A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 78

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 78

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38.4

HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

ward during the Mayor Hammett administra- tion, which is noted for having brought about some of the most beneficient and substantial im- provements that El Paso has ever had, and which have started it on the way toward becoming a great city. These include the International Water Company, furnishing an ample supply of pure water, the electric street car line, the Union depot and the Phelps-Dodge Railroad. Mr. Baum is president of the State Republican League and has done much for the party in Texas, carefully controlling and conserving its interests, while his intense and well directed energy has made him a representative business man of El Paso.

ROBERT BARNEY FEATHERSTON. Well known among the stockmen and farmers of Clay county, advantageously situated for the promotion of his industry and eminently suc- cessful in the conduct of his affairs, is the worthy citizen whose name initiates this brief review. In the year 1887 he came to the county from Socorro, New Mexico, and located fifteen miles northeast of Henrietta on his brother's ranch, which he rented for the first five years, and then purchased the tract, embracing eighteen hundred acres, fenced, cross-fenced and stocked with cat- tle. Here the efforts of his head and hands have been devoted to the reduction of nature, the de- velopment of a domestic abiding place and inci- dentally the improvement and up-building of his county.

Mr. Featherston was a resident of Socorro, New Mexico, some five years being city mar- shall of the place and afterward connected with the sheriff's office of the county. Prior to his advent to New Mexico he spent seven years on a farm in Falls county, Arkansas, where his birth occurred December 2, 1851.

The head of this Featherston family was George W. Featherston, father of our subject, a prominent citizen of Scott county, a lawyer and a farmer, born in Arkansas in 1829, accom- panied his son to Texas, to New Mexico and back to Texas, where he died. He abandoned the law when he left Arkansas and followed rural and other kindred pursuits in Texas and New Mexico. He was an educated gentleman, was descended from a pioneer of his native state, his father, William G. Featherston, hav- ing been one of the four first settlers of Scott county.

William G. Featherston was born in Tennes- see, settled in Scott county, Arkansas, in early manhood, and. it was in his barn that the first cession of the county court was held. He be-

came well and widely known, and one of the conspicuous, prominent characters of the coun- ty. He died in 1868 at the age of sixty years, being the father of seven children, George W., Robert H., Frank M., M. D., and Richard H. being the sons.

George W. Featherston married Mary Ann Appleby, a daughter of Hezekiah Appleby, who married a young wife in Tennessee and brought her to Arkansas on horseback, carry- ing their baggage and camping outfit with them. He became a farmer, was ruined finan- cially by the Civil war, and died in Upshur county, Texas, whither he refugeed during the war. Mrs. George W. Featherston died in San Marcial, New Mexico, in 1884, being the moth- er of: Robert B., our subject; Isabel, deceased in Jones county, Texas, married James Gray- um ; William H., of Clay county ; Mollie, wife of J. W. Hyden, of the Chickasaw Nation ; Emma C., who married Alexander Laird, of San Bernardino, California ; Charles H., of Den- ver, Colorado; Georgia, widow of Rev. Boone Keston, Marlow, Indian Territory ; Eddie, wife of Dr. Barns, of Marlow, Indian Territory.

Robert B. Featherston spent about three months of the year in school in his boyhood, at sixteen years of age went to work with his father in a saw and grist mill, a business he, was then operating, and remained at the helm until reaching his majority, when he married and took up farming. This occupation he has engaged in since, with the exception above noted, and when he made his home in Clay county it was with little more than his wife and three young children as the accumula- tions of his life. On his farm he runs some two hundred head of cattle, and four hundred acres of his soil responds to the touch of the industrious husbandman. Small grain consti- tutes his main crop and he ships out his beef cattle himself, unless the home market justifies his local patronage.

At Waldron, Arkansas, October 3, 1872, Mr. Featherston married Adelaide, a daughter of Martha Putman. The Putmans were from Georgia to Arkansas. Mr. and Mrs. Feather- ston's children are: Charles G., of Clay coun- ty ; Mattie; George W .; Robert H .; Gussie P .; and Elijah W., all members of the family circle.

ANDREW JACKSON HOWK. Over in the mountain and hill country of East Tennes- see, where some of our bravest citizens, our sturdiest farmers and our ablest statesmen of the early time grew, there was founded a fami- ly headed by an ancestor of Michael Houk.

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

He was of German blood and his advent among the plain people of warm hearts and strong brain introduced a family strain into that'locali- ty whose posterity honored our leading profes- sions, sat in the halls of Congress, excelled in the mechanic arts and furnished a small army of rugged husbandmen to become settlers of other states and defenders of the family name and faith. From this pioneer ancestry traces the history of Andrew J. Howk of this review, and to this source do all the. "Houks" and the "Howks" of America trace their origin today.

Michael Houk grew to maturity in his native East Tennessee, served in the Florida Indian war and settled in Jackson county, Alabama, near Woodville. He married, in East Tennes- see, Lydia Woods, and they came to Alabama down the Tennessee river by boat. They brought up their children in that community and pased away leaving issue as follows: Salathiel, Michael and Simeon, sons, and Eliza, whose first husband was a Woodall and whose second was a Sublett; Margaret, who married an Austen; Minerva, who married an Adams; and Annie, who married William Maples, con- stituted the daughters of the family. The son Simeon was a well known and able minister.

Salathiel Howk, the father of our subject, was born on French Broad river, East Ten- nessee, November 20, 1822, and died in that same neighborhood October 23, 1872. While he owned a farm and used it in the training of his children, he learned blacksmithing and followed it, near Woodville, during his active life. His brother Simeon was a woodworker by trade and the two conducted their affairs somewhat jointly, but as, there were cases in which one was interested in notes and accounts to the exclusion of the other, and as the letter "s" was the initial of each brother's name, Salathiel said to Simeon, "All notes made to me, individually, I will make to S. 'Howk' and all notes made to you can be issued to S. 'Houk,' and we shall then be able to tell at a glance who owns the note and thus avoid con- fusion in our business affairs." Thus did the Houk name suffer a permanent change, for when Salathiel began to write his name with a "w," he continued to do so and his posterity after him. In his personal makeup Salathiel Howk was a rather eccentric man. His preju- dices were strong and he nurtured them almost to the point of feeding on them, and when the war cloud began to lower he became a violent secessionist and was unreconstructed for a long time after the war. When his disabilities were

finally removed he took up the cause of Democ- racy, of course, and was a local enthusiast in political campaigns. He served his precinct as justice of the peace and was a sheriff's depu- ty at different times. For his wife he married Elizabeth, a daughter of Moses Maples, whose wife was Catherine Manning. Mrs. Howk was born July 14, 1827, and died near Wolf City, Texas, November 12, 1898. The issue of their marriage were: . Andrew J., of this notice ; Lydia, who married John Hodges and died in Alabama; William M., of Grapevine, Texas; Moses, of Denton, Texas; Mary, deceased, married F. M. Nelson, of Bowie; Martha, who married Henry Wells, both died near Lewis- ville, Texas; Frank G. of Commerce, Texas; Thomas, who died near Guerdon, Texas; Sidney J., of Wolf City, Texas; Etoy L., who married F. M. Nelson and died near Wolf City; and the remainder of the family of sixteen died in child- hood.

The farm and his father's shop knew Andrew . J. Howk while he approached mature years and the country schools gave him some knowledge of books. At seventeen years of age he joined the Home Guard, making potash for powder for the Confederacy. Within six months he was captured, took the oath of allegiance and returned home. After three months of a prosy life he joined Mead Nelson and Johnson's Guerillas and bushwhacked the enemy, as in the days of Marion, Sumter and Lee in the American Revolution. He was taken prisoner again a time or two but escaped detection and at the end of the war took another parole, at Huntsville, Alabama, and accepted the results of the unequal contests as final.

On resuming civil pursuits Mr. Howk made two crops and then married and when he start- ed his independent career his possessions were a watch, a rifle and twenty-eight dollars in cash, and plenty of good clothes that his moth- er made and gave him. At farming he and his wife accumulated property slowly and even- tually bought a farm in Jackson county, Ala- bama, which they sold for a thousand dollars on departing for Texas. They came to the Lone Star state in March, 1885, and bought a half section of land almost adjoining Bowie for five hundred and twenty-eight dollars. Bowie was hardly on the map then, but it is very much in evidence now and this half sec- tion is one of the valuable pieces of real prop- erty in Montague county. In his Texas home he has continued his farming and has cleared up, improved and built up a modest, commodi- ous and comfortable home. July 24, 1897, he

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

lost his wife, whom he married August 2, 1868. Mrs. Howk was Miss Nancy M. Nelson, a daughter of David C. Nelson, and was born in Jackson county, Alabama, in 1846.

Mr. and Mrs. Howk's children are: Mollie, wife of R. S. Jones, of near Bowie, whose chil- dren are Mable, Homer, Ray, May, Nellie, Jack, and Joseph ; Willie D. and Lillie Lee are twins, the former of Bowie and the latter the wife of L. P. Boatright, of Arlington, Texas, and has two children, Jackson and Elsey; Salathiel D., of Bowie, married Clara Burleson, and has one child, Athena; Lou, wife of Monte Jones, of Terral, Indian Territory, has two boys, Curtis and Noland; Joe Wheeler, of Terral, In- dian Territory, is the youngest child. May 31, 1900, Mr. Howk married, in Garth, Ala- bama, Mrs. Clara Clementine Clark, a daughter of M. St. Clair, whose wife was Miss Sallie B. Berry. Mrs. Howk's first husband was Dr. John Clark and she is one of a family of twelve children of her parents. She is an admirable mistress of her husband's household and shares his and his children's joys and sorrows as her own.

His residence here, his freedom of manner and his geniality have made Mr. Howk a wide- ly-known man. His life has been a busy one and one crowned with modest successes, and it is meet that he should be blessed with so many of the good things of life in his declining years.

WILL FRIBERG. Texas owes its growth and prosperity in large measure to its farming and stock-raising interests and of this business Mr. Friberg is a worthy representative and. moreover. he is a self-made man, who came to Texas with no capital, and during an active business career won enviable success, working his way steadily upward to a position of afflu- ence. He was born in northwestern Indiana in 1859, a son of John and Mary (Anderson) Fri- berg, both of whom were natives of Sweden. They came to the United States in the early '50s, locating first in northwestern Indiana, but just prior to the Civil War they removed to Iroquois county, Illinois, settling upon a farm there. There the father carried on agricultural pursuits until the inauguration of hostilities, when in 1861 he joined the army and served throughout the entire war with Sherman's com- mand, participating in many important battles with that famous commander. When the country no longer needed his services he re- turned to his home in Iroquois county. He prospered in his undertakings there. He re- moved to that locality at an early day and pur- chased land for a dollar and a quarter per acre.

As the country became more thickly settled this increased in value and his improvements made his place an attractive and a fine farm. In January, 1882, he came to Texas in search of a location and decided upon Wichita county. Here he was soon afterward joined by his family and he has since lived in this part of the state, being now one of its representative and prominent agriculturists. He lives one mile north of Wichita Falls and that his life has been an active and enterprising one is indicated by the many excellent improvements which he has placed upon his farm, making it a model prop- erty of the community. One of his sons, J. E. Friberg, is the owner of a farm and stock ranch near the home of his brother Will, about seven miles northeast of Wichita Falls.

Will Friberg was reared under the parental roof upon the old homestead farm and through several years he has been numbered among the successful agriculturists and stockmen of his county. When he came here soon after his father's arrival he secured employment as a farm hand, working on the cattle ranch of Knott Brothers, and he broke the first piece of land that was placed under the plow north of Wichita Falls. Later he ran a stage from Wichita Falls to Seymour when there was only one house between the two towns. The country was then a typical western frontier district. Little im- provement had been made and the work of progress lay largely in the future, but there came to this section of Texas men of enter- prise, strong determination and keen discrimin- ation, and they have so directed their labors as to produce excellent results and aid materially in the upbuilding of this commonwealth. Al- though Mr. Friberg had no capital when he came to Wichita county he soon began to save from his earnings and as his financial resources increased he invested in property and is now the owner of a fine farm comprising three hun- dred and seventy-nine acres of rich land. The homes of Will Friberg and his brother are near the Friberg church and school, which were named in honor of the family, they being among its earnest and liberal supporters. The church is of the Methodist denomination and both the church and school are good buildings and in a fine location. It is also worthy of note that Mr. Friberg, in connection with his father and brother, had the first threshing outfit in Wichita county, using at first a horse power thresher. They were also pioneers in the wheat growing industry of this locality and their other business activity and enterprise have contributed in large measure to the substantial growth and improvement of this portion of the state.

MR. AND MRS. WILL FRIBERG

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HISTORY OF NORTH AND WEST TEXAS.

Mr. Friberg was married in Illinois to Miss Katie Bard, and they have five children: Letta, Harley, Minnie, Clarence and Ernest. The family is well known in the community and Mr. and Mrs. Friberg have many friends. le cer- tainly deserves a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished and his life record should serve as a source of inspiration and encourage- ment to others, showing what can be accom- plished by strong determination and honorable purpose.

ALBERT GALATIN MCCLURE. Since 1874 the subject of this review has been a citi- zen of Texas, first settling in Cooke county and passing a period of five years, then passing two years in Shackelford county and since, as a prominent cattle man and a leading citizen he has resided in the county of Jack. From first to last and for thirty-one years he has pur- sued the stock business and some of the sub- stantial results which he has achieved are seen in his ranch of 3,850 acres with its six hundred head of cattle. The results he has achieved and the success, in a financial way, which marks his efforts but exemplifies the trite old saying, "the constant dripping of the water wears the solid rock away." His tenacious and persistent hammering on the door of for- tune finally swung it back and the reward of his years of industry finally came.

Mr. McClure represents distinctively a Rev- olutionary family of the United States. His remote forefathers were sons of Erin and Scot- land and his great-grandfather, Samuel Mc- Clure, distinguished himself and brought honor upon his posterity by serving in the Colonial army during our Independence war. Samuel McClure was born in Virginia in 1748 and died in Clark county, Illinois, in 1845. He was a large man of rugged build and of wonderful endurance and great physical strength and courage. His nature seemed to crave the open air and the wild scenery and dangers of the frontier and, after the war, he started with his wife and two children to the romantic and un- tamed region of Kentucky. In those times the red man roamed at will along the Ohio river country, dominated Kentucky and Ohio com- pletely and slew settlers without distinction at every opportunity. On the occasion of his journey the Indians came upon the McClure tent and in their haste to bag its contents, shoved the tent over and covered the father up in its folds but carried off his wife and chil- dren. The latter were murdered but he re- captured his wife and they subsequently moved into the territory of Indiana and established

themselves at Fort Vincennes. While he was probably a farmer the old patriarch adopted the custom of the frontier and dressed himself in leggings and moccasins and never ceased to love the sports of that time. He killed deer when he was eighty years old and it would seem that he passed out of the world merely to make room for other generations.

Andrew McClure, a son of Samuel, was the grandfather of our subject and was born in Kentucky. His business life was passed around Vincennes, Indiana, where he grew up and married a Miss Hogg (afterward the name was corrupted to Hogue) and, in time, moved over into Clark county, Illinois, and died on his farm and is buried beside his father five miles north of Marshall. His children were: Sam- uel, father of our subject; Polly, who mar- ried Robert Ashmore; and two other daugh- ters. By a second wife Andrew McClure had a son William, who died in the Federal army during the rebellion.

Samuel McClure (the second) was born at Fort Vincennes, Indiana, in 1813 and married in Clark county, Illinois, Caroline Kitchen, who died in Cooke county, Texas, in 1877. Samuel McClure acquired a good education for his day and commenced life as a teacher of the old-time country school. He subse- quently got into politics and was elected jus- tice of the peace, sheriff and treasurer of the county. On account of his public service it will be seen that he was a leading citizen of his county, but during the war his sentiments were southern and his business life was not a success. He lost his property and it was for the purpose of recuperating his finances that he crossed the plains to Nevada just after the war, was connected with the hay business and was killed by a hay-press in 1869 and is buried at Elko. Of his children, Jane and Andrew, de- ceased, the former unmarried; John, of Cooke county, Texas, vice president of the Good Roads organization of the state; Susan mar- ried Washington Clapp, of Henry county, Mis- souri; Wilson, of Colwich, Kansas; Albert G., of this sketch; Eliza, who was killed by light- ning in Cooke county ; Mary of Jack county, widow of William Snedicker, and Caroline married George Pierce and died in Ohio.

Albert G. McClure sat on rude benches in a log schoolhouse while trying to get an edu- cation back in Illinois and remained a part of his mother's, domestic establishment until he left for Texas in 1874. We see him starting into the cow business in Cooke county with a bunch of seventy head of cattle and when he had accu- mulated some four hundred head he began

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buying Texas land. He saw the future of the cow man without land, as wire was strung around pasture after pasture, and after his re- turn from Shackelford county he settled on Hog Eye prairie, in the edge of Wise county. There he pursued his favorite vocation, with also a little farming, until 1892, when he came to the locality north of Cundiff, where he now resides, and bought 2,300 acres on the Guada- lupe-Cardenas survey and fenced, stocked and improved the whole.

Having mentioned Hog Eye prairie as the place of Mr. McClure's former residence, some interest would perhaps attach to the locality by reason of its name, and curiosity be aroused as to its origin. The story goes that in the first settling of the Prairie a fiddler was among the lot and the only tune he could play was "Hog Eye" and at every dance every set called to the floor danced "Hog Eye."

Mr. McClure married in Cooke county, Texas, January 31, 1879, Kate, a daughter of Reuben Creel, who migrated to the Lone Star state from Pettis county, Missouri, where Mrs. McClure was born October 10, 1856. One child is the result of their marriage, Maud, the wife of C. W. Fonville, of Okema, Indian Territory ; Hubert Galatin Fonville is the only grandchild.

Aside from his stock and farming interests Mr. McClure has aided in the promotion of the Jacksboro National Bank and is a director of the institution. His liberal attitude toward other matters which make for the general good of his county and state is also in evidence. Politics has not known him except as a voter and the real battle of life has been his burden and chief concern.

ROBERT HUBERT FITZGERALD is the president of the First National Bank of Sweet- water, the only national bank in Nolan county. He comes of a family of Irish lineage. His father, William W. FitzGerald, was a native of Tennessee and when a young man removed to Georgia, whence he came to Texas about 1848. He located in Polk county and in 1854 removed to Gonzales, where he made his home until the time of his death in 1861. He was a farm- er and stock-raiser by occupation. In Texas he was married in 1851 to Miss Elizabeth Hubert, who came of Huguenot French an- cestry and is a native of Mississippi. She still survives her husband and is now living in Has- kell, Texas. In their family were seven chil- dren, five sons and two daughters, of whom one son has passed away, while the others are yet residents of Texas.

R. H. FitzGerald, whose name introduces this record, was born in Gonzales county, Texas, September 27, 1852, and was reared to farm life. His education was acquired in Stonewall Institute, a school in the eastern part of Gonzales county, which was founded soon after the war in the section known as Big Hill. It proved a valuable institution of learning of that period and was attended by a great many young men who sought higher ed- ucational advantages than could be obtained in the common schools. Many of its students have since won prominence in public and busi- ness life in the state. When his school days were over Mr. FitzGerald embarked in the stock business, which he has followed during the greater part of his life. He made his home in Gonzales and at times was the owner of extensive cattle interests. In 1901 he came to Sweetwater to make his home and previous to this time had established cattle interests in this section of the state. He now owns a ranch in the southwestern part of the coun- ty which at the present time covers thirteen sections but was formerly more extensive. In May, 1901, the First National Bank of Sweet- water was organized by J. V. W. Holmes with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. In the spring of 1902 Mr. FitzGerald became one of its stockholders and in May of that year was chosen its president and has since remained at the head of the institution. On the Ist of July of the same year the capital stock was increased to forty thousand dollars. It is the only national bank in Nolan county and is a safe, reliable institution, conducting a general banking business. Its affairs are capably conducted under the supervision of Mr. FitzGerald, who is an enterprising business man of keen discernment and ready sagacity.

On the 29th of November, 1871, Mr. Fitz- Gerald was united in marriage to Miss Emma Littlefield, a daughter of H. B. Littlefield of Maine. She was born in Texas and by her marriage has become the mother of four sons and three daughters. Mr. and Mrs. FitzGerald have a wide circle of warm friends, and the hospitality of the best homes of this part of the state is freely accorded them. On the 9th of June, 1896, Mr. FitzGerald became a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, South, and he likewise belongs to the Masonic fra- ternity, in which he has taken the degrees of the lodge and chapter, his membership being in Sweetwater. He has also been a member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity for the past twenty years. He is honored and respected not

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A twentieth century history and biographical record of north and west Texas, Volume II, Part 78

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