A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 36

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

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under the parental roof until his marriage. He afterward cared for his father during the closing years of his life. In 1874, at Starrville, Smith county, Texas, Mr. Dean was joined in wedlock to Miss Lucy Boger, a lady of culture and intel- ligence, who was born in Georgia, in 1857, and is a daughter of Daniel C. and Teressa ( Moss) Bo- ger, who came to Texas in 1861, settling in Up- shur county, where the father followed farming, operating his land with the aid of his slaves. He also handled salt at Saline for the Confederacy for four years and was on detached duty in con- nection with the army. He was a very promi- nent and influential Democrat, attended conven- tions of the party and worked earnestly for its success. In 1876 he cast in his lot with the pio- neer residents of Clay county, arriving here in November of that year. His death occurred in 1880 and thus passed away a most worthy and re- spected man. He was of German descent and was a member of the Lutheran church. In his family were the following children: Allen T., a farmer and stock-raiser; O. P., engaged in the same pursuit ; Mrs. Dean, Martin W., Mattie E., the wife of M. J. Wicker, and Vera, who married Joseph Wicker, now deceased.

At the time of his marriage Caloway Dean was engaged in merchandising and later he turned his attention to farming, but subsequently again became connected with mercantile pur- suits, which he followed for four years. In 1896 he came to Clay county and purchased the inter- est of the other heirs in two sections of land, whereon he yet resides. He has since added one thousand acres and he is now engaged in farm- ing and cattle-raising. He has six hundred acres under cultivation and fine pasture lands, afford- ing him excellent opportunity for raising stock. His entire time and attention have been given to his agricultural interests and he has placed substantial improvements upon his farm and is regarded as one of the most practical, progressive and prosperous agriculturists of the community. The home has been blessed with the following children : Richard S., born May 15, 1875; Mar- tin C., December 2, 1876; Mabel, October 25, 1878; James C., September 24, 1880, and Forrest O., December 16, 1882. Ethel, born January IO, 1884, died at the age of one year.

Mr. Dean was reared in the faith of the Demo- cratic party, of which he has always been a stanch advocate, and in Smith county he served for six years as county commissioner, but he is not a politician in the sense of office seeking. Fra- ternally he is a Royal Arch Mason and he is a consistent member of the Missionary Baptist church, while his wife is a member of the Bap-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

tist church. They are highly esteemed people and those who know them entertain for them warm regard. Mr. Dean is a man of excellent business ability, enterprising and determined, and in his agricultural interests is meeting with a very gratifying measure of success.

PROF. JAMES W. DRAUGHON. The Nelson-Draughon Business College of Fort Worth, of which Professor Draughon is presi- dent and his capable wife vice president, has, during its existence in this city supplied a force of efficient, practical graduates in business methods who, individually and collectively, are daily affording the highest testimony to the worth of the institution in the field of pro- ductive education. The Nelson-Draughon College graduate has the distinctive stamp of thorough training which only a few schools can give and which is usually the result of practical experience. The large business firms of North Texas, from past experience with its students, have come to recognize the superior- ity of the methods of business training em- ployed in the Nelson-Draughon school, and give its graduates precedence when a selection of assistants is made. In fact, in the past the college has been unable to supply the demand for its trained graduates, and its place among the practical educational institutions of North Texas is deserving of the highest rank.

Prof. James W. Draughon, to whose ability as an organizer and instructor so much of the success of the institution is due, was born at Springfield, Tennessee, in 1869, a son of Jesse and Mary (Batts) Draughon, both of whom were born and died in Tennessee. The achievement of success on the part of Profes- sor Draughon has been the result of constant and persevering effort from youth up. He had to work his way through college, and early gained an intimate knowledge of the practical and definite system of methods by which the great colossus of modern business is carried on. He received most of his education at the Springfield Collegiate institute, recognized for a number of years as one of the best colleges in the southern states. The practical side of bookkeeping he learned in an office, and re- ceived further business experience as book- keeper in a mercantile establishment at Tex- arkana, Arkansas, where he located at the age of nineteen. His skill with the pen is al- most phenomenal and as a teacher of penman- ship he has no superior and few equals. He taught bookkeeping at Texarkana, and later returned to Nashville, where he taught the

first pupil enrolled in the Draughon Business College at that place, remaining at the head of the commercial department of that college seven years. He has been actively engaged in business college work for fifteen years, and during this time has assisted in building up many commercial colleges throughout the south. In 1899 he located permanently in Fort Worth, and in the latter part of 1903 he with- drew his interests from all other institutions and established the Nelson-Draughon Business College, having associated with him his wife, Mrs. Odella (Nelson) Draughon, the college being named for himself and wife. At the time of this writing (April, 1905) the college has two hundred and fifty pupils, and its suc- cess in all departments is most gratifying. The school has received many flattering endorse- ments from the leading business and profes- sional men of Fort Worth, and its status is further assured by the character of the fol- lowing men who are stockholders and directors of the college: Ben O. Smith, cashier Farm- ers' and Mechanics' National Bank; W. E. Connell, cashier First National Bank; G. H. Colvin, cashier American National Bank; A. E. Want, president Want Grocery Company.

Professor J. W. Draughon is in various other ways a factor for the material upbuilding and civic advancement of his adopted city. On coming to this city he at once indicated his confidence in its future by investing in real estate, and these judicious investments have made him a wealthy man. He owns a beauti- ful residence at 704 West Seventh street. He was one of the organizers and is vice president of the Factory club, which was recently or- ganized by public-spirited citizens to promote the industrial growth of the city. Likewise a Christian gentleman and interested in extend- ing the religious and moral influences of his city, he is a member of the First Baptist church and assistant superintendent of the Sunday school ; also secretary and treasurer of the Tar -- rant County Sunday School Association.

Mrs. O'Della Nelson-Draughon, who co-op- erates with her husband as vice president of the Nelson-Draughon College, and who is a noted teacher of shorthand, has had many years of successful experience in business college work. Entering a business college as soon as her literary education was completed, she graduated in January, 1892, and since that time has had a varied and extensive experience as a court reporter and practical stenographer and as a teacher of shorthand, having been em- ployed five years as a stenographer and

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court reporter and since then as a teacher of shorthand. An enthusiastic fondness for her chosen work, coupled with her skill as an in- structor, has made Mrs. Draughon an ideal worker in her special field, and without doubt she has instructed more young men and women now holding responsible positions throughout the southern states, than any other two short- hand teachers of her age. A woman of high educational attainments and of distinctive per- sonality, she has impressed her influence upon hundreds of younger people and gained for herself and her institution a prestige which will not soon be lost. The people of Fort Worth and Texas are to be congratulated on having in their reach such an educational institution as the Nelson-Draughon Business College un- der the painstaking supervision of Professor and Mrs. J. W. Draughon.

WILLIAM CORY SMITH. The mail service of Bowie is efficiently presided over by a gentleman whose connection with this im- portant department of the government service has been wide and varied and who is familiar by reason of long experience with every detail of this complex system. Since the 2Ist of July, 1897, the patrons of the Bowie office have known him as their postmaster, where he has shown himself an ideal public servant.

Mr. Smith is a native of the middle Atlantic states, having been born in Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania, in 1858. July 29 was his natal day and his father was George S. Smith, a whole- sale dry goods merchant of East Liverpool, Ohio. The family was one of the first to set- tle the town of East Liverpool and was estab- lished there by William G. Smith, the grand- father of the subject of this review. The lat- ter passed his life as a merchant, and died in Tacoma, Washington, in 1896, at ninety-six years of age. George S. Smith was born in East Liverpool in 1836, and left there in 1860, taking his family to Kansas and establishing it in Atchison, where he passed his remaining years as a merchant, dying in 1891. His an- ccstry was German, while that of his wife was Scotch-Irish. Ile married Rebecca A. Cory, a daughter of William Cory, a West Virginian and a farmer near East Liverpool, Ohio. Mrs. Smith resides with a daughter in Lamberts- ville, New Jersey, and is the mother of: Fre- mont, of El Reno, Oklahoma; William C., our subject, and Lavilla, wife of John Lilly, of Lambertsville, New Jersey.

The high school at Leavenworth, Kansas, finished William C. Smith's literary education.

He manifested a decided tendency for music and he was put to the piano at ten years of age and at the age of fourteen had finished his work under Professor Francis Simon, a. pupil of one of the German universities. Be- ginning life while yet a mere youth, Mr. Smith went into a piano house in Atchison, Kansas, and was an important adjunct to the place un- til he entered the mail service in 1876. At that time he was made delivery clerk of the Atchi- son office and passed through every branch of the service to and including superintendent of carriers. In 1885 he went on the Santa Fe railroad as postal clerk, his run being from Santa Fe to Deming, New Mexico, but aban- doned his run to accept the superintendency of carriers in the Atchison postoffice. In 1886 he removed with his family to California, where, in Los Angeles, he remained four years, a brief portion of which time he passed in the Los Angeles office at the urgent request of the postmaster, who knew of his efficiency in the handling of Uncle Sam's mails. In 1890 he returned to Atchison for a year and in 1891 located in El Reno, where he joined his brother in a mercantile venture in that city. He re- mained there three years and came to Bowie, in July, 1895, to take the position of bookkeeper in the dry goods department of the firm of R. WV. Greathouse and Company. Following this employment he was appointed postmaster of the city to succeed E. A. Gwaltney and took the office, as previously stated, in July, 1897.

November 3, 1886, Mr. Smith married, in Atchison, Kansas, Florence, a daughter of Samuel Guerrier, an Englishman who came from Shropshire, where at Oaken Gates, Mrs. Smith was born July 25, 1868. Mr. Guerrier is a leading citizen of South McAlester, Indian Territory, where as a corporation lawyer he is widely known. George S. Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Smith's only son and heir, is fourteen years of age and was made an Elk at McAles- ter, Indian Territory, in 1903, being, therefore, the youngest Elk in the world. He is intensely musical, has a fine voice and sings everything in original keys.

CHARLES BIRK, president of the First National Bank at Iowa Park, Wichita county, is one of the self-made men of North Texas. "There is no education like adversity," and. truly in the school of "hard knocks" Mr. Birk passed his early days, but as his life has ap- proached its season of maturity in years, so likewise have the strenuous efforts of the past reached a generous fruitage of material wel-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

fare, wealth of honor and respect from his friends and associates and a well-builded char- acter.

Born in the village of Sasbach, in the grand duchy of Baden, Germany, in 1844, he lost his father, Jacob, and also his mother when he was in infancy. Only a few years later, when still a child, he began by manual work to earn his living, and throughout youth and young manhood necessity was the goad that inspired him to effort, and his mental training was meager indeed. But that home of his early boyhood, though so devoid of personal com- forts and advantages, remains still in many ways a beautiful memory to him. His home was in one of the most picturesque parts of all Germany, about twelve miles from the mag- nificent Rhine river, near the Black Forest with its legends and history, and the people among whom he was reared were mainly engaged in the cultivation of small farms and raising of high-class fruits. In such environment he at least learned the noble lessons of industry and simplicity, and despite the ever-broadening horizon of his later years the "simple life" has always appealed to him and been a composite part of his nature.

He spent some time across the borderland in Switzerland, and in 1865, when twenty years old, he entered the German army as a member of the Second Infantry of Baden. He served in the war between Prussia and Austria, and altogether served two years in the military. In 1868 he came to the United States, landing at New Orleans on the 28th of November, re- maining in that city about three months. He had only a very slight knowledge of the Eng- lish language when he arrived, but he was very apt in acquiring it. From New Orleans he went to Franklin, Louisiana, and remained a year in this center of the sugar industry. His next destination was up the Mississippi to Washington county, Mississippi, where he was employed for three months in the warehouse of a general merchant, and then in the lat- ter's store, where he acquired valuable business experience. After about two years spent in Washington county he went to Summit, in the same state, where for the following seven years he was in the store of W. T. White. Be- ing, as he was by this time, thoroughly equipped in practical business experience and with knowledge of American life and customs, in 1878 he came to Texas and after a short so- journ at Dallas located at Ferris, in Ellis coun- ty, and went into business on his own account. He was highly successful, and at this place

laid the foundation for his financial prosperity. He was numbered among the successful men. of Ferris for thirteen years, and in 1891 he arrived in Iowa Park, Wichita county, where he has since lived. For the first few years he gave his attention to no active business, but in 1895 he started a grocery store, later adding dry-goods and making it a general store, which he managed very profitably until February, 1903, when he sold out.

Mr. Birk was one of the influential men who organized the First National Bank of Iowa Park, in 1900, and he has been president of this . prosperous and reliable moneyed institution throughout its history. The bank has always been in a very flourishing condition, having a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars, and while its deposits are now over ninety thousand they have run as high as one hun- dred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Mr. Birk owns, in the vicinity of Iowa Park, six rich farms, aggregating over eighteen hun- dred acres and the source of a very large an- nual income, and he has also valuable business property in Iowa Park. Mr. Birk is one of the old Odd Fellows of this part of the state, hav- ing joined the order at Summit, Mississippi, in 1873.

Mr. Birk was married in 1891 to Miss Lucy Kilbourn, of Dallas county, this state. She belongs to one of the old and influential families of the state. Her father, Dr. Gustavus Adolphus Kilbourn, was a native of Ohio, and in Sangamon county, Illinois, was married to Miss Fannie Lance. She was a native daughter of Kentucky, and her father, Otway Bird Lance, was a historical character in Dallas county, Texas, where he located as a pioneer in 1851, only a few years after the Mexican war and at a time when the country about Dal- las was just opening up to settlement. In 1853 Dr. and Fannie Kilbourn also located in Dal- las county, this state, and they too were among the earliest residents there. Dr. Kilbourn con- tinued active practice of medicine for a num- ber of years at Lancaster and in that vicinity, and was greatly esteemed in all circles. Mrs. Birk has thus been identified with Texas life and environments during all her life, and has the charm of manner and warm-hearted char- acteristics for which the women of Texas are so noted. Mr. and Mrs. Birk have four chil- dren, Ralph, Eunice, Ernest and Frances.

JOHN B. POPE, of Clarendon, is a repre- sentative cattleman of the Panhandle country. Having devoted all his adult years to the cat-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

tle industry and spent nearly all that time in this section of the Lone Star state, he has, so to speak, grown up with the country, and so closely has he been identified with the life and activity of Northwest Texas that scarcely any part of its history is unfamiliar to him. He is a very prosperous man, has been uniformly successful from the start, and, beginning in the employ of others and without capital, by his industry and business sagacity he has become one of the most substantial and financially re- liable men of his section of the state.

Mr. Pope was born in Jasper county, Georgia, in 1850. His parents, both native Georgians, were J. C. and Mary L. (Clark) Pope. His father died in 1898 in Jasper county, where he had lived a long number of years as a farmer. The mother is still living at Monticello, Jasper county.

Reared on the farm in Jasper county, Mr. Pope spent the first twenty-one years of his life there, and in February, 1871, started for Texas. Stopping at Birdville, in Tarrant county, he worked for Dr. Finley about six months, and then started west with the Bird boys, their objective point being Fort Griffin, Shackelford county. On arriving there Mr. Pope went to work as a cowboy with Matthews and Reynolds, the well remembered extensive cattlemen of those days. This was the begin- ning of his connection with the cattle industry, and he has been at it ever since. He was in the employ of Matthews and Reynolds until 1873, when as a cowboy he assisted Kit Cooper take a bunch of cattle to Colorado, their route lying through the Indian nation and western Kansas into eastern Colorado. In 1875 Mr. Pope returned to work for Matthews and Rey- nolds, and later for several years was an em- ploye of Nick Eaton on the latter's ranch at Phantom Hill, in Jones county. In 1879 he came with Eaton to Mobeetie, in Wheeler county of the Texas Panhandle, and for the subsequent quarter of a century has been iden- tified with this high plains country. At that time Dodge City, Kansas, was the nearest railroad shipping point, and they drove cattle thither through Indian Territory. The entire Panhandle was then an open, unsettled region, almost its only human denizens being those engaged in the cattle business. In 1882 Mr. Pope went into partnership with R. E. Mc- Nulty, now of Fort Worth, and took a bunch of cattle over into the Indian country in what is now Greer county, Oklahoma, where they remained until 1884. In the latter year he en- tered the employ of Hughes and Simpson on

the Mill Iron ranch in what is now Hall county, south of the Red river, and from that point he drove a great many beef cattle to Wichita Falls, Texas. His last period of employment with other parties was in 1885 with Bugbee and Coleman.

During these latter years Mr. Pope had been accumulating considerable money from his wages, and had been investing most of it in yearling steers. About 1887 he began to buy land in small pieces, these forming the nucleus of his present magnificent ranch in Hall county, which consists of eleven thousand two hundred acres lying along the Red river in the most fertile and productive region of North Texas, being situated twelve miles west of Memphis. This is one of the best and most profitable ranches in the country, and acre for acre it is the equal or superior of any in North- west Texas. Mr. Pope made his home on this ranch until 1901, when he moved to Clarendon and purchased a fine residence, and he man- ages his ranching business from this city. He is now considered a wealthy man, and has been successful in his enterprises throughout the thirty or more years which he has spent in Texas. While working for others he was known as a conscientious, hard-working man, gaining the respect and confidence of all his associates, and since he has become independ- ent he has been equally popular with his fel- low citizens and with those in his employ.

Mr. Pope, in addition to following busi- ness affairs so closely and successfully, has also taken a prominent part in public matters. He is an ex-county commissioner of Hall county. He is a loyal Methodist, and is one of the board of trustees of Clarendon College. He is likewise well known in Masonic circles.

He was married at Newlin, Texas, in 1891, to Miss Attie M. Embry, a native of Ellis county, this state, and they have two children, John B., Jr., and Mary L.

JUDGE JAMES TILLMAN SMITH, bet- ter known as Judge Tillman Smith, one of the brainy and successful representatives of the Fort Worth bar, who entered upon active par- ticipation in the affairs of the world at an early age by becoming a soldier in the Civil war, and who has been identified intimately with the development and welfare of North Texas dur- ing nearly all the forty years subsequent to the war, filling an important place not only in his profession, but in the legislature and in other departments of activity, is a native of Anson county, North Carolina. His parents,

STERLING P. CLARK

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

William C. and Mary Anne (Tillman) Smith, were both natives of the Old North state, and both died at Cleburne, Texas, the father in 1886 and the mother in 1899.

When the Civil war broke out the son Till- man was a student at Davidson College in his native state, and though less than seventeen years old, he enlisted in the' Confederate service in Company C, Fourteenth North Carolina troops, under Colonel R. T. Bennett as regi- mental commander, General Stephen Ramseur brigade commander, General D. H. Hill di- vision commander, Jackson's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia. He saw most of his service during the crucial campaigns in Virginia. He was wounded in the battle of Sharpsburg (known in the north as Antietam), September 17, 1862, and again wounded at the battle of Chancellorsville May 3, 1863, which latter wound disabled him so that he had to leave the army.

After leaving the field of war he resumed his education, becoming a student in the Univer- sity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. But he soon made up his mind to seek a field for his life efforts in the west, and accordingly arrived in Texas on June 28, 1865. He studied law and was admitted to the bar at Brenham in April, 1866. His first location on his coming to this state had been in Hill county, but he soon moved to Navasota, in Grimes county. He was located at Hillsboro from April, 1866. to the following October, and then returned to North Carolina and remained about a year. On again taking up his residence in Texas he located at Navasota, in Grimes county, and was engaged in the practice of his profession there until October, 1876. During this time he attained to considerable prominence in his part of the state and in 1874 was elected to represent his district in the state legislature, and in 1876 was chosen to the senate from the fifteenth senatorial district, composed of the counties of Grimes, Madison, Walker and Trinity. He re- signed this office, however, in order to enter upon practice at Cleburne in partnership with Hon. A. W. DeBerry, who at that time was secretary of state. His powers as a lawyer in- creasing with his years, he sought a larger field for his professional activity, and in 1891 moved to Fort Worth, where he has since been en- gaged in attending to a large and constantly increasing practice. For several years he has practiced in partnership with his son, William C. Smith.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 36

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