to regulate the railroad affairs of the state. Judge Steven- son did not believe that the framers of the con- stitution of 1876 contemplated the creation of any other tribunals than those provided for'by that instrument and contended that the consti- tution itself demanded or required that the legis- lature should pass laws from time to time regu- lating railroads, freight, and passenger charges, etc. As a lawyer he contended that if the bill in question was passed creating a railroad com- mission without any authority from the consti- tution to do so, the acts of said commission, when passed up to the supreme court for final decision, would not stand. Hence he voted against the commission bill then pending and for this was unjustly criticised. The bill passed the house, but failed in the senate. Then by ar- rangement and agreement between Judge Stev- enson and Judge Abercrombie, now deceased, of Huntsville, who was a member of the sen- ate, they introduced simultaneously in both house and senate in the same language, resolu- tions amending the constitution so that it would expressly authorize a railroad commission. This resolution was passed by both house and senate and at the general election in 1890 the proposed amendment was approved by the people. It was on the issue of this amendment that Hon. James Hogg made his famous campaign for governor in 1890 and was elected. The real credit for this legislation, however, is given to Judge Stev- enson and Judge Abercrombie, who by their efforts in its support and by giving the state a railroad commission that is constitutional, no doubt saved the state the humiliation of having the acts of this railroad commission reversed by the supreme court.

Judge Stevenson has always favored the regu- lation of corporations, preserving intact the rights of the people. He believes in doing things according to law, always regarding constitu- tional limitations, is opposed to anything that partakes of the nature of demagogue ruling and believes that Texas has been injured by such. In every contest between the corpora- tions and the people his every effort has been in behalf of the people and yet he believes that they should never infringe on the rights of the corporation.

Since 1800 Judge Stevenson has been busily engaged in handling private business and law practice and has been loath to become a can- didate for public office. In the year 1904, how- ever, he was the presidential elector for the

Democratic party for the sixteenth congres- sional district of Texas. In his speeches from Palo Pinto to El Paso county he charged that the money of the corporations was attempting to defeat Judge Parker, and the Armstrong Committee of New York have proven this to be true. He is a strong Democrat and has made a close and thorough study of the issues of the day. He is noted throughout Texas as a politi- cal orator of distinction, presenting his case with logical clearness and with facility of ex- pression so that he seldom fails to make a deep impress upon the majority of his auditors. Be- side his law practice his attention has been largely given to real-estate operations and as the result of his judicious investment he owns some valuable property.

Judge Stevenson was married in Weatherford to Miss Rose Belle Duke, a daughter of R. W. Duke, who was county and district clerk of Parker county for fourteen years and is a mem- ber of the Duke family, residents of Charlottes- ville, Virginia, and vicinity, and numbered among the prominent people of that state, Mr. Duke being also a cousin of General Basil Duke, of Kentucky. Mrs. Stevenson was educated in Staunton, Virginia, and is a lady of superior culture and refinement, presiding with gracious hospitality over their home. In 1895 they re- moved from Weatherford to Mineral Wells, where they have since lived. They have two children: Carrie and Duncan Brown Stevenson,

Judge Stevenson is a member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity and is deeply interested in local progress and improvement as well as in the great questions that affect the weal or woe of state and nation. He is a statesman, who can grasp affairs owing to his comprehensive read- ing and investigation, combined with a natur- ally strong intellect. The favorable judgment which the world passed upon him at the outset of his professional career has in nowise been modified, but on the contrary has been strength- ened as the years have passed and he is to-day accorded a position among the most prominent lawyers of western Texas. He says he is not ambitious for any more political honors; that he regards a chronic candidate for office as a fit subject for contempt and pity. That while he holds that no citizen ought to decline to serve his country when he can do so efficiently, yet no man can afford to advocate false doctrines in religion or politics to get office, as is the manner of some. At present Judge Stevenson, with some associates, is engaged in trying to build

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

an "interurban" electric line between his city and the city of Fort Worth, and he says that if he can succeed in this he thinks that several "blades of grass" will grow to every one now, and this he calls doing something for his coun- try.

JUDGE GRIFFIN FORD. The late honored gentleman whose name introduces this memoir was one of the useful men of his day and was a citizen conspicuously prominent in the public and private affairs of Montague county, where he spent two generations of the best years of his busy career.

In 1875 Judge Ford came into Montague coun- ty and chose his location on the Bowie and Craf- ton road on a quarter section of the Daniel Ferri survey. He came hither from Wise county with a team of horses, three yoke of cattle and two cows, and into a log cabin, with shed room which he built, he moved his young family, and the business of his active career was launched. Farm- ing occupied him in the main, but he grew into the stock business to a considerable extent and of both he made a success. From the profits of his labor he purchased other land aggregating four hundred and fifty-eight acres and at his death the Ford farm was one of the chiefest of his side of the county.

In Lincoln county, Kentucky, Judge Ford was born April 20, 1844, a son of William Ford, an Irishman, who died in Montague county at the age of seventy-six years. He came to manhood in the state of Kentucky and was the oldest of seven children, his mother being Euphemia Ed- wards, now of Collingsworth county, Texas, but a native of Kentucky and of Welsh descent. The other children of these parents were: Mary, of Palo Pinto county, is the wife of Lewis Hughes ; Amy, wife of Leslie Hudson, of Antelope, Tex- as; Joseph, who died without issue; Julia, who died as Mrs. Augustus Foy ; George W., of Col- lingsworth county, Texas, and Mattie, who mar- ried John White and resides in the latter county.

In the matter of an education Judge Ford was well equipped, but it was rather as a result of self-study than as a pupil of some good school. From Kentucky he went into Illinois during the Civil War and, in 1864, he enlisted in the one hundred day service of the Union army and was discharged at Mattoon in September of that year from Captain Lamb's company, which had done guard duty at St. Louis, Missouri.

Coming to Texas in 1870, Mr. Ford stopped a time in Ellis and Johnson counties and then drifted into Wise county, where he met his wife. He was married August 5, 1874, to Miss Frances

E., a daughter of Nicholas H. and Mary (Mor- ton) Dawson, from Tennessee and Mississippi, respectively. Mr. Dawson was killed by the In- dians in Wise county in 1870 and his widow re- sides with Mrs. Ford of this review. The Daw- son family consisted of children: Mrs. Ford, born in Cooke county, Texas, November 26, 1860; Lucy, widow of Hill Cosby, of Montague County ; John W., of Montague county, and Hen- ry, wife of Berry Summerhour, of Armstrong county, Texas.

The Judge and Mrs. Ford's children are: Frank Griffin, of Mobeetie, Texas, married to Nora Williams and has a child, Francis D .; Wil- liam W., of Montague county, married Ada Mar- lett and has a son, Clifford ; Henry Lee, of Sweet- water, Oklahoma, married Ada Huff and is the father of Elva and Ruby; Lewis, Bertha B., Charles W., Fred and Marietta complete the fam- ily list.

While securing his education Judge Ford ad- vanced so far into the popular subjects as to be- come able to instruct the youth, and in the earlier years of his life in Montague county he taught country school. This experience was valuable to him in later life, for his county chose him county judge in 1884 and 1886, and among his duties was the visiting of public schools, over which he had general supervision. He served four years in public office and acquitted himself with credit and honor to his constituents. He was a Demo- crat in politics, but held good citizenship above party principles. While he was not a member of the church he was a liberal contributor to the good works of all Protestant denominations and when he died, March 17, 1903, there was a vacant chair in his community as well as in his own household.

KAUFMAN BROTHERS. The name of this firm is well known in Abilene and stands as a synonym for progressive business methods and unassailable integrity in trade relations. The gentlemen constituting the firm are well known as organizers and chief movers in the manu- facture of harness and saddlery, conducting an extensive business. They are also jobbers and retail dealers in wagons, buggies and farm im- plements, and their name is closely associated with success in the field of labor to which they have directed their energies.

Peter S. Kaufman, born April 26, 1853, in Snyder county, Pennsylvania, acquired his early education in the log schoolhouses of that local- ity and afterward continued his studies in the public schools of Elkhart county, Indiana. When seventeen years of age he began learning

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

the harness maker's trade at Rolla, Phelps county, Missouri, serving an apprenticeship of nearly three and a half years. He continued a resident of Rolla until 1875, when he came to Texas, traveling over much of the country until the spring of 1876, when he went to Mexia, in Limestone county, where he followed his trade until March, 1883. In that year he came to Abi- lene and has figured prominently in the commer- cial prosperity of the city since that time.

On the 26th of April, 1881, Peter S. Kaufman was married to Miss Andella Abernathy, who was of Scotch-Irish descent, and a daughter of Masterson McCormick Abernathy, who has been a resident of Texas since 1863. They have a family of three children, as follows: Mary, Phillip and Ethel. Mr. Kaufman has been a member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity since 1881, has filled all of the chairs in the local lodge and is now district deputy grand chan- cellor of the district, which includes the territory from Taylor county to Pecos river.

David S. Kaufman, a native of Snyder county, Pennsylvania, was born March 20, 1862, of the marriage of John D. and Catharine (Shellen- berger) Kaufman, also natives of the Keystone state. He was only four years of age when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Elkhart county, Indiana, where they lived for three years, and then went to Phelps county, Missouri, settling in Rolla, the county seat. He was for six years a student in the public schools of that place and later returned to Elkhart, Indi- ana, where he continued his education and at- tended school in the winter months, while in the summer seasons he worked upon a farm. He was graduated at the age of nineteen years and was thus well qualified for the practical and responsible duties of life. Arriving in Texas in 1881, Mr. Kaufman lived at Mexia, Limestone county, where he learned the trade of harness making under the direction of his brother, Peter S. Kaufman, who was then in business there. In the spring of 1883 the brothers came to Abi- lene and began busines here, where they have since remained with a constantly growing pa- tronage. This they successfully carried on until the general drouth struck the country and they were among the financial sufferers at that time. Their present business was established in 1891 under the firm style of Kaufman Brothers Com- pany. They have a large plant on Pine street, where they are engaged in the manufacture and sale of harness and saddlery. They are also dealers and jobbers in buggies, wagons and farm implements, and have again secured a large and

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 112

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