A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 63

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 63

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James K. Read was a boy of five years when his father brought him to Wise county. He was born in Forsyth, Missouri, October 27, 1853, and the education he obtained came to him through

a somewhat intermittent attendance upon the country schools. The troubles and excitement of the times were sufficient to make boys of cour- age and daring when he grew up on the frontier and the occasional swift passage of the red man's band put a spice into real life that was almost to the limit of real enjoyment. While the fami- ly was never sorely beset, one call of the savage was so close as to give one of the boys the footrace of his life and but for the timely appearance of his brother with the dreaded gun might have cost him his life or a term in Indian captivity. As late as 1874, when they murdered the Huff fami- ly near Alvord, the Indians prowled the country every moonlight night and every annual effort at farming was attended with some hazard and danger.

When Mr. Read married at just past twenty- one he set up housekeeping on the spot where he now makes his home. It was a part of the par- ental estate which came to him as a gift and into the cabin built to receive them the young people began their career in life. Many domestic events have happened and many agricultural successes have been achieved since that 7th day of July of their marriage in 1875, and about a section of land has become the limit of their holdings of real estate. Mrs. Read was Mary E., a daughter of John Ferguson, a Baptist minister from Ten- nessee who ministered to the people of Wise county and who married Sarah J. Collins and died here, the father of twelve children. Mr. and Mrs. Read's family has consisted of John Henry, of Memphis; William Walter and Ben- jamin, of Hall county, Texas ; May, Laura, Har- old, Peek, Carl and Ruth, all at home, while May is attending school in Denton.

In their political affiliations the Reads are Democrats and in their religious tendencies Methodists. Mr. Read is one of the active and influential factors in his church, is a steward and for many years superintended the Sabbath school work. Mr. Read is a Mason and has membership at Paradise.

FRANK F. BROWN, D. D. S. The profes- sion of dentistry in Montague county is ably rep- resented by the gentleman whose name intro- duces this personal review, his office in Bowie being one of the professionally active centers of interest in the city. The prestige of his alma mater, his proficiency as a mechanic and his uni- versal popularity as a citizen combine to make his office the mecca of dental sufferers and place him in the category of eminent craftsmen in his line.

While Dr. Brown's citizenship in Montague

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county is not of ancient origin, he is indebted to the state of Texas for his birth and refers. with pride to the citizenship of his parents as of pion- eer character to the Lone Star state. Jackson county, Mississippi, furnished Joseph Brown, our subject's grandfather, to become a settler of Texas, and while he made a trip into the state in the closing forties, his permanent settlement was not made until 1852. He selected a location in the vicinity of Springfield, in Limestone county, where his stock and farming interests were car- ried on. Among his children were several sons, one of whom, Wiley P., was the father of Dr. Brown of this notice.

Wiley P. Brown was born in Jackson county, Mississippi, in 1840, and was nearing man's estate when his parents brought the family to Texas. Merchandising attracted him in early life and he began it as a clerk in Springfield, afterward be- coming one of the firm of Stephens and Brown and finally owning the business himself. Aban- doning Springfield he became a merchant in Groesbeck and remained so until in the seventies, when he was induced to enter politics and was elected to a county office. For many years he was returned to the court house by an apprecia- tive constituency, holding the office of treasurer and then county clerk and filling the latter some ten years.

When the state was organizing its troops for the Confederacy, Wiley P. Brown enlisted in the spring of 1861 in Major Farrow's company, but it was disbanded in Ellis county, and he then joined Colonel Nichols' regiment, which was sent to Galveston, where, in six months it was also disbanded. He then joined Captain McGee's com- pany and was elected second lieutenant of the company. The company was made a part of the Twentieth Texas Cavalry and at Fort Smith, Arkansas, he came into command of the company. He was in the fight at Elkhorn, and in a skirmish near Van Buren and the regiment was then dismounted and became infantry for the re- mainder of its service. He fought at Cane Hill, spent the winter of 1862-63 at Fort Smith, where Indians attacked them, and for the remainder of the war his regiment saw some fighting and other field service to the close of the war. He was in the Trans-Mississippi Department and was under command of Gen. E. Kirby Smith.

In Limestone county Mr. Brown married Mary Z. Stephens, a daughter of Captain Stephens, his partner in business and an old county officer of Limestone county. The issue of their marriage are: William W., of Groesbeck; Wiley P., Jr., of Okmulgee, I. T .; Porter P., of Groesbeck; Dr.

Frank F., our subject; Mrs. J. L. Walker, of Groesbeck; Leslie L., of Groesbeck; Mrs. R. L. Reese, of Corsicana ; John L., of Groesbeck ; and Marion, a student of the medical department of Tulane University.

Dr. F. F. Brown spent his boyhood and youth in and near Groesbeck and the public and private schools thereabout provided him with a liberal education which was strengthened by his attend- ance upon the Agricultural and Mechanical Col- lege. When engaging in active business he was made deputy county clerk, which office he filled three years, and upon the expiration of his service he took up the study of pharmacy, taking a course in the same at Philadelphia. He took charge of a drug store in Groesbeck for two years and in the fall of 1894, he began the study of dentistry in the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. In 1897 he completed his course and opened an office in Cameron, Texas. He remained in that loca- tion until July, 1900, when he established himself in Bowie, where he has achieved both professional and social renown. He is a member of the Texas State Dental Association, is an Elk and a Wood- man and a Democrat.

MILES A. GRAVES. Mr. Graves is an hon- ored citizen and farmer of Jack county, repre- senting the first precinct on the board of county commissioners and doing efficient service for the people of his county. A citizen of the county for twenty-seven years, he has grown up here and his straightforward life has established him in the universal confidence of his municipality.

Blount county, Alabama, was Mr. Graves' na- tive place and he was born September 26, 1861. His father was J. T. Graves, who died in Jack county in 1900 at the age of fifty-seven and who was born in the same county as his son. James Graves, grandfather of Miles A., was a farmer and died by accident in Blount county. He married Eliza Walker, who bore him William, Jesse, Elizabeth, Nancy and Robert.

J. T. Graves adopted the vocations of his father when he took up the duties of life and served four years in the Ninth Alabama Infantry, was first sergeant of his company. He was wounded in the Seven Days' fight and at the battle of Chicka- mauga and served and suffered that the cause of the stars and bars might prevail. He married Nancy, daughter of William Martin, and his wife died in Jack county in 1885. The children born to them were: Miles A .; Eliza, who mar- ried A. G. Smith and died here; William, of Lubbock county, Texas; Mollie, wife of J. W. Nichols, of Jacksboro; Robert, of Lubbock

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

county, Texas; Cordelia, wife of Henry Bill- berry, of Jack county, and Arthur, who tills a farm "in the Free State of Jack."

The Graveses came to Texas from Lincoln county, Tennessee, by wagon, consuming some five weeks on the road. Ox teams comprised their outfit when they drove into Jack county and they. settled on Carroll creek. In 1888 Miles A. brought his family to the West Fork and rented land for four years. He began life at the bottom and the process of climbing the ladder was a slow and tedious one. He strained several points, ap- parently, when he contracted to buy eighty acres of land on the Sion Pritchard survey, in order that he might begin the work of building him a home. A log house and few other primitive im- provements greeted him when he took possession of the land, but these readily and quickly yielded to permanent and comfortable structures when they were ready to be made. He traded his yoke of steers in on his farm and was then without a team to cultivate it but he worked out of the predicament and, notwithstanding occasional fail- ures in crops, he paid for and improved his farm and added other lands to its area till it embraces four hundred and forty acres.

The state of Texas received J. T. Graves and his family from Lincoln county, Tennessee, as above stated, whither they went from their Ala- bama home in 1866. They first stopped in Lamar county, remaining there five years and beginning their citizenship in Jack in the year 1878. As an opening stroke to his independent career Miles A. Graves bought a yoke of cattle on time and with them hauled rock to pay for a horse which had come to him through the time channel. Other similar maneuvers occurred in the early part of his career before he reached the rock of safety and became able to really stand alone.

November 15, 1883, Mr. Graves married Miss Ella Miller. Mrs. Graves was a daughter of J. A. and Margaret Miller, who lived in Missouri and Arkansas prior to the advent of the family to the empire of the west. She was born in Collin county March 26, 1865, and is the mother of Henry, Eva, Robert, Ethel, Lee, Myrtle, Minnie and Esta.

Mr. Graves was called to the commissioners' board by his Democratic constituents in 1900, in 1002 and again in 1904, and he has been instru- mental in building the Jacksboro and other bridges, buying the county farm at a cost of $2,700.00 and has carried his share of the other public business without embarrassment and with sincerity and honor. He is a Master Mason and holds a membership in the Methodist church.

VANCE GIST, M. D. In a profession where success and prominence depend entirely upon individual merit, comprehensive knowledge and close application Dr. Gist has won a no- table and creditable position. He makes his home in Red River Valley and is accorded a liberal patronage, which comes to him from a wide territory. He was born in Tennessee, March 4, 1854, and is a representative of one of the old families of Kentucky. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Gist, was a pioneer of that state, going there soon after Daniel Boone had made his explorations. He became a leading agriculturist of that section of the country and was closely identified with its early develop- ment. His son, Belew Gist, was the only child born of his first marriage. For his second wife he chose Belle Freeman and they had one son, Joseph, who died in the Blue Grass state.

Belew Gist was born in Kentucky, there spent his youth and after his marriage, which occurred in that state, he settled on a farm there and became a leading agriculturist of his com- munity. He was a veteran of the Confederate army, serving throughout the war and partici- pating in many important engagements and skirmishes, at the same time undergoing hard- ships and exposure that are always meted out to a soldier. He was a Royal Arch Mason, true and loyal to the teachings of the craft, and was a man whose word was as good as his bond. He was ever faithful to his honest convictions and neither fear nor favor could swerve him from a course which he believed to be right. Both he and his wife were consistent and devoted members of the Christian church. He first married Miss Nancy Davis, a native of Ten- nessee and a daughter of Isaac Davis, a repre- sentative farmer of that state, where he re- mained at home during the period of the Civil War, taking part with neither side. In his

younger days he was noted as an athlete and he became an earnest, enterprising farmer without aspiration for public office or notoriety of any kind. His children were: Mrs. Eliza- beth Johnson; Nancy, who became Mrs. Gist; and Mrs. Mitchell. To Belew and Nancy Gist were born eight children: Joseph, a merchant, shoemaker and saddler; Isaac, a school teach- er and prominent mathematician ; William, a farmer now living at Nocona; Vance of this review ; Mrs. Sarah Eden of Kentucky; Ezell, a farmer of Arkansas; Mrs. Mattie Smith of Tennessee; and Robert, a farmer of western Texas. After the loss of his first wife, the father, Belew Gist, married again.

MR. AND MRS. VANCE GIST

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Dr. Gist, whose name introduces this record, was reared in the usual manner of farmer lads, working in the fields through the summer months and attending school. throughout the remainder of the year. He is largely self-edu- cated in a literary way but through his read- ing he has become well informed. He taught school when about twenty-one years of age and also began reading medicine under the di- rection of Dr. B. S. Plumbly, who continued as his preceptor for two years. He next matric- ulated in Vanderbilt Institute, becoming a student in the medical department. Later he returned home and rode with the preceptor in his practice, assisting him in his work, so that he added practical knowledge to his theoretical training. The following season he returned to Vanderbilt Institute and was graduated in' the class of 1880. He then located for practice in his home neighborhood, but after a few months on account of his own health he went to Slick Rock Springs, Kentucky. There his health improved and the people of the locality, recog- nizing his professional skill, urged him to remain. He did so and for four years success- fully followed his profession there. Through a correspondence, however, he was induced to come to Texas and made his way to Greenville, but he was disappointed in the physician of whom he was to become a partner and he re- mained at Greenville for only a few days. He then went to Cooke county, locating at Erie, where he entered into partnershin with Dr. B. R. Thonerson, with whom he remained for a year, after which he went to Thackerville in the Indian Territory. There he also spent a year and on the expiration of that period re- turned to Valleyview, Texas, where he spent about twelve months. Again he located in Thackerville in 1886, remaining there in ac- tive practice until 1890, when he went to Roff in the Territory, spending nine years at that place. In 1899 he arrived in Montague county and located in the neighborhood of Red River valley, where he yet resides. He has been quite successful in his practice and at each place in which he has located he has built up a large business by strict attention to his pro- fession and by reason of his skill in the ad- ministration of remedial agencies. In 1898 he took a post-graduate course at the West Side Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, and by reading and investigation he has continually promoted his efficiency and thus rendered his services of greater value in the alleviation of human suffer- ing.

When in Roff Dr. Gist leased a farm for ten

years, employing a man to carry it on. He handled much stock and was quite successful in his agricultural interests there. On coming to Montague county he purchased near his present place of residence, becoming owner of a valley farm of two hundred and ten acres, which he operated in connection with his prac- tice. Eventually, however, he sold out and bought again where he now resides, having here two hundred and six acres of fine valley land, well improved with good buildings, mod- ern equipment and an orchard. He also bought a forty-acre wood lot. The doctor greatly enjoys the outdoor air and exercise that farm labor gives and would really prefer to abandon professional service and give his attention to the farm on account of health, but his many patrons are opposed to this plan and demand his services as a medical practitioner.

In May, 1894, in Cooke county, Texas, was celebrated the marriage of Dr. Gist and Miss Allie Phillips, who was born in Cooke county, February 25, 1876. She is an estimable lady of natural refinement and attractive graces of character, who presides with charming hospi- tality over their pleasant home. Her parents were Dan and Sally A. Phillips, the former a native of Tennessee and the latter of Arkansas, Crawford county. They were prominent resi- dents of Cooke county, where her father was engaged in the cattle business for a number of years. Later he became a member of the King Cattle Company, which subsequently failed. Mr. Phillips, however, rallied from his financial reverses and gained a fair measure of prosperity. He continued his residence in Cooke county up to the time of his death, which occurred December 28, 1888. He was an ac- tive and interested member of the Methodist church and was a man of upright principles who fully merited the confidence and good will that was uniformly extended him. His wife survives him and now resides in Montague county. In their family were eight children, namely: Fannie, Claude, Allie, Nora, Charles, Wid, Anna and Tennie.

Dr. and Mrs. Gist have three children : Gladys, born October 25, 1897; Ruby, born No- vember 12, 1901; and Elsie, born March 13, 1903. The doctor and his wife have many warm friends in Nocona and Montague coun- ty and he is well known as a successful and capable physician and surgeon and enterpris- ing farmer. His labors have been well directed and through his own efforts he has achieved success and an honored name.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

ROBERT WILLIAM SNEED. One of the very first settlers of Tonk Valley in Young coun- tv was Robert W. Sneed, who located, in 1872, seven miles south of Graham on a part of the Tonkaway Indian Reserve. When he came the Reserve was not yet subject to pre-emption, but the state legislature was petitioned to declare the Indian title no longer tenable-as the tribe had deserted the tract, and in 1873 the act went into effect making the several reservations comprising the one hundred square miles public domain and subject to entry in quarter section lots. Having selected one of the choice sites our subject ful- filled the conditions of the state and obtained his patent and has continued his occupation of his homestead for a third of a century.

Among the few settlers who were within reach of Mr. Sneed's location Judge N. J. Timmons and A. B. Medlan still remain, the former being the only near neighbor during that historic year. As his first abiding place he almost burrowed under ground, for the cabin he built had a dirt floor and a roof of the same material. Humble though it was it was his home, and the inde- pendence he felt in reclining under his own "vine and fig tree" is more readily imagined than told. He made the subterranean habitation his home for two years, when prosperity added something substantial to his assets and he built himself a real house. For nine years he labored in the re- duction and improvement of his farm, without the aid or counsel of man's truest companion, a wife. Except for the peculiar characteristics he was a hermit and only with the dawn of an era of permanent prosperity did he seriously con- sider a matrimonial alliance.

Robert W. Sneed has been in Texas forty years. He came here from Lincoln county, Mis- souri, in 1865, making his way overland down through the wilds of Arkansas and the Indian Territory and crossing Red river at historic Tal- bott's Ferry and journeying to San Augustine county, where his final tour south was ended. There he lived a year and then sought Hood county, where the succeeding six years were passed. From Hood he brought his severely lim- ited resources into Young, with the result as re- lated above.

May 25, 1839, Robert W. Sneed was born in Lincoln county, Missouri, of parents William D. and Caroline (Davis) Sneed. The family was founded there by Benjamin Sneed, grandfather of our subject, who moved out there from near Richmond, Virginia, early in the nineteenth cen- tury and died in 1852 at about eighty-three years of age. He was a soldier in the war of 1812 and for his wife chose Priscilla Jew, by whom there

were born William D., Benjamin, Caswell, Har- rison and Isabel, wife of Hess Williams.

William D. Sneed was a mere boy when he ac- companied his parents to Missouri, and he grew up on the outskirts of civilization and obtained little education. He was a successful farmer for his day and married a daughter of Silas Davis. His wife died in 1863 and he survived till 1902, passing away at the age of eighty-three years, a Baptist in religion and a Democrat in politics. Sarah J., who married Elias Shumaker and died in Missouri, was his first child, and the others, in order of birth, were: Robert W., of this notice ; Mary, who died in 1863 ; Susan E., wife of John James; Charles; Frances, deceased; Henry ; Benjamin ; and Ellen, wife of John C. Cox, all, save our subject, of Joplin, Missouri.

Robert W. Sneed learned little beyond read- ing and writing when a schoolboy, and he discov- ered his adaptation for farm work under the in- struction of his father. Being southern in senti- ment, when the war was brought on he joined a company for service in Price's army and while en route to the command the Federal General Prentiss' command obstructed their way at Mount Zion church and worsted them and captured many. In this fight Mr. Sneed was shot through the hip, taken prisoner and paroled on his prom- ise not to take up arms again until exchanged, and he is still waiting for his exchange, although in no mood now to resume the conflict should this act make its appearance.

In February, 1879, Mr. Sneed married Mrs. Dulcena Robinson, a daughter of Josiah Baker, who settled in Parker county, Texas, in 1850 from Pulaski county, Kentucky. Mr. Baker was born in Yancy county, North Carolina, April 5, 1822, a son of Martin Baker, who settled in Ken- tucky when Josiah was a boy. Martin Baker passed his life as a farmer, came to Texas prior to the war and died in Parker county in 1864 at seventy-two years of age. He married Elizabeth Buchanan and reared a family of six children. Josiah Baker married Nancy C. Fore, a daugh- ter of Jesse Fore, a soldier of the war of 1812. Mrs. Baker died in Parker county in 1896 the mother of eight children. She was born in Geor- gia and married there, and in Union county, that state, Mrs. Sneed, her daughter, was born in No- vember, 1849.

While Mr. and Mrs. Sneed have no issue, by her first husband, John Robinson, Mrs. Sneed has a daughter, Laura, who married William Wadley and resides on the farm near her mother.

In his Young county experience as a farmer Mr. Sneed has never failed to raise some sort of a crop. although many failures were made the

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year of the "big drouth" in 1886. That year he made a quantity of millet by planting for fall rains, the only means by which feed could have been produced in the county. . His interest in his farm has abounded to the exclusion of all other interests, and as a citizen he is widely known and universally respected and esteemed. He is a part of the great Democratic majority Texas never fails to give a national or state ticket and holds a membership in the Christian church.

ABRAHAM MOLSBEE, who has extensive farming and stock-raising interests which he is profitably conducting in Montague county, is also well known as a minister of the Brethren church, and his upright life has commended him to the confidence and good will of all with whom he has been associated. He was born in Hawkins coun- ty, Tennessee, July 8, 1835. His parents were David and Margaret (Simmons) Molsbee, the latter a native of West Virginia and the former of Tennessee. The paternal grandparents were Wil- liam and Nancy (Groves ) Molsbee, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania, the former of English lineage and the latter of German descent. After their marriage they removed to Tennessee. Mrs. Molsbee was first married to a Mr. Stakely and had two sons, John and Christian. The for- mer married and became the father of a large family. Subsequent to his removal to Tennessee William Molsbee, the grandfather of our subject, purchased large tracts of land and improved good farms. There he spent his remaining days, his death occurring upon the old family home- stead. He was a member of the Brethren or Ger- man Baptist church and assisted in the upbuilding of a large congregation in the locality where he resided. He was at all times true to his profes- sions, and his honesty and genuine worth made him a man of value in the community where he resided. In his family were two sons and a daughter: David, Mrs. Mary Bowman and Wil- liam. The last named was a farmer and removed from Tennessee to Missouri.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 63

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