A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 14

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 14

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The Bates of this record are and have been Democrats, but he has at no time had aspirations for public office. David H. united with Odd Fellowship some years ago and his name is on the rolls of the Christian church.

JOHN VIVIAN GOODE. For nearly fifteen years identified with the railroad and business in- terests of Fort Worth and Northwest Texas, Mr. J. V. Goode belonged among that class of energetic and forceful men of affairs who or- ganized, directed and gave permanency to Fort Worth during the most important epoch in its development. No one familiar with the history of this portion of the state fails to understand the vital connection between its railroads and its permanent prosperity, and it is among the former railway men of the city that Mr. Goode per- formed his leading part in affairs.

Dying at the age of forty, on November 4, 1903. Mr. Goode had engaged in the battle of life at an early age, and though his career ended before middle life it was none the less fruitful in permanent results. Born in Goochland county, Virginia, on December 31, 1863, he was a son of Dr. and Elizabeth Goode. Of cavalier Virginia

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

ancestry, the Goode family has long been repre- sented in the professions and affairs of the Old Dominion, and Dr. Goode, who died in 1897, was a graduate of Yale University, later assistant under Dr. Draper in the Yale faculty, and on re- turning to Virginia settled on his father's planta- tion in Goochland county. It was on this old homestead that his youngest son, John Vivian, was born. The Civil war laid in desolation the Goode estate, and at its close Dr. Goode moved to Staunton in the same state.

In Staunton the son John passed his childhood, though not altogether after the usual fashion of boys, for the fever of ambition and action seized him betimes and when only twelve years old he learned the complicated art of telegraphy. Such precocity could not escape the notice of those about him, and the fact that he was remarkably efficient procured him early advancement to re- sponsible position and decided him in his career of railroad service. As "boy operator" for the Western Union he became almost a celebrity in that part of the country, and at the age of fifteen he went west to Springfield, Illinois, where he was employed as train dispatcher for the Wabash, and when eighteen was chief dispatcher for that road. Following a period as train master for the Mis- souri Pacific Railroad, he came to Texas, in 1889, and as the incumbent, successively, of the posi- tions of train master, superintendent and general superintendent of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway he was during the next eleven years one of the best known railroad men of North Texas. He was connected with the Denver road while it was still new and was establishing its line through the great country to the northwest, that being the most important Texas railroad after the Texas and Pacific.

While in the railroad business Mr. Goode be- came connected with various business enterprises in Fort Worth, and the demands that these made upon him finally caused him to sever his con- nection with the railroad, that being in March, 1901. He and his partner, M. H. Mills then or- ganized the National Lumber Company at Fort Worth, and Mr. Goode became president. The organization of the Southern Tie and Lumber Treating Company followed soon after, and he likewise was president of that concern, whose plant was located at Texarkana. Retail branches of these enterprises were distributed at various points throughout Texas and Oklahoma, and the remarkable business capacity of Mr. Goode and his associates was shown in the rapid growth and extension of the business.

May 18, 1898, as one of the brilliant social events of Fort Worth, Mr. Goode married Miss

Joc-e Terrell, daughter of Capt. Joseph C. Ter- rell, whose prominence as a pioneer citizen of Fort Worth gives his name a place on nearly every page of its history. The one child of their union is John Vivian Goode, Jr.

His connection with railroad and business af- fairs brought Mr. Goode the friendship and acquaintance of the leading men of the south, and by them he was held in the highest esteem both for his personality and the qualities which enabled him to accomplish so much during a short life- time.

DAVID WALLACE HOLMES, M. D. The profession of medicine at Bellevue is represented by the able and thorough practitioner of the Eclectic school, Dr. D. W. Holmes, introduced as the subject of this personal review. Time has burdened him with but the age of middle life and experience has endowed him with a wide range of professional equipment, which is an assurance to his community of a normal pathological con- dition and a freedom from professional embar- rassment on account of the physical infirmities of age.

While a settler of Texas of comparatively re- cent date, Dr. Holmes's tenure here warrants the claim that he is a Texan indeed, and his entry into the spirit of the common affairs of his town and community marks the permanence and sin- cerity of his citizenship. His advent to Clay county dates from October, 1892, at which time he opened his office in Bellevue and since which time he has had his ear to the public heartbeat. He had been a member of the profession but a year when Bellevue first knew him, and his former home, and the place of his origin and bringing-up, was in Carroll county, Tennessee.

He was born at Lavinia, October 27, 1863, and his father's farm marked the place of his child- hood and youthful endeavor. His was one of the ancient families of the commonwealth of Tennes- see and it was founded in Carroll county by John Holmes, of Virginia. The latter was the great- grandfather of Dr. Holmes and his record was that of one of the early farmers of his county. He died about 1860, and among his several children was John Holmes, grandfather of the subject of our review. The latter was born in 1815, followed the calling of his pioneer father and passed away in Carroll, his native county, in 1888. He married Eliza McAlexander, and reared a family of three sons and five daughters. Of this family Lysander was the oldest and he was born in 1840.

Lysander Holmes resides at Lavinia, Tennes- see, with the companion of his life, nee Helen

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

McDougal, and, like his worthy ancestors, has been a tiller of the soil. During the Civil war he fought on the Confederate side, and while he has essayed no political ambition, or special en- thusiasm, Democratic principles have always re- ceived his endorsement and his modest support. Helen McDougal, his wife, was a daughter of John and Mollie ( Hickman) McDougal, who can be termed "old-timers" of Carroll county, and of their nine children Helen was the seventh.

Seven children constituted the issue of Ly- sander and Helen McDougal and David W., our subject, was the first born. The others were: Mollie, wife of Jesse McAlexander ; Belle, wife of Ira Cunningham ; Eliza, now Mrs. Lee Taylor ; J. Roscoe; Maggie, widow of Frank Noe; and William. All, save the doctor, are residents of their native county.

Dr. Holmes had access to the public schools of his home county only. for his literary training. He chose medicine for his life work when he attained his majority and began preparation for his profession in the office of an uncle, Dr. W. N. Holmes, of Milan, Tennessee. When qualified for college he entered the Eclectic Medical Insti- tute at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he graduated in 1801 and inaugurated his career as a physician by a year's practice in the city of Jackson, in his native state. Soon after his arrival in Bellevue he formed a partnership with Dr. J. J. L. Ball, whose removal from Bellevue in July, 1893, caused a dissolution of the firm, and since then Dr. Holmes has pursued his profession alone.

In his practice the doctor has had no specialties, devoting himself solely to the ills common to the country and to the treatment of injuries the re- sult of accidents such as occur in the course of years in the best regulated communities. In his capacity as an examiner he represents the New York Life Insurance Company, the Mutual and the Equitable Life, the Penn Mutual. of Phila- delphia, and the Security Mutual, of Binghamp- ton, New York, the Manhattan Life. of New York, and Prudential, of Newark, New Jersey.

February 3. 1892, Dr. Holmes was united in marriage, in Marshall county, Tennessee, with Dovie, a daughter of James and Amanda (Erwin) Anderson. Two children have blessed their union, the first born, a daughter, Helen A .. born December 30, 1896, died May 16, 1898, and the second, a son, David, Jr., was born Oc- tober 9, 1900.

In the matter of fraternities, Dr. Holmes has had all the honors conferred by the order of Odd Fellowship, having the subordinate and en- campment degrees and having been a member of the Texas Grand Lodge.

JOHN F. SWAYNE, formerly active and prominent in official life of Tarrant county, a successful stockman, and one of the distin- guished citizens of Fort Worth, was born in Henderson county, Tennessee, July 31, 1850. His parents were James W. and Amanda J. (Henry) Swayne, and through both branches he is of excellent and famous ancestry. His father, a native Virginian, born November 6, 1821, was of the noted family of Swaynes who have contributed so many distinguished citi- zens, especially to the legal profession. Former Associate Justice Swayne of the United States Supreme court was a brother of John Swayne's grandfather, while of those who have attained distinction in the law in later years might be mentioned Judge Swayne of Memphis. James W. Swayne, the father, who visited Texas in 1849, without locating, however, died in 1856, at the age of thirty-five. His mother, Sarah Hite (Parkins) Swayne, of Winchester, Virginia, was also a member of a prominent family, and herself a brilliant and talented woman. John F. Swayne's mother, who was born May 18, 1824, in South Carolina and died in Tennessee in 1857, aged thirty-three years, was a descendant of Pat- rick Henry. The parents were married July 8, 1847.

In keeping with the record of a family of so many of whose members joined the learned professions, Mr. Swayne received educational advantages on a par with the best offered in America at the time. His two years as a stu- dent of Washington and Lee University in Vir- ginia were spent when that noted institution was under the presidency of Robert E. Lee, and among the various mementoes which he retains of his life there is one he particularly prizes-an excuse from class duties on account of illness, written and signed by the former Confederate leader. Mr. Swayne came to Texas in 1869, but after teaching school for a year in Titus county returned to his former home in Lexington, Tennessee, where, having pursued his law studies in the meantime, he was ad- mitted to the bar. In 1872 he located perma- nently in Texas, and at Fort Worth became as- sociated as a law partner with Captain Joe Ter- rell, one of the historic characters of this city. Business and active identification with affairs proved more attractive to Mr. Swayne as a field of effort than the law, and he soon re- signed his active practice and began dealing in real estate. On the organization of the city in 1873 he was elected the first city secretary, and since that time has figured often and promi- nently in public life. In 1875 he went west for

HISTORY OF NORTH AND. WEST TEXAS.

a short time, and in those early days began his experience in the cattle business. After serving for some time as deputy he was elected clerk of Tarrant county in 1880, and, thrice re-elected, served altogether eight years in that capacity, leaving the office in 1888. After this official career he resumed real estate and cattle busi- ness and this has been his principal line of ac- tivity ever since. The hard times following the panic of 1893 made serious inroads into his fortune, as he at that time held large blocks of Fort Worth realty, which suffered a great shrinkage of values during the financial depres- sion. For several years Mr. Swayne has been well known for his stock-raising enterprise, his herd of registered Jersey cattle containing some splendid specimens, and his success in this line gives him a prominent place among the stock- men of this city.

Mr. Swayne was married in 1874 to Miss May Hendricks, the daughter of Judge H. G. Hendricks, in his day one of the most eminent citizens of Fort Worth. A native of Missouri, he was a lawyer by profession and one of the pioneers of the profession in Texas. He lived for several years at Sherman, Grayson county, and later moved to Fort Worth, where he died in March, 1873. He was one of the original donators who had contributed money for the building of the Texas and Pacific Railway to Fort Worth, the consummation of which work did not take place, however, until three years after Judge Hendricks' death. In his practice he had been a partner of Peter Smith and also of Major Jarvis, and was noted everywhere for his high-minded citizenship and integrity of char- acter. Of good ancestry, he was a relative of Vice President Hendricks of Indiana.

Also through her mother Mrs. Swayne belongs to a noted family. Her mother, Eliza A. Evarts, who was a member of the same family to which the distinguished William M. Evarts of New York belonged, died in Fort Worth in 1894. Pre- vious to her death she built the splendid Worth hotel as a memorial to her husband, and left a valuable estate besides. The children who survived her, besides Mrs. Swayne, were Harry, Wallace, George and Mrs. Sallie Huffman. With ancestry direct to Revolutionary heroes, Mrs. Swayne is prominent in the work of the Patriotic Order of the Daughters of the Revolution, being regent of Mary Isham Keith Chapter at Fort Worth. Her ancestry also goes back to the his- toric Miles Standish, she being in the seventh remove from that ancestor. As a pioneer in women's club work at Fort Worth she has also been very prominent, and organized and for four

years was president of the Woman's Wednes- day Club of Fort Worth, which is probably the most important woman's club in Texas, its liter- ary and philanthropic work being carried out on a large scope. Mr. and Mrs. Swayne have two children: Mrs. Mattie Swayne Moffett and Mary Newton Swayne.

Hon. James W. Swayne, who for several years has been a prominent lawyer and citizen of Fort Worth, having served some time as county attorney, is a brother of Mr. John F. Swayne. The former is at present engaged in the oil business in Louisiana.

JAMES A. BURGESS. April 9, 1859, the subject of this personal mention was born near St. John, New Brunswick, from which place he migrated, in the early years of his majority, eventually reaching Texas and establishing him- self in business in Bowie. The wanderings which finally terminated in the Lone Star state in 1884 took him over a wide region of our common country and sufficed to gratify an ambitious long- ing for "seeing the world" and contributed much to his contentment when he finally settled down.

Mr. Burgess' business connection with Bowie dates from July, 1889, when he embarked in the lumber trade in the city. He had been in Texas then five years, having opened a lumber yard in Joshua, Johnson county, in March, 1884. The panic of 1893 worked a hardship on lumber deal- ers all over the country and Mr. Burgess closed out his yard in Bowie, with considerable shrink- age, and during the interim between his business exit and his return, in the spring of 1895, he was variously employed in lumber yards elsewhere and in other matters, going into the furniture business with Z. M. Wilson in Bowie; then his former lumber partner, B. S. Pollard, succeeded Mr. Wilson and the twain did business together till the year 1900, when it sold out and Mr. Burgess joined D. H. Sigmon in the undertaking business, the only establishment doing an ex- clusive undertaking business in Bowie, and in the spring of 1905 Mr. Burgess bought out his partner, D. H. Sigmon, and now conducts the business himself.

Recurring to Mr. Burgess' place of birth, we find it the home of the Burgess family since the forepart of the nineteenth century. William Burgess, our subject's grandfather, was a native of Gaxhill, Yorkshire, England, where he married Mercy Beauhom. A few years subsequent to their marriage they emigrated and took up their residence in the country about St. John, New Brunswick, where their lives were spent in pas- toral pursuits. Their children were: Robert

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

P., father of our subject, and William, who died without heirs.

Robert P. Burgess' birth occurred in 1818, in the vicinity of St. John, and, while he owned a farm and reared his family upon it, he was a carriage- maker and he actively followed his trade. He was united in marriage with Margaret McLeod, a daughter of William and Jemimah (Littlejohn) McLeod. From boyhood Mr. McLeod served in the English navy and was on the transport which took Gen. Wellington across the English channel to win the battle of Waterloo. He afterward, in the closing years of his active life, took his family to New Brunswick where, near St. John, he and his wife lie buried.

Robert P. and Margaret Burgess were the parents of: Mary B., wife of A. C. Smith, of Boston, Massachusetts; Jemimah M., widow of Andrew Kee, of St. John, New Brunswick; Wil- liam, who died in Laguna, New Mexico, leaving a family; Robert, of Kingston, New Brunswick; J. Charles, of Parsons, Kansas ; James A., of this notice; and Alfred E., of St. John, New Bruns- wick.

James A. Burgess grew up on the farm and about his father's carriage shop and acquired a fair education in the common schools. At eighteen years of age he began the serious side of life, among his first acts being his trip from St. John to Navajo Springs, Arizona, a journey diagonally across the United States and embrac- ing some four thousand miles. There he joined his brothers as a cowboy on their ranch and in this vocation he remained some three years. Go- ing next to Parsons, Kansas, he took a clerkship in a grocery but a short time later went into the employ of the M. K. and T. Railway Company, finally becoming a fireman. Concluding this ser- vice he came to Texas and established himself in the lumber business, as previously noted.

Mr. Burgess first married, July 7, 1887, Amelia B. Marley, daughter of Dan and Elizabeth Mar- ley, of Oak Point, New Brunswick. She died March 20, 1889, at Parsons, Kansas. One child was born and died in California at the age of six months.

May 4. 1892, in Montague county, Mr. Burgess married Miss Jessie M. Alsabrook, a daughter of James M. and Laura (Stallings) Alsabrook, who came to Texas from Alabama. Mr. and Mrs. Burgess' children are Robert L. and Alleen.

Mr. Burgess has exemplified his thrifty ten- dency in Bowie by the accumulation of some of its real estate and in the improvement of a home on Wise street he has contributed toward the city's internal development. Although a Repub- lican in national politics, his neighbors and friends

-strong Democrats though they are-have chosen him to represent them on the common council from the Second Ward and in many other ways has he felt the assurance of their sincere confidence. In Masonic work he has taken the chapter degree and in Pythianism he is one of the brave.

JOHN J. GOODFELLOW, county surveyor of Tarrant county, with his home in Fort Worth, has a unique record as a county official. He has been identified with the county surveyor's office almost continuously for a quarter of a cen- tury ante-dating all present officials of the county. With the exception of two years he has been continuously in the position of county sur- veyor since 1888, and his record is in all points a most enviable one.

Mr. Goodfellow was born in Randolph county, Missouri, in 1856, his birthplace being on his father's farm, which was situated adjoining where the city of Moberly has since grown up, at that time there being nothing there except the railroad section house. Mr. Goodfellow's parents were Moses and Nancy (Beale) Goodfellow. The father, who was born in Meigs county, Ohio, in 1820, in 1841 became an early settler of Ran- dolph county, Missouri, and in 1860, having traded for two hundred and five acres of land in Tarrant county, moved to this part of Texas and became one of the first settlers. His residence was near the eastern line of Tarrant county, and, as a successful farmer and public-spirited citizen, made that his home till his death, which occurred in October, 1897, when seventy-seven years of age. The place is still known as the Goodfellow homestead, as Mrs. Nancy Goodfellow, the mother, whose native state was Kentucky, still lives there, aged seventy-seven years, and is in good health.

Reared on the old homestead and receiving his early education in the common schools, Mr. Goodfellow made his preparations for a career by completing a surveying and engineering course at Palmyra Institute. He continued to make his home on the paternal farm until 1880, having during 1879-80 taught one term of school, and then was appointed to a position in the sur- veyor's office, under Surveyor W. G. Finley, now deceased. With the exception of the two years from 1896 to 1898 he has been in the sur- veyor's office ever since, either as deputy or county surveyor, and no other county official can show such a long and continuous record. In 1887 he was appointed as county surveyor to fill a vacancy, in the following year was elected to the office and has been re-elected every two years,

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

with the exception of the one term mentioned above. Besides his work as county surveyor he has done and still does a large amount of sur- veying for outside parties in Tarrant and other counties, he being a most capable representative of his profession.

While he makes his home in Fort Worth, Mr. Goodfellow owns a fine place of a thousand acres in Tarrant county, sixteen miles north of Fort Worth, known as the "Goodfellow Timber Re- serve." This is one of the beautiful spots in the county, with a combination of forest and lake and farm that make it an attractive resort, espe- cially in the summer time. He here conducts a hog, goat and cattle ranch, does some miscel- laneous farming, and the lake is stocked with black bass.

Fraternally Mr. Goodfellow is a member of Woodmen Lodge No. 2, at Fort Worth. He mar- ried Miss Lou Swann, of Arlington, this county, and their five children are: Olive, Lillian, Eulah, John J., Jr., and Louise, all at home.

WILLIAM LEANDER DONNELL AND THOMAS F. DONNELL. The brothers who form the subject of this article have been con- spicuously identified with the material affairs of Young county for so long that it seems they ought to be classed among its pioneers, yet they were not here when the county was reorganized and, consequently, as merely early settlers and as leading citizens in an industrial way do they de- rive their chief distinction.

The lives of William L. and Thomas F. Don- nell have been so closely allied from birth to the present that what may be said of one may be as- sumed of the other, and when a business ven- ture is attributed to William his brother Thomas can be counted as bearing an equal share in it. Their successes and reverses have been borne to- gether and their combined judgments have di- rected a way which has led to masterly achieve- ments in the domain of their life work. They have been both civilian and soldier and whether in the pursuit of trade or in the chase of the ene- my the same determination to succeed and the same devotion to cause has ever spurred them on.

The Donnell family, father and sons, came to Texas from Hickory county, Missouri, in 1865, to escape the dangers incident to a mixed and hostile political sentiment engendered in south- ern Missouri on account of the Civil war. They settled in Hopkins county, Texas, where our sub- jects engaged in the tannery business in a small way, making it a success and winning the capital with which to establish themselves in the business of milling, ginning and farming, in Hunt county,

beginning with 1867. They remained in Hunt county for a period of ten years, converted their real property into cash, and driving, in 1877, a bunch of cattle into Young county, where they had decided to establish their future home.

A previous investigation decided them to locate on the Clear Fork river, where one hundred and sixty acres of land was pre-empted, the nucleus of their present ranch. Having been millers and discerning the advantages of a grist-mill in their new location they acquired a site and constructed a dam and erected a small burr mill on the pres- ent site of Eliasville, the first structure in the village. The building and rebuilding of the dam across Clear Fork and the erection of the mill and its equipment, first with burr machinery and then with rolls, necessitated an expenditure of many thousand dollars, but the expectations of its proprietors have been met and the plant still does service in proportion to the supply of grain raised in their locality.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 14

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