A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 4

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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Dr. Cunningham's boyhood days were spent on the plantation in Lee county, Mississippi, and in the meantime he received his education at Cooper Institute, near Meridian, that state. On deciding to take up the medical profession he entered Vanderbilt University and attended several courses of medical lectures there. After qualifying himself he took up the practice of medicine in his home county of Lee, and spent the two years, 1881 and 1882, as a doctor of medicine. At the end of that time he concluded to devote himself to some other pursuit than the art of healing, and in accordance with that purpose he was engaged in mercantile business in his native state until 1884, which was the year of his coming to Texas. He has never since resumed medical practice, having found his business opportunities to present as large a field as he could possibly cover.

His first location in this state was at Alva- rado in Johnson county, and some time later he was engaged with the M. T. Jones Lumber Company at Mansfield, Tarrant county. He came up to the Panhandle in 1890, and has been located at Amarillo ever since. During the first six years here he was in the mercantile business, and since then he has confined his operations to real estate, in which he has suc- ceeded. He deals in city and ranch property as an agent, being the representative of some prominent non-residents. He takes an active interest in the growth and development of Amarillo and vicinity. He is particularly en- thusiastic over the prospects of the great plains country since it is so happily favored from a climatic standpoint, has sufficient rainfall in the proper season, and in this vicinity lies the largest body of unbroken tillable deep rich soil of a like area to be found in the United States.

Dr. Cunningham has been a man of influence ever since taking up his residence in Amarillo, but has never directed his activity into political channels for his own interests, although he is a stanch Democrat and wide-awake to the best welfare of that party. He has confined his at- tention politically for some years to looking after the local political interests of his brother- in-law, Congressman John H. Stephens, of Vernon, whose history is given elsewhere in this work. Dr. Cunningham is a charter member of the Odd Fellows lodge at Amarillo. and he and his wife are also charter members

1.4

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

of the Cumberland Presbyterian church of Amarillo, which they helped to establish.

Dr. Cunningham was married at Fort Worth in 1882 to Miss Josie Stephens, a sister of Con- gressman Stephens and a member of a historic Texas family. They have four children: Mil- ton H., Carrie May, Norma and Nina.

ROBERT E. HUFF, president of the First National Bank and a prominent lawyer of Wichita Falls, is a leading man of affairs in this city and came here during its earliest growth and has been intimately connected with its history and material development ever since. He was born at Lebanon, Virginia, January 31, 1857, the son of Rev. William and Mattie (Johnson) Huff, natives of Virginia and Tennessee, respectively. Rev. William Huff was a Baptist minister for many years, passing much of his life in Bedford county, Tennessee, where he finally died. The mother is now liv- ing with her son in Wichita Falls.

Mr. Robert E. Huff began life in Wichita Falls by starting at the bottom of the ladder. He has remained in that place during all its vicissitudes, by his courage and perseverance has overcome all obstacles, and is now wealthy, with large interests, a handsome residence, and an assured position as one of Wichita Falls' prominent business men.

As a boy Mr. Huff received a common school education and afterwards studied law at Cum- berland University, Lebanon, Tennessee, where he graduated in 1879. He was soon after admitted to the bar at Shelbyville, Ten- nessee. He then decided to come to the new country in Texas, and May 2, 1882, arrived in Wichita Falls. At that time the town had been laid out and soon after began to grow, as a result of the completion to the place of the Fort Worth & Denver City Railroad.

Mr. Huff began the practice of law, and as soon as Wichita county was organized was elected the first county attorney. In 1888 he was elected president of the Panhandle Na- tional Bank, which had been organized in INSt. and he has held this position ever since. In the latter part of 1903 the name of the bank was changed to the First National Bank, the officers and everything connected with the in- stitution remaining unchanged. The bank is a very flourishing one, and its home is in the largest and finest business structure in Wichita Falls. In addition to his law practice Mr. Huff discharges his duties as active working presi- dent of the bank. He is a member of the law firm of lluff, Barwise & Iluff; his brother,

Charles C. Huff, and J. H. Barwise being the other members of the firm.

Since coming to Texas Mr. Huff has married,. his wife's maiden name being Miss Lizzie Bur- roughs. They have four sons : William E., Arthur B., Robert E., Jr., and Marshall.

THOMAS ELI PRICE. Our subject is a modest cattle grower and farmer of Jack county, where he settled in 1885. He came hither with a team and five hundred dollars and without former experience embarked in the grocery business at Newport. The same enemy which has pursued and swamped many a merchant scented his trail at once and within a year old "Trust" had deprived him of his goods and threatened his credit and he re- sumed the work of his first love, the farm. Re- duced to the position of a dependent, he em- ployed with the pioneer, John Hensley, as fore- man of one of his ranches and after five years of service he reached a point where he was enabled to buy eighty-nine acres of land on the. Edward Ray survey, which place he moved to, improved and where he now maintains his home.

The reward of industry is always sure and to no man did this reward come with more justi- fication than to T. E. Price, for his days were filled with labor and for a time both ends of the night were encroached upon to accomplish a purpose in hand. The possession of a few cows and calves puts a man into the cow busi- ness and this is what happened to Mr. Price. Being short of land for pasture he leased a small tract adjoining his home, which now con- tains two hundred and sixty-nine acres, has it amply stocked and is tasting the sweets of an independent life.

Mr. Price was born in Franklin county. Alabama, December 14, 1847, and as he ap- proached youth learned little from the country schools. When he should have been doing his best work toward obtaining an education he was in the army fighting for the independence of the Confederacy and he quit school just able to read and write. He enlisted in Captain Ad- kinson's Company, Eighth Alabama Regiment. in 1863, and served in this company something over a year when he was transferred to Captain Newsom's Company, Forrest's command. He was in Ten Island battle, the Coosa River and many smaller fights in that campaign. At the close of the war he was at Newburg, Alabama, and was discharged there.

On leaving the army he returned home and worked with his father on the farm until he.

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

established a home of his own by his marriage in 1866. His father gave him a horse, the chief item of his resources when he was married, and he opened his career on rented land. In 1869 he brought his young family to the "prom- ised land"-Texas-located in Navarro county and was making some progress when it oc- curred to him to go back to Alabama, and that trip and the return to Texas cost him much of his accumulations. He returned to the Lone Star state in 1876 and stopped in Henderson county, where many of his relatives lived, and there he spent nine years and got together the modest sum with which he began his mer- cantile experience at Newport in 1885.

William Price, our subject's father, was born in Greene county, Alabama, in 1828, and pre- pared himself for a school teacher in Louisville, Kentucky, hisfather being a wealthy farmer and owner of slaves in his native and aristocratic state. Probably a decade before the war his father, Thomas Price, sold his Alabama land and settled in Louisiana, and just before the rebellion he came on to Texas and located in Henderson county, where his death occurred in 1878, at seventy-nine years of age. He married Abegil Lewis, and their children were: Samuel C., Wayman, of Curran, Texas; William ; and Elizabeth, of Louisiana, wife of Tom Hamil- ton.

William Price married Rhoda Hardin, who died in Henderson county, Texas, in 1883, whither she and her husband had moved.' Fol- lowing her death her husband returned east and located in Mississippi where he taught school. His children are: Betsy, of Talbott county, Alabama, wife of John Blackledge ; Thomas E .; Abbie, wife of Thomas Lawler, of Franklin county, Alabama; Lola, who married D. Thomas, of Henderson county, Texas, and Pinkey, deceased wife of Bud Thomas.

In November, 1866, Thomas E. Price and Millie Ross Horton were united in marriage in their native county of Franklin, where Mrs. Price was born June 13, 1848. She was a daughter of John Horton. The issue of Mr. and Mrs. Price are: Smith Hardin, Rosa, wife of Jacob Lewis, of Jack county; Harvey, who married Alma Page, and John and Carl.

Mr. Price has done his work as a citizen as enthusiastically as he has done it as a farmer and cowman. He is well known for his Demo- cratic tendencies and has ever shown his loy- alty to his political party. He has attended party conventions and filled the place of school trustee.

JAMES AZRIAH FRAZAR. In the sub- ject of this biographical notice we present one of Clay county's widely known citizens whose business life is spanned by three generations of Texas history and whose business career, from its inception to the present, presents a succession of achievements worthy the emula- tion of our ambitious youth and meriting the applause of a generous and feeling public. First we see him assuming the conduct of the home farm, as a stripling of a youth, just after the Civil War, next we see him established as a merchant and man of affairs in the little com- munity near Eagle Lake, in southern Texas, where he lived, and finally, in the height of his successes, we see him with plantations number- ing thousands of acres, with a mercantile stock amounting to many thousand dollars, with the ginning and other interests of the little village, grown to manhood, the creator of a large fortune and the master of an industrial and commercial situation seldom paralleled in any locality in Texas.

The origin of the Frazars of this name is, at this date, not definitely known. Tradition tells us that a grand ancestor of James A. Frazar "ran away" from home as a youth and to escape recognition changed the spelling of the name from "Frazier" to its present form. However this may be, J. W. Frazar, grandfather of our subject, wasborn in North Carolina in 1807, was married and reared his family in Alabama and Tennessee, and in 1854 located on the Cibola, near San Antonio, Texas. He was a stockman and farmer and was a half brother to the Over- feel who was killed in the Alamo with Crockett, Bowie and other fathers of the Republic of Texas.

At the time of his advent to the state settlers as far west as they were frequently raided by the Comanche Indians and their stock driven off, slaves killed and citizens occasionally murdered. At almost every full moon these enemies of the white man were certain to ap- pear in some frontier settlement and leave behind them a trail of human blood. The visi- tation of locusts in 1857 was more disastrous to settlers than Indian depredations, for all vegetation was consumed. Cattle were not fit. to eat, fish tasted as locusts and water was barely fit for use. It was a hundred and fifty miles to good meat and the Frazars abandoned their Cibola settlement and dropped down near Eagle Lake in Wharton county, where their residence was afterward maintained.

The Frazars came to Texas direct from Mur- freesboro, Tennessee, where, on Shelby Pike,

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

the family settled from its Alabama home. It was in the latter state that Isaac J. Frazar, the father of our subject, was born. His mother was Sarah Jamison, who died near . Murfrees- boro, while her husband died at Columbus, Texas, in 1886. Isaac J., Mrs. Amanda Kim- bro and George W. Frazar, of San Antonio, were the issue of their marriage.

Isaac J. Frazar followed his father's occupa- tion until after the war, when he studied medicine, passed the required examination for a physician's license and began the practice of medicine. From his country seat near Eagle Lake he rode far and near in the successful pursuit of his profession and his professional ability and unalloyed citizenship made him a character widely and popularly known. In Tennessee he married Elmira Kimbro, a daughter of James Kimbro, who passed his life near Murfreesboro on the farm. Mrs. Frazar died in her Wharton county home in 1884, her husband having preceded her in 1873 at forty- five years old. Their children were: James 1., of this review; William K., who died at Eagle Lake and left a family ; Robert B., who passed away at Frazarville; Annie G., wife of T. Y. Mason, of Frazarville.

The earliest impressions of Texas life with James A. Frazar were those made at their first location on the Cibola. He has lived on the frontier, so to speak, all his life, and the open country and the pure air have always been his. .A Catholic college at San Antonio provided him with a good education and at about sixteen years of age he took charge of the Frazar home and stock, while his father practiced medicine, and went to work. In response to the demands of his community he established a store, a gin and then a blacksmith shop and his manage- ment of all these enterprises brought good re- sults, and several plantations came into his hands by purchase with the profits of his healthy and radical business policy. The little hamlet where his commercial interests existed was named Frazarville in his honor and all its business and the townsite itself was owned by him. Although he severed his active connection with his Wharton county affairs in 1890, and came to Clay county in March of that year, he did not finally dispose of all his holdings till two years later.

Among his initial acts on identifying himself with Clay county was the reopening of the failed Farmers' National Bank in which he was a licavy stockholder. This was done that he might save the stockholders from apparent heavy losses, and he was engaged some five

years in the winding up of its affairs. In recent years his farming and grazing interests have employed his time. Cattle feeding in connection with Mr. W. B. Worsham for several years, at Greenville, Texas, and of late years alone, on his home ranch and at Tishomingo, Indian Ter- ritory, he fattens annually about two hundred and fifty head of steers. He owns a little ranch of nearly seventeen hundred acres on the Little Wichita river and Duck creek and has one thousand acres leased near by.

Mr. Frazar was first married in Wharton county, in March, 1880, to Agnes J. Smith, who died in 1885, leaving two sons, Isaac J., of Kaw, Oklahoma, and Edward B. In May, 1888, Mr. Frazar married Miss Mattie Morris, a daughter of Delaware and Hattie E. (Warren) Morris. The former died in Henrietta in 1900 at eighty- six years of age, being the second oldest Mason in Texas. He came to this state from Eufala, Alabama, in 1872, and was a merchant in Egypt, in Wharton county, for some years. He was a Georgian by birth, was the father of three children and buried his wife at Austin, Texas, in September, 1881. Of his children Mrs. Frazar was born March 22, 1866, and was the oldest; Richard A. resides near Portales, New Mexico, and Mamie D., wife of L. C. Gib- bon, resides in Decatur, Texas.

Mr. Frazar's second family of children con- sists of James A., Jr., born January 30, 1891; Morris, born July 27, 1893; Worsham, born April 14, 1895. Like his father Mr. Frazar is a Royal Arch Mason, joining the order in Eagle Lake and taking his chapter degree in Colum- bus, Texas. He is well preserved for a man of his years, being born February 7, 1851, and the weight of business cares for nearly forty years sit comparatively lightly on his shoulders and he gives promise of many years of usefulness to come.

E. T. COE, a veteran of the Confederate army, who was successfully engaged in general agricultural pursuits and stock raising in Gray- son and later in Montague county, Texas, but is now living retired at Nocona, was born in Henry county, Missouri, February 17, 1841. He was reared to farmer pursuits and is indebted to the district school system for the educational privi- leges accorded him. His parents were James R. and Elizabeth (Stanford) Coe, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of Virginia, in which state they were married. The Coe family is of Scotch-Irish lineage and the grandfather, Joseph Coe, became an early settler of Indiana. He was a river man and was captain of a steam-

MR. AND MRS. E. T. COE

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

boat on the Ohio and other rivers for many years, in which capacity he became well known, while his social nature and genuine worth made him popular. The members of his family were: Wil- liam and Elias T., both of whom died in Illinois ; James R., Mrs. Margaret Jeremiah and Mary C., of California.

James R. Coe, born and reared in Indiana, went to Virginia after he had attained his ma- jority and was there married, subsequent to which time he removed to Illinois and afterward to Missouri, where he prospered in his undertak- ings as a farmer and stockman. He became one of the substantial representatives of financial in- terests in his county and his business activity was the secret of his success. In politics he was a strong and influential Democrat, but without de- sire for political office, preferring to give his un- divided attention to his business interests. At the time of the Civil War his sympathies were strongly aroused in behalf of the south, so that the northern sympathizers feared his influence and made it very unpleasant for him in his home locality. Both armies foraged off of his place, taking his stock and personal property, and at last the northern troops burned his dwelling and other farm buildings. He and his family then sought refuge in Saline county, Missouri, where he remained until after the close of the war, when he sold his old homestead and purchased a farm in Benton county, Missouri, spending his remain- ing days there. He was then too old to ever fully recuperate his lost possessions, but he neverthe- less, by indefatigable industry, won a competence for himself and his family. From early manhood he was a consistent Methodist and his life was always actuated by honorable principles and de- votion to whatever he believed to be right. The poor and needy found in him a warm friend and his neighbors appreciated his social nature and kindly spirit. He was six feet in height, of me- dium weight and possessed a strong and vigorous constitution that enabled him to do much hard work in his earlier manhood. He passed away April 9, 1888, at the age of sixty-six years, while his wife died in 1876. She was a daughter of Phillip S. Stanford, a native of Virginia, who became familiar with the labors incident to life on a Virginia plantation. At an early day he re- moved to Missouri and became a representative farmer and stockman of the locality in which he made his home. He traded quite extensively in cattle and mules and improved a fine farm in Bates county, remaining thereon for many years. He was without political aspiration or desire to figure in any prominent position, preferring to give his undivided attention to his business inter-

ests. He remained in Bates county until 1858, when he came to Texas, settling in Dallas county, where he carried on farming and stock-raising for several years. Following the period of the Civil War he sold his ranch and took his stock to Kerr county, Texas, where he again established a ranch. He was prominent and successful in his work and devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits until he put aside active business cares. His death occurred when he had reached the ad- vanced age of ninety-three years. He was fa- miliar with the experiences, hardships and priva- tions of pioneer life, for during his ranching days in Dallas county Indians made raids upon his stock and stole many a head of cattle or horses. As a young man Mr. Stanford would start in pursuit of the thieves, nor was he afraid to en- counter the red men on the plains. In his family were nine children: James, who died in Missouri in 1853; Frank, of California; Thomas, who died in Missouri; Phillip, of Kerr county, Texas; John N., who is living in Dallas county; Mrs. Elizabeth Coe; Mrs. Pruitt of Dallas county ; Mrs. Anna Pruitt, and Mrs. Emma Pruitt.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. James R. Coe are five in number: Thadeus, who was killed while serving in the Confederate army ; E. T., of this review; Phillip S., who was also killed in the army; James A., a farmer of Missouri, and Allen B. C., likewise following farming in that state.

E. T. Coe was born and reared on the old homestead in Missouri and when nineteen years of age he enlisted, in 1861, at the call for six months' troops, becoming a member of the Sixth Missouri Cavalry of the Confederate service un- der Colonel R. L. Y. Payton. The regiment was attached to General Raines' division, went to the front and was engaged in the battles of Carthage and Drywood, Missouri. On the expiration of his first term Mr. Coe re-enlisted and the regi- ment was reorganized, becoming a part of the regular Confederate service. He was made sec- ond lieutenant of Company D, Second Battalion of Cavalry under Colonel Emmett McDowell, and saw much hard service and skirmishing, tak- ing part in all of the leading battles of the west- ern department except at Pea Ridge, when he was held as a prisoner of war. While the com- mand was lying in camp at Springfield, Missouri, he was granted a furlough to visit home, and while there was taken prisoner and held for six weeks, after which he was exchanged and again joined his command, with which he con- tinued until the close of the war, his service be- ing with the western department of the army, mostly in Missouri and Arkansas, but later in

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Texas. He was slightly wounded, but was al- ways on duty and was often in the thickest of the fight. After the close of hostilities he re- turned to the home of his father, who, as a ref- ugec, had gone to Saline county, Missouri, and there the son began work.

On the 27th of November, 1866, E. T. Coe was married to Miss Matilda E. Clark and settled upon a tract of rented land, which he operated for two years, after which he bought a tract of raw land. He then began the work of improving the farm and as the years passed he prospered in his undertakings, remaining upon the old home- stead there until 1874. when he came to Texas, renting his land in Missouri. In this state he first located in Grayson county, where he oper- ated a rented farm for two years, and in 1876 he came to Montague county, purchasing three hun- dred and thirty-four acres of land in the Red River valley, on which he took up his abode. Finding that he liked the country and its people, he resolved to make the state his permanent abode, and added to his property until he owned twelve hundred and ninety acres of valuable farm land, all of which he put under fence. He likewise placed two hundred and twenty-five acres under a high state of cultivation, raised diversified crops and also engaged in raising cat- tle and other stock. He was successful in both branches of his business, and as the years passed accumulated a handsome competence. On com- ing to Texas he had only a small amount of money, and, after settling in Montague county, he sold his Missouri farm, which enabled him to make investments here. In all of his business af- fairs he has been practical and progressive and as the years have passed has accumulated a hand- some competency that now enables him to live re- tired in the enjoyment of the fruits of his former toil. He is thoroughly satisfied with Montague county as a place of residence, with its prospects and its opportunities, and has become one of the valued residents of this part of the state. He continued his farming and stock-raising interests until 1800. when he sold out and purchased a commodious residence in Nocona, where he is re- tired from hard labor, now merely looking after his business interests. He loans money on farm mortgages and he has made judicious invest- nients in this way. He possesses excellent ability as a financier, is careful in every business move that he makes, and as the result of his enterprise and diligence he has prospered.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 4

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