A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 132

Author: Paddock, B. B. (Buckley B.), 1844-1922; Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis publishing co.
Number of Pages: 972

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the name of Simpson, who had several wagons or outfits in the freighting business, and he worked his way upward from night herder of the stock to a position of driver of the lead team in the procession. There was another out- fit in the business owned by W. S. Coburn and Mr. Samuel Tate, who was boss of the expedi- tion. Mr. Simpson recommended Mr. Faught to Coburn as being a trustworthy hand and the last named engaged Mr. Faught as boss of his trains. The wagons were drawn by oxen and our subject continued in charge for eighteen months, accepting the position when little more than seventeen years of age, being the young- est man in the outfit and having twenty-four men under his charge. He was called the "boy boss." Later he was boss of a similar outfit owned by Hank Smith, and he remained in the business altogether for five years, from 1864 until 1869. These trips were made through a wild and unbroken country in which there were no railroads and the Indians were seen in con- siderable numbers. On one occasion Mr. Faught was in an encounter with the Indians two miles below the Chicago ranch on the South Platte river and was in another engage- ment with the red men at Spring Hill ranch, also on the South Platte, and in each of these engagements three Indians were killed. He was also in the Indian fight near Chimney Rock either in Wyoming or Dakota, which was the most exicting encounter he had with the sav- ages. On this occasion he had thirteen bullet holes in his blue government overcoat, but none of the bullets pierced his body. This happened while he was riding along on the back of a mule while the party were hunting their horses and cattle which the Indians had stolen from them the night before. Mr. Faught did not see the red men until he was close upon them and they numbered two hundred warriors in their band. They allowed him to get up among them before they commenced firing on him and they be- lieved that it was impossible for him to escape. Mr. Faught says that it was not through any bravery on his part that he was not killed, but that it was a matter of pure luck that enabled him to get away safely from their reach.

In 1869 he arrived in Texas, reaching Bur- net on the 5th day of July of that year. In Burnet county he was employed by A. R. John- son, a blind man, who owned a ranch on which Mr. Faught remained for seven months. He was engaged to run cattle for Mr. Johnson, with whom he also owned some horses. One night in the spring of 1871 a horse thief stole

MR. AND MRS. ROBERT E. SAWDON

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

one of the horses and made away with it. The next morning Mr. Faught missed the horse from the pasture and started in pursuit. After traveling about forty-five miles he came up with the thief twelve miles above Lampasas in the Gatesville road. There a duel ensued, in which Mr. Faught fired seven times and the thief four times. This was in a hot chase, their horses going as fast as they could, but Mr .. Faught finally captured his man and took him back, where he was tried and convicted and sent to the penitentiary for five years, being the first white man sentenced from Burnet county. .

After leaving Mr. Johnson's employ, Mr. Faught was appointed deputy sheriff under R. W. Cates and served in that capacity for four years and eight months. He was afterward elected sheriff of Burnet county, serving two years, and on the expiration of his term of of- fice he refused to again beconie a candidate, although his connection with the office either as sheriff or deputy covered fifteen years. During the last seven years he lived there he was en- gaged in the stock business. He came to Scurry county in 1883 and has made his home here continuously since, bringing his cattle from Burnet county and put them on Ennis creek, where he bought a ranch, living thereon, how- ever, for only a brief period. He also took up a ranch from the state, improved it and about four years later sold it to William Parsons. The Ennis ranch was sold to W. A. Johnson. Mr. Faught's present ranch consists of twenty sec- tions, which he owns in conjunction with Oz Smith, situated in the northeast corner of Scurry county, sixteen miles from Snyder. It is stocked with high grade Hereford and Dur- ham cattle, which are classed with the best cat- tle in the country. On the 2nd of April, 1885, he was appointed sheriff of Scurry county to fill out an unexpired term and was afterward elect- ed three times to the office, making a service of nearly eight years in that capacity. Since his retirement in 1893 he has given his undivided attention to the stock business, in which he is meeting with splendid success.

On the IIth of December, 1876, Mr. Faught was married to Miss Ophelia E. Sims, a daugh- ter of William H. Sims. They now have an adopted daughter, Hattie Molly Faught, who was born April 3, 1890. Mr. Faught has been a Mason for about seventeen years and has taken the Royal Arch degree, his membership being in the lodge and chapter at Colorado, Texas. He has had an eventful career as he has followed the trails in teaming and in cattle

raising, and is familiar with all of the varied ex- periences which make up the history of such a life. As the years have gone by his utilization of opportunity has brought him success and he is now a prominent cattle man of Texas.

ROBERT E. SAWDON, one of the large farmers of Clay county, is a gentleman whose advent to the vicinity of Thornberry dates from the year 1893, when the Illinois colony pur- chased and took possession of one of the most beautiful and fertile neighborhoods of the Wichita and Red river country. The following year he purchased a tract thirteen miles north- east of Wichita Falls and undertook the initial work of preparing him a home. His first pur- chase was a half interest in a half section but since the additions to his holdings have been sufficient to make his estate aggregate eleven hundred and sixty acres.

The quality of the soil and the nature of the climate adapts the locality where Mr. Sawdon resides to the growing of small grain. All the elements are present necessary to the produc- tion of a bountiful crop annually, and with the annual rainfall properly distributed through the seasons no agricultural zone exists surpass- ing it in profitable results to labor. Corn and cotton seem to grow and produce as abun- dantly here as elsewhere and with the planting of a variety of cereals and other products Clay county lands have demonstrated their reliabili- ty as a farming country as satisfactorily as sections in the same longitude in the wheat belts farther north. These conditions were fully considered by Mr. Sawdon and his pur- chase of large tracts of this cheap land is a result of wise deliberation and not of reckless speculation.

Robert E. Sawdon is American born of Eng- lish parents. His birth occurred in Pike coun- ty, Illinois, November 2, 1867. His father was John Sawdon, a farmer, who died in 1868, at the age of forty-one years. After his death the widowed mother returned to Yorkshire, England, with her family and remained there ten years, then bringing them again to Illinois and locating in Pike county. Mrs. Sawdon was a lady of English birth, her maiden name being Mary Breckon. Her five children were: Thomas W., of Brown county, Illinois; Lucy, who died young; John H., of Pike county, Illinois; Francis G., of the same county; and Robert E., of this sketch. In 1890 Mrs. Sawdon died at her old home in Illinois, aged sixty- one years, having reared her small family to become useful and honorable men.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Mr. Sawdon of this notice received his edu- cation in the country schools. At about fifteen years of age he began life as a wage worker on a farm. He left the maternal roof finally when some years past his majority, having accumu- lated means with which to invest in real es- tate in the cheap land district of Texas. Be- ing yet single, he made his home for several years with the family of J. W. Butler at Thornberry and for seven years lived in this way a bache- lor's life. March 29, 1904, he married, in Wich- ita Falls, Miss Ethel Fesler, a daughter of Hen- ry A. and Mary (Phebus) Fesler, whose other children were: Lela, wife of Frank Hall, of Ashland, Missouri; Robert, of Clay county, Texas; Jacob, of Summer Hill, Illinois; and James, of Bowen, Illinois. Mrs. Sawdon was born in Pike county, Illinois, October 6, 1884. The Sawdon home is a neat though modest and unpretentious one, surrounded by vast acres of fertile prairie. It is presided over by a lady whose excellent taste and domestic habits are apparent everywhere, an ideal companion for an ambitious and industrious husband.

JOHN W. HERRIN. For nearly thirty years has the subject of this notice been identified with agriculture in Clay county and his success, measured by his substantial accumulations, has been marked and positive. His beginnings were modest, his means being limited, and practically the first efforts of a farmer on his splendid es- tate were his. Purchasing a section of the rich land at the mouth of Wichita river in 1876, he set about the preliminaries toward its ultimate occupation and improvement.

Having completed his arrangements for ac- tual possession by 1878, he erected his pioneer shanty, as it were, and, with his family, became an actual resident on the peninsula at the forks of the Red and Wichita rivers. In the earlier years stock raising occupied him largely, while of recent years the growing of grain as well as the handling of cattle have been the dominating interests of his farm. His dominions embrace six hundred and forty acres of fertile alluvial bottom and one hundred and sixty acres of fine sandy loam, altogether an estate calculated to gratify the aspirations of even a lustful land- grabber. He has three hundred acres under cultivation and a bunch of three hundred cattle graze off of his grassy pasture.

John W. Herrin is almost a native of Texas. He accompanied his sisters hither in 1854 and the family home was located on the then fron- tier in Smith county. They were settlers from Macon county, Alabama, now Randolph county,

where our subject was born September 27, 1841. His father, William Herrin, was born in South Carolina in 1799, was a farmer, took part in the Florida Indian war, and passed away in Macon county, Alabama, in 1847. He married in Ala- bama, Demoval Lampkin, who died the same year as her husband. Their children were: Susan, deceased, who married J. W. Ashcraft; Sarah, the deceased wife of Columbus Wiley; Jefferson R., who died in Florida; Amanda, Mrs. Joseph M. Scott, who died in Alabama; Robert L. and William H., of Smith county, Texas; Margaret A., who married George Yar- brough; James R., of Smith county ; and John W., of this review. Susan and Margaret both died in Smith county, Texas.

John W. Herrin made his home, after the death of his parents, with Mrs. Ashcraft, his sister, until his enlistment in the Confederate army at the outbreak of the Civil war. His command was Company K, Third Texas, under his first enlistment, but Colonel Greer's Third Texas was disorganized after the battle of Springfield, and Mr. Herrin joined Company C, Seventeenth Texas Cavalry, under Colonel George Moore. He served in the Trans-Missis- sippi Department under General Nelson and ex- perienced much desultory fighting in Louisiana and Arkansas. Later in the war General Churchill commanded, as did also General Pol- leneck. At the windup of the struggle Mr. Herrin was on detail at Tyler, Texas, in the transportation department, and soon thereafter started in business as a tanner.

After three years' experience in the manufac- ture of hides and the loss of his invested capital, Mr. Herrin sought the farm as the proper sphere of his operations. He followed this vocation with success and in 1882 transferred his whole interest to Clay county, in the meantime hav- ing prepared his new farm for his reception.

On April 25, 1865, Mr. Herrin was married in Smith county, to Martha E., a daughter of Wil- liam J. Smith, a soldier in the Florida war. Mr. Smith was a Tennesseean, but an early settler of Texas, having established himself in Nacog- doches county, where his daughter Martha E. was born in 1847. Mrs. Herrin died November 23, 1898, being the mother of Pearle, who mar- ried C. S. Cardwell, and resides in Castro coun- ty, Texas; William H., of Washington county, Oklahoma; Frank S., of Clay county, Texas; Lillie A., wife of Thomas H. Harrison, of Clay county; and Loftin Y., still with the paternal home. Mr. Herrin is a lifelong democrat, has been a delegate to local conventions and held the office of deputy sheriff of Smith county.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

REV. JOHN W. MILBURN, a minister of the Methodist Protestant church and also a well known representative of farming interests in Cooke county, was born in Lawrence county, Missouri, December 10, 1849. The Milburn family is of Irish lineage, the first representative of the name in America settling in Tennessee at a very early day when that state was still under territorial government. There he made a farm, reared his family and spent his entire life. His son, John Milburn, was born in Ten- nessee, was married there and most of his ehil- dren were also born in that state. He removed, however, to Missouri, where he engaged in business as a stone and brick mason in connec- tion with agricultural pursuits. He was a fluent talker, a man of naturally strong intellectual force and was a leading member and licensed exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal church. He took a most active and helpful part in all the church work and his influence was a potent ele- ment for good in the community in which he lived. He married Margaret Robinson, also a native of Tennessee and the daughter of a prom- inent planter there. She had one brother, Will- iam Robinson. Both Mr. and Mrs. John Mil- burn have now departed this life. They were the parents of six children: Mrs. Jane Keasling; Samuel; Mrs. Rachel Fulton; John L., who came to Texas and later went to the Indian Territory, where he died; Mrs. Mary Sims, who is the only one now living; and Joseph, who died in Texas.

Samuel Milburn, who was the eldest son of this family, was born in eastern Tennessee, but was largely reared in Missouri, and was mar- ried there to Miss Jane Buck, whose birth oc- curred in middle Tennessee. She was a daugh- ter of Jacob Buck, of that state, who was a blacksmith and farmer and in connection with those pursuits also engaged in teaching vocal music. At an early day he removed to Mis- souri, where he remained until his death. He was of German descent and was a member of the Lutheran church. His children were: Mrs. Jane Milburn, Mrs. Rebecca Prior, Daniel, Mrs. Sarah Boshares, Thomas, Caroline, Mary, Me- hitable and Jacob.

At the time of his marriage Samuel R. Mil- burn settled on a farm in Missouri and in con- nection with the cultivation of his land he also followed the stone-mason's trade. From Mis- souri he removed to Texas in 1859, settling in Fannin county. At the time of the Civil war he left his family there and joined the state militia at Bonham, Texas, but after a short pe-

riod received an honorable discharge. He then returned to his family and remained in Fannin county until after the close of hostilities, when he removed to Tarrant county, where he bought a farm and in connection with its cultivation worked at the stone-mason's trade for a num- ber of years. Eventually he sold his property there and removed to Hamilton county, where he remained for four years, when he again sold out and this time took up his abode in Cooke county, where he lived for six years, owning and operating a farm. He next went to Ar- kansas and there called his place Mountain Home. It remained his residence up to the time of his death in 1895. He was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church from early life and later joined the Methodist Episcopal church South, becoming one of its active workers and earnest exhorters. When in middle life he was licensed as a local preach- er and he continued the work of the gospel as long as able to preach. He took part in many revivals and his influence was a potent factor in bringing many into the church. He voted with the democracy and affiliated with the Ma- sonic lodge. Unto him and his wife were born seven children: John W .; Rachel, the wife of William Cross; Jefferson, of the Indian Terri- tory; Jacob, a minister of the Methodist Epis- copal church South, who also followed farming in the Indian Territory until his death; William, a farmer of the Territory; Mary, who became the wife of M. Rhodes and after his death mar- ried John Johnson; and Joseph, who is engaged in blacksmithing and lives at Mountain Home in Arkansas.

Rev. John W. Milburn remained in Missouri until ten years of age, after which he came with his parents to Texas, acquiring a good prac- tical education in the public schools. He ac- companied the family on their various removals until he reached the age of twenty-four years, when he was married and began farming. He was seventeen years of age when he became converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal church South. After his marriage he was li- censed and ordained as a deacon in the church and he also became a local preacher, acting in that capacity for five years, but becoming dis- satisfied with the discipline and some of the practices of the church, he left that denomina- tion and joined the Methodist Protestant church, which he found more in harmony with his views. He made this change in 1879 and later was ordained an elder and duly received into the conference of the church, becoming a

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

regular minister. He was then assigned to the Mountain Creek churches, two in number, and served that circuit for six years, during which time he employed others to conduct the farm work. He also aided in organizing various churches in Cooke and Montague counties. He afterward served the Bolder circuit for four years and subscquently was assigned to the Saint Jo Mission, but later returned to Bulcher, where he acted as pastor for a number of years, when at his own request he was left without an appointment. In 1895, however, he was made president of the Northwest Texas conference, acting in that capacity for two years. He after- ward made some changes and then returned to the Bulcher work, continuing four years, when in November, 1904, he was again elected presi- dent of the conference, which position he still fills, preaching wherever called. He attends all the conferences and camp mectings and does much active and helpful church work. He is also frequently called upon to conduct funeral and marriage ceremonies and he has done much to build up the cause of his church in this part of the state.

Mr. Milburn was united in the holy bonds of matrimony to Miss Missouri Hudgins, whose birth occurred in the state of Missouri in 1853, her parents being Benjamin and Susan (Prox- er) Hudgins, of Alabama, who removed to Tex- as in 1858, settling in Tarrant county, where her father improved a farm and made his home until 1874. He then took up his abode in Cooke county, where he cultivated another farm, and in 1885 he removed to the Indian Territory, where he now resides, living retired from active labor. He is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church South and of the Masonic fra- ternity. His children are: Martha, the wife of N. Ivey; Minerva, the wife of F. Proctor; Mrs. Missouri Milburn; Malinda, the wife of J. Pem- broke and after his death the wife of S. Tali- ferro; Berry, a farmer and stockman; Mary, the wife of C. Avert; and Lee, a farmer of Indi- an Territory.

The home of Rev. and Mrs. Milburn has been blessed with nine children: Susan, who died at the age of sixteen years; Samuel, who died at the age of fourteen years; Lee, who is engaged in farming; Etta, the wife of O. Crossfern; Nicholas, at home; Anna, the wife of Olla Hug- gins; Charles; Robert; and Lilla. Like her husband, Mrs. Milburn is a devoted member of the Methodist Protestant church and they be- long to the Order of the Eastern Star, while Rev. Milburn has attained the Royal Arch de-

gree in Masonry. He is also a member of sev- eral farmers' clubs and is deeply interested in the agricultural development and welfare of the state. For. three generations the family has been represented in the ministry and his labors have been of far-reaching effect and benefit. He is a man of scholarly attainments, a strong and earnest speaker, forceful in argument and logi- cal in the presentation of his plea.

ROLAND JEFFERSON JOHNSON. The subject of this sketch is the youngest son and heir of Roland J. Johnson, one of the three ear- liest settlers of Young county, who came hither in September, 1857, rather a wandering stock- man in search of an ideal location for his future home. In passing across the wild country just northwest of Fort Belknap the latter discov- ered the object of his search and selected the waters of Post Oak creek or "Six Mile" as it is geographically termed, as the place where his lot should be cast. Here he prospered on range and farm, became widely and favorably known as one of the "landmarks" of the county and lived quietly and unobtrusively, in the enjoy- ment of the wild sports, the company of warm friends and the possession of a modest, self- earned fortune, dying amid the scenes of his vigorous and active life in 1890.

Roland J. Johnson, Sr., was born in Spartan- burg District, South Carolina, September 27, 1812, and was brought to manhood in the dis- trict of Greenville, that state. William John- son was his father and was born in 1793, dying in the old Palmetto state in 1874. Of his seven children only Roland J. and John A. left the old state and joined the innumerable caravan on the frontier of the great and untamed west. John A. passed his life and died in Atascosa county, Texas, while Roland J. began life in East Texas, a young man, and came westward by degrees and stages, stopping some years in Leon county, then drifting on northwest to Throckmorton county-minding his herd as he went-terminating his nomadic career on the "banks of the Brazos" at forty-five years of age.

His estate, which descended to his surviving children, son and four daughters, was made up of three hundred and twenty acres of Peters Colony land, four hundred and ninety-one acres of the Daniel Remington Survey and one hun- dred eighty-seven acres of the David M. Bul- lock survey, totaling nine hundred and ninety- eight acres, which he bought, in 1871, at a cost of one thousand dollars. Up to this date he had contented himself with his cattle but the

ROLAND J. JOHNSON

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

signs indicated to him that the land which was then of so little value would some day be sought for as a home by some immigrant and he decided to acquire his while it was cheap.

While he settled in the path, so to speak, of the Indians who frequented the. Texas frontier for fifteen years subsequent to his settlement in Young county, Mr. Johnson was never per- sonally molested by the hostiles and never suf- fered loss except as horses were occasionally missed. The wild game of forest and plain was everywhere. The buffalo was wont to drift into the fringed settlements of the Brazos, ah- telope were countless in number, deer were as common as the jack rabbit and turkeys were in flocks and droves like blackbirds today. All these conditions spiced the life of the man on the border and Mr. Johnson feasted upon its fruits and almost lived upon this manna of the American plain.

In his political views he was a Democrat but seemed to be without aspiration for political honors. He consented to serve as county as- sessor of the county and did so when elected, and during the Civil War belonged to the state militia. On his way to Texas he stopped for a time in Louisiana and was married to Eliza- beth Banks. Mrs. Johnson died December 8, 1882, the mother of : Martha, of Decker, Texas, wife of John H. Cochran; Eliza, who died un- married in 1892; Marilda, who passed away at fourteen years at Camp Cooper, Throckmorton county ; John W., who was accidentally killed at Belknap, December 26, 1866; Rosa, wife of John W. Profit, a large ranchman and leading citizen of Young county; Mary A. E., wife of Joe H. Graham, of Midland, Texas; and Roland J., Jr., of this review.

September 8, 1859, was the date of the birth of Roland Jefferson Johnson, in Young county, and all the years of his life have been passed amid the rural environment already described. He obtained a knowledge of books from the country schools and from the schools of Weath- erford but at fifteen years quit the life of a pupil and began in earnest that of a cowboy on his father's range. In time he was admitted to a partnership with his worthy ancestor and con- tinued so to the latter's death, himself succeeding to the valuable estate upon which he maintains a hospitable and modern home. On the 31st day of March, 1887, he married Miss Mollie Woolfolk, a daughter of Joseph A. Woolfolk, mentioned in this work. Mrs. Johnson was born in Kentucky, November 25, 1867, and she and Mr. Johnson are the parents of two chil- dren, Maime and Roland J., Jr.,

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 132

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