A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 50

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 50

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It would be impossible to determine exactly the extent of his influence and aid in the work of public improvement but his worth as a citizen is widely acknowledged and the part that he has taken in public progress has been of marked benefit to the county. He organized the first school in the neighborhood and after the town of Nocona was platted he cut and made the first road from Farmers' Creek to Nocona. He was the first settler at the former place and when Nocona was platted he selected a site for a home there and bought six acres of land, to which he has since added three acres. Upon that tract he built a commodious two-story frame residence, where he now resides. The home is beautifully located and is a fine residence. He also has a good orchard there. He has likewise bought land in other localities in the town and has altogether twenty acres and four dwellings which he rents. In 1891 he removed his cotton gin to Nocona, becoming the pioneer ginner at that . place. Until within the last few years his farm was conducted under his immediate supervision, but he now rents his land and gives his time to working about his home, gardening and keeping things in good order. Mr. Cubine is certainly a self made man and as the architect of his own fortunes has builded wisely and well.

In 1879 occurred the marriage of William H. Cubine and Miss Nancy L. Glazner, who was born in North Carolina in 1857 and is a lady of superior intelligence and culture. Her parents were Samuel and Elizabeth (Tinsley) Glazner,

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of South Carolina. Her mother was Eliza- beth Tinsley of a prominent and honored early family of South Carolina and her brother, Sam- uel Tinsley, represented his county in the state legislature. Samuel Glazner was born in North Carolina, but was married in South Carolina and removed to Tennessee, while later he went to Missouri. Subsequently he took up his abode in Arkansas, where he reared his family. Both he and his wife are yet living and they make their home now among their children, being at the present time in Oklahoma. During his active business career Mr. Glazner followed the occupation of farming. He served through- out the war in the Confederate army and was a valiant and brave soldier, taking part in the siege of Charleston and many important engage- ments. For a long time he was held as a prison- er of war. In his family were the following named: Jerry, a farmer residing in Montague county, Texas; William, of Oklahoma; Mrs. Lydia Harkins, now a widow living in Okla- homa; Mrs. Clarissa Cole, of Texas; Nancy L., the wife of William H. Cubine; and Mrs. Grace Ashabranner.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Cubine have been born four children : Pearl, the wife of August Paine ; Myr- tle, the wife of L. M. Nance ; Robert, who is at- tending school at Waco, Texas; and Ada, at home. The family are Baptists in religious faith. Mr. Cubine has had an eventful career in which a happy and care free youth was followed by four years of active service in the Civil war and six years spent in caring for his family and re- storing the old home farm to its original condi- tion. After the death of his father the estate was robbed and he has never recovered anything from that source. He too experienced the hardships and dangers incident to pioneer life on the fron- tier in Texas, but as the years have gone by frontier conditions have been replaced by the improvements of a modern civilization and Mr. Cubine has gained a handsome competence that now enables him to live retired.

ED C. BAKER, who is engaged in the real estate and abstract business at Mineral Wells and is classed with the representative citizens of Palo Pinto county, was born December 27, 1862, on his father's farm in this county on the Brazos river, five miles southwest of the pres- ent site of Mineral Wells. He is a son of J. H. and N. D. Baker. At an early period in the de- velopment of Palo Pinto county the family was established within its borders and its members have since taken an active part in its progress and

improvement. The father was born in Grayson county, Virginia, and came to Palo Pinto coun- ty in 1857, the year in which the colony was organized. On his arrival here he secured a small farm on the Brazos river and began the stock business in a limited way. Like other early settlers of the county he was compelled to do considerable Indian fighting to protect his home and his stock and was engaged in a number of battles with the red men on the frontier, in- cluding the fight in which Chief Quanah Parker and his mother were captured on the Pease river. About 1864, owing to the continued depredations of the Indians and the consequent insecurity of life, J. H. Baker was compelled to remove from his farm and take his family to Palo Pinto, the county seat, for better protection. His uncle, Frank Baker, who lived just across the Brazos river, was killed by the Indians about that time and J. H. Baker then took charge of the family of Frank Baker.

Following his removal to the county seat Mr. Baker organized a school and was engaged in teaching there for some time. He was also the first justice of the peace elected in Palo Pinto county and subsequently he was chosen for county assessor. At that time there were nine other counties attached to Palo Pinto for judi- ciary purposes and all of these were sparsely populated. Mr. Baker had to travel over the en- tire route in the transaction of the duties of his office. Subsequently he was elected county and district clerk and held that office for six years, proving most capable in the discharge of his du- ties. In 1890, in order to give his younger chil- dren better educational privileges, he removed to Granbury, Hood county, Texas, where he now resides, and although he has passed the age of three score years and ten he is still a very active and energetic man, conducting a nursery to which he gives close attention, his business prov- ing profitable. All through his life he has been systematic and methodical and since attaining his majority he has kept a diary which is now a valuable document, especially that portion re- lating to the Indian battles in Palo Pinto and adjoining counties. It would furnish the basis of an accurate and interesting history of pioneer times. He is a member of the Methodist church, to which his wife also belongs. She was reared in Clinton, Henry county, Missouri, becoming a resident of Palo Pinto county in 1859, and was here married to Mr. Baker.

In the year 1874 Ed C. Baker accompanied his parents back from the county seat to the farm on the Brazos and there he lived until 1880, when he went to Granbury, Texas, where he attended

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school for three years. He afterward went to Weatherford, where he became an employe of the firm of Carson & Lewis, the pioneer mer- chants of the place, who had become prominent and wealthy in their mercantile interests and had then sold their mercantile business and es- tablished a real-estate office. It was for the pur- pose of acquainting himself with the real-estate business and abstracting that Mr. Baker entered their office as a bookkeeper, and in the discharge of his duties he gained valuable knowledge that well qualified him for carrying on business along the same lines. He accepted that position in September, 1883, and remained there until Jan- uary, 1885, when he returned to the city of Palo Pinto and became the assistant of his father, who was at that time holding the office of coun- ty clerk. He opened the first set of abstract books in the county while in his father's office and in the summer of 1885 he established a real- estate office at Mineral Wells, dividing his time between the two towns, continuing his dual occu-

county, covering a long period, has numbered him among the prominent citizens who have been de- voted to the public welfare. Whether in public or private life his integrity is above question and his honor above reproach, and the county owes much to him, numbering him among her most promi- nent representatives.

ABNER E. BARKSDALE. A citizen of Wise county who has been conspicuously identi- fied with the agricultural, civil and religious . affairs of the county for more than a generation is Abner E. Barksdale, of Chico, the subject of this review. He came to the county at the opening of the most lively period of its growth and assumed at once a good citizen's interest in the vital matters pertaining to its symmetrical development and for this and other reasons he has earned the appropriate designation of "one of the figures of the county."

Taking up the thread of his biography we find Mr. Barksdale born in Holmes county, Mis-

pation until January 1, 1890, when he sold his . sissippi, September 1, 1842, the locality in which real-estate and abstract business to Judge Hen- dry. Mr. Baker went to King and Knox coun- ties, where he engaged in real-estate operations and also opened a set of abstract books for those counties. In the fall of 1892 he returned to Mineral Wells and on the first of April, 1893, he entered the real-estate business here. In 1897 he bought out Judge Hendry, thus regaining possession of his original abstract books. He conducted the business alone until 1904, when he admitted W. E. O'Neall to a partnership and the firm is now Baker & O'Neall. Mr. Baker is an expert real-estate and abstract man and is not only thoroughly familiar, from a life-long experience, with Palo Pinto county land, its val- ues, and the situation generally, but he is equal- ly well informed concerning land and realestate in almost every part of Texas, the requirements of his large clientage taking him into nearly all parts of the state. He has the entire confidence of the people, who know his value and ability, and among his regular clients are some of the wealthiest inen of Texas. his father settled as a young man some eighteen years before. 'The latter was Joseph Barksdale, born in Georgia, in 1802, and was one of two brothers in a family of some seven or eight chil- dren. Their father was a native Irishman, Abner Barksdale, the facts of whose history seem not available now. His first son was Flemuel and some of his daughters married and became moth- ers, but their identity is now little more than a myth. Joseph Barksdale married Casanna, a daughter of Jonathan Carter, in Holmes county, Mississippi, she being one of four children, viz .: Mrs. Bettie Wilks, Mrs. Polly Denton, Jonathan and Casanna. Joseph and Casanna were pre- sented with three negro servants when they were married, gifts from each of their parents, and they set about farming humbly, though with a determination that wins success. They pros- pered and became people of property and pres- tige in their county. They passed away rather prematurely, the mother dying in 1851 and the father in 1858. Their marriage was a fruitful one, nine children having come to bless their Mr. Baker was married in Fort Worth, Texas,' to Miss Mamie Staiti, whose home was formerly in Texarkana. He is prominent socially, belong- ing to the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias fraternities, while in the Masonic fraternity he has taken the degrees of the lodge, chapter, com- mandery, and the mystic shrine. He is also a director of the Commercial Club and a genial nature has made him popular among his brethren of these organizations as well as in the circles of general society. home, as follows: Joe Franklin, who died with- out heirs, in Mississippi; Nancy, married E. E. Middleton and died near the old home ; Mary, who first married Levy T. McGee, killed at the battle of Chickamauga, and then became the wife of a Mr. Bell and is now Mrs. J. S. Roberts, of Mississippi; William, who was killed in the bat- tle of Murfreesboro; Laura, wife of William Hoover, of Jackson, Mississippi; Abner E., of Chico, Texas; Asbury G., of Yazoo county, His residence in Palo Pinto Mississippi ; Frances E., wife of James Roberts,

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died in Grimes county, Texas ; and Elizabeth A., wife of Joseph D. McCormick, of Wise county, Texas.

Abner E. Barksdale had no regular home after his father's death and the education he possesses was obtained largely by contact with the world's affairs. He was rather a "drifter" until the rebellion broke out when he joined Company C, Fifteenth Mississippi Infantry, Colonel Farrell. He was in the 'Army of the Tennessee and his first important engagement was at Mill Spring, Kentucky, then Corinth and Iuka and then the Vicksburg campaign. He was fortunately with the troops that left Vicksburg before Grant had completed his envelopment of the city and joined Johnston's army under General Loring and lay about in the hope of being able to aid the doomed stronghold. After Vicksburg fell the battle of Jackson was fought and then his command went up into Tennessee and took part in the engage- ments at Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, following which they passed south to the defense of Atlanta and were in all the fighting to and from that place to Franklin and Nashville, where Hood's army was badly demoralized. His regiment, the Fifteenth Mis- sissippi, then joined Joe Johnston in the east and finished its service at Greensboro, North Caro- lina, where the final surrender took place. Mr. Barksdale passed through these years of war without receiving a wound and, as a private sol- dier, exposed himself to a soldier's fate in order that the Confederacy might survive. When the war was ended he accepted its results and began life as a teacher in the country schools of his native county. He married during the session of school and with his wages he purchased a horse, and with his new wife and a limited sup- ply of household goods engaged in farming. They had made friends with prosperity to some extent, when in 1869 they decided to emigrate and cast their lot with Texas.

Journeying to the Lone Star state, Mr. Barks- dale went by rail to New Orleans and by boat to Shreveport, and there bought a yoke of cattle and a wagon and completed their trip overland to Louisville, Denton county. There he pur- chased a farm and was occupied with its culti- vation and improvement until 1880, when he dis- posed of it and started a new home in Wise county. While in Denton county an incident oc- curred which serves to indicate very forcibly the insignificance of Fort Worth in 1870. He made a trip there that year and was asked by merchant Young, of Louisville, to bring back a barrel of sugar for his store. Not one merchant in Fort Worth owned that much sugar and it required

the combined stock of all of them to fill this Louisville order. On coming to Wise county Mr. Barksdale purchased two hundred acres of raw land three miles southeast of Chico, on the Hersee survey, and hauled the lumber from Dal- las to build his pioneer house. He took up farm- ing again and continued it with success, adding one hundred and sixty acres to his farm and when he reached the point where he felt able to retire he bought property in Chico and has resid- ed in town since 1893.

On the 28th of September, 1865, Mr. Barks- dale married Mary J. Dickerson, born in Hall county, Georgia, April 26, 1840. Her father was Levey Dickerson and her mother Miss Mary Dickenson, and she was one of eight children in the family. William Barksdale is our sub- ject's oldest child, residing in Fort Worth. Then come Lee and John T., Wise county farmers ; Edwin, bookkeeper for W. O. Brown, of Dallas ; Annie, wife of Charles Wallace, of Montague county ; Belle, wife of W. A. Kincannon, of Sny- der, Texas; Emma, a public school teacher ; and Garrett, a merchant's clerk in Chico. Until re- cent years Mr. Barksdale maintained his politi- cal home with Democracy but the curse of liquor has made him a warm friend of prohibition and he votes that ticket now. In 1885 he was elected county commissioner and filled the office two terms. He is a Master Mason and an active member of the Missionary Baptist church. Twenty years ago he was elected clerk of the Jacksboro Baptist Association and filled the place till Wise county withdrew and organized one of her own, when he was chosen clerk of it and still performs those duties. He has been clerk of the Chico Baptist church for twenty-one years and he has been sent as a delegate to state as- sociations of the church at different times.

ELIJAH J. TUCKER, a prominent and highly respected farmer of the Red River Val- ley, Texas, dates his birth in Madison county, Arkansas, May 8, 1857, and is a son of William H. and Amanda (Bohannan) Tucker, both na- tives of Tennessee.

Mr. Tucker's maternal grandfather, Elijah Bohannan, was a Tennessee farmer and after- ward a pioneer of Arkansas, where he carried on agricultural pursuits the rest of his life. In his family were eight children, namely: Wil- liam, Mary, Elizabeth, Leafy, Winnie, James, John and Amanda.

Mr. Tucker's paternal grandfather also was named Elijah, and he, too, was a prominent Tennessee farmer who went from that state to Arkansas and continued his farming operations

ELIJAH J. TUCKER AND FAMILY

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

successfully in the latter state. He was the father of three children: William H., John and Betsey.

William H. Tucker removed with his father's family from Tennessee to Arkansas. He re- mained a member of the home circle until he married, then settled on a farm of his own, and was engaged in agricultural pursuits in Arkan- sas at the time civil war was inaugurated. He entered the Confederate service in General Price's command and was on duty with the same in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana, con- tinuing in the army until the war closed, when he started home. Before reaching home, how- ever, he died and was buried at Clarksville, Arkansas. He was an honest, unassuming man who had worked hard to get a start ; who went bravely into line and fought for what he believed to be right, and was cut down in the prime of manhood. He was a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Methodist church. Some time after his death his widow sold the farm and moved to Huntsville, Arkansas, in order to afford her children better educational facilities, and she kept them together until they were grown. In Huntsville she married Joseph Haydon, a mechanic and contractor, with whom she subsequently moved to Washington county, Arkansas, and a year later to Hot Springs, that state, where he lived retired for a number of years and where he died. She still resides there. Of the children born to William H. and Amanda Tucker, we record that the eldest is now Mrs. Mary J. Welch; Elijah J. is the subject of this sketch; James M. is a prominent contractor ; William died in Comanche county, Texas, leav- ing a widow and five children. By the mother's second marriage there were four children: thirty years the mother was a Methodist, after which she joined the Baptists, with whom she now affiliates.

Elijah J. Tucker remained in Arkansas until he was seventeen years old and then came to Texas, stopping first in Johnson county, where he was employed on a farm for three years, going thence at the end of that time to Bell county, where, in 1879, he married and settled down to farming on his own account. The fol- lowing year he moved to Milam county. There he cultivated rented land three years. Then he went back to Bell county and bought land, on which he made his home seven years. Again he sold out and his next move was to Harde- man county, where he remained one year and from whence he went to Greer county and en- gaged extensively in stock-raising in connec-

tion with his farming. There he had free range for his cattle, was prosperous, and remained five years. At the end of the five years he sold both his land claim and his cattle and returned to Hardeman county, where he bought an im- proved farm and the next three years passed his time there in diversified farming. Again he sold out. Then he moved into the town of Bowie, where he ran a wagon yard and bought and sold horses and mules, and when he had · been there a year he was ready to move again, and we next find him in Clay county, where he bought two farms. He rented these farms and he and his family lived in Cambridge in order to afford his children educational advantages. When he sold his Clay county land he bought the place on which he now resides, in the Red River Valley, near Spanish Fort. His first pur- chase here was one hundred and sixty-eight acres, to which he has since added until his: holdings now comprise four hundred and forty ' acres, with four hundred acres under cultiva- tion, all rich valley land, producing abundant and diversified crops. Here Mr. Tucker has erected a beautiful and commodious residence, modern in every respect, which is surrounded by attractive and well kept grounds, shaded with forest and fruit trees and having a wealth of roses and other flowers, this being one of the most beautiful homes in Montague county. On his land are no less than five tenant houses besides barn and other buildings, and he has two orchards of his own planting that have come into bearing.

All his life a Democrat, Mr. Tucker has taken an intelligent interest in affairs of a public na- ture, but has never aspired to office or to any kind of public life. He has been a careful man- move when he thought he could better his condition, and has usually known a good thing when he saw it. Like his worthy father before him, he affiliates with the Masonic order and the Methodist church.

Tenna, Marion A., Joseph and John. For over , ager, industrious and honest, never afraid to

Mr. Tucker married Miss Hulda M. Campsey, a native of Ohio, who was born March 10, 1860, daughter of Johnson and Caroline (Mills) Campsey, natives respectively of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Her parents were married in Ohio, subsequently moved to Kansas and later to Missouri, and in 1875 came to Texas, settling in Bell county. Mr. Campsey afterward bought land in Coryell county, on which he made his home until death claimed him in 1878. His wife is still living, now a resident of Hardeman county. Her children in order of birth are Mrs. Martha J. Parsons, Wylie, Mrs. Emma

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Dodson, Mrs. Hulda M. Tucker, James (de- ceased), Mrs. Nancy A. Turner, Mrs. Nettie Moore, Mrs. Ida B. Midkiff, Mrs. Caroline E. Turner, Emmett G., Mrs. Lilla M. Deaver, and Sidney. Mr. and Mrs. Tucker have twelve children, namely: William M., Mrs. Mary A. Erwin, Mrs. Caroline Lee, Wylie, Effa, Edna, Otis, Laura M., James J., John D., Stella E. (deceased), and Marion A.

RICHARD D. HOWELL, the first and only city marshal of North Fort Worth, having oc- cupied the position continuously since 1902, is a native of Tennessee, his birth having occurred in Hardeman county in 1868. His parents were D. C. and Nancy J. (Jones) Howell, both of whom were born in Tennessee, whence they came with their family to Texas in 1881, settling on a farm in Ellis county about twelve miles south of Waxahachie. In 1883 they re- moved to Montague county, but in 1885 the parents returned to their old neighborhood in Hardeman county, Tennessee, where the father and mother are still living, the former at the age of seventy-eight years.

Richard D. Howell, however, continued to reside in Texas after his parents' departure from the state in 1885. He returned, however, to Ellis county to work in the cotton crop, for the crop in Montague county that year was a failure. Since that time he has been engaged in various pursuits and business enterprises in this state. At one time he was a cow puncher on the plains and again he engaged in the operation of cotton gins, while for some years he was connected with railroad building. He remained in Ellis county during a portion of the year 1886 and then worked on the construction of the Santa Fe railroad. In 1888, however, he returned to Ellis county, but the same year went to southern Texas, being engaged as con- struction man and bridge man on the building of the Southern Pacific Railway for two years. In 1892 he came to northern Texas, locating on a farm in Tarrant county near Arlington. He maintained his residence at that place from 1892 until July 2, 1900, since which time he has been a resident of North Fort Worth.

Here Mr. Howell operated the engine at the Orthwein Elevator until it became the property of the Rosenbaum interests, when he began work on the construction of the big plant erected by Swift & Company, packers, being the second man engaged on that work. His time and at- tention were thus occupied until December 2, 1902, when he was elected city marshal of North Fort Worth, being the first to hold the position.

In fact, the organization was completed by that election. He was re-elected in April, 1903, and again in 1904 for a term of two years, and by virtue of the first two elections he was also city assessor and collector, but the duties of the latter positions became separate under a later law and Mr. Howell now devotes his undivided attention to the office of city marshal. He was a very efficient assessor and collector, leaving the office with a clean and honorable record, and as police official at the head of the North Fort Worth department he has discharged his duties fearlessly. He has had much to contend with in a new town which is rapidly growing and to which a lawless element was attracted, thereby requiring strict and constant surveil- lance. In the consensus of public opinion he is a most capable official, justly meriting the trust reposed in him.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 50

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