A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 45

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 45

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Mr. J. Len Jackson was reared on his father's farm and lived at home until he was twenty-three years old. At that time he went to Amarillo, in the Texas Panhandle, that place then being a typical cowboy town, and he was for some time employed in the large DeBardelem general mer- chandise establishment, which sold supplies to cattlemen for hundreds of miles around. In the latter part of 1891 he came to Wichita Falls, and with his brother, H. B. Jackson, founded the Wichita Falls Implement Company. These young men had only three hundred dollars apiece at the beginning of this enterprise, but their business fitted in so well with the condi- tions of the country and their progress was so permanent and rapid that when they sold out

the establishment in August, 1903, to W. A. Mc- Cutcheon and associates, there was a record of an annual business done amounting to two hun- dred thousand dollars. The brothers through this line of trade were brought into close touch with the agricultural interests of this part of the state, and as their business reflected the growing prosperity of the country so they like- wise did much for the upbuilding of the terri- tory reached by their custom. Mr. Jackson at present has large interests in this portion of the state, including valuable real estate in Wichita Falls and adjacent county, but he devotes most of his attention to oil development. He has lands in the Clay county oil fields, and the wells already sunk give as bright prospects as any in the state. He and his brother are also together in this enterprise, and carry on business under the name of the Wichita Falls Oil Company. They are developing new wells all the time, and these properties are situated just a mile and a half from the town of Petrolia on the new Wichita Falls and Oklahoma Railroad.

Mr. Jackson married Miss Florence Griggs, a member of a Collin county family. They have three children, Mabelle, Bernice and J. L., Jr.

STEWART CASTLEBERRY. In the sub- ject of this personal review we have an example of that thrift and material independence which always follows systematically and intelligently directed efforts, of a wonderful achievement in business in the brief period of a score of years and of a financial triumph of human effort, un- interrupted by physical conditions and un- checked by the fickleness of man. Such exam- ples of unusual success, without the aid of an educated mind, are traceable to a phenomenal mental endowment and an intuitively strong and penetrating intellect. Circumstances willed it that Stewart Castleberry should have only a peep into the realm of knowledge, but sympa- thetic nature intensified his intuitive powers and thereby opened a by-pass around his enslaved mind to the end that his has been a useful and wonderfully successful life.

His father was a physical weakling, a man never vigorous and often suffering bodily pain while going about his daily work, but he had ambition, courage and an intuitive mentality fit to father a strong-minded and ambitious son. His education was neglected in childhood almost to the point of illiteracy, yet he worked out a des- tiny that marked him among the successful men of his class. He was a child of poor parents and grew up in Upshur county, Texas, and by rail- splitting and other manual labor he laid the foun-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

dation for the modest fortune he subsequently made. When he had accumulated about a hun- dred head of cattle he drove them to the fron- tier in Wise county, and in 1860 appropriated the range on Sandy, northeast of Bridgeport, where he took a pre-emption and reaped the first sub- stantial fruits of victory on the trail.

Aaron Castleberry, our subject's father, was, as we have above indicated, a somewhat remarka- bly constituted man. The records reveal his birth year to have been 1831 and his native place as Alabama. His father, William Castleberry, brought his family to Texas in 1840 and received a league and a labor of land from the Republic as a reward for his coming, and he located his land in Upshur county, resided upon and farmed it till his death about 1847. It was amid the environment thus suggested that Aaron Castle- berry passed from childhood to the responsibili- ties of mature years and met and mastered the obstacles which always confront an uneducated man. For nine years he occupied his location on Salt Lake, in Wise county, and then shifted his interests to Parker county as an easier place for family and property protection against the Indians, and there became one of the large and very successful farmers of the county. While he still held to cattle as a practically sure source of income, he embarked in the raising of corn and hogs, and the success which attended him rivaled all comers. At his death, in 1891, he left a mod- erate estate to be shared among his widow and children. During the rebellion he was a scout on the frontier but not enlisted in the regular Confederate service. He took a lively interest in the civil affairs of his county and state, but only as a citizen with the public good at heart was this interest maintained. He was a professed Christian and held a membership in the Mission- ary Baptist church.

In 1860 Aaron Castleberry and Indiana Ten- nessee Nix were married near Decatur, Texas. Mrs. Castleberry was a daughter of William Nix, a pioneer of Wise but a final settler of Parker county, where he died. The Nixes were from Tennessee where Mrs. Castleberry was born in 1840. She still occupies the family homestead in Parker county and is the mother of: Stewart, our subject ; Eliza, who died in Parker county as Mrs. W. B. Austin; James O., of Wise county ; Nettie, wife of P. W. Austin, of Parker county ; Aaron T., of Wise county ; and George E., of Gray county, Texas.

While growing up in Parker county Stewart Castleberry, who was born March 1, 1861, re- ceived little good from the institution called the public school. He attained the full vigor of phys-

ical strength in the closing years of his minority and on March 1, 1882, when he reached his twenty-first year, he possessed every physical qualification, together with industry and ambi- tion, to begin a successful independent career. In 1882, he took a bunch of cattle into Wise county for his father and for four years was chiefly occupied with his father's affairs. He then began trading on his own account, form- ing a partnership with W. A. Shown, an honest and ambitious young cowman of his own county, and the twain made every move count and every dollar bring two during the continuance of their business relations. He paid for his first farm with the crops that he raised on it and he con- tinued to buy land with his winnings on the trail until his West Fork ranch of two thousand two hundred acres and his Boone's creek ranch and farm of nearly eight hundred acres placed him among the large land owners of his county and, adding his six hundred head of cattle, we have the material results achieved within a score of years by the gentleman hampered by the condi- tions mentioned in the introductory observa- tions of this article. His ranching interests on Carroll and Lost creeks, in Jack county, swell the grand total of his accumulations and mark him as one of the young men of wealth in the cattle country of the state. He came to Jack county in 1898 and his residence occupies a sightly elevation overlooking Jacksboro, acces- sible to and at the very door of good schools, numerous churches and in touch with the ele- ments so essential in the proper training of his young family.

April 7, 1887, Mr. Castleberry married, in Wise county, Miss B. E., a daughter of John Pierce. Mr. Pierce came to Texas a young man from Missouri and married here Miss Hulda Shown, who bore him the following children: Robert, who died in Wise county at the age of twenty-one years; Mrs. Castleberry, born in Wise county April 25, 1870; Thomas, of Parker ; Mary, deceased; Ella, wife of George E. Castle- berry, of the Panhandle country; Benjamin, of Wise county ; and Newton and William, of Park- er county. Mr. and Mrs. Castleberry's children are: Bertha, Gertrude and Emma.

As already stated, Aaron Castleberry removed his family from Wise county chiefly to escape the possible Indian thefts and massacres which might any day afflict his family, for strong bands of the savages were continually passing through the county and committing depredations every light of the moon. On one occasion in particular the family narrowly escaped death and that was when it accompanied the father on a trip to

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Wood's mill, some+ fifty miles distant, traveling with an ox team. A widow lady also accompa- nied the family and while ascending an incline on the open prairie the neighbor lady remarked, "Are those white men or Indians driving those horses at the top of the hill?" and the father said, "Why, they are Indians, of course," and the wagon was then emerging from a clump of trees and with only a single-barrel rifle with which to defend its precious burden. For some unex- plained reason the Indians proceeded over the rise and were soon afterward scattered by white pursuers, and the Castleberrys continued their journey without molestation.

Like his father, Stewart Castleberry is a Demo- crat, manifests a warm interest in civil affairs and has the distinction of never having scratched a ticket in his life, always doing his fighting at the primary.

JOSEPH WILLIAM AKIN. The courts of Young county have known Jo. W. Akin as a practicing attorney for fifteen years, the citi- zenship of the county have known him as pre- siding judge of their county court for nearly five years and as a stanch and stalwart citizen all his life, and as lawyer, judge and private citi- zen it has been pleased to place upon him the stamp of public approval. What stronger evi- dence of genuine and sterling citizenship can come to one than the confidence of his country- men extended to him through the medium of the secret ballot and what greater compliment can be bestowed than the public endorsement of one's public and private acts by the people who have known him all his active life?

The worthy family which Judge Akin repre- sents was founded in the Lone Star state in 1867 by the late Rev. S. D. Akin, his father, who came hither from Green county, Kentucky. That county and state was the birthplace of the venera- ble Methodist divine, for his physical life began there in the year of 1815. He was descended from the South Carolina Akins, originally Eng- lish, and was a convert to Christian belief in early life. He engaged in the ministry as a young man and was identified with the work in his na- tive state and in Texas until his superannuation. Upon his advent to Texas he located in the cen- tral part of the state and became a member of the Texas Conference. He afterward joined the Northwest Texas Conference and retired from active ministerial work while such. In 1877 he brought his family into Young county and es- tablished them in Graham, where he passed away in 1881. The Kincheloes, a prominent Kentucky family, are closely related to Judge Akin, his

mother having been a daughter of Judge Jesse Kincheloe, so long District Judge of Breckin- ridge county, Kentucky. The Kincheloes were of French origin and Mary E., the mother of our subject, was born in Hardinsburg in the year 1826. The family of Rev. and Mrs. Mary Akin comprised the late Rev. John E., who died at Fort Worth in 1880, unmarried; Mrs. John F. Neal, of Lytle, Texas; Mary, wife of W. E. Kaye, of Fort Worth; Mrs. Jesse Doty, deceased ; David R., a Young county farmer, and Jo. W., of this review.

Judge Akin was born in Navarro county, Texas, on the 21st of May, 1869, and passed his boyhood and youth in Graham. After leaving the town schools he spent three years in the Georgetown University, and at the age of nine- teen years took up the study of law in the office of Hon. R. F. Arnold, of Graham, and was ad- mitted to the bar of the state in 1890, before Presiding Judge P. M. Stine, and tried his first case before justice George E. Miller of Young county. In 1891 he formed a partnership with Hon. C. W. Johnson, one of the leaders of the Young county bar, and was connected with much of the leading practice of the county until chosen to preside over the county court.

January 1, 1900, Judge Akin was united in marriage, at Burnet, Texas, with Miss Maggie Rose, a daughter of J. H. B. Rose, a Presbyterian minister who came to Texas from Virginia. The issue of this union was: Roberta, J. W., Henry David, Mary M. and John E.

In his political belief Judge Akin is Democratic and in 1900 his party elected him county judge to succeed Judge Noble J. Timmons, a pioneer and a foremost citizen of the county. In 1902 Judge Akin was re-elected without opposition and in 1904 his constituency again returned him to the judicial chair, showing their appreciation of his sincere and efficient service in public office. He is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a Wood- man and has passed the chairs in the local lodge of each. He is Deputy Grand Master of his Ma- sonic district and has represented the Graham lodge of Pythians in the State Grand Lodge. He was brought up a Christian and the denomination of his father provides his church home. He is ac- tive in church work and is superintendent of the Sabbath-school.

LANSON E. LOWRANCE. In taking up the history of Lanson E. Lowrance we announce him as being descended both from the French and the German, his remote American ancestor, paternally, having been a Frenchman and that of the maternal side coming from the German blood

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of Pennsylvania. When the Lowrance from whom our subject descends crossed the turbu- lent Atlantic and founded the family on our con- tinent is not accurately obtainable, but Evelan Lowrance, father of Lanson E., was born in Catawba county, North Carolina, and it is be- lieved that his father passed his life on Ameri- can soil.

Evelan Lowrance was reared in his native county and reared his family in Alexander county, that state. His position as a trader, slave owner, tanner and public officer of his county made him a widely known personage, and he gathered about him much wealth before his death in 1851. He married a Miss Cole, whose antecedents were German, as before stated. Of their family our subject was the thirteenth child, only four of whom still live, viz: Milas, of North Carolina; Leander, of the same county ; Mrs. Margaret Merreckson, of Yell county, Ar- kansas, and Lanson E., of this sketch. That the family was a patriotic one is indicated by the service of the sons, Nelson, Polser, Lanson, Lee and Morton in the army of their favorite Southland during the period of the Civil war.

Lanson E. Lowrance was born in Alexander county, North Carolina, March IO, 1845. He grew up amid the comforts of a lavish home and had some of the advantages of the good schools of his locality and time. He really began life when he became a soldier in 1862, and the three years he passed in the ranks gave him almost a veteran's equipment for civil affairs at the close of the war. He joined Company A, Sixth North Carolina, and was much of the time on detached service in Lee's army and fought at Stony creek and Spottsylvania among other engagements of the war. When Lee's army surrendered he made an attempt to join Johnston's army, being deter- mined to resist to the end and never surrender while a Confederate force was still in the field. He yielded to the inevitable, however, and re- turned to his home to find much of the family property swept away.

To resume life under the changed and unset- tled conditions following the war was to him in his locality a task indeed. Accustomed to an outdoor life, a tent or a blanket for a cover and the earth for a bed, it was many months before he could find rest upon a real bed. His military rambling bred in him a desire to be out on the frontier and to be among those who were begin- ning life in a new country. About this time Dakota was being advertised widely and attrac- tively and thither he went, and established him- self near the mouth of the James river, where he opened a new farm. Farming and stock-

raising occupied him for a number of years fol- lowing 1866, and he was fairly successful at both. He saw the country all around him pass from a wilderness to a community of beautiful homes filled with people from all climes and representing all races of men. He withstood the drouth, stemmed the flood and fought the giant mosquitoes of the Upper Missouri and came off victorious in the end. By chance Mr. Lowrance's attention was directed toward Texas when he had really decided to make his future home on the Pacific slope. A Texas lady visiting in his com- munity told of cheap lands, fine climate and fer -. tile soils in her state and aroused an interest in: the home-seeker-to-be and he visited the Lone. Star state on a prospecting tour, with the result that he brought his family here and in Jack county he has since made his home. In selecting a home Mr. Lowrance chose a tract five miles west of Jacksboro on the T. C. S. survey, where he owns two hundred and eighty-three acres and where he resided until he purchased two hundred and six acres on the Vandever sur- vey, somewhat nearer to the county seat. The general work of the farm absorbs him and the remnant of his once large family claims his par- ental care. The same zeal and the same energy possess him as of old, but the weight of years has brought the calm of seriousness and bodily vigor is on the wane. Still the active head of the family. the promptings of duty control him and he accomplishes results akin to the days of his youth.

In March, 1868, Mr. Lowrance married Apelin Ottison, a daughter of a Norwegian tailor and farmer and a man of much intellectual attain- ment. Mrs. Lowrance was born in the state of Iowa in 1854 and died in 1899. Her children are: Norman, who married Kate McMurtry and is a Jack county farmer; Eugene, whose wife was Myrtle Mayo, lives near his father; Daisy, wife of Lee Shaw, of Tyrone, Oklahoma; and John and Willia complete the family. Mr. Low- rance has given little thought to matters of poli- tics and no time to its active manipulation. He is a Democrat, as were his immediate ancestors and his citizenship is of that character which numbers him among all good men.

CAPTAIN ED DUGGAN, the present county and district clerk of San Angelo, is num- bered among the native sons of the Lone Star state, his birth occurring on a farm on the Colo- rado river below Austin, September 19, 1840, a son of Hon. Thomas H. and Elizabeth (Berry) Duggan. Thomas H. Duggan, a native of Missis- sippi, came to Texas in 1839, first settling in Tra-

SAMUEL T. MARRS

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vis county on the Colorado, where the birth of his son Ed occurred, and this place is now called Webberville. The family home was there main- tained until the Indians became so troublesome that a removal became necessary and they went to the coast, locating at Port Lavaca. On ac- count of the mother's declining health another move was made in 1845, to Seguin, Guadalupe county, and there Mr. Duggan became active in the political history of the state, having served as a member of the state senate for several terms. His death occurred in Seguin, as did also that of his wife several years later, when she had reached the age of eighty-five years. She, too, was born in Mississippi.

The early years of Captain Duggan's life were spent at Seguin, where his early educational training was supplemented by a term at the famous Chappel Hill College. His first business venture was in the mercantile line, but as he was needed to assist his father he sold his interests and engaged with his father in the stock business, thus continuing until the breaking out of the war. Enlisting in Company D, Fourth Texas Infantry, he was made lieutenant of the company and sent to the Army of Virginia, where begin- ning with the battle of Chickahominy Swamp he was in all the engagements up to and including that of Antietam, among them being the seven days' fight at Richmond, Elkins' Landing, Wade's Ford, Seven Pines, second battle of Manassas and Lookout Mountain. His military career is one which will ever redound to his honor as a loyal and devoted son of the republic, and to no one can greater honor be paid than to him who aids in holding high the standard which repre- sents the deeper principles of liberty. Immediate- ly after the close of the struggle Mr. Duggan started a small mercantile business at Prairie Lee, near Seguin, but later disposed of that industry and until the year 1877 followed farming in Guadalupe county. In that year he came to western Texas and soon afterward located in Tom Green county, with whose interests he has ever since been prominently identified. Engag- ing extensively in the sheep industry, he became the owner of a large ranch thirty miles south of San Angelo, which he continued to operate until it was sold in 1893. In the meantime, in 1888, he was elected county and district clerk, to which position he has since been re-elected every two years, the last few years without opposition.

In Seguin Mr. Duggan was united in marriage to Miss Julia Coorpender, and they have one son, Ed Duggan, Jr. Their eldest son, Thomas J., died in May, 1899. Mr. Duggan is a prominent

member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the Knight Templar degree.

SAMUEL T. MARRS. One of the most honored residents of Mansfield, Samuel T. Marrs is a native son of Tarrant county, his birth hav- ing occurred on his father's farm six miles east of Mansfield, and in this portion of the Lone Star state his entire life has been passed. His father, A. K. Marrs, was born and reared in Kentucky, of Scotch ancestry, and was numbered among the early Texas pioneers of 1857, at which time he located on a farm near Mansfield in Tarrant county, there spending the remainder of his life. He was a Confederate soldier of the Civil War, serving throughout the conflict, and the hard- ships and exposure which he suffered therein so undermined his health that he never afterward regained his full strength and vigor. After com- ing to Texas he was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Ragland, a native also of Kentucky, but her parents' arrival in Texas antedated that of Mr. Marrs'. This worthy pioneer couple nobly performed their full share in the development of their community, and were loved and honored by all who had the pleasure of their acquaintance.

Their son, Samuel T. Marrs, was born May 18, 1859, and was reared to mature years on the old homestead farm, receiving his educational training principally in Mansfield. When the time came for him to enter upon the active duties of life for himself he chose the occupation of his father, and farming has always claimed a large part of his time and attention. In this field of endeavor he has been eminently successful, and his operations are conducted on strictly business principles. He is now the owner of five farms, the homestead being located east of town, in the neighborhood of his birthplace. The first business venture of Mr. Marrs outside of his farming operations was as a buyer and shipper of live stock at Mansfield, in which he was suc- cessfully engaged for some years, and he then turned his attention to the grocery business. Eighteen months later, however, he abandoned that occupation for the hardware business, which he conducted for a short time, and in April, 1904, he organized and became the president of the First National Bank of Mansfield, which has had a prosperous and successful career, and the du- ties of which now occupy all of his attention outside of his farming interests. The capital stock of the bank is twenty-five thousand dollars, the majority of which is owned by Mansfield citizens and surrounding farmers. This is re- garded as one of the most reliable financial con-

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cerns of the county, and its constantly growing business attests its popularity.

Mr. Marrs married Miss Mattie C. Back, a daughter of Major Back, and they have had seven children, the living being Gordie M., Nona L., Autie M., Eula, Maggie L. and Ruth. The third child, Ora, is deceased. In his fraternal relations Mr. Marrs is a prominent Mason.

BERRY T. PARR, JR., prominently identified with the early development as well as later prog- ress in Montague county and a recognized leader in public affairs, has served as treasurer of the county, and in office and out of it, has been the champion of many progressive public measures. He was born in Washington county, Arkansas, April 26, 1835, his parents being Berry T. and Martha (George) Parr, who were natives of Tennessee, where they were married. In the paternal line the family is of English lineage and the ancestors in England were connected with the nobility. They filled various positions in connection with affairs of the nation and were very active in public life there. Unto the grand- parents of our subject were born seven children : James, who was a pioneer of Texas and died in this state; William, who also passed away in Texas; Zebulon and Moses, who died in Tennes- see; Berry T., the father of our subject; Mrs. Eliza Sherrell; and Mrs. Abernathy. The family were members of the Primitive Baptist church.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 45

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