A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 13

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 13

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James H. Maddox, the seventh son, came to this state in 1876, a short time previous to his father's arrival, although some of his brothers came previous to that time. For about four years he was engaged in work on his father's farm, and was then made the deputy sheriff of Tarrant county, in which capacity he served for fourteen years. In 1891 he was made the chief of

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

police, this office being technically known as city marshal, for whoever becomes city marshal is appointed ex-officio chief of police by the city law, and in this position Mr. Maddox served for six years, following which, for nearly four years. he was manager of the Fort Worth branch of the Pabst Brewing Company. In April of that year he was elected chief of the fire depart- ment. and has served as such continuously to the present time. proving an efficient officer.

In this city Mr. Maddox was united in mar- riage to Miss Josephine B. Douglas, a member of a well known Virginia family, and whose death occurred April 5, 1899, leaving two sons, Doug- las and Victor. In his fraternal relations Mr. Maddox is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Red Men and the Eagles.

ALBERT DEVEREUX. It is both as an early settler and as county surveyor of Wise county that Albert Devereux is widely known, for his advent hither dates from the year 1874, and his service in the capacity of the county's engineer embraces an epoch of its greatest and most rapid development.

Since the Centennial year, when he was chosen county surveyor the first time, he has been a land man and, whether in office or out, he has occupied his time chiefly as a locater and a dealer in Texas lands. In the subject of agri- culture he has ever maintained an interest, and beginning with the little tract he bought on Deep creek where he first made his Wise county home and extending down through the years, the encouragement of settlers and settlements has been the burden of his thoughts. Born with- in the limits of the Lone Star state and nurtured under the benign influences of its soil and cli- mate, Mr. Devereux typifies in the essential ele- ments of his makeup those solid and vigorous characters who have ever taken rank in the civil affairs of their respective localities and whose labors have wrought beyond the disposition of money to compensate. The extent of his field work with compass and chain and his familiarity with the land lines everywhere in Wise county makes him and his office a veritable bureau of information relative to these matters, and he is easily the best informed man on titles and lands in the county.

December 15, 1848, Albert Devereux was born in Rusk county, Texas, a son of Julien S. Dever- eux, who settled in Montgomery county on en- tering the Lone Star state a young man, and later on moved into Rusk county, where he re- mained until his death in 1856. The father was

born in Georgia, in Milledgville, in 1821, his father, John Devereux, having been a planter and a gentleman of French antecedents, who passed away in Rusk county in about 1840. Ju- lien S. and Mrs. Lou Holcomb, of Mobile, Ala- bama, and Albert, were the latter's children who reared families, except Albert, who died of yel- low fever at Pensacola, Florida, in about 1840. While passing to his majority Julien S. Devereux acquired a liberal education and became a man well equipped and well trained mentally. He possessed the qualifications requisite to a relia- ble legislator and Rusk county sent him to Aus- tin to do her share of the law-making for the state, and he died in 1856 while holding this po- sition. For his wife he chose Sarah A. Land- rum, a daughter of John Landrum, a Mexican war veteran as well as a Texas veteran of the battle of San Jacinto.

Just before the battle which decided the fate of Texas was fought Mr. Landrum came to the scene of the conflict from Alabama, and as a civilian maintained himself a farmer. He was of German stock and passed his last years in Van Zandt county where he is buried. Mrs. Sarah A. Devereux lived to an advanced age and died in Cherokee county in 1902, at the age of seventy-two, having been the mother of: Al- bert, of this notice; Julien S., Jr., who died in Ector county, Texas, in 1899; William P., of Cherokee county ; and Charles M., who died in Montgomery county in 1883.

Albert Devereux's life was a rural one until after he became a citizen of Wise county. He was a student of Mckenzie College near Clarks- ville, Texas, and attended the Gilmer high school under Morgan H. Looney, there acquiring the principles of surveying, a fact which has proved an event of much importance in his life. He was married before he reached his majority and took up the work of the farm. His mental and physical equipment comprised his chief assets when he came to Wise county, yet the "hungry wolf" never prowled around his door. From 1877 to 1881 he filled the office of county surveyor, and having thus familiarized himself with the work and popularized himself as a reliable en- gineer he continued in the work as a locater in this and other parts of the state, thus extend- ing his acquaintance and widening his influence and usefulness. In 1900, he was again chosen county surveyor and has been twice re-elected to the position. Mr. Devereux is not only known as a surveyor and a citizen, but as a Democrat also. He has known two generations of Wise county political managers and has participated with them in distributing the spoils of office on

ALBERT DEVEREUX

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

many biennial occasions. He annually attends the State Democratic conventions as a delegate, almost without fail, and by his vote has aided in the nomination of some men who have come to be national characters representing the Lone Star state.

February II, 1869, Mr. Devereux married Elizabeth A., a daughter of B. F. Stamps, an early settler of Rusk county from Alabama. Mrs. Dev- ereux was born in Rusk county in the month of January, 1851, and her mother was Fannie, a daughter of Dr. P. T. Richardson, also of Ala- bama. The issue of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Devereux are: Julian O., William E., and Har- per, deceased; Antoinette, wife of Ira Stepp, of Wise county, with children, Julian, William and Edith; Frank L., of Cherokee county, who mar- ried Josie Douglass and has a son, Frank D .; and Charles, Leila B., and Albert, Jr., who con- tinue with the parental home. Mr. Devereux is a member of the Methodist church and belongs to the Masonic Fraternity and also several other societies.

WILLIAM MATTHIAS WAGNER. For many years the subject of this personal review has been identified with commercial affairs in Clay county and is now the leading merchant of Vashti, where, as chief of the firm of Wagner and Son, he established himself late in 1904. He has been known as a merchant in the county since the year 1890, when he opened a store in Newport and has, almost continuously since, de- voted himself to commercial affairs. He repre- sents a type of successful business men whose . chief and soundest training has come from the school of experience and whose steady tread has been always onward and upward toward a brighter sunlight of financial independence. His business activity has led him long past the me- ridian of life but he is still a factor to be reck- oned with in the brisk and sharp trade competi- tion universally prevalent now.

A glance into the genealogical storehouse of the Wagners of this branch finds it mothered by the famous old Palmetto state, from which the great-grandfather of our subject emigrated dur- ing the first years of our national existence, and took up his residence in Lincoln county, Ten- nessee. There he began rearing a family, of whom Daniel Wagner, grandfather of our sub- ject, was one. The latter pursued the rural calling of his ancestors, married there a Miss Kinkannon and in the early twenties, moved into Hardin county as one of its first settlers. He was a gentleman of standing, an extensive farm- er, for he owned slaves, and both he and his

wife lie buried in its soil. Of their children, Francis died in Montague county, Texas, leav- ing a family; Matthias, our subject's father ; Susie and Mattie both became the wife of J. J. Williams and died in Tennessee, leaving chil- dren; Betsy married Exas Nevill and died in Titus county, Texas, with issue; Nancy married Tames Porter and left a family at her death in Titus county.

Matthias Wagner was born in Lincoln county, Tennessee, and was brought up in Hardin coun- ty. His birth occurred in 1818 and he died in Montague county, Texas, October 21, 1886. He was a plain citizen and farmer, a Christian gen- tleman, a Mason and a Democrat. He emigrated from Tennessee, and passed his remaining years in the Lone Star state. He married Mary B. Graham, a daughter of James Graham, one of the first settlers of Hardin county. The latter's early home there was situated on Horse creek where, as a mechanic and farmer, he prospered and be- came one of the large land-owners of the coun- ty. He was of South Carolina birth, married a Miss Blackburn and reared a family of six daughters, namely: Ursula and Betsy, both died in Hardin county ; Mary B., born in 1818, died in Hunt county, Texas, in 1875, was the mother of our subject; Catherine, who married A. Will- iams, died at Gainesville, Texas, and left a fam- ily ; Sallie, now Mrs. Boyd, has a family and re- sides in Montague county, Texas, and Jane Dickson, of Navarro county, Texas, also has children.

Of the numerous family of Matthias and Mary B. Wagner, Martha E. resides in Mansville, In- dian Territory, and is married to Rev. L. E. Covey, M. D .; Sarah M., wife of E. G. Bivens, of Montague, Texas, is now deceased; Susan, who died in Hardin county, Tennessee, married Calvin Covey ; James D., of Selma, Colorado, is a physician; William Matthias, our subject; Francis, of Weatherford, Texas; Mary, wife of L. McCurry, of Arkansas ; John J. died without marriage, in Hunt county ; Henry H., of Mari- etta,. Indian Territory ; David E., of Mansville, Indian Territory; Julia L., of Mountain View, Arkansas, is the wife of Robert McCurry, and Lillie A., wife of a Mr. McCurry, resides in Batavia, Arkansas.

William Matthias Wagner lived in Hardin county, Tennessee, till he was twenty-six years old. He was born there October 16, 1846, and the days of his infancy and youth were filled with pastoral scenes. The schools of the rural neighborhood furnished him with the rudiments of an education and he was drawn into the dead- ly military conflict of the sixties as soon as he

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

had reached the enlistment age. He entered the army of the Confederacy in 1864 and his com- pany was "G," and his regiment the First Confederate Cavalry, Captain J. W. Irven and Colonel John T. Cox. He was in Jackson's di- vision and Forrest's Corps, and his service cov- ered, roughly, the states of Alabama, Missis- sippi, Tennessee and Georgia. He participated in Hood's raid into Tennessee, was guarding prisoners at Columbia, Tennessee, and at Nash- ville, and then helped fight the engagement at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the last of the war for his command, and it was surrendered to Gen. E. R. S. Canby at Gainesville, Alabama, in May, 1865.

The war ended, Mr. Wagner was one of the first to return to the implements of peace and for the succeeding three years the labors of the farm knew him. In the autumn of 1868 he made his first trip west and halted not until he reached Mount Pleasant, Titus county, Texas. Here he passed two years as a farm hand, returning to his old home in 1870, and there, January 4, of the next year. married, and, after three years, re- turned to Texas to make his future home. He stopped a year in Hunt county and, in August, 1875, he moved to Montague county and there bought a farm and began life in earnest. De- ciding on a change of location, he sold his home- stead in 1877, and purchased one four miles from the village of Newport, in Clay county, which he improved, occupied until 1889 and which he yet owns. On leaving the farm he en- gaged in the hardware and implement business at Post Oak, in Jack county, but after a year sold out and established himself in a similar business in Newport, where he continued with success until 1903, when he again sold, occupied himself with his farm a season and in the fall of 1904 associated himself with his son and pur- chased the leading hardware and implement busi- ness in Vashti. They also carry a stock of gro- ceries and harness and are successors of the firm of Gerard and Childress.

Mr. Wagner's first wife was Anna Walker, who died November 9, 1888, at Post Oak, Texas. She was a daughter of Rev. W. C. and Caroline P. (Kerr) Walker and was born June 3, 1854. She was one of the following children: Anna J .; Fannie, widow of Dr. Welch, of Caddo Mills, Texas: Lizzie, who died in Clay county as the wife of Lewis Kendall, left a family : Rev. W. J. Walker, of Vashti ; Luther J., who died at Cloud Chief. Oklahoma, with heirs; and Emma and Nannie who died without marriage.

In Mr. Wagner's family are children: Rev. James E., of Manchester, Iowa, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church, is a graduate of

Parsons' College, at Veal's Station, Texas, and of the Iowa University, class of 1904. He mar- ried Miss Kate Britt and has children, Alto, Willie, Eugene and Hughes. Addison M., died at Newport at twenty years of age; William Al- fred, of Whitesboro, Texas, a bank employe, is married to Ida R. Peters and has children, Eu- genia and Lena ; Ada, who died at Veal's Station in 1879; Ira E., partner in the firm of Wagner and Son, is a graduate of the Henrietta high school, a student in the State University of Texas for three years and a teacher for a term at Charlie, is unmarried; Ella Nora and Ola May are both products of the Henrietta high school and are abiding with their father in Vashti. February 16, 1890, Mr. Wagner married Mrs. Ellen R. Spikes, a daughter of Allen and Mary (Spence) Gray, formerly from Jasper county, Mississippi, where Mrs. Wagner was born July I, 1850. Her father was a native of South Carolina and her mother of Alabama.

Democracy has claimed the Wagners as among its most reliable supporters, and W. M., our subject, has frequently represented his district in delegate conventions of the party in Clay county. He has served as a justice of the peace at Newport and as notary public, also. He is a Cumberland Presbyterian and a Master Mason and a citizen whom to know is to revere for his substantial and manly qualities.

JUDGE W. F. RAMSEY, a distinguished member of the Cleburne bar, also prominently connected with financial interests as the president of the National Bank of Cleburne, has in an ac- tive career so directed his efforts that his life work has been marked by consecutive advance- ment and successful accomplishment. While at- taining individual prosperity he belongs to that class of men who at the same time promote the general welfare and contribute in a tangible way to the upbuilding and progress of the localities in which they reside.

Judge Ramsey was born near Temple, in Bell county, Texas, his parents being John J., and Nancy (Clark) Ramsey. The father, a native of Kentucky, came to Texas in 1854, locating in Bell county, and after the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted with the Confederate troops, serving first with the army in Virginia and later, after a brief period spent at home, joined the army which was operating in this state. He was then at Houston until the close of hostilities Subsequently he became a prominent merchant, being connected with commercial pursuits for twenty-five years. During the last eight or ten years of his life, however, he was retired from

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

active business and he passed away at the home of his son, Judge Ramsey, in Cleburne, in the winter of 1904. His wife, who was born in Tennessee and was there married, departed this life in Texas in 1875.

Judge Ramsey was largely reared in Johnson county, Texas, to which he removed in 1861 with relatives who lived at Alvarado, going there after his father joined the army. He spent about five years as a student of Trinity University, in Tehau- cana, Texas, and was graduated in the literary de- partment with the class of 1876 and completed the law course in 1877. He was then licensed to practice and on the 4th of July of the latter year established an office in Cleburne, where he has since made his home. His was the usual experi- ence of the young lawyer who has to wait for clients, finding it necessary to cope with old law- yers well established in their profession. As business was accorded him, however, he demon- strated his ability to cope with the intricate prob- lems of jurisprudence, and in later years his prac- tice has been very extensive and of a distinctly representative character connecting him with the most important litigation tried in the courts of the district and making heavy demands upon his time. He is now attorney for all the railroads in Johnson county, likewise for the National Bank of Cleburne, the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany, the Waterworks Company, the oil mill and other important interests. In fact, he is well known as a corporation lawyer. He has likewise served as special district judge and as special judge of the Texas supreme court but has never been a candidate for office. His first law firm connection was as a member of the firm of Brown, Hall & Ramsey, his partners being prominent representatives of the Cleburne bar, and the firm was for many years known as an unusually strong and able one. Later changes in the firm led to the adoption of the firm style of Brown & Ramsey, succeeded by Brown, Ramsey & Crane, the junior partner being the well known lawyer, M. M. Crane, ex-attorney general and a brilliant lawyer, now of Dallas, Texas. Later the firm became Crane & Ramsey. As before stated Mr. Ramsey has also figured prominently in other business connections in Cleburne. In 1900 he was elected president of the National Bank of Cleburne, the oldest national bank of the city, being organized as an institution of that character in 1889 and as the successor of a very strong private bank. The capital stock is seventy-five thousand dollars with surplus and profits exceeding that amount and the deposits now amount to over six hundred thousand dollars, having increased about two hundred per cent or from two hundred thousand

dollars from the time that Judge Ramsey accepted the presidency. He is likewise president of the Cleburne Waterworks Company and is interested financially in other prominent enterprises and projects of the city.

Mrs. Ramsey, who in her maidenhood was Miss Rowena Hill, is a native of Fayette county, Texas, and they have seven children: W. F. Ramsey, Jr., who is a practicing lawyer of the firm of Ramsey & Odell; Sam, Mildred, Benton, Knox, Mary and Dorothy, all at home. The social prominence of the family makes their circle of friends an extensive one. Judge Ramsey is a prominent Mason, having taken the degrees of the commandery and of the Scottish Rite, and he is also connected with the Knights of Pythias, the Elks and other fraternal organizations. He is president of the Cleburne school board, of which he has been a member for several years and is a public-spirited and prominent citizen, recognizing the possibilities of the municipality and striving earnestly for the adoption of such measures as will contribute to the public growth along lines of substantial and permanent improvement.

DAVID HENRY BATES. Of those whose initial settlement in Clay county antedates the close of Indian incursions in North Texas, David H. Bates is among the very first, for his advent here was March, 1873, when, in pursuance of a previous arrangement, a colony of Indiana people accompanied him hither to become permanent settlers. The year prior the choice of location was made by Mr. Bates near the center of the county and his own site for a home was selected about one and a half miles south of the county seat.

Theirs was the first settlement in that whole country and it was made prior to the existence of public surveys and when not a house yet marked the site of Henrietta. The best that settlers could then do was to "squat" on land and await the coming of the surveyors to tell them where they were .. This was Mr. Bates' plan and when the lines were finally run it was found that his loca- tion was adjoining a tract of school land.

His first efforts put forth in the county were in the erection of a stockade in which to keep him- self and stock safely from surprise and attack against Indians and every night his padlock went on his gate as regularly as he closed his cabin door. The history of Indian troubles south of Red river in those days shows them to have overrun all this country every full moon and much stock was driven off all around Mr. Bates but nothing of his was ever molested.

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

He began life here at a species of farming, raising feed chiefly, which he sold to the govern- ment troops and to stockmen. He cultivated the place three years and tiring, no doubt, of his lonely life on the frontier, he returned east and lo- cated in Jasper county, Indiana, where he became a merchant at Remington, and was so engaged there for eight years, when he removed to South Dakota and became extensively identified with business affairs near Huron. He owned an eleva- tor, was in the grain business and had, also, farm- ing interests, and was a prominent citizen of that locality until February, 1901, when "on to Texas" again loomed up before him and he returned to Clay county. Since his return to the Lone Star state trading in lands has occupied him in the main, and his possessions in real estate consist of about fifteen hundred acres around and near Henrietta.

David H. Bates was born in Butler county, Ohio, April 11, 1846. His father, Ozro Bates, was a farmer and was only a youth when he ac- companied his parents to Cincinnati. Laben Bates, our subject's paternal grandfather, was an Englishman born, and moved into the Ohio valley from Brattleboro, Vermont. He brought his family down the Ohio river on a raft, stopped at Cincinnati, where he established the first line of drays in the city. His settlement there was made about 1806 and he died of cholera in 1810. Of his family of children, Smith died near Indianapolis, Indiana; Nathaniel S., died near Council Bluffs, Iowa, being one of the pioneer stage men of our country and following the. busi- ness on the frontier until overtaken by the con- struction of the Burlington railroad when he made his home in Council Bluffs and called his work finished; Anne, who married John Borling. died in Greenville, Ohio; Mrs. Sarah Allen, died in Marion county, Indiana; Peter, died at Peobi- bilo, Mexico, a soldier in the Mexican war.

Ozro Bates made his settlement, on beginning life, in Butler county, Ohio, where he followed the plow and wieldled the cradle, and about six years later he migrated to Marion county, Indi- ana. He lived on a new farm there for several. years and then changed his location to Carroll county, Indiana, where he purchased a farm near Delphi, where he died on November 22, 1895. He married Mary Hartman, a daughter of Henry Hartman, a farmer on the Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania, in an early day, but who finally settled in Wayne county, Indiana. Mary Bates died near Delphi, Indiana, the same year her hus- band passed away.

Mr. Bates, of this review, is the second in a family of seven children, the others being: Na-

thaniel S., of Renssalaer, Indiana; William M., of Delphi, and Susan, wife of John Brown, of Terre Haute, Indiana (the two latter children are twins) ; Smith, of Bates county, Missouri; Mary, who died at Delphi, married George Rohr- back, and Dr. Joseph W., of Broadripple, Indi- ana.

With a country school education to equip him for life's duties, David H. Bates began the strug- gle as a farmer on a small farm in Jasper county, Indiana. After an experience of four years he embarked in the mercantile business at Remington and was so engaged until he decided to come to Texas, when he disposed of his interests and began the career of wandering in which we have already traced him. May 3, 1876, he married Rachel A. Hughes, a daughter of Michael Hughes from Gallatin county, Kentucky. Mr. Hughes' wife was Elizabeth Edwards, whose home is with her daughter in Henrietta. Mr. Hughes was born in Gallatin county, Kentucky, in 1814 and died in 1871, while his wife was born in 1826. The Hughes children were Margaret McIntyre, who died in Indianapolis, Indiana; Mary James, who died in Jackson county, Mis- souri, leaving five children, and Rachel, Mrs. Bates, born October 26, 1846. Nellie is the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Bates and her birth oc- curred February 21, 1877. She is a close com- panion of her invalid mother and is a bright spot in the life of her worthy father.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 13

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