A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 65

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 65

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William D. Craig was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, April 2, 1860, and was a son of Dr. Lewis Craig, who passed a half century in the active practice of medicine in that city. After pass- ing through the Plainfield schools he prepared for college in the Pingry school at Elizabeth and then entered Princeton College. He completed the classical course in that institution in 1882, when he was busied with the affairs of his fa- ther's estate until 1888. He married at Spokane. Washington, September 29, 1893, Miss Elizabeth Graham who was the light of his life and the guardian angel of his household. Their mar- riage was a union of two hearts that ever beat in perfect unity and harmony and their lives are reflected in the intelligence, the affection and the modest bearing of their offspring. Mrs. Craig was closely allied to the religious work of her town and while her name was on the Presbyterian church rolls all churches were pleased to claim her for her good works, and when she died, February 9, 1901, Graham was a house of mourning. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Craig were Agnes, Mary and Catherine,

the jewels of their father's crown and the last thoughts of his conscious hours. Mr. Craig was an elder of the Graham Presbyterian church and its welfare came in for a good share of his at- tention and substantial support.

CAPTAIN TERRY H. C. PEERY, a prom- inent man of affairs at Seymour, Baylor coun- ty, has enjoyed a career of unusual individual success and prestige, and what he has effected in a public-spirited way in promoting the educa- tional progress of Seymour will be felt as an influence for good through all succeeding gen- erations of the town's history. Captain Peery is a man of broad gauge, has large faculties and talents, has been aspiring in his endeavors, has experienced life as most men have not, and as a character is well rounded and influential and a man whose position in the world is elevating and helpful.

He is a native of Maury county, Tennessee, where he was born in August, 1839. His parents were Robert and Margaret (Harrold) Peery, and his father, a native of Tennessee, was a farmer and died before the war. His mother was also born in Tennessee, and died in 1884 after attaining the advanced age of ninety years.

Captain Peery was reared on a farm and re- ceived a good common school education. At the beginning of the rebellion he enlisted in Obion county, Tennessee, going out in Company C, Twenty-seventh Tennessee Infantry, of the Confederate army as a non-commissioned officer. After the battle of Shiloh he was commissioned first lieutenant, and at the battle of Murfrees- boro was promoted to captain, and thence during the remainder of the war commanded Company C of the Twenty-seventh. In addition to the two battles mentioned he was in all the engagements participated in by the Army of the Tennessee, altogether forty-two in number, the most im- portant being Shiloh, Perryville, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, the fighting at Atlanta and vi- cinity, and Franklin and Nashville. He was wounded at the battle of Shiloh. At the battle of Nashville he commanded the regiment, his su- perior officers having all been killed or wounded at Franklin. After that engagement his regi- ment was sent to North Carolina, where it took part in the battle of Bentonville, and at the time of final surrender was at Greensboro.

From an officer in the Confederate army he returned home and entered the mercantile busi- ness, which has been the principal obiect of his endeavors ever since. His store was at Wilson- ville (now Hornbeak), where he was in partner- ship with his brother-in-law, E. A. Hornbeak.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

In 1876 he came out to Texas and located. at Denton, where he continued his career as mer- chant with great success for thirteen years. He also owned a farm on the edge of that town. In the latter part of 1889 he became a resident of Seymour and began merchandising, at first individually and then in partnership with B. F. Smith, as Peery and Smith. They later sold out to the Seymour Commercial Company, of which firm Mr. Peery is still a stockholder although no longer actively engaged in the business.

Captain Peery's connection with public and political affairs began in Tennessee. He has always given much thought to educational prob- lems, and improvement in educational facilities was forced upon him as a burning question and need of the hour in his part of Tennessee after the war, interest in public education being at a low ebb for some time after the paralyzing storm and stress of civil conflict. In Denton he became a member of the board of aldermen, and as a member of the educational committee of that body took an active interest in promoting legisla- tion whereby bonds could be issued for establish- ing a good public school system and a much- needed school building there. In 1900 Captain Peery was elected president of the school board of Seymour, and as the result of his efficient labors he deserves the title of father of the free public school system in this town. On his ini- tiative bonds for nineteen thousand dollars were voted and turned into cash, and from the pro- ceeds the present public school building was completed two years ago. This structure is one of the splendid ornaments of the town and an honor and credit to the entire people. It is built of gray stone, and cost, with furnishings, be- tween twenty-three and twenty-four thousand dollars. Its equipment is modern and will com- pare with that of any school in North Texas, and the entire educational system is such that Sey- mour has gained a most enviable reputation as a center of learning. The public school has eleven grades, and is known as the Seymour Free Public School. Previous to the establish- ment of this excellent institution Seymour had about as poor a school as could be found in this part of the state. In June, 1904, Captain Peery resigned his office as president of the board, hav- ing accomplished his object and one of the best works of his life.

Captain Peery served in two sessions of the state legislature, the twenty-fifth and twenty- sixth, 1897-99, and while a member of the law- making body was chairman of the committee on stock and stock-raising and a member of the committees on revenue, taxation, irrigation, ju-

diciary districts, and others. He made a good rec- ord as a legislator, and especially proved the practicality of his mind and a sincere desire for the best interests of the state as opposed to the theoretical and tentative measures whose ef- fect was at best of uncertain value. He sided with the conservative element who advocated public expenditures only where money was ac- tually needed and where it would be of perma- nent benefit.

Captain Peery affiliates with the Masonic . order. He has been a member of the Christian church for fifty years. He was married in Ten- nessee to Miss Anna Hornbeak, of one of the old and highly respected families of that state. Her father, Hon. Pleasant Hornbeak, was a prominent Tennesseean, was a member of the state legislature during the thirties, and previous to that had been doorkeeper for that body when James K. Polk was one of the legislators. Cap- tain and Mrs. Peery have four children: Terry .E., who died in infancy ; W. O. Peery, who is a newspaper man in Rolfe, Indian Territory ; Mrs. Helen Briggs; and Miss Ethel Peery.

MARSHALL F. GRAGG. During the era of Jack county's rapid settlement Marshall F. Gragg located upon a tract of Wood county school land, near Post Oak, and for six years was occupied with its reduction and improve- ment. Disposing of his school claim in 1883, he located in Howard valley, purchased fifty acres, with a small box house and other primitive im- provements, and resumed his efforts as a farmer. After twenty-eight years of industry, enduring adversities and overcoming difficulties, we find him one of the independent and substantial farm- ers of the valley.

A small team of mules, a wagon and a few swine constituted MIr. Gragg's visible assets when he drove into Jack county, and today he is listed for taxes with three hundred and sixty- five acres exclusive of his personal property. To win this he has provided the management and the labor and nature has done the rest. He was endowed with industry at birth and has passed the characteristic on to his posterity unimpeded and unimpaired. He trained this industrial trait in Coffey county, Tennessee, and has practiced it in Parker county, Texas, as well as in Jack. He came to the Lone Star state in the fall of 1871 and lived near Springtown, in Parker county, until his departure, humbly, yet determinedly, to build him a home in Jack.

Mr. Gragg was born in Polk county, Tennes- see, July 8, 1852, a son of Thomas Gragg, who was reared in that state, lived in Greene and Cof-

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

fey counties, came to Texas in 1881 and died at his son's in 1892 at seventy-two years of age. The father spent his life farming, was a Primi- tive Baptist and an ardent Democrat, his final act being to vote for Mr. Cleveland and dying soon after hearing the result of the election. His first wife was Patsy Cunningham, who passed away in Tennessee while a young woman, the mother of A. R., of Comanche county, Oklahoma ; Catherine, who died in the Indian Territory ; and Marshall F., of this notice. For his second wife Mr. Gragg, Sr., married Rebecca Williamson, who bore him Napoleon, yet in Tennessee; Nancy, who married Mike Dunman and resides in Ellis county, Texas; Samuel, of Montague county ; William, of Denton county ; and Mary, of Ellis county.

Circumstances and conditions prevented Mar- shall F. Gragg getting more than the most mea- ger knowledge of the common branches while yet at home but he attended school and "made up for lost time," in a measure, when he had earned the money to pay the expense of it him- self. At eighteen years old he hired out to a farmer and continued to so apply himself, in the main, until he became a married man. October 15, 1874, he married Miss Emma M. Dees, of Parker county, and the twain set to farming and laying the foundation for their ultimate inde- pendence and prosperity.

Mrs. Gragg was a daughter of John W. Dees and Emma J. Lancaster, who came to Navarro county, Texas, in 1866, from Neshobe county, Mississippi, removed to Parker county, and there Mrs. Dees died in 1873. Mr. Dees passed away in Jack county, leaving children: Nancy T., wife of Harvey Lawrence, of Cooke county ; Mrs. Gragg, born in Neshobe county, Missis- sippi, October 19, 1857; Elizabeth, wife of J. W. Patterson, of Knox county; Lydia, wife of J. A. Dobson, of Cooke county; and Margaret M., who married James Johnson and died near Cundiff.

Mr. and Mrs. Gragg's children are: William T., a farmer and stockman of the Chickasaw Nation, married Sallie McClure and has issue, Eva Naomi and Cora Vealer; Joseph Lee, a graduate of the Denton Normal School and a teacher at Honey Grove, Texas ; Dr. Luther F., of Clay county, educated in the medical depart- ment of Baylor University ; Junius, of Newport, Texas; and Cora Emma, Fred and Homer.

Mr. Gragg's career as a farmer was inter- rupted from 1895 to 1899 with an experience as a merchant in Cundiff. For two years he was a partner in the firm of Pruitt and Gragg and for a like term conducted the business alone.

While he is a man of good business sense it is as a farmer that he has demonstrated his chief success and it is as such that posterity should know him. He and Mrs. Gragg hold membership in the Missionary Baptist church and as citizens of a progressive community stand ready to aid any effort tending toward its ultimate welfare.

ROBERT W. MURCHISON, a cattleman of San Angelo, born in Lafayette county, Mis- sissippi, February 7, 1841, is a son of Murdock and Sarah (Ross) Murchison. The father came with his family to Texas in 1846, settling first in Rusk county, whence in 1849 he removed to Guadaloupe county, where he spent his remain- ing days. Throughout his business career he followed the occupation of farming. His wife, a native of Tennessee, also passed away in Guad- aloupe county.

Robert W. Murchison was reared to farm life in that locality and in 1861 went to Fort Worth, where at the age of twenty years he responded to the call of the south and enlisted in Company A of R. N. Gano's squadron of cavalry for serv- ice in the Confederate Army. Not long after- ward Colonel Gano took his two companies, A and B, to his old home in Kentucky and joined the Third Kentucky Cavalry which became a part of John H. Morgan's Brigade, these two companies being the only Texans in that famous organization. Mr. Murchison participated in Morgan's raid through Ohio, crossing the Ohio river at Brandenburg into Indiana, thus march- ing through the Buckeye state. Morgan had be- tween twenty and twenty-five hundred men under his command in that raid. They made a rapid dash through Ohio, reaching the eastern part of the state and there the forces scattered prepara- tory to re-crossing the river. Mr. Murchison was with a squad of three or four hundred men hiding in the brush from the pursuing enemy and thus waiting for darkness so they could cross the river but they were led into a trap which had been laid for them and were captured. He was first taken to Camp Chase, at Columbus, and afterward to Camp Douglas, Chicago, where he was held until March, 1865. He was then transferred to Richmond, Virginia, where he was exchanged and released at the close of the war. General Morgan, who was captured soon after Mr. Murchison, was taken to the penitentiary at Columbus but tunneled out and made his es- cape to Chicago, got command of another body of troops and while on active duty was killed at Greenville, Tennessee.

When the war was over Mr. Murchison re- turned to Guadaloupe county, where he engaged

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in farming for four or five years and later de- voted considerable attention to stock-raising .. He resided in that locality until 1876, when he went to Concho county, taking with him a small bunch of cattle and located on the Concho river. In 1880 he removed his headquarters to Tom Green county, and in 1888 moved to Schleicher county, and in that locality has since operated as one of the most prominent cattlemen of western Texas. His ranch in Schleicher county consists of. four- teen sections, which with the four sections be- longing to his son, J. F. Murchison, comprise a most extensive ranch of eighteen sections in one unbroken body. The son acts as manager of the ranch, while Mr. Murchison has main- tained his home in San Angelo since 1902. He belongs to the Texas Cattle-Raisers' Association.

Mrs. Murchison bore the maiden name of Rachel Young, and was born and reared in this state. Seven children have been born of this marriage, four living: J. F. Murchison, Mrs. Agnes Silliman, Mrs. Maggie Silliman and Mrs. Bertie Bailey, and the deceased children are Sal- lie, who married W. B. Silliman, Mamie and Joe.

Mr. Murchison has had the usual interesting and exciting western experiences of the fron- tiersman, who locating on the broad prairies of Texas found that he must not only meet the hard- ships and privations of frontier life but that he was always menaced by Indian outbreaks. His western experience if written in detail would furnish a most thrilling chapter in this history. He has, however, lived to see great changes and a wonderful transformation as the country has become quickly settled with a congenial and prosperous people, the ranches being stocked with high grades of cattle, horses and sheep, while substantial residences indicate the prosperity and progressive spirit of the farmers and stockmen. Mr. Murchison has done his full share in reclaim- ing the district for the purposes of civilization and in the capable control of his business affairs has met with excellent success.

HOGAN YOUNG. The cattle interests of Montague county are worthily represented in the person of Hogan Young, the subject of this review, in whose qualities as a citizen and a man his municipality takes a pardonable pride. For years his efforts have aided much toward the promotion of the stock output of the county and toward the encouragement of the grazing indus- try itself. Having large pasture interests, and being an extensive grower, dealer and shipper himself, he has been and is a factor worthy to be

considered in a reference to the cowmen of this county.

For the past thirty years Mr. Young has been actively identified with this locality, for his fa- ther's extensive cow interests were transferred hither from Collin county about that time, and upon his sons devolved much of the active work in the saddle in caring for his herds. Samuel Young, the father, therefore was the family founder in this branch of our western industry and its effect was to make the present generation acquainted with two of the successful cowmen of Montague county.

March 6, 1862, Hogan Young was born in Collin county, Texas. His father acquired a Texas head-right which he located near McKin- ney, and one-half of which he gave to the man who hauled himself and little family hither from some point in Illinois. When the H. & T. C. Railroad was built through Collin county, the station of Allen was located near his farm and it was at that place that he passed away in 1892. Samuel Young was in a business way a remarka- ble man. His environment in youth precluded the acquirement of an education and it was under such embarrassing circumstances that he passed through life. He possessed much energy, won- derful ambition and exceptional business fore- sight and judgment, and he lived an active and busy life accumulating a splendid estate and go- ing down to his grave as one of the foremost men of Collin county, yet without knowing how to write his name. His mental calculations were swift and accurate and he seemed to arrive at conclusions with less effort than the man with a pencil and by a much shorter process. Im- agine the hardships that one in his condition must have endured to come to Texas as early as he did with scarcely more than a physical organiza- tion to depend on for his and his family's support. He had plenty of labor to sell but there was lit- tle demand for it and when he did get a job of rail-making, ten cents a hundred was the pre- vailing price. There was nothing to be done but to get into the stock business and this he did as rapidly as the situation would permit. The wife that he brought with him to Texas, and the chil- dren she bore him all died early and his second wife, nee Charity' Stowe, who still survives, is the mother of his living children.

Samuel Young was born in the state of Vir- ginia about 1814 and at seventeen years of age left home for the west and never afterward knew anything definite regarding his people. He went into Illinois, where he married, and from whence he cast his lot with the settlers of the Lone Star

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state. In the days prior to railroads in Texas, he drove his cattle to Shreveport and other east Texas points to market, but the coming of the roads gave his business an added impetus and the immensity of its proportions was acquired some twenty years after the war. He manifested little interest in public matters but was attracted to Odd Fellowship and held a membership in the Missionary church. His children were: James ; George; Nancy M .; John ; Samuel ; Hogan, our subject ; Louisa ; Lucy ; and Florence.

A poor education fell to the lot of Hogan Young as the opportunity seemed to be lacking to enroll as a pupil in the country school. He became an invaluable aid to his father on the cow range in early youth and was associated with him until married. While he was a resident of Montague county almost from the time of his marriage he did not become a citizen until his removal hither in 1889. He built the best resi- dence in Stoneburg where he maintained his family and from which point he carries on his business and oversees his large ranch. He owns fourteen hundred acres on which he handles from one hundred and seventy-five to two hundred head of cattle annually and until a few years back he was in partnership with his brother Samuel of Bowie. In the business of dealing and ship- ping he is a member of the firm of Young and Chandler and his face is a familiar one on market at Fort Worth.

June 28, 1883, Mr. Young married, in Collin county, Miss Alice Harrell, a daughter of John and Melissa (Bolles) Herrell. Mrs. Young was born near Bowling Green, Virginia, June 12, 1863, and is the mother of: Maggie; Carl, who married Clara Ayres, resides on his father's ranch ; Hovey and Nettie complete the family.

Mr. Young is a man absorbed only in his pri- vate affairs. His training led him to follow a business in which there has always been work but not always profit, yet in the main and on the whole, fortune has smiled on him and his. He possesses the confidence of his fellowmen and practices the teachings of Him who commands all men to "bear ye with one another."

JOHN L. CEARLEY. The position of sheriff of Wise county, which John L. Cearley of this review holds, represents the climax of achievement in a life obscured by the lack of opportunity and filled with the hard and slav- ish demands of toil. It represents the accom- plishment of results in the face of apparently insurmountable difficulties and demonstrates the ultimate possibilities of a man of purpose hemmed in by the chains of poverty and intel-

lectual darkness. It represents the grand finale in a continuous and monotonous perform- ance of a quarter of a century on the stage of life in which the chief actor has been roust- about, property man and curtain-raiser all in one.

But while Mr. Cearley was climbing this apparently movable stairway to the realms of the upper-world of affairs he profited by the mental and physical bruises he experienced as the child profits by its first mental awakenings, and when he arrived at the threshold of the door opening to the goal of his life ambition he was prepared to assume his new responsibil- ity with credit to himself and with satisfaction to his admiring friends.

As has been intimated the life of our subject has been one of intense industry and that of the rural sort. . The farm was his birthplace, playground and almost described the limits of his school, for he did pass three months dur- ing his boyhood within the walls of a country school. He accompanied his father's family into Denton county in 1869, and into Wise county in 1879, and on a wooded farm on West Fork the years of his minority were completed. He was born in Carroll county, Tennessee, No- vember 16, 1860, and was reared under the in- fluences of a Christian home. His father was a Missionary Baptist minister, the Rev. John W. Cearley, well known over the counties of Denton, Clay, Cooke, Wise and Jack as a powerful and successful agent and ambassador of the Lord who was often moderator of the Baptist As- sociations over these counties and in other ways intimately connected with the work of the church.

Rev. Cearley was a native of Virginia in 1819, a son of Luke Cearley, who settled in Dyer county, Tennessee, when his son was a youth and was there a farmer and stockman in mod- erate circumstances. The latter died in Dyer county, Tennessee, in 1871, at sexenty-six years of age. He was twice married and by his first wife had two sons and a daughter, of whom the Rev. Cearley alone reared a family. By his second marriage a number of children were born and lived in their native state. Rev. Cearley married, in Mississippi, Milly, a daughter of Rev. Mr. Booth, a Baptist preacher whose son, the Rev. Howard Booth, was a prominent di- vine throughout portions of Mississippi. Mrs. Cearley died in Tennessee, in 1860, having been the mother of: Philip, who died in Rock Isl- and, Illinois, a prisoner of war; Abijah, who died in 1864; J. Frank, who died in 1899; and Mary, wife of Isaac McCormick, who passed

JOHN L. CEARLEY

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

away in 1874, and John L., the subject of this review. Rev. Cearley chose for his second wife Lucy Taylor, who bore him: James, who died unmarried; Samuel, who died in 1870; Fannie, wife of J. L. Laboon, of Chickasha, Indian Ter- ritory ; Cora, of Bridgeport, Texas, wife of P. A. Largent, and Roswell, who died unmarried. Again, and for the third time, Rev. Cearley took him a wife, his last one being Jane Gen- try, who bore him no family. The venerable father of this family died February 7, 1901, aged eighty-two, full of years and having lived a busy and most useful life. He was educated very little beyond what experience taught him, was an able bible scholar, an entertaining and fluent talker and a man of eloquence in the pul- pit or other places of public address.

John L. Cearley lived on the farm until the assumed the sheriff's office in 1902 and with its monotonous affairs he contented himself while clearing up and bringing under tillable subjection a heavily timbered farm. On the West Fork between Bridgeport and Chico lies the homestead where he and a brother ex- pended the power and strength of their youth while converting forest into farm. He was elected constable of Precinct No. 7 in 1886, and filled the office efficiently for ten years, all the while carrying on the work of his farm. In 1898 he was defeated for sheriff by a small vote and he bided his time four years and was easily nominated and elected in 1902. He was re-elected in 1904 and his administration has been one of the most competent and effi- cient in the history of Wise county.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 65

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