A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 24

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 24

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"At the end of his term, in 1882, he ran for attorney general, and was defeated by a small majority by John D. Templeton. But he turned defeat into victory in an eloquent speech with- drawing his name from the convention. So powerful was the effect of his speech that he was assured by at least four-fifths of the delegates of that convention that if they could reconsider their votes they would vote for him.

"Soon after that, on April 10, 1883, he moved to Fort Worth, in which city he has since resided, engaging in the practice of law. Though often importuned to run for governor, he has declined until now, and has only consented to make the race after the most earnest solicitations and as- surances of support from friends throughout the state. In all the contests of the past, when ag- gregated wealth, under the control of heartless corporations, has sought to override the liberties of the people, Dick Wynne has been found where all true Democrats have been found, hand in hand with the masses, proclaiming the doctrine that shall live as long as justice endures-'Equal rights to all, special privileges to none.' His sym- pathies are naturally with the great body of the people in their struggles for right and good gov- ernment. In his great heart there is an abiding concern for the poor and distressed, and no one in a just cause ever called on him without enlist- ing his services. One of his old neighbors, who

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knew him before and during the war, and who has watched his course since with the deepest solicitude, remarked to the writer only a few days ago that he never knew a truer man than Dick Wynne. 'He has always been right, and I have observed that those men who have been true sol- diers, brave, honest and faithful, have been the true men since, and Dick Wynne was one of the truest soldiers in our army,' is the way his old neighbor and comrade expressed it. And we might add that, here at his old home, among those who knew him in his youth and have hon- ored him in his manhood, is shared the opinion expressed above by the old Confederate soldier who slept with him over in Georgia and Tennes- see and Virginia, when Dick was a mere boy, and where so many of our brave and good boys will continue to sleep until they with the brave boys in blue clasp hands in the morn of the resur- rection. It is not strange that Dick Wynne's candidacy was received with enthusiasm over here at his old home."

ABB J. BROWN, one of the early residents of Montague county who is successfully engaged in stock farming, was born in Terrell county, Georgia, on the 2nd of May, 1850. His parents were Abb and Polly (Isom) Brown, likewise na- tives of Georgia, in which state they were reared and married. The maternal grandfather was a quarter Cherokee Indian, who followed agricul- tural pursuits and was a respected resident of his community. Abb Brown, the father, was a son of Abb Brown, Sr., who was an early settler of South Carolina, where he devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits, becoming an influential resident of his home locality. He had no aspira- tion for public honors or office but preferred to devote his attention quietly to his agricultural pursuits and spent his entire life in South Car- olina. He had two sons: Ezekiel, a farmer of Georgia; and Abb Brown, Jr.

The latter was reared in South Carolina and when he had attained to man's estate went to Georgia, where he was employed as an overseer, occupying a good position of that character for many years. He was married five times in Georgia and was the father of twenty-two chil- dren born of four of the marriages. All lived to adult age. Following his first marriage he bought a plantation and was engaged in farming. He became a prominent agriculturist and slave owner and was one of the substantial residents of his part of the state, gaining success as the years went by. In 1864 he sold his property in Georgia and bought property in Florida, where he remained until the time of his death, which oc-

curred in 1877 when he had reached the ripe old age of eighty-four years. The war greatly di- minished his estate and through the emancipation proclamation he lost twenty-one slaves. The earnings of a lifetime were thus largely swept away. In politics he was a strong and influen- tial Democrat and for a number of years while living in Georgia he served as justice of the peace. He was a well educated man and always kept informed on the questions and issues of the day and he was likewise well read in the law. The mother of our subject survived her husband for a number of years, remaining at the old home- stead in Florida until her death in 1887. She was a consistent and worthy Methodist and was a lady of many excellent traits of character. She be- came the mother of seven children: Abb J., of this review; Mrs. Jane Barrington; Mrs. Fannie Mosely; Ezekiel, who died in Florida; Joseph, who is living in that state; Lagrand, deceased ; and Napoleon, who is living in Florida.

Abb J. Brown removed with his parents from Georgia to Florida when fourteen years of age and was there reared to manhood. In 1872, the year following his marriage, he came to Texas, locating in Montague county near where he yet resides. He began the experiment of farming, believing that it might be profitably conducted here and in his efforts he has won success. He lo- cated on this land and yet makes his home on the original property. He has made excellent im- provements here, placing the fields under cultiva- tion and now has a good farm, owning one hun- dred and fifteen acres of land which he purchased from the original owner and to which he has since added until he now owns seven hundred acres, of which three hundred and fifty acres is under cultivation. He has assisted some of his sons in starting farm work on their own account, but he keeps about one hundred acres to culti- vate for himself. He formerly engaged in handling cattle quite extensively, but in more re- cent years has given his attention to general agri- cultural pursuits. Since he has made a start in this county he has never purchased but fifty bush- els of corn. That was in the season of 1886, when his corn crop was short. With the excep- tion of that year he has not only raised enough for his own use, but also some to sell, and most of the time has harvested very good crops of corn and other products. He has raised as high as twenty-nine bushels of wheat to the acre, one hundred and four bushels of oats and eighty-five bushels of corn. He is satisfied with his pros- pects of farming and to his agricultural pursuits devotes his entire time and attention. He is a stanch Democrat, but has never aspired to office,

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

preferring to give his undivided energies to his business affairs.

Mr. Brown was married in 1871 to Miss Geor- gia Hill, who was born in Florida October 3, 1850, and is a daughter of James and Sarah (Caraway) Hill, both of whom were natives of South Carolina, but were married in Florida, where they took up their abode upon a farm. There all of their children were born. At one time the father likewise engaged in merchandising, and at the time of the Civil war he entered the Confederate army, with which he continued to serve until the close of hostilities. While in the army he was detailed to the commissary depart- ment. When the war was over he returned to his family in Florida, where he remained until 1871, when he removed to Texas and for two years was a resident of Tarrant county. He then came to Montague county, where he engaged in farming, and for some years he followed that pursuit, but is now living retired at Belcher. His wife, how- ever, died in May, 1895. At the age of seventy- six years he is enjoying the fruits of his former toil in a well earned rest. His political allegiance is given to the Democracy. In his family were seven children: Mrs. Georgia Brown; Clayton, who is engaged in the hardware business in Mon- tague; Rosa, the wife of John Brown; Eliza, the wife of George Stafford; Belle, the wife of T. Willis ; Adda, who married L. Risten, and Daniel R., living in Oklahoma.

To Mr. and Mrs. Brown have been born seven children: Robert L. and William G., who fol- low farming; Alice A., the wife of J. Griffith ; Frank M., a bookkeeper ; Rosa, Fannie B. and Laura E., all at home. The mother is a member of the Methodist church. The family have a wide and favorable acquaintance in this part of the state and enjoy the hospitality of its best homes.

THADDEUS KOSCIUSKO JONES, M. D. Active among the young business men of Hen- rietta and conspicuous as a successful practi- tioner of medicine in Clay county is the worthy gentleman named in the introduction to this review. Capable and efficient in his profession, reliable in his business judgment and sincere and honorable as a citizen, it is our privilege to present to posterity through the medium of this volume the salient facts of his family his- tory.

Beginning with his origin, Dr. Jones is a Ten- nesseean, born in Rutherford county, September 30, 1875. His was one of the early settled fam- ilies of the county, for his father, Samuel P. Jones, was born in 1827, near where the grand- father settled as an emigrant from North Caro-

lina. While Samuel P. Jones was a farmer it seems the earlier heads of families were, in the main, either merchants or public officers.

Samuel P. Jones, now of Rockwall, Texas, first visited the Lone Star state in 1856 but re- turned to Tennessee before the Civil war and served in the Eighteenth Tennessee Regiment of Confederate troops during that era. For his wife he married Mattie Mccullough, who is yet his companion, they taking up their resi- dence at Rockwall, Texas. Their five children are: Forest, of Rockwall; James, of Ruther- ford county, Tennessee; Mary, who died in 1902, was the wife of J. R. Sanders of the same county and state ; Pascal, of Rockwall, and Dr. Thaddeus K., our subject.

Dr. Jones passed his youth upon his father's Tennessee farm and laid the foundation for a common school education in the country school. He left the farm at about nineteen years of age and during fall and winter months, for three years, was employed in and about an oil mill at Rockwall while in summer he aided his brothers who were in the dray and transfer business and did some clerking in a drugstore in the same town. In the spring of 1895 he began reading medicine with Dr. J. F. Corry and in further preparation for a profession spent three years in Vanderbilt University at Nashville. He graduated in medicine April 1, 1898, and lo- cated in Rockwall, Texas, for the first year. He then came to Henrietta and formed a partner- ship with Dr. E. A. Johnston, was with him a short time and then associated himself with Dr. Tenney. Later he and Dr. A. B. Edwards be- came partners and remained so till the latter's retirement from the profession in 1903, when, in June of that year, he made common cause with Dr. E. Puckett, a former townsman from Rockwall, with whom he is still associated. In 1902 the doctor took a post-graduate course at Vanderbilt and spent several weeks in Johns Hopkins University.

In a business way, Dr. Jones is one of the prin- cipals in the drug firm of Ellis and Jones, Hen- rietta ; is interested, in a small way, in the sheep business, and is one of the promoters of the Jones, Hanna and Wyatt Oil Company and in the Townsite Oil Company, both developers of oil lands in the northern portion of Clay county.

June 13, 1899, Dr. Jones married, in Rockwall, Texas, Miss Nannie, daughter of Green White, of Rockwall, formerly of Tennessee. The doctor is a blue lodge and chapter Mason, a Pythian Knight and an Odd Fellow. He be- longs, also, to the Knights of the Maccabees

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

and was from 1903-05 one of the aldermen of Henrietta, and is now mayor of the city.

MERIDA G. ELLIS, capitalist and real estate dealer at Fort Worth, has been a resident of Texas from pioneer times, being a native son of the state. His birth occurred in April, 1847, at the family home about three miles east of Denton, in Denton county, his parents being J. N. and Artimisa (Brown) Ellis, both of whom were natives of Tennessee. They re- moved from that state to Missouri and subse- quently to Denton county, Texas, where they arrived in 1846. The father purchased a farm three miles east of the present county seat and thereon he and his wife resided throughout their remaining days. They left a family of eight children, all of whom are now deceased with the exception of Merida G. James Ellis, one of the sons, died at Fort Worth in De- cember, 1899.

As Merida G. Ellis lost his parents in his early infancy, he was taken into the family of his uncle, Samuel P. Loving, who soon after- ward removed to Tarrant county, locating on a farm on Sycamore Creek about four miles from the present court house in Fort Worth. In February, 1862, when not yet fifteen years of age, Merida G. Ellis enlisted in the Confederate army and served until the close of the war in 1865. He was first enrolled at Fort Worth in Captain Peak's company but soon afterward was assigned to duty with the company under command of Captain Jack Brinson and con- tinued in the army east of the Mississippi river until 1863, when he was discharged at Tupelo, Mississippi, on account of ill health. Soon afterward, however, he re-enlisted at Fort Worth and became a member of Captain Archie Hart's company, Martin's regiment, with which he served throughout the remainder of the war in the Trans-Mississippi department, mostly doing duty in Texas and receiving his discharge at Richmond, this state.

When the war was ended Mr. Ellis returned to his uncle's home in Tarrant county and later went to western Texas, where he worked at the cattle business on the plains. In 1867, how- ever, he returned to Fort Worth, realizing the value of a better education than he had been able to acquire and spent the time in school until 1868. In that year he was married to Miss J. Darter, a sister of William A. Darter of this city, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work. There have been four children born of this un- ion: Mrs. Minnie Lynch, Mrs. Rosa McCart, Mrs. Bessie McCollum and Merida G., Jr.

Since his marriage Mr. Ellis has made his home in Fort Worth, and although not yet an old man in years he is one of the oldest living pioneers of the city, Col. Abe Harris being per- haps the only resident of Fort Worth now living here who was here when Mr. Ellis came to Tarrant county with his uncle and aunt. For several years he was prominently engaged in mercantile and other business interests of the city, being a member of the firm of Ellis and Huffman, dealers in agricultural imple- ments, but in 1882 he sold out to his partner and invested largely in land, on which the city of North Fort Worth has been built, having more than fifteen hundred acres there. He was one of the promoters and founders of the original stock yards at North Fort Worth, beginning the development in this enterprise about the time that he retired from mercantile life and like many promoters of worthy enterprises which subsequently become financially profit- able he lost money in the venture. He was president of the stock yards and packing house company at North Fort Worth for more than two years. This was the beginning of what is now the greatest feature in the business life of the city, the stock yards and packing industry. Since 1888 Mr. Ellis has been engaged in the real estate business and is now one of the rep- resentative and successful men of the city. Moreover he has been closely identified with the development and progress of this portion of the state through long years and his busi- ness dealings are interwoven with its history. He belongs to R. E. Lee Camp, U. C. V.

J. WORTH TIMMONS. Perhaps no one family has so closely identified itself with Young county and has been more sincerely and actively connected with its industrial af- fairs than the one represented by the subject of this notice and for fealty to friends and loyalty and integrity of purpose J. Worth Timmons ad- mirably excels. A commissioner of his county, a prominent cowman of the old regime and a large farmer of the present day, he is one of the substantial characters of his municipality and a rugged example of western citizenship.

March 7, 1850, J. Worth Timmons was born in Cherokee county, Georgia, a son of Alex- ander and Julia (Moss) Timmons, industrious farmers of their adopted county. Alexander Timmons was born in Hall county, Georgia, in 1820, was sparingly educated and was a son of Noble Timmons, who was born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in 1983, moved with his family to Georgia, passed his life as a farmer

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and miller and died in 1860. Noble Timmons served in the war of 1812 and married Elender Powers, who bore him John, Samuel, Mary, wife of William Brooks, Alexander, William, Noble, and Elender, who married a Patterson.

Alexander Timmons left his Cherokee coun- ty, Georgia, home in 1861 and drove through to Texas, through Tennessee, Kentucky, Ar- kansas, Missouri and Indian Territory, stop- ping in Hill county, Texas, until 1863, when he moved on to Hamilton county and, in the spring of 1866, to Young county, where he passed away in 1881. He located on Clear Fork two miles below Eliasville, where he purchased one survey and pre-empted one. His early years in the county were devoted chiefly to the cattle and sheep industry, although he made some pre- tense to farming, and he served as justice of the peace some years. He opposed the war of the states and left his native state to escape the evil effects he knew would follow. He was a State Ranger for a time and sustained some losses at the hands of the Indians. In senti- ment he was a strong Union man during the war period and felt that the south should have demanded its rights within the Union. After the war he voted the Democratic ticket and lived in harmony with the political views of his neighbors. He was a member of the Primi- tive Baptist church.

Alexander Timmons married, in 1846, a daughter of David Moss. Mrs. Timmons was born in Spartanburg District, South Carolina, in 1822, June 28, and died August 20, 1897. Her mother was a Miss White. The issue of Mr. and Mrs. Timmons were: Nancy, deceased wife of A. B. Medlan, passed away in October, 1878; Joseph Worth, our subject ; Rosalia, wife of John Marlin, of Throckmorton county ; Palestine, wife of Judge W. H. Peckham, of Fort Worth, and John, who died in Young county in 1876, unmarried.

J. Worth Timmons came to Texas when elev- en years of age and received some school train- ing at Towash, Hill county, and attended school some in Hamilton county, one term at Belknap and one at Weatherford. He remained with the parental home till past twenty-one and when he started in life went to work on the range for his brother-in-law, Mr. Medlan, for a per cent of the increase. He accumulated a bunch of cattle of his own, chose the "Tim" as his brand and continued it till 1878-having lost more than four hundred head by theft in 1873-when he sold the brand and entered the field with a new brand. In 1882 he sold his "Dog" brand and began buying land prepara-

tory to leaving the range and paying attention to active agriculture. He has six hundred and forty acres on the north side of the Brazos and nine hundred and twenty acres on the south side, in Young county, and carries only what stock the pastures will support.

Mr. Timmons was united in marriage Oc- tober 26, 1880, with Miss Nannie Willis, a daughter of George Willis, who passed away in Jackson county, Alabama. Mrs. Timmons was born in Alabama in 1863 and came to Texas with her mother, now Mrs. A. B. Medlan, in 1873, and to Young county in 1878. She has two sisters, Mrs. Serena Turner, of New Mexico and Mrs. Sarah Ragland, of Young county. Mr. and Mrs. Timmons' children are : Cornelia, wife of P. D. Clack, of Havre, Mon- tana, with a son, Worth Medlan; Julia, a Mon- tana teacher; George W., a Montana railroad man ; Ina B., of Havre; Roscoe C., John M., Joseph W., Carl A., Edward W., Paul and Herman.

Mr. Timmons has ever taken a good citizen's interest in local politics. He served four years as cattle inspector and inspector of hides for his county and was appointed county commis- sioner early in 1905 to fill out the term of Joseph Ford for the first commissioner's pre- cinct.

ANDREW JACKSON. Along the valleys of Denton creek, before the Civil War, a few hardy settlers ventured and thrust themselves almost into the doorways, as it were, of the tepees of the hostile Indian with their imple- ments of civilization. Land was anywhere to be had for the taking and but for the occasional forays of bands of red men. bent on murder and rapine, there was no one to dispute their pos- session. They were homeseekers and pros- pective home-builders and they willed to stay on Denton creek and, notwithstanding the in- numerable attempts to prevent by hostile hordes, they did stay and the children of that day are the representative men and women of the valley today.

Among the last of the ante-bellum settlers of that locality, whose posterity have added wealth and the renown of honest citizenship to their county, was James Jackson, father of the subject of this review. He added his family to the sparse settlement in the fall of 1860 and located them on the right bluff of the stream some three miles below where the hamlet of Denver was afterward laid out. While he was classed as a farmer and had farming carried on, he was actively a trader and this vocation prob-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

ably yielded him more revenue in this new country than did his farm. He was born in north Georgia, in the region tributary to Chat- tanooga, Tennessee, and grew up there, but went to Arkansas about 1842 and was married in Montgomery county, where he first settled. He afterward lived in Pike county and came to Texas from there. Caroline Brock was his first wife and she died in Montgomery county, Arkansas, in 1846, and for his second wife he married Elizabeth Carpenter, who died in Mon- tague county, Texas.

James Jackson was a man of no education, but nevertheless possessed good business judg- ment and made a financial success of life. By his first wife his only child was Andrew, our subject. By his second wife were: Elizabeth J., married Riley Willingham, now deceased, and resides in Denver, Texas; Charles Ralph ; Sarah D., wife of Samuel McDonald, of Den- ver; and Mahala married D. C. McDonald, another leading farmer and pioneer of Denton creek valley ; Millie M., widow of Joseph Mc- Donald and wife of Early Nixon, of Haskell county, Texas ; Sena I., deceased wife of Frank Willingham; Eliza E., wife of Houston Wain- scott, of Denver, Texas; Drusie, deceased, mar- ried John W. Williams, and left no issue, and Frank, who died single.

Andrew Jackson was born in Montgomery county, Arkansas, October 24, 1846, and came to the country of the red man at about fourteen years of age. After his father's death, in 1869, at fifty-five years of age, he became the active head of the family and he began life more on the education of actual experience than from any knowledge gained from books. During the war he belonged to Captain John Willingham's company of Home Guards which simply kept a watchful eye upon the Indians prowling up and clown the creek. He and the captain encoun- tered a small squad of warriors on Brushy creek, had an engagement at close range with them for some minutes, but each side found an oppor- tunity to escape and withdrew without casualties so far as known.

In the early time Mr. Jackson was in the saddle, on the cow trail, a great deal. His fa- ther was in the stock business and the open range made large pastures and enabled stock to wander off. This necessitated an occasional rounding-up and bunching-up and the job fell to the lot of Andrew. When he was ready to settle down, Mr. Jackson took possession of one-half of the old homestead which his father left to him, and he began his career as a house- holder in the early seventies, having no thought

of any vocation but that offered by the farm. In the matter of grain-raising he became an expert and if there was any corn raised at all on Den- ton creek it could be found in his crib ; others might totally fail, but he never did. The best evidence of an intelligent and successful farmer is found in his corn crib. If it is never empty we can count him a money maker, otherwise he is probably but an apology for a farmer. Mr. Jackson is decidedly a leader in his vocation. His seven hundred and forty-two acres consti- tute one of the fine farms of the valley and its acquirement represents the success his and his sons' efforts at farming have met.

Mr. Jackson was married in 1872 to Miss Mary Ellen McDonald, a daughter of Cash Mc- Donald, who came into Denton creek valley in 1857 from Lawrence county, Missouri, where Mrs. Jackson was born in

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 24

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