A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 33

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 33

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Mr. Deaver was reared on a Grayson county ranch when ranching and cattle-raising were the principal industries of Grayson county, be- fore its black-soil land developed into the rich farming community that it is now. His pri- mary education in Grayson county was supple- mented by attendance at the Waco University, and also a course at the Texas State Normal at Huntsville, where he was graduated in 1887. He then accepted a position in the Chickasaw Nation Male Academy at Tishomingo, Indian Territory, where he was engaged in teaching for seven years. During this time he read law to some extent, and on leaving his school po- sition he devoted all his time to his legal studies at Sherman, Texas, with Judge John Finley as his preceptor. He was admitted to the bar at Sherman in 1891, and in the same year came to Memphis, where he has ever since carried on practice, with increasingly large clientage and success. He was elected and served as county attorney of Hall county for five years. He is everywhere recognized as a first-class law- yer, and is thoroughly identified with the best interests of his town and county. He owns a good stock ranch in Donley county and is now president of the Hall County National Bank.

Mr. Deaver was married in Memphis to Miss Maud Montgomery, who was born in Grayson county. They have four children of their own, Mina, John, Temple and Pattie, and an adopted son, Victor Deaver.

HENRY CLAY BROWN. The gentleman whose name introduces this personal notice is a modest though successful farmer whose sev- enteen years as a citizen of Montague county have made him widely and favorably known, not strictly because of his vocation, but because of his public service rendered in one of the im - portant offices in the gift of the voters of his county. He is a gentleman of admitted busi- ness capacity and of demonstrated integrity, and it has been for the well-being of Montague county to have him her citizen. Mr. Brown has resided in the Lone Star State since 1883. He first settled in Ellis county on a farm but in 1888 sought out and purchased land in Mon- tague county, four miles east of Bowie, where since the work of home improvement and soil cultivation has been carried on. He came to Texas from Nevada county, Arkansas, but was reared in Clark county, that state. At the age of seven years his parents migrated thither from Henderson county, Tennessee, where he was born April 22, 1846.

A glance at the family history shows our subject to be a son of William Brown, a na- tive of Greenville district, South Carolina. born July 4, 1806. He grew up there on his father's plantation along with his brothers, Jackson and Thomas, and acquired a fair edu- cation in the schools common to his day and time. His wife was Rebecca Fowler, who died at the home of her son, our subject, in the fall of 1890. In 1853 William Brown became a settler in Clark county, Arkansas. He left South Carolina about 1832 and lived in west Tennessee some twenty-one years. During the rebellion he served in the Home Guard in Ark- ansas and was in a couple of small engage- ments. He was a man of positive convictions cn public policies and was a Whig prior to the war. He was elected treasurer of Nevada county, Arkansas, and served four years, show- ing him to have been a citizen of high stand- ing in his county. He came to Texas in 1884 and followed the meanderings of his son into Montague county, dying at the latter's home in March, 1890. He was a Master Mason and a Christian, worshiping with the Baptist denom- ination. His children were: Emily, of Sevier county, Arkansas, wife of A. J. Marsh; Ellen, who married A. J. Cole and is a patient in the Little Rock Asylum; Cynthia, wife of Thomas Cook, of Montague county; Henry C., our subject; Neal S., who died in Ellis county, Texas ; William C. P., of Jasper county, Texas ; and Winfield S., of Hill county.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Henry Clay Brown grew up amid rural sur- roundings chiefly and acquired the elementary principles of an education. When his educa- tion should have been in process he was fight- ing for the independence of the Confederacy and after the war the business of bread win- ning was too urgent to permit him to again at- tend school. He enlisted in the spring of 1862 in Company H, Twenty-third Arkansas Infan- try, Captain A. A. Pennington and Colonel O. P. Lile, and was sent to the front at once, taking part in the battles of Corinth and Iuka. In the engagement at Port Hudson in 1863 he was captured and paroled. Two weeks after his return home he went into the state troops, having become accustomed to a life of excite- ment and high tension, his company being H Colonel Crockett's regiment. This was a cav- alry regiment and it served in the Trans-Mis- sissippi Department where Mr. Brown was in the fights at Mount Elbe, Prairie Dien and Mark's Mill. At the close of the war he was discharged at Marshall, Texas, and resumed civil pursuits on the farm.

In January, 1869, in Clark county, Arkansas, Mr. Brown married Miss Fannie Lawley, a daughter of Elijah and Mary (Brownlee) Lawley. The Lawley children were: William, of Weleetka, Indian Territory; John and Rob- ert who died in the Indian Territory, leaving families; Mrs. Brown; Alfred and Emma, of Clark county, Arkansas, the latter the wife of James Ayres. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Brown are: William E., of Hobart, Oklahoma, is married to Maggie Garrett; Emma, wife of Nathan Norman, of Ellis county, Texas; Miss Kate, a teacher in Montague county, and her twin sister, Kalie, wife of W. A. Davis, of Ellis county, Texas ; Ella, wife of Ed. Chand- ler, of Montague county; T. Jack, who mar- ried Addie Bruce and resides on the old home- stead; Etta, who married Richmond Wynn and is a teacher of the county; and Miss Myr- tle, still with the parental home.

Mr. Brown approached manhood during the stormy days and years of American politics and when conditions warranted all white men in uniting in the support of the same principles and he became a Democrat. He has ever acted with that party and came to be active in its affairs after he established himself in Mon- tague county. He was named for county com- missioner of precinct No. 2 in the fall of 1902 and was elected without serious opposition. Beyond the routine work of the board a little bridge-building occupied its attention and Mr. Brown closed his term in November, 1904,

with a creditable two years' work. He is a mem- ber of the Missionary Baptist church and is a gentleman with sincere and friendly impulses. He is easily approachable, has a kindly and entertaining manner and seems at peace with all the world. He believes in higher education for the youth, and in his own family he has shown his faith by his works.

MILTON J. WHITE. The Whites, of which family our subject is a worthy repre- sentative, came to the Lone Star state from Tennessee and this branch of the family was founded in the Trans-Mississippi country of the west by William J. White in 1860. The latter is the father of Milton J. White and he emigrated from Maury county, his native state, in the vigor of early manhood and es- tablished himself as a pedagogue in Collin county, Texas. He brought his young wife with him from the east and it was in that county, October 11, 1864, that the subject of this personal sketch was born.

Milton J. White is, in point of service, the oldest and the pioneer druggist of Bellevue. In Collin and Jack counties he came to man's es- tate and until his embarkation in the mercan- tile business in Bellevue his environment was purely rural. The country school had done its best for him toward an education and the first two-thirds of his minority was passed in Collin county. In 1878 his parents removed to Jack county and there, upon coming into the full flush of his majority, he adopted a rural life. He owned a horse when he was mar- ried and he borrowed the remainder of the team with which to make his crop. He and his young wife had the tenacious and persevering quali- ties necessary to ultimate success and the farm that they began life on is still their property.

In 1893 Mr. White was induced by Dr. Charles H. Whiting to engage in the drug business in Bellevue, then a mere hamlet but with good prospects and much promise. With- out experience in drugs and expecting to learn the business from Dr. Whiting, Mr. White put in a stock of about three hundred dollars and entered the career of a merchant. Matters went well with him for some six months, when Dr. Whiting suddenly died and he was left "to paddle his canoe" alone. His growth as a mer- chant has kept pace with the growth and de- velopment of his town and, since March 1, 1894, the demands of the trade have so increased as to cause him to carry a much larger stock.

William J. White passed his middle and latter life as a farmer, and in 1894 located at

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Bellevue, and retired. His birth occurred in Tennessee in 1833, and his father was Sam White and his mother Sarah C. Ragan. His educational advantages were such as to quali- fy him for teaching and he engaged in it as a stepping-stone in life. He enlisted in the mili- tary service of the Confederacy, but was sent back to Collin county to continue his work in the school-room. He left Collin county April 10, 1878, and located near Post Oak, in Jack county, where he farmed till he came to Belle- vue. He was married on September 15, 1856, in Mississippi, to Miss Mollie, a daughter of J. O. and Elizabeth (Blackwell) Kerr, who had a family of ten children. Mrs. Mollie White was born in Mississippi in 1837, and is the mother of: Ella, wife of H. M. Glass, of Hart- ley, Texas; Milton J .; Anna, widow of L. J. Walker, of Bellevue, ex-county clerk and as- sessor of Clay county ; Samuel B., of Bellevue ; William J., of Jack county ; Joseph E., of the same county, and Mamie E., who died un- married. Mr. White is a Democrat in poli- tics and is a member of the Methodist church.

August 9, 1885, in Jack county, Milton J. White married Lillie, a daughter of Richard B. and Rachel (Cooksey) Walker, the wed- ding occurring at the Walker home and the ceremony being performed by Rev. John Dunn. Mr. Walker was born in Illinois and his wife in Texas. He died in July, 1899, and she passed away twenty years before. Their children were: James, of Greer county, Oklahoma; Richard, of Idaho; Mrs. White, born August 31, 1866; Jesse, of San Francisco; Florida, and Rosa who died before marriage.

Mr. and Mrs. White's children are: Clara L., born July 1, 1886; Zuma, born December 5, 1888, and Ruth, born September 27, 1898.

"Mit" White, as everybody knows him, has made his efforts and his influence felt in Belle- vue. He has experienced no meteoric flights to wealth nor no sudden transformation from an industrious farmer to a progressive and suc- cessful merchant, but he has gone about his affairs as one having a work to perform, set- ting a commendable example and wielding an influence, unconsciously, for the good report of his town.

DUNCAN McRAE, a farmer and at one time county superintendent of schools in Tar- rant county, making his home in Fort Worth, is a native of Tennessee, his birth having oc- curred in Maury county, on the 22d of Sep- tember, 1845. His paternal grandfather, Alex- ander McRae, was born in Scotland, and on

coming to America settled in North Carolina, where occurred the birth of his son, Duncan McRae, who in his boyhood days accompanied his parents on their removal to Tennessee, the family home being established in Maury county, where Duncan McRae continued to re- side throughout his remaining days. He be- came a substantial agriculturist of that locality. His wife was born in that county and was a sister of R. R. Raimey, who came to Texas from Tennessee in 1836 to assist the struggling revolutionists in the achievement of indepen- dence from Mexico. He was with General Fan- nin's command and was killed in the battle of Goliad.

Duncan McRae was reared to farm life and acquired his early education in the public schools of Maury county, while later he pur- sued his studies at Moore's Institute, in Mooresville, Tennessee. He was a young man of eighteen years when in 1864 he responded to the call of the Confederacy, enlisting in Company F, First Tennessee Cavalry. With that command he went to Georgia, joining Gen- eral Joe Johnston's army and was in all of the fighting that constituted the siege and battle of Atlanta, continuing with Johnston's army un- til its surrender in North Carolina. He was also in the hotly contested engagement of New Hope Church, which preceded the battle of At- lanta.

When the war was ended Mr. McRae re- turned to his home in Maury county, Tennes- see, where he began farming and later he was likewise identified with merchandising, carry- ing on both pursuits until the latter part of 1876, when, determining to establish his home in Texas, where he believed he might enjoy better business advantages, he came to Tarrant county on the Ist of January, 1877. Here he has since resided. He began farming at John- son's Station, four miles south of Arlington, and later he located at Handley, while in 1897 he established his home in Polytechnic Heights, Fort Worth, where he has since lived. Not long after his arrival in Tarrant county he began teaching, and continued in the pro- fession for several years in connection with the management of his agricultural interests. He first taught at Johnson's Station and later at other places in Tarrant county-Handley, Mansfield, Smithfield and Keller, and in 1894 he was elected county superintendent of schools, which position he filled in a most cap- able and satisfactory manner for six years, be- ing elected for three consecutive terms and then retired from the office as he had entered

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it-with the confidence and good will of all concerned. Since that time he has not been actively connected with the teacher's profes- sion save that he takes a most earnest interest in educational affairs in Tarrant county, as- sisting in county institutes and in other ways lending his influence to maintain a high stand- ard of the schools, and promote the intellectual development of the locality. He is the owner of one of the finest farms in Tarrant county, comprising more than four hundred acres lying along the interurban railroad within three miles of Arlington. This tract is under a high state of cultivation and is well equipped with modern improvements, indicating the careful supervision and practical and progressive methods of the owner.

Mr. McRae was married in Williamson county, Tennessee, September 7, 1869, to Miss Fannie Crowe, a daughter of Thomas A. Crowe, Esq., of Williamson county, Ten- nessee. She died June 14, 1903. sur- vived by a daughter and three sons, namely : Willie, the wife of J. W. Smith; Duncan Crowe; Edward and Walter Thomas. Mr. MeRae is a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church, South, and is interested in the material, intellectual and moral development of the community, co-operating along these lines for general improvement and upbuilding.

JUDGE JAMES L. HARRISON, a well known cattleman and a resident of Panhandle, has recently been the honored incumbent of the office of county judge of Carson county and his connection with both private business and public affairs has given him a place of promi- nence and esteem in this section of Texas. A native son of the Lone Star state, he was born in Lavaca county in 1858. His father, Samuel Harrison, a native of Tennessee, moved to Ala- bama and thence to Texas about 1852, locating first in Titus county and later in Lavaca coun- ty, where he still lives and is a successful farm- er. The mother, Ellen (Boyce) Harrison who is now deceased, was also born in Tennes- see.

Judge Harrison spent his boyhood on his father's farm, and at the age of sixteen began "cow punching" and has been i ntified in an increasing degree with the cattle business from that time to this. In 1887 he came to Coleman county, where he was employed a *couple of years, and in 1889 came to the foot of the plains, in Motley county. There he en- tered the service of the Matador Cattle Com- pany as a cowboy, and later became their range

manager. Subsequently taking a place with? the Home Land and Cattle Company, for sev- eral years he managed their cattle interests in New Mexico, and in the fall of 1890 came to Carson county this state with a bunch of cat- tle for that company, putting them on the White Deer pastures. Late in 1892, still in the employ of the Home Land and Cattle Com- pany, he took a lot of their cattle to Montana, and remained in charge of their interests there till the winter of 1896-97, when he returned to Carson county. . Since the Home Land and Cattle Company sold out their interests Mr. Harrison has been in the cattle business for himself, and has become one of the most ex- tensive operators along this line in the Pan- handle. His pastures, most of which are leased from the White Deer ranch, lie in Roberts and Gray counties, and consist of about one hun- dred thousand acres. He also owns in his name a large amount of land.

Judge Harrison came into prominence in Carson county as a public official in 1900, when he was elected county judge, and by re-elec- tion in 1902 served altogether for four years, with a most creditable record in every detail of his work. His principal attention, however, has always been given to his cattle interests, and he is a well known member of the Texas Cattle-Raisers' Association.

Judge Harrison and family reside in the town of Panhandle, where they have a very pretty residence and enjoy a large circle of friends. Judge Harrison was married at Gatesville, this state, to Miss Nellie Hotch- kiss, and their one son is James Harrison.

IRA T. VALENTINE. In reviewing the prominent members of the Tarrant county bar the name of Ira T. Valentine takes precedence of many of his professional brethren. Those who win prominence at the bar of America's thriving cities, of which Fort Worth is one, must have a thorough understanding of its principles, a keen perception, logical reasoning and above all habits of painstaking, patient industry. All must begin on a common plane and rise to eminence by per- severance, or fall back into the ranks of mediocri- ty. In like manner with all others, Ira T. Valen- tine started out to win a name and place for him- self, and his success has made him one of the leaders of the Fort Worth bar.

His birth occurred in Bedford, Tarrant coun- ty, a son of R. T. and Mary (Armstrong) Valen- tine. The father took up his residence in Tar- rant county in 1867, and here he has ever since resided, a merchant by occupation, and for many

IRA T. VALENTINE

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vears postmaster of Bedford. The son Ira re- ceived his early educational training in the public schools of his native city, later attending the Sam Houston Normal School at Huntsville, Tex- as, where he graduated in 1894 with high honors, being salutatorian of his class. While in school he had prepared himself especially for teaching, and after leaving the normal engaged actively in that profession for about eight years, about four years of the time being spent as principal of the high school at Dublin ; also held the same position in one of the ward schools in Houston, was secre- tary of the State Teachers' Association for one year and for the same length of time a member of the executive committee. Mr. Valentine was numbered among the prominent educators of the state, but wishing to enter the ranks of the legal profession he abandoned the work of the school room and prepared for his chosen calling in the law department of the University of Texas at Austin, where he took a two years' course and graduated in 1902. He then returned to his home county and engaged in the practice of law at Fort Worth. He enjoys. a large clientage, and has connected himself with much of the important litigation heard in the courts of the district in the past few years. He is a member of the law firm of Bowlin, Valentine & Curtis, with offices at 2001/2 Main street, Fort Worth, while his home is at North Fort Worth, and in April, 1904, he was elected city attorney of the latter place for the term of two years and in connection with his duties in that position maintains an office in the city hall in North Fort Worth.

Mr. Valentine was married near Birdville, Tar- rant county, to Miss Pearl Bailey, the daughter of one of the old and prominent pioneer settlers of this county, and they have three daughters- Edna, Olene and Inez. Mr. Valentine is promi- nent in the Knights of Pythias fraternity, being a member and past chancellor of Lodge No. 330, of North Fort Worth, and has been a grand rep- resentative in the state organization. He also belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America, the Red Men and the Rathbone Sisters. Mrs. Valen- tine is the most excellent chief of the Rathbone Sisters of North Fort Worth, where Mr. Valen- tine also holds membership.

CAPTAIN RICHARD W. HYDE, the well known hardware merchant of Iowa Park, Wichita county, has been identified with the business life of this town almost since its in- ception, and as a Texan is one of the oldest and foremost citizens, this state having been his home practically all the time since boy- hood.

He was born in Rutherford county, Tennes- see, in 1840, being a son of Jordan W. and Melinda (Davis) Hyde. His father was a Ten- nesseean by birth, and from that state enlisted for service in the Mexican war, after the con- clusion of which he located in Texas. During this time he lost his wife, the mother of Cap- tain Hyde, and in 1854 the father located here after the Mexican war and his two sons came to Texas and located in Clarksville, in Red River county, where the father engaged in the mercantile business and became a large and prosperous merchant and trader. That was before the railroads penetrated that section, and his goods were shipped up the Red river from New Orleans as far as Shreveport, and thence freighted across the country to Clarksville. In 1852 he had made a trip to California, but re- mained there only a short time. After becom- ing well established at Clarksville he started a branch store at Sulphur Springs, Texas, and did a flourishing business at both places for some time before the war. During the rebel- lion he supplied cattle to the Confederate army, but during that period his fortune was largely sacrificed, and when peace came he entered into the cattle business. In November, 1879, while he was taking a shipment of cattle north, his train went down with the bridge across the Missouri river at St. Charles and he was killed. He was a resourceful and well known man, was influential in affairs, and was generally successful.

Captain Hyde was a boy when he came to Texas with his father, and he learned the mercantile business under the latter's direc- tion. He was just of age when the Civil war broke out, and he at once joined the army at Clarksville, although he did not regularly en- list there. He fought for the southern cause throughout the war, and is one of the Confed- erate veterans whose service extended over nearly four years. From Clarksville he went to Missouri with a lot of Mccullough's men, and enlisted in benton county, that state, in the Seventh Missouri Cavalry, Company K. He was under General Price, and when that gen- eral went east he was one of the twenty-two hundred soldiers who were sent back from Hel- ena, Arkansas, to Missouri. During the war his services were confined to Arkansas, Mis- souri and Indian Territory. He was under Colonel Marmaduke and General Jo Shelby, when the latter was a captain, and was with the former at the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, fighting against Phillips; he was with Colonel Coffee at the Lone Jack engagement, on which

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occasion he was struck by a sabre and his forehead still bears the scar from this wound. Especially bitter was the war in Mis- souri, where the hostile feeling was at fever heat and where neighbor was against neigh- bor and even members of the same family in deadly feud. He was captured a number of times during his military experience, and had many narrow and thrilling escapes.

When the war was over he went into the cattle business, and in the summer of 1865 he set out for Montana, where he arrived that fall. The exciting times of gold discovery were then at their height in that territory, and he was at Alder Gulch (Virginia City) soon after the discovery of the precious metal at that place, as also in other noted mining camps in that state. Western life with all its free and rough features became very familiar to him, and more than once he saw the quick and ef- fective work of the vigilantes. While there he was mainly concerned with the cattle trade, and he continued in Montana and neighboring territories for about fifteen years. At one time he had for a partner Captain William F. Dran- nan, a noted frontiersman, and they had be- come acquainted at Salt Lake City. Captain Drannan, in his "Thirty-one Years on the Fron- tier," speaks very highly of Captain Hyde. Though many years have elapsed since Mr. Hyde was in Montana, he still has friends there, and is also owner of a half interest in the Boaz gold mine near Virginia City.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 33

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