USA > Texas > A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II > Part 23
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HON. ALVIN C. OWSLEY, whose name is found upon the legislative records of Texas and who is now successfully engaged in the practice of law at Denton with a large and representative clientage, was born in Johnson county, Missouri, April 8, 1856, his parents being Dr. Henry and Louisiana (Mansfield) Owsley. The father was born in Crab Orchard, Kentucky, October 4, 1817, while his ancestors were from Virginia. In his boyhood days he accompanied his parents on their removal to Johnson county, Missouri, where he studied medicine in the office and under the direction of Dr. Hoff of Harrodsburg, that state. In order to still further perfect himself for the practice he entered the Jacksonville (Illinois) Medical College, in which he completed the regu- lar course and was graduated with the class of 1846. He then opened an office in Johnson coun- tv, Missouri, where he remained until 1849, when he made an overland trip to California, attracted
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by the discovery of gold on the Pacific slope. In 1851 he returned to Missouri, where he de- voted his time and energies to professional serv- ice until 1861. In that year, however, he put aside all business and personal considerations and joined the Confederate army as assistant surgeon in Price's Battalion, while later he was appointed hospital surgeon. While at the front he was wounded and this occasioned his return home. In 1863 he started again to make the trip across the plains to the gold mines, this time accompanied by all of his family. They stopped first at Austin, Nevada, then a new mining camp, and in 1864 they resumed their westward journey to Califor- nia, locating in the central part of that state. A few years later, however, Dr. Owsley returned east and in 1873 he located in Denton, Texas, where he remained until his death, which oc- curred in 1902. His wife survived him, passing away in Denton on the 22d of December, 1904.
Hon. Alvin C. Owsley had the interesting ex- perience as a boy of living in the new west, where pioneer conditions existed and all of the environ- ment was that of frontier life. He acquired his education in the schools of Grass Valley, Lake- port and Marysville, California, and also attend- ed Hill's Institute in Sacramento, subsequent to which time, in 1869, he entered St. Vincent's College at Los Angeles, from which he was grad- uated in 1872 with the highest honors of his class, receiving a special medal for mathematical pro- ficiency. He paid his own way through college with money earned as an employe of the Los Angeles Star, first having a newspaper carrier's route and later in charge of the city circulation of the paper. The ambition which he displayed in thus preparing for his education has been a salient characteristic of his entire life and has led to successful accomplishment where others of less resolute purpose would have failed.
Immediately after his graduation Mr. Owsley returned to Missouri, and at Sedalia took up the study of law in the office of the late Senator Vest. In February, 1873, he came to Denton, Texas, where he has since made his home. For two years he engaged in teaching school here, but devoted all of his leisure hours to the study of law, and in 1875 he was admitted to practice. He has always been an energetic, progressive and resourceful lawyer, presenting his cause with clearness and force, while in his arguments his deductions follow with logical sequence. His practice, which is now extensive and important, connects him with all the courts and he has a large and valuable library.
On the 8th of April 1880, Mr. Owsley was married to Miss Sallie M. Blount, a daughter of
Judge J. M. Blount of Denton, Texas. Eight children have been born unto them : Eunice, Lou- isiana, Jessie, Alvin, Stella, Clark, Charlotte and Henry. All are still at home with the exception of the eldest daughter, who is now the wife of James G. Wright.
Mr. Owsley holds membership in the Chris- tian church and Mrs. Owsley in the Baptist church. He is an orator of considerable promi- nence in Texas and has been a recognized leader in public life of the state for many years, wielding a wide influence. In 1888 he was elected a mem- ber of the twenty-first Texas legislature, and his work in that body resulted in the passage of some of the most important legislative measures ever enacted in the commonwealth. He served on a number of the leading committees of that session of the general assembly, having a position of prominence and on judiciary committee, No. I, as well as on internal improvement committee and others. He was responsible for the first anti- trust law ever agitated in Texas, which state has become famous for its effective anti-trust statutes. During the same session he was appointed chair- man of a committee of five to draft a substitute trust law and Mr. Owsley prepared the draft of the law with the assistance of Attorney General James Hogg, afterward governor of Texas. This measure was passed by that session, but was held to be unconstitutional by United States Circuit Judge McCormick. The delay in obtaining a de- cision from the supreme court caused the people to become impatient and another trust law was passed in its place by the following legislature, but later, when the supreme court finally rendered a decision on Mr. Owsley's measure, it was de- cided to be entirely constitutional.
Mr. Owsley was re-elected a representative to the twenty-second legislature, in which session he held a still more prominent position. On the committee on internal improvements it came within the jurisdiction of this committee to frame a railroad commission law, another measure that has brought renown to Texas as a model in that class of legislation. Mr. Owsley was likewise a member of the committee of five which drafted the bill for a railroad commission, which became a law, and was the leader in the fight for this measure, especially for the "long and short haul clause," of which he was the advocate. Again in the twenty-second legislature he had a prominent position on the judiciary committee No. I, and was chairman of the committee on penitentiaries and instrumental in passing the reformatory law for youthful offenders. As a member of the in- ternal improvement committee he was one of the framers of the separate coach law, one of the
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most popular to the people at large that was ever enacted in any state. In 1894 Mr. Owsley was elected to the twenty-fourth legislature and served for a third term. He was one of the most active working members of the house and was promi- nently in the fore in all the most important legis- lation enacted during his service. In 1892 he was presidential elector, representing the fifth district and helping to cast the vote of Texas for Cleveland in the electoral college. He was again chosen presidential elector in 1904.
In his home town Mr. Owsley should be given credit for many of the substantial features that make it one of the best known cities of Texas, especially as an educational center. It was through his specific efforts that the North Texas State Normal College and the Girls' Industrial College, both state institutions, were located in Denton, although numerous other cities pressed their claims for this distinction. Mr. Owsley's wide and favorable acquaintance with legislators, state officials and other men in public life enabled him to perform this service for his town. In many other ways he has promoted public meas- tres and in fact his co-operation is never sought in vain for the advancement of any movement for Denton's upbuilding and welfare. He is a man of great force of character and possesses an un- daunted spirit toward the accomplishment of any object which he undertakes. His public record is one which will bear the closest investigation, as it is characterized by the conscientious perform- ance of every duty devolving upon him and loy- alty to every trust that is given him. He ranks among the distinguished citizens of Texas, hon- ored and respected in public life, while in his home town, where he is best known, he has the warm personal regard and friendship of the great majority of his fellow citizens.
SNEED STRONG, M. D. One of the repre- sentative families of Montague county, whose residence has been maintained herein since its advent thither a third of a century ago, is that represented by Dr. Sneed Strong, of Bowie, the subject of this biographical review. The year 1873 marked its entrance to the county, and the worthy head of the family chose for the site of his new home a tract of wild land eight miles east of Montague, where for seven years the family domicile was maintained. For two gener- ations this worthy sire confined his labors to the varied industries of the farm, training his chil- dren to love labor for the pleasure of its fruits and watching them pass from his dominions to assume honorable stations in different walks of life and himself finally retiring to the quiet of
urban life with the weight of years and filled with a consciousness of having performed a modest part in the reduction and improvement of a new coun- try and in creating and stabilizing its social fabric.
This well known family, headed by James A. Strong, the father of our subject, came to Texas from Morgan county, Missouri, where Mr. Strong had lived since 1831 and where the first forty-five years of his life had been passed. He was born in Tennessee September 20, 1828, and farm life in Missouri, where his father settled so early, and four years of frontier experience in the gold fields of California occupied him previous to his advent to the Lone Star state. His parents, Martin and Margaret Strong, were of the pio- neers to Morgan county, Missouri, where they died, the father in 1898 at the age of ninety years. Of their other children, William was killed as a Confederate soldier during the war ; Benjamin resides in Morgan county, Missouri; Francis M., of the same county; Levi is a resi- dent of Idaho; Mary married Bryant Cox and died with issue in Morgan county, Missouri; Re- becca became the wife of John Hatcher and lives in Arkansas, and Harvey died in McDonald county, Missouri.
The childhood advantages of James A. Strong were of necessity meager, and the necessity and value of labor were the chief elements of his edu- cation. When he assumed his station in life he chose the vocation of his fathers. He was allured to the Pacific coast states in 1854 by the prospects of a "lucky strike" in some unsearched locality and he joined the line of march to the occident, crossing the plains and reaching his destination after some months of weary plodding and suc- cessfully passing through two thousand miles of forbidding and hostile country. Upon his return in 1858 he chose the water route, and made the trip across the isthmus to Key West and New York and home again just as the rumblings of a fratricidal war were beginning to be heard. When the struggle between the two sections of our country came on his sympathies were with the south, and while his age precluded the pos- sibility of active service on his part he became a militiaman and rendered what service he could in preserving order at home. His wife was Mary J. Pittman, a Kentucky lady, whose mother, Abi- gail Pittman, settled in Morgan county, Missouri, also as a pioneer. The issue of their marriage was: James M., who owns a cotton gin at Qua- nah, Texas : William M., of Bowie, Texas ; Sterl- ing P., well known in Bowie and a real estate and loan broker ; Maggie, wife of T. J. Williams, of Plainville, Texas ; Dr. Sneed, our subject, born
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March 27, 1865; Laura, wife of S. J. Brown, of Dye, Texas, and now deceased, and Walter C., clerk of the court of civil appeals of Texas at Fort Worth. Mrs. Strong, the mother of Dr. Strong was born in 1829, and died January 26, 1905. Her brothers and sisters were: Jefferson Williams' wife, Clara, who died in Arkansas ; Sarah, wife of Jacob Kingery, of Claremont, Texas ; Rachel, who married F. M. Bandy, of San Saba county, Texas ; Catherine; Mrs. John Mel- ton of Tuscumbia, Missouri.
Dr. Sneed Strong's birth occurred in Morgan county, Missouri. The first eighteen years of his life were entirely rural and this environment con- tributed to a strong body and a strong brain. Leaving his father's farm of a half section near Montague, he entered his brother's store at Mon- tague as a dry goods clerk, where he served two years. The county clerk's office at Montague then knew him as an assistant for eighteen months, during which era he employed himself with reading medical works. A course of lec- tures followed his retirement from the court house and the Missouri Medical College at St. Louis provided his tuition. As a further aid to his ambition he took a clerkship in the comp- troller's office in Austin and spent a year and a half there, and with the funds thus secured he resumed his professional studies in St. Louis and graduated from the Missouri Medical Col- lege April 1, 1891. From his graduation till Jan- uary I, 1904, he practiced his profession in Stone- burg, in the county where he had been reared, and on the latter date he took up his residence and his work in Bowie. January 1, 1905, he asso- ciated himself with Dr. George W. Yeakley, and the firm of Strong & Yeakley began its success- ful career. In the practice Dr. Strong represents the Old School of physicians and his familiarity with the latest achievement in medical science and his wholesome grasp of the science itself renders him a formidable antagonist of disease. He is a member of the Montague County Medical and the Northwest Texas Medical Associations and of the Texas State Medical Association.
January 14, 1893, Dr. Strong married Miss Lee Benefield, a daughter of a farmer, J. P. Ben- efield, who came to Texas from Louisiana. The children of this marriage are Gervais B. and Joy. In politics the Strongs are Democrats. In the early eighties James A., the father, became an adherent of the Greenback faith and made the race for tax collector on that ticket, but since the passing of the reform era and the final settle- ment into their natural places of all political ele- ments father and sons are united on one party
and its principles. Among the standard fraterni- ties the Doctor is a Royal Arch Mason.
ANDREW McCAMPBELL, JR., deputy in- ternal revenue collector of Fort Worth, is a na- tive of Jessamine county, Kentucky, and a son of Andrew and Mary D. (Willmore) McCampbell, the father also born in Jessamine county. The great-grandfather of our subject was a native of Scotland, and the McCampbells after coming to America settled in Tennessee and Kentucky, where many representatives of the name have become prominent in public and business life. Hon. James A. McCampbell, an uncle of Andrew McCampbell, was a member of the state senate of Kentucky, as was the latter's maternal grand- father, Mr. Willmore, who likewise belonged to one of the old and prominent families of Jessa- mine county.
Andrew McCampbell, Sr., was the first Re- publican sheriff ever elected in Jessamine county. At the breaking out of the Civil war he organ- ized and was elected captain of Company A, Twentieth Kentucky Infantry, U. S. A., and ren- dered gallant service in defense of the Union throughout the entire war. In 1878, accompanied by his family, he came to Texas, living in Gray- son county for two years, after which he removed to Fort Worth, where the McCampbells have since lived. For several years the father con- ducted a stock and dairy farm, and during the early years of his residence in Fort Worth he was proprietor of a grocery store here, carrying on the business until about 1882.
Andrew McCampbell was a young lad when brought to this city, and he acquired his educa- tion in the public schools here, but started out to earn his own living at an early age. He was em- ployed as driver of a grocery wagon and coal wagon and later worked as engine wiper in the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad shops. In 1890 he was appointed mail carrier in Fort Worth, serving in that capacity for two years, and from 1892 until 1897 was deputy United States mar- shal, holding the office under both the Republican and Democratic administrations, his Republican superior being P. B. Hunt and the Democratic marshal being R. M. Love. In 1897 he was ap- pointed deputy revenue collector of the fourth collection district, composed of two hundred and fourteen counties of Texas, Mr. McCampbell having charge of seventy-eight counties in his division, extending over northern Texas and to the New Mexico line. In addition to this he is deputy for the entire district on special work for the internal revenue department, and the labor that he has done in this connection has been espe-
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cially commended by the officials at Washington as a very capable and efficient officer. Mr. McCampbell was married in Fort Worth to Miss Mamie Maurice, a member of one of the old families of the city, living here for nearly thirty years. They now have a daughter, Jennie Belle. Mr. McCampbell belongs to the Woodmen of the World and the Knights of Pythias fraternities, and his political allegiance is given to the Republican party. In his life he displays many of the sterling characteristics of his Scotch ancestry, and in every relation in which he has been found he has been loyal to his luty and the trust reposed in him.
COLONEL RICHARD M. WYNNE, promi- nent lawyer and man of affairs of Fort Worth, has a reputation throughout the great state of Texas for brilliant ability as a legal practitioner and for wonderful courage and unconquerable integrity in the hard and grueling contest for position in the world, and even for existence during his earlier years, when, disabled in body but unbroken in spirit after his gallant devotion to the lost cause, he, with the aid of his noble wife, applied himself, what time he could spare from arduous manual toil to keep soul and body together, to the study of law and preparation for the larger career of his ambition-out from which early trials he came triumphant and suc- cessful, to rank among the foremost legal lights and political leaders of the Lone Star state.
The edifying career of Colonel Wynne has al- ready been set forth convincingly and in a man- ner worthy of the subject by one of his many loyal friends, and the present biographer can do no better than to state a few outline facts before quoting entire the happily worded life history, as given of our well known Texas lawyer and states- man.
Colonel Wynne was a son of William Ben- jamin and Sarah Anne (Moore) Wynne, who were both born in Tennessee and died in Texas, his mother being a great-niece of Bishop McKendry of Tennessee. Colonel Wynne's wife is Laura (Kelly) Wynne, and they have four children: William Percy; Mrs. Laura Pauline Stephens, wife of Dr. Ernest L. Stephens ; Richard M. Wynne, Jr .; and James Harold Wynne.
In December, 1897, Colonel Wynne was unan- imously endorsed by the Democratic executive committee of Tarrant county as a candidate for the nomination for governor, and the committee issued an address to the Democrats of the state earnestly recommending his nomination. He
made a creditable canvass during the following winter and spring, and, although defeated in the convention, he won the delegates in every county where he spoke and made a canvass.
It was apropos of this canvass that the follow- ing sketch of Colonel Wynne, written by Hon. R. T. Milner, appeared in the Henderson Times, published at the Colonel's old home :
"It is not strange that the news of Colonel R. M. Wynne's announcement for governor has created great enthusiasm for his cause in this part of the state. In the array of splendid men already announced for that office no one has been more devoted to his country or truer to the principles of Democracy than Dick Wynne. No one has claims superior to his; none outrank him in experience, ability and statesmanship. His life presents a most remarkable example of what one can do unaided by anything in the world ex- cept the elements that come with one's birth. Compelled by the hard master of poverty to struggle for his daily bread, with no advantages of education except the school of experience, he passed his early years in an unpretentious pioneer home, fifteen miles from the nearest court house. Dick Wynne was born in Haywood county, Tennessee, in 1844, but in the fall of that year his father moved to Rusk county, Texas, and settled near Bellview, on Caney creek, in the midst of a howling wilderness. There he grew to a youth of seventeen years, worked on a farm and went to school in the winters after all the crops were gathered, all the schooling he ever had. In 1861 he enlisted for the war in Captain Barton's company, and immediately started for the point of contest in the east. With his company he crossed the Mississippi river and joined the main army at Corinth, having first been organized into the Tenth Texas Cavalry, afterwards dismounted. His company was put in General Hogg's brigade at Corinth and took part in the battle of Farmersville under Bragg, just after the battle of Shilch. He remained continuously with the Army of the Tennessee, as it was then designated, until he was finally dis- abled at Nashville. He participated in every battle in which his regiment took part during the entire war, and his bravery and valor, in every contest, challenged the highest praise and admiration of the brave and gallant men who fought by his side. He was promoted to the second lieutenancy of his company in 1863, when but eighteen years old, and in response to a petition he commanded Company B of his regi- ment during the Georgia campaign, or till they fell back to Atlanta, at which time he was sent
RICHARD M. WYNNE
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on scout service in the rear of Sherman's army then besieging Atlanta.
"In the furious battle of Murphreesboro, in which part of the Union army was almost de- stroyed, Dick Wynne was carried from the field maimed in body and his clothes crimsoned with blood. From this wound he recovered, only to receive one later on; at the battle of Nashville, which will go with him to the grave. For nine weeks he was completely paralyzed, and was left in the hands of the enemy. He came home from prison, in December, 1865, eight months after the surrender of Lee at Appomattox.
"With the consciousness that he had done 'his duty as he saw it in the light of truth, patriot- ism and loyalty, carrying with him the scars of many an historic battlefield, with his good right arm dead in his sleeve, and his right leg partial- ly paralyzed, and with as brave a soul and as true a heart and. as noble a mind as God in His wisdom ever gave to a Confederate soldier, Dick Wynne came home to commence anew the strug- gle of life. And these were all that he brought back. Being too feeble to work on the farm, he was induced to run for office. Therefore, in 1866, when Throckmorton was elected gov- ernor, the Democrats of Rusk county triumph- antly elected Wynne to the office of sheriff, the election taking place on June 26, only a few days after he had reached the age of twenty-one. He held that office until he, with the rest of the Democrats, was removed by reconstruction acts. When removed he had made no money out of the office save a bare support. In the meantime, however, he had married Miss Laura Kelly, a lady whose educational training was of the best and whose literary attainments are of a high or- der. He went to work on a farm near Henderson, manipulated the plow and hoe with one hand, and made a good crop, studying law and reading generally under the tutelage of his wife. The proceeds from this crop were sufficient to sup- port his family the greater part of the following year. Hence he was enabled to prosecute his studies more vigorously, so he read law all spring and summer in the office of Judge Gould. In the fall, being out of money, he operated a gin and made twelve bales of cotton with his wife's help, she weighing the cotton as it was received and he operating the gin. With the proceeds of the cotton thus earned he supported himself and family until he was admitted to the bar. At that time the bar at Henderson was known to be one of great power and strength. There were such distinguished lawyers as Stedman, Jones, Morris, Bagley, Gould, Parsons, Armstrong,
Casey and others. Wynne made such rapid progress that at the end of five years Hon. J. H. Jones offered him a partnership, which he ac- cepted, Colonel Jones at that time being the ac- knowledged head of the bar in Henderson; and for ten years the firm of Jones and Wynne did the leading practice of east Texas.
"In 1880 he was nominated and elected to the state senate. He was not a candidate for the place and was nominated without solicitation on his part. He served two sessions-a regular ses- sion in 1881 and a special session in 1882. While in the senate he took an active part in all legisla- tive matters, and soon became one of the most prominent members of that body. He was one of the strongest supporters of the three-cent-a- mile railroad bill; favored criminal law reforms, and was one of the five members who framed the bill establishing the University of Texas. He was a zealous supporter of Governor Roberts in all his reforms, and was known as one of the 'Old Alcalde's' leaders in the senate. He sup- ported with all his ability the Confederate land pension bill, and was then an advocate of a rail- road commission and, together with others, made a hard fight to create one.
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