A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 5

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 5

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As before stated. Mr. Coe was married in 1866 to Miss Matilda E. Clark. She was born in Vir- ginia, but was reared in Saline county, Missouri. Iler father, John Clark, also a native of Virginia,

was one of the early settlers of Missouri and be- came a leading and influential farmer of Saline county, where he died, leaving a good farm to his wife and children. The mother afterward kept the family together and reared them in a most creditable manner. Her death also occurred upon the old homestead. The members of this house- hold were: Charles, who died in Missouri; Strother and Albert, who have also passed away ; Rufus, who resides upon the old homestead ; Mrs. Eliza DeJoinet ; Mrs. Florence Hanley; Mrs. Harriet Finley ; Mrs. Mary Taylor, and Matilda E., who became Mrs. Coe. To Mr. and Mrs. Coe was born a daughter, Lucy O., the wife of I. A. Gist, who at one time was a school teacher and afterward became a farmer of Montague county, but is now living temporarily in Denton in order to educate his children. In 1868 Mr. Coe was called upon to mourn the loss of his first wife, who died on the 23d of January of that year, in the faith of the Christian church, of which she was a worthy and devoted member. On the 4th of September, 1870, in Missouri, Mr. Coe wedded Mrs. Mary E. Smith, the widow of Fountain Smith, who was killed in the battle of Corinth while serving his country in the Confederate army. His wife bore the maiden name of Mary C. Priddy and was a daughter of Burk and Min- erva (Walker) Priddy and a granddaughter of Robert Walker of McMinn county, Tennessee. Her paternal grandparents were John and Nan- cy (Whitlock) Priddy, the former a native of Halifax county, Virginia, and the latter of North Carolina. John Priddy removed from Virginia to Stokes county, North Carolina, afterward to Cooke county, Tennessee, and later to Polk coun- ty, Missouri, where he died March 8, 1861, at the age of eighty-three years. His wife, Nancy, was a daughter of Charles Whitlock, a native of Ire- land, and her birth occurred in Albemarle coun- ty, North Carolina, and her death in Polk county, Missouri, in 1857, when she was seventy-five years of age. In the family of Mr. and Mrs. John Priddy were three children: Polly, who became the wife of Alford Taylor and died in 1888 at the age of eighty-five years, and David and Burk. The last named was born in Stokes county, North Carolina, where he remained until thirteen years of age, when he removed with his parents to Cooke county, Tennessee, where he spent his early manhood. In 1839 he married Minerva, daughter of Robert Walker of McMinn county, Tennessee, and a representative of a prominent and honored pioneer family of that state. Burk Priddy removed to Missouri in company with his father and their respective families and both settled in Polk county, where Burk Priddy made

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

his home until 1870. He then came to Texas, locating in Grayson county, where he purchased land and engaged in general farming and stock- raising, continuing successfully in the business for many years. He owned a farm of one hun- dred and seventy-five acres of rich black soil, which he kept under a high state of cultivation, and he was regarded as a very successful and practical agriculturist and stockman. In addi- tion to the homestead place he owned other lands in Cooke county, Texas, and acquired a com- petency for old age. He was highly respected for his integrity and honor, which were above re- proach. In his advanced age he sold the Gray- son county homestead and he and his wife came to Montague county, where they spent their de- clining years with their children. Both he and his wife died at the home of their daughter, Mrs. Coe, in Nocona, Mrs. Priddy passing away De- cember 2, 1900, at the age of eighty-six years, while Mr. Priddy survived until April 20, 1904, passing away at the age of ninety-four years. She was a member of the Methodist church. In the family were nine children: Nancy E., the wife of D. V. Crites ; Rachael A., the wife of A. Pulliam; Felix G .; Mrs. Coe ; Davis; Wilton J .; Margaret A., the wife of Joseph Hodges; Willis and William B.

Mr. and Mrs. Coe have had no children of their own, but they have displayed great kindliness and a benevolent spirit in the care which they have given to a number of homeless children. They have reared and educated four orphans, doing a good part by them, and they are now all settled well in life. No one is ever turned from their door hungry, and their kind acts and benev- olence have endeared them to many. They are now caring for an old aunt eighty-six years of age, and they gave filial affection and care to Mrs. Coe's parents during their declining years.

SAM P. RAMSEY, president of Traders' State Bank, is classed with the representative busi- ness men of Cleburne and has been connected in various ways with its progress and develop- ment, so that the consensus of public opinion is very favorable regarding his worth as a citizen and business man. He was born at Alvarado, Johnson county, Texas, his parents being John J. and Nancy (Clark) Ramsey. He is a brother of Judge W. F. Ramsey, who is represented elsewhere in this work and in whose history more elaborate mention is made of the parents.

Samuel P. Ramsey was reared and educated in the place of his nativity, but in early life entered upon his business career in a clerical

position in an abstract office at Waxahachie, Ellis county, Texas. He became a resident of Cleburne about 1880 and this place has since been his home, covering a period of a quarter of a century. He has been connected with active business enterprises throughout this entire period save for six years spent as county clerk of Johnson county. He was first elected to that office in 1894, and he served by re-election for three consecutive terms, discharging his duties · with promptness and capability. After spend- ing a short time in Shawnee, Oklahoma, he re- turned to Cleburne and became a factor in the promotion and establishment of the Western Bank and Trust Company, of which Fred Fleming of Dallas is the president. The com- pany was organized in 1903 and had a highly successful existence, conducting a general banking business. Mr. Ramsey was manager for the company at this point and when the State Bank Act became effective he organized the Traders' State Bank here and was made its president. He is recognized as a thoroughly reliable representative of financial interests, conducting his business affairs in a most honor- able manner and in accordance with a high standard of business ethics. He is a man of keen discernment, of marked enterprise and also has the executive ability and energy which enables him to carry forward to success- ful completion whatever he undertakes.

Mr. Ramsey was married in Cleburne to Miss Onie Bishop, a daughter of W. B. Bishop, a prominent old time resident of Johnson county, who at one time was county clerk. There is a little son born of this marriage, William Bishop Ramsey. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ramsey enjoy the friendship and favorable regard of many with whom they have been brought in contact and as a citizen his worth is widely acknowl- edged, for he has co-operated in many move- ments for the general good, giving active and tangible aid to measures that have resulted in material intellectual and moral progress here.

JUDGE MORRIS A. SPOONTS. Judge Morris A. Spoonts, general attorney for the Fort Worth & Denver City Railroad and for other corporate interests in this part of Texas, has had his residence and practice in Fort Worth for the last fifteen years. He is one of the brilliant and prominent lawyers of the state, and during the latter years of his practice has become connected almost entirely with corporation business. This department of the profession requires the highest talents and training, and he prepared himself by special

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

research and hard study after he had already gained a prominent position as counsel and advocate in the sphere of general practice. He was born, reared and has spent his active career in the Lone Star state, and during twenty-five years of continuous work in the courts and office has proved himself one of the leaders of public thought and affairs and is influential and progressive and enterprising in every depart- ment of life to which his efforts have been directed.

Judge Spoonts was born in Bell county. Texas, in 1857, being a son of Joseph and Mary (Vanderbilt) Spoonts. His grandfather was a native of Germany and a member of the bar in that country, whence he came to America and located at Leesburg, Virginia. In the latter city the father of Judge Spoonts was born, in 1803, and in 1852 came to Texas and made settlement in Bell county, where he died in 18:0. His business was milling, and he made a fair success throughout his career, and (lied an honored and respected citizen. His wife was born in New York City in 1812, and was a niece of the old Commodore Vanderbilt, and her father was a captain in the United States navy during the war of 1812.

Morris A. Spoonts received his early educa- tion in the public schools of Bell county, and at Belton took up the study of law under A. M. Monteith, being admitted to the bar at that place in 1878, when twenty years of age. Soon afterward he went out to the Texan frontier, to Buffalo Gap in Taylor county, and in 1881 located at Abilene, to which the county seat of that county had been removed. The Texas & Pacific Railroad was being built through Abilene about that time. While Judge Connor was incumbent of the office of district judge he wasappointedby Governor Rossas judge to hear all cases in the district in which Judge Connor was disqualified. After eight years' residence and practice at Abilene he came, in 1889, to Fort Worth, where his business interests have since been centered. Ilis abilities made him especially valuable and much sought for cor- poration work, and he gradually came more and more into that branch of the profession. In 1890 he was appointed general attorney for the Fort Worth & Denver City Railroad, which position he has since held. He is also attorney for a number of other railroads centering at Fort Worth, and his practice is now confined exclusively to the legal affairs of these corpora- tions.

In 1900 and 1901 Judge Spoonts was presi- dent of the State Bar Association of Texas, and

he enjoys a state-wide reputation as a profound lawyer and brilliant advocate. He was presi- dent of the city council of Fort Worth for two or three years, and was acting mayor for one year during the absence of Mayor Paddock on account of illness. He was president of the Fort Worth Public Library during the time it built and completed the splendid new Carnegie - library building in this city. In many other ways he has been prominently connected with the best social and intellectual phases of this city's life.

He was married in 1879 to Miss Josephine Puett, and they have four children: Marshall, Adele, who is the wife of C. R. Wharton, of Houston; Nadine and Leslie.

THOMAS J. CHANDLER. Earnest in his advocacy of the question of fruit-growing in his locality, active in the promotion of the new industry and prominent as a leader in the transformation from the old agricultural regime to the new horticultural one, is Thomas J. Chandler, the subject of this biographical article. The third of a century he has passed in Texas have been years of close application to the domain of agriculture, save the compara- tively brief period of his connection with the pome and peach industry of Montague county.

Mr. Chandler settled in Kaufman county, Texas, in 1873, from Calloway county, Ken- tucky. In this latter county his birth occurred May 12, 1841, more than a score of years sub- sequent to the advent of the family to that locality. Its founder was James Chandler, grandfather of our subject, an emigrant from Prince Edward county, Virginia, where Edwin P. Chandler, father of Thomas J., was born December 10, 1810. About 1820 James Chand- ler shifted his interests from Virginia to Ken- tucky and carried on primitive, though success- ful, farming until his death. He was the father of nine children.

Edwin P. Chandler grew up on the farm, but became a merchant in early life and carried on a business at Shiloh, Kentucky, for thirty- five years. In 1874, in company with several children, he moved to Morgan county, Mis- souri, and, two years later, with five sons, came on to Texas and settled in Rockwall county, where his death took place in March, 1878. His first wife was a Kentucky lady, Nancy Barnett, who died March 16, 1856, as was also his second, nee Emily Harrison, who passed away. in 1880. His surviving issue were children of his first wife and were : James M., captain of Company D, Seventh Kentucky

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Infantry, was killed in the Confederate army ; Virginia, wife of W. A. Carr, died in Mon- tague county, Texas; William M .. , who died in Rockwall county leaving a family; Thomas Jefferson, our subject; Linn B., Hugh G. and Jesse B., farmers of Montague county ; Frank, who died in February, 1878; and George W., a leading merchant of Bowie.

As an adjunct to his father's farm and store Thomas J. Chandler grew to manhood, ac- quiring a smattering of an education. In 1861 he enlisted in the southern army and served un- der Cheatham and Polk, Army of the Tennes- see. He was in the battles of Shiloh, Corinth Vicksburg, Jackson, Port Hudson and Baton Rouge and was with the service in Mississippi when the war ended. He was a private soldier and in all the engagements and skirmishes he passed through during those four years he came out unharmed and uninjured by the fatal bullet.

At twenty-four years of age he began civil life as a farmer and continued it in Callaway county, Kentucky, with some degree of suc- cess until his departure from Texas in the early seventies. His advent to Montague county was marked by his purchase of one hundred and sixty acres of land one mile from Fruit- land and ninety acres of it is planted to fruit. In 1903 his fruit brought him more money than his farm cost him and his constant orchard-enlargement will keep him in the lead as a fruit man in his county. He is a member of the County Fruit Growers' Association and his advice and suggestions are accepted as authority on matters pertaining to this de- partment of horticulture.

April 1, 1869, Mr. Chandler married Carrie S. Williams, a daughter of Curtis Ivie, a Vir- ginian who first moved to Wabash county, Illinois, and thence to Callaway county, Ken- tucky. Mrs. Chandler was born in 1847, and is the mother of: Edwin C., Robert E., Daisy and Albert S., the youngest, who is yet a mem- ber of the family at home.

· Mr. Chandler is now past the age of active participation in politics, if he had the inclina- tion to do so, but he is a Democrat on party questions and is a member of the Primitive Baptist church.

JOHN W. SCHROCK. The name of John W. Schrock for years has been prominently connected with the history of Spanish Fort, Montague county, Texas, where he figures as a successful merchant. A sketch of his life is theretore of interest in a work of this char- acter.

John W. Schrock was born in Missouri, April 10, 1850. He traces his ancestry in this coun- try back to Virginia, to one of three brothers who came to this country from Germany. His great-grandparents lived and died in the "Old Dominion," great-grandfather Schrock's age at death being one hundred and ten, and his good wife attaining the still more remarkable age of one hundred and twelve years. P. D. Schrock, the grandfather of John W., was born in Vir- ginia and there worked at his trade, that of a tanner, for a number of years. Finally, mov- ing with his family to Missouri, he bought land and turned his attention to farming and stock-raising, in which he was engaged the rest of his life. He died on his homestead. During the war of 1812 he was drafted for service in the army. Feeling, however, that his family needed him at home, he hired a substitute. In later life he gave his vote to the Republican party, but he never aspired to po- litical or public honors of any kind. In his fam- ily were eleven children, namley: Isaac, Sam- uel, Joseph, Perez D., James W., Andrew J., Robert L., Harriet, Rebecca, Elizabeth and Margaret.

Perez D. Schrock was grown at the time the family removed to Missouri. There he married, and at Scottsville engaged in mer- chandising for many years, subsequently re- moving to Laclede, Missouri, where he ran a store, and finally he bought a farm in Sullivan county, Missouri, where he has since lived. During the war of the Rebellion he was a member of the state militia and was for some time on duty at Macon City. Unlike his father, he was a strong Democrat and south- ern sympathizer. While he never sought offi- cial preferment, he was a justice of the peace and served as such for a number of years. His first wife, Martha A., was a daughter of John Minnis, who became a prominent farmer. The Minnis family was of Irish descent. Mrs. Schrock had three brothers, D. G., a resident of Mis- souri, and Benton, deceased, and Leon- idas, deceased, and two sisters, Mel- vina Scott and Adeline Smith. The only child born and living of Perez D. and Martha A. Schrock was John W., the subject of this sketch. Some time after the death of his first wife Mr. Schrock married Sarah Tally, who bore him the following children: Byron, Charles, Virgil, Flora, wife of Judge Tunnell, Estella, wife of W. Patterson, Effa, wife of a Mr. Nichols, and Edna.

John W. Schrock as a boy assisted his father in the store and made himself useful in various

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

ways, remaining under the parental roof until 1820, when, at the age of twenty, he came to Texas. He remained in Grayson county two years, and first came to Spanish Fort in 1842, where he spent the next two years working in a sawmill and freighting some. In 1824 he joined J. B. Jones' Battalion of Rangers, which was composed of seven companies, and was organ- ized for the purpose of protecting the frontier from depredations by the Indians. For ten months young Schrock was in this service, and was honorably discharged at Camp Lee, in December, 1874, by Capt. E. F. Ikards. The next five years he spent in the cattle business in the Chickasaw Indian Nation, then he was in Young county, Texas, ten months, giving his attention to the sheep industry, after which he returned to Spanish Fort, where he has since remained. For twenty-one years he was in the saloon business, and during that time saw the rough side of the town, always, however, obey- ing the law and conducting his place in such a manner that he won the respect of his fellows. Since July, 1902, he has dealt in general mer- chandise. He owns the building which his store occupies and he also owns a fine farm of two hundred and eighteen acres in Red River valley.

Mr. Schrock married, in 1882, Miss Lizzie Burford, who was born

in Missouri, in 1864, daughter of James Burford, prominent farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Bur- ford died in Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Schrock have two children : Roy B., born Sep- tember ?7, 1886, and Samuel D., May 2, 1890. Mrs. Schrock is a worthy member of the Chris- tian church, and Mr. Schrock, while not identi- fied with any church, belongs to the Masonic fraternity.

JOSEPH BURNAM. Few men in this generation so well merit the reverence due Texas pioneers of the Republic age as the venerable subject of this review and few men now living have had as intimate a connection with the civil- izing agencies of its frontier, as a Common- wealth, as he. From the age of sixteen until past forty he mingled with both the radical and the conservative elements of society in the at- miosphere of the Rio Grande, retiring to the peaceful and quiet zone of the state when the me- ridian of life was reached.

While Mr. Burnam's advent to Texas dates from 1844. his connection with the northern part of the state dates from 1876, when he settled at Blue Grove, in Clay county, where he occupied himself with stock-raising and farming. Retiring from this in 1882, he came to the townsite of

Bowie, where he has since been a factor in its everyday affairs. Mason, Jones and Strong and Burnam were the first merchants to establish themselves in the new town, and Mr. Burnam's building, occupying the Allen corner, was the third store building erected here. The latter put in a stock of dry goods and groceries and conducted the business for two years, and when he retired he purchased the tract now owned by Dr. Younger and planted it to orchard and de- voted himself to fruit-growing for some twelve years. Upon disposing of this he moved to his farm near Newport, but in a few months he sold it, came back to Bowie, purchased his present modest home and retired from active life.

Joseph Burnam was born in Natchitoches par- ish, Louisiana, March 13, 1830. His father, William Burnam, was a Kentuckian who went into Louisiana as a young man and there married a French lady, a Miss Boulyou, who passed away in 1841. Her children were: William who died in Texarkana, Arkansas, leaving a family ; Joseph, our subject, and Delze, who died in Burnett county, Texas, as Mrs. George Hol- man. Upon the death of the mother the father brought his children into Arkansas where, in 1842, he also passed away, and later Joseph and his sister came to Texas.

In 1822 Captain Jesse Burnam, an uncle of our subject, came to Texas and settled in Lafayette county, on the Colorado river twelve miles below LaGrange. He and his sons helped in the strug- gle for Texas independence, in which one son was slain in battle. To this uncle Joseph and Delze Burnam went and with him the sister went into Burnett county, where she married, reared a family and died. Joseph remained with the uncle until friction arose between himself and his cousins to an extent that he could not tolerate it, and, at fifteen years of age, he cast the die and launched his independent career. He went to Crocket, got the job of "riding the mail" between there and Washington on the Brazos and thus earned the first money of his life. He carried the mail until the Mexican war broke out when, in 1846, he joined the Second Texas Mounted Riflemen, Captain John L. Hall. At the company election he was made a corporal and their muster-in occurred at Isabella Point. The command crossed the river at Brownsville and Matamoras was soon captured.

In this war the Mexicans were on both sides of the Rio Grande river. They failed to respect the terms of their treaty with Sam Houston at San Jacinto, wherein the river was to be the boundary line between the two republics, and

FRANK MARLETT AND FAMILY

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

occupied Texas Territory in the hope that the old treaty would be abrogated and the American government forced to the terms of a boundary far east of the river. But the Americans then, as now, never took a backward step and ordered Gen. Scott to hold the line. Following Mata- moras came Monterey and then Saltillo and Buena Vista, in each of which Mr. Burnam participated, and in each of which the Mexicans were glad to yield, for General Taylor, although greatly outnum- bered, showed them such a band of fighters as they had never seen.

Mr. Burnam enlisted for six months, but, as the war was not concluded when his term ex- pired, he re-enlisted for twelve months. Before the expiration of this term the war ended, so far as Taylor's operations were concerned, and he completed his service in camp at Laredo.

On his release from the army Mr. Burnam went to Corpus Christi, where he arranged with some New Englanders bound for California to pilot them thither. Having learned some Span- ish he chose the Mexican side of the river for his journey. They reached Chihuahua without incident, but there Mr. Burnam took sick and was obliged to abandon his charge and his trip. Upon recovery, he entered a store as a clerk there for a time and when the great Mexican fair at San Juan Lagos opened he attended it. In 1850 he came back to Texas and established himself at Columbus, and in 1852 went into the stock business at the mouth of the Colorado river. This business occupied him until 1855, when he returned to Mexico and took a position with an American merchant at Camargo. He was so popular with the natives and his service was so pleasing and profitable to his employer that the latter proposed to charge back his year's salary and make him a third partner in the business from the start. In this capacity he remained for seventeen years, passing through the Priests' Party Revolution and the Maximillian fiasco and other peace-disturbing imbroglios with which Mexico was afflicted so often, without becoming seriously involved himself.

While in the Mexican republic, to all practical purposes he was as a citizen thereof. His build, his complexion and his speech were a duplicate of the typical high-class natives and his pure Castillian tongue could not have done its work better had he been born under the influence of the Capitol itself. While the Mexican seems to place little virtue in veracity for himself, he admires it in others, and Mr. Burnam's great popularity with the race grew out of his truth-

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 5

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