A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 7

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

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William C. Brooks served in the Indian troubles of Georgia among the Cherokees and married Mary, a daughter of Noble Timmons. Mrs. Brooks was born in 1816 and died in 1902.

being the mother of: John, of Cherokee county , Georgia; William W., who died in Arkansas; Julia, wife of A. J. Nally, who resides in Barto county, Georgia ; Caroline, who passed away un- married; Lewis P., our subject ; Elijah, who died . in military prison at Camp Chase, Ohio; Alex. A. S., of Knox county, Texas; Jane, who died in Young county, Texas, as Mrs. William Russell ; Taylor, who lived awhile in Young county and died in Georgia; Margaret, wife of Jo Rogers, and Andrew J., both of the old home county, and Alice, who married Joseph Lusk and died in Georgia.

Lewis Pinkney Brooks acquired a limited edu- cation in the country schools of his state and shot as many feathered chinkapins into the ceiling of his schoolroom as the next one. As he approached man's estate and was preparing to assume his sta- tion in civil affairs the rebellion broke out and he enlisted May, 1861, in Company B, Seventh Georgia Infantry, Colonel Gartrell, Hood's Divi- sion, Army of Northern Virginia. Beginning at Manassas he fought in all the Peninsular campaign and at Gettysburg and Spottsylvania, in which latter engagement he was wounded, but returned to duty without much delay, and was again wounded in front of Richmond in December, 1864, this time receiving a ball through the left arm and into his side just under the shoulder, which retired him from further active service. He enlisted as a private and was promoted in the Peninsular campaign to a lieutenancy.

The year following the end of the war Mr. Brooks spent in his native state, getting back into the routine of civil life and preparing himself for a good, vigorous civil campaign in the state of his future home-Texas. His years of service in the ranks prepared him for his mission in the west and he came hither without misgivings as to the final result. Having blazed the way for a home he went back to his old home to claim the young woman who had promised to share his for- tunes some years before, and in October, 1872, he was married. His wife was Miss Cinnie Moore, a daughter of John K. Moore, a farmer and mill man and an early settler of the Cracker state.

Mr. and Mrs. Brooks' children are: Preston S., who is engaged in mining in old Mexico, and who is married to Ada Horton; Edna, wife of James Jordan, of Knox county, Texas; Ethel ; Alvers, of West Point, Mississippi, named for the Alvers family, whom Mr. Brooks protected from ruffian intruders of his command while in- vading Maryland during the war; Retta, Lewis and Bessie.

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Mr. Brooks was elected sheriff of Young county in 1876 and served a term of three years. While this was then a "wild and woolly" coun- try, few murders were committed, and little crime of a nature to attract the public attention was enacted beyond the thievery of horses. He did his duty faithfully and retired from the office with the respect and confidence of his county. He is and ever has been a Democrat, and his views on questions of moral turpitude are as well defined as those on politics.

JAMES F. STRANGE. In this article the brief story of "twenty years a resident of Wise county" is told, and it reflects the experiences of one of Chico's worthy citizens, James F. Strange, the subject of the sketch. It is a story of simple success through systematic and earnest endeavor as a tiller of the soil, and his rather sudden transition from the dawning to the full sunlight of perfect day serves to indicate the pos- sibilities of achievement when in supreme com- mand of a Texas farm. Twenty years ago he was dependent upon the results of his yearly toil upon the farm, while today Mr. Strange occupies his homestead retreat adjoining the town of Chico, in semi-retirement and in the enjoyment of the fruits of his rural victories.

While the state of Mississippi gave him birth the state of Alabama nurtured him in childhood and started him on his civil career when the years of his majority had been reached. The family is believed to have been originally Portuguese and its American founder located in Virginia, and then moved to South Carolina, where, in Chester district, Daniel Strange, grandfather of our worthy subject, was born and married and ac- cumulated, as a planter, much of the fortune of his active and vigorous life. Daniel Strange was a large slave owner, fought the British in our second war with England in 1812 and moved into St. Clair county, Alabama, where he died an old man. He married a Miss Charlotte Raual, and in 1833 they established themselves in Alabama, where their few children assumed their respective stations in life. Of their issue, Benjamin was the oldest ; John R. and Edward, twins, and Herbert H., Patsy and Mary, complete the family circle.

John R. Strange, the father of James F. of this review, was born in Chester district, South Caro- lina, March 16, 1811, and married Rachel For- man in that state. His wife was a daughter of William Forman, a farmer and a soldier in the war of 1812, and she passed away in Tippah county, Mississippi, in 1878. While Mr. Strange resided in Alabama for thirty years subsequent to the advent of the family to Mississippi, he

passed one year in Mississippi a few years after his marriage and it was during this temporary sojourn in Itawamba county that his son, our subject, was born. When he settled, finally, in the state it was in Tippah county and there he passed away October 13, 1888, aged seventy-seven years. A family of seven children came to bless his home, namely: Louisa, who married Wil- liam Laster and died in Indian Terri- tory ; Catherine, wife of Robert Mann, of Indian Territory ; James F., of Chico, Texas ; Thomas L., of near Booneville, Mississippi; Martha E., who passed away unmarried; Cynthia P., died in Tippah county, Mississippi, as the wife of Mr. White ; Eliza married Frank Roberts and resides at Lee county, Mississippi, near Baldwyn.

As stated above, James F. Strange knew Ala- bama during the whole period of his childhood and removed to Mississippi immediately after the Civil war. His advantages were those of the other country youth as he grew up, and when twenty years old he enlisted in the Confederate army, responding to an early call of the govern- ment of the seceded states. His company was A, and his regiment the Tenth Infantry, Colonel John A. Forney. The regiment was sent to Vir- ginia at once and arrived at Manassas just after the fight on the 21st of July and immediately went into Lee's army. The Peninsular campaign was hatching and when spring opened the next year there was plenty of fighting for everybody. Williamsburg and Seven Pines were fought among the preliminaries and then the seven days' battle opened, in which, at Gaines' Mill, Mr. Strange had his right arm shattered just below the elbow, on the 27th of June, by a minie ball, and it sent him to the hospital for some time. He was discharged and sent home January 20, 1863, but when sufficiently recovered he returned to duty and was detailed as a commissary officer for the remainder of the war.

Mr. Strange was born September 25, 1841, and his most effective months in school were those immediately following the war. He dominated the schoolroom himself for a time as a teacher in Mississippi, and upon the heels of his marriage engaged in the work of the farm. He was mar- ried in St. Clair county, Alabama, February 23, 1868, and passed some time as a renter in Pren- tiss county, Mississippi. While starting most humbly he became, eventually, able to possess a farm, and upon it his efforts were directed until his removal to Texas in 1885.

Upon coming into Wise county Mr. Strange bought a small farm near Crafton, improved it comfortably and cultivated it successfully nine- teen years and then improved his forty-acre tract

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

at Chico and settled down to a retired life. As a farmer he has been content with the income of a small farm. Without children the burden of farm work has fallen upon himself, and only such acres as he could properly handle has he added to his estate. He was known as a trader as well as a farmer, and the two combined were responsible for his ever healthy financial condition. Mr. Strange has now one hundred and twenty-two acres of good land.

Mr. Strange married Miss Mary Phillips, a daughter of Jackson Phillips and Cynthia E. (Ash) Phillips. Mrs. Strange was one of twelve children in her father's family and was born Jan- uary 20, 1850. Childless, she has been ever the constant companion and steadfast friend of her husband and loyally has she done her part in their modest work of home development in their Texas retreat. Mr. Strange practices the prin- ciples of Democracy in politics, is a Master Ma -- son, and his household joins with the Methodists in religious worship.

DR. JAMES M. MASSIE. Since 1900 a physician and surgeon at Fort Worth and pro- fessor of gynecology in the Physio-Medical Col- lege of Texas, Dr. Massie is, by reason of his long experience and high ability, one of the rec- ognized leaders in the medical profession of North Texas and one of the leading exponents of the physio-medical school of theory and prac- tice.

Born and reared on a farm in Gasconade coun- ty, Missouri, and receiving his literary education at Washington, Missouri, he came to Texas when a boy of nineteen and located at Bedford. Tar- rant county. He was employed in a general store at Bedford, and a stock of drugs being one of the departments of the business, he learned to fill physicians' prescriptions. This experience and a more than social acquaintance with Dr. Holt, then a practitioner at Bedford, led him to take up the study of medicine. After he had accumu- lated enough money from his earnings in the store to give him a good start in college. he en- tered the Physio-Medical College of Indianapolis, where he successfully completed the curricula of study and was graduated in 1889. On his return to Texas he began practice in Chico, Wise coun- ty. A year at that place was followed by a year at Seymour. Baylor county, then he was located in Dallas eight years, whence, after a few months at Mineral Wells, he finally opened his office in Fort Worth in 1900, where he has since made his home and center of professional practice. Here he has built up a splendid practice, his painstak- ing and skillful methods, added to his years of

experience and study, bringing him gratifying success.

With the well known Physio-Medical College of Texas, located at Dallas, Dr. Massie's name will always be identified as that of one of the founders and sincerest workers in its behalf. This institution was established early in 1901. Dr. Massie at present is vice president of the board of trustees and occupies in the faculty the chair of gynecology. The college began with seven students, in 1905 had forty-three, and in number of students and general success it now outranks the Indianapolis college of the same school of practice. The course is very thorough. requiring four years' work for completion. and the faculty, composed of only men of high ability in the different branches of their profession, is complete for every department of medical in- struction. The college at Dallas has received fifty thousand dollars as a donation for a new building from Dr. Johnson. of California, who will also, upon the completion of this building. make a permanent endowment for the institution. Other prominent men in Texas have taken a financial interest in building up the institution. and the Physio-Medical College has already taken high rank among the schools for professional training in this state.

The physio-medical school of medicine is an outgrowth and a complete and modern develop- ment of the system founded by Dr. Samuel Thompson, of Virginia. The principles of the theory and practice proved and established by Dr. Thompson formed the original system from which the Eclectic school was developed, but as the tendency of the Eclectics was to drift back toward the old school, the physio-medical school, in later years, became the proper exponent of the system founded upon the research and investiga- tions started by Dr. Thompson. Its adherents call special attention to the fact that its medica- tion is entirely without alcohol and other poison- ous drugs, the materia medica including all nec- essary agents for the restoration of the body in disease without the employment of poisonous agencies. Stated in the words of one of its advo- cates, "the idea of physio-medicalism is that of raising medicine to the rank of a true science -- not to the science of probabilities, but to that of exact knowledge. The physio-medical idea re- jects absolutely the giving of poisons in medi- cine. and, instead, as its name implies, uses noth- ing but non-poisonous agents in which alone resides the tendency to bring back organs or struc- tures to their physiological standard. The prac- tical advantages of the system may be stated as follows: It is eminently life-saving and efficient ;

JAMES M. MASSIE

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

it is safe and scientific; it never yet made a drunkard by offering him the cursed cup ; it never made an opium or morphine slave, nor has it ever ruined soul and mind with chloral or co- caine ; it never rotted bones with mercurials; its record is clean these hundred years and more."

Dr. Massie was the pioneer practitioner of the physio-medical school in Dallas. In 1893, when the Texas Association of Physio-Medical Physi- cians and Surgeons was formed, he was elected its first president, and he has at various times contributed to the physio-medical magazines.

Dr. Massie was first married at Bedford to Miss Kate Bobo, granddaughter of Captain W. W. Bobo, a historic character of Texas and of Tarrant county. There were two children by this marriage. After the death of his first wife Dr. Massie married Miss Cornelia Thomas, at Chico, and they are the parents of three chil- dren.

GEORGE H. McLAREN. During the year 1883 there came into Young county a youth destined, many years in the future, to play an efficient part in the mental and moral training of the county's men and women in embryo and to assume, at the call of her voters, a prominent station in the conduct of the municipality's af- fairs. He was an untutored, yet ambitious, boy, and industry and obedience to parental authority were his chief personal virtues. From the ele- ments of the pure air and somewhat romantic surroundings an inspiration possessed him, after reaching his majority, to rise above the routine and monotony of the farm and to accomplish a mission in a higher and less laborious sphere. From the plow to the pupil's desk, thence to the master of a public school and finally to the in- cumbency of the chief office in the gift of his county, mark briefly, the steps of George H. Mc- Laren from a strong young farmer to the clerk- ship of Young county.

He represents a Scotch family which was founded in Lauderdale county, Alabama, prob- ably in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, in which founding his grandfather, Andy Mc- Laren, took a conspicuous part. The life of a planter seems to have had charms for him and he brought his large family of many sons and a few daughters to the banks of the Tennessee river. There James McLaren, our subject's father, was born June 10, 1828, and passed to manhood under the influences of a country home and school.

When . James McLaren married he chose a lady who was a native of the same county with himself, Miss Nannie Hough, a daughter of

Colonel Joseph Hough, a planter and a large slave owner, whose ancestors settled in the south in her primitive and aristocratic days. Soon after his marriage Mr. McLaren migrated to Arkansas and located in Desarc, where he engaged in mer- cantile pursuits. A few years of residence in that climate told so upon the health of his wife that he felt impelled to seek another location, and he returned to his childhood scenes and home. In his native county he took up farming and carried it on somewhat extensively before the war. When the differences between the north and the south ripened into open hostility and a resort to arms he became a soldier of the Confederacy and fol- lowed its fortunes through the war. Much re- duced in circumstances he returned again to the farm, rebuilt its old-time prestige as far as his ability permitted and was occupied with its culti- vation until his death, March 25, 1883.

The family of James and Nannie McLaren was a small one, and its childhood membership was reared to know and do the right. Of its per- sonnel, Emma married M. J. Mabry and died in Tennessee in 1885; Ella, wife of W. L. Wheat, of Memphis, Texas; James L., a farmer, and Robert, a merchant of Young county, and George H. of this review.

Two years subsequent to the death of her hus- band Mrs. McLaren yielded to the wishes of her children, sold her old Alabama home and came to Texas. Her destination being Young county, she bought a farm on the Brazos river seven miles south of Graham, and her first home in the Lone Star state was established there. She was the guiding star and guardian angel of the fam- ily while it remained together, and her strong and willing sons furnished the sinews that did the work. On this farm she lived many years and only left it to preside over the home of her son. In recent years she was most sorrowfully afflicted with total blindness and she is yet, at the age of seventy, passing her decline amid the com- forts of her son Robert's home.

George H. McLaren, the subject of this notice, was born near St. Florian, Lauderdale county, Alabama, September 10, 1870, and, as has been suggested, was confined to the scenes of the home farm till he reached man's estate. Every day of his youth provided its physical exercise and his body grew large and waxed strong, but lack of school opportunity worked to the detri- ment of his active mind. He seems to have been ever ambitious to accomplish results and when grown he seemed destined to be and remain a farmer. Being suddenly aroused to a full con- sciousness of his hampered condition and un- promising future he resolved to change the whole

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

course of his career and sought the first step through education. Having already accumulated some property, he turned it into cash and its pro- ceeds, with what he could acquire at various kinds of labor, later carried him through several terms of school.

He renewed his acquaintance with the common branches in two six months' terms in Tonk Val- ley under the able instruction of Professor R. Lindsey, and many of his "big boy" companions of that school have become useful men and good citizens of Young county. He attended the sum- mer normal in Graham, following that school, and, failing to pass successfully the teacher's ex- amination, he prepared himself for a year in Weatherford college. Not having sufficient funds to "see liim through" the year, he laid his situa- tion before R. E. Mabry, of Graham, who loaned him the cash shortage, and that school year was the most profitable of his student life. He made rapid progress in his studies, took part in the lit- erary society and was chosen to represent it in contest in debate with another society, and was on the programme for debate at the commence- ment exercises of the college.

He spent three years in school in all, and easily obtained a certificate to teach. His first school was in Ming Bend, a few miles from home, and his forty dollars a month salary alone satisfied him that his investment in an education was a good one. He was an enthusiastic teacher, was original in method and tactful in management, and kept up an interest in the work. He encour- aged literary work and independent effort, be- lieving strongly in the practical good of the dec- lamation and debate. He remained an active factor in school work until the autumn of 1900, when he was encouraged to make the race for county and district clerk, which he did and with success. He was sworn in November 19, 1900, was chosen for a second term in 1902 without opposition, and his service gave such satisfaction that he was the successful candidate in 1904.

April 19, 1903. Mr. McLaren was united in marriage, in Graham, with Miss Irene, daughter of Captain A. B. Gant. Captain Gant came to Young county carly, was a surveyor and land- locator for many years and at one time represent- ed Parker county in the legislature. He was a lawyer. a Confederate soldier from Tennessee and married Miss Julia Raines. Mrs. McLaren was born in Young county, and is the mother of Charles Gant MeLaren, born in February, 1904. Mr. McLaren is a Chapter Mason, a Woodman and a Democrat.

JOHN TROY ROBERTS. The Roberts Business College, of Bowie, and its branches in the Territory, constitutes one of the coming com- mercial schools of the Red river country, and its founding marks an event in the life of its presi- dent and owner, the subject of this review. For more than twenty years engaged almost continu- ously in educational work in the Lone Star state, from country school to high school, college, and finally the founder of a series of commercial schools, Professor Roberts has been and is a leading factor in the practical education of the Texas youth.

Soon after his birth, August 9, 1861, Professor Roberts' parents migrated from Claybourn par- ish, Louisiana, to Jasper county, Texas, where his father, Captain W. T. Roberts, became a mer- chant and planter in and near the town of Jasper. The father came step by step across the south from his birthplace in North Carolina, and lived in Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana, in Minden, of which latter state he carried on mercantile pursuits for some years. He was born in 1817, fought in the Mexican war as a captain-for which service he declined a pension to his death -and in the Civil war commanded a company in Walker's Division in the Trans-Mississippi De- partment of the Confederate government. He was successful in business. spent many years in active mercantile and agricultural pursuits sub- sequent to the war, and retired to private life at Holman. He was an unswerving Democrat and was a Royal Arch Mason.

In the state of North Carolina Captain Roberts married Miss Sarah Griffith, who died at Hemp- stead, Texas, at the age of forty-eight years. The issue of their union were: Walter T., of Wymar, Texas; Mrs. R. F. Sellers, of Gonzales ; Mrs. G. W. Lewis, of Uvalde. and John T., of this sketch.

Pecan Creek Academy, a private institution in Favette county, Texas, furnished Professor Rob- erts his intermediate education and the A. and M. College equipped him with higher learning. As a climax to his student career he took a civil law course in an institution at Floyd, Louisiana, and a common law course at Forest, Mississippi, espe- cially fitting him for the special work of educa- tion which he was destined to take up. He began his work as a teacher in the rural schools of Montague county, and in 1888 became superin- tendent of the Bowie public schools. He had charge of this important work for five years and went to Decatur as president of the Baptist col- lege there for one year. From Decatur he went to St. Jo, Texas, where he took charge of the pub- lic schools and conducted them most efficiently for four years. Relinquishing his work there he

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

returned to Bowie and established a literary school for high-grade work in January; 1901, the curriculum of which was modified in the direction of commercial school work, and after the first year the whole course was shifted and swallowed up in a business college course and the Roberts Business College was born.

The institution of which Professor Roberts is president and with which his future life is des- tined to be associated was chartered in 1904 as the Roberts Business College Company, capital- ized at $20,000, and under its Texas charter he holds the office of chief executive and his daugh- ter, Minnie L. Roberts, is the secretary. All the stock of the company is held in the family and the future outlook for the instiution gives prom- ise of a most healthy condition for the company. March 4, 1904, the Chickasaw branch of the in- stitution was established, which now enrolls eighty pupils, and February 6, 1905, the Shawnee branch was founded, with the phenomenal enroll- ment, in less than six weeks, of forty-three stu- dents. The schools are established and main- tained for both sexes, and its graduates are tak- ing their places among the world's clerical force out of every class. The parent school at Bowie has an enrollment of one hundred and forty stu- dents, and the process continually going on of making business men and women for the future is a busy and interesting one.

March 17, 1886, Professor Roberts married, in Bowie, Miss M. C. McDonald, a daughter of Cash McDonald, who brought his family to Tex- as from Missouri in 1859. This union has been productive of the following children, viz: Cash. a student in the institution for the blind at Aus- tin : Minnie L., secretary of the college and teach- er of shorthand ; Edna, Grover, Lucile, Lulu and Nellie, completing the family.

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 7

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