A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 127

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 127

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Fort Worth & Denver Railroad Company. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Oklahoma City & Texas Railroad Company, which was built from Quanah to the Red River and which is now a part of the Frisco system, also prepared the original papers for the O., C. & T. Railroad Company and was their general attorney during the life of the corporation. He has on a number of occasions acted as special judge both in the county and district courts. Judge Smith has always been interested in the development of Hardeman county and vicinity as a cotton and agricultural country, only deciding to remain here after determining that it was such, and at that time, 1885, the land office at Austin was selling state school lands in lots of from one to seven sections, and in July of that year he appeared be- fore the land board and gave them a description of these lands in northwestern Texas, filing a written protest against further selling except to actual settlers and their purchases limited to one section each. His suggestion prevailed, the land office acting accordingly until the act of 1895 changed the laws so that one person could pur- chase as high as four sections of school land. In 1890 the Judge erected the two-story brick and stone business building in which his office is now located, on the second floor, and in a general way has been prominent in the upbuilding of Quanah. He organized and is the manager of the Quanah & Mangum Telephone Company, which owns and operates telephone lines from Quanah to Man- gum, Eldorado, Kelly, Hollis and other points in Oklahoma.

In Georgetown Judge Smith was united in marriage to Miss Kate L. Miller, and they have four children-Minnie Rufus, Lola, Geraldine and Mittie. He has been an Odd Fellow in good standing since 1874, and has also been a prom- inent member of the Knights of Pythias. He was the first chancellor commander of Central Lodge, No. 54, K. P., at Georgetown, was for five years a member of the Grand Tribunal of that order, consisting of three members, and dur- ing the last years was chief of the Tribunal.

WILLIAM ROBERT LAMB. The political upheaval which was the natural sequence of the birth of the Farmers' Alliance and which changed party lines and opened the way for many dissatis- fied politicians to "flop," brought into conspicu- ous notice many men who had hitherto borne lit- tle part in the battle of politics. They were men with new and attractive ideas whose theories of government carried conviction everywhere and brought on the storm which temporarily side-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

tracked one of the dominant political parties and, eventually, so divided the forces of the other as to render it useless as an engine of successful political warfare for a generation to come. The force which caused such a disturbance and which sounded the death knell of many of its favorite principles finally spent itself and the counter wave of the high-tide of its success swallowed up its leaders and, as a weapon of political reform, stilled their voices forever.

It is interesting to know something of the makeup of that great phalanx of leaders who believed, as honest men, that something was wrong with our system of government, or with the political systems which administered it. Each state had her chieftains in this combat, Illi- nois her Taubeneck, Tennessee her Polk, Kansas her Simpson and Texas her Lamb. Of the last- named gentleman, it is the province of this ar- ticle to record a few facts that posterity may know something of his ancestry, himself and his career.

William R. Lamb was born in McNair county, Tennessee, October 21, 1850. His father, John Madison Lamb, was born in Missouri, whither his father, William Lamb, settled from Indiana. The family resided near St. Louis and there William Lamb died, leaving a family of six daughters and a son. John Madison Lamb came to manhood in his native state and, having located in McNair county, Tennessee, he married there Parmelia A. Thomason, a daughter of William Thomason, a farmer. In time the father brought › his little family to Louisiana and located in Clai- bourn Parish, where his wife died. Mr. Lamb again married and it is believed one child was born of the union but as our subject was sep- arated from his father after the death of his mother, and no correspondence was maintained, his information concerning the second marriage and issue is uncertain. In 1866, Mr. Lamb took another step westward and settled in Bowie county, Texas, where, March 29, 1869, he was killed by a falling tree.

The children of James Madison and Parmelia Lamb were : Willis J., of Denton county, Texas; William P., our subject; Allen L., of Lamar county, Texas; Elzy P., of Miller county, Ar- kansas; George W., of Hedrick, Oklahoma; Thomas J., of Miller county, Arkansas, and Mary M., widow of a Mr. Gates.

William R. Lamb grew up with just twenty- five days' attendance upon a country school, and with no other school advantages. He was bound for eighteen months to Thomas Daniel when his father moved to Arkansas, and after this con-

tract was completed he worked for his master's father and for William Armour whose kindness to him was parental. He remained in Claibourn Parish until 1869, when he came out to Grayson county, Texas, and secured employment at Col- linsville as a stationary engineer. In 1871, he located in Denton county and trusted in his strong and willing arm for his support. The farmers of that early day were suspicious of strangers and he applied several places before he was accepted and given a job of making rails. Jeptha Stallings extended the first confidence that came to him and had they not both hailed from nearby parishes he might also have turned him down. As a rail-splitter he was equal to the famous president and his first few days' work at- tracted the attention of a man to whom he had applied for work without success, and it secured him a year's contract at $160.00, board, washing and mending, as was the custom of that day. He was a hired man until 1873 when he married, rented land, and, with his limited means and humble circumstances, went to farming. He trudged along in Denton from year to year and the up-hill climb was slow but sure. As soon as it was absolutely safe to come to Montague county he took a pre-emption, in July, 1876, ad- joining the block of land upon which Bowie was subsequently laid out, built a log cabin upon it, in time, and, in 1883, brought out his family and counted Montague county his permanent home. Here he has devoted himself to practical farming, and, notwithstanding he has made sev- eral sales of land, on account of the encroachment of the town, and a purchase or two, he still owns sixty acres of land against the townsite of the metropolis of Montague county.

Early in the history of Bowie he bought a third interest in a cotton gin with Stallings and Young and, in turn, bought out his partners, equipped a gin at Salona with its old machinery, and replaced it with new and modern in the Bowie plant. In 1889, he sold a half interest in the Bowie gin to Hulme, and, in 1891, disposed of the remainder and also the Salona gin. In 1898, he built a new gin in Bowie at a cost of $5,000.00, which burned, with little insurance, after two years of service. He gained his ex- perience with machinery in the mill and gin business in Denton county prior to his advent to Montague and after he had come hither he put in a small gin in that county.

October 12, 1873, he married a niece of the old farmer who gave him his first yearly contract, Miss Drusilla E. Wilson, a daughter of Alfred Wilson from Jackson Parish, Louisiana, where

MR. AND MRS. JOHN GLASGOW

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

his wife was born in 1854. She died March 12, 1891, after she had helped her husband make their comfortable home and rear their children, leaving : Mrs. Louisa A. Sloat, of Russellville, Arkansas; Mrs. Martha J. Davis, of Fort Smith, Arkansas; John M., of Fort Worth, Texas; and Mrs. Ella M. Evans, of the same point, and Luther T., of Fort Smith, Arkansas. April 24, 1892, Mr. Lamb married Mrs. Elizabeth Mary Greenwood Pepperell, a daughter of J. Curtis Piller, of English birth.

In 1888, Mr. Lamb was forcibly drawn into a business venture which prepared him for the first step in his political career later on. He had advanced money for the founding of a newspa- per, the "Labor Sunbeam," which, under its founder, proved a losing investment, and in or- der to protect his interests Mr. Lamb assumed the ownership and control of the paper. He had departed from the Democratic party some time before and was a champion of union labor and as the movement was now inaugurated which led to the formation of a new political party with the coalition of the labor classes, it gave him an opportunity, through the column of the "Labor Sunbeam" to enter a wedge here and there to- ward the splitting of the old parties and the so- lidifying the forces of the new. In 1893, he abandoned the editor's chair and gave himself over to the active field work of promoting the Farmers' Alliance and to the organization of the political party which it spawned.

In 1888, he was a delegate to the National Union Labor Convention at Cincinnati, Ohio, which nominated A. J. Streeter for president. In 1892, he was a delegate to the National Con- vention at Omaha, which named J. B. Weaver for president ; in 1896, was a member of the Na- tional convention of the People's party, in St. Louis, which nominated Watson for vice presi- dent before it took up Bryan for the presidency and was one of the 103 delegates in the conven- tion opposed to a fusion of the parties. He sup- ported Bryan twice for president, but in 1904 gave Watson his aid. He was active in the or- ganization of the People's party in Cincinnati, was made a member of the national committee from Texas and was chosen chairman of the People's party committee in the state. Upon his return home he entered upon his work actively and was a potent factor in bringing the party to the strength it attained when Nugent was a candidate for Governor.

His work for the State Alliance was as im- portant to the bund as his work in politics was to the People's party. About this time he was

a delegate to the State Alliance meeting and was chosen State Lecturer for Texas, having been elected president of the Montague County Alli- ance, which he served two years. He attended all the important National Alliance conventions and helped formulate and adopt the well-remem- bered "Ocalla Demands," at Ocalla, Florida.

As a citizen and as editor of the "Labor Sun- beam" he was always thoughtful of the inter- ests of his county and his town and on his fre- quent trips over the continent made it his busi- ness to scatter the news about Bowie all along his route. He was chosen Commissioner of his county to the Spring Palace at Fort Worth, and carried an exhibit of fruit from here which at- tracted much notice and attention hither as an adaptable fruit region.

JOHN GLASGOW. The late subject of this memoir was for a time in active business in Charlie, Clay county, where his settlement was made upon his advent to the county in Sep- tember, 1893. He was a gentleman of means whose early life had been passed upon the fron- tier among the rough and uncouth though hon- est miners of the Rockies and following a streak of good fortune as a prospector he dis- posed of his valuable mines and decided to pass his remaining years in a less wild and romantic and more civilized community.

Mr. Glasgow was born near Wheeling, West Virginia, on the Ohio river, August 2, 1833. His parents, William and Isabel Glasgow, had three other sons, James, Robert and Henry, the latter of whom was a Colorado miner with our subject a short time, and after the war they came out to Macon county, Missouri, where their remaining years were passed. The life of John Glasgow during youth and early man- hood was passed in the east and it was not until the last year of the Civil war that he became identified with the west. In 1865 he went to New Mexico and located at Georgetown, around which he got his first experience as a prospector and miner and where he remained about four years. About 1870 he went into Dol- ores county, Colorado, was one of the first set- tlers there and among the first to discover "pay dirt" and prove his locality to be rich in mineral. He was without means other than his burro and camp outfit and the hardships, priva- tions and hopes of the typical miner were his. He was often alone and among bands of In- dians, but he persevered to the end and the opening of "Black Hawk," the "Yellow Jacket" and the "Phoenix" marked the successful ter- mination of his career with the pick and pan.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Following the opening of rich silver mines the town of Rico sprang into consequence and John Glasgow was known among its substan- tial citizens. One of the avenues of the place was named for him and it was the family regret when with the thousands of dollars for which he sold his interests there he came south to a new country and began a new business in life. The store he opened in Charlie was one of the best stocks ever carried there and he erected a new building in which it was housed. He conducted his establishment some five years and afterward occupied himself with his land interests near by. He was a man with a large heart and good intentions but was a victim of a habit acquired among his comrades in the mines and himself was the worst enemy he had. He died January 30, 1901, at Charlie, and soon thereafter his family became residents of Hen- rietta.

Mr. Glasgow was twice married, and by his first wife left a son William, of Fort Worth, Texas. While on a visit east he met Ella Moore and February 7, 1882, they were married at Bellaire, Ohio. Mrs. Glasgow is a daughter of Jonathan and Miranda (Street) Moore, the father of West Virginia birth and the mother of Muskingum county, Chio. The mother died December 13, 1878, and the father then married Ella Dunlap and is now a resident of Urbana, Ohio. The Moore children were: John, of Newcastle, Pennsylvania; Ella, born January 1, 1862; Henry, who died leaving a family at Newcastle, Pennsylvania; Mary, wife of Hill Floersch, of New York City ; Harriet, now Mrs. John N. Reid, of Rico, Colorado; and George E., of Rico, who married Josie Kostor.

Mrs. Glasgow's family numbers the follow- ing children: Jonathan, born in 1884; Mamie E., born December 23, 1886; Isabel, born April 27, 1889; Mabel, born January 18, 1892, in At- lanta, Georgia, and Robert Lee, born at Charlie, Texas, December 21, 1895. The education of her children has been the subject upermost in the mind of Mrs. Glasgow and the superior advantages offered in the Henrietta public schools induced her to take up her residence here. She owns a farm of four hundred and eight acres on the Big Wichita bottom and one of a quarter section lying near Charlie, both rich and productive places when the sea- sons do their best.

Mr. Glasgow was an old soldier. He enlisted in the Union army from Missouri, fought at Vicksburg among other engagements and sought the west upon his discharge from serv- ice after the war.

WILLIAM EUGENE MOORE. As the sub- ject of this review we have a representative of one of the pioneer families of Texas and a gen- tleman whose interest and success in agriculture in Young county is marked and abundant. Mr. Moore established himself in the county in 1885 and has resided in the famous South Bend of the Brazos river since 1886. His first location was a temporary one at the mouth of Coal Creek, but the farm he purchased there was unsuited to his needs and he disposed of it and bought the W. J. Davis settlement which forms the nucleus of his present valuable estate.

W. E. Moore was born in Williamson county, Texas, October 31, 1855, a year subsequent to his father's permanent settlement in the state. His father, Lewis L. Moore, was a settler from Fayette Court House, Alabama, where he grew up and was married, and was a son of a South Carolina representative of this numerous family. Lewis L. Moore was his father's youngest child and was born in 1824. When a young and single man he came to Texas and served some three years in a ranging company on the Rio Grande frontier, returning to Alabama where he married Effie Thornton. Preparatory to coming to Texas to live he made his own wagon for the trip, made the journey hither without special in- cident and settled near Florence, Williamson county, where he engaged in farming with mod- erate success. During the war he served four years in the Confederate army and in all matters he has ever maintained himself a patriotic and upright citizen.

Lewis L. and Effie Moore are the parents of nine children, as follows: Alice, wife of R. E. Tribble, of Williamson county; William E., of this notice ; John D., of Knox county; Jefferson and Sudie, deceased : Ghina, of Williamson coun- ty ; Morton, of the home county; Betty, wife of Calvin Walker, and Murray, who died without marriage.

William E. Moore discharged his obligation to his father at about eighteen years of age and then began farming for himself. He is a product of the early country school and from the start seemed destined to achieve substantial and flat- tering results in his chosen calling. He and his wife owned a few ponies when they got their affairs shaped up to make their start in life and with these the raising of horses formed an im- portant feature of their farming interests for years. Five hundred and forty-two acres com- prises their South Bend farm and nine hundred and sixty acres of land in Stephens county is also listed to Mr. Moore for taxes.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

February 15, 1877, Mr. Moore married Miss Ida Kemp, a daughter of John Kemp, who came to Texas from Mississippi, and died in Milam county, Texas. The issue of Mr. and Mrs. Moore are : Minnie P., John Wiley, Rosie May, Jeff Thornton, Henry Hollis, Eppie H., Martin Jewell, Sallie Eunice and William Kemp.

Mr. Moore has practiced intense industry and has taught it to his numerous and vigorous house- hold. Work has no terrors for the least of his family, on the contrary it is loved for the re- sults that it invariably brings. While not in politics and taking no active part in its affairs, Mr. Moore allies himself with Democracy, and in his church relations he is a Missionary Bap- tist.

B. L. MITCHELL, a veteran of John Mor- gan's famous command of fighters and a pioneer settler of Illinois Bend, Texas, has been identi- fied with Montague county for more than thirty years, having been engaged in both farming and merchandising.

Mr. Mitchell dates his birth in Union county, Kentucky, November II, 1832, and was there reared on a farm and received a common school education. His parents, 'William B. and Anna (Bass) Mitchell, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of North Carolina, were married in Kentucky. Edward Mitchell, the grandfather of our subject, was a weaver by trade, at which he worked in Ireland, where he lived until after his wife's death. Then, with his seven sons, he emigrated to America and first located in North Carolina. From there the sons scattered to dif- ferent states, and the father and some of the boys moved to Kentucky where he remained until his death, at a ripe old age. The names of two of the sons are forgotten, The others are Jackson, William B., Mathew, Cornelius and Flanagan. William B. was not grown at the time he went to Kentucky, and there on a fron- tier farm he grew to manhood. That was in the days of Daniel Boone. In 1813, when the elder Mitchell was drafted into the war and went to New Orleans, William B. took his father's place at home. Later he married and . engaged in farming, and in a few years became promi- nent both as a farmer and raiser of fine horses. He was a broad minded man, kind and generous, and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. He died at his Kentucky home, and his wife, who survived him some years, died in 1889. She was a daughter of Jordan Bass of North Carolina, of Irish descent, a wealthy planter and the owner of many slaves. He died

in Kentucky at the advanced age of ninety-one years. His children were: Jordan, Jr., John N., Mrs. Anna Mitchell, Mrs. Quinna Cary, and Ma- tilda. The children of William B. and Anna Mitchell are: Franklin P., Whitnell, Edward, B. L., all farmers; and Mrs. Malissa Austin, Mrs. Marion Ames, Mrs. Milanesa Stone and Mrs. Eunice Jones.

B. L. 'Mitchell remained under the parental roof until he was grown. Then he farmed on his own responsibility in summer, and in winter was engaged in flat-boating. In this way he was occupied up to the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion. In 1861 he enlisted as a member of Buckner's command, the fortunes of which he shared until they were captured at Fort Donel- son. The night after the surrender, Mr. Mitchell was one of about sixty who, with General For- rest, made their escape by swimming the river into Kentucky. He then went to Sparta, East Tennessee, and joined John Morgan's band of soldiers, the Tenth Kentucky Cavalry ; was with that noted fighter in his famous raids up through Indiana and Ohio; was captured, held a prisoner twenty-two months at Camp Douglass, and was then parolled. From Appomattox, where he was at the time of Lee's surrender, he made his way back to his home in Kentucky. At Nashville he had some trouble with the provost marshal about taking an oath, but succeeded in getting away without the oath and never took it. The history of Morgan's raids and capture is too well known to be given a place in a work of this character. Suffice it is say here that Morgan had not a bet- ter or a braver soldier than young Mitchell, who still bears scars on his body and carries bullets in his flesh that he received then.

After the war Mr. Mitchell resumed farming in Kentucky, and remained there until 1873, when he came to Texas and pre-empted 160 acres of land, to which he subsequently added, making 250 acres, and devoted his attention to the im- provement of the same. There were some In- dian depredations here after he came, but the Red men never gave him any trouble. He did general farming, raised horses, cattle and hogs, and, while farming in northern Texas was then an experiment, he was successful from the start. He sold his farm and stock and in 1885 bought the only business house in Illinois Bend which had been run as a grocery and drug store. He added dry goods to the stock, making it a gen- eral store, and about the same time purchased the residence in which he has since resided. Af- ter a few years he built a larger store, and con- ducted a successful business for twelve years,

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

since which time he has lived retired from active work. He has owned different farms, but has sold all except one. During his more than thirty years of residence in Montague county Mr. Mit- chell has not only been a witness to the develop- ment that has been carried forward here, but has himself been an active factor in affairs.

Mr. Mitchell married, in Kentucky, in 1868, Miss Sarah E. Eads, who was born there in 1841, daughter of Robert W. and Mary A. ( Cole- man) Eads. Her grandfather, Barnett Eads, went from North Carolina with his family at an early day and pioneered in Kentucky, where he became a well-known and highly respected citi- zen. His children were Nancy, Robert W., Wil- liam, Sally A., Lewis, Polly, John, Joseph, Dud- ley and Amanda. Robert W. Eads was born in Kentucky and is still living there, at this writing eighty-nine years of age. His wife died in 1891, at the age of seventy-four years. . Their chil- dren are: Mary; wife of J. Williams ; Sarah E., wife of the subject of this sketch; Mrs. Rebecca

Baird; Savanas; Ellington, who died at the age of eighteen years; Lue, wife of T. E. Richie; Charles; Alice, wife of George Crocket. Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have no children of their own, but have done a good part by a number of orphan children. They reared and educated John A. Roberts, who now has a home and family of his own and is one of the prosperous farmers of the county. Also they reared and educated Jane Robbins, who is now married ; and at present they have with them Miss Bessie Moore. Mrs. Mit- chell's parents were Missionary Baptists, and both she and Mr. Mitchell belong to that church.

THOMAS PETER HAMILTON. A sin- gle force in the material improvement of Wise county and one that has been at work for more than thirty years has been directed by the hand and brain of T. P. Hamilton, whose name initiates this biographical review. While small and insignificant in itself it has, in combination with myriads of others, worked wondrous changes in the county's landscape and has brought it well toward a high social and agri- cultural stage.

Montgomery county, Mississippi, gave birth to T. P. Hamilton on the 20th of January, 1847, and he grew up there on a farm. His father, John Hamilton, went into that county early from Greene county, Alabama, where, in 1815, his birth occurred. Peter Hamilton, grand- father of our subject, was a native Tennesseean and a farmer, founded the family in Alabama and was there murdered by one of his negro

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 127

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