A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 22

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 22

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

102

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

county. Having an opportunity to exceed the profits of the farm in a wholly different line of work, he took advantage of it and engaged in railroad contract work. He did grading on the Union Pacific, built sixteen miles of the St. Louis and San Francisco at Pierce City, Missouri. He abandoned this business in 1868, came to Texas and engaged as a cattle drover between this state and Kansas. Baxter Springs and Coffey- ville were his objective points and he shipped many cars of native beef from there to markets of the east. In 1876 he began ranching in Clay county. His success enabled him to purchase tracts of pasture land in this and Hardeman county. He first located at Cambridge but in 1880 removed to Hardeman county, where he ac- quired a ranch of some twenty-five thousand acres-which he yet owns-as well as a vast tract almost adjoining Henrietta, in Clay county, aggregating about forty thousand acres. His Hardeman county possessions extend into Foard county, and at one time, while a partner with J. R. Stephens, had some sixty thousand head of cattle on the range. In 1882 the partnership with Mr. Stephens was dissolved and since then Mr. Worsham has conducted his live stock business alone, having some ten thousand head of cattle on grass.

Some twenty years ago Mr. Worsham became attracted to banking as a business and took an interest in the Dallas National Bank. Later he acquired an interest in the Gainesville National and in the Henrietta National Bank, which latter went out of business in 1887. The bank of W. B. Worsham and Co. was organized by Mr. Wor- sham in 1898, in Henrietta, and is officered by W. B. Worsham as president, W. H. Featherston as vice president and F. B. Wyatt as cashier. Other capitalists and financiers are stockholders of the bank and it is universally regarded as dur- able and safe as the rock of Gibraltar. Mr. Worsham is interested in the Exchange National Bank at Dallas-a director in it; is a director in the Dallas Brewing Company and is extensively interested in the oil-mill and cotton-gin industries of Ardmore and Tishomingo, Indian Territory. His farming interests are also by no means small.

Mr. Worsham's two children by marriage with Mettie G. Collins, whom he married in Pike county, Missouri, in 1875, are Leola P., wife of K. N. Hapgood, with the W. B. Worsham bank, of Henrietta, and Carl M., who married May Easley and resides on the Worsham ranch near Henrietta. Mrs. W. B. Worsham was born in 1854 and is a daughter of James M. Collins, a

Virginia gentleman and farmer who passed away in Missouri.

While Mr. Worsham is strictly a business man and can always find something to do, he has had some trifling diversions in politics. Contrary to the rule in Texas he is a Republican and has served his party as a delegate to state conventions. While he has not attempted to achieve anything in politics he has achieved everything in business. As has been seen he holds a confidential relation to many strong financial institutions and enter- prises and the formidable masters of Texas finance recognize in him a compeer worthy of his spurs.

ROWAN H. TUCKER, general claim agent of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad, also prominent in municipal affairs of Fort Worth, has, from the fact of his birth near the city and an almost lifelong residence therein, a more intimate acquaintance with Fort Worth and this portion of Texas than almost any one except the oldest "old-timers."

Born on a farm about four miles north of Fort Worth, in 1855, he is the son of one of the first settlers and until his death one of the most prominent citizens of Fort Worth. Judge Wil- liam B. Tucker was a man of distinction both by reason of his character and the influence and use- fulness of his life work. Born in Casey county, Kentucky, October 5, 1824, he belonged to a Vir- ginia family which contained the best elements of the old southern aristocracy. His grandfather, William Tucker, had fought in the American Revolution, and, a patriot and man of mark in his part of the state, added further distinction to his house by marrying Miss Nancy Lee, who belonged to the family famous in all the great epochs of our country's history, Robert E. Lee being of the same stock.

Judge William B. Tucker came to Texas in 1851, locating four miles north of the military post of Fort Worth, at a time when the entire region thereabout was the frontier, there being only one house between Fort Worth and Weatherford. Taking up land, he engaged in farming and stock-raising for some years, and soon became one of the best known and most in- fluential citizens of the county. He was elected sheriff of the county in 1856, being the second sheriff the county ever had. The county seat was then at Birdville. Serving as sheriff until 1858, in that year he was elected district clerk, from which office he was promoted, by election, in 1862 to county judge. In 1865 he "resigned" by re- quest, along with the other county officials, doing so at the instance of Edmund J. Davis, at that

103

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

time the military governor of Texas, who, in carrying into effect his "reconstruction" policy, placed his henchmen in all the offices of the state wherever a possible excuse for that course could be found. Thus leaving public life, Judge Tucker became interested in industrial affairs, conducting a mill and gin on the south side of the city, where Jennings avenue now is, and also bought one hundred and seventy acres of land, which was subdivided and platted in 1872 as Tucker's Addition to Fort Worth. In 1872, also, he built his residence in that part of the addition known as Tucker's Hill, one of the highest points in the city. South Main street now runs by the block of ground on which this noble and picturesque old residence stands. At the time it was built it was the finest residence in the city, one of the objects of interest pointed out to strangers in those days. It was the successful management and sale of this real estate that made Judge Tucker wealthy, so that the later years of his life were spent without anxiety as to financial cir- cumstances. He served several times in the city council, and was at all times a man whose opin- ion commanded respect among his associates. The death of this honored pioneer citizen oc- curred in March, 1900. His wife was Mahala A. (Myers) Tucker, a native of Logan county, Kentucky, and she died in September, 1887.

The birthplace of Rowan H. Tucker was his father's original homestead, the place where Major Jarvis now lives, a short distance north of North Fort Worth. The family moved into town in 1859, and he was therefore reared to manhood in this city, which he has seen develop from a typical frontier settlement to its present propor- tions. After receiving his education in the schools of Fort Worth and at Mansfield College, he received appointment as cattle inspector for Tarrant county. In 1878 he became deputy sher- iff under Sheriff Henderson, and in 1880 became chief deputy under W. T. Maddox, under whom he served six years, and was then deputy under Sheriff B. H. Shipp two years. Leaving the sheriff's office on November 20, 1888, on the first of December following he began his service with the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad as special agent. Having continued his connection with that company ever since, he is now one of the oldest officials of the road, which was com- pleted only in 1887. In 1894 came his appoint- ment as general claim agent, in which capacity he has served to the present time.

Mr. Tucker has been a member of the Fort Worth city council four terms, as representative of the Fifth Ward, his last official term ending in 1902. While alderman he was chairman of

the police board committee, chairman of the claims committee, and member of the fire com- mittee and purchasing committee.

February 16, 1879, Mr. Tucker married, in Fort Worth, Miss Lou A. Archer, who was born in Union parish, Louisiana. They have two chil- dren, Miss Fay and Rowan H., Jr.

THOMAS BENTON COLLINS, one of the leading business men of Arlington, is numbered among the veterans of the Civil war, and is a worthy representative of a family who have val- iantly aided their country in the many struggles in which it has been engaged. His paternal great-grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier. He was born in Ireland, and after coming to America took up his abode in Virginia. His son, Barbe G. Collins, was a native of that common- wealth, and at the inauguration of the war of 1812 he raised and commanded a company, tak- ing part in the battle of New Orleans. His son and the father of Thomas B. Collins, Archibald W. Collins, was born in Kentucky in 1803, but when three years of age, in 1806, was taken by his parents to Tennessee, and in 1832 located in Jackson county, Alabama. He, too, enlisted in the defense of his country, serving as a soldier in the Florida Indian war. He married Eliza Reid, the daughter of J. B. Reid, and a descendant on the maternal side of John Slavin, a native of the north of Ireland. After coming to America he settled in Virginia, and his de- scendants afterward located in Kentucky. The Slavins were an old and prominent family in the north of Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Archibald W. Collins became the parents of five sons. One of the sons, William Joseph Collins, was a veteran of the Civil war, having served as a member of Company I, Forty-first Tennessee Infantry. He came to Texas from Alabama in 1874, and died at Arlington on the 6th of February, 1905. R. W. and M. R. served with General B. Forest.

By the second marriage of the father to Malin- da Reid, sister of his first wife, there were two sons and two daughters, T. B. and J. S. and Eliza M. and Mary A. T. B. also served in the Confed- erate army under General Bragg.

Thomas B. Collins, the eldest of his parents' five children, was born in Jackson county, Ala- bama, on the 23d of September, 1838, and was reared to the life of a farmer boy, receiving his education in a primitive log cabin school house. In 1859 he came to Texas, first taking up his abode in Grimes county, and when after Lincoln's inauguration in March, 1861, it became known that there would be war between the states he began drilling a company in that month, and

104

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

upon the declaration of war enlisted in Company C, Captain D. W. Shannon, Fifth Texas Cavalry, Colonel Tom Green's Regiment. His first service was in New Mexico and Arizona, participating in the battles of Val Verde, Glorietta and Peralta, and starting east from that country he walked from El Paso to San Antonio, and thence going to Austin joined the Texas troops at Hempstead. Journeying on to northwestern Louisiana, he en- gaged in the campaign against Banks in his first attempt to ascend the Red river in 1863, following which he took part in a number of skirmishes in northern Louisiana, and they were then ordered to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to cover Price's retreat out of Missouri. Returning south they fought Banks' army at Alexandria, and later took part in the battle of Mansfield, in which Banks was defeated, also in the battle of Pleasant Hill early in the spring of 1864, and in the same spring the company returned to Houston, serving in the Trans-Mississippi department. until the close of the war, being disbanded May 28, 1865. During his. service in the army Mr. Collins was made commissary sergeant of his regiment, and near the close of the war became its commissary cap- tain.

At the close of his long military career Mr. Collins returned to Grimes county, and in 1866 went again to his native state of Alabama, where he remained until 1874. While there residing in October, 1867, he was married to Miss Hannah J. Sims, the daughter of Nathan Sims, a farmer. This marriage took place at Estelle's Fork, where Mr. Collins was engaged in mercantile pursuits until his return to Texas in 1874. He then took up his abode at Poortown, Dallas county, where he opened a store and conducted the same for two years, removing thence to Tarrant county and locating on a farm at Arlington, which he long owned and conducted, but during the great- er part of the time has made his home in town. In later years he sold his farming interests, and is now a member of the Arlington Real Estate Company, of which he is manager, and of which Hon. W. B. Fitzhugh and F. R. Wallace are the other members. This firm does a general business in real estate, loans and insurance, and has done a good work in attracting attention to the advan- tages of Arlington as a residence city and also to the agricultural value of the surrounding coun- try.

Mr. Collins has also taken an active part in the political life of his community, having for two years served as mayor of Arlington, and is also an ex-county treasurer, elected as such in 1892 against three other candidates by a majority of one thousand five hundred and four votes and re-

elected in 1894 without opposition in his own party by a majority of nineteen hundred and nine votes. He declined a third nomination, thus establishing a precedent for limiting the term of office of county treasurer by one man to two terms. He has ever been a stanch supporter of the Democratic party, casting his vote in support of its men and measures at each succeeding election, his first presidential vote having been given to John C. Breckenridge.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Collins have been born eleven children, four of whom are deceased, A. S., Joseph and two infants, and those living are W. B .; Mackie, the wife of J. D. Swain ; Georgia, the wife of G. W. Goodin; Thomas W., James M., E. S. and Ethel. Mr. Collins has long held membership relations with the Camp of U. C. V. at Arlington, of which he is serving as adjutant. He is a member of the Primitive Baptist church.

WV. M. SALMON, who is ranked with the prominent farmers and stockmen of Montague county, Texas, is a native of the Lone Star state. Mr. Salmon was born in Rusk county, Texas, De- cember 28, 1866, son of John L. and Martha (Linchacum) Salmon, both natives of North Carolina. His parents were married in North Carolina, and in 1846 came from there to Texas, settling in Rusk county, where the father bought a large tract of land, and improved a farm and had extensive cattle interests. Also he con- ducted a country store on his place. He owned a number of slaves, and carried on his opera- tions successfully up to the time of the Civil war. The war cost him the savings of a lifetime and robbed his heirs of the vast estate that would have been theirs. He was a Democrat and an ardent secessionist, but, physically was not strong, and took no active part in the war. Fra- ternally he was a Mason. Both his brothers, Thomas and Edward, also settled in Texas, and. like him, became honored and respected citi- zens. He died at his homestead in 1880. Some time after his death his widow moved to Gaines-

ville, where she remained until death claimed her, in 1803. at the age of sixty-five years. She was a member of the Christian church. Her father was one of the early settlers and well-to-do farmers of Rusk county. Her brother Row, the only member of the Linchacum family now liv- ing, occupies the old homestead in Rush county. The children of John L. and Martha Salmon are: Mrs. Laura Birdwell; William G., M. D., who died July 3. 1887; Mrs. Susan Galloway; John, a physician of Breckenridge, Texas; Mrs. Martha Wilson; Mrs. Fanny Williams ; and W. M., whose name introduces this sketch.

IO5

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

W. M. Salmon, being the youngest of the fam- ily and his boyhood days being passed on the pioneer farm in Rusk county, did not have the educational advantages that the older members of the family enjoyed. After the death of his father, his mother moved to Gainesville, where his brother; William G., for some years had been engaged in, the practice of medicine and had leased the March ranch near Spanish Fort and was interested in the cattle business. . In 1883 W. M. Salmon went to work as an assistant on the ranch and remained there until after his brother's death in 1887, at which time he had control of the stock and everything pertaining to the farm. In 1890 he disposed of most of the stock and moved the rest to lands owned by the family, near Nocona, where he now lives, and to which he has added by subsequent pur- chase until his holdings comprise at this writing no less than 2,540 acres, four hundred acres be- ing under cultivation. He has made many sub- stantial improvements, including commodious residence, three tenant houses, other farm build- ings, wind mills, orchard, etc. Having the most of his land rented, Mr. Salmon gives his chief attention to his cattle, his herd averaging four hundred head. Also he owns a fine stallion and jack and raises horses and mules.

Politically Mr. Salmon is a Democrat, and fraternally he is identified with both the Masonic order and the Fraternal Brotherhood.

May 3, 1880, he married the widow of his brother, Dr. William G., Mrs. Mattie H. (Wal- ker) Salmon. She was born in Tennessee in 1861, only child of Dr. Addison Walker and wife Mentlo, nee Sutton, both natives of Tennessee. It was while on a visit to Texas with her uncle that she formed the acquaintance of Dr. Salmon. Her grandfather, Addison Walker, Sr., was a prominent farmer and slave owner of Tennes- see. His children were John P., a physician of Missouri, Mrs. Mary Balcom and Addison. By her first marriage. Mrs. Salmon had one child, Mariah, born May 23, 1880, and now the wife of Thomas Hoben, a prominent rancher of Mon- tague county. The children of the second mar- riage are: Harold, born May 20, 1890; Fred, June 21, 1892; Helen, July 8, 1894; Raymond, August 3, 1896; Thelma, July 8, 1899; and Wilburn, July 7, 1902.

REUBEN GESLER CLARK. When the Red River Cattle Company's ranch was being parceled out to actual settlers Reuben G. Clark became one of the early purchasers and the three hundred and twenty-six acres which constitutes his home, and is so well and substantially im-

proved, was but a wild and forbidding tract whose grassy sward was relieved only by clusters of the scrubby oak. This spot of ground was embraced within the Peters Colony land, and is situated four miles south of Bellevue, in Clay county, and upon it Mr. Clark has made his home since the month of August, 1884.

As a citizen of this new county, among the first acts of Mr. Clark was the building of his castle -for it has been decided that every man's home is his castle-and a shanty twelve by sixteen feet, with two rooms, rose up to answer the purpose. Being yet single and unmarried, his new house became no more than a bachelor's quarters for a few months, but when Mrs. Clark became its mistress it served, with its piece-meal enlargements, until the final remodeling and the. erection of the roomy home which domiciles its worthy owners now. One piece of farm improvement followed another, as the prosperity of the owner would admit, until there is nothing left to be done save enjoy the simple emoluments that follow in the wake of intelligent and honest toil.

In February, 1878, Reuben G. Clark became a Texas settler. He located in Collin county, and while there his vocation was that of master of a district school. He had prepared himself for his mid-life work in his native state of Illinois, and had spent a full seven years' period of successful school work there; and he taught seven years in the schools of Collin county, Texas. He was born eight miles north of Charleston, in Coles county, July 13, 1851, and came to maturity on the farm. Ambitious to acquire more than an ordinary education, he became able to teach and this vocation supplied him with the means to pro- cure a higher mental equipment. He first attend- ed Westfield College in Clark county, Illinois, then Lee's Academy, Coles county, and finally he entered the National Normal University at Leb- anon, Ohio, where he graduated with the class of 1874. He joined the profession of teaching regularly then and remained with it until his voluntary retirement to become a farmer in 1884.

Mr. Clark is a son of William H. Clark, born at Maysville, Kentucky, in 1823, and at three years of age was taken into Coles county, Illinois, by his father, Benjamin F. Clark. The father and grandfather were farmers, and the latter died in Coles county in 1853 at sixty-five. He married Sarah Hammond, and their children were: Ben- jamin, Lewis, William H., Andrew J., Malinda, wife of John Rardin; Lucinda, who married Frank Daugherty, and Phebe, who became the wife of Wesley Daugherty. The youngest daugh- ter, Paulina, married John Galbraith.

I06

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

William H. Clark, father of our subject, was a citizen of Coles county, Illinois, until 1874, when he migrated to Kansas and settled at Toledo, re- maining in the Sunflower state till 1892, when he, accompanied by his wife and four younger chil- dren, located in Johnson county, Missouri, where they now reside. Julia Ann Rardin became Mrs. William H. Clark in 1850. She was a daughter of Samuel Rardin, a Kentucky settler to Illinois, and the issue of her union with Mr. Clark were: Reuben G .; Eliza J., wife of Andrew J. Campbell, of Neosho Falls, Kansas; Dumas V., of Coles county, Illinois; Harriet, wife of Thomas Carter, of Coles county, Illinois ; Andrew D., of Mattoon, Illinois; John G., of Johnson county, Missouri ; Sarah, wife of Frank Barnes, of Johnson county, Missouri ; Nancy, who married Henry Blanchard, of Gotobo, Oklahoma, and Susan, unmarried and at the parental fireside.

Reuben G. Clark was united in marriage in Collin county, Texas, with Minerva J. Reeves, March 1, 1885. Mrs. Clark's parents were J. N. Reeves and Miss Ellen J. Martin, the father a Kentuckian and the mother also a native of Ken- tucky. Of their various meanderings we will mention southern Illinois, Blanco county, and finally Collin county, Texas. Mrs. Clark is the oldest of six children, the others being: William T., Howard, Martha, wife of M. T. Hilbin ; Josiah and Mary, wife of Joseph J. Cato.

Mr. and Mrs. Clark's children are: William Nelson and Lillie May. The Clarks of this fam- ily are all Democrats and Mr. Clark served his township in Illinois as its clerk. He and his wife are Methodists and they have reared their chil- dren to know and do the right.

LEONIDAS A. SUGGS, M. D., engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Fort Worth, is a native of Titus county, Texas, and a son of W. G. and Mary ( Hall) Suggs. His father was born in North Carolina and emigrated to Texas in 1842, and thus becoming one of the early settlers he experienced the hardships, priva- tions and dangers of pioneer life in the reclama- tion of this state for the purposes of civilization. He was a farmer, interested in agricultural pur- suits in Titus county for many years, and he died in the year 1001. He is still survived by his wid- ow, who is a native of Tennessee.

Dr. Suggs was reared in the usual manner of farm lads and in the public schools mastered the common branches of learning. Determining upon a professional career as a life work he prepared for the study of medicine and matriculated in the Vanderbilt Medical College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1892 on completing the

regular course. He first practiced at Benbrook, in Tarrant county, but later removed to Fort Worth, where he has been an active representa- tive of the medical fraternity since 1899. His pro- fessional attainments and skill are such that he was elected to the chair of histology in the med- ical department of Fort Worth University, which position he regularly fills outside of giving occa- sional lectures on physiology and other subjects. He has been accorded a large and growing prac- tice as a general physician and has an office in connection with Dr. F. D. Thompson in the Fort Worth National Bank Building. He is physician of a number of fraternal and insurance compa- nies and in all his professional service he has maintained close conformity to a high standard of ethics of the medical fraternity.

Dr. Suggs was married in New Jersey to Miss Harriet Shumaker, a sister of Dr. George Shu- maker, an active and prominent physician of Philadelphia, and they have two children. Mary E. and Katharine. It is well that Dr. Suggs has a deep and earnest interest in his profession be- cause it leaves him little leisure time. He is a member of the Tarrant County, the Texas State and the American Medical Associations, and thus keeps in touch with the onward march of the profession as investigation, research and ex- perience are broadening the knowledge of the medical fraternity and promoting the efficiency of its representatives. Anything that tends to bring to man the key to that complex mystery which we call life awakens the interest and atten- tion of Dr. Suggs, and he has a broad, compre- hensive and accurate knowledge of the principles of the medical and surgical science.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 22

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